HARRISBURG, Pa. - The state museums didn't open Monday. State parks were closed to visitors at the height of the summer tourism season, and many state services were idle because of a government shutdown that kept about 24,000 workers off the job.The shutdown of Pennsylvania state services by Gov. Rendell reminds me of the old joke:
Gov. Ed Rendell shut down the Pennsylvania government late Sunday over a budget stalemate with the Legislature that partly hinges on his energy plan for the state.
Q: What is orange and sleeps seven?
A: A PennDOT truck.
OMG.Hindu prayer in the Senate draws protestersWatch the video here.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Three protesters disrupted a prayer by a Hindu chaplain Thursday at the opening of a Senate hearing, calling it an abomination and shouting slogans about Jesus Christ.
It was the first time the daily prayer that opens Senate proceedings was said by a Hindu chaplain.
Capitol police said two women and one man were arrested and charged with causing a disruption in the public gallery of the Senate. The three started shouting when guest Chaplain Rajan Zed, a Hindu from Nevada, began his prayer.
They shouted "No Lord but Jesus Christ" and "There's only one true God," and used the term "abomination."
Religious figures from various faiths have said the prayer, which is normally recited by a Christian chaplain.
Barry Lynn, executive director of religious watchdog group Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said the protest showed the intolerance of the "religious right."
"I don't think the Senate should open with prayers, but if it's going to happen, the invocations ought to reflect the diversity of the American people," Lynn said in a statement.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had invited Zed.
"I think it speaks well of our country that someone representing the faith of about a billion people comes here and can speak in communication with our heavenly father regarding peace," he said after the disruption.
AP reports. ABC has the mug shot and the "juicy lead."McCain Official Busted on Sex Charge
July 12, 2007 11:33 AM
Justin Rood Reports:
An official with the John McCain presidential campaign was arrested for allegedly soliciting oral sex from a policeman in Florida yesterday.
Bob Allen, a member of the Florida House of Representatives, is one of six Florida co-chairs for the Arizona Republican senator's 2008 White House bid.
According to news accounts, local police in Titusville, Fla., arrestedAllen Wednesday afternoon after he allegedly offered to exchange $20 for oral sex with the plainclothes officer.
Allen was charged with solicitation to commit prostitution, a misdemeanor.
I guess that is not a regular part of the Straight Talk Express.
There are currently no Straight Talk Express Events scheduled...
On the up side, PennDOT has pretty much ceased to exist. There are 400 emergency highway workers on call for all of PA's 40,000 miles of highway. That's one worker per 100 miles. It's gonna be smooth sailing.Oh damn, it looks like the fun is already over.
I'm proud to join [Matt Daniels] and the entire Alliance for Marriage in support of the Marriage Protection Amendment... Your group recognizes... that marriage is the most important social institution in human history and is the most significant factor in terms of minimizing all sorts of social ills.The Washington Post reports:
Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) apologized last night after his telephone number appeared in the phone records of the woman dubbed the "D.C. Madam," making him the first member of Congress to become ensnared in the high-profile case.
The statement containing Vitter's apology said his telephone number was included on phone records of Pamela Martin and Associates dating from before he ran for the Senate in 2004..."This was a very serious sin in my past for which I am, of course, completely responsible," Vitter, 46, said in a statement, which his spokesman, Joel DiGrado, confirmed to the Associated Press.
"Several years ago, I asked for and received forgiveness from God and my wife in confession and marriage counseling," Vitter continued. "Out of respect for my family, I will keep my discussion of the matter there -- with God and them. But I certainly offer my deep and sincere apologies to all I have disappointed and let down in any way..."
Vitter is in his first Senate term after serving six years in the House. During his Senate campaign, Vitter was accused by a member of the Louisiana Republican State Central Committee of carrying on a lengthy affair with a prostitute in New Orleans's French Quarter.
Anthony Tommasini, writing in today's Times, reports the death of Régine Crespin, following the death of Beverly Sills earlier this week.Régine Crespin, the French operatic soprano and later mezzo-soprano, one of the most important vocal artists to emerge from France in the decades after World War II, died Wednesday in Paris, where she lived. She was 80.I grew up hearing her on the Met broadcasts. I remember her "Tosca", and her Marschallin ( the image at left is Régine Crespin (the Marschallin) and Elisabeth Söderström (Octavian)) with Solti at the helm. The last side of the set of records was pure magic.
Tommasini concludes her obit with this:In later life Ms. Crespin won wide recognition as a voice teacher. During some 1995 master classes at the Mannes College of Music in New York, the students were enraptured not only by her insightful critiques, but by her insider tales about opera stars.
Recalling her performances at the Met with the powerhouse tenor Franco Corelli in “Tosca” and Massenet’s “Werther,” she said he was convinced that eating raw garlic before a performance was good for the voice. But when they sang duets, Corelli would regularly burp. She learned to adjust, Ms. Crespin said.
Salon's Video Dog explains:Naomi Leibowitz explains on her Web site that this video is "comprised of clips from over 30 episodes of Rachel Ray's show '$40 a day' on Food Network." Caution: Keep the volume down, if you don't want your neighbor to get the wrong idea.Go see the video here.
* A communcations degree always reminds me of The Simpsons' episode with this immmortal line:
"You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, GO!"
Naked couple die from S.C. rooftop fall
June 20, 2007
COLUMBIA, S.C. --Police on Wednesday were investigating how a naked couple fell 50 feet from the roof of a downtown office building to their deaths.
The bodies were found on the road by a passing cabdriver around 5 a.m. Wednesday.
Clothing was discovered on the roof, leading authorities to suspect the man and woman, in their early 20s, may have been having sex. Their identities were not released.
"It's too early to rule out anything," Columbia police Sgt. Florence McCants said, but McCants said a preliminary investigation didn't show any sign of foul play.
The WaPo reports on Rob Portman's resignation as White House budget director.In an interview on CNN after Bush's announcement, Portman denied that he was leaving now to distance himself from an unpopular White House in preparation to run for governor of Ohio, where more than 60 percent of residents disapprove of Bush's job performance, according to a recent poll. Portman called that interpretation "false," adding, "The reason I'm going home is to spend time with my family.Right.
Posted at 7:01 PM ET, 06/ 7/2007It just seems so characteristic of this administration that a cabinet member could turn what is legitimately a tragedy for the family and friends of the senator into a black comedy.
Cabinet Member Misses Senator's Obit
Maybe Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt and his staff are just in denial. Or maybe they don't read the papers, thus missing the sad news that Sen. Craig Thomas (R-Wyo.) died Monday, seven months after he was diagnosed with leukemia.
Whatever the case, Leavitt's office called Thomas's office late Thursday afternoon to request a meeting with the late senator.
Needless to say, grief-stricken Thomas staffers were stunned. One aide to Thomas sent the following e-mail to a friend (both names have been redacted):
From: (Thomas staffer) <@thomas.senate.gov>
To: (Staffer's friend)
Sent: Thu Jun 07 16:49:36 2007
Subject: RE:
Oh yeah, note to Secretary Levitt's [sic] office: Senator Thomas passed on Monday, 4 June. You may want to pass that along to his staff especially after they called today to get a meeting with the late Senator.
Call me if you'd like, really unbelievable!
That reminds me of a story my thesis advisor - a Cal Tech alum - told me about his physics prof, the extraordinary Nobel laureate Richard Feynman, whom I had the pleasure to meet and hear speak several times.
Well, Feynmann's intro physics class DID have a nitpicker, one who was prolific and vociferous. His corrections - delivered with the precision of a surgeon's scalpel and the tact of an IRS agent - clearly took their toll on the patience of both the instructor and the students, turning the class into a daily Inquisition.
Falwell: My first time was in an outhouse outside Lynchburg, Virginia.Wikipedia has an informative article on the entire case, including the arguements made before the Supreme Court in 1987.
Interviewer: Wasn’t it a little cramped?
Falwell: Not after I kicked the goat out.
Interviewer: I see. You must tell me all about it.
Falwell: I never really expected to make it with Mom, but then after she showed all the other guys in town such a good time, I figured, "What the hell!"
Interviewer: But your Mom? Isn’t that a little odd?
Falwell: I don’t think so. Looks don’t mean that much to me in a woman.
Interviewer: Go on please go on before i have u!.
Falwell: Well, we were drunk off our God-fearing asses on Campari, ginger ale and soda—that’s called a Fire and Brimstone—at the time. And Mom looked better than a Baptist whore with a $100 donation
Interviewer: Campari in the crapper with Mom. how interesting.. .Well how was it?
Falwell: The Campari was great but mom passed out before I could come.
Interviewer: Did you ever try it again?
Falwell: Sure. Lots of times. But not in the outhouse. Between Mom and the shit, the flies were too much to bear.
Interviewer: We meant the Campari.
Falwell: Oh, yeah, I always get sloshed before I go to the pulpit. You don’t think I could lay down all that bullshit sober do you?
(the last line in very small print at the end - Greg)
Interviewer: Just to let you know this whole interview is a lie, I just wanted to see what I could get out of you!
Thomas Road Baptist Church has grown to a membership in excess of 24,000, based in a 6,000 seat auditorium and an additional 1 million square feet of educational space for people with way too much time on thier hands (emphasis added).There are more, but I don't really have the time.
Associated Pravda (as John Aravosis at AmericaBlog calls the Associated Press) reports in the Huffington Post (image from Hispanic Magazine).Gonzales Heckled at Harvard Reunion
AP | April 28, 2007 11:27 PM EST
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — A small group of student protesters, including one wearing a black hood and an orange jumpsuit, heckled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales as he posed with old classmates Saturday during their 25-year Harvard Law School reunion.
"When the photographer was getting everybody set up and having people say 'cheese,' the protesters yelled: 'say torture, instead,' 'resign' and 'I don't recall,'" said Nate Ela, a protester and third-year student.
Law school spokesman Mike Armini said the impromptu protest was so small that some of those attending the photo shoot did not notice it.
Ela said the protesters followed Gonzales into the law school's library, chanting "shame" and "resign," before the attorney general's security detail took him to his motorcade.
Gonzales was at the university to deliver a lunchtime speech, a visit that was unannounced to students. But word spread quickly after his motorcade and security detail were spotted.
Gonzales is resisting pressure to resign as lawmakers question whether he could effectively run the Justice Department amid the controversy over the firings of eight prosecutors.
An archive of Cal Thomas's columns can be found here at Townhall. The April 15, 2003 column is here. The charming picture came from Faux News.
T
here's one other quote that I just didn't have room for, which I'd like to include here. In his column of April 15, 2003, Cal Thomas wrote:
When the Berlin Wall fell and Eastern Europe escaped from the shackles of communism, I wrote that we must not forget the enablers, apologists and other "fellow travelers" who helped sustain communism's grip on a sizable portion of humanity for much of the 20th century. I suggested that a "cultural war crimes tribunal" be convened, at which people from academia, the media, government and the clergy who were wrong in their assessment of communism would be forced to confront their mistakes. While not wishing to deprive anyone of his or her right to be wrong, it wouldn't hurt for these people to be held accountable.That advice was not taken - but today we are presented with another opportunity in the form of scores of false media prophets who predicted disaster should the U.S. military confront and seek to oust the murderous regime of Saddam Hussein. The purpose of a cultural war crimes tribunal would be to remind the public of journalism's many mistakes, as well as the errors of certain politicians and retired generals, and allow it to properly judge their words the next time they feel the urge to prophesy...
All of the printed and voiced prophecies should be saved in an archive. When these false prophets again appear, they can be reminded of the error of their previous ways and at least be offered an opportunity to recant and repent.
On that last paragraph, at least, Cal and I are in agreement.
I heard a caller on KPOJ refer to the ultra-religious supporters of der Führer as "burning Bushies". This phrase has had very little circulation ( a measly 6 hits in The Google) , but it has been around for at least a year.Jews can’t be conservative Republicans. Not if they take seriously the best values of their own moral tradition, reflect thoughtfully on the imperatives of justice and on their enlightened self-interest as Jews and Americans.
The entire essay is interesting but I would argue that this applies not only to Jews, but to any person, educated or not.
Mike Malloy had a very funny line about Alberto's testimony today. He said the only preparation that Gonzales got was PreparationH.
Fortunately, there is a bill to provide dedicated funding for the Oregon State Police. I have co-sponsored House Bill 3535 to permanently dedicate 1 percent of the general fund revenue dollars ($127 million) to a special fund for OSP's Patrol Division. It ensures round-the-clock coverage by putting 140 troopers back on the road to cover major highways, allows for future growth, and does not raise taxes.State Rep. Kevin Cameron (R-Salem) and State Rep. Vicki Berger (R-Salem) in the Salem Statesman-Journal: ("Job can be done without new taxes")
Fortunately, there is a bill to provide dedicated funding for the Oregon State Police. We have co-sponsored House Bill 3535, which will permanently dedicate 1 percent of the general-fund revenue dollars ($127 million) to a special fund for the Oregon State Police's patrol division. It ensures around-the-clock coverage by putting 140 troopers back on the road to cover major highways, allows for future growth and does not raise taxes.State Sen. Jeff Kruse (R-Roseburg) and State Reps. Susan Morgan (R- Myrtle Creek), Wayne Krieger (R-Gold Beach), and Bruce Hanna (R-Lane/Douglas) in the Roseburg News-Review ("A plan to provide state police protection without new taxes")
Fortunately, there is a bill to provide dedicated funding for the Oregon State Police. We have co-sponsored House Bill 3535 to permanently dedicate one percent of the General Fund revenue dollars ($127 million) to a special fund for OSP's Patrol Division. It ensures round-the-clock coverage by putting 140 troopers back on the road to cover major highways, allows for future growth, and does not raise taxes.State Rep. Wayne Scott (R-Canby) in the Canby Herald ("24/7 state police protection . . . without new taxes")
Fortunately, there is a bill to provide dedicated funding for the Oregon State Police. I have co-sponsored House Bill 3535 to permanently dedicate 1-percent of the General Fund revenue dollars ($127 million) to a special fund for OSP's Patrol Division. It ensures round-the-clock coverage by putting 140 troopers back on the road to cover major highways, allows for future growth, and does not raise taxes.State Rep. Patti Smith (R-Corbett) in the Gresham Outlook ("24/7 state police can become reality")
Fortunately, there is a bill to provide dedicated funding for the Oregon State Police. I have co-sponsored House Bill 3535 to permanently dedicate 1 percent of general fund revenue dollars ($127 million) to a special fund for OSP’s Patrol Division. It ensures round-the-clock coverage by putting 140 troopers back on the road to cover major highways, allows for future growth and does not raise taxes.State Reps. Vicki Berger (R-Salem) and Kevin Cameron (R-Salem) on Vicki Berger's official web page ("A PLAN TO PROVIDE 24/7 STATE POLICE PROTECTION WITHOUT NEW TAXES")
Fortunately, there is a bill to provide dedicated funding for the Oregon State Police. We have co-sponsored House Bill 3535 which will permanently dedicate one percent of the General Fund revenue dollars ($127 million) to a special fund for OSP’s Patrol Division. It ensures around the clock coverage by putting 140 troopers back on the road to cover major highways, allows for future growth and does not raise taxes.All of these were traced back to one author, Mr. Kevin Curry, who used to be the communications director of then State House Speaker Karen Minnis.
Woman: Bowel caused alleged shoplifting
April 16, 2007
CAPE CORAL, Fla. --A woman arrested for shoplifting has blamed the crime on irritable bowel syndrome, authorities said. Helen Gallo, 61, of Clearwater, was arrested Sunday after allegedly shoplifting from a Cape Coral grocery store, The Daily Breeze of Cape Coral reported.
Gallo reportedly told authorities that she could not wait in line because she has irritable bowel syndrome, according to the newspaper.
Gallo was charged with petit larceny and released Sunday from the Lee County jail on $500 bond.
Gallo did not answer a telephone call placed to her home by The Associated Press. It was not known if she had an attorney.
but the staging was physically demanding and it did not help that the staging director was less than charming.
I was so moved by the music that the stage director could have made us stand on our heads (and, at times, it seemed to come to that) and I would have given it a go. 
We recently saw Mike Judge's Idiocracy.Smart couples have one or two offspring, and morons have 30.
Keep this up for 500 years, and the inevitable result is the gene pool will get pretty shallow.
There are those who, in fact, can't tell shit from shinola.
Now there are online resources for those seeking to answer the eternal question, "What is this shit?"Developed at the University of Bristol, U.K., the Bristol stool form scale is a recognized, general measure of stool consistency or form. Using this scale, you can help your physician sort out patterns or changes in bowel habit. Remember, this is intended as a general, not exact, measure. Use this guide to complete your diary and worksheet, and share the information with your physician.Dr. John Crippen, writing in his award-winningThe Standard Euro-turd
Best Medical Weblog, Best Literary Medical Weblog, Best Health Policies/Ethics Medical Weblogdiary ("Dr John Crippen's weekly diary. The trials and tribulations, the pleasures and pitfalls of family medicine in the modern British National Health Service"), here recounts his "rite of passage" with an elderly patient.
I now digress to tell you about the statistical phenomenon of discontinuous variation. The height of the population is an example of continuous variation; there is a gradation of height throughout the population. Discontinuous variation is something that is either "on" or "off". For exampale, some people excrete asparagus in their urine. Some do not. You will know if you do.All quite hilarious in that typically British fashion.
The pastime of inspecting your stools after a bowel action is another example of discontinuous variation. Some people do. Some people do not.
Patricia does not. And even if she did, she would never talk about it.
Now, for the first time in her life, in order to win her pads, she not only has to examine her stools, but she has to classify them from 1 – 7 according to the Bristol Stool Form Scale:
Patricia is horrified.Horrified or not, she is a meticulous sort and wants to get it right. She is baffled by the classification and is uncertain whether her stools are Type 2, 3 or 4. So she needs to consult an expert. She thus arrived with her Bristol Stool Form Scale chart and a Pyrex bowl with cling film across the top. Inside was a stool. I was able to tell her that it was unequivocally a Type 3 stool.
I know these things, because I am a doctor.
Later, I phoned the Turd-Commissar and told her that Patricia was elderly and upset. All she needed was nursing input and pads. Sorry, that is not on the protocol. Her stools must first be categorised and classified.
I think it must be Brussels. We have the Euro-sausage and the Euro-banana. Soon we will have the standard Euro-turd.
If you are still confused, try the revised Bristol Stool Form Table
Kevin Drum's story of a week ago in Calpundit needs more attention. As he then wrote,A fellow named Giles Coren wrote a book review for the Times of London recently that incorporated the phrase "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog," noting that it contained all 26 letters of the alphabet in a 35-letter sentence. An editor changed it to "a lazy dog" but failed to change "35 letters" to "33 letters."Mr. Coren, of whom the BBC reports,
Journalist and author Giles Coren's novel Winkler has won the Bad Sex in Fiction Award for the most awkward description of an intimate encounter.penned an email response, which was duly reprinted in The Guardian Online.The food critic's book describes a sexual act between a man and a woman, in which "she scratched his back deeply with the nails of both hands".
The rest of the winning passage is unprintable for a family audience.
From: Coren, Giles
Sent: 10 August 2002 16:41
To: James, Anita
Cc: Wells, Dominic
Subject:
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. how fucking difficult is that? it's the sentence that bestrides the fucking book i reviewed for you. it is the sentence i wrote first in my fucking review. it is 35 fucking letters long, which is why i wrote that it was. and so some useless cunt sub-editor decides to change it to "jumps over A lazy dog" can you fucking count? can you see that that makes it a 33 letter sentence? so it looks as if i can't count, and the cunting author of the book, poor mr dunn, cannot count. the whole bastard book turns on the sentence being as i fucking wrote it. and that it is exactly 33 letters long. why do you meddle. what do you think you achieve with that kind of dumb-witted smart-arsery? why do you change things you do not understand without consulting. why do you believe you know best when you know fuck all. jack shit.
that is as bad as editing can be. fuck, i hope you're proud. it will be small relief for the author that nobody reads your poxy magazine.
never ever ask me to write something for you. and don't pay me. i'd rather take £400 quid for assassinating a crack whore's only child in a revenge killing for a busted drug deal - my integrity would be less compromised.
jesus fucking wept i don't know what else to say.
[I have often thought that last sentiment while grading.]
Kevin Drum added:
It reminds me of why I like the British press: they print things the way people say them. For example, back in February The Economist ran a story about Stephen Byers, the transport minister. Apparently one of his advisors had suggested burying some bad news by releasing it on the day of Princess Margaret's funeral, his chief information officer had responded with an email advising against it, and within days of the exchange becoming public it was announced that both had "resigned." But they hadn't, or at least the chief information officer hadn't, and he had detailed notes to prove it. Oops. Or, as one participant said, “We're all fucked. I'm fucked. You're fucked. The whole department is fucked. It's been the biggest cock-up ever and we are all completely fucked.”After Scooter's verdict, the Democrat's inquiries into Walter Reed, the US attorney firings, and another week of triumph in Iraq, I imagine there are now many parts of the White House repeating this part:
“We're all fucked. I'm fucked. You're fucked. The whole department is fucked... we are all completely fucked.”Stephen Byers was the British transport secretary who was ridiculed through the UK. Here is the lead-in to the BBC story of May 24, 2002.
It's official. Stephen Byers has become a joke.Oh. The 9-11 business. THAT Stephen Byers. Is there no home for him in the Bush administration? FEMA, perhaps?
On this week's episode of Radio 4's comedy I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, Graeme Garden announced the following late arrival to the Society Ball for MPs."Welcome please Mr and Mrs Bennett-is-Stephen-Byers-still-there? and their son Gordon."
For him to become the butt of a joke on the most unpolitical of comedy shows is something of an achievement. But as an opinion poll indicated this week, Stephen Byers is not a popular man.
His popularity rating has even slumped below Mrs Thatcher's at her lowest ebb.
In a poll, his popularity was measured as minus 49%, a figure calculated by subtracting the number of people who think he is doing a bad job from those who think he's doing a good job.
It's no mystery how he has gained such notoriety. Some of his low points include:
• The Jo Moore thing, when he backed his special advisor after she wrote an e-mail advising 11 September was a good day to bury bad news.
• Being ridiculed when he claimed to have secured an extra £2.2bn investment in the railways, only for the Treasury to deny it.
• Facing accusations of lying when he told Parliament his press chief Martin Sixsmith had resigned, when in fact he hadn't.
| cunt (!) * | Noun. 1. The female genitals. 2. Women from a sexual viewpoint. Offensive. 3. A despicable person. Derog. and coarse, and with its associated meanings is consequently particularly offensive. 4. A very familiar term of address. E.g."Hello you old cunt, how are you? You're looking well." 5. A difficult thing or task. E.g."I'm not offering to help him move house, he's got a piano and it'll be a cunt of a job to shift it." Exclam. An exclamation of anger, surprise, frustration, disappointment. * Undoubtedly the most offensive and taboo of all vulgarisms, and particularly so to women, however its use is becoming more frequent. Consequently it is gradually losing its offensiveness and perhaps will in due course become as accepted as 'fuck' in its use. The word goes back to Middle English, cunte, and before then it can only be speculated upon, however some believe its origins lie with the Latin, cuneus, meaning wedge. |
| cunted | Adj. Very intoxicated by drink or drugs. |
| cunt-face | Noun. A contemptible person. Also cuntface. |
| cunt-faced | Adj. Very intoxicated. |
| cunting | Adj. An intensifier. E.g."If this cunting weather doesn't improve within the next 24 hours we'll have to cancel the whole trip." |
| cuntox | Noun. A contemptible person. |
| cunt struck | Adj. Sexually besotted by a woman. Also cuntstruck. |
| cunty | Noun. A contemptible person. |
| cuntybaws * | Noun. 1. An objectionable person. [Scottish use] 2. Occasionally used as a term of address. [Scottish use] * From cuntyballs. |
Read The Non-Moving Earth & Anti-Evolution Web PageTake your time.It is a hoot.
Check it all out.
Decide for yourself.
Matthew Parris (The Guardian: "political journalist and former Tory MP"), co-author with Phil Mason of Read My Lips: A Treasury of Things Politicians Wish They Hadn't Said, wrote this very funny commentary in today's Times (UK).From The Times
March 01, 2007
I dare you to read this and refute (not rebut) my case
Matthew Parris: My Week
Some television people came round recently to record interviews for a new Grumpy Old . . . series, so I had to work myself up into a passably grumpy state to discuss things like romance, class and politics. Fine — but the trouble was that, after the TV crew had gone, the grumpiness stayed. I started to see everything with a grumpy eye. I turned to the morning papers and — tut, tut — there was that word “refute”, misused yet again by a journalist.
Harrumph. Look, we must of course take care not to become boring old farts about the misuse of words...
Mr. Parris is a regular commentator for the Times. His most recent columns include:
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