Wednesday, May 30, 2007

well, that just about wraps it up for God

I was thinking of writing a blog post on the subject of the death of Jerry Falwell, who represents a subject close to my heart (regular blog-watchers will groan as they recognise the scraping and grunting sounds of me hauling myself up onto a favourite hobby-horse), the rank fetid cheesy evil of corporate religion in the USA and its sinister tentacly insinuation of its interests into the political arena, despite, ironically, the USA being one of the few places where the separation of church and state is explicitly enshrined in the constitution.

Then I noticed that someone had done it for me, and bugger me if it wasn't my old mate Christopher Hitchens. A man whose views (on the Iraq war, to name but one topic) don't always coincide with mine, but who can always be counted on to entertain, if only to watch his awe-inspiring articulacy and intellect wrestle to the death with his unabashed penchant for heroic public drunkenness on a variety of talk shows. It's hard to believe those who invited him to comment on Jerry Falwell's death on CNN and Hannity & Colmes expected him to assume a respectful (and, as he points out, entirely hypocritical) speak-no-ill-of-the-dead tone, but if they did then they got disabused of that notion pronto, with both barrels. He's got a certain amount of previous with Sean Hannity, and if I'd been Hannity I'd have been slightly wary after being skewered pretty mercilessly first time round. And he wants to cancel Christmas! You've got to admire his massive clanking brass balls, if nothing else; to go on TV in the most overtly religious (not to mention heavily armed) country in the western world and say: this so-called Reverend you're all eulogising was a fat stupid evil bigoted charlatan and fraud and we're better off now he's wormfood, and if that sounds a bit insensitive to his surviving family and friends, well, fuck 'em, takes a certain amount of chutzpah, or possibly just a couple of carafes of Château Lafite Rothschild.

Well worth linking to this article as well, and reproducing this nugget from it:
Civil society means that free expression trumps the emotions of anyone to whom free expression might be inconvenient.
Amen to that, if you see what I mean.

13 comments:

The Black Rabbit said...

Good word - fetid.

But why have I always spelled it foetid?

Are there two (American and English) ways of spelling it?

Head hurts...

The Black Rabbit said...

Come to think of it-

I think spelled should be spelled "spelt".

Migraine coming on...
wibble wibble kveet.

electrichalibut said...

Actually, you're quite right, there are two spellings, and the one I've gone for is the American one. Not consciously, I just missed the "o" out by accident (too busy foaming at the mouth to check). My bad.....

Anonymous said...

I too, have a sneaking admiration (loathing) for Christopher Hitchens. Much as it pains me to admit it. It's a very difficult sitaution for me.

black rabbit - it's either/or. Same rules apply with fetus/foetus, although the dictionary gives the former as "non-technical" , which I just read as a euphemism for "American". Isn't spelt a type of flour?

Now should that be an euphemism?

electrichalibut said...

Nice to be able to cash in "chutzpah" as well. One day I'll be able to do that while playing Scrabble.

The Black Rabbit said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
The Black Rabbit said...

Fetus and foetus?!

If "non-technical" means American, then American means "WRONG".

It is foetus, and forever will it remain that way.

electrichalibut said...

Which is not to say that "spelt" isn't also the past participle of "spell", however.

Though I personally wouldn't complain about "spelled" either; dictionary.com seems to agree, for what it's worth.

The Black Rabbit said...

When I wrote "I think spelled should be spelled SPELT", I meant that quite loosely.
Of course spelled should NOT be spelled SPELT. In the same way, after I 'dive into the sea', I have NOT "dove" in to the sea, nor have I "diven" into the sea, (unless I am some sort of Geordie).

I'm sure there are many others. Is Dictionary.com a yankee-doodle-dandy website. Ignore it if so. (As Wikipedia).

Anyway, this is all getting rather silly. I'm off for a run to get all this pedantry out of my system.

Anonymous said...

"If "non-technical" means American, then American means "WRONG"."

There's a lesson in there somewhere...

If you say the word "spell" too many times in quick succession, you'll start to question whether it's a word at all.

...and perhaps your sanity as well.

The Black Rabbit said...

Actually, before I go, all this talk of words has reminded me of an infantile nonsense I enjoy:

If a QUIZ is "QUIZZICAL" (not quizzy)

then what is a TEST (if not testy)..?


Ok.
I'll get me coat.

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