My Side of the Fence

The danger isn't going too far. It's that we don't go far enough.

Page 179 of 403

Looks like the Campaign has started….

Well, I guess that the campaigns for state seats has started.  I recieved a letter asking me to support a candidate for the seat that Sen. Colgan currently occupies.  Many suspect that he is going to retire.  Others are convinced he’s running again.  I don’t have any idea.  The list of people running for that seat gets longer and then shorter, depending on who you talk to…;)  I think it’s pretty well known that Mr. Fitzsimmonds is interested in the seat – he was the republican nominee last time.  Many suspect that Del. Miller is interested in the seat as well.  I haven’t really talked to him about it but it seems a logical idea.  Of course, if he runs for senate then his house seat is in the mix.

The pin-action is almost endless: if the house seat is open then you could have a city politician run for that seat.  If that works, we could be looking for a Council member or Mayor!  At this point, it’s all a deep, dark cave of speculation.  The only light I can cast on the situaiton is this: I ain’t running for any office that is located in Richmond.

The other variable is redistricting.  I’m not an expert on how all of this works but I would guess that it makes it difficult to run for office when you aren’t even sure what the district will look like.  That’s a huge deal.  I believe that redistricting will happen in a special session after the normal GA session.  In any event, I expect we’ll hear some announcements soon.

I hate to be pedantic but….

I like to write.  I like the precision of communication that well-crafted writing provides.  I don’t claim to be a good writer but I do like it.  It’s a skill that has a shelf-life: if you do not continue to write, your ability rots.  It’ll come back if you pick it up but it isn’t like riding a bike.  One of the best books that I have ever read about writing is by Stephen King and it is called “on writing”.  I have been a King fan for a very long time and reading that book, which is part autobiography, part writing manual and part “insight” was a revolutionary thing for me.  King doesn’t have much regard for the whole “outline as structure, words for fill” drill that was taught to most of us in elementary school but he is hot and heavy on usage and grammer.  I’m not a grammer nazi but I agree with King that correct usage (to the extent you can pull it off) is a good thing.  I try to get it right and it really irritates me when others who should get it right don’t try.

So, with all of that, my two latest pets:  “concerning”.  seriously.  People find things “concerning”.  Look up the word and you’ll not find anything about using the word that way.  I was was watching MSNBC and Fox this morning and hosts on both shows talked about how the slow response of NYC to dig out two feet of snow was “concerning” (the people on Fox being singularly irritating as they would be the first to hammer Bloomberg if he proposed building enough capacity to dig out from a once in a 100 year storm).  It’s not concerning you idiots.  It might be alarming, agrivating, irritating or a bazillion other words but it is not “concerning”.  These are people who make their living communicating and they can’t be troubled to get it right.  Morons!  This is foolishness up with which I will not put!

Number Two:  This one isn’t so much a usage problem but a factual one.  Have you ever seen a TV news segment about some chemical or drug that “increases your chance of death by 20% !!” (or other alarming percentage)?  This irritates the crap out of me.  See, nothing will increase your chance of death.  It is now and remains forevermore, 100%.  A particular thing might decrease or increase your chance of death from that thing but rarely are the segments that precise.  Nobody here gets out alive.

Here endeth the rant….

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