Comments on: Wright as American as Idi Amin

By: Steve Stip

Steve Stip — Fri, 30 May 2008 18:30:17 +0000

One last word on your bon mots. They need not be in a different color if this would clutter the text too much or lest you insult someone with a good vocabulary.

It might be a good idea in the future if EVERY word was linked to a great dictionary/ thesaurus. The nation might become capable of good English again. Who knows what revival that might spark?

By: Sage

Sage — Fri, 30 May 2008 15:25:55 +0000

Phil is right. Sumner was crippled, but went on to serve again in the House. Interesting side note: Brooks actually recieved a gold-plated cane in the mail from a grateful constituent, not to mention a flood of congratulatory letters.

More of that Congressional “tradition of civility” we’re always hearing about!

By: Conan the Cimmerian

Conan the Cimmerian — Fri, 30 May 2008 14:12:43 +0000

Good as usual.

By: Steve Stip

Steve Stip — Fri, 30 May 2008 13:37:30 +0000

Ilana, You have a wonderful vocabulary. I don't but am willing to learn new words. It would be great if we could just click on a word and get its definition. Maybe I should address this to browser designers. Or perhaps there is a program that automatically inserts links to definitions for more rarely used words. [Will try to do that in the future, time permitting. Didn't think there were any bon mots in the last column.--IM]

By: Sean

Sean — Fri, 30 May 2008 11:07:47 +0000

Wright damned America, not for what it intends, but for what it’s done. No one disputes him on the facts..just for being uppity enough to point them out, and to call a spade a spade. Obama may have “thrown him under a bus” for being inconvenient, but Wright speaks for America haters the world over–and at home–and I for one am happy to have a forum here to pile on.

By: Phil Manger

Phil Manger — Fri, 30 May 2008 07:14:12 +0000

Sorry, I left off the reference in my post. Here is the Charles Sumner reference. [you left it off.--IM]

By: Phil Manger

Phil Manger — Fri, 30 May 2008 07:07:25 +0000

Another excellent essay.
Just one point: Charles Sumner wasn’t murdered. South Carolina Rep. Preston Brooks severely beat Sumner with his cane on the floor of the U. S. Senate, leaving the abolitionist senator disabled, but still alive. (See
this.)
Sumner was one of the radical Republican reconstructionists after the Civil War.

[Thanks. Will correct that.–IM]