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Two against two: ad hominem

  12/09/2021       Pat Barrett      2 Comments

This morning I was standing in line waiting for a blood test. Four of us got to chatting. About the time the doors opened, the (Continue Reading)

Anecdotes
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Idiomaticity

  12/08/2021       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

“I understand what you mean but we don’t say it that way.” How many times have you heard someone tell you that as you foundered (Continue Reading)

Linguistics

No Serious Consequences

  12/05/2021       Pat Barrett      2 Comments

Isabel Wilkerson so deftly put into frame and focus the experience of Black Americans, I wondered as I read what the obverse of that coin (Continue Reading)

Pat's World View

The Statue Problem

  12/04/2021       Pat Barrett      3 Comments

The statues some people find objectionable are typically those of men who exploited and extracted, at least in the Americas. We usually don’t get excited (Continue Reading)

Ramble

New Core Exercises

  12/02/2021       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

A friend sent me a video by Bob and Brad. On the side I saw one titled 10 exercises you should not do. Two of (Continue Reading)

Health and exercise

Carried along in the rhythm of the music

  11/20/2021       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

Sitting here listening to a series of performances of Agbadza, the ever popular Ewe dance music, I realized the nature of that pulse, what many (Continue Reading)

Music of the African Diaspora

Heavy Metal in Africa

  11/19/2021       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

A Togolese heavy metal group is making itself known. Heavy metal is associated more with White audiences in the U.S. and even has an association (Continue Reading)

Music of the African Diaspora

The Fascists Among Us

  11/14/2021       Pat Barrett      6 Comments

Haven’t you met natural fascists? Don’t give me the salesman b.s. about “I’ve never met a man I didn’t like.” You know who they are, (Continue Reading)

Politics 2016/2022 running blog Corona Delta/Omicron & whatever's next edition, View from under the Bus

Trace it back

  11/06/2021       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

Take a rhythm in any current song of the Americas and Europe. Trace it back until it disappears. Where was that last point found? Take (Continue Reading)

Music of the African Diaspora

Oops!

  10/27/2021       Pat Barrett      2 Comments

Oops could be the name of a category. It is when a point or fact is evidenced as the product of another topic entirely. Here’s (Continue Reading)

Politics 2016/2022 running blog Corona Delta/Omicron & whatever's next edition

You gotta feel sorry for them…….

  10/26/2021       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

Those poor guys who attacked the Capitol trying to overturn a free and fair election are just running into all sorts of problems. One dropped (Continue Reading)

Complete nonsense

Each one gave their best…………

  09/04/2021       Pat Barrett      7 Comments

from The Language Instinct pp. 377-379 Sometimes an alleged grammatical ‘error’ is logical not only in the sense of ‘rational’ but the sense of respecting (Continue Reading)

grammar & language change

Hillbilly Legacy

  08/23/2021       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

Of hillbilly legacy myself (West Virginia though raised in Ohio), I was heartened to see J.D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy (J.D. is so Southern – it (Continue Reading)

Running commentary

A Breakthough Insight, I think………..

  08/20/2021       Pat Barrett      1 Comment

A couple of nights ago I had put on a CD of rhythm and blues. My wife and I began slow dancing between the kitchen (Continue Reading)

Music of the African Diaspora

What’s been happening all along is………

  08/16/2021       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

This is an attempt to put together the essential matters we all have to consider. I was inspired by Francis Fukuyama’s Origins of Political Order (Continue Reading)

Pat's World View, Ramble

The Cicadas

  08/15/2021       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

We are not surprised when the cicadas emerge. Why are we when the Taliban emerge? What a shock! American troops start their precipitous withdrawal and (Continue Reading)

Politics 2016/2022 running blog Corona Delta/Omicron & whatever's next edition

My Wife, the Genius

  08/08/2021       Pat Barrett      1 Comment

Somewhere in this blog there may be a mention of my wife’s uncanny ability to size up a room full of people and indicate if (Continue Reading)

Politics 2016/2022 running blog Corona Delta/Omicron & whatever's next edition

Racism without malice

  08/01/2021       Pat Barrett      1 Comment

Last night we went to the ASU football game. I am not a sports fan but my wife had to be peeled off the ceiling (Continue Reading)

African Diaspora

Order of Operations

  07/30/2021       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

How do linguists proceed to reasoning about what goes on in the black box known as the LAD – language acquisition device?Here’s a simples example:Spanish-speakers (Continue Reading)

Linguistics

Why SOME sports fans belong in the dregs of humanity category

  07/29/2021       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

Full disclosure: I have never been a sports fan. My wife, my son, so many people in my life are “avid” sports fans (like a (Continue Reading)

Health and exercise, Running commentary, Uncategorized

Two-tiered thinking

  07/29/2021       Pat Barrett      1 Comment

Advanced Republicans (one step above Australopithecines) can speak on two tiers: one is to their base and the other comes from that one eye on (Continue Reading)

Politics 2016/2022 running blog Corona Delta/Omicron & whatever's next edition

Whence sprang Liz Cheney?

  07/29/2021       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

Luke Skywalker sprang from the loins of Darth Vader; Liz Cheney sprang from the loins of Dr. Evil. How does one explain this?Cheney is a (Continue Reading)

Basics, Politics 2016/2022 running blog Corona Delta/Omicron & whatever's next edition

MSNBC DEADLINE WHITE HOUSE JULY 27, 2021

  07/27/2021       Pat Barrett      4 Comments

Nicolle Wallace, host, moderates as Matt Dowd and Eddie Glaude reflect on the testimony of Capitol Police Officer during the Jan. 6 Insurrection hearings. Nothing (Continue Reading)

Basics, Politics 2016/2022 running blog Corona Delta/Omicron & whatever's next edition, View from under the Bus
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