Not Even the English Can Write the Queen’s English Any More

Filed under:Language Barrier,Need a Good Editor? — posted by Anwyn on November 22, 2008 @ 8:22 pm

Witness:

Its turns out that Mrs Clinton’s delay in accepting the president elect’s offer to be his top foreign policy adviser had much to do with her negotiating the terms of the job and insisting on the right to choose her own state department staff and possibly even some of the plumb Ambassador postings.

and this:

Obama will have in his gift the right to appoint Supreme Court justices, possibly as many as five out of the nine: Roe v Wade, which gives a woman the right to an abortion if she chooses, would be safe.

Assignments and posts are plum, as in the good stuff in plum-cake, not plumb, as in straight. And the appointments themselves are what the president can give, not “the right” to appoint. He appoints them himself; he doesn’t gift that right to anybody else.

An Englishman of my acquaintance refers to two languages: English and “an American derivative.” His English appears to be slowly dying on the pages of his own country’s papers.

Links via, where else, Hot Air.

3 comments »

  1. I’m sure they’re efforting to improve themselves.

    Comment by Chris — November 23, 2008 @ 11:47 am

  2. Oh my. That’s grim.

    Comment by lifepundit — November 24, 2008 @ 7:29 pm

  3. I especially like the second quote, the part where Obama will have in his gift the right to appoint SCOTUS judges. Sounds like a an X rated movie. Hopefully the senate will abort.

    Would be safe.

    I hate to be stodgy, but government, even the SCOTUS does not give rights. Our Rights are ours prior to government, they are natural. If abortion is a right, it is not because nine people in black robes say it is.

    Comment by jbarntt — December 2, 2008 @ 10:12 pm

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