I know better, but sometimes I can't help myself. I'll point out when someone, in calling someone else stupid, butchers the insult to the point of illiteracy. I find this hilariously ironic.
"Hey, John McCain need to drop dead.when he chose that idiot Sara Palin as is running mate we could have file charges on his old butt.so John zip it."I did not call out Mr. Cador, but if I had, I assure you that his equally literate fans would have derided me as the Grammar Police and proclaimed something like "its just the web. grammer doesnt matter.'
— Norman Cador, in a comment on this article
I disrespectfully disagree.
In another irony, I'd originally read the comments to see if anyone else was amused by an atrocious dangling modifier in McCain's own ad:
"But Arizona has a senator with the courage and character to stand up to a president who is wrong: John McCain."
At least McCain wasn't claiming the President's grammar was wrong. That would have sent bolts of pain coursing through my left arm.
I do not mean to pick on Misters McCain and Cador. I mean to quote them, which is, truth be told, much more damning.
A funny thing happens after you critically read thousands upon thousands of student writing samples. You get good at it. After sampling cause and effect, cause and effect, over and over, you get pretty damned skilled at guessing causes from looking at their effects. Like the old country doctor who amazes you by rendering a swift and accurate diagnosis from your seemingly random combination of symptoms, I've gotten very good at "reading" writers. In every sense of the term.
From examining the mechanics in a small amount of your writing, I can tell if you're a reader. I can generally tell if you're educated, about how far you got, and how good a student you were. From the types of errors you make, I can tell what country you're from and in what country you studied English. I can spot learning disabilities from 100 words. I can spot the difference between uneducated and careless and informal and just plain stupid. From the risks you don't take, I can tell if you're careful but insecure about your writing. (I adore you people, by the way.) And from your syntactic complexity, I can certainly tell if you love wordsmithing.
And I cannot turn this off.
Is this superpower as useful as the off-duty doctor noticing your gum color and telling you to get your liver checked out? No. I would rather have that power. But it is useful, and however modest, it is the kingdom over which I rule. But I do not rule alone. There are scads of me out there.
And each of us thinks that Mr. Cador needs to zip it and read more before criticizing anyone's intelligence. Much more. Any reading would suffice, really.
As for the team who approved the splendid phrasing "a president who is wrong: John McCain," what more can be said? If the man could recognize and hire competent, qualified professionals, we wouldn't be having this conversation, would we?