yucca

Эти две строчки я всегда считала гениальными и была уверена, что это афоризм, придуманный неким старым циником :

Do you love me or do you not?
You told me once, but I forgot.

Оказалось, на самом деле все безумно серьезно. Вот полный текст.

"Do you love me " by Dawn Lavill

Written in pen
Sealed with a kiss
If you love me, please answer this:

Do you love me or do you not?
You told me once, but I forgot,
so tell me now and tell me true,
so I can tell you...I Love You!
Of all the guys I've ever met,
you are the one I won't forget.
And if I die before you do,
I'll go to heaven and wait for you.
If you are not there by Judgment Day,
I'll know you went the other way.
I'll give the angels back their wings,
and risk the loss of everything.
Just to prove my love is true,
I'll go to hell, just to be with you!

"There are reports that he was wounded, reports that he is dead, reports that he is alive," said one official, referring to Saddam. "One of those reports is probably right."

(NY Times News Service)

Выдержки из выдержек изThe Language Police by Diane Ravitch (from The Atlantic Monthly)

This list of banned words and stereotypes is an abridgement of a lengthy glossary compiled by a historian from bias guidelines issued by major educational publishers and state agencies. The guidelines are used by writers, editors and illustrators when preparing textbooks and tests for K-12 students.

Adam and Eve (replace with "Eve and Adam" to demonstrate that males do not take priority over females)
Blind, the (banned as offensive; replace with "people who are blind")
Cassandra (banned as sexist)
Dogma (banned as ethnocentric; replace with "doctrine" or "belief")
Drunken, Drunkenness (banned as offensive when referring to Native Americans)
East, Eastern (banned as Eurocentric)
Elderly, the (banned as ageist; replace with "older people")
Extremist (banned as ethnocentric; replace with "believer", "follower" or "adherent")
Fairy (banned because it suggests homosexuality; replace with "elf")
Founding Fathers, the (banned as sexist; replace with "the Founders" or "the Framers")
Huts (banned as ethnocentric; replace with "small houses")
Jungle (banned; replace with "rain forest")
Man of war (banned as sexist; replace with "warship")
Old (banned as an adjective that implies helplessness, dependency or other negative qualities)

ну и, конечно, мое любимое:

Mother Russia (banned as sexist; replace with "Russia, vast land of rich harvests")

Продолжение следует.

Выдержки из писем в журнал The Atlantic Monthly по поводу рецензии на книгу об обращении с животными ( http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2002/11/hitchens.htm ):


Hitchens is rightly appalled by the barbarity of... slaughterhouses, but his call to decency falls flat, because... he reasserts the very human-over-animal hierarchy that informs the practice of every vicious form of animal exploitation.
...Like sexism, racism, homophobia and other discriminatory outlooks and practices, humanism creates a bogus dualism between the "superior" group (human animals) and the "inferior" group (nonhuman animals) and uses it as a justification for power, violence, and exploitation. But like other forms of discrimination and exploitation, speciesism lacks a rational justification and in the end is a pathetic prejudice unworthy of any claim to enlightenment.

Steven Best, Chair, Dept. of Philosophy, Un. of Texas at El Paso.

Правильно, долой предрассудки. Давно пора лошадей выбирать в сенат. А человеческих животных гнать оттуда в хвост и в гриву!

В следующем письме самое лучшее - подпись.

...I think it's time for our species to step down from the "chilly eminence"... and give to animals, who are neither "voiceless" nor "dumb", a voice in every affair that concerns them. If we can speak for people who can't speak for themselves, we can speak for these animals, and so we should.

Karen Davis, President, United Poultry Concerns, Inc.

Из нашей городской газеты:

...conventional chocolate has its drawbacks.
Industrial farming of cocoa, including heavy pesticide use, has hurt rainforest ecosystems and communities across the globe. Soy, cottonseed or corn-based ingredients in chocolate products may be genetically engineered. If milk is used, it is likely to have been conventionally farmed with growth hormones and antibiotics. And child labor is a problem in some cocoa-growing regions.

Вам после такого полезет кусок шоколада в горло?! Мне полез.