English language word play - heteronyms

It is said that English is the most difficult language to learn. Below are crazy-making examples of why that may be true.  Sure am glad I was born into it and didn't have to learn it later! (~.~)

Heteronyms:

Homographs are words of like spelling but with more than one meaning.

A homograph that is also pronounced differently is a heteronym.

You think English is easy?

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.

2) The farm was used to produce produce.

3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

4) We must polish the Polish furniture..

5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert..

7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10) I did not object to the object.

11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

13) They were too close to the door to close it.

14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.

15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

17) The wind was too strong for me to wind the sail.

18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear..

19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France . Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

PS. - Why doesn't 'Buick' rhyme with 'quick'?

 

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Good story about Green Beret officer who was dismissed "in disgrace"

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/jim-gant-top-green-beret-officer-forced-resign/story?id=24266710

Interesting that Jim Gant's tactics actually worked.  But they weren't "authorized."  A new tight-ass Lt. from West Point assigned to his company complained about him -- and he was demoted and kicked out of the Army.  No, he didn't follow the rules -- often rule breakers turn out to be the best soldiers.  His men loved him, the tribal villagers in Afghanistan loved him and joined with him in fighting the Taliban, and even Gen. David Petraeus had kind words for Gant and his successes in Afghanistan.  Gant's tactics succeeded in doing exactly what the military wanted.  But he didn't do it their way, with their rules and their regulations, which didn't work.

We all know, of course, that in the military and in all authoritarian groups (corporate, religious, government) one must always obey the authorities without question and without thinking for oneself.  If you refuse to become a robot who marches to orders that don't work and don't make sense, you will get drummed out of the corps. 

And so he was.  That is what happens to the Jim Gants and Edward Snowdens of our world.  They are true heroes, unheralded, unsung and unappreciated.

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TED Talk by Edward Snowden -- one of the Best ever!

Snowden is so articulate and intelligent and sincerely honest and truthful.  Just listening to him makes you wish we could have the same in the halls of our government and the White House!  Snowden is a hero in my book.  Of all the whistleblowers who have tried to tell the same truth, he is the one who has succeeded and so far has evaded punishment.  Other heroes tried to tell the tale, but now are in jail or out of a job and persecuted in many ways.  It's no wonder Snowden hasn't come back to the U.S.  Who could blame him????

Watch the video:  http://www.ted.com/talks/edward_snowden_here_s_how_we_take_back_the_internet#t-1301639

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How far the conservatives will carry their hatred of Obama: Beeghazi

The right wing's hatred of Obama is so deeply ingrained in them, they will decry and ridicule ANYthing he says or does -- even when their derision is against their own interest, the interest of their children, and the interest of the country and the world.  Now they are ridiculing the president's formation of a task force to find out what is causing the death of honeybees and butterflies, the pollinators of the crops that feed us. 

I could give a good guess as to why the honeybees are dying at such a fast rate, but chemtrails are not even acknowledged/admitted yet by the government, let alone looked at as a possible killer of insect life...or human life.  Do you honestly think it could be a good thing to be spraying aluminum, barium and strontium particles into our skies, to fall and settle on the water and land -- and to be breathed in by all life on the planet?   

One Reader's Comment on the following article, and a suggestion with which I wholeheartedly agree:
I wish we could split the world into two worlds.
they can live in the world that laughs at and celebrates the death of all pollinators.
we can live in the one that even at this late hour tries to keep them all from dying.
we can have a conference call in fifty years and see how they are doing.

#Beeghazi!: The conservative war on Obama, science, common sense, and bees

By TBogg
Monday, June 23, 2014 9:03 EDT

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On Friday the White House announced the formation of a task force charged with addressing the issue of rapidly diminishing colonies of honey bees and other pollinators.

President Barack Obama ordered the Environmental Protection Agency and United States Department of Agriculture to lead an effort to determine why honey bees, monarch butterflies and other pollinators are dying off, and then recommend ways to boost their conservation.

In announcing this initiative the White House released data explaining why this is an important thing to do:

• The number of managed honey bee colonies in the United States has declined steadily over the past 60 years, from 6 million colonies (beehives) in 1947 to 4 million in 1970, 3 million in 1990, and just 2.5 million today. Given the heavy dependence of certain crops on commercial pollination, reduced honey bee populations pose a real threat to domestic agriculture.

• Some crops, such as almonds, are almost exclusively pollinated by honey bees, and many crops rely on honey bees for more than 90% of their pollination. California’s almond industry alone requires the pollination services of approximately 1.4 million beehives annually—60% of all U.S. beehives—yielding 80% of the worldwide almond production worth 4.8 billion dollars each year.

• Since 2006, commercial beekeepers in the United States have seen honey bee colony loss rates increase to an average of 30% each winter, compared to historical loss rates of 10 to 15%. In 2013–14, the overwintering loss rate was 23.2%, down from 30.5% the previous year but still greater than historical averages and the self-reported acceptable winter mortality rate.

If you’re a libertarian, and you only care about money, there is also this:

• Insect pollination is integral to food security in the United States. Honey bees enable the production of at least 90 commercially grown crops in North America. Globally, 87 of the leading 115 food crops evaluated are dependent on animal pollinators, contributing 35% of global food production.

So this is pretty serious stuff and nobody could possibly dispute the need to stem the loss of bee colonies and other pollinators, thereby helping to  ensure future food supplies not only in the U.S., but around the world, right?

Wrong. Guess again.

The good folks at Twitchy, which is a conservative site run by people who move their lips when they read and is dedicated to taking 140-character tweets and dumbing them down even further for their Fox-distracted readers, thinks the idea of saving bees and, therefore, the future of food, is the height of high-larity. Beez! OMG! LOL! Bee-rack O-bee-mer! Har har de-har.

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For good information, don't miss these TED talks

From www.WantToKnow.info

Edward Snowden beautifully presents his case in this TED Talk.

And don't miss the excellent, most popular TED Talk ever (27 million views) on how current practices used in schools deaden the creativity of our children.

Then watch a great TED Talk on the surprising results of motivation studies. These last two came from a list of the 20 most popular TED Talks.

Enjoy a fascinating documentary on the history and meaning of fractals narrated by Arthur C. Clarke.

Quote of the Week: "Love comes to those who still hope even though they've been disappointed, to those who still believe even though they've been betrayed, to those who still love even though they've been hurt."  ~~  Anonymous

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AZ lawmaker calls hearing re. chemtrails

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
—Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher (1788 – 1860)

'First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then you win.'
--Mahatma Gandhi




To sin by silence when we should protest makes cowards out of men.
--Elsa Wheeler Wilcox




There is a principle which is proof against all information, which is proof against all arguments,
which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance; that principle is contempt, prior to
investigation. 
--Herbert Spencer


New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because
they are not already common.
--John Locke, 1690, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

20 plus years after chemtrails were first spotted by us common folk citizens who have been derided and ridiculed as "conspiracy theorists" for pointing them out, finally someone in a state govt. position is mentioning them...  Sigh.   At this rate of movement, in 2 or 3 more generations we might see some federal Congressional interest in these toxic sprays deliberately being laid down in criss-cross patterns in our skies by governments all over the western world, most probably to control the weather.  But don't hold your breath waiting for that to happen (and many of us who first pointed out these chemtrails won't be around by that time, possibly victims of the chemtrail spray content of barium/aluminum/strontium polluting our air, water and land).  Take note in the article, though, that concerned AZ citizens are still being dismissively portrayed as "proponents of the chemtrail conspiracy theory." The manner in which the article is written paves the way for the government's certain denial of chemtrail existence and a quick brush-off of the citizens' concerns. 

AZ lawmaker calls hearing to address concerns over ‘weather changing’ chemtrails

By Tom Boggioni
Sunday, June 22, 2014 16:07 EDT

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Citing concerns from constituents, an Arizona lawmaker has called for a hearing next week to address chemtrails over her desert community, according to HavasuNews.com.
State Sen. Kelli Ward called the public meeting, to be held at the Board of Supervisors Auditorium in Kingman, Arizona, saying she had heard from “a lot” of constituents who feel that their concerns over the possible effects of chemtrails on the weather and on their blood chemistry are not being taken seriously.
“I have gotten a lot of communications from people who are concerned and there has been a sense that no one has been doing anything for them to address those concerns,” Ward said. “I can’t do field tests on the water, but I can connect them to the people who do.”
Among the concerns over the chemtrails is a belief that they may be altering mineral levels in the blood.
“They are concerned because many of them have had blood work, and they are concerned about our air and water,” Ward said. “So I want ADEQ (the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality) to come out and reassure them.”
Sherri Zendri, administrative counsel, and Beth Hager, public affairs director, of the ADEQ will attend the meeting and make a short presentation, focusing on the department’s lack of regulatory authority over any type of chemical spraying.
Part of a panoply of government conspiracy theories, water vapor contrails left by high-flying aircraft have been labeled chemtrails and are believed by some to be chemical agents being sprayed into the atmosphere for nefarious purposes. Some proponents of the chemtrail conspiracy theory believe that the government employs them for atmospheric geoengineering in an effort to control weather patterns.
Those concerns were voiced by some Havasu and Mohave County residents.
“There’s a lot of conspiracy theories about chemtrails and they may or may not be true,” Robert Hunter, 31, of Havasu said. “But when it comes down to it, the government isn’t telling us everything. We have a right to know what’s going on, and there’s definitely something going on.”
He added, “I’ve read that chemtrails can change weather patterns. I do believe that there’s global warming because of nuclear testing, space shuttles, etc. So I think there is some kind of combat happening to keep temperatures normal.”
Area resident Jennifer Cramer stated that she has seen the atmospheric discharges over the skies of Havasu for several years.
“Every time they do chemtrailing there is some dramatic change in the weather. I noticed it this weekend and then it got very windy,” Cramer said. “I’m not a scientist and I don’t know what’s in the (chemtrails). I think we have a right to know instead of worry about it every day.”

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Chemtrails on local news reports in the U.S.

The following short videos are clips from local news shows where, finally, the journalists are presenting some facts about chemtrails...and admitting they exist: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wynpGOWb80

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C455lMfHfb4&feature=player_embedded

Not that the government will ever admit they are spraying our skies with chemicals (barium, aluminum, strontium) to control the weather -- but at least people are being taken more seriously these days when they point out the chemtrails in the skies above us.  I've been talking about these things for the last 15 years and couldn't even get my own family to look at them, even as they were being laid down by high-flying jets, right there above our heads.

It's hard to get people interested in anything that gets labeled "conspiracy theory," which happens often when "theorists" like me start pointing out anomalies that should be apparent to all--but are denied by the government, often accompanied by ridicule.  Just looking up at the sky and seeing these very strange "contrails" should have made everyone wonder about them years ago.  Gradually, over time, when they can no longer be denied by the majority of the population, "conspiracy theories" are accepted as truth--but oh, it takes such a long time to convince an unquestioning public that our government could be carrying out programs without telling us -- and that these programs could be dangerous to our health, even though this has happened time and time again in our past history. With Google it is easy to look up all the experimentation that has been perpetrated on the unknowing public by our government.  Take a look: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unethical_human_experimentation_in_the_United_States 

In this case,  Groucho Marx said it best long ago:  "Who do you believe, me or your lying eyes?"  Just substitute the U.S. government/politicians/leaders for Groucho Marx and you have what is happening today re. chemtrails.

On Google, you can find MUCH more about past and present government experimentation on us human guinea pigs. Here are just a few search results:

Google Searches related to experiments by government on humans

secret government experiments on humans

government testing on humans for money

government experiments gone wrong

secret government experiments

government experiments on soldiers

secret experiments on humans

government experiments on citizens

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More crap from Cheney, proving he has the right first name

As in the days of the Senator McCarthy horrors, you want to scream out at the subhuman Cheney, "Have you no shame?"  Have you no conscience at all???????

Dick Cheney's amazing chutzpah on Iraq

By Paul Waldman

Thu June 19, 2014

New Iraqi army recruits gather in Najaf on Wednesday, June 18, following a call for Iraqis to take up arms against Islamic militant fighters. Vast swaths of northern Iraq, including the cities of Mosul and Tal Afar, have fallen as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, advances toward Baghdad. The ISIS militants want to establish a caliphate, or Islamic state, in the region, stretching from Iraq into northern Syria.

HIDE CAPTION

Iraq under siege

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STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Paul Waldman: Dick Cheney has some nerve slamming Obama on Iraq -- did he mean Bush?
• He says Cheney was Iraq war's chief propagandist, insisted Hussein had WMDs
• Waldman: Cheney fails to mention the loss of life, trillions spent in Iraq on his watch
• Waldman: Where are his recommendations to solve Iraq? He blames Obama for his mess

CHENEY'S AMAZING CHUTZPAH ON IRAQ

(CNN) -- You have to hand it to Dick Cheney. How many people, knowing what has happened in Iraq over the last 12 years, would dare to write an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal containing this line: "Rarely has a U.S. president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many" -- and not be talking about George W. Bush? The man has chutzpah.

The op-ed in question was co-written with Cheney's daughter Liz, former State Department worker and failed Senate candidate. The two are forming a new organization, the Alliance for a Strong America.

Paul Waldman

Of all the former Bush administration officials who have emerged in the last few days to blame the deteriorating situation in Iraq on Barack Obama, one might think Cheney would be among the last.

It's one thing to turn on your TV and hear that Obama is a dangerous weakling from people like Paul Wolfowitz and William Kristol, the ones who told us that war with Iraq would be cheap and easy, then bring a wave of peace and democracy across the Middle East.

But Cheney?

Cheney was the war's chief propagandist, who told the American public more spectacular falsehoods than anyone, including Bush himself. Cheney was the one who told us in 2002 that "Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us."

He's the one who tried to convince us that Saddam Hussein might have helped engineer the September 11 attacks, and who said in 2005 that the insurgency in Iraq was "in its last throes." (The war went on for 6½ more years.)

Mukasey on mishandling of Iraq

Dick Cheney slams Obama on Iraq

Benghazi suspect; Cheney op-ed; Clinton

Cheney had a central role in bringing on a war in which 4,500 Americans gave their lives, tens of thousands more were gravely injured, we spent a couple of trillion dollars, and somewhere between 100,000 and 500,000 Iraqis died.

Cheney's opinion appears to be that all that death and expense never really happened (he doesn't mention them), and that everything bad in Iraq can only be Obama's fault -- because the Bush administration did such a bang-up job there. "Mr. Obama had only to negotiate an agreement to leave behind some residual American forces, training and intelligence capabilities to help secure the peace," he writes. "Instead, he abandoned Iraq and we are watching American defeat snatched from the jaws of victory."

Would "some residual American forces" have been able to keep a lid on the unending Iraqi civil war that Bush and Cheney so effectively unleashed? We'll never really know, but here's what we do know: The agreement mandating that all American troops leave Iraq by the end of 2011 was signed by one George W. Bush, before Obama took office.

As negotiations over our departure proceeded in Obama's first term, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki -- eager to have the Americans gone so he could consolidate what would turn out to be a corrupt sectarian rule -- refused to grant American troops immunity from prosecution in Iraqi courts. Without that immunity, there was simply no way American forces could remain there. We've heard many people say Obama "should have pushed harder," but nobody says exactly what that's supposed to mean, or why al-Maliki would have given in, especially considering how he's acted since.

And what does Cheney think we should do now? He doesn't seem to have any idea. The op-ed contains precisely zero recommendations about Iraq. Defeating al Qaeda, it says, "will require a strategy -- not a fantasy." But what is that strategy? "Sustained difficult military, intelligence and diplomatic efforts"? Oh, of course -- if only we had known!

At least he's not alone in his arrogance and befuddlement. None of Obama's other critics seem to have much of an idea what we should do in Iraq, or Syria, or anywhere else. They're happy to say that whatever Obama is doing isn't enough, and it isn't strong. But if you ask them to be specific about what different decisions they would make, you'll be met with hemming and hawing.

That's because there are only bad options for America in Iraq, as is often the case in the Middle East. If you delude yourself into thinking that wars are simple and easy, and all that matters is whether you're "strong," then sometimes things become quite clear. We'll just invade, we'll be "greeted as liberators" (that was Cheney, too), and everyone will live happily ever after.

And when what actually results is not that glorious and easy victory, but a tidal wave of violence and despair, then all you need to do is wait until after you leave office, when you can blame it all on someone else.

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The Gall of Dick Cheney

Oh, the irony of it all!  The world's worst terrorist is still walking free after having plunged our country and the Middle East into an unnecessary war on LIES. AND now this terrorist, Dick Cheney, after he and his minions created the Middle East mess with manipulative lies to the nation, leaving the mess to Obama to clean up, has the unmitigated gall to say about Obama:  "Rarely has a U.S. president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many."  Oh, the IRONY of that statement!  Cheney and his witch-like daughter Liz don't have even a scintilla of self-introspection. Even if they turned the light full-beam on themselves, they would not be able to recognize the irony of their words--projections about themselves!-- so lacking are they in conscience and understanding.  They are almost non-human in that way. The following article from the NY Times speaks truth about them--a truth that all human beings (other than Tea Party types) can recognize, but which is invisible to the blind-as-bats Cheneys.  If the results of his actions weren't so tragic, Cheney's deafness to his own misdeeds would be amusing.  But it's hard to laugh at this miscreant blowhard, unable to ever admit to any mistakes on his part--and ever willing to blame others for the mess he created.

THE GALL OF DICK CHENEY
By Charles M. Blow

The situation in Iraq is truly worrisome, as militants threaten to tear the country asunder and disrupt the fragile, short-lived period absent all-out war there.

We have strategic interests in preventing Iraq from unraveling, not least of which is that we don’t need the country to become a haven for terrorists, particularly those who might see America as a target.

And of course, there is the uneasy subject of oil: Volatility in the region has already sent global oil prices soaring. On Wednesday, militants were said to have taken control of Iraq’s largest oil refinery.

We have to tread carefully here. There are no saints to be seen in this situation. Everyone’s hands are bloody. And, we don’t want to again get mired in a conflict in a country from which we have only recently extricated ourselves.

As we weigh our response, one of the last people who should say anything on the subject is a man who is partly responsible for the problem.

But former Vice President Dick Cheney, who was in the administration that deceived us into a nine-year war in Iraq, just can’t seem to keep his peace.

In an Op-Ed published with his daughter, Liz, in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, the Cheneys write:

“Rarely has a U.S. president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many.”

This, from the man who helped lead us into this trumped-up war, searching for nonexistent weapons of mass destruction, a war in which some 4,500 members of the American military were killed, many thousands more injured, and that is running a tab of trillions of dollars.

During the lead-up to the war, Mr. Cheney said to Tim Russert: “I really do believe that we will be greeted as liberators.” Nothing could have been further from the truth.

Even if it were indeed rare to be “so wrong,” as Mr. Cheney puts it, he was vice president in an administration that was much more tragically wrong. His whole legacy is wrapped in wrong.

At one point in the article, the Cheneys state:

“Iraq is at risk of falling to a radical Islamic terror group and Mr. Obama is talking climate change. Terrorists take control of more territory and resources than ever before in history, and he goes golfing.”

Mr. Cheney must think that we have all forgotten the scene from “Fahrenheit 9/11,” Michael Moore’s 2004 documentary, in which President George W. Bush, brandishing a club on a golf course, looks into the camera and says,

“I call upon all nations to do everything they can to stop these terrorist killers. Thank you.”

That is quickly followed by, “Now, watch this drive,” and a shot of Bush swinging at the ball.

In fact, on one of the rare occasions that Mr. Cheney was actually right, in 1994, he warned about the problems that would be created by deposing Saddam Hussein:

“Once you got to Iraq and took it over, and took down Saddam Hussein’s government, then what are you going to put in its place? That’s a very volatile part of the world, and if you take down the central government of Iraq you can easily end up seeing pieces of Iraq fly off. Part of it the Syrians would like to have to the west. Part of eastern Iraq, the Iranians would like to claim, fought over for eight years. In the north you’ve got the Kurds, and if the Kurds spin loose and join with the Kurds in Turkey, then you threaten the territorial integrity of Turkey. It’s a quagmire.”

That was quite prescient. And yet, the Bush administration pushed us into the Iraq war anyway, and the quagmire we now confront.

That’s why it’s so galling to read Mr. Cheney chastising this administration for its handling of the disaster that Mr. Cheney himself foresaw, but ignored.

I know that we as Americans have short attention spans, but most of us don’t suffer from amnesia. The Bush administration created this mess, and the Obama administration now has to clean it up.

The Cheneys wrote: “This president is willfully blind to the impact of his policies,” Mr. Cheney seemingly oblivious to the irony.

George W. Bush may well have been a disaster of a president (in a 2010 Siena College Research Institute survey, 238 presidential scholars ranked Bush among the five “worst ever” presidents in American history), but at least he has the dignity and grace — or shame and humility — to recede from public life with his family and his painting, and not chide and meddle with the current administration as it tries to right his wrong.

Mr. Cheney, meanwhile, is still trying to bend history toward an exoneration of his guilt and an expunging of his record. But history, on this, is stiff, and his record is written in blood.

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