Discussion, evaluation, irritation, reason, righteous indignation.
I will write about many things, and try to be a dispassionate observer when discussing ideas. From the seemingly mundane to the earth-shatteringly important. I will re-visit a few topics repeatedley because they are personal axes to grind.
My views tend towards the pragmatic. What makes sense for us, for society, our economics, our view of the world.
One of my personal hobby horses is spelling and language. I'm not a grammarian, and would likely not have won a spelling bee either, but certain things irritate me:
The use of their/they're, its/it's types of errors, and writing styles that are more appropriate for casual conversation than for the written word. This blog is new, but I have an idea to reward readers who spot spelling or other obvious contraction errors, some of which will be intentional, while others will not, and make a $1 payment for each error to the person who sees it first.
The payee always has the option of choosing a national literacy group (Canada or the U.S) to give the money to instead. I will find equivalent organizations in Canada and the U.S. and donate funds when they reach $10. A running tab will be kept.
I'm not a grammar Nazi, but have noticed a marked reduction in the quality of printed (paper or electronic) media over the last 20 years or so, and maybe it shouldn't, but glaring errors by professionals who write for a living make me discount the article in question as a reliable source. I'm not talking Wikipedia here. I occasionally clean up Wiki articles because they have awkward sentence structure or other problems that have nothing to do with the veracity of the content.
