Thursday, October 26, 2017

Is It Time To Revisit The Dictionary?



Every time I make a purchase these days, it seems the person working the register will ask me to swipe my card. I always want to retort "Why should I swipe what I already own?" or "Madam, do I look like a thief to you and what is this card you mention?" Being an ancient man (like Melvin Roarke), I remember when swiping something meant you stole it or tried to. I wonder if any of these debit/credit machines have a slot on the side. Would that mean I should "side-swipe" the card to get the correct screen?

One of my favorite word whipping posts is the word "perversion" or "pervert". It has lost all reasonable meaning in common dialogue. In current earth orbit, if a guy compliments a woman on her figure, he is often labeled a pervert. If he says, "That stupid woman almost ran me over", he's misogynic and a woman basher and probably a pervert, for good measure. If she happens to be of a different race, he's most certainly racist, and god help the fellow if he's straight and the woman is transgender. He should be killed or at least arrested, according to what bologna is currently being shoved down our collective throats.

I want to explain myself here with a couple of examples. Recently, a 21 year old college student "lady" accused the hip hop artist Nelly of assaulting her on his tour bus in Washington state. Never mind that she went willingly into the lair of a spider, is of legal age, and the fact that she now refuses to testify, the artist is still being investigated for rape. No one is accusing him now, but he is still a rapist! Think about what I am about to say.

Nelly is a hip hop artist whose biggest hit is "It's getting hot in herre (here). The lyrics tell you to take off all your clothes. So, why on earth would a young "lady" get on his tour bus alone with him, unless she understood what was most likely to happen? It is akin to placing your hand in the jam of a door and slamming said door. Your chance of injury is 99%.

Given the choice of taking a cab, or a shortcut down a dark forbidden alley in a known mugging area to save a few bucks, which one would you take? If you are an attractive female (and you know this because men are attracted to you) and a famous/rich person sends their lackey to ferret you out to visit them in a private audience, why would you go? You think they want to make small talk? If you do, you are the definition of both naiveté and ignorance. Do I think you deserve to be molested? No, but just like the dark alley, somewhere in your pea-sized brain there should be a warning going off.

There is a giant difference between entertainers who party with girls willing to party and sexual predators like Bill Clinton and Harvey Weinstein and there is a bit of difference in these two. Bill Clinton would and probably still does send out lackeys to lure women into his bed according to their own testimony. He occasionally would offer them good paying jobs.  Mr. Weinstein pretty much made it mandatory that if they were going to work in Hollywood, they had to pass the gold standard. Neither of these men are perverts. They like women and they use their positions to coerce them.

Now, let's talk about a pervert. Bill Cosby. Bill used his fame to get in close to many beautiful women in the Playboy Mansion and then... he doped them. When they would wake up hours later, they would have no memory of what happened. Bill is a classic pervert. He's the real deal. The women he "dated" knew they were playing with fire and if they would have been smart, they would have seen him as a "dangerous alley at night time", but they went with him anyway. Did they deserve to be drugged and molested?  No. Were they there on their own admission and not coerced? Yes.

Words like racism, misogyny, Fascism, predator, and perversion are being manipulated by extremists to the point that they are losing their true meaning. Anyone who uses these words needs to drag out their dictionary and relearn what they either never knew, or have forgotten. When we as the public hear politicians and angry mobs screaming these words, we need to recognize their misuse. It might not be a bad idea to read that last sentence again.
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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

TK: I read the paper every morning and what I have noticed it's becoming more and more liberal, so if it pushes to hard they definitely not printing it. It was a good read Bert Marshall

Anonymous said...

BH: Hello Bert. I read your article today on the Baytown Sun site and your Facebook. I have one complaint. Please capitalize God...
Other than that, I undestand what you are conveying. Good article

Pat Oldham Direct and to the point as the play of words going on is chaos and then some.

Kimberly Clark Lopez I can envision the red lines all over this article. You pushed the edge on a lot.

Steve Liles Its OK if you didn't leave your hair dryer at Weinsteins house. Bert is doing what I like. Telling it like he sees it. That's how I roll. BS can roll it up and smoke it. Its out now. WTG Berts

Bruce Marshall Clear, concise, true.

Teresa Hall Wow! Great job

Regina Hammons Reed These things need to be said. If you don’t like the heat, get out of the kitchen! I think the more perverted it is the better the world likes it!!

Bruce Marshall Don't be too "chapped" that your article was redacted. You did go "willingly into the lair of a spider" with this submission.

Kristin Ter Kuile Howell I think it’s a great article but it would sure stir up a pot in the least. It’s amazing how media can stir their own pots and ignite certain fires but put away the real pots that need stirred.

Anonymous said...

Christian Cessna: Love it!!

Cliff Mckee: Correct. Simply put a racist is someone that thinks their race is better than another

Sam Compton: Maybe you didn’t use enough, “allegedly”, “a reliable source”, and “an insider leaked” phases. And you didn’t bash any conservative. Have you stopped writing false accusations yet?

Gary Black Was the one doing the c̶e̶n̶s̶o̶r̶i̶n̶g̶ redacting named Yossarian by any chance?

Gigi VaDonna People don’t like hearing the truth

Robert Duke we all do things that are self-inflicted don't you think?

Terri Baker As A woman I am appalled at the absolute lack of common sense that is put forth by liberal media. Example is one actress was crucified because she said she dressed and acted in a way that didn’t invite sexual advances. She was immediately attacked for making it the woman’s fault and the way a woman acts, looks, or dresses has nothing to do with the way she should be treated. You are right on with your article at least the un-redacted one.

Virginia Mitchell Compton They cut out the whole part about Bill Cosby which made more sense of what you were trying to say.

Anonymous said...

Larry Houston My first thought when I read this was, the Baytown Sun will never print this as written due to slander/libel issues. I enjoyed it though!

Dandy Don Cunningham Yes, it was heavily "edited"!

Suzanne Sites McDaniel Great read brother BB.

Nikki Renna Jackson Lots of people can't handle the truth ...

Anonymous said...

Sean Rackley: I like your article, BB. Remember that dictionaries (and language itself) change with the culture. Your “swipe” example is one case. “Jedi” and “muggle” (the HP variety, not the geocaching kind) are now in the Oxford English dictionary (really?!). We borrow words from other languages, invent new words (I read about “canola” oil this morning), and have even begun accepting some textese as valid words. Heck, slang (both the word and the category of words described) has been around for generations. All these are finding their way into dictionaries. These books aren’t the opinion-free reference authorities they used to be.

Anonymous said...

Susan Chandler: I feel you couldn't have made your point any clearer--don't understand why you were edited (in the Baytown sun).

Anonymous said...

Natalie King Whatley: I was wondering why it was so short!! Hey -- my whole column was redacted once -- too risque!!🤣 That said, I don't get what was "wrong" with the full version.

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