A round-up of recent linguistic dustups

First, I’ve gotten into a fracas with other atheists who are, I charge, abetting fuzzy thinking by bad use of language.

Second, in response to a blog post of mine at Talking Points Memo, when I commented about a sense of “entitlement” Cynthia McKinney seemed to evidence as a Congresswoman, a “person of color,” of more color than me (and no, I’m not being flippant or snarky), claimed that I was using “entitlement” as some anti-black code word.

To which I say: Political correctness still abounds. And while conservatives can flog a dead horse on that issue, they’re not all wrong, either.

Third, at the blog which should be called “Enabling Those We Choose,” after I was banned without warning for actually “watching” Barack Obama, and not buying into the Republican-Democrat duopoly, I asked blogger Blue Girl, in posting a link about Obama’s FISA cave-in, what she thought about her boy now.

Again, no racial connotation meant. But, she assumed one, from her one-word response.

Once more, political correctness abounds. Because some people, even when they should know better (yes, that’s you, Blue Girl Tammy – good thing I didn’t sign your online petition for a Kos “scholarship” to Netroots Nation, even while wondering why you ask for money from someone you really don’t care for), choose to indulge this idiocy.

At other times, though, I have no doubt I have some share of fault. Working as a newspaper reporter/editor, I write a lot. Sometimes, I may think I’m writing more lucidly than I am.

At other times, I’m thinking faster than I’m writing, with the result my writing has all sorts of intellectual ellipses that I never think that other people might not follow.

And, there is the occasional troll, like Pat Buchanan-saluter Citizen Fitz over on Amazon's book review pages.