A musing Beam

A short rant -- why can't people correctly use apostrophes?   Heck, let's simplify: Why don't people use apostrophes AT ALL? I understand if you sometimes flub on "its" and "it's" .... It's a difficult distinction to make.   But the difference between "were" and "we're"?   They don't even sound the same! My guess is that this development is a confluence of a few forces: (1) Punctuation is not viewed to be important anymore, even by some teachers; (2) it takes an extra stroke to type an apostrophe on an iPhone (and several if you are using the old texting method); and (3) internationalization via the internet has made it more likely to see non-native speakers' work. Correctly using the language is not that difficult, and the rules are not really onerous. Though we shouldn't shoot for perfection, I think caring about how we communicate might increase online civility a touch ... and heaven knows it's nee

It is difficult to think of a more contentious debate in the U.S. than that surrounding the law and abortion.   This blog is an attempt to step through much of the contours of the debate, pointing out where decision points and clarifications should be made to reach a consistent position.   Though I don't think it is overly relevant to what I'm trying to do here, in the spirit of full disclosure I will say that I favor a sliding scale of difficulty in acquiring an abortion ... so pretty close to current law. This is extremely long.  I would apologize for that, but this is not a simple topic, and anyone that tries to make it so is not considering many important issues.  (And this discussion is not even close to comprehensive -- it just touches on many important areas.) Items to consider: 1) The definiton of "person" and its importance 2) The existence of a right to self autonomy, and its possible applicability 3) The existence of life versus the quality of life 4