Sharing email and teaching grammar

Quick Hit: I”m sure my conservative friends will be quick to set me straight, but the response this week to President Barack Obama’s criticism of the Supreme Court is puzzling.

Obama said if the right-leaning court declares that parts of his health-care reform bill are unconstitutional, the justices would be guilty of judicial activism — a charge conservatives often lobby against Supreme Court nominees who are perceived as being too liberal.

Obama is hardly the first president to criticize the judicial branch of government. And he won’t be the last.

But there seems to be two themes to the criticism:

1. Obama is a whiner and crybaby.

2. He is a thug.

How in the world can anyone be both of those things at the same time?

On his 74th birthday, a man received a gift certificate from his wife.
The certificate paid for a visit to a medicine man living on a nearby
reservation who was rumored to have a wonderful cure for erectile
dysfunction.   After being persuaded, he drove to the reservation,
handed his ticket to the medicine man and wondered what he was in
for.

The medicine man handed a potion to him and, with a grip on his
shoulder, warned, “This is a powerful medicine. You take only a
teaspoonful and then say 1-2-3.”  When you do, you will become
more manly than you have ever been in your life and you can perform
as long as you want.”

The man was encouraged. As he walked away, he turned and asked,
“How do I stop the medicine from working?”  “Your partner must say
1-2-3-4″ he responded,  “but when she does, the medicine will not
work again until the next full moon.”

He was very eager to see if it worked so he went home, showered,
shaved, took a spoonful of the medicine and then invited his wife to join
him in the bedroom.  When she came in, he took off his clothes and said,
“1-2-3!”

Immediately, he was the manliest of men.  His wife was excited and
began throwing off her clothes and then she asked “What
was the 1-2-3 for?”

And that, boys and girls, is why we should never end our sentences with
a preposition, because we could end up with a dangling participle.