With the world’s recent focus on Chinese freedom of speech suppression, in more subtle and rarely-publicized ways, it also afflicts supposedly “free” countries.

That sentence afflicted me.

wow, that is way worse than Swank.

At least once you get a grasp of Swankian syntax you can make a pretty fair guess as to what he means.

And at least Swank’s sentences tend to have a discernable subject.

That’s some impressive HTML nuttery too — when you click on any of the images it takes you to a useful same-size copy of the thumbnail.

What’s the connection? Did the offended Canadian cabbies hire the Chinese government to suppress the Canadian media?

I’m shocked(and appalled) that the Canada doesn’t follow the Bill of Rights in the US Constitution to the letter. We should revoke their statehood and kick them out of the union.

“the Canada.” Bleh.

Shouldn’t that be “teh Canada?”

Yes, that’s the ticket, it’s just that I can’t spel.

Oooh, Swankity!

I love the whole China hatin’, except when poppy is on the tennis court!

It’s one of Pinko Punko’s formulations:

With the world’s recent focus on Chinese freedom of speech suppression, in more subtle and rarely-publicized ways, “it” also afflicts supposedly “free” countries.

…so, eat “it”, teh Canada!!!1!

I can’t remember what this thing was about. I think the radio announcer didn’t say something “genocidal” enough to be charged through the hate propaganda laws, so the offended parties went after him in some other fashion. I don’t care, anymore. I’m not a huge fan of the hate speech laws, but when I think of the airwaves being filled to the brim with Limbaugh’s, Hannity’s, O’Reilly’s, not to mention religious nutcases screaming for the execution of gays, I say “Who needs free speech? The Americans have it, and all we have to do is listen to them.”

The “free speech” argument is a tough one…the question I’ve been asking more and more lately is: how “free” is speech really when it’s being subsidized by various interest groups?

The airways, like the press, are only free in theory.

I don’t know…it’s a thorny issue.

with the world’s recent focus on chinese freedom of speech suppression, in more subtle and rarely-publicized ways, it also afflicts supposedly “free” countries.

what does?

With the world’s recent focus on Chinese freedom of speech suppression, in more subtle and rarely-publicized ways, “it” also afflicts supposedly “free” countries.

Maybe it sounds smarter on the radio.

Perhaps this is a part of the EBay ad campaign about “it”.

You have to watch out for those afflictions of it. Even in “free” countries.

the world also focuses on supposed free countries?

that is the best I got.

I believe there may be a connection between non-standard grammar and wingnuttery. I’ve got some ideas about testing this thesis, but I don’t think I have the time. Part of the idea, though, is that wingnutty grammar is distinct from the baseline bad grammar found amongst poorly educated english speakers.

Weren’t you ragging on Atrios for being petty earlier?

Those damned Chinese, always exercising their freedom of speech suppression. Here in the U.S., we are not free to suppress speech.

By the way, anybody notice that in Michelle Malkin’s video, she consistently referred to the Chinese as “Chicoms”? Does anybody besides Freepers and people who are actually still in Vietnam in 1965 use that term?

God. Did anyone actually see Michelle’s “Hot Air” (I can’t believe she calls it that) video?

She is so fuckin’ lame.

The production values and the “performance” kinda reminds me of that Nickelodeon show about how they make candy and cheetos.

That sentence made me physically sway in my seat. And not just because I’m drunk.

Ugh. I am very, very sick right now. All the usual, generic “flu-like” symptoms, some of them fairly moderate (I have a fever of just over 100º), and some, pretty severe (teh Immodium, it does nothing!). I haven’t felt this bad in a long, long time. I’m probably not gonna drop much in the way of comments for a few days….

Fridge note for Marq:

Marq, I don;t care if you are on you death bed, go read “My Children” at 3B. That was your prize for comment 800.

Why is it that the West Wing has a deeper grasp of thei situation with china? Yes, let’s get tough with China, since we now hold zero cards and they hold humongous chunks of our debt.

I already did, before this wretched malady had fully manifested–thanx, Pinko!

Perhaps this is a part of the EBay ad campaign about “it”.

Don’t say that word!

Malkin actually used the term “chicom”? Damn. Last time I heard that one was when a bunch of FReepers called me one on my own site. You know, if I were Malkin, I’d stay away from anything resembling a racial slur.

Now, to business: I fancy myself a writer, so I can’t stand it when other people abuse the English language. So, I decided to take a stab at fixing Brian’s sentence. Here it is:

“While the world has been focused on the suppression of free speech in China, censorship also afflicts supposedly free countries, albeit in more subtle and rarely-publicized ways.”

It still sucks, but at least it’s grammatically correct.

With the world’s recent focus on Chinese freedom of speech suppression, in more subtle and rarely-publicized ways, it also afflicts supposedly “free” countries.z

Shorter Brian: “Hu shuts you up over there, Bush shuts you up over here, bitchez”

I don’t get it — you’re saying that Brian Maloney is Yoda?

Yeah, those damnded Canadians – shutting a woman’s free speech up during Hu’s visit then charging her with a federal crime…

..oh, wait.

I think we can all agree that “it” depends on what the definition of “it” is. Or what the definition of “is” is. Or why the hell this guy is allowed within fifty feet of a keyboard.

With the world’s recent focus on Chinese freedom of speech suppression, in more subtle and rarely-publicized ways, it also afflicts supposedly “free” countries.

The chosen excerpt strikes me as more Groganish than Swanky. Note the missing hyphens in the unwieldy compound adjective, “freedom-of-speech”; the superfluous hyphen after “rarely” (unnecessary after “-ly” adverbs); and the superfluous quotation marks around “free” (made redundant by the “supposedly”).

So, the question then becomes: How would Brian look in a nice little faux-leopard getup?

Only if it were a faux-leapord dogcollared Preachifying suit!

Maloney strikes back!!!

Why this[link to some blog] doesn’t bother them?

What the?!! Even the update is grammatically challenged. I like the linked blog, though, IT WAS AWESOME!!!

I can’t believe it, my co-worker just bought a car for $64643. Isn’t that crazy!