images

right under our noses

Let's pause a moment and look at two phrases in the above meme (as written above—unedited): "child trafficking 'conspiracies'" and "global pedophile ring." One of these needs a hyphen for its phrasal adjective; the other phrase doesn't have any phrasal adjectives. Can you tell which is which? It should be easy: are the 'conspiracies' about child trafficking? Is the ring made of a bunch of global pedophiles? The never-used term term global pedophile makes no sense: it's not a ring of "global pedophiles"; it's a globe-spanning ring of pedophiles. So global pedophiles, not being a coherent concept, is not the phrasal adjective we're looking for. Therefore, the phrase "global pedophile ring" is fine the way it is: it's actually two cumulative adjectives modifying the noun ring. It's a pedophile ring that is global in scope. So global modifies the phrase pedophile ring. Like "fast police car": fast modifies police car, not just car, and there's no such phrase or concept as the "fast police." (As gun lovers like to say: "When seconds count, the police are minutes away.")

So that leaves us with the phrase "child trafficking 'conspiracies.'" Yes, child trafficking is a coherent concept; that's our phrasal adjective. The phrasal adjective is coming before the noun it modifies, so the adjective should be hyphenated, just like tax-paying citizen or six-foot-tall man. Ergo: child-trafficking 'conspiracies.' 

For more on commas with two or more adjectives, see here. For more on phrasal adjectives, see all over my blog, but start here.

Get ready, Chris. Patel is inside now. Maybe soon, he'll be inside you. Yummy thought.

There's a school of thought that says, "Let these idiots talk this way." Don't martyr by arresting. While I get the logic, I do have to wonder whether this leaves us right where we started: with soft-on-crime idiots—righties this time, not lefties—being the problem. And why? Just to avoid making martyrs.

Where does the comma go?

Why does the IRS have guns?

Drive the car. I command you.

Four years from now: President Vance? Will he be the dealmaker that Trump is?

Punctuate correctly and correct the English.

I guess this explains the five loaves and two fishes. Jesus and his photocopier.

They do seem to be overlapping demographics.

But we love Zelenskyy!

One shot, and you get a whole new species!

I believe the word is Schadenfreude.

She's a looker for sure. But given her poor taste in men, I wouldn't touch her.

"Trumff shehz heezh for th'economy, but thatsh a load of whoreshit."