It seems I control the news

I watched ABC news last night and was overjoyed to see them trash the pope, the Vatican and the cardinals. It almost seemed like I'd written the script. The segment was both accurate and snarky. It ended by saying that Cardinal Mahony, who hid LA's rapist priests, had compared his well-deserved humiliation to the pain suffered by Jesus.

It was great fun. But of course, these newsfolk have no mettle and even less memory. They'll soon be kneeling reverently as they watch white smoke curl into the sky. But you can't deny the majesty of this moment in time, when all the world can see the evil Vatican for what it is -- a group of old men who care about no one but themselves.

"Non-white" is an insulting term

I know white people will find this hard to digest -- I did too, long ago. It is downright offensive to call minorities "non-whites". I love Ed Brayton, but on his blog today he said this:

And wouldn’t you know it, it’s all the fault of non-white people, who aren’t Real American because they voted for Obama.

My decades of human rights work taught me that comparative phrasing is a great way to illustrate this and similar problems. For instance, how would women feel if an article referred to them only as "non-men"? See how that works? They're not "non-men"; they're women.

If you're going to talk about a group of people, refer to them by their name rather than by stressing their non-inclusion in another group.

As long as I'm doing a language-police post, here are a few more. Don't say someone is "confined" to a wheelchair. Say they "use a wheelchair". It's literally cruel to use the "confined" terminology. It says more about your view of the person than it does about the person's actual condition.

In this vein, there's a lot to be said about diseases. For instance, don't refer to people as "diabetics". Say the person "has diabetes". A person is more than his or her disease or condition. PWAs (people with AIDS) walked along this road decades ago, and hopefully paved the way to a broader understanding of the cruelty of certain expressions. When PWAs were referred to as "AIDS patients", they rightly (and loudly) objected. These sorts of phrases limit a person's identity, and even obliterate it. We are not just our diseases. We're people.

As with all my posts in this vein, I expect fight-back in the comments. My post about "the jig is up" still gets lots of visitors, more than almost any other post. People want to fight the understanding I stressed. Sorry, kids. "The jig is up" is an offensive phrase, and just because you don't understand this, doesn't mean you can use it. You hurt people when you do. My position is simple. Don't harm people with your words.

It's alive!

I'm happy to report that the post title refers to me. I have returned to the living! As it says in scripture, "No spider shall take Keith O'Connor down, not ever, nuh-uh." The bible rocks sometimes, you know?

I know I'm okay (well, almost) because I edited five scenes in Xmas Carol. It's true! I live!!!!!!!

And damn, it was creepy (and boring) being sick. Anyone who has a chronic illness has my sympathy and respect. And those who are productive, to boot, have my admiration. I don't know how you do it.

Remember when the US Supreme Court used to inspire respect?

AP -- Bucking the Obama administration, Supreme Court justices seemed to find little trouble Wednesday with major parts of Arizona's tough immigration law that require police to check the legal status of people they stop for other reasons.

Writers need privacy

People don't understand that writers do something. There is this inane impression that since a writer is home, he's available for visits and chats. It doesn't work that way, kiddies. The books don't just materialize out of thin air.

People regularly intrude on my writing time. They just don't get it. Writers need to be alone. That's how it happens, this writing thing. You have to apply yourself and this requires a block of time when you will not be disturbed. You see, we're actually doing something when we write. And shockingly, this is true even though we're at home. Amazing concept, huh?

Writing dialogue

There was a great article at, of all places, HuffPo this week. It's by Angela Fluornoy and it's called On Dialect, Dialogue and Good Books. She really nailed one point perfectly. Here's a rather lengthy excerpt (since I doubt you'll follow the link to read it):

In my experience, the dialogue that borders on tiring (which really isn't the right word -- I'd say challenging) is that which focuses on spelling words differently to highlight pronunciation (phonology) instead of taking the time to depict how a dialect is syntactically different.

Example (made up by me): "Dey iz headed to da pictsha show."