Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Conjunctions of Doom

Now that we've survived to see another week, I'm reminded of something thematically similar from the day before the election...

While walking back from lunch I noticed several individuals standing on a street corner in downtown L.A., holding large signs that read:

REPENT!
----------
God will destroy Los Angeles

And I couldn't help but think: Despite the exclamation point, there needs to be some sort of conjunction between those clauses. Was it "Repent OR God will destroy L.A." or "Repent AND God will destroy L.A."?

The structuring of the sign left it somewhat unclear as to whether they wanted the City of Angels to be saved or to be smoten by the Almighty. One would think it's the former, but I don't like to be presumptuous.

I can say one thing with certainty: I am not going to change my behavior. I'll keep interpreting the world through this rhetorical perspective, even if it damns this town into oblivion.

Sorry, Angelinos.

~

It's not that things like improper or unclear use of grammar and punctuation will completely undermine an argument but they almost certainly aren't helping it.

2 comments:

  1. Smit, smite, smote. But smoten? ;-)

    Muslim terrorists will eventually nuke Los Angeles. And they will say that God told them to do it. So God will indeed smite Los Angeles, using Muslims as His proxy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ("Smoten" = Simpsons reference from episode "Homer the Heretic", Marvin.)

      Delete

So, what do you think?