A student irrupted into my office and asked in an aggressive tone, “So do you have a PhD?”
“Yes,” I said. “Are you OK?”
“So if you have a PhD, can you explain to me how a command is formed in the plural for verbs followed by object pronouns?”
I’m always happy to explain grammar even if the request is made with an unwarranted degree of antagonism. So I explained and drew a little picture to illustrate.
“Hah!” the student exclaimed. “So you are saying it would be wrong to say. . .” and she used an incorrect conjugation.
“No, that would be a mistake,” I said.
“Are you sure?” the student asked even more angrily.
“Yes, I am.”
“Professor Gomez always uses this form you say is incorrect, though!” the student was triumphant.
“That’s not possible,” I said. “You probably misheard.”
“No! I heard just right! And I filmed it and uploaded the video on Facebook because I knew Professor Gomez speaks incorrectly! And now I will quote your words next to the video. Because you have a PhD and you say Professor Gomez doesn’t speak right.”
“Wait, just wait,” I said. “I’m sure you misheard because. . .”
But the student was already running away.
I now feel like I’ve been used in some weird vendetta a student has against another professor. Professor Gomez is a native speaker who speaks beautiful Spanish and cannot possibly make any grammar mistakes. Especially such ridiculous ones. And I really don’t want to appear next to any videos.
Clarissa's Blog 
I would talk to Professor Gomez about it. Seriously. You don’t want him to find out first from the stupid student.
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I mean to find out the incorrect info.
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Just read:
Denmark outlaws kosher slaughter
Danish minister enacts regulations banning kosher slaughter, saying ‘animal rights come before religion’
Jewish and Muslim communities in Denmark were both openly critical to the move, saying it tramples on their religious rights.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4488196,00.html
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Good for Denmark. What kind of sick people want to cut the throats of conscious animals?
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I can’t even say what is more disturbing, people who worship God through killing things in certain ways or people who want to control what others do with their property.
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The carotid artery is cut, actually. This leads to unconsciousness a few seconds later. Far nastier stuff happens in the meat industry.
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Those sick people are believing Jews (and Muslims), who *can’t* eat any other meat, even if somebody’s health would suffer as the result. I am not religious, but feel offended how even moderately religious Jews are defined as “sick people,” but religious Christians with their beliefs and practices are usually seen as healthy. And I don’t think it’s 100% animal rights issue, or Christianity being a “saner” religion.
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If there is somebody on my blog who sees Evangelicals as better than any other religious folks, I need to know their names so I can lash out at them. 🙂
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// Far nastier stuff happens in the meat industry.
Exactly. But it isn’t Jew/Muslim-specific kind of nasty, so it’s OK, not outlawed. Those foreighners and their barbarous practices, indeed.
Btw, when there were cases of mad cow disease, I read:
It is believed that people who have developed vCJD became infected by consuming cattle products contaminated with the BSE agent. Research has shown that the agent accumulates in specific tissues: brain, spinal cord […] Thus, muscle meat (steaks and hamburger) from infected animals are believed to be safe for human consumption. Still, an animal suspected of being infected with BSE is prohibited from entering the human food supply.
PROTECTIVE REGULATORY PROGRAMS (1 of 3 techniques) : banning the use of air-gun stunning, which can cause CNS tissue to move into and to contaminate muscle tissue
http://eden.lsu.edu/topics/agdisasters/bse/pages/default.aspx
So a religious Jew or a Muslim most likely wouldn’t get the disease from a steak from an infected cow, while some people … Isn’t it ironic?
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I don’t think Evangelicals are equivalent to numerous Israeli Jews who eat kosher.
Kashrut. Most Israeli Jews eat only kosher food at home (76%) and outside the home (70%) and never eat pork (72%). Most say that they do so for religious reasons. – See more at: http://ejewishphilanthropy.com/a-portrait-of-israeli-jews/#sthash.rYoUjMYU.dpuf
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Last remark: this law won’t stop people from eating kosher. The meat will simply be imported, which is worse for the country than people buyng from its own meat industry AND a huge waste of energy (fuel), helping to hurt environment even further. Also, if kosher meat’s prices riise, poorer people will suffer.
Another stupid (imo) law is US law forbidding killing horses, so the animals are transported to Mexico iirc, and suffer more before their deaths from travel and possibly method of killing.
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That’s part of why my guess about this is less “religious hatred” and more “some politician with friends in meat importing”
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In Denmark, though, there has been no slaughter of conscious animals for many years, so the law won’t really change anything. Observant Jews already import the meat they need from abroad, and Muslims stun the animals before they kill them.
I think the minister is trying to gain a few points with the voters (animal-lovers and people who are uncomfortable with halal and the like) without having to do anything substantial.
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I’m sure that kosher and halal slaughter represent improvements from what came before, but science has come a long way since those protocals were worked out and it’s entirely legitimate for a government to have unified slaughter rules (and to base those on science rather than religion).
I think the protocals worked out by Temple Grandin are probably the best for insuring a death that’s as quick and painless as possible.
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According to Temple Grandin, kosher/halal slaughter can result in little to no pain for the animal, if a) proper kosher/halal practices are followed and b) the restraining methods used don’t impose additional suffering on the animal.
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Also to anyone following the story, this and similar initiatives in other countries are not motivated by opposition to kosher slaughter per se, but against creeping halalization and the difficulties those opposed to the practice have in being sure that their meat wasn’t ritually slaughtered.
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