carnes@gargoyle.UChicago.UUCP (Richard Carnes) (12/05/84)
---- In article <> emks@uokvax.UUCP writes: >I think it's about every 6 months or so that we seem to get this spelling >thing on the net. Why don't we take it to net.spell or something. My posting on the spelling of "Sandinista" was, rather obviously, not a spelling flame but an IGNORANCE flame. If I were to write an article about the "Marksist-Lennonists" in Central America, my spelling error would show something more than mere carelessness. A person who is capable of writing "Sandanistas" has apparently never heard of Augusto Cesar Sandino, and shows about the same level of understanding of Nicaragua as the writer on Marksism-Lennonism would show of leftist revolutionary movements. The difference between the contras and the Contadora nations is also not a trivial one. I am NOT complaining about the rampant spelling errors on the net. I find them useful: they help me sort out the true idiots from the merely incompetent. In my experience, those who support Reagan's approach to dealing with the turmoil in Central America are generally those who don't know doodlysquat about the region. Conversely, it is hard to find an expert on the region's history who supports the Administration's policies. Here is some homework for Reaganites: read a few of the following books, and then come back and tell me that Reagan has been pursuing wise policies in Central America. (Each of the authors has his/her biases, of course, and I do not claim that each book contains the whole truth and nothing but the truth.) On Central America in general: Walter LaFeber, _Inevitable Revolutions_ (a good place to start) Penny Lernoux, _Cry of the People_ (on the persecution of the Catholic Church in Latin America) Raymond Bonner, _Weakness and Deceit_ (US involvement in El Salvador) Roger Burbach & P. Flynn, eds., _The Politics of Intervention: The US in Central America_ M. Diskin, ed., _Trouble in Our Backyard_ S. Kinzer & Schlesinger (I think), _Bitter Fruit_ E. Baloyra, _El Salvador_ On Nicaragua: Rius, _Nicaragua for Beginners_ (a comic book!!!) Tomas Borge et al., _Sandinistas Speak_ Bernard Diederich, _Somoza and the Legacy of US Involvement in Central America_ F.M. Lappe & J. Collins, _Now We Can Speak: A Journey Through the New Nicaragua_ J. Collins, _What Difference Could a Revolution Make?_ Richard Millett, _Guardians of the Dynasty: History of the US-Created Guardia Nacional of Nicaragua and the Somoza Family_ Margaret Randall, _Sandino's Daughters: Testimonies of Nicaraguan Women in Struggle_ Peter Rossett & J. Vandermeer, eds., _The Nicaragua Reader: Documents of a Revolution Under Fire_ Gregorio Selser, _Sandino_ Thomas W. Walker, _Nicaragua: The Land of Sandino_ Thomas W. Walker, _Nicaragua in Revolution_ Henri Weber, _Nicaragua: The Sandinist Revolution_ Eduardo Crawley, _Nicaragua in Perspective_ Sheryl Hirshon, _And Also Teach Them to Read_ (on the literacy program) Karl Grossman, _Nicaragua: America's New Vietnam?_ G. Black, _Triumph of the People: The Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua_ J.A. Booth, _The End and the Beginning: The Nicaraguan Revolution_ Richard Carnes Staff Grammarian, U. Chicago CS Dept. ihnp4!gargoyle!carnes Golden Rule for the Reagan Eighties: Let's do it unto them before they do it unto us.
emks@uokvax.UUCP (12/08/84)
/***** uokvax:net.politics / gargoyle!carnes / 7:16 pm Dec 4, 1984 */ My posting on the spelling of "Sandinista" was, rather obviously, not a spelling flame but an IGNORANCE flame. If I were to write an article about the "Marksist-Lennonists" in Central America, my spelling error would show something more than mere carelessness. A person who is capable of writing "Sandanistas" has apparently never heard of Augusto Cesar Sandino, and shows about the same level of understanding of Nicaragua as the writer on Marksism-Lennonism would show of leftist revolutionary movements. The difference between the contras and the Contadora nations is also not a trivial one. I am NOT complaining about the rampant spelling errors on the net. I find them useful: they help me sort out the true idiots from the merely incompetent. /* ---------- */ Oh, so I guess those who mispronounce "nuclear" as "new-culer" (with a long u) just don't know what the hell they're talking about. I don't buy your argument one bit. I guess Ph.D. receipients never misspell intraoffice memos dealing with technical matters? And I guess you can sit on your pious seat and dictate who is and who isn't an idiot. Go take a Greyhound. kurt