732 Minimum Safe Distance.

I have a thing for weird facts and trivia. I’m sure that comes as no surprise to anyone. Because of this desire for information of questionable value I often end up with page a day calendars that dole out these tidbits. On Friday there were a few lines about Eubene Debs; the only person in history to run a presidential race from prison. He was a socialist, imprisoned for criticizing the government’s questionable use of the Espionage Act.

The page mentions, in passing, Warren G. Harding as the president he lost to, and that made me pause. Harding was president in the relatively recent past. Surely this law has been looked over and done away with, I thought. So, I decided to look it up, just to be sure. The law sounded too vague to be allowed to stand. It turns out that the law is still on the books. Used at least as late as 1983.

Now, I understand why this law exists. The only thing that bothers me is the gray areas. It seems to me like it could be terribly misused because of the vagueness of the language. Of course it’s possible that Wikipedia doesn’t detail the law in such a way that these worries would be dispelled.

Anyway, if you’re politically minded you might check it out. The Wikileaks thing is even mentioned at the end of the article.

13 Comments

I hate to be a first comment that just tells you that something seems off, but second speech bubble contains some awkward phrasing. Seems like you couldn’t decide between sayings its not so easy anymore and its so hard nowadays.

Hmmmm… This one I’m overruling. Sounds perfectly natural to me. I’ll give you that my speech patters are sometimes unique though.

I’m gonna second that it sounds rather.. strange.
Nowadays seems like it’d suit a lot better.
Still, not too fussed, people talking out loud tend to have their own unique way of sayings things anyhow, I s’pose ;o

“Listen to Reggie… from a safe distance.”

Oh, I was afraid Thomas was trying to sabotage the new guy for a second there!

Now I understand your Tweet about the blast radius and the shock wave…

Aside from living in some kind of neurotic’s fantasy land, Reggie’s self-destructive tendencies make me recall a few former coworkers. One of them was indeed named Klutz (or a related spelling).

–Perfesser

@ the first 2 commenters – The form that is used is quite common. It’s been around for ages. I am not surprised that many people haven’t heard it, but believe me, it’s accepted in conversation.

Anymore is used in its adverb form, where its possible meanings are:
–adverb
1.any longer; at the present

(from Wordnik website – http://www.wordnik.com/words/anymore)

It’s being used in its “at the present” definition. Therefore he is saying, “Getting a decent job is so hard at the present.”

I know what Wes is talking about here. It took me six years of on and off work just to get a permanent job with my company.

Fortunately though, thanks to an injury, they can’t sack me.

Could be that usage died in the regional diction I use and hear, especially if its common. Then again I do live near a a cafe called “Irregardless.” So… there is that.

Leave a Reply to MrGBH Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.