Originally Posted by gabrielz
mcgahat (and flyinbob):
While one might be tempted to read BoulderFlyer's original post as one coherent thought, might I point out that he/she inserted a period between these two sentences:
I know this is going to sound condescending, but: in English, the use of a period denotes the end of a (hopefully coherent) thought. When a word appears after it, it connotes the beginning of a new thought (aka a sentence). The two thoughts are not required to be connected in any way. Had BoulderFlyer used a semicolon or em-dash, your assertion would be valid, but the use of the period (and common sense) strongly suggests that he/she meant something more like:
Because of this and a number of other reasons, this is an embarassing era to be an American.
While I'm all for the use of rhetorical devices as a form of debate, you can't ignore the conventions of the language we (are apparently trying to) speak in the process. Care to try making your point again?
<G>
Yup, condescending it does sound. This post concerns the questionable act of a single gate agent, so we assume the reply had at least something to do with that. However, regardless of the reason, if the poster is "embarassed" to be an American, and unless the poster is Michael Moore, in which case we are also embarrassed he is an American, the poster should perhaps start calling himself/herself French. That would be SO less embarassing.