Sometimes we catch ourselves using and reusing language, and we delete and rephrase ourselves, proud of rutting out a cliché. Half a page further on and we look at what we’ve written and without hesitation, delete it in favor of a cliché. Some clichés are just right for the job, with no apologies.

Hence a few entries from The Dictionary of Clichés by James Rogers. Some of his more than 2,000 entries are so obscure you wonder why he bothered; others are so exactly right they shine like a new penny.

Join me amongst the clichés…. Read More»

President Obama’s appointment of Rashad Hussain, his deputy associate counsel, as special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the second largest inter-governmental organization after the United Nations, charged with safeguarding and protecting “the interests of the Muslim world,” should be of serious concern to Congress and the American public. Read More»

In the second full week of the legislative session, a Republican state senator introduced a brand new property tax overhaul designed to save you money. Under this legislation, he says, appeals will move faster and assessments will be fairer.

Of course, all eyes turned to this “fair tax” legislation, which is exactly what the state Republicans want. They want a distracted homeowner so eager to shave pennies off his assessment that he doesn’t notice the nearly $500 million in property tax increases mandated by the same Republican legislature. Read More»