Executive director of the National Labor Committee Charles Kernaghan has reported that crucifixes sold by the Singer Company, a member of the Association for Christian Retail (CBA), were manufactured under horrific conditions in a Chinese sweatshop. The “Christian” retail association’s response: “Nuh uh. Liar liar pants on fire.”
Bill Anderson, president of the Association for Christian Retail, a trade group, said in a statement yesterday that Mr. Kernaghan’s claims about manufacture of religious items overseas were “unfounded and irresponsible.” He said the group has never received concrete proof that items sold by its members were manufactured in sweatshops. In fact, he said, the organization’s members make regular trips to overseas factories to “ensure quality control as well as inspect working conditions.”
The CBA is most likely right. I mean, Kernaghan’s track record includes outing only Disney, Fruit of the Loom, Gap, JCPenney, Kmart, Kohl’s, Levi’s, Nike, Puff Daddy/P Diddy/Diddy, and Target, among others. Like Kathy Lee Gifford. Kernaghan has no idea what he’s talking about. CBA members sell Christian stuff, duh. Jesus would totally manufacture merchandise as cheaply as possible and then mark it way up and sell it to his followers, especially to his followers who think it’s more important to look Christian than to act Christian. As long as his name was on their T-shirts and his method of death was hanging around their necks, Jesus wouldn’t really care if they actually followed his teachings.
But I digress.
This AP article shows pictures of the crucifixes, including model number and where they were bought. A protest was held yesterday in front of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, one of the churches who sold Singer crucifixes. The article also includes pictures of the sweatshop, where Chinese women work one hundred hours a week, for seven days a week, for twenty-six cents an hour, with no sick time or vacation time. The young women’s living conditions are disgusting; the dorms are filthy and their food is slop. Another church selling the crucifixes was Episcopal Trinity on Wall Street. Both churches removed the crucifixes immediately when they were told of the merchandise’s origins. The crucifixes did not include the required “Made in China” sticker, and the churches believed that the crucifixes were made in Italy, as Singer had told them.
So if you are planning to buy Christian paraphernalia for Christmas, for Christ’s sake please make sure the vendor is not a member of the Association for Christian Retail.
The National Labor Committee’s report can be found here.
Evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the LORD understand it fully.
Proverbs 28:5.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Gooder writing tip #11 (supplement)
Some instances when the passive voice is *gasp* preferred:
When the object is what's important, and the actor (subject) is not important or is unknown, as in scientific text or police reports.
Examples.
Juvenile dispersal is seen in black-capped chickadees.
That juvenile dispersal occurs among black-capped chickadees is what's important. If I write, "The ornithologist witnessed juvenile dispersal in the chickadee population," I've made the ornithologist the topic, which I did not intend.
The victim was stabbed three times in the leg.
The victim having been stabbed is the important information in this sentence. Especially because the stabber is unknown, it is best to write the sentence passively. This sentence is better than writing, "Somebody stabbed the victim three times," because, as with the ornithologist, I've placed the attention on "somebody," and this is not the sentence's focus. Later, when the stabber is discovered, feel free to give him or her credit for the acccomplishment. "Jerkhead McAhole stabbed the victim three times in the leg."
When the object is what's important, and the actor (subject) is not important or is unknown, as in scientific text or police reports.
Examples.
Juvenile dispersal is seen in black-capped chickadees.
That juvenile dispersal occurs among black-capped chickadees is what's important. If I write, "The ornithologist witnessed juvenile dispersal in the chickadee population," I've made the ornithologist the topic, which I did not intend.
The victim was stabbed three times in the leg.
The victim having been stabbed is the important information in this sentence. Especially because the stabber is unknown, it is best to write the sentence passively. This sentence is better than writing, "Somebody stabbed the victim three times," because, as with the ornithologist, I've placed the attention on "somebody," and this is not the sentence's focus. Later, when the stabber is discovered, feel free to give him or her credit for the acccomplishment. "Jerkhead McAhole stabbed the victim three times in the leg."
Gooder writing tip #11
Today's lesson: Passive voice.
The Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th edition, definition for passive regarding voice is:
"Asserting that the grammatical subject of a verb is subjected to or affected by the action represented by that verb." Meaning, the subject of the sentence is acted on instead of acting. If the subject acts, it is called the active voice.
Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, offers the following explanation for active and passive voice: "Voice shows whether the subject acts (active voice) or is acted on (passive voice)--that is, whether the subject performs or receives the action of the verb."
Subject acted on = passive.
Subject acting = active.
Examples.
A Johnny Depp movie was watched by me = passive.
I watched a Johnny Depp movie = active.
A blog entry was written by me = passive.
I wrote a blog entry = active.
A good trigger for recognizing passive voice is if the sentence contains a form of "to be," such as am, are, be, been, being, had been, has been, have been, is, was, were, will be, will have been. "To be" is usually followed by a past participle.
Past participle.
To rely on Webster's again, a participle is "a word having the characteristics of both verb and adjective; esp: an English verbal form that has the function of an adjective and at the same time shows such verbal features as tense and voice and capacity to take an object." Or, more simply put, it is a verb that ends in "ing" or "ed" (or its equivalent).
The falling leaves are dead.
The dead leaves are falling.
"Falling" is present participle.
He drank the stirred martini.
He stirred the martini then drank it.
"Stirred" is a past participle.
According to Owl at Purdue, "past participles end in -ed, -en, -d, -t, or -n, as in the words asked, eaten, saved, dealt, and seen."
You are more likely to encounter the verb version of the participle when seeking or writing passive voice.
"To be" + past participle = passive voice.
Hint: Make sure "been" is included with "had," has," or "have." For example, "Tara will have watched ten Johnny Depp movies by Monday" is not passive. Tara is the subject, who is doing the acting. Also make sure the participle is a past participle. For example, "Tara has been watching Johnny Depp movies all day" is still active because the participle is present. "Ten Johnny Depp movies will have been watched by Tara" is passive voice.
Another way to recognize passive voice is sentence structure.
Subject, verb, object = active.
Object, verb, subject = passive.
In case anyone tries to tell you otherwise, the passive voice is not grammatically incorrect. It is okay to use the passive voice in moderation (or less). However, passive voice can be vague and often annoying, especially when it is overused. If you want to write a bad essay/paper/thesis/book, begin most of your sentences with "There is" or "There are." If I had been paid by all of the instances of "there is" and "there are" I've had to change instead of by the hour, I could have comfortably retired long ago. Authors use these all the time. Also watch out for "it is." (In the second sentence of this paragraph I said that it is okay to use the passive voice in moderation. A more active sentence would have been "You can use passive voice in moderation.")
My advice? Be more bold, more authoritative. Tell the reader who established those laws, not just that they were established. Tell me who discriminated against the indigenous people, not just that they were discriminated against. Tell me who thinks Johnny Depp is handsome, not just that Johnny Depp is considered handsome. This requires more guts, more research, and will garner you more respect.
This passage from Capital Community College in Hartford, CT, says it well:
We find an overabundance of the passive voice in sentences created by self-protective business interests, magniloquent educators, and bombastic military writers (who must get weary of this accusation), who use the passive voice to avoid responsibility for actions taken. Thus "Cigarette ads were designed to appeal especially to children" places the burden on the ads — as opposed to "We designed the cigarette ads to appeal especially to children," in which "we" accepts responsibility. At a White House press briefing we might hear that "The president was advised that certain members of Congress were being audited" rather than "The Head of the Internal Revenue service advised the president that her agency was auditing certain members of Congress" because the passive construction avoids responsibility for advising and for auditing.
The Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th edition, definition for passive regarding voice is:
"Asserting that the grammatical subject of a verb is subjected to or affected by the action represented by that verb." Meaning, the subject of the sentence is acted on instead of acting. If the subject acts, it is called the active voice.
Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, offers the following explanation for active and passive voice: "Voice shows whether the subject acts (active voice) or is acted on (passive voice)--that is, whether the subject performs or receives the action of the verb."
Subject acted on = passive.
Subject acting = active.
Examples.
A Johnny Depp movie was watched by me = passive.
I watched a Johnny Depp movie = active.
A blog entry was written by me = passive.
I wrote a blog entry = active.
A good trigger for recognizing passive voice is if the sentence contains a form of "to be," such as am, are, be, been, being, had been, has been, have been, is, was, were, will be, will have been. "To be" is usually followed by a past participle.
Past participle.
To rely on Webster's again, a participle is "a word having the characteristics of both verb and adjective; esp: an English verbal form that has the function of an adjective and at the same time shows such verbal features as tense and voice and capacity to take an object." Or, more simply put, it is a verb that ends in "ing" or "ed" (or its equivalent).
The falling leaves are dead.
The dead leaves are falling.
"Falling" is present participle.
He drank the stirred martini.
He stirred the martini then drank it.
"Stirred" is a past participle.
According to Owl at Purdue, "past participles end in -ed, -en, -d, -t, or -n, as in the words asked, eaten, saved, dealt, and seen."
You are more likely to encounter the verb version of the participle when seeking or writing passive voice.
"To be" + past participle = passive voice.
Hint: Make sure "been" is included with "had," has," or "have." For example, "Tara will have watched ten Johnny Depp movies by Monday" is not passive. Tara is the subject, who is doing the acting. Also make sure the participle is a past participle. For example, "Tara has been watching Johnny Depp movies all day" is still active because the participle is present. "Ten Johnny Depp movies will have been watched by Tara" is passive voice.
Another way to recognize passive voice is sentence structure.
Subject, verb, object = active.
Object, verb, subject = passive.
In case anyone tries to tell you otherwise, the passive voice is not grammatically incorrect. It is okay to use the passive voice in moderation (or less). However, passive voice can be vague and often annoying, especially when it is overused. If you want to write a bad essay/paper/thesis/book, begin most of your sentences with "There is" or "There are." If I had been paid by all of the instances of "there is" and "there are" I've had to change instead of by the hour, I could have comfortably retired long ago. Authors use these all the time. Also watch out for "it is." (In the second sentence of this paragraph I said that it is okay to use the passive voice in moderation. A more active sentence would have been "You can use passive voice in moderation.")
My advice? Be more bold, more authoritative. Tell the reader who established those laws, not just that they were established. Tell me who discriminated against the indigenous people, not just that they were discriminated against. Tell me who thinks Johnny Depp is handsome, not just that Johnny Depp is considered handsome. This requires more guts, more research, and will garner you more respect.
This passage from Capital Community College in Hartford, CT, says it well:
We find an overabundance of the passive voice in sentences created by self-protective business interests, magniloquent educators, and bombastic military writers (who must get weary of this accusation), who use the passive voice to avoid responsibility for actions taken. Thus "Cigarette ads were designed to appeal especially to children" places the burden on the ads — as opposed to "We designed the cigarette ads to appeal especially to children," in which "we" accepts responsibility. At a White House press briefing we might hear that "The president was advised that certain members of Congress were being audited" rather than "The Head of the Internal Revenue service advised the president that her agency was auditing certain members of Congress" because the passive construction avoids responsibility for advising and for auditing.
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
And the winner is:
The most important election day results are in. The new Capital of the Pierogy Pocket of America is....Binghamton!! Good job, voters! And the $10,000 prize money is going to CHOW. The announcement is here.
You know how to celebrate.
You know how to celebrate.
Monday, November 05, 2007
Happy birthday, Ida
Today is the birthday of fellow Allegheny alumnus and muckraker extraordinaire, Ida Tarbell, class of 1880. If you listened to the Writer's Almanac this morning, you heard from Garrison that today is Ida's birthday, that her superb journalism exposed the corruption of the Standard Oil Company, that her accomplishment was the first instance an American corporation was brought down by a journalist. Mr. Keillor, though, failed to mention the most important fact of her life--that she went to Allegheny College, of course--so I felt it important to enlighten you. Happy birthday, Ida.
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