Free Republic

“Books don’t change people,” John Piper observes. “Paragraphs do. Sometimes even sentences.” A good sentence is a gift. We love finding complex truth shrinkwrapped in clear, simple, memorable form. It’s why Charles Spurgeon and C. S. Lewis are dominating a newsfeed near you. Even God likes pithy statements—at least enough to breathe out a whole book of them. But one-liners aren’t always helpful. Sometimes, in our desire to simplify truth, we can trivialize and even obscure it. And to obscure the truth is to tell a lie. Here are five popular Christian clichés that are not biblical, and therefore need a memorial service....

I am sure that my fellow freepers can provide a list of Obama SOTU phrases that he will surely use tonight in his speech to the masses...

Hey, it worked the last time, why not try it again? Aided by an uncurious Big Media, Team Obama is all set to roll out the same vague rhetoric that worked so well in 2008. You know, the "America faces huge challenges", "we must all pull together", "now is the time to put aside our differences", type of blather, bland cliches that never move beyond the level of a high-school essay? Why do they do this? Well, they're dumb. They don't really have an ideas of substance, so there's nothing else to talk about. And sadly, it works - some...

BROCKTON— First came a barrage of gunfire last night; then a thunderous crash and fireball. Valter Monteiro and Adilson Tavares, two local men, were caught in the middle of it all. Monteiro, 24, was fatally shot as he attempted to drive a gray-colored sedan from a housing development on 433 West Elm Street. Tavares sustained life-threatening wounds and is listed in critical condition, authorities said. “I don’t know why this happened, my brother was trying to change his life around,’’ said Luis Depina, 22, Monteiro’s brother, speaking this morning in front of the family’s modest two-story home less than a...

CHICAGO (Reuters) – The sign at the entrance to President Barack Obama's new 2012 campaign headquarters says: "Respect. Empower. Include. Win." A swarm of reporters got a sneak peak at the Obama's headquarters on Thursday at a downtown Chicago office building. The 50,000 square-foot space occupying a full floor of the building, is mostly open except for rows of tables sparsely populated by roughly 50 staffers and volunteers. The number of campaign operatives will be increased during Obama's re-election bid and Campaign Manager Jim Messina and other operatives said the space's organization reflects Obama's grassroots campaign style, which is open...

We all hate buzzwords, just like the writers for "The Simpsons." who made fun of them a while back (and ... well ... always. But there's a new list out this year of the most execrable buzzwords of 2010. They include "win-win," "synergy" and "ping." Are you guilty of using some of these in 2010? I must admit. I've used "metrics" a lot to discuss online traffic and other "measurables" (ugh) that I'm responsible for in my job.

University publishes 15 words we <3 to hate for 2009 By David Chartier | Published: January 01, 2009 - 08:00AM CT Just in time for the new year, Lake Superior State University has delivered on its decades-old tradition of publishing a "List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness." The annual, jocular list began in 1976, with words and phrases like "meaningful" (which lost all of its meaningfulness at the time) and "call for resignation" as a publicity stunt to promote the university's existence. Since then it has grown into a crowdsourced list of...

Sarah Palin is trying to seduce independent voters. But she comes across like a whip-wielding mistress who wants to discipline a naughty America. Sarah Palin has thrown a big-time scare into Democrats. The GOP ticket received a huge bounce after the convention, according to a USA Today/Gallup poll, and McCain now leads Obama among registered voters, 50 percent to 46 percent. And it's mostly Palin's doing. The "elite media" that Palin and her fellow Republicans so lovingly excoriated in St. Paul, Minn., is reporting that her entrance into the race may have put crucial states like Ohio in play. The...

Readers have responded in their thousands to The Daily Telegraph's call to select the worst phrases in the English language. Since our invitation was issued in February, more than 3,000 of you have submitted personal inventories of the damned, containing the phrases, aphorisms and clichés that irritate the most. High on the list of grievances was the increasing use of slang, poor grammar and the incorporation of Americanisms into everyday speech. Many of you shared frustrations over the misuse of "forensic" and "literally", while management jargon such as "downsizing", "brainstorming" and "thinking outside the box" also received plenty of nominations....

Jack Murtha is an honest, decent man who has served his country honorably as a Marine and member of Congress. He cares deeply about our troops and knows the futility of the conflict in Iraq, which can never be won militarily.....During the Vietnam War, Rove managed to get a series of student deferments as he jumped from college to college confusing the local draft boards. Rove was usually working on political campaigns and not attending classes as a full-time student as his deferments required. He dodged the draft, but never got a degree. Rove did, however, become a master of...

LONDON - At the end of the day, it's the most irritating cliche in the English language. So says the Plain English Campaign which said the abused and overused phrase was first in a poll of most annoying cliches. Second place went to "at this moment in time," and third to the constant use of "like," as if it were a form of punctuation. "With all due respect" came fourth. "When readers or listeners come across these tired expressions, they start tuning out and completely miss the message -- assuming there is one," said Plain English Campaign spokesman John Lister....

<p>Americans may mean what they say, but they can't always summon the language to say what they mean.</p> <p>I don't know how many times I've heard it, or read it, even in this newspaper: "The proof is in the pudding." "No, it isn't," I want to scream. "The proof of the pudding is in the eating." Cervantes wrote that four centuries ago. And don't get me started about having your cake and eating it, too. You have to have your cake in order to eat it. The trick is to eat it and still have it.</p>

We need a source thread to refer to for cliches on FR.

Admittedly, I haven't watched ABC's "looser, hipper" World News NOW in ages. I'm not loose or hip enough to want my news in that goofy, biased format. But I've heard so much from the press in the meantime about how they've been unfairly maligned as big-haired fluff. So tonight I happen to flip around the channels and catch this: Nice to see some cliches never change.