Free Republic

Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) offered up some advice to the Democrats vying to challenge President Donald Trump in 2020: Don’t be afraid to punch back. Tester advised the candidates on Thursday’s “Morning Joe” on MSNBC to not take “the bait” of Trump’s “racism” in his feud with the four progressive congresswomen known as “The Squad,” but said to “punch him in the face.” “I think you don’t take the bait that President Trump came out here,” Tester told host Joe Scarborough. “You say that what he has done is absolutely disgraceful for the country, and call it for what it...

A new browser plug-in displays all instances of the much-abused adverb as its traditional opposite. It's a figurative blast. My favourite misuse of "literally" came from an august editor at an august publishing house. A debut novel, she declared to a group of journalists, had "literally broken her heart". We all, of course, then made sure to steer well clear. . . . Anyway, Slate has brought music to the ears of grammar sticklers everywhere, pointing us towards an ingenious new browser plug-in which replaces the word "literally" with "figuratively" on articles across the web. ("That's literally all it does,"...