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When adverbs aren't adverbs, and swearing isn't language
WHY do we say "fuck you", and not "fuck
yourself"? What exactly makes certain excretions more linguistically
taboo (shit) than others (snot)? Is "fucking" really an adverb
in the phrase "fucking brilliant"? Steven Pinker, a linguist
and cognitive scientist and one of the most masterful popularisers of science
writing today, answers all in a long article
on profanity in the New Republic. read more »

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quote I am a believer and a Member of The Episcopal Church USA, but I have to say, in all of the virulent discussions among American church people of every stripe, that I feel more trust in atheists and agnostics, than I do my own fellow religious persons ...

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