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I am afraid that I do not regard tamely to become the soldier-slave of rapacious, murdering, profit-seeking militarists to be noble.
I presume that you mean that you "defended" your country during the Vietnam War era.
Have you ever considered that your country today might be richer, more stable, with a better society and culture, if you and people like you had said NO!! to the war-making profiteers who demanded that Americans sacrifice their lives and treasure to enriching a small, narrow class of evil, unprincipled, militarist looters of their country?
Who might be the true traitors---they, or I?
Who were the true traitors to Germany---those who blindly served or went along with Nazi militarism and brought their nation to ruin, or those who refused to live under such a regime---and ultimately served as a nucleus in rebuilding a better nation?
Yesterday I got 25 pounds of slightly overripe tomatoes for $5. Since we last discussed this, I have gotten a Roma Tomato Mill....
This marks you as a True American, Greger !
I quote from H. W. Fowler's classic Modern English Usage :
1. Have got for possess or have is good colloquial but not good literary English. 2. Gotten still holds its ground in American English. In British English it is, in verbal use (i.e. in composition with have, am, etc.), archaic and affected.
In English, the verb get is among the 20 most common verbs used, especially in speech. In a vast number of idiomatic uses, it expresses a plethora of distinct and varied meanings. These over-worked verbs, on one hand, are an advantage, since they permit the language learner quickly to begin communicating at a basic level, whereas in other European languages a large number of disparate verbs would need to be learned in order to express even very simple concepts. On the other hand, this advantage is largely obviated by the necessity of learning a vast number of idioms (turns of speech which even a complete knowledge of grammar would not permit you to understand) connected with these basic verbs. For example, "I want to get back at him," meaning "to retaliate" or "achieve revenge." Try to imagine the meaning to be derivable from grammar alone !
If English were a more typical European language, you would have been forced to write "I bought," or "stole," or "obtained," or "received," or "was given," or some such verb form. This requires a larger vocabulary but does have the advantage of conveying more specific information about your manner of obtaining the tomato mill.
We Americans speak American English. And Greger probably speaks a colloquial form of American English. Some of us prefer a more formal English. As long as Greger can communicate to our understanding, then I doubt that it matters very much.
milk and Girl Scout cookies ;-)
Save your breath-You may need it to blow up your date.
I am usually able to make myself understood to formal English speakers through a series of grunts and gesticulations. They find me amusing but generally tolerate me. Vietnam was an abomination. But without that war would we have ever known of Pho?
There is good to be found in all things. Not necessarily all people, but all things.
