I struggle to endorse a campaign that uses incorrect grammar:
“Less stench… less water pollution… less slaughterhouses”? I know: the ad would lack the impact of parallelism if the text were corrected to read, “Less stench… less water pollution… fewer slaughterhouses.” And “Vote Yes for LESS…” has a nice rhyme to help voters remember which way to vote.
But for those of you still treating language as a logical, rule-based enterprise, remember: use fewer to describe decreasing quantities of things we can count, like slaughterhouses, pigs, and votes; use less to refer to declining amounts of things we can’t count, like sewage, pork, and enthusiasm.
No such problem presents itself in the English language when we discuss actual or desired increases: we can speak of more countable things and more non-countable things without any grammatical hitch. More pigs, more pork, more trucks, more traffic, more workers, more economic activity, more lawyers, more litigation….
The ungrammatical Smart Growth Sioux Falls now has less chance of stopping Wholestone Farms from building a big slaughterhouse in Sioux Falls. Last week Wholestone cut the ribbon in front of its new butcher shop—mundanely christened “The Butcher Shop“—and plans to start chopping up piggies at the site today. By starting operations today, Wholestone will exempt itself from SGSF’s proposed moratorium on new slaughterhouses.
The Butcher Shop appears to be operating with proper permits in effect. After a problematic ruling that rescinded the permits the City of Sioux Falls issued to Wholestone, Circuit Judge Sandra Hoglund Hanson apparently rescinded her rescindment and said the court can only rescind said permits after a full trial, which won’t happen until after the election and which will not result in victory for the slaughterhouse opponents as they cannot legally use an initiated ordinance passed by voters in November to negate permits legally issued in October.
What is the cutoff size between calling something a butcher shop or a meat packing plant?
Right after folks complain that their property values will go down hurting the sale value. They come in to complain that their assessed property values are too high for the tax value. LOL
Jeff – see my statement in another thread here about being in a state of permanent cognitive dissonance the emotional comfort zone for the current drop of “conservative” complainers about things.
Here it is: “This sort of mentality has been living with the cognitive dissonance inherent in their own world views (rote religionism vs. scientific inquiry for ex:) for so long they have not only become comfortable with it – but it is also their preferred state. So, they deliberately generate cognitive dissonant statements or ideological positions as a comforting act. It’s akin to an obsessive compulsive’s routines, or an ADD sufferer’s ticking behaviors.”
Wow! Impressive word salad if nothing else.
The city had no business granting permits to finalize this “custom” butcher shop, masquerading as a slaughterhouse, while we are in the process of voting. It may or may not be illegal, but it was a slap in the face to voters. Yes, the farmers matter. But we do too, and we live here.
We have great promise as a city. I don’t want Sioux Falls to become known for it’s slaughterhouses. No thanks.
picket line:
noun
– A line or procession of people picketing a place of employment or otherwise staging a public protest.
– A position held by an advance-guard of women and men stationed at planned intervals.
Sioux Falls will rival Sioux City for stink. Why not open the plant in Athol?
im – “The city had no business granting permits…..” The city must – MUST – has no “choice” to do otherwise – follow its own and state and federal laws. Judges must also. It is their sworn obligation – it is in fact their “business”.
The city is NOT required to grant hurried permits and inspections to a business whose sole purpose is to undermine the will of its citizens. Show us the law that REQUIRES them to do this and do it in an expedited manner.
The vast majority of residents didn’t know this slaughterhouse was in the works until recently. The city should have made sure that citizens were ok with this – long before now. Now, they want us to believe it’s too late. Unbelievable.
The question, Cory, is not whether the City could legally issue these permits under normal city process, but whether they could issues these permits under the requirements of South Dakota and city laws governing initiatives. The City violated the rights of citizens to engage in initiate measures on the issue. The judge should have invalidated the permits.