QUOTE: "Is this the sort of academic standard you hold yourself to? If so, did you already eat the gum that your diploma was wrapping or can I have it?"
Well, ask yourself. What would it say in a Hebrew dictionary (I mean a standard issue one, printed by say, Barron's, or what-have-you) under the word "bris"? In what dictionary in English does male circumcision get defined as mutilation? Oxford? Merriam-Webster? What edition? How much Political Correctness went into writing said dictionary? How much possible anti-Semitism is there in the dictionary? These are all valid questions to ask, and a failure to ask them is a failure to engage yourself academically with the question. I realise that Americans (most of them) tend to be idiots who accept whatever they are spoon-fed by CNN and MSNBC, of course (except for the wild Tea Party Right who go for Faux News). That is why you never hear REAL news in this country.
As regards the way the English language is spoken in this country, I have no respect for it. When someone says something so stupid as "The university alums were happy", they should be arrested. The correct word is of course, "alumni". But, God forbid we should use the language correctly.
Another example. " And now I introduce the Chair of our department." The proper word would be, of course, "Chairman", or maybe "Chairwoman". What kind of an idiot wants to reduce the head of a department to a piece of furniture? Again, PC bullshit.
Or the idiots in our lovely gossip magazines who use words like "vaycay" and other words of that nature that should be declared illegal under penalty of being fined. For once I actually agree with the French, who have a language police.
So when people start manipulating language to meet their political needs, I tend to simply pass them off as fucking retarded. Its that simple.