16 June 2005

Hitchens: this is a non-issue

Christopher Hitchens just suggested to Brian Lehrer on WNYC that the word "fixed" in the Downing Street Memo sentence the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy is, in fact, the proper English usage of "fixed" as stationary or established. He went on to say that the English don't speak out of the sides of their mouths by using slang such as "the fix is on." OK.

But wait: isn't the use in the DSM sentence, something like, past progressive in passive form? If you don't trust me, trust some other English people [BBC]. The DSM usage is not as an adjective as Hitchens suggests.

[ posted by sstrader on 16 June 2005 at 11:29:07 AM in Politics ]