Even [tag]Thomas Jefferson[/tag] and the Founding Parents (can’t say Fathers anymore due to the PC Police–oops, here they come!) couldn’t get the distinction right between using which and that.

Now, the distinction is simple: that is restrictive and which isn’t; that is essential and which isn’t.  It’s all relative. 

Okay, I’m joking but not joking, and to help clarify the distinction between which and that, I’ll be writing an article soon and posting it here.

Meanwhile, consider these sentences: “A cat that has no claws cannot defend itself.” “A neighbor’s cat, which has no paws, comes by to visit us all the time.”

I’ll be back with further explanations. (And yes, I’m against the declawing of cats.)

Here comes the “hyper-local Internet”!

And what does that mean?

First let’s backtrack and look at some words that originated in Webspeak.  How about viral?  To go “viral” means that your Web site/product/idea catches on and spreads like a virus.  Can anyone engineer a “viral marketing campaign”?  There are a whole slew of sites out there willing to tell you how to do so–if you pay them a high enough fee.

Give me a break.

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India is going through some electoral turmoil as the two-thirds of the populace who do the farming constantly switch political allegiances in hopes that someone will come to their aid.  [tag]Indian farmers[/tag] are overworked and constantly in debt, unable to sell what they farm for what it costs them to produce and market.

One voter, in unmistakable English and logic, observed:

“If I were given a choice, I would like to be born as a European cow, but certainly not as an Indian farmer, in my next birth.”

Cows in Europe earn U.S. $2 a day in government subsidies.

I wish people in America could express themselves so clearly. ” Awesome” just doesn’t convey the same meaning as this plainly spoken English.