swashbuckler The term "swashbuckler" originates from boisterous fighters who carried a sword and buckler (a small shield). "Swashbuckler" was a putdown, used to indicate a poor swordsman who covered his lack of skill with noise, bragging, and clamour. Novels, and then Hollywood, altered the word's connotation to make the swashbuckler the hero of the plotline.

What Is a Single-Malt Whisky?

Content: Whiskies from a single distillery.

The root of all confusion lies in the simple word single. A single-malt scotch whisky is nothing more or less than the product of a single distillery. Not the product of a single batch or a single barrel, but a single distillery. A single-malt Lagavulin may contain whiskies from many barrels produced at the Lagavulin distillery, but it will contain only whiskies produced at Lagavulin.

A single-grain scotch whisky varies only in that it contains barley and one or more other cereal grains, usually wheat or corn. Again, single is misleading here: It refers not to a product made from a single grain, but a product made at a single distillery.

The unnatural and erroneous prioritizing of Ukrainian over Russian (the mother tongue for 83% of the citizens) led to a civil war that tore Ukraine  apart and caused its rapid decline and downfall into abyss with millions of its citizens on the run, a demographic collapse, its economy in tatters and the government disorientated and panic-stricken.
Ignorant language planning
Robert Lane Greene's book “You are what you speak” may have offered one of the most devastating pieces of criticism at such an ignorant language planning sponsored by the government. "Create a state that everyone hates and then yoke it to an official language, and both the language and the state may fail. Create a society people want to join, such as the international community of English speakers or a modern, tolerant South Africa, and it is never necessary to force a language on anyone.” [Greene, 2011: 162 - 163]
 

The treaty of friendship
Ancient Greeks distinguished between three different types of friendships between two polities: Philiai, symmachia, and epimachia. Both symmachia and epimachia were types of alliances, with the former committing States to support each other in battle and the latter requiring parties to assist each other if one suffered an invasion. Philiai, then, made the important distinction of denoting friendship between polities but did not give the treaty partners the status of allies. Romans had a similar word amicitia, which was a state of diplomatic relations which could coexist with an alliance, or exist without it. The Romans employed a practice of establishing peace and friendship with polities on its peripheries, though in practice these relationships were usually built on unequal treaties, requiring the neighbour to support Rome militarily, though not necessarily the reverse.[
 

What unfolded on Israel’s southern border on October 7 is just a preview to what will happen – God forbid – all across the West, if we do not sober up and destroy these orcs to the very last of them, to borrow a term from J R R Tolkien. The spirit of Nazi Germany has risen from the dead and it threatens all of us.

Israel is the forward operating base of the entire West. It’s no coincidence that the enemies of the West have targeted Israel first. They think – and even express so publicly – that Israel is a Western colony in their area, therefore its demise would signal the start of the collapse of the infidel West.

US President Joe Biden, in his brave speech on October 17, showed that he understood this. He has also sent two aircraft carriers to the region, and he sees the attack on Israel as a prelude to a war against the US, and in fact, against the West.

Malleable comes from the Latin verb malleare, meaning "to hammer." Malleare itself comes from the Latin word for "hammer," malleus. If you have guessed that maul and mallet, other English words for specific types of hammers, are related to malleus, you have hit the nail on the head.

By Oliver Berry17th July 2023

Very few people outside the island know that Jersey has its own language – or that it was cannily used as a clandestine code during German occupation in WW2.

"Bonsouair! Seyiz les beinv'nus!" announced Jo Thorpe, as she stepped up to the microphone and spread her arms in welcome. "Or for anyone who's not from Jersey, good evening and welcome! We're thrilled to see you tonight, and we hope you enjoy the show."

As Ukraine faces ongoing conflict and strives for EU and NATO accession, the government in Kyiv has drawn criticism from international organizations for its restrictions on the rights of ethnic minorities, including those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for the nation's freedom.
As Russia was dropping missiles on Ukraine by the dozens in mid-December of last year, the Ukrainian parliament adopted a new Law on National Minorities, in order to comply with the EU's accession criteria of protecting national minorities. What this new law does, however, is exactly the opposite: Kyiv strips from its ethnic minorities rights which they had previously enjoyed. 
Ethnic minorities, for instance Poles, are not guaranteed under the new legislation to freely use their ethnic-national symbols, even though they are fighting on the front lines, and Poland provides the biggest possible support to Ukraine. They are provided less time to air Polish-language media content and can barely use their mother tongue in schools or outside their homes, even though they were free to do so since the independence of Ukraine.
https://www.newsweek.com/suppression-suppressed-ukraines-restrictions-minority-rights-opinion-1779946

Canada's immigration policy embraces multiculturalism.                    

Canada's population grew by over a million people for the first time ever last year, the government has said.

The country's population increased from 38,516,138 to 39,566,248 people, Statistics Canada said.

It also marked Canada's highest annual population growth rate - 2.7% - since 1957.

The increase was in part fuelled by government efforts to recruit migrants to the country to ease labour shortages, Statistics Canada said.

The country also depends on migration to support an ageing population.

You might have observed, lately, how Americans seem always to be talking past one another—how we’re failing one another even at the level of our vernacular. In the America of 2020, socialism could suggest “Sweden-style social safety net” or “looming threat to liberty.” Journalist could suggest “a person whose job is to report the news of the day” or “enemy of the people.” Cancel culture could mean … actually, I have no idea at all what cancel culture means at this point. Fox, on its own, did not create that confusion. But it exacerbated it, and exploited it. The network turned its translations of the world into a business model. Every day, the most watched shows of the most watched cable network in the country—a prime-time destination more popular than ESPN—take the familiar idioms of American democracy and wear away at their common meanings. The result is disorientation. The result is mass suspicion. Like a vengeful God bringing chaos to Babel, Fox has helped to create a nation of people who share everything but the ability to talk with one another.