OK, I'm pissed the Bears lost a game they could have won, and I've had a . . . few beers. But reading the blogs and checking out Obama's speeches usually sobers and cheers me up.

But this has to stop. Obama his committing an offense against the English language, one that is commonly made, but should be avoided because it gives solace to the enemy (ie, the Right). In both his Grant Park speech Tuesday night and yesterday in his first radio address, he has twice fucked up one key word.

He uses the word "enormity" to mean "really big and challenging" instead of what it actually means, which is

1. The quality of passing all moral bounds; excessive wickedness or outrageousness.
2. A monstrous offense or evil; an outrage.

In Grant Park he said

I know you didn't [donate to my campaign] just to win an election and I know you didn't do it for me. You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead.

He said in the first radio address

Let me close by saying I do not underestimate the enormity of the task that lies ahead.

Now, I'm not a prescriptivist (that is, I don't think that dictionaries can or should prescribe what works mean or how people use them, dictionaries should just describe how people use the language) but this one I must fight on. Mis-using this word to include its latest drift towards "immense" just gives the Enemy (the Right) ammunition: Obama is admitting that his plan is a monstrous offense or evil.

So, I just wanted to commentate that irregardless of other lexical concerns, this must stop. Knock it off. The enormity of it all . . .