Turbotom

So, there was this 2005 Land Rover parked on the street with a bumper sticker on it. And the bumper sticker said, "Ignorance and Arrogance is bad foreign policy."

I'm not sure if I get this.

Is it a joke? Like, some one driving a new and expensive SUV with a bumper sicker using poor grammar is ignorant and arrogant enough to think s/he knows better?

...or is it just a comment on the current administration...with poor grammar?

...mostly, I just thought it was funny. (I have to thank a particularly attractive and intelligent girl for pointing it out to me.)

Martian

I suspect door number two. It's something of an amusing juxtaposition, a shiny new Land Rover with a poorly worded hippy slogan on the back.

Never underestimate the power of catchphrases, by the by.

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- Ben Harper, Show Me A Little Shame

Pip

It might be read as Ignorance and Arrogance together is bad foreign policy, like "peanutbutter and jelly is my favourite kind of sandwich". Would that work?

Jinn

With the way the OP capitalized, yea .. I believe its within grammar rules.

"Ignorance and Arrogance" is bad foreign policy would have been clearer.

Reminds me of a big H2 (Hummer) I saw the other day.. "No more wars for oil..."... ahh, the irony.

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Marvelous Marv

I don't know and I don't care.

clavus

I saw "Georege Bush is a reptilian vampire."

I don't know if they were talking about George Jr. or Senior.

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Gilda

English teacher hat ON.

The grammar is fine. When using a linking verb, the subject and the predicate nominative are equivilent. In this case, the predicate nominative, "policy", is singular. The subject is ambiguous as to whether "ignorance" and "arrogance" are intended to be construed as a unit or as seperate types of policy. When used with a singular verb, this sentence means that ignorance and arrogance when combined makes for bad policy. It would also be correct with "are" but would take on a different meaning. "Ignorance and arrogance are bad policy" would mean that each, taken seperately, was bad policy. I think the message here is clearly that the two are being used in conjuction.

English teacher hot OFF

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vanblah

I love it. I wish I could have turned my 10th Grade English teacher's "hot" off. She was so very ...

Gilda

It's a gift, which has taken many years of hard work to perfect. Students get distracted if I forget.

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I'm against ending blackness. I believe that everyone has a right to be black, it's a choice, and I support that.

~Steven Colbert