http://www.podcastingnews.com/details/www.qdnow.com/grammar.xml/view.htm
Been listening to this to try and improve writing, speaking skills-If you can get past the somewhat smarmy voice and style, the content is educational- I still can’t get over when I ragged people out on a forum last August or September and got called an “elitist” (!?) for wanting people not to come across as illiterate. I am not talking about speaking the “King’s English” or posting as if one was in Elizabethan England. I’m talking about not sounding as if one just “excaped from a ilitrate expresso bar (n grill) ” . Because there aren’t all kinds of resources out in off-line land, it is vital we at least make an effort to not look ridiculous.
I must have got someone there worried about ‘raising the tone” and the WN image improving but it is going to happen even if not overnight. If you want to be legit, you have to act legit, and sometimes form actually follows thought and isn’t fake or illusory. I have at least four things in my arsenal against the nay-sayers and name-callers and ZOG who want us to look like inbred , illiterate trash- I’m creative, willing to work hard, I don’t give up easily, and while I am not a mensa member, neither am I a mental nite-light.
The Spoils of War 
I agree with you, and I laughed out loud at the “excaped from a ilitrate expresso bar” bit.
Over the last couple of years I’ve noticed that the quality of my speech and writing has diminished. I’m not sure why, laziness perhaps, but it’s something I want to change. I’ll check out your link.
It’s happened to myself as well. It is easy to get lazy in cyberspace, especially if you are aware that your education/writing skill/vocabulary are above those that inhabit places one frequents.
When I had my first son, a long time ago and lived in a small complex, I picked up their verbal habits, started sentences with “The thing is…” and used other “working-class-isms” . When I find myself falling back into that, I feel like I should be slapped. It isn’t quite as bad when men do it, because they don’t have as much time on their hands. O
One thing I have noticed is that in very old children’s books, the language and sentence structure is completely different and more sophisticated than not only modern children’s books (which are for the most part, garbage), but many books for adults. One assumes there had to be parents around who were able to read this, with no trouble at all, as they were made for reading to children on a casual, even daily basis. If one looks at these books by decade, it is easy to see how the beautiful and complex tales have been taken over by mostly pictures and very simplistic text. It isn’t only about the decline of reading skills and English as a second language, it is about Culture. THEY don’t care about these complex fables or lessons, and they say they inherently are “racist” because they were made for and by White people.
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Irregardless (NO. It’s irrespective OR regardless)
“unpresidented” heard this from a black guy the other day , yikes
“doggie dog world” Gawd.
“racial epitaphs/epaulets” Ugh.
Endless malapropisms. I see this on the forums, makes me cringe with embarrassment.
I get called the “Grammar Nazi” and “elitist” for encouraging literacy.