Your Grammar Nazi

Ed Kilgore at Political Animal, who absolutely knows better:

At TNR, Francisco Toro warns that instability in Venezuela following October elections could effect U.S. elections.

Unless he means that instability could cause the U.S. elections to take place, the word he really wants is "affect."

Among the pairs of words writers often confuse, affect and effect might be the most perplexing, perhaps because their meanings are so similar. Affect, derived from affectus, from the Latin word afficere, “to do something to, act on,” is easily conflated with effect, borrowed from Anglo-French, ultimately stemming from the Latin word effectus, from efficere, “to bring about.”

 Although there is a rare exception, the general rule to keep you off the Grammar Nazi's radar is this: when the word you want is a verb, use Affect.  When the word you want is a noun, use Effect.