Republicans introduce legislation in the House and Senate to make English the official language of the U.S.
Republicans in both the House and Senate have introduced legislation that would declare English the official language of the United States and require the development of English language testing guidelines for those applying for U.S. citizenship.
The English Language Unity Act would set out a new chapter in U.S. code that imposes an obligation on U.S. officials to “preserve and enhance the role of English as the official language of the Federal Government.”
If you look at everything the GOP is doing through the lens of a bunch of scared old, white people clinging to the past and terrified of change and brown people, their actions the last decade actually make sense.
Chris
You know why we don’t have an official language? Because in the days of the Founding Fathers, there were so many German Americans living here that it just wouldn’t have been practical to forcibly assimilate them like that. So we didn’t put up the language. Lo and behold, the Germans assimilated at their own pace and there was no trouble.
One sort of wishes those fucking idjits would actually look to the Founding Fathers for guidance once in a while, instead of doing as they damn well please and just invoking their name to make it kosher.
Omnes Omnibus
Christ, you already need to speak English to become a citizen (limited exceptions for old people). Oh yeah, it is a stupid law in general as well.
Sentient Puddle
How many jobs does this help create?
New Yorker
Martin Van Buren spoke Dutch at home and only learned English later in life. He wouldn’t stand a chance of being elected President today, would he?
How did my grandparents ever assimilate into American society without English as the official language and my immigrant great-grandparents speaking Lithuanian, German, or Gaelic?
Chyron HR
@Sentient Puddle:
Maybe Mr. Pockheel needs work.
R-Jud
@Sentient Puddle: Beat me to it.
I’d also ask: will enforcing this new policy involve putting more PUBLIC EMPLOYEES on the taxpayer teat?
TheMightyTrowel
Somehow I doubt that they’ll be requiring proper spelling, though. Think of all the tea-partiers they’d have to De-citizen-ize if they did.
me
On the bright side, the Republicans find new and interesting ways to alienate hispanics.
Zam
@Sentient Puddle: Obviously it gets rid of those dirty Mexicans freeing up their jobs for real pure Americans.
Corner Stone
@Sentient Puddle: I don’t have the time to research it, but I would extend this.
What bill, if any, has the Repub majority in the House put forward that could be considered to help create jobs?
If they’ve actually proposed any it must be like 20 (misc/hate) to 1 (jobs)
Culture of Truth
Republicans introduce legislation in the House and Senate to make English the official language of the U.S.
Well if this doesn’t create a million new jobs then I give up.
Sentient Puddle
@Corner Stone: I’m not entirely familiar with their legislative record to date either, but personally, I’d be surprised if they mustered up a figure any better than a goose egg.
Zifnab
I had a grandmother that was still struggling to learn English over her native Italian into the last years of her life. I guess she wouldn’t be welcome in this glorious new world we’re building.
I can already hear the shouts.
“Columbus go home! Columbus go home!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O66qDqfZm7k
jwest
In case you haven’t been paying attention, the consensus opinion of the world is that multiculturalism is another failed liberal idea that causes more harm than good.
What type of hate burns in the hearts of those on the left against immigrants who want desperately to assimilate into our country?
ppcli
@Sentient Puddle: Good point. They forgot to call this the “Job Creating English Language Only” bill. (Or the “Repeal the Job-Killing `Press one for English’ ” bill) But I’m sure they’ll fix that in committee. Once they’ve renamed it, the jobs will just appear like spring dandelions.
gene108
@Sentient Puddle: The same way the Repeal of the Job Killing Health Care Law Act created jobs…duh…
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@Corner Stone:
The Republicans don’t want any new jobs created. They want folks as miserable as possible going into the 2012 elections. Putting people back to work is the complete opposite of what they want to do.
Villago Delenda Est
There’s that laserlike focus on jobs again at the forefront of the GOP agenda!
Villago Delenda Est
@jwest:
What color is the sky in your world?
Corner Stone
@jwest:
I agree. It certainly has doomed this country for the last 200+ years.
The Moar You Know
This confirms what I’ve thought all along: God is a Mexican with a great sense of humor.
andrew
Doesn’t that sound like what they do in France?
jwest
Corner Stone,
I see you understand the concept of multiculturalism about as well as most liberals.
Culture of Truth
I would accuse the GOP of overreaching and trying to push through their more extreme ideas while they have control of the government, but there is no chance this going to be enacted. So it’s just about feeding their base and generally being assholes.
Corner Stone
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford:
I agree. And have stated far more cynical posts than yours to that same effect.
But my question is more of a PR one. Why don’t I know how many bills the R’s have submitted and how many were considered jobs related?
Where are the D politicians screaming about this? Are they, and just not getting any air?
General Stuck
@TheMightyTrowel:
Jeeebus, I hope not.
Or I’m on the first Bannana boat out of here.
Reader of the Most Depressing Blog Evah, Formerly known as Chad N Freude
@jwest: The week is just beginning, and the Stupidest Comment of the Week(tm) Award is already taken.
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
Will the English Unity Act also have the same exceptions for domestic help as the proposed Texas law? Espero que si. ¡No quiero encontrar un nueva Maria!
BGinCHI
This is out of such an old playbook it’s like they aren’t even trying any more.
Cue up the flag burning amendment.
Villago Delenda Est
@jwest:
Listen, fuckstick, you’re going to have to explain what the fuck you’re talking about, because right now you strike me as precisely the sort of person I would not cross the street to piss on to prevent from dying in a fire.
Corner Stone
@jwest: And I see you understand the concept of reality about as well as all wingnuts.
Stillwater
@Sentient Puddle: Abolishing CB rights in WI is supposed to create 250,000 new jobs. Sure that’s only at the state level, but when it catches on …
Ash Can
Oh good grief, not this old crap again. Do any of the other old-timers here (like me) remember the days when Senator Sam Hayakawa was just a harmless eccentric for his one-man crusade to make English the official language of the U.S.? Now apparently it’s a fucking hill to die on for the GOP. They can be my guest. And I’m sure they’ll make plenty of friends in the process, because they certainly won’t be able to hide the cultural chauvinism that motivates them (as opposed to the academic purism that motivated Hayakawa).
Southern Beale
We had one of these bills in Nashville. It was defeated, 57% to 43%. In Nashville, TN. Yeah, GOP good luck with this shit. For the record I did a shitload of blog posts on this, some of them were quite hilarious.
But the most important one for anyone to read from a national perspective is this one: “The Architect Of English Only.” It’s helpful for understanding the man behind the “English First” movement. His name is John Tanton and pretty much every U.S. anti-immigrant and pro-English organization — U.S. English and FAIR, for example — can be traced back to him.
Southern Poverty Law Center has tracked his connections to White Supremacists. Tanton’s famous WITAN memos from the mid-80s pretty much tell you everything you need to know.
So yeah, House Republicans. Keep on being the face of American racism. That will go well for you. /snark
Corner Stone
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel): A mi me gusta Maria! No quiero una nueva Maria tampoco!
dmsilev
@Reader of the Most Depressing Blog Evah, Formerly known as Chad N Freude: Man, you’re an optimist.
dms
Reader of the Most Depressing Blog Evah, Formerly known as Chad N Freude
@jwest: Having said that, it’s incumbent upon you to explain the concept of multiculturalism.
Southern Beale
Everything you need to know about the English First movement summed up in one awesome photo.
Chris
@jwest:
Correct. One of the few actually “exceptional” things about the United States is that, contrary to the “consensus” of most other nations, it’s a nation of immigrants who came here from every different culture on Earth.
Not surprisingly, the right wing wants to take one of the few things that are truly exceptional and worthy about the United States, and hurl it out the window.
GregB
The law should have a special provision that prevents Republican politicians from producing any bi-lingual campaign advertisements.
Reader of the Most Depressing Blog Evah, Formerly known as Chad N Freude
@Villago Delenda Est: Wrong approach. Debating team tactics are much more effective.
BGinCHI
@Southern Beale: Well, if it’s offical, that changes everything.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@jwest:
Apparently Irony is not just a pile of wrinkled shirts sitting ignored and forgotten on your kitchen table.
keestadoll
Hmm….um….well…setting aside the ones introducing this bill for a moment, what exactly is good or bad with this? How common is it to have a declared “official language?” What would passage of this bill look like exactly?
cleek
@Corner Stone:
thomas.gov says the House is up to bill #1055. too many to sift through. but most are stupid little things like the Sunset all Czars Act.
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
@Corner Stone: Luckily, there are plenty of undocumented Polish immigrants in this town. You’ll love your new, whiter, Maria.
@BGinCHI: I came too late and there was too much noise on yesterday’s thread where you asked if others found the interviewer’s probing to be over the top and trying to pry into the psychology of Manning’s father. The answer is yes. I imagine the interviewer thought he was being Mike Wallace but I found it hamfisted and absurd.
Southern Beale
In other news, nobody could have anticipated that James O’Keefe is a lying sack of shit with a partisan political agenda. Really!
General Stuck
Think only job the wingnuts care about right now, is the one they hope to replace with one of their own in the Oval Office.
jwest
Chad,
It’s the classic salad bowl versus the melting pot.
These are not obscure or complex terms I’m throwing around here. You would think that a liberal blog would at least have a few readers that would be familiar with the basics of ideas being debated for 40 years.
Linda Featheringill
I’m old, but not scared.
I’ve talked before about the TeaParty folks having failed to develop thoroughly and so are bitter and scared and angry. [Check out Eric Ericson.] These folks are developmentally retarded.
In defense of us old geezers: I recently saw a report on an opinion poll [on GOS but I can’t find it today] that broke up respondents by age [and other factors]. It seems that overall, folks in the US over the age of 65 think a lot like the rest of the country.
Ash Can
Apparently, jwest heard the news about the passing of Owsley Stanley and is commemorating him in, um, appropriate fashion. (If jwest starts commenting about the colors and movement of the keys on his/her computer keyboard, we’ll know for sure.)
Reader of the Most Depressing Blog Evah, Formerly known as Chad N Freude
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: OMG, how did I miss that? Might as well end this discussion right there.
Villago Delenda Est
@Reader of the Most Depressing Blog Evah, Formerly known as Chad N Freude:
Oh, I don’t know. This assumes that jwest can be reasoned with, which assumes facts not in evidence.
As we know with most people who sneer about “liberals”, the best debating tool is a clue by four upside the head.
A Farmer
Taking a look at the census data being released, this seems like a move made by a party run by and for stupid people. Thanks to Michele Bachmann for providing more evidence that that estimate is indeed correct.
Chyron HR
@jwest:
Help us out here, J-man. Under the Republican vision for America, are these “desperate” immigrants who don’t speak English:
A) Deported
B) Executed
C) Put into “labor camps” (and executed)
dmsilev
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: For that matter, I thought official wingnut canon was that we should ignore what the rest of the world says and thinks, or better yet, do the opposite.
Is jwest saying that we should emulate …France?
dms
catclub
@New Yorker: “He wouldn’t stand a chance of being elected President today, would he?”
Well, of course not. He’s dead, silly.
Oops, just remembered Reagan will probably be the nominee
for the GOP in 2012.
Never mind.
Xecky Gilchrist
Hey, I wonder if they’re going to officially force the cafeteria to call them Freedom Fries again?
Republican House = circus
jwest
Chyron,
If they are immigrants, they are welcomed with open arms.
If they are illegal immigrants, all of the above.
BGinCHI
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel): Hey, thanks for that. I wondered if anybody would be bothered by that whole approach. I’m surprised it didn’t bother folks. My biggest problem with that kind of thing is that we just don’t learn anything. It might have left us feeling like the father was a dick, and gave us some insight into the family dynamic, but this whole issue is much bigger than that at this point.
Dave L
This is why I can’t get too depressed about the Republican Party’s apparent strength — they’re doing everything in their power to super-glue the GOP to a shrinking demographic.
I think I remember Karl Rove making some plaintive noises back in 2008 about how it might not be a good idea to antagonize Hispanic voters, but he was quickly marched back into line. This also explains a lot of the momentum on the right for anything that would limit the franchise (mandatory photo IDs, repeal of the 17th Amendment, endless crackdowns on ‘voter fraud’) — deep down, they know their a minority.
Corner Stone
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel):
Gracias a dios!
dmsilev
@jwest: So, given your hatred of multiculturalism, can I assume that you were out picketing your local St. Patrick’s Day parade this weekend?
Or are some cultures more equal than others?
dms
MikeJ
I believe you already have to demonstrate knowledge of English for citizenship. Why would they make a new law unless it was just to whip up hatred?
Reader of the Most Depressing Blog Evah, Formerly known as Chad N Freude
@jwest: The melting pot seems somehow to have worked pretty well with immigrants maintaining their ethnic, linguistic, religious, and cultural traditions. The salad bowl has historically seemed to melt into a pot.
And the salad bowl/melting pot metaphor loses its flavor after the fifth or sixth grade.
Corner Stone
@cleek: Yeah, I skimmed opencongress and it was just too much inanity for me to spend the time on now.
I’d rather be snarking en espanol than raising my BP.
The Moar You Know
@BGinCHI: Weird. I was just listening to that yesterday, it was on my Billboard Top 100 Hits From 1980.
Reader of the Most Depressing Blog Evah, Formerly known as Chad N Freude
@Villago Delenda Est: I don’t know if this is a deliberate pun or a typo, but I love it.
Shalimar
No. Everything the GOP actually accomplishes is done for rich contributors wanting to keep as much wealth as possible and screw everyone else who thinks they deserve to make enough to live on. The scared old, white people clinging to the past and terrified of change and brown people are the manipulated sheep who vote over and over for a party that never actually rewards them for their loyalty. This crap is just theater for the gullible.
Corner Stone
@Southern Beale: It’s the double underlines that sells it.
BGinCHI
@jwest: Who decides what “illegal” means?
Has that ever changed over time? If so, what changes have there been?
MikeJ
@MikeJ: Ah, found it:
So yes, English is already required, except for older people.
Citizen_X
@jwest: No, sorry, but it seems I haven’t been paying attention to facts about “the consensus opinion of the world” that you pulled straight out of your ass.
catclub
I am in favor of making efforts to help new citizens assimilate. The GOP effort here CLAIMS to be that as well.
But I think that such efforts should be backed up with actual money and programs. Not just yelling louder so the new citizens can understand American english.
The Political Nihilist Formerly Known As Kryptik
@Southern Beale:
Not that it fucking matters anyhow. O’Keefe already won his scalps and is still being celebrated as the God of Journalism by the ‘very serious people’, so what the fuck does it matter if this comes out. I mean, not like CNN or ABC will never bother to make note of this anyhow.
Svensker
@jwest:
Because my immigrant family sure started speaking English immediately back in the 1800s when they settled in their German communities.
Citizen_X
@Corner Stone: “First rule of advertising, kid: Who cares if you can spell it, you still gotta sell it!”
Reader of the Most Depressing Blog Evah, Formerly known as Chad N Freude
@Southern Beale: I heard the report this morning. Maybe I ought to change my screen name to “Inhabitant of the Most Depressing World Evah”.
I read your blog post, and I would say that
should be
The right never speaks honestly.
Mnemosyne
Did anyone consult the people of Louisiana before deciding that conducting business in anything but English should be outlawed?
Bulworth
Great post title.
The Political Nihilist Formerly Known As Kryptik
@Dave L:
Unfortunately, their attempts at legal disenfranchisement seem to be succeeding beyond all leaps and bounds, so…hey, what do they care, they know they can keep all those dirty brown folk and stupid hippie students from voting, and even if they lose, the Governors can probably simply nullify the results anyhow, under ‘fiscal emergency’, so what the fuck do they care?
Villago Delenda Est
@Dave L:
But they’re too fucking stupid to realize that the protection of the rights of the minority from the tyranny of the majority is their best bet for their own long term survival.
They fear that when the current minorities become the majority, they’ll treat the former majority as the former majority treated them.
And it scares them shitless when they realize what assholes they’ve been.
Culture of Truth
I’ve skimmmed many of the proposed bills in Congress. I would guess fully half involve some form of repealing health reform. I’m not kidding.
MikeJ
@Mnemosyne: How about New Mexico, the state with a constitution written in Mexicanese.
Reader of the Most Depressing Blog Evah, Formerly known as Chad N Freude
@Villago Delenda Est: The objective is not to reason with jwest and his ilk (or his elk, if he has one), but to expose the stupidity of his reasoning and maybe give some of the readers of the blog ammunition to carry into the battle zone of conversations with others.
gene108
@Dave L:
I don’t buy this argument about the shrinking demographic. Old, middle class to upper-middle class, white folks vote at a much higher rate than the people the GOP is supposedly alienating.
If poor Latinos, blacks, etc. voted for Democrats in the same percentage the older white folks vote Republicans, I’d see your point. The sad fact is the people, who may side with Democrats just don’t see a point in voting. 2008 was a watershed year, because there were so many first time voters. In 2010 those voters stayed home.
Also, too ACORN’s biggest sin was the fact they deliberately set out, no only to register poor people, but to register them to vote as Democrats, which would allow Democrats to take advantage of the demographic shifts, in this country.
Villago Delenda Est
In 1776 the “consensus opinion” of the world could be argued to have been that absolute monarchy is the way to run societies.
Villago Delenda Est
@Reader of the Most Depressing Blog Evah, Formerly known as Chad N Freude:
Sorry. The raw, proud stupid makes VDE something something.
gene108
@Reader of the Most Depressing Blog Evah, Formerly known as Chad N Freude: You are wrong, sir.
The Right never gets embarrassed. To feel embarrassed, one must have a conscience.
Corner Stone
@The Political Nihilist Formerly Known As Kryptik:
And the beauty is that since NPR enabled O’Keefe by melting right into a quivering puddle of poo, the news networks have further incentive to pay attention to O’Keefe’s next shady exploit.
Southern Beale
@Reader of the Most Depressing Blog Evah, Formerly known as Chad N Freude:
Perhaps. My original post from whence that quote cometh was in regards to the Scott Walker/Fake Koch conversation. I’d say in that context Walker was captured speaking honestly.
ppcli
@Mnemosyne: Or Hawaii, which has had two official languages since statehood, and seems to be doing OK.
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
How can I get this page translated into Miami-Illinois?
Uloborus
@Corner Stone:
Almost every bill they propose creates jobs… in ConservaThink(TM). Especially the ones that lower taxes.
…I’m not really kidding. The hardcore conservative base will tell you with a straight face that Obama ruined the economy, that the ACA has already destroyed millions of jobs and raised their own taxes personally, and that busting unions is necessary for job creation. Am I wrong?
EDIT @gene108:
I disagree strongly. To feel embarrassed you must feel insecure. You must fear for your social position. If you’re VERY insecure you become hyperdefensive, whine about how you’re persecuted, and rely almost entirely on insults and threats instead of arguments.
Sure, your ‘personal guilt’ concept could work, but it’s not at all necessary.
Citizen_X
@jwest: Ha ha! Ha ha ha! Because concentration camps and mass executions are so funny!
piratedan
@jwest: and I see that you have a firm grasp on the history of this nation…. you must be a “native” american right?
Amir_Khalid
The aim of this legislation may be, not the establishment of English as such — since it is already the de facto national language in the US — but the creation of a legal justification for a long-term objective, namely the disestablishment of other languages currently being used in official settings alongside English, such as Spanish. For political reasons I need not explain to Americans.
As for jwest’s absurd claim, that the whole world agrees multiculturalism doesn’t work, who is saying that? In pretty much any country where you hear it, it comes from the far right. In Europe, from right-wing politicians whose own countries’ efforts at integrating immigrant communities have been all too often belated and half-hearted. In my own country, Malaysia, it comes from people invested in the politics of racial division.
Dave S.
Change “decade” to “40 years” and you’ll be all set.
Svensker
@Svensker:
My Swedish ancestors started their own town in the US, had their own Swedish speaking church, and did all their business in Swedish. Their kids learned English, the first generation mostly didn’t.
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
Upside: Moves like this must gall George W. He worked hard to win over the Hispanic vote and even a dim bulb like him could see that a GOP that was not winning over some portion of that voting bloc was headed for troubs.
Villago Delenda Est
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel):
Not to mention his efforts to win over the Muslim vote, which have been left in tatters by the racist idiots of the GOP.
Reader of the Most Depressing Blog Evah, Formerly known as Chad N Freude
@Amir_Khalid: The consensus opinion of the world apparently does not include the opinions of African and Asian and Latin American portions of the world.
The Moar You Know
This bill doesn’t do anything about the blacks. Why won’t somebody do something about all the black people?
Calouste
So how are you going to enforce a language as the official language if it doesn’t have an official standard?
Reader of the Most Depressing Blog Evah, Formerly known as Chad N Freude
@Svensker: This is pretty much the way it works now.
The Political Nihilist Formerly Known as Kryptik
@Reader of the Most Depressing Blog Evah, Formerly known as Chad N Freude:
But don’t you see, the immigrants we have now are Brown or Yellow. Totally different, don’t you know. Can’t have them dirty brown folk speaking their exotic moon languages in God Fearing White America.
Reader of the Most Depressing Blog Evah, Formerly known as Chad N Freude
@Calouste: What about Strunk & White? Don’t the proponents of this measure follow all of the rules of English?
MikeJ
@Calouste: I know people who can speak for hours at a time and never use a word the Académie française would recognise, yet everyone seems to agree they’re speaking French.
If you want to nominate me for the English Academy we could propose stiff penalties for anyone who uses “refudiate” in a non-ironic manner.
Villago Delenda Est
@Calouste:
The Académie Inglese will address that entire issue, toot sweet, I’m sure.
Chris
@Villago Delenda Est:
You mean keep the Muslim vote. It was a solid Republican voting bloc until the great freakout that came from the Gooper base after 9/11. Bush at least tried to reach out to them with his visit to the Islamic Center on the week of 9/11.
At the time, I didn’t think it was a great achievement. Realizing that Muslim Americans had nothing to do with the attack, mostly did not sympathize with it, and did not deserve to be collectively judged or profiled for it, just seemed like such a basic value that even Bush could get behind it. Now, with the teabaggers in full swing, it doesn’t look likely that we’ll get any major Republican even pretending to be that reasonable for quite some time.
The country is a worse place for it.
liberal
@Amir_Khalid:
Depends on how you mean by “multicultural.”
If it’s some kind of melting pot, but with a firm base established on the liberal ideals of the Enlightenment, then that’s fine.
If one takes a **totally** agnostic attitude towards viewpoints and culture, then there’s no reason to have concern about (for example) crazy-ass fundamentalist ideas about science, abortion, etc, right? Those are nothing if not cultural.
Southern Beale
@Amir_Khalid:
Yes, that’s exactly what it is. Easier to oppress people when their very language is deemed unacceptable. And you know it really REALLY seems to oppress conservatives when they call the water company and have to hear “remain on the line for English or press 2 for Spanish …” THAT’S NOT FREEDOM!
Ash Can
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel):
@Villago Delenda Est:
Amazing, isn’t it? It’s been only just over two years, and the Republicans today are doing things that make W look good. Never mind needing a drink; I need to hit myself over the head with the damn bottle.
Villago Delenda Est
@Southern Beale:
Well, when you come to the conclusion that when the wingtards talk about “freedom”, they mean it in the same sense that the Nazis talked about “socia1ism”.
It’s a marketing term, totally distinct and separate from its traditional meaning.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@jwest:
This comment makes absolutely no sense. There is zero data to back up your claims. If you are going to make inflammatory statements, you should at least have empirical data to back them.
The Political Nihilist Formerly Known as Kryptik
@Ash Can:
What’s made me go completely numb simply as a defense mechanism is the fact that they continue to win beyond all measures, not despite the crazy, but because of it.
Southern Beale
Okay, who from Associated Press reads this blog (… and then hopped over to my blog …)
Do you realize how much we despair of the media’s failure?
TooManyJens
@ppcli:
I dunno … after all, they keep covering up for our Kenyomuslim Usurper. Seems pretty suspicious to me.
nestor
@Corner Stone:
Clearly, the solution was to elect Hillary and put up with the sandwich jokes.
liberal
@keestadoll:
List of official languages by state
evinfuilt
@Southern Beale:
Well I for one am shocked, simply shocked to find out that serial liar was in fact lying once again.
Southern Beale
@evinfuilt:
Yes truly we we’re all SHOCKED …
keestadoll
@liberal: Gracias, Merci, Danke, and in Hip-Hop: [heart bump twice]
Villago Delenda Est
@cleek:
The sponsor list of that bill reads like a Who’s Who of total fucktards.
The Political Nihilist Formerly Known as Kryptik
@evinfuilt:
Don’t worry, next time it happens, I’m sure our media will be properly skeptical and scrutinize it to the utmos-
What’s that? A new video showing that Joe Biden claims to boil puppies!! Shocking, this is huge! There’s no possible way he could be simply talking about wanting a hot dog, we need to can his ass now, we can’t have PUPPY BOILERS a step away from the presidency!!
jonas
Part of this is just old-fashioned culture war stuff — if English was good enough for Jesus Christ, then it’s good enough to be our official language. The other, more pernicious goal, however, is to make public agencies and assistance less accessible to non-English speakers, by which they mean Hispanic immigrants. This includes social services like applying for food stamps, but also things like voter registration and polling information. Republicans know their only political advantage in the next decade lies in keeping younger people and minorities from exercising their civil rights. All they have is the grouchy, old redneck demographic, and that ain’t growing. The one decent political instinct George W. Bush had was that the Republican party had to lose its anti-Hispanic image. His fellow GOPers, however, seem hellbent on making it impossible for anyone but grouchy old, homophobic, science-denying rednecks to feel at home in their party.
Good luck with that.
Ash Can
@Southern Beale: Another commenter — Mnemosyne, I believe — observed when this story broke that the NPR board is stacked with W Bush appointees. In light of that, not only does it look less like whimpering capitulation on the board’s part and more like a welcome opportunity to clean house and further the agenda, it wouldn’t surprise me if there were collusion/collaboration behind the scenes.
As is the case with everything O’Keefe does, this whole series of events stinks to high heaven.
Villago Delenda Est
@The Political Nihilist Formerly Known as Kryptik:
I agree. It’s one thing to have waterboarders (of subhumans like brown skinned Muslim types) an artificially maintained heartbeat away from the presidency, but puppy boilers? For shame, America!
Omnes Omnibus
@The Political Nihilist Formerly Known as Kryptik: Boil them? No, the sick fuck said he want to to grill them.
ppcli
@Amir_Khalid: jwest has no idea what he’s talking about – the usual state for someone who gets all their “information” from Fox News and Rush. That’s why it’s hardly worth bothering to respond. Maybe if we take up a collection we can rent some better trolls.
But for the record, it is worth noting that European countries with significant minority languages have taken steps to foster them rather than eradicate them. This represents a significant change in policy in many cases. (For example, France was actively hostile to Breton, and now is trying to save it. Spain was trying to eradicate Catalan and Basque under Franco and now they are protected. Norway is striving (probably not successfully, in the long run) to keep Nynorsk from vanishing. Friesian will probably disappear in a couple more generations, but the Netherlands hasn’t done anything to help the process along. Belgium may well break up – the situation there is complicated – but not even hardcore Flemish nationalists are suggesting that a post-breakup Flemish country wouldn’t guarantee language rights to French speakers. Latvian policy is generally hostile to its substantial Russian-speaking minority, but that’s a commentary on the brutality of Soviet rule rather than any opinion about multiculturalism as such. The former Yugoslavia has fragmented in a bloody way, but that has nothing to do with language – witness the fact that the linguistic minority of Romanian speakers in the Serb province of Vojvodina has been given substantial autonomy and left alone.
I would continue, but perhaps I should allow the learnèd jwest an opportunity to indicate how these things support his informed claim that “the consensus opinion” is that “multiculturalism is another failed liberal idea”. [And to avoid subject-changing, and goalpost-moving, note that the topic here is *language*, not religion, or historical disputes. There will be other threads for that.] Well, jwest, we’re waiting….
MarkJ
I don’t think
is entirely true. The republicans are actively doing things that harm scared, old people of any color. I think what still makes the most sense is to view everything through the lense of transferring wealth to the wealthy. They just use racism and xenophobia to hide their real agenda from the old, scared white folks so they don’t catch on to what is really going on.
cleek
OT:
Happy Pi Day!
Villago Delenda Est
@cleek:
I might add that this indicates the low level of consciousness and intelligence (for want of a better word, I know it’s ironic in this context) of both the primary and the sponsors. “Czar” is a media creation as a term for these advisers, it has no official, legal status whatsoever.
They’re once again chasing a phantom of their own paranoid delusions.
BTW, the first “Czar” was appointed by a GOP occupant of the White House.
Omnes Omnibus
@ppcli:
I am predicting either crickets or gibberish in response.
Omnes Omnibus
@Villago Delenda Est: I propose we replace all “Czars” with “Poobahs.”
cleek
@Calouste:
it’s not about enforcing the language so much as saying all govt business will be done in English only. no more Spanish instructions. no more “Press 1 for English”. etc..
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
i simply don’t see how making the language jesus spoke, the the official language of the united states can harm anyone.
what could go wrong?
Omnes Omnibus
@Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal: Wait, they want everyone to learn Aramaic?
Villago Delenda Est
@ppcli:
This brings me back to my comment about majority/minority relationships. The Soviet policy was even more aggressive than the Imperial Russian policy in the Baltics…a desire to put Russians into key positions to keep a lid on those damn Baltics who tasted freedom from Russian rule for a brief period in the 20’s and 30’s and might want it back. Which they did, when the USSR broke up, and all three of them ran, did not walk, to the arms of NATO for protection…creating exactly the situation that Uncle Joe wanted to forestall by having a ring of buffer puppet states around Mother Russia. Now the “enemy” is right next door to the Russians.
So now ethnic Russians are getting some of their own medicine back at them, and understandably they don’t like it very much.
The wingtards won’t like it much when they’re on the short end of the stick, either.
Villago Delenda Est
@cleek:
Forcing me to press 1 for English is the most brutal form of totalitarian oppression imaginable. Makes Vernichtunslager look like Boy Scout day camp.
Nutella
FTFY
Omnes Omnibus
@Nutella: I’d like a sandwich. I don’t really care who makes it.
Southern Beale
@Villago Delenda Est:
In my town we don’t even have to press 1 for English. We just have to stay on the line while some furrin-speaker presses 1 for Spanish.
The horror.
Villago Delenda Est
@Omnes Omnibus:
How about “Panjandrum” as a compromise? “Poobah” is too Flinstoney for my tastes….
Uloborus
@MarkJ:
The ‘scared, old white people’ do not understand what is or is not good for them. The current conservative voting base is dominated by… well, narcissists. Dry alcoholics. People whose inability to consider anyone else’s wellbeing goes hand in hand with an inability to realistically judge their own wellbeing. They make decisions based on their immediate gut feelings and desires.
They’re certainly being manipulated by wealthy interests. They’re the marks any con man goes for, dumb and greedy. But the more the moneyed elite cultivate the wackaloons the more they’re put in a ‘herding cats’ position. Probably only the Kochs are crazy enough to actually want to shut down the government for any period of time. It’s directly against rich people’s interests.
Corner Stone
@cleek:
Actually, that could be considered jobs creating. Think of all the effort involved in re-recording all those damn voice menus, all across the govt bureaucracy.
Ash Can
@Omnes Omnibus: I recall watching a historical documentary some years ago about Jesus and his times that theorized that, besides Aramaic, Jesus would certainly have spoken Hebrew since he was Jewish, and could very well have spoken some Greek and Latin as well since he was a tradesman in an area that had foreign commerce and occupiers. The Real American Patriots (TM) would never believe that, of course. But that’s just as well — all those exploding heads would make for an awful lot of sweeping up.
Corner Stone
@Omnes Omnibus:
I’m thinking about a burrito from Chipotle. Or maybe Panang Curry from a Thai place.
Either way, I’m going ethnic. FYGOP!
Uloborus
@Nutella:
You greatly underestimate the ‘I had to stay barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen so by God you will, too’ effect. Women have a healthy representation in the conservative loon community.
cleek
@Corner Stone:
and all the work could be done by private contractors, in India! think of the savings!
ppcli
@Omnes Omnibus: mmmm… Nutella sandwiches.
ppcli
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m with you all the way on that one. Though as a compromise, I’d also accept “Grand Panjandrum”.
Edit: Oops. V.D.E. beat me to it.
The Political Nihilist Formerly Known as Kryptik
@Uloborus:
We already have the ‘I’ve had my salaries and pensions gutted by the top brass, by god, YOU DESERVE TO BE GUTTED MORE!’ mentality in full effect in this country, and they’re being rewarded through legislation, if not public opinion.
Villago Delenda Est
@Uloborus:
What was the term that Margaret Atwood used in The Handmaid’s Tale for women who bought into their own oppression, with great enthusiasm?
There are a lot of them in the wingtard ranks.
Dennis SGMM
@Ash Can:
Greek was the lingua franca of the age. Most Romans, despite their ethnocentric championing of Latin, spoke Greek as well.
catclub
@Omnes Omnibus: Caliphs
Poopyman
@Corner Stone: I just finished leftover Szechuan Shrimp and would gladly have traded for the Thai. The sole reason, though, is that it was, well, leftovers.
Pray they don’t try to make English the official food of the US of A.
gnomedad
@Southern Beale:
“English only” is patriotic, but proper spelling is elitist.
rikryah
this is a shock?
really?
Dennis SGMM
@The Political Nihilist Formerly Known as Kryptik:
Your comment made me realize that the conservatives seem to have decided that as long as there’s one cracker in the bowels of some Red state who feels less-than it’s their God-given duty to make certain that every one of the rest of (Save for the very wealthy) give him nothing to envy.
Ash Can
@Dennis SGMM: Cool. Thanks for the info. :)
Villago Delenda Est
@ppcli:
Of course, “Czar” is much easier to fit into a headline than “Grand Panjandrum” would be.
Which gets me back to the original media creation of the term.
cathyx
If we’re going to make English be the official language, then we should also make bad grammar against the law too.
TooManyJens
@Poopyman: English food isn’t even the official food of England. A few years ago, the Foreign Secretary pronounced chicken tikka masala the “national dish of Britain”.
Chris
@Dennis SGMM:
“Conservatism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance and the gospel of envy.”
Paraphrased from Winston Churchill, originally said about socialism but perfectly spot on for the present day teabaggers.
Poopyman
@TooManyJens: Was that with a side of blood pudding?
Ow. After I typed that I tried to imagine it. Bad move.
Villago Delenda Est
@cathyx:
Not to mention the spelling of a word for a low intelligence person as “Moran”.
Llelldorin
@jwest:
I was about to respond angrily to this, then remembered what site I’m on and felt stupid. Apparently I’m no longer aware of all local internet traditions.
That last comment’s pretty much the tipoff, though. If this Isn’t well-done satire, I’d be entirely shocked. (Poe’s law says it could be real, but I’m doubting it now).
Corner Stone
@Villago Delenda Est:
I call a friend of mine from Turkey “Pasha” when I’m giving him a hard time.
I think that would add a nice mooslim taint to it.
cathyx
I suppose republicans do look at this as a job making move. All the non-english speaking people will leave and then their jobs become available for the rest of us.
Ash Can
@TooManyJens: Hey, why not? It beats the stuffings out of any indigenous dishes the Brits
boil all to holy hellprepare, that’s for damn sure.MikeJ
@TooManyJens: Goodness Gracious Me used to do a bit about a group of Indian friends that would get together on a Friday night to go out for an English. They would then try to one up each other by ordering the blandest thing on the menu.
Poopyman
@Villago Delenda Est: I went to school with a couple of Morans. Good, smart kids. I’ve felt sorry for them ever since that seminal “moran” pic came out.
Note: I went to school with a larger number of morons, some of whom are probably parading around with poorly–formulated signage these days.
Chad N Freude
@Omnes Omnibus: I predict gibbering crickets. Or silence — We’ve been pwned. The guy threw a grenade into the group and got us to expend a lot of time, keystrokes, and logical invective-laden arguments that could otherwise have been spent in serious discussion.
Dennis SGMM
@Ash Can:
More than welcome. One of the positives about being old enough to retire is that I can now pursue my love of History full time. I’ll probably never write a learned monograph, it’s just fascinating to see “how it was.”
Jamey: Bike Commuter of the Gods
@Sentient Puddle: All of them.
Nutella
@Uloborus:
Yes, that’s why I say they’re afraid not of all women but of women who are not downtrodden or subservient or both.
They’re not afraid of Michelle Duggar. They are afraid of autonomous women who make their own decisions about reproduction. They’re doing their best to force them all to become Michelle Duggar.
Svensker
@Omnes Omnibus:
I’d like a Nutella sandwich. The product not the commenter, tho.
Svensker
@Ash Can:
The New Testament was all written in Greek. Paul was a very good Greek writer. John of Apocalypse/Revelations used very bad grammar.
Dennis SGMM
@Svensker:
What’s Nutella? Is it anything like Vegemite? If so, eww.
Paul in KY
@Shalimar: Word on that.
jwest
It’s more than apparent from the comments by readers who proudly tell the stories of their families immigrating to the U.S., learning the language and becoming citizens that most here agree with the conservative opinion on multiculturalism.
I would bet that each and every one of the relatives talked about think of themselves as Americans first, as opposed to the land of their origin. They took advantage of unique “melting pot” culture that the U.S. was built on, as opposed to the “salad bowl” of individual cultures and languages living in close proximity in the same country.
England, Germany and Sweden are now declaring that their experiment with multiculturalism is coming to an end. It’s time the liberals in the U.S. admit their support of this ridiculous form of guilt-driven political correctness was ill conceived.
Poopyman
OT, but apparently Larry Kudlow delivered a non-apology in typical style — by tweet:
(via TPM)
Yutsano
@Dennis SGMM: Chocolate and hazelnut spread. From Italia. Pure decadent heaven.
Chad N Freude
@Ash Can: Speakers of more than one language are unpatriotic, ¿verdad?
Poopyman
@jwest:
Show where they say this.
Svensker
@Dennis SGMM:
Srsly? No! Nutella is this creamy chocolate spread with a hint of hazelnut. Absolutely addicting. Sticks to the top of your mouth, like peanut butter, only melts into a luscious chocolate puddle before sliding down your throat like a…well, I won’t say.
It’s delish.
Dennis SGMM
@Yutsano:
Thanks. Chocky and hazelnuts? I’d better not even touch that lest they find me on the floor in insulin shock surrounded by empty jars and crusts of bread.
JITC
When a likely contender for a presidential nomination thinks that Lexington & Concord are in New Hampshire, it’s clear that the people who pass the citizenship test, in any language, know more about the U.S. than many natural born citizens do.
Svensker
@jwest:
OK. You went too far this time.
Spoof head!
I agree with a commenter upthread, tho. Let’s finish off this multiculturalism crap. From now on, I refuse to share a culture with anyone who doesn’t “believe” in evolution, etc. They want a culture war? They’ve got it. Mine’s better and I want theirs dead.
Dennis SGMM
New Rule: Anyone who begins a post with the words “It’s more than apparent…” will then go on to make shit up.
Yutsano
@Dennis SGMM: But what a way to die, man. What a way to die.
@jwest: The poultry coitus shall continue unabated.
joe from Lowell
The correct response when your wingnut relative brings up the idea of English as an official language is as follows:
“What are we, France? We need a big government office in charge of making sure people speak the way we want them to?”
nestor
@TooManyJens:
My sister and I had that for lunch on Saturday with some killer naan bread.
I can unsterstand the enthusiasm.
Mike in NC
While they’re at it, how about an Official National Religion, because you just KNOW they want to go there, too? One GOP Congressman back in the 90s even declared that “Freedom of religion doesn’t mean freedom from religion”. Then again, that guy is still probably in the House.
joe from Lowell
Dear Democrats,
Raise and call.
Offer an amendment to spend $1 billion on English as a Second Language programs, to be funded by rescinding some tax break for corporations with overseas operations.
“So, you want everyone to speak English, eh? This isn’t some partisan, culture war, racist bullshit, but an actual attempt to encourage fluency? Something you actually value? Show me your cards, asshole.”
Poopyman
@nestor: According to Attaturk, the naan is a good source of iodine for when the radioactive clouds descend on us, so double win for you!
Chad N Freude
@joe from Lowell: Wouldn’t fly. Immigrants would have to learn English in their home countries before coming to the US. We’re certainly not going to fund their takeover of the country.
Poopyman
@Mike in NC: Oh, it’s worse than that. If you Google the operative phrase you find this page. Guy’s now in the US Senate.
And I doubt that was the only campaign that used that phrase.
Chris
@jwest:
You stupid shit. NO ONE of any consequence in the United States supports the “salad bowl” model as you just defined it, or ever did, not you and not the people you call “multiculturalists.”
As for considering ourselves American first? NO FUCKING SHIT, BUCKWHEAT. The only people who contest that are the guys on your side of the aisle attacking Muslim Americans or Hispanic Americans for supposedly holding foreign allegiances, and refusing to believe otherwise no matter how many times they swear allegiance.
Ash Can
Pretty much OT, but I finally got around to ordering, and receiving, a Pets of Balloon Juice calendar. What strikes me is how delightfully humorous many of the photos are. I highly, highly recommend to anyone suffering from an overdose of shitty current events to order one of these calendars if you haven’t already, and to refer back to it and look through the photos if you do have one. It’s a sure-fire tonic.
The Political Nihilist Formerly Known as Kryptik
The most concerning thing about folks like jwest is not whether we take them seriously or whether they are serious or not. It’s the fact that the Republican party not only takes them seriously but is explicitly crafting legislation off the exact same thoughts as such trolls and actually getting them to pass.
We’re ruled by fucking trolls. And it doesn’t look to get any fucking better anytime soon.
Chad N Freude
Re Czars:
It has little to do with terminology and much to do with the administration’s ability to do stuff:
ETA: I just noticed the date on this. How come we hadn’t heard about it before now?
SiubhanDuinne
@Chyron HR:
If your eye falls on a bargain, pick it up.
The Raven
“…a bunch of scared old, white people…”
Scared old white men. Much recent political history can be explained as an expression of masculinity doubts.
Chris
@Chris:
Cont’d from above:
On the other hand, the “salad bowl” model you described applies perfectly to the models that were mentioned to you above, like Spain with the Basques, Belgium with the French and Flemmish, or Switzerland with its German, French and Italian cultures living side by side.
If that’s how you define multiculturalism, and if you think those arrangements are going to go away at any time in the near future, you’re on drugs.
Carl Nyberg
The GOP should be understood as a triangle.
One leg of the triangle is the people who bring money to the table.
One leg is the politicians and professional activists.
And the final leg is the rubes.
The people who give the money get their needs met first.
Next come the insiders. They use government to make money for themselves.
And the rubes are the people who get bones thrown to them.
The rubes don’t want specific things so much is that they want to feel that government is being used to enforce what they believe the social order should be.
They like the idea of government penalizing the wrong people.
nestor
@Poopyman:
Atatürk had quite an extensive menagerie, if I recall.
Judas Escargot (aka ninja fetus with a taste for bruschetta)
Came way too late to this thread, but I’ve only ever had one response to this issue:
“What’s English?”
Seriously. Unless they want to set up an institution to specifically define, legally, what is “valid” English, and what is not (as the French do, oddly enough), any rule like this isn’t one that will age very well.
Mnemosyne
@liberal:
Interesting that apparently English is the official language of California. It doesn’t stop them from printing voter guides and other official state material in about 10 different languages based on the voter profiles in your area. I just got mine in the mail and it was printed in Armenian, Tagalog, Spanish and English, with maybe another one or two thrown in (our Korean-American population is growing, but I don’t know if there’s enough of them to get their language added to the ballot).
catclub
@Dennis SGMM: Know Your diabetes symptoms!
Insulin shock is when you have too much insulin and blood sugar plummets. It is typically relieved by orange juice,
but Nutella would be an acceptable substitute.
“I was cured by Nutella!” might make a great line in an advertising campaign.
Chris
@Carl Nyberg:
I agree in general (elites get the benefits, rubes get the emotional satisfaction of punishing “the wrong people.”)
Just not sure I’d make a distinction between the first and second leg, because there’s such a revolving door between them. Cheney went Secretary of Defense => CEO of Halliburton => Vice-President. Bush went oilman => governor of Texas => POTUS. Lobbying, think tank and media institutions provide the interface. I’d say the money and the power are so enmeshed together it’s almost impossible to separate them at all.
MattR
@Chris: And apparently the “salad bowl” model is just fine when it comes to the Irish retaining pride in their national heritage. Or maybe I missed all of jwest complaints about the St Patrick’s Day parades.
nestor
@jwest:
jwest is/was a regular at Protein Wisdom.
That’s all you really need to know about him.
Herbal Infusion Bagger
“In case you haven’t been paying attention, the consensus opinion of the world is that multiculturalism is another failed liberal idea that causes more harm than good.”
Really? Most of the history of the world has been multicultural empires (Roman, Bzyantine, British, Austro-Hungarian, Mongol, Ottoman). Heck, the UK always has been a multicultural enterprise and still is. Tell a Scot or a Welshman there’s no cultural difference between them and and Englishman, and you’re risking physical injury.
This last century-and-a-half of nationalist ethnocentralistic shit is the aberration.
And one of the reasons the U.S. has been so successful is its avoidance of nationalistic enthnocentralistic shit.
Until you GOPer’s post-Pete Wilson, that is.
Stefan
So yes, English is already required, except for older people.
English is required for naturalization. It is not, however, required for citizenship, as it’s possible to be born within the US in a community or family where English is not the first language (for example, among the Amish, on various Indian reservations, in Hawaii, the Palin family, etc.).
asiangrrlMN
@Villago Delenda Est: For what it’s worth, I loved your initial response. I think there is room for whomping alongside reasoned debate.
Ruckus
@Villago Delenda Est:
And it scares them shitless when they realize what assholes they’ve been. Wrong tense. What assholes they are.
As we know with most people who sneer about “liberals”, the best debating tool is a clue by four upside the head.
Listen, fuckstick, you’re going to have to explain what the fuck you’re talking about, because right now you strike me as precisely the sort of person I would not cross the street to piss on to prevent from dying in a fire.
Should add, Might however stand across the street and pee just to show you that it wasn’t worth crossing the street.
Speaking of fire, you seem to be on same today.
RobNYNY1957
Up until 1917, the town where I was born in Wisconsin had two high schools, one in English and one in German. It’s still easy to find German language high school text books (on topics like American history) in the local antique stores. Our neighbor on the next farm (born around 1890) was literate in German, but not in English. The fairly slow assimiilation then became rapid when the United States entered WWI. If you walk through the cemeteries, you can see family names metamorphosing: Götz, Goetz, Getz, Gates, etc.
MikeJ
@Stefan: Yes, that’s true. The stupid Republican bill only applies to naturalized citizens (the OP says for those applying for U.S. citizenship), which is why I pointed out that the requirement they want to add already exists.
ppcli
@jwest:
C’mon jwest, you aren’t even making a basic effort. You gotta raise your game if you’re going to troll around here. Take five seconds to Google “Minority Languages in Sweden” and you’ll get:
“In 1999, the Minority Language Committee of Sweden formally declared five minority languages of Sweden: Finnish, Sami language, Romani, Yiddish, and Meänkieli (Tornedal Finnish).
The Swedish language dominates commercial and cultural life in Sweden but did not officially become the country’s main language until 2009, when a new language law entered into effect.[1] The need for this legal status had been the subject of protracted debate and proposed legislation was narrowly defeated in 2005.[2]
The minority languages have been legally recognized to protect the cultural and historical heritage of their respective speech communities. These communities are given certain rights on that basis, such as school education in their language, and its use in dealing with governmental agencies.”
Face it, you have no idea what you’re talking about, and you have no desire to change that. Ignorant fool.
Stefan
England, Germany and Sweden are now declaring that their experiment with multiculturalism is coming to an end.
Really? England is detaching itself from Great Britain and will no longer be one country with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland? I must have missed the announcement….
Yutsano
@Stefan: William will be quite put out when he has to tell Kate her new empire just got a lot smaller. Then again maybe it’s a new British austerity move.
scav
oooOO-oooh, does this single-culturalist triumphalism spell the death-knell of all expressions of local culture south of the Mason-Dixon line?
Judas Escargot (aka ninja fetus with a taste for bruschetta)
@Svensker:
They want a culture war? They’ve got it. Mine’s better and I want theirs dead.
More of this, please: We need a flag or something.
I’m thinking a red, white and blue one, with stars and stripes on it. No bars, though.
The Political Nihilist Formerly Known as Kryptik
@scav:
I hope not. I can do without the Sons of the Neo-Confederacy , but you’ll pry my southern style Fried Chicken and biscuits out of my cold dead hands.
The Moar You Know
@Chris: You have forgotten the horror that is Canada, with their two main official languages and mandated language services for the many First Nations citizens. Their solvent, transparent banking system (best in the world for the last several years), wonderful single-payer health system (that works in conjunction with private doctors if you want, let’s say, LASIK or a facelift, and who don’t give a shit if you’re a citizen or not), their hideous public schools that turn out high school graduates that consistently outperform our US college grads in every subject…the list of abominations go on and on. Truly, Canada serves as a warning beacon to all who would embrace the disgrace, nay, the sin of multiculturalism.
nestor
@jwest:
Is Jeff Goldstein still unemployed, begging for money and blaming “the haters” for his academic downfall?
I haven’t been there in a while.
Mnemosyne
@scav:
You will pry New Orleans Mardi Gras from my cold, dead hands.
Everything else you can burn.
scav
@The Political Nihilist Formerly Known as Kryptik: whew yeah, unicultural-cuisine would be a severe blow. Eternal hot-dish from sea to shining sea. shudder.
jwest
Liberals,
Sometimes you need to read things other than Balloon Juice.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12371994
http://www.france24.com/en/20110210-multiculturalism-failed-immigration-sarkozy-live-broadcast-tf1-france-public-questions
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/27/world/europe/27sweden.html
Don’t feel bad. We know you want to do good, but every time you try something that’s meant to help you end up causing misery, poverty and ignorance. That’s just what liberals are about.
Stefan
If you walk through the cemeteries, you can see family names metamorphosing: Götz, Goetz, Getz, Gates, etc.
There are tens of millions of Americans who assume they’re of English descent who are actually partly ethnically German, as it was fairly easy for the Germans to slowly metamorphose their last names to more “American” sounding ones. Along with the aforementioned Götz/Gates, we have, to name, just a few, Köster/Custer, Schneider/Snyder/Tailor/Taylor, Schmidt/Smith, Saenger/Singer, Müller/Miller, Fischer/Fisher, Weber/Weaver, Schröder/Carter, Neumann/Newman, König/King, Braun/Brown, Weiss/White, Schäfer/Schaefer/Shephard, Koch/Cook, Peters/Peters, Walter/Walter (pronounced “Walter” rather than “Valter”), etc.
Ruckus
@Nutella:
Don’t make the mistake to believe that old white women can’t be as insane as their men.
When I see teatard gatherings, I see plenty of old white women, waving signs. Hell two of their leaders are not that old, but they are white and crazy women.
Ruckus
I’m still trying to understand why it’s English as the official language. Why not American. I don’t want to have to learn another language, why can’t I just speak the one I do now?
The Political Nihilist Formerly Known as Kryptik
@Ruckus:
Because American gave us ‘frenemy’ and ‘refudiate’. And we can all agree that linguistics are the worse for them.
ppcli
@jwest: None of those comments on multiculturalism have anything to do with *language*, which is what we are talking about here. So you remain an ignorant fool, who is in addition incapable of remaining on topic.
When there is a thread about general culture, we’ll point out the ways in which you are clueless about “multiculturalism” in that respect too. But discussing it here will just give you more fog to operate in, so we’ll stick to the topic.
Moran.
Chris
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110314/ap_on_re_eu/eu_italy_migrants_le_pen
Topical reference above: FN leader Marine Le Pen says Europe can’t handle immigration, and the article notes that she’s accused of racism. Predictably, the comments section is overflowing with “well the nice lady’s right, why are liberals so mean to her?”
Apparently, no one’s aware that the reason the nice lady and her party are considered racist is because they spent the last thirty years in thrall to a Holocaust denier who accused the last president of being “on the payroll of Jewish organizations.” Nope, it’s just a party unfairly maligned by liberal meanies.
Can’t say I’m surprised that American conservatives would feel such an affinity for European fascists: William F. Buckley was wild about Franco, and Hitler and Mussolini had quite a few supporters themselves.
MikeJ
The BNP gets 1.83% of the vote, and yes, they really hate furriners.
Annamal
New Zealand has English as an official language without too much trouble(we print most official forms in other languages as well for the sake of convenience).
Of course Maori is an official language as well and anyone can demand that their official documents/court proceedings/parlimentary notes etc be rendered to them in Maori, I suspect Native Americans have just as good a claim as Maori to have their languages on official federal documents and they have a *lot* more languages.
So yeah if they get away with this bone-headed demand that every single living language of your original inhabitants be recognised.
Ruckus
@The Political Nihilist Formerly Known as Kryptik:
You do understand I left off the /snark tag?
Woodrowfan
check the comments on the original story. The first one claims that the bill “wreaks of common sense.” Ah teabaggers. gotta love their accidental ironies…
schrodinger's cat
Yeah right, the GOP loves legal immigrants, that’s why we haven’t had comprehensive immigration reform, which will make life easier for many who have been approved for legal immigration but exist in a legal limbo, waiting for change of status.
nestor
@jwest:
Goldstein’s wife left him after Pajamas Media collapsed.
He’s since deteriorated into a bitter troll, paid for by your tax dollars.
schrodinger's cat
@jwest: What proof do you have for this assertion?
and the implied assertion that immigrants of a more recent vintage don’t think of themselves as Americans first.
Ash Can
@jwest: Hurrah! Some decent links to reputable news sources!
From the first link, David Cameron makes a speech in which he throws a bone to the English Defence League, and disagreement among British politicians and cultural community groups ensues.
From the second link, Nicolas Sarkozy declares “multiculturalism” a failure, but there are no details as to how he defines “multiculturalism” or why he believes it has failed; there’s just a vague reference about how France needs to be more French.
From the third link, racism and xenophobia are rearing their ugly heads in Sweden.
And jwest considers all of this as evidence that the worldwide consensus is that “multiculturalism” is 1) a liberal idea, 2) a failure, and 3) the reason we need to make English the official language of the US.
Oh, and we’re the racist haters, not jwest.
Paul in KY
@jwest: Hey dumb-ass, the ethnicities ‘melting’ into a USAgoo are all adding something to the concoction that is the USA. That ‘something’ each ethnicity adds is going to necessarily change the ‘flavor’ of that which is in ye old melting pot.
To me, ‘white protestant asshole’ was getting sorta bland. So I’m all for new flavors!
Chris
Oy, gevalt. (Oh noes! Yiddish! Alert Fox News before this cultural threat engulfs us all!)
F everyone’s I (and coming from someone who has a French passport as well as an American one)… “multiculturalism has failed” is dogwhistle for “Mooslins are scary.” Which works wonderfully as an appeal to racist voters, just as it does here and just as it did years ago with Jews, East Europeans, or any other group that was seen as too alien.
But I didn’t read anything in there saying that Europe was going to repeal the “several cultures living in the same country” model that exists in Britain, Spain, and Switzerland. So the point stands. Whether they choose to admit it or not, many European nations are multicultural models along the salad bowl line and aren’t about to change that.
We’re still waiting for evidence to the contrary.
jl
@jwest:
You post two proclamations by conservative politicians, and a story about a debate largely about tension arising from the mismatch between jobs and refugee immigrants in Sweden.
Sweden has been very open to refugee immigrants, and you can see it on the streets and in the clubs. Seeing a service workers in Sweden who are from the Horn of Africa, or the Balkans is like seeing Hispanics in similar situations in some parts of the US.
BTW, the tensions over immigration are not new in Sweden. They have been going on for some time, for more than ten years. Their political correctness laws about display of the Swedish flag, national anthem, etc. (far far stronger than anything that would be tolerated here) were irritating Swedes I knew who were very proud of their countries openness to refugees.
Your links did not impress me.
Edit: Maybe you can post a link to that report with the typo that mistakenly multiplied the crime rates by ten in Southern Sweden and started erroneous triumphant yelps among the hating class that Sweden had turned into a hellhole. That would be fun.
Chris
@Ash Can:
That’s the key.
None of these people ever point to any concrete case of “multiculturalism having failed.” “Multiculturalism,” like “political correctness,” has become a dog-whistle for “fucking liberals who love nonwhite people too much,” and a way to appeal to racist voters. It doesn’t mean anything in concrete terms, other than appealing to a vague sense of “too many Mooslins running about” and the fear that it generates among people with racial anxieties.
rumpole
The best part of that story is the comments, at least a quarter of which are either (1) genius-level snark or (2) written by cretins blissfully unaware of the parody they create. The very -first- post by a creative genius named “libtards” states (you can’t make this up) that the bill “wreaks” of common sense. (It’s reeks. Seriously. Look it up.”
To only be topped by the author’s “correction”
@MAY…Actually you are wrong. “WREAKS: to carry out the promptings of (one’s rage, ill humor, will, desire, etc.), as on a victim or object: He wreaked his anger on the office staff.”
“REEKS: –noun
1. a strong, unpleasant smell.”
How did you do on YOUR test? ”
Your modern republican party: double-down on the stupid.
Chris
@Paul in KY:
This too.
It’s interesting that today, the Catholic Church is the leading institution in the fight against abortion, while our Middle Eastern policy is largely dominated by our solidarity with “the Jewish State.” Seems like Catholics and Jews (the bulk of immigration a hundred years ago) have rubbed off on “Real America” in the process at least as much as it’s rubbed off on them.
jl
@Mnemosyne:
California has two official languages: English and Spanish. That bilingual provision was in the original state constitution because the California revolt and admission to the US required support from the Spanish speaking upper class Californios.
That is why, if you look, official documents and notices, etc. always exist in an English and Spanish version.
I think there have been several attempts to get rid of Spanish as an official language, but they have failed.
So, BJers, behold the hellhole of California, a bilingual state. We are the circling down the same sewer hole of doom into choas and misery as Canada and Switzerland! Weep for California, the multicultural failed state!
jl
@Chris: Well, haven’t the French always told themselves that they needed to be ‘more French’?
Southern Beale
This thread may be dead but this link seems appropriate. From Salon:
Haley Barbour’s morning e-mail list full of tasteless jokes
Hit the link for a sample. Yeesh. I wonder how many Americans even remember who Janet Reno is? It’s like the GOP wants to hit the “re-set” button back to the Clinton years. Yeah that whole Bush decade was just a bad dream!
Ash Can
@Chris: Bingo. Flash — conservative politicians pander to nationalistic groups in their respective countries in the face of economic sluggishness and elevated unemployment rates — details and film at eleven. And this is a “worldwide consensus” to jwest. Pretty much explains everything, really.
scav
@Chris: Indeed, Sarkozy, Mr. Popularity of France, oh now there’s a source for a rational, non-flailing, explanation of European attitudes. Berlusconi up next?
fasteddie9318
Wha? Racist Troll is racist AND trolling? I’m stunned!
Southern Beale
“Multiculturalism has failled.” Great we all agree. Now, what do you want for lunch: Pizza, sushi or tacos?
Ash Can
@scav: I’m sure jwest will be happy to furnish us with a link to an article on Berlusconi as proof that the liberal concept of feminism is, by worldwide consensus, a failure.
gwangung
I love taking sucker bets.
jwest, you have absolutely no clue.
jl
@Southern Beale: I would like Korean tacos, wrapped in an Australian ballot. Thnx.
Omnes Omnibus
@Villago Delenda Est: How about Tsar?
Chris
@Ash Can:
I know, right?
It’s not by far the worst I’ve read: actually, Jwest is quite moderate. Try this (http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/225876/cowboys-and-secret-agents/bill-whittle) from the National Review: one of PJTV’s stars writes an article about how he and a paranoid European had a conversation once in which they agreed that the Iraq war was awesome (which should tell you everything you need to know about how representative this “European” was) and it’s scary that Muslims are taking over Europe.
Bursting with pride, the PJMer describes her as a secret agent in the war against Eurabia, and warns that if her real name appeared in the National Review, she’d be fired for her American sympathies.
This is the “news” upon which movement conservatives form their opinions of Europe. You’re almost better off being a no-holds-barred loon in the Pat Buchanan or Ron Paul varieties.
gwangung
Biggest problem with multiculturalism, IMAO, is unprepared white people screaming “Argh! Argh! Brown people’s cooties!”
Svensker
@scav:
Midwesterner?
Origuy
The BBC hasn’t stopped broadcasting in Welsh or Scottish Gaelic, nor is are the bi-lingual signs in Cymru or the Gàidhealtachd coming down.
Bill
Can someone please explain to me what multiculturalism has allegedly “failed” at.
Creating a multicultural country? That seems ridiculous. Clearly we are multicultural.
Creating a better life for people of all cultures? Also seems ridiculous. People come to the US for opportunity, recognizing the contirbutions of their cultures is a positive.
What exactly did multiculturalism allegedly “fail” at?
HyperIon
@jwest asserted:
linky?
scav
@Svensker: I’ve dabbled.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@gwangung:
…despite the fact that the unprepared white people have had plenty of time to get themselves prepared-multiple generations in fact. Hence the term Zenophobia, describing the problem that no matter how hard brown folks try to assimilate into the white culture, with each generation they only seem to make it halfway to that destination.
Omnes Omnibus
@scav: Dabbled in Midwesternism? Ever been to a central Wisconsin funeral? Hot dish in a church basement.
The Political Nihilist Formerly Known As Kryptik
@Ruckus:
Yeah, but why pass up a chance to bag on ‘refudiate’ and ‘frenemy’?
Southern Beale
@Origuy:
Yeah that’s a good point. Trying to apply that to America makes my head hurt. Let’s see … we have a party advocating “individual freedom” and “personal rights” at every turn while at the same time arguing for national homogeneity. Well it wouldn’t be the first time the right made no sense.
gwangung
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: Well, I thought it a more polite term than a few others…(You know how polite we Orientals, like me and Asianmngrrl, are….).
jl
Benjamin Franklin was right about those &^%$! Germans. They took over.
Why, the last time I was in Washington DC there was this Pennsylvania Dutch family sitting on the capitol steps, just jibber jabbering away in that weird German dialect they speak! The nerve! Like they owned the place.
You limousine liberals can laugh, but wait until your daughters are forced to eat funnel cakes.
Which reminds me that I have to get in a funnel cake at a county fair this summer. But it’s an outrage anyway.
Omnes Omnibus
@Southern Beale: You are free to be “normal.”
scav
@Omnes Omnibus: Well, Michigan funeral in a similar basement. Wedding outside of Peoria, various town foodstuff-days in eastern IA, downstate IL and MO. Funeral in IL doesn’t count as the meal was on the ground floor and was pure Czech.
Omnes Omnibus
@scav: Close enough. The upside is that weddings tend to have a lot of free booze.
Yutsano
@gwangung: Heh.
@Omnes Omnibus: As long as you remember “normal” is a cycle on a washing machine.
toujoursdan
Canada has two official languages, officially supports several more (aboriginal and Inuit) languages and on top of that prints ballot material in another 20 immigrant languages.
http://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=vot&dir=eth&document=index&lang=e
And conducts advertising in them too:
http://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=ele&dir=pas/40ge/ad&document=index_eth&lang=e
Where’s the multicultural failure here?
Chris
@scav:
Specifically about Sarkozy, one last comment in this format, I promise, well, last for a while anyway:
When Sarkozy won in 2007, he peeled away a certain amount of supporters from Le Pen and his Front National. In the recent midterm elections, the FN won back the ground it had lost. Sarkozy needs to win back that little group of voters, the people at the border between center-right and far-right, to shore up his votes for the reelection campaign in 2012. That explains the hardening you’ve seen recently on immigration and related issues.
The dynamics kind of remind me of Nixon in 1968: having to be ostensibly racist enough to steal Wallace voters, but not so ostensibly racist as to alienate the rest of the country. It’s a tightrope, course corrections are constant.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
Seeing as how we are talking about the English language in this thread, if you want some idle amusement do a little reading about the attempt which Theodore Roosevelt made on August 27 1906 to ram thru a change in the standardized spelling of 300 common words via a unilateral directive to the Govt. Printing Office to use the revised spelling. Then ask yourself how wingnuts would react today if President Obama were to try something similar.
jl
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: I’ll wait for the Beck rant on the totalitarian/Progressive threat of the Simplified Spelling Board, and Obama’s secret plans to revive it.
fasteddie9318
@Southern Beale:
You liberal multi-culturalist failure, you. I want only real American food, which I guess means corn, beans, and squash for me. Which sucks because I’m not a huge bean lover.
Ash Can
@Bill:
Turning brown people white.
@HyperIon: jwest was kind enough to supply three of them @ #231. Trouble is, they don’t really accomplish what s/he thinks they do.
jl
@fasteddie9318: Hoecakes with maple syrup, cabbage, salt pork and whiskey! Works for me.
Edit: and coffee roasted in a fry pan on the stove top, and then boiled. More more of this fancy pants Yurrpean coffee.
Omnes Omnibus
@jl: Turkey and venison.
jl
@Omnes Omnibus: OK, that’s good too. Except, for my menu, I think for most of the country, it was hoecakes and molasses.
Let’s get back to all American basics.
Edit: and I forgot about squirrel, brains and all.
Villago Delenda Est
@Poopyman:
Sorry, not buying the non-apology apology for the Ferengi fuckstick Kudlow blurting out what he REALLY thinks.
He should be fired. At once.
uptown
Are those GOP idiots in the Senate and House going to be the first ones to take the English language tests? I think they are in for a big surprise.
Villago Delenda Est
@Omnes Omnibus:
My Russian history prof would definitely approve of “Tsar” as opposed to “Czar”, which he’d consider a much more accurate transliteration of the term.
Especially in the context of the absolutist ruler of all the Russias, as opposed to US media shorthand for a superadvisor to the President of the United States (one that, not being a cabinet level official, is not subject to Senate approval).
bemused
@uptown:
Ha, I was just thinking the same thing. Written and oral English language skills and comprehension tests would be vastly entertaining. No wonder they want to do away with public schools. They didn’t do much for them.
Villago Delenda Est
@rumpole:
One wreaks havoc on someone who offends you by reeking.
keestadoll
@Southern Beale: Thank FSM SOMEONE brought up food choice. As far as I’m concerned, THAT’S the whole thing.
Mnemosyne
@jl:
Ah, okay. The Wikipedia article could have been more clearly written, because it seemed to imply that English was the only official language for the states listed.
jl
@Mnemosyne: Yes, it is confusing. I was puzzled when I first looked at it, then noticed what seemed to be an unrelated set of lists below.
jl
BIG OOPSIE!
I searched, but couldn’t find anything saying that English and Spanish were both official languages of California.
According to this site, California specified that official documents would be in English and Spanish only from 1850 to 1879. The revised state constitution got rid of Spanish in state business.
http://www.languagepolicy.net/archives/1879con.htm
Either I misrememberd or or was mistaught in HS about this. But I don’t know how reliable this group is, so will try to find out. I guess I could read the state constitution, but is about as thick as War and Peace.
Paul in KY
@Chris: Excellent point, Chris. Back when I was a kid, the Catholics were the Liberal Hippies.