Pithy thoughts
Last night's AFI television special-- a countdown this time of the 100 most "inspiring" moments in American film-- was not bound to be one of my favorite categories, but after almost a decade of these annual compilations, it has to be getting difficult to come up with new ideas for rankings. (For the record, "It's a Wonderful Life" topped the list.) The countdown I hope they have the guts to do is the 100 sexiest moments on film, but it will never happen. My brother suggested the subtitle "100 Years, 200 Tits," and I like "100 Flicks, 100 Clits." I guess for you ladies an even better rhyme would be "100 Flicks, 100 Dicks."---
This afternoon on National Public Radio, they suggested research indicates as many as 9 in 10 people of Mexican descent living in the United States have at least a functional understanding of the English language. What this means is that these people have a choice as to how they receive their news and information. And guess which language they're choosing? In Miami, Houston, and Los Angeles, the evening news on Univision outscores the news offerings on CBS, NBC, and ABC in the Nielsons, perhaps because they're the only news source actually talking about issues that would be important to Hispanics, and those issues include more than just immigration.
This remarkable adherence to "traditional" American customs also makes one wonder why our nationalists are still so concerned about the potential loss of a so-called "common language." I suspect what they really fear is bilingual competitors in a Darwinian culture, and if that's so, which population is it that should really be carrying the stereotype of being lazy?
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Whenever I hear the phrase "faith-based initiatives," I think Al Qaeda.
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I'm not much for rock-n-roll you've probably surmised by now, but there are two great rock songs--"Murder Incorporated," by Bruce Springsteen, and the closing theme of "WKRP in Cincinnati," the one with the indecipherable lyrics.
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One of the underdiscussed factors in George W. Bush's disastrous presidency is his coping as a recovering drunk. All the traits are there-- he bullies, lashes out at the slightest bit of criticism ("You're either for us or against us"), and believes that Jesus guides his every action. Let's resolve to learn from our mistakes: no more "12-step" presidents.
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I think TV news anchors and meteorologists have officially run out of things to say about the weather.
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Any ideas where that missing $8.8 billion of American cash in Iraq will turn up?
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Another factory closing in Iowa: the Rubbermaid plant, which employed 500 people in Centerville. In a statement, Governor Vilsack disclosed that the company even rejected one of the chief executive's official state bribes. The governor could log full-time hours simply writing his "I was saddened to hear" letters to spurned Iowa communities. No wonder he polled fourth in his own state as a potential Democratic candidate for president.
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If you find yourself voting for baseball's All-Star Game, keep in mind that, despite missing the last two weeks, Albert Pujols still leads both leagues in RBIs by nine, and in home runs by two.
posted by CM @ 6:52 PM
3 Comments:
Call me xenophobic, racist, nationalistic… but I like the idea of a "common language" in the U.S. There are approximately 176 language spoken in the U.S. If you start including a second language on street signs, election ballots, etc., how many do you have to include before the lawyers stop suing you for discrimination because you missed a language? In how many languages should a U.S. police officer have to learn to say "proof of insurance please." I don't like trying to engage in small talk with my neighbors and receiving the deer in the headlights look in return. Which languages does a U.S. citizen living in the U.S. have to learn to be accepted as a good citizen of the world?
When I hear the phrase "faith-based initiatives", I think of stories like this about Catholic Charities. TA
"Which languages does a U.S. citizen living in the U.S. have to learn to be accepted as a good citizen of the world?"
Evidently, English.
Catholic Charities has done a lot of great work for decades. "Faith-based initiatives" and Al Qaeda are only recent concepts. The Bush administration came up with the "faith-based" phrase to help force religious doctrination into public institutions and funnel tax money into churches-- Christian churches.
Worrying about what language gets spoken is a non-issue. It's human nature to blend in and assimilate as the world becomes a smaller place. English is still dominant in the world media and thus will continue to take over the world for that reason - regardless of the relatively small geographic pockets that other languages move in and out of.
Besides, English infiltrated Latin America long ago so let's keep our history of imperialism in perspective. Still, I can't believe people are trying to speak Spanish in places called El Paso and San Francisco!
If any Americans are that offended by the occasional influx of something else, I guess I can see the reasoning in legalizing the native language, but how do we know which one to choose? Lakota? Apache? Cherokee? Comanche?
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