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Wednesday, May 24, 2006

No Habla

You know, when these butt-hurt morons value English enough to use it properly themselves, then maybe they can sanctimoniously lecture the world on whose language it is and where it must be spoken. A great many Americans cannot spell worth a shit, nor can they reliably pronounce even simple words such as "nuclear" or "realtor". Even the use of apostrophes and commas seems to be problematic for some.

Look, I don't much care for having tax dollars used to print voting ballots in Tagalog and Ukrainian either. But I'm a hell of a lot more irritated when I encounter someone who was born and raised here, went through the school system and got a diploma, and still cannot speak or write extemporaneously or coherently. The very least I expect from a self-appointed Crusader To Save The English Language For Jeebus-Fearin' Amerkins is absolute command and control of the sacred mother tongue.

Of course the language issue, like the immigration issue overall, is just a proxy for deeper fears. Not racism or xenophobia necessarily, but more of a general malaise, an apprehension. It's the cognitive dissonance that infuses the air; it's people who may not have a master's in macro, but they know that 4% GDP growth doesn't mean shit when real wages have stagnated and prices have gone up more than 4% (far more, in the case of gas, obviously).

Immigration is just this year's gay marriage, another phony issue contrived to whip up the ignorant cracker sentiment. So much for the GOP peeling off the Hispanic vote from the Democrats. In the meantime, let's find our priorities, people. I find confederate flags a lot more offensive than Mexican ones, and I'm still nowhere near bothered enough to worry about them or vote on them. Get a grip already.

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