Showing posts with label languages. Show all posts
Showing posts with label languages. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Evolution of language
The evolution of language, even in a relatively short period of time, is interesting. I'm presently reading the late Edward Said's Culture and Imperialism. The prologue, written in mid-1992, makes several references to "Lebanonization," referring to the fracturing of societies. If written today, he surely would've used "Balkanization."
Sunday, August 08, 2010
George W. Bush was a socialist
"When I give food to the poor, I'm called a saint. When I ask why they are poor, I'm called a communist." -Archbishop Dom Helder Camara.
I was biking home from work today when I saw a bunch of signs tacked to telephone poles, all of which read, "Obama is a socialist and hates our nation" or something similarly unhinged. It's not really breaking news that respect has pretty much evaporated in our political dialogue. It's no longer a dialogue, but a series of independent monologues, loudly and furiously screamed. E pluribus unum, no more. But what I've noticed lately is how language has become another casualty of our national rage.
Epithets have become devoid of meaning, other than being an expression of anger. "Obama is a socialist" or "Bush is a Nazi" or "The Tea Party is fascist" don't really have anything to do with accurately reflecting socialism, Nazism or fascism. The appellations now just mean that a speaker doesn't like the object of his hatred.
Take the "Bush is a Nazi" remark. Some call the Bush administration incompetent. I think that undersells their intentions. In my opinion, BushCheney administration did great harm the country, the economy and the Constitution. It had definite authoritarian and hypernationalist instincts as well as a penchant for international aggression. But the sum of this did not make them Nazis or tantamount to them.
The Nazis more than an ordinary, aggressive dictatorship; there are hundreds of those throughout history. What made the Nazis different is that they represented well-planned, large scale and quite intentional mass murder. The BushCheney administration was venal but I think it would've been more than happy to conquer Iraq and its natural resources without the deaths of 700,000 or more Iraqis. The Nazis were purists for a psychopathic ideology; the BushCheney folks were just plain greedy and willing to stop at nothing. Not good, but not the same.
The "Obama is a socialist" slur is another that purges language of any meaning. 'Socialist' has always meant something along the lines of redistributing wealth from the rich to the working class for the purposes of a creating a more equal society. You can argue whether that's good or bad, useful or harmful, but this is what the word has traditionally meant. But in our culture of meaningless language, the name-calling simply means "I don't like him."
The bank bailout takes money from the working class to subsidize rich banks and bankers. Obamacare takes money from the working class and forces them to give to rich, private insurance conglomerates. The health care, pharmaceutical and banking industries overwhelming preferred 'donating' (investing) its money to candidate Obama rather than candidate McCain, so it's little surprise that the current president is so beholden to them.
But these things take money from the working class to give to the rich for the purposes of creating a more unequal society. This is corporatism. It's not socialism. In fact, it's the complete opposite of socialism.
Yet, in the current political culture, Nazi means any enemy of civil liberties and socialist means anyone who supports the use of government for any purpose.
Using those 'contemporary' definitions, Woodrow Wilson was a Nazi and George W. Bush was a socialist.
The words don't really matter. It's the incoherent rage, the idea is that my side is uniquely virtuous and the other side inherently malicious, that's supposed to resonate. It's the intent, not the specifics, that matter.
But while I realize this makes me hopelessly anachronistic, words SHOULD matter.
No matter how much the hateful (Ann Coulters), the shrill (Rachael Maddows) or both of the above (Glenn Becks) may loathe it, their ideological opponents are and will remain Americans. America belongs to all of us, not just any one of us.
There have always been disagreements, often bitter, sometimes bloody, over policy decisions in this country's history. There have always been disagreements about what sort of America its citizens want to live in. But (in the non-bloody cases) the way these disagreements get resolved is by people talking, even arguing, but eventually listening and then trying to come to some sort of consensus.
Americans may honestly disagree over what should be done. But how can they find that consensus if they can't even agree on what basic words mean?
Or maybe crushing honest citizens in the name of ideological is more important than finding that broad but imperfect consensus. Love America by hating Americans.
Welcome to 2010!
I was biking home from work today when I saw a bunch of signs tacked to telephone poles, all of which read, "Obama is a socialist and hates our nation" or something similarly unhinged. It's not really breaking news that respect has pretty much evaporated in our political dialogue. It's no longer a dialogue, but a series of independent monologues, loudly and furiously screamed. E pluribus unum, no more. But what I've noticed lately is how language has become another casualty of our national rage.
Epithets have become devoid of meaning, other than being an expression of anger. "Obama is a socialist" or "Bush is a Nazi" or "The Tea Party is fascist" don't really have anything to do with accurately reflecting socialism, Nazism or fascism. The appellations now just mean that a speaker doesn't like the object of his hatred.
Take the "Bush is a Nazi" remark. Some call the Bush administration incompetent. I think that undersells their intentions. In my opinion, BushCheney administration did great harm the country, the economy and the Constitution. It had definite authoritarian and hypernationalist instincts as well as a penchant for international aggression. But the sum of this did not make them Nazis or tantamount to them.
The Nazis more than an ordinary, aggressive dictatorship; there are hundreds of those throughout history. What made the Nazis different is that they represented well-planned, large scale and quite intentional mass murder. The BushCheney administration was venal but I think it would've been more than happy to conquer Iraq and its natural resources without the deaths of 700,000 or more Iraqis. The Nazis were purists for a psychopathic ideology; the BushCheney folks were just plain greedy and willing to stop at nothing. Not good, but not the same.
The "Obama is a socialist" slur is another that purges language of any meaning. 'Socialist' has always meant something along the lines of redistributing wealth from the rich to the working class for the purposes of a creating a more equal society. You can argue whether that's good or bad, useful or harmful, but this is what the word has traditionally meant. But in our culture of meaningless language, the name-calling simply means "I don't like him."
The bank bailout takes money from the working class to subsidize rich banks and bankers. Obamacare takes money from the working class and forces them to give to rich, private insurance conglomerates. The health care, pharmaceutical and banking industries overwhelming preferred 'donating' (investing) its money to candidate Obama rather than candidate McCain, so it's little surprise that the current president is so beholden to them.
But these things take money from the working class to give to the rich for the purposes of creating a more unequal society. This is corporatism. It's not socialism. In fact, it's the complete opposite of socialism.
Yet, in the current political culture, Nazi means any enemy of civil liberties and socialist means anyone who supports the use of government for any purpose.
Using those 'contemporary' definitions, Woodrow Wilson was a Nazi and George W. Bush was a socialist.
The words don't really matter. It's the incoherent rage, the idea is that my side is uniquely virtuous and the other side inherently malicious, that's supposed to resonate. It's the intent, not the specifics, that matter.
But while I realize this makes me hopelessly anachronistic, words SHOULD matter.
No matter how much the hateful (Ann Coulters), the shrill (Rachael Maddows) or both of the above (Glenn Becks) may loathe it, their ideological opponents are and will remain Americans. America belongs to all of us, not just any one of us.
There have always been disagreements, often bitter, sometimes bloody, over policy decisions in this country's history. There have always been disagreements about what sort of America its citizens want to live in. But (in the non-bloody cases) the way these disagreements get resolved is by people talking, even arguing, but eventually listening and then trying to come to some sort of consensus.
Americans may honestly disagree over what should be done. But how can they find that consensus if they can't even agree on what basic words mean?
Or maybe crushing honest citizens in the name of ideological is more important than finding that broad but imperfect consensus. Love America by hating Americans.
Welcome to 2010!
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Bits and pieces
LA VICTIMA DE DELITO HABLA ESPANOL
A few towns in rural Washington County, NY recently passed laws mandating English as the sole official language of government communication; though to his credit, the Green mayor of village of Greenwich, David Doonan, categorically refused to entertain such a proposition.
Recently, police in Saratoga Springs responded to a stabbing near the city's famous racetrack. But officers who responded to the scene could not communicate with the victim or any of the witnesses, because they spoke only Spanish. The track attracts a lot short-term workers during the summer, many from Latin American countries.
In response, the city's police department is implementing Spanish-language training for its force and is contemplating giving preference to bilingual officers in future hiring.
It's a good thing for the safety of city residents that the Saratoga Springs PD isn't hampered by an English-only law preventing them from effectively investigating crimes.
***
LEGISLATORS ON VACATION FROM THEIR NON-WORK
In my last post, I lamented the poor state legislators who, unpaid due to the unfinished budget, have to survive on a meager $171 a day per diem. I guess some of them are managing to survive.
Gov. Paterson called a special session of the legislature yesterday and the Senate merely gaveled in and out rather than do its job and work on a budget. The majority Democrats complained that the governor called the session when several of them were on vacation and thus wouldn't have the votes to pass anything anyway. Of course, if they'd passed the budget when it was due on April 1, or any time since, there wouldn't be an issue. The idea that they felt they had done anything to earn a vacation is, in and of itself, appalling.
The outspoken social conservative Democrat Sen. Ruben Diaz blasted the governor for wasting time and money. In other words, he said it's the governor's fault the he and his colleagues refuse to do their jobs.
***
SPEAKING OF USELESS POLITICIANS...
Given the morass in the legislature, it's not surprising little talent is seeking the governor's mansion. Democratic attorney general Andrew Cuomo, the consummate insider, is running as a fake agent of change. I think his campaign handlers have banned him to not mention one single specific or proposition of something, limiting him to mealy-mouthed vague platitudes. His Republican opponents, Rick Lazio and Carl Paladino, are even emptier suits. They've chosen the demagogue route.
Far behind Cuomo in the polls, they have seized on attempts by a moderate Muslim group to build a mosque and community center near Ground Zero in a pathetic attempt to get someone to pay attention to them. They've both expressed support of using eminent domain to block the construction. It's bad enough they're focusing on this issue rather than the state's fiscal mess or corruption in Albany. But now we have the spectacle of so-called conservatives and opponents of big government launching an assault not only on freedom of religion but also on private property rights.
At least the Greens are offering a serious candidate for governor worth your attention, Howie Hawkins, as well as a number of other good candidates for statewide and local office. I've heard Hawkins speak several times and was impressed. He's not nearly as eloquent as the aforementioned empty suits but he's not afraid to get specific and offer concrete ideas, not just empty mom-and-apple-pie platitudes. The current governor is doing a decent job, considering the entrenched opposition. His successor needs both a brain and a spine and Hawkins is, to my knowledge, the only candidate with both.
***
OIL COMPANIES HAVE RUINED AFRICA TOO
The catastrophic spill in the Gulf of Mexico has made Americans aware of the environmental and economic devastation caused by reckless practices of petroleum multinationals. People of the Niger Delta region of Nigeria are far too aware of this, as the public radio show The Story recently explored.
***
40 YEARS OF EARTH DAY
On a more upbeat environmental note, Adirondack Almanack's John Warren has a good piece on the profound legacy of Earth Day, which was first celebrated in 1970.
***
WASTE LOCALLY
The Post-Star has a good editorial (hey it happens! law of averages) on Saturday about the state's now-defunct Empire Zone program, which was a slush fund for businesses. The current head of the Empire State Development Corporation told the daily's editorial board that out of the more than 8,500 companies that had received financial benefits under the old Empire Zone program, two-thirds of them probably would have done what they did anyway - without receiving any benefits at all. We would have gotten all the same economic benefits - jobs, local investment, tax revenue - without a single penny of taxpayer money.
The paper rightly bemoaned this huge waste of tax dollars for little appreciable benefit.
But there's even more waste than just that: the various quasi-public agencies.
The city of Glens Falls alone has: local development corporation, an industrial development agency, a tourism office and an urban renewal agency.
And yet it 'needs' to pay staff and fund these agencies even though they largely duplicate the work of the Warren County economic development corporation, the Warren County tourism office and the bi-county industrial development agency.
I'd urge Post-Star to continue its opposition to waste and do an investigation into the city EDC, IDA and tourism offices to see a) if their existences really justify what we're spending on them and b) if that benefit is really greater than what we'd get simply by using the parallel county agencies.
A few towns in rural Washington County, NY recently passed laws mandating English as the sole official language of government communication; though to his credit, the Green mayor of village of Greenwich, David Doonan, categorically refused to entertain such a proposition.
Recently, police in Saratoga Springs responded to a stabbing near the city's famous racetrack. But officers who responded to the scene could not communicate with the victim or any of the witnesses, because they spoke only Spanish. The track attracts a lot short-term workers during the summer, many from Latin American countries.
In response, the city's police department is implementing Spanish-language training for its force and is contemplating giving preference to bilingual officers in future hiring.
It's a good thing for the safety of city residents that the Saratoga Springs PD isn't hampered by an English-only law preventing them from effectively investigating crimes.
***
LEGISLATORS ON VACATION FROM THEIR NON-WORK
In my last post, I lamented the poor state legislators who, unpaid due to the unfinished budget, have to survive on a meager $171 a day per diem. I guess some of them are managing to survive.
Gov. Paterson called a special session of the legislature yesterday and the Senate merely gaveled in and out rather than do its job and work on a budget. The majority Democrats complained that the governor called the session when several of them were on vacation and thus wouldn't have the votes to pass anything anyway. Of course, if they'd passed the budget when it was due on April 1, or any time since, there wouldn't be an issue. The idea that they felt they had done anything to earn a vacation is, in and of itself, appalling.
The outspoken social conservative Democrat Sen. Ruben Diaz blasted the governor for wasting time and money. In other words, he said it's the governor's fault the he and his colleagues refuse to do their jobs.
***
SPEAKING OF USELESS POLITICIANS...
Given the morass in the legislature, it's not surprising little talent is seeking the governor's mansion. Democratic attorney general Andrew Cuomo, the consummate insider, is running as a fake agent of change. I think his campaign handlers have banned him to not mention one single specific or proposition of something, limiting him to mealy-mouthed vague platitudes. His Republican opponents, Rick Lazio and Carl Paladino, are even emptier suits. They've chosen the demagogue route.
Far behind Cuomo in the polls, they have seized on attempts by a moderate Muslim group to build a mosque and community center near Ground Zero in a pathetic attempt to get someone to pay attention to them. They've both expressed support of using eminent domain to block the construction. It's bad enough they're focusing on this issue rather than the state's fiscal mess or corruption in Albany. But now we have the spectacle of so-called conservatives and opponents of big government launching an assault not only on freedom of religion but also on private property rights.
At least the Greens are offering a serious candidate for governor worth your attention, Howie Hawkins, as well as a number of other good candidates for statewide and local office. I've heard Hawkins speak several times and was impressed. He's not nearly as eloquent as the aforementioned empty suits but he's not afraid to get specific and offer concrete ideas, not just empty mom-and-apple-pie platitudes. The current governor is doing a decent job, considering the entrenched opposition. His successor needs both a brain and a spine and Hawkins is, to my knowledge, the only candidate with both.
***
OIL COMPANIES HAVE RUINED AFRICA TOO
The catastrophic spill in the Gulf of Mexico has made Americans aware of the environmental and economic devastation caused by reckless practices of petroleum multinationals. People of the Niger Delta region of Nigeria are far too aware of this, as the public radio show The Story recently explored.
***
40 YEARS OF EARTH DAY
On a more upbeat environmental note, Adirondack Almanack's John Warren has a good piece on the profound legacy of Earth Day, which was first celebrated in 1970.
***
WASTE LOCALLY
The Post-Star has a good editorial (hey it happens! law of averages) on Saturday about the state's now-defunct Empire Zone program, which was a slush fund for businesses. The current head of the Empire State Development Corporation told the daily's editorial board that out of the more than 8,500 companies that had received financial benefits under the old Empire Zone program, two-thirds of them probably would have done what they did anyway - without receiving any benefits at all. We would have gotten all the same economic benefits - jobs, local investment, tax revenue - without a single penny of taxpayer money.
The paper rightly bemoaned this huge waste of tax dollars for little appreciable benefit.
But there's even more waste than just that: the various quasi-public agencies.
The city of Glens Falls alone has: local development corporation, an industrial development agency, a tourism office and an urban renewal agency.
And yet it 'needs' to pay staff and fund these agencies even though they largely duplicate the work of the Warren County economic development corporation, the Warren County tourism office and the bi-county industrial development agency.
I'd urge Post-Star to continue its opposition to waste and do an investigation into the city EDC, IDA and tourism offices to see a) if their existences really justify what we're spending on them and b) if that benefit is really greater than what we'd get simply by using the parallel county agencies.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Jackson hits big time!
The town of Jackson has hit the big time: a profile in The New York Times. The daily did a story on the English-only law passed by the Washington County town with a 1% Hispanic population.
As I reported earlier, the law's sponsor admitted that there was no issue in the town that the legislation was intending to address; he conceded that it was a solution to a problem that didn't exist... other than the ordinance's error-strewn original text. He simply wanted to make a gesture about making English the national language. The NYT piece means his empty grandstanding succeeded.
I still think it was merely a clever PR campaign to get Jackson on the map. People all around the country will read the article and think, "This town's worst problem is the fact that it has 19 Hispanics, none of whom even request public documents in Spanish. It must be a pretty great place! Maybe I'll move there!"
Personally, I can't wait for Congress to pass an English-only law. With all the towns and regions that have either Spanish or Native American language origin names or French (-ville), Dutch (-kill) and German (-burg, -burgh) suffixes, we're going to have to rename 80 pct. of the places in the country.
Warrensburg (German) in the Adirondacks (Mohawk) and Middleburgh (German) in the Castkills (Dutch), we hardly knew ye!
As I reported earlier, the law's sponsor admitted that there was no issue in the town that the legislation was intending to address; he conceded that it was a solution to a problem that didn't exist... other than the ordinance's error-strewn original text. He simply wanted to make a gesture about making English the national language. The NYT piece means his empty grandstanding succeeded.
I still think it was merely a clever PR campaign to get Jackson on the map. People all around the country will read the article and think, "This town's worst problem is the fact that it has 19 Hispanics, none of whom even request public documents in Spanish. It must be a pretty great place! Maybe I'll move there!"
Personally, I can't wait for Congress to pass an English-only law. With all the towns and regions that have either Spanish or Native American language origin names or French (-ville), Dutch (-kill) and German (-burg, -burgh) suffixes, we're going to have to rename 80 pct. of the places in the country.
Warrensburg (German) in the Adirondacks (Mohawk) and Middleburgh (German) in the Castkills (Dutch), we hardly knew ye!
Friday, March 05, 2010
Jackson town officials solve "its" non-problem
A final follow-up to my earlier piece: the Jackson town board on Wednesday approved its English-only law... though not without embarrassing itself one final time. The Post-Star's Nick Reisman reported that, you couldn't make this stuff up, the original text of the proposed law contained two grammar errors:
"The purpose of this law is to provide for the language to be used by the elected officials and its appointees."
and later the law "designates English as the official written and spoken language of the Town Board and its appointees to be used in all official meetings and business conducted by the elected officials and its appointees."
As any teenager with an A in 9th grade English could tell you, it should have been "the elected officials and THEIR appointees."
Fortunately, citizens in the audience informed the elected officials of "its" errors.
Regardless of what one things about the English-only law in a town that's 97.3 percent white and 1.1 percent Hispanic, it is more than a little galling that use of the language is being mandated by a group of people with such a pathetic grasp of it.
The final kicker: yesterday was National Grammar Day.
"The purpose of this law is to provide for the language to be used by the elected officials and its appointees."
and later the law "designates English as the official written and spoken language of the Town Board and its appointees to be used in all official meetings and business conducted by the elected officials and its appointees."
As any teenager with an A in 9th grade English could tell you, it should have been "the elected officials and THEIR appointees."
Fortunately, citizens in the audience informed the elected officials of "its" errors.
Regardless of what one things about the English-only law in a town that's 97.3 percent white and 1.1 percent Hispanic, it is more than a little galling that use of the language is being mandated by a group of people with such a pathetic grasp of it.
The final kicker: yesterday was National Grammar Day.
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
Discrimination is not discriminatory
A follow-up to my earlier piece on a posturing Jackson (NY) official who proposed an English-only law for his town even though he conceded local circumstances didn't really necessitate one.
In a Post-Star article, he denied that the law was discriminatory. "That is so far from the intent of this law, it's ludicrous," he said.
An English-only law is BY DEFINITION discriminatory against non-English speakers. The description -only is inherently discriminatory. If he wants to argue that it's justified discrimination, even if it's much ado about nothing, so be it. But don't deny what it is.
If this official has such a poor understanding of the meaning of basic English words, perhaps he's not the best person to dictate how and when others use the language. Maybe he should learn English before he demands others do so.
In a Post-Star article, he denied that the law was discriminatory. "That is so far from the intent of this law, it's ludicrous," he said.
An English-only law is BY DEFINITION discriminatory against non-English speakers. The description -only is inherently discriminatory. If he wants to argue that it's justified discrimination, even if it's much ado about nothing, so be it. But don't deny what it is.
If this official has such a poor understanding of the meaning of basic English words, perhaps he's not the best person to dictate how and when others use the language. Maybe he should learn English before he demands others do so.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
We speak English hear: if you don't like it, to bad!
I was interested to read a story in the Post-Star whereby a board member in Jackson proposed making English the Washington County town's official language.
At first, I was skeptical of the proposal. Phrases like "shameless grandstanding," "culture warrior in search of a crusade," "cheap populism" and "solution in search of a problem" immediately sprung to mind. I doubted that the tiny town had much demand for public documents to be translated into Swahili or Mongolian. In fact, the town board member did not even mention any problem at the municipal level, only his dissatisfaction that English-only has not been made the official federal policy.
My skepticism was further entrenched after reading the following rant on a poststar.com forum. I'll publish it below verbatim in its entirety. See how many grammar and spelling errors you can spot.
This is AMERICA and we do speak English. More power to those that choose to speak a second language just in case they travel abroad and are forced to speak another language other then English. If I go to a local store and they don’t speak English…I’m out of there. If you want to live here…you have to learn the English language…period.
There are those that “butcher” the English language…and I’m sure they were born and raised here…and I’m sure they understand better then they speak. Are there other more pressing problems…yes but if we don’t pay attention to these “little things”, before long they become BIG THINGS and then it’s too late. God Bless America …if you can’t say it…you certainly don’t understand what it stands for…learn English and you will appreciate more the “host country” your living in.
My personal opinion is that if you are going to demand others be required to speak and write English, you should take the time to learn how to do so properly yourself.
In fact, at last check, there were four comments on that forum from four different people demanding English-only... ALL of which had grammar/spelling errors.
I also denounced former GOP presidential candidate Tom Tancredo for telling the Tea Party convention that he supported the return of Jim Crow-era literacy tests.
But upon further reflection, maybe these things have some merit.
Maybe the Jackson town board member's proposal is just PR. When I read the article, my instant reaction is that if this is one of the most prominent issues to require the time and resources of town government, then Jackson must be a pretty awesome place to live.
It also occurred to me that English-only laws would prevent people like George W. Bush and Sarah Palin from ever becoming president.
Finally, the English literacy test proposal is an idea worth considering. It wouldn't have much impact on immigrants, most of whom place a high value on education. But it would no doubt purge at least 75 percent of bigots from the voter rolls.
Que la police linguistique me pourchasse!
At first, I was skeptical of the proposal. Phrases like "shameless grandstanding," "culture warrior in search of a crusade," "cheap populism" and "solution in search of a problem" immediately sprung to mind. I doubted that the tiny town had much demand for public documents to be translated into Swahili or Mongolian. In fact, the town board member did not even mention any problem at the municipal level, only his dissatisfaction that English-only has not been made the official federal policy.
My skepticism was further entrenched after reading the following rant on a poststar.com forum. I'll publish it below verbatim in its entirety. See how many grammar and spelling errors you can spot.
This is AMERICA and we do speak English. More power to those that choose to speak a second language just in case they travel abroad and are forced to speak another language other then English. If I go to a local store and they don’t speak English…I’m out of there. If you want to live here…you have to learn the English language…period.
There are those that “butcher” the English language…and I’m sure they were born and raised here…and I’m sure they understand better then they speak. Are there other more pressing problems…yes but if we don’t pay attention to these “little things”, before long they become BIG THINGS and then it’s too late. God Bless America …if you can’t say it…you certainly don’t understand what it stands for…learn English and you will appreciate more the “host country” your living in.
My personal opinion is that if you are going to demand others be required to speak and write English, you should take the time to learn how to do so properly yourself.
In fact, at last check, there were four comments on that forum from four different people demanding English-only... ALL of which had grammar/spelling errors.
I also denounced former GOP presidential candidate Tom Tancredo for telling the Tea Party convention that he supported the return of Jim Crow-era literacy tests.
But upon further reflection, maybe these things have some merit.
Maybe the Jackson town board member's proposal is just PR. When I read the article, my instant reaction is that if this is one of the most prominent issues to require the time and resources of town government, then Jackson must be a pretty awesome place to live.
It also occurred to me that English-only laws would prevent people like George W. Bush and Sarah Palin from ever becoming president.
Finally, the English literacy test proposal is an idea worth considering. It wouldn't have much impact on immigrants, most of whom place a high value on education. But it would no doubt purge at least 75 percent of bigots from the voter rolls.
Que la police linguistique me pourchasse!
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