As I said before, making English the official language doesn't do what you think it does.

And you've yet to define when it is ok to have and wave another country's flag and when it isn't.

I'm not quite sure what sort of comparison you are trying to make. Are you saying that the people in countries where we have engaged in 'political meddling' are like yapping dogs without the capacity for original thought? You've lost me.

I don't want to take the discussion further off course, though. Just suffice it so say that,
1. I can 'love' my country without having to trust my country.
2. Protecting life and protecting a way of life are two very different things. So different that they can be diametrically opposed.

Are you blind or just deliberately not reading my post? Because there's absolutely no way to not see it in a 3 paragraph post short of deliberately not reading it or just openly trolling.

This is the second time you've used this sort of reply in this thread. Why not simply explicitly say what you want to say?

Because I've been explicit both times and after going practically play-by-play rephrasing it I can't possibly think of a way to be more explicit than literally describing the exact physical actions someone took that pissed me off.

I'm sorry but I don't know how to possibly be more explicit without embedding a youtube video which I sadly don't have because I didn't own a cellphone at the time.

For the record, racist nutjobs aren't limited to the southern states of the US. Our most famous one was Pauline Hanson.

Pauline Hanson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

How this woman ever made it into the Federal Senate is beyond me, but there you go.

Yeah, spindles, from what I've read over here it seems like Australia can give the US a run for its money in crazies ;)

just last week after deciding to leave austraia and live in the UK Pauline Hanson put her house up for sale with the condition that it not be sold to immigrants or muslims.

she caused such an uproar that she pulled the property before the real estate agents could.

apparently crazies are on both sides of the fence.

'In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language.. And we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.'











Theodore Roosevelt 1907

Thank you for a reminder of how far we've come since 1907.

All I know about patriotism I learned from Modern Warfare 2:

"Patriotism is often an arbitrary veneration of real estate above principles."

"Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it. " - Mark Twain

1908, to be exact.
 

No, thank you for the textual intellectual quotes. As soon as the second page rolled over in this discussion, I think the point was lost by a significant degree.

You also gave me a free topical pass to post this example of Patriotism, and its definitions:

Wow, I didn't know Roosevelt was so British-like.

Good thing we don't have Corsican Syndrome or I'd be on the floor screaming right now.

Gotta love Emma Goldman. Thanks Jetée.

Roosevelt's statement only works if we've declared English to be the official language of the country. It is not, and it never has been. It's absolutely impossible to claim that speaking English is a necessary part of being American without such a law.

We can debate about whether or not English should be the official language (it shouldn't, and this has been recognized for the entirety of American history), but until it is there is absolutely no debate at all that immigrants should not be discriminated against because of the language they speak. Over time, immigrants naturally assimilate into the culture while adding their own influence (this is the very definition of the melting pot). We don't need to pass laws to impose this process.

Well I think this comes down to the sentiment in Alabama (of this gubernatorial candidate, and, perhaps, of many Alabamans). Maybe they don't want people coming there who haven't mastered the English language enough to deal with things of an officious nature...you know, where things are quite serious and have serious consequences.

I don't think this is about road signs, because road signs are largely visual and contain rudimentary English words, and few phrases. The tests are in other languages because they are verbose and contain questions referring to one's knowledge of the rules of the road. Considering a driver probably thinks about the rules of the road in their native tongue, I think it would make sense to have these tests available for their own comfort with respect to the knowledge and being able to communicate/understand it. To assume these same people "don't know English" is to be a bit naive, I think. I would assume myself that very few don't know enough English to get by in most situations. Again, these tests are more about comfort levels in being able to communicate what you know, not whether you understand the English enough to make your way through the streets.

But if Alabama is that opposed to other languages, then I suppose it's their prerogative to want to pare things down to English, and perhaps a monoculture. Immigrants would then be more encouraged to seek other, more accepting states elsewhere, and it is these states that will benefit from the influx of talent, culture, knowledge, and experience being imported into the country. Alabama can become a backwater akin to Third World countries notorious for being ignorant and closing off outsiders.

I've always been taught that everyone already accepted this as fact.

I didn't want to go there. :paranoid:

^^Well, BG, you did anyway "Alabama can become a backwater akin to Third World countries notorious for being ignorant and closing off outsiders" don't you mean specifically individuals who side with James' thinking, because I'm sure not all Alabamans feel the way he does..... I still think we should wait to see if this seemingly narrow minded bigot is voted in by the people of Alabama before we start labeling them all as such.

This is all about sensationalism and attention anyway (outside of James' ignorance), just ask Fred Davis, it's working perfectly as he planned.

Not exactly. If people like James does what he does in a position of power, it affects the entire state, regardless of those who disagree with him.

Consider how there are liberals in both Iran and China. What good does that do for each nation?

Pardon me for a minute, y'all. I need to put my water pitcher on my head and run down to the creek. I'll be right back.

I'm not referring to technology such as indoor plumbing; I'm referring to social makeup and cultural influences. If Alabama does go in this direction of "speak English or leave"—and making policy changes to reflect that—do you think it won't have an impact? Do you not see how it would make the state more isolated than others?

One need only look to Arizona to see an example of this. Remember, they're not just racially profiling immigrants to turn it into a police state, they've also banned accents from the classroom (after specifically courting multilingual teachers too!). There are plenty of people in Arizona who are outraged at this, but that doesn't change the impression many people outside of Arizona now have of the state. This is the same state, by the way, that refused to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. day until 1992 - and only because of the massive backlash the state received after voting against honoring it in 1990 (including the NFL moving the location of the super bowl).

Alabama is distinctly different in the sense that they haven't passed laws like this - yet. That doesn't mean it's entirely unreasonable for people to pass judgement on Alabama due to these political ads though. After all, there are many other places in the country where a politician wouldn't even contemplate such an ad. While there may not be enough James sympathizers to win him the election, there are enough that he felt comfortable making the ad in the first place, and that does say something.

This is, after all, the same state and same election that has produced this anti-evolution/pro-bible ad:

Careful, warrrrreagl. We all know that you don't own any shoes. We don't want you to stub your toe on a rock.

Hell, we're too backwater to even have rocks. But in Birmingham we love the governor. Boo, boo, boo. (we all did what we could do)

Alabama and the rest of the southern states are in the bible belt. There are a lot of christian voters. "A Good Christian Man" is just viable in the minds of votes as a solid economic stimulus plan, sometimes more. It's the Religion Card, it's easy to play and it reaches more voters than anything else. I don't get why people don't realize this, it's the south, you HAVE to be Christian here to get anywhere in politics and it wins you more votes to say "Liberals hate God, but I love him with all my heart. My Grandpappy loved him, my daddy loved him, I love him and by god if I get elected I'll make sure my son and YOUR kids will love him too".

Again I'll say it, there are some great people in the south (I know, I live in the belt buckle of the bible belt), but the rest of them are dumbass 'hicks that hate anything that FOX news says they should hate.

Eden: we all realize it, doesn't mean we should accept it or not mock it.

i think president obama was right on one thing and that is that we should learn more spanish.you get a different perspective when you have to work side by side with illegals.how many juan valdez's do you think there are anyway?

According to facebook 265, but that's just the ones that the search indexes.

Was this actually played on the TV?

Ahaha, I love American TV, he would be laughed at so hard in NZ that he would never live it down and probably have to go live in AU.

0.25 is my favorite bit, the deep reflecting look, with the emotional music playing like he's talking about the day he tried to save some drowning kittens and failed. Bwahahaha, what an insulting joke to anyone with an IQ above room temperature.

There are quite a few gems coming out of Alabama this political cycle...

***UPDATE***

My fellow Alabamians came through. I may have had to disappear for a while if James had won.

Bentley secures GOP runoff spot, James raising money to pay for recount | Opelika-Auburn News

Um, I have to ask... are Alabama ads always this crazy? It seems like they just keep coming and coming...

WTF?

embarrassing indeed