“No-one, and I repeat NO-ONE, has ever died for a flag. A flag is a piece of cloth. They would have died for freedom… which, by the way, if you’ve read the First Amendment, is also the freedom to burn the flag. Burning the flag doesn’t make freedom go away, okay? Because it’s, you know, freedom…”

Gospel of the Prophet Hicks, 3:16

For people that are thinking about moving there, you should know that it is the Cat House capitol of the U.S. For some of you that might change your mind. For others, that might help you decide to move there.

JaHerer – It is far from a paranoid delusion to believe that your language can be replaced by another language. Akkadian was once the most widely spoken language in the middle east (all the way up into Turkey and parts of Greece). Over a period of a few hundred years, it was supplanted by Aramaic. Did an invading army of Aramaic speakers come through and force people to speak Aramaic? Nope. Aramaic speakers tended to be nomads that wandered through various parts of the Akkadian speaking empire. Eventually, it became easier to have the language of the empire be Aramaic because everywhere you went there were at least some Aramaic speakers. This is hardly an isolated event. Greek was supplanted by Latin. Latin, a language no one in the great Roman Empire thought would ever be less than THE language of the world morphed into various Romance languages and now the great Latin itself is nothing more than a scholarly language. Given the history of language chance, I don’t think it’s paranoid at all to assume that English can be supplanted by another language. I think it’s actually taking a very realistic look at the way languages work.

Honora – I believe there is a fundamental difference between someone flying an Italian flag on Colombus Day, and Irish flag on St. Patricks Day, a Mexican flag on Cinco de Mayo (etc…etc) and someone giving a foreign flag a regular point of prominence above the US flag. One is an annual celebration of heritage (which almost all American’s can get behind) and the other is a statement of alliegence.

Now, having said all that, I don’t believe this law is constitutional and, if it is ever enforced, it will quickly be challenged and over turn.

I also don’t believe this law is a law that people in the US should be passing. The fact that a situation exists where people would feel the need to pass these laws is evidence of a larger problem. You can’t force someone to love something. The fact that we have a large population of people living in the US that feel a loyalty to another country over loyalty to the US is, to me, an indication that we need to do a better job with our immigration (this includes fixing the illegal immigration) processes.

As for English as the national language – well, it will solve what, to me, is the larger problem of tax dollars going to print ballots and provide services in foreign languages. It will probably do nothing for the Press 2 for English problem because private businesses will still cater to their customers. If their customer base includes a large portion of non-English speakers, you’ll still have to Press 2.

Leave it to Al-Reuters to come up with a headline like that.

It’s a linguistic offense. The person is being “picked on” for speaking Spanish or Russian or whatever. It’s linguistic…*LINGUIST*! — Puritan1648

Well, I’ve been accused of being a cunning linguist… — ReubenJCogburn

…boy…nobody saw *THAT* coming….

…that’s my fate…to be Planet Earth’s straight man…*sigh*….

Yeah, great, Allah. Why don’t you just cage ‘em and not feed ‘em at all? Same effect…

Jaibones on November 16, 2006 at 11:22 PM

He doesn’t have to, Mexico is already doing that.

It’s a linguistic offense. The person is being “picked on” for speaking Spanish or Russian or whatever. It’s linguistic.

*LINGUIST*!

…see…doesn’t have the same *RING*….

Puritan1648 on November 16, 2006 at 11:22 PM

Well, I’ve been accused of being a cunning linguist…

Come on down to San Antonio, Texas, and experience it for yourself.

Rusty Bill on November 16, 2006 at 11:25 PM

Thought you were from Arizona until the last line there.

……………an’ ………………Git ‘er Done!!!!!!!! — Emmett J.

…ah! A native speaker….

Seems logical to me. There’s a house in town that flies the French flag exclusively on a huge pole in their front yard

Is that the flag with the white cross on the white background?

Redneck oughta be the official language…all o’ y’all get with it….

Puritan1648 on November 16, 2006 at 11:32 PM

……………an’ ………………Git ‘er Done!!!!!!!!

RED MEAT! — Allahpundit

…you realize, don’t you, that your meat is…er…uncovered…better not travel to Australia….

I don’t know what the fuss is. I speak Redneck. I have trouble enough understandin’ some o’ you Yankees that you then have to go let in a bunch o’ Mex’cans, Chinamen, Venusians and heaven knows what…Redneck oughta be the official language…all o’ y’all get with it….

This seems like another paranoid delusion.

JaHerer22 on November 16, 2006 at 7:44 PM

Oh, really? What if I were to tell you that there are sections of the ninth-largest metro area in the U.S. where English is rarely spoken, where an American citizen (and a veteran) cannot purchase a tank of gas or a pack of smokes because he cannot communicate with the clerk at the corner store? Where half of the junk mail in his mailbox is in Spanish?

Come on down to San Antonio, Texas, and experience it for yourself.

How about English as the official language? — Benthoven

Oh gawd, let’s just get this outta the way. Racist! — Editor

…”racist” isn’t the right slur to shout at someone in this case. People of all races speak Spanish, the offending language in the news today, as a first language — descendents of African slaves from all over the Caribbean, whiter’n whities from Cuba and Honduras, even that Japanese guy from Peru — and many, many more come from Asia, Africa and elsewhere speaking their native tongues…with activists lined up to almost force them not to assimilate.

…but, “racist”? No.

It’s a linguistic offense. The person is being “picked on” for speaking Spanish or Russian or whatever. It’s linguistic.

*LINGUIST*!

…see…doesn’t have the same *RING*….

RED MEAT!

Allahpundit on November 16, 2006 at 7:41 PM

Yeah, great, Allah. Why don’t you just cage ‘em and not feed ‘em at all? Same effect…

sonnyspats1 on November 16, 2006 at 8:44 PM

Sonnyspats1, that was a great post. Thanks.

Oh crap. I said “God.” Sorry to offend.

For lib friends, you can print them out on high bond paper and then deliver them in your gun tote’n pickup truck while you are finishing off a hamburger.