By "this sort of crap" I mean, of course, the relief by right speaking Americans everywhere that we again have an articulate leader.
I was just watching Obama on the teevee and I have to say that at the very least it will be refreshing to have a president who can speak in complete sentences.
Rich Sweeney at Common Tragedies picked up on something odd in Palin's response to the "Is climate change manmade" question.
One of the many jaw-dropping Palin clip’s from the Katie Couric interviewI notice that too. And figured it was a simple mistake. But as Sweeney notes, she did it again last night.
shows Palin saying that it doesn’t matter what caused global warming, what
matters is that we do something about it now. Now that’s bad enough as is, but
as Johnny Walker pointed out to me, she also says, “I’m not going to solely
blame all of man’s activities on changes in climate.” WTF?
The Wall Street Journal ran a piece today about how the young folks are excited about Obama, but might not actually vote for him. The piece is based on a poll by conducted by the Wall Street Journal, NBC News and MySpace. Two interesting things about how the poll results are spun. First the lede:
This year's flood of newly registered voters heavily favor Sen. Barack Obama in the presidential contest, but they won't necessarily show up to support him on Election Day, a new survey indicates.OK, so what's the evidence that new voters won't support Obama on election day?
When asked to rank their interest in the Nov. 4 election, just 49% said they were "very interested." By comparison, 70% of voters of all age groups said they were "very interested," according to a separate Journal/NBC News national poll taken a week ago.It's not obvious that disinterest in the election translates to not voting.
54% of the new voters said they would definitely vote Nov. 4.That does seem low. And would be cause for alarm, if it were close to true.
Using a ten-point scale, please tell me how likely you are to vote in the November fourth elections for president and Congress. If you are certain that you will vote, pick a number closer to "eight," "nine," or "ten." If it is less likely that you will vote, use a number closer to "one," "two," or "three." You may choose any number from one to ten.Sure, if you only look at the people who responded with a 10, then it's 54%. But the instructions put the cutoff at 8. If you count 8 through 10, it's 84%!
10, definitely vote 54 [142-143]
9 17
8 13
7 4
6 2
5 4
4 -
3 1
2 2
1, definitely NOT vote 3
Not sure -
In this article on a great program to help immigrants in Philadelphia learn English we learn a startling fact (emphasis mine):
The stakes are high. Immigrant students tend to stay in school and graduate, said Ana Sainz de la Pena, who directs English as a Second Language and bilingual education for the district. By contrast, many American-born English language learners struggle and drop out.
Paul Ames and Robert Wielaard recently did an article for AP on the political/ethnic problems in Belgium called Belgium faces a crisis, in any language. From the headline, and the body of the article, you might think that the issue is all about language. For example,
French- and Dutch-speakers have long been at odds. A vote on power-sharing could spell trouble.
Belgium's perennial language time bomb is again approaching critical mass. It has plunged the country into a constitutional crisis that makes some wonder if Belgium can - or should - survive in its present rancorous jigsaw-puzzle shape
In the 1960s, when Belgium was cut up into separate language regions - leaving only Brussels officially bilingual - French-speakers in Linkebeek and five other Flemish towns outside the capital received special rights to use French in dealing with their local councils.
At its heart, the quarrel is economic. Flanders is richer than French-speaking Wallonia, and resents its taxes going toward subsidizing a territory that is Belgium's rust belt with 15 percent unemployment, triple the rate in Flanders.
At the same time, they believe the influx of French-speaking commuters from Brussels is eroding their cultural heritage. French-speakers say enough powers have been devolved, and accuse the Flemish of trying to cut Wallonia loose.
Philadelphia enacted a law in April to require Center City tour-guide operators to be certified, licensed and knowledgeable.
Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown's bill requires the guides to pass a test on Philadelphia history and geography before they can lead tours in the areas between the rivers and from South Street to Vine.
“I know there are some who bristle at the notion that faith has a place in the public square,” Mr. Obama said.
Yesterday, I got this email:
Subject: A great Texas Rancher analogy
While suturing a cut on the hand of a 75 year old Texas rancher, whose hand was caught in a gate while working cattle, the doctor struck up a
conversation with the old man. Eventually the topic got around to Obama and his bid to be our President.
The old rancher said, 'Well, ya know, Obama is a 'post turtle'. Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a 'post turtle' was. The old rancher said, 'When you're driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that's a 'post
turtle'.'
The old rancher saw a puzzled look on the doctor's face, so he continued to explain. 'You know he didn't get up there by himself, he doesn't belong up there, he doesn't know what to do while he is up there, and you just wonder what kind of a dumb ass put him up there.'
The Inquirer is reporting:
After a morning stop in Pittsburgh, Obama arrived in Philadelphia and promptly got a cheesesteak of his own. He passed by Gene's and the "speak English" controversy in favor of Pat's King of Steaks. Obama got a wiz wit', and ate it all, before motoring off to a barbershop in West Philadelphia.
So Nash McCabe wasn't located at random at all. Instead, someone at ABC News decided that they wanted to go after Obama on the patriotism issue, and they actively sought a Pennsylvanian who they knew wanted to bring it up. I assume they thought it would sound better if "a typical voter" asked the question instead of Charlie Gibson. "You see, we're only raising the issue the voters really care about," they can claim.
I'm always surprised when people think that Yeungling beer is Chinese. But I never expected it from a Swede. Still, Lennart at Det Progressiva USA, makes this mistake.
Det finns ingen chans på denna jorden att Pennsylvanias mest berömda öl kan vara kinesiskt, arbetarna där är alldeles för invandrarfientliga för att dricka kinesiskt öl, än mindre för att rösta på Barack Obama, så jag googlade och det visar sig att namnet ursprungligen är tyskt och detsamma som det svenska yngling!
There's no way in the world that Pennsylvania's most famous beer is Chinese, workers there are too xenophobic to drink Chinese beer, not to mention vote for Barack Obama, so I googled it and the name turns out to be of German origin and cognate with the Swedish word yngling!
I was going to suggest the following to my dad:
If Clinton wins I'll vote for her in November if if Obama wins you vote for him.
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman JOHN E. ROONEY
District 39 (Bergen)
Assemblywoman ALISON LITTELL MCHOSE
District 24 (Sussex, Hunterdon and Morris)
Assemblywoman MARCIA A. KARROW
District 23 (Warren and Hunterdon)
SYNOPSIS
Provides that English shall be the official language of the State.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel
An Act designating the English language as the official language of the State and supplementing chapter 9 of Title 52 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. The English language is designated as the official language of the State of New Jersey.
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman MICHAEL J. DOHERTY
District 23 (Warren and Hunterdon)
Assemblyman RICHARD A. MERKT
District 25 (Morris)
Co-Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman McHose, Assemblymen Russo, DeCroce, Rooney and Thompson
SYNOPSIS
Includes same sex marriages among marriages declared void; provides that New Jersey will not recognize marriages in other jurisdictions which are void in New Jersey.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel
An Act prohibiting same sex marriages and amending R.S.37:1-1 and supplementing Title 37 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. R.S.37:1-1 is amended to read as follows:
A man shall not marry any of his ancestors or descendants, or his sister, or the daughter of his brother or sister, or the sister of his father or mother, whether such collateral kindred be of the whole or half blood. A woman shall not marry any of her ancestors or descendants, or her brother, or the son of her brother or sister, or the brother of her father or mother, whether such collateral kindred be of the whole or half blood. Persons of the same sex shall not marry. A marriage in violation of any of the foregoing provisions shall be absolutely void.
(cf: R.S.37:1-1)
2. (New section) A marriage solemnized in any other county, state or territory, if valid where solemnized, is valid here unless it is a marriage that would be prohibited and declared void in this State pursuant to R.S.37:1-1 or R.S.37:1-10.
3. (New section) Marriage between persons of the same sex is against the public policy of the State of New Jersey.
4. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill provides that marriages between persons of the same sex are prohibited and void in New Jersey. The bill additionally provides that a marriage solemnized in any other county, state or territory, if valid where solemnized, is valid here unless it is a marriage that would be prohibited and declared void in this State pursuant to R.S.37:1-1 (which would include same sex marriages) or R.S.37:1-10 concerning New Jersey's policy of not recognizing common law marriages.
This bill expressly affirms public policy in support of marriage and makes clear that marriage is limited to marriage between a man and a woman. The bill further provides that same sex marriages and others not recognized in this State, whether or not sanctioned by another state, are not recognized in New Jersey.
Adam Smith on Columbus:
Some years before this, while the expectations of Europe were in suspense about the projects of the Portuguese, of which the success appeared yet to be doubtful, a Genoese pilot formed the yet more daring project of sailing to the East Indies by the west. The situation of those countries was at that time very imperfectly known in Europe. The few European travellers who had been there, had magnified the distance, perhaps through simplicity and ignorance; what was really very great, appearing almost infinite to those who could not measure it; or, perhaps, in order to increase somewhat more the marvellous of their own adventures in visiting regions so immensely remote from Europe. The longer the way was by the east, Columbus very justly concluded, the shorter it would be by the west. He proposed, therefore, to take that way, as both the shortest and the surest, and he had the good fortune to convince Isabella of Castile of the probability of his project. He sailed from the port of Palos in August 1492, near five years before the expedition of Vasco de Gamo set out from Portugal; and, after a voyage of between two and three months, discovered first some of the small Bahama or Lucyan islands, and afterwards the great island of St. Domingo.
But the countries which Columbus discovered, either in this or in any of his subsequent voyages, had no resemblance to those which he had gone in quest of. Instead of the wealth, cultivation, and populousness of China and Indostan, he found, in St. Domingo, and in all the other parts of the new world which he ever visited, nothing but a country quite covered with wood, uncultivated, and inhabited only by some tribes of naked and miserable savages. He was not very willing, however, to believe that they were not the same with some of the countries described by Marco Polo, the first European who had visited, or at least had left behind him any description of China or the East Indies; and a very slight resemblance, such as that which he found between the name of Cibao, a mountain in St. Domingo, and that of Cipange, mentioned by Marco Polo, was frequently sufficient to make him return to this favourite prepossession, though contrary to the clearest evidence. In his letters to Ferdinand and Isabella, he called the countries which he had discovered the Indies. He entertained no doubt but that they were the extremity of those which had been described by Marco Polo, and that they were not very distant from the Ganges, or from the countries which had been conquered by Alexander. Even when at last convinced that they were different, he still flattered himself that those rich countries were at no great distance; and in a subsequent voyage, accordingly, went in quest of them along the coast of Terra Firma, and towards the Isthmus of Darien.
In consequence of this mistake of Columbus, the name of the Indies has stuck to those unfortunate countries ever since; and when it was at last clearly discovered that the new were altogether different from the old Indies, the former were called the West, in contradistinction to the latter, which were called the East Indies.
It was of importance to Columbus, however, that the countries which he had discovered, whatever they were, should be represented to the court of Spain as of very great consequence; and, in what constitutes the real riches of every country, the animal and vegetable productions of the soil, there was at that time nothing which could well justify such a representation of them.
The cori, something between a rat and a rabbit, and supposed by Mr Buffon to be the same with the aperea of Brazil, was the largest viviparous quadruped in St. Domingo. This species seems never to have been very numerous; and the dogs and cats of the Spaniards are said to have long ago almost entirely extirpated it, as well as some other tribes of a still smaller size. These, however, together with a pretty large lizard, called the ivana or iguana, constituted the principal part of the animal food which the land afforded.
The vegetable food of the inhabitants, though, from their want of industry, not very abundant, was not altogether so scanty. It consisted in Indian corn, yams, potatoes, bananas, etc., plants which were then altogether unknown in Europe, and which have never since been very much esteemed in it, or supposed to yield a sustenance equal to what is drawn from the common sorts of grain and pulse, which have been cultivated in this part of the world time out of mind.
The cotton plant, indeed, afforded the material of a very important manufacture, and was at that time, to Europeans, undoubtedly the most valuable of all the vegetable productions of those islands. But though, in the end of the fifteenth century, the muslins and other cotton goods of the East Indies were much esteemed in every part of Europe, the cotton manufacture itself was not cultivated in any part of it. Even this production, therefore, could not at that time appear in the eyes of Europeans to be of very great consequence.
Finding nothing, either in the animals or vegetables of the newly discovered countries which could justify a very advantageous representation of them, Columbus turned his view towards their minerals; and in the richness of their productions of this third kingdom, he flattered himself he had found a full compensation for the insignificancy of those of the other two. The little bits of gold with which the inhabitants ornamented their dress, and which, he was informed, they frequently found in the rivulets and torrents which fell from the mountains, were sufficient to satisfy him that those mountains abounded with the richest gold mines. St. Domingo, therefore, was represented as a country abounding with gold, and upon that account (according to the prejudices not only of the present times, but of those times), an inexhaustible source of real wealth to the crown and kingdom of Spain. When Columbus, upon his return from his first voyage, was introduced with a sort of triumphal honours to the sovereigns of Castile and Arragon, the principal productions of the countries which he had discovered were carried in solemn procession before him. The only valuable part of them consisted in some little fillets, bracelets, and other ornaments of gold, and in some bales of cotton. The rest were mere objects of vulgar wonder and curiosity; some reeds of an extraordinary size, some birds of a very beautiful plumage, and some stuffed skins of the huge alligator and manati; all of which were preceded by six or seven of the wretched natives, whose singular colour and appearance added greatly to the novelty of the show.
In consequence of the representations of Columbus, the council of Castile determined to take possession of the countries of which the inhabitants were plainly incapable of defending themselves. The pious purpose of converting them to Christianity sanctified the injustice of the project. But the hope of finding treasures of gold there was the sole motive which prompted to undertake it; and to give this motive the greater weight, it was proposed by Columbus, that the half of all the gold and silver that should be found there, should belong to the crown. This proposal was approved of by the council.
...
All the other enterprizes of the Spaniards in the New World, subsequent to those of Columbus, seem to have been prompted by the same motive. It was the sacred thirst of gold that carried Ovieda, Nicuessa, and Vasco Nugnes de Balboa, to the Isthmus of Darien; that carried Cortes to Mexico, Almagro and Pizarro to Chili and Peru. When those adventurers arrived upon any unknown coast, their first inquiry was always if there was any gold to be found there; and according to the information which they received concerning this particular, they determined either to quit the country or to settle in it.
Language Log rightly singles McCain out for being smart about English Only.
This appears to be a long-held opinion by Senator McCain. In 1996, he went on record against an English only bill--even threatening a filibuster.
According to the best estimates of committee staff, opposition lobbyists, and other semi-informed sources, here's how the Governmental Affairs votes appear to break down:
5 solidly in favor: Stevens (R-Alaska), Roth (R-Del.), Cochran (R-Miss.), Smith (R-N.H.), and Brown (R-Colo.)
5 1/2 solidly against: Glenn (D-Ohio), Levin (D-Mich.), Lieberman (D-Conn.), Akaka (D-Hi.), Dorgan (D-N.D.), and McCain* (R-Ariz.).
4 undeclared or uncommitted: Cohen (R-Me.), Thompson (R-Tenn.), Nunn (D-Ga.), and Pryor (D-Ark.)
Senator John McCain's name is asterisked because his position is politically problematic. On the one hand, in communications with constituent groups he has reaffirmed his longstanding opposition to English-only legislation – even implying that he would stage a filibuster against S. 356 on the Senate floor, if necessary. On the other hand, now that English-only has become a partisan issue, his opposition creates tensions with fellow Republicans. McCain is now being mentioned as a possible running mate for Bob Dole, an English-only supporter who may decide to exploit the issue during his Presidential campaign. Thus far McCain has managed to absent himself at two hearings, and at today's markup, on S. 356.
Even conservatives like Arizona Senator John McCain oppose initiatives like the one just passed in his state. Says McCain: "Our nation and the English language have done quite well with Chinese spoken in California, German in Pennsylvania, Italian in New York, Swedish in Minnesota and Spanish in the Southwest. I fail to see the cause for alarm now."
