Wednesday, July 09, 2008

In how many languages can Senator Obama insult America?

More words of wisdom from Anointed one, this time on the topic of languages:
You know, I don't understand when people are going around worrying about, "We need to have English- only." They want to pass a law, "We want English-only."

Now, I agree that immigrants should learn English. I agree with that. But understand this. Instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English -- they'll learn English -- you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish. You should be thinking about, how can your child become bilingual? We should have every child speaking more than one language.

You know, it's embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe, and all we can say [is], "Merci beaucoup." Right?

You know, no, I'm serious about this. We should understand that our young people, if you have a foreign language, that is a powerful tool to get ajob. You are so much more employable. You can be part of international business. So we should be emphasizing foreign languages in our schools from an early age, because children will actually learn a foreign language easier when they're 5, or 6, or 7 than when they're 46, like me.

There's any amount of mockery that could be heaped on that statement - Americans aren't as mono-lingual as his stereotype implies, international business is done in English, the focus of the "English-only" movement is to emphasize the importance of integration, etc. - but that just seems like a waste of time. I'm still on the whole "questioning their patriotism" thing.

So, before he won the nomination, America never provided care for the sick. It never provided good jobs for the jobless. His wife has never been proud of her country in her adult lifetime, until he started winning primaries. He decided not to wear a flag pin, choosing instead to define patriotism as "tell[ing] ... people what ... will make this country great." He wants to remake the country. And it's "embarassing" that Europeans speak English while Americans don't speak French, German, Dutch, Italian, Polish, Czech, Russian, Spanish and Greek, etc. He spent 20 years as a member, and brought his children to be taught, in a church defined by a senior pastor who thinks that saying "God damn America" is more appropriate than "God bless America." He wants to force high school and college students to "voluntarily" perform community service.

But we can't question his patriotism.

A commenter at Tom Maguire's has the best reaction:
"Somebody ought to ask BHO if there's anything about the U.S. that he likes."

If someone can legitimately ask that question (and frankly, how can you legitimately ask anything else?), then putting aside all questions of competence and experience, is this really a legitimate candidate for the Presidency of the United States?

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