Senate Makes English "Common and Unifying", not "National", Language: 11 Million Illiterate Americans Don't Know The Difference
An interesting point. According to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, 11 million adult Americans are nonliterate in English. These numbers exclude adults who do not speak English living in the United States or who suffer from mental disabilities. NAAL's analysis of the state of adult literacy in the United States goes on to state that 30 million adults function at a "below basic" level of literacy in prose literacy, with 55% of these not graduating from high school, 20% being black, 26% being over 65 and 39% being hispanic.
Yet, the Senate has decided that the most important issue facing our country at the moment is that English be voted the official "common and unifying" language. Initially the bill called for English to be named the "national" language, but was later softened to "common and unifying".
Perhaps not all that common, though, since out of almost 300 million Americans, 11 million aren't literate and a total of 30 million Americans possess only the most basic level of literacy. That's 14%. But those people are black or hispanic (the new black) or in prison or didn't finish high school or all of the above, so we can ignore them.
I guess this is the rationale the President and Congress are using to completely ignore these numbers and support this garbage. Bush just sent a request to Congress for $1.6 billion to fund the 6,000 National Guard troops that will make all the difference in securing the Mexico/U.S. border.
I would think that money might be better spent in programs that serve to teach American citizens how to speak and read our "common and unifying" language, but I obviously don't understand the big picture.
Yet, the Senate has decided that the most important issue facing our country at the moment is that English be voted the official "common and unifying" language. Initially the bill called for English to be named the "national" language, but was later softened to "common and unifying".
Perhaps not all that common, though, since out of almost 300 million Americans, 11 million aren't literate and a total of 30 million Americans possess only the most basic level of literacy. That's 14%. But those people are black or hispanic (the new black) or in prison or didn't finish high school or all of the above, so we can ignore them.
I guess this is the rationale the President and Congress are using to completely ignore these numbers and support this garbage. Bush just sent a request to Congress for $1.6 billion to fund the 6,000 National Guard troops that will make all the difference in securing the Mexico/U.S. border.
I would think that money might be better spent in programs that serve to teach American citizens how to speak and read our "common and unifying" language, but I obviously don't understand the big picture.
posted by QuakerJono | 10:01 AM
2 Comments:
Yes, her delivery is wooden. But what I find most unsettling is the content. Her "speech" was nothing more than a series of unsubstantiated jingoistic soundbytes. The only central them conencting the soundbytes was an extreme condescention. This bothers me not because I feel somehow insulted either for myself or on behalf of her actual target audience. Instead, I find it troubling because this is how nearly all the neocon bastards talk - whether they're speaking to their opponents or to their loyal followers. They're breeding a nation of sheep.
B.
Oops, I think you may have meant to post this to the entry about Michelle Malkin.
However, I have to say, I think you're missing the gestalt of Michelle. It's not so much what she say, which is both insane and screamingly funny while being utterly wrongheaded, but it is the way she can cheerfully say it without any sort of hypocracy. She gleefully chastises left-wing bloggers, claiming they should get real jobs when she's a professional blogger herself. She complains about the mean-spirit of the left while spilling out such hateful things that even Ann Coulter might have trouble taking it seriously. She claims the left is a gunky mass incapable of independent thought while the majority of her opinions have to be cleared through her husband, if not originated there. She does all this while supporting a party that would cheerfully regulate her to the status of a second class citizen based on her looks alone and it's not enough that she should support them. No, she also defends WWII internment of Japanese-Americans, wrote a whole stinking book about it.
Dude, she's obviously insane. And as everyone knows, crazy chicks throw down between the sheets.
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