Free Republic

Describing the United States as "the last best hope" for carrying on the ideals of western civilization, Republican presidential candidate Tom Tancredo called last night for an end to the nation's "bilingualization" and "Balkanization."... Tancredo's comments didn't go unchallenged...."I speak the same language as the people that flew into the towers; I speak the same language as all the Iraqis we are killing; I speak many languages, and I'm proud of it," said Siham Elhamoumi, 22, who recently graduated from St. Michael's College in Vermont..."Am I the enemy?" Elhamoumi then pulled her shawl over her head, so it covered her...

Just when you think you have heard it all, along comes a story that is almost too ridiculous to be true. But it is. The idiocy of federal bureaucracies apparently is never-ending. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which might easily be called the Department of Political Correctness, has decided to take on the Salvation Army. Yes, the Salvation Army, that phenomenally successful assistance organization which began in Great Britain over one hundred and forty-years ago. The Salvation Army, which has helped thousands of people in countries all over the world, is being sued by the EEOC. As most people...

This is my rock anthem for the English language. Download and share to all. http://www.treasurehuntadventures.com/se.htm

BE HERE, OR BE NOWHERE!

This Dallas suburb could become the first city in Texas to adopt a sweeping ordinance intended to keep out illegal immigrants, a cause for concern among its large minority population. More than 50 municipalities nationwide have considered, passed or rejected laws banning landlords from leasing to illegal immigrants, penalizing businesses that employ undocumented workers and making English the local official language. But until now, that trend hasn't been matched in the Lone Star State. "This is the first town in Texas that had the guts to do what's right," Susie Hart, who grew up in Farmers Branch, said during a...

Good Letter... Newspapers simply won't publish letters to the editor which they either deem politically incorrect (read below) or which does not agree with the philosophy they're pushing on the public. This woman wrote a great letter to the editor that should have been published  but with your help it will get published via cyberspace! New Immigrants From: "David LaBonte" My wife, Rosemary, wrote a wonderful letter to the editor of the OC Register which, of course, was not printed. So, I decided to "print" it myself by sending it out on the Internet. Pass it along if you feel so...

Louis Barletta, the Mayor of Hazleton, Pennsylvania, has thrown down the gauntlet to those who think America belongs to anyone who can walk across the border. The ACLU and a Puerto Rican group have taken up the challenge. And the Mayor has upped the ante by hiring as defense counsel the former head of immigration in the Department of Justice. Step one in this legal clash, likely to go to the US Supreme Court, was a series of three ordinances passed in Hazleton. Propelled by several local crimes apparently committed by illegal aliens, and inspired by the Mayor, the City...

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has changed the way it chooses nominees for best foreign-language film and eliminated a rule requiring entries to be in the official language of the submitting country. The academy’s governors approved a new process in judging foreign-language films, allowing New York-area academy members to participate in the selection for the first time, according to a statement issued last week. A shortlist of films from nine countries will be chosen by the same Los Angeles screening committee that has traditionally viewed the approximately 60 submissions. That shortlist will...

Education board may take conservative turn on reading, writing standard AUSTIN - The State Board of Education, an elected body with a history of fierce ideological debates about textbook content, now wants to put its stamp on the curriculum that guides the instruction of 4.4 million Texas schoolchildren. At its meeting Thursday, the 15-member board is expected to scrap a curriculum revision process dominated by teachers and the Texas Education Agency and discuss a new timetable for revising the English reading and writing standards. Many on the board want to replace a student-centered curriculum that calls on students to use...

CARBONDALE - Adrienne Davis graduated from Carbondale's Roaring Fork High School in 1999. She is now a teacher at Edwards Elementary School where in a few years all the classes will be taught in both Spanish and English. Starting this fall, all kindergarten classes will be dual language. And as those classes move up, eventually the entire school will be bilingual. It is a solution that is working in Edwards, Davis said, where formerly about 80 percent of the kids in the elementary school were Hispanic. "It is definitely a positive thing," Davis said. "The kids are all playing together....

At a time when bilingual education remains entrenched in the United States, two-thirds of Hispanics polled nonetheless support making English the official U. S. language. Most lawmakers have yet to get that message, with a few notable exceptions. At the Eagle Forum Summit this past Thursday, Rep. Steve King of Iowa spoke on “an endeavor for me that goes back to 1996.” That endeavor is making English the official language of the United States. “Throughout all of history, there is nothing more powerful and unifying than a common language.” Rep. King, throughout the past decade, has done countless hours of...

Some years ago, I visited a cafe in an American border town, right across the river. Not a soul was conversing in English. But this was no "They're all speaking Spanish" experience. The town was Madawaska, Maine. The river was the St. John, and the language was a kind of French.Last year, I came across a parallel, southern version of border dining -- in Brownsville, Texas. Local friends took me to Betty's Tortas, where everyone was speaking Spanish. A student of Spanish, I tried to order, but the language of Cervantes got me nowhere at Betty's. The confused waiter turned...

Vanity - request for comments from Americans regarding strange translation of town name.

NASHVILLE - A bill that would force people to take the Tennessee state driver's license exam in English would make the state vulnerable to a lawsuit if it becomes law, some groups said. "It comes down to discrimination," said Janice Snow Rodriguez, executive director of the Tennessee Foreign Language Institute. "People who are in every other way within their right to get a driver's license are prevented from doing so." But sponsors of the bill are adamant that their primary concern is road safety. "Citizens of Tennessee need to have people who can read road signs," said Sen. Bill Ketron,...

PHOENIX — State lawmakers are slowly moving to put a series of controversial — and potentially ethnically divisive — measures on the November ballot. The latest effort got a boost this week when the House of Representatives voted 34-22 to ask voters to once again declare English the state's official language. That vote came despite protests from foes who said the proposed constitutional amendment reflected everything from an anti-immigrant attitude to the fear of the currently Anglo majority of the demographic changes occurring in Arizona. And Rep. David Bradley, D-Tucson, even compared this move to promote what he described as...

High school senior Aksonexay Ratanasith arrived in the United States from war-torn Laos at age 3. The Richmond boy excelled in elementary school, but in junior high was placed in classes with recent immigrants. He scored well on fluency tests, he said, but remained in English development classes until his sophomore year at Kennedy High School.Now a senior, he takes database applications and leadership class. He still doesn't understand why he wasn't allowed out of the English learner program sooner."ELD was holding me back," Ratanasith said.For the past two years, nearly half of the state's 1.3 million English language learners...

It is no secret that America's international-broadcasting institutions have been sadly lacking in strategic vision for years. In fact, such institutions are among Washington's most dysfunctional. Efforts to make them more efficient in the "war for hearts and minds" inevitably get stymied by political infighting, tight budgets and internecine warfare among the organizations. News last week suggests that the U.S. government is again about to shoot itself in the foot in this vital front of the public diplomacy in war against terrorism by eliminating Voice of America's English-language service. Not all the news is bad, though. The good news...

English As The "Official" Language of America? A recent poll by a nonpartisan research firm says 83% of Marylanders believe laws should be passed making English the official language of the U.S. This would require that all official documents and government business be conducted only in English -- no more printing in other languages. Do you agree with this proposal?

THE LONDON terrorist attacks on July 7 and July 21 changed British Prime Minister Tony Blair. He had long been reluctant to make the fight against Islamo-fascist terror a domestic issue. Last week he outlined security measures to deal with radical clerics who incite violence. Many of Blair's proposals would be unconstitutional under U.S. law. For example, the British could deport a person for "fostering hatred, advocating violence to further a person's beliefs or justifying or validating such violence"; "condoning or glorying terrorism" would be illegal under proposed anti-terrorism legislation; and organizations suspected of fomenting hatred would be controlled. Of...

Reasons why the English language is so hard to learn: 1) The bandage was wound around the wound. 2) The farm was used to produce produce. 3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse. 4) We must polish the Polish furniture. 5) He could lead if he would get the lead out. 6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert. 7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present. 8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum. 9) When...