Gingrich: No hablar la perra española!
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich equated bilingual education Saturday with “the language of living in a ghetto” and mocked requirements that ballots be printed in multiple languages.
Cross another GOPer off the list. These guys are so thin in the ‘08 Prez race it’s kinda sad really. Earth to Salamander Man (and the rest of the wingers): We’re a melting pot. We don’t have official languages or religions.
The arrogance of some of these people is breathtaking. Maybe it would be good to learn another language. Ya think? Smart people in other places know 2, 3, sometimes even 4 other languages. What’s next? A War on Languages?
Got me thinking of another notable world leader who had a penchant for protecting the language of the homeland:
Only a handful of Germans in the Reich had the slightest conception of the eternal and merciless struggle for the German language, German schools, and a German way of life. Only today, when the same deplorable misery is forced on many millions of Germans from the Reich, who under foreign rule dream of their common fatherland and strive, amid their longing, at least to preserve their holy right to their mother tongue, do wider circles understand what it means to be forced to fight for one’s nationality.
-Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)
The funny thing is, I was just watching a video of Al Gore being interviewed on Swedish television. (The host said happy birthday to him, by the way.) The interview was in English, with Swedish subtitles. As soon as Al Gore’s part of the show was over, the woman switched to talking in Swedish.
I turned to Demetrius and commented about that. I asked, “Can you imagine someone on American television interviewing a foreign visitor in their own language?”
Rhetorical question–of course not. But the Newt offers such an extreme contrast to that. Not wanting *ballots* printed in other languages? Yikes.