Land of 10,000 lakes, and 1 official language?

[trotsky]

http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/99909104.html

Gov. Tim Pawlenty waded into the national debate over immigration Tuesday, saying that Minnesota should consider making English its official state language.

Such a measure could spare governments translation costs, but impose a new level of difficulty on the state's immigrant population.

At a news conference outside the governor's residence, Pawlenty said that as the country becomes more diverse, some people might question which language to use in official documents. He said it might be helpful to clarify that the official language is English.

Clearly this is red meat for the teabaggers, but WTF is it with these "English only" assholes in Minnesota? I'm willing to bet to a person they have a grandfather or great grandmother who ONLY spoke Norwegian - attended Norwegian language church services, took classes taught in Norwegian, yada yada. Yet just a generation or two later, their descendants have no clue about the language.

[Angry Dragon]

1. The only surprise here is

that he was in Minnesota long enough to give a news conference in Minnesota

[trotsky]

2. Ha!

Ain't that the truth.

[kickysnana]

3. +1

[Brickbat]

4. Headline should be "Pawlenty continues quest to show nation he's right-wing presidential material."

What a fucking tool he is.

[geardaddy]

5. Those folks are ok with Norwegian, German, what have you

because they're not "brown" languages.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

6. I wonder if a lot of the "English only" types are aware

that in the nineteenth century, Anglos had serious discussions about whether the Scandinavian and German immigrants would ever learn English. A common sentiment was that they were "too stupid." I'm half Norwegian and 1/4 German myself--the rest is Latvian-- so I enjoy springing this on distant relatives who complain about immigrants "refusing" to learn English.

I'd be willing to bet that Latino immigrants learn English in greater percentages than gringo retirees in Mexico and Costa Rica learn Spanish. :evilgrin:

[glinda]

7. Mark my words. Timmie is going to do a a LOT of damage before he leaves.

[qb]

8. It would be so helpful to make sure documents aren't accidentally published in Somali, or Russian

or whatever.
:banghead: