We want you to leave because you lack safety and common sense, 'tards.

I thought the joke in Florida were stores with signs saying "English Spoken Here" as if that was exceptional.

Aim4MyHead,

I'm so glad that your employee is ok.  I really feel for him.

I completely support your rule about english.  This is the USA and english is the official language.  If more immigrants understood that today we'd be a more unified country.

Tell them, "Lo que estás haciendo es muy peligroso, y nunca te permitiremos a volver!"

Somehow, someone is gonna get their knickers in a wad over this. But this is clear-cut safety issue. Wise move.

Quoted: Tell them, "Lo que estás haciendo es muy peligroso, y nunca te permitiremos a volver!"

Bien dicho!  Asi es.

Quoted: Aim4MyHead, I'm so glad that your employee is ok.  I really feel for him. I completely support your rule about english.  This is the USA and english is the official language.  If more immigrants understood that today we'd be a more unified country.

Where did you get\hear\read\find that english is the official language?
to the best of my knowledge every time that has come up it has been shot down, waaaaay down

It will get to the point that people who speak English only  will be passed over for job opportunities for bilingual applicants.  It's a shame that this is happening.

Either speak our countries laguage or get the fuck out of it!

Damn good work man. About time we stand up and take our country back.
No english - no service: I'm proud of you.

You could try this:

"Usted es una espinilla en el asno de América. Vaya a casa antes de
que le haga estallar."


Maybe not perfect.  My ComputerSpanish-fu is weak.

Quoted: Quoted: Aim4MyHead, I'm so glad that your employee is ok.  I really feel for him. I completely support your rule about english.  This is the USA and english is the official language.  If more immigrants understood that today we'd be a more unified country. Where did you get\hear\read\find that english is the official language? to the best of my knowledge every time that has come up it has been shot down, waaaaay down

It should be the official language.  I guess we never passed "official language" legislation because we always assumed that English was the official language.  Now that it's becoming a major problem, it should be dealt with before half of our population speaks Spanish and pushes  English speaking people to the sidelines.  Sorry to sound racist, but I'm a realist.

Quoted: Get off ARFcom and hit the books punk. As to Aim4myhead Damn good work man. About time we stand up and take our country back. No english - no service: I'm proud of you.

F***ING A! Givew me a break.

Quoted: Quoted: Either speak our countries laguage or get the fuck out of it! You could use some work yourself. "countries" "country's" is the correct form. Get off ARFcom and hit the books punk. As to Aim4myhead Damn good work man. About time we stand up and take our country back. No english - no service: I'm proud of you.

Understand that there is a difference between, as cmjohnson put it, conversational English and using proper grammar/spelling.  I will now finish this thought with out calling you any names.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Either speak our countries laguage or get the fuck out of it! You could use some work yourself. "countries" "country's" is the correct form. Get off ARFcom and hit the books punk. As to Aim4myhead Damn good work man. About time we stand up and take our country back. No english - no service: I'm proud of you. Understand that there is a difference between, as cmjohnson put it, conversational English and using proper grammar/spelling.  I will now finish this thought with out calling you any names.

point taken.
post edited.

Quoted: Quoted: Aim4MyHead, I'm so glad that your employee is ok.  I really feel for him. I completely support your rule about english.  This is the USA and english is the official language.  If more immigrants understood that today we'd be a more unified country. Where did you get\hear\read\find that english is the official language? to the best of my knowledge every time that has come up it has been shot down, waaaaay down

Can you please clear up how English is not the official Language (Beside the fact that there is no written legislation)?I am seriously curious.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Aim4MyHead, I'm so glad that your employee is ok.  I really feel for him. I completely support your rule about english.  This is the USA and english is the official language.  If more immigrants understood that today we'd be a more unified country. Where did you get\hear\read\find that english is the official language? to the best of my knowledge every time that has come up it has been shot down, waaaaay down It should be the official language.  I guess we never passed "official language" legislation because we always assumed that English was the official language.  Now that it's becoming a major problem, it should be dealt with before half of our population speaks Spanish and pushes  English speaking people to the sidelines.  Sorry to sound racist, but I'm a realist.

I believe we never passed "official language" legislation because of pc a$$hats claiming "racism"

I worked for a company that pushed english speaking people to the sidelines, it really sucked

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Aim4MyHead, I'm so glad that your employee is ok.  I really feel for him. I completely support your rule about english.  This is the USA and english is the official language.  If more immigrants understood that today we'd be a more unified country. Where did you get\hear\read\find that english is the official language? to the best of my knowledge every time that has come up it has been shot down, waaaaay down Can you please clear up how English is not the official Language (Beside the fact that there is no written legislation)?I am seriously curious.

If I am correctly interpreting your question................
There have been many attempts to pass legislation(laws)to make english the official language of the United States
every time it was introduced(for the past 25years?)it has NOT PASSED, legislators voted against it

there are organizations that are still fighting to make it happen, I don't think they have much of a chance
pc has done a great deal of damage to our country, I wonder if it is too late to fix this mess?
(someones opinion of what our official language is, is very different from an actual "official language")

Quoted: Quoted: Aim4MyHead, I'm so glad that your employee is ok.  I really feel for him. I completely support your rule about english.  This is the USA and english is the official language.  If more immigrants understood that today we'd be a more unified country. Where did you get\hear\read\find that english is the official language? to the best of my knowledge every time that has come up it has been shot down, waaaaay down

What language were the founding documents of the nation written in?

English is the default and de facto language of the country. It is the language used for all official communication with aircraft, orders of the courts and the debates and discussion of Congress*

Being multilingual is fine, it enriches one's experience, but for commerce and the integrity of the country, a common language is a necessity (lest language contribute to misunderstandings between groups)

To reiterate: speak English or GTFO.


*not counting Ted Kennedy

Quoted: I believe we never passed "official language" legislation because of pc a$$hats claiming "racism"

Hmm from between the time our country was founded up till about maybe 40 years ago I dont think PC asshats were a problem. Yet it never happened then either.

Quoted: i have to give him the spanish 4473  so he can read it.

Had no idea there was a Spanish version of 4473.

Quoted: Quoted: I believe we never passed "official language" legislation because of pc a$$hats claiming "racism" Hmm from between the time our country was founded up till about maybe 40 years ago I dont think PC asshats were a problem. Yet it never happened then either.

I did state in an above post that it was not deemed a problem until about 25 years ago(from memory)
Here is a little history on the subject

Issues in U.S. Language Policy
The Official English Question

ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/JWCRAWFORD/question.htm
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For more than 200 years, Americans have gotten by without declaring English our official language. This raises an obvious question: Why should we do so now? Why does English suddenly need "legal protection" in a federal Language of Government Act? English Only advocates respond:

Language diversity is a recent phenomenon in the United States, which the Founders never had to cope with.
Before the last couple of decades, Americans had never provided bilingual ballots, education, publications, and similar services at public expense.
Native-language accommodations discourage immigrants from learning English.
Plenty of other countries have designated official languages to manage diversity. Why not the U.S.A.?
Let's examine the factual basis of these claims.

First, some history. Congress had never even considered declaring English the nation's official language until 1981, when a constitutional English Language Amendment was introduced by the late Senator S. I. Hayakawa. The only previous official-language legislation dates back to 1923: a bill designating "American" the national tongue. Less a patriotic gesture than a put-down of literary Anglophiles, the idea proved especially popular with Irish Americans, who saw an attempt to insult the British Empire. The measure died in Congress without coming to a vote, but was adopted by the state of Illinois (where English was quietly rehabilitated in 1969).

Notwithstanding a persistent legend that German missed becoming our official language by a single vote, American English has never been in jeopardy. In 1795, the 3rd Congress did consider and reject a petition by German Americans in Virginia to translate all federal laws into their language. A tie vote in the House of Representatives appears to have been broken by Speaker Frederick A. C. Muhlenberg, a Pennsylvania German with budgetary concerns and assimilationist tendencies. Poor recordkeeping leaves much uncertainty about what role he may have played. But the Muhlenberg legend is certainly false: German was never seriously considered as an official language – despite a century of claims by the likes of Ripley's Believe-It-or-Not, the German-American Bund, and Parade magazine.

Americans have traditionally resisted language legislation, beginning in 1780, when John Adams propoised to establish an official Language Academy to set standards for English. This idea was rejected by the Continental Congress as an improper role for government and a threat to individual liberties. A century later President Teddy Roosevelt's attempt to "reform" English spelling met a similar fate. There was no English proficiency requirement to become naturalized as a U.S. citizen until 1906 – the first major language restriction to be enacted at the federal level.

On the other hand, the Continental Congress saw nothing wrong with printing its Journals and other official documents in German and in French (hoping to win Québécois support for the Revolution). No patriotic objections were raised against accommodating these politically significant minorities. States were even more likely to cater to minority needs. Before World War I, bilingual education was common in areas where nonanglophone groups enjoyed political clout. During the 19th century, state laws, constitutions, and legislative proceedings appeared in languages as diverse as Welsh, Czech, Norwegian, Spanish, French, and of course, German.

At other times, Americans have imposed restrictive language policies. California rewrote its state constitution in 1879 to eliminate Spanish language rights. In 1897, Pennsylvania made English proficiency a condition of employment in its coal fields, a none-too-subtle way to exclude Italians and Slavs. Security fears during the World War I era led to unprecedented bans on public use of the German language – in schools, on the street, during religious services, and even on the telephone.

So it is impossible to characterize any American "tradition" on the official language question. History is rarely so cooperative. Our responses to diversity have ranged from accommodation to tolerance to discrimination to repression, usually determined by factors that have little to do with language. These have included a minority group's race, religion, numbers, political clout, and cultural distinctiveness, as well as the majority group's feelings of prosperity, stability, or paranoia.

One thing we can say with certainty: Language diversity has always been with us. As early as 1664, when the island of Manhattan was ceded from the Dutch to the British, 18 different tongues were spoken there, not counting any of the hundreds of Native American languages spoken in North America at the time. In the 1790 census, German Americans accounted for 8.6 percent of the population – a proportion comparable to that of Hispanic Americans, 9.0 percent, exactly two centuries later. Certainly, there are more languages spoken in the U.S.A. today than in 1790. (The 1990 census reported 323 – surely an undercount.) But this is a quantitative, not a qualitative, change.

Proportionally speaking, the language-minority population was larger at the turn of the 20th century, when immigration reached its highest levels in U.S. history, than at the turn of the 21st. In the 1890 census, there were 4.5 times as many non-English speakers than in the 1990 census (with its superior capabilities for counting such groups). In 1910, 23 percent of foreign-born whites, 39 percent of Japanese, 41 percent of Chinese, and 66 percent of other immigrants spoke no English, as compared with less than 10 percent of foreign-born residents in 1990. A decade before New Mexico became a state in 1912, two-thirds of its residents remained monolingual speakers of Spanish or Native American languages. Meanwhile, significant enclaves of French speakers remained intact in Louisiana and northern New England. German still predominated in large areas of the upper Midwest. These groups gradually became Anglicized – not through legislation, but through social changes due to industrialization, migration, road-building, electrification, mass media, and the passing of isolated rural life.

These assimilative forces are even more powerful today. There is no evidence that bilingual accommodations slow down English acquisition. Absolutely none has been marshalled by English Only advocates – only unsupported claims about ethnic separatism and immigrants' disinclination to learn English unless forced to do so.

Demographic research shows that now, more than ever, language patterns in America are a case of "Babel in reverse."<1> A massive shift to English continues. This trend has been somewhat masked by rising immigration levels over the past two decades, following half a century of restrictive quotas. So it is not suprising that many Americans have trouble grasping the paradox: While the number of minority language speakers is increasing, so is the rate of linguistic assimilation. All available evidence suggests that today's newcomers are learning English – and losing their native tongues – more rapidly than ever before. English was far more "threatened" in earlier times; yet it survived quite nicely without official status.

About a third of the world's nation-states have official language provisions in their constitutions. But few of these designate a single language for government. Some do so at enormous cost to civil liberties – Turkey, for example, has criminalized minority language usage in many contexts. Others elevate a single national language for purely symbolic, ceremonial purposes. But a larger number of constitutions include explicit provisions for minority rights, giving official status to more than one language. In practice, some of these guarantees are faithfully observed; some are ignored. Elsewhere language laws serve a planning function, for example, in post-colonial nations that remain linguistically diverse. Or they may seek to mediate ethnic rivalries.

In sum, it is impossible to generalize about the meaning of an official language. Political contexts vary enormously. It would mean one thing for a small "unilingual" country – Iceland, let's say – to declare an official language as an emblem of national pride. It would mean quite another for the United States to do so, where the political impact would be to restrict and denigrate minority tongues that already are subordinate to English. And recently, it meant something else again when the colony of Puerto Rico ended its official bilingualism, imposed by military force in 1902, in favor of Spanish as its sole official language. (The new policy lasted barely two years, an indication of its unique political subtext: combat between Puerto Rico's statehood and "commonwealth" forces.)

All this is not to say the United States should have no language policy. Quite the contrary. Now more than ever we need a comprehensive plan for managing language resources and ensuring language rights. But such a policy involves much more than simply designating an official tongue.

1. Einar Haugen, The Ecology of Languages (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1972).
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Copyright © 1997 by James Crawford. Permission is hereby granted to reproduce this page for free, noncommercial distribution, provided that credit is given and this notice is included. Requests for permission to reproduce in any other form should be emailed to [email protected]. But before writing, please read my permissions FAQ.

Quoted: point taken. post edited.

That still doesn't change the fact that FOX should know better.

The amigos can buy fucking guns?? WTF, I thought you had to be a citizen.  Just my personal opinion here but if I owned a gunshop I wouldnt sell shit to em even if they can legally own.

Guess What? Some states HAVE passed "official language" legislation

Official language status
The United States does not have an official language; nevertheless, American English ( referred to in the US as simply English ) is the language used for legislation, regulations, executive orders, treaties, federal court rulings, and all other official pronouncements.
Many individual states have adopted English as their official language,
and several states and territories are officially bilingual:

Louisiana (English and French),
New Mexico (English and Spanish),
Hawaii (Hawaiian English and Hawaiian),
Puerto Rico (Spanish and English),
Guam (Chamorro and English),
American Samoa (Samoan and English);
and one is officially trilingual:

Northern Mariana Islands (English, Chamorro, and Carolinian).
Until the 1950s, Pennsylvania was officially bilingual in English and German.

Native American languages are official or co-official on many of the US Indian reservations and Pueblos.

In 2000, the census bureau printed the standard census questionnaires in six languages: English, Spanish, Korean, Mandarin (in traditional Chinese characters), Vietnamese, and Tagalog. The English-Only movement seeks to establish English as the only official language of the entire nation.

Plan: Principals would speak Spanish

By VANESA SALINAS / Al Día

A Dallas schools trustee is concerned that principals at schools where most of the students have difficulty speaking English may not be able to communicate with them or their parents.

Joe May said he would discuss with his Dallas school board colleagues on Tuesday the possibility of requiring that principals who work in these schools commit to learning Spanish.

"We want to make the principal more accessible to the children and the parents of children with limited English proficiency, and we want to encourage parental involvement," Mr. May said. "The inability of a principal to communicate with a majority of the students' parents in itself discourages parental involvement."
Also Online

En español: Proponen que directores aprendan español

Mr. May said his proposal would apply to principals at schools where at least half the students are or were classified as "limited English proficient." Principals would have to be proficient in the primary language of those students.

The Dallas school district says it has 42 schools in which at least half the students have limited English proficiency. A total of 100 DISD schools have a student population in which the majority of students are or were classified as such. Forty of those schools have principals who don't speak Spanish, according to DISD documents.

While other trustees and the head of Dallas' Hispanic School Administrators Association said the idea has some merit, they would like more details. Trustee Ron Price said the district needs to ensure it can legally require principals to speak languages other than English.

"I've never heard this happening anywhere else in the United States, so we need to make sure this passes the legal test to say that you have such a policy," Mr. Price said.

Sylvia Fuentes, principal of Obadiah Knight Elementary and president of Dallas' Hispanic School Administrators Association, said it might be better for the district to encourage, but not require, its principals to speak the language of the majority of its students.

"I do think it would be better than 'required' to say 'preferred' and that they would make sure that the district would [support] the administrators in attaining the second language," Ms. Fuentes said.

E-mail [email protected]

Quoted: The amigos can buy fucking guns?? WTF, I thought you had to be a citizen.  Just my personal opinion here but if I owned a gunshop I wouldnt sell shit to em even if they can legally own.

If you have a green card or some other visas with a hunting licence you can buy a gun.

Again, folks, the problem isn't ""Mexicans", it's "which Mexicans".  Lots of Mexicans from NE Mexico have guns in Texas, have Texas bank accounts, and keep homes in Texas.  They aren't criminal, just prudent.  Over the last ten years, you have started to see a lot of Mexican nationals living on the Texas side and commuting to Mexico to work because the Texas side is a whole lot safer.

Thirty years ago, lots of people from Mexico would work in Texas and it was not uncommon for the reverse to be the case in construction.  One major difference between then and now is that Mexicans from NE Mexico will hire Americans and expecially Texans to work, whether they are the boss in Mexico or in Texas, but Mexicans from most of the rest of Mexico will refuse to hire anyone who is not from their state and ideally from their part of their state.  You see crews not just from Michoacan, but specifically from Zamora, for instance.  That is a big reason why there aren't several people in construction sites who speak English -- the people in charge of hiring are not just facing the prospect of (God Damn!) paying taxes and workers comp (like, you know, they are supposed to) but also the very real issue of workplace hostility that can escalate to deliberate injury if you pick people that the rest of the crew of illegal aliens don't like.  So they let the illegal aliens pick the people they like and that usually means no one speaking any English at all.

30 years ago you had Mexicans in Texas working construction, rarely all-Mexican crews, but sometimes.  But 1/3 would speak perfect English, 1/3 would mostly speak English, and the other 1/3 were learning or didn't care because they were heading home to Mexico when they were done.

"You want us to go because no English"

"Yep, that about sums it up.  AMF."

I've been an 01 FFL for 16yr's.

I will not sell a firearm to anyone that I cannot converse with. (PERIOD...!)

Quoted: Plan: Principals would speak Spanish By VANESA SALINAS / Al Día A Dallas schools trustee is concerned that principals at schools where most of the students have difficulty speaking English may not be able to communicate with them or their parents. Joe May said he would discuss with his Dallas school board colleagues on Tuesday the possibility of requiring that principals who work in these schools commit to learning Spanish. "We want to make the principal more accessible to the children and the parents of children with limited English proficiency, and we want to encourage parental involvement," Mr. May said. "The inability of a principal to communicate with a majority of the students' parents in itself discourages parental involvement." Also Online En español: Proponen que directores aprendan español Mr. May said his proposal would apply to principals at schools where at least half the students are or were classified as "limited English proficient." Principals would have to be proficient in the primary language of those students. The Dallas school district says it has 42 schools in which at least half the students have limited English proficiency. A total of 100 DISD schools have a student population in which the majority of students are or were classified as such. Forty of those schools have principals who don't speak Spanish, according to DISD documents. While other trustees and the head of Dallas' Hispanic School Administrators Association said the idea has some merit, they would like more details. Trustee Ron Price said the district needs to ensure it can legally require principals to speak languages other than English. "I've never heard this happening anywhere else in the United States, so we need to make sure this passes the legal test to say that you have such a policy," Mr. Price said. Sylvia Fuentes, principal of Obadiah Knight Elementary and president of Dallas' Hispanic School Administrators Association, said it might be better for the district to encourage, but not require, its principals to speak the language of the majority of its students. "I do think it would be better than 'required' to say 'preferred' and that they would make sure that the district would [support] the administrators in attaining the second language," Ms. Fuentes said. E-mail [email protected]

Why dont they require the parents to learn english?  Wtf is the point to learn english if everyone will talk to you in spanish?