Postings: Members’ Experiences and Anecdotes
Dante has sent this interesting item:
Andy Borowitz
Posted November 18, 2008 | 12:47 PM (EST)
In the first two weeks since the election, President-elect Barack Obama has broken with a tradition established over the past eight years through his controversial use of complete sentences, political observers say.
Millions of Americans who watched Mr. Obama’s appearance on CBS’s “60 Minutes” on Sunday witnessed the President-elect’s unorthodox verbal tick, which had Mr. Obama employing grammatically correct sentences virtually every time he opened his mouth.
But Mr. Obama’s decision to use complete sentences in his public pronouncements carries with it certain risks, since after the last eight years many Americans may find his odd speaking style to be jarring.
According to presidential historian Davis Logsdon of the University of Minnesota, some Americans might find it “alienating” to have a president who speaks English as though it were his first language.
“Every time Obama opens his mouth, his subjects and verbs are in agreement,” says Mr. Logsdon. “If he keeps it up, he is running the risk of sounding like an elitist.”
The historian said that if Mr. Obama insists on using complete sentences in his speeches, the public may find itself saying, “Okay, subject, predicate, subject, predicate — we get it, stop showing off.”
The President-elect’s stubborn insistence on using complete sentences has already attracted a rebuke from one of his harshest critics, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska. “Talking with complete sentences there and also, too, talking in a way that ordinary Americans like Joe the Plumber and Tito the Builder can’t really do there, I think needing to do that isn’t tapping into what Americans are needing also,” she said.
Andy Borowitz is a comedian and writer whose work appears in The New Yorker and
The New York Times, and at his award-winning humor site, BorowitzReport.com
Dante has also sent an Australian annecdote; here is an excerpt:
‘An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani or Afghan.
An American may also be a Comanche, Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as native Americans.
An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan.The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them chooses.
An American is also free to believe in no religion.
………Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American. (Read the quote from the president-elects under ‘Current Issues and Updates’
Members’ Reflecting on ‘No on 8′ Demonstrations!
Hi everyone
Today I had an hour to kill so I stood in front of 7-11 with a couple of small no on 8 signs. After awhile a couple of young high school girls in costume came by and asked for my sign. They held it up while they walked the length of town! A woman with 2 small kids did the same, and then another woman. I kept going back to my truck for more signs! We had 3 ‘no on 8’ signs circulating, by total strangers that care. I’m starting to feel that 8 will go down in the face of decency.
However, let’s all get together tomorrow at 11AM, 10th and Main, to cement the results!
Dave Patterson
——————————
……they even went so far as to shove a 3 year old with a sign in his hands between me and Cathy, ……The happy ending came when the father prompted him to say “no on hate yes on 8″ and the child said in baby talk no on 8!!! It was WONDERFUL!!!!
Linda A.
——————————–
At 12 noon a flood of about 150 yes on 8 people came in and over ran us. Many discussions later I’m convinced that these people would be happy living in a theocracy. Christian of course! One lady growled at me saying that I had better read my bible!
Dave Patterson
————————–
A MENTOR OF MINE REMINDED THE CLASS THAT IF YOU REALLY READ THE BIBLE YOU WILL BECOME AN ATHEIST!!!
ROD
————————-
I then talked to 3 tall teenage boys who knew what God thinks!!! IMAGINE!!! THEY’VE BEEN TALKING TO GOD!!! I told them they sure did know a lot at such a young age! Long story short, God said gay is BAD, they pray for the gay, and with a triumphant smirk, they lay their argument to rest!
Linda
——————————
Question for the Yes on 8 who tend to be Right-to-Lifers: why were they not protesting the murder of a 13 year old child by stoning / lawful sentence in Somalia / following their religious beliefs while 10,000 people looked on? (Reported in the NC TImes on Sunday morning).
That’s what happens with Theocracy. Tell them to picket Di’Carlos for serving shell-fish — that too is an abomination in the Book of Leviticus……
Rose
———————————