Sticks and Stones

Conservatives are not getting the traction they once did by pejoratively labeling opponents "liberal," so now they throwing around the term "socialist" to try and discredit the other side. If the S-word doesn't work, then they'll probably turn to "communist" to impugn. They'll just keep rocking the vehicle until they get some traction.

Speaking of Merkle, Let's Talk about Metro Public Works

The slang terms "bonehead" and "boner" are said to date back to 1908 and were specifically applied to Fred Merkle's infamous baserunning error.  The OED has 1912 as the earliest reference to a "boner" and quotes its use: "a blunder in the science of the game."

A group of us here in Salemtown found out last night that Metro Public Works pulled a boner in 2008 when someone there put our architects' streetscape design plans in "the wrong pile," thus causing months of delay in the already arduous MPW approval process. Thanks to some bureaucratic blockhead, our block grant moneys did not get spent as they were supposed to last fall, and the improvements that our community recommended last winter probably will not start until this spring.

I once believed that Metro Park's continued delays to a Morgan Park playground were the greatest Metro disservice to Salemtown. The latest boneheaded blunder of Public Works is pretty fracking close to that distinction in my mind now.

English Only Would Jeopardize the Delivery of Non-Profit Services

Local non-profits tell the Tennessean why Eric Crafton's English Only is bad for their clients:

Hal Cato, executive director of the Oasis Center, said the city contracts his agency for counseling services. The center employs a counselor whose entire caseload is composed of Hispanic families, many having trouble adjusting to life in the U.S.

Cato fears the new measure would jeopardize funding for that counselor.

"I do think that people will misunderstand it and that people will be will be negatively impacted by it," he said ....

Lewis Lavine, president of the Center for Nonprofit Management in Nashville, said the amendment could create confusion for groups that get both federal and local dollars because many federal regulations require that information be distributed in other languages.

"We believe it's bad for Nashville," he said. "Even if it were enacted and disavowed by the courts, it would still put Nashville in a bad light."

How do you say, "Pride goeth before the fall," in Japanese?

Regardless of what happens in this special election, it's nice to see that sometimes hubris gets its deserved blowback:

Councilman Crafton repeatedly bragged that he had once started a Metro Council meeting in Japanese. He is the only councilman to use a foreign language in Metro business, he told us again and again. He wanted to prove the point that such a scary situation could someday be reality in Nashville. DCRP Chair Tom Lawless then called him out and said, “So, you admit before this entire group that you broke state law and your oath by conducting business in a foreign language.”

This is the sort of critical questioning local reporters should have been hitting Eric Crafton with for months. Instead, they've helped create a smug monster who is able to grab a media megaphone at his whim.

Framing Tennessee: More Coal Ash Covered Chickens Home to Roost

"Tennessee-style" and "Tennessee-like" are becoming standard in nomenclature that outsiders use to judge their risk of disaster. "Tennessee" and "disaster" consistently used in the same breath. Ouch. Maybe a public relations disaster is what this state needs to rouse it from inbred conservativism. Humiliation can be a powerful motivator toward progress. Is Tennessee clued in enough to be motivated away from future disasters?

Hence, Eric Crafton's Fear of Spanish

Latinos account for half the U.S. population growth since 2000.

Word Uppity. It's the Code Word.

I'll have some of what John Ridley is having. He puts the slings and arrows of Georgia's great white dopes, Republicans Lynn Westmoreland and Rick Goddard in proper perspective:

[N]ow that the word is out there, uppity's got its defenders, too. They say that since it can be directed toward anyone of any race, it can't be offensive exclusively to people of color. Except, really, how many times do you hear the word used in conjunction with a white person? White people are supposed to have ego and ambition, so they can't possibly be uppity. It's minorities who have the temerity to want to rise above their station.

And it's journalists of color who have the nerve to ask conservatives tough questions.

Though unapologetic for the use of the word, Westmoreland says he didn't know that uppity had an offensive connotation. A difficult claim to believe coming from a 58-year-old man who grew up in the segregated South.

Westmoreland's final fallback position is the same as most who refuse to either man up and apologize or just get honest and admit they're bigoted: Webster's. Westmoreland says that because there is a dictionary definition for "uppity," people's sensitivity to the word is overdone.

I would point out there are also dictionary definitions for "coon" and "tar baby" and "macaca."

And there is also a dictionary definition for "cracker." So I'm sure neither Westmoreland nor Goddard would take offense if I refer to them as one.

No, but they may have some Georgia textiles for you to wear.

One for the "English First" Drones

Some new Pew Studies:

show that fewer than one-in-four (23%) Latino immigrants report being able to speak English very well. However, fully 88% of their U.S.-born adult children report that they speak English very well. Among later generations of Hispanic adults, the figure rises to 94%.

The surveys also indicate that Latinos are motivated by the belief that deficiency in language skills is the cause of discrimination against them.

And Now for Something Completely Different

Enclave translated into Bahasa Malayu. I know no one in Kuala Lampur is reading this, but it's pretty cool that they could if they wanted to thanks to linguamatrix.com, which plans to introduce on-line English translators for other languages.


HT: Democratic Veteran