Hudson: Later than we're told

[ProdigyofZen]

Re: Hudson: Later than we're told

POZ, come on. If you think about it for a minute, you know instantly that the statement "there is no American culture...it doesn't exist" is demonstrably false. Look, the wiki even has an article about American culture, so it must be real, no?

Yes, of course for some it is real.

I just know from personal experience of the same question I continue to ask foreigners: What is American Culture? and their continued answer of "I don't think they have a culture or I don't know" isn't a good sign.

In the same token Woodsman, if you poll 1000 Americans and ask them "what is American culture" and most can't answer with a coherent paragraph describing it yet if you ask a Russian or a Brazilian or a Peruvian "what is your culture" and the words flow freely like a symphony from their mind then it must also mean that American culture is distorted.

But yes, maybe this Dr. Morris Berman and I have similar views and I will like his writings. Thank you for sharing!

[don]

Re: Hudson: Later than we're told

My plumber is Cuban-American. He was a NYC cop (and a plumber) and moved to Florida to be a plumber full time. One day he had a helper, a young guy in his mid-twenties who was his nephew. Just a gopher, really. They only spoke Spanish. When the kid left to get a tool I asked the plumber was he a recent immigrant. No, he said, he's lived all his life in Miami. Amazing. No English. Apparently not needed in his neighborhood. Don't move, kid.

[lektrode]

Re: Hudson: Later than we're told

Yes, I agree but take a look around, no one believes that anymore or cares about what happened in the 1770s.

Havent they conducted polls where the majority of American's don't know when the Declaration of Independence was signed? Or even who is the current Vice President of the US?

I bet more often you will get this response: "Who cares about a bunch of dead white males and what they thought"

esp at certain high priced institutions of higher learning, no doubt

than to get
"the principles handed down by our founding fathers are the rock with which the US stands on"

EXACTLY!!!!
i dunno P - but kinda sad, isnt it?

a quikie personal anecdote - i get 'accused' of being an aussie or even kiwi fairly frequently -
and i always ask why they think that...

"well, you have an accent..."

and my reply/question to that is: really? what part of california are YOU from? (with apologies to the cali crowd, some of my best friends)

but 100% of the time, they ARE from there and wonder how i know/why i ask - to which i reply:

have you ever heard of a place called 'plymouth rock' ?
and - sometimes - they say "yes?"

well, since the 1620's - EVERYONE ELSE speaks with an accent....
and we all chuckle...

dunno why i have the POV that i do...
but maybe its because i was born in july, in the place that started it all over a 2penny tax on TEA
grew up in a house that was over 240years old the year i graduated from HS in '76 (thats nineteen hundred seventy six)
that was documented as one of the 'stops on the underground railroad'
and spent the weekends and my 'formative years' in a place now/still known as The Live Free or Die State,
where going on 400years later still has NO sales tax, NO income tax, with a VOLUNTEER legislature that
EARNS the sum of $100 per annum and STILL manages to accomplish The Public's business every year during a
single 30day session - while maintaining some of the best Public school RESULTS, with some of the best built/maintained Public infrastructure in The US

altho i dont understand why/how all this stuff adds up or how/why that particular place STILL makes it all work - but i DO know that its The Gold Standard on how the .gov SHOULD work - and maybe if i'd gone to some institution of 'higher' learning, i might be able to debate more of the finer points of this stuff and the political 'science' of all of it..

but hey!

i'm just a simple, small biz/working class/tradesman kinda guy.

and... uhhhh... 'somewhat opinionated'

;)

There is no doubt in my mind that the majority of Americans are not well informed. However, I have to wonder if it was ever much different. What percent of Americans knew who the VP was in the year 1800 or 1900?

i'll bet a LOT higher % than today...

and i'm still thinking on my collection of America's TRUE Cultural Icons (as we DO have them, P)

but the first one would have to be - IMHO - to quote one of our more famous (and definitely INfamous) leaders - altho i didnt vote for him - and who said some time ago - it being one of the few things i did agree with him on -
and that would be:

"JAZZ, America's Classical Music"

but gotta git - 'my boy' is buggin me to take him for a walk...

[ProdigyofZen]

Re: Hudson: Later than we're told

When a Spanish speaker can get a loan in Spanish, his taxes done in Spanish, his work is in Spanish and the ability to buy anything he wants in Spanish; what is the need to speak English?

And now even there is so much Latin American investment in Miami that they could get a job in finance at a much higher pay than being a construction worker and not have to speak English as all their customers will speak Spanish to them since they reside in Latin America.

[Milton Kuo]

Re: Hudson: Later than we're told

When a Spanish speaker can get a loan in Spanish, his taxes done in Spanish, his work is in Spanish and the ability to buy anything he wants in Spanish; what is the need to speak English?

If these people do not force other tax payers to subsidize their ignorance of the de facto official language of the United States of America, I see no need for them to learn English and have no quarrel with their choices.

However, that is most certainly not the case. Everybody else who bothers to learn English and those for whom English is the only language they speak must pay additional tax monies to provide Spanish-language services for these people. Secondly, you have affirmative action in many places (universities, government jobs, and private sector jobs where there is a diversity directive) that give these people special, undeserved benefits due to a handicap that they imposed upon themselves for refusing to learn English. And these people are more Caucasian than Asians who get no affirmative action at all! (For what it's worth, I do not believe Asians should get any affirmative action.)

[vt]

Re: Hudson: Later than we're told

"A month later, speaking to the public via his annual, highly scripted phone-in hotline, Putin brought other countries into this scenario, saying, “Parts of today’s territories were in Czechoslovakia, parts in Hungary, parts in Austria, parts in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, parts in Poland.” The message here: Look, borders can and have been redrawn — come on, Europe, let’s just divide Ukraine between us. We’ve done it before." Sound familiar? http://althistory.wikia.com/wiki/Fil...hoslovakia.PNG From today's Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinio...e11_story.html Opinions After carving up Ukraine, where will Putin turn next? By Masha Gessen, Published: May 9 Masha Gessen is a Russian American journalist and the author of “The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin.” Vladimir Putin has consistently explained his intervention in Ukraine by citing his concern for the security of ethnic Russians, Russian speakers and Russian citizens living there. This has caused the leaders of other neighboring countries with sizable Russian-speaking populations to shudder. It has also given rise to many jokes about the Russian-speaking and passport-carrying populations of Israel and New York calling on Putin to send troops to protect them. The understanding behind all the jokes is: Obviously, Russian speakers andRussian citizens in Ukraine are, in the eyes of the Kremlin, significantly different from those in Brooklyn or Ashdod. They may not be living in Russia, but they are not exactly living abroad either. In the 24 years since Russia declared itself a sovereign state, it has failed to start thinking of itself as a post-imperial state. It is through the filter of the victories, losses and insults of its imperial past that Russia views Ukraine — and Putin has described this view in ample detail. In a speech in parliament on March 18, Putin accused the Bolsheviks of having drawn arbitrary borders between the Soviet republics of Ukraine and Russia — and then, in 1954, of giving Crimea and the city of Sevastopol to Ukraine. He conveniently omitted the fact that, at the same time,lands that had been Ukrainian were handed to the Soviet Russian republic — and remain a part of Russia today. More important, Putin clearly indicated he believes that borders drawn even earlier — right after the revolution of 1917 — can and should be redrawn. In other words, he positions contemporary Russia as the heir to the Russian Empire as it was constituted under the czars. A month later, speaking to the public via his annual, highly scripted phone-in hotline, Putin brought other countries into this scenario, saying, “Parts of today’s territories were in Czechoslovakia, parts in Hungary, parts in Austria, parts in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, parts in Poland.” The message here: Look, borders can and have been redrawn — come on, Europe, let’s just divide Ukraine between us. We’ve done it before. Putin sees no such country as Ukraine. He sees lands that are rightfully Russian, lands that can be claimed by Western European countries, and then maybe they can discuss what to do with the rest. When Putin made his apparently conciliatory remarks on Wednesday, he hardly contradicted himself: The important message was that the fate of Ukraine can and should be decided in Putin’s negotiations with European leaders, held in the Kremlin, as his meeting with Swiss president Didier Burkhalter was that day. And if Europe does not want to take part in the carving, Russia will act alone. Eastern Ukraine may come to resemble Transnistria , which is formally a part of Moldova but is ruled by a separatist pro-Moscow government, or South Ossetia, which unilaterally seceded from Georgia with Moscow’s aid in 2008, or Crimea, which was simply taken. Indeed, Russia has developed an entire repertoire of annexations. And what happens after Ukraine? There are other countries that were once conquered by the czars and later lost. After all, who says Finland has a right to exist?

[ProdigyofZen]

Re: Hudson: Later than we're told

Russian tank rolling through downtown Moscow last week when I was there.

[Woodsman]

Re: Hudson: Later than we're told

Russian tank rolling through downtown Moscow last week when I was there.

What a sight that must have been. Was it just rolling along by itself, or part of some formation?

BTW, that's self-propelled arty; not a tank.

[don]

Re: Hudson: Later than we're told

What a sight that must have been. Was it just rolling along by itself, or part of some formation?

BTW, that's self-propelled arty; not a tank.

Russian infantry vehicles, BMPs, etc., are referred to as tanks in every Ukrainian news clip I've seen. What's a 22-year old copywriter expected to know, anyways . . . (Nyet)

[ProdigyofZen]

Re: Hudson: Later than we're told

Part of a formation, there were many with many different military vehicles rolling down Tverskaya Blvd (the main street in Moscow city center).

This was in preparation for the parade on May 1st.

More pics

More Artys

Carriers

And more

[aaron]

Re: Hudson: Later than we're told

Yes, the immigrants from down south are bringing some of their bad cultural habits. They pretty much wreck every school district they move into. It is quite frustrating.

Perhaps the solution is the pzen way ? Why not just make some schools Spanish and some English? They do it in Canada (French and English schools) and it works out fine. Why not in your communities down south?

We already subsidize ignorance in this country. However, in regards to helping out with affirmative action, I am a bit torn. How fair is it to grow up in a house where your parents are too ignorant to learn English? Do you not believe that is a handicap? I sure think it is. In the U.S., we are influenced by the Bible's section about not punishing the son for the sins of the father. These are kids. With a helping hand to get through college, they will teach their own children the value of hard work, speaking English, and "American" values. It just takes a generation.

I guess it will end when they run out of families to send here or we "liberate" them from the cartels, or when a mexican-American is President.