|
Post by countlieberkuhn on Feb 9, 2010 11:01:39 GMT -8
Yeah, before dictionaries, the English language was a phonetic free for all. Tiger was spelt tygre by some people, but at least they had the good sense to put the r before the e!
IT WILL ALWAYS BE CENTRE!
|
|
|
Post by Fleck on Feb 9, 2010 11:57:49 GMT -8
WHY DON'T YOU COME OVER HERE AND SAY THAT?
|
|
|
Post by Bob on Feb 9, 2010 12:08:14 GMT -8
.....but...but...re is REEE. Cent-REEEE! That's century! Not center!
....it's times like this that I realize how much I suck at speaking, just because Cent+Re=Century, just because I typically pronounce century like sentry....
Let's just all agree to disagree (with Count because he's British and wrong).
GO AMERICA! *waves flag*
*looks at flag* Ummm..... whoops. *gets AMERICAN flag and waves it* There we go! Woo!
|
|
|
Post by countlieberkuhn on Feb 9, 2010 12:31:47 GMT -8
To be fair, I kinda say it like 'sentry', but I have a bad habit of talking incredibly fast. Normally faster than my mind can follow, so I'll generally get halfway through a sentence before I either start talking jibberish or just stop abruptly to let my mind catch up But... GO BRITAIN! *waves imaginary British flag, because I'd expect less than 0.01% of the country owns one* Ah... such patriotism!
|
|
|
Post by Bob on Feb 9, 2010 13:22:03 GMT -8
I have a mildly hick way of talking. It's not too bad, but people have asked before if I was from the south or something. Nope, just from Palmdale. A desert out in California full of actual hicks. I don't have a drawl, but I do enjoy making my own language. There is no "to" in my language. There is only "tuh." And I always feel really bad that I'm possibly ruining every class I sub for, since I don't use "going to" "should have" etc. Sorry, but it's "gonna" and "shoulda." Always will be.
Ironically, I think that for at least California, the highest population of people who own US flags are illegal immigrants. I swear, it's a tell-tale sign.
"How chu know I no live here?" "Because, sir, you have an American flag that you hang on your house on days that aren't Flag Day."
|
|
|
Post by countlieberkuhn on Feb 9, 2010 13:27:58 GMT -8
I guess they must appreciate America more than you guys do!
|
|
|
Post by Bob on Feb 9, 2010 13:40:01 GMT -8
Heh, it's....kinda true. Most Americans take America and what it stands for for granted.
|
|
|
Post by Fleck on Feb 9, 2010 14:14:43 GMT -8
I blame TV.
"OMG! Japan is full of awesome and robots and hentai! And oooohhh! Britain is full of people with cute accents! And what do we have in America? Freaking LOST. Doesn't make sense. *grumble*"
A lot of people have a "grass is greener" mentality about our country. Not to say that the rest of the world is shit, but a lot of people seem to think that other parts of the world don't have problems. They also are often horrendously misinformed about their favorite non-american country.
"Whee! I love anime and sushi and I took a semester of Japanese in high school, ergo I am MEANT to be in Japan! Stupid white round-eyed bastards!"
Because as we all know, Japan is a non-stop sushi-eating hentai orgy.
|
|
|
Post by countlieberkuhn on Feb 9, 2010 14:30:09 GMT -8
You mean to say it isn't!? Damn, I was all set to visit japan for an orgy with anime catgirls too! Actually, my depiction of Japan is pretty much based on the many Takeshi Kitano DVDs I own... There's an element of that kind of mentality in Britain, but not nearly to the same extent as it is in America. The impression we get over here of America though is that people there are either excessively patriotic, or Michael Moores. I would expect the majority of them are inbetween like you guys seem to be, but that's just boring for the media to show isn't it? But just remember - in Britain, American accents are considered sexy! A good friend of mine is about as patriotic as they come, but he still has a real thing for girls with Texas accents.
|
|
|
Post by Bob on Feb 9, 2010 14:32:23 GMT -8
....it isn't non-stop sushi hentai orgy? Yeah, that's what I was thinking. There are tons of good countries out there like US, UK, Japan, whatever. So sure, there are some good countries out there, but America's freedoms are really awesome and because we compare to countries that have either adopted the freedoms or made their own freedoms, it SEEMS like America is nothing special. But seriously, compare to other countries and you'll realize how awesome America is. ....Though I'll still probably never have an American flag hanging from my door. I'm just saying that I understand how awesome our country is, but I find hanging a flag of the country you're in to be...redundant. "I claim this house in the name of the United States! ....like it already was!"
|
|
|
Post by Fleck on Feb 9, 2010 15:13:08 GMT -8
Unfortunately, I have a Midwestern accent, which generally isn't considered sexy by anyone (even people from the Midwest). At least I managed to avoid picking up a Yooper accent, despite having lived in the U.P. most of my life. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yooper_dialectI still say "eh" a lot though. Anyway, I get my political leanings from the Daily Show and the Colbert Report (like any true American does). Basically my political ideas come from the basic concept that the two party political system is crap and both sides suck. Republicans are bible-thumping hypocrites who will kill the middle class and Democrats are excessively weak, compromising sissies who couldn't pass a bill saying "Food is good." Really, modern politics is like watching a weak-willed mom try to negotiate with her whiny son at Wal-Mart. Republican child: "I WANT CANDY!" Democrat mom: "We didn't come here for candy. And it's bad for you." child: "I WANT CANDY NOW!" mom: "Well... umm..." child: "NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW!" mom: "Well maybe a little, if you promise to be good." child: "I WON'T PROMISE ANYTHING!" mom: "Well, just a little candy then." child: "NO! ALL THE CANDY!" mom: "Well, we can't give you ALL the candy..." child: "YOU'RE ONLY SAYING THAT BECAUSE YOU'RE A BAD MOM! YOU SUCK AT BEING A MOM!" mom: "Now, honey, that's mean." child: "IT'S TRUE! YOU SUCK AND I HATE YOU!" mom: "Fine, have all the candy." child: "Yay!" *mutters "weak-willed slut" under breath* And then we all get fat, diabetic, and rot our teeth. The end.
|
|
|
Post by countlieberkuhn on Feb 9, 2010 16:28:50 GMT -8
Another win analogy by fleck!
Yeah, a two-party system is a bad concept, purely because it limits choice, and if one party is weak (democrats), then it just means you'll be erring republican anyway.
Also, while I don't understand American politicas greatly, am I right in understanding that a Republican majority in the senate would have the power to veto a democratic presidency? When I studied the Treaty of Versailles in history, I'm pretty sure it was the US senate that stopped you guys joining the League of Nations in the end. My point is, having the ability to cancel each other out like that would result in not much getting done, I expect.
It's a similar situation here. We have 3 major parties and a couple of smaller ones (like the British National Party, who are extreme right-wing and generally hated), but being the leading party doesn't mean too much. The leading party gets their guy to be Prime Minister, and the knowledge that they have the most supporters in the country. Problem is, no bill can get passed without two-thirds of the entire parliament agreeing to it, and before it even gets to that stage the bills are drafted and proposed by smaller sections of parliament (like foreign affairs), and the bill has to be passed there as well. Point is, virtually nothing gets done because parties can cancel each-other out if they want.
Sometimes they're more sneaky - a few years back the Labour party introduced a bill to drastically increase the tuition fees of universities, so that they could have more money for their education budget - downside is, much less people can afford to go, and many end up in debt for up to 10 years after they graduate. Everyone hated this of course, and when the next election came around a few months later, the Conservatives attempted to gain the majority vote by promising to revert the tuition fees. Thing is, that vote couldn't have ever passed without the majority of conservatives supporting it in the first place, so all they were doing was getting this bill passed so that they could use it as dirt against the labour party in the next election. It's pure one-upmanship, as parties are more concerned with being in power than actual progress, and completely defeats the object. The only decent bills that ever get through are poxy ones to do with recycling or energy efficiency, since they can at least agree on that. By the way, the conservatives lost that election anyway, and the bill still stands.
Yeah, mini-rant over now. Democracy is idealistic, but nothing decent ever gets done.
By the way, Yooper dialect sounds surprisingly like a Yorkshire accent based on that wiki page.
|
|
|
Post by Bob on Feb 9, 2010 18:31:02 GMT -8
Yeah, that's basically the US, too. One party takes executive office, another party takes congress, and nothing gets done. But then the president starts hiring his party into congress and eventually things start to pass.... But this is ME talking POLITICS, meaning I'm sure I'm hella wrong about everything. That's my interpretation though. So not much gets done, similar to the UK it sounds, but EVENTUALLY something will happen. I think each President can basically assume they'll get like, one thing passed. So they should use it wisely.
*crosses fingers* Use it wisely, Obama. Use it wisleyyyyy.
|
|
|
Post by countlieberkuhn on Feb 9, 2010 18:38:51 GMT -8
We Brits love Obama too. So he better make it count Yeah, also don't take all of my explaination of British politics as pure fact, since some of it is open to interpretation. These days I'm conservative, but that's only because the labour party are somehow more right-wing than them in the areas I care about.
|
|
|
Post by Fleck on Feb 9, 2010 23:08:49 GMT -8
I happen to be turning gradually more and more political as I grow old and cranky, so this thread has become endlessly fascinating to me.
The thing that's frustrating about America's government right now is that the Democrats have a president in power and a huge majority in both houses of Congress. They should be able to pass literally any bill they want, because there simply aren't enough Republicans to stop them. And yet they can't accomplish anything.
In America, we have two major parties and a plethora of pointless minor parties that are so tiny that no one even discusses them. They're that unimportant. I think pretty much anyone with more than $5 and a person old enough to run for office can start their own party.
For a long time, I thought that the solution to the "choose the lesser of two evils" Republican/Democrat debate was to strengthen parties like the Independent party to give people more options. But then I realized that if you have three equally powerful parties, then you can (and most likely will) end up with a President who only got 34% of the vote, if that. You can't possibly run a country when the vast majority doesn't want you in office.
So I really think the whole issue of the party system (and the worthless electoral college that dangles off it like a flap of dead skin) is a relic of an older time, a relic that is no longer relevant or useful. The party system turns our government into a gang war, where you are either for us or against us, Blood or Crip, and there's no middle ground. Voting against party lines is akin to treason or heresy in the eyes of some, and means you don't get reelected. So you end up with a lot of people who only kinda sorta agree with the party that they are labeled with, voting along party lines instead of doing what they actually believe in.
I don't know exactly how our government turned into a clusterfuck of petty feuds and insults, but I blame both parties.
|
|