So Australians and New Zealanders are really English then? Austrians are just Germans?
Tom Send a noteboard - 25/01/2011 03:01:14 AM
(Presumably, they're waiting for a new Anschluss to allow them to join Großdeutschland).
And of course I'm forgetting the great Canadian language of...what exactly?
We could take that further and say that all of Latin America can just be pushed into one country because they speak the same language (well, all the Spanish-speaking countries get pushed into one with Brazil separate and a couple of those weird countries next to Venezuela).
Oh, and this is a great way to prove that Palestinians aren't an ethnic group - the Arabic they speak is identical to the Arabic spoken in Lebanon and Syria.
In short, after this discursus into absurdity I think it's clear that a nation and a people can be separate and distinct when they have their own story, regardless of whether that story is told in a language that other countries speak or their own unique language.
And of course I'm forgetting the great Canadian language of...what exactly?
We could take that further and say that all of Latin America can just be pushed into one country because they speak the same language (well, all the Spanish-speaking countries get pushed into one with Brazil separate and a couple of those weird countries next to Venezuela).
Oh, and this is a great way to prove that Palestinians aren't an ethnic group - the Arabic they speak is identical to the Arabic spoken in Lebanon and Syria.
In short, after this discursus into absurdity I think it's clear that a nation and a people can be separate and distinct when they have their own story, regardless of whether that story is told in a language that other countries speak or their own unique language.
Political correctness is the pettiest form of casuistry.
ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius
Ummaka qinnassa nīk!
*MySmiley*
ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius
Ummaka qinnassa nīk!
*MySmiley*
So the Irish government has basically imploded.
- 23/01/2011 04:47:10 PM
1764 Views
I am now confused
- 23/01/2011 05:34:31 PM
1128 Views
You do realize Britain is pretty much the envy of the Western world at the moment?
- 23/01/2011 06:27:05 PM
1157 Views
Re: You do realize Britain is pretty much the envy of the Western world at the moment?
- 23/01/2011 06:34:47 PM
1093 Views
I did. There was more violence than in ours, that's true (ours have none so far, knock on wood).
- 23/01/2011 06:41:34 PM
1057 Views
Re: I did. There was more violence than in ours, that's true (ours have none so far, knock on wood).
- 23/01/2011 06:43:41 PM
1011 Views
Those protests were only violent by British standards.
- 23/01/2011 11:54:15 PM
1186 Views
What protests?
- 24/01/2011 07:26:49 PM
1133 Views
Re: What protests?
- 24/01/2011 07:28:40 PM
987 Views
Re: What protests?
- 25/01/2011 09:23:17 AM
1125 Views
There's a new objection
- 25/01/2011 11:38:25 AM
1039 Views
I didn't object...
- 25/01/2011 11:47:11 AM
935 Views
And Britain had to live with the Conservative Wilderness for 15 years before it could get there *NM*
- 24/01/2011 02:43:16 AM
530 Views
Should I start chiming in on Norwegian politics now that I'm here...? 
- 24/01/2011 12:42:03 AM
1022 Views
- 24/01/2011 12:42:03 AM
1022 Views
Why not?
- 24/01/2011 08:49:07 AM
1083 Views
'Cos I doubt you'll like what I have to say, for one thing.
- 26/01/2011 01:55:13 AM
1115 Views
That's been a while coming, hasn't it? Cowen seems to be losing it.
- 23/01/2011 05:48:30 PM
1063 Views
Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months.
- 23/01/2011 06:27:27 PM
1129 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months.
- 23/01/2011 06:33:26 PM
1068 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months.
- 23/01/2011 07:19:03 PM
1173 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months.
- 23/01/2011 07:57:05 PM
1017 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months.
- 23/01/2011 09:29:03 PM
1135 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months.
- 23/01/2011 09:46:20 PM
1092 Views
I think Adams is an Irish citizen, and not a British one.
- 23/01/2011 11:45:34 PM
1052 Views
I found out something else today which makes it even better.
- 24/01/2011 10:37:45 PM
1237 Views
I was reading your post and going "what about the Chiltern Hundreds"?
- 24/01/2011 10:44:32 PM
1034 Views
Oh, alternatively we could elevate him to the House of Lords.
- 26/01/2011 11:08:44 PM
1066 Views
Awesome idea. Something like "Baron Adams of Londonderry", I'm thinking. *NM*
- 27/01/2011 07:54:26 PM
513 Views
We made his arch-rival a Lord, after all, so it would only be fair.
- 28/01/2011 08:26:15 AM
1008 Views
Here you go
- 25/01/2011 12:55:33 PM
1156 Views
well, the only interesting thing in swedish politics is a wikileaks document and the reactions...
- 23/01/2011 06:21:00 PM
1105 Views
What is inappropriate about trying to keep out barbaric unskilled people?
- 23/01/2011 10:59:53 PM
1082 Views
- 26/01/2011 07:46:19 PM
1056 Views
The inappropriateness is the generalisation in the claim
- 23/01/2011 11:16:52 PM
1076 Views
Generalizations are inappropriate when they are disproven by statistics, and appropriate when proven
- 24/01/2011 07:33:14 PM
1012 Views
I've looked into the statistics a bit more.
- 24/01/2011 09:11:52 PM
1019 Views
I take it you're talking about the Middle East in its most narrow sense here.
- 24/01/2011 09:56:22 PM
1063 Views
... the fact that they are asylum seekers, and their skill certainly shouldn't matter in that case.
- 24/01/2011 07:08:14 PM
945 Views
- 26/01/2011 07:46:19 PM
1056 Views
Hopefully they'll stop using Irish officially as a way to cut down on unnecessary costs.
- 23/01/2011 10:57:08 PM
1013 Views
I'd support that
- 23/01/2011 11:26:20 PM
1080 Views
Ironically, if you de-officialised Irish you could get EU money to help preserve it.
- 23/01/2011 11:48:14 PM
979 Views
But why, why?
- 24/01/2011 08:35:43 PM
964 Views
Because it's the only thing justifying their insistence they're not British?
- 24/01/2011 10:03:54 PM
1021 Views
- 24/01/2011 10:03:54 PM
1021 Views
But all language learning should be purely voluntary (after what parents teach their children).
- 25/01/2011 03:05:28 AM
998 Views
What, so you don't think students in high school should be taught foreign languages?
- 25/01/2011 06:34:21 PM
1030 Views
Irish is the mother tongue of about 7,000-15,000 people at most.
- 26/01/2011 05:04:00 AM
1056 Views
Wikipedia says it's more like 40k-80k.
- 26/01/2011 06:41:41 PM
1422 Views
And Elaine, Stephen, or any other Irish people here: do feel free to comment. *NM*
- 26/01/2011 06:42:36 PM
513 Views
*NM*
- 26/01/2011 06:42:36 PM
513 Views
More to the point, are YOU interested in learning Irish?
- 26/01/2011 05:15:18 AM
970 Views
Calling Ireland the new Sodom and Gomorrah, are you?
- 26/01/2011 06:02:05 PM
1116 Views
- 26/01/2011 06:02:05 PM
1116 Views
I don't think it's as fun as Sodom and Gomorrah, at least not post-crisis. 
- 26/01/2011 09:48:54 PM
1066 Views
- 26/01/2011 09:48:54 PM
1066 Views
Re: I don't think it's as fun as Sodom and Gomorrah, at least not post-crisis.
- 27/01/2011 08:42:21 PM
953 Views
- 27/01/2011 08:42:21 PM
953 Views
Presumably because they agree with J.R.R. Tolkien and Tómas Sæmundsson about language's importance.
- 24/01/2011 10:16:05 PM
1109 Views
So Australians and New Zealanders are really English then? Austrians are just Germans?
- 25/01/2011 03:01:14 AM
1065 Views
I never said I agreed 
.
- 25/01/2011 08:19:11 AM
1031 Views
.
- 25/01/2011 08:19:11 AM
1031 Views
I would suggest that a distinct dialect does the job just as well
- 25/01/2011 02:23:59 PM
1077 Views
The thing is, people who feel really strongly about that usually insist it's a separate language.
- 28/01/2011 04:20:57 PM
915 Views
It's really more about having a unique silly costume to wear at Miss Universe pageants.
- 26/01/2011 05:09:10 AM
905 Views
You're confusing what we sell to gullible American tourists with what we actually value . *NM*
- 28/01/2011 04:15:01 PM
459 Views
. *NM*
- 28/01/2011 04:15:01 PM
459 Views
What the hell happened to the Celtic Tiger Country? *NM*
- 24/01/2011 05:47:12 AM
587 Views
The Celtic Tiger is dead, Ireland had a GDP contraction of 14% in the last two years.
- 24/01/2011 01:47:06 PM
1020 Views
It's still there, but it aimed a bit too high and got a bit scorched.
- 24/01/2011 10:07:36 PM
913 Views