[Slynky]

Well, one thing I am fairly certain of, I don't like the French. It's rare that I make such a sweeping remark, but of the many encounters I have had with them (in their country and in news reports), I don't care much for them at all.

If you care about my opinion at all (which I will certainly understand if you don't), I'll give you my opinion where I think things really turned to s--t.

Not knowing the date, but sometime in the sixties, there was a worldwide effort to come to agreements over a "universal" language. One of the foremost reasons was due to planes needing to land at airports. I'm sure there were other reasons. After a while, it came down to French and English. English won out. That's why most every airport in the world speaks english to the pilots. In my opinion, the French got pretty sour about it. And since then, they have been on a personal vendetta to stop English from "gaining ground" in their country. Among other hostilities.

I don't speak from just news reports, but I speak from visiting their country. Even the big blue "I's" (standing for Information) in tourist areas...the people staffing the counters would not speak English. Contrast this to MANY other tourist areas where the "country" endeavored to cater to English-speaking tourists. Yes, I don't speak another language. I studied French in high school (boy, am I sorry!). I used to have a vocabularly of 2,000 - 3,000 words in (spoken) German and I was the company translator when I was posted in Thailand (where I lived for over 3 years and became pretty fluent in spoken Thai). So, don't label me as a "stuck-up" American.

To me, to get back on track, there is a difference in allowing a piece of slang to be added to the dictionary. For instance, "dog" (meaning a good friend) or "hacker" (I think everyone understands this). That's fine. NEW words and meanings are OK. But to take an existing word and mispronounce it and have the dictionary change to accept it...that's a bastardization of the language.

To assume, stepping on the "speaker's stand" for a moment, for example, that African-Americans who were born in the US, grew up in the US, and educated in the US are unable to speak correct English because of their heritage (verb tense and so forth) is ludicrous and therefore have to have their bastardization of the English language "approved" by suggesting we call their (I am generalizing) gross use of the English language, Ebonics, is nothing more than a showing of "thin skin" when faced with the various black "power" Groups who's mission is to seek out those who would DARE to hint at predjucice.

And before I get labeled a racist, I don't like the ineptitude in grammar and English I encounter each day while living in the southern part of the US. "The South" It should be SUCH an insult that others speak one's own language as a second language better than they do! I'd be ashamed!

And, having said this, I know Fyron will hop in and try to start a "Geo" discussion/argument with me. But I don't care. I've said my piece and what I SHOULD do is get another website where I can issue my rants like my hero, Dennis Miller.

PS: Sorry for such a long post.