Garreson's Blog

English First: Vote Yes

garreson — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 01:59:13 +0000

On January 22nd in my hometown of Nashville, TN, the citizens of Nashville will be voting on a charter amendment for the Metropolitan Government of Davidson County. This amendment is titled the English First Amendment, and is as follows:

“English is the official language of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee. Official actions which bind or commit the government shall be taken only in the English language, and all official government communications and publications shall be in English. No person shall have a right to government services in any other language. All meetings of the Metro Council, Boards, and Commissions of the Metropolitan Government shall be conducted in English. The Metro Council may make specific exceptions to protect public health and safety. Nothing in this measure shall be interpreted to conflict with federal or state law.”

This amendment will mandate that any actions conducted by the Metropolitan Government of Davidson county will be conducted in English only. As anyone can imagine, this amendment is facing much opposition from those of the liberal left. However, the arguments that the opposition is based on holds no water in the face of what this amendment will accomplish for not only Nashville, but also for the implications it has for our nation as a whole.

It has been proposed the English First Amendment will discourage immigration to Nashville and eventually to the United States, it will stunt economic growth in middle Tennessee, and it will affect health standards of the restaurants in Davidson county. However, all of these implications can be refuted with simple common sense and laws that are already in place.

It is a concern the English First amendment will keep the Metro Health Department from effectively communicating health standard and regulations to restaurant owners who do not speak english. It is often necessary for Metro Health inspectors to speak Spanish and Mandarin Chinese in both their daily inspections and seminars used to teach food handling.

This can be solved in a very simple manner. It is required for any legal resident of the United States to have the ability to read, write, and speak English(http://www.usimmigrationsupport.org/citizenship_application.html).Therefore, if it is a concern that health inspectors will not be able to communicate with restaurant owners who cannot speak English, then it might be assumed that the restaurant owner is in this country illegally. Furthermore, it should be the responsibility of the restaurant owner to be able to effectively communicate in order to pass health codes, and not the responsibility of the government to not pass a much needed law in order to cater to someone who isn’t willing to comply with already in place federal legislation. If a health inspector enters a restaurant where he or she cannot effectively communicate with the restaurants owner, then the restaurant should be immediately shut down until the owner is able to communicate in English.

Many of the concerns with the English First amendment deal with reservations about its involvement in things other than government. For instance the economic growth and the ability of business owners to operate in the global economy. It needs to be clearly understood what this amendment is not. This amendment is not a ban on all languages other than English. And, it is not ban on private citizens from communicating in languages other than English. It simply will require the actions of only the Metropolitan Government to operate in English. Imagine if a metro council member wished to conduct a meeting in Italian, there would be nothing to stop the council member from doing so. Interpreters would then have to be brought in just to conduct a metro council meeting.

The final concern of those opposing the English First amendment is its affects on immigration and the signal it will send to immigrants. However, any immigrants that have already fully accepted whole heartedly becoming a lawful citizen of the United States should not be offended or concerned in any way because they should have already learned the English language.

All across the worldglobal economic affairs are conducted in English. The most prominent and educated people in the world speak English. I don’t think I have ever seen someone driving a BMW who couldn’t speak English. However, I have seen people driving cars that looked as if they could fall apart at any second who couldn’t speak English.

English has become a sign of success and education all around the world. Nashville should be a leader in America by taking this step to unite a people under one way of communication. Being able to effectively and efficiently communicate will strengthen the political arena in Nashville. Please support this cause, and if you live in Nashville vote yes for English First on January 22nd.

The Top 100 Movies of all Time

garreson — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 03:42:28 +0000

Well folks and phenoms, here it is my top one-hundred movies of all time. It is a work in progress. However, I feel it has great potential. Considering, I believe myself to be a an informed opinion in the realm of entertainment via the ever popular television set. While this may be debatable in several circles, this list will hold its own with some of the best ever compiled. I hope you will agree. But if you don’t, I am always willing to hear someone else’s opinion on why my opinion is wrong. And Really, there may be some very strong disagreement because, really, these are my favorite movies and not necessarily the best of all time. It is very difficult to compile such a list without having categories and subcategories of lists. But, without further adieu…

1. The Shawshank Redemption

2. It’s a Wonderful Life

3. Back to the Future (Trilogy)

4. Saving Private Ryan

5. The Dark Knight

6. Cinderella Man

7. A Knight’s Tale

8. Luck Number Slevin

9. Fight Club

10. Star Wars (Trilogy IV, V, and VI)

11. Field of Dreams

12. The Fugitive

13. Forest Gump

14. The Pricess Bride

15. Open Range

16. Water World

17. The Pursuit of Happyness

18. The Terminator Trilogy

19. The Truman Show

20. Father of the Bride I and II

21. Legends of the Fall

22. 300

23. Gladiator

24. Twister

25. Red Dawn

26. Cool Runnings

27. Jurassic Park

28. Cast Away

29. Walk the Line

30. The Green Mile

31. The Patriot

32. Remember the Titans

33. The DaVinci Code

34. We Were Soldiers

35. The Number 23

36. Pearl Harbor

37. Reign Over Me

38. Friday Night Lights

39. The Boondock Saints

40. Hitch

41. I Am Sam

42. The Black Stallion and The Black Stallion Returns

43. Varsity Blues

44. Rocky I-V

45. The Matrix

46. The Waltons: A Homecoming

47. Trimmers

48. The Program

49. We are Marshall

50. Disney’s Robin Hood

51. Quigley Down Under

52. The Butterfly Effect

53. Last of the Dogmen

54. Ladder 49

55. U-571

56. Dawn of the Dead (2004)

57. Groundhog Day

58. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

59. Home Alone I and II

60. Happy Gilmore

61. The Punisher (2004)

62. Ocean’s Eleven

63. Batman Forever

64. The Wizard of Oz

65. I am Legend

66. War of the Worlds (2005)

67. Finding Nemo

68. Ali

69. Dumb and Dumber

70. Teenage Mutant Turtles I and II

71. Secret Window

72. Goldeneye 007

73. Sin City

74. Radio

75. Bruce Almighty

76. Miracle

77. Toy Story I and II

78. Man on Fire

79. Enemy at the Gates

80. Runaway Jury

81. A Beautiful Mind

82. August Rush

83. Oh Brother Where art Thou

84. National Treasure

85. Cloak and Dagger (1984)

86. The Firm

87. The Mummy and The Mummy Returns

88. Christmas Vacation

89. Apollo 13

90. Teen Wolf

91. Thank You for Smoking

92. Manchurian Candidate

93. The Rock

94. The Bodyguard

95. Saw I and II

96. A League of Their Own

97. Days of Thunder

98. Air Force One

99. That Thing You Do

100. The Storm of the Century

Global Warming: A Way for Al Gore to “Go Green”

garreson — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 03:05:00 +0000

This morning, on my way in to school, I was flipping around the stations, and I came across a woman talking about global warming. She was in the middle of a debate with the host of the show regarding the current issue in the realm of global preservation. I could tell the woman was insistent on her stance, but had very little scientific proof to back up her theories that human actions were causing the heating up of the Earth’s temperature. I’m not sure what tipped me off to this assumption. It may have been, she sounded like a guest star on an old episode of “Hee Haw”. Or, it could have been sentences she used such, “Global warmin isjuster big ol rottern mess. We needsta quit emitten carburn dimoxide or whatevur those science folk call urt.” I’m not sure. That might have been the deal breaker.

This woman strongly supported the theories of global warming, and was calling the host of the show uneducated ( takes one to know one) and closed minded for not believing in the theories. However, she could put forth no proof that such theories that have been presented by Al Gore and his resent movie are true. The only proof the woman could present was, how cold the winters were when she was a child, and there just weren’t winters like that anymore. This, I’m afraid is hardly scientific proof.

I personally am on the side of the host. I fully believe that the earth is and will continue to go through phases. However, it is not from the actions of humans. While it is important for us to be good stewards of what God has given us to oversee, it is very arrogant of us to think that any actions of ours could completely destroy an Earth that we could never create. Furthermore, I believe that it makes since to think that Earth is more probably in the middle of some sort of temperature fluctuation, rather than a planet destroying temperature alteration. There are plenty of cycles the earth goes through every year. They are these really scientific things called seasons. No one freaks out when it starts to get warmer in the spring, or when it starts to get colder in the fall. Who’s to say the Earth isn’t going through some Global season to balance itself out. But oh no, we in our infinite wisdom and faith in Al Gore, just know that Earth is heating up and going to blow up into oblivion.

An Inconvenient Truth, the movie produced by Mr. Gore continues to be refuted by climatologists all across the world, and further evidence of non-warming trends. Why just this summer, Alaska recorded its coldest summer ever. That sure sounds like global warming to me. Mr. Gore, here is the “inconvenient truth”. Many today are discussing ways to go green, and you conveniently found a way to “go green”. You found a way to go a billion dollars green. That’s real green. Mr. Gore’s company, GIM, was specifically established to take advantage of new technologies and solutions related to combating global warming. Not to mention the money he would make from the release of his documentary

Global warming is simply a money making ploy. So please, you liberals out there don’t call me the unenlightened one. You are the one that’s being dooped, so some goofball can make a buck.