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June 13, 2006

I May Have To Take A Drive This Weekend To Philly

And have lunch at Geno's for Father's Day:

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A civil rights watchdog agency opened an investigation on Monday into a Philadelphia cheese steak restaurant that posted a sign saying "This is America - when ordering, speak English."

The Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations complaint effectively opens a case against Geno's Steaks of South Philadelphia, said Rachel Lawton, acting executive director of the agency.

...The sign may violate the city's Fair Practices Ordinance, which bans businesses from discriminating on the basis of nationality or ethnicity, Lawton said.

"The complaint will say that the sign discourages patronage by non-English speakers because of their national origin and/or ancestry," Lawton, whose agency enforces the city's anti-discrimination laws, said before the official filing.

No, a$$wipe, it discourages no one because of where they're from; it says speak English.

Roberto Santiago, executive director of the city's Council of Spanish Speaking Organizations, said he received around 50 "hate" e-mails in response to his criticism of the sign.

..."This is dividing this nation," he said. "I'm really saddened by these individuals who are upset by having to be tolerant. I'm glad I'm living in an America where comments like Mr. Vento's are out of order."

What is "dividing the nation" is people who are refusing to learn English and assimilate, people who want no challanges in their lives but all the advantages that millions of people have worked and died for over hundreds of years. Don't give me this 'tolerant' crap. Who is less tolerant: the citizen of a nation who gladly embraces immigrants who make a minimum of effort to join their new culture, or those illegal immigrants who demand that the citizens of their new country change for them?

In the America I live in Mr. Vento's comments are protected and precious; they are the order.


Michelle Malkin's been all over this for a while now.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at June 13, 2006 07:43 AM

Comments

The absolute absurdity of this debate is that the same people who are stupidly using the "tolerance" argument would call ME and "Ugly American" if I went to another country and expected everyone there to accomodate my language instead of learning theirs.

Posted by: Emily at June 13, 2006 09:35 AM

I've found whilst travelling overseas, Emily, that if you speak english s-l-o-w-l-y and LOUDLY then them 'ferners understand.

Posted by: Mr. Bingley at June 13, 2006 09:46 AM

A fool and his business are, and should be, soon parted.

He deserves the ruin to his business that he's about to get. It is foolish to inject politics into business, and pissing off customers, no matter their native tongue, is bad for business.

Posted by: Mike Rentner at June 13, 2006 10:10 AM

My wife came to this country speaking only Taiwanese and Chinese. She speaks English so well you have to listen closely to her sometimes strange use of idioms to tell she's not a foreigner. Shifting from a tonal Asian language to an inflected Indo-European tongue si damn hard (so is the reverse). Spanish is a freaking Indo-European language with lots of English cognates. No excuse for Spanish speakers to spend more than three years here and not speak English.

And running a business does not mean that you give up your constitutional rights, as long as you don't wine about losing customers when you make a stand (a la the Dippy Hicks). I'm with Bingley - next time I'm in Philly, I'm going there.

Posted by: John at June 13, 2006 10:25 AM

What ya' doing on Saturday, John? Road trip?

Posted by: Mr. Bingley at June 13, 2006 11:07 AM

I'm a Pat's guy, myself, but I may cross the line for this. Road trip's sounding pretty good right now... AND the Mets should have just finished smacking the Phils around, so I can have a good chuckle at the same time.

Posted by: Nightfly at June 13, 2006 11:14 AM

Sorry, my FIL (who BTW learned English well enough to get citizenship at 68 years old) is coming up.

And if you want me to go for a road trip that long with my two under-4 heathens in the back seat, it had better be a damn good sandwich, or the wife will hurt you.

Posted by: John at June 13, 2006 11:20 AM

I will buy the FIL a sandwich; I want to stay on his good side.

Posted by: Mr. Bingley at June 13, 2006 11:32 AM

Yeah, it's a good idea to stay on his good side. He's a quiet little Chinese dude, but since he was one of 17 left alive from his battalion, and since he was picked to be in the LTC's bodyguard, I'd say he is probably quite good making people miserable or dead.

Posted by: John at June 13, 2006 11:41 AM

Bingley's good at making people miserable, so they should do just fine together.

Posted by: tree hugging sister at June 13, 2006 12:07 PM

Drive up from Banglacola, Sis. It's been years since I've gotten to make you miserable in person.

Posted by: Mr. Bingley at June 13, 2006 03:26 PM

THS is coming up for misery and cheesesteaks??? I'll ask mother to start baking cookies.

Posted by: Kcruella at June 13, 2006 10:16 PM

Nope, she's too much of a, er, well, I'll let our gentle readers supply the term for her. But daughter and I are going to Philly on saturday for lunch (assuming Geno's is open for lunch on Saturdays; i'll find that out tomorrow). I will of course post pics.

Posted by: Mr. Bingley at June 13, 2006 10:52 PM

Yep, just called Geno's; they're open 24/7.

So the Road Trip is on.

Posted by: Mr. Bingley at June 14, 2006 10:09 AM