Monday, July 9, 2007

Orangutang County

This morning’s Orange County Register reports on a National panel to study Little Saigon. Evidently, “A panel of land-use experts will do an in-depth study in Little Saigon this October to gauge the area's economic viability and its potential for future development,” or so said city officials.

Three readers—“I object,” JC, and “This is America”—left comments:

The latter wrote:

I have a problem with areas of our Nation named after foreign lands, [sic] also make your signs in english [sic], THIS IS AMERICA!

—Yeah, in “english.”

Idjit.

JC wrote:

The experts should study Little Saigon and they [sic] give their secret to South Central LA and Santa Ana. Funny how one area can thrive and others wallow in crime, disease and poverty. Gee, what a difference a race makes.

Garsh. I’m having trouble understanding this. Is JC saying that the Vietnamese are one of the good “races” or one of the bad ones?

“I object” wrote:

I also object to all the towns with foreign names. What goes? This is the United States of America! Not, saigon, china, korea, mexico, [sic] etc. If those people are so ashamed of living in America, what the heck are they doing here? Speak English and quit using the dang signs in your language! We American's [sic] are being screwed!

Oh my.

Under “reader’s [sic] comments,” the Reg advises:

We want this to be a place where people discuss and debate ideas that foster stronger communities. We built this for you. Please take care of it. Tolerate broad thinking, but take action against obscene or hateful material. Make it a credible and safe place worth preserving and sharing.

Under “Add your comments,” they write:
Please follow and enforce these guidelines:

1. No flaming. Do not be hostile.
2. No comments that are obscene, vulgar, lewd, sexually-oriented, threatening, libelous, or illegal.
3. No racial slurs or insults….
Evidently, any reader can flag a comment that, in his opinion, is objectionable.

I didn’t flag any because I’m into free speech. But sheesh.

▲ ▲ ▲

UPDATE (12:45 p.m.):

Below are the most recent comments that the above article has received. No doubt the Reg will delete some of them soon.

“This is America’s” comment was deleted—I guess it offended someone—but he added a new one.

And who do you suppose Captain America is?

• • • •

Oops. Didn't mean to call the guy ["This is America"] a moron. I meant to refer to the guy who doesn't know that the word English is capitalized and who seems unaware that every other place name in this country refers to a foreign place. That's what I meant to say. Also, I would punctuate properly here, but the Reg computer freaks out if you use quotation marks or colons. Must be designed by some of those silly foreigners.
Captain America - Jul 09, 2007 12:43:00 PM

I hate them both. We should have nuke [sic] them also.
matt - Jul 09, 2007 12:35:47 PM

I do not know what is worse? [sic] Them little yellow people or them wabs?
Uncle Sam - Jul 09, 2007 12:34:03 PM

How nice that all the immigrants are deleting the proAmerican post. America is no longer a melting pot where different ethnic groups blend together for the betterment of our nation. It is now a toilet bowl where we get every other nations cra9 [sic]
This is America - Jul 09, 2007 12:26:48 PM

Hey everybody, don't flag comments. Everyone has a right to be heard. Even morons. I'm already starting to miss the original, now deleted, moron.
Captain America - Jul 09, 2007 12:25:52 PM

How come so many of your readers can't spell or punctuate properly? And are they really unaware that, until relatively recently, English was a foreign tongue on this continent? And how come the guy who writes the headings for the Reg doesn't know where to put the apostrophe? Must be ignorant foreigners.
Moe Ran - Jul 09, 2007 12:22:35 PM

New York is named after a foreign land. I guess we'd better rename it. Plus what about all those foreign-sounding place names here in California? Boy, your readers sure have some good ideas.
Wit Null - Jul 09, 2007 12:04:46 PM
Your reporter's name is "foreign." I guess he hates America.
Jose Blanco - Jul 09, 2007 12:00:00 PM

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Evidently, the citizens of San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Antonio, etc. are "ashamed" to live in America.

Let's home those Reg readers aren't representative of their readership!

Anonymous said...

"I object" must've been mighty pleased when New Orleans washed away, what with all those "foreign" names all over town.

Anonymous said...

OK, so the anti-immigrant crowd is ignorant and illiterate.

So what's your point?

Anonymous said...

Damned right! I've always hated "New York" because it's named after a foreign land. Plus they have the nerve to produce salsa!

Anonymous said...

Chunk, cut it out. You're too old to be having this much fun.

Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

  This ran in the Sunday December 24, 2023 edition of the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register : July 14, 1955 - November 20, 2...