Reply
Tue 12 Jan, 2010 09:49 am
Okay, citizens, I'd had it with the word 'homeland' when referring to the United States of America.
Homeland as in: 'prevented attacks on the homeland'
'plotting attacks against the homeland' or 'defended our homeland'.
What's the matter with these people that they can't say "the United States of America" when that is what they mean?
They can't say "our country'' or ''this nation''? They can't say "the USA''?
Thusly--- 'prevented attacks on our country', 'plotting attacks against the United States of America' or 'defended our nation'-- What's the deal?
We don't sing "My Homeland, tis of thee", right?
Even ''America'' though vaugely myopic, would be better than ''homeland' which has it's own, to me, vaugely offputting connections. There is a whiff of 'the fatherland' in it and we , Norte Americanos, have never embraced either fatherland or motherland for describing this place where we live and we don't speak of the USA as our homeland. If elsewhere , we do not say "I'm going back to my homeland soon." We say "home' or "my country". Homelands seem to us to be places nations seek to have rather than have. We speak of a Palestinian or Jewish homeland, a Bosnian homeland or establishing a homeland for the Kurds.
Yeah, yeah. I know. Then what would we call the Homeland Security Administration?
Dunno. Call it National Security Administration and the National Security Agency could become just the NSA, kind of like when Kentucky Fried Chicken became KFC.
Joe('homeland' has always given me a creepy feeling.)Nation
i'm guessing that dick cheney wanted it to be called the fatherland
But Joe, "homeland" is so austere, evocative of sturdy hardworking men and their sons herding cattle, or of a Chevy commerical, in which a Silverado is towing some impossibly large boulder.
When you say "the U.S."--well, those sturdy men are suddenly slouching in blue vests at a Wal-Mart entrance. And that Silverado becomes a Cobalt unable to pull out of a strip mall parking lot onto some miserable, congested highway.
@Gargamel,
meanwhile the only reason there is an america is because the original folks couldn't put up with what was going on in the "homeland"
as bill murray put it in "stripes"
our fore fathers were kicked out of some of the best countries in europe
But i luff mine Vaterland ! ! !
Joe drives out into Osage County, Oklahoma.
Finds four cowboys moving two horses up a ramp into a trailer being hauled by a huge pick-up. Decides to check out homeland issue.
"Hey fellas, so is this your homeland?"
"Wha?"
"This place here, is this your homeland?"
Cowboy One tips hat back.
"Ya mean homestead?"
"No, I mean homeland, like in homeland security".
Cowboy Two yanks back on one of his gloves.
Says nothing.
Cowboy One looks directly at questioner.
"What kind of horseshit are you talking about?"
Cowboy Two yanks back on his other glove.
"Oh, uh, you know, you know how people are always referring to America as the homeland. I was just wondering if that's what you call it."
Cowboys Three and Four have now stepped down from the top of the ramp after closing the door behind the horses.
Cowboy One's upper lip seems to quiver just a little, like what a dog's jowl does just before it snarls.
"You want to know what we call America?"
"Uh, maybe I should have prefaced my question... ."
"Why don't you tell us what you call it?"
Cowboy Four, wearing a Sooners hat AND jacket speaks:
"License plate says 'New York'.
"Figures" says Cowboy Three, "They don't know **** up there in Chicago."
Cowboy One looks at Cowboy Three, then turns back to Joe.
"We call it the U S A , what's wrong with that?"
Cowboy Two spits precisely between Joe's shoes.
"Fellas, that's what I figured, I just wanted to ask so I could tell some other folks."
"That so?"
"Yes. And now I'll be going."
"Yes, yes, you will."
Joe(going to Idaho next)Nation
"homeland" evokes much emotion - kind of like homegrown, homebred, homebrewed, homemade, homemaker.
**********************************************************
"Where there is this, there is that.'
"homeland" evokes much emotion
As much or more than "Nation" or "country" ??
Joe(This is my own, my native land....)Nation
@Joe Nation,
Joe Nation wrote:
Okay, citizens, I'd had it with the word 'homeland' when referring to the United States of America.
Homeland as in: 'prevented attacks on the homeland'
'plotting attacks against the homeland' or 'defended our homeland'.
What's the matter with these people that they can't say "the United States of America" when that is what they mean?
They can't say "our country'' or ''this nation''? They can't say "the USA''?
Thusly--- 'prevented attacks on our country', 'plotting attacks against the United States of America' or 'defended our nation'-- What's the deal?
We don't sing "My Homeland, tis of thee", right?
Even ''America'' though vaugely myopic, would be better than ''homeland' which has it's own, to me, vaugely offputting connections. There is a whiff of 'the fatherland' in it and we , Norte Americanos, have never embraced either fatherland or motherland for describing this place where we live and we don't speak of the USA as our homeland. If elsewhere , we do not say "I'm going back to my homeland soon." We say "home' or "my country". Homelands seem to us to be places nations seek to have rather than have. We speak of a Palestinian or Jewish homeland, a Bosnian homeland or establishing a homeland for the Kurds.
Yeah, yeah. I know. Then what would we call the Homeland Security Administration?
Dunno. Call it National Security Administration and the National Security Agency could become just the NSA, kind of like when Kentucky Fried Chicken became KFC.
Joe('homeland' has always given me a creepy feeling.)Nation
AGREED!
I thawt that too, when it was sought to be adopted after 9/11.
It makes me think of 1984; "Federal Bureau of Home Security" ?
Scary n creepy.
From the Clinton Administration.
Y not just put it under the FBI ?
David
@Joe Nation,
Joe Nation wrote:
"homeland" evokes much emotion
As much or more than "Nation" or "country" ??
Joe(This is my own, my native land....)Nation
Oh, yeah it does. See, you don't get it b/c you're not an idiot mouthbreather; but to the unwashed masses it's a powerful phrase, that some twit in marketing came up with during the Bush admin.
Or some bullshit, I never understood it either
Cycloptichorn
@OmSigDAVID,
Quote:W adopted it,
laying around waiting for an excuse
to get created, hanging around from the Clinton Administration
Any attribution for this?
Not that it matters, he who adopted and popularized it, owns it.
Cycloptichorn
From the first time I heard the phrase, it has always had the Julie Andrews connection...
Quote:Small and white clean and bright
You look happy to meet me
Blossom of snow may you bloom and grow
Bloom and grow forever
Edelweiss,Edelweiss
Bless my homeland forever
Ah, oh, DAviD, we were thisclose to actually agreeing on something... the Clinton Administration? Are you insane or just as breathtakingly forgetful as Rudy Giuliani?
Ya, ebrownp, das ver I heard of der Homeland furst as vell.
Joe(The fatherlanders were coming into her homeland.)Nation
@Joe Nation,
That was
W 's explanation ( or from his people ).
W had only been in office for a short time by 9/11.
He just implimented a Clinton plan that had been lying around
awaiting an excuse for implimentation. Clinton never denied that.
David
@Joe Nation,
Joe Nation wrote:
Ah, oh, DAviD, we were thisclose to actually agreeing on something... the Clinton Administration?
Are you insane or just as breathtakingly forgetful as Rudy Giuliani?
Joe(The fatherlanders were coming into her homeland.)Nation
I forgot what Giuliani forgot; what did he forget (breathtakingly)?
@OmSigDAVID,
OmSigDAVID wrote:
Joe Nation wrote:
Ah, oh, DAviD, we were thisclose to actually agreeing on something... the Clinton Administration?
Are you insane or just as breathtakingly forgetful as Rudy Giuliani?
Joe(The fatherlanders were coming into her homeland.)Nation
I forgot what Giuliani forgot; what did he forget (breathtakingly)?
That we were attacked by terrorists on 9/11/01, during Bush's term. He dumbly commented the other day that Bush had kept us safe from all terrorist attacks during his term.
Cycloptichorn
@Joe Nation,
I couldn't agree more.
So, Joe. Don't you get a kind of creepy feeling when people start refering to people as "folks"?
Stumble It!
Tweet This
Bookmark on Delicious
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace