Monday, January 26, 2009
Hannan / Media / Politics Phil Valentine on English Only: Wacky, Even by Phil Valentine Standards
Posted by Caleb Hannan on Mon, Jan 26, 2009 at 9:10 AM
Take Valentine's epithet on the English Only vote. In Sunday's Tennessean, he argued that the vote against the xenophobic legislation is a harbinger of rising property taxes. At least, we think that's what we think he meant to say. We read it twice and we're still not sure, and that's after we muted the Florida-Vandy game.
Valentine seemed to be saying that, by voting against English Only, Nashville would somehow accelerate the move of thousands to ring counties like Williamson. As proof, Valentine offered his three-legged stool of crime, schools and taxes. Davidson was worse in all three, so naturally, the trend of scared white guys moving to the 'burbs would continue.
What any of this had to do with English Only, however, wasn't clear until Valentine's penultimate graph. There it became apparent that the piece was merely a vehicle to rehash some tired talking points, with English Only ungracefully wedged in the topic sentence for some measure of timeliness.
Was the English-first initiative going to change all that? Probably not, but it would have given me and the rest of this city and the rest of this country some indication that we got it. That we understood the dangerous path we were on and had changed course. That we realized that pandering to the politically correct is lethal to a vibrant city.
It's not so much that we said "no" to English first. It's that we said "no" to common sense.
Comments (8)
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Ridicule Phil all you want lib. He valiantly fought against the illegal brown hords at the possible expense of life and limb. Phil, unlike most of you libs, does not live in a gated community. There was nothing that could have kept the illegal brown hords, like those of Gengis Khan, from sacking his house and taking him as there prisoner. The illegal brown people tremble at the thought of Mr. Phil Valentine. So you, lib writer from the commie Nashville Scene, are unfit to carry Phil's sizable jock strap.
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Illegal brown hordes? God, I wish there was someone to fight against inbred dickless racist xenophobes such as yourself. Then, the city really would be a better place. If you feel so strongly about the brown horde, why not get on a real soapbox downtown and spew that awful shit coming out of your brain? Oh yeah, because you'd get tied to a truck and dragged down the street you stupid fuck fuck fuck
I'm pretty sure Chris1974 had his tongue firmly planted in cheek. That said, surely Phil V. knows that Metro code requires that future property tax increases be voted on by Davidson County residents. The 9-to-1 margins in Belle Meade, Green Hills, and West End that got English Only defeated will certainly flip against tax increases. Valentine is much less a conservative than a populist, and it's telling that the wealthy, conservative parts of Davidson county went predominantly against English-Only.
Dude, I guess I better clarify, since satire doesn't always come across real well in writing, Mr. Ed. But it was, in fact, satire. Maybe not very good satire. But satire nonetheless.
p.s. I really don't believe that illegal brown hordes are going to sack Phil Valentine's house.
p.s. I really don't believe that illegal brown hordes are going to sack Phil Valentine's house.
Although that would be HILARIOUS.
Phil has some strong words for a douchebag living in Williamson Co. If he wants to bitch about Nashville, he should live here. Otherwise, shut the f*#k up. The same is true for all the other knuckleheads who write in about how bad Nashville is and sign their letters from "Cookeville, etc"
My city is doing just fine and if you don't like it, stay out.
