ectoblog.com

It bothers me when the subtitlers of a movie go beyond language translation and translate miles or feet into metric for me. For example, Tom Hanks didn’t say he was 322 thousand kilometers above the earth in Apollo 13, he said he was 200 thousand miles above it. That substitution–”322.000 kilometros” for “200,000 miles”– takes a liberty that I’m not comfortable with. And frankly, I don’t give a shit how many kilometers that is. It’s a movie, see; I don’t use that information for anything. Once I get past knowing that it’s a big number, I’m ready for the next scene. Thank you.

And now, the same screed translated into babelspanish:

Me incomoda cuando los subtitlers de una película van más allá de la traducción de lengua y traducen millas o pies al métrico para mí. Por ejemplo, Tom Hanks didn’ t dice él era 322 mil kilómetros sobre la tierra en Apolo 13, él dijo que él era 200 mil millas sobre él. Esa substitución–” kilometros” 322.000; para el ” miles” 200.000; — toma una libertad que I’ m no cómodo con. Y franco, I don’ t da una mierda cuántos kilómetros que sea. It’ la película del S.A., considera; I don’ uso de t esa información para cualquier cosa. Una vez que consigo pasado que sabe ese it’ número grande del S.A., I’ m listo para la escena siguiente. Gracias.

Brown mulls UK oath of allegiance plan – CNN.com

Goldsmith calls for a pledge of allegiance, the establishment of a new national holiday to celebrate Britishness, and expanded ceremonies that would take place when new immigrants become British citizens. He also said schoolchildren should have a citizenship ceremony as well.”We are experiencing changes in our society which may have an impact on the bond that we feel we share as citizens,” Goldsmith said in the report. “I propose a range of measures that may help to promote a shared sense of belonging.”

It’s been a long time since I’ve had occasion to say “at least I don’t live there.” Can you imagine having had to attend a compulsory citizenship ceremony when you turned 18? At 18, when you were old enough to be spooked by the kind of off-handed paranoid power the government would have to invoke to make that happen? Being forced to recite the Pledge of Allegiance at 8 years old was bad enough, in hindsight. Blessed hindsight. But there would be nothing “hindsighted” about this; this would be dumped right on your developmental front porch step just as you step out into the world for good.

There is nothing wrong with having a sense of place and community, which is what the British government is trying to foster here. There is only something wrong with the idea that a dictated sense of place and community has any worth. It does not. It took me years to get over the fact that my government made me stand at attention and chant at a flag when I was little. In some ways I’m still not over it.

It’s a funny thing: there is no faster way to persuade someone to hold a particular attitude than to demand he hold its opposite.

Bush vetoes bill banning waterboarding – CNN.com

“We created alternative procedures to question the most dangerous al Qaeda operatives, particularly those who might have knowledge of attacks planned on our homeland,” Bush said. “If we were to shut down this program and restrict the CIA to methods in the field manual, we could lose vital information from senior al Qaeda terrorists, and that could cost American lives.”

George is a colossal ass, of course; King of the short-sighted political decision. “Torture is okay for us to use.” Say that, and you can no longer complain about any god damn thing somebody else does to any of our citizens without exposing yourself as a hypocritical fool.

So that’s true. But something else unsettles me about this article, too. Been annoying and unsettling me for quite some time now: I find the use of the word “homeland” over the past few years very spooky. I don’t remember hearing it used in any kind of official way prior to 9/11. It’s as if George and his pals had wanted to use “fatherland” or “motherland,” but recognized that the nazis and the commies beat them to it.

I’m not comfortable living in a country that has a pet name for itself.