Why is it “dumbing down” when Republicans do it?

On the pronunciation of “Pakistan”: The correct pronunciation of a word one which people will understand. Otherwise, you’re not communicating. If they’ll understand more than one pronunciation, pick one that will not distract your listeners from hearing the point you’re making.

It grates on my ears when Republicans refer to the “Democrat Party”. When they do so, they are not communicating with me as effectively as they might.

To communicate effectively with ordinary Americans, the correct pronunciation of “Pakistan” is “PackiStan”.

It’s especially asinine when you consider the importance of Pakistan in US policy goals right now, and the difficulties we’re having.

Do we want Pakistan to be friendly, cooperate, and stop aiding the Taliban? Yes.

Therefore, why go out of our way to piss in their soup? Pronouncing the word the way they do is a ridiculously cheap way of showing a bit of respect and deference to a country that is very much concerned with not feeling like it’s being bullied by America.

Cleverest answer I’ve read to that question is “Haploid,” owing to his earthly parentage of one.

And is there something wrong with Barocky’s middle name? If so, what? Nobody’s got a problem using “Dub-ya”, as far as I can see.

Bhoooo, bhooo, whooo.

“As you wrote, Pinker is not a linguist but, in fact, a psychologist.”

From Wikipedia:

Steven Arthur Pinker (born September 18, 1954) is a prominent Canadian-American experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist, and author of popular science. Pinker is known for his wide-ranging advocacy of evolutionary psychology and the computational theory of mind.

Pinker’s academic specializations are visual cognition and language development in children, and he is most famous for popularizing the idea that language is an “instinct” or biological adaptation shaped by natural selection. On this point, he opposes Noam Chomsky and others who regard the human capacity for language to be the by-product of other adaptations. He is the author of five books for a general audience, which include The Language Instinct (1994), How the Mind Works (1997), Words and Rules (2000), The Blank Slate (2002), and The Stuff of Thought (2007). Pinker’s books have won numerous awards and been New York Times best-sellers.

“The sage Platt had more information to disclose. “Barack Obama refused to wear an American flag on his lapel,” he said of the man who, at the presidential debate the night before, was wearing a flag pin on his lapel. The audience booed. “Barack Obama, a man who wants to be president of the United States of America, removed the American flag from his chest because it was a symbol of patriotism. Perhaps Barack Obama doesn’t put country first, but he puts fashion first.” ”

Anyone notice that Obama has worn the lapel pin in BOTH debates while McCain has NOT worn it in EITHER?

Not true. A majority of Pakistanis and Indians speak English. As for the word itself, it was coined in the twentieth century by a Pakistani from an Urdu word. All Pakistanis (and Indians, for that matter) use [pa?k?st?a?n] when they pronounce the name of their country, whether they are speaking in English or a native language.

this is the stupidest goddamn thing I’ve read today, and that’s not an easy award to win. The second-largest country on the continent by population (and the largest by surface area, so the plurality “of the continent”) has two national languages. There isn’t a single country between our southern border and South America where it isn’t extremely helpful, if not outright necessary, to know Spanish. And within the US…well, I live 1300 miles from the nearest national border and would greatly benefit in my day-to-day life from speaking conversational Spanish. The town I moved from had a substantial German-speaking population. Yeah, who needs anything but English?