http://www.sundriesshack.com/2008/08/16/judge-finds-for-english-only-school-but-thats-not-necessarily-a-good-thing/

I think this story of a school in Kansas being able to institute and “English-Only” rule is both good and bad. It’s good because private groups (the school was a Catholic school) ought to be able to institute whatever rules they deem necessary. The market and public opinion will decide whether they prosper or fail and the courts didn’t have much say in the matter, and the judge properly ruled.

On the other hand, if the bits the reporter mentions about the school are true, then the school really did overreach with its rules and we conservatives are on the wrong side of things by backing the school’s “English-Only” policy. Here’s a good example.

School officials said Adam, who now attends a public school, had been asked to leave St. Anne after he tried to sit with other Spanish-speaking students at lunch.

Administrators said that defied a rule that required the Hispanic children to sit with white children at lunch, a rule Marten said was only applied to one ethnic group.

“The Caucasian students were not told to go eat lunch with the Hispanic students or participate in their soccer games,” he said. “It was all directed at the Hispanic students.”

It’s a really bad idea to force groups into social situations because it creates an automatic resentment that most times isn’t focused at the people doing the forcing but the people with whom you’re forced to socialize. What was likely to happen is exactly what happened - hard feelings, misunderstandings, and a lawsuit.

I’m not quite seeing it as the defeat for the open borders crew as Michelle Malkin does. It’s not as if the suing parents wanted Spanish-only classes or wanted the policy of Reconquista taught in the school. They thought that the rule that students must only speak English, even among themselves in non-classroom settings as unfairly targeting their children. I think they were right. They were also right to believe that the rule that their kids couldn’t sit in a group unfairly targeted them, too. And from what I’ve read here, the school focused on the students with the Hispanic backgrounds and not on the rest of the student body. That’s a different story from what groups like La Raza are trying to do.

It would be good for conservatives to draw a clean line between cases like this, where it looks like the school administration did go much farther than necessary and did unfairly target the Spanish-speaking students, and true “open borders” cases. Perhaps by backing a few legitimate complaints from our fellow Americans (and I didn’t see any indication that these students or there parents were here illegally) we can demonstrate that what we really find objectionable is not the mere presence of the Spanish language but the insistence that Spanish-speakers be specifically catered to. If we were smart, the phrase “seperate, but equal” would show up a time or three.

The Forgotten War - Sa'ana, Yeman

If you've paid any attention to Yemen, they've had a lot of problems

over the last few years. And not all of it is al-Qaeda. There's been a

tribal uprising in the north, and now Qatar is trying to mediate

between the government and the Shi'ite rebels. So it's also a

religious problem. I believe the current government is Sunni.

These rebels are Shi'ite - but they're not the same type of Shi'ite

as Iran. Iran is 12er Shi'ite (they believe in 12 Imams) and the

ones in Yemen are Zaidis, which is 5er Shi'ism. Qatar is Sunni

and Shi'ite, but I believe they are 12ers.


Saada War, Yemen — April 10, 2007

Civilians trapped in Dhahyan as it is bombed and attacked by tanks.

Diseases spreading, unburied bodies one cause.

Hospitals overcrowded with military and volunteers.

Locals plead for food and medicine.

Political arrests continue, including minors.

SA'ADA, April 8 – Tribal sources told the Yemen Times that

confrontations between the Yemeni army and Houthi loyalists

are still aflame in numerous areas of Sa'ada, particularly in

Dhahian city, as well as in Magz, Sahar, Saqeen, Haydan,

Kittaf, Baqem and Al-Safra districts. And, for the first time,

the confrontations have extended to Ghamar, a district bordering

Saudi territory.

The most significant fact of the Sa'ada war is, was and remains the

regime's collective punishment of the civilian population, including

random bombardment, arbitrary arrests and the withholding of food,

medicine and international aid. The withholding of food and

medicine to 700,000 civilians in Sa'ada is a practice the regime

sometimes openly defends, othertimes obscures as required by

"security concerns". Yemen's donors have made statements

about the humanitarian disaster in Sa'ada, calling for a resolution

that allows aid to the region, however aid organizations are still

stymied.

The EU called on the Yemeni government to do "all it can

to ensure that innocent civilians are not caught up in the

conflict"….Based on the assessment of needs and access

to victims, the EU remains ready to consider urgent

humanitarian assistance to victims, including the

worrying number of internally displaced people.

the Houthis are 5′ers not 12′ers like Iranian Shia and

the civilians have recieved very little attention

internationally, which is partially due to the media black-out.

As Global Security notes, Zaidis are "moderate" in that

"The Zaidis do not believe in the infallibility of the Imams,

nor that they receive divine guidance. Zaidis…believe it can be

held by any descendant of Ali. They also reject the Twelver

notion of a hidden Imam, and like the Ismailis believe in a

living imam, or even imams. In matters of law or fiqh, the

Zaidis are actually closest to the Sunni Shafie school."

It is my impression, and Im sure someone will correct me

if Im wrong, for which I am quite appreciative, that within

the moderate Zaidi school, the Jarudis are the most

inclined to require a Hashimi leader, within the broader

acceptability of a "just" leader.