Regulating Grass Roots Movements

Usually I'm not an alarmist. Most times when people forward me emails about emails being taxed, churches being outlawed, or other such things, they just smack of Chicken Little syndrome, and it's quite easy to find out online that they are hoaxes.

I was therefore shocked with something I heard on Christian talk radio yesterday when a friend and I stepped out of the office to get lunch. On a program, they were quite alarmed about a new bill that is currently up in front of the House of Representatives. Under the umbrella of Lobbying Reform, it drives the following:

Under the House version of the Bill, a church or organization would be considered a “grassroots lobbying firm” subject to this law if the group attempted to influence the general public to voluntarily contact federal officials in order to express their own views on a federal issue. Furthermore, many large churches and ministries utilize mass media to communicate their message. Under this House Bill by Nancy Pelosi, these communications, as long as they are directed to at least one person who is not a member of the church, would fall under this new Bill. Finally, if the church spends an aggregate of only $50,000 or more for such efforts in a quarterly period, they are now required to register as lobbyists. Many ministries spend $50,000 or more a month for air time.

This attempt to slip in this onerous requirement on churches and other organizations must be stopped. The rationale behind Speaker Pelosi and others’ desire to silence churches is obvious. Pastors addressing the moral issues of the day have been able to mobilize tens of thousands of individuals to speak out on various issues. But under this proposed legislation, if a church or denomination spent $50,000 of its own resources on air time to encourage people to support the confirmation of federal judicial nominees or to lend its support to a federal marriage amendment, then that church or denomination would be classified as a grassroots lobbying firm. This is one of the most significant violations of free exercise of religion and the freedom of political speech in our Nation’s history. Some have said that this plan is the most comprehensive regulation of political speech that has ever been put forward by Congress.

The excerpt above was from the American Center for Law & Justice website's article New Congress Proposes Drastic Legislation to Impact Churches. Please visit their website to learn more and for information on petition participation.

bag as in vague

Since I moved to Florida, the two things I get the most grief for are pop and bags. I knew that pop was a Minnesota thing and most of the rest of the world calls it soda, but call me stubborn--I still like to call it pop. It threw me for a loop though when I'd be at a store or restaurant and ask for a bag to go, and I'd have to say it 3-4 times, and still gesture and explain that I wanted something to put my food into to carry out the door. It turns out most people (at least here) say bag as in hag, lag, gag. And to them it sounds like I'm asking for a beg. To be fair, if someone walked up to me on the street and asked me for a beg, I'd either hand them a dollar or have to have them repeat it several times. But you'd think at a cafe shop, the person behind the counter would see me with my little to go box and figure it out more quickly.

Anyway.

I never found the perfect word to explain to my friends here how I think bag should be pronounced, until I took this little accent quiz. All of the questions seemed sensible to me and not a problem, until I got to the last one and I pretty much jumped out of my chair in laughing at myself that I knew that was the question that was going to peg me as a Minnesotan by birth.

What American accent do you have? Your Result: North Central "North Central" is what professional linguists call the Minnesota accent. If you saw "Fargo" you probably didn't think the characters sounded very out of the ordinary. Outsiders probably mistake you for a Canadian a lot.
The West
The Midland
Boston
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The South
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz