The National Anthem

Found at Michelle Malkin.

(The Defense of Fort McHenry)
September 20, 1814
By Francis Scott Key

Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, now conceals, now discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines on the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! O long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wiped out their foul footstep's pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner forever shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

I don't always agree with Pres. Bush, but I'm totally with him on this: The Anthem of the United States of America should be sung in its original language, and that's English. If you don't want to speak English, go back where you came from. If you emigrate to Germany, you have to learn German. If you emigrate to France, you have to learn French. If you emigrate to Spain, you have to learn Spanish (and that's Castilian Spanish, BTW, not the Mexican Spanish they teach in schools here). People who immigrate to the US have a habit of insisting we accomodate them and learn their language. Not all immigrants do this, but even here in bass-ackwards South Carolina, home of the Confederate Battle Flag flying over the State House dome for 30 years longer than it should have (well, longer than that, but you get my drift) and also the location of the place where the first shot of the Revolutionary War was fired (Fort Sumpter), the push towards bilingualism is getting stronger. Signs everywhere in Spanish, ads for employment positions asking for bilingual applicants, even the pamphlets the National Association of Realtors puts out are usually in two versions, and one of those is (you guessed it) Spanish.

Baloney. This is The United States and we speak English here. Not English English, or Australian English, but American English. Or, as some people say it, "'Murcan." If you want to get along here, learn the language. Why is every other country in the world allowed to demand everyone speak their native tongue but the US?

And BTW -- The United States is indeed a nation of immigrants. Legal immigrants.

The so-called "Spanish" version of The National Anthem is not, I say again not the "Spanish" version of The Star Spangled Banner. If it were the "Spanish" version of the US National Anthem, it would have the original words merely translated into Spanish.

But that's not what was done. It's been rewritten, and emulating the style of most rap artists, who have neither the wit nor the imagination to come up with their own tunes, the music from The National Anthem stolen wholesale and parodied to make a whiny and absurd political statement.

Sample lyrics (more links, including to an audio if you have the stomach for it, here:

These kids have no parents, cause all of these mean laws.
See this can't happen, not only about the Latins.
Asians, blacks and whites and all they do is adding
more and more, let's not start a war
with all these hard workers,
they can't help where they were born.

All right, all together now:

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!

Update: Well, this is disconcerting.

I feel like I need a shower.

Link