Terminutor.

English can be a very difficult language when it comes to some subtelties. Think for instance of how the word ‘CLOSING’ is similar to the word ‘SECURING’. Not convinced? Well, that’s the [hilarious but hardly believable] excuse found by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger when he apologized about his comment that the California border with Mexico should be closed:

"Yesterday was a total screw-up in the words I used," the Republican said at a news conference. "Because instead of closing, I meant securing. I think maybe my English, I need to go back to school and study a little bit."

Yep, and maybe we should require wannabe-governors to take English tests before they can get elected so that they don’t give such a lame excuse. I very much doubt that the Hispanics who voted for him will buy it, but they might also see the irony of the situation and possibly the hypocrisy with a sense of betrayal.

Unfortunately, it seems that the language is hardly the only problem of Arnold, he should also learn how to use his brain at times:

He recently praised the 'Minutemen', saying they have done a ‘terrific job’. The Minutemen, [whose name is meant to refer to the mythical American Revolution militia group] is a volunteer-based group of less than 1,000 – some of them armed - who monitored the movement of illegal aliens and reported them to the Border Patrol.

"I think they have done a terrific job, and they have cut down the crossing of illegal immigrants by a huge percentage, so it just shows that it works when you go and make an effort and when you work hard. ... It's a shame the private citizen has to go in there and secure our borders," he said.
"[The federal government's] job is to secure the borders and they have not done their job," Schwarzenegger continued. "And when the government – the state or the country – doesn't do its job, then the private citizens go out and it's like a neighborhood patrol."

So what’s next? Get a good crowd of concerned citizens for necktie-parties like in the good old days?

The good thing is that the ‘Minutemen’ caused much stir in the media and among politicians, including Bush who decried the initiative by calling the group ‘Vigilantes’, and it also seems that, while pretty scary in terms of symbolic meaning, the Minutemen’s action has also been blown out of proportion (in terms of its effectiveness) by the media. Some critics, including Border Patrol officials have said that it was little more than a nuisance that attracted significant attention from the media and civil rights groups watching volunteers for possible rights violations.