Wait, you believe that the Democrats oppose metrication whereas the Republicans support it? May I ask what has led you to feel this way?
The most obvious connection between partisanship and metrication to my eyes is what happened in the 70s. Jimmy Carter's metric conversion program (technically begun under Ford in 1975, though the Democrat-dominated congress at the time may not have given him much choice in the matter) was canceled in 1982 by newly elected Ronald Reagan with the help of the newly elected Republican Senate majority. A quick glance at the first two metric-related bills that come up in a web search finds a very pro-metric bill called The Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988, passed shortly after the Democrats regained full control of Congress, and a somewhat anti-metric bill called The Savings in Construction Act of 1996, passed shortly after the Republicans regained full control of Congress. I would certainly welcome a counterexample or two, if you have some in mind. --- STANLEY DOORE <[email protected]> wrote: > You are mistaken Mr. Humphreys. > Metric is NOT right wing as you say it is. Companies in the US are > subtly converting to the > SI because of the SI economic advantage - an advantage to taxpayers. It is > the left who are > against standardizing on the SI in the US, not the right. > Stan Doore > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Stephen Humphreys > To: U.S. Metric Association > Sent: Thursday, April 16, 2009 4:36 AM > Subject: [USMA:44692] RE: Nothing but Imperial > > > Be aware that you might get the usual stuff about the Daily Mail being a > right wing rag (the > usual mistake of 'if you prefer imperial you're right wing - if you prefer > metric you're left > wing') - to an extent that a recently joined 'contributor' has used German > nazi style words to > describe the Daily Mail elsewhere (I kid you not). However - you'd find the > same vocabulary in > the Daily Mirror (which is left leaning) and probably even the Morning Star > (Britains only > official daily communist paper!). > > Incidentally - if this item was covered by any of the television stations > here then they'd use > the same terminology. In fact a lot of recent 'real life' style > documentaries would be worded > as such. > > Regards > SteveH > > If someone follows up this thread with a claim that I have said that UK TV > is 'exclusively > Imperial' or that my sole purpose above is to create a (how's it called?) > 'half-truth' that > people 'only deal in imperial' and 'never use metric ever' then simply > discard the nonsense. > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Date: Thu, 16 Apr 2009 02:20:44 +0000 > From: [email protected] > To: [email protected] > Subject: [USMA:44691] Nothing but Imperial > > > Ran across this article today online in The Daily Mail: > > > http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1170348/The-50-year-old-mother-spent-10-000-surgery-look-like-daughter.html > > While this article offers us more than one lesson, it certainly illustrates > Stephen's point > about the absence of SI in today's Britain in various quarters. > > Ezra > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Windows Live Messenger just got better. Find out more!
