Are these people serious?  

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37496186/ns/us_news-life/

I guess there is a degree of logic to their argument, as I agree that our language has too many exceptions to the rule to make the rule really a rule when it comes to how you should construct your words.   I remember mostly, I before E, except after C.  But oh, there are a couple of words that break this rule and put the E before the I even though no C is anywhere to be found.   (Sadly, I am drawing a blank trying to come up with such a word on the spot here.)   

Thus English has always seemed to me to be a hodge-podge of however someone wanted to do it, rather than a natural evolution of the language using consistent grammar rules.    

Nevertheless, I for one will stand against any effort to reduce my literacy to the level we encounter in text-messages from grade-schoolers.    I’ve considered it to be a culprit in the dumbing-down of America and it saddens me that people want to use it as a reason to further dumb us down.   (Actually, I smell a whiff of laziness in the people who seriously think we should change the way we spell our words, just so they don’t have to think anymore.)