Tim Blair

"The ugly side of being American, the side incapable of empathy with any other culture,"

That is rather funny to read, considering that American culture is an blend of most of the other cultures on the planet, with Anglo-Saxonism as the base. What does this statement say about the rest of the world's cultures?

Your strange, alien Australian ways frighten me! I do not understand all this "antiwar" stuff -- I am but a simple American!

(That last post was me, by the way.)

Is there any substantive difference between Margo's final quoted statement and racism?

Well, Americans aren't a "race" -- but it is bigotry.

I'm a Gen-Xer and my spirit soars on the wings of FA/18 Hornets as they drop 1000 lb bombs on terrorists.

Ah, Dick Neville. Another big 'demo' in Sydney eh? He rubs his chin, Letterman-like: "I remember it well... And Jimi Hendrix rose from the dead, played a wah-wahed rendition of 'Advance Australia Fair', we dropped some tabs, started this really groovy little magazine...there were flowers everywhere, everybody had sex in the Domain and, and...

Then he woke perspiring, clutching his baubles and realised it was just another superannuated hippie daydream.

As for the fish, they were eaten out by the cliches obviously.

Bomb cliches!

I was drinking and eating with a group of Americans last night who represented all political persuasions. They were universally repulsed and angered by the Baghdad prison images. Americans don't need hyperventilating rants from the likes of Margo Kingston to help set their moral compass.

If by "incapable of empathy with any other culture" Margot means,

"incapable of empathy with primitive death cult cultures that want to kill me",

then, ummm, this American is guilty as charged.

Is this a felony level crime, or can I just do community service ?

Hey, Margo can stay at our house! So long as she makes her bed, pitches in with the dishes, and comes up with some new angles on subjugating smaller nations and helping us take over the world...

Either that, or she can just stay at home.

The US under its present government is a force for evil...

And I'll bet this stupid skank has never, ever used the word "evil" to describe the likes of Saddam Hussein, Kim Jong Il or Palestinian suicide bombers. Indeed, I'm sure she had a grand laugh about Bush's "simplistic" "axis of evil" speech.

Dumbass.

Well, Margo has just demonstrated her complete inability to empathize with another "culture" (though I'd call it more of a mindset) - the American one. Off to the re-education camp with you, missie. Or you can come stay with me for a bit, in our lovely neighborhood which is composed largely of Russian, Polish and Koreans, with a few home-grown mixes like myself and spouse. We get along beautifully, and our grocery stores are not to be surpassed for variety.

Unless, of course, she thinks that blood-fed death cults are the only REAL alternative culture. Dear me, Margo, how very...close-minded of you.

Wow. Just wow.

Can't empathize with other cultures? So that's why all the signs in doctors offices, at bus stops, etc, in an American city settled largely by Swedes, are in Russian, Hmong, and Somali.
Is there some kind of stupidity test that these columnists have to pass (or fail, I'm not sure which) to gain employment?

Margo Kingman is culturally insensitive. She must do mandatory time in a PC reeducation camp until she can properly appreciate and embrace other cultures.

Margo has finally come out of the closet - The US is the evil empire. Unbelievable that she is actually getting paid to write this absolute tripe. She redefines the term "useful idiot". Well done Margo and goodbye Sydney Morning Herald.

But... but the fish!!! WHAT ABOUT THE FISH?

I am here to speak for the fish, because they cannot speak for themselves.

And therefore you can't fact-check me.

Help! My spirit can't swim!

As for the fish stocks, how come no one ever blames the dolphins?

Excerpts from "History of Suicide Bombings From the 13th Century to the Present":

The first recorded use of suicide bombers comes during the Sixth Crusade (part of Frederick II's attempt to retake Jerusalem). Although the Chinese had invented gunpowder around 1040, this technology had not yet reached Arab lands. The suicide bombers resorted to running up to the European knights and yelling "BOOM!". The tactic proved unsuccessful, and for a long period was unused after the Moors were expelled from Spain in 1492 (although this method was briefly attempted again after the invention of the megaphone in 1587.)
....
The next revolution in suicide bombing came some time later during the seventeenth century. William Congreve developed rockets for use in war. Suicide bombers used this technology. They would strap themselves to a rocket and try to hit the target. Unfornately the technology was rather primitive, and the would-be suicide bomber was equipped only with a sign that read "Khara!" ("Yipes!" in ancient Arabic.) Artist's conception of a rocket wearing suicide bomber.
...
The seventeenth century also saw the invention of the gun. Seventeenth century suicide bombers attempted to use this new weapon. Unfortunately, early attempts involved the suicide bomber running up to the target and blowing his own brains out. Again suicide bombing remained dormant until the invention of TNT.

I like Nevil's new term, "porno torture".

The Sri Lankan guerrillas (who were Buddhist, not Muslim) often used suicide bombing against India during their war with them. I think they managed to kill the Indian Prime Minister using a suicide bomber.

A heartfelt Gen X response to Mr Neville.

Come on fellow Gen Xers, Mr Neville has a point. There's something missing in our empty lives. Only transforming ourselves into baby-boomer dickheads can save us from ourselves.

The future of the planet depends on it!

"The last thing we need is a reversion to the '60s. I couldn't care less if I never hear a peep from Bob Dylan or the Rolling Stones again; I rather hope I don't." - Richard Neville.

Doesn't this prick realise that it's useless morons lke him that are irrelevent to the present. The music of Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones will stand forever, unlike Richard Neville's crap which almost no-one has ever heard of.

I'm sure Bob Dylan would be devastated that the great Richard Neville doesn't want to hear a "peep" from him. Keef would probably just tell him to "fuck off".

The ugly side of being American, the side incapable of empathy with any other culture...

You are right. Having lived on three continents, living in Osage Indian country, and having relatives from Japan, the Philippines, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Colombia, and Guatamala, I simply have no idea about other countries...

I wonder if any of them noticed that many soldiers --including our Generals and our Sect of state--are "ethnic"? I guess not...

That perfidious bastard Neville has (like the paddington olive rancher) lost his few remaining marbles.
For evidence, should any be needed, go to his bloody looney site here:
www.richardneville.com.au

But be warned,very dangerous territory for those with weak stomachs!!

As a GenXer (and an American), I would like to second Attila's response to Mr. Neville. I have always said that the Baby Boom generation is not to be trusted. We must work diligently to keep the aging hippies as far away from positions of importance as possible.

Forget the States, ask her if she's ever been to another country full stop.

Margo, and the rest of the media 'elite' are typical examples of the phenomena described by Eric Hoffer:
"In a trader-dominated society, the scribe is usually kept out of the management of affairs, but is given a more or less free hand in the cultural field. By frustrating the scribe's craving for commanding action, the trader draws upon himself the scribe's wrath and scorn. "
'Nuff said...

I'm a Baby Boomer, and y'know, I would love to get those stupid hippies out of here, period! I wonder if NASA has some spare room in their next few shuttle launches......

As a Baby Boomer (which I shall continue to be until I find some way of getting my membership revoked), can I point out that Richard Neville isn't one of us? He was born in 1941, so whatever spurred his unfortunate parents into their act of prat-engendering lust, it wasn't the happy thought that war was over. Being a boomer is bad enough without being bundled into the flower-power sunset home with the likes of old Dick.

One has to admire Neville's level of self deceit. The entire column makes a virtue of the fact that no one agrees with him, and this somehow makes his opinions correct. He seems to be getting lonely down there at the bottom of the garden.

The ugly side of being American, the side incapable of empathy with any other culture, has eaten alive any chance of nurturing democracy in Iraq.

Having (unfortunately) seen a picture of Margo, I should think she would be more careful throwing around terms such as 'ugly'...

cheshirecat

Andrea, Islam is not a "race" either, yet anytime someone criticizes Islam they are automatically accused of "racism." The term has been bled dry of its meaning.

Jean-Luc BIDET

Gee ! I thought Dick Neville had disappeared under his rock ages ago when Margo was sent home to Mars.

"Americans incapable of empathy with any other culture."
What an outrageously ignorant thing to say. If you took a blindfolded Kingston and set her down in any one of America's big cities then removed her blindfold, she wouldn't be able to tell you which city on Earth she was in. she's an arsehole!

And will somebody please tell idiots like Neville (I can't believe this transexual is still around) Burchill and Kingston (both of whom look like they need a good bath) that there are plenty of dead children to go around! You grubs!

Kingston, Neville, Burchill and their ilk are a strange breed of Lefty peace-niks who think they can usher in world peace through a process of stoking the flames of hatred through bile spewing vilification. I believe it's called the peace through loathing initiative???
It sounds like your typical Leftie logic and shows perfectly how much they really care about peace.

Dammit, stop blaming us Boomers for everything! How many of us do you see at the Moonbat Peace Picnics? Ten or twenty on a good day, when there are millions of the rest of us, cringing in embarrassment over these looney-toon cases of arrested development with their faux forage hats and their stupid signs (not to mention the millions of us who still have jobs to go to instead of parading around waxing nostalgic for the heady days of college protest).

I've said it before and I'll say it again: the problem that glares at us is: who will volunteer to do Margo's clitorectomy so she can become really acceptable to the practitiopners of Mahometry?