Tim Blair

A very good site indeed.

I thought reporters were supposed to take down people's names when they quoted them in stories. Or make one up like Uli did. I'm pretty sure there's supposed to be a name in there somewhere.

"Improve world order, kill an American today".

Hard to believe someone would actually have a sign saying that here in Australia. I couldn't imagine even the most anti-American leftie tree hugger that throws themselves into the missionary position when they see Margo, having something printed up like that. May I suggest that if it was on a boat (possibly a yacht?) that it sailed in from overseas.

I'm not saying this to suck up to the septics, its just very poor form for anyone here to display such filth about any nationality.

You guys have never forgiven us for winning that yacht race, have you?

Oh....that yacht race. Sorry Andrea, but when the myth of whoever loses the America's Cup (Connors) also loses his head didn't eventuate, we sort of lost interest in the thing.

I've been reading that the real rage in Australia is coming from the prostitutes in Western Australia who are ticked-off because the men attending the mining convention haven't been using their services as much as they used to. It seems the managers of the various houses had geared up to handle a certain volume of traffic, but usage is way down this year. I guess their business plan was way off.

Ask any Southern American if they give a damn about being liked. The answer is almost unanimously 'no'. Why? Because the South has been the most reviled section of the U.S. for most of its history. Our fault, given, but it's also taught us a thing or two about having thick skin.

People will believe whatevery they wish no matter how much you bow and scrape. If John Kerry thinks he can win French approval, good for him. I'd rather be reviled.

/scrawlville.com

i heard there were fights at that convention, polly, because the bars wouldn't serve minors...

Holy crap. Kerry hears about someone advocating the random murder of the citizens of his country and that's his @#%$ing answer? It's just a few words short of saying that we deserve it because of George Bush. And he wants to be our President?

What I also find profoundly interesting is the way that Kerry makes the 35 years assertion with things like the Euro-missile business in the early '80s and the anti-Vietnam sentiment before that.

I hear Nero fiddling....

And why is it that 'reason' doesn't have comments?

The sign should have said: "Improve world order. Kill an American today... and suffer the consequences."

I'm with Gabe Posey. Americans aren't liked around the world. Shrug. The truth is, we've never been liked very much because we decline to be poor, downtrodden, and Eurodomized. It's just that now, those who hate us are finally being honest about it.

There was another sign. I guess she didn't think it would transfer too well to Bostonese. "Restore sanity, save reality-drown Margo!" It's for the children.

She obviously didn't see the sign being held up by the WA prostitutes at the mining convention: Improve world order. Give an American a headjob today".

Senator Kerry! Senatory Kerry!

By "at risk abroad", do you mean like at embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania?

You know, back in 1998?

Or do you mean at dormitories in Dharan, Saudi Arabia, or on US naval vessels in Yemeni ports?

You know, as far back as 1997?

Please, g-d, give ne a microphone, a tape recorder, a list of questions, and five minutes alone with this Patrician Yankee yutz! That's all I ask...

--furious

Someone should inform Monsieur Kerry that people (Americans) don't get killed (or targeted by signs) due to disrespect. I suspect it's quite the opposite.

But then, what would the French-looking Kerry, who, by the way, served in Vietnam, know about killing?

One group of Australians that would definitely kicked those boat-owners' ass would be Perth-area prostitutes. Back in 2002, a U.S. carrier battle-group (around 8,000 sailors and Marines) stopped in Perth on the way back from the war in Afghanistan. The prostitutes "worked" so hard, and so long, that the brothel-owners actually had to shut the houses down after the fleet left in order to give the girls a rest. First time they'd EVER closed the houses.

I like youse American's.There, I said it!

"Improve world order, kill an American today".

That must been a pretty long boat. Well, maybe I'll see it in a marina some day. Fiberglass keys real good...

Foreign Leftoid thought fragment: "Improve world order, kill an American today".

My response: "Go ahead, make my day."

Well done Rebecca and Real Jeffs. So they took down the Al Jazeera banner and replaced it with Kerry.com. Great! If they really care about national security they would have replaced with something like the following. "Attack an American by land,air or sea and you'll be lookin to eat some APC" "Eat all you can we'll throw more!" Deal with it. Word up!

Maybe Currency Lad should have block quoted Al Bundy's text.

I agree with Emily. WTF is going on in Kerry's skull? You can tell a lot about what the guy thinks by his instinctive response. Not revulsion or to attack the idiocy and barbarism of the comment but to attack Bush. F*cking Loser!!!

It's cool Grinder, CL's one of the good guys.

Hey Tim, have you seen that the Danish pizza -maker who was fined last year for refusing to serve French and German customers because of their countries'opposition to the Iraq, has been sacked again, for the same reason. All because he supports George Bush! Isn't that discrimination ?

America is more hated than ever. We really got the scum of the Earth stirred up this time.

If kerry is elected the world will love us like a john loves his whore.

"Improve world order, kill an American today". ..???????

I didnt know we had any visiting French warships in port!

Yeah, it's that broke-dick carrier of theirs putting in for repairs.

zefal:
"...like a john loves his whore."

That's about as true a statement as I've heard on this subject.

Eurodomized

nicely put, reb!

Emily, Sean- dont stress, even if the boat really exists. Its not like there arent any American lefties who would say something similar about Howard's Aussie's if they had a spare boat that didnt already have a cheesy name.

We have hate laws in this country. Although I am not a lawyer I would say the owners of that boat and sign could have little trouble on their hands if someone decided to take them on. If anyone could find out more information on that boat it would be real fun trying that law out. My daughter was born in the US and is still an American citizen. I reckon I could make a real case that she was very upset and troubled by that sign. I would dearly love to go after that piece of shit . Maybe I could end up owning the boat- if this is true. I would have legal go at it. I have the time any a little money to have some fun. I could see a new sign going up on the boat- I got the boat from the guy who had a sign saying kill an American today. Any info ou there.

Strewth Grinder.

Coupla days as a blogger and I'm not PerfectPundit. I take the conventionalities of referencing seriously, by the way.

Anyway....

Thanks Al.

And thanks for the link Tim! I appreciate it very much.

The new Kerry campaign slogan is:

"vote Kerry, because France's approval is very important".

Investigating further (by following other people's links, of course) I see that the whole sign thing might have been a figment of somebody's leftoid (and well-scripted) imagination. I certainly hope so, but I didn't believe it was the opinion of the majority of Australians anyway. Our two nations are, so to speak, in the same boat.

Three jeers to the Oz/Christopher Hitchens for the anti-Phat Phuk article today. Jeebus you've only encouraged His Lardness.

If I may responds with the words from the banner on one of our aircraft carriers while leaving for deployment in the Gulf, Dec 2002:

Peace to People of Goodwill. All others, stand by.

When did the rest of the World ever like the United States?

Too right Richard. Alot of people who say that the Bush govt has stained the image of the US never liked the US in the first place. The US should never want to be liked by all and sundry, being popular does not equal being right.

What's with this "Americans can't travel abroad anymore because they're so hated" bunk? I haven't had any problems as a result of being an American, even in places like Pakistan and Cuba. This while defending Bush and the Iraq war every time the issue came up (as it often did). Maybe the individuals having problems are just asses, deserving of the treatment they get regardless of their nationality

Wow, Adam, I didn't realize you were "all Americans." You contain multitudes!

Asshead. Just because you had a fun experience doesn't mean someone else did.

And -- a thought just occurred to me -- maybe you are one of those buttheads who never realizes that he's being insulted.

In reference to Adam's point, I've noticed that it is frequently American women and small children who are the target of the more overt insults, at least they seem to be the focus of ire in the more disturbing stories I've read.

I really don't want the rest of the world to like us. I want them to respect us, and to be wary of our wrath. I want American tourists to be treated well because of there are consequences if we are ill-treated. This is not to say that we should nuke a village because a waiter is rude (unless maybe it's a French village), but at the very least we should stop funding every anti-American spot on the Earth. And any attack on our citizens or assault on our embassies should be dealt with promptly and decisively.

And if we can't have their respect... well then, I'd rather be feared than liked.

Andrea- I have to give grudging admiration for the European art of the masterful put-down. Clueless dolts like Adam are great fodder, especially when they don't realize that they are the butt of the joke. Tres droll!

Andrea: apparently I hit a nerve... sorry if you felt personally insulted. In the interests of decorum and not turning this into a flame war, I'm going to ignore your comment of "maybe you are one of those buttheads who never realizes that he's being insulted"

I never claimed that I was "all Americans". My point was simply that among myself and those that I associate with, none of us has had any significant problems as a result of being American, despite spending a great deal of time in the places that are considered "hostile" to America/Americans.

This leads me to conclude that if someone has frequent problems in much more "tame" parts of the world, their nationality may not be the reason why.

For the vast majority of people in the world, if you treat them with kindness and respect, they will also treat you with kindness and respect. Among those who do not, they likely do not treat others kindly, regardless of whether they are American or not. There are very few people who will switch from being kind to being unkind, simply because someone is American.

If you yell at a waiter, saying "why can't this taste like how McDonald's makes it!?! Take it back!!", then yes, you will get a negative reaction to your nationality. If you treat people with respect, not acting like you're better than them or worthy of being "feared", as Richard would like, then you're going to get a good reaction. But there's a world of difference between a negative reaction to stereotypical "American behavior", and a negative reaction to simple "American-ness"

Even children understand that there is a difference between a country's government and its people, even under a democracy. There are, of course, who do not (otherwise there would be no terrorism). But they are few and far between, making encounters with them rare... and even those encounters would generally be limited to only a simple insult.

If someone feels they can't travel abroad because they're afraid of an insult (as you implied), they have incredibly thin skin.

Adam, want to know why I consider you a butthead? This is why:

"My point was simply that among myself and those that I associate with, none of us has had any significant problems as a result of being American, despite spending a great deal of time in the places that are considered "hostile" to America/Americans."

Well LUCKY YOU.

"This leads me to conclude that if someone has frequent problems in much more "tame" parts of the world, their nationality may not be the reason why."

YOU CAN'T KNOW THAT.

"If you yell at a waiter, saying "why can't this taste like how McDonald's makes it!?! Take it back!!", then yes, you will get a negative reaction to your nationality."

Where the fuck does that come from? You just pulled that out of your ass. I sincerely doubt that anyone above the age of four would complain about a meal in a restaurant anywhere because something didn't taste "like McDonald's." What a stupid analogy. I can see where you are coming from, though -- you have already decided that the people complaining about being treated rudely for their Americanness were actually the ones in the wrong. This is just more "Americans are the ones making everyone hate them" shit, and I am fucking sick of it. More "America was wearing a short skirt and asking for it" drivel.

So you wanted to avoid a "flame war." Well, you could have done so by not being condescending, pompous, smug, and smarmy.

If you insist on doing nothing but hurling insults, I see no point in continuing this discussion with you. Goodbye.

Har! Welcome to Spleenville, Adam!

I guess the kitchen was too hot for him.