Are Americans Uniquely Insular and Ill-Informed?
I wonder how many times a day Britons hear something nasty said about them on American radio and television or written about them in the American press, and how many expatriate Britons living abroad are confronted by aggressive Brit-haters.
In the past month I have been making careful note of incidents I feel are anti-American; why, you may ask, am I “at it” yet again and why is this being published in Pajamas Media? I feel it is important for Americans to understand what they might encounter on a 2009 Christmas trip abroad in order to avoid what the former CNN London bureau chief Walt Rodgers describes in his excellent October 15 editorial in the Christian Science Monitor. He recounts an incident in which an American accent roused someone’s ire and violence ensued. Also, it is important for Americans who do business abroad to appreciate that the accent is not a ticket to happiness or success even in the milieu of Euro-Obama euphoria. Furthermore, the extremely influential BBC television and radio programs Any Questions (I have been a panelist on this show several times and have tried to defend the honor of the United States of America) and Question Time often promulgate misconceptions about the United States and Israel that go uncorrected.
So what? Well, in order for people like myself who live here and who wish to avoid a heart attack, it is unfortunate that so much rubbish about America and Americans is stated as fact in the media and then one is relentlessly assaulted by an enraged Briton or European.
This happened in early November at London Mayor Boris Johnson’s all-day conference on Olympics 2012 and the arts. At the end of the day I went to the reception and a tousle-haired young man came over to me and started asking me questions peppered with “Yeh?” His name is Tom and he is a cultural affairs aide to Mayor Johnson. I have no idea why, but he really laid into me.
He went into that mode that I call “climate change rage” and started berating me about humanity and other lifeforms having a finite time on earth because of what Americans had done to demolish the planet. I mentioned the 10,000 young men under the earth at Omaha Beach who died in their teens to help demolish the Third Reich, but he kept on raging about carbon emissions and the United States destroying the environment. I gave him what I like to call the “Donald Rumsfeld riff.” At his legendary Pentagon press conferences Rummy used to observe that when you look down on North and South Korea at night, you see darkness in the north and millions of lights in the south; in which country would you prefer to live? That imagery made no impact on Tom.
I tried to extricate myself from this unpleasant assault, but he continued to rant at me about the damage the United States has done to the world. I asked him if he would prefer the lights to go out and the entire working population of the U.S. to stop laboring 24/7 and just languish hungry and unemployed en masse. He was puzzled. I said, “If you think a highly industrialized society in which everyone works a long day with an hour for lunch and two weeks’ vacation a year is a bad thing, then maybe the U.S. should take on European working practices.”
I admitted that air conditioning, which is not part of European or British daily life, has indeed made a negative impact on the American environment, but 75% of greenhouse gases come from other places like India, China, and Russia. Do those countries have an Environmental Protection Agency? Hate them or love them, what overseas nation has produced consumer advocates like Ralph Nader or Al Gore? I told him that my late father searched for a “clean” car forty-five years ago when he decided on a Volvo! At that point I could see Tom shrinking. Nonetheless the whole encounter left me feeling short of breath and in need of a good cardiologist. If you are traveling to Europe, have facts at your fingertips.
Or you could do what I do when in the USA. Don’t argue with the locals!
“Or do Britons and other Europeans just say that because they are uniquely anti-American?”
That’s only half of the problem. The British and the European “elites” are also very intellectually shallow and overall ill educated. They have deluded themselves about their obvious lack of knowledge by exaggerating the importance of their normal ability to speak and read two or more languages. To be blunt, these folks rarely have their act together. I pay them little attention. Why waste time on envious and embittered dummies?
I always counter with, “What do you know about what is going on in Colorado, New Hampshire, or Oregon?”
Shuts em up quickly.
“Or do Britons and other Europeans just say that because they are uniquely anti-American?”
Or do Britons and other Europeans just say that because half of young Americans in 2006 couldn’t find NY on a map? and only 37% could find Iraq (I bet they’re all marines)? half of them believe India is a Muslim country?
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/roper2006/findings.html
Or maybe because, when they come to Rome, Italy, they try to speak Spanish believing the two languages are the same? Or when they asked me if we had elevators in Roma, please?!?!? I answered that we had elevators in Rome around 2000 years ago.
Look, we all like Americans here in Europe. But I have to tell you, on average you don’t know anything about the rest of the world.
“Are Americans Uniquely Insular and Ill-Informed?”
When we become so ill-informed that we produce ideologies like communism, fascism and nazism, and slaughter millions in the name of those ideologies, then we’ll be as clueless as the oh-so-superior Euros are.
As far as being insular goes, given their wonderful history, I’d just as soon be as insular as possible when it comes to the Euros. Lay down with dogs, get up with fleas, as the saying goes.
I tried to get some point out of your article Carol honestly I did but all I got is European unwashed masses dont know the minutiae of what goes on in the USA and the American unwashed masses vice versa. Which you then try to extrapolate to make a point!!!!!! of well what exactly is your point???????? Unwashed uneducated uninformed gullible masses in Europe elect Left Wing Islamophile PC MC moonbats and the same for the USA but in your case you elect a LYING Mohammedan anti American left wing PC MC moonbat to boot. Thats reality but nowhere in your turgid article do you say it.
I have lived in 12 countries, 4 more than once, on every continent bar Antarctica. I first moved overseas in 1961 and have spent the bulk of the time since then living and working around the world. The phenom. you describe has existed throughout my experience. The book “The Ugly American” was written in the 60s & the perception often remains – regardless of whether or not it is valid.
Most folks outside the USA have a perception of the states the transcends reality – events – administrations etc. The fact of the matter is that we Yanks have different values, paradigms and a different culture that others, especially western Europeans simply do not understand. Try explaining the 2nd Amendment to a Brit or Spaniard for example.
I learned long ago to focus on the good and interesting – understand the bad but never allow it to be the centre of attention. Don’t waste time talking to boorish fools – in the USA or out of it. Don’t pay much attention to the snobbish elites who continually show themselves to be incredibly ignorant in their slavish need to feel superior.
I live in the town of Northampton and have met people from all socio-economic levels who love to travel to the USA. I have never had a bad experience here or almost anywhere else due to being an American. In fact my last bad experience due to being an American was in the 60s in Guallist France.
Don’t worry, be happy. There are arrogant, narrow minded fools anywhere. Ignoring them is the easiest road to an enjoyable life – especially outside one’s own country.
Ms. Gould, The next time someone like “Tom” comes along, just tell him you do not wish to have his religious beliefs imposed upon you. If that does not work, find something heavy that you can swing and hit him upside his head.
Update: Herta Muller, the recent Nobel Pirze winner for Literature, is indeed published by ‘insular’ University of Nebraska Press. And perhaps Europe( who gave us Soros) would like to produce someone like the ‘Sage of Omaha,’ who came from the lil’ ol’ prairie.
I hope PJM readers are having a good Thanksgiving weekend.
In Germany, there is quite a bit of reporting about America, but it is very superficial. You will hear that Obama’s health care bill passed in the House, but there is no info on what is in the bill. It’s seen as more of an up or down vote on Obama, and since Obama is seen as representing European values, it’s really all about whether Americans are finally becoming civilized. After news that America was still unwilling to sign the landmine convention, it has been widely reported on TV that Obama is now reconsidering this–no mention of the need for protection on the South Korean border or that the US has developed mines that automatically become nonfunctional after a certain timespan. We are responsible for mines in Africa because we have not set a perfect example. The poor unenlightened thugs who planted the mines get a pass for being poor and unenlightened (which is probably also the fault of greedy American capitalists).
I am amazed at the parochialism of foreign policy here. It is really all about Europe and the EU. Beyond that, it’s about exports, cultural exchanges, and some foreign aid. Generally, the information is sufficient to allow average people to tell the good guys from the bad; there is no need to unsettle them with the messiness and complexities of the real world. This gives people the right to condemn America when it is trying to negotiate a dicey situation. It’s so much easier to maintain your pure values when you don’t have to do anything.
I avoid political discussions with casual acquaintances. If people are inclined to like me, they probably assume that I am an Obama-loving enlightened American. After being lectured once that Wyoming had only one senator, I have given up on trying to talk with people who think they know everything.
What an excellent piece of commentary! Well done; Boris Johnson does seem to have a worrying knack of employing idiots – as we can now fairly take anyone buying into global warming fraud;
I write as a Brit fed up with the anti-Americanism of our self-styled political elite, on display this week in the fatuous Iraq Inquiry; the American public, which instinctively understood that terrorism is state-sponsored and that Iraq must have been involved in 9-11 got it right, whereas nearly every commentator in Britain and Europe got it wrong.
My first thought is who cares what the British think?
Ditto on Steve MacDonald from an American who has lived 41 years around the world, mastered 4 languages though I’ve studied 7 — except:
I still get unbidden anti-American confrontations, and I stick up for my country, what it WAS, and jam it to the narrow-minded idiot.
What’s of note, however, is that the same thing happens with other Americans I run into overseas. They tend to be Liberals (in today’s meaning), as are almost all Americans I meet when visiting in the U.S.
So perhaps it’s just narrow-minded, poorly eductated, envious, True Believers that we’re talking about.
European elites hate America. Have ever hated it since at least the 1898 war whne they discovered that Europe was no longer the undisputed master of the world (it is by then that were written the first novels/thetre plays, no that different from the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” depicting cosnpiracies of American businessmen to take over the world)
After WWII there was the resentment for owing Europe’s liberation to America (1)(we know what happenned to that part of Europe liberated by the Soviets, specially to women), for the Marshall Plan, for keeping the Soviets at bay and last but not least the need to denigrate America in order to hide the failure of the elites. Be it the appeasement policy, the French Army in 1940, the unimpressive perormance of British Armed Forces during most of the war (Afrika, Singapore, the pathetic state of the Navy in 1939, the sinking of four battle cruisers at Japanese hands, plus Prince of Wales and Repulse), the apalling failures at tank design) all of them reflected major failures of European elites who potentially could lead to teh questionning of their status. For they survival they needed their citizens not being contaminted by American ideals of democracy and fitness to rule.
(1) In February 1944, that is well before D-Day, Hubert Beuve Méry future founder of the French newspaper of reference (“Le Monde”) was already writing about the need of preventing American example of spreading to France. He also spoke about the need for the ruling classes to not endanger their precious lives so after war France would have the elites it would need. In plain English “elites have to let the unwashed masses do the dying and surface for the sharing of the spoils”.
It pains me to say this but environmental shrillness may be the last–and only thing that the Brits really have left to offer in the way of real influence in the world…
Most of this euro-sanctimony is a thinly veiled resentment at their diminished gravitas and our increased influence. It’s important to remember that we did not inflict this on them, they inflicted this on themselves. Nor is this a recent thing, this trend began in WW1.
Anyone who writes or speaks in such sweeping generalizations is wasting my time. I could find an example supporting every point the author and every commenter made and I’d still know nothing.
I know who I am and what I’ve done and I’m content with that. What someone thinks they know about me is their business. I’ve never had the experience of the rude anti-American in Asia or Europe or Canada; it’s been the opposite. I’ve met people who were proud of their country and curious about mine. I’ve travelled a lot and never been anywhere that hasn’t done some things better and some things worse than us. Travel can be broadening, but you need an open mind.
I must meet a better class of people than the elites.
When West Europeans complain that Americans don’t know anything about the outside world, I ask them what is happening in still other countries.
Asking a German, a Frenchman or a Briton what the news is from Bulgaria, Albania, Greece or even Poland and the Czech Republic just produces a dumbfounded look, temporary silence and then a spate of excuses. Once in a while they can tell you that some particular sports match has occurred. Taking them farther afield, for example to Southeast Asia or South America usually reveals utter ignorance.
Another fun trick is to give those Europeans a list of world cities and ask them to draw a map showing their correct placement. They frequently put LA where New York should be, Miami in Brazil or where LA should be, and forget about any Asian city.
Carol your title does actually describe more then you would like to think.
in fact you are proving it in your essay.
you are doing to them what you say they are doing to you (I don’t know if you speak for the royal we).
I think you are using too broad a brush and painting everyone with it. there are extremes everywhere … and the silent ones never get counted.
When ever I find this attitude, I just tell them that I (for one) really don’t care about their (British, French, other euro-trash) problems because what happens to them doesn’t really concern me one way or another: The world will notice the absence of the ‘peans much less than the absence of the Americans.
In short, Europe is irrelevant.
And they should keep that in mind the next time they need help.
absolutely, most don’t know fact from fiction, conspiracy from reality
“Are Americans Uniquely Insular and Ill-Informed?”
All you have to do is watch Leno’s Jaywalking for the last couple of years.
Appalling, but funny.
Attitudes like this from Europeans are among the reasons our forefathers got on a boat, and left the euro-fascist haters to start this country. Is it perfect? No, but neither is any country inf the EU. Glass houses ring a bell?
If you can characterize every citizen of a country of 304 million by its least informed citizens, perhaps we should characterize Britons that way, too. Caricatures abound, if you choose to go that route.
I wonder how “Climategate” is being processed in Europe, or if they’ve even heard.
I do agree, however, that the amount and quality of history and geography instruction in our public schools is, on the whole, appalling– revisionist junk, crowded out by feel-good initiatives of every variety. I didn’t start to learn history and geography well until I became an adult.
As for the language issue, sorry, it’s not going to change. When you live in a nation where you can travel over 3000 miles across, from sea to shining sea, and speak one language… when much of world pop culture and information is produced in English… when English is spoken by so many other people… and when you therefore can’t find opportunity to practice any foreign language widely (save Spanish, in some communities), it’s hard for the average American to become and remain fluent in a foreign language. At one point I was reasonably fluent in German, having had opportunity to study it in school and take two 6-week summer courses in German speaking countries. Even with seeking opportunities, I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve been able to use even the smallest amount of German in the 20 years since. Little of the skill remains. On my last trip to Europe, I looked forward to at the very least using a little on my way through the airport in Munich. No such luck: the second the blue passport was out, the agents were speaking English. So I know an assortment of words in each of many different languages, and have just a bit more left in German knowledge. Fine, call me insular.
Most (90%+) of British love America and Americans, many want to live in America. The problem is our media is run by a lefty minority which gives the wrong impression of us.
As an American who lives and works (almost American rules for a US company) when I get that kind of treatment I just tell them that I’m not a George Clooney type American and I will not piss on my country to make them happy, a “pound sand” delivered with a smile also works nicely.
Another reason European elites hate America is that they view it as a alnd of escaped serfs who endangers their model where the sheep, err citizens meekly follow what their betters order them (Note: These applies to European socialists).
I work abroad frequently and I get this all the time. I say something like “I suggest you spend some time in America and see for yourself.”
1) Yes, the US citizen is particularly badly informed. 30-odd years of marxist indoctrination in school and via the media will do that to you.
2) Considering that other countries hear a barrage of self-loathing Leftist swill about the US over the air waves via such reliable anti-American organs as CNN, etc. is it any wonder they dislike us? If all I heard was that, I’d hate us, too. All our media outlets pipe out anti-Americanism to the world. What other result could there be?
I respectfully disagree. No one is more ignorant than the Americans. The past two presidents elected solidified that. All one has to do is read the comment section of any European newspaper to see how intellectually superior they are to us. The fact that you watch Anderson Cooper, O’Reilly and Hannity
speaks volumes. Might I highly suggest listening to BBC 4 instead.
The actual answer to such assaults is: I don’t want to hear a word from any Brit or European until you stop putting people in jail for expressing their political opinions. You clearly, by law, have not been exposed to all sides of any debate, which makes you the very definition of ignorant. Until you have free speech, free press, and free association you can keep your mouths shut about who is ill-informed.
Eric Hoffer remarked years ago on one of the main reasons elites–in the US as well as Europe–dislike America. America is the mass society par excellence. Not only do we give free rein to common people to do what they like but we do not give intellectuals the respect and influence they think they deserve. I think this also explains one reason why intellectuals have such a soft spot for left-wing despotisms such as the Soviet Union and Cuba. In those countries intellectuals, or at least some of them, are valued and petted. In America we even, I shudder to report it, honor business leaders as much, or more, than college professors.
This is not an unmixed blessing, witness our coarse popular culture. But it’s what people want, not what someone else thinks is good for them.
As has been posted above, there’s also the resentment factor. Certainly part of the French dislike of America is that we pulled their chestnuts out of the fire on several occasions.
A slight quibble, Ms. Gould–10,000 Americans were casualties at Omaha Beach, not deaths. The underlying point is well-taken, though. Three times during the last century–the world wars and the Cold War–the United States expended vast amount of our wealth and our blood to save Europe and, in the remark attributed to Colin Powell, all the territory we asked in return was enough to bury our dead. Perhaps this also sets the European elites off.
Reminds me of Tom Wolfe’s quip that although the dark night of totalitarianism always seems about to descend on the United States, somehow it falls on Europe. Meanwhile, as a Jew I seldom encounter anti-Semitism, almost never from any elected official, and the great majority of my fellow Americans who are Muslim are loyal citizens. This cannot be said of, say, Great Britain.
One of the things for which I was thankful yesterday is that Europe caused my grandparents to start running and not stop until they got to the United States. European elites don’t think much of me and that’s fair, because I don’t think much of them.
“…10,000 young men under the earth at Omaha Beach” – what in God’s name are you talking about? Carol, don’t complain about others being misinformed when you are likewise! “1465 dead, 3184 wounded, 1928 missing and 26 captured” – that’s Omaha & Utah combined! http://www.ddaymuseum.co.uk/faq.htm
The total number of Allied dead on that dismal, magnificent day – 4414. While other nations’ soldiers hit the beaches, the overwhelming number of troops were from 3 countries, the US, the UK, & Canada.
These numbers pale in comparison to the stupendous death toll suffered by the Russians while fighting the Nazis.
Get your facts straight before you make a fool of yourself.
mon petit JFM, I see that your spirit of denigrating the French is still alive, but the supposed hate that our elites professed, wasn’t it feed by your basic antifrenchism, of which origin déjà ? hmm since the English dominated America, and maintained their perfidious spirit of war against us !
just have a look at their nowadays papers, their “contained” hate is still obvious through many of their articles
now, French in 1940 weren’t worst than the Brits ! who escaped in Dunkerke déjà ?
JFM, have you read the little booklet that was given to the GI in France (I provided you the link once) ?
becuz there were so many disguised “racism” antiFrench, your people thought we were a nation of underdevelopped barbars, many troubles encountered between the american troops and the population, that Eisenhower felt the need to educate your troops about us, of course, brainswashed by the Brit papers that you could and still only read.
America saved the world HOGWASH America became RICH sitting on the fence and SUPPURING and SUPPLYING BOTH SIDES, You American numpties need to realise that and know that us EUROPEANS know that too. No more BS you set your FINANCIAL EMPIRE by crapping on Europeans.
If you are interested in perusing a Euro-moonbat’s opinion of the US, look at this.Markus Gunther, believe it or not, is an award-winning journalist.
http://medienkritik.typepad.com/blog/2007/06/markus-gnther.html
35. Nah, the money America made off the Lend-Lease Act was nothing compared to the amount of money we made rebuilding the world after the war.
Pragmatist,
One thing we can agree on, both you and I would be happier if we (United States) would have left you (Europe) alone to slaughter yourselves.
I vote we (United States) sit the next one out and maintain this happy equlibrium.
In other news from the Emerald Isle.
“The BBC has abandoned plans to screen a ballet featuring a deformed Pope who rapes nuns that it had announced as one of the highlights of its Christmas schedule.”
And yes folks, that is an actual headline from “The Times”.
“Are American’s uniquely insular and ill informed?”
No. American’s are uniquely sensitive and politically correct.” When the British call the French “The Frogs” or the French call the British “Les Rosbifs” or people call the Germans Cabbages or make jokes about the Swedish suicide rate we can all laugh it off.
Refer to Americans as “colonials” however and it sparks an international incident. So of course the more you guys insist on telling us how inferior our nations are and the more easily you take offence at the bater in response, the more we are going to wind you up.
BTW gett off your high horses about your Constitution. Yes it is a fine document and no wonder, it was plagiarised from a consitution for an English Reublic written by Oliver Cromwell. And apple pie originated in Germany.
yep, americans are uniquely “uninformed”…”misinformed” etc..they believe almost anything the higher ups put out in the press.
When I was in Beijin in 2005, the anti-American news was from CNN, the “unbiased” was from China news. Can you fault non-Americans believing what the American news organization said about Americans?
35. Pragmatist: we didn’t sit on the fence. We just didn’t want to waste our lives meddling in Europe’s internal affairs. If the Japanese were not foolish enough to force Roosevelt’s hand, and Hitler were not stupid enough to declare war, we would have sit it out. Yes, Hitler declared war on us, giving us no choice but to prove our manhood. We poached your scientists too: Einstein, Fermi,Teller…, we sent our men to the moon with the rockets designed by the Nazi rocket scientist von Braun, your artists: e.g. the guy who directed Casablanca, … But the man who was actually crazy enough to land on the moon was home grown. Since you didn’t want your scientists and artists because they were Jews and ex-Nazis, you shouldn’t blame us for poaching them.
Don’t worry though, after a couple of years of Obama, we will beg you to open your doors for us. Undoubtedly, you’ll ignore us to pay back our arrogance. We’ll understand.
First of all I am a Brit living in France and I find the best political blogs covering worldwide issues are American. This idiot that works for Boris is about as Conservative as Tony Blair, this is the sort of idiots running the Tories at this point. The anti-Americanism that is taught at school and pushed on the media has resulted in this, I do not deny that there are issues with America at times, most of which is a misguided attitude to European nationalism that seems incredibly simplistic and of course forgetting the fact that the UK did actually do rather a lot of fighting in World War II and only recently finished paying off lend lease.
Now that you Americans have the same disease as us Europeans, I expect that when the next war starts in Europe you will leave us to our fate, and to be frank we deserve it. I believe and have said it before on this site that at some point when the Muslim population decides to take power, there I will be with some ancient rifle waiting at a barricade for Ak-47 equipped Islamics to turn up will find a lasar guided missile on my head sent by Uncle Sam for being a racist Nationalist.
All I can say is where did the nation that gave birth to those guys from the 101st Airborne who crossed the Rhine to save the Brits at Arnham go, its disappeared, the same as the nation that did its bit at Waterloo, that is long gone too.
31. I totally agree with you sir, you are a true American.
“Hypocritical Americans Suppressing Memories of Slavery”
I wouldn’t be talking about slavery, if I was you Fritz.
We inherited slavery from the Euros, and then got rid of it ourselves in the 1860s. You created slavery in Germany in the 1940s, all by your lonesomes, and then murdered millions over the course of about half a decade by working them to death…until we sailed halfway around the world and made you stop.
So…STFU.
Carol,
I am a cheerleader for the good old USA, but – Americans are insular and ill informed. Case in point – some American friends on their first visit to Canada – “Oh that’s nice furniture. Did you buy it in a store or did you have to get it through a catalogue?” That said, there are millions of insular and ill informed people in every country in the worls, including Canada.
As for Britain, see the answers below to popular brit radio and TV quizzes.
“BRAINS OF BRITAIN”
UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE (BBC2)
Jeremy Paxman:
What is another name for ‘cherrypickers’ and ‘cheesemongers’?
Contestant:
Homosexuals..
Jeremy Paxman:
No. They’re regiments in the British Army who will be very upset with you
BEG, BORROW OR STEAL (BBC2)
Jamie Theakston:
Where do you think Cambridge University is?
Contestant:
Geography isn’t my strong point.
Jamie Theakston:
There’s a clue in the title.
Contestant:
Leicester
BBC NORFOLK
Stewart White:
Who had a worldwide hit with What A Wonderful World?
Contestant:
I don’t know.
Stewart White:
I’ll give you some clues: what do you call the part between your hand and your elbow?
Contestant:
Arm
Stewart White:
Correct. And if you’re not weak, you’re…?
Contestant:
Strong.
Stewart White:
Correct – and what was Lord Mountbatten’s first name?
Contestant:
Louis
Stewart White:
Well, there we are then. So who had a worldwide hit with the song What A Wonderful World?
Contestant:
Frank Sinatra?
LATE SHOW (BBC MIDLANDS)
Alex Trelinski:
What is the capital of Italy ?
Contestant:
France.
Trelinski:
France is another country. Try again.
Contestant:
Oh, um, Benidorm.
Trelinski:
Wrong, sorry, let’s try another question. In which country is the Parthenon?
Contestant:
Sorry, I don’t know.
Trelinski:
Just guess a country then.
Contestant:
Paris.
THE WEAKEST LINK (BBC2)
Anne Robinson:
Oscar Wilde, Adolf Hitler and Jeffrey Archer have all written books about their experiences in what: – Prison, or the Conservative Party?
Contestant:
The Conservative Party.
BEACON RADIO ( WOLVERHAMPTON )
DJ Mark:
For 10, what is the nationality of the Pope?
Ruth from Rowley Regis:
I think I know that one. Is it Jewish?
UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE
Bamber Gascoyne:
What was Gandhi’s first name?
Contestant:
Goosey?
GWR FM ( Bristol )
Presenter:
What happened in Dallas on November 22, 1963?
Contestant:
I don’t know, I wasn’t watching it then.
PHIL WOOD SHOW (BBC RADIO?MANCHESTER)
Phil:
What’s 11 squared?
Contestant:
I don’t know.
Phil:
I’ll give you a clue. It’s two ones with a two in the middle.
Contestant:
Is it five?
RICHARD AND JUDY
Richard:
Which American actor is married to Nicole Kidman?
Contestant:
Forrest Gump.
RICHARD AND JUDY
Richard:
On which street did Sherlock Holmes live?
Contestant:
Er. … …
Richard:
He makes bread . . .
Contestant:
Er .. …….
Richard:
He makes cakes . . .
Contestant:
Kipling Street?
LINCS FM PHONE-IN
Presenter:
Which is the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world?
Contestant:
Barcelona.
Presenter:
I was really after the name of a country.
Contestant:
I’m sorry, I don’t know the names of any countries in Spain ..
NATIONAL LOTTERY (BBC1)
Question:
What is the world’s largest continent?
Contestant:
The Pacific..
ROCK FM ( PRESTON )
Presenter:
Name a film starring Bob Hoskins that is also the name of a famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci.
Contestant:
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
THE BIGGEST GAME IN TOWN (ITV)
Steve Le Fevre:
What was signed, to bring World War I to an end in 1918?
Contestant:
Magna Carta?
JAMES O’BRIEN SHOW (LBC)
James O’Brien:
How many kings of England have been called Henry?
Contestant:
Er, well, I know there was a Henry the Eighth .. ER. ER … Three?
CHRIS SEARLE SHOW (BBC RADIO BRISTOL )
Chris Searle:
In which European country is Mount Etna?
Caller:
Japan.
Chris Searle:
I did say which European country, so in case you didn’t hear that, I can let you try again.
Caller:
Er ……….. Mexico ?
PAUL WAPPAT (BBC RADIO NEWCASTLE )
Paul Wappat:
How long did the Six-Day War between Egypt and Israel last?
Contestant (long pause):
Fourteen days.
DARYL DENHAM’S DRIVETIME (VIRGIN RADIO)
Daryl Denham:
In which country would you spend shekels?
Contestant:
Holland?
Daryl Denham:
Try the next letter of the alphabet..
Contestant:
Iceland? Ireland ?
Daryl Denham: (helpfully)
It’s a bad line. Did you say Israel ?
Contestant:
No.
PHIL WOOD SHOW (BBC GMR)
Phil Wood:
What ‘K’ could be described as the Islamic Bible?
Contestant:
Er… ….. ..
Phil Wood:
It’s got two syllables . . . Kor .
Contestant:
Blimey?
Phil Wood:
Ha ha ha ha, no. The past participle of run . .
Contestant:
(Silence)
Phil Wood:
OK, try it another way. Today I run, yesterday I . . ..
Contestant:
Walked?
THE VAULT
Melanie Sykes:
What is the name given to the condition where the sufferer can fall asleep at any time?
Contestant:
Nostalgia.
LUNCHTIME SHOW (BRMB)
Presenter:
What religion was Guy Fawkes?
Contestant:
Jewish.
Presenter:
That’s close enough.
STEVE WRIGHT IN THE AFTERNOON (BBC RADIO 2)
Wright:
Johnny Weissmuller died on this day.. Which jungle-swinging character clad only in a loin cloth did he play?
Contestant:
Jesus.
46. westerncanadian: Those contestants are at least as intelligent as, but are much funnier than, our politically correct comedians.
BJB
“…10,000 young men under the earth at Omaha Beach” – what in God’s name are you talking about? Carol, don’t complain about others being misinformed when you are likewise”
Well, BJB, not that this is that important, but…the US Military Cemetery in Normandy which sits on a bluff overlooking Omaha Beach has just under 10,000 graves.
Are Americans uniquely uninformed? If you are any representative example of Britons, then absolutely no:
I admitted that air conditioning, which is not part of European or British daily life, has indeed made a negative impact on the American environment, but 75% of greenhouse gases come from other places like India, China, and Russia.
China has nearly four times the US population and produces roughly the same amount of greenhouse gases–but it has only recently outstripped the United States, which is the single highest polluter and has been for generations. Lumping every other developing country you can think of together to say that they account for the majority of greenhouse gases, while the US is the single largest polluter, is either uninformed or dishonest. In either case, you seem to be performing with the worst of them.
#4 Vaio
“Or do Britons and other Europeans just say that because half of young Americans in 2006 couldn’t find NY on a map? and only 37% could find Iraq (I bet they’re all marines)? half of them believe India is a Muslim country?”
Yes, well, I’m looking at the same survey from 2002 which includes other countries. Among the results:
Only 70% of Germans, French could ID Netherlands right next door. Only 31% of Brits did. Only 15% of French could ID Hungary or Rumania. Only 50% of Italians ID Poland, 20% of Brits. Frankly, I think these surveys are bunk. 30% of US 18-24 don’t know where the Pacific Ocean is? Only 50% of Brits know where it is? Only 60% of Brits can ID Germany, 80% France. Complete BS.
#48
Yup. Carol basically had it right.
I actually canceled my subscription to the Economist a few months back – it survived the Obama endorsement and cheerleading, but not the push for carbon taxes, European integration, and greater financial regulation. I guess I realized those smart, global folks across the pond may know where Karachi is, but don’t have a clue about how the world works.
BJB
Do you know why the Soviets had a horrifying death toll against the Germans during WWII ? Here is the brutal truth, Josef Stalin was the reason why the Soviets had a massive casualty list. In fact, I could argue that many of those Soviet deaths were caused by deliberate blue on blue situations in which Soviet Commissars machined gunned soldiers who showed politically incorrect opinions on how the war was run,who quailed at the sight of the enemy, who retreated when their position was overran by the Germans, who disagreed with their political commissar on how to run an army and fight the enemy, those who surrendered to the enemy( after the war, they were sent to Siberia) and of course, micromanaging the war using his political commissars to force the Soviet General Staff to obey Stalin’s every whim. The Soviet Union and the allies were very fortunate that Hitler was certifiably insane. If he had followed the German High Command’s recommendations on how to fight the Soviet Union and was open to an alliance with the people of the Baltic States,Ukraine and Georgia as well as the non-Russian states of the Soviet Union , the soviet armies would had been screwed and Stalin would had negotiated for peace and the Western Allies would had had a tough going in WWII.
And by the way, without those British led Allied convoys going to Murmansk to supply the Soviet Union and the Lend-lease program of the United States that supplied the Soviets with tractors, fighter planes, trucks, industrial machinery and others from Alaska. Imagine those magnificent Soviet T-34 tanks and artillery units fighting the German Panzers with virtually no means of resupply. Remove the thousands of US built trucks made by Dodge and Studebaker built to supply the Soviet army, take away the cables used for telephone lines for communications, american made food rations and aluminum for military use and I will bet you that the Soviet armies would still be fighting the German army deep inside the Soviet Union in 1946 due to lack of logistical mobility.
Landru, thank you. I have been to the unbearably poignant Oamaha Beach and know my facts. My family served in WWII and I wear my disabled vets army ring with pride. I am a life member of the US Army Association and Disabled American Veteras Auxiliary. My 624-page book, ‘Spitfire Girls’ took me an eternity to research; I do not put pen to paper without checking my wartime facts. Whilst we are talking about America setting about destroying the planet: 33,000 US wartime airmen lost their lives in the UK. There is a plaque at Duxford commemorating their sacrifice along with a wall of names at Madingley commemorating a further 6,000 Americans lost at sea — including Joe Kennedy — or buried there.
westerncanadian – that is a wonderful compilation.
Moho,
You’re thinking is muddled. China 6,103,493 (thousands of metric tons of CO2), United States 5,752,289 (thousands of metric tons of C02), 21.5% vs 20.2%.
But here is the telling numbers – China GDP 2998, USA GDP 13271.
The United States economy is over 4 times the size of China.
The analogy is of two individuals owning cars, both of which emit the same total amount of CO2, but one that gets 4 times the mileage.
The U.S. economy is vastly more efficient than China and will remain so for the next couple of generations.
“America became RICH sitting on the fence…”
Crapola. We were already the richest country in the world, by far. And, we weren’t under any obligation to rush to the rescue of the Allies in either world war, anyway.
But I can see why some Brits or Frenchies sneer at us for not immediately jumping in on their side in the world wars. After all, when we were fighting in Vietnam, they immediately rushed to our assistance and lost hundreds of thousands of their guys fighting on our side, same as we did for them in WWI & WWII.
Not.
Vaio:
Look, we all like Americans here in Europe. But I have to tell you, on average you don’t know anything about the rest of the world.
I came across similiar silly ideas about America when I traveled in Europe. When I spent a semester in the UK in the early ’80′s, I met Brits who seemed to think that the show “Dallas” was a documentary and not a prime-time soap opera. Note to Europeans: American TV shows do not equal American life.
And since I have read stories about alarming numbers of young Brits who do not know who Cromwell or Churchill were, it is evident that poor educational systems are not unique to the US.
Look, one can live in the middle of Paris or Manhattan and be relentlessly provincial and one can live in a farm town 200 miles away from a big city and be well-read and literate. How open and expansive you want your world to be is entirely up to you. With the advent of the Internet, you can share opinions with people all over the globe. You can find books and movies and music that used to be out of reach for people in small communities.
I have met tolerant and knowledgable and cultured people in small towns. My experience in cities (and I have always lived in cities) is that urban people are too quick to believe in the usual conventional wisdom, the fashionable beliefs that everyone else in their circle believes in. Everyone they know voted for Obama, everyone they know reads the WaPo and NY Times, everyone likes chic restaurant X or movie X or club M, so they like it too. Big cities promote their own sort of conformity, and that is probably as true in London or Paris or Milan as it is in NY and Chicago and LA.
Pragmatist’s idiotic comment (35) serves as a reminder that we really can’t win – Americans are damned for being “warmongers” in one breath and blamed for not jumping into WWI and WWII in 1914 and 1939 in the next. Personally, I’m sorry Wilson ever got us involved in WWI, which was an asinine war. The UK, France, and Germany lost a generation in the trenches for no good reason and you’re mad we didn’t join you in that insane slaughter earlier?
Will (53): Good points. Also remember that Uncle Joe packed many of his troops straight off to the gulags when they returned from the Western Front. They had seen wonders of modern civilization – like flush toliets – and Stalin didn’t want them telling tales back home which would lead people to believe that ordinary Westerners – even Westerners in bombed out Europe – had it better than ordinary Soviets did. Many Red Army troops died in Siberia, killed by their own government, not the Nazis.
Marie Claude: The Franco-American population in the US is very small, since most French who emigrated to the New World ended up in Quebec. I doubt very much that there was any widespread anti-French “racism” in the US during the war years (the Cajuns of Louisiana did experience discrimination, but that was very localized.) Most of the Americans of French descent I have met are of French Canadian descent and I never once heard any of them complain of any history of prejudice against them.
Perhaps GIs from small towns did have misconceptions about the French in the 1940′s – but French villagers undoubtably didn’t know much about people from Iowa or Alabama either. I have no doubt cultural misunderstandings took place – but to blame that on intentional “prejudice” and “racism” is exaggerating.
My uncle served in Patton’s Army (my father was in the Pacific.) His parents emigrated from Prague in 1911, so he was a first generation American whose parents -my grandparents – spoke broken English. The mass emigration of Europeans to the US ended in 1924, so a good percentage of the US troops were born in Europe or had parents or grandparents who were from there. The US troops of that era – some of them – were less removed in time from Europe than Americans are today. I don’t think most of them expected the Europeans to be living in caves and wearing rags and feathers. From all accounts, it was the Imperial Japanese culture and mindset that Americans found most alien.
An early comment refers to the book “The Ugly American.” What is omitted is the fact that the character known as ‘the ugly American’ is known by that name because he is, for lack of a better word, facially and physically ugly. Ironically, he is a man committed to doing practical good for the Southeast Asians in whose community he works. Yeah – the Ugly American is the ‘good guy’ in the story.
My experience England – three visits between ’75 and ’82 – encompassed a total of three months. I regularly visited working class pubs and hung out with locals. I was by myself for two of the three months and thus was approachable for conversation. I never criticized the English. Inevitably I would start by saying how enjoyable my experiences were.
And ALMOST invariably, the conversation ended with me shutting them down with some unexpected come-back in response to their multiple insults.
I took my mother to Britain for five days. She was then 75 years old and remembered World War II very well. I warned her that she would end up in arguments and that she would find insults popping up in the most innocuous conversations.
One night in a pub in York, we were seated at a table with four local fellows. Everything was fine until an Englishman said – out of the clear blue – “Of course, you Yanks when you came here, made a lot of mistakes.” There was no context to his statement. My mother asked what he meant.
“Well – you know – yer young soldiers showed up in the War, with money in their pockets and wearing these fine uniforms. We couldn’t afford them nice uniforms.”
My mother had true Bette Davis eyes. They almost popped from their sockets. She jammed her index finger tip against the table. This gester came from her many years as a high school teacher, practiced in setting her pupils straight. “You listen to me! Yesterday I stood at the World War II Memorial in Cambirdge England. I looked at graves and the listings of the thousands of dead and missing Americans. I knew many men from my hometown who died in that war. Both my brothers served. My late husband was in the front lines of the Battle of the Bulge. Don’t you DARE talk to me and criticize us about our ‘fine uniforms.’ You were goddamned lucky we pulled your hash out of the flames.”
Things got quieter at the table after that.
Jim Anderson
anderson.james@att.net
I guess I am supposed to feel all sorts of patriotic indignation and rage about all this intense anti-American bigotry around the world. But I could care less.
Just do what I did when I lived in Ireland for a year and got oh so tired of being attacked re: American politics whenever I opened my mouth and my accent gave me away.
Just say you are Canadian.
Nobody over there knows the difference in the accents.
So when other people in other countries display their innate patriotism and disdain for foreigners just like you people do, you get all worked up over that. My advice, take a look in the mirror. You think you are the best and god’s gift to the world then wonder why other people react negatively to that. If you wanted to be treated as exceptional, do something exceptionally positive besides hit on other countries’ faults or reminding them about WW ll.
Just say you are Canadian.
Why lie about your nationality, like it’s something to be ashamed of?
There are two kinds of “ugly Americans.” One is the stereotypical loud-mouthed, bragging American who constantly complains because everything is not exactly like it is back home and acts like he fought WWII all by himself. Then there is the other kind of “ugly American” – the one who goes to the opposite extreme and bashes America at every opportunity, thinking that will make them loved by Euros. The second kind (I’m sure javelin is that sort of groveling, sniveling type) might be more superfically liked by left-wing Europeans, but I can’t believe they really have any respect for self-abasing fools. While nobody likes someone who goes around saying “I’m wonderful, I’m great, don’t you adore me?” certainly people who go around saying “I’m bad, I’m evil, I’m a loser, feel free to hate me” is also despised. And when I’ve been in Europe, I’ve seen more of the latter type than the former – leftists who are quick to agree that America is The Worst Country in the World. It’s every bit as embarrassing to listen to them run their country down as it is to listen to some loudmouth complain because he can’t get a good steak.
What’s wrong with being an American with self-respect, who knows his/her country isn’t perfect, but loves it and defends it against unreasonable attacks, without attacking other people who also love their own country?
Marie Claude
I told nothing about France. I limited myself to highlight the incompetency of people who after having squandered hundreds of thousands of French lives through sheer incompetency in WWI (not to mention effect of the pre-WWI purge in French officer corps for assisting too much to mass and the prmotion of incompetent ones on religious or political grounds), followed with a distatrous foreign policy and an appalling leadership in the 1940 campaign. And my purpose was that the French populace had more than enough motives to burn trhe Elysee to the ground and hang a few enarques or at the very least tell them to take a hike.
That is why those who wanted to restablish the old model (de Gaulle, Hubert Beuve Mery) were so much in fear of French populace looking westwards and questionning the vertical model of society they favored.
BTW: The quotations from Hubert Beuve Méry are from the “Histoire du Vercors résistant”. You can find it in Amazon.
Javelin: (63)
‘Do something exceptionally positive?..’
Thomas Jefferson, the genius Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, FDR, Martin Luther King, Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, Arthur Miller (the London Times Greatest Playwright of the twentieth century), Herman Wouk, NASA, Boeing, Microsoft, the Mayo Clinic, the Centres for Disease Control, Jonad Salk and Albert Sabin (saved the world from polio — ‘excpetionally positive,’ no?) J Robert Oppenheimer, the Manhattan Project, adopted Yank Albert Einstein (TIME’s Man of the century), Tennessee Williams, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Lerner & Loewe, Kander & Ebb, Jerome Kern, Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Samual Barber, Martha Graham, Stephen Spielberg, edgar Allen Poe, Norman Mailer, Gore Vidal, Leon Uris, John Updike, Kurt Vonnegut, the Jewish Publication Society, Uni of Nebraska Press (one of the finest Holocaust collections in the world), Stephen King, Sinclair Lewis, Hollywood, Cormac McCarthy.. one could go on and on.
Also, Javelin (63) — have you ever seen how Americans fuss over British visitors? They are welcomed with warmth wherever they go in the USA. If Americans show what you call ‘disdain’ for foreighners why do so many Britons receive Emmys, Tonys, Oscars and the recent International Emmy Awards? There are no such International awards in the UK giving special recognition to Americans.
Landru,
umm you’re right this is complete BS, I don’t know a French who cant answer to these items, hmm may-be cuz I am from the former generation, and my offspring do know geography too ! I haven’t tested the nowadays youth though
JFM, your aversion for De Gaulle is the cause of your misinterpretation of the French opinion. De Gaulle isn’t what you think, and never will be the image you have of him by us.
And I don’t know many Americains that still are upset after him, except those who have an orthodox Jew ancestry : this in correlation with the embargo on selling arms to Israel by France in 1967, that they explain as a pro-Arab policy and anti-Israel’s, but it is not knowing what De Gaulle thought of the threat of Islam among a christian population
I recommand you to read this link about Benjamen Stora, an historian expert of Algeria war
http://tinyurl.com/yb3t6ag
Now, if you wanted to say that french population isn’t their elite sosies, I can agree with you, as so I can revert the same view upon american elites, they aren’t representative of the american population.
Hubert Beuve Mery is forgotten by us, and “Le Monde” isn’t wat he projected anymore, but still a referrence among the “educated” teachers, of whom we don’t care, except theat they are the trouble engeenors of students manifestations, and they are getting on our nerves, that’s also why the lefties are loosing more votes at any elections.
Watch this ,it’s only on for 5 minutes but it might explain why some might think Americans are ill informed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwcgZIYG_yI
see this blog about anti-americanism, it’s about french reactions, but I guess it could be of any big european country too
http://fistfulofeuros.net/afoe/europe-and-the-world/how-anti-american-are-the-french/
Are Americans insular and ill-informed? The answer is YES. Our media fails at giving us facts. Instead we get lots of speculation and talking points. Most people cannot tell the difference and don’t care to know anyway. Fox goes around the world in 90 seconds–how much could we possibly learn about foreign affairs in just 90 seconds? But apparently they think we don’t need to know more.
“America saved the world HOGWASH America became RICH sitting on the fence and SUPPURING and SUPPLYING BOTH SIDES, You American numpties need to realise that and know that us EUROPEANS know that too. No more BS you set your FINANCIAL EMPIRE by crapping on Europeans.”
Thank you for proving Ms Gould’s point, historically ignorant troll. Yes, you hear this tripe all over Britain.
————–
Re: Normandy. Total D-Day KIA (all Allies) ca. 4,000. However, over the whole of the brutal Normandy campaign June 6-August 1, US dead were approx. 10,000.
You have to feel sorry for the Brits. They lost an empire, a sound economy, their freedom and now they walk through whole neighborhoods where they never see another Anglo. Diversity really sucks. They just can’t bring themselves to say it. The Muslims have them cow towed to the point where Sharia law on the same level as English law which is a travesty in and of itself. They are impotent internationally and all they have left to kick around is America. Why do they like to pick on the US? Because it is easy and they never have to worry about retaliation. We are going though our own self loathing phase.
They are right about one thing, most Americans are ignorant about the world around them. We are into Reality TV, but not actual reality itself. We don’t want to know about the world around us because every time we hear of a foreign country in the news its usually has to do with us sending them money or troops. It gets old after a while. People here think Europeans hate us because of George Bush. I hate George Bush but I don’t hate my country. It goes much deeper than that. There has been a steady diet of Anti-Americanism in the pro-communist media for 50 years. The Europeans have castrated themselves for world peace, yet they rely on us to defend them. Global warming is an obsession because there is not much else you can blame America for. It was never proven but the mind control of the BBC is quite remarkable. Now that it has been disproved they will be even more fanatical in claiming it is for real and it is the Americans fault for ever having been a prosperous country.
I make no apologies for us being a prosperous country. We were blessed for almost 200 years with economic and political freedom (now gone), an absence of a caste system that exists in Europe (but we are now developing our own ruling class in Washington)and hard working self reliant people who made this country a success (remnants of that are still around). We were also blessed by God which is something else the Brits forgot about. They have empty churches and empty heads filled with propaganda. If you are an American and you are going to Europe be careful very careful. It is more dangerous than you think.
Carol is right to be angry about the way younger Brits regard the United States. Most young Norwegians behaved the same way when GWB was President, and only a fraction of the same Norwegians – in ANY age group – have any idea why Barck Obama is so controversial.. The young here have all taken the bait of the media that Hope and Change would occur some time right after the Devil – Bush! – had gone back to Texas!
Thankfully, there ARE pages on the internet that tell a different story about the Bush era than the one spouted by the Democrat dominated press/TV, but most media will ignore what contrary evidence there is to prove that people were HAPPY with the Bush years..
The American educational system still lags far behind that of some European countries(France, Sweden, Denmark) and what power to effectuate change among schools inside the U.S. is too scattered to matter for the present. Educational Secretary Duncan in Obama’s Administration did venture recently to allow new thinking outside his premises, but has not been heard from since this Disloyalty to Democratic Establishmentarian Rules when he appeared at Columbia University late/mid October!!
Meanwhile, the trend to homeschool your child inside the United States is likely to continue and educational boards the length and breadth of Carol’s nation will be totem poles to reaction – NOT education!
With appreciation from retired English Department teacher in Norway,
Mr Johan Berger, Drammen(NORWAY)
¨
Donna V,
That is what I did until I just wore down. That is part of my point. I am supporting Carol’s point of how bad it is.
I may have come off as a bit flip about it but that is what I started to do at the end of my stay when strangers insisted on being rude and bothering me trying to bring up a political argument when I was just minding my own business.
I was never ashamed of being American just annoyed as hell and the joke was on the idiots who didn’t know how to react when I said that. It was pretty funny to watch them flounder around for a way out.
The answer is YES. And the answer is also YES for every other nationality on the planet. Next question.
PS. Just to clarify. What I did until I just got worn down was to admit that I was an American and to defend the honor of my country with the facts.
Then I started to fake people out because it was more fun than having my thousandth and first inappropriately timed political argument with someone I didn’t know.
Peg wrote:
That is what I did until I just wore down.
Yes, I can see how that would happen. You just want to enjoy your pint or whatever, and some rude idiot is spoiling for a fight and wants to bully you about Iraq – nobody wants to constantly be on the defensive.
It’s a pity Tom O’Connor isn’t on this thread. He has written on other PJM threads about Irish anti-Americanism and actually had a blog devoted to it. He noted that most Americans think of the Irish in benign terms and assume they’re all pro-American – and they are not.
In your position, I would have been very tempted to smile sweetly and say “I’m so sorry your ancestors missed the boat to Boston. That’s really what you’re angry about, isn’t it?”
‘I wonder how many times a day Britons hear something nasty said about them on American radio and television or written about them in the American press, ‘
http://www.politics.co.uk/news/health/americans-brand-nhs-evil–$1318303.htm
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1205953/NHS-branded-evil-Orwellian-high-level-US-politicians.html
So nobody believes that the U.S has done nothing to deserve this’anti-americanism’(whatever that is)from the U.K
A campaign of terror, waged against British citizens for more than 30 years, was bankrolled by donations from the USA — and in those 30 years not a single terrorist was extradited from the US to face charges here, despite our repeated requests. Both federal and local US courts refused extradition requests almost as policy, while the funding of the IRA continued without interruption and was still raking in the money even after 9/11, when the Americans suddenly decided that they ought to start proscribing certain terrorist groups. The IRA was not, for some time, one of the groups so proscribed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provisional_Irish_Republican_Army_arms_importation
Some are still supporting this,
http://kingwatch.blogspot.com/2008/06/king-gets-hypocritical-on-illegal-irish.html
I cannot help but feel angry that the majority of people in Britain and Europe do not know their own history, which contains the information that tens of thousands of Americans died or suffered disabling wounds in both world wars, all to give Britain and Europe freedom from German oppression.
It is like the ignorance of how British gun control laws before WWII led to the British Government having to appeal to the American people for guns to arm their citizens with so that the nation could at least try to defend itself if the Nazi’s invaded.
I, like many other Americans have grown tired of seeing American blood spilled in defense of ungrateful foreign nations. America paid for the rebuilding of Britain and Europe. We do not pray that Britain or Europe, or any other nation or group of nations, be attacked so they would need our help, but if, God forbid, such did happen, we would push for America to turn its back on aiding the ‘America haters’.
Never again should even one American shed blood or die for people who hate us. And not one thin dime of American money should be spent to save or aid those who hate us.
We’ve got a name for those people who can’t find New York on a map: illegal aliens. The idiots you refer to aren’t even American.
Why waste your vacation in Eurabia? There are plenty of places to visit right here in the good old U.S. of A..
“Never again should even one American shed blood or die for people who hate us”
Something else that unites the people of the USA and UK. We feel just the same about our troops dying in Afghanistan.
Tell the Brits and Europeans to just F Off!! However you might also consider that Carol is unable to defend the climate change lies herself so most likely she is a brain dead truther about “global warming” AKA climate change. University of East Anglia which is in the UK obviously just confirmed the approach of the Climate Change liars about their religion. So What is the point? The point is that the UK and Europeans in general are brain washed and brain dead. This is due to a media that puts forth lies 24/7 and attacks all people who want the truth. But guess what? The Brits cannot handle the truth. So who is really being hurt here? We Americans are ready to throw off the Obama tyranny and win back our country and restore our traditions and civil society. The Brits are going down the tubes every day of their sorry lives. I regret this but it is their country and they made it that way. Why Carol wants to live there is most likely that she has achieved celebrity status as a token “American” a status she would not have in the USA.
Tommy Gunn
A proud American!!
All an average American cares about is Hollywood movies & gossip, ipods, fast food, texting, Facebook, TV listings, some sports and when his next paycheck is coming.
The best informed Americans read newspapers and magazines. Unfortunately, papers are struggling and coverage is limited.
80. KJohns2001:
Is there a statute of limitations on how long can you claim you ‘saved’ us in ww1/ww2 and therefore be forever in your debt.Our veterans can not believe this rhetoric.They know the hero’s where the ones they left behind whatever their nationality.
We supported you on 9/11 we are in Afghanistan,we fought with you in Iraq,have we paid you back yet?
Is there blood not enough?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PR9eZTdBfm0
How many more dead Brits do you want to meet a satisfactory score?
You did turn your back on us. I know nobody likes talking about it ,but it’s a huge deal here.
If you are unaware that American funding and political support of I.R.A terrorism leaves a bad taste in our mouths ,then you are un-informed.
You can find idiots, dummies, poorly educated in any country. Go to rural Mexico and start asking some questions about geography or world events. Or rural France or Spain. Or suburban Atlanta. They are everywhere. That is why nosense like global warming religion or Marxism can gain a following. Because people find it easier to follow than think, easier to follow emotions than logic. Reason will always lose with the majority.
Mags:
Regarding IRA funding by NorAid, yes, it is appalling.
But so is the fact that Oswald Mosley, the Dowager Lady Birdwood and David Irving were/are British.
They can spout the leftist dogma, but it’s long out of date. Who do you believe? Chomsky or your lying eyes?
My favorite story is a British novelist who claimed Americans are stupid, because after all only 5% of them own passports.
Whoa. Not only was that not true, but it ignores that 10 percent of our population was born overseas, not counting illegals, and that one doesn’t need a passport to travel to Quebec or Mexico.
Also off their map: the growing prosperity of Asia thanks to America and capitalism. Even Viet Nam used to starve until it became capitalistic; now Intel has an office in Hanoi. Go figure.
Everyone hates #1. Nobody likes to be reminded that they’re not as important as another couuntry. We also carried much of the Western world on our backs throughout the Cold War and beyond by footing the bill for their own national and regional security. Tens of millions of Americans were prepared to die in the battlefields of Central Europe and we risked nuclear annihilation for nearly 40 years just to keep Western Europe free from Soviet imperialism. All the while Western European countries spent pathetically low amounts on funding their own defense. This meant that Western Europeans were essentially forced to muzzle themselves over petty grievances they had with American policies for nearly half a century. But after the collapse of the Soviet Union they felt that they no longer needed us anymore and all those gripes with America that they buried deep down inside were free to gush to the surface finally. That they weren’t capable of defending themselves has made them feel ashamed and impotent and they take out their insecurities on their immensely gracious protectors because they know Americans will continue to look after them even after they insult and belittle us constantly. As a result of our seemingly endless tolerance for our allies backhanding us they’ve almost all become spiteful spoiled brats by now. Combine that with our stubbornness in remaining the only real conservative country left in the entire Western world that still believes in the death penalty, gun ownership, small government and God, and you begin to understand why the hostile drum beat from our lestist allies is so constant and loud.
Carol Gould says: Regarding IRA funding by NorAid, yes, it is appalling.
But so is the fact that Oswald Mosley, the Dowager Lady Birdwood and David Irving were/are British.”
Which American terrorists did they fund?
We certianly are the least educated by our public school system to be able to use logic to form an opinion . Of course this works for people like obama as he and others like him appeal to the least educated of our population .
“There are no such International awards in the UK giving special recognition to Americans.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Academy_of_Film_and_Television_Arts#British_Academy_Film_Awards
Lies. That’s utter BS, Carol. Your credibility here has just taken another battering. Also, answer Michaels’ question; which American terrorists did Birdwood/Irving support.
Michael, your question is so bizarre I can’t see how you can even query my point. These three people promoted and promote Naziism/neo-fascism and Holocaust denial; their tentacles stretched/stretch worldwide. Full stop.
“Regarding IRA funding by NorAid, yes, it is appalling.
But so is the fact that Oswald Mosley, the Dowager Lady Birdwood and David Irving were/are British.”
“Michael, your question is so bizarre I can’t see how you can even query my point. These three people promoted and promote Naziism/neo-fascism and Holocaust denial; their tentacles stretched/stretch worldwide. Full stop.”
You’re hatred of Britain has been noted;
http://www.londondrum.com/history/IRA-bombings.php
I find it sickening you’d compare Oswalds’ rantings – which weren’t popular to begin with – to 25+ years of terrorism, ruining so many lives, and somehow claim the two are ‘equal’ in vindictiveness.
Hang your head in shame.
‘There are no such International awards in the UK giving special recognition to Americans.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1817333.stm
You might want to free up alot of time to view this,it will take a while,
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/KNIGHTHOOD.HTM
The U.S gave awards as well.
http://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/29/nyregion/at-city-hall-an-ira-leader-gets-a-warm-reception.ht
Joe Doherty was convicted to life imprisonment for murdering a British soldier killed while Doherty was on active duty. He escaped from Crumlin Jail in Belfast and spent eleven years in the United States .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Doherty
in 1990 a street corner near the Metropolitan Correctional Center was named after him.
93. Carol Gould:,
Michael’s comment is not bizarre. What has British fascists got to do with the comment i made earlier?
I don’t recall them going for a knees up with the Queen.
Unlike known I.R.A leaders(self confessed) going for a sing-a-long in the Whitehouse.
Visa’s were given to fund raise against our governments wishes.
http://reason.com/archives/1996/08/01/bill-teds-irish-misadventure/
Somebody needs to explain what ‘anti-american’.
Is there an equivelent,’anti-british?
If posters are unaware of this history,it’s huge impact of how the British see America then you are all ill-informed and prove the point that some American’s have little knowledge of some world events.
89. Marsh:
I want to give you an award for the most shocking lack of insight .
Arise Sir Marsh.
“He escaped from Crumlin Jail in Belfast and spent eleven years in the United States.”
He was arrested by the FBI in 1983, thrown into prison (where he spent the next nine years), and after a lengthy legal battle, was deported to Northern Ireland in 1992. The Brits tossed him into their jail, and then turned him loose in 1998.
We kept the guy locked up, and the United States government never gave up trying to send him back to the UK…which we finally were able to do…and then…you freed him!
And, your problem with us is…?
Yes Americans can be very ignorant about other nations. Their knowledge, or rather lack of it about my country of Canada is appalling. And yes the US did play an important role in WWII, but so did many other countries,my own included. Because you are the biggest kid on the block,sometimes you have to show a bit of compassion and understanding to those around you, and often you don’t. Having said that, I have many relatives,friends and professional colleagues in the US. I travel there frequently and feel completely at home, and I still think you are the best damned country in the world.
“A campaign of terror, waged against British citizens for more than 30 years, was bankrolled by donations from the USA — and in those 30 years not a single terrorist was extradited from the US to face charges here…”
Baloney.
“A suspected member of the Irish Republican Army was extradited to Britain today on a murder charge, ending a five-year legal battle.”
“The defendant, William Quinn, 37 years old, was turned over to the British authorities and put aboard a Royal Air Force plane for Britain.”–NYT, 10/21//86
It’s a hassle extraditing or deporting these IRA maggots…but, we keep working on it, ’til we get the job done.
But, I wouldn’t expect ill-informed and insular Europeans to know these things. That would be expecting a little too much, I reckon.
Dave Surls:
‘and after a lengthy legal battle’
Why did we need nine years to get an escaped murderer back to the U.K? It doesn’t matter where you kept him,it’s about extradition. How did he get in,in the first place.
The prisoner release programme was part of the Good Friday agreement and came with conditions.
‘United States government never gave up trying to send him back to the UK…which we finally were able to do…and then…’
What?
http://kingwatch.blogspot.com/2008/06/king-getshypocritical-on-illegal-irish.html-
The reason why some extradition’ were refused is because U.S judges deemed them political prisoners.who would not get a fair trial here.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/ira-suspect-released-on-bail-by-us-judge-1538858.html
Heres some more,
http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/issues/law/docs/mcelrath00.htm
‘And, your problem with us is…?’
My problem with you is, because Americans funded and gave political support to a terrorist group
who killed British and Irish civilians,including my relative.
“Why did we need nine years to get an escaped murderer back to the U.K?”
First of all you bumbling idiots let the guy escape, and second of all we had an extradition treaty that allowed scumbags like Doherty to claim political asylum, and it took awhile to get around that. Sorry, sport, Rome wasn’t built in a day. We can’t just snap our fingers and fix all your screw-ups for you.
Doherty was eventually returned to the UK to face justice, and he was kept locked up in a dungeon until we could make that happen…so quit your bitching.
And your claim that no IRA terrorist was ever extradited from the United States is a bald-faced lie. About what I would expect from our Euro “friends”.
“My problem with you is, because Americans funded and gave political support to a terrorist group who killed British and Irish civilians,including my relative.”
I got news for you, dude. Just about all IRA terrorists ARE British. You can’t keep your own guys from being terrorists, and you’re going to throw a hissy fit because we can’t wave a magic wand and keep all our people from sending money to YOUR terrorists?
Un-freaking-real.
What asses these Euros are.
100. Dave Surls:
‘First of all you bumbling idiots let the guy escape, and second of all we had an extradition treaty that allowed scumbags like Doherty to claim political asylum’
Thats the point,why was he viewed as a political
prisoner and not a criminal,he had been found guilty of murder here.It was not recognising our rule of law.
‘Doherty was eventually returned to the UK to face justice’
But not before naming a street corner in New York after him.
‘About what I would expect from our Euro “friends”.’
How friendly were these?,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provisional_Irish_Republican_Army_arms_importation
‘ got news for you, dude. Just about all IRA terrorists ARE British’
Thats a load of crap and even if it is they would be treated as terrorists as well.
‘we can’t wave a magic wand and keep all our people from sending money to YOUR terrorists?’
Even George Bush said that there is no difference between terrorists and the countries that turn a blind eye.
You didn’t need a magic wand to do the following.
Could of refused visa’a to known I.R.A operatives,seized assets,stopped fundraising.
Not done this, thishttp://usproxy.bbc.com/2/hi/48407.stm
Didn’t even put the real i.r.a on your terrorist list until 2001. They done this in 1998
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/gallery/2007/dec/19/northernireland
were you with us or with the terrorists?
The politician Senator Peter King once called the IRA “the legitimate voice of occupied Ireland,” he was banned from the BBC by British censors for his pro-IRA views, and he refused to denounce the IRA when one of its mortar bombs killed nine Northern Irish police officers. But Mr. King is now one of America’s most outspoken foes of terrorism.
He forged links with leaders of the IRA and Sinn Fein in Ireland, and in America he hooked up with Irish Northern Aid, known as Noraid, a New York based group that the American, British, and Irish governments often accused of funneling guns and money to the IRA.
At a time when the IRA’s murder of Lord Mountbatten and its fierce bombing campaign in Britain and Ireland , Mr. King spoke regularly at Noraid protests and became close to the group’s publicity director, the Bronx lawyer Martin Galvin, a figure reviled by the British.
Mr. King’s support for the IRA was unequivocal.
On one occasion, a judge threw him out of a Belfast courtroom during the murder trial of IRA men because, in the judge’s view, “he was an obvious collaborator with the IRA.” When he attended other trials, the police singled him out for thorough body searches.
During his visits to Ireland, Mr. King would often stay with well-known leaders of the IRA, and he socialized in IRA drinking haunts. At one of such clubs, the Felons, membership was limited to IRA veterans who had served time in jail. Mr. King would almost certainly have been red-flagged by British intelligence as a result, but the experience gave him plenty of material for the three novels he subsequently wrote featuring the IRA.
If Peter King helped give the IRA a respectable face in America.
. The IRA nearly killed Prime Minister Thatcher and her cabinet with a bomb in 1984, and it assassinated prominent British politicians and members of the royal family. The IRA’s primary contribution to international terrorist know-how, the car and truck bombs now commonplace , were devised and first deployed by the IRA in Belfast in 1972. The organization also developed homemade explosives, like the fertilizer-based device that destroyed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma in 1995.
Much of the conventional weaponry and a great deal of the money necessary for IRA violence came from Irish-American sympathizers. Mr. King’s advocacy of the IRA’s cause encouraged that flow and earned him the deep-seated hostility of the British and Irish governments.
I wonder how many times a day Britons hear something nasty said about them on American radio and television or written about them in the American press…
Loads. Every time I read pig ignorant drivel like this article and most of the comments.
Change the record.
Mary,
Can you please explain how my writing is ‘pig ignorant drivel?’ I quote verbatim from the ‘Evening Standard’ and from the BBC ‘Question Time’ transcript.
If I am ‘pig ignorant’ why have I so often been on BBC Radio Four, Sky News, Press TV and BBC World Service? Why is my novel, ‘Spitfire Girls,’ now in hardback, paperback (Random House), CD/Cassette/MP3 (Isis publishing) and soon to be released on BBC Large Print Books?
As it happens Britons get a brilliant press in the United States and are graciously received when they travel around the USA or make their home there. (Apparently over 750,000 Britons now live there.) Judi Dench once told an interviewer at a film premiere that she so wished Americans would be treated here with the same generosity of spirit with which Britons are recived in the USA.
Gould wrote:
“Britons get a brilliant press in the United States and are graciously received when they travel around the USA or make their home there.”
Bullshit.
I’ve never felt so unwelcome in my life as I did in Boston. And I’ve lived in the USA for 3 years, France for 6 years, and Switzerland for 2 years.
I do wish you’d you’d go home, Carol. You’re so obviously deeply unhappy in London.
Please. Go home.
‘Judi Dench once told an interviewer at a film premiere that she so wished Americans would be treated here with the same generosity of spirit with which Britons are recived in the USA.’
As a journalist are really using Dame Judi Dench on the red carpet as a reference to make your point?
There is a women down the rosd who i used to go to school with her son told me that Americans eat their young.