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| Hey, Mr. President, you don't bow to the (Saudi) King. | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Apr 2 2009, 12:47 PM (304 Views) | |
| George K | Apr 2 2009, 12:47 PM Post #1 |
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Finally
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Just (another) small point, but once again, reflective of the fact that this Administration (still) doesn't understand the importance of protocol. Even Miss Manners knows this. At 54 seconds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S60U-hl35Gw |
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A guide to GKSR: Click "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08 Nothing is as effective as homeopathy. I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles. - Klaus, 4/29/18 | |
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| The 89th Key | Apr 2 2009, 12:51 PM Post #2 |
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I know the answer is probably yes...but did Bush make this many mistakes so early in his administration? It's blunder after blunder for Obama. Then again...the answer is probably no, Bush was on vacation too much to make this many mistakes.
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| Phlebas | Apr 2 2009, 12:56 PM Post #3 |
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Bull-Carp
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From Miss Manners:
Hmm, wonder why the Bushes never bowed to the Saudi King. |
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Random FML: Today, I was fired by my boss in front of my coworkers. It would have been nice if I could have left the building before they started celebrating. FML The founding of the bulk of the world's nation states post 1914 is based on self-defined nationalisms. The bulk of those national movements involve territory that was ethnically mixed. The foundation of many of those nation states involved population movements in the aftermath. When the only one that is repeatedly held up as unjust and unjustifiable is the Zionist project, the term anti-semitism may very well be appropriate. - P*D | |
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| George K | Apr 2 2009, 01:23 PM Post #4 |
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Finally
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They just held hands... From the New York Times:
Of course, that was in 1994, and the president was someone else. I eagerly await lines like that in tomorrow's New York Times. |
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A guide to GKSR: Click "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08 Nothing is as effective as homeopathy. I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles. - Klaus, 4/29/18 | |
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| VPG | Apr 2 2009, 01:37 PM Post #5 |
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Pisa-Carp
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Any one remember the picture of all the actors and actresses (American) being presented to the Queen? The picture of Marylin Monroe curtsying, and the Queen staring at her cleavage. Priceless. |
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I'M NOT YELLING.........I'M ITALIAN...........THAT'S HOW WE TALK! "People say that we're in a time when there are no heroes, they just don't know where to look." Ronald Reagan, Inaugural, 1971 | |
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| apple | Apr 2 2009, 03:06 PM Post #6 |
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one of the angels
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who makes these rules? i've always been received positively with my refreshingly charming lack of protocol. i refuse to acknowledge another's superiority by virtue of their position or money. i acknowledge them as human. |
| it behooves me to behold | |
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| George K | Apr 2 2009, 03:19 PM Post #7 |
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Finally
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Who makes the rules? Hundreds of years of protocol. Being a private individual, one can be charming, quirky and what you refuse to acknowledge is certainly your right. Being the leader of a nation, failure to recognize those protocols makes you ignorant, at best, rude at worst. Manners are different for you (and me) and Kings and Presidents. You, I'm sure, don't allow a three year old to call you by your first name (I don't). Similarly, the President, Prime Minister or King has his rules as well. |
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A guide to GKSR: Click "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08 Nothing is as effective as homeopathy. I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles. - Klaus, 4/29/18 | |
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| Frank_W | Apr 2 2009, 03:48 PM Post #8 |
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Resident Misanthrope
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And how often have you dined with royalty, Apple? Ever? There is a reason for protocol. It's not "refreshing" to be either ignorant or defiant of what is considered the norm when greeting, visiting with, or dining with persons in offices of power. Regardless of what one feels about a person, protocol governs one's own manners and behavior towards the other person's station. If the person of superior rank, or station, (or of equal rank/station) chooses to relax the rules and be more informal, then that is their prerogative, and from there, everyone else may take their cues, just as the First Lady did, when the Queen initiated contact. |
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Anatomy Prof: "The human body has about 20 sq. meters of skin." Me: "Man, that's a lot of lampshades!" | |
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| Red Rice | Apr 2 2009, 04:10 PM Post #9 |
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HOLY CARP!!!
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What an idiotic thing for him to do. |
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Civilisation, I vaguely realized then - and subsequent observation has confirmed the view - could not progress that way. It must have a greater guiding principle to survive. To treat it as a carcase off which each man tears as much as he can for himself, is to stand convicted a brute, fit for nothing better than a jungle existence, which is a death-struggle, leading nowhither. I did not believe that was the human destiny, for Man individually was sane and reasonable, only collectively a fool. I hope the gunner of that Hun two-seater shot him clean, bullet to heart, and that his plane, on fire, fell like a meteor through the sky he loved. Since he had to end, I hope he ended so. But, oh, the waste! The loss! - Cecil Lewis | |
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| JBryan | Apr 2 2009, 04:59 PM Post #10 |
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I am the grey one
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It is wonderful that we are regaled with accounts of how well Obama and the first lady were received despite their departures from past protocol but the plain fact of the matter is that when two heads of state meet face to face everything they do and say is gauged by their counterpart and conclusions are drawn as to how seriously this person can be taken and just how far they can be pushed. Granted, an audience with the Queen of England is probably one of the least critical in this respect but these actions by the Obamas should give us pause as to how they will interact with the more adversarial heads of state. Bowing to the King of Saudi Arabia is not a good sign in this respect. |
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"Any man who would make an X rated movie should be forced to take his daughter to see it". - John Wayne There is a line we cross when we go from "I will believe it when I see it" to "I will see it when I believe it". Henry II: I marvel at you after all these years. Still like a democratic drawbridge: going down for everybody. Eleanor: At my age there's not much traffic anymore. From The Lion in Winter. | |
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| Mikhailoh | Apr 2 2009, 05:01 PM Post #11 |
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If you want trouble, find yourself a redhead
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Putin and Medvedev will eat his lunch. If they haven't already. |
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Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead - Lucille Ball | |
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| Frank_W | Apr 2 2009, 05:05 PM Post #12 |
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Resident Misanthrope
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Since Obama's campaign, I've been saying that he needs to get someone on-board that KNOWS protocol and can brief him, and it needed to happen SEVERAL MONTHS AGO, when it looked like he might be a candidate with a serious chance at the presidency. It is now the eleventh hour. Cripes... ![]() This is just idiotic and embarrassing, and I don't foresee it getting any better. Supposedly, he's good at surrounding himself with competent people.WTF happened when it came to picking a protocol staff?
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Anatomy Prof: "The human body has about 20 sq. meters of skin." Me: "Man, that's a lot of lampshades!" | |
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| JBryan | Apr 2 2009, 05:10 PM Post #13 |
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I am the grey one
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You can be sure that all other heads of state are hanging on to every detail of a meeting like this. |
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"Any man who would make an X rated movie should be forced to take his daughter to see it". - John Wayne There is a line we cross when we go from "I will believe it when I see it" to "I will see it when I believe it". Henry II: I marvel at you after all these years. Still like a democratic drawbridge: going down for everybody. Eleanor: At my age there's not much traffic anymore. From The Lion in Winter. | |
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| George K | Apr 2 2009, 05:18 PM Post #14 |
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Finally
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I'm reminded of the "American Experience" program on Ronald Reagan. They interviewed a former diplomat who was at the summit at Reykavik (sp?) - perhaps he was a KGB agent. Anyhow, they commented on the first meeting of Reagan and Gorbachev. The Secretary General arrived, on a cold, blustery morning, in a black Zil limousine. He was wearing an overcoat, a fedora, and "looked like every B-Movie version of a KGB agent." Ronald Reagan, wearing a dark suit, white shirt, and red tie (no overcoat) came down the stairs of the meeting place to greet Gorbachev. He put his arm around Gorbachev, and said, "Let's get to work." "At that moment," said the diplomat, "I knew who was in charge. It was not Gorbachev." And therein lie the niceties and subtlies of international diplomacy. When you bow to the king, you are his inferior. If not in your mind, certainly in his. |
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A guide to GKSR: Click "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08 Nothing is as effective as homeopathy. I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles. - Klaus, 4/29/18 | |
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| 1hp | Apr 2 2009, 05:27 PM Post #15 |
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Fulla-Carp
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fwiw, when I met Prince Phillip I shook his hand, then we shot the breeze about the weather for 15 seconds (no lie)! Haven't yet met the King of Saudi - but if Hidalgo was correct stay away from his daughters or you might lose the family jewels.
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| There are 10 kinds of people in this world, those that understand binary and................ | |
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| George K | Apr 2 2009, 05:34 PM Post #16 |
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Finally
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Greeting the Queen (from the Queen's website):
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A guide to GKSR: Click "Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08 Nothing is as effective as homeopathy. I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles. - Klaus, 4/29/18 | |
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| Renauda | Apr 2 2009, 05:48 PM Post #17 |
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HOLY CARP!!!
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I'm having lunch tomorrow with a friend who was Chief of Protocol for Alberta during the Klein years. Although we have other business to discuss, I'll ask him about the do's and don'ts of royal protocol. I suspect the "don't touch the Queen" rule is to prevent puffed up egoist prime ministers and cabinet ministers from trying to control with whom the Queen speaks during receptions, site visits and walkabouts and at the same provide the Queen's security with unimpeded and direct access to Her Majesty at all times when she appears in public. |
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