# American jackboot crushing the UK??? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 18, 2003, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-jackboot-crushing-the-uk/213931 "2003-11-18T17:13:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mehitabel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mehitabel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mehitabel)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2003, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-jackboot-crushing-the-uk/213931/21 "2003-11-19T17:09:24Z")
m/way 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Magret](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b782af/32.png) [@Magret](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magret)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2003, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-jackboot-crushing-the-uk/213931/22 "2003-11-19T17:41:58Z")
motorway - like highway or interstate ---
**Author:** ![spogga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ab097/32.png) [@spogga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spogga)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2003, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-jackboot-crushing-the-uk/213931/23 "2003-11-19T17:59:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Magret \* > \*\*motorway - like highway or interstate \*\* Wrong!!! at least the i/states and highways are usually free, I said USUALLY, of bloody cones and not only that they are not full of shredded rubber and other vehicle parts. Our m/ways are pathetically maintained. As an example it takes me over 90 minutes to drive 25 miles to visit my son because of roadworks which have been going on since Adam was a lad. Another example, I drove from Chicago to Michigan and never saw a SINGLE cone or roadworks on the whole journey. So there ---
**Author:** ![Magret](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b782af/32.png) [@Magret](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magret)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2003, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-jackboot-crushing-the-uk/213931/24 "2003-11-19T18:21:28Z")
I considered adding a bit about recognising motorways by the lines of traffic cones, but I didn’t think it was relevant, and anyway was probably covered by the “digging up the sodding m/way” comment earlier. I thought Mehitabel just wanted to know what was meant by “m/way”, so I told her. I don’t think she was looking for a commentary on the relative quality of maintenence. Had I said “beautifully maintained highway along which you can travel freely at 70mph without impediment” the six exclamation points might have been called for… ---
**Author:** ![Sgt.J](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sgt.J](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sgt.J)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2003, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-jackboot-crushing-the-uk/213931/25 "2003-11-19T19:40:56Z")
Where are these jackboots of which you speak? I must have them! ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2003, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-jackboot-crushing-the-uk/213931/26 "2003-11-19T20:35:47Z")
Ah, good old Bel Littlejohn…sister (?!) of Richard. Spoiler coming…Bel Littlejohn is to the chattering classes of the UK as Ed Anger is to the conservative US: a fictional uber-partisan. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2003, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-jackboot-crushing-the-uk/213931/27 "2003-11-20T06:01:10Z")
And no one called me on this… > [@](#): > > I always wanted to invade **England** (can we spare the **Welsh and Scotts** though??)!! Except for my friend in Inverness, who called me up to chew me out…before he found out it was a joke. 🙂 BTW, what exactly DOES ‘bludy American’ mean, anyway?? This thread was a riot. Reguards, XT ---
**Author:** ![syncrolecyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@syncrolecyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/syncrolecyne)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2003, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-jackboot-crushing-the-uk/213931/28 "2003-11-20T07:12:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Magret \* > \*\*motorway - like highway or interstate \*\* Damn it, you mean those Brit sunza’bitches now have a foreign word for the all American freeway!! I think they should call them interstates there same as here, and stop driving on the wrong side of the road. Furriners. ---
**Author:** ![RexDart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b77776/32.png) [@RexDart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RexDart)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2003, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-jackboot-crushing-the-uk/213931/29 "2003-11-20T07:37:05Z")
I see a “note” from DBC Pierre on there. I seem to recall his having written a novel making fun of Texans, a novel that is really popular in the UK. Some of the US-hatred really must be culturally popular in the UK for such a book to flourish. ---
**Author:** ![spogga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ab097/32.png) [@spogga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spogga)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2003, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-jackboot-crushing-the-uk/213931/30 "2003-11-20T07:40:49Z")
Listen my Texan friend, it’s you guys that drive on the wrong side of the road not us, and how can we call them interstates when we aint got any bloody states. S’pose we could call 'em intercounties but thassa bit of a gobfull innit? Damn Yanks. ---
**Author:** ![RexDart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b77776/32.png) [@RexDart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RexDart)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2003, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-jackboot-crushing-the-uk/213931/31 "2003-11-20T07:49:01Z")
Oh and check out this letter, an excerpt from the link above. Sounds like SDMB poster **Diogynes** as a youth…oil conspiracy, America “killing” its own poor, America responsible for MidEast poverty, blah, blah… > [@](#): > > Dear George, > > I would just like to say how much I hate you. You have done nothing positive in your whole time as president. You are the reason for the poverty in the Middle East. You have no idea what you are doing. You’re killing loads of people, and that is not excluding your own nation too. There are still lots of very poor people in America, and they are getting poorer. > > You keep making excuses about Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, but all you were in Iraq for was the oil. Saddam had been there for 30 years, so why is it only now you decided to act? You keep talking about September 11 when all you do is bomb other countries and give Israel lots of money. It is a very bad idea that you have come over here. > > I don’t want to grow up in a country which is so influenced by you and your policies. > Mickey (12) ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2003, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-jackboot-crushing-the-uk/213931/32 "2003-11-20T08:27:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by RexDart \* > \*\*I see a “note” from DBC Pierre on there. I seem to recall his having written a novel making fun of Texans, a novel that is really popular in the UK. Some of the US-hatred really must be culturally popular in the UK for such a book to flourish. \*\* When did “making fun of Texans” equate to “US-hatred”? I haven’t read it - it looks a little over-hyped - but it’s supposed to be a decent book. ---
**Author:** ![Madox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Madox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Madox)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2003, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-jackboot-crushing-the-uk/213931/33 "2003-11-20T08:52:48Z")
In all honesty I am not much surprised to have seen _The Guardian_ assemble a largely anti-American march of letters. The European press is far more forthright about their biases than is the American press (which still claims to present nonbiased news, whether or not it tries - NY Times - or doesn’t - Fox News), and _The Guardian_ is on the howling liberal end of the political spectrum. I spent last year at Oxford and used to pick up one of three newspapers every day as a means of keeping an eye on world events: _The Daily Telegraph_: If you want a conservative opinion. _The Independent_: Hurrah for moderates! _The Guardian_: Liberals ahoy! From the way these three covered the Iraqi conflict, you’d have thought there were three different wars going on. The _Telegraph_ was the one running the pictures of jubilant Iraqis toppling statues and the stories linking Andy Galloway (a virulently anti-war MP) to the Hussein regime, and the _Guardian_ chose to focus almost exclusively on the hardships experienced by the Iraqi people during the war. Neither was precisely wrong, but neither, most unfortunately, was capable of presenting news without an agenda. Kind of sad. ---
**Author:** ![bizzwire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/958977/32.png) [@bizzwire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bizzwire)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2003, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-jackboot-crushing-the-uk/213931/34 "2003-11-20T12:52:00Z")
> [@](#): > > When did “making fun of Texans” equate to “US-hatred”? I haven’t read it - it looks a little over-hyped - but it’s supposed to be a decent book. All too true… Texas-bashing is commonly practiced in all 49 states, as evidenced by this bit of doggerel often found scrawled in toilet stalls: Here I sit, bowels flexin’ giving birth to another Texan. ---
**Author:** ![Mojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Mojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mojo)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2003, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-jackboot-crushing-the-uk/213931/35 "2003-11-20T17:00:17Z")
**Madox** , if you read the letters, you’ll see that they’re not all “anti-American”. [sub]and its _George_ Galloway[/sub]. And I call bullshit on Mickey’s letter being written by a twelve-year old. While it has all the subtlety and nuance of a letter written by a twelve-year old (“You are the reason for the poverty in the Middle East” :rolleyes: ) , something just doesn’t ring true about it. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2003, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-jackboot-crushing-the-uk/213931/36 "2003-11-20T18:54:34Z")
> [@](#): > > Bel Littlejohn is to the chattering classes of the UK as Ed Anger is to the conservative US: a fictional uber-partisan. spoilers removed because this isn’t, well, a spoiler. You mean Ed Asner? > [@](#): > > From the way these three covered the Iraqi conflict, you’d have thought there were three different wars going on. The Telegraph was the one running the pictures of jubilant Iraqis toppling statues and the stories linking Andy Galloway (a virulently anti-war MP) to the Hussein regime, and the Guardian chose to focus almost exclusively on the hardships experienced by the Iraqi people during the war. Neither was precisely wrong, but neither, most unfortunately, was capable of presenting news without an agenda. And even the Independant would not have been without bias. Its not gonna happen. Even doing something “without bias” actually introduces another form of bias. As long as they’re making it obvious what their bias is… Although, recently, the Guardian had some articles that didn’t seem to be screamingly lib. Maybe the world is ending. ---
**Author:** ![Madox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Madox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Madox)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2003, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-jackboot-crushing-the-uk/213931/37 "2003-11-20T18:59:44Z")
**Mojo** , yes, I’d read the letters, and you’re quite right. Hence the _largely_ prefix - the British press is not all or even mostly anti-American, but _The Guardian_ was not, from the looks of it last year, going to be joining Robert Murdoch’s media empire anytime soon. My apologies about the Galloway mix-up. George Galloway was actually the subject of one of my favorite parliamentary heckles. A question from one of the MP’s concerned a legitimate end to the war as no one in his right mind from the Hussein administration was going to step up to capitulate, and someone shouted that Galloway could perhaps do it for them. And regardless of whether or not Mickey’s letter was indeed written by a twelve-year old, I am still surprised that any major publication would have deigned to give such a piece valuable space. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2003, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-jackboot-crushing-the-uk/213931/38 "2003-11-20T20:40:54Z")
Bandit, [Ed Anger](http://www.weeklyworldnews.com/features/anger.cfm) is the Weekly World News’s resident Right-Wing Caricature. Ed Asner was CBS’s Left-Wing Caricature. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-jackboot-crushing-the-uk/213931.md?page=1)