Hmmm. If she had decided to smack him, would the Secret Service have to take her down?
I give up. that I would think, think, THINK!
The “slicing the pig” comments at the conference…I haven’t the words.
Pig. Not pork, mind you. But pig. Was he going out of his way to sound like a hillbilly? And the way he delivered that opener. It screamed “I’m making a really bad and inappropriate double entrendre. Get it, get it?” But he was just being dumb, not intentionally clever at all, and so it’s sad. I don’t know if I should feel embarrassed because he was repeatedly making inappropriate jokes in a really creepy way or because he was making inappropriate jokes in a really creepy way and not being sharp enough to know how he was coming across.
I’m ashamed to say that I almost peed my pants laughing at him, though. When the reporter asked him a very serious question and Bush responded with (paraphrase) “Oh, I thought you were going to ask me about the pig” that was classic Homer Simpson right there.
Here I am participating in another “Dubya bashing” thread.
Heck, even John Mace thinks Dubya’s behavior was inappropriate.
As I’ve said, Dubya is the spoiled rich kid that just about all of us grew up with or heard stories about. Trouble is, this one got to be US President. :mad:
His behavior is embarassing (we’re all familiar with that stupid goofy laugh of his).
Yes this is an international meeting and the leader of the American people should be expected to have a little more dignity than that.
Heck, at the Yalta Conference, FDR could have given Winston Churchill an exploding cigar, but I guess he thought events of the time precluded such tomfoolery.
Watch out Chancellor, I’ve heard Dubya brought the Silly String™ spray can again.
But everybody says ‘shit’! And the economy is booming!
Oh wait, that’s just Israeli artillery. The economy is actually going down the shitter.
Make that “And Clinton got a blowjob!”
How about the last-naming (i.e. saying “Blair” without a title/honorific)? That sounded sounded very rude to me.
Then again I’m Japanese so maybe I’m over-sensitive about that sort of thing…
I’ve called him say Vladimir way too often as well.
Except when he says it, it’s more like “Vladuhmer”.
Well, she is chairman of CDU, so it’d probably be a rather tame:
Hau ab!
Though I’d love to see her go for something more colorful, like:
**Arschkriecher! Fick dich ins Knie! **
Hau ab! = Piss off!
Arschkriecher! Fick dich ins Knie! = Fuck you in the knee, ass-crawler!
I saw the clip on the Jon Stewart show. I actually thought this thread was about that press conference. What I found mystifying about it was not his familiar references to the German Chancellor, but his fixation with “the pig.” “I’m gonna cut the pig”, “I’m really lookin’ forward to that pig”, and, the corker, after being asked a very pertinent question about the new hostilities in Lebanon, “I was hoping you were gonna ask me about the pig.”
Wow. Just…holy fucking wow. Half the ME is in flames. The Chimp can’t wait for his pig roast. The Decider seems to be slipping from aphasic dementia to something resembling general paresis with each passing day. By the end of his term, we may expect a drooling vegetable is leading the “free world”, I suppose.
Why is this surprising? I never had the impression that John Mace likes George Bush very much, just that he believes in being fair to him and giving him the benefit of the doubt, when possible.
Damn, you’re hard core! Most people would use a knife.
So Bush is, simultaneously, channeling Buster Bluth and Larry the Cable Guy? Weird. He’s always overplayed the whole aw-shucks card, but this is just goofy. At least nobody seems to find it charming anymore.
I think that using the last name only (“Blair”) is considered a friendly and affectionate usage in the UK. Could it be that GWB actually engaged in appropriate familiarity in this case?
There’s a guy who I work with who does the quick massage thing to me. He doesn’t do it to the other co-workers; only to me. Just like Bushie only did it Merkel. He also rubs my hair like I’m some good-luck charm. I’m sure if this guy had been around, Bushie would have had a field day. Maybe my coworker and the president are related (funny…both of them are from Texas).
The face that the German chancelor made? I make that face on a daily basis. Maybe I should write a letter to her expressing my empathy.
Or maybe you should just kick that guy.
Not that i’ve noticed. The only times I can think of calling someone solely by their last name would be a) a teacher to a pupil in an boarding school in times past (You there, Blair! Answer the question, boy!) or between old friends where the last name is also a nickname (for example, a friend of mine who shared the same first name as me was nicknamed Pricey, from his surname of Price).
It’s friendly and affectionate, but Bush and Blair really don’t seem to have a friendly and affectionate relationship; outside of their roles, they don’t seem to get along all that well.
The "Bild- Zeitung " over in Germany made a big deal over it.
Actually, if even in the U.S. there’s a big deal over this issue, I can’t imagine what the germans will make of it.
AFAIK, the germans are BIG on propriety. Everyone addresses everyone else with the proper pronouns (unlike english, most languages still use different words to address friends and acquaintances. There was, fairly recently, a change in the way you address women in general. Originally you used Frau and Fräulein to distinguish Miss and Mrs. By now, adult women are actually offended by the use of Fräulein.
Honestly, his familiarity with foreign heads of states couldn’t have been misplaced at a worse time. (Maybe he should hire his dad as an advisor to protocol issues).
After looking at both of your locations, I can’t help but wonder if you’re talking past each other. You two do know that “fanny” has very different meanings in American and British slang?
If Bush had patted that, there are few women who wouldn’t have decked him, including Laura.
Thanks, Rev, for the clarification. The entire basis for my understanding of it is from reading somewhat dated and mannered British literature (I say, Blair, my dear chap) and one dear Brit friend.
The “dominance” gesture is another possibility, although it works for men, too. I was thinking of exactly that while driving back from my meeting this afternoon. Think of the Godfather coming up and putting his arms around an underling-- the underling may not like it, but he can’t pull away, nor could he make a similar gesture himself. I just can’t see this as a sexual assault in front of the other world leaders.
So, my take is he’s either saying: “See everyone, we’re pals” or “I appreciate your loyalty”. Completely out of place at that event in either case.
Bush is, among other things, socially inept. He doesn’t know the difference between a G8 Summit and and a backyard BBQ. He always acts like he’s at the BBQ, so what seems totally out of place to us just seems “normal” to him. Maybe he’s aware of the difference but wants to make a point that his style is the BBQ style. Well, that can work very well in a one-on-one situation when a leader is visiting the US, but not in the context of this meeting.