What the hell are you talking about? And why did you include that link to Irish flag images? I know what the flag looks like, you cretin. I’m the one that actually lives here, unlike you.
I made careful observations on my way to work today - a 10 minute walk that takes me right through the center of town. I noticed only 2 Irish flags on display, both at hotels (one of them was right next to the Stars and Stripes). The front of the post office was conspicuously bare.
Your unfounded assertions make you look like a complete ass.
See that’s just sad. I fly one in my back yard from a twenty foot pole. It’s a pole that I purchased at Sams Club, I saw one shopping there with my wife just the other day. Since it’s not proper ettiquette to fly one at night unlit, and I am no longer in the Boy Scouts where while camping we raised and lowered the flag like the military does, I installed a sensor activated light (dusk to dawn) that shines on it. As I’m in the flight path of Nellis A.F.B. I like to think that pilots flying their warbirds see it at night moreso than in the day. I purchase the flags at Walmart and the last time I checked they were still made in America. You might all laugh, but I know I’m not the only guy like this in the U.S.A. and I hope PDYS doesn’t think I’m having him on, because I’m serious as a heart attack. Just think what it means to a pilot that flys a plane to see a flag flying at some guys house. There is another thread in IMHO that I explain in further detail my feelings about serivce personnel.
Sorry I was unclear in my post. I was making a comparison of U.S. flags outside U.S. homes vis-a-vis Irish flags outside Irish homes. My point, as confirmed by the observations of others in this thread, is that Americans display their flag, in both public and private, at a significantly higher rate than many other nationalities display their respective flags. (Ironically, I agree with your report - I’ve seen more Irish flags outside U.S. homes than Irish ones.) I never said I saw anything wrong with that (I like seeing all kinds of flags). Just making an observation.
As to the OP, I think he/she was certainly well within their rights to express criticism of the U.S. to their friends, and the drunk woman who responded was in the wrong. That said, I still probably wouldn’t be making the comments in a bar unless I was sure I couldn’t be overheard by nearby patrons. In my experience, most fights amongst adults are fueled by alcohol, and being in the right won’t help you if Joe Sixpack lays a nice cranial fracture on you…
Sorry, exactly how is “limey” anything not being racist? It’s exactly the same as Jap, Paki, or any number of epithets people use against people from a particular country. Just because England happens to be largely white doesn’t mean that it’s not racist.
And being in a bar with friends should be exactly the kind of place where I can freely express myself. As long as I’m not shouting things over the roar of the crowd, who the fuck cares what I say? Even if I were sitting one table over from a fucking Klan meeting, as long as they were quietly discussing things amongst themselves about how niggers should fucking burn, or a table of the Taliban talking about the fucking cracker-Satan conspiracy, as long as they were quiet I most likely wouldn’t have a thing to say to them. What, am I going to change some crazy asshole’s mind about the fucked up shit he believes by confronting him in a bar? If I could hear too much of the conversation I might change tables or leave, but as long as he doesn’t confront me or make a disturbance, I’m not going to say anything.
The woman in the OP was an asshole.
And in regards to the rampant “patriotism” in the states, I want to distance myself so greatly from the people who became most vocal about “killing sand niggers” after 9/11 that I will never fly a flag from my house or a “proud to be an American” bumper sticker on my car. Despite the fact that I am a proud American, those people ruined that aspect of my pride for me. I show my pride in other ways. Criticizing my country is just one of those ways.
Yes, but that’s the main post office in the capital and largest city (by far) in the country. It still doesn’t invalidate my observation that the post office in my town (or the next town over) in County Cork doesn’t display one. They also sell lottery tickets inside and allow local merchants to advertise their wares, both of which are verboten in the States. Post offices here are quite dissimilar to their U.S. counterparts in many ways, one of which is infrequent usage of the national flag. (Whaddaya expect from a country that doesn’t even have zip/postal codes!)Personally, I can’t recall ever going to a U.S. post office where Old Glory was not proudly on display.
I’m pretty sure the local police station also doesn’t display the flag - I’ll doublecheck on my way home tonight. I also don’t ever recall seeing a U.S. police station (not including substations) that didn’t show the flag.
Pearse Street and Store Street Police stations(both main Dublin stations) don’t have any flags.
With regard to the GPO in Dublin it is also of major historical signifigance to the Irish Republic as it was the center of the 1916 Rising. It was outside this building that the Proclamation of Independence was made. If any building in the whole country is gonna fly the tri-colour it’s that one.
Regarding “seppoes” - I don’t believe that, here or elsewhere in a good deal of rhyming slang generally, any simile is intended; only that the phrase should rhyme with the word for which it stands. (Or would, if it were used in full, but the whole point of this kind of cant is that the actual rhyming part is only implied.)
Examples include: “Front-wheel {skid}” = “Yid” - Jew, about which there is nothing traction avante-sh
“Berk{shire Hunt}” - person of little worth or account, with no connection to toff sports
“Apples {and pears}” - means of ascent to an upper storey, most unlikely to be fruit-like
“Bubble {and squeak}” - Hellenic, bearing no relation to a side of refried potatoes and greens
Admittedly in some instances, such as “trouble {and strife}” for a man’s spousal partner, there may be a slight echo of, in this instance, marital disharmony, but the alternative term, “Du{t}ch{ess of Fife}” has nothing to do with any noblewomen.
Consequently, please may all Americans be assured that “seppo” is named only for a common object ending in “-ank”, and no invidious comparison to a holding place for festering sewage is intended, implied, or in the mind of the user.
We now return you to the hands-across-the-sea spirit prevalent in this thread.
I’m just stunned by the number of people who seem to think that flags in front of private residences are rare. You’re tuning them out, being deliberately disingenuous, or live in really bizarre areas. I think that it’s considerably less than 1/10th, at least around here, but every residential street is guaranteed to have at least one every few blocks.
For the record since I’m posting anyway, I don’t think that an inpat being somewhat critical about a minor aspect of the country they live in is anything but completely reasonable. Of course, I don’t hang out in bars very often, partially because I don’t like dealing with drunk assholes like the woman in the OP.
This rant is so without merit that I feel the need to respond.
I’m pretty sure the lady in question didn’t lose any sleep over the argument. Her friends were enjoying it as well.
Look, you engaged an conversation that was totally critical of your perception of America. You discussed issues that some Americans who like to express their love of country by waving their flag and pledging allegience (issues that have divided Americans heretofore) with sarcasm, making it personal. You couldn’t have dissed her more if you called her a cunt or a wanker.
Your Americans friends (all two of them) might be comfortable with criticism of their countrymen, (americans are so publicly divided on issues), but as a foreigner/guest you criticized a good number of American people. It wasn’t like you were criticizing the American government which is fair game for everyone.
I might also add that in 24 years of living in England, I have heard the term “septic” or variations thereon used maybe three or four times, and those mostly in a “ha ha I know a bit of rhyming slang” context, so anyone trembling at the thought of those nasty limeys with their rapier-like slang can probably rest easy. Sometimes we go whole minutes without thinking of Americans, you know.
Except Jennifer Connelly, of course. She is with us always.
Oh, and I’m utterly amazed that anyone could seriously contend that flags aren’t widespread in the States. Well, I was utterly amazed until I saw that it was Carol doing the contending.
Exactly. There are three groups that have any dealings with the Pledge on a daily basis:
People who want “under God” taken out of the Pledge.
People who want “under God” kept in the Pledge.
Third graders.
And groups one and two don’t count as they’re always the parents of kids in group three. So yeah, that is one thing I will never understand. It comes up a lot with non-US people on this board about how we Americans are obsessed with the Pledge. And then they link to a news article concerning a lone nut from group one or two.
Say it with me, lone nut.
But what does it matter, everyone in England has crippled a man in a soccer riot and everyone in Germany is a Neo-Nazi. Oh wait…
God, as much as I dread the idea of starting the workweek 1.5 hours after clocking in, I couldn’t force myself to read past page 2 of this drivel.
I’m sure the OP showed exactly as astute judgment in sizing up the situation in the bar, as he did in coming into the Pit and expressing shock at being personally insulted!
Being a UK-resident American, on a summer vacation job in Texas I was required as a condition of employment to recite the Pledge standing in front of a desktop flag with my hand on the bible (which seemed excessive). With my prodigiously English accent it was quite the spectacle in the HR office. There was much surreptitious giggling.
From many foreign perspectives, category 3 on its own is eyebrow-raising enough. As far as the Pledge goes, the “under God” stories are just generally the most easily linkable ones because no-one who wants to continue in journalism writes a story entitled, “children forced to recite pledge for 47,000th consecutive schoolday.” Americans are, by western standards, unusually preoccupied with expressions of national loyalty, be it flags or pledges or lapel badges or whatever. This isn’t to say that you’re unhealthily preoccupied or anything, merely more so than most. There just doesn’t seem much point in disputing this, to me; for crying out loud, the fact that Obama stopped wearing the flag lapel pin is considered news by some. Personally I wouldn’t call the Pledge an “obsession”; more of a weird pecadillo that (as you say) for certain lone nuts assumes disproportionate importance. But then the OP didn’t call it an obsession either, nor did he cite “under God” nuts, so that’s really just a strawman.
If it makes you feel any better, Gordon Brown appears to be on a ridiculous drive to incorporate similarly unpalatable garbage into the UK’s curriculum as part of some nebulous “citizenship initiative”. It won’t even have that mild leavening of tradition that your Pledge has, it’ll be shitty government-inspired neologisms wiffling on about “togetherness” and “values”, as if community spirit were something you get from a pamphlet. So I’m sure that any day now we won’t have a leg to stand on in these discussions either.
Well if there are people are likely to get that offended when they overhear a stranger say that the flag/pledge thing makes them slightly uncomfortable, then I wouldn’t blame the OP being slightly uncomfortable with it in the first place. That’s a bit of a over-reaction to say the least.
