Taking sides: UK vs US

Methinks there might be quite a erm range of weather over there? Their books are bound better; ours have better covers.

That's what makes us so great!

Damn! You're probably right. Sydney = L.A., Melbourne = London

I just can't stand endless drizzle, it makes me want to commit suicide.

Could it have been the 11 other vomit-covered australians in your room?

She may be Australian, she may be the alien. Send her to me.

We helped. But we didn't compromise on our constant hot water supply.

But it's not a foreign concept to Americans, either, even if you've lived much of your life in a two-story suburban house with a boiler the size of a Dalek.

we have a neat electric shower thingy so we always have hot water. actually, this bathroom is the largest ever.

however, american breakfasts are fantastic. they just don't 'get' waffles here. same with tex-mex food

When it comes to drinking to the point of throwing up, I really don't think we have anything to teach the British. I'll see your Australians in Willesden and raise you 3,000 brawling, lobster-red pommie yobs in Bondi!

i hate it because there are currently roadworks (LIKE EVERYWHERE BLOODY ELSE ON MY REGULAR LONDON ROUTES) obscuring the 266 bus stop. and there should be an Old Oak station for North Acton to interchange with thus giving me access to the Silverlink without having to get that fecking bus (they always insist on changing drivers just 2 stops after i get on).

Unfortunately, I don't think we Aussies have it in us to win this year. But England's been a bit disappointing too. I've a funny feeling the French might come through.

What! You're telling me Willeden isn't a microcosm of your great British nation?!

I lived in Oxford as a kid. I've travelled around the country a bit. The pissy shower thing is a cultural constant.

x-post

You need to live somewhere touristic like... Oxford... where it is unnaturally misty and rainy and damp (and beautiful, romantic, mysterious etc)

If we let you!

You can't stop me. I hold a UK passport. Mwa-ha-ha!

-- oops (don'temailmenicelad...), November 7th, 2003."

Actually, I was born and raised out in bumblefuck, Wisconsin, where I didn't get half the "what-the-fuck-is-wrong-with-your-freaky-ass?" bullshit that I get from uptight shit-driving SUV-obsessed Chicago fucks. Unfortunately, the weather back home was even more miserable than it is here, and I couldn't find a job to save my life. "Average" northwoods people are, in my experience, weirder and in a lot of ways more open minded than most suburban art students could ever be in their wildest fantasies.

Enrique OTM upthread wrt Palestine/Chechnya. WRT Saudi/Egypt - taking sides - brutalising your own people vs brutalising a percieved Other.

'Fashionable' suggests the left is just following hemline trends. Well, I guess an electrified perimeter fence imprisoning people in a tiny fraction of their own land is a 'hemline' of sorts.

But again I have to ask, just what would Sharon have to do before we could condemn his actions without being called 'anti-semitic'? At what point would his identity as brute and bully trump his 'master identity' as jew and therefore, apparently, 'eternal victim'? Or can that point simply never be reached?

If you gather: in light of WWII, already an international historical obsession, the painful irony of the current situation is what makes U.S. military aid to Israel both so easy to obsess over and hard to think rationally about. PANT! PANT! JEW-HATER!!!!!!!

Now, you may come up with different results, but in my model the Israelis are forced to develop a self-sustaining economy that's actually attuned to the small Mediterranean country they're in. They're forced to get along with their neighbours. Something similar happens in Britain, which has to integrate into Europe. Not a bad world, that.

But again I have to ask, just what would Sharon have to do before we could condemn his actions without being called 'anti-semitic'? At what point would his identity as brute and bully trump his 'master identity' as jew and therefore, apparently, 'eternal victim'? Or can that point simply never be reached?

Momus, I basically agree with you here... I don't think many people are denying that Sharon is an brutal heavy-handed mass-murdering fucker. But surely you'd agree that Israel/Palestine as a problem is given media coverage disproportionate to that of, say, Congo or Chechnya or, indeed, Turkey or Egypt. This is as much to do with media fashion than anything else (I'll exclude Zimbabwe here, because in terms of 'causes', that is the Israel of The Right).

Ultimately, I don't believe it really has as much to do with the fact that there are Jews involved as the very visible presence of the US in the background. Maybe 'fashion' is the wrong word, but there are certain whims and trends prevalent on the more cynical side of the Left - removal of Saddam Hussein was a very popular cause among Socialists up until the point when the US-UK decided they didn't like him any more.

when i arrived i was interviewed for about 20 minutes, i was told i didnt have enough clothes for my duration and that this was suspicious, one of the officials was concerned about the david foster wallace book i was reading, and asked me some questions about that also.

there were many questions about my job

i came away with the impression that the vigour they put into their job was more to do with them thinking i was going to become an illegal alien than anything to do with my potential terrorist ambitions.

i also do not believe that it is productive to argue with oops on this kind of matter. although oops is a friendly and respectful person much of the time, i'm not sure that his ability is so strong in this kind of area. although it is unclear whether this is an intentional device or not, i have found the absence of flexibility or ability to listen means that discourse becomes impossible. i think his pronouncements are nice to look at, but are not really worth engagement

Once and for all, to say that Sharon's Israel is currently totally out of line in penning the Palestinians into a virtual cage in their own land is not to be anti-semitic!

Heh - but that's not what you said, of course.

The 'objectification' line didn't fly on the bukkake thread, and the 'hands off Sharon, he's jewish!' line won't fly on this one. Your Victim Politics benefits no-one, J0hn, and especially not the people you so kindly designate 'victims'.

Heh - that's not what J0hn said, either.

Why so defensive, Momus? Why so furiously backpedaling from your initial claim?

Well said Gareth, and it brings up a small aside I feel worth mentioning.

I came away from that whole exchange thinking "shit, I hope I never say something I word a little badly on this board, I'll obviously be ripped to shreds and judged for it, even if it is plain arguing certain political semantics isnt my strong point".

I next to never engage in these so-called "intelligent" arguments, the ones some people wish there were more of - because some of you make it extremely intimidating to do so, with your demands every little ambiguity be stamped on and floodlit.

Just, I dunno - keep that in mind, maybe? *shrug*

If you don't understand, don't paraphrase. 'Angrael' is my name for an alliance between Israel, the US and the UK. On the one hand 'Angrael' is just a sci-fi cautionary tale. In other ways, it's all too real.

Taking sides: Angrael versus Europe?

Momus is like my stereotype of a college student except he has done the reading for 7 or 8 more degrees.

Nonsense, I've hardly read anything. I'm like a college student, only 20 years older and with a more stupid hairstyle.

http://www.imomus.com/dailyphoto101103.html

Coming to a theatre near you.

i thought the thread was pretty light-hearted up to that point, and oops jibe was just a jibe...and then *kapow*, er, what?

Good point stence - also, gaz did (quietly) point out his customs experience was in 1994, well before any of this current terrorist hoo-ha.

And for bitchiness' sake, I'll point out that I've had my stuff rudely searched by Spanish airport security upon leaving two times now, but hey I still love Spain and would go back in a minute if I could. One rude person in a country /= all people in a country

I wasn't sure wether to be relieved or insulted! =)

What the fuck planet are you on?

I don't understand what's so goddammed funny.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gzj1OF7d9m4

I mean, they're the ones who drink tea from gas cans.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3782563/I-lost-husband-sacred-ground-m-disgusted-British-stag-cause-outrage-taking-selfies-NAKED-BLOW-DOLL-Ground-Zero-eve-15th-anniversary-9-11-police-order-leave.html

OK, fine. Limeys win.

https://i.imgur.com/8fMzRjL.jpg