Pajamas Media

196 Comments

1. ashok:

Thank you so much for sharing these experiences – I wish, like everyone else, that none of this had ever happened, but it is good to hear about these things in some way as opposed to not-at-all.

Does the Guardian represent the thinking of a significant number of British, you think? And where exactly are they getting all these left-wing conspiracy theories from? Is that a result of Labour, (or maybe even the Tories), the BBC, tabloids, schooling, what exactly?

The people you describe doing these hateful things sound awfully ignorant. I wonder if nothing can be blamed for the irrational anti-Americanism except that hate spreads?

Feb 2, 2009 - 11:35 pm 2. Jonesy55:

I think that Carol might experience less anti-Americanism if she hung out more in the real world rather than spending her days as she seemingly does attending Gaza rallies, Islamist conferences, lectures on zionism, media-luvvie parties etc.

In the normal day to day world of Britain I go for months without hearing any comments and attitudes like the ones that Carol seems to experience on a daily basis. When most people talk about the US it’s usually enthusing about their last christmas shopping trip to NYC or how this years holiday to florida will be more expensive because of the exchange rate.

Of course lots of people oppose the Iraq war and people don’t always like every facet of US society but I see nothing wrong in that. You could say the same about every other country, the anti-americanism I have witnessed is no worse than the anti-frenchism, anti-germanism, anti-chineseism, anti-russianism and so on that is sometimes expressed.

Feb 3, 2009 - 12:31 am 3. PHILIP:

The last time I checked we had way over 65 million in the UK.

If a few thou decide to demonstrate that does not mean ‘we’ hate the U.S or Americans….

Give the majority a break.

We may detest the EU, but they are an expansionist undemocratic organisation.

That is about were it stops…..

Relax, ignore the thousands, concentrate on the hundreds of thousands !!!

Chins up fella’s we love you !!

Philip

Feb 3, 2009 - 1:27 am 4. steve:

I am an American living in Northampton with my family. My best friend is American and lives just off Kensington Garden. neither of us has experienced anti-American actions/attitudes/issues directed at us as individuals. Many Brits do not share our government’s positions or American’s values – but do not take it out on Americans themselves.
I must admit however, that I normally steer clear of demonstrations of any kind – beyond the nut cases in Hyde Park.

Feb 3, 2009 - 2:19 am 5. Slveryder:

I’m currently living in Northern Ireland as an exchange student and unfortunately I have found much of what the writer says to be true over here. To be fair, I have spoken to a few individuals (usually older males) who think that Bush wasn’t bad or that he was actually quite smart but that is as generous as they are willing to be.

Last semester, one of my girlfriends made the mistake of taking a Cold War History class in which she was the only American & one of the few females. She spent 3 MONTHS being harassed by her bigoted, narrow-minded classmates while the professor just watched. These students all hated the United States,thought that the Cold War was America’s fault, our soldiers are killers & on and on ad nauseam. Of course, this poor girl was a)an Obama liberal and b) not that up on political history so she would come out of these classes in tears & sick to her stomach from the abuse.
The favorite invective of students over here is that we (Americans) are stupid rednecks. Not that they can define a redneck or explain what makes us stupid. They also can’t defend their insults very well.
I’ve had people tell me that they expected Obama to be assassinated because that’s what Americans do if they don’t like someone. For some reason, this individual related Obama to JFK but couldn’t explain the corellation.

I have not endured the type of behavior that the author has; however, judging by the low-level abuse I receive, I’m sure if I went to these type of locations, that is exactly what I would find.

Feb 3, 2009 - 2:20 am 6. Mary Jackson:

These days would I feel safer in a bomb shelter in Sderot than in a café in London Town? I think so.

Perhaps it’s not Americans, or Jews. It’s Carol Gould. If you carry around such paranoid lunacy in your head the world will seem a hostile place.

Still, Ms Gould is free to go and live in Israel if she wants, or to go back to America, and it is quite astonishing that she has not already done so.

Feb 3, 2009 - 2:37 am 7. Bryan:

Americans (95%) dont care what europeans think.
That is the difference between america and europe.
America has its own constitution and laws, we dont need lectures from people who get themselves into wars every 10-20 years and cry for america to come to the rescue.
both world wars, the french and british begged us to help but the liberals (in america) did not want americans to help, same with every other war that followed
korea, the south koreans begged us to help
vietnam, the french begged america to help
Balkins, the muslims begged us to help, while europe watched with indifference
1991 gulf war, everyone begged america to help
2nd gulf war, syria, saudi arabia, egypt as well as the kurds and dozens of other countries begged for help
all america ever gets in the end is slandered for helping, but only after we do all of the hard work

Feb 3, 2009 - 2:49 am 8. Blackwater:

It’s the liberal worldview that’s extremely pervasive throughout the various institutions of which Western civilization is founded upon. Everything from the liberal news networks to the entertainment industry (MTV, Hollywood) and the education system (public shools, college campus). So it’s going to be one hell of an uphill battle to try and change these views. They see this in racial terms. It’s fair skinned people once again colonizing and abusing brown skinned people. Whoever lead the propaganda campaign for the “Palestinian cause” did a -very- good job. Hitler would be proud.

Western civilization has become disillusioned with the values that used to define them and are ashamed of the past actions of their nations during the era of European colonization. What they fail to realize is that European colonization happened during a different era – the pre-U.S. dominated era where empires reigned in every corner of the world. So European empires were no more evil than the empires of the Middle East and Africa except that the European empires were much more powerful.

People also often forget that the world was centered around empire building until the rise of American international leadership around the 1950s when the American created United Nations made it an international crime to steal another nations land. So far from playing the role of empire builder, America has done exactly the opposite. Americans played a central role in ending the era of empire building. The first time ever in human history. Yet Americans get no credit for that accomplishment. Instead they get attacked for sending $3 million in aid to anti-communist militants in South America and the Middle East decades ago. Or get verbally assualted for having slavery 200 years ago.

Had it not been for Americans “foreign intervention” these Europeans would be under Nazi or Soviet rule. Americans risked nuclear annihilation for decades and millions of Americans were prepared to die in the battlefields of Central Europe in order to keep them safe. And how do they thank the Americans? By calling -them- Nazis…

Feb 3, 2009 - 3:02 am 9. Eric R.:

Mary,

It is obvious that you are the one with the problem. You can’t seem to accept the fact that your beloved Britain has turned into a deranged Nazi state. And this time, America (which is becoming increasingly non-European in its population), will have no inclination to save the UK from its fate of slipping forever into an Islamist Dark Age.

I sometimes have my difference with Carol, too, but she saw what she saw and heard what she heard. Are you telling her this was a figment of her imagination?

Decades of Marxist indoctrination have managed to destroy the old UK? Why can’t you face this?

Feb 3, 2009 - 3:02 am 10. Eric R.:

By the way, Mary, I have also explicitly asked her why she does not leave. She has explained it. I accept her answer as credible.

Feb 3, 2009 - 3:04 am 11. Jonesy55:

“You can’t seem to accept the fact that your beloved Britain has turned into a deranged Nazi state.”

Lol, maybe because it hasn’t? Get real, every country has its problems but ‘deranged Nazi state’?

Feb 3, 2009 - 3:33 am 12. Mary Jackson:

Are you telling her this was a figment of her imagination?

Pretty much.

Feb 3, 2009 - 3:40 am 13. Eric R.:

Jonesy 55

Hey, I would be in denial too if it happened to America.

But if it produces a Judenrein UK, the loss of freedom would be worth the price to the average Brit.

Feb 3, 2009 - 3:42 am 14. RE:

Britain has far too many problems of its own for it’s people to concern themselves with America. And Americans have far too many problems of their own to worry about what Brits think of us.

I’m much more concerned with the Americans that are trying to tear down America.

Feb 3, 2009 - 3:43 am 15. Mary Jackson:

Carol Gould reminds me of much parodied TV reporter Roger Cooke, who used to go around practically begging people to abuse him or beat him up so he could come away with a good story.

Ms Gould could have reported on the many Holocaust Memorial ceremonies, or the many concerts and plays that are going on in London, or the charity work that goes on, or the many Jews who live happily there. But that wouldn’t be a story, and she wouldn’t make any money out of it.

Whatever her reason for staying, it can’t possibly cut any ice. If the UK really is a “demented Nazi state” or as bad a Sderot, nobody but an idiot or a masochist would stay.

Feb 3, 2009 - 3:43 am 16. Eric R.:

Mary Jackson:

So she did not hear and see all these things?

Wow, can you teach me how to alter people’s minds like that?

Feb 3, 2009 - 3:43 am 17. RW:

Anyone who can’t see the storm clouds ahead is fooling themselves. The author may be seeing a more narrow window true, but I believe this is the alliance she is seeing first hand of the virulent anti-American Left with the muslim radical elements that have largely gone unchallenged there for too long. It’s making its way into the heart of the UK and spreading like a cancer.

There is and remains a core alliance between the UK and America. But the questions remains, if the cancer is not excised, and continues to spread, how will this impact relations and the battle to defend Western civilization.

The will to do so is being overturned by the rabble.

And what happens when the poison becomes stronger and louder yet, but not there, but here?

Feb 3, 2009 - 4:02 am 18. DoubleTapper:

Watching the crowd of

crazed muslim rioters chase the London Cops while shouting “Allah Akbar”
was truly eye opening.
DoubleTapper
DoubleTapper@gmail.com
DoubleTapper, blogging on
Guns Politics Defense from Israel

Feb 3, 2009 - 4:15 am 19. Mary Jackson:

But if it produces a Judenrein UK, the loss of freedom would be worth the price to the average Brit.

Eric writes with a deep and intimate knowledge of the mind of the “average Brit”.

And you complain about us being anti-American?

Feb 3, 2009 - 4:25 am 20. Jonesy55:

“Hey, I would be in denial too if it happened to America.

But if it produces a Judenrein UK, the loss of freedom would be worth the price to the average Brit.”

Eric, of course I deny that Britain is a ‘deranged nazi state’, that isn’t the same as ‘being in denial’ though. If something isn’t true then there is nothing wrong with denying it, or do you expect me to simply accept what you claim when I can see with my own eyes every day that it is not the case?

If you think that the average Brit dreams of a judenrein UK then that just shows again how limited your understanding is of the society here. The vast majority of people have either no opinion either way of the UK jewish community or would take their side in any left/muslim vs jewish issue.

Feb 3, 2009 - 4:28 am 21. georgiebhoy:

7. bryan
2nd gulf war, syria, saudi arabia, egypt as well as the kurds and dozens of other countries begged for help

I have come across some ludicrous revisionist history in my time but that takes the biscuit.

America and and Americans may take stick for involvement in some wars, and you have been very selective in the wars you list, but I have never heard any criticism of involvement in WW1, WW2, Korea, the Blakans or the 1st Gulf War. America would not have been involved if it not believe it were in its own interests, regardless of ‘begging’.

Feb 3, 2009 - 4:33 am 22. Mailman:

Yeah, I wouldnt say the UK has turned totally in to a deranged nazi state…but it has all the trappings of turning in to one.

Perhaps though the biggest problem is rampant leftist political correctness, as exhibited by the BBC (or Al Beeb as it has affectionaly become known as) on a daily basis.

Until Al Beeb finds the strength to criticise anything associated with islam as “robustly” as it does christianity, then we are stuck in a downward spiral of hate, fueled by blatant misinformation and bias from Al Beeb.

Al Beeb went out of its way to paint muslims as victims after the 07/07 terrorist attacks…but no such treatment for Jews after Hamas’s last war with Israel. In fact, Al Beeb has been inciting hatred for Israel through its daily broadcast of Hamas supplied propoganda and uncritical thinking.

Also, Al Beeb has failed to report the outrage over Fitna not being played in the houses of parliament after a muslim peer threatened to mobilise 10,000 followers of the religion of the eternally outraged to block access to Westminster to that geezer Mr Wilders.

Anyway, I wouldnt hold your breath if you are waiting for things to change in this country.

Mailman

Feb 3, 2009 - 4:34 am 23. georgiebhoy:

8 Blackwater

America created the United Nations? Really?

Feb 3, 2009 - 4:42 am 24. Roger Godby:

I’ve not been to Britain, but articles like this as well as the reports of worsening crime in Britain make me less interested in going. The expat Britons I’ve met have been across the spectrum, with a tendency toward anti-Americanism. One former British colleague had been to the US and enjoyed himself, although he claimed to have been uncomfortable all through the South–stereotypitis–and explained the anti-Americanism as, in large part, the simple fact that “Everyone hates #1.”

My experience is that Canadians, especially those from Ontario, are the most zealous anti-Americans abroad.

I work in the arts, which draws leftists and statists and is thus more anti-American; when things aren’t objective, groupthink takes over. Were I to be a chemist or pipe-fitter, someone who deals with real problems, I would expect more rational encounters and less reflexive and intense hatred.

Feb 3, 2009 - 4:44 am 25. Craig:

“I asked him if he really meant that and he said, yes, the U.S. had been a nuisance for a century…”

A ‘nuisance’? Did you remind him, that his native tongue could have been GERMAN?

Feb 3, 2009 - 5:11 am 26. RE:

21. Craig

Those were our grandparents, Craig. Don’t attempt to take credit for the sacrifices of others. No, this generation has blessed the world with hip-hop and rap. In light of that, I’m surprised they don’t hate us more than they do.

Feb 3, 2009 - 5:32 am 27. Gracie:

Maybe there wouldn’t be so much anti-Americanism if the media quit publishing stuff like this. I’m an American and when I travel in England I have never had even a single word of unpleasantness from the citizens there. Yes, the nutjobs demonstrate in Hyde Park, and we have their counterparts here in the U.S. They aren’t representative of the views of regular citizens, yet the media elevates and validates their nutjob-ness. If I listened only to the British press I would think Britain was sliding inevitably into the new Muslim dark ages. If I listened only to the American press I would think we were all immoral hedonistic money-grubbers. The press is responsible for much of the international, inter-racial, inter-religious conflict that occurs in our world. If less of this krap were publicized the nuts wouldn’t have a platform and hysteria would cease to be such a motivator in our societal relationships.

Feb 3, 2009 - 5:32 am 28. Adrian K:

The simple facts of the matter are that history is being shown to repaet itself.
Had the internet been around in the 1930s we would have been reading an identical selection of comments saying the same things. “There was no danger”, “its just a few people, the majority don’t think that”.
Sadly the German Jews had no place to go and were all but wiped out. Now, at least, the Jews feel they have Israel to go to if the going gets tough here. However it seems that there are those seeking to cut off the retreat by turning ‘Victim’ Israel into the aggressor.
Why, Oh why, can’t pwople learn from history?
The Arabs, a small people from Saudi Arabia, burned, raped, colonised and settled the whole of the Mid East, large parts of Europe (Spain), Africa and Asia, and that was fine because it was the will of Allah. They now seek to do it again. They state that ‘The Great Aggresor’ America has no right to be in Iraq, Afghanistanor anywhere. What right did the Arabs have to colonise Spain? No one else is allowed to settle anywhere. Islam now settles way outside of Saudi Arabia from whence it comes. Vast swathes of Europe are settled by Islamic people without any comment or resistance. So what, why not? A few Jews settle in the land from which their ancestors came and they are seen as unwelcome scum. Europe is covered in Mosques and full of Korans. In Saudi Arabia, there is not a single Church allowed and to posses a bible is a jailable offence. What more do people need in order to see what is happening.
I’m just dumbfounded.

Feb 3, 2009 - 5:34 am 29. Sheila:

As an Ex-Pat Brit I am staggered at the change in my once tolerant homeland. Suddenly the fervour and hatred whipped up by the extremely biased reporting of the likes of Hugh Sykes, Jon Snow, Jeremy Bowen is making its mark and Britain is losing its sense of perspective through the disinformation it is fed as to who is the enemy of whom.
While I do not see reds under every bed as Carol does, I see a resurgence of antisemitism which is very frightening – and un-British.
If Churchill had listened to the bleeding hearts of today’s press in his attitude to Germany (Essen etc) then you would be speaking German and I would not have existed because the Nazis would have killed my family and they would have won the war! Yes, there is a parallel

Feb 3, 2009 - 5:35 am 30. ~Paules:

The Big Lie is an effective strategy to gather and hold a political constituency. I don’t know British society well enough to know who is benefiting from the current wave of anti-Semitism, but the move is carefully contrived to benefit someone other than the British people. A balkanized body politic is more easily controlled than a united people.

We have similar movements in the United States. The lies that manifested in Bush Derangement Syndrome served (and still serve) the liberal political agenda. La Raza does the same with Hispanics. “Racism” however defined still serves those who make their living exploiting the poor. Followers quickly surrender both their rationality and their power to so-called leaders.

The common trump card in the deck is victimization. Designated victims always need someone to blame for their problems. Leaders exploit the Big Lie to personal advantage, but they have no intention of solving the alleged problem (be it racism, poverty, human rights, or whatever) because they understand the value of a contrived fiction for purposes of control.

So the Jews now join the ranks of white males, capitalists, the rich, racists, militarists, nationalists, and despoilers of the environment as designated enemies of the oppressed. It might be a lie, but it’s damned effective politics especially when the media choose to play along.

Feb 3, 2009 - 5:57 am 31. chuck,:

It reminds me of a famous Nazi propaganda poster put out during the war. Ironically entitled “Liberators”, the poster depicts a giant American robot bringing destruction to a European city. If you look closely, you see that it embodies everything that Carol’s friends believe about America today. Its head is a KKK hood. One leg is a huge bomb; the other, a chorus girl’s jamb. One arm holds a bag of money; another, a Chicago gangster’s machine gun; while a third arm holds a lynch rope. Its trunk is a jail cell in which you can see languishing black people. An American Indian loin cloth, only decorated with the 6-pointed star, covers its lower body, a huge jazz drum. Two little Tinkerbelle figures, a bathing beauty in an Indian chiefs head dress and a drum majorette, ride on its shoulders cheering it on in its bloody work. Hats off to the graphic designer, who I very much hope had his chance to meet the robot in the flesh. He made a truly masterful allegory: Racism, crassness, brutality,barbarism, stupidity, the Jews, the almighty Dollar, America, he captured it all. And far more wittily than these parrots in nowadays London.

Did they ever really like us? Or were we only bearable when they needed us?

Feb 3, 2009 - 6:12 am 32. TalkinKamel:

Sounds like Britain has some bad problems, and is also in denial about them.

The time might come when we shouldn’t visit there, or depend on it as an ally anymore.

Feb 3, 2009 - 6:29 am 33. dougf:

“Of course, this poor girl was a)an Obama liberal and b) not that up on political history so she would come out of these classes in tears & sick to her stomach from the abuse.”

Well I really tried(I DID too) but I just can’t seem to work up any other response to this than an urge to LOL. An Obama liberal with no grasp of History. Who would’ve thunk it. And I’ll bet she has yet to draw the correct conclusions from her nasty experience. And likely never will.

Feb 3, 2009 - 6:35 am 34. Craig:

26. RE:

21. Craig

Those were our grandparents, Craig. Don’t attempt to take credit for the sacrifices of others. No, this generation has blessed the world with hip-hop and rap. In light of that, I’m surprised they don’t hate us more than they do.

2009-1945= 64 years. I’m giving my ‘grandparents’ the respect they deserve. I suggest you revisit basic math.

Feb 3, 2009 - 6:56 am 35. Gypsy Boots:

I was in London last summer, and there is another side to “anti-Americanism.” Along with the antipathy goes the feeling that only America matters. My wife and I were constantly asked, “What’s American going to do about Georgia? [then in the news].” When we asked, “What’s YOUR government going do to?” we were met by blank stares or shrugs.

Giving up on having a responsible or constructive role in the world frees your public from political responsibility. If it doesn’t really matter what you think or say, why not go to extremes? That’s what’s operating here.

Carol, reminding Brits or other Europeans about American sacrifices doesn’t help–it only makes them guiltier and more mad. It’s precisely BECAUSE they owe their current security and freedom to the American security umbrella during the Cold War that they dislike us. It’s like the dependent adult kid who can’t move out of his parents’ house, but spends all his time ranting against them.

Feb 3, 2009 - 7:20 am 36. Mary Madigan:

Did they ever really like us? Or were we only bearable when they needed us?

We were only bearable when they needed us. Right now, the British government is more closely allied with the UAE and the Saudis than they are with us. The BBC and the Economist are more pro-Wahhabi than al Jazeera. It’s no surprise that Arab/Islamist anti-semitic and anti-American attitudes are permeating some parts of the culture.

This close alliance with Wahhabi/Sunni jihad has put Britain into a very dangerous spot. When Iran and Russia are upset with the Sauds (and with us, since we’re allied with the same scumbags as Britain) they tend to pick on Britain, simply because they can. They know the Brits won’t fight back.

So, Britain currently has to deal with Russian/Iranian bullying as they’re being dragged down by the financial collapse of the Saudi/UAE oil ticks. They made some very bad deals in the past, and they’re suffering the results.

Feb 3, 2009 - 7:42 am 37. Aureliano:

Giving up on having a responsible or constructive role in the world frees your public from political responsibility. If it doesn’t really matter what you think or say, why not go to extremes? That’s what’s operating here.

Carol, reminding Brits or other Europeans about American sacrifices doesn’t help -– it only makes them guiltier and more mad.

This.

Europeans are useless. They know it. The rest of the world knows it. China matters; India matters; America matters. The future is for those who show up for it.

The opinions of the average European are meaningless. Who cares what the denizens of a dead civilization think? Europe is a museum, a land of old buildings, archaic architecture, and empty churches (and heads).

I’m not even sure why they bother going to school. After all, when the meaning of life is to sit around on your bum in drafty old buildings waiting for pension while complaining, complaining, complaining, why bother with reading, writing, and arithmetic?

Geez, these people can’t even get themselves to put the pint down long enough to have a few kids …. Too much trouble, I guess, when there’s so much important complaining and TV watching to do ….

Feb 3, 2009 - 8:20 am 38. Mary Jackson:

Can someone please say how Churchill would be turning in his grave? Go on, don’t disappoint me.

Feb 3, 2009 - 8:31 am 39. spindok:

A whole country shuts down with huge resulting financial losses after 4″ of snow. Ten more inches expected soon. We better send in some carriers and help evacuate the whole island.

I swear I almost spurted coffee on my keyboard when I read about it.

So who cares what they think. If the Brits are too much trouble coupla’ well aimed snowballs oughta send ‘em running for cover.

Spindok

Feb 3, 2009 - 8:44 am 40. Blackwell:

This piece reminds me of the articles in the UK press that make it seem as if all Americans exchange gunfire on the way to work, get mugged at lunch, and lynch someone on the way home.

Been to London four times this year and never an unpleasant word. Very pleasant in fact. I agree with posters above–if you want to hear anti-US sentiments,hang out with the feverish “always mad about somehting” crowd in any country that seem to have no jobs preventing their constant attendance at “spontaneous” well-planned demonstrations.

My oldest daughter walked all over London for weeks in 2007-never a problem. I walked all over with both kids in 2008–no problem. Very nice in fact.

You can experience the same mindless stuff without leaving home: go to almost any campus where the students are in class and people from off campus are 80% of those parading. Many professors in US universities, products of a sterile path to a useless Ph D., drip disdain for the US, not knowing anything of history or the real world. Or just drop by Bill Ayres house in Chicago (the mayor there thinks he’s a great guy) or a church that drew publicity in the campaign. Or better yet, visit a San Francisco Board of Supervisor’s meeting.

This “decline of the West” mentality has been paraded about for decades. But the mindless portion of everyone’s population–here and UK–are people that just aren’t that smart (think “Second front now!”; “All sex is rape!” etc).

And the British seem to be doing just fine. They probably allowed in a few too many problem people, that demonstarte a lot while taking welfare from the British taxpayers (as have we). The Brit taxpayers, like us, are too busy working to go to rallies. That country has always stood with us and we with them: they’ve been a great ally and posters ought to distinguish between the UK and, say, the Belgians or the French.

Feb 3, 2009 - 9:06 am 41. Mary Jackson:

A whole country shuts down

News to me. But what do I know – I only live here.

I could say that all Americans are stupid, semi-literate fools on the basis of the cretinous comments on this piece. But I won’t, because that would be stupid, wouldn’t it.

Feb 3, 2009 - 9:10 am 42. David P:

The United Kingdom is jealous of the United States of America, due to it’s failure & inability to fully integrate their minority immigrant populations into ‘British’ society. They’ve failed to duplicate the model exemplified by the USA, which accommodates religious, social & ethnic differences, yet manages to successfully assimilate all into an ‘American’ character.

Traditionally the USA takes a cultural piece from every citizen and blends it into societies mainstream. The American people thread the various layers of their nation with relics from all lands. Conversely the UK has been blanketed by the values of it’s new arrivals which are swiftly redefining the essence of the ‘mighty’ British Empire.

Feb 3, 2009 - 9:12 am 43. Brian Richard Allen:

Thank you, Ms Gould for reporting your experiences of Londonistan’s pathologically-hesperophobic and morbidly ingrate antisemites.

Born a British subject, still sounding like a cross between Boris Johnson and John Cleese and an aviator for whom the whole world is but a neighborhood, I can vouch for the veracity of your account of the level of hesperophobic hatred — of Americans, of all things American, of our ally, Israel and of the Jews — by pathologically ingrate Brits and by every other kind of Old-Europeon.

That some of these folks may have recently seemed to momentarily “like” the mobbed-up murtadd Muslim Marxist messiah is but a measure of their recognition of his own un-and-anti-Americanism and of his and his spouse’s hatred for us all.

Brian Richard Allen
Los Angeles – CalifUBAMBIcated 90028 and the Far Abroad

Feb 3, 2009 - 9:47 am 44. Taos:

Carol;

The answer to those with hysterical complaints about the US is the following:

The Europeans spent half of the last century slaughtering each other by the tens of millions. Not very smart, was that?
Nazism, communism, fascism – all these philosophies came out of Europe. Not very bright, were they?

Feb 3, 2009 - 9:55 am 45. JoshC:

From reading the comments here it’s pretty clear that some people in the US think that London is representative of the rest of the UK.

It isn’t.

Don’t be fooled by our London-centric media into believing that what happens in London is in any way representative of what happens in the other 90% of the country.

Most people couldn’t give a damn either way about Americans, Israelis, Palestinians or anyone else. Like most people around the world they are too busy getting on with their everyday lives to take much interest in you or them.

Neither are reports of worsening crimes particularly true. Like all countries Britain has neighbourhoods where there is more crime than in other neighbourhoods but most areas are completely safe, particularly outside London.

And Spindok, would it surprise you that everyone outside of London got on with their lives as usual even though we’ve had just as much snow? We’re laughing at the reaction of London to a bit of snow. Everywhere else the transport systems ran normally and everyone went to work as usual.

London is not representative of the UK, just as Washington or New York aren’t representative of the US.

Feb 3, 2009 - 10:21 am 46. Blackwell:

Bryan: its true I don’t care overly much for what much of Europe thinks but I don’t put the British in that category (friends) or the Russians (rather large to ignore), or the Poles (spunky people).

As for “begging” us for help in two world wars, I don’t see it that way at all: neither did FDR who was beside himself with the US isolationists that repeated every error of the British isolationists–thinking that the rise of the Germans as an expansionist power could be ignored while we did business as usual. Begged us? What do you think the result would have been if Germany had knocked off the Brits before we came in? We would have faced them alone, and the USSR might have made a separate peace.

The Japanese ended our indecision, making it possible for us to finally do what FDR knew we had to do–morally to help our ally and for our own good. So Mary Jackson can stop seething, history sees “begging” as helping us realize our own interest. And not a moment too soon. It was very fortunate that the Brits did not make a separate peace which they had every “rational” reason to do.

Feb 3, 2009 - 11:14 am 47. Sheila:

Gosh, so many of you have it wrong, the Brits aren’t jealous of the Americans, if that were true they would not visit in their droves. If there is any animosity toward the “Yanks” it is that it took them so long to enter WW2 and when they did, in 1942, the Brits, Anzacs and Canadians were already exhausted.
No the UK isn’t anti USA, although there is an element of superiority – it is all part of the same culture which has been fed anti-American reportage just as it has been fed anti-Israel garbage. It has come through the sources which are angry at the USA response to 9/11……. and insinuates that they deserved 9/11.
Carol happens to be a Jewess and an American which in the left-wing, high-minded, supercilious world of the supposed intellectuals of left wing journalism, that makes her fair game.

Feb 3, 2009 - 11:22 am 48. kelly k:

Oh, here’s Mary Jackson and Jonesy55, right on schedule, to screech that it’s all not true and that if it is true, it’s probably Carol Gould’s fault.

Seriously, do you two just patrol Pajamas Media waiting for someone to say something–anything–about the UK?

I’ve lived in Ireland and England. I saw exactly what Gould and commenters like Slveryder describe. I’ve even personally been on the end of insane, spittle-flecked rants from complete strangers for no reason other than that they heard my accent. And worse than that was having my Irish and British “friends” ignore the incidents or contribute their own inane, “Well, what do you expect?” justifications.

And I read British newspapers online every day–news and entertainment. Am I really not reading all the anti-American slams I think I’m reading?

There is an enormous well of seething anti-Americanism in the UK, and it’s every bit as irrational and bigoted as Gould describes.

Feb 3, 2009 - 11:36 am 49. Queen:

Carol, everything you said is true.
Americans are as confused as they just can’t get out from their boxes.

I guess they know what you said but they just can’t accept their failures.
They failed before and they’ll always fail. They fail in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq etc… They know it.

Unfortunately they’re not what they think they are. I agree that not all but many of them are anything than racists and absent minded.

I trust Obama will repair and restore their dignity.

Feb 3, 2009 - 11:41 am 50. fred:

They’ve never forgiven us for having to play “The World Turned Upside Down” as they marched out of their earthworks on the Yorktown Peninsula in 1781. Lord Cornwallis had a member of his staff surrender his sword to Gen. Washington and Gen. Rochambeau.

We’re still the knuckledragging hayseeds to these people. I would ignore them. We usually do. I read this article with interest, but then realized that nothing’s changed over there. They hated our boys over there in WWII. Screw ‘em.

Feb 3, 2009 - 12:19 pm 51. fred:

Sheila @47 has it exactly right. Because Britain is now largely Leftist, they behave as Leftists in our own country behave. Arrogant and quite unaware of how ignorant they are.

Feb 3, 2009 - 12:22 pm 52. view from afar:

I agree with Sheila, in reaction to this article, although a bit simplified: the Brit expats here in the SW of France are tolerant of me the lone American, but most walk around politics with me…
Mary Jones, why can’t you see that by fighting with and insulting the Americans you prove them right? And I know you aren’t really like that, at least I’ve read things from you elsewhere where you don’t come off like this here. I’m not sure. Americans are going to believe the American version like Marie Claude( in another article) will believe and defend the French point of view. What is hard for us is the fact that we Americans and you English (not the Brits, that gets dodgy) share the same basic language, culture, and a similar view point towards history, your English culture influenced greatly our young American culture, but we separated officially (about when Kennedy was elected if you want my opinion) and it has gotten ugly since then…

Feb 3, 2009 - 12:30 pm 53. Andrew Lale:

I don’t know which bits of this worry me most- the fact that ‘Christians’ are leading the charge, that historical ignorance is a given or that the hatred is so brutally up-front and fascistic.

Feb 3, 2009 - 12:38 pm 54. Mary Jackson:

We’re still the knuckledragging hayseeds to these people

“These people”? Don’t you see the irony of ranting that Brits generalise about all Americans and then saying “these people”?

If anyone is “screeching” it is Carol Gould. Around three hundred thousand Americans live in the UK – are they all in denial, and is Ms Gould the only one in step?

Feb 3, 2009 - 12:40 pm 55. Anonymous:

The only part I’d quibble with is “all pathetic 260,000 of them, up against 60 million Christians and 2.4 million Muslims.” Should be “all pathetic 260,000 of them, up against 2+ million Christians, 58 million pagans, and 2.4 million Muslims.”

I wouldn’t be the least surprised if there were more Moslems in Englistan than there were committed Christians.

Feb 3, 2009 - 12:44 pm 56. Expat:

I am an expat living in London. One thing that bothers me about England is my sense that it seems easier for the government to monitor and fine law abiding citizens than tackle the problems that the papers cover pretty well. The examples of this are many – and some are pretty funny – as in addition to CCTV cameras everywhere, you can potentially have private citizens with the right to snoop on your recycling, and we may be facing the refrigerator police – who will appear at dinner time to check out your food choices, use of refrigerator, etc. most of my english office mates seem bemused by all this, as any government they elect will do basically the same things. england just feels tired.

And yes, the snow shut down london – no buses ran (per The Times they ran during the blitz and during worse storms in the 60s), and most of the underground lines were shut down. 10% of my office made it to work (and all of those employees drove.) In many ways this week’s storms are a metaphor, faced with a crisis only the people who could drive (act alone) could get through it, anyone relying on government services was SOL. The city government was unprepared and resorted to warning london drivers to carry proper provisions in case they got stuck. The city government had five days warning of the potential storm. Not its finest hour.

Feb 3, 2009 - 12:47 pm 57. L. Graham:

When the Brits need us again (and they will), they will love us again. But with Obama, we may not hear their call. We’ll be too busy helping the Muslims in their country….

Feb 3, 2009 - 1:00 pm 58. kathy:

#49Queen
You might want to go easy on Teh Koolaid, sweetheart.

Feb 3, 2009 - 1:14 pm 59. Bilgeman:

#5 Sylveryder:

“Of course, this poor girl was a)an Obama liberal and b) not that up on political history so she would come out of these classes in tears & sick to her stomach from the abuse.”

Thanks for that, chap, it done made my whole week.

(And folks who deny that God exists refuse also to see the Divine sense of Humor in action there).

Feb 3, 2009 - 1:16 pm 60. Tyler:

I am quite saddened by so many stories of anti-Americanism in Great Britain. I have had the desire to live, work and travel in the UK for years, and have been considering planning a trip to the UK. But if the country is teaming with ravenous, blind hatred toward Americans, it would probably be prudent to set such plans aside for the unforseeable future.

Feb 3, 2009 - 1:20 pm 61. May:

My husband and I go to Britain a few times a year. This May we will go again, but have decided that we will use the trip to bid farewell to our friends there. We will not go back again. The anti-Americanism has become palpable. With the increasing crime rate, there is no longer a “Great” Britain. These are not the peers of our grandparents who defended their land so vigorously against the Nazis. Sad.

Feb 3, 2009 - 1:21 pm 62. Mary Jackson:

Expat – your office aside, the news said one in five Londoners didn’t make it into work. Some of those, like myself, worked at home.

That was one in five Londoners.

London has around ten million people, not all of whom work in offices, or work at all.The UK has around sixty million people.But the idiot above said “the whole country”.

Presumably you, as an expat are, on balance, happy to live here, otherwise why on earth don’t you go home?

Feb 3, 2009 - 1:30 pm 63. Blackwell:

Gee, Fred, Paul Revere, Bunker Hill, battles between US and British frigates etc., are thrilling to read about, and we still do, but tweaking the Lion’s tail went out sometime after the civil war….they sent that neat desk that JFK used, we sent them a spiffed up ship of theirs we found for the Queen’s birthday, they supported us in the Spanish American war, we made Churchill an honorary US citizen, Blair flew here after 9-11, their Queen sang the national anthem, …we still read their older legal cases…don’t let your judgment be colored by a few nuts in the UK that you can find easily enough here…If you want to be treated in a trashy way, and you’re not an attractive woman, go to France.

Feb 3, 2009 - 1:33 pm 64. Athens Rambler:

Mary Jackson and her ilk are the screeching remnants of a dying civilization. They have no guts left to act, even to survive. They are being overrun by a more vigorous, though barbarous, people, and all these poor, gutless saps can do is hate those who refuse to become like them.

Feb 3, 2009 - 1:34 pm 65. Bilgeman:

#40 Blaxkwell:

“This piece reminds me of the articles in the UK press that make it seem as if all Americans exchange gunfire on the way to work, get mugged at lunch, and lynch someone on the way home.”

Ahh, I see that you also have spent some “quality time” in Baltimore.

Fun town…fun,fun town!

” The Brit taxpayers, like us, are too busy working to go to rallies. That country has always stood with us and we with them: they’ve been a great ally and posters ought to distinguish between the UK and, say, the Belgians or the French.”

Hear-hear! Almost to a man, the Limeys I’ve met and worked with have been salt-of-the-Earth, (although also peculiar to an endearing degree).

The ones with an attitude, especially when met on this side of The Water, adjust their attitude lickety-split after getting thumped in the nugget once or twice…just so they no longer harbor any illusions that their unthinking anti-American BS is going to be put up with.

And if they don’t snap out of it, then at least the sodding little buggers now have a REASON to hate Americans. And they go running home to Blighty with a fist-sized crater in their skulls.

But as I said, that’s been the case maybe twice out of dozens and dozens that I’ve known.

Feb 3, 2009 - 1:36 pm 66. Sylvie:

To Carol Gould – Did you say ‘London Town’? soumds a little unfamiliar these days. Thought it was called ‘Londonistan’ needless to say why. They are everywhere, have literaly taken over, and as one of Islam’s better-known said ‘One day the Black flag of Islam will be flying over The Houses of Parliment’. ‘We like it here and we mean to stay’ they say and not a murmur of dissent do we hear. The media is full of it, the’Guardian’, ‘Independent’, name it, of how viscious and cruel Israelis were to those poor people in Gaza while it’s so easy to forget about barbaric suicide-bombings, carnage, blood-shed on the streets of Telaviv and Jerusalem or eight years of rockets flooding into Israeli towns…. Where are the Nelsons, Wellingtons and Churchills of yesterday one needs ask and by the way, where would the Briish have been today if America had not answered the call for help during that Second World War……from a WASP

Feb 3, 2009 - 1:38 pm 67. Mary Jackson:

Where are the Nelsons, Wellingtons and Churchills of yesterday one needs ask and by the way, where would the Briish have been today if America had not answered the call for help during that Second World War

Oh good – the Churchill thing. I knew it was coming.

Well, if Churchill had to beg for help, then he wasn’t much use then, so why are you lamenting the demise of people like him? Perhaps that contradiction is too subtle for most posters on this thread.

America eventually, in the fullness of time, entered the war to save its own skin, not to save Europe. It did so when it was in its own economic and strategic interests to do so, and not a moment before.

Feb 3, 2009 - 1:47 pm 68. Libertyship46:

The biggest mistake America makes is even trying to be nice to foreigners. Their hate is based in envy and jealousy and it will never go away. Even in our darkest historical hours, America was and is still far ahead of these European cesspools. Perhaps economic isolationism does not makes sense these days, but I have no problems with diplomatic isolationism. If the rest of the world wants a democratic form of government, let them fight for it, defend it, and preserve it. We should really be spending more time here at home minding our own business, rather than going around the world and trying to help anybody. We have spent billions of dollars to prevent AIDS in Africa, we have deposed a homicidal dictator in Iraq and given millions of people in that country a shot at democracy, and we’ve defended and liberated millions of Muslims in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Kuwait. And what has it gotten us? More resentment and even more hatred. It’s time to stay home and tell the rest of the world, “Hey, if you can do a better job nurturing and defending democracy, go do it. We’re staying home for a change and letting you people twist in the wind. But when you need us, don’t bother calling us because we’re busy doing what Europeans do best, which is looking out for ourselves.”

Feb 3, 2009 - 1:55 pm 69. Ruebacca:

i feel sorry for the muslims (not really) if there most devoted friends are the English left.

Feb 3, 2009 - 1:56 pm 70. Blackwell:

Sylvie: “…and by the way, where would the Briish have been today if America had not answered the call for help during that Second World War… ”

They’d be just where we would be: wishing that the US had come to its senses before Germany knocked off England, drove Churchill to Canada, took the British fleet and perfected the V-2’s… all while people in the US slept a false sleep thinking it was none of their affair.

Feb 3, 2009 - 2:00 pm 71. Eric R.:

Mary Jackson:

I went over to your blog and liked it. You’re really not all that different politically from most PJMers.

But you have to realize that the bigotry in the UK is far wider than, as you call it, the “BBC/Guardian” Axis.

The Economist was not traditionally a left-wing publication, although they have certainly moved leftward in recent years. Even the wet Tories/New Labour types there are rooting for a second Holocaust against the Jews.

Feb 3, 2009 - 2:59 pm 72. Pajewmas tuba teakettle of fish:

I would like to make a hypothetical suggestion. I know many will disagree with it, but here it is. I believe, if the Jews were to move to, say for instance, Alaska, they would escape most of the demonizing criticism they experience.
Who would Europe have to scapegoat for the actions of militant Islam, then? And would they have the capacity to easily recognize the threat and deal with it effectively? It would be interesting to say the least.

Think about it, how much safer the world be if in fact, if Islam would simmer down as a result. Highly speculative and unlikely, but at least then, we could say we made an honest effort and no doubts about intentions would linger.

Right now, it seems as if there is no sense of pride many young people can be motivated by, for our country (USA) or in Europe, either. Only live for the day, drink, and be merry. The wealthy have long betrayed the common worker. The selfishness of corporate business and wall street has become more despised than militant Islam. The youth are relating to the rebellion, displayed by Islam.

Maybe that’s why President Obama instills the hope, so many have lost. They need someone to pin their hopes on. Regaining their pride will depend upon it.

Feb 3, 2009 - 3:02 pm 73. Matthew:

They failed before and they’ll always fail. They fail in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq etc… They know it.
———-
We’ve failed in Afghanistan and Iraq? Who knew? Last I checked, the Taliban were still out of power and Saddam & his boyz were very much dead.

Unfortunately they’re not what they think they are. I agree that not all but many of them are anything than racists and absent minded.
———-
Why don’t some of you big-mouthed, small-minded Euro-weenies come over here and see for yourselves how we are? You just might be surprised if you experienced the American Way first-hand.

I trust Obama will repair and restore their dignity.
———–
Don’t get your hopes up. That poser is having a hard enough time just assembling an administration. I hope he punishes you limeys by naming ex-Gov. Blago as Ambassador to the U.K. You would definitely suffer.

Feb 3, 2009 - 3:37 pm 74. Mary Jackson:

Eric – yes, I’d include the Economist, but that’s not so influential as The Guardian and BBC. Mind you The Guardian has a tiny circulation compared with The Telegraph, the Daily Mail, The Times and The Sun.

And no, I’m by no means denying that there are problems in the UK – I’ve written about them extensively on my blog. It’s just the wholesale condemnation that annoys me and, in Carol Gould’s case, the seeking out and selective, rather demented reporting.

Feb 3, 2009 - 3:43 pm 75. coniston:

MARY jackson – When Churchill became PM, Europe was laid flat, Germany and the Soviet Union were allies, and America was neutral. The greatness of Churchill was that he was willing to commit the entire resources of the British Empire to a war that HE KNEW THEY COULD NOT WIN.. . Yes, he ‘knew’ that FDR was an intelligent man who help to the extent that he as an executive could. Congress and moderate to strong isolationist Americans were another thing. But Churchill’s decision to wage war was made because there was no other choice except surrender and occupation by the Nazis and THAT he was unwilling to choose. I have lived in London for 18 years and yes there are many things (the post and the low crime rate and the old bank managers being three that I am sad about) that have decayed. Far fewer feel they have any say in their government nor do they feel as safe. The saddest part is we have let the Muslims (especially Bradford) become a state within a state. Not a state with the same levels liberty and equality as in the rest of the UK. A UK where women have few rights, e.g. 54% of Pakistani Brits have consanguineous marriages and the huge birth rate defect (over 150%) to go along with it, Honour killings go unpunished. Children under 16 are removed from school by their parents and sent to Pakistan for arranged marriages. Social services permits this although non-Muslim parents can be jailed for taking their kids out of school for more than two weeks. Women are routinely forced into wearing the hijab, and sons to enter the family business because to refuse would result in complete social ostracism or far worse. It’s a shame.
To Carol – you might remind the angry idiots that, unlike Gordon Brown, the Americans have an elected leader. And given the recent shenanigans in Glenrothes, voting, even without machines, can still go awry. Electoral record gone missing. Heh.

Feb 3, 2009 - 4:11 pm 76. Ex canuck in USA:

I am of the immediate post WW II generation of British born folks who clearly understood that the USA had generously saved their necks twice. For my parents, there were no greater people than Mr. Churchill, Mr. Roosevelt and the King. After living many years in Canada where anti Americanism sustains the national inferiority complex, I am thankful to the United States and my American family for making it possible for me to live here.

Feb 3, 2009 - 5:30 pm 77. Oscar the Grump:

Mary Jackson
We get this kind of reporting from the BBC all the time. Tell me how does it feel to get it right back?

If you follow the BBC, what Carol said is exactly what we see. We don’t have to go there to experience it.

Feb 3, 2009 - 5:50 pm 78. Mary Madigan:

I would like to make a hypothetical suggestion. I know many will disagree with it, but here it is. I believe, if the Jews were to move to, say for instance, Alaska, they would escape most of the demonizing criticism they experience.

Imagine how peaceful the world would be if all of the anti-corporate leftists moved to Antarctica. They would escape the evils of advertising, Starbucks and other capitalist excesses. They could live happy, green, carbon-footprint free lives eating penguin guano and anchovy innards. It’s all natural!

Think about it, how much safer the world be if in fact, if Islam would simmer down as a result

No, Islam would still be attacking Hindus in India, Buddhists in Thailand, and the insufficiently Islamic everywhere.

Feb 3, 2009 - 6:01 pm 79. Oscar the Grump:

Why are you Censoring me?

Feb 3, 2009 - 6:12 pm 80. ex-Democrat:

The UK/Eurotards are just p.o.’d that their lands have been isslamicized into the 1st century.

In 3 generations they’ll be totally gone.

Let’s roll.

Feb 3, 2009 - 7:03 pm 81. Pajewmas tuba teakettle of fish:

“No, Islam would still be attacking Hindus in India, Buddhists in Thailand, and the insufficiently Islamic everywhere.”

The USA isn’t expected to bail them out, though.

As for Alaska. Sorry, sounds like they’re too good for that. Maybe the Hawaiian Islands would suffice. What would you think then, heh? Nice, huh?

Feb 3, 2009 - 7:13 pm 82. Ian:

Most “normal” people in my country(UK) feel closer the the US than the French that live 20 miles away down the channel tunnel.
As a former soldier I have fought along side the US Army and USMC. Our two countries will always stand together when it matters.
People are upset at the moment with the risk to jobs and the fact that for the rest of out lives we will be paying taxes so rich bankers can continue to make profit off the average worker.
Racism of all kinds will get worse in the next few years if the economy doesn’t pick up.
Muslims are hated more than Jews in this country. The last Jewish terrorist attack on the British was just after we had helped free the world of the Nazi’s in the 1940’s. Nice touch that. Very grateful.
Where as the last Muslim attack was 4 years ago.
I’m quite happy for everyone to get along and be British first and whatever religion they fall for second.
People here are mostly apathetic as long as they can go shopping or watch football. Sad but true.

Feb 3, 2009 - 7:30 pm 83. Pat Downing:

Who cares what the citizens of a doomed society think about the United States?

They’re filled with jealousy, as well they should be. All the Brits with guts either emigrated or died on the battlefields of the two world wars.

They haven’t been able to savage their own freedoms after over 1500 years of fighting for it, so they want to blame the first available evidence of their failure : the United States.

Again, I don’t care. You invited in the serpent who will strike you to your heart, Britain, the radicals and foreigners who despise and use you.

How can I feel sorry for a suicide?

Feb 3, 2009 - 8:31 pm 84. sc:

War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength

Feb 3, 2009 - 9:03 pm 85. TexasRacistSexistHomophobe:

Our local high school is named for Winston Churchill.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill_High_School_(San_Antonio,_Texas)

As a result, many of the homes and businesses in the area fly the Union Flag. A British man told me once that there were more Union Flags in my small part of Texas than in all of London. When I asked him how that could be, he said that Brits had come to view their national emblem as something vaguely racist and discredited.

No society can survive that. Britain is not the Britain of Churchill, Marlborough, and Nelson, not the truly GREAT Britain of our American fables anymore. We should grieve as we see our Mother in her spiritual decrepitude.

Oh, I nearly forgot: For those here who know Texans are all a bunch of mindless rednecks …. “Yeeeeeeeehahhhhhhh!”

Feb 3, 2009 - 9:07 pm 86. Ian:

Pat Downing:
They haven’t been able to savage their own freedoms after over 1500 years of fighting for it, so they want to blame the first available evidence of their failure : the United States.

I take it you mean salvage their freedoms?

How are we not free? We invented freedom. We have no written constitution in one document if thats what you mean?
We don’t have the right to bear arms like some states in America but what else can’t we do that you can?
Please

Feb 3, 2009 - 9:27 pm 87. fred:

If people in the U.K. and the rest of Europe wonder why more Americans are tempted to opt for isolationism, COULD YOU BLAME US? If you were in our place and you faced the hatred, envy, and constant criticism that we always get from Europe, wouldn’t you be tempted to just pack it in and only be concerned about your country?

We’re not responsible for the Islamicization of Europe. We did not create the Euro-Arab Dialogue’s protocols at the E.U. When Europe decided, after 1973, to align itself with the Arab League, a key demand from the Arabs was to separate from the U.S. and Israel. And that you have done. You are free to go your own way and far be it from us to want to chain you down. Just don’t insist that we follow your policy lead.

Feb 3, 2009 - 9:37 pm 88. Ian:

Pat Downing:

The UK has been a haven for persecuted people from all over the world and been invaded by just as many.
I am tall with blond hair = Viking?
My wife is short with dark hair = Roman?

Who knows. Who cares.

Isn’t this the point of USA?

Yes we have had a series of bad governments that have let in people who will never be valuable members of society and may want me dead for being a white guy who once went to Church. But we are talking a tiny tiny amount.

Please don’t take this article seriously. London has lots of Arabs and Palestinians who you would expect to take the latest conflict badly and the have the FREEDOM to demonstrate. Just like the Jewish community have done.

I wish they could all just get along and be nice to each other.

Feb 3, 2009 - 9:39 pm 89. Ian:

ex-Democrat:

That will never happen. If it does 63 million non Muslims would need to die here first.

But thanks for the support.

Feb 3, 2009 - 9:42 pm 90. kabud:

russian criminal money are the major reason for it:

kremlin gangsters have 90 years of experience of subverting and infiltrating open societies

today their interests are absolutely the same as interests of OPEC gangsters, who are number 2 in London financial world in volume after kremlins

so the enemy has enormous combined resources to have ANTIAMERICANISM there to any degree they desire

Feb 3, 2009 - 11:20 pm 91. Mary Jackson:

We get this kind of reporting from the BBC all the time. Tell me how does it feel to get it right back?

So you admit that what Gould writes is malicious, deranged, biased drivel? Good, that’s a start.

Feb 4, 2009 - 1:25 am 92. Adrian K:

A Londoner says BRAVO Expat you are so right.

(”it seems easier for the government to monitor and fine law abiding citizens than tackle the problems that the papers cover pretty well.”)

But it shies away in terror from people throwing traffic cones and barriers.

(”And yes, the snow shut down london – no buses ran (per The Times they ran during the blitz and during worse storms in the 60s)”)

That shows how ‘Great Britain’ became Britain and the quality of those who have come in the last 40 years. All those immigrants on welfare and no one to keep the roads clear.

The BBC can, however, sack Carol Thatcher for using the Golliwog word in private while employing Tamimi (Death to the monkey and pigs that are the Jews) and his cronies like Galloway, & Benn.

Its clear that the rest of the world thinks settlement by Jews is unacceptable thus for For us Jewish Brits its off to Israel or the USA (Who won’t have us).
No much choice really, so we better all get supporting Israel before we end up in concentration camps here. Guantanamo will be like Club Med, if they get hold of us.

56. Expat:

I am an expat living in London. One thing that bothers me about England is my sense that it seems easier for the government to monitor and fine law abiding citizens than tackle the problems that the papers cover pretty well. The examples of this are many – and some are pretty funny – as in addition to CCTV cameras everywhere, you can potentially have private citizens with the right to snoop on your recycling, and we may be facing the refrigerator police – who will appear at dinner time to check out your food choices, use of refrigerator, etc. most of my english office mates seem bemused by all this, as any government they elect will do basically the same things. england just feels tired.

And yes, the snow shut down london – no buses ran (per The Times they ran during the blitz and during worse storms in the 60s), and most of the underground lines were shut down. 10% of my office made it to work (and all of those employees drove.) In many ways this week’s storms are a metaphor, faced with a crisis only the people who could drive (act alone) could get through it, anyone relying on government services was SOL. The city government was unprepared and resorted to warning london drivers to carry proper provisions in case they got stuck. The city government had five days warning of the potential storm. Not its finest hour.

Feb 4, 2009 - 3:33 am 93. David H:

I understand where Carol is coming from, she has seen anti-Americanism in the UK and is reporting on what she has seen and been subjected to. I do not ignore or insult what she has written as I used to work for an American company and some of the American expats suffered some of this, though I have to say where Carol works and lives is likely to put her in a much greater risk of this.

And also Mary, Mary understands the Islamic issue very well and a plain speaking Brit, and I would think what is getting to her as it is now just starting to get to me when seeing the anti-British comments by people at Hot Air, I am getting a bit concerned about the number of Americans that seem to think that all Brits are anti-American and that we are all lefties and love to be the playthings of our Islamic masters. Carol is writing reports that allow people to simplistically say that we are beyond help.

The plain fact is that Britain is run by a fairly extreme left government that seems to have deliberately screwed up the UK on so many levels, some of us, myself included see this as destroying Britain as a seperate identity so that it can be swallowed up by the EU super state.

A lot of use are bemused, but some are getting rather angry, certainly the circle I move in are steeming angry, and there is no one it seems who will be able to sort this out.

Anyway, what does it matter any more, Western civilisation is going to go through one of those cleansing periods, I just hope something better comes out of the other side…

Feb 4, 2009 - 5:02 am 94. Jonesy55:

lol, the usual sequence of event has unfolded.

1. A highly slanted, biased and negative article about the UK/Europe is published in the US right-wing media.

2. Droves of right-wing Americans come out spewing bile about Europe, Europeans and how disgusting and doomed they are using all manner of hackneyed stereotypes, rehashed propaganda myths that they have swallowed seemingly without question and general playground-level insults.

3. Those same Americans are then found moaning about how anti-American Europe is. The hypocrisy boggles the mind.

If it wasn’t so funny it would be quite a sad indictment of those posting such rubbish.

Luckily those of us with any sense realise that the denizens of PJM comments sections are not representative of Americans as a whole who are usually very reasonable and friendly people.

Feb 4, 2009 - 5:25 am 95. "gunner":

ian #82,
thanks mate, semper fidelis!
“gunner”

Feb 4, 2009 - 5:31 am 96. james:

Mary’s an idiot. Why should anyone have to leave his own country just because a bloody mob says she should? Did you leave, Mary, when Thatcher was PM?
That being said, however, don’t confuse a pack of rabid anti-Semites with loudspeakers for the British at large. The British will do the right thing in the end. They might have to work through the Chamberlains and Marys in their midst, but they will get there eventually.

Feb 4, 2009 - 7:22 am 97. Mary Jackson:

Why should anyone have to leave his own country just because a bloody mob says she should? Did you leave, Mary, when Thatcher was PM?

What a confused comment. I adore Margaret Thatcher, and think she was the best PM since Churchill.

As to “Why should anyone have to leave,” nobody has to leave. However, if an expat hates their adopted country so much, especially if, as in Ms Gould’s case, she believes she is in mortal danger, then it is very surprising that they don’t leave.

Perhaps, though, if Ms Gould did go back to America, her main source of income would dry up, deriving as it does from gratuitous and obsessive Brit-bashing.

Feb 4, 2009 - 7:53 am 98. David H:

96. James, Mary is far from an idiot, she had been writing and debating about Islam for some time. I think you will find that Mary is closer to Churchill then Chamberlain.

And your last sentence is spot on, so you seem to be getting the message.

94. Jonsey55, off you go again, the bile your rally against is largely disappointent and hurt. And I can’t say I blame them though it does get a bit wearing…

Feb 4, 2009 - 8:07 am 99. David H:

“That being said, however, don’t confuse a pack of rabid anti-Semites with loudspeakers for the British at large.”

That is what I agree with in 96.

Feb 4, 2009 - 8:09 am 100. Jonesy55:

David H

Doesn’t look like ‘disappointment and hurt’ to me. Many commenters can barely conceal their glee whenever they hear about something negative in Europe.

It’s as if they think that when Europe sometimes differs from the US in its opinions and policies, this is unacceptable (they saved our asses don’t forget so how dare we not agree to follow everything they do for ever more) and so they wish us ill.

That’s why they come out with ‘worst-case scenario’ predictions which they paint as facts set in stone and propagate misinformation along the lines of ‘Europe will be 90% muslim within 5 years’, ‘crime in europe is skyrocketing’, ‘public services in europe are falling apart’, ‘european economies are collapsing’, ‘all europeans are anti-semites who want a second holocaust’ etc etc ad naseum ad infinitum.

This is just wishful thinking on their part, they desperately want it to be true so that they can say ‘told you so, that’s what you get for not copying the USA’. Thus they cling onto, twist and blow out of proportion every piece of bad news they can lay their hands on while ignoring everything else.

These people have their equivalents in Europe who do the same thing with the US of course and they are no less ignorant, and I’m not defending them by any means.

Europe has problems as does every country and continent on earth. Europe will work through those problems and continue to improve as it has in the past.

Feb 4, 2009 - 9:08 am 101. Thomas:

I share the author’s sentiments about those of my countrymen who speak and behave as she describes.

But I would point out that to chastise all Americans for the idiotic rantings of Code Pink, Michael Moore and the ‘anti-war’ left would be utterly illegitimate. It is a very select portion of British society that she has focused on.

It is true that anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism have grown in recent years. But it is equally true that most of this growth has been in the intensity with which the radicals express themselves. American readers should note the story about the BBC callers with interest. The BBC has been taken over by the radical left, and is commonly referred to as al-Beeb these days. Notwithstanding this, anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism are both extremely low compared to European countries.

Feb 4, 2009 - 9:42 am 102. Thomas:

93.I wholeheartedly agree David. I find myself alarmed at how easily the American right is swept along with an alarmist view of Britain as becoming a ‘Dhimmi state’. The reality is nothing like this, and in fact if such views prevail on the American right they will end up pushing away their closest ally. I find it quite insulting actually.

Feb 4, 2009 - 9:51 am 103. Thomas:

And for my third post I would like to draw readers attention to this 2005 study of anti-semitism on Europe, made by the ADL. You will note that the UK is at or near the bottom in terms of anti-Semitic answers with respect to every question. In fact, it is highly interesting to note that the UK,Denmark and Holland score very lowly in anti-Semitic attitudes, and then to reflect on who is doing the fighting in Afghanistan.

Warning: this is a big file. Tables 2 and 3 are particularly significant, showing –

‘Jews have too much power in the business world’ UK: 14%, Germany 20%, France 25%
‘Jews have too much power in finance’ UK: 16%, France 24%, Germany 24%

http://www.adl.org/anti_semitism/european_attitudes_may_2005.pdf

Feb 4, 2009 - 9:58 am 104. David H:

“It’s as if they think that when Europe sometimes differs from the US in its opinions and policies, this is unacceptable (they saved our asses don’t forget so how dare we not agree to follow everything they do for ever more) and so they wish us ill.”

ANS – Some Amercians have that view and Mary has pointed out on a number of replies that the USA joined the war after 2 years when attacked by Japan. Its a simplistic view and annoying, but without lend lease and especially those 50 destroyers we would have been toast.

“That’s why they come out with ‘worst-case scenario’ predictions which they paint as facts set in stone and propagate misinformation along the lines of ‘Europe will be 90% muslim within 5 years’, ‘crime in europe is skyrocketing’, ‘public services in europe are falling apart’, ‘european economies are collapsing’, ‘all europeans are anti-semites who want a second holocaust’ etc etc ad naseum ad infinitum.”

ANS – on current demographics Europe will be majority Muslim long before the end of this century, in 2015 25% of young adults in France will be Muslims. Crime is skyrocketing, rape is up hugely especially in high immigrant areas and radical areas where Muslims act as colonizers are all over the place, I had some friends in Ilford who were forced out of the Muslim area. Public services are not collapsing but the high levels of expenditure on a weakening economic performance can not be sustained, let alone with a growing dependent population. Jobs in manufacturing are declining, same is happening in the USA, even in Germany.

The view that all Europeans are anti-Semites really annoys me, its not true.

“This is just wishful thinking on their part, they desperately want it to be true so that they can say ‘told you so, that’s what you get for not copying the USA’. Thus they cling onto, twist and blow out of proportion every piece of bad news they can lay their hands on while ignoring everything else.”

ANS – I really think that there is a feeling that the Europeans have lost their way, but the USA is following in their footsteps, we have lost our way, I see national institutions like the Police now a laughing matter, a Parliment that is a rubber stamp factory to laws made elsewhere, of course they can see the decline.

“These people have their equivalents in Europe who do the same thing with the US of course and they are no less ignorant, and I’m not defending them by any means.”

ANS – like calling Americans thick and rednecks, its rubbish, the best most sophisticated blogs are written by Americans, and a lot of rubbish ones too. And the stupidity of people to not even realise that Bush tried to prevent a world war by showing the Muslim world what freedom and democracy is and taught them a lesson about Al Queda and their approach and methods, this will take some time to come through, if at all, but I certainly understand the deep strategy in trying to break the log jam as compared to the European Status quo that would continue to get worse until breaking point is reached.

“Europe has problems as does every country and continent on earth. Europe will work through those problems and continue to improve as it has in the past.”

ANS – We are not improving, we are getting worse, economically, wealth, education, crime and basic morals, if you think that the EU is going to improve things then of course you will be disappointed how can only one respect such a fundementally anti-democratic system as that that has not had its accounts signed off on for years is beyond me.

But this simplistic Europe deserves what they are going to get annoys me, some Europeans deserve what they are going to get, but not all of them, the same could be said of some Americans, people like Pelosi and her ilk.

Feb 4, 2009 - 10:19 am 105. David H:

102. Yes I am getting close to Mary’s point of view in attacking this the British are dead dhimmis, yes if we continue down the road we are now yes, but not if NuLabour get kicked out and Cameron soon after. All my friends support Israel for example. Sometimes I think it is lefties stirring up problems but one of my own clients who is a Republican expressed these views the other day to me, I realised then that we need to make sure that people like me and you are heard.

In the Brussels Jorunal there is a great series which in article 6 breaks down the populatin the West as being 60 million who think like us with perhaps 200 million who could shake of their conditioning and this includes the USA in that number.

So my Europe hating friends, what do you say about that, read it all if you dare?

http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/3775

Feb 4, 2009 - 10:25 am 106. Carol Gould:

As some of you think I overstate the anti-Americanism I encounter on an almost daily basis even post-Obama-euphoria, I had dinner last night with an American expat who, after twenty years over here is planning a return to the USA because of the intolerable anti-Americanism at which she is at receiving end. Sadly she has a particular problem with a British client who is forever berating her about the British boys being forced to die in Iraq and Afghanistan due to America bullying Britain into criminal wars.

By the way, she is a sweet-natured, very beautiful American lady but we were treated like scum by two separate black cabbies last night. We tried to use every ounce of female charm to beg them not to leave us in puddles or on giant ice patches when there were dry patches elsewhere, but to no avail, they scowled at us and just grumbled ‘This is where you get out, alright?’ Maybe they just hated women or were in a bad mood but then Brits go to Washington, Philadelphia, Chicago or — for that matter — Toronto — I am told they are treated as special because they are ‘Britishers.’

Feb 4, 2009 - 11:27 am 107. TexasRacistSexistHomophobe:

Maybe I was too hasty in saying that Britain had lost it’s “Great”. After all, before 9/11 most of us thought Tony Blair was just “Clinton without the girlfriends”, then we learned he was really “Bush without the speech impediment”.

Feb 4, 2009 - 11:49 am 108. Sara123:

The Left thrives on “us against them.” This shows the acendancy of the Left in Europe and the US. Tolerance, my ass.

Feb 4, 2009 - 12:05 pm 109. Mary Jackson:

106 – And yet you’re still here. Amazing, isn’t it?

Yeah, yeah, they left you in a giant ice patch solely because you’re American. Yeah, yeah.

Feb 4, 2009 - 12:07 pm 110. David H:

Carol Gould as I said in a previous thread I do not doubt that you have suffered from this, though your do work in an area where you are more likely to be exposed to it. I have friends who suffered some of this abuse. The problem is that there are many Brits like me who see Americans as largely our friends and respect the USA, there are aspects of the USA I do not like but generally I found Americans generous and friendly people, the problem is that people like me do not have our voices heard and we are not seen.

It may well be that the cab driver was an ignorant berk and would do that to everyone, I hope you had a chance not to tip the jerk. I think more likely that this cab incident is down to the decline in the standard levels of decency and respect that Britain has had, I hope you had not already tipped him.

107. Blair was an earlier version of Obama, its quite rich that the one time he showed any moral back bone, it destroyed him…

Feb 4, 2009 - 12:13 pm 111. Mary Jackson:

Possibly the Black Cab driver got a bit bored listening to this American princess bang on about how bad things are over here and how great things are over there and how much better the Yellow Cab drivers are. He’s only human, after all.

Feb 4, 2009 - 1:20 pm 112. Taos:

Jonsey;

My mother, a Spanish ex-pat, reads the websites of some major Spanish newspapers. All of them headline the most negative news of America – a serial rapist in NYC, unemployment statistics, drug use going up in some city or other, corruption, and numerous minor bad happenings that rational foreigners couldn’t possibly care about. The wording of the articles is distorted to make it seem as awful as possible. Rarely, is anything positive about the US presented. There’s actually more focus on American bad news than bad happenings in Spain.

If I were a Spaniard and this was my media, I’d probably be anti-american too.

Feb 4, 2009 - 1:50 pm 113. Steve R:

Ian – Semper Fi, worked with some Brit Royal Marines while I was in, and I must say they are some tough SOB’s. Course, most American Marines are in their late teens/ early twenties and still skinny as sticks while it seemed most of the RM’s were mid-twenties to thirties with an extra twenty five pounds of muscle

I wish we could all get over the whole us versus them mentality when it comes to comparing our nations. I have no doubt that Mary loves her country and is defending it, as I do when the U.S. is denigrated. There are millions of good people in every country, most of whom sit silently by and go about their business while the leftist rant, rave and riot. As for me, if you believe in freedom, equality, and standing up for what is right, then I’d be proud to call you friend no matter what country you are from. It is concerning to see the rash of anti-americanism, anti-zionism, anti-capitalism coming out of the mainstream press, but it is by no means confined to any country on this planet. In the words of one of the fathers of the U.S., we must all hang together or we will surely hang seperately. This will be especially true in the near future, when our governments seem hell bent on pandering to the loudest amongst us, and the MSM has lost any sense whatsoever of objectivity.

Sorry for any mispellings, <—– hehe, I’m just a dumb grunt.

Steve R

Feb 4, 2009 - 2:04 pm 114. Oscar the Grump:

Texas,
Yeeehahhhh!

Mary Jackson,
You Brits s’ck. You go around with an air of superiority that really hides your insecurities. You can’t fathom the success of this former colony.
Maybe you should withdraw all your troops from Iraq and Afganistan. You’ll need them to fight the Moslems in your own country. Guest what in that event, I would bet on the Moslems. You haven’t been able to fight an effective war since you lost to Zulus in South Africa. You’ll probably come crying to us to liberate you from those nasty Moslems.

Feb 4, 2009 - 2:52 pm 115. Blackwell:

This is hilarious. I don’t know any country where you won’t attract some abuse for being an American. Its been that way for at least 40 years if not more. And it is irritating: who wants to explain to someone in Norway that’s never been to the US–or anywhere else–and is indifferent to whether his country can resist an invader “why” we have a big airforce (”so we won’t have to send troops here to rescue you again”), why we elected George Bush (”because he was better than Gore or Kerry”), and why we own guns. And the easiest thing to do is say “yeah that Bush” and go on with what you’re doing.

But to the extent such sentiments exist in the UK, its minimal compared to other places. I don’t think I am “wishing” this. Everyone’s always been nice to me in London. I think you’ll get more anti-US grief in San Francisco. In Santa Monica few would even put a Bush sticker on their car even though lots of Bush supporters live there.

Taos has a great point: we tend to think every other country ignores us as much as we tend to ignore them but it isn’t so. And like all media–all media–they tend to reprint the big story. Not that 300 million people liive ehre largely harmoniously, but every gunfight, big accident etc is played up. I don’t recognize the place when I am away.

Maybe its different if you live there and become immersed in a particular business (like Hollywood here), but of all the places you can travel and not be hassled, Britain’s the place to go.

PS: Oscar, you really are a Grump. You could get into a fight in an elevator alone. The US values the help of every British soldier.

Feb 4, 2009 - 3:59 pm 116. Eric R.:

Carol,

Just so it may stop some sniping at you on future posts, can you tell us what it would take for you to think that anti-Semitism or anti-Americanism had become so severe that you would be forced to leave and go back to the States (or on to Israel)?

What is the proverbial “line in the sand” for you that, when crossed, would make you realize that things have passed the point of no return?

Maybe this can seriously be your next PJM piece.

Feb 4, 2009 - 4:21 pm 117. Spindok:

(41) Mary Jackson writ;

“(me) “A whole country shuts down”

(you) News to me. But what do I know – I only live here.

I could say that all Americans are stupid, semi-literate fools on the basis of the cretinous comments on this piece. But I won’t, because that would be stupid, wouldn’t it.”

———————————

1 billion GBP in losses after 4″ of snow?

Share my commute tomorrow darlin’. I start before it gets light so get a good nights sleep Dress warm.

Us semi-literates are still at least semi.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/af8a9f48-f194-11dd-8790-0000779fd2ac.html

I dont know where you work or what you do. But where I am we are near shut down, except for needed services, when 1:5 doesnt come to work. Nobody has that kind of redundancy anymore.

A critical hub might consist of 1 or 2 people in an operation (say a hospital…the only IT person who can get the lab computers to run when it doesnt work right, which happens every day…) without whom the other 20 or 2000 cant do their jobs properly.

Here we accept that some might be late coming in on certain days. Everyone is expected to show up eventually or pretty much die trying.

You have to expect that those of us who live with this near 1/2 the year are going to poke fun.

Bundle up dear.

Spindok

Feb 4, 2009 - 5:25 pm 118. Oscar the Grump:

Blackwell,
I did get into a fight in an elevator alone. I still don’t know if I won or lost.
By the way, I like your point of view. However, grump grump, grump……

Feb 4, 2009 - 5:40 pm 119. Mary Jackson:

Spindok – a whole country?

Learn to read and learn to count. Dear.

Don’t try to learn sarcasm or irony.

Feb 4, 2009 - 7:02 pm 120. Mary Jackson:

What is the proverbial “line in the sand” for you that, when crossed, would make you realize that things have passed the point of no return?

Good question. And you will never get an answer. Carping is how this self-indulgent, whiney, thin-skinned princess makes her living.

Feb 4, 2009 - 7:08 pm 121. Mario:

I haven’t experienced the kind of in-your-face anti-Americanism that Gould has experienced (the worst I’ve ever encountered is right here in the USA itself), but based on my many readings of British media as well as my travels around the world AND opinion polls, the British as a whole are the most anti-American in the west. Perhaps that is why a former news correspondent for the BBC felt compelled to start an organization called http://americaintheworld.typepad.com/home/ to combat rabid anti-Americanism spread by the british media and elites. I wish him luck!

Feb 4, 2009 - 7:25 pm 122. kenny darter:

Plenty of hate to go around in this fiasco, huh? http://hateonme.com

Feb 4, 2009 - 8:09 pm 123. Anonymous:

“who wants to explain to someone in Norway that’s never been to the US–or anywhere else–… why we own guns.”

Do you realise how ridiculous that sounds when Norway has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in Europe? I think only Switzerland and Finland are higher and the figure is not that different to the USA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_politics_in_Norway

Instead of just regurgitating tired cliches about Europe, why not actually find out about the subject you are opining on?

Feb 4, 2009 - 11:36 pm 124. Anonymous:

“ANS – Some Amercians have that view and Mary has pointed out on a number of replies that the USA joined the war after 2 years when attacked by Japan. Its a simplistic view and annoying, but without lend lease and especially those 50 destroyers we would have been toast.”

Yes, and we are grateful but was the price of that help that we must agree with everything the US does for ever more? If it was then it was not an act of friendship.

“ANS – on current demographics Europe will be majority Muslim long before the end of this century, in 2015 25% of young adults in France will be Muslims. Crime is skyrocketing, rape is up hugely especially in high immigrant areas and radical areas where Muslims act as colonizers are all over the place, I had some friends in Ilford who were forced out of the Muslim area. Public services are not collapsing but the high levels of expenditure on a weakening economic performance can not be sustained, let alone with a growing dependent population. Jobs in manufacturing are declining, same is happening in the USA, even in Germany.”

On a simplistic extrapolation of current birthrates then yes, maybe that would be the case but if you look at trends in fertility rates then it is probably not the case. The fertility rate of Tunisian women in France has fallen every year since 1980, third generation bangladeshi women in the UK have a fertility rate 60% lower than first generation bangladeshis and immigration from majority muslim countries is a fraction of what it was in the 60s and 70s.

As for crime, some is raising, some is falling, some parts of europe are better than others but the overall trend is down. Murder rates in Europe remain some of the lowest in the world and for other violent crimes many parts of Europe are also among the safest in the world. Property crime is down almost everywhere as is the case in the US

From the latest International Crime Victimisation Survey:

“Among all countries participating in the ICVS since 1989,
there are 15 developed countries about which information is available
from at least four different sweeps, enabling an analysis of trends in crime
over the last 10 or 15 years. The average for the 15 countries shows that the
level of victimisation has peaked halfway the 1990s and has since shown a
slow but steady decline. Victimisation rates of nearly all individual countries
show the same curve-linear curve over the past 15 years. The drops
are most pronounced in property crimes such as vehicle-related crimes
(bicycle theft, thefts from cars and joyriding) and burglary. In most countries,
crime levels in 2004 are back at the level of the late 1980’s. The USA
has acted as trend setter with levels of victimisation already declining in
the second sweep of the ICVS in 1992.”

Economically GDP per capita in Europe has increased at roughly the same rate as the USA over the past decade and a half after several decades where Europe rapidly caught up with America. Some countries have done better than others of course but overall there is no great decline vs the US on this measure. Unemployment has been falling rapidly until recently, the EU rate is now not very much higher than the US rate, inflation is under control across the continent and don’t forget that democracy is now firmly entrenched in many countries which two or three decades ago were authoritarian dictatorships from Lisbon to Athens to Warsaw.

As for manufacturing jobs, yes, much has been outsourced and this is not wise but that’s no reason to hate on Europe, the US and other developed western countries have done exactly the same, indeed some European countries like Germany have done a better job of growing their manufacturing and export sectors than most.

“The view that all Europeans are anti-Semites really annoys me, its not true.”

No, it’s not true but it doesn’t stop the accusation being constantly repeated.

“ANS – I really think that there is a feeling that the Europeans have lost their way, but the USA is following in their footsteps, we have lost our way, I see national institutions like the Police now a laughing matter, a Parliment that is a rubber stamp factory to laws made elsewhere, of course they can see the decline.”

There is certainly less deference to institutions like the police or parliament and people are much more ready to criticise but I wonder how much of that is really due to declining performance of those institutions and how much is just due to cultural change. As I said, Europe like everywhere has issues and challenges to face but they are surmountable and solvable.

“ANS – like calling Americans thick and rednecks, its rubbish, the best most sophisticated blogs are written by Americans, and a lot of rubbish ones too. And the stupidity of people to not even realise that Bush tried to prevent a world war by showing the Muslim world what freedom and democracy is and taught them a lesson about Al Queda and their approach and methods, this will take some time to come through, if at all, but I certainly understand the deep strategy in trying to break the log jam as compared to the European Status quo that would continue to get worse until breaking point is reached.”

Well, I’m not sure that this strategy will work but then we can just disagree on that. There is certainly no need to insult Americans as some Europeans do but I see just as much insult flying the other way.

“ANS – We are not improving, we are getting worse, economically, wealth, education, crime and basic morals, if you think that the EU is going to improve things then of course you will be disappointed how can only one respect such a fundementally anti-democratic system as that that has not had its accounts signed off on for years is beyond me.”

I would say that in many ways we are improving, in some ways we are not but that is the nature of progress, three steps forward and two back.

As for the EU, it sure has its faults but it’s not as totalitarian and undemocratic as its critics like to paint and to put the accounts thing in perspective, the UK Department of Work and Pensions has also had its accounts qualified for years on end and it spends about 20 times as much UK taxpayers money as the EU does. The criticisms the auditors make of the EU usually revolve around the national institutions spending the money the EU doles out to them rather than fraud at the EU itself.

“But this simplistic Europe deserves what they are going to get annoys me, some Europeans deserve what they are going to get, but not all of them, the same could be said of some Americans, people like Pelosi and her ilk.”

Exactly, when I see inane and emotive comments like ‘Europeans invited the snake into their heart and now they deserve to perish’ when talking about muslims for example it is ludicrous.

It’s not as if the wise USA foresaw problems with Islamism in the 50s and 60s and so decided not to have as many muslim immigrants as stoopid Europe. It is just that they had a much closer and more convenient source of cheap labour in Latin America and the Carribean.

In any case, the US has and does invite immigration from the muslim world just like Europe does. Low end estimates put the US muslim population at 0.5% of the population (similar to somewhere like Portugal) while upper end estimates like the ones they always use when talking about Europe, put the US muslim population at around 2.5% (similar to the UK or Germany). So even if you believe that all muslims are seditious threats to society (which I don’t), there is no room for Americans to wallow in Schadenfreude.

Feb 5, 2009 - 12:12 am 125. Anonymous:

“My mother, a Spanish ex-pat, reads the websites of some major Spanish newspapers. All of them headline the most negative news of America – a serial rapist in NYC, unemployment statistics, drug use going up in some city or other, corruption, and numerous minor bad happenings that rational foreigners couldn’t possibly care about. The wording of the articles is distorted to make it seem as awful as possible. Rarely, is anything positive about the US presented.”

Reverse the roles and the same is true. Especially on sites like this, there is a constant flow of stories about Europe and Europeans (strange considering how most US commenters here claim not to give a hoot what Europe thinks or does), and virtually all of them are extremely negative.

On the odd occasion that something remotely positive gets reported like Carol’s recent piece on the hospital treatment her friend received, she is almost universally condemned as a traitor/commie/idiot. It’s as if many right-wing Americans simply can’t bring themselves to believe that anything positive could possibly happen in the blighted ‘old continent’ that their forefathers struggled to break away from.

Feb 5, 2009 - 12:20 am 126. Anonymous:

Spindok,

If you experience those conditions for half the year every year then you’d expect to be prepared for it, I’ve read in the past though about Southern US cities having the same problems with a couple of inches of snow.

The southern UK has a mild maritime climate and when you add in the urban heat island effect, heavy snow in London is very rare indeed so it’s not going to be as prepared as Minneapolis or Montreal.

Jonesy55

Feb 5, 2009 - 12:24 am 127. David H:

113. Well said and thanks for your work on our behalf.

121. I wish him luck to, there are a lot of Americans who are the same (like poster 113) as those American paratroopers crossing the Rhine to save British soldiers trapped at Arnhem, that that sit there calling people like me dhimmi fools should understand that the issue is not a nationalistic one.

Personally I see a segment of our population being on the right side and another segment being on the wrong side, it is a straight forward ideological battle which we are presently losing, its nothing to do with being a Brit, an American, a European, French. etc., its all to do about whether you believe in representative democracy and unfettled freedom of expression and choice and those that do not.

Nationalism is a false cloak unless you want to talk about communities at a micro level, I am a Brit living in France and I would vote for Geert Wilders if I could.

Last night on TF1 the main French government new, we had one of those typical reports on Neo Nazi’s in Germany, as if they were some threat, and no mention is made of the extreme left in France that are close to starting their campaign, did Neo Nazi’s try to derail a number of TGV’s, nope, th extreme left but nothing about them.

I keep refering to Sarkozy as Sarkozy the Socialist, do you know why, well read this The Socialist UMP at

http://galliawatch.blogspot.com/

Then read this:

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Radical_Socialist-Party

And then you will understand just how crazy it is in Europe, we have a choice between extreme left and soft left or perhaps between two warring parties of the left, what hope is there when you cannot find anyone who can represent your views, take Cameron in the UK, I couldn’t vote for him, neither could I vote for the Socialist BNP even if they are right about Islam, what can a poor democracy supporting, freedom of expression supporting person do? Vote for the one most likely to do the least amount of damage, problem is they are all doing the same anount of damage, in truth would McCain been any better than Obama in terms of immigration, the answer is no!

If you people are foolish enough to believe that the BBC is representative of a large segment of the Brits then you are an idiot pure and simple, its like saying that Keith Olberman is representative of all Americans.

120. Mary, how difficult is it to move, she has lived here since the 70’s, she has built up her pension her contacts and her business, could you in all honesty just uproot yourself like that, Carol is likely to be in her 50’s at a guess and in her previous post she explained that she was not exactly wealthy, which means that returning to the USA is a very difficult decision to make.

Feb 5, 2009 - 12:24 am 128. Carol Gould:

Mario,
Robin Oakley, London Bureau Chief at CNN, told a gathering of expat Americans in early 2008 that his esteemed colleague Walter Rodgers used to come in to the office almost in tears because of the anti-Americanism he encountered ‘in the street.’ Walt finally went back to the USA last year. Robin also told us that CNN long ago removed its logo from its vans because of abuse and fear of out-and-out attacks.
The movie ‘In Bruges’ is an accurate depiction of how virulent and visceral anti-Americanism can be in Europe and the UK.
A school friend of mine was in the US Navy Reserve and was deployed to London a few days after 9/11. She had dinner with me when she arrived and told me one of her senior colleagues had been at the receiving end of abuse just going out to buy a Mars bar from a kiosk near Grosvenor Square. It was recommended that personnel not be in uniform ‘when going out in London.’
For those of you who think I am ‘demented’ please note my neighbours witnessed my Pakistani neighbours arriving home from work on 9/11 and laughing their heads off. A friend and I were watching the events unfold on TV and I popped my head out of the window; the laughing family shouted, ‘You got it in the neck — about time, too!’ My other neighbours were, to their credit, nonplussed.
And of course who can forget the former US Ambassador Phil Lader being reduced to tears when he appeared on BBC ‘Question Time’ on September 13, 2001 by a foot-stomping, shouting studio audience? And how can I forget the elderly Scotsman in his seat a few yards from me, saying ‘Next time I hope it is 3 million, not 3,000′ on an ITN presentation hosted by Jonathan Dimbleby after 9/11 ?
Incidentally, those on this blog who say I seem to spend my time going to hostile rallies: this is my job, folks. I also appear on Sky News and the BBC as well as awaiting the release of two books whilst I write a third and fourth.
I am flattered to be regarded by some of you as ‘demented’ because the brilliant Melanie Phillips is known as ‘Mad Mel’ by the Left in Britain and abroad. Notwithstanding this she continues to go from strength to strength in the Daily Mail and Spectator, as well as being a household name on TV and radio. We madwomen seem to be in demand!

Feb 5, 2009 - 12:48 am 129. Jonesy55:

Carol,

So how do you explain the experiences of the other Americans posting here who have never encountered the sort of behaviour and attitudes that you do dozens of times each day? What is the difference between you and them?

and what do you think about the anti-European attitudes displayed by so many Americans (on this forum for example)? Or do you maintain that it is purely one-way traffic?

I know that it is your job to attend such rallies and other events but that is ultimately a personal choice.

Feb 5, 2009 - 1:36 am 130. Mary Jackson:

Mary, how difficult is it to move, she has lived here since the 70’s, she has built up her pension her contacts and her business, could you in all honesty just uproot yourself like that, Carol is likely to be in her 50’s at a guess and in her previous post she explained that she was not exactly wealthy, which means that returning to the USA is a very difficult decision to make.

If it were truly as bad as she makes out then she would. For goodness sake, she compared London to Sderot, and, if you believe her, encounters constant abuse and threats wherever she goes. Is it worth staying, just for a pension, which she says has gone belly up anyway. And if she’s as good a journalist as she makes out – I can’t see it myself – then she could make it over there.

The fact is that the imagined slights she “suffers” in the UK are her bread and butter, and because she writes mostly for an American audience who don’t know any better, they go unchallenged. It wouldn’t pay her to go back home and miss out on this misery market.

Feb 5, 2009 - 2:10 am 131. roGER:

Something carol never seems to consider is whether her personality has anything to do with the extraordinary levels of hostility she seems to encounter in Britain.

Feb 5, 2009 - 2:30 am 132. Mary Jackson:

Carol Gould is the original girl who cried wolf. One of these days she’s going to run into some real anti-Americanism and won’t be believed.

By the way, if she’s so poor, what’s she doing riding around in Black Cabs?

Feb 5, 2009 - 3:11 am 133. Eric R.:

Carol and Mary Jackson aren’t fooling anyone.

They meet weekly for 4 o’clock tea and crumpets and have a good laugh about all this.

Feb 5, 2009 - 3:26 am 134. Jonesy55:

Eric,

Don’t you mean cous-cous and mint tea? lol

Feb 5, 2009 - 4:10 am 135. Eric R.:

Mary Jackson:

Your constant chastising Carol on this thread for comparing London to Sderot actually bolsters her case, not yours.

After all, you don’t see the people of Sderot fleeing, do you?

Feb 5, 2009 - 4:21 am 136. David H:

130. I don’t know if that is true, sometimes you keep at it because making a clean break is even scarier, I did a clean break thing myself by staying in France when the company I was working for as an ex-pat closed all its offices in Europe following 9/11, but I had a kick and a reason to do that, but doing it when in London was too difficult.

Also her job puts her in that position, she is in the Media in the UK, which is satuated with lefties and anti-Americans and she does not hide her views (roGER 131. would you be able to go and interview some of these fanatics, I wouldn’t having already had death threats from Islamics by the way?), so of course she is going to get it to a greater degree.

I wish however that Carol would be more specific on who these people are however giving us a clue to their political leaning or religious leanings rather than making it so general, at least above she focussed on the conditioned youngsters who go to such rallies. And also if Carol could also talk about some of the people who are supportive of the US and Israel, I am sure she meets some, I for one would be rather happier.

As for Anti-European Americans using this type of article to say we deserve it, should I base all my feelings about America on Keith Olberman, or those attending anti-Israel rallies in New York and SF, or the Media as a whole, or the current leadeship of the USA, such as Ms Powers sent to help and hinder Clinton. Yes the conditioning is so much further advanced in Europe, but I would hope that the American right would feel sorry for those of us that are not like that and help us rather than telling us that we are toast, so are you if you think like that, now lets stop feeling sorry for ourselves and start working together, things are coming to a head now.

Feb 5, 2009 - 4:29 am 137. Mary Jackson:

After all, you don’t see the people of Sderot fleeing, do you?

It’s their home. It’s where they were born. Carol Gould chose to come here and chose to remain here. Can’t you see, in any case, that the comparison is absurd, like comparing Israel to the Nazis or something?

As to tea and crumpets, Ms Gould would probably read into it some dreadful slur about the Boston tea party and take offence.

Feb 5, 2009 - 5:01 am 138. David H:

Scones cream and jam are better!!

Feb 5, 2009 - 5:43 am 139. Jonesy55:

Yes, just make sure it’s clotted cream and strawberry jam, mmmmm.

http://cakes-direct.co.uk/images/creamteas.jpg

Feb 5, 2009 - 6:07 am 140. Mary Jackson:

“Beg pardon, I’m soiling the doileys
With afternoon tea-cakes and scones”

Maybe Ms Gould said “serviette” instead of “napkin”, in which case it is not surprising that all of England has taken against her.

Feb 5, 2009 - 6:38 am 141. mags:

Hating U.S foreign policy is different then hating all Americans.

Some in the U.K resent the support given to I.R.A terrorists.Bars in Boston had drinks called,’kill a brit’ and ‘carbomb’.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provisional_IRA_arms_importation

The U.S allowed them to fund raise provided political cover and gave them the biggest platform-The Whitehouse.

Wouldn’t extradite wanted I.R.A terrorists.

So ’shoulder to shoulder’, ‘your with us or you are a terrorist’ does not sit well here and for good reason.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE7D6113AF93AA1575AC0A962958260.

One of the first things Tony Blair was asked on 9/11,was,’do you think Americans will now see what terrorism is like and stop funding it’.

There is genuine reasons for people in the U.K to resent America.

Feb 5, 2009 - 7:15 am 142. sam:

I must say, after reading through all the comments on this board, some with which I agree , some with which I dont, I still enjoyed, if i can say that about this subject matter, the discussion. However, the only, only, down side was Mary Jackson. Nasty.give it a rest, you made your point, why antagonize to no end and crap the discussion up with your vile disdain for the author. You have your own blog, please be nasty over there if you need to.

Feb 5, 2009 - 7:18 am 143. roGER:

136 David H asked:

roGER 131. would you be able to go and interview some of these fanatics, I wouldn’t having already had death threats from Islamics by the way?

Having spent several months in the Occupied Territories, the only fanatics I encountered were Jewish settlers who believed that god himself had given them the land on which they played out their pathetic little Alamo fantasies…

Feb 5, 2009 - 7:20 am 144. David H:

;-( ooops I might use “serviette”, but that comes from living in France for 10 years, but that would explain it, its the fault of the French really.

“Beg ya pardon, I’m soiling the doileys!!” Loved that, being brought up in Essex that really does hit the spot.

139. Without any doubt, and that picture is perfection, its a reminder to visit Dorset again to add an inch or two to the waist line with such tasty cakes, love them and thats where you get the best ones and as you might remember from an earlier discussion, typical old English people.

Feb 5, 2009 - 7:28 am 145. Eric R.:

Mary Jackson,

I think you went over the top on post #137. If there was any doubt that your disgust for Ms. Gould exceeded her (reasonable, IMHO) disgust for Britain, you answered it in that post.

It’s all the more odd since your own blog does not really refute the bigotry that she has encountered.

Maybe you can take this opportunity to rebut her at the New English Review. And perhaps it would be appropriate to ask Roger for an article here at PJM to rebut Ms. Gould if you think that Britain is not the sewer of Marxo-Islamo-fascist anti-American Jew-hatred that you think it is.

Your basic argument is that Ms. Gould’s case is only anecdotal.

But that leads to an obvious question — how many anecdotes does she need to present before you realize that her anecdotes are evidence of a much deeper, systemic problem with anti-Americanism and Jew-hatred in Britain?

If Carol should answer the question I pose in #116, then you should answer the question I pose here.

Feb 5, 2009 - 7:53 am 146. David H:

143: Ooooh your so brave, those nasty settlers famed for cutting throats and setting of bombs, you make me tingle all over for your bravery and cutting wit…

Feb 5, 2009 - 8:07 am 147. Jonesy55:

David, yes Mohammed al-Sultan bin-haroon’s Cream Tea Emporium doesn’t have quite the right ring to it i’ll admit but old Miss Shufflebottom makes a lousy Lamb Tikka Karai.

Feb 5, 2009 - 8:14 am 148. Jonesy55:

Eric R,

The problem is that it’s very difficult to prove a negative. How many anecdotes of all the jewish people who’ve never been attacked and all the English people who have never uttered an anti-semitic statement would it take for you to change your position?

There are plenty of anecdotes from Americans on this thread who say how they have never had a problem in the UK but no doubt these mean nothing to you as long as you can find some negative stories.

I’m sure I could find negative stories about experiences people have had in the US (I’ve even had one or two myself) but that would prove nothing.

Feb 5, 2009 - 8:18 am 149. Mary Jackson:

think you went over the top on post #137

What? That stuff about the Boston Tea Party? Then you, like Ms Gould are unable to take a joke. Ms Gould’s total absence of any sense of humour may go some way towards explaining why she is not at home in the UK, but does not explain why on earth she hasn’t left yet.

I feel no obligation to “prove” that the UK is not a demented Nazi state. That’s a “when did you stop beating your wife question”.

Ms Gould stalks bad news and builds it up in her feverish, paranoid, not to say mind-bogglingly self-centered imagination.

Feb 5, 2009 - 8:32 am 150. Mary Jackson:

And Eric, if Ms Gould’s “disgust” for Britain – not concern but “disgust” is “reasonable2, how is it reasonable for her still to be here? Staying here is a totally irrational act.

Every time Ms Gould spews her lies and distortions I will ask, again and again, why she doesn’t leave.

Feb 5, 2009 - 8:37 am 151. David H:

Jonesy55, “i’ll admit but old Miss Shufflebottom makes a lousy Lamb Tikka Karai” Actually so do most Muslims, the best Indian food comes from Hindu owned and operated resturants.

Feb 5, 2009 - 8:44 am 152. David H:

Mary, Ms Gould is an American Jew, talk about getting a double whammy, for the type of people who sprew forth such hate she is mana from heaven, two in one, of course she will get more hits.

Its not irrational to stay in Britain, she has made her home here since the 70’s, but is watching it change for the worse, I think that at some point she is likely to leave, you may be happy about, I for one will not be.

While I do not think her tales are representative of the people I know, I actually believe her because I had American friends who suffered similar though less numerous incidents and in her position I am sure she is going to attract more.

Feb 5, 2009 - 8:59 am 153. Mary Jackson:

Its not irrational to stay in Britain, she has made her home here since the 70’s,

Yes, it most certainly is irrational – if it is as bad as she says it is.

Of course it isn’t, but if she went back home and started telling lies about America, Americans would see through her.

Feb 5, 2009 - 9:08 am 154. Carol Gould:

A simple answer: since my twenties I had invested in two British endowment plans and two pension plans. All four, including the Friends Provident one I mentioned when I was on the distinguished panel of BBC ‘Any Questions?’ of 22nd August hosted by Jonathan Dimbleby, crashed to a pittance after I had invested for some eighteen years. Like millions of British taxpayers in their 50s I find myself with a pitiful pension and even more pitiful endowment. Over the past few years I have been disabled by a string of illnesses including breast cancer surgery in 2006. And before certain bloggers accuse me of being a foreigner who is sponging off the NHS, I have had BUPA since 1981 and had the breast surgery at the Princess Grace. I soldier on, am not on sick benefit or income support, and work seven days a week to pay my bills — though sometimes I need help from friends — . My flat has been on the market and I have packed it up but three potential buyers cannot get finance. Due to the breast cancer in 2006 I had to sell my small house in the USA. Life is hard and though I would love to go somewhere to end my days in the sun, I cannot afford it. Tesco ‘cheaper alternatives’ is the highlight of my week.

Feb 5, 2009 - 9:24 am 155. Mary Jackson:

154 Nope. Doesn’t wash. You could sell your flat if you droppped the price. If London really were as bad as you claim, you would do so and get out now.

Feb 5, 2009 - 9:40 am 156. Blackwell:

Carol: I don’t mean to dismiss what you have said, since we all know its there. And its valuable to be reminded of it, since people who think it all originated with George Bush or will go away with Obama have no memory or a very bad one.

I suspect the Attitude Abroad is found in its most rude and concentrated form in media, academia and and studio audiences packed with people who like to go and yell at other people, just as you would find here. And I don’t doubt that’s unpleasant. What you experience may be even more unpleasant since its not contained by people with a diametrically opposed view. Imagine being in a Dixie Chicks concert in the UK when whats her name decided to dump on Bush in a foreign country. And its worse because you’re in a foreign country.

My UK trips feature, luckily for me I guess, different people-those that have to work each day and are not predisposed to spend spare time in a demonstration or a studio with other mob mentality members. They don’t have a US flag pinned up in their house, but they have not been the ones that relished 9-11, even if they don’t grasp how horrifiying that was for us and how mad it made most of us.

And if Code Pink can exist in SF and block a military recruiting station…if the New York Times can out one secret anti-terror provision after the other…if we have professors like Ward Churchill and the Duke 88…crazy pseudo intellectuals who do little all day but trash the country…then it can hardly be a surprise that the UK has the same and maybe a bit more.

Churchill had to deal with people like that in the late 30’s: people who would ask “What are we fighting for?” to whihc he would say “If we leave off fighting you would soon find out.” Or people who proposed abandoning the fight against the Nazis and proposed instead “moral rearmament” for the UK. Those people –even at that time–couldn’t see the difference between England and the nazis. Those people have been replaced by ones just as short-sighted and arrogantly certain they are right. OK, and stupid and unpleasant. But the core I encounter are good people. Not anti american. Maybe not rabidly pro US but not anti.

And another thing: I think we have been poor explainers of the US over time. We have taken individual freedoms to the nth degree compared with other places but lots of people abroad don’t understand the value of that. We are seen as money people not freedom people and the obtuse people that don’t understand what the core of this country is (or know and hate it anyway).

Feb 5, 2009 - 9:40 am 157. mags:

The reason why people around the world hate America is because they don’t know why they are hated.

Feb 5, 2009 - 10:05 am 158. roGER:

Eric R.:

I’d love to write an article for the esteemed Pajamasmedia.com – if the editors want one they should get in touch.

David H:

The settlers are dangerous and do shoot people from time to time. Two recent examples:

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1055208.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/05/hebron-settlers-shooting-israel-palestinians

They also stone the army that is protecting them:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7762469.stm

Feb 5, 2009 - 10:38 am 159. Anonymous:

“Actually so do most Muslims, the best Indian food comes from Hindu owned and operated resturants.”

Well, some Muslim run (and other) ‘Indian’ restaurants suck, as do most Chinese take-aways in the UK but that’s probably more to do with the demands of the clientele than anything else.

My local is excellent though and he throws in a couple of free bottles of Cobra beer so I mustn’t grumble. Maybe the owner secretly wants to behead me but he hasn’t made a move to yet. I’ll keep an eye out though

Feb 5, 2009 - 11:13 am 160. David H:

155, Mary, she has three buyers who cannot buy it due to the crisis, drop your price, bah. I think Carol has been completely open about her situation, my wife and I always agreed that moving to the USA late in life without much money is not a good idea, would you?

156 Well said, absolutely spot on in my view and what I was trying to say.

158: The Guardian and the BBC, two outstanding bastions of truth, not…, so your very brave, I am getting those shivers again. How could you have stood it, all that danger? Just like that brave Palestinian feted in various Arab countries for smashing a 3 year old settler girls skull against a rock. I accept that there may be times that Israelis and Israeli troops have made mistakes and acted badly, but compared to the other side there is no equivulence, you cannot get way with the racist rubbish that the Israelis should know better, nope the Muslim world should know better. Anyway whats the point talking to a person like you, your either an Islamist or a LeFascist.

159 Most probably a very decent man and hopefully someone who has a personal version of Islam closer to Christianity. Perhaps those beers are to put you off guard…, only kidding. That is however the issue all the time, we all know Muslims who are good decent people, its just a real pity that they follow that religion, personally I think the bravest people who are those that have left Islam, they have my total respect and admiration.

Feb 5, 2009 - 12:21 pm 161. Mary Jackson:

moving to the USA late in life without much money is not a good idea, would you?

No, of course not. But I’m not the one banging on – for monetary gain – about how bad the UK is. But if it truly were as bad as she says – as dangerous as Sderot, with neo-Nazis on every street corner, and, from the sublime to the ridiculous, surly taxi drivers who deliberately put her in an icy puddle, then yes, I would go.

Because if I were in mortal danger, not getting as much money for my flat in St John’s Wood – yes, St John’s wood – would seem pretty trivial.

And it’s a strange definition of poverty that involves living in St John’s wood and riding around in Black cabs. Wish I were so poor.

It’s all nonsense.

Feb 5, 2009 - 12:42 pm 162. David H:

161. Mary, its a different kind of danager to Sredot, personally if I was a Jew in the UK most notably in London, I owuld be pretty worried. And St Johns Wood is not that nice in my view, I certainly did not feel at ease there in the mid 90’s, I am sure it has not got better. Also if she brought that flat in the 70’s then she would not have to be that rich to be honest. Its not nonsense in my view.

Feb 5, 2009 - 12:59 pm 163. Blackwell:

Mags: those people need to get a life, grow a spine, get indoor plumbing, and stop fixating on America.

Feb 5, 2009 - 1:57 pm 164. Mary Jackson:

St John’s Wood is one of the most expensive areas in London, the most expensive city in the UK and one of the most expensive cities in the world.

So, even if Ms Gould bought her flat in the 70s when it was cheaper, she is now bloody rich by any reasonable standards.

Feb 5, 2009 - 2:31 pm 165. Guido:

My experience with Brits and Europeans in general is that they are far more ignorant about the US than Americans are of Europe. Most of the Europeans I come across seem to think they are experts on the US just from watching CSI and The Simpsons. I once had a conversation with a British man in a German train station which began rather civil (this was in 1990 by the way) and in a very conversational, sweet tone he asked me how I could stand to live in such a racist, violent country like the United States. All I could do was stare at him, like a deer caught in headlights. There really is no reply to such irrational views. Hollywood is much to blame for these stereotypes. Americans love to self-reflect. We not only do it to excess, but we have created an entire industry around it. Hollywood and people like Michael Moore know first-hand just how lucrative it is to bash American culture on all levels. These images of a racist, violent America are disseminated throughout the world. Hollywood is completely out of touch with the real America. Hollywood still hasn’t figured out the US has an actual interstate highway system, one that is considered the eighth wonder of the world it is so expansive. Yet, how many road trip movies have we watched where they are driving either on dirt roads or one-way roads?? Who drives coast-to-coast on back roads?? Sadly, the people who are the guiltiest spreading these twisted images of the US are Americans themselves, people like Michael Moore and Johnny Depp, who once actually proclaimed the US as the most anti-Semitic country he’s ever been in, which is why he chose to live in France with his French wife! The US more anti-Semitic than France??!! Clearly, anti-Americanism is based on fantasy and conjecture and those who harbor such virulent feelings are completely ignorant, yet the media reinforces that holding such hateful views against the US actually makes one more intelligent and humanitarian. Hating Americans has little if anything to do with US foreign policy. If you read British blogs, anything and everything is used as an excuse to bash Americans. As one pro-American German journalist said a few years ago, any discourse on the United States in Europe is “light years from rationality.” When you are dealing with a mass of people thoroughly brainwashed to see a nation as diverse as the United States in such a miniscule stereotype, there is no reaching them. Reality is out the window. Luckily, we have a large military. We know what Europeans are capable of doing when they decide to vilify an entire people….

Feb 5, 2009 - 3:23 pm 166. Mary Jackson:

When you are dealing with a mass of people thoroughly brainwashed to see a nation as diverse as the United States in such a miniscule stereotype

Anyone see the irony here? I’ll ’splain it to the slow kids, many of whom are out in force on this thread.

Oh, forget it. If you can’t see what’s inconsistent about saying ALL EUROPEANS think this or that about ALL AMERICANS then what is the point?

Feb 5, 2009 - 3:51 pm 167. Heather Rhyn:

Carol,

“Shoe bomber,” Richard Reid, is a british citizen, born and raised. Zacarias Moussaoui, convicted of conspiring to kill US citizens, is a french citizen, born and raised. Half of all the Guantanamo detainees hold european passports. 9/11 was plotted throughout western europe, particularly in hamburg, germany—yet the european bookstores are loaded with best-selling books about 9/11 being an “inside job.” When I consider all this, my hatred for europe is ten times what the most anti-American european could ever feel toward the United States. Does this make me an “ugly American”? I have a LEGITIMATE reason to hate europe, whereas europeans have NO legitimate reason to hate Americans.

When was the last time an American conspired to blow up europe? When was the last time a group of Americans held anti-european rallies and burned the EU flag? It’s even more sickening that no european has ever openly expressed even slight embarrassment that one of their own is responsible for those heinous crimes against the United States mentioned above. Could you imagine the outrage in the United States if an American, regardless of his race or ethnicity, had conspired to deliberately target european citizens? What’s even more shocking and amazing is that despite all this hostility and physical assaults directed at Americans by western europeans, the average American still sees europe as a “friend,” (this is in part because the US media fails to depict western europe as it really is).

In fact, most the Americans I converse with express more outrage over anti-european comments than anti-American comments, which always makes me wonder just what it is the europeans hate so much about us “hateful” Americans when the majority of Americans see europe with such naive love? I, however, am an anomaly. When I consider all the violence directed at my country at the hands of europeans and how they project that hostility onto the United States itself, I become encrusted in rage.

Feb 5, 2009 - 4:07 pm 168. Mary Jackson:

I become encrusted in rage.

Fine. Encrust away. The big difference is that you don’t live here in “Europe” as you call it. Technically it’s England, but don’t let that tiny thing bother you.

Ms Gould, on the other hand does live here. Indeed, by your rage-encrusted definition, she’s a “European”.

Still on her side?

Feb 5, 2009 - 4:22 pm 169. Selma L.:

Why is it that when an American expresses outrage or even the slightest criticism at Europe it’s met with such dismissive arrogance, and not one point is ever addressed (this happens in the US as much as Europe, btw, as the US universities and media are full of europhile leftists)? But when it’s reversed and Europeans call Americans “baby raping corpse eaters” (btw, I did not make that up; it’s what the BBC reported after Katrina), we’re supposed to indulge it as brilliant social commentary?
I see this coming even from the so-called “pro-Americans.” Perhaps anti-Americanism is far more endemic than we realise. I see this as more destructive to europeans than Americans since Europe smugly condemns Americans while living in the same cultural disaster which bred the Holocaust. Americans, on the other hand (you know, those people who are so much more racist and intolerant than precious all-loving europeans) just elected a bi-racial man (god forbid I call him black, you europeans will flip out!) into the highest office on the planet. I suppose the one good thing about a world which constantly focuses on America and has very little if any self-reflection–America evolves and progresses, everyone stagnates. Perhaps that’s why I chose the US as my permanent residence.

Feb 5, 2009 - 4:54 pm 170. Oscar the Grump:

Mary Jackson,
You sound more and more like the people Carol described in the article.
Keep it up, you’re doing a fine job!

Feb 5, 2009 - 6:38 pm 171. Mary Jackson:

the one good thing about a world which constantly focuses on America and has very little if any self-reflection–America evolves and progresses, everyone stagnates.

Oooh yes, we hate generalisations, don’t we?

Feb 5, 2009 - 7:40 pm 172. Jim C.:

“He sounded like Jean-François Revel, a French socialist writer who talks about one of the great unexplained phenomena of modern astronomy: namely, that the dark night of fascism is always descending in the United States and yet lands only in Europe.” –Tom Wolfe

Feb 5, 2009 - 9:12 pm 173. David H:

I have to say that I second what Mary Jackson has said in 166, I have spent a lot of my time reading about US politics as it is the only really functioning major Western democracy, I do not count any European country under the EU as a democracy.

If you bothered to look at one of the links I posted earlier Heather, you might see that the issue is not one of stupid Americans (I disagree with that) and faithless Europeans (Our leaders) but one of Islam, the left and the destruction of Capitalism, people like us need to stand together or we will fall. Most of truther those books were written by Americans, the Muslims never accept their fault in anything so that hardly counts unless you say that we are all Muslims, the truther movement is American is it not?

The Shoe Bomber converted to Islam and therefore no longer accepted British values, he is not British in attitude and actions, I refuse to accept him as an example of British hate towards America, Muslim hate yes.

Now go and locate the last time that a non-Muslim or non-Left wing person carried out an attack on America or an American, and if you find it then I will accept responsibility, I do not accept in anyway shape or form that Muslims living in Europe are European in their actions. As for the left, well that is part of Europe and they are winning and if you say its the European left then I would not argue with you one bit!!!!

So explain to me a bit about the Weathermen, left wing terrorists who set of bombs and killed Americans, they were Americans were they not.

Selma, the issue is Socialism, be it International or National, there is little difference in either, though they would disagree with me, as I said earlier I found in conversations with real Americans (not the left wing conditioned ones) a feeling of hurt and bitterness, I undestand it. What about the hurt and bitterness of Brits in terms of the US policy of ending the British Empire, due to your attitude to colonisation? Or the re-writing of history in Hollywood that puts Americans in the positions that Brits were like the capture of the the decoding machine from a U-boat by a British officer who was shown in a film as an American officer, thats just Hollywood, yes, but it creates an unfortunate image about Americas view of itself and us, it was insensitive when the Brits hang onto the glory of the second world war that effectively ended their position as a major power in the world. Do not forget that in 2000 Britain made the last repayment of its war time debt to America?

170 Now that is frankly incorrect, Mary has I think an attitude with Carol which has got personal, but anti American, pah, rubbish, more like irritated at people being knee jerk anti British which hurts people like her and me.

172 Well it looks like its landed in the USA as you now have our type of Socialists in control, perhaps after a taste of Pelosi and co you might have more understanding of our plight. The truth is that the left is winning, I think we are witnessing the final death of capitalism, however it could result in a real collapse and a re-birth…, the clock is ticking!

Feb 5, 2009 - 11:41 pm 174. MrJones:

The cultural left hate their own country and they hate America (because it’s the most powerful country in the western world). The cultural left dominates the electronic mass media in all the western countries. So obviously anti-western and anti-american sentiment gets beamed out on the airwaves on a constant basis. People are obviously effected by this.

(Don’t forget American television and especially Hollywood are seen globally and this helps to reinforce the national media attacks on America and the west.)

Also, some European anti-Americanism is ethnic or nationalistic hatred of WASPs disguised as anti-americanism. Some american anti-British sentiment is also camouflaged racism towards WASPs.

People who want western civilization to survive need to avoid letting themselves get angered too much by anglo-american or euro-american mud slinging as almost all of it comes directly from or is indirectly triggered by our commom enemy.

Feb 6, 2009 - 1:24 am 175. Jonesy55:

“Yet, how many road trip movies have we watched where they are driving either on dirt roads or one-way roads?? Who drives coast-to-coast on back roads??”

Driving on freeways isn’t particulalry interesting on the whole that’s why, not much of a view and not too much of interest along the route. Quick and efficient yes, good for a movie no.

“Americans love to self-reflect. We not only do it to excess, but we have created an entire industry around it. Hollywood and people like Michael Moore know first-hand just how lucrative it is to bash American culture on all levels. These images of a racist, violent America are disseminated throughout the world. Hollywood is completely out of touch with the real America. ”

There is also a well-developed navel gazing self-critical industry in Europe, the difference perhaps is that Americans don’t see this as it doesn’t get translated into English or spread around the world to anywhere near the same extent as Michael Moore’s polemic. Go to a French, British or other European bookshop and you will see dozens of titles bemoaning decline and saying how society has gone to the dogs and life is better elsewhere.

The stereotype that many Americans seem to have about smug Europeans always thinking they are right and always thinking that they are the best doesn’t fit in with this but Americans are not often exposed to this aspect of European culture.

I certainly don’t get the impression as I talk to Europeans that they always arrogantly think that Europe is the greatest at all, not long ago I was talking to a guy in Trieste about the Collio wine-growing regions in the hills outside the city ‘yes’ he said ‘they used to be among the best in the world but now of course all the best wine comes from California, Chile or Australia’. In reality the wines from there are excellent and I told him to stop being so negative. Just an example but this is certainly not untypical of conversations I’ve often had with people around Europe and frankly they are often unjustifiably negative.

Of course Europeans probably get defensive about their countries and cultures if Americans come over and start saying how much they suck, how much better the US is etc etc which is a natural reaction that many people will have.

Feb 6, 2009 - 1:36 am 176. Jonesy55:

“When was the last time a group of Americans held anti-european rallies and burned the EU flag?”

I’ve never seen any anti-European rallies in the US but funnily enough on only my third ever night in America, I was flicking through channels on the motel TV and came across some bizarre televangelist who was ranting for hours about how the European Union was the ‘revived Roman Empire’ and was home to the anti-christ, how the stars on the flag represented the horns of the Beast or some other such nonsense.

It was pretty funny actually and I’m sure this guy is not very influential but he must have some audience and it shows that Americans are perfectly capable of irrational foaming-at-the-mouth garbage too.

“It’s even more sickening that no european has ever openly expressed even slight embarrassment that one of their own is responsible for those heinous crimes against the United States”

Really?? Nobody ever??? Are you sure about that???

“Why is it that when an American expresses outrage or even the slightest criticism at Europe it’s met with such dismissive arrogance, and not one point is ever addressed ”

See above, I don’t actually think that this is the case.

“a world which constantly focuses on America and has very little if any self-reflection–America evolves and progresses, everyone stagnates.”

Again, nonsense. a) There is plenty of self-refection in many other parts of the world and b) the rest of the world is not stagnating.

Feb 6, 2009 - 1:48 am 177. Jonesy55:

“were like the capture of the the decoding machine from a U-boat by a British officer who was shown in a film as an American officer, thats just Hollywood, yes, but it creates an unfortunate image about Americas view of itself and us”

See also films like The Patriot or Braveheart – Mel Gibson does seem to have it in for us, Hollywood doesn’t seem to like Brits in general despite so many Brits working over there. We seem to usually be portrayed as effete and ineffective toffs living in castles, arrogant colonial supremacists or cold, emotionless supercriminals.

Feb 6, 2009 - 1:59 am 178. Jonesy55:

“when it’s reversed and Europeans call Americans “baby raping corpse eaters” (btw, I did not make that up; it’s what the BBC reported after Katrina)”

Actually I doubt that the BBC did describe Americans as ‘baby-raping corpse eaters’ but if you have a link to the article i’m happy to read it.

Lots of rumours and reports flew around about nasty events in the Louisiana Superdome and elsewhere which subsequently turned out to be mainly false or exaggerated but I hardly think that you can lay the blame for that on Europeans, most originated from the US media.

Feb 6, 2009 - 2:13 am 179. David H:

174 Said “The cultural left hate their own country and they hate America (because it’s the most powerful country in the western world). The cultural left dominates the electronic mass media in all the western countries.”

This is a very true statement, so if you want to damn people like Mary and I because of their manipulation then I really have to wonder.

But the best was left to last:

“People who want western civilization to survive need to avoid letting themselves get angered too much by anglo-american or euro-american mud slinging as almost all of it comes directly from or is indirectly triggered by our commom enemy.”

Here here, well said sir!

Jonesy55 mentioned the Patriot, that scene in it where British soldiers massacred a church load of people by setting fire to it, well the only similar incident to be found in the war of independence was the Rebels killing loads of preaceful Indians who had converetd to christianity. As part of my education into America I have been reading up on the War of Independence, again its Hollywood, would you expect anything else?

Feb 6, 2009 - 4:53 am 180. Bilgeman:

#166 Mary Jackson:

“Anyone see the irony here? I’ll ’splain it to the slow kids, many of whom are out in force on this thread.”

How kind of you, do you mind if I reciprocate? And please bear in mind my post #65, as well as my admitted case of mild Anglophilia.

It seems that the UK has not quite made up it’s mind about whether it is a wee island off the Continent of Europe, or the Mother of an Empire.

What Ms. Gould experiences is likely caused by those of your countrymen who would rather be Europeans. That virulent anti-semitism seems to be largely a Continental trait.

Most of the Limeys I’ve met have no need of being reminded of how many Tommies have died from Euro-bullets,(as opposed to Yankee ones), in the past 150 years.
Too many dead-ends in the family tree to harbor any illusions about your neighbours.

And any Briton worth the name should realize that a very great part of Britain’s history revolves around would-be conquerors coming from the East: Romans, Vikings, Spaniards, Frenchmen, the Huns and the Russians.

We were the only foreign troops to come from the West, and we only stayed in force for a year or two, right?

So, if generalities may be applied, I’d say that one of:

“From the East…BAD!, from the West…GOOD!”
might be accurate, yes?

As an American seaman, I get chops from Brits, especially of age during the war, than even from my fellow Americans of the same age.

Those folks remember the hunger it meant if our convoys didn’t get through.

Feb 6, 2009 - 9:21 am 181. Eric R.:

Fine. Encrust away. The big difference is that you don’t live here in “Europe” as you call it. Technically it’s England, but don’t let that tiny thing bother you.

The UK is not part of Europe? Did we suddenly transform into Orwell’s 1984 world where England is part of Oceania with the USA and not part of Eurasia?

Feb 6, 2009 - 1:40 pm 182. Eric R.:

Jonesy

and came across some bizarre televangelist who was ranting for hours about how the European Union was the ‘revived Roman Empire’ and was home to the anti-christ, how the stars on the flag represented the horns of the Beast or some other such nonsense.

Well, being Jewish, I don’t watch these guys, but given the vigorous attempts to suppress Christianity in Western Europe, calling it the “anti-Christ” may hit closer to home than you care to admit.

Feb 6, 2009 - 1:43 pm 183. Donna V.:

Slveryder wrote of Northern Irish students:

The favorite invective of students over here is that we (Americans) are stupid rednecks. Not that they can define a redneck or explain what makes us stupid. They also can’t defend their insults very well.

You might enjoy informing them that the “rednecks” are their own kith and kin. According to historian David Hackett Fischer, America’s “rednecks” are largely descended from immigrants from Northern Ireland, northern England and the Scottish lowlands who came here between 1700 and 1770. (They are often referred to as “Scots-Irish” but Fischer prefers the term “borderers” since they did not necessarily have a connection with either Ireland or Scotland.) When they arrived here, they moved inland, to the back country of Pennsylvania, Virginia and North Carolina.

The terms “redneck” and “cracker” predated their move to America. The folk culture (including the violence – Northern Ireland is not famous for being peaceful and the English and Scots fought border wars for many centuries)they brought to America has exactly the same roots as the folk culture of those snotty Northern Irish students.

Compare the bluegrass music of West Virginia to Irish and Scottish folk music and you’ll immediately see the similiarities. And the food – grits and corn-pone- was simply a substitute for oatmeal. Sheep did not adapt well to the wild North American environment, so the borderers began raising pigs and cattle instead. The roots of the double-wide trailer are in Britain. It didn’t pay to build fancy permament dwellings in northern Britain back in the 1600’s because the English or the Scots were apt to cross the border and burn your house to the ground, so people settled for humble stone dwellings – which became humble log cabins in the US. The same people are now content to live in humble trailers. Almost every cultural aspect of “redneckism” has its roots in the UK.

I would consider smiling sweetly and saying “Yes, I suppose ‘redneck culture’ is crude and uncivilized – but then, their ancestors came from rather rough, uncouth parts of the world – like Northern Ireland, for instance.”

Feb 6, 2009 - 1:48 pm 184. Tonio:

I didn’t know what the term “white trash” really meant until I went to Ireland, Britan and France. And I’m from West Virginia. What I saw in those countries was open drunkness at levels I have never seen even in college campuses in the US, blatant disregard for common decency, widespread violent behavior, public roudiness and, worst of all, absolutely no work ethic whatsoever, the latter especially in France. The only people I see in western europe who have any sense of work ethic and common decency are the immigrants. Whenever I’m in Britain or other parts of western Europe, I deliberately seek out the immigrants for directions or help. They also seem to be more gracious to me as an American since these people look to America as a place of liberty from the kind of oppression they experience in europe. This is also my experiences throughout the rest of the world. I just returned from southeast Asia, and the only rudeness I experinced came from the Brits, Germans, French and Swedes we ran into. Even one Vietnamese girl told me she liked Americans because they treated them as equals. This comes from more than 20 years of observations traveling throughout euorpe and the world over many times. Also, eastern Europeans are far more dignified from my experiences as well. Whoever said that western europeans are more sophisticated and charming than Americans has never been outside of a 5-star hotel or a limo.

Feb 6, 2009 - 2:31 pm 185. Mary Jackson:

Tonio – well don’t bother coming back to England – you won’t be missed.

The UK is not part of Europe?

Not as far as I’m concerned.

Feb 6, 2009 - 2:55 pm 186. Jason Kashani:

I hate nationalism and I cringe every time I come across these blogs where people rant about whose country is better or worse. All countries have their good and bad qualities, some more than others. Of course, the USA’s troubles are magnified for all the world to see and our entertainment is exported to every nation on earth, which is why some, even Americans, have the impression things are much worse in the USA than anywhere else. The old saying “no news is good news” rings true in the USA where snobs sitting in cafes think that only in the USA do bridges collapse and people kill their children. I doubt these people read many foreign newspapers online and read about crumbling infrastructures and crime in China and Norway. However it does seem that whenever an American criticizes Europe even on the tiniest thing it gets rejected as silly and even looked at as “proof” Americans are fascists and intolerant. Yet when Europeans criticize Americans we’re led to believe it’s 100% thoughtful and true. Of course much of our perceptions are shaped by the media, and the media is mostly left wing. I wish that the world and the USA itself could be more appreciative of what the USA gives to the world; it would make things much better for everyone. Just imagine how much better the French university system could be, for example, if the French would not recoil from anyone even suggesting the American model should be implemented to rescue France’s crumbling university system. Instead, it just gets worse year after year. Today, there are more universities in Ohio in the top 100 universities of the world than in France. Anti-Americanism is doing more to harm other countries in my opinion than the USA. It makes people lazy.
My father is from Iran. My mother is American-born half Swedish, half Italian. That makes me 1/2 Persian, 1/4 Swedish and 1/4 Italian. But you can’t get more all-American than me. Wait, I take that back. My Iranian-born father is more American than me. When I watch him barbeque in the backyard, I get a kind of lump in my throat. He makes me proud to be his son and also to be American. I wish that the western media would represent this more. Ironically it was Al-Jazeera that ran a series of programs which revealed that “Muslims and Arabs in the United States are the freest in the world” http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2008/10/20081017111851521626.html
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2008/10/20081027860454934.html
My father was one who was interviewed. I don’t think that the BBC or CNN could muster doing such a positive story about the USA. We have to ask ourselves why….
Nationalism aside, people like my father are what make the USA special, more than any nation on earth. It really is uncanny how the USA can absorb people into being American, yet each group retains their ethnic and religious identities. It was a Lithuanian traveling through the USA who made me realize this 15 years ago. He told me that he saw more Lithuanian culture in the suburbs of Chicago than what now exists in Lithuania, which has become more modernized without retaining any of its cultural heritage. This is what is happening throughout Europe, and why it is failing. Look to the USA, Europe, and you will see good things and a role model. Don’t look at the USA through the TV or the filter of the media, but use your own eyes if you dare.

Feb 6, 2009 - 6:00 pm 187. Michael Lonie:

The sight of armed Jews defending themselves against genocide makes a lot of people in the world today nervous, even drives them to hysteria, and I can only wonder why.

As for the anti-Americanism so popular among the European elites, I am reminded of a line from “Yes, Prime Minister.” The dean of his old college hates Sir Humphrey Appleby, the Cabinet Secretary, and is opposing giving Sir Humphrey a cushy position there after he retires. “Why should he hate me,” Sir Humphrey wonders, “I’ve never done anything for him for which he should be grateful to me.” I suspect that when the Euros next need us to bail them out, we will not be there for them. Lotsa luck guys.

Feb 6, 2009 - 7:59 pm 188. Bilgeman:

#181 Eric R:

“The UK os not part of Europe?”

It would appear that all too many of you are trying very hard to be as European as possible.

Pity that in doing so they are emulating German charm and French steadfastness in doing so.

Feb 7, 2009 - 3:26 am 189. tanstaafl:

Your description of demonstrations in London make the wackos in Berzerk-ley and San Francisco look sane.

(I didn’t say that, did I ? )

Anyway, the anti Israel/Jewish/”Zionist” theme is prevalent among wackos on this side of the pond as well. It seems to be an integral component of the wacko worldview.

Feb 7, 2009 - 7:28 am 190. J. S.:

186. Jason Kashani: that’s one of the best tributes to America I’ve ever read, and thanks for that great link! If the al-jazeera story had discovered the oposite and declared America a bastion of hate and hostility toward those from the ME, it would’ve been plastered on every news wire in the world. But that it’s a very postitive story, the western media burries it! What does this tell us? It proves most anti-Americans if not all are nothing but puppets of the media. As one former KGB officer Yuri Bezmenov who defected to the US in the 1980s said: the brainwashing of the west is complete! If we continue to allow the media to shape our views of the world, we’re doomed! It think Carol Gould’s story could be a small part of that in fact!

Feb 7, 2009 - 7:35 am 191. J. S.:

167. Heather Rhyn:

“Shoe bomber,” Richard Reid, is a british citizen, born and raised. Zacarias Moussaoui, convicted of conspiring to kill US citizens, is a french citizen, born and raised. Half of all the Guantanamo detainees hold european passports. 9/11 was plotted throughout western europe, particularly in hamburg, germany—yet the european bookstores are loaded with best-selling books about 9/11 being an “inside job.” When I consider all this, my hatred for europe is ten times what the most anti-American european could ever feel toward the United States. Does this make me an “ugly American”? I have a LEGITIMATE reason to hate europe, whereas europeans have NO legitimate reason to hate Americans.

When was the last time an American conspired to blow up europe? When was the last time a group of Americans held anti-european rallies and burned the EU flag? It’s even more sickening that no european has ever openly expressed even slight embarrassment that one of their own is responsible for those heinous crimes against the United States mentioned above.”

Hmmm…well…I guess I will be the first european to express embarrassment. Yes, I’m very embarrassed. I don’t think my views will get spread on the BBC though!

Feb 7, 2009 - 7:47 am 192. tanstaafl:

It appears to be somewhat of an intellectual fashion statement for many Europeans to look down long aquiline noses at we colonials over here in the wild west.

Especially among “the French” who (currently) say they are dee-lighted and relieved that we’ve finally ! come to our senses & elected someone sane and intelligent as President of the US. (I might beg to differ with that appraisal…)

However, given the fickleness of such liking and recalling how long “nous sommes tous américains” lasted after 911 (about 2 weeks), I’m not holding my breath for the French to continue to pretend to be smiling kindly on us.

Occasionally, you come across a European who still remembers Allied efforts in WW II or an essayist like Jean François Revel.

Feb 7, 2009 - 8:00 am 193. James:

tanstaafl: actually the “nous somme tous americains” lasted about 2 days among the french elite and media. And although the French and the rest of Europe act “delighted” with Obama, their transparent racist attitudes cannot be ignored (unless you are a reporter with a western news organization like CNN or the BBC). It’s clear that the western european elites have no intention of allowing a black American lead them anytime soon. There is a frenchman in Britanny, who drives around in a US jeep, left from WWII. He gives American tourists tours of the local war memorials (many have been defaced recently). He wears US GI fatigues and openly declares his appreciation for what the US did for his country, including saving the franc from disappearing off the earth in 1952. I don’t think he’ll get a write up in TIME magazine, despite the human interest angle–the story simply does not perpetuate the collective lie espoused by Marxist anti-Americanism. But he’s out there, in the real world, and that’s what counts. We have to realize it’s not so much what the media shows us, it’s what they DON’T show us that is important.

Feb 7, 2009 - 2:08 pm 194. Carol Gould:

Those who think journalists like me exaggerate might like to read tonight’s ‘The Spectator’ report by Melanie Phillips, which starts: ‘Today’s Observer carries a report that Jew-hatred attacks in Britain are now running at such a level the police have drafted in extra patrols and British Jews are beginning to emigrate. I have previously reported here on the menacing atmosphere in which British Jews are currently living, as a result of the malevolent misrepresentation of Israel’s actions in Gaza by Britain’s media..’

http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/3334851/the-royal-courts-mystery-play.thtml

Feb 8, 2009 - 3:25 pm 195. roGER:

“Mad Mel” has been saying the same hysterical things for years.

So far the British Jewish community has had the good sense (and experience of their everyday lives which does not match that of Carol Gould) to ignore her and get on with their lives. Britain is a very tolerant and diverse society which has a long and proud tradition of freedom and individual rights.

Feb 10, 2009 - 5:51 am 196. m.satyanadam:

Dear Most respected brothers and sisters in christ
Greetings to you from our Heavenly father and soon coming savior Jesus Christ!
I am pleased to introduce my self Pastor M.Sthyanandam, serving the Lord for the last 9 years in the coastal area of Andhra Pradesh state { South India }.
God made a miracle in my life when I came to see your website, I was encouraged to note the activities of your ministry that touched my heart greatly. Ours is an independent ministry serving the lord with utmost faith only.
Dear One in Him we have been serving in tribal areas with my co-pastors. Those who are living in that area we providing their needs according to James 1:27 and providing food, clothing, education and all accommodation at free of cost.
Part of our work me and elders ,churchmembers, distribute pamphlets, bible material, pray for the sick and needy and conduct rural village Gospel meetings, win their souls and leading them to the kingdom of God.
I was encouraged after having gone through your Id, website and decided to work with your ministry.
On my behalf, church elders, and saints, I invite you to visit India in the year 2009 to minister with us as we are much interested to see you in person, to have you in our midst to proclaim the Good news of Jesus to win many a perishing souls in this end time and request you to join in prayer with us.
We all praying for you daily in our personal, family and church prayers and request you to continue to pray for us, for our ministry and for our invitation to you to visit India to minister with us in 2009.
Our love and faithful prayers for you,
I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor. M.Sathyanandam,
Jesusministry2007@rediffmail.com

Sep 9, 2009 - 5:45 am

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