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It's things like presenting the Queen with an iPod loaded with his own speeches that puts the "staggering incompetence"
side a few more points up on the "sinister plot" faction.
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I thought every urban sophisticate worth his goatee knew that UK dvd players operate on a different, incompatible system than
the North American one.
I also, more importantly, thought everybody, even a troglodyte, would know, or vaguely sense, that giving an
important world leader a bundle of discount dvds from Costo would be a crappy present for your ex-boyfriend, let alone a head
of state.
A head of state who also happens to be... blind in one eye...
One is forced on these occasions to say admiring things about the Kennedys.
One day, an aide to RFK lost his temper, probably because, yet again, the hugely wealthy Senator -- who never carried money
on his person -- "borrowed" another five bucks from the guy.
The aid bellowed, "Some of us live in a real world, with real people in it."
Shortly thereafter, Ethel presented the aide with a little jewellery box. It contained a pair of gold cufflinks. One was
engraved REAL WORLD, and the other REAL PEOPLE.
For a minor level guy who'd pissed them off...
JFK famously handed out PT-109 tie clips. So many men received these clips and began to believe that they'd actually
served onboard with Kennedy that jokers speculated that such a massive crew would have sunk a real PT boat, tiny as they
are.
Now you have a First Lady whose resemblance to Jacqueline Kennedy (not "Jackie", never "Jackie") is touted ad
nauseum.
I will be called a "racist" for pointing out the simple fact that Michelle Obama does not share the late Mrs. O's breeding
-- "breeding" being such a Mandingo-sounding word.
But like many inconvenient facts, it also happens to be true...
I remember when people complained that intelligence tests were culturally biased, because the answer to one of the "which of
these things goes with the other?" questions was "teacup + saucer", and hey, poor/black people supposedly didn't know what cups
and saucers were, according to these know-it-all, mostly white, well-off busybodies.
That old factoid came to mind today when I heard that Michelle Obama had touched
the Queen.
Doesn't the Federal Govt apparatus include, like, an Office of Protocol?
More importantly:
Doesn't everybody just automatically KNOW you're not supposed to touch the Queen?
Isn't that the sort of information one simply acquires, like mental lint, as one travels through life, and has reached
middle age?
Not the life the Obama's have led, apparently.
Are we to suppose that four years from now, the Obamas will be on Divorce Court, arguing over who owes who what for
the old cell phone bills and the babies' diapers?
Because really: they are just one class away from having no class at all.