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British humiliation becomes disgrace
Telegraph UK ^ | 4/9/2007 | Toby Harnden

Posted on 04/09/2007 9:58:23 AM PDT by Uncledave

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John Derbyshire laments: http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MDYwMmVmMDYxYmZhODk0Yzc1N2Q1N2JhNmQ0Yzg2MDg=

1 posted on 04/09/2007 9:58:24 AM PDT by Uncledave
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To: Uncledave

Derb’s comments:
********

I am at the point with this business about the British hostages where I really can’t trust myself to post any more, I’m so mad. Toby Harnden indeed says much of what needs saying, but I think he is too kind to the enlisted men. They are saps and worms, insults to the Queen’s uniform. I’d better change track right here—see what I mean?

One thing the whole business has revealed to me is how it is possible to hate your own country, a thing I never understood before. Not that I hate my country—which is, as of five years this coming April 19th, the blessed U.S. of A. I maintain strong sentimental ties to England, though, and I’ve been burning with anger and shame at the dishonor these giggling buffoons have brought to their country, the country of my ancestors (all English, for as far back as I know), the country I was raised in. Yes, there have been moments when I’ve hated England.

I’ve told this story before, so I hope I’ll be forgiven for telling it again. My Mum, Esther Alice Knowles (1912-98), eleventh child of a pick’n’shovel coal miner, in one of the last conversations I had with her, said: “I know I’m dying, but I don’t mind. At least I knew England when she was England.”

I discounted that at the time. Old people always grumble about the state of the world. Now I understand it, though. I even feel a bit the same way myself. I caught the tail-end of that old England—that bumptious, arrogant, self-confident old England, the England of complicated games, snobbery, irony, repression, and stoicism, the England of suet puddings, drafty houses, coal smoke and bad teeth, the England of throat-catching poetry and gardens and tweeds, the England that civilized the whole world and gave an example of adult behavior—the English Gentleman—that was admired from Peking (I can testify) to Peru.

It’s all gone now, “dead as mutton,” as English people used to say. Now there is nothing there but a flock of whimpering Eloi, giggling over their gadgets, whining for their handouts, crying for their Mummies, playing at soldiering for reasons they can no longer understand, from lingering habit. Lower the corpse down slowly, shovel in the earth. England is dead.


2 posted on 04/09/2007 9:59:11 AM PDT by Uncledave
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To: Uncledave

bttt


3 posted on 04/09/2007 10:02:26 AM PDT by CDHart ("It's too late to work within the system and too early to shoot the b@#$%^&s."--Claire Wolfe)
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To: Uncledave

My fiancee is in the process of leaving England, she shares the sentiment that the England she is leaving isn’t the England she grew up in and loved, she can’t get out fast enough. Sad...


4 posted on 04/09/2007 10:06:15 AM PDT by Oshkalaboomboom
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To: Uncledave

The Princess Diana funeral was the first big public exposure of the new England, but the signs were already there in Tony Blair’s Airstrip One, from the “Cool Britannia” slogan on down. Individual Brits can be as gritty and sang-froid as they ever were, but as a society they appear to be in irreversible decline.


5 posted on 04/09/2007 10:07:19 AM PDT by Argus
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To: Uncledave

You know, if I were a bit more cynical, I’d be inclined to think that somebody’s trying to crank-up Tommy’s ire at the whole situation and get him spanking mad at the MoHAMheads in general and the Persian MonkeyMan in particular.

If so, it appears to be working.


6 posted on 04/09/2007 10:07:46 AM PDT by Westbrook (Having more children does not divide your love, it multiplies it!)
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To: Uncledave
The Western World has been Oprahified. Feelings matter more than considerations of honor and valor. People without dignity are men of straw and their vacuous display of feelings only reveals their inner emptiness of worth.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

7 posted on 04/09/2007 10:13:05 AM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: Uncledave

bump


8 posted on 04/09/2007 10:13:20 AM PDT by Cacique (quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat ( Islamia Delenda Est ))
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To: Oshkalaboomboom
>the England she is leaving isn’t the England she grew up in and loved

Lots of folks wondered
why the Brits hadn't taken
better precautions

to protect their guys
that went on board the freighter.
I couldn't think of

a scenario
not even a tin foil one
that explained this stuff.

But I'm wondering
if within the Brit Navy
there are power blocs

that wanted this thing
to happen just as it did
as an example

of just how screwed up
PC pols and their thinking
have made the Navy.

This makes their point clear,
more so than any speeches
ever could have done.

9 posted on 04/09/2007 10:13:27 AM PDT by theFIRMbss
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To: Uncledave
In her depressing paid interview with "The Sun" today, the effing, fag-smoking (well, she is a matelot) and deeply unimpressive LS Turney states: "If I did it [confessed] , I feared everyone in Britain would hate me. But I knew it was my one chance of fulfilling a promise to Molly [her daughter] that I'd be home for her birthday on May 8th." Oh, so that's OK then.

She makes all arguements against women in combat seem mild. Her comments read like satire. This whole affair has been very depressing.

10 posted on 04/09/2007 10:14:09 AM PDT by pgkdan (Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions - G.K. Chesterton)
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To: Uncledave
The 3 on the right indicates there is still some grits amongst the Brits.
11 posted on 04/09/2007 10:17:04 AM PDT by DogBarkTree (The correct word isnt "immigrant" when what they are doing is "invading".)
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To: Uncledave
a flock of whimpering Eloi,

Great post. Sadly, I don't think the US is far behind. Forget the cowboys, get ready for the Eloi.

12 posted on 04/09/2007 10:17:33 AM PDT by livius
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To: Uncledave

These men and the woman volunteered to serve and were put in harm’s way. I have never been in the military, let alone served in a combat zone and I am darn sure not going to question the courage of those who have. If war veterans want to criticize the behavoir of these sailors, let them. But I will not.


13 posted on 04/09/2007 10:18:17 AM PDT by soccermom
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To: Uncledave

The British dead in Iraq should also be able to sell their stories.

Oh wait! Too bad for them. That will teach them a lesson. Don’t fight - surrender - it’s more healthy - and profitable.

Rudyard Kipling is turning over in his grave.

“So it’s Tommy this, and Tommy that, and Tommy go away.
But wave the white flag proudly, and the mags will really pay!”


14 posted on 04/09/2007 10:19:39 AM PDT by oldbill
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To: Do not dub me shapka broham

ping


15 posted on 04/09/2007 10:20:02 AM PDT by Cacique (quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat ( Islamia Delenda Est ))
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To: Uncledave
"if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their Finest Hour.'"

Wonder what Churchill would say today.

16 posted on 04/09/2007 10:24:26 AM PDT by oldbill
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To: Uncledave

He asks all the right questions.

Good read.


17 posted on 04/09/2007 10:26:17 AM PDT by Red6 (Come and take it.)
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To: Uncledave
Has Britain gone completely soft?

Britain went completely soft when they allowed a bunch of Islamic psycho killers threaten Britain in its very own streets.

And for anyone who doubts this isn`t true, check it out.....

http://www.snopes.com/photos/politics/muslimprotest.asp

18 posted on 04/09/2007 10:29:17 AM PDT by Screamname (Gorebull warming, the latest hoax by fat headed liberals who want attention.)
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To: goldstategop
The Western World has been Oprahified. Feelings matter more than considerations of honor and valor. People without dignity are men of straw and their vacuous display of feelings only reveals their inner emptiness of worth.

Very well said. It bears repeating.

19 posted on 04/09/2007 10:29:39 AM PDT by Obadiah (Republicans - the battered wives of Democrats.)
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To: DogBarkTree

Notice also that there were two or three who were not facing the camera. The most published photo has no more than 13 visible people, with one on the left not showing his face at all. I’d say the three for sure are shown as being unhappy, and then I’d speculate that three others would not even face the cameras. There may be as many as six who were unwilling to put on a happy face for the propaganda.


20 posted on 04/09/2007 10:32:03 AM PDT by Cap Huff
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