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Meet John Smeaton: One Kick and He Is The Hero of Glasgow [Kicked Terrorist Butt]
Wall Street Journal Online ^ | 07/07/07 | ALISTAIR MACDONALD and IAN MCDONALD

Posted on 07/07/2007 1:37:47 PM PDT by Enchante

GLASGOW -- Last Saturday afternoon, baggage handler John Smeaton was standing in front of Glasgow Airport smoking a cigarette when a Jeep Cherokee burst into flames nearby. He watched its burning driver emerge. A police officer pursued the passenger.

What happened next has turned Mr. Smeaton, 31 years old, into an unlikely folk hero. When he saw the passenger hitting the officer, Mr. Smeaton ran over and kicked the assailant.

Mr. Smeaton has been interviewed on the BBC, CNN and other networks about his response to the attack in which two suspected terrorists attempted to ram into the airport's main terminal. (See the CNN interview.) In a Glaswegian accent that is at times impenetrable -- Australia's Channel 7 subtitled its interview with him -- Mr. Smeaton voiced a defiance that has turned him into a de facto spokesman for Glasgow's fighting spirit. His message to terrorists: "You come to Glasgow, we don't stand for it," he says. "We'll just set aboot ye." (Translation: "In Glasgow, we'll just deck you.")

By the next evening, an admirer had created a Web site devoted to Mr. Smeaton -- nicknaming him Smeato. It includes links to his media interviews, purported details from his past (he once owned a ferret) and a plea for Britons to buy him a pint in the bar at the airport's Holiday Inn hotel. There is also a picture of Osama bin Laden with the caption: "You told me John Smeaton was off on Saturdays!"

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; United Kingdom; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: asskicking; gla; glasgow; hero; letsroll; scots; smeaton; terror
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To: elhombrelibre
Also see this.
21 posted on 07/07/2007 5:49:26 PM PDT by elhombrelibre (Democrats even want foreign terrorists to be treated like US citizens. Their love is misplaced.)
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To: Viking2002
A good, old-fashioned, literal Scottish ass-kicking.

Close enough old sport! An earlier article had The Greatest Headline Of All Time: "I kicked him so hard in the balls that I tore a tendon!"

22 posted on 07/07/2007 7:14:13 PM PDT by jiggyboy (Ten per cent of poll respondents are either lying or insane)
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To: jiggyboy
"I kicked him so hard in the balls that I tore a tendon!"

ROTFLMAO I just had beef goulash shoot out my nose, thinking about how hard that must have been. LOL :-) I don't know if it's the wine, or a late weekend evening, but that is a funny image.


23 posted on 07/07/2007 7:19:07 PM PDT by Viking2002 (Fred in '08. Deal with it.)
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To: Viking2002

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1860684/posts


24 posted on 07/07/2007 7:23:31 PM PDT by jiggyboy (Ten per cent of poll respondents are either lying or insane)
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To: mware

You mean he won’t be having any more kids, or the ones he has will have two heads ;-)


25 posted on 07/07/2007 7:28:19 PM PDT by RobbyS ( CHIRHO)
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To: jiggyboy
LOL I guess when you're the Muzzie equivalent of Bananas Foster, a shot in the ol' applesack doesn't register very high on the 'ouch' meter. LOL


26 posted on 07/07/2007 7:38:04 PM PDT by Viking2002 (Fred in '08. Deal with it.)
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To: Enchante
There is also a picture of Osama bin Laden with the caption: "You told me John Smeaton was off on Saturdays!"

Achmed replied, "NO! I told you, 'John Smeaton is always ready to go off on Saturdays'."

27 posted on 07/07/2007 8:26:45 PM PDT by ApplegateRanch (Islam: a Satanically Transmitted Disease, spread by unprotected intimate contact with the Koranus.)
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To: AnAmericanMother

“Sam Johnson would’ve clobbered him one.”

Perhaps, though it is unlikely that Sam would have been stupid enough to make the crack about “oats for horses”.


28 posted on 07/07/2007 11:31:32 PM PDT by Blue_Ridge_Mtn_Geek
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To: UKRaddell

Ping

And you say he’s a Rangers’ fan. H’way the lads.


29 posted on 07/07/2007 11:43:25 PM PDT by IslandJeff (Bird bird bird, bird is the word)
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To: JerseyHighlander
Matching J&S silver chains were purchased. Two Biggy Smalls rectangular faced perpetual motion Cartiers with diamond-encrusted wristbands were impatiently pointed at and duly wrapped. Fingers were clicked; handfulls of baseball caps were dropped into a groaning plastic bag.

English writing English is just sublime. Even their worst writers (Martin Amis, et al) can still turn a phrase.

[However, we Yanks would use "handsful", rather than "handfulls"]

30 posted on 07/07/2007 11:54:55 PM PDT by IslandJeff (Bird bird bird, bird is the word)
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To: Enchante
His message to terrorists: "You come to Glasgow, we don't stand for it," he says. "We'll just set aboot ye."

I just LOVE a thick Scottish burr!!

31 posted on 07/08/2007 9:25:41 AM PDT by SuziQ
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To: AnAmericanMother
LOL!! Who wrote that poem?

The first time I ever heard of Cockney rhyming slang was when I read the Dick Francis novel, "Driving Force". Highly amusing, and requires thought to get to the meaning sometimes.

32 posted on 07/08/2007 9:32:24 AM PDT by SuziQ
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To: Blue_Ridge_Mtn_Geek
Sam DID make the crack about oats -- he was the man who made it originally. I believe it's in his famous Dictionary, as the definition of OATS - "A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people."

He was notoriously anti-Scot, but if he knew you he would always make an exception. Boswell, his autobiographer, was a Scotsman and a close friend, but he had to put up with a certain amount of anti-Caledonian sniping.

33 posted on 07/08/2007 10:24:23 AM PDT by AnAmericanMother ((Ministrix of Ye Chase, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment)))
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To: SuziQ
Oh, man, though, that is heavy, heavy Glaswegian. Even other Scots have some difficulty understanding it. A lady in the Country Dance Society is from Glasgow, so I at least have some experience listening to it!

I guess the terrorists flambe' just didn't understand that you do not mess with a Keelie. They are hard, tough little men who don't need any encouragement to "get tore in!"

34 posted on 07/08/2007 10:31:12 AM PDT by AnAmericanMother ((Ministrix of Ye Chase, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment)))
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To: SuziQ

The poem is circulating on the internet anonymously, maybe the author will come forward.


35 posted on 07/08/2007 10:32:11 AM PDT by AnAmericanMother ((Ministrix of Ye Chase, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment)))
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To: Enchante

I would translate “set aboot ye” not so much as “decking” somebody, as with a single punch, but more along the lines of administering a thorough beating with head butts (the usual opening gambit in a Glasgow free-for-all) kicks and punches until the recipient stops moving . . . .


36 posted on 07/08/2007 10:34:30 AM PDT by AnAmericanMother ((Ministrix of Ye Chase, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment)))
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To: Viking2002
Hey, Bananas Foster tastes good!

Maybe the muzzie equivalent of one of those flaming paper bags bad boys leave on doorsteps?

37 posted on 07/08/2007 10:36:14 AM PDT by AnAmericanMother ((Ministrix of Ye Chase, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment)))
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To: AnAmericanMother

Sam DID make the crack about oats — he was the man who made it originally. I believe it’s in his famous Dictionary, as the definition of OATS - “A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.”

He was notoriously anti-Scot, but if he knew you he would always make an exception. Boswell, his autobiographer, was a Scotsman and a close friend, but he had to put up with a certain amount of anti-Caledonian sniping.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I thought better of him; not only making a stupid remark but going into print with it. Oh well, even Jove nods, e.g., David Hume, a non-stupid man by most accounts (and a Scot) had similarly stupid views about non-whites.


38 posted on 07/08/2007 10:37:45 AM PDT by Blue_Ridge_Mtn_Geek
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To: IslandJeff
Ooooo, I could really start an internecine brawl here by shouting, 'moan then, ye orange . . .'

But I wouldn't do that. Hat's off to Rangers supporters today.

39 posted on 07/08/2007 10:39:00 AM PDT by AnAmericanMother ((Ministrix of Ye Chase, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment)))
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To: Blue_Ridge_Mtn_Geek
It was just Dr. Sam's schtick. I'm part Scottish on both sides, and some Irish (he didn't think much of the Irish either), and I've never held it against him. Neither did Bozzie. Dr. Johnson was a highly eccentric man (suffering as he did from both de la Tourette's and OCD) and I for one am willing to cut him a good deal of slack.

You have to understand, as far as Hume is concerned, that most people in England (and especially Scotland) had never even SEEN a non-white person. His remarks were purely theoretical, not personal.

40 posted on 07/08/2007 10:42:05 AM PDT by AnAmericanMother ((Ministrix of Ye Chase, TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary (recess appointment)))
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