Stuff my Dad sends me
"When in England , at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example of empire building' by George Bush.
He answered by saying, 'Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return.'
You could have heard a pin drop."
Actually, this never happened, though a different Archbishop, Rowan Williams, has been very critical of US Foreign policy. What did happen is documented in many places like in this link:
www.urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl-colin-powell.htm.
I would like to point out that in the transcript there is a very telling line:
[Applause.]
Maybe you heard the pin drop after the applause.
America (Fuck yeah!) 0.
Rationality 1.
Number of seconds it took me to debunk this: .00031.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"There was a conference in France where a number of international engineers were taking part, including French and American. During a break, one of the French engineers came back into the room saying 'Have you heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent an aircraft carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What does he intended to do, bomb them?'
A Boeing engineer stood up and replied quietly: 'Our carriers have three hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are nuclear powered and can supply emergency electrical power to shore facilities; they have three cafeterias with the capacity to feed 3,000 people three meals a day, they can produce several thousand gallons of fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry half a dozen helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to and from! their flight deck. We have eleven such ships; how many does France have?'
You could have heard a pin drop."
America (Fuck yeah!) 1.
France 0.
Actual number of French Aircraft carriers: 2.
Amount of money that it cost to build (not including the additional costs to maintain, staff or overhaul) these 11 current carriers, in today's dollars (using measuringworth.com/uscompare GDP deflator tool to compare currencies: 44.5 Billion.
Amount of medical supplies and help this much money could have supplied tsunami victims: ???
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"A U.S. Navy Admiral was attending a naval conference that included Admirals from the U.S. , English, Canadian, Australian and French Navies. At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a large group of Officers that included personnel from most of those countries.
Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks but a French admiral suddenly complained that,
whereas Europeans learn many languages, Americans learn only English.' He then asked, 'Why is it that we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than speaking French?'
Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied 'Maybe it's because the Brits, Canadians, Aussies and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't have to speak German.'
You could have heard a pin drop."
America (fuck yeah!): 1.
France: 2.
(*Bonus*)Belligerent ignorance: 1. Eat it, multilingualism!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"AND THIS STORY FITS RIGHT IN WITH THE ABOVE...
Robert Whiting, an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane. At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport in his carry on. 'You have been to France before, monsieur?' the customs officer asked sarcastically. Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France previously.
Then you should know enough to have your passport ready.'
The American said, ''The last time I was here, I didn't have to show it.
'Impossible. Americans always have to show your passports on arrival in France !'
The American senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he quietly explained, ''Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in 1944 to help liberate this country, I couldn't find a single Frenchmen to show a passport to.'
You could have heard a pin drop."
America (fuck yeah!): 1.
France: 0
Likelihood of this story being true: 0%
Likelihood that Mr. Whiting had to surrender his US Army field knife, steel bible and canteen full of Vichy water to a TSA screener too stupid to work at MacDonalds in order to get onto a plane in the US to fly to France: 100%
"This should make you proud to be an American, pass it on!"
(What, no line of tildas?) If ignorance is pride than consider me pridalicious!
He answered by saying, 'Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return.'
You could have heard a pin drop."
Actually, this never happened, though a different Archbishop, Rowan Williams, has been very critical of US Foreign policy. What did happen is documented in many places like in this link:
www.urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl-colin-powell.htm.
I would like to point out that in the transcript there is a very telling line:
[Applause.]
Maybe you heard the pin drop after the applause.
America (Fuck yeah!) 0.
Rationality 1.
Number of seconds it took me to debunk this: .00031.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"There was a conference in France where a number of international engineers were taking part, including French and American. During a break, one of the French engineers came back into the room saying 'Have you heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent an aircraft carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What does he intended to do, bomb them?'
A Boeing engineer stood up and replied quietly: 'Our carriers have three hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are nuclear powered and can supply emergency electrical power to shore facilities; they have three cafeterias with the capacity to feed 3,000 people three meals a day, they can produce several thousand gallons of fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry half a dozen helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to and from! their flight deck. We have eleven such ships; how many does France have?'
You could have heard a pin drop."
America (Fuck yeah!) 1.
France 0.
Actual number of French Aircraft carriers: 2.
Amount of money that it cost to build (not including the additional costs to maintain, staff or overhaul) these 11 current carriers, in today's dollars (using measuringworth.com/uscompare GDP deflator tool to compare currencies: 44.5 Billion.
Amount of medical supplies and help this much money could have supplied tsunami victims: ???
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"A U.S. Navy Admiral was attending a naval conference that included Admirals from the U.S. , English, Canadian, Australian and French Navies. At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a large group of Officers that included personnel from most of those countries.
Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks but a French admiral suddenly complained that,
whereas Europeans learn many languages, Americans learn only English.' He then asked, 'Why is it that we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than speaking French?'
Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied 'Maybe it's because the Brits, Canadians, Aussies and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't have to speak German.'
You could have heard a pin drop."
America (fuck yeah!): 1.
France: 2.
(*Bonus*)Belligerent ignorance: 1. Eat it, multilingualism!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"AND THIS STORY FITS RIGHT IN WITH THE ABOVE...
Robert Whiting, an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane. At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport in his carry on. 'You have been to France before, monsieur?' the customs officer asked sarcastically. Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France previously.
Then you should know enough to have your passport ready.'
The American said, ''The last time I was here, I didn't have to show it.
'Impossible. Americans always have to show your passports on arrival in France !'
The American senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he quietly explained, ''Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in 1944 to help liberate this country, I couldn't find a single Frenchmen to show a passport to.'
You could have heard a pin drop."
America (fuck yeah!): 1.
France: 0
Likelihood of this story being true: 0%
Likelihood that Mr. Whiting had to surrender his US Army field knife, steel bible and canteen full of Vichy water to a TSA screener too stupid to work at MacDonalds in order to get onto a plane in the US to fly to France: 100%
"This should make you proud to be an American, pass it on!"
(What, no line of tildas?) If ignorance is pride than consider me pridalicious!