Insensitive and Ignorant

Commentary By Ron Beasley

It's not too surprising but the narcissistic ignorant insensitive wingnuttery are upset because:

He's bowing again.

Obama has now done it again. Andrew Malcolm asks (and reports): "How low will he go? Obama gives Japan's Emperor Akihito a wow bow."

Obama's breach of protocol is of a piece with the substance of his foreign policy. He means to teach Americans to bow before monarchs and tyrants. He embodies the ideological multiculturalism that sets the United States on the same plane as other regimes based on tribal privilege and royal bloodlines. He gives expressive form to the idea that the United States now willingly prostrates itself before the rest of the world. He declares that the United States is a country like any other, only worse, because we have so much for which to apologize.

I don't know if the Powerline crew has spent anytime in Japan but I have.  In the US we shake hands - in Japan they bow.  Not just to the emperor but to everyone you meet.  Is it really surrender when you demonstrate a little knowledge and respect for the culture of a country you are visiting?  In the wingnut world the answer is yes.  Is it any wonder that the rest of the world hates a country with so many pompous assholes?  I think not!

Remember this?

 

And at least Obama didn't do this:

 

Comments

[John Ballard]

I cannot comment about Japanese customs because my Army assignment was to Korea. My guess is that all of Asia shares similar customs, but this You Tube video is a three-minute lesson in Korean New Year customs observed to this day.

I learned to bow when I got there along with a few other protocols as well. Pouring one's own beverage, for example, is impolite, so when dining everyone stays alert to nearby glasses and cups. And one never hands anything to someone else with one hand. Good manners calls for two, but with friends and family it's okay to use one hand if the other one is symbolically extended, lightly touching the other at the wrist or forearm.

All my life the shadow of The Ugly American made me uncomfortable. I rejoice when a president pays attention to protocol. And yes, for all his many shortcomings, that included George Bush.

[John Ballard]

One more...
Three bows in one minute.