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Post by Deleted on Apr 3, 2009 12:10:30 GMT
Last evening on the evening news there was a report about Michelle O'Bama and Queen Elizabeth sharing a "hug" of sorts. The reporter stated that this was a breach in protocol,that "no one touches the Queen" although he agreed that it was a mutual exchange. How do the Brits feel about this?(or anyone else for that matter).
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Post by palesa on Apr 3, 2009 12:18:34 GMT
I am sure the queen should be honoured that Michelle O'Bama hugged her!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 3, 2009 12:27:24 GMT
I read that they have already convinced themselves that it is okay, because the queen touched her first. Apparently, the queen took her by the arm and then they both looked down at their feet ("probably talking about their shoes" the article said).
I guess equality between men and women is still farther away than some of us had hoped.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 3, 2009 14:53:14 GMT
I was moved and proud beyond belief. It was So genuine.
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Post by onlymark on Apr 3, 2009 15:16:17 GMT
Just because the Queen touched one doesn't mean that one can touch the Queen. She is our Monarch and should remain inviolable.
Prince Philip is a different matter. He should be slapped around a bit.
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Post by onlymark on Apr 3, 2009 15:17:43 GMT
Btw, a little secret I will share with you, 'cause I know it wont go any further, is that on the TT my 'spare' handle is Queen Elizabeth II.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 3, 2009 15:26:20 GMT
If it was a mutual exchange, it was certainly correct, especially if the Queen as the older woman initiated it. I stress that because she is due respect as a head of state and an elderly person, not because any American should recognize her "divine right" status. And WHAT could be more regal than this:
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Post by Deleted on Apr 3, 2009 16:46:17 GMT
The queen can set the rules in her own country, but when she ventures out of it, anything goes. I guess that's why she stays home most of the time.
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Post by Jazz on Apr 3, 2009 17:05:11 GMT
...Bixa's photo in #6...oh. my. god. Michelle is beautiful. (where/when was it taken?)
I followed this a bit, Canadian, US and BBC coverage. Although it is a 'breach of British protocol', most of the British press and interviews with people on the street expressed no criticism, they loved it. I think, given time, Michele Obama will go far, far beyond the influence of Jacqueline Kennedy, Eleanor Roosevelt and Princess Diana.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 3, 2009 19:36:20 GMT
I agree Jazz. Am waiting for Bixa to answer about the photo.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 3, 2009 21:21:51 GMT
Me three!!
I'm sorry, I don't know the story on that photo. I've tried googling various combinations, but can't find it. It was sent to me via one of those infinitely forwarded emails. I played holy hell extracting the picture to post it here, but had to share it.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 3, 2009 21:26:18 GMT
Maybe from her hooker days? It looks like the sheet got caught on her dress.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 4, 2009 0:11:31 GMT
Well, that's fucking unwarranted.
Guess we got our answer to that other OP, "Can cats talk?"
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Post by Deleted on Apr 4, 2009 0:14:26 GMT
I had an inkling when I posted this that I ran the risk of being offended. I was correct. Next time I'll listen more closely to my intuitions. I'm not even sure it dignifies a response but here it is.
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Post by Jazz on Apr 4, 2009 0:16:49 GMT
Maybe from her hooker days? It looks like the sheet got caught on her dress. Hah! Kerouac...may Allah smile upon you, and you be fortunate enough one day to have such a beautiful, loving, hard working, brilliant, accomplished woman, wrapped in a bedsheet in your life.
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Post by tillystar on Apr 4, 2009 2:57:25 GMT
I think it looked like two people who genuinely got on shared a hug.
I feel a bit sorry for the Queen's lack of human contact, bet she loved having a spontaneous hug. She probably needs one now and then after putting up with her husband.
Prince Phillip of course kept the side up with his usual well thought-through comments:
(C&P from the Telegraph)
"I had breakfast with the Prime Minister, I had meetings with the Chinese, the Russians, David Cameron... And I'm proud to say I did not nod off in one of the meetings," Obama said.
To which the Duke laughingly replied: "Can you tell the difference between them?"
This is not first time that the Duke has got into trouble for alleged rudeness, particularly to foreigners. During a royal visit to China in 1986 he warned British students: "If you stay here much longer you'll all be slitty-eyed."
Seven years later her greeted a Briton in Hungary with the words: "You can't have been here that long – you haven't got a pot belly".
In 1998 he told a student visitor to Papua New Guinea that he had done well not to be eaten and in 1984 he asked a Kenyan woman "You are a woman, aren't you?".
Last year said to a group of belly-dancers: "I thought Eastern women just sit around smoking pipes and eating sweets all day".
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Post by hwinpp on Apr 9, 2009 9:56:18 GMT
My opinion: She's the queen. She doesn't need hugs. I think she's queen not by divine right but because the British parliament allows it. I'd have said constitution, as in constitutional monarchy, but the Brits don't have a constitution though they like to point out the Magna Charta. As for Michelle Obama, she wasn't voted president of America, her husband was. I don't get all this 'first lady' fuss. And I'd never have thought I'd see this: "Well, that's fucking unwarranted." Not that I'm adverse to a bit of swearing myself
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Post by Deleted on Apr 9, 2009 10:23:38 GMT
Michelle Obama is the new sacred cow for Americans, so any ironic remark brings on uncontrollable outrage. But Bixa recovered quickly.
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Post by tillystar on Apr 9, 2009 15:44:01 GMT
Aw man, everybody needs hugs.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 10, 2009 5:17:21 GMT
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Post by normal on Apr 10, 2009 8:39:15 GMT
The Queen is the ultimate diplomat. No one will ever know if the hug was a spontaneous thing or a breach of etiquette. Right now England needs the US to bolster themselves. Who knows how this will play a year from now when both economies falter and fail. At this point in time Obama and friends are the peoples choice. IF Obama fails this will be dregged up and commented on unfavourbly by the very people who are lauding it today.
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