"you could've heard a pin drop"

patriotic email some of you will certainly be revulsed by.

But These are good:






JFK'S
Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, was in France in the early 60's when
DeGaulle decided to pull out of NATO. DeGaulle said he wanted all US
military out of France as soon as possible.



Rusk responded,

"Does that include those who are buried here?"



DeGaulle
did not respond.




You
could have heard a pin drop.








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.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



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
intend 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.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



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
Brit's, Canadians, Aussie's and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't
have to speak German."


You
could have heard a pin drop.





~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



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 their 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.




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Seems someone likes dishin' on french cats...
anybody hear a pin drop...?

Wow, arnt Americans such humble people.
A good retort is to a silly statement is clever, reporting them above in that fashion is just arrogant boasting.

I am not a Yank, though if I was, those reports above would make me cringe.

I have heard all of those before, grouped together each time. And each time I run across it, I read it again. It's worth reading, worth spreading, and worth repeating, and it give me pride in America when so many other problems with our country give me cause to have lost some hope in our future. If nothing else, America, with its great economic power and military, has NOT chosen to take over as many countries and as much land as possible, unlike so many other nations. I hope we will find our path again in such a way that we can lead from the front and set an example of how freedom and democracy works FOR the people rather than against it. Lately it seems to be a case of how the people can be led astray by the people we elect. Sadly, it seems that the people may elect our leaders, but the funding comes from the wrong sources; corporations, lobbyists, extremely wealthy people with agendas (Koch brothers for example), and others that also try to influence our government. A well educated public is needed for a well run and healthy democracy. One person, one vote. Corporations and Religion should stay OUT of politics as they have agendas that are selfish in the belief that they are right while their competitors are wrong. Democracy, not theocracy or plutocracy, is what our founding fathers wanted and fought for. Not just wealthy landowners such as Washington and Jefferson, but common people like my own ancestor that fought at Bunker Hill, Lexington, and Concord. James Chase. The mix of wealthy and poor, common and gentry, made up our fighters and soldiers, and still makes up our country today. Yet we seem more at odds today than any time I can recall, the rich and the poor, in my own lifetime. I hope we find that middle path again, the path that made our nation a Great Nation for all, if not in everyone's reality, at least in the opportunities and possibilities available to our citizens. There will always be poor, and always be rich, but how we work together is a reflection on how well our democracy works.

So I was talking to a very patriotic marine the other day. We were first talking about sports and carpentry and so on, and then we started talking about the USA.

I told him that I ritualistically wipe my ass with the american flag every morning, urinate on it and sometimes use it to masturbate with.

You could have heard a pin drop.

reply to post by boony

"[Wow, arnt Americans such humble people.
A good retort is to a silly statement is clever, reporting them above in that fashion is just arrogant boasting.

I am not a Yank, though if I was, those reports above would make me cringe. "


I don't understand why you would say that, as Americans and Australians have fought together and been good friends forever and Australia has the right to be proud of its record as well in fighting for the freedoms of other people.
There is a difference between boasting and taking pride in achievements that were made for others, in helping other people stay free or gain their freedom. You can be proud without being prideful. You can repeat your achievements without it being bragging or boasting, especially when others might need a bit of a reminder at what lives were lost by whom for who. Aussies fought in wars they didn't start, nor were attacked in. They also fought for freedoms of others. Were you to repeat your history of that, would you be bragging or boasting? No, you would be rightly taking pride in your country and countrymen and women.
When America had the bomb and others didn't yet, did we try to take over the world? Have those aircraft carriers invaded other countries in order to take over forever? What countries has American conquered and NOT left unless asked to stay? Yes, we are still in Iraq and Afghanistan, but hopefully for not much longer. We have reduced our bases overseas. And remember this, if America had not fought along with you, Australia might be speaking Japanese! Yet now we are all allies. Doesn't that reflect on our good intentions? We made peace with Germany and Japan, we didn't conquer them as they themselves had done to others. Stating some simple facts isn't necessarily boasting, it's reminding others of how we served their people, as in France. They helped us gain our freedom, we helped them as well. Not boasting, just the facts.

Yes indeed. At first I was moved by a story or two.
Then I noticed that the stories went from specific people to generalizations of people.
Then along came the Robert Whiting story.
So I googles him.
After 13 pages of googling I had found nothing more than repeated stories, almost all identical and often grouped with the others.

Why could I find no reference to this fellow outside of this story? If he were real wouldn't he have been on Leno or Hannity by now?

Originally posted by jaxnmarko
reply to post by boony

 

Stating some simple facts isn't necessarily boasting, it's reminding others of how we served their people, as in France.

Dude, if I was french and read the OP, in that context, I'd think some American dude was takin' jabs at me. Because that is exactly how it reads.

And remember this, if America had not fought along with you, Australia might be speaking Japanese! Yet now we are all allies. Doesn't that reflect on our good intentions?

I'm pretty sure dropping an atomic bomb on Japan isn't considered "good intentions".

I cannot believe how ignorant you are, it's borderline astonishing.

Oh and the reason we are still in Iraq and Afghanistan is because we have interests there (oil). Japan and Germany have no monetary interest.

You joined 6 days ago, nice try.

Thanks for the laugh tho!

reply to post by litterbaux

Ah, so you can KINDA read..... not 6 days ago.... check the year. a year AND 6 days..........not that the length of membership here is a sign of knowing history or thinking logically.
Dropping the atomic bomb...... well let's see...... how many lives do you think would have been lost by invading Japan, considering the losses to our troops on Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Saipan, Okinawa...... the only thing funny and worth laughing about is your knowledge of history. My dad was captain of an LCT and would have been in an invasion of Japan. The losses would have been FAR higher than the two nukes. No interest in Germany and Japan? Germany had and still has high technology and manufacturing, and despite our bombing them during the war, still had great technology. Japan, less so, but if the point is to create an empire, why wouldn't Japan have been valuable? It's still territory in a strategic location. Better to kill fewer numbers to end a war, Making peace and leaving is the good intention, not dropping the bombs, they were simply saving lives if in a horrific way. And by the way......the only major oil field in Afghanistan was only recently found there and were not known years ago. So go ahead, be astonished, as I will be at your own ignorance.

Americans are arrogant and Frenchmen aren't?
I'm laughing so hard, there is no way I could here a pin drop.

reply to post by Somehumanbeing


Because he was thinking what an idiot you were that you can't find the toilet paper.

Originally posted by TerryMcGuire
Yes indeed. At first I was moved by a story or two.
Then I noticed that the stories went from specific people to generalizations of people.
Then along came the Robert Whiting story.
So I googles him.
After 13 pages of googling I had found nothing more than repeated stories, almost all identical and often grouped with the others.

Why could I find no reference to this fellow outside of this story? If he were real wouldn't he have been on Leno or Hannity by now?

Well that is impressive "google work" there.......

My young retriever puppy barked to go out today instead of peeing on the rug(first time!): you won't find that on the internet either..... but it happened.
impossible you say? Life goes on all around without being recorded on the internet for posterity.

Hate on America and Americans all you want. history has been pretty well established for the last hundred years..
We did NOT " drop atomic bombs on Japan for "no reason": In fact we requested their surrender after the first one. They refused. It prevented the inevitable main island invasion and house to house fighting.that would've resulted.The Japanese homeland security forces were training Japanese schoolgirls to fight rifles and bayonets with sharpened bamboo sticks! .We were racing Germany to complete the atomic bomb.Had Germany or japan gotten theirs to work first; have no doubt: we would've been on the"receiving" end..
'nuff said...

Myself, a handful of other peeps and an old friend of mine, who at a young age had to have two hip and knee operations and spent much of his childhood in a wheelchair, were just hanging out one night playing Xbox and drinking a few beers....

Well a bit more than a few...

Playing some golfing game I shouted ..

"HE'S GOT A GREAT HANDYCA--------"

And realising what had fallen out of my gob at so great a decibel I slowly started to die inside.

Yeah, you really could have heard a pin drop..

Originally posted by Zippidee
Americans are arrogant and Frenchmen aren't?

Yeah thats right, thats the point.
The French are arrogant and everybody hates that aspect of them.
Do you think people will dismiss that in Americans?