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Obamas Give Queen Elizabeth an iPod
Ponca City, We love you writes "What did the Obamas give Queen Elizabeth II on Wednesday when they arrived at Buckingham Palace? An Obama aide reported the queen was given an iPod loaded with video and photos of her 2007 trip to the United States, as well as songs and accessories. She also received a rare songbook signed by the composer Richard Rodgers. The gift issue had come up after Prime Minister Gordon Brown visited the White House last month. Mr. Brown gave Mr. Obama a pen holder carved from the timber of an anti-slave ship, receiving in return a DVD box set of American movies, igniting a torrent of criticism in the British press. According to news reports, the queen gave the Obamas a silver-framed signed photograph — a gift she gives to all visiting dignitaries."
(RP joke, for the humour impaired).
[FUCK BETA]
And its good to be Queen...
Its not my fault, someone put a wall in my way.
It seems kind of 'tarded to give a 70+ year old woman an ipod with a tiny screen filled with speeches she is very unlikely to agree with (not that he would even be aware of her political leanings.)
I would have given her a gift of pictures of her during the WW2 blitz on London, showing her changing tires and working along with the rest of the people under siege by the Germans and put this into a classy montage. I would want to honor her good qualities, and there is plenty out there. For one of the richest women in the world, I'm certain trinkets are not high on her shopping list.
Seriously, Obama is a sad amateur. Camacho was a smarter president.
...that the Region 1 DVD's didn't play in Brown's Region 2 player. On his next visit Obama will give him a modding kit.
How much does custom firmware that will change its function to a logic bomb in the mysterious future cost? Or is that a standard feature in the iPod firmware, available to the federal government at any time? ;)
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Are there really not enough issues in the world to get worked up about that people are arguing over a freakin' gift exchange?
mmmm...forbidden donut
Had to be an iPod, not a Zune: Her Majesty has far too much gravitas to run around "squirting" people.
If you want your life to be different, live it differently.
After all, would ANY government allow one of their top people to accept an electronic gift without it being checked to make sure it's not bugged? That would be a serious security lapse.
Mr. Brown gave Mr. Obama a pen holder carved from the timber of an anti-slave ship, receiving in return a DVD box set of American movies, igniting a torrent of criticism in the British press.
Brown, commenting on the matter, said: "I've already downloaded most of these on the Pirate Bay."
"Anyone who [rips a CD] is probably engaging in copyright infringement." - David O. Carson
There's a good article here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/abolition/royal_navy_article_01.shtml
It's actually an incredibly cool story.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
First, who cares who gave who what? Seriously? I mean, if you made a *major* boo-boo and gave Obama some racist memoribilia or something, then you're an idiot, but otherwise who cares? You're talking negotiations over the future of countries, anyone who reads anything into the gifts is clearly desperate for news or clearly focusing on the wrong things.
Have the governments of the two countries seriously got nothing else better to waste their money on than gifts for other nations? Sure, bring something along but keep it simple. A couple of bouquets for the missus and a bottle of special wine or something to enjoy over dinner one night. Anything else is asking for a cock-up because it'll have been made from the ship that X's father fought against in war Y or something. And, trust me, nobody British really cared what gift was received/given the last time the US president and the UK prime minister met. Nobody. The press obviously had nothing else better to report, or were feeling snubbed themselves. They don't even care that Churchill's bust was moved in the Whitehouse... really... we don't have American presidents lining 10 Downing Street, so why should the American's have anything similar? So long as it was done respectfully (i.e. they didn't kick it down the stairs after drawing a moustache on it), who cares?
Personally, I think the Queen's gift is the worst out of all those listed (in all the linked articles) anyway - it's too imperialist and overbearing... a signed photo... "Look, I have given you something cheap and readily available to remind you that you were once in my presence". Urk.
If he had really wanted to put two seconds' thought into it, he would have gotten something for her dogs ... either the corgis or the labs. She's absolutely nuts over her corgis (same as every dog lover :-)
The real owners are the big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions. Forget the politicians, theyre an irrelevancy. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You dont. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you.. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. Theyve long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the statehouses, the city halls. Theyve got the judges in their back pockets. And they own all the big media companies, so that they control just about all of the news and information you hear. Theyve got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want; they want more for themselves and less for everybody else.
But Ill tell you what they dont want. They dont want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They dont want well-informed, well-educated people capable of critical thinking. Theyre not interested in that. That doesnt help them. Thats against their interests. They dont want people who are smart enough to sit around the kitchen table and figure out how badly theyre getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fucking years ago.
You know what they want? Obedient workers people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork but just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, reduced benefits, the end of overtime and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it. And, now, theyre coming for your Social Security. They want your fucking retirement money. They want it back, so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street. And you know something? Theyll get it. Theyll get it all, sooner or later, because they own this fucking place. Its a big club, and you aint in it. You and I are not in the big club.
-George Carlin
Hmmm. Is there a copyright issue here (assuming that all the music on the ipod was not open source)? Can I legally hook an ipod to my computer, load it with music from my iTunes, and give the ipod away? How is that any different from making copies of CDs that I own and giving those copies away?
Jealously hoarding mod points since 2007.
"igniting a torrent of criticism in the British press"
Where can I find that .torrent?
Yeah, I really do think Corgi owners are a fun lot, and Corgis are some of the nicest dogs around. As the poster said above , The Queen of England is not exactly a simpleton, a slouch or unintelligent. I find someone so entitled has gotten down on all fours like the rest of us and she has done a lot more for her country, I believe, than Obama ever will.
See her first telivised christmas address in 1957.
ERROR: ")" expected. Found EOF
So will she have to fly to the US and sync with Obamas PC to load new song onto them since apples DRM only allow the device to sync with one system without loosing data?
I just find it hilarious, it seems like the criticisms of the US personified.
"Here's a rare and incredibly symbolic gift, a pen case made with wood from anti-slave ships."-British
"lol heres 2 fast 2 furious" - US
It's been a long time.
It's fairly poignant the fact that she gives everyone the same gift, a silver framed picture of her... Pretty much says, 'you ain't shit better than anyone else, but I am da bomb.'
flinging poop since 1969
Remember back in the day when you used to give mix tapes to girls to show them how amazing you were?
I'm god, but it's a bit of a drag really...
The summary doesn't even mention that the DVDs that Obama gave Brown were encoded for the USA, and therefore wouldn't play on DVD players in Britain. Come on, Obumbler! You're eye-poppingly wealthy and you now have an army of people to pick out gifts on your behalf. Can you please send them somewhere besides Wal-Mart 30 minutes before you're supposed to meet a head of state? Sad amateur, indeed. What should we expect, though, from someone who's been taking instead of giving his whole life?
Everyone knows that the queen doesn't have an iPod, she has a wePod!
President Obama was unable to meet with Queen Elizabeth, since she passed away a while ago. Instead he met with HM Queen Elizabeth II. I know it sounds pedantic, but they are different people.
I think a nice gun would have been more fitting for Her Royal Highness.
This post contains benzene, nitrosamines, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide.
Are there really not enough issues in the world to get worked up about that people are arguing over a freakin' gift exchange?
This just in...Israel and Palestine are fighting. More at the top of the hour...
A lot of people are pissed about Government bailouts. News at 11.
The economy sucks. More to come.
Don't complain. At least this is "new" by comparison to the rest of the shit that keeps getting dredged up day after day.
I hope out of consideration for the rich history of British music that it included some of the classics...
like the Sex Pistols http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_Save_the_Queen_(Sex_Pistols_song)
first, he gives the British PM a stack of DVDs (ultra lame). next, he gives the queen of england a friggin ipod (i'm sure she is really suave on computers...probably has a 24" iMac all modded out).
maybe next Obama will show up in Japan with some 20" rims for the PM there. "Runnin on dubs!!!"
this is so embarrassing. i would've expected it out of President Bush. i bet he got the queen a handgun (big ol' desert eagle), and he probably got Tony Blair a shot-glass set. but Obama? why is he pulling this crap?
"Ah, Mr. Obama, I've been expecting you."
"You seem to be handling all the troubles in the world, right now. One more shouldn't be a problem for you, please accept my gift to you of Northern Ireland."
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
There's a recession on, people. Do you really expect Obama to be handing out diamond necklaces? How's that going to look?
Also, both sides know perfectly well that whatever they give, the other side won't be allowed to keep it as a matter of anti-corruption policy. Every single gift given to an American president goes straight into a vault. So there's no point in giving anything really expensive.
I piss off bigots.
OTOH, the Obama administration has looked so clueless so far about that "new dog for the White House" business, it probably wouldn't be a good idea...
In Soviet Russia, our new overlords are belong to all your base.
... iPod One ?
yeah, its 2009, we have multi-region players in this country. Have had them for years. In fact, my first budget player was multi-region. No codes or chips required.
Dude, DEAL. This site is American which will obviously bias coverage. I often visit British news and entertainment sites and I don't cry about all the stories covering entertainers and personalities I've never heard of. I simply skip them.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
Chief Lincoln of the Americas offers you Construction in return for Invention and 126 gold!
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
Still bitter McCain lost I see...Too bad we didn't elect that political prodigy Sarah Palin.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
Well said, I have had the pleasure of meeting Her Majesty, and I can tell you she is no simpleton. She is an intelligent witty person, who actually has a "can do" mind.
People forget that in WW2, she drove ambulances carrying injured people to the Hospital. She is a trained mechanic, and does actually know more about cars and engines than most normal people.
She even has a blackberry, which she uses to keep in touch with her grandchildren. Talking of Grandchildren, Remember Princess Beatrice once said "she is lucky to have a cool grandmother"
She is a charming, intelligent and lovely person, and one of the things that makes me as a Brit, feel proud.
God Bless you maam.
Have a nice day!
Achievement Unlocked: "Posting Anti-America-Centric comment and mentioning that there are global readers that don't give a fuck!"
This space for rent, inquire within.
She was on the allied side, despite the fact that her real surname is "Achtungschweinhund Hollenstollen Von Saxe-Koburg Gutenberg".
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Queen is just a hereditary title and can be used like any other title including social titles like Mr, Dr, Sir, Mrs and so on.
Using the term Queen Elizabeth without specifying which Queen Elizabeth is no less correct than referring to someone called Paul who is a Dr. as Dr. Paul. The only reason you'd want to specify is if there were multiple Dr. Pauls you could be referring to, but seeing as the summary quite clearly points out he met a living Queen there is no room for ambiguity and so there is no need to refer to her as Queen Elizabeth II.
Using Queen Elizabeth is merely an informal way of referring to her.
If you were writing a book on English Queens then yes, you would be wise to use Queen Elizabeth II to make it clear who is being referred to. As we're talking about someone visiting the living Queen of England, no, there is no need.
Mr Brown does not have ur 733t h4kk1n sk1lz.
What am I on about? He doesn't have any skills, the fat Scottish twat.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Sorry to answer myself again, but I believe she has an iPod already.. since 2005... a 6GB iPod mini.
Its pretty well known actually (google queen ipod).
Not sure what she uses it for, but if i remember rightly, she (or maybe Prince Philip) are avid podcast listeners.
Have a nice day!
The queen has no role in the security status of her government
The Queen is Commander in Chief of the UK military..
It's not the gifts themselves that are the issue... it's the symbolism, if you will.
See, diplomacy is a game, of sorts, and it's heavily dependent on symbolism. Things like gift exchanges, summit meetings, state dinners, and all that are mostly useless from a practical standpoint... but it's part of the game. They're the rules; to be taken seriously you have to at least play along with them and pretend that you care. It's like Christmastime at the office; you go to the parties and you buy little gifts for each other, not because you really care about everyone or want to hang out with them, but because it smooths things over and is just part of office politics.
Obama's not playing by the rules. And while the gifts and all that aren't really a big deal, he's committing a diplomatic faux pas--toward his country's closest ally, no less. What makes this (and similar small diplomatic blunders) ironic, and what the European press is starting to make noise about, is that everyone thought Obama would be better at international relations than Bush. True, he has yet to start any wars; but flubbing even the basic, petty, easy stuff like state dinners and symbolic gift exchanges with your closest allies and your historical and powerful military/economic rivals (China and Russia) certainly isn't getting off on the right foot.
It's like the new guy showing up at the office Christmas party with PBR and dollar store gag gifts for the exchange when everyone else brought drinkable wine or liquor and a $15 gift... then cutting loose a giant fart and laughing loudly about it. Sure, it doesn't really affect business operations, it's just a stupid little party. But now everyone's looking at him kinda funny and thinking "hey, we thought he was cool, but this guy's a bit of an ass." In other words, it may not be harmful, but he certainly isn't doing us any favors.
The meek may inherit the earth, but the strong shall take the stars.
I don't even understand the controversy. 25 DVD's is a pretty damn good gift. Maybe the Brits don't understand that, in the U.S., giving exquisite gifts to politicians is a MAJOR no-no (unless you're Ted Stevens, of course). I'm surprised they even gave him that much. A U.S. politician couldn't accept anything in excess of $335 in value as a gift from a foreign leader.
It's pretty much standard here that diplomatic gifts aren't kept by the President; they're accepted on behalf of, and given over to, the American people. I'd imagine that it's pretty much the same in the UK; "suitcases full of cash and rare art" would be state-to-state gifts that just happen to be presented by/to individuals acting as representatives to their people.
Diplomatic gifts aren't really supposed to be personal anyways. The pen and case aren't for Obama to take home and use for paying his bills; they'll most likely be displayed for a little while, possibly used to sign some kind of treaty or trade agreement with the UK, and eventually filed away in a box somewhere. It might eventually go on display at whatever Presidential library Obama builds, but would remain the property of the United States and just be loaned to said library.
The meek may inherit the earth, but the strong shall take the stars.
I wasn't trying to say this gift was redundant, I was trying to say that an iPod isn't a "retarded" gift for the Queen, as the original poster seemed to think.
http://www.mhall119.com
While I am broadly anti the monarchy I have to agree with you that the Queen does do the British people proud. She is a fantastic ambasador for the country (when she leaves the hubby at home) and I believe that unlike just about everyone else in power in Britian she actually earns the money she gets. The rest of the royal family can go jump for all I care though. Charlie Boy is loosing the plot more and more each day and his two sons are spoilt little brats. When the Queen finally leaves office I think it will be the beginning of the end of the British monarchy.
I used to have a better sig but it broke.
Impeach him for what?
----- You know you have ego issues when you register a domain in your name.
I agree mostly, but wanted to add that another big component of showing respect in gift giving is thoughtfulness of the gift chosen - the pen holder carved from an anti-slave ship is an obvious example of this.
Consumer electronics and media gifts like iPods and DVD's are what you give when your out of ideas. They do not show a good level of understanding of the person you are giving the gift to, although at least the iPod was loaded with pictures of the queens visit... but like all electronics they are ephemeral things, not really gifts to last or provide deeper meaning as you said.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
first, he gives the British PM a stack of DVDs (ultra lame). next, he gives the queen of england a friggin ipod
The DVDs and iPod are not the gifts, they are the packaging. The real value of these gifts is of the content that's on them -- examples of the artistic and cultural outputs of the United States, which have been exported to the world.
That most of this culture is available to anybody with $300 to spare is not an indictment of Obama's stinginess, nor of America's, but a celebration of our egalitarianism.
Why is everyone ignoring the "rare songbook signed by the composer Richard Rodgers"? That could be worth far more than the iPod. Compared to that, the iPod would be a side gift. But that's what the media is focusing on because it's more sensational.
Right, because his predecessor was sooooo much better at this sort of thing, huh?
Spare me your sour grapes, and suck it up. Apparently your candidate lost, and now all you can do is complain about very unimportant and petty things, that's sad.
It goes to show the lack of class in the man and his administration. The two gifts mentioned from the British were classy gifts, and were well thought out.
The gifts from the Obama administration don't have a clue what class is.
Expect more of the same until we impeach and fire this clown of a president.
I am not entirely sure what you are saying? Do you not recall Bush? The tool that gave Angela Merkel (the prime minister of Germany) a back massage at a meeting? How about the time he winked at the Queen of England? Or when he addressed a room full of donors by saying something to the effect of: "Quite an impressive room of people here, the haves, and the have mores...". The same guy who got us involved in two wars and ushered in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
And YOU have the gall to call Obama a "clown of a president" who needs to be impeached? Seriously? If you were marked troll, I would have let your comments go and not even read your post. The fact that somehow, you ended up listed as insightful absolutely astounds me. Given the stark contrast of character between the two men, a grass roots community organizer vs. a man who shirked his military duties, you must need a wheelbarrow to carry your balls around in.
Finally, as a general rule, anyone who finds a need to use the term "class" in the same context you did in your post typically has none themselves.
The Obamas gave the Queen a rare signed songbook by Rick Rodgers, or Rodgers and Hammerstein fame. Rodgers is one of the greatest American composers. The iPod was filled with his music. It was a thoughtful, expensive, classy gift.
Citizens Against Plate Tectonics
How strange, then, that the plantations in the West Indies that supplied Britain's vast appetite for sugar and rum were even more reliant on slave labour than those on the mainland. And how strange that the Caribbean colonies did not become independent, nor did the newly-formed United States take any action to free them from the Empire. And how strange that even so, the British Empire did indeed abolish the slave trade and then slavery itself, and command the Royal Navy to seize all slavers wherever they might be found.
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
Obmama didn't 'give her an iPod' at all.
Obama gave her a signed Rogers (Of Rogers and Hammerstein, who the queen loves,and considers the a song from Oklahoma her and her husbands 'song') songbook.
It was an absurdly good gift. Personal, and yet historic enough that it can be displayed with a bunch of other historic things.
He also gave her a bunch of footage of her trip here that was filmed. He presented this to her within a video iPod.
And everyone trying to make an issue of this is a giant moron.
If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?
The amusing part is that since Obama's black ancestry is from modern Africa, but his white ancestry is from the US, he's a descendant of slaveholders, but not of slaves. Giving him something from an anti-slave ship may not be as positive as it seems.
It is the same. In fact, if MPs wish to accept a gift personally, they have to pay its full market value. That includes the Prime Minister. There was a funny story at the start of Blair's first term; President Chirac sent him some rare and expensive French wine as a birthday gift. As Ian Hislop commented at the time;
He's basically sent Blair a large fine.
The Daily Show thought it was bad too, it wasn't only the British media. It won't affect relations between the US and the UK, but it does show a lack of awareness of the world on the part of the Obama administration.
All intents and purposes. Not intensive purposes.
By all accounts the Queen is actually into gadgets. She even has a Wii.
I assume that would be the "Royal Wii"?
May I ask what benefit I (and my ancestors) have derived from slaves, given that they were poor German, Polish, and Irish immigrants from the late 1800s? What generational wealth? While I feel that slavery was despicable, I do not feel that I have benefitted from it in any measurable way. I'm curious why you simply say "white people", also.
I can't stand this argument.
If you're a white person that didn't grow up in an urban slum in the United States, you owe a hell of a lot to a bunch of dead slaves and their survivors who have been not allowed to create the generational wealth that you benefit from.
...
If your society was enriched by the enslavement or destruction of another, you don't owe them something, you owe them everything. Not only due to the wealth that was robbed from them, but by the moral obligation to right a wrong. It's doubtful that any person could untangle the horrors societies have done to another, and come up with some dollar figure, but that still doesn't excuse your kind of attitude.
I don't particularly care what argument you can or can't stand - the basic fact of the matter is the people that actually need to be punished have been dead for generations. I do not want to be held accountable for their actions because I am not accountable for the actions of others, especial others that I have never met or had a chance to influence.
If reparations had any basis or validity in law, why stop at slavery? Can I get reparations please for the generations of brutality and oppression my ancestors received at the hands of the English when they occupied Wales? How about the deaths of several of my ancestors at the hands of the Catholic Church - please hand over your cheque book Mr Pope, I think I'm owed money.
Get real. Stop living in the past.
There's a fairly apocryphal tale of Kruschev visiting the US, and taken to a trade fair extolling the virtue of free enterprise. President Nixon supposedly provided a gift of a model of a fully stocked all-American General Store of pioneer vintage, explaining that his parents were shopkeepers and how such stores were the bedrock of American values. Kruschev's reply : "All Shop keepers are thieves !" Can't help but admire his comeback, whatever your politics. Wonder what he gave Nixon ?