Commemorating the 200th anniversary of burning the White House. Only sparklers this time! pic.twitter.com/QIDBQTBmmL
— British Embassy (@UKinUSA) August 24, 2014
"Other than an off-colour tweet and subsequent apology by the British Embassy, the bicentennial of the punitive mission of 1814 that left the US capital in flames has received little attention this week...."
What cakes will be baked and tweets tweeted on September 11, 2201?
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Watched a presser with David Cameron. Remarkable contrast with the conference our president gave yesterday. Competence on display. Articulate w/out the need for notes. Clear position of ISIL, clearly stated. Actually pointed out that ISIL is driven by a religious ideology. Named the religion.
Do we send them apologies every 4th of July?
Honestly, it's not the big of a deal, but in this day and age, when the owners of said White House are one of (used to be THE, more's the pity) most powerful nations on Earth, with a leader who's plainly antagonistic toward your little island realm, why go begging trouble?
Alternate theory: maybe intentional given POTUS' somewhat chilly attitude toward the Brits.
JV teams everywhere.
I wouldn't object if they did it now.
Muzzie cakes, presumably. And at the rate we're going, they'll probably be baked in the White House.
What cakes will be baked and tweets tweeted on September 11, 2201?
We can joke with the Brits because (well, at least until Zero was elected) they are our closest allies and partners in history, law, tradition, etc.
This is unlikely to ever occur with AQ, ISIS, or any of the other Islamic killer/murderer/terrorists who want us all dead.
I agree Rusty. But I am afraid that the next time the White House burns it will be at the hands of a much different group.
I thought the tweet from the British Embassy was perfectly hilarious.
Geez... lighten up Francis!
I thought the tweet was pretty funny. Get a sense of humor, butt-hurt persons!
Let's hope that September 11, 2211 involves a respectful acknowledgement of those who suffered and died, and little else. If we are still emotionally enmeshed in the conflicts of 2011, it will have been a long 200 years indeed.
Often history moves on. That said, in the middle east we are dealing with hatreds and conflicts that have persisted long beyond 200 years.
It's hard to imagine the world of 200 years hence. Yet it's such a short time in the continuum of even human history, let alone that of the entire creation.
"What cakes will be baked and tweets tweeted on September 11, 2201?"
That comment made my blood run cold. I thought about how sweets were passed around on the Arab street on that fateful day.
I thought it was funny too, although a little perplexing. The backdrop was cute.
agree
all in fun
after all, they didnt burn people alive in 1814. unlike 2001
What cakes will be baked and tweets tweeted on September 11, 2201?
The comparison isn't really apt. If there had been 3000 Americans in the White House when the British burned it down, I doubt we'd be joking about it today.
Heard this sung today by a great American patriot.
Ever since the British burned the White House down
There's a bleeding wound in the heart of town
It's funny because they lost.
Outrage machine strikes again...
"The comparison isn't really apt. If there had been 3000 Americans in the White House when the British burned it down, I doubt we'd be joking about it today."
Burning the White House and the Capitol were very destructive acts of war aimed at importantly symbolic monuments. I don't say they are exactly the same. I ask you to imagine how that day will be marked, 190 years from now? It's a mental exercise. I'd rather see attempts at visualizing the cakes and the tweets than hear excuses for avoiding the exercise.
By the way, I thought the cake was nice. It says: we love each other now.
The word "commemorating" was a mistake.
I thought it was funny. We get along well with the Brits these days.
Let them eat their cake.
IIRC, the British didn't trap any people inside the White House before burning it down.
Tony Blair jokes about the British burning Congress' library...in his speech before Congress in 2003.
"Sorry," he says sheepishly and adds "There has never been a time when the power of America has been so necessary."
The Brits wouldn't have such a mock celebration if President Obama had the courtesy not to send back the Churchill bust lent to President Bush. Can't say I blame the Limeys for their seeming gloating.
I often think warmly of the beheading of King Charles I and want to celebrate the beautiful English Republic under Cromwell. Those were the good old days.
After Cromwell died Parliament allowed back in a Restored Monarchy. Then the realized how stupid that was and they Gloriously snuck back in a Dutch teutonic guy to play a king that Parliament could control.
That Monarchy became the George III that Parliament allowed to pillage His Dominion in North America until Washington's Army stopped them dead.
Then in 1814 was that Monarchy and Parliament sent out its Imperial forces to restore their Rule over North America. To do that successfully they needed the USA's records kept in DC.
The British have always been our worst enemy.
"What cakes will be baked and tweets tweeted on September 11, 2201?"
None.
I'd rather see attempts at visualizing the cakes and the tweets than hear excuses for avoiding the exercise.
1. You will never, ever hear me visualizing cakes to celebrate 9/11 without extreme rage and
2. Ridiculous to even conceive of the idea that people will still be 'tweeting' in 200 years.
"I'd rather see attempts at visualizing the cakes and the tweets than hear excuses for avoiding the exercise."
There won't be any tweets in 190 years but you can bet there will be cake. The equivalent of the tweet will be some kind of visible three dimensional representation that will float in the air in front of you. It will be interactive.
For the interactive tweet equivalent, one possibility might be a life sized representation of Mohamed Atta who discusses his feelings as he bears down on the North Tower. This tweet will be spam that appears all over the world. He answers every question by saying "Fuck You" in perfect English.
The tweet equivalent is a prank. It will be tracked to the Muslim nation of Sweden, particularly to Oslo and the Nobel-Nasser Institute of Advance Communication in that city.
Swedish Prime Minister Sharif Feisal will immediately visit the White House oval office via the same technology to deliver his apology for the tasteless student prank to American President Muguel Bush-Fernandez, the 7th member of the Bush family to hold the Presidency. Bush-Fernandez will graciously accept the apology and will invite Faisal the 500 seat Press Auditorium to view the nine foot cake representation of the Twin Towers delivered earlier by the embassy of Palestine. The cake sent with regards and felicitations from Palestine's leaders in their capital city of Cairo, now the largest city in the world but still dependent on the United States for half of its budget. Fifteen percent is still paid by Israel.
The cake unfortunately has been half devoured by a ravenous press corps of 425 correspondents, who gripe that the Ice cream supplied by the White House has long since run out.
I dislike that they apologized. They should have said, "We meant 'remembering' instead of commemorating. Oops."
The fact they are flying the british and american flags side by side, and the cutesiness of the cake, make it a great joke about how strident enemies can become close allies.
It would've been a great occasion for the white house to show some class and humor and respond with something of interest :)
I think we are over it. Maybe we can get Muslims to get over the Crusades.
I chuckled a little bit at the tweet, though after some additional thought, I wonder if there wasn't a slight hint of a barb in the message. After all, it's not clear that the current occupant of the Oval Office has done much to maintain our "Special Relationship" with the UK.
In the end, I find myself missing the days when serious nations took themselves and their communications seriously.
As for remembering the September 11th attacks in 200 years, a few observations:
1) How do we remember Pearl Harbor these days? If we remember it at all, we probably end up spending more time talking about racism and Hiroshima than Pearl Harbor.
2) Even in the NYC area, September 11th memorial ceremonies are focused on stories of personal loss, as though the buildings collapsed of their own accord. To the degree that human agency is mentioned, it's usually in the context of pious cautions against "Islamophobia." Meanwhile, in my own town, we have a newly constructed memorial to the victims of the Newtown school massacre. It dwarfs the nearby September 11th memorial. My town lost half a dozen residents in the September 11th attacks, but it has no direct connection to Newtown.
But it's okay to call them Brits?
How do the British "commemorate " the Opium Wars and the Boxer Uprising? Make an opium cake decorated with slaughtered Chinese peasants?
9/11 was a comparatively small attack that launched two botched wars.
A days worth of casualties for the USSR/Russia in WWII. A light day.
Doubt the history books will mention it. Except as a small chapter in the history of the nation that later broke up into Alta California and 3 other pieces of that after the great American ideological and ethnic cleansing wars of the late 2000s that filled graves with millions...
"How do we remember Pearl Harbor these days?"
When I was at the Arizona Memorial, I noticed that some people took Pearl Harbor pretty seriously.
"But it's okay to call them Brits?"
Uh, the correct name is Limeys.
"If we remember it at all, we probably end up spending more time talking about racism and Hiroshima than Pearl Harbor."
Who is "we"? If you mean liberals and the MSM (is there a difference?) you're right.
Large numbers of American remember Pearl Harbor.
"The British have always been our worst enemy."
There is that strange sentiment again.
Without an UK no USA.
"beautiful English Republic under Cromwell" Now I see where you coming from.
"pillage His Dominion in North America". The pillage and institution of the penal law state in Ireland was quite alright however. Them Irish were dirty catlicks after all.
All in good fun--we've been friends for a century and a half now. They shouldn't have apologized, and we should have laughed with them to show some grace.
Besides, they only burned DC to repay us for burning Toronto, and our entry into that war was an unnecessary disaster. We should be celebrating having dodged a bullet. That could have turned into the end of our nation.
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