Grimace, smile: what's the difference?
Are you serious? Check out what the Los Angeles Times had to say about Bush's nasty little Merkel-massage:
Entering the meeting room, as relayed by a Russian television camera, Bush headed directly behind the chancellor, reached out and, placing both hands on the collar of her gold jacket, gave her a short massage just below the neck.She smiled.
Smiled? Seriously? Huh, and here I thought she threw up her arms in self-defense/disgust. But what do I know.
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But of course she loved it, just like we all love being "massaged" by men at their whim and pleasure. Or led around the dance floor. Or guided into a room. Or pushed into the table by our chair. All that good stuff ...
Smile, indeed!
The LA Times needs glasses. That was a "WTF are you doing?!" look, if I ever saw one!
Yes, the LA Times got it wrong. Or at least didn't call W on getting it wrong. That body language said, "I know you're the leader of the free world or whatever, but get off of me."
I think it was obviously an unwanted violation of personal space, and she did throw up her arms, but it looked to me like she was amused by it afterwards--as if "I can't believe this idiot just did that." To summarize all that with "She smiled." is ludicrous.
Occasional well-intentioned violations of physical space happen, but for the President of the United States to walk over and give an impromptu backrub to the leader of Germany, and then not even care enough about her discomfort to turn around and apologize, is odd to say the least. If Bush had tried that on Thatcher, he'd be picking himself up off the floor.
Cheers,
TH
The article from Das Bild is hysterical, if there are any other Teutons or Teuton wannabes in the house. But I think "Blitz-Massage" and "Liebes-Attacke" are fairly clear to most all of us.
Furthermore, what possessed him to do that? Just because he's the president of the USA doesn't mean he can touch people who don't want to be touched (by such an incompetant asshole.)