In a chat with Prime Minister Tony Blair at the G8 summit, President Bush uses colorful language.

[Ban Hammer 13,656]

What the hay is a mincer?

someone's prejudice coming thru. he's being a racialist today.

A joke sir, based on the brief, effeminate exchange I quoted

it's racialist. you're busted. report to the rack

Report to the dictionary Charlie-boy

i'm about as wrong in using it as your usage of the word about someone disliking a religion

now to introduce you to the word "bigoted"

I wonder what else to call the accepting of a racial stereotype as a universal truth?

Bigoted is as bigoted does. Quite a few of us fit that description btw - including your good self.

as any race can be muslim, using the word racialist is incorrect in that usage. the word bigoted fits it much better. and yes, everyone is bigoted in some way or another. i'm especially bigoted when it comes to my choice of beer and pizza

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

What the hay is a mincer?

someone's prejudice coming thru. he's being a racialist today.

A joke sir, based on the brief, effeminate exchange I quoted

it's racialist. you're busted. report to the rack

Report to the dictionary Charlie-boy

i'm about as wrong in using it as your usage of the word about someone disliking a religion

now to introduce you to the word "bigoted"

I wonder what else to call the accepting of a racial stereotype as a universal truth?

Bigoted is as bigoted does. Quite a few of us fit that description btw - including your good self.

as any race can be muslim, using the word racialist is incorrect in that usage. the word bigoted fits it much better. and yes, everyone is bigoted in some way or another. i'm especially bigoted when it comes to my choice of beer and pizza

If we're generalising here, as all of the recent the topics have focussed largely on arab muslims - "prejudiced" is about the size of it.

In any case the same point applies - some people think religion determines behaviour.

Edited July 18, 2006 by erekose

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Malapropist and servant

Did Bush really describe Bashar al-Assad as "sweet"? Did Blair agree that he was "honey" - or did he say the Syrian president had "had it" (the BBC's version)? It's all Chinese whispers in the end; what with the world leaders chuntering in the background and Bush munching on his bread, we'll never know whether Blair agreed with the president that Syria was the ultimate problem or whether he was trying and failing to introduce a degree of nuance into Bush's thinking.

But the fascinating thing about the "Yo, Blair!" conversation is not so much Bush's simplistic grasp of the crisis in the Middle East, which is obvious and entirely predictable, but how well he comes out of the exchange. His handling of the PM is masterful.

First of all, Tony brings up the vexed issue of the trade pact, lack of ("this trade thingy"). They agree it may be impossible to come to an agreement. Blair starts waffling: "But it's just I think what we need to be an opposition". What does he mean? Bush, understandably, hasn't a clue. So he tells Blair to tell Merkel to sort it out. Bush may be delegating for the wrong reasons, but he's delegating, and that shows an awareness of both his own limitations and the more pressing nature of the crisis in Lebanon.

Bush then quickly moves into small-talk mode. He loves the sweater Blair chose for him. Blair, flattered, makes a weak joke ("In fact I knitted it!") and, while he's slightly disarmed, the president swiftly moves on to the big business of the day. He thinks Kofi Annan is kidding himself if he imagines a ceasefire will solve everything. What does the PM think?

Blair, even more flattered, spies his opportunity. He hints that some kind of stabilisation force will have to go in, and that he might be just the man to negotiate it.

Bush tells him that Condoleezza Rice will be going soon.

That's OK, says Blair. I can go along first and do the groundwork. Bush tactfully ignores that suggestion and cuts to the chase, as he sees it. "You see the irony is what they need to is get Syria to get Hizbullah to stop doing this ###### and it's all over," he says, in the BBC's version.

Although it's not clear what the irony is, Bush's verdict is clear: Syria's the key. They speculate a little about what Assad is thinking. Bush says he wishes he could have relied on the UN secretary general to negotiate with the Syrian president. And that, unfortunately, is where we leave them.

Tracking the president's malapropisms Jacob Weisberg-style is great fun. But although Bush may not know what irony is, he knows how to let Blair know that the PM won't be brokering peace between Israel and Hizbullah. The Bush who emerges from this conversation is a straight-talker who exploits and fends off Blair's feeble equivocations. This is not to excuse his faltering grasp of international diplomacy, nor to imagine for a moment that he holds the key to solving the current crisis. But if - like most Britons - you frequently wonder how he came to lead the most powerful country in the world, these few minutes are just as revealing as all three hours of, say, David Hare's Stuff Happens.

[Veiled Princess 1]

http://www.cnn.com/video/player/player.htm....expletive.affl

Classy

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Bush then quickly moves into small-talk mode. He loves the sweater Blair chose for him. Blair, flattered, makes a weak joke ("In fact I knitted it!")

I thought they were talking about a shrubbery. A little one. Not too expensive.

[Ban Hammer 13,656]

http://www.cnn.com/video/player/player.htm....expletive.affl

Classy

i thought you were leaving too. i see my pleading for you to stay worked sis

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

http://www.cnn.com/video/player/player.htm....expletive.affl

Classy

i thought you were leaving too. i see my pleading for you to stay worked sis

Just as well. As long as people have visa-related matters pending, they shouldn't let anything said on Off-Topic drive them from this extremely useful website

[Ban Hammer 13,656]

http://www.cnn.com/video/player/player.htm....expletive.affl

Classy

i thought you were leaving too. i see my pleading for you to stay worked sis

Just as well. As long as people have visa-related matters pending, they shouldn't let anything said on Off-Topic drive them from this extremely useful website

actually in her case it was a mena thread

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

http://www.cnn.com/video/player/player.htm....expletive.affl

Classy

i thought you were leaving too. i see my pleading for you to stay worked sis

Just as well. As long as people have visa-related matters pending, they shouldn't let anything said on Off-Topic drive them from this extremely useful website

actually in her case it was a mena thread

Same concept applies. There is too much good information on this site to let the noise drive one away. JMHO.

[Veiled Princess 1]

http://www.cnn.com/video/player/player.htm....expletive.affl

Classy

i thought you were leaving too. i see my pleading for you to stay worked sis

Leaving where?

I've been threatening to go to Canada because of bush but dang his cursing a little bit's not gonna push me over the edge

http://www.cnn.com/video/player/player.htm....expletive.affl

Classy

i thought you were leaving too. i see my pleading for you to stay worked sis

Just as well. As long as people have visa-related matters pending, they shouldn't let anything said on Off-Topic drive them from this extremely useful website

actually in her case it was a mena thread

Same concept applies. There is too much good information on this site to let the noise drive one away. JMHO.

Oh I see someone's been lurking around the ME/NA board

Nah I'm not leaving VJ I just meant that particular thread/board

I agree with Gupt (AS?) there's too much good visa info here for me to leave the whole site over something non visa related.

Edited July 18, 2006 by Veiled Princess

[Ban Hammer 13,656]

http://www.cnn.com/video/player/player.htm....expletive.affl

Classy

i thought you were leaving too. i see my pleading for you to stay worked sis

Leaving where?

I've been threatening to go to Canada because of bush but dang his cursing a little bit's not gonna push me over the edge

http://www.cnn.com/video/player/player.htm....expletive.affl

Classy

i thought you were leaving too. i see my pleading for you to stay worked sis

Just as well. As long as people have visa-related matters pending, they shouldn't let anything said on Off-Topic drive them from this extremely useful website

actually in her case it was a mena thread

Same concept applies. There is too much good information on this site to let the noise drive one away. JMHO.

Oh I see someone's been lurking around the ME/NA board

Nah I'm not leaving VJ I just meant that particular thread/board

I agree with Gupt (AS?) there's too much good visa info here for me to leave the whole site over something non visa related.

ah so we'll see more of you here then. yeah i was bored and was in the mena section.

i'm so busted

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

yeah i was bored and was in the mena section.

i'm so busted

don't feel bad, i go there sometimes too. it's the vj equivalent of going slumming!

[dalegg 143]

Classic.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Priceless

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

CNN.COM has a headline on its front page titled "The cussing, spitting, open-mouth chewing Bush".