10 Surprising Etiquette Faux Pas in Other Countries

 Daily Passport

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"In America and many other countries, raising the index and middle fingers in a “V” shape, with the palms facing outward, is the peace sign. However, in other parts of the world, the “V sign” is associated with victory instead of peace. And in Turkey, it has a more unfortunate connotation: terrorism. 

"Many people learned that in the summer of 2025 due to a viral video of a South Korean tourist being gently reprimanded by security guards after flashing the peace sign in Istanbul. “In your culture, it means peace, but unfortunately in Turkey, it is raised about terrorism,” one of the guards told her. The hand gesture has been used in the past by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States, the European Union, Japan, and Australia."

Gifting Certain Kinds of Flowers – France

Chrysanthemums have funeral connotations in France, where they’re associated with mourning and loss. So, while they’re the right kind of flower to leave at a gravesite, they’re the wrong kind for most other occasions. Also best left at the florist are red carnations, which suggest ill will; all-yellow bouquets, which imply infidelity; and an even number of flowers in a bouquet. Additionally, flowers in general are considered a bit of a no-no if you’re trying to thank someone for hosting you — especially if they aren’t already in a vase, as you just gave your host work to do when you were trying to give them a gift." . . .

The time when George Bush Senior figuratively told the Aussies where to  go…   . . . "During a state visit to #Australia in 1992, US President George Bush Senior was confronted by protesting sugar industry workers angry at the US dumping cheap, subsidised sugar in Australia’s traditional markets.

"How did Bush greet the protestors? By flashing them a V-sign ✌🏼… only he did it with the fingers to the front, not the back.

"👎🏻 Bad move – that hand gesture in Australia does not mean “peace” or “victory” but has the same meaning as the middle-finger salute, causing great offence. At the time it wasn’t for certain whether this was a genuine gaffe or not. However, as the photo shows, Bush did learn from this faux pas.

‘Kamala Harris Day’ sparks mockery after former VP accepts honor: ‘Name one accomplishment’

NY Post  

"The lavishing of awards on Harris, who was roundly thrashed in the 2024 presidential election by President Trump, was met with incredulity online. “Name one accomplishment! Just one!” an X user wrote, adding that the country had “dodged the biggest bullet ever” when she lost."

Former Vice President Kamala Harris was met with mockery after she accepted the key to the city of Jackson, Mississippi, where the mayor also declared last Wednesday “Kamala Harris Day,” in honor of her many “accomplishments.”

"The former Democratic presidential candidate, who is rumored to be mulling a second try for the Oval Office, was in the Magnolia State as part of a mammoth book tour promoting her memoir, “107 Days,” when she was honored by Democratic Jackson Mayor John Horhn.

"  'Kamala, you don’t know what you mean to Jackson, Mississippi. You don’t know what you mean to Mississippi. You don’t know what you mean to America,” Horhn gushed during his remarks introducing Harris at Thalia Mara Hall last Wednesday evening.

" 'And, in recognition of your many, many firsts, in recognition of all of the accomplishments that you have made … I signed a proclamation declaring Jan. 14, 2026, Kamala Harris Day in Jackson, Mississippi,” Horhn said, as Harris clutched her hands to her chest in a show of humility." . . .More...

Why is the Democrat Party drawn to the worst leader candidates possible? Do they not have such honorable public figures as Condoleezza Rice, Herman Caine, Larry Elder, Harris Faulkner, Wesley Hunt, Deroy Murdock, Justice Clarence Thomas, Rep. Byron Donalds, Fox anchors Lawrence B. Jones and Kevin Corke. . .  Many more here, but still not exhaustive nor current. TD

Khamenei's gamble: Iran admits to the slaughter and counts on the world to look away

 Jerusalem Post   

"Khamenei himself bears the responsibility for this bloodshed. In previous rounds of demonstrations, he has had no qualms directing security forces to take blood in order to keep the ayatollahs in power. The real question is why the world* is still allowing him to get away with it."

"Iran’s supreme leader has now openly acknowledged what the Islamic Republic has spent weeks trying to obscure from the world.

"In remarks carried by Iranian state media on Saturday, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei admitted that “several thousand deaths” had occurred during Iran’s latest wave of nationwide protests, while blaming the United States and Israel for the bloodshed.

" 'Protesters, he declared, were “criminals,” “mercenaries,” and mohareb (enemies of God) – a charge that carries the death penalty under Iranian law.

"For over four decades, the Islamic Republic has relied on a familiar formula for survival. It begins with repression at home, then blames foreign intervention, and waits for the world to hesitate.

"When Iranians protest corruption or inflation, the regime’s response is lethal force. And when the death toll mounts, Tehran redirects responsibility outward, confident that international outrage will stop short of any consequential acts. This is one way the regime has firmly held on to power." . . .

. . . "No Iranian embassies have been closed. Nor have any ambassadors been recalled. Diplomatic relations continue largely uninterrupted, even as the regime openly threatens mass executions. Tehran remains seated at international forums, its representatives treated as normal partners in conversation, while protesters are labeled terrorists at home."  . . .

In recent weeks, Iranian protesters have appealed directly to outside powers, particularly the United States and Israel. Handwritten signs addressed to US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have appeared at demonstrations. Video messages circulate online calling for help.

* Bear in mind that much of "The world" sided with the murderers and rapists of Hamas when Israel said "Enough!" and tried to put a stop to years of Hamas murders and missile attacks on peaceful Kibbutzim. And (Below) putting Jewish babies into Israeli ovens and cooking them alive. TD

Gen Z approved.

What MLK might have to say about America today

 

"For King’s was a universal message of equality and dignity for all: “Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.' ” [Hear that, Joy Reid, Maxine Waters, Al Green, Jasmine Crockett, Ayanna Presley?]

"What would the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. have to say about his country’s contentious racial landscape on this, his 97th birthday?

"America is a far different place from the nation that saw King felled by an assassin’s bullet in 1968 at the young age of 39; different even from the country that made this a federal holiday in 1983.

"Black Americans still face real inequities. Look at the huge numbers of crime victims, disproportionately black, generated by terrible progressive policies on public safety.

"Or the decay of America’s public schools, once an engine of black social mobility: the erasure of all standards in order to conceal the failure of unionized teachers to actually teach.

"Nor are these the only reasons African Americans and the Democratic Party seem increasingly at odds, as the party’s woke elites obsess about issues (the green agenda, open borders, trans rights) irrelevant or contrary to the interests or views of most blacks.

"Yet vast progress is impossible to deny: The United States has seen an African American serve two terms as president — something King likely thought even his children would never see. [Yet his wife gets wealthy on TV by claiming victimhood]

"So we honor Dr. King for the goals he pursued and largely achieved — and for a vision the nation still strives to fully realize." . . .   More... 

Why do Democrats and the left oppose ICE so much?

 Mike Robertson  

"In short, the left opposes ICE so vehemently because effective enforcement undermines their power base, exposes policy failures, and challenges their narrative." . . . 

"Since President Donald Trump’s return to office in January 2025, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has undergone a dramatic revival. Bolstered by a historic 120% manpower increase — adding over 12,000 agents — and billions in new funding through the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” ICE has launched aggressive operations like the massive “Metro Surge” in Minnesota. These efforts target the “worst of the worst”: gang members, drug traffickers, murderers, rapists, and child predators, many with serious criminal convictions.

"By mid-January 2026, ICE’s detainee population reached a record 73,000 (an 84% jump from Biden-era levels), with thousands of criminal non-citizens arrested and hundreds of thousands removed or self-deported nationwide. DHS reports over 622,000 deportations under Trump so far, plus millions more encouraged to leave voluntarily — far outpacing the ICE figures under the previous administration, where lax policies allowed criminal aliens to remain free despite record border crossings.

"This renewed focus on public safety and rule of law has restored order for many Americans, who voted overwhelmingly for Trump in 2024 precisely because illegal immigration had become a crisis impacting jobs, welfare, housing, schools, and safety.

"Yet Democrats and the broader left have responded with fierce opposition: lawsuits from states like Minnesota, threats to block DHS funding, calls to “abolish ICE,” and inflammatory rhetoric labeling agents as “Gestapo,” “rogue,” or perpetrators of “lawlessness” and “terror.” Why such intense backlash against an agency enforcing federal immigration laws and removing dangerous criminals?" . . . More...

Republicans must own Trump’s Golden Age to win the midterms

Joseph Ford Cotto

"What matters politically and economically, because these households feel price increases first and relief last.

"What is coming this year may determine far more than a single election cycle.

"It may determine whether voters believe Republicans are still capable of delivering tangible economic relief in an era defined by anxiety, frustration, and fading trust.

"At the center of that test stands Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, now law, and the broader Working Families Tax Cuts agenda that flows from it. Together, they form the most consequential Golden Age economic story heading into November. Even as their impact is being partially blunted by policy failures emanating from America’s largest blue states and metropolitan areas.

"Voters are uneasy, and the data leaves little room for denial.

"Consumer confidence remains near historic lows despite modest month-to-month improvements. The preliminary January 2026 University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index registered 54.0, only slightly higher than December but down roughly 25 percent from January 2025, reflecting persistent fears over inflation, prices, and labor market softness.

"Gallup’s Economic Confidence Index tells a similarly sobering story. In December, it fell to minus 33, the lowest level since mid-2024. 47 percent of Americans called current economic conditions poor and 68 percent said the economy is getting worse. Separate Gallup polling shows only 30 percent of Americans expect economic prosperity in 2026. Just 36 percent anticipate job growth, dramatic drops from expectations a year earlier.

"This is the environment in which the One Big Beautiful Bill enters its first full year of impact."... .  More...

Starfleet Academy: To Boldly Go Nowhere

The latest Star Trek iteration turns a great American story into a woke farce.

 The American Spectator

Star Trek cadets are now required to get DEI training from an obnoxious lesbian

Breitbart photo

"What is that? A smug lesbian virtue-signaling with her strident Karen Power is supposed to be appealing, someone we can relate to, someone to aspire to? Does that teacher look like she should be training people to handle Starships or blowing whistles at ICE agents in Minnesota?"

"Forty years ago, as a young USA Today reporter, I interviewed Leonard Nimoy about Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Nimoy was un-Spock-like giddy about the commercial and critical hit he directed and co-starred in. “The biggest laugh,” he said, “came when McCoy says to Kirk about my still mentally addled Spock [Mr. Spock had “died” two films earlier in the classic Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan], ‘He really has gone where no man has gone before.’ Because if you think about it — how did Dr. McCoy know that this was the line that opened every Star Trek episode?” To which I said, “Maybe that’s the Starfleet credo.” “Good point,” Nimoy said.

"I forgot all about the interview for three years, until I watched a scene in the inferior next film, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, directed by William Shatner. In it, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are hiding from the brainwashed crew in what resembles the Enterprise lighthouse room, near the statue of an 18th century mariner at the wheel of his ship. At one point, the camera pans down from the mariner to the statue’s plinth and the inscription on it, To boldly go where no man has gone before, as the most famous eight notes of the Star Trek theme play.

"My possible small contribution to the legend of Star Trek was more respectful and knowledgeable than anything in the awful Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. The show is so caricaturishly woke, it suggests popular X sci-fi commenter Jon del Arroz could be right claiming it crosses the line into based parody. But that would require the slightest degree of Dr. Strangelovian wit, sophistication, and artistry totally missing from the series." . . .

Free Premiere of Trump-Hating ‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’ Bombs

"You can disappoint the fans. You can enrage the fans. But once you get to a point when they just don’t care anymore, your franchise is dead, as are any hopes of redeeming it. The fans are done, so let me ask Paramount this…"

  The parodical Child, the Babylon Bee just couldn't pass this up: 

Kathleen Kennedy Sad To Leave Lucasfilm Before She Got The Chance To Make A Trilogy About Rey’s First Period

. . . "At publishing time, Kathleen Kennedy was sad to leave Star Wars but said that she would always be proud that she produced a series about a coven of lesbian space witches conceiving children by the Force." . . .

January 6 and later cartoons are even more pertinent in hindsight.

Bookworm Room

Unpolled Conservative

"As a political writer, the period after January 6 was the most overwhelming work period I’ve had in my life outside of prepping for a massive trial. I’ve been working pretty much 12 hours a day, seven days a week for over a month. My time was devoted to keeping up with the day’s news and, when I wasn’t doing that, trying to get my house in order, pay bills, etc.

"During that same time period, my friend, the Unpolled Conservative, was sending me his brilliant political cartoons. Today, finally, I looked at them. What struck me was that his cartoons about January 6 were prescient. The Democrats hadn’t yet embarked upon their Kabuki second impeachment but the Unpolled Conservative had already nailed Trump’s defense. Moving forward in time, his cartoons continue to be overwhelmingly accurate, pithy summations of the madness, hypocrisy, and stupidity on the left now that leftists are functioning entirely without brakes." . . .

Screw Your Comfort: How NATURE Magazine Became a Nagging Preacher

 Watts Up With That?  

This is moral preening masquerading as efficiency. The message is not that emissions can be reduced. The message is that passengers should expect less — less comfort, less choice, less accommodation — and that resistance to this outcome is a problem to be managed.

"There was a time when publication in Nature signaled restraint. Not correctness, not consensus, but seriousness: an awareness of uncertainty, an allergy to grand prescriptions, and a reluctance to turn provisional findings into marching orders. That version of Nature treated science as a method, not a ministry.

"The version now publishing climate-policy optimization exercises like “Large carbon dioxide emissions avoidance potential in improved commercial air transport efficiency” operates very differently. It does not merely describe the world. It scolds it. It does not explore trade-offs. It resolves them in advance. It does not ask whether its preferred objectives are justified. It assumes they are, and then works backward to discipline behavior accordingly.

"This is not an aviation paper in any meaningful sense. Aviation is the prop. The real subject is moral instruction — how people ought to travel, how airlines ought to behave, and how policy ought to coerce them when they fail to comply.

"The collapse of Nature from scientific journal to nagging preacher is not subtle anymore. This paper is a clean, almost didactic example.

"The authors begin with the now-ritual framing: aviation emissions are growing, technological progress is insufficient, and therefore “efficiency gains will be an important pillar of any decarbonisation strategy” . Notice what is absent already. There is no serious interrogation of whether the scale of the problem warrants the scale of intervention implied. There is no cost-benefit framing in any human sense. The premise is treated as settled.

"From that point on, the paper becomes an exercise in moralized accounting. A single metric — grams of CO2 per revenue passenger kilometer — is elevated to supreme status. Everything that does not optimize this metric is reclassified as inefficiency, regardless of why it exists.

Comfort becomes inefficiency. Choice becomes inefficiency. Redundancy becomes inefficiency. Even economic viability is treated as a secondary consideration, mentioned only as a constraint to be overcome.

"Nowhere is this clearer than in the discussion of seating configurations. The authors write, approvingly: 

“Business and first class seats are up to 5 times more CO₂-intense than economy class seats… An all-economy class configuration would consequently reduce emissions.”

  Greta’s Sweden Is ‘Retreating From Its Bold Green Ambitions’ – Energy has ‘drained out of the (Greta’s) climate campaign’

. . . "Two protesters, a small cardboard sign and a quiet vigil.

"The energy that’s drained out of the campaign mirrors a broader deflation of green ambitions in Sweden and across the continent. Populist groups are pushing back against environmental initiatives, spurred on in part by Donald Trump’s anti-green agenda, and there’s been a weakening of near-term emission-reduction measures, especially where climate and cost-of-living policies have clashed." . . .

Antizionism: A Plot to Kill a Nation

Phyllis Chesler  

"We must reclaim them unapologetically. Zionism is a mainstream political movement advocating for Jewish self-determination and protection in the state of Israel"**. 

. . . "These redemptive scripts are already operating inside feminist spaces, and they are reshaping whose suffering counts, whose testimony is believed, and which women qualify for solidarity.

"A case in point is the denial or minimisation of sexual violence on October 7th. Many feminist organisations or advocates publicly cast doubt on rapes committed by Hamas against Israeli women, because acknowledging these crimes introduces moral complexity and undermines the idea that eliminating Israel is a universal emancipatory act. A few examples will illustrate this.

"UN Women, for example, initially failed to acknowledge the sexual violence, issuing only generic statements about civilian protection. It was only weeks later, under pressure, that they explicitly condemned the October 7th attacks and the reports of gender-based atrocities. Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch delayed or hedged their statements, questioning the evidence. Influential voices in the international women’s rights movement amplified narratives dismissing the reports as ‘propaganda’. And feminist networks, too many to mention - groups that normally insist “believe women” - suddenly applied caveats and warnings that complaints of rape were being weaponised. In response, the hashtag #MeTooUnlessYoureAJew began trending.

"Sexual violence as a weapon of war is well-documented and recognised globally. It is used to terrorise populations and destroy communities. Yet when Jewish women were the victims, the world fell silent – unable to confront what this brutality meant for a narrative that equates Palestinian resistance with liberation.

"Another example of Antizionism in action in feminist spaces comes from Reem Alsalem, the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and Girls – who also denied that any rapes occurred during the October 7th massacre in a conversation on X with one of our co-founders. She then went even further on a platform known for amplifying Antizionist voices, by claiming that Israel is “normalising state violence” globally. She blamed it for violence in countries like Iran and argued that this prevents her from holding those governments accountable:" . . .  More...

The Left Doubles Down on Rage Week in Education

George Floyd Redux: Renee Good

Laurie Higgins

"When activists obstruct lawful arrests and politicians shout “murder,” the truth is lost: weaponizing a car against police turns ideology into a fatal choice."

"As the whole country knows, a trained leftist agitator was killed by an ICE agent when she intentionally and illegally impeded a legal law enforcement operation. And so, the leftist spinning begins.

"Renee Nicole Macklin Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, decided to park her car diagonally in the middle of a street to prevent ICE agents from legally arresting immigration scofflaws. She refused to comply with repeated orders to vacate her vehicle and then drove toward or into an ICE agent. Justifiably believing that Good posed a significant threat of death or serious injury to himself or other officers, he shot and killed Good." . . .

. . . But AOC, a reliable opponent of truth and law enforcement, said to reporters, “At the end of the day, what we saw today is a murder. And murders in cold blood need to be prosecuted.”

"AOC’s fellow squad member Ayanna Pressley called the killing a “murder.”

"And liar-extraordinaire Hillary Clinton posted on X that “an ICE agent murdered Renee Good.”

Renee Nicole Good, the mom who was killed by a federal agent after veering her car toward him, was an anti-ICE “warrior” and was part of a group of activists who worked to “document and resist” the federal immigration crackdown in Minnesota, The Post can reveal.

Good, who moved to the city last year, linked up with the anti-ICE activists through her 6-year-old son’s woke charter school, which boasts that it puts “social justice first” and involves “kids in political and social activism.” …

Good and her wife, Rebecca, 40, who were raising the child together and sent the boy to Southside Family Charter School, a K-5 academy opened in 1972, which has from its inception been “unabashedly dedicated to social justice education.”

It was through her involvement in the school community that Good became involved in “ICE Watch”—a loose coalition of activists dedicated to disrupting ICE raids in the sanctuary city. …

“[Renee Good] was trained against these ICE agents—what to do, what not to do; it’s a very thorough training.” 

. . . "Just wondering, has Jeffries ever publicly condemned his prevaricating colleagues? Richard Blumenthal, Elizabeth Warren, Bob Menendez, Adam Schiff, and Joe Biden as “stone cold liars”?" . . . Full article...

UPDATED: The American Spectator: Why the Democrats Will Fail Step Three in the George Floyd Script

"Over its entire four years, the Biden regime imported millions of illegal aliens and gave them generous government benefits with the unstated but obvious purpose of building a bought-and-paid-for political super majority that would guarantee a permanent Democrat-controlled electoral dominance. It was intended to be the capstone of Barack Obama’s pledge to fundamentally transform America.

"But now President Trump has called a halt to this transformation and is in the process of deconstructing this illegally imported voter base through ICE raids, arrests, and deportations.

"So it is that desperate Democrat officials and operatives in so-called sanctuary cities and states are using every device at their disposal to slow and block the destruction of their grand plan to replace, overwhelm, and subjugate their political opponents and the rest of the non-aligned population of the United States. (RELATED: The Media Are Agents of Propaganda)

"Among their tactics is the use of rent-a-mobs and so-called social justice warriors to impede ICE agents from rounding up and deporting illegals." . . .

"Nevertheless, Good’s death has become a rallying cry for all those Democrats and radicals who want to preserve what’s left of their imported illegal alien voting scheme. And they are not about to let the inconvenient facts of Good’s justifiable death get in the way of impeding the dismantling of that political base by federal immigration officers."