royaldesires: Shahbanu And Crown Prince 26th October 1967 I feel that post 1979/Islamic Revolution, most people have an incredibly distorted view of the Iranian people.

royaldesires:

Shahbanu And Crown Prince 26th October 1967

I feel that post 1979/Islamic Revolution, most people have an incredibly distorted view of the Iranian people.

amonkeyswedding:

Olympic opening 2012 - Queen Elizabeth and James Bond 007 (Daniel Craig)

La Betty è fichissima.

METATUBE

Barack Obama: I am told that the last three speakers here have been the Pope, Her Majesty the Queen and Nelson Mandela; which is either a very high bar, or the beginning of a very funny joke.

Barack Obama: I am told that the last three speakers here have been the Pope, Her Majesty the Queen and Nelson Mandela; which is either a very high bar, or the beginning of a very funny joke.

(Source: flushedwithcash)

"The Special Relationship"

Buongiorno, Principessa

This whole Royal Wedding thing. I’m happy for the couple, I like the new Duchess of Cambridge, but I’ll be glad when it’s all over.

I don’t think I have really strong feelings on the issue one way or another. Or on monarchy. There is something to be said for it. The Political discourse in Britain tends to be more reasonable than it is here. And a lot of people died in France when they got rid of their monarchy. I had one good friend in England who was very pro-Royalty and that probably is an influence.

But I saw another friend’s status on Facebook saying something along the lines of: “Does anyone in London who isn’t American care about the Royal Wedding?”. That’s part of the reason I feel like I have to care. A lot of Americans define the English as being all about the monarchy. But most people really couldn’t care less. The Queen is something that’s just there. The way the news in America tells it, people’s loves there revolve around the Queen.

Kind of like religion. It’s something that’s just there, but doesn’t really affect your life. There is an official church in England, we had to pray in school assembly when I was a little kid (and later on, because London is so multi-cultural, we learnt about other world religions as well, which is something I appreciate). But most English people are atheists.

I got more into the wedding than I probably would have partly because my “junkatarian” co-worker (who also really hates kids for some reason) said I talked about England too much. Well fuck her. That’s not even true, I had been talking about Austin just that day. And maybe I’ve been thinking about it more than usual recently because of the wedding. And she does this whole “80’s babies” nostalgia bullshit. Well I was born in late ‘86, I barely remember the 80’s. I’m of the 90’s, and my childhood was (mostly) in England.

I guess I also have some sympathy for the wedding because it does provide some positive news. The world kind of sucks these days. It’s nice to see an attractive young couple, legitimately in love (unlike Charles and Diana), getting married in a ballin’ ceremony in Westminster Abbey.

And finally there’s the death of Diana. It was absurd the amount of coverage her death got in England. In my memory, only 9/11 (in America) got more. But I read something that reminded me of the position her death put William and Harry in. That must have been on of the hardest things in the world. I’ve always been an empathetic person, but I can very much relate to their having to go through something awful in life that most people will never have to experience. Monarchy is unfair and absurd, but I really don’t envy either of them.

So like most English people, I guess I vaguely support the monarchy, but I really wouldn’t care that much if it was abolished. The Royal Family is really just a (1000+ year old) celebrity institution as this point.

balloffire123: But over 30 years since John “Johnny Rotten” Lydon sang: “God save the queen, she ain’t no human beingan’ there’s no future in England’s dreaming” He is a B-list reality TV star in England, and the Queen is still very much on the throne. As long as William and Kate are a better couple than Charles and Diana were (and they almost certainly are) the British monarchy is going to be around for a while.

balloffire123:

But over 30 years since John “Johnny Rotten” Lydon sang:

“God save the queen, she ain’t no human being
an’ there’s no future in England’s dreaming”

He is a B-list reality TV star in England, and the Queen is still very much on the throne. As long as William and Kate are a better couple than Charles and Diana were (and they almost certainly are) the British monarchy is going to be around for a while.

“But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new dark age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves, that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth[5] last for a thousand years, men will still say, This was their finest hour.” - Winston Churchill God Save the Queen (and Kate Middleton, the sexy Queen to be).

“But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new dark age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves, that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth[5] last for a thousand years, men will still say, This was their finest hour.” - Winston Churchill

God Save the Queen (and Kate Middleton, the sexy Queen to be).

God Save the Queen. Real punk. I don’t believe Punk ever really existed in America. There just isn’t the same history. Hip-hop was the closest American thing to Punk. No future.