From Reuters, who never met an American they did like:

Another compare and contrast

Alarmed by the relentless rise of anti-Americanism around the world, a business-backed group is trying to change the behavior that spawned an enduring stereotype of Americans abroad -- loud, arrogant, ill-dressed, ill-mannered and lacking respect for other cultures.

For many years, much of the rest of the world distinguished between the United States and the American people. Americans tended to get better ratings than their country and its policies. But recent surveys show that favorable perceptions of Americans have been shrinking while views on the world's only superpower grow increasingly hostile.

Enter Business for Diplomatic Action Inc. (BDA), a non-profit organization founded by advertising executive Keith Reinhard after a worldwide survey of attitudes toward Americans convinced him that "our collective personality is one of the root causes of anti-Americanism."

"We are seen as loud, arrogant and completely self-absorbed," said Reinhard, chairman emeritus of the advertising agency DDB Worldwide. "People see in us the ultimate arrogance -- assuming that everybody wants to be like us."

This month, San Francisco-based BDA -- whose board includes executives from Exxon and McDonald's -- began distributing a "World Citizen's Guide" to corporate travelers. Its 16 points are a mirror image of the behavioral patterns that earned Americans a boorish reputation in the first place. Here's a sampler from the guide.

*** Think as big as you like but talk and act smaller. In many countries, any form of boasting is considered rude. Talking about wealth, power or status -- corporate or personal -- can create resentment.

*** Speak lower and slower. In conversation, match your voice level and tonality to the environment and other people. A loud voice is often perceived as bragging. A fast talker can be seen as aggressive and threatening

***Listen at least as much as you talk. By all means, talk about America and your life in the country. But also ask people you're visiting about themselves and their way of life. Listen, and show your interest in how they compare their experiences to yours.

BDA's campaign follows several unsuccessful attempts by the government to "sell America," including a branding effort led by a high-powered advertising executive, Charlotte Beers. Under her leadership, the State Department's Office for Public Diplomacy produced a series of videos about Muslims thriving in the United States.

They were meant to show that the Muslim world had a mistaken image of the United States, but several Arab governments refused to air the videos, branding them propaganda.

Etc. etc. Now let's look at apparently acceptable ways of interacting with the natives in a country to which you have emigrated or are acting in a diplomatic capacity:

From KLRT in Little Rock, Ark. :

Controversy over building a proposed Islamic community in Little Rock and many residents are not pleased. The planning commission unanimously approved the project which includes a mosque, a school and more than 20 homes. This stamp of approval is just the first step in a long process that will include much opposition. Several members of the community and members of the planning commission expressed their concerns. Their biggest concern, they are fearful this planned Islamic community will exclude other religions. Little Rock resident... Tim Lawson, says, "I'm opposed to any type of segregation and I believe this is what's going to happen.

From Virginia Tech:

About 60 faculty members from a Saudi Arabian university are taking courses on Virginia Tech's campus this summer. But the program's setup is a bit different than a typical Tech class.

Men and women from King Abdulaziz University are taking identical faculty development courses at Tech, but meet in gender-specific classes. Tech officials said administrators from the Saudi university separated the sexes to mirror classroom settings at their home institution, which operates separate campuses for men and women.

And in North Carolina:

.......just-graduated student named Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar, 22, and an Iranian immigrant, drove a sport utility vehicle into a crowded pedestrian zone. He struck nine people but, fortunately, none were severely injured.

Until his would-be murderous rampage, Mr. Taheri-azar, a philosophy and psychology major, had a seemingly normal existence and promising future. In high school, he had been student council president and a member of the National Honor Society. The Los Angeles Times writes that a number of UNC students found him "a serious student, shy but friendly." One fellow student, Brian Copeland, "was impressed with his knowledge of classical Western thought," adding, "He was kind and gentle, rather than aggressive and violent." The university chancellor, James Moeser, called him a good student, if "totally a loner, introverted and into himself."

In fact, no one who knew him said a bad word about him, which is important, for it signals that he is not some low-life, not homicidal, not psychotic, but a conscientious student and amiable person. Which raises the obvious question: Why would a regular person try to kill a random assortment of students? Mr. Taheri-azar's post-arrest remarks offer some clues.

• He told the 911 dispatcher that he wanted to "punish the government of the United States for their actions around the world."
• He explained to a detective that "people all over the world are being killed in war and now it is the people in the United States' turn to be killed."
• He said he acted to "avenge the deaths of Muslims around the world."
• He portrayed his actions as "an eye for an eye."
• A police affidavit notes that "Taheri-azar repeatedly said that the United States government had been killing his people across the sea and that he decided to attack."
• He told a judge, "I'm thankful you're here to give me this trial and to learn more about the will of Allah."

And then there's this:

• n 1982, a Miami judge issued a warrant to search Prince Turki Bin Abdul Aziz's 24^th-floor penthouse to determine if he was holding an Egyptian woman, Nadia Lutefi Mustafa, against her will. Mr. Turki and his French bodyguards prevented a search from taking place, then won retroactive diplomatic immunity to forestall any legal unpleasantness.

• In 1988, the Saudi defense attaché in Washington, Colonel Abdulrahman S. Al-Banyan, employed a Thai domestic worker, Mariam Roungprach, until she escaped his house by crawling out a window. She later said that she had been imprisoned there, did not get enough food, and was not paid. Interestingly, her work contract specified that she could not leave the house or make telephone calls without her employer's permission.

• In 1991, Prince Saad Bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud and his wife, Princess Noora, lived on two floors of the Ritz-Carlton in Houston. Two of their servants, Josephine Alicog of the Philippines and Sriyani Marian Fernando of Sri Lanka, filed a lawsuit against the prince, alleging they were held for five months against their will, "by means of unlawful threats, intimidation and physical force." They say they were only partially paid, were denied medical treatment, and suffered mental and physical abuse.

• In March 2005, a wife of Saudi Prince Mohamed Bin Turki Alsaud, Hana Al Jader, 39, was arrested at her home near Boston on charges of forced labor, domestic servitude, falsifying records, visa fraud, and harboring aliens. Ms. Al Jader stands accused of forcing two Indonesian women to work for her by making them believe "that if they did not perform such labor, they would suffer serious harm." If convicted, Ms. Al Jader faces up to 140 years in jail and $2.5 million in fines.

Do I need to go into the recent antics of the so-called "immigrants" from Mexico? Of course, they do have some of the natives on their side:

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) -- This famously liberal city is serving notice that illegal aliens are welcome, even while Congress is considering tough new penalties. Police won't harass you. Education and health care are available.
Here's the hitch: You probably can't afford to live here.
In 1985, when Cambridge first declared itself a "sanctuary city," rent control kept apartments affordable.
Today, however, Cambridge no longer has rent control; cheap apartments were turned into luxury condominiums, and the city -- home of Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology -- is among the most expensive places to live in the United States. The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $1,400 a month.
So, while the city renews its open-arms declaration -- as other U.S. cities are doing -- it's not exactly a magnet for new immigrants, particularly illegal ones.

Read more here. It's pretty typical of these folks to make such meaningless gestures, especially when there's no possibility that they will face any consequences. Sort of like all those CA mayors who declared their towns "nuclear free " and "dolphin safe" zones.

A rambling blog today, I know. But idiocy knows no bounds these days. The next post is about somebody who's actually doing something useful and intelligent, sort of an antidote to the rest of the news.