Bush's grope: "Blitz-Massage" or Vulcan nerve pinch?

Following up on Bush's unsolicited shoulder smoosh of German chancellor Merkel yesterday, Michael Shaughnessy says,

I can only imagine what Chancellor Merkel was thinking and it can't be positive. While 'personal space' is less than what you have in the US, Germans still have social tabus on touching, especially in such a public forum as the G8 summit. Germans may be obsessed with shaking hands, but it is a very brief shake. Even family members will shake hands with each other. Touching of this sort is for -very- close friends in private. At least this produced yet another cool German word: "Blitz-Massage."

Here is an excerpt from an etiquette guide for Germany, interesting and funny stuff: Link.

But Michael was among many BB readers who wrote,

Bush's "Liebes-Attacke" looks more like the Vulcan nerve pinch to me: Link.

Thanks for the image, Michael! Link to full-size, mit super-important analysis.

Previously:

Bush "gropes" Germany's (female) chancellor Merkel

Reader comment: #!chris says,

Hello from old Europe. As a German I must say that Bush meeting Merkel naked in the sauna would be inappropriate because of the lack of seriousness, but _way_ less offensive for her. It's not so much offensive in a sexual way but more in a sexist and arrogant way – at least this is how it is perceived by most (!= all) people I talked to.

He decides to cross her physical borders without asking for her consent or without being in a context that implies consent.

However, this might be just one of the many cultural misunderstandings you get used to working internationally.

Though – I never got a spontaneous massage by any business contact from US yet :-)

Liz says,

With regard to your posting at Boing Boing, isn't the
legal term for what Bush did to the German Chancellor
"assault & battery"?

Although I do understand that those in power are above
the law, I think it's always helpful to remember what
they might be arrested for in a real democracy, don't
you? [smirk]


Adam Garcia says,

I was listening to the excellent podcast of the world by pri (Link) and at ten minutes into the show he went into a story about Angela Merkel doing a weekly podcast to explain her policies to the citizens of Germany. The local bloggers went nuts! According to the show "Germany has practically no tradition of political humor using video images of politicians". Check out this funny video of the blogger remixed version.