Americans: Restrain Your Hands, S'il Vous Plait.

Pardon Mon Francais mais OMD (Oh Mon Dieu),
Here we go again....President Obama just met The Queen of England and used the "Double Handshake." Y'all have seen it. Many politicians and ministers use this double handed shake.
American Business Women consider it to be condescending. Apparently, the Queen thought so too...the British press is buzzing about this "faux pas" already. Americans will probably think this is such a stupid little rule and who cares, but it is our image. Again, the "Ugly Americans" fail in matters of manners.
Then I thought of Virginia's Governor, Tim Caine, last year when the Queen visited Virginia for our Jamestown celebrations. Front page in the RTD, our Governor was photographed sticking both of his thumbs up in front of the Queen. Y'all can use your imaginations and guess what the "Thumbs Up" hand gesture means in Britain and all over Europe. The European presses and British blogs went nuts!
Richmond also has a Preppie, young local TV reporter out and about town who reports the news with his hands in his pockets. Again, y'all can use your imaginations and guess what Europeans think about men who put their hands in their pants pockets.
I am now throwing my hands up in the air and asking: Why do Americans have such a problem with their hands? Why can we not just learn to be still? Why can we not spend a few minutes learning a few very simple rules for traveling abroad so the rest of the world does not see us as the "Ugly Americans" with our absolute lack of manners. Oh my! Au revoir, y'all.