[kj] OT: At least the french suck at something

[B. Oliver Sheppard]

Being sort of a Francophile, I get a bit defensive when my beloved 
France gets routinely taunted by the US right as being wimpy, effete, 
"cheese eating surrender monkeys," as the phrase goes. In Texas, I have 
seen a few bumper stickers that cut to the chase: "Fuck France." Yeah, 
just plain ol' "Fuck France." On your car. (But mostly "Boycott France" 
-- because they roadblocked [along with others, like Germany, who 
doesn't get punished in our culture as much because they're seen as 
muscular & manly while France is seen as effeminate] the US's attempt to 
get the Security Council at the UN to approve Bush's Iraq War '03.)

The other night, on the US TV show "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth 
Grader," an 18 year old girl, valedictorian of her high school, was 
asked by fifth graders:

"The 100 Years' War was fought by England and what country...?"

The high school valedictorian paused thoughtfully. Then: "Well, I know 
it couldn't be France, because they never win any wars." Some valedictorian!

Of course, the answer was France. The country who never wins anything 
but produced Napoleon, a huge part of the Enlightenment and political 
thought that underlies the US system (along with Locke & other British 
empiricists, yes - but can't leave out the French philosophes at all), 
and who had a global empire so vast that French is the 2nd most spoken 
language in the world -- Quebec, southeast Asia, where their colonial 
power gave way only as the US came in to recoup Vietnam; and large parts 
of Africa (Burundi, Algeria, etc.), -- Haiti -- and who annihilated the 
Ivory Coast's entire air force in 2004 in retaliation for that group's 
capturing of 9 French soldiers *and* an American civilian [barely 
mentioned by the right, who are generally worshipful of power displays 
like this] -- and who also, it should be noted, are fighting Afghanistan 
alongside the US, since the attack on Afghanistan was viewed as an 
assault on NATO, of which France is a member. Unlike the attack on Iraq, 
which has no NATO sanction. Because Iraq never attacked the US.

So, yeah, those French wimps. Germany ruled it for 3 years (and not even 
all of it) in the forties - so, forevermore surrender monkeys, the 
delicate snobs. If that's all it takes to get the reputation that 
"France never wins anything," how many folks call Native Americans 
surrender monkeys? African slaves? Give me a break.

-Oliver



Brendan Quinn wrote:

>

> (It’s not rugby…)

>

> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5pJDWoBsAM&NR=1 

> <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5pJDWoBsAM&NR=1>

>