This childish ubiquitous French bashing tells you

[Swede]

that whoever is doing the bashing doesn't have an original thought in their head.

[Skittles]

1. hey Swede

to what French-bashing incident are you referring?

[Swede]

3. Tucker Carlson,Dennis Miller,Bob Novak,etc etc.

It's there every fricking day. France didn't want to join Bushies war,so the rightwingers should just get over it.

[Skittles]

17. I am tired of the perception, rampant in America

that the French did nothing and let Germany roll over them. Anyone who knows anything about the French resistance knows this is utter bullshit.

[mitchtv]

2. what can you expect ?

We have a president with a very limited range of experience, and the French had the temerity to contradict his Dimness.

[Morning Dew]

4. Damn those Frenchies !

We should just send back the Statue of Liberty. It's not like we'll have much use for it if * is reSelected.

[mark11727]

5. Please don't do that....!

I proposed to the missus there.

Couldn't we just send them Jerry Lewis instead?

[Roy Robertson]

6. I knew we had entered the Twilight Zone

when the U S House of Representatives took "French Fries" off the menu in their cafeteria and replaced them with "Freedom Fries". It's infantile, as you say, and deeply, profoundly, lunatic. Is this is what we've come to? The loudspeakers say "The French are the enemy!" and these fools say "Okay" and start sharpening their machetes.

Sometimes I despair for my country. It seems like we've gone barking mad.

[in_cog_ni_to]

7. I agree and that's why I NEVER

let a snide "French" remark go unanswered.

Last week, my son had a friend over (11 years old) and the boy says to my son, who's always talking politics ;), "Isn't it interesting that we helped save the French in WWII and now they hate us?"

"I" was in the room and couldn't help myself .."No, the French don't hate us, I think they hate George Bush. The French were RIGHT about Iraq."

The boy..."Oh." :eyes:

My son, bless his heart, says..."Mom, his dad is a registered Republican. You need to explain to him why George Bush needs to be removed from office!" So, I did. His parents probably hate me now. Oh well, such is life.

It's REPUBLICANS who are perpetuating this anti-French bullshit and I NEVER let them get away with it. :hi:

[JHB]

14. Never let it go unanswered. Point them Here:

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=2869&pt=Etienne%20de%20Rochefontaine

It shows the gravesite of Etienne Marie Bechet Sieur de Rochefontaine, a French military engineer who served under Washington and helped win this country its freedom. The gravestone was restored by the Society of American Military Engineers, and all the inscriptions on the stone are in Rochefontaine's mother tongue.

The grave is in the yard of St. Paul's Chapel, which is the church Washington used during the few years when NYC served as the US capital. It, and the markers for at least one other French RW vet, are directly across the street from Ground Zero.

The French are out nation's oldest ally. Doesn't that buy them the right to be cranky about it once in a while? (And as above, it's not us they hate, it's Bush.)

[sffreeways]

18. Not the only French Hero

My Great Great Uncle General Henry Edwin Tremain served this country with distinction. He was French.

TREMAIN, Henry Edwin, soldier, born in New York city, 14 November, 1840. He was graduated at the College of the city of New York in 1860 and then entered Columbia law-school. On 17 April, 1861, he enlisted in the 7th New York regiment as a private, and served through its two months' campaign about Washington, after which, on 13 July, he entered the National volunteer service as 1st lieutenant of the 2d New York fire zouaves. During the peninsular campaign he was on General Daniel E. Sickles's staff, and was in the battles of Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, and Malvern Hill. He was then transferred to General John Pope's army, and engaged at Bristow Station and the second battle of Bull Run, where he was captured while endeavoring to check a temporary panic and the rapid advance of the enemy. After several months' confinement in Libby prison he was exchanged, resumed duty on General Sickles's staff as assistant inspector-general, and was present at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, where he served as an aide to General Joseph Hooker. Meanwhile, on 25 April, 1863, he had been commissioned major, and was chief staff officer to General Sickles at the battle of Gettysburg. He was on General Daniel Butterfield's staff at Chattanooga, and took part in the battles of Dalton and Resaca. In 1864 he was ordered to the Army of the Potomac and served successively on the staffs of General David M. Gregg and General George Crook, participating in the cavalry battles under these officers, until the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia. He was brevetted brigadier-general of volunteers on 30 November, 1865, and continued on duty in the Carolinas until his discharge on 29 April, 1866. General Tremain then resumed his law studies and was graduated in 1867, after which he entered into practice, forming in 1868 the firm of Tremain and Tyler. From 1870 till 1885 he was usually retained either by or against the government in its legal controversies in New York, and he was connected with the Marie-Garrison litigation involving the title to the Missouri Pacific railroad. He has been active as a Republican in political canvasses, and for five terms, beginning in 1871, he has been president of the associate alumni of the College of the city of New York. On 19 April, 1887, he was elected colonel of the veterans of the 7th regiment, the oldest organization of its kind in this country. His campaign notes of "Last Hours of Sheridan's Cavalry" were edited by John Watts de Peyster (1885).

http://www.virtualology.com/henryedwintremain/


My family is from France and 2 generations of them immigrated from France and served in the military, worked hard, paid taxes and were good citizens. Every man in my family for 5 generations has served in the American military including my son.

Freedom fries my French ass this shit really offends me.

[in_cog_ni_to]

24. I don't blame you for being offended.

I'm offended by it and I'm not French. What a history you have. The story of your great great uncle is fascinating. People don't think of who they're hurting when they do/say these kind of things. That's republicans for you.

In my next "French" argument, I'm going to include the French immigrants who have fought for this country. That should shut 'em up. Thanks for the post! :hi:

[Book Lover]

20. Let's not forget the Marquis de Lafayette

http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Marquis%20de%20Layfayette

Few men have owed more of their success and usefulness to their family rank than La Fayette, and still fewer have abused it less. He never achieved distinction in the field, and his political career proved him to be incapable of ruling a great national movement; but he had strong convictions which always impelled him to study the interests of humanity, and a pertinacity in maintaining them, which, in all the strange vicissitudes of his eventful life, secured him a very unusual measure of public respect. No citizen of a foreign country has ever had so many and such warm admirers in America, nor does any statesman in France appear to have ever possessed uninterruptedly for so many years so large a measure of popular influence and respect. He had what Jefferson called a "canine appetite" for popularity and fame, but in him the appetite only seemed to make him more anxious to merit the fame which he enjoyed. He was brave to rashness; and he never shrank from danger or responsibility if he saw the way open to spare life or suffering, to protect the defenceless, to sustain the law and preserve order.

[JHB]

22. Not forgetting them...

...it's just that Rochefontaine's gravesite carries a little extra symbolism in this fight, given where it's located.

[Book Lover]

23. Certainly

I was just adding my two centimes ;-)

[Nimrod]

8. Agreed (TOTALLY)

I was sitting with some friends a few months ago and they started joking about going 'Frogging'. I said, "Sure, after we're done, can we go kill some Wops and Kikes too?" One's Italian Catholic and the other's an Unorthodox Jew - they looked at me as if I'd gone completely crazy. I just shrugged and said "Racism's fine, just call it what it is."

There is a word that I believe defines the anti-French bullshit. It's called "demonization". When people are desperate to feel like they have the moral high ground, any convenient target will do. The fact there has been a bit of an insult war between us and the French for quite awhile just makes things better. Their politicians disagreed with our politicians, so reducing them to sub-human status means we're inherently superior and therefore in the right.

It's usually a sure sign that people are NOT confident. It's just like the kids in grade school who pick someone in the class to torment so they can feel better about themselves.

[terrya]

9. Two words to support your thesis: Dennis Miller.

Every freaking time I happen on his show, dumbass is on this irrational rant about the French. Most strange. :-)

[BiggJawn]

10. That why I like cycling...

So much of bike culture is FRENCH....
We ride in a PELOTON
I have to be careful not to bend my DERAILLEUR
Lance wears the MAILLOT JAUNE

I'd love to find a Renee Herse at a garage sale some day...:-)

[Swede]

11. Not to mention the large ethnic French populations of Maine&Louisiana.

It's pathetic,whose next on their list.

[in_cog_ni_to]

25. whose next on their list?

women, children, the homeless, the downtrodden and anyone who isn't a WHITE, AMERICAN BORN male. :grr:

[BiggJawn]

27. Hey, being a White Male don't guarrantee you crap, either...

You gotta be the right KIND of White Male, and ol' BiggJawn ain't....

[in_cog_ni_to]

29. Eeek!

I guess I should have qualified that with...stinkin' rich, snooty, yacht ridin', Limo ridin', oil ownin', silver spoon fed WHITE male? How's that? :evilgrin: :hi:

[BiggJawn]

30. NOW yer talkin'!

:evilgrin:

Hell, I probably couldn't even WORK for a country Club, let alone JOIN....:7

[in_cog_ni_to]

26. dupe

[qwertyMike]

12. The French fought

and are still fighting (?) by our side in Afghanistan.
So did many other countries who refused to go to Iraq.

Do people forget this?

[Kellanved]

15. no (?) - France has a leading role in Afghanistan

The French-German Eurocorps is currently leading ISTAF, under the command of a French General.



Edit: changed the subject line.

[gratuitous]

13. Put my Senator, Gordon Smith, on that list!

He made the "French-looking" slur last week during a conference call with a bunch of journalists. The LA Times put it in print. I called Mr. Smith's office to find out what he meant by that. His staffperson couldn't explain it. I advised the staffperson that he should tell Mr. Smith that that sort of demagoguery may be all the rage inside the Beltway, but that we're accustomed to a slightly higher discourse in Oregon.

Maybe I should call Smith's office again.

[skygazer]

16. It also tells you

That they know little or nothing about real history.

[TexasSissy]

19. I love the French. Vive la France.

France has always been a difficult country. They must be coddled and cajoled. They will not be strong armed. I would guess that Bush now knows this (well, that is, if he learned from past mistakes).

France helped us fight the U.K. for our independence, so America is beholden to France for its very existence. That does not mean that we must rubberstamp every decision France makes. And the fact that we helped free France from Germany's grip in WWII does not mean that France must rubberstamp all of our decisions.

We have been allies for centuries. Once we get rid of Bush, we can go back to that relationship.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

21. At the same time, I know a surprising number of people

who get away to France whenever they can, including two couples who have second homes in small French towns.

Frankly, if I had to choose between living in a Red State exurban strip mall sloburb and anywhere in France, je choisirais la France, parce que j'aime bien la vie civilisee.

[bikebloke]

28. I disassociated myself from a French basher

An Internet acquaintance. She kept sending me all these brownshirt pass-along spams bashing the French. I finally told her off. A 50's style parasitical hausfrau (kinderen grown and gone) who votes the way her husband tells her. I've always gotten along with the French. Even had a couple flings with French women. And French are quite friendly when you're bicycle trekking with a full load.

[AspenRose]

31. Black expatriots in the era of the Harlem Renaissance went to France

and France loves and reveres Josephine Baker.

So maybe there's an undercurrent of that too....the French were more tolerant of black americans, and blacks had more freedom in France than they did in their own country at the time.

Liberte, egalite, fraternite...not just words.