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

Rob Horan Rob at westwoodassociates.co.uk
Tue Oct 9 05:09:53 EDT 2007


Having lived in UK for the past 20 years (I'm Aussie) I see the English
have a (mostly) friendly rivalry with the froggies which comes out on
the sporting field more than anywhere...the French lack of support
(unlike UK, Germany, Spain, Italy, Norway etc etc) for invading Iraq was
based on business interests there long after everybody else had joined
the embargo, not for any moral issues!! Still it pissed the yanks off
more than most and they are hilarious responses below from your
countrymen, most I suspect wouldn't know France from Argentina on a map!

-----Original Message-----
From: gathering-bounces at misera.net [mailto:gathering-bounces at misera.net]
On Behalf Of B. Oliver Sheppard
Sent: 09 October 2007 09:32
To: A list about all things Killing Joke (the band!)
Subject: ****SPAM**** Re: [kj] OT: At least the french suck at something

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>

>


_______________________________________________
Gathering mailing list
Gathering at misera.net
http://four.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/gathering


More information about the Gathering mailing list