Less than 5 minutes ago (as we were watching
the Sci Fi channel's version of Dune) Jim turned to
me and said, "Why hasn't the government decided to
send the Statue of Liberty back to the French?"

(Earlier in the day, he wrote a dynamite letter
to the editor of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette about
French-US relations over the years, after hearing
the Congressman's insistence on bringing WWII
American sodier's bodies back from French cemetaries.)

When I read your blog to him, he said, "What a relief that we think alike!"

We wouldn't be here if they hadn't been there.

Personally, I'm thinking about running up the Tricolor.

Weirdly enough, one of the things that has changed much of my perspective on the French has been food. The aforementioned poutine, while entirely a Quebecois invention, was still the product of Francophile people in North America--and its now one of my favourite foods. And then I think about the art and the literature and the beautiful French countryside and the cheese and the movies, and I decide that I can appreciate a culture who brings all that into my life. (I think the world would be a much better place if we had more restaurants.)

I think this sudden and recent trend to refute our ties to French culture is the stupidest thing I've heard in a long time. (I disagree with many aspects of Arab culture but that doesn't mean that I'm never going to use algebra again.) It also seems to be a symptom of the hasty generalisation. A people can not be held accountable for one faction in one government.

Oh, and ask me how much I'll be pissed if they actually do use government funds to cart back our World War I and II soldiers. These guys have been resting in Flanders fields the entire time I've been alive and nobody objected until now--and I think I'll be damned if we're going to use perfectly good money on carting dead soldiers back to the US when there are poor folks without medical insurance and spotted owls and inner city schools and quite frankly a lot of very live and breathing people who are suffering or who could use that money. Prioritize, people.

Of course, to be perfectly fair in our receiving of abuse along with the giving, I suggest that we all follow a recent Tom Toles cartoon and change the name "Russian roulette" to "Republican roulette". I've known many Russians, Poles, and Czechs over the years, and while they may be justly fatalistic, none of 'em have been stupid, so let's put the derogatory nickname where it belongs.

The sudden, asinine indulgence in jingoistic French-bashing has really gotten me down*. My opinion of our culture's maturity has plummeted these last couple of weeks.

If it were only the mouth-breathing "You must hate our men in uniform if you're against this war Saddam-lover!" yahoos, I could take it.

But congressmen?

It's like the entire country has become a midwestern small town, the kind where the heating bill for the High School basketball stadium is bigger than the budget for English and Music combined, and it's the week before the Big Game.

* That, and a Baker's Cyst.

The flogging of irrational hostility towards France makes me wonder whether They are concerned that the US may find itself at war with Europe and wants us to be emotionally ready to fight that war.

I was pleased to note, in other business, that at least 30 congressional representatives are taking action to sue the administration for unconstitutional (illegal) behavior if they take the country to a declared war without getting the go-ahead from Congress.

It's okay to dis the French because they like Jerry Lewis and eat frogs' legs, but we have to leave the Germans alone?

Speaking of the statue, since we're so used to seeing it on the horizon, would it be okay to keep it, and just wrap it securely in good old American Saran Wrap?