The French Bashers

[erpowers]

The French bashers should watch Jeopardy every now and then. Today it was mentioned that the Duke football team's name at least inspired by a French group of soldiers. After the war many of Duke's football players were former soldiers who fought in WWI. Duke needed a name for its football team. The soldiers admired a group of French soldiers for their bravery during the war. The soldiers also like the blue uniforms that the French soldiers wore. At some point the school newspapers started calling the team the Blue Devils and the name stuck with the team.

[JeffR]

1. The French bashers should also remember

our revolution wouldn't have succeeded without the French. Oh, and they also gave us a really nice statue.

[FormerDittoHead]

28. The rich don't listen to the French Bashers - they just INVEST there...

US Direct Investment into France is PLUS 20 billion from 2000 to a total of 58,927 billion in 2004 (Bureau of Economic Analysis, US Dept of Commerce and my 2006 Almanac)

So, next time you hear about how bad the French are, maybe you should ask them why the people with the MONEY are investing it OVER THERE instead of HERE.

For the record - US Direct Investment into France:

(millions)
1995: 32,950 (on edit: commas)
2000: 38,752
2004: 58,927!!!

While I have the book open, I found it interesting that US investment into LUXEMBOURG(????????) jumped almost FIFTY BILLION DOLLARS under Bush! from 25,571M to 74,902M!!!

[onehandle]

2. Yorktown.

Without the support of the French Navy, The United States would have taken decades to obtain true independence. Or maybe not at all.

Suck on that, Freepers.

[400Years]

3. I'll bash the French over Haiti among other things

I mean they just got through helping Bush stage a coup there.

The idiots who go around bashing the french for being opposed to the Iraq invasion are doing it out of ignorance but the government of France is not much better than ours.

[erpowers]

5. That Is What I Meant

I was refering to those who bash the French as being coward for not fighting in the war. I was not trying to complain about people who bash France for legitament reasons like supporting the overthrow of the democratically elected government of Haiti.

[400Years]

7. Yeah I know, I agree with you wholeheartedly

[peacetalksforall]

8. Yes Yes - everyone should know about the U.S.-France joint effort to

remove a duly elected President and allow known criminals to take over along with World Bank honchos and military. This was a French and American travesty. Despicable.

[400Years]

11. One thing I don't understand is why do they always do this to Haiti

I mean just how strategic is Haiti?

[peacetalksforall]

13. I'm not sure. There is supposed to be oil off Cuba someplace and

north of Hispaniola (DR and Haiti). There main mineral is bauxite?

I can never forget the under-reported words of Bush way over a year ago which I interpreted as his loose mouth and head re-interpreting something that may be in the PNAC agenda - what I got out of it that they would like to see Africans acting as police/peace keepers around the world - this was when all the bombing started in the streets of Iraq cities and towns. The way I took it is that Africans could be dispensable. Since the US and France placed terrorist criminals in position in Haiti - could they use Haiti as a training ground for 'soldiering'? Or could they locate CIA prisons there? Could they make it their new banking and legal hiding place - their base for more tax evasions (I read that they ensconced World Bank and other banking people there just before they chauffeured Aristede out)? A source for sex slaves? We always think of earth resources first knowing who we're dealing with, but there are geographical and people resources as well. Also, Cuba factors into it - why not make a Cuba and Haiti a grouping along with the Dominican Republic (as I understand it, the DR is already very regime friendly). Also, those islands are all perfect for transferring drugs as we can learn from the internet.

For the life of me, I don't understand France. I've never understood France in relation to their former possessions in the Caribbean. I love France, I love the French, I would be in heaven if I could live there part time. But I despise their sneaky current politics. We can't trust them and now we can't trust the Germans. (Of course, I don't mean all their citizens - as usual, it's a leadership problem). If we could be freed from leaders, we'd be in good shape. The deals between them are becoming worse in spite of the internet spotlight on much of what these people do to us.

[Selatius]

4. les diables bleus combattent avec fierté! n/t

[davidwparker]

12. Les diables bleus me plait.

[Surya Gayatri]

20. you need the 3rd person plural here...

"me plaisent", FWIW.
Nice to hear people using French--it is truly a beautiful language. SG

[davidwparker]

26. Ah, oui. Merci. Et, aussi, le francais est une belle langue.

[0007]

6. The middle finger!

History of Middle Finger


Well, now......here's something I never knew before, and now that I know it, I feel compelled to send it on to my more intelligent friends in the hope that they, too, will feel edified. Isn't history more fun when you know something about it?
Giving the finger before the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French, anticipating victory over the English, proposed to cut off the middle finger of all captured English soldiers.
Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore they would be incapable of fighting in the future. This famous weapon was made of the native English Yew tree, and the act of drawing the longbow was known as "plucking the yew" (or "pluck yew").
Much to the bewilderment of the French, the English won a major upset and began mocking the French by waving their middle fingers at the defeated French, saying, See, we can still pluck yew! "PLUCK YEW!"
Since 'pluck yew' is rather difficult to say, the difficult consonant cluster at the beginning has gradually hanged to a labiodental fricative 'F', and thus the words often used in conjunction with the one-finger-salute!
It is also because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows used with the longbow that the symbolic gesture is known as "giving the bird."

[guidod]

16. Thanks!

I sit in awe.

[0007]

17. If you want a discourse in the word "FUCK" just ask and you'll

received.

[guidod]

18. I have no idea when or where

it came from but I've always been told that it stand for "Fornication Under the Consent of the King". Am I close?

[0007]

21. You just about have it right. It is an acronym for

Fornication Under Commonwealth's Knowledge. Came from the courts of old England. F.U.C.K. When one was caught indulging. To speed up the process they used the acronym. It was the only thing fun to do in those days.

[guidod]

22. 50% is better than "0"

Thanks 0007

[Blue Poppy]

23. Hmmm, I always thought it was

the two fingers they cut off. Since it took two fingers to pull the arrow back in the bow. Also, in England (to this day) when you want to "flip" someone off, you use two fingers.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

24. Sounds like an urban legend

The word "fuck" is an ancient one related to similar words in other European languages.

It's a cute story, but probably not true.

[gratuitous]

9. Isn't DeLay a French name?

Just askin'.

[erpowers]

10. Blue Devils Raised Money

After the United States entered the war the Blue Devils came to the United States to raise money for the war effort.

[rinsd]

14. France is neither evil nor pure as the driven snow.

The coward stuff is BS of course.

But while they helped us win the War of Independence, they also aided and considered intervention on behalf of the Confederates in the Civil War.

Their colonial past in nothing to crow about.

In fact if the French hadn't fought so hard to keep their colonial empire, the Vietnam War may never have happened. Shit Ho Chi Minh fought for the allies against the Japanese in WW2.

[baldguy]

19. Where do you think Americans learned how to be assholes?

[Clutch Cargo]

27. LOL!!! n/t

[Uncle Joe]

15. I thought France's name was changed to Freedom,

shouldn't we call them the Freedom Bashers?

[Nomen Tuum]

25. Depressing to eat in a government cafeteria.

Just to tick em off, I ask for my Freedom toast and a cup of dark Freedom roast coffee.

Then it's lunch time and what better to have on a cold day than some Freedom Onion Soup and a salad tossed with Freedom dressing, and some Freedom fries on the side and then for dessert--a scoop of Freedom Vanilla Ice cream.

all the time that stupid God Bless the USA song blasts out of the cafeteria speakers...