http://www.msnbc.com/news/883853.asp?vts=031120031400

Oh boy, liberty cabbage all over again.

I am not laughing..... I feel dispair.... What are the Americans thinking? How can one nation become so warloving?? I thought one the most basic rules of freedom was peace. The Iraq question can be solved without a war.

it amazes me how juvenile politicians can be, the so called "leaders" of our world.

My favorite bit is:

"The French Embassy in Washington had no immediate comment, except to say that french fries actually come from Belgium."

LMAO. That is the LAMEST shite i've seen in a long time. Juvenile doesn't even begin to describe it.

the french is in reference to the cut of the potatoe. To be correct one should say frenched fries. just my $.02 since I saw similar situations earlier in the month and it has turned into one of my pet peeves. and like the French said, they come from Belgium.

I'm not a Frenchie, I'm a Belgie!

Oh, and points to anyone who can tell me where that's from. No Googling this time.

just going to prove that some 'world leaders' think that they're still playing in a sandpit and their actions don't affect others in the long term. 'the rain will come and everything will go back to square one'

Homer J. was right. under the seaeee, under the seaeeee ...

I'm not a Frenchie, I'm a Belgie!

Oh, and points to anyone who can tell me where that's from. No Googling this time.

My guess would be Perfect Strangers

EIDT (after googling): Oh, I was way off

- trs

Greetings!

I feel the need to say that not all Americans are stupid. It just seems that way... Remember, half the population is dumber than the "average" person...

I am not laughing.....

I don't find it funny either. It's stupid, just like when they tried to change the name of sauerkraut to liberty cabbage during WWII.

Then again, NYC is pretty detached from the rest of the US, so I'm usually semi-afraid in many parts of the country. I experienced less culture shock on my first trip abroad than I did when I went to the midwest for the first time.

The should have called it "enduring freedom fries" and "enduring freedom toast".

Anyway, the French is the one country we all love to hate - even in peace time.
And during any war? Who cares what happens to the French.

This stupid name change malarky reminds me of the time about 7 years ago, (mid '90s) when the French were testing the last of the their nuclear bombs for real down in the south east pacific [against everyone elses wishes at the time, including the US].

The local supermarket stopped selling "French sticks" aka those long skinny loaves of bread the French are so famous for.

And they renamed them "kiwi sticks"!
[kiwi being the local term for anything made in "New Zealand" as in Kiwifruit etc]

D'oh, like that really did any good! - I'm sure the French felt the pain all the way in Paris from the other side of the world:

- "sacre bleu!! - zhose Neu Zeelonders, zhey have changed ze name of ze baguette to 'Kiwi stick' in protest - we must stop ze 'Force de Frappe' (nuclear bomb) testing at once or our economie, she will suffer terrible badly."

"Freedom" Hmmm... USA != Freedom. Maybe they should be called Enslavement Fries?

Besides, don't most places in the US batter their fries now anyway? That's Chicken-Fried Fries and belongs in the garbage.

Hmm... What can we do around the world to mock the USA through culinary name changes... Hmmm... I suppose in France they may start calling them Hot Dogs instead of American Hot Dogs.

Forget how juvenile it is. What a complete waste of time. And taxpayer dollars. And these guys demand a salary for their "work?" Uh huh..

Up here in the Great White North (Ontario anyway), you'll find that most places just call them "Fries." The word "French" seemingly dropped from many menus long ago. I don't know if that's because most people are smart enough to know they come from Belgium, or just spiteful enough to do anything possible to snub the Francophone population.

Bruno

Poirot?

when they tried to change the name of sauerkraut to liberty cabbage during WWII

[boggle] Did they eat liberty sausage, too? What about Italian pasta -- liberty noodles? I guess sushi wasn't widespread enough in those days to get called liberty fish?

And anyway, are those things called French fries anywhere other than the US? A Briton would understand the term, but would be more likely to call them chips; according to Larousse, the French themselves call them "pommes de terre pont-neuf", apparently after some chip-like decoration round a statue on the Pont-Neuf in Paris, though this sounds like an urban legend to me. Larousse doesn't mention the Belgium thing, but then it's far from impartial on the issue of whether stuff was invented in France or not.

Peter

Besides, don't most places in the US batter their fries now anyway? That's Chicken-Fried Fries and belongs in the garbage.

Last week a friend and I were in a very nice restaurant that's just opened in Cambridge -- called Bruno's Brasserie, believe it or not -- and there was something very odd about the outline of the chips that came with her supreme of duck with Thai spices. After due investigation we determined that they'd been battered before being fried. They were actually very nice, though you couldn't eat more than a few.

Peter

Remember, half the population is dumber than the "average" person

That reminds me of my favorite message from despair.com:
Meetings - Because none of us are as dumb as all of us.

"pommes de terre pont-neuf"

FWIW, they taught us "pommes frites" in French class.

Poirot

Very, very close, but no cigar.

After due investigation we determined that they'd been battered before being fried.

They used to put those on the bar as savouries at our office local....delicious with too much salt and vinegar! - but I thought that they fried them, before battering them.

but I thought that they fried them, before battering them.

Hmm, dunno. Could be. If so, they must of course have fried them again afterwards...

Peter

Remember, half the population is dumber than the "average" person...

surely you mean "median".

--dan.

The number of threads currently demonizing the American government and more personally President Bush truly astounds me. I will agree that "freedom fries" are a bad attempt at being witty, even a borrowed bad attempt. However to say that politicians do nothing or are a waste of money is oversimplification to the point of lunacy. Certainly changing the menu in the House can account for no more wasted money than the amount of lost productivity related to most of our post counts.

Certainly changing the menu in the House can account for no more wasted money than the amount of lost productivity related to most of our post counts.

That's "freedom counts", Rev.

The number of threads currently demonizing the American government and more personally President Bush truly astounds me.

Of course, I suspect that you could find a BBS or two where the number of threads heroicizing the present American gov/administration and Bush personally would astound *me*.

Certainly changing the menu in the House can account for no more wasted money than the amount of lost productivity related to most of our post counts.

While this BBS, perhaps unlike some others, certainly leans toward the anti-administration/Bush/war perspective, I don't see the communication as juvenile, uninformative or unproductive in the way that I see "Freedom Fries" to be. (Poor Belgium, unacknowledged as the leader in diced potato technology!!) And where else are you hearing directly from citizens of several other counties about their perspective on our country's course? Oh, if you find a BBS where citizens of other countries are begging us to invade Iraq, please post the URL!

Personally, I am distressed that an immediate combination of both work and the prospect of no work has made it hard for me to follow the several recent political threads, never mind respond to them. That may change soon! In the meantime, I offer you a link to a radio show (those left-wing NPR shows!) that I think spent some quality time illuminating aspects of the Bush administration and perhaps why you and I would strongly disagree about the administration's admirability/despicability score. It is a recent installment of "To the Point". Bush-specific content begins at about 07:58. My apologies to streaming media purists!! It is in Real format!! (dang, all these NPR shows seem to be in Real. Some type of conspiracy?)

Be back soon!

Changing direction slightly, how could you possibly have any problem with a country that produced the Citroen DS19?

My objects of desire, that I wish to own before I pass on, are a Citroen DS19 Decopatable and a Revox tape recorder. An Empeg would be the third, but I already have one.

Come to think of it, was an Empeg ever sold in France, I don't seem to have seen a French entry on the BBS?

- Oh, and I couldn't fall out with a Country that produced Alain Delon gangster films!

Or made ``Grand Illusion''. For those of you that haven't seen this, now is probably a good time.

Changing direction slightly, how could you possibly have any problem with a country that produced the Citroen DS19?

I probably didn't express myself well. My reference to Belgium was just to lampoon our indignant renaming of a French product that isn't French!

I don't have a problem with the country -- I have spent 75% of my vacations there over the past 5 years. Yes, some folks can be distant or even rude, but I love the roads, the small towns, the coasts, the food. People have been very nice to me.

The government (or the "political" France on the world stage)? Sometimes infuriating as in their last, pointless round of nuke testing, sometimes impenetrable. In the present case, I can think of some not-so-good reasons they are taking the stand that they are (like increasing their own position, avoiding dealing with some of their own commercial history with Iraq, perhaps), but it doesn't make their position wrong.

My objects of desire, that I wish to own before I pass on, are a Citroen DS19 Decopatable and a Revox tape recorder.

I always thought Revox (a major object of my unrequited lust in the 70s...) was Swiss!

Come to think of it, was an Empeg ever sold in France, I don't seem to have seen a French entry on the BBS?

Nosferatu, for one.

I don't have a problem with the country

You're absolutely right, I'm off again to Paris in a fortnight - I first went with my family in '57: I vividly remember my parents being given the very best claret that had been hidden from the Nazis, by an effusively grateful hotelier: I also spent eight weeks with a French family in the early 60's.

Those times have gone, as has so much that made France individual (like the DS19). But aren't the French like a lot of races: Easy to love as individuals; hard to take as an entity.

I was going to put that in my original posting, but I thought that it made it ramble - and I'm scared stiff of upsetting the Grammar Police.

You are also right: The Revox is Swiss, I believe one of our number is a Studer engineer - the parent company. I just meant that those were my 3 objects of desire, not my 3 French objects of desire!

I'm off to a vintage audio fair sunday, I may yet get a Revox. But they do command very high prices. The DS19 may take a little longer, especially the very rare decapotable.

I'm scared stiff of upsetting the Grammar Police

First, you shouldn't be. Second, nothing you've written has ben incorrect. I'm unsure what you're worried about.

Second, nothing you've written has ben incorrect.

You're under arrest!!

Second, nothing you've written has ben incorrect.

I think you meant "been". Sorry, I could not resist...

Aauuggh!

to what lengths will one go to show animosity for the French?

I'd say the US administration are teetering on the edge of fascism right now, and there seems to be every indication that they are prepared to cross that line and not look back. Some of this stuff is utterly beyond belief. I've lost so much respect for the USA in the last couple of months, or at least for the administration and the majority that appears to support it.

The UK administration isn't much better, but you don't see them whipping up blood lust against an allied country that veto's our proposals. I think we may have gone as far as calling France "short sighted" over the issues - and we're EXPERTS at hating the French.

If bills such as "the repatriation of American corpses from France" make it onto the statute books, the rest of the world can be certain that the US has finally lost the plot and could well be the most dangerous nation in the world right now.

Rob

word.

Rev,

I'm curious to know if you had a chance to listen to that audio clip (if you aren't a "no-Real" purist!) and whether you think the profiles (by the Gallup pollster and the Texas newspaper gent) were fair.

Sorry, just a little leg pull, my friend!

Based round: I write advertising copy as a living, advise on English usage and ensure that the quality of English used by my creative teams is consistently high.

Surely, using the same word twice in a sentence is poor usage!

I think we may have gone as far as calling France "short sighted" over the issues

Straw seems to have gone way past that, even by the time that you wrote it.

I agree with you Rob. Our leaders on the whole are acting like a woman scorned or a spoiled brat or maybe both. I hope they come to their senses soon before they utterly destroy this country's credibility with the rest of the world.

I just checked the Fed-Ex tracking page to see where my empeg is and right at this moment it is sitting in Paris, France. Since it has touched French soil, will it be allowed in this country?

I'd say the US administration are teetering on the edge of fascism right now

I think that applying the word "fascism" to "Freedom Fries" is a bit strong, though I realize probably you aren't just referring to the one incident. This fries thing is, of course, silly and petty, but it's just that.

If bills such as "the repatriation of American corpses from France" make it onto the statute books, the rest of the world can be certain that the US has finally lost the plot and could well be the most dangerous nation in the world right now.

The bill is, of course, stupid. I don't want my tax dollers being spent on a futile gesture of hatred, nor would (I suspect) most Americans. I have little doubt this bill won't make it very far.

Oh, and at least they haven't asked us to obstain from french (freedom?) kissing yet.

Surely, using the same word twice in a sentence is poor usage!

No, but it could be poor style, which is likely to be more important in advertising copy.

or at least for the administration and the majority that appears to support it.

And I'm wondering where the hell these people are. The polls find them, but I apparently don't know more than a dozen. This is sort of shocking.

the US has finally lost the plot and could well be the most dangerous nation in the world right now

So, when did Bush "jump the shark"? Thoughts?

When he arbitrarily switched his focus from Afghanistan/al Qaeda to Iraq.

So, when did Bush "jump the shark"? Thoughts?

Right.... about.......... here.

Remember when the elder Bush said "No nation can stand against a world united."?

If not, I can help: http://eserver.org/govt/gulf-war/bush-agression-speech.txt

So why didn't shrub learn anything from his dad?

It's not like I've been going out of my way looking for reasons to demonize Bush. They falling in my lap!

He said it again just recently.

And it would be cool if shrub wasn't lying about the "we still deal with them as friends" too.

Also,
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/14/opinion/14KRUG.html

and, while we're at it
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/14/opinion/14MORR.html

[KarmaWhore]

Registration-free links:

http://archive.nytimes.com/2003/03/14/opinion/14KRUG.html

http://archive.nytimes.com/2003/03/14/opinion/14MORR.html

[/KarmaWhore]

I didn't register. My name is cypherpunks.

Just a reminder, Saturday is going to be another round of world-wide protests, including several in America. It probably won't stop Bush, but it is better than doing nothing.

International Answer:
http://www.internationalanswer.org/

March 15th protests around the world:
http://www.internationalanswer.org/news/update/031303m15intl.html

United For Peace:
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/

Returning to this point, I could respect Bush a lot more if he were giving speeches like this. The thing is, it's too late. His credibility is already damaged, at least in the eyes of most of the world and those in this country who are carefully watching his actions.