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The French have been surrendering before the birth of Christ…Gallic times. The reputation is earned.  The last time the French won a war they were led by a schizophrenic chick which they promptly burned.

(frenchie?) your comment is inane. Do some reading.

Fred O.  – I do not believe poster #71 can read very well at all, but instead parrots what is being told to him/her/it. It’s the usual and obvious temperamental behaviour commonly displayed by all French-bashers.  An accurate description of French-bashers would read  –  historicaly illiterate, condecending arrogance, revulsion of facts, a duty-bound sense of vain-glorification in their own immaturity, very feeble arguementation, highly influential by the last things they’ve seen/heard, a complete disregard for their own integrity, and as always…with one or both thumbs up their collective asses.  How can I be offended by people who have yet to stop wearing diapers, whether out of necessity or some perverted fetish?

We have a saying in France (paraphrasing):  To be so despised by such a bunch of complete and utter morons, is truely an honor.    Brokeback-Mountaineer circle-jerkers…..all of  them!

#71

And yet France is the biggest country in Western Europe.
I guess all that land mass was given to us for free by Britain, Spain, Prussia/Germany and all the countries surrounding us and is not the result of 1500 years of warfare.

It’s easier to remain invasion free when your only neighbors have been Canada and Mexico.
Oh wait didn’t the Canadians kick your ass in 1812 ? lol

And I won’t even mention the fact that you people claim credit for winning WWI and WWII single handedly. What a joke.

We should expect an increase in French bashing over Roman Polanski’s arrest.

It’s already happening. Seen on (where else) FoxNews comments:

“Polanski is not above the law, he pleaded guilty and now he should pay in prison.The French are a bunch of sissy’s, they protect and accept child molesters and pedophiles, and, as a sidebar, they are spineless cowards who run away from adversity.”

FrancisK,  What else would you hear from such a radical entertainment environment. I seriously doubt such moronic talk would appear on a legitimate Network.

Conquering a country, deposing its nobility and imposing a language is not a “transfer of knowledge” though is it? It is colonialism. 
Opinion is very much divided as to whether the Norman conquest was a positive thing for England.  Some see it as the moment when England lost certain freedoms which were never returned and a repressive and greedy Norman nobility was put in place.
England at this point lost its Scandinavian influence and became more influenced by continental European. This is a shame as we can see today that the Scandinavian countries are much more progressive and socially just than most other western European countries.
 André – you are wrong in your point about the monarchy. England became a unified country in 927 and had a king (Athelstan) that ruled the entire country. SO England did have a “King of the English”  In fact the list of English monarchs starts in 827. It should also be noted that Athelstan’s forces  interveaned in France to restore the Frankish line of kings.
 Barney – Why would you want to celebrate Napolean? A man responsible for 6 million deaths and re-introducing slavery???
  

Conquering a country, deposing its nobility and imposing a language is not a “transfer of knowledge” though is it? It is colonialism.

OK.
Go whine somewhere else now.

Barney’s right : Mais pourquoi aiment-ils Polanski ?

I’ve read Walter Scott and variou stories about Robin Hood, so I know about how the bad Normans put the poor Saxons into servitude. However, Robin Hood and Ivanhoe (and other saxons) were a bunch of hypocrites. After all, hadn’t they conquered Britain first, displacing the Celts towards Wales, Cornwall and Britanny? In fact, the word for English in breton is “Saozhon”. Says all, doesn’t it?

SO England did have a “King of the English”

You’ve missed the point. there was a “King of the French” as well. The difference lies in what that title implies — the King only had de facto power upon his own patrimonial lands. The gradual consolidation of the monarch’s power over his entire territory is a long and slow process which would last until the Early Modern age with the advent of absolutism.

Chris Mathews stood up BIG TIME, I think, against French bashing on his 10/1/09 show on MSNBC. Good for him.

#10
Chris Mathews is a great American.

What did he say ?

Boy, if I try to quote, I would not be accurate, so, let me summarize:  a House Republican, on the subject of Iran, stated that even the French are standing up to Iran better than President Obama. Mathews responded  that he recognized the snear when mentioning the French with “I am so tired of the Right snearing when it refers to the French. I am so tired of this (cant remember) abuse of the French by the Right. Enough is enough, I never want to ever hear snearing remarks, comments in a snearing manner, about the French again”. I believe that Mathews reinterated his point three times. The House Republican was subdued.
The video should show up soon (I have no idea how to paste and copy videos).

Posted the video in a separate article. Chris Matthews has been very vocal on this issue time and time again. Chris Matthews FTW.

ROGERS: The French president said that this president isn‘t being tough enough on Iran. That‘s a clear…
MATTHEWS: You guys… (CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: … so Franco-phobic! Every time you have to make a joke, a cheap shot, you bring in the French in some kind of xenophobic stupidity…
ROGERS: Last I checked…
MATTHEWS: … to play to the yahoos.
ROGERS: … France is part of the European union.
MATTHEWS: You‘re laughing. It‘s not funny. I know what you‘re doing here. Every time you guys make a point, it‘s with this—using the French to jump off from. It‘s not about a joke. It‘s about getting serious allies who are conservative governments…
ROGERS: Absolutely.
MATTHEWS: … in Europe—how many conservative governments you got there? You got Merkel…
ROGERS: Chris—Chris…
MATTHEWS: … you got Sarkozy, you got Berlusconi…
ROGERS: … you‘re right, but when Sarkozy…
MATTHEWS: … and you‘re probably going to have…
ROGERS: … comes out and says they‘re not…
MATTHEWS: … Cameron soon.
ROGERS: … tough enough, that‘s a problem. I mean, listen, when the French are saying it‘s not—we‘re not tough enough, and it‘s a problem, you‘re right, it‘s not a joke. It means that we ought to be concerned that our position in the world is degrading. We want to be leading. We need to be leading on this issue. There is so much at stake, and a nuclear Iran is dangerous for the world and it‘s dangerous for us… […]
ROGERS: … beating up on the Democrats!
MATTHEWS: I don‘t know—OK, OK. Let‘s do the same old French jokes again. The fact of the matter is that Europe is moving to the right. We‘ve got a lot of allies over there. Let‘s get together. Two weeks is hardly worth arguing about. Why don‘t we come back in two weeks and see what the president‘s got, what he‘s going to do here or just more talk.

Source : MSNBC

Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.

Can anybody remember when the times were not hard and money not scarce?

I seriously support our letting Chris Matthews know that his effort is appreciated. I believe that he can be reached at www.MSNBC.com

Thanks for the information.  I’m glad the trend is moving away from French-bashing.

Chris Mathews stood up BIG TIME, I think, against French bashing on his 10/1/09 show on MSNBC. Good for him.

honestly i love the french people it was merely a joke

Hey no problem, thanks for the comment! 🙂

I’m not sure taking offense at meaningless jokes is the best way to refute the “French = Spineless” stereotype. You risk reinforcing or intensifying the misconception. I understand the point you’re making, but come on. I think most people understand we’re joking about a false notion just for laughs. Sometimes it’s fun to laugh. Give up the thought-police act long enough to try it, and you’ll see what I mean.

The “all Americans are stupid” jokes can get annoying as well, but there’s no point in reprimanding everyone who makes such a comment on Twitter. I just try not to be an idiot and move on.

Has anyone been watching FoxNews lately? On Wednesday, Bill O’Reilly shows a list of “combatant coalition forces” omitting, of course, France. I wrote him a polite letter, asking him to correct his mistake and give credit where credit is due. On Thursday, O’Reilly apologizes on his emails final segment, as he (rightly) corrects himself for omitting… Australia (for the record, Australia’s casualties are 11, France is at 39). Can you believe this guy? 

FrancisK, Thank you for your courage to listen to Fox. I really don’t see any solution for a media entertainment center which exist exclusively to push an adgenda. The sad part is that there are those who rely on these people for their news and “insight”. Lies can be so long lived.

There’s been a lot of surrender’ jokes today on tweeter, apparently.

@Adam

I’m sure surrender ‘jokes’ are hilarious to you and your American friends.
They are a lot less funny to us French people. It was a humiliating period and a lot of of people died.

What’s the most humiliating, biggest catastrophe in modern American history ?
Please tell us so we can use that to  flood the Internet with ‘jokes’.

Gérard – Are you for real? You have read Walter Scott novels and you think you know about England and the Saxons? These were romantic fiction novels written for a mass audience in the 19th century!
I also enjoyed the casual racism, i.e. that saxons are “hypocrites” that’s a bit like saying that the French are “cowardly” isn’t it?
A bit of history also:  The Saxons and Angles turned up in the 5th century AD after the Romans left,  5 centuries before the Norman invasion, so the Angles, Saxons and Celts would have had a fair chance integrating by then!
It’s the same thing as the Normans (or French as some people claim) did in England in 1066, but do the English go on about how they were “oppressed” by the Normans? No, they do not.
I assume you must have some Celtic blood as you perpetuate the myths about the Saxon oppression of the “Celts” (whoever they are), which is utter nonsense. Who oppressed the Bretons in France, was that the English also?
You don’t have to dig very deep on this site to find anti-English sentiment do you? 

Mes amis français, J’ai trouvé deux bonnes blagues françaises que je veux partager avec vous :

Question : Combien de français faut-il pour défendre Paris ?
Réponse : Personne ne sait, ils n’ont jamais essayé !

Question : Pourquoi trouve-t-il les arbres toute au long de la Champs-Elysée ?
Réponse : Pour que les allemands puissent marcher dans l’ombre !

Vive la France !

Indrid, vos blagues sentent le réchauffé. La 1e fut d’ailleurs racontée par un membre du Congrès américain, un certain Roy Blount qui a eu le culot de se présenter à une soirée à l’honneur du président Sarkozy quelques années plus tard. Un hypocrite de première classe dirons nous.

La seconde blague est fort connue, elle aussi date de la campagne anti-française de 2003 et montre à quel point certains manque de respect à la mémoire. Qu’importe, nous sommes dans un monde d’éternel comiques …

Question: Combien faut-il d’américains dans un avion pour arrêter une poignée de musulmans armés de…cutters ?
Réponse:  Personne ne sait, ils n’ont jamais essayé !

Question: Combien faut-il d’américains pour défendre un gratte ciel ?
Réponse:  Personne ne sait, ils n’ont jamais essayé !

You don’t have to dig very deep on this site to find anti-English sentiment do you?

Any guess as to what might have caused this anti-English sentiment ? Think wisely.

Pour notre “ami” Indrid Cold, qui a tant d’humour,

Question: Combien de avocats sont mort en 9/11?
Reponse:  Pas assez.
Question: Pourquoi la marine naval US a Pearl harbor ont ils des vitrines dans les coques de leurs navires?
Reponse: Pour mieux voir les navires de l’ancien marine naval US a Pearl Harbor.

Allons, nous allons tous rigoler ensembles. 
 

Barney: I have no idea what causes some of your contributors anglophobia. But I will try and guess.
Is it the fact that thousands of British and Commonwealth soldiers lost their lives liberating France?
Is is the fact that we sheltered the “Free French” leader De Gaulle in London during the war only for him to later veto our membership of the EU?
Is it because we lost one million troops in the first world war fighting in France, on France’s side?
Is it because we were not defeated by Napoleon?
Who knows? But the roots of anglophobia lay deep.  In fact, they probably date back to 1338 when Philip VI of France issued the Ordinance of Normandy which called for a second Norman conquest to “destroy and eliminate the entire nation and the English language”.

As for those with supposed “celtic” ancestry – I imagine they are clinging to some kind of notion of victimhood, initially based on readings of history that have been more or less been disproved, i.e. the angles and saxons wiped out the Britons, etc. This has now been proved as incorrect.  How could 200,000 angles, saxons and jutes wipe out 3-4 million britons?
It has also now been shown by recent DNA testing in the British Isles that the whole “celtic” thing is more complicated than initially thought. In fact, parts of England are just as “celtic” as southern Scotland and the dominant DNA in the Welsh and Irish is pre-celtic rather than Celtic.
So England is just as much a celtic country as Scotland or Ireland.
It should be remembered that it was the Norman (or French, according to some people here) kings who first invaded Ireland not the “Saxons”. But I suppose that won’t stop inane comments about how “evil” the saxons were to the “Celts”

Barney: I have no idea what causes some of your contributors anglophobia. But I will try and guess.
 
You have answered your own question in your little rant below.
But not in the way you’re thinking.

This is bad times for French-bashers – very recently the Taliban targeted a French general for assasination.  They missed but instead killed Aghan civilians including children.  Indeed a bad day for France-haters and the Talibs.

More bad news for the anti-French….French troops advancing against Taliban and Al-Qaida in both  Uzbeen Valley north of Kabul and Tagab valley in Kapisa province.  France-haters are weeping at this success against their terrorist friends.

The anti-French crowd, unfortunately, does not care about such pesky things as facts or reality.

cf: the SP episode where the French navy surrenders to the Somalian Pirates.

It begins as soon as you announce your pregnancy: the unsolicited comments from family members and friends — even strangers — about everything from what you should be eating to which hospital has the best delivery rooms. Here’s how to say “mind your own business” nicely.

Glenn Beck : “We’re the young girl saying, ‘No no! Help me!’ and the government is Roman Polanski. In the end I think we’re all going to be cowering in France.”

I see there’s been a lot of twitter and otherwise hate lately.
No matter what the circumstances are, a handball at a football game shouldn’t be enough to warrant this much hate.
Don’t be so apologetic about it, miquelon.

The people who insult us over this are the same people who insult us over pretty much anything anyway.
Francophobia is a real disease among English-speaking countries.
That is the real disgrace here.

The apology about Henry is to initiate dialog. I’ve notice, with the Irish (of which I am a member of diaspora) – that there are ten times more sincere apologies than from Americans.

The “surrender meme” has been transported accross the entire “anglosphere”, from the US to Britain, to South Africa and now Ireland. The “long tail” I often refer to is not only long – but wide.

you are cheese-eating surrender monkeys.  deal with it.  you surrender to everyone and everything all the time.  stop whining and shut up.

chris,

Who is “everyone” and when is “all the time”? Give us examples instead of talking out of your ass.

Hey Chris — you are green tentacled masonic lizardmen from space. Because I say so. Deal with it.

Chris – you are an ignorant racist sub-human.
Deal with it.

Any examples of this permanent surrender ?

Chris, regarding Iraq, remember France was right, the United States was wrong.

You need to learn more about France and the French.  You’re very ignorant.  You should learn about other cultures and other countries too.

Don’t be so childish.  Be a man, not a boy.

Vive La France!

ALL RIGHT, WHO THE *** IS IMPERSONATING ME?

http://timescorrespondents.typepad.com/charles_bremner/2009/11/homer-simpson-and-the-sarkozys.html

Look at the comments. There.

Posted by: WERNESSON | 22 Nov 2009 17:45:07

Posted by: WERNESSON | 22 Nov 2009 16:09:48

I did NOT post these comments. Do note that I agree with the substance of those comments; but using my identity to post on internet sites is UNACCEPTABLE.

The culprit is either someone from this site or SF.com, and I would like him to step forth and EXPLAIN.

Well it certainly isn’ t me.
Bremner’s blog disgusts me.
I haven’t even been there in more than a year.

Do you think Bremner uses fake comments?

He, or his staff, probably troll Miquelon.org and SuperFrenchie.com for usernames and use them to incite reactions from readers. Not the first time I’ve seen this.