(IMPORTANT UPDATE at end)
The French have always liked to think Americans are yahoos, ascribing importance, as we are wont to do, to the private lives of our politicians. They, the true sophisticates, ignore such human peccadilloes to the extent that a complaisant Parisian press hid the existence of the illegitimate daughter of their president Francois Mitterand for decades.
Not that we Americans were much better. Frenchified, we ultimately gave a pass to Bill Clinton for getting oral sex from an intern in the hallway adjoining the Oval Office; I have not heard of anything that extreme happening, as yet, in the corridors of the Elysee Palace.
Still, we have a slightly different view of these things from the French. To them affairs are a normal rite of passage and we are simply square to make a big deal about them.
Wrong. They are the squares. Monumentally so.
How do I know? I have seen it up close, alas. I won’t get into the sad details, but some time ago I had an affair with a married French woman — I was single then — that went on for a couple of years.
I’m not proud of it in the least. It was stupid, immoral (yes, that) and eventually sheer emotional Hell. Besides hurting other people, most of them innocent, it drastically affected my work in a negative way and made me a liar on frequent occasions. In sum, I was despicable, weak, selfish and destructive of myself and others to do it.
But I did learn something about the French. Pace Edith Piaf and Yves Montand, there is nothing chic or hip about their adultery. After all the shared Gauloise and baiser volé, it’s just cheating. People don’t respect each other. People don’t trust each other. Indeed, they begin to hate each other. Life is wretched. It’s like a game of ritual self-and-other torture played out by a significant sector of their society — particularly in the elite classes — into oblivion.
I have often speculated that this casual acceptance of (note: not the existence of) adultery is related somehow to the decline of the once magnificent French culture, the disappearance for over a half a century now of the likes of the aforementioned Piaf and Montand. It’s hard to imagine them making a film today like Francois Truffaut’s riveting 1964 meditation on the perils of adultery The Soft Skin.
So I read with some interest the French reaction to the accusations of sexual abuse by the IMF’s Dominique Strauss-Kahn, putative Socialist Party frontrunner in the race for the French presidency. Would they make a connection, as I do, between DSK’s alleged act, raping a maid in a New York hotel, which is obviously quite aberrant, and the larger cultural climate of their country? That’s a hard thing for any society to accept.
So I guess they do not regret
1/ their treachery in the the Treaty of Versailles, which led to the demoralization of German politics and to the horrors of WW 2
2/ their collaboration with the Axis in WW 2
3/ their corrupt oil for food deals with Iraq
Oh well –never mind
Imagine you have a business and your competitor sends men who desestroys your equipment, now imagin e that while you are rebuilding (also taking advantage that you are no longer competitive because you have to borrow money for new equipment) this comeptitor copes the market so when you can resume operations all your former customers have long term contracts with the gangster. That is what exacly what Germany did: not only where vasts extensions of French soil poisonned with the metal of shell casings and its soil impregnated with toxic gasses (a GHerman invention), not only were fields full of mines and unexploded shells but Germany had destroyed mines and fabrics in what used to be one of France’s most industrilized regions. So forgive me if I see nothing wrong in France demanding reparations substantial enough for Germany not being able to benefit from the destructions it had perpetrated in France. Best way to stop crime is making it not pay. Also British and American pressure made that reparations amounted to 30 (thirty) dollars per German and per year. Admittedly it was 1920 dollars but doesn’t seem me an exorbitant amount. Germanu refusing to pay was not from inability but from the fact that Germpans had two morals: one for them and one for others: they diodn’t repent on what they had done, on using French and Belgian civilians as human shields: the Herrensvolk was ever right. Now speaking of treachery what about America asking France to pay for their war debts here and now all while siding with Germany when it refused to pay the reparations it owed to France?
About Vichy’s regime. Let’s rememeber that even after the British attack on the Frecn Fleet at Mers-el-Kebir with 1300 French dead the French didn’t tell the Germans that them and the British had got Enigma machines and were decrypting most of their secret messages. That had they told about Enigla and Ultra the UK would have been defeated and Germany would have won the war. Let’s rememeber thta despite the bad will created by the unprovoked attack on Mers el Kebir Vichy looked the other way at people who were spying on Germans and that Marshall Petain himself was ever clear that he wanted the Allies to win, that France had been knowcked out in 1940 but that he hoped one day scores would be settled wit the Boches.
It’s very difficult to be sympathetic with the French. WWI was as much their creation as it was anyone elses — had it not been for French Ambassador to St. Petersburg Maurice Paleologue egging the reluctant Russians into mobilizing against Germany in 1914, chances are there would not have been a general European war. The French were hot for a war to revenge themselves for their 1871 defeat – another war for which the French were hot. And, of course, the French Revolution and its inevitable descent into rule by an authoritarian strongman, Bonaparte, cause more misery in Europe and the world than any war between the Thirty Years Way and WWI. The French simply don’t play well with others. The very revolting sense of entitlement DSK (socialist living large on other people’s money) displays is merely a writ small version of the sense of entitlement to lead the world’s culture the French had ever since the days of Louis XIV. France has been a theater of the absurd since 1815.
Forgive lme if I feel still less sympathy for those who after perpetrating genocide on the Herrero continued their favourite game on the Jews in addition of having grandios plans of market slaves of Russian workers and of Russian girls abduced in Hamburg’s brothels.
Also I remember you tyhat it was more like Russia as protector of Serbia who drew France into the war than the opposite and that while it is true that the ill-fated Samsonov offesnive obeyed to French pleas in order to relieve the pressure on the French Army it wasn’t France’s fault that the Russians were sending radio messages unencrypted or that Samsonov was lied and betrayed by two of its Corps comanders all while Renenkampf abandoned him to his fate (During the Japanse war they had had a fist fight witnessed by one of Luddendorf’s closest subordinates: he advised Luddendorf that he count on Renenkampf not rushing to support Samsonov). Read Solsyenitsin’s “August 14″ or any good book over the Samsonov offensive and you will see that despite all its shortcomings, all the false reports and all the insubordination verging treason the Russian Army came close to inflige a sharp defeat on the Germans.
I’m not excusing the Germans – the Germans and the French probably deserve each other as far as that goes. Had our British cousins not been involved, we would undoubtedly let the frogs and the cabbages sort it all out by themselves. Britain would have been well-advised in 1914 to let go of the Mouths of the Scheldt policy go, let the balance of power sort itself out, and to focus on the Eastern Question, naval supremacy, and the Empire.
Your defense of the French, however, is singularly unpersuasive. You really need to read more extensively in the literature describing the run up to the outbreak of WWI in general, and the Sarajevo crisis and the maneuverings that led to the actual outbreak of war. The French egged the Serbs on as much as anyone in the face of Austria’s legitimate outrage at the assassination which we now know as carried out with the connivance of the Serbian government. No one is blameless in that farrago, but the one real chance to avert the war came when the Russians realized they could not partially mobilize against Austria – they must either mobilize against Germany as well, or not mobilize at all. Had the Russians not mobilized – and, without Paleologue’s urgings there is a strong chance they would not have – the Germans would not have mobilized, and we would have seen a war in the Balkans, not a general European (becoming a world) war.
If my memory is any good Serbia had agreed on a joint investigation, Austria rejected the proposal and demanded investigation being made by Austrain police with the authority to arrest both Austrian and Serb subjects. That doesn’t seem me a reasonable demand to a sovereign country. And France had nothing against Austria ecxept for being an ally of Germany and an enemy of its Russian ally.
Also you are wrong about what pushed both the UK and the UIS to enter war. For the UK it was because Germany was building a Fleet able to challenge the British one and because it disregarded British warnings (including Churchill’s by then First Lord of the Admiralty) Also contrarily to the naive view British safety over teh centuries hasn’t be kept by the Royal Navy but by preventing the dominant continental power of adquiring a so unassailable position and so secure borders it would be able to divert funds from the Army to the Navy: Luis XIV’s France had about 4 times the population and the GNP of the UK so had France had free hands on land it would have been able to build a fleet three or four times the size of the Royal Navy.
For the US, it was neither the desire to help the British cousins (there were more Americans from German or Irish descents than British), nor sinking of the Lusitania but the fact it was discovered Germany was trying to induce Mexico in a war with the United States.
While the Austrian ultimatum was difficult, not one of the European Powers would have marched to stop an Austrian retaliation against Serbia for the regicide. The reason what would have been a local war became a general war was Russia’s mobilization: with that act, the die was cast and Germany had to mobilize. You really need to read the literature.
More broadly, the Anglo-German naval rivalry was an important factor in the British entering into the Entente Cordial with the French, but was not decisive in the outbreak of the war.
Your comment on what kept Britain safe is not entirely wrong, but not really right either. The key elements of British foreign policy in the 18th-early 20th centuries were 1) the Mouths of the Scheldt policy – that is no major power could be allowed to control the low countries (from whence an invasion could be launched), 2) maintaining the Balance of Power (to which you allude) and which was very much related to the first policy, 3) the Eastern Question – that is the Russians could not be permitted to control the Straits, and 4) a navy larger than the next two navies in order to provide freedom of the seas and protect the Empire. The guarantee of Belgian and Dutch neutrality which triggered British entry in WWI was primarily an expression of the Mouths of the Scheldt policy, and not really about the balance of power. The British took such things seriously, and the Germans made the mistake of thinking they wouldn’t.
American entry in WWI is a complex topic, but fundamentally it was based on Wilson’s lack of real neutrality from the beginning of the war. Wilson’s man in London, Col. House, actually helped Sir Edward Grey draft replies to American protests over British violations of American neutrality (starting with the Orders in Council that went beyond international law on blockade in 1914). The US Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan, actually resigned of the false neutrality in 1915. Much of what the Germans did with respect to submarine warfare (they did primarily use traditional ‘cruiser rules’ until the British started using Q-ships) can be seen as a response to America’s one-sided ‘neutrality’. The Zimmerman telegram and other German efforts in Mexico only added to the American administration’s determination to get the US into the war one way or another.
Whatever could have been possible, Louis XIV funded his navy generously, but the French Navy has rarely beaten the British since 1759, and remains now but a force de frappe.
Except during American Independence war. Also ship for ship and before Revolution (when most of their officers fled or were murdered) French ships were usually superior to their British counterparts: better built (ie they could take more damage) and carrying better and heavier guns. But there less of them than of British. Many of its officers were as good or better than the British one. The preceeding is from British sources (cf http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~pbtyc/Naval_History/Vol_II/)
The Revolution brought a dramatic drop in quality of both officers and men: French gunnery during the Republic and the Empire was far inferior both in rate of fire and accuracy to the British one. This wasn’t true under Louis XIV or Louis XVI. Anyway, picture a French fleet at least five times larger than the historical one had France had free hands on teh continent.
That is why, the same England had to fight Louis XIV and Napoleon, Englmand simply couldn’t allow Germany to knock out France and Russia and then, with al of Europe’s resources at its disposal and no threat on the continent it would have been able to build two or three times more ships than the UK.
In fact the mouths of the Scheld are less of a factor in the hands of Germany: France is close to being an island from a military point of view. In the South it is protected by the Pyrenees and anyway the first important target (Bodeaux) is over two hundred miles from the border and is not a vital one. On the East there the Alps, Switzerland and the Rhein who is not easy to cross. Behind the Rhein are the Vosges who are steep and not easy to pass when you come from the East while they are easy when you come from the West. But in the Northwest frontier there is nothing. It is flatland and behind it there are no mountains, no major rivers and these are parallel instead of perpendicular to the direction of advance of an eventual enemy. Behind the Northwest plain is Paris ie France’s heart ( afifth of its population). It is this unprotected border who has forced France to pay attention to its Army and neglect the Navy (Louis XVI tried to do both, it ended on bakruptcy and him losing his head, Napoleon III and 1930 France went for a strong Navy and got invasion). That is why French rulers ever dreamed to conquer Rhenania and Belgium so they could anchor France’s border on the Rhein. Abnd that is why England fought teeth and nail to prevent it: because had France succeeded it would have been able to go with a smaller Army and a far larger Navy
Well, Cato, color me impressed – It’s been a while since I read anything on WWI; I must be rusty. Can you recommend some of the literature you suggest reading? (The whole Paleologue angle is news to me, for instance).
Thanks in advance.
Cato
which soup are you eating? the German’s?
“Kaiser William II was ambitious, rash and aggressive by nature. Rejecting the idea that Germany was a “satiated state”, he wanted to make Germany not only a European power but a world power. He advocated Drang nach Osten (the drive eastwards into the Balkans and Middle East), colonial expansion and naval expansion. He was also influenced by Pan-German feelings to support Austria’s expansionist policy in the Balkans. To pursue his ambitions, he often adopted blackmailing, threats and other unpopular methods. From 1890 to 1907, he succeeded in alienating Britain, France and Russia, and thus helped to create a rival bloc of anti-German alliances.”
http://www.funfront.net/hist/wwi/alliance.htm
An enigma machine was first captured by the Royal Navy in May 1941, long after the fall of France. It is inconceivable that the Vichy government would have been informed of this!
The German Navy had its own version of Enigma whose messages were a lot harder to crack than those of the Heer and the Luftwaffe. More rotors to begin with. But teh Allles had managed to get military versions of Enigma since 1939. I think it was through the Czech resistance. In his “History of WWII” Churchill repetedly tells of Ultra (decrypting of German messages through the knowledege the Allies had of Enigma), of the measures taken to ensure the Germans were kept unaware of the fact the Allies were able to decrypt their messages (like sending recon planes who “discovered” the German forces. There has even been a controversy over if Churchill allowed the bombing of Coventry in order not to disclose that the Bristish had cracked Luftwaffe’s Enigma or if it was because there was no time to act upon the information. So Ultra was operational by 14 November 1940. From distant memories I think Churchill mentions ULTRA as a factor in the Battle of Britain (August-September 1940).
In fact the Allies knew about the May 1940 German offensive but they disbelieved the information brought by Enigma. And the French knew about the British Ultra project.
Gentlemen:
The Enigma code was broken by Polish intelligence somewhere between 1935 and 1937. Before the outbreak of WWII the Poles shipped the model of the Enigma to Britain, where the British developed it further.
From Wikipedia:
In December 1932, the Polish Cipher Bureau first broke Germany’s Enigma ciphers. Five weeks before the outbreak of World War II, on 25 July 1939, in Warsaw, the Polish Cipher Bureau gave Enigma-decryption techniques and equipment to French and British military intelligence.
So the French knew about the British having the techniques to decrypt German messages and however even after having 1300 of their servicemen being killed by the British not a single of them told it to the Germans. So much for their treachery in 1940
JFM, you need to reconsider your position if you wish to discuss history seriously. Quoting Wikipedia is unacceptable even for undergraduates. It effectively degrades whatever you have to say.
Enigma was cracked by Polish mathematicians in the early 1930s, with an assist from French intelligence. But they were defeated by German changes in 1938-39.
In 1939, the Poles gave all their Enigma work to France and Britain; after the German invasion, the Polish team moved to France. In early 1940, the combined efforts of the French, the British, and the Polish exiles re-broke Enigma.
After the fall of France, the Franco-Polish group relocated to Vichy territory and continued to break Enigma – with the support of the Vichy government. (Though AFAIK Pétain and Laval never knew.) This Franco-Polish operation shut down in 1942 when the Germans occupied southern France. So the French could have revealed the Enigma breach, but they did not.
All this is documented in The Enigma War by Jozef Garlinski.
However the main effort was British, and from 1943, American.
As to Coventry – the “controversy” arose from the imaginary recollection of F.W. Winterbotham in his memoir The ULTRA Secret. Winterbotham was a great man – he organized and managed the system for safely distributing ULTRA (Enigma) intelligence to field commanders. But he invented the story about the sacrifice of Coventry out of nothing. All other memoirs and records refute it. Peter Calvocoressi was chief analyst of Luftwaffe Enigma – he wrote that “Enigma never mentioned Coventry”.
Rich Rostrom
No the occupation of the second half of France happened at the end of 1942, after that the Alliees had landed in northern Africa
I don’t know what Petain and Laval knew about Enigma. I know that a significant number of French Intelligence officers knew about it and didn’t tell it to the Germans.
“Also British and American pressure made that reparations amounted to 30 (thirty) dollars per German and per year. Admittedly it was 1920 dollars but doesn’t seem me an exorbitant amount.”
The price of an ounce of gold in 1920 was $20.68/ounce in US Dollars. That same ounce of gold in 2011 would cost you $1,490 or 72 times the amount in 1920. This is the amount of debasement that the Federal Reserve has brought to us over the last 91 years. So the amount of $30 US would have really been approximately 72 times more burdensom then you imply. Or roughly equal to $2,161 per German per year. Am amount of reparations that clearly was unpayable and resulted in much of the chaos that followed, including the roots of a future World War.
In name of what do you selct the ounce of gold as reference instead of the price of some common commodity. Gold’s price has raised far more than the general level of prices.
Because then prior to the turmoil of the early 1930s gold was the standard by which all floating currencies were compared. Once gold was no longer related to the value of currencies in any way after 1971, when the US refused to convert gold even in foreign exchange with other nations, then it became a defacto comparison of value which to this day has maintained a tie to the value of currencies. The commodities you speak of also have shown the same magnitude of change, bread in 1920 was 8 cents, gasoline was 19 cents,the average house was $6,800, a car was $580 all in US Dollars in 1920 but these commodities have changed their cost of production and their availability so radically over time that they are not really a valuable yardstick. Gold whether you agree or not has held it’s relative value for not just the 91 years in this example but for centuries.
“Gold’s price has raised far more than the general level of prices.”
Would you put a time frame on that ascertion and then you can see if what you say is true or not? Since when?
Gold is the basis of value for one simple reason, it can’t be printed by some profligate group of bureaucrats or politicans and consiquently it is harder to lie about then most other measures of value. Gold is and has always been held in high regard due to it’s intrinsic characteristics but mainly because it is scarce and is not consumed. Consequently while thing change radically over time in many ways gold has been able to remain a constant storage of value for hundreds of peoples representing the bulk of human kind. See India, China, or the modern Middle Eastern Oil countries. The OPEC oil providors aren’t as impressed with Green pieces of paper with the picture of dead US Presidents on them as you might think, their willingness to accept US Dollars as payment has a direct ratio connection to their ability to use said currency to buy gold at a specific price. See Ex Treasury Secretary Larry Summers paper from 1988 on how to reduce world interest rates to unheard of levels by supressing the world gold price and then check out what Robert Rubin and his acolyte Summers pulled off in the post 1996 Clinton Presidency.
Well you picked gols so I pick not gold but radios for comparing 1920 to 2011 incomes and prices. More seriously what matters is not the price of gold then and now but how much was making your average German family. Also did you stop to think how much your average French family was paying in taxes in order to not only to clear fields from mines, shells and cartridges from the battles but for rebuilding those mines and industrial plants the Germans had deliberately destroyed?
“Well you picked gols so I pick not gold but radios for comparing 1920 to 2011 incomes and prices”
Radios in 1920 (cost for the new technology Radio wasaround $370 US in 1920 dollars) were just coming into commercial availability in 1920 and of course were priced as the technological rarity they were at the time. Today they are available for a few dollars. This is a really great example of why you can not use technological goods as a yardstick or store of value over time.
Almost every ounce of gold that was discovered in the age of the Pharohs of Eygpt is still around today and consequently the value has remained steady over time. It isn’t a perfect comparison of value over time but close and an awfull lot more accurate than the CPI calculations that the Fed and the US gubmint try and pan off on us. If you look at inflation over centuries you will find that there really wasn’t any. The periods of deflation would wipe out the periods of inflation always returning to a constant value for gold/ounce.
Read “Dreadnought”. The family that arms races together wars together.
Are you referring to Richard Hough’s popular book Dreadnought, Lord Fisher’s memoirs titled “Fear God and Dread Nought” or Anthony Marder’s scholarly “From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow” in his magisterial history of the Royal Navy? Hough’s book isn’t bad as far as it goes, but won’t get you very far in understanding the Anglo German naval rivalry. You need to read Marder and Fisher, of course, and Churchill. Gollin’s “The Observer and J.L. Garvin” for the British politics and the 1909 budget (We want eight [dreadnoughts] and we won’t wait) is important. You also need to read Tirpitz’s My Memoirs. There are other secondary works that abound. Serious inquiry will include reading all the the Brassey’s annuals and the German Navy League publications, and then, of course Jane’s each year. Newspaper and magazine articles at the time as well. It’s been a long time, but I wrote a graduate research seminar paper on the Anglo-German naval rivalry back in the ’70s.
Ummmmmmmmm, on second thought – nevermind.
While, yoos guys have just a whole lotta interesting analysis of practiced military strategy and political intrigue, you appear to blink the fact that—much as is now in occurrence as development between USA and China—wars follow various sorts of inflictions and privations having to with international trade.
In both USA—and, equally true in many parts of Europe—WWI was preceded by difficulties in sales due to a simple abundance of goods; but also, international ambiance in the populace of various nations showed generated dissatisfaction or general unthankfulness, which the war coupled to anxiety felt by military men for the dozens of technological enhancements in their war machinery—practically, none of which had been actually proven in battle.
In sum, despite all of the intrigue and sense of old wounds, I think rather, that, WWI was a kind of spontaneous combustion and that, in final analysis, all wars are trade wars—while a general might not go to war just because he wishes proof of design, insults to trade can appear as an awful good reason, . . .
IF you ignore the fact the the French surprised the Germans with their willingness to hand over Jewish children to be murdered. (P.S. Lots of French citizens, not just refugees.) To be fair, at least some of the Genarmes were not happy to do it, althoguh they generally complied anyway.
Gendarmes
it took 90 years to the Germans to pay their debt, that had many times been lowered and or delayed !
While France paid in one year what corresponded to 25% of her GDP in 1870 to Germany !
and German industry, nor agriculture suffered from WW1
while french industry was kaput, as it mainly situated in north and east of France, also millions of Hectares of good agricultural soils were ruined for years, also more than 400000 inhabitations were destroyed, millions of inhabitants were “deported” and or delocated…
While in Germany the communists were settling and put the country into mess, thus carrying it into bankrupty, and not counting on the german bad will to work for war reparations
so, who do you want to fool?
you’re making from a actuality topic a motive for displaying your vile french bashing !
Let us not forget France’s other contributions like the start of Vietnam,Haiti,the evidence of weapons of mass destruction they passed on to Italy who gave them to the CIA-but it was just a joke!
They are far superior and chic,in their own minds.To the rest of the world they are obnoxious,self-righteous,morally questionable,rude people.Is America any better? We don’t claim to be nor do we degrade others like France does.
Is this man guilty? We will see. His politics,greed and attitude alone makes me want to shower.
Lena
sure
it’s what we can read on your medias, it’s not a day that France is flamed for whatever goes wrong in world wide,
you’re like the nowadays Germans, you live in the deny for your own errors and misbehaviour !
France betrayed the U.S. at the start of the Iraq war, reversing their policy ot get iol contracts. And sorry, I have no apologies for Viet Nam or Iraq.
The last mistake the US made in foreign policy was to get into WWI on the wrong side.
BTW, my Grandfather was one of those Doughboys; just missed getting killed saving your worthless skins. I don’t hate all French, of course, I have relatives there. It’s the decadent soul of France I can’t stand.
You know France is the only coutry to insist on having a programming language translated from English? Ever hear of French Cobol?
Not to mention when they sold planes to us in Israel (when the US was not so much our friend), then canceled the sale and kept the money. (Of course, some claim that the planes were sent secretly; the official story is that we broke the patent and built them ourselves.) Then there appears to be some evidence that they forced Israel into the 56 (Sinai) war; although if that is true we ought to thank them since Egypt/Syria was preparing to exterminate us.
I read this twice, considering the question you posed. Many French novelists and playwrights crossed my mind. Then I thought of another diplomat, the late Alain Peyrefitte and his book La Mal Francais. Teaching moment? It was published decades ago.
Ah, Alain Peyrefitte… Sends me back to memories of grad school. or was it later?
“Ah, yes, I remember it well…” (a little levity)
Didn’t Mitterand put his daughter up in some rather nice taxpayer-funded housing? I’ll take boring prudish America anyday over the condescending intellectuals and elites of Europe.
Another thing I find interesting is why the NGOs like HRW have never turned their attention to France’s special security police and courts. I believe I saw the French sytem mentioned once in the NYT Magazine, but I’ve never seen it mentioned in Germany. You would think our moral betters might have at least expressed some curiosity. Decadence seems to give one a pass in lots of areas.
Yes, Mitterrand used tax payer money for his daughter and nobody in the French press said anything about it.
And what about Mitterand junior, who is an aggressive roaming pedophile and whose exploits in Thailand have brought for an, alas! too short moment to the attention of justice – then let go -
The French seem to like “seducers” to the point I think being a “one woman” man would hurt a presidential candidate. But this is rape and not first attempt. That with (very young looking) French writer not only he didn’t take NO as an answer but went beyond after it was clear it was really NO and teh girld had to kick, scream and had to be rescued by another person. Being from aocialist family who was close to DSK she didn’t press charges.
But when several years later she talked about it both right and left wing media silenced the affair.
Also when the Polanski rape case resurfaced I read in the (center right) “Le Figaro”‘s website the following text from a reader with all he smugness and moral superiority some French are able to: “America is a puritan country” with condescending remarks about those primitive Americans. Apparently this person hasn’t heard that 1930 America is no more and that California is neither part of the Bible Belt nor New England. And apparently tyhe fact it was not mere extramarital sex but rape and from a 13 years old, supposedly immoral and illegal even in France, got lost to him. And he was not alone in
justifying the rape. Another told “At 13 a girl in California is not a naive maid”. Notice that “Le Figaro’s” site is a moderated one so the staff didn’t see anything wrong with them.
PS: My own, admittedly harsh but fully conformant to Le Figaro’s chart, reply was censored by the same staff who had allowed posts justifyng a rape on a 13 years old.
Remember France also produced the Great ,Blaise Pascal and Jacques Maritain. All is not lost.
They also produced a Lavoisier, but lopped his head off.
The French Revolution was a wet run for the Russian Revolution and produced so many horrible masacres that are incalcuble. What does that have to do with the fact that the French have produced great western thinkers ?
99% of the people who wiew this site including Roger Simon, have no clue of the names you are referencing.
I think you are wrong. Uninformed, too, especially re: the writer. But perhaps that is what you wished to demonstrate.
Paladin: you might be surprised. This is a pretty well-educated crowd. And even those who don’t recognize all the names may Google them and learn.
Just because you’re an idiot, don’t assume the rest of us are.
I KNOW Roger Simon would know them. Why do you think he would not – is it because he is Jewish? I’ll admit, I know only two out of three, L. the Chemist (although arguably it was Priestly who discovered Oxygen) and Pascal the Methematician/philosopher. Don’t know the third.
Good point, and contrary to some crude stereotyping recently, there were some great French military figures during the last century: Bigeard, Massu and their soldiers in Indochina and Algeria were excellent fighters. There were also some excellent French soldiers in World War I.
France has its problems, but we should give the French their due.
“Will the French make a connection between the alleged act of the managing director of the International Monetary Fund — raping a maid in a New York hotel — and the larger cultural climate of their country? ”
No.
France, Hellywood, DC,. . . the list goes on. The “Elites” everywhere have always excused the behavior of their own, while vigorously condemning those of “fly over” territory as the bad guys. . . .
Time for those rotten apples to be fed to the pigs. . . .
OLD MAXIM. JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED information on charges and hearing date is being shut down. Been to three news sites minutes ago and ‘no info on this page is available’ is listed.
Last information is that hearing may be delayed four months, but not definite. DSK arrested on aircraft just minutes before takeoff. NYC police acted quickly on complaint from hotel and maid. Seems DSK connections had no notice nor time to act in DSKs behalf.
The only reason this isn’t making more headlines is because the guy wasn’t a conservative. I’m sure that if this man was a conservative, this story would be front-page news for months, not to mention how the late-night comedy show hosts would make fun of it (including Jon Stewart and the Daily Show). It means a lot less to Americans because the guy was NOT from the United States, but I guess they would still get more mileage out of the story if he was a French conservative.
But look at our hypocrisy here in the United States. Not only did Bill Clinton have sex with an intern in the oval office (or right next to it), there were also reports that Bill Clinton actually raped a woman in Arkansas (her name was Juanita Broaddrick), not that the press paid much attention to that back then. It was all a big joke, something to be laughed at, but nobody took it seriously and when Clinton was impeached (although not removed from office), the press never, ever, called for him to resign.
Contrast that with any Republicans that were caught in a sex scandal. Those men are usually driven from office by the press who take much pleasure in going for Republican “scalps.” It’s the same old song, but it never gets old to the main stream leftist media.
So I hope this guy in New York has a good lawyer. The liberal main stream media may give him a pass, but the NYPD will not. I wonder if he has diplomatic immunity? If so, he’s going to need it.
He hasn’t diplomatic immunity but don’t worry, he has the best lawyers money can buy.
I too noticed that Roger did not mention Juanita B. when talking about Clinton. I guess this French guy could sneer back at us that had he been a Dem. president, no one would have disturbed him on his flight to France.
And yet, his arrest feels like progress…thanks to all the people who took action, tracked him down, and arrested him. Great little ruse about the cell phone. Maybe I’m just so used to our dithering prez, to see people take action is such a great delight. My heart goes out to the woman involved and to all the women he has done this to before, this is no one-off event. The party’s over for one more champagne socialist, excellent!
The mere fact that he had the gall–pun intended-to call the hotel and ask about the cell phone shows that he had no idea that the woman would press charges. Think about it: he called the hotel whose employee he had just attacked and calmly made arrangements for them to deliver to him his forgotten property! Of course the woman was black, an immigrant, and a menial, so he just figured it would be just another day as a maid to her. Which also suggests that he had done the same or similar on multiple occasions. I am proud of this woman for accusing him. And I am proud that we have the kind of culture where a black woman working cleaning hotel rooms may accuse a prominent and powerful politician. And I am proud of the NYC police for immediately pursuing him. Where are the French feminists? Where is the vaunted French solidarite’?
Adultery is not limited to the French. Take a look at how many resignations have occurred in our own congress over the past few years over adultery and aberrant sexual behavior. I do take exception however to these scum bag liberals from Europe who occupy high positions in global institutions which always are majority funded by the US taxpayer. How about the UN peacekeepers and their penchant for rape where ever they are supposed to be keeping the “peace”.
The difference is that here, there have been resignations. Unlike the French we don’t accept adultery as ‘normal’; John Edwards and Eliot Spitzer and John Ensign and their ilk are publicly shamed, their political careers in ruins. Not so for a French adulterer.
I was SO GLAD the WSJ this morning wrote about the disgusting contrast between what happened to DSK in a previous incident and the witch hunt against Wolfowitz. DSK seduced/raped a married woman who worked for the IMF, which he headed, and was let off with a slap–nay, a love-tap–on the hand. Wolfowitz cleared in advance a promotion for a woman whom he was dating when he headed the World Bank; for this he was loudly condemned by the international great and good and forced to step down. THIS WAS ONE OF THE MOST BLATANT HYPOCRISIES I HAVE EVER SEEN IN PUBLIC LIFE. As the WSJ points out, the difference between the way the Europeans treated one of their own and an American (whom they didn’t like because he was going after the Bank’s high-rolling expense-account crowd) was obvious. Now the Gallic cock is coming home to roost.
The French morality quotient—MQ–going back over a hundreds of years was also the reasonthe Am erican and French Revolutions turned out so differently, even though Thomas Jefferson expected and hoped for a similar outcome.
but Jay treaty was a american made and a betray to France !
and the Revolution in france was the escuse that the Americans found to not pay their debt back !
Very good essay; no doubt the anti-Semitic, anti-Christian socialist culture of France has something to do with their rejection of Christian morality, which unlike French “it isn’t wrong if the powerful do it” pagan morality, condemns adultery.
Before we get carried away with our nice judgements, let’s make sure the accuser isn’t Crystal Magnum or Tawana Brawley. It’s not as if there haven’t been false rape allegations in the USA or NYC before.
Thank goodness we were able to arrest this guy before he got back on his home turf.
Just Yesterday I read the PJM article “Women don’t lie.” by Charlie Martin.
http://pajamasmedia.com/tatler/2011/05/14/women-dont-lie/
Lets not be too quick acting as judge, jury and executioner.
The girl lying is a very definite possibility but let’s not forget that Straus-Kahn is not a first time offender and that he made a hasty departure from eth hotel, so hasty he forgot his cell-phone.
The possibility the girl is lying exists, but the facts of the case: an immediate report to her supervisors and the police, Strauss-Kahn’s abrupt departure and attempt to flee the country on the next available (free) plane, and, it now appears, DNA evidence, makes her story plausible.
And, given the other known incidents, including the one with Tristane Banon who has now formally filed a complaint against DSK, suggests that DSK may have been a very bad boy.
Suerely, this will be seen as a reflection of his virlity, and could get him elected.
Thanks for another insightful article. For some reason, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s words come to mind, “The rich are very different from you and me”.
The puzzle for me has been that so many Americans are francophiles, despite history. Europe, including France, has always had a stratified society where elite members are given a free pass to abuse the less fortunate. The contrast between European and American culture is clearly depicted in last weekend’s news, reporting the actions of the maid’s fellow hotel employees and the NYPD. Regardless of the outcome of the charges, the maid’s rights have been upheld.
One explanation for Francophilia: the French are so very good at sneering. And staring in a world-weary way. And behind all that, being totally thuggish. I am thinking now of Canada’s Pierre Elliot Trudeau, who famously said, when some other lefty thugs were on the rampage, “Just watch me”, and declared the War Measures Act.
One result of the latter was that Vancouver’s mayor sent in police mounted on horses to attack a bunch of hippies who were holding a pro-marijuana sit in. It was quite a show, with women dragged around by their hair, tourists from the suburbs shoved around.
But there is something about the French…
ah Trudeau…he got such good press in the US…but the Canadians knew other rumors about him that would make Clinton look like Mr. Clean.
For some reason, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s words come to mind, “The rich are very different from you and me”.
“Yeah. They have more money.”
In Mike and Psmith, by P.G. Wodehouse (Chapter 3), on his first meeting Mike Jackson at school, Psmith says:
Later, Mike and Psmith go upstairs:
He paid $35,000 for a suit? Geez, he could have gone to Jos. F. Banks and paid under $300.00 and got a second suit for free. Would have been a lot easier on the French taxpayers, or whoever it is paying the tab for this guy.
It was 3,000$ not 35,000 and it still seems a bit high given his official salary of 90,000 a month. Anyway it was not the French tax payer but the IMF. I
It’s my understanding that the United States contributes forty percent of the funds for the bugets of the IMF and the World Bank.
The higher ups were routinely booked First Class on aircraft and were always booked into the best available hotels on their world wide itineraries years ago when I worked in the contract travel office at the World Bank, but now that we have a Business Class, that should suffice for comfort, less fatigue and an ego-comforter.
I always thought that those guys had a much inflated opinion of their importance…I guess that came from (comes from even today) lending others’ taxpaid monies.
I’ve posted elsewhere that this “Affaire-Kahn” is racy tabloid fare, but there is a certain poetry in the lead character’s randyness being one of the French “Socialists”.
All we Americans get from our boatloads of cash loaned or “granted” worldwide are the sneers and finger-pointing and finger-wagging under our noses at our perceived shortcomings.
That’s what irritates this American to the point of thinking, “Why do we submit ourselves to this B.S.?….year after year after year?”
All we Americans get from our boatloads of cash loaned or “granted” worldwide are the sneers and finger-pointing and finger-wagging under our noses at our perceived shortcomings.
Ain’t it the (sad) truth.
In the case of Pakistan, we appear to get outright subversion for our boatloads of cash.
35. 000 for a SUIT. He’s suing a paper for that allegation.
Only 3.000 for the SuitE.
It’s his business, don’t you think, you guys? He and his wife are wealthy. The IMF isn’t paying for the extras. I thought you were American. And I also thought that in America you aren’t guilty until the jury says so.
I think it’s a shame how he’s treated over there, sent to the Hudson Alcatraz like a murderer. It’s just a shame. And a woman judge did that to him, like vendetta for all women. I’m wondering. He’s a very good-looking man. He wouldn’t have to rape somebody. He has enough choice, I guess. If he rapes a woman from the Bronx he’s stupid in the sense that Clinton was for a moment. But honestly, we doubt it over here in Europe, most of us.
You are right about the suit (but one could question if the IMF isn’t paying him a bit too much: over a million a year ie twice more tahn the POTUS who in addition has to cope with a lot of the spending in WH? Oh and tyhe IMF isn’t spending its own money but the taxpayer’s) but for sending him to Alcatraz like a murderer, no he has been se nt to the Hudon-Alcatraz like a raper. It is nice when DSK gets the same treament than anyone else. Liberte, Egalite, Fratenite and the rest.
But I did learn something about the French. Pace Edith Piaf and Yves Montand, there is nothing chic or hip about their adultery. After all the shared Gauloise and baiser volé, it’s just cheating. People don’t respect each other. People don’t trust each other. Indeed, they begin to hate each other. Life is wretched. It’s like a game of ritual self-and-other torture played out by a significant sector of their society — particularly in the elite classes — into oblivion.
So the living room reveal scene from Blake Edwards’ “A Shot In the Dark” is pretty close to reality, eh?
My guess is as far as Strauss-Kahn goes, what you’re going to see is the Roger Clemens effect — Yankees’ fans hated the guy and Red Sox fans would excuse all his coarse actions while he was with Boston, and when he went to New York most fans just simply switched positions. In this case, the people who were planning to support Strauss-Kahn against Sarkozy, or just don’t like the current French leadership, will figure out a way to believe that the hotel maid, the NYPD, the Manhattan DA’s office, Mike Bloomberg and/or Barack Obama conspired with Sarkozy to frame the IMF chief, while at the same time brushing off the incident, because compared to the sexually sophisticated continental mindset, even New Yorkers are a bunch of provincial, prudish hicks.
into the wood chipper with this one
O-la-la, mon général! Remember when the French criticized us for the unfortunate end of lecher extraordinaire Gary Hart?
gary hart would fit into the wood chipper just fine
“I have not heard of anything that extreme happening, as yet, in the corridors of the Elysee Palace.”
Roger, that train left the station a long while ago: Félix Faure
Just try living with the bastards as we do here in Canada. Here they are classed as a distinct society if you can believe it, a distinct society. They’re distinct alright but just not the way they think they are. Almost every major scandal we’ve have in this Country involved either Quebec or francophones. As one of our Prime Ministers from Quebec said about people out West, you are different, he was right, different morals, different values, different ethics.
When putting the french in a historical perspective I always remember General Patton’s famous line; I would sooner face a German division than trust a French one at my back. Some things never change.
First: Quebecois are not French and in fact don’t like them. Also in WWII they were less eager than Anglos to fight Germans. Unfortunately very few French know it otherwise they would have less sympathy for them.
Second: Sorry but Patton’s line is apocryphal: in fact he was a francophile. Read the messages from “GI Joe” in
http://msgboard.snopes.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=32;t=000429;p=0
Would French heritage be to your satisfaction? I am quite aware of what they are and what they are like. Look at official Canadian documents, they are referred to as French Canadians.
I have seen many versions of what Patton said, this was but one, all are similar but make the same point.
I have been told that it is quite frequent for Quebecois to say: “Maudit Francais, mange donc de la mArde”. (In French it is mErde). THis roughly translates as “Curse on you Frenchman, eat sh.t”. “Mange donc” in fact is stronger than mere Mange so the meaning would be something like “eat s.. until your stomach is full” . I really don’t think they are fond of French except when they need them.
Haven’t heard that before, thanks for the chuckle. I know they are not fond of each other but use the other when needed. Typical.
This is all about accent: the French Canadians have quite a different one (actually several kinds, depending upon where their ancestors came from) from the official Parisian French. And if you are not “Parisian” then you are a hillbilly.
Now, the French Canadian can sneer and shrug much better than can the Anglo Canadian. However, I would bet that the Parisian French are world champions at sneering and shrugging, out-doing the Quebecois hillbilly every time.
But, being an Anglo Canadian of the Scotch variety, I reallllly do not care.
Glass:
I understand your problems with the people of french ancestery who live amoungst you in you’re country,and I myself have always found the french as a nation to be rude and arrogant,but your last sentence shows a lack of historical knowledge on your part.I have read many times this statement claimed to have been uttered by Pershing,but I seriously doubt he said it.He was in a position to know better.The French soldier of world war one was exceedingly brave and was greatly admired by the British and American soldiers who fought with him.If you will read the letters and diaries of these men(a pasttime of mine)you will see that that is true.Between one and two million French soldiers gave up their young lives so that people like you and I could live good lives.It seems to me that in the constant war of words and insults that pass back and forth between the French and ourselves (and I am as bad about this as anyone) that we should be careful not to say unkind things about these brave men.Gratitude in human beings is a beautiful thing.T.
Thank you, Roger, for the video of Piaf with Je ne regrette rien.
But your long and cathartic mea culpa is way out of place here.
So are the comments on WWI-II and supposed French duplicity.
Neither you nor your readers have poked at the pith of the matter:
this is the kind of beast that runs NGOs like the IMF, to paraphrase Ron Paul.
I lived in France for many years. Love the French, hate the Parisans. Just as one can love Americans, hate New Yorkers. But for %$#&# sake! Look at the train wreck that’s become of all our institutions! THAT’s the story here.
And speaking of scandals, where’s Larry Sinclair?
Redistributing the wealth one luxury suite at a time. Is the IMF chief the same chap French socialists were pinning their hopes on next year against Sarkozy? Chardonnay socialism indeed..
And if DSK is innocent, after all? Who will that be a “teaching moment” for, my arrogant friend?
http://weaselzippers.us/2011/05/16/imf-socialist-chief-acted-like-a-chimpanzee-in-heat/
see a pattern??
teaching and learning are not the same thing. some people can be taught but they don’t learn. but that doesn’t mean you can’t get a government job.
Apropos chimpanzee in heat: I ask again: where are the French feminists? Is it because he is a socialist that he gets a free pass? This reminds me of how the left, including women who call themselves feminists, are so concerned with the rights of Muslims and their misogynist culture in this country. WHAT IS IT ABOUT SOCIALISM THAT MAKES PEOPLE FORGET ALL THEIR OTHER SCRUPLES???
Can you imagine Sarkozy getting the free pass that DSK got as a paragon of the Socialist Party? I have a short blogpost outlining some of the outrages Strauss-Kahn visited on the Socialist Party MPs and other female colleagues, none of whom wanted to out this monster. The lawyer representing Tristane Banon tells us that he has dozens of women’s testimonials as to DSK’s various groping and bodice-ripping episodes vis-a-vis left-wing women for the most part.
The hypocrisy and total moral leprosy of the feminist movement is limitless.
Roger, let us keep some perspective before the French bashing.
As vile as what Strauss-Kahn is credibly accused of doing, it is amazingly less vile that what a certain well-loved-in-some-circles American politician was credibly accused of doing to a young woman in an Arkansas hotel room.
With regard to covering up Mitterand’s love child, the late Strom Thurmond — who appears to have had a personal civil disobedience, guerrilla campaign against the anti-miscegenation laws of his state — would certainly not object.
Short memories? Or different strokes for different folks ? WHAT is the difference between Strauss-Kahn and Teflon / Slick Willy Clinton ? Both “kings”, with droit de seigneur. The apprehension made in New York City, capitol of the Blue States, the “Democrats” (H. Clinton erstwhile Senator) and the “elite”, with their conjoined twins opportunist “republicans”.
What even bigger power has Strauss-Kahn in the circle of international royalty offended, and how, that he has now the martyr role in the play. Okay, we know it’s all showbiz. Entertainment. Just fun, n’est-ce pas?
French farce. We’ve been here before to the entertainment of the nation and the world. The star of the show, then as now, a “Democrat”/Socialist.The
supporting cast the US Congress enacting words and actions of the script writers and directors : as ever, the establishment Media, Washinton Post, New York Times, major TV networks, and their clones from coast to coast.
The star of that earlier French Farce went on to star in other productions with even more fame and fortune. Remains admired and “respected” “pillar” of the “Democratic” Establishment of the US, and the lecture circuits.
But that earlier French Farce based on sexual peccadillo, to avoid the responsibility to try the pre-eminent Law Officer in the USA on abuse of the foundation of US Law: truthfulness under oath in a Court of Law. With requisite penalty of removal from civic representation. Ain’t politics fun ? Plus ca change.
Frenchified, we ultimately gave a pass to Bill Clinton for getting oral sex from an intern in the hallway adjoining the Oval Office
That depends on what your definition of “pass” is. No pass here, and a permanent blotch and stain for BC lying under oath.
As you say, many among “the French” see it as sophisticated to look the other way for “les affaires” and like to look down long aquiline noses at backwards and naive Americans, in the realm of sex and many other topics. It’s kind of a national sport.
But even the French will be hard pressed to rationalize Strauss-Kahn’s assault. Reportedly, he had an agreement with Air France to cop a first class seat on any flight and was in a great hurry to leave and left personal items, including his cellphone, behind in the room.
…thirty-five thousand dollar suits
Reportedly, same tailor as Obama, that guy who keeps telling us we gotta rein it in.
He intentionally left stuff behind so it wouldn’t look like he was fleeing the country ?
Sneaky.
The flight was around 4 pm, had taxied, and was called back to the gate.
Doesn’t wash. He was going back to Europe to meet with Angela Merkel.
I don’t know about the French but I can’t make this leap of logic.
By this standard the zeitgeist of America would change every 5 seconds.
I’m pretty sure it doesn’t.
Does it?
No, of course not.
What?
Nothing.
M.Katsav is the coservative,Strauss-Khan is the socialist.Majority of Israelis are glad that he is condemned by the closed trial by one victim`s evidence. Israelis don`t like their leaders and their guilt is evident for many of them.
Franch sexual liberalism is well-known,but I`v not heard about French inclination to violence.Let`s wait for the court decision.
I`ve not heard about French inclination to violence…
I’ve never thought of violence as a specific, or non-specific, national trait.
Trapping women in hotel rooms, noblesse oblige and advanced middle age might not be all that rare a combination.
Just ask that “crazed sex poodle” Al Gore
~signed,
not waiting for the court decision
I’m so glad that progressives like DSK and the Obamas are dedicated to helping the “little people” and shun the evil, grasping corporate life. Because think of the trouble they would cause if they were greedy….
Sounds like this guy and France deserve each other. I’ll go out on a limb and declare him the next frog prez.
If he ain’t in an American jail cell during the next election cycle.
I am very glad this happened in NY.
Because in NY, the police did its job and arrested the beast.
In Paris nothing would have happened. The maid would have been ordered not to complain, if she had, the police would have been ordered to look the other way, if it had not, all the press would have risen in defense of DSK. This is not the first time he is involved in such affairs, but as yet no one dared affront him. Too big to fail. I think that in France we have much to learn from American society.
Ted Nugent was being interviewed by a UK journalist a while back. The man noticed that Nugent put food out for the deer on his land.
The journalist asked him something along the lines of “Don’t you wonder what the deer think of all this? I mean, here’s this man who puts all this food out for us then later in the year he comes along and shoots us.”
Nugent replied “Naw. The deer don’t think about it at all. The deer only think about three things. The best place to eat, having sex and running away. Alot like the French.”
as if I needed another reason to like Ted.
cheers
The French have made great advances though. For example Marshall Pétain neglected to have aircraft carriers built for their navy. But they learned their lesson and now they have the 10th largest aircraft carrier in the world, the Charles de Gaulle can now surrender in any corner of the seven seas.
Petain was Minister of War. The Navy had its own ministry and didn’t answer to him. The French failed to notice the importance of the aircraft carrier just like the Italians and in a lesser degree whose carries were beyond pathetic. But they built the Richelieu class of battleships who were allegedly the best of their time. Superior to the Bismarck class..
For surrendering the score must be something like German surrdenderings 10 French surrednerings 1. BTW George Washington surrendered to them.
You are right about the Germans. GW was educated by French Jesuits, surrender to the French (Royal troops by the way) after two horses were shot from under him and several bullets grazed him making quite a few holes in his jacket. Later during the Revolutionary War he received substantial military help from the King of France. Even later he decried the excesses of the French Revolution.
Shaving the heads of alleged collaborators after WWII, the swelling ranks of the maquis (imagination?) after the Germans were gone, and the disgusting behavior of a great number of Frenchmen against the country that twice saved them at great cost of blood and treasure… it’s enough to show the class of the present French. Say anything you want. I have been there and I was treated like dirt by mere rabble that is not worthy to shine the holy bones resting near the beaches of Normandy, just because I carried and American passport. When I think of French courage I think of the Vendée. Pardonez-moi.
Catino (I wonder why you robbed that nick, cuz your rants aren’t reflecting its sense)
“Shaving the heads of alleged collaborators after WWII, the swelling ranks of the maquis (imagination?) after the Germans were gone, and the disgusting behavior of a great number of Frenchmen against the country that twice saved them at great cost of blood and treasure… it’s enough to show the class of the present French. Say anything you want. I have been there and I was treated like dirt by mere rabble that is not worthy to shine the holy bones resting near the beaches of Normandy, just because I carried and American passport. When I think of French courage I think of the Vendée. Pardonez-”
I didn’t see that your politicians behave better !
when I think of your courage, it’s the computer neerd’s !
your grand-fathers weren’t questionning their duty !
Now about our maquis (imagination?, if it hadn’t existed, no possible Grandeur Dday would have been possible, it would have ended like for the Canadians in Dieppe in 1942 !
and excuse-me 100000 french soldiers died in 1940 so that the Brit troops could rejoin Britain !
and how come that 70 to 75 % of our Jews survived when only 5% did in the other occupied countries?
sure the French were all collaborationists, but not the dutch, not the danes, not the, not the…
poor french basher !
The real maquis were allright. Now ask any of the real ones how many claimed to be maquis AFTER the war was over.
I don’t think many Americans are disrespected in Amsterdam or Rome the way they are in Paris.
My grandmother called me Catino after I caught a fish with my bare hands at age four. In our dialect it means “little cat.”
Find out about Vendée.
France had 120,000 dead for the entire battle of France. THe 100,000 figure for Dunkirk/Lille can only be either for casualties (ie wounded included) or prisoners. For the Dunkirk evacuation it was agreed that each Navy would take care of evacuating its own nationals but the French were far less efficient at doing so. Alos historian Marc Bloch in “L’etrange défaite” tells how after being evacuated to England the British took care of the French soldiers, how the locals gave them food, drink, flowers and above all friendship and how when he returned to France his ship was forced to stay the whole night out of the port a sitting duck for U-Boots because it was not woring hours for the port authorities and how the soldiers were treated like shit once they landed.
Alright!!Enough with the stupid and cruel French cowardence remarks.Why don’t you ignorant blowhards read up on you’re history.If you should ever do so you will find that the French are extremly brave,and that a whole generation of them died young so that people like you can spend so much time hiding behind your keyboards and saying such awful things.T.
It is one thing for a politician like Bill Clinton, or to be fair Newt Gingrich too, to take advantage of what I will call an easily available political groupie and what the French official is accused of doing. Clinton and Gingrich didn’t display much strength of character, but they were offered and accepted. This French fellow was not letting a groupie have her way with him, it was sexual assult against an unwilling woman. That is crime in the USA, in France and almost every other nation with a system of laws. There are now and always have been political figures with reputaions as Lothario’s and Don Juan’s. Some warrant the reputation like some actors and rock stars. However, there is a world of difference between seduction and rape. This guy is accused of forcing sex on an unwilling woman, that is way way over the line, it’s not even a close call. This is a very serious crime.
This guy is accused of forcing sex on an unwilling woman,
So is Clinton
Hey, let’s not be chauvinist hypocrites here,Clinton got away with rape; Ted Kennedy with the murder of a member of his harem , and the French didn’t create , or enrich the first “entertainer” whose chief claim to fame is to simulate masturbation on stage (Madonna). The chief manufacturer of global filth today is the Good ole USA.Let’s hear it for MTV!
Ok Lefty, so you support these and all other scumbags? Doesn’t say much for you, but a lot about you.
Roman Polanski is a hero in France because he is a fugitive from what they call Anglo-Saxon justice. Do you need to know more than that about the French?
I know some French who refuse to watch his movies so they don’t put a cent in his pocket.
he isn’t, just a citizen that benefits of our laws system,
imagine that more than 30 years after his rape in California, here it’s considered as prescripted, because of such a long delay, and that he paid compensations and that the victim removed her complaint, plus the californian judge was making a fuss of Polanski’s case for his own political agenda… and your serf medias were relaying his crap !
he isn’t, just a citizen that benefits of our laws system,
imagine that more than 30 years after his rape in California, here it’s considered as prescripted, because of such a long delay
Excuse me but if 30 years have been allowed to pass is because you sided with a raper and also I don’t see why the aws of your shityy little country (thats is how you name Isral) should be opposable to the United States.
and that he paid compensations and that the victim removed her complaint
So beacuse the victim forgave him or allowed herself to be bough Polanski should be alloowed t walk free, free to rape other girls or set an example for other millionaires?. The victim’s pardon is irrelevant exacept for monetary compensatins set by the Court: criminal must still pay for his crime: there are other people to protect in addition to the victim
plus the californian judge was making a fuss of Polanski’s case for his own political agenda… and your serf medias were relaying his crap
Nope, the judge made the mistake of admitting a piece of evidence (a qyuite irrelevant one BTW) without Polansky’s lmawyer being presnt and he made a lot of fuss about it. Then the Frebnch press pandering to those Frech who try to washout Vichy and teh Vel d’Hiv by resisting to America told Polanski was being the victim od a jusge with apolitical agenda.
How does one know when liberals have a non-defensible position? Well, they go for character assassination of their opponent, screaming RACIST or the like. If there is no opening for such an attack, they change the subject, to WWI or other catastrophe. Mr. Simon’s article was about character. First, of a man with a history of sexual misconduct. Second, of a police force that does not arrest rich people, without a lot of solid evidence. Third, of a country that seems to look upon rape as a misdemeanor, and of no consequence, I refer to a movie director who raped a 13 year old and escaped to France, as he was about to be sentenced! Of course he was sheltered, even celebrated there! But then, we prudes take an unwarranted dim view of rape.
I believe the maid’s story. ….if it was obama I wouldn’t believe it.
I’m not sure that Adultery and Rape is the same thing or even something similar. And yes, in Europe Adultery is a private business (one might ask for Divorce in case the partner commits it, but it’s still a private matter, it is something that concerns the Couple only), not a public one. While Rape is totally another thing: it is a Crime, and Criminals are a public matter. Are – in the USA – Adultery and Rape considered the same thing, and processed the same way? I wonder.
to a lot of the leftists it is ..
Interesting discussion. You should post this as a policy proposal on http://www.whitehousevoice.com
We should avoid generalizations about the French. Condoning affairs where there has been a breakdown in a marital relationship is an issue but so is the American practice of no-fault divorce and serial monogamy. One could argue that socially condoned affairs are less damaging to the children and other family relationships and leave the door open for reconciliation.
Roger Simon writes
we ultimately gave a pass to Bill Clinton for getting oral sex from an intern in the hallway adjoining the Oval Office; I have not heard of anything that extreme happening, as yet, in the corridors of the Elysee Palace.
As I show in my book Christie Davies “Jokes and Targets”, Bloomington IN, Indiana University Press 2011
something more extreme still happened in the Elysee. President Felix Faure died while and as a result of receiving oral sex from his mistress Marguerite Steinheil.
There are interesting parallels between the jokes told about this incident at the time in Paris and those told about Clinton more recently
Are you a Conservative and living and working in Bloomington IN??
If so, then there are some glimmers of hope for this socialist, anti-business outpost… I have doubts that I.U.’s Kelley School of Business even teaches the merits of capitalism anymore.
I know its wrong of me, but knowing that an elitist euro-crat, a man used to the very best, is sitting in a cell in Rikers. Yep, shoulder to shoulder with drunks, gang bangers and half psychotic drug attics. It warms my dark little heart.
One of my Paris friends tells me he’s commonly known there as “le chaude lepin” — the “hot rabbit”.
I didn’t get the idea this was particularly complimentary.
The IMF, ensuring creepy, thrice divorced Socialist Frenchies who sexually abuse/assault hotel cleaning women have employment since 1944..
A long article to expose the hypocrisy of the American generations who have for decades tried so hard to adapt to the laxed morality of the Europeans in general…with great success!
While we stone the French (Europeans) for their laxed morality, we must not recognize the hypocrisy of America today, as one of the worlds largest consumer of adult pornography, criminal child pornography, beastality pornography and sexually explict fashion, etc.,….. and, has the highest rate of criminal sexual assults.
AMAZING!
uh, Roger, a few problems. Yours was an affair of the heart, with all the messiness.
I suspect this sexual assault was behavior by a man who had done similar actions before and gotten away with it because he was powerful enough to keep the women quiet. Think “casting couch” in Hollywood.
Problem one: This was not consensual. This was rape. The cops are savvy enough to know women accuse men for money. She was traumatized and there is blood, so they are taking the story seriously.
Problem two: As a maid, it is a type of “sexual harassment” of an employer to an employee who is an inferior supposed to obey his commands.
Alas, such assumptions are not unusual (see Al Gore, who merely made a request). I’m old enough to remember when such “offers” in the workplace were not unusual in the US, but there are still countries (like the Philippines, where I live) where women (and sometime young men) employees are assumed to be sexually available to their boss, and often consent because they fear losing their jobs.
Here in the Philippines, the abuse of our maids has hit the point that the gov’t is in a fight with the Saudis over insisting that the employer file his address and it’s location before the girls will be allowed to work, because physical and sexual abuse of such girls is so common. But such cases get little or no publicity because they are only poor Filipinas and the Saudis are “our friends” and have bought off the US press/universities/gov’t with money.
I believe you have completely misread Mr. Simon and suggest you go back again.
By the way, the producer who invented the “casting couch” was universally despised.
I would imagine writers are already turning this into a Law & Order episode or CSI Miami.
i don’t know the guy. his politics disgust me. that being said, there is one truth about rape claims in the U.S. that isn’t much talked about.
false rape claims. there have been over 250 men in this country freed from prison w/ an average time served of 17 years? due to the hard work of volunteers working with very old and outdated evidence. what was literally d.n.a. evidence accidentally saved. d.a.’s have fought to not have old d.n.a. evidence tested, much less used for their defense.
also, women seldom suffer any negative outcome from making false claims. usually ‘filing a false police report’ is about as far as it goes (maybe a small fine or probation). look at how the duke college kids were villified. and what happened to their false accuser? jesse jackson offered her free college, and she was never charged with anything.
her case is not rare. if it doesn’t cost poor women anything, why not take a $hot at a rich guy. many a lie about rape has paid off big time throughout history.
i don’t know the guy. his politics disgust me.
Right, here in the U.S., DSK’s progressive Socialist politics would usually say, “Women never make false rape claims.” Except, of course, when the woman is an American Southerner and the accused is a black guy.
But why complain to the Progressive Socialists about what they instead think is their main “intellectual” strength to begin with: never having to make any sense whatsoever, as long as they are trying to get every member of the “oppressed” classes served daily with a socially just amount of Gerber’s baby formula and their diapers changed according to the correct-by-definition “complete life” recalibrations of a program at least very similar to our own Great Central Government’s Obamacare?
Which is why it is wonderful that DNA evidence now exists. But they had to take the complain seriously.
BTW, I am 100% agaisnt the masking the identity of the victim. The accused should have every chance to have hte case publicized enough to allow potential witnesses to come forward. If not, why not hide the identity of both?
The author lives in LA, and doesn’t know nothing of pes f**Kings… LMAO
and that the US are the country where porn videos are watched the most during working hours, not saying that it’s also where these porn videos are filmed, that bring clinging money to the films-makers and to the US fisc !
Bizarre that DSK was just trapped at the very moment when the US need a IMF bailing out, cuz you know, he was allotting the jackpot to the eurozone !
Besides DSK has the habit to pass nights in NY Sofitel, in the same very room where the rapt is supposed to have happened, and that he knew this maid too, hmm she is working there since 3 years…
Sumthin is fishy !
Timely! I wonder if this affair will persuade the producers of the movie “Belle de Seigneur” http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0810772/ to advance its release?
Would they [the French] make a connection, as I do, between DSK’s alleged act, raping a maid in a New York hotel, which is obviously quite aberrant, and the larger cultural climate of their country?
A proposed solution: in order to find out how the French now gauge DSK’s character in relation to their own culture’s insistently self-proclaimed sophistication and its objective record regarding its [lack of] desire to even defend itself, we should let DSK return to France and run for President. Then simply see by how much he wins the election.
To be fair, Clinton was re-elected. And there was the child-shaking killer (yes, killer) whom all of Britian wanted to get off, then they turned around and went against a woman (foreign. I beleive) who did it in their own country). People will be suspicious of what goes on abroad.
But I agree with Simon 100%.
The French have gone off the cliff. I just returned from 18 days in France. They will be severely chastised in about 7 years because they squandered their faith.
Have you read the revolting comments by Henri-Levy at the Daily Beast. Here’s the money quote, pulled-out by the editors at the Beast:
“I am troubled by a system of justice modestly termed “accusatory,” meaning that anyone can come along and accuse another fellow of any crime—and it will be up to the accused to prove that the accusation is false and without basis in fact.”
No doubt Henri-Levy and DSK wish that only the better sort of people be allowed to accuse him and his nobles. The second half is, of course, simply false–only a French philosopher could be so stupid. Is there any doubt that EUropeans are anti-democratic? These people are not our friends. They are not our allies. The EU has barely changed from its medieval, nazi, communist origins.
This show just what kind of an ass is Henri-Levy: the French system is called inquisitory like in Inquisition. In fact there are two systems for instruction: in the accusatory the judge is neutral and both prosecution and defence bring their evidence and arguments to him (ie it mimics the tral). In teh inquisitory system the judge tries to deicover the truth and he is supposed to pay attention to all evidence be it in favor or against the accusee. In practice it is not unheard of that judges get “carried by the excitment of the hunting” and neglect evidence in facor of the accusee?
Anyway accuisatory (is a technical term) and Mr Levy somoene who speaks without knowing.
Two thoughts:
In France adultery is the national pastime. I remember in the south of France in 1990 our family offering to pay for the long distance calls we made from the house owner’s landline phone. Impossible as she did not pay the extra fee to have an itemized bill. All phone bills from home lines were by default devoid of the numbers you called and just had the total for the month. Why? Wink, Wink, nod nod, say no more, the Anglo/American owner said.
Also anyone who has been to France and walked around has seen the discs of raw chopped meat that is the national dish, steak tartar.
Raw meat carries toxoplasmosis.
With a toxoplasmosis infection rate of 88%, the highest in the world the French are at risk for some of the behavioral changes that can result from the infections.
see wikipedia
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Toxoplasmosis#Society_and_culture
—————snip—————————–
Behavioral changes
It has been found that the parasite has the ability to change the behaviour of its host: infected rats and mice are less fearful of cats—in fact, some of the infected rats seek out cat-urine-marked areas. This effect is advantageous to the parasite, which will be able to proliferate as a cat could eat the infected rat and later reproduce.[25] The mechanism for this change is not completely understood, but there is evidence that toxoplasmosis infection raises dopamine levels and concentrates in the amygdala in infected mice.[26]
The findings of behavioural alteration in rats and mice have led some scientists to speculate that Toxoplasma may have similar effects in humans, even in the latent phase that had previously been considered asymptomatic. Toxoplasma is one of a number of parasites that may alter their host’s behaviour as a part of their life cycle.[27] The behaviors observed, if caused by the parasite, are likely due to infection and low-grade encephalitis, which is marked by the presence of cysts in the human brain, which may produce or induce production of a neurotransmitter, possibly dopamine,[28] therefore acting similarly to dopamine reuptake inhibitor type antidepressants and stimulants.
Correlations have been found between latent Toxoplasma infections and various characteristics:[29]
Decreased novelty seeking behaviour[30]
Slower reactions[31]
Lower rule-consciousness and greater jealousy (in men)[30]
Greater warmth, conscientiousness and moralistic behavior (in women)[30]
The evidence for behavioral effects on humans is controversial.[32] No prospective research has been done on the topic, e.g., testing people before and after infection to ensure that the proposed behavior arises only afterwards. Although some researchers have found potentially important associations with Toxoplasma, the causal relationship, if any, is unknown, i.e., it is possible that these associations merely reflect factors that predispose certain types of people to infection. However, many of the neurobehavioral symptoms that are postulated to be due to toxoplasmosis correlate to the general function of dopamine in the human brain, and the fact that toxoplasma encodes the dopamine synthetic enzyme tyrosine hydroxylase enzymes makes it likely that neurobehavioral symptoms can result from infection.
Studies have found that toxoplasmosis is associated with an increased car accident rate in people with Rh-negative blood. The chance of an accident relative to uninfected people is increased roughly 2.5 times.[28][33][34]
This may be due to the slowed reaction times that are associated with infection.[33] “If our data are true then about a million people a year die just because they are infected with Toxoplasma,” the researcher Jaroslav Flegr told The Guardian.[35] The data shows that the risk decreases with time after infection, but is not due to age.[28] Ruth Gilbert, medical coordinator of the European Multicentre Study on Congenital Toxoplasmosis, told BBC News Online these findings could be due to chance, or due to social and cultural factors associated with Toxoplasma infection.[36] However there is also evidence of a delayed effect which increases reaction times.[37]
Other studies suggest that the parasite may influence personality. There are claims of Toxoplasma causing antisocial attitudes in men and promiscuity[38] (or even “signs of higher intelligence”[35] ) in women, and greater susceptibility to schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in all infected persons.[38] A 2004 study found that Toxoplasma “probably induce[s] a decrease of novelty seeking.” [39]
According to Sydney University of Technology infectious disease researcher Nicky Boulter in an article that appeared in the January/February 2007 edition of Australasian Science magazine, Toxoplasma infections lead to changes depending on the sex of the infected person. [40][41]
The study suggests that male carriers have shorter attention spans, a greater likelihood of breaking rules and taking risks, and are more independent, anti-social, suspicious, jealous and morose. It also suggests that these men are deemed less attractive to women. Female carriers are suggested to be more outgoing, friendly, more promiscuous, and are considered more attractive to men compared with non-infected controls. The results are shown to be true when tested on mice, though it is still inconclusive. A few scientists have suggested that, if these effects are genuine, prevalence of toxoplasmosis could be a major determinant of cultural differences.[29][41][42]
hmm not in America such behaviour?
hmmm Kenedy ,BLJohnson ,Clinton….
you’re just a poor IQ amalgamist !
The point, of course, is not that there is one sick man. There always is. But that there is a culture that enables him.
I particularly noted the French poster’s observation above that DSK would be protected in France, backed by the press, while the victimized woman would be marginalized and instructed to shut up.
I have just read that since, apparently, there is DNA evidence, DSK’s lawyer is now arguing that the sex with this shy, West African woman was consensual.
If you believe that one, I have a pice of property on a sinking island I’d like to sell you.
‘pice of property”
A piece, even.
your own and “fair” deduction !
So Many Questions, So Few Answers
Long before and long after little Billy asked, “Why’s the sky blue, daddy?” a question to which I still don’t know the answer, important and inconsequential questions have been posed, sometimes answered with platitudes or misrepresentations or lies and sometimes parried–like the blue sky query.
Though I may be wrong, and I have been wrong once or twice over the course of my many years, never in the history of mankind, or in the history of our Republic, well, in my history, have so many serious questions gone unanswered whether because no one knows the answers, because some people do know and prefer not to share their wisdom, or because the questions are unanswerable.
Without categorizing the questions in any of those 3 classifications in which they sometimes overlap, I offer these head-scratchers in the hope that someone, somewhere, has the answers:
. Why did our leaders announce the “treasure trove” of information on Al-Qaeda and OBL’s contacts and machinations gleaned from the raid on Abbottabad? If the announcements were intended to satisfy the American public with the revelation that the mission was fully accomplished or, more likely, to spike our president’s ball and garner him votes next year, did any of our leaders consider they were also alerting the enemy that we knew who they are and where they may be hiding?
. Why did our VP Oaf in Chief spill the beans on which of our special forces conducted that raid, information which until then was classified? Okay, that was primarily due to Biden’s idiocy and oafishness but in light of news Islamic Osama-lovers have now targeted those Navy SEALs, and possibly their families, who will be held responsible if Muslim fruitcakes succeed?
. Why was a socialist with a girl’s name, Frenchman Domique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the IMF, why wasn’t he dumped after repeated instances of sexual improprieties, why was he staying in a $3,000 a night room at the Sofitel when the standard IMF stipend is $386 per, why was he being paid $500,000 a year tax free, and why is the inept former British PM Gordon Brown in the running to replace him?
. Why are Pakistan and India, where shoes and a decent meal are luxuries for the rabble, nuclear powers spending billions to join and continue in that exclusive club? Shouldn’t head Pakistani and Indian honchos be more concerned with clothing and feeding their people than with blowing up their neighbors and, in the Paki case, why were they unaware OBL was in residence for years? . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=4474)
There can be no denying that the greatness of France was based on Catholicism and it’s DIVINELY appointed monarch. This probably evokes gasps of horror and outrage from modern liberals but too bad for them it’s true. Those needing evidence need only look at the proportion of Churches to population. Most of these Churches are unbelievable masterpieces of architecture and engineering. When the French cut the head of their king they effectively ended their relationship with God. They have paid the price many times since with wars. A new, future Catholic Monarch will soon ascend the throne in France. Please spare me the scoffing, it’s not my idea but rather the prophecy of hundreds of Catholic saints from every nation. Google “The Great Monarch” and read for yourself.
Other News You Really Don’t Need
With apologies to Ben Franklin, there are other certainties in life aside from death and taxes and Ben may not have said that in the first place. Another surety is news since something is always happening on our planet whether we want to hear about it or not.
There are many happenings the squeamish would prefer not to know about, other events few of us care about, and still more most of us find so mystifying or just so plain dumb that we tend to believe the news accounts just have to be wrong.
In the recently mystifying category are a plethora of stories which, no matter how hard we wish, are true whether we choose to believe them or not.
Take, for example, the Holy Name of Jesus parish in West Palm Beach, Florida, which offered a “prayer request” in last Sunday’s bulletin for the repose of the soul of the mass murderer and architect of 9/11, Osama bin Laden.
More rational critics abounded and parishioner Lois Pizzano spelled out their objections: “I think it’s totally wrong, he doesn’t belong in the Catholic religion. For what he did to Americans, he doesn’t belong anywhere. It’s unconscionable, it’s sacrilegious,” a sentiment with which the pastor, Father Gavin Badway, took issue.
Rev. Badway concedes that many in his congregation are less than happy with the idea of praying for the Butcher of 9/11 but “he says the church has never turned down a prayer request before. He says making the right decision isn’t always easy.” He added that, “Their [parishiners'] hearts are troubled because they’re thinking emotionally about what he has done and he has done a lot of evil. Nevertheless, Jesus tells us, love and forgive.”(http://bit.ly/myxk0Q)
As a fellow Catholic, I have to wonder if Rev. Badway is in complete possession of his senses and whether we are also expected to pray for Judas, Attila, Hitler, and other poor, misunderstood, bloody souls. I also have to wonder whether Badway is just ambitious to move on up the clergy ranks by demonstrating how caring he is or whether he’s gay since homosexuals are said to be very empathetic.
Out there in the secular world, Maryland’s Governor Martin O’Malley is also evidently a sensitive guy. He joined his state to ten others in signing on to the so-called Dream Act, which act has been repudiated, so far, by the U.S. Congress and which is only a dream for illegal invaders of our country and for Democrat politicians who crave their votes . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=4492)
Background on the Tristane Banon case referred to twice above:
DSK was publicly accused some years ago of a similar assault. A young French writer, Tristane Banon, said he assaulted her in Paris in 2002. Her “dinner table” interview on television in 2007 is on Rutube here:
http://rutube.ru/tracks/4448170.html?v=03de1d18051ccba9f6aa13b53108847c
They blipped out his name but the compere of the show, Thierry Ardisson, soon spread the word that it was Strauss-Kahn (see pages of 2008 “Paris Premiere” magazine article here: http://rutube.ru/tracks/4448170.html?v=03de1d18051ccba9f6aa13b53108847c).
Here is what Ms Banon says on the video:
“It went very badly indeed. He was like a rutting chimpanzee…In the National Assembly, no young woman will accept to be his secretary. You only have to look. He is the only one who has to have a lady who is pushing sixty and practically obese…
“It happened this way. It was for my first book, for which I interviewed you too. The idea was to ask people what was the biggest mistake they ever made. He gave a banal answer as you might expect. I said fine, I don’t think I’ll be using that. He left, saying, well, I’ll call you on my way home if I think of something else to tell you.
“He did ring me back on his way home. He gave me an address of a place I didn’t know about – that surprised me because I knew his life pretty well, where he lived, where his office was, where he was in the National Assembly, it wasn’t any of those places.
“I turned up, parked the car, went in and upstairs. It was an empty apartment, completely empty, just a television, a video and a bed at the end. Very pretty, he has excellent taste, exposed beams, rear courtyard… And then, well, he politely closed the door, and I put down my tape recorder straight away to start recording. He wanted me to give him my hand so that he would reply – he said I can’t answer unless you hold my hand, and from my hand he went to my arm and then further… I was wearing a black polo-neck sweater. [Responding to raillery:] Maybe that turns men on, but there’s a limit.
“Then, well, it finished very, very badly because we ended up fighting. It finished very, very violently because I had said very clearly…[Interjections] Oh no, we were fighting on the floor, it was not just a couple of punches. I was kicking him, he got my bra open, he tried to get my jeans undone. It finished very badly. I left. He immediately sent me an SMS saying “Did I scare you?” in a provocative tone. In fact, when we had been fighting, I had used the word “rape” to try to scare him. But it didn’t seem to do much then, so he is probably used to this. He kept sending me SMSs afterwards saying “Do I frighten you?”. [Asked if she had thought of lodging a complaint] No: I did go a quite a way down that road, I made up a file, I went to see a lawyer well known in this field who already had a pile of such files this high about this fellow. But I didn’t want to be the girl who, till the end of her days, was known as the one who had a problem with a politician.”
Full text in French available here: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:JM68wAM0bxgJ:lucadeparis.free.fr/infosweb/dominique_strauss-kahn.htm+%22Il+a+d%C3%A9graf%C3%A9+mon+soutien-gorge,+il+a+essay%C3%A9+d'ouvrir+mon+jean%22+%22provocateur%22+%22limite+obese%22&cd=2&hl=fr&ct=clnk&gl=fr&source=www.google.fr
So how does one guy all of a sudden represent a nation of people? Did americans reflect over our culture when Kobe Bryant, William Kennedy Smith, Clarence Thomas, and Bob Packwood, former Oregon senator just to name a few were accused of rape or sexual harassment. Did the european press question why Americans have let their culture get to such a low point. Has America forgotten innocent until proven guilty? The news media in this county has become more about entertainment than fact, spewing false facts on this case in the first hours to excite the public only to quietly correct them hours later. For me the most unfortunate thing is, that the media has revealed that this is really not so much DSK but about France. America has shown its true color these past few years in its hatred for the french. It did not matter that Germany, Russia, Canada, and the majority of the population of Briton disagreed with the war on Iraq, and that decision by France not to go to war was really made by one man (Chirac), We singled out the French to blame with racist lust. This current incident has once again show how America has so embraced its hate, its not the individual that is responsible its their culture, their people that are wrong. There are two words that should be defined here Race and Racism. I will quote the dictionary “race”
noun
each of the major divisions of humankind, having distinct physical characteristics : people of all races, colors, and creeds.
• a group of people sharing the same culture, history, language, etc.; an ethnic group : we Scots were a bloodthirsty race then.
Next – “racism”
noun
the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, esp. so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races.
• prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on such a belief : a program to combat racism.
When we blame France (the french) for one mans (unproved) crime are we and the media not being racist? add to that all the other negative stereotypes that are being toss around since 2003 (Iraq war) and maybe we need to look at our selves and question what path we are walking down.
During the Clinton scandals, France was held up by the Left as an exampel to EMULATE, the Left not knowing the difference between decadence and sophistication. So this is one place it starts.
A lot of what went on during Iraq was good-natured fun, but France DID double-cross us, literally selling blood for oil.
Another nation can be judged by its public face. France assumes a certain public face by its media and its foreign policy actions. Admittedly, I always complain that the world mistakens Hollywood for American culture.
I will conclude with the famous, and well-deserved, French terrorist alert scale:
1. Run
2. Hide
3. Surrender
4. Collaborate
When I was hitch hiking through Europe in my early twenties (a long time ago!), I was frequently hit on by French men, young and old, married and single. I didn’t like it, and told them so. I realized that extra-marital philandering and casual sex seemed to be a staple practice of Frenchmen — and the French culture — and have been suspicious and disapproving of the promiscuous habits of the French ever since.
Anne Sinclair, Dominique Strauss-Khan’s wife, seems to have no such scruples, however (hey, she’s French): “When Sinclair was asked, back in 2006, if she was pained by Strauss-Kahn’s reputation as a womanizer, she said: ‘No! I’m even proud of it [my emphasis]. As long as he is still attracted to me, and I to him, it is sufficient.’”
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/05/wife.html
Sinclair’s “It is sufficient” chills me to the bone.