» Fringe Blog – Writing on Film, Culture, and Things on the Fringe

Scarf Ban

jelewis8 — Wed, 20 Oct 2004 23:28:26 +0000

France demonstrates its religious tolerance by expelling Muslim girls who wear their headscarves in defiance of a new ban against “conspicuous religious symbols”. I think this could only be topped if France began sanctioning the burning of Jews right in the street.

France and Sudan

jelewis8 — Fri, 09 Jul 2004 21:23:01 +0000

The French oppose sanctions and military action against Sudan in the Darfur genocide (that the UN, BTW, won’t call a ‘genocide’ because that would require military action). By the way, the French have oil interests there. It must be all about the oooooiiiilll!
You gotta love the French. Oh wait, no you don’t.

France Loves F9/11

jelewis8 — Thu, 08 Jul 2004 17:09:02 +0000

The French, on the whole, love Fahrenheit 9/11. But not all is well in Gaul…

“To affirm…that it was crowned (in Cannes) for its cinemagraphic qualities is either proof of incompetence, a pure lie or a cynical joke,” [daily newspaper Le Monde] wrote, questioning whether the movie was what it is touted to be ? a documentary.
Le Monde said the film more closely resembles propaganda. The paper carried a separate article to separate “truths” from “errors” in the film.

Overall though, French sentiment is obvious and unremarkable. “It’s very important, this movie,” [20-year old Adrien Bloch] said. “We don’t like Bush and this movie is anti-Bush…It reflects our thinking.”
So much for the reputation the French have for questioning everything.

Leaving France

jelewis8 — Mon, 21 Jun 2004 17:51:42 +0000

Joe Gandelman reports that Jews, sick of growing anti-Semitism, are leaving France in record numbers.
I guess “Never again” has different connotations over there.

35 Hour Failures

jelewis8 — Wed, 19 May 2004 23:39:49 +0000

The French have finally learned that a 35 hour work week just doesn’t work. Oops! Hard work? Nah, we’re le French! As long as we can be smug about our enlightened system of only working 35 hours a week, and half-assed at that, we’ll show those captitalist pig-dog Americans what true freedom is.
Then again, I suppose they’re saving money by not taking showers more often…

American Islamist Hegemony

jelewis8 — Fri, 16 Apr 2004 15:56:20 +0000

Oh, this is good. French intellectuals believe Islamism is an American hegemonic enterprise designed to destroy national borders and increase global reliance on commercial capitalistic markets. They also believe that political and economic interests are controlled by a powerful Jewish lobby whose personal project is nothing less than the total theocratic realization of Israel.
Forgetting the anti-Semitic inferences, the idea that a small contigent of Jews controls the US is patently absurd. That they would do so through Islamic means is not even worth parodying. I’ll take a bit of wisdom from the New Testament: “How can a divided house stand?”
Then again, the French threw out the Bible a long time ago. They could stand to learn a few things from it.
Via Common Sense and Wonder

French Lawyer to Defend Saddam

jelewis8 — Mon, 29 Mar 2004 17:11:45 +0000

Well, someone had to do it. I’m sure Saddam prefers a friendly face anyway.

More French Wackiness

jelewis8 — Wed, 11 Feb 2004 16:49:49 +0000

A French woman married her fiance, who just happened to be dead. The marriage had to be approved by the French president.

According to French law, a marriage between a living person and a dead person can take place as long as preliminary civic formalities have been completed that show the couple had planned to marry. Before the ceremony can take place, it must be approved by the French president.

And we needed their permission to invade Iraq?

It’s A Quagmire!

jelewis8 — Tue, 09 Sep 2003 14:09:50 +0000

The French heat wave death toll is up to 15,000, says the country’s largest undertaker, exceeding government estimates of 11,500.
It’s funny. You sure aren’t hearing much about 15,000 people dying in France, but when less than 300 servicemen and women die in Iraq, it’s all over the news. I have trouble reconciling this fact with the media’s so-called concern for human life. Yes, each death in Iraq is tragic and hard, and my prayers and thoughts are with each of their survivors, as well as their comrades still fighting in the desert heat.
My beef is with the media who reports one thing but almost totally ignores another. In theory, the two stories should not be diametrically opposed. Death is death, and if the media were really concerned with human life and the cost of government failures and all the crappy deals the media attributes to our government, then they’d be all over this French story like white on rice.

French Opinion

jelewis8 — Tue, 09 Sep 2003 08:09:31 +0000

Want to know what the French press think of Americans? Merde in France gives an excerpt from French journalist Mathieu Lindon’s column on French attitudes toward the American soldiers in Iraq:

We are very interested in American deaths in Iraq. If we were as passionate about our own elderly, we would have had fewer victims. If the Americans are as moved by our deaths as we are by their deaths, they’ll soon make a landing in France to stop the massacre. It’s just that, and we will never admit it, every American soldier killed in Iraq causes, if not happiness, at least a certain satisfaction.
…
It’s not really Iraq that interests us, but the Americans and what they are doing over there and what they are suffering through. It’s as if France wanted to be, not a new State of the Union (we are too independant), not the President of the United States (we would have to take action), but the Supreme Court of the United States. All of France could then take part in referendums to say what is good and what is bad.

We always knew it, but it is nice to have it out in the open now.