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hermionesviolinEveryone is mocking this, a sign that our government is childish and all that, but honestly, we did similar things opposing Germany during WWII. (Do i think it’s silly and that no one is going to pay any attention except to mock it? Of course. It may turn out to be a hoax even -- or perhaps not -- just as this may turn out to be untrue. But i find examining people’s reactions and the underlying stories just as, if not more, interesting as the actual stories.) Steven Den Beste writes about his longstanding worry about the French. I’m just really annoyed that the French seem to be taking the “U.S. war on Iraq is never okay,” saying they will veto a UN resolution regardless. What’s up with that? I understand pacifists saying “war is never okay,” but if you’re a government, you recognize that war is sometimes necessary, and saying “we will veto a new resolution no matter what,” really who’s being petty now? [And yes, i apologize for not having at my fingertips any direct links to the French statements.]
Yeah, okay, so no one thinks this is a good idea. I think i get so weary of knee-jerk “America sucks, the government sucks, etc.” that my knee-jerk response is then to play Devil’s Advocate (not that my reaction isn’t always to play Devil’s Advocate ;) ). Or you could argue that conservatives have eaten my brain, but we’re not gonna talk about how i’m “not thinking.” (This is me glaring and remembering not to be bitter and passive-aggressive.)
Oh, and the newest topic in the blogosphere is torture, and i’ll say right now that i’m skipping the posts ‘cause i say torture is never good. I have a hard enough time with justifying killing. (This is the part where if i were gonna get all defensive i would say, “See, i can draw lines, take a stand on moral principles.”)
I shouldn’t be posting entries that profess to be thoughtful this late, huh?
[edited to add that i can see why people could be seriously worried about the implications of this]
Yeah, okay, so no one thinks this is a good idea. I think i get so weary of knee-jerk “America sucks, the government sucks, etc.” that my knee-jerk response is then to play Devil’s Advocate (not that my reaction isn’t always to play Devil’s Advocate ;) ). Or you could argue that conservatives have eaten my brain, but we’re not gonna talk about how i’m “not thinking.” (This is me glaring and remembering not to be bitter and passive-aggressive.)
Oh, and the newest topic in the blogosphere is torture, and i’ll say right now that i’m skipping the posts ‘cause i say torture is never good. I have a hard enough time with justifying killing. (This is the part where if i were gonna get all defensive i would say, “See, i can draw lines, take a stand on moral principles.”)
I shouldn’t be posting entries that profess to be thoughtful this late, huh?
[edited to add that i can see why people could be seriously worried about the implications of this]
no subject
Date: 2003-03-11 09:40 pm (UTC)As far as I'm concerned, it was bad then and it's bad now. It actually isn't just silly in my eyes--it scares me. It's difficult for me to explain why, but it gives me the *chills* that the government would do this. The American attitude towards France right now bothers me, period, even ignoring my own opinion about the war (We're planning on attacking a country. Fine--well, not really, but for this explanation--but are they suddenly evil for not wanting to join in? So evil, in fact, that we have to change the names of food so that we no longer connect things we commonly eat to them? Renaming french fries "freedom fries" seems to me to suggest that the French are anti-freedom.)
I understand pacifists saying “war is never okay,”
Mmmm . . . thanks. On behalf of pacifists, I appreciate that acknowledgement.
I have a hard enough time with justifying killing.
Well, I should hope so.
I shouldn’t be posting entries that profess to be thoughtful this late, huh?
*laughs* Actually, you do it much better than most. *patpat*
"Silly, petty, and undignified" but not dangerous
Date: 2003-03-12 06:34 am (UTC)I think Eugene Volokh puts it best:
http://volokh.blogspot.com/2003_03_09_volokh_archive.html#90542086
HOLD THE FREEDOM FRIES: Slate's Chatterbox quite rightly condemns the decision by Congressman Bob Ney -- who's apparently in charge of such things -- to replace "french fries" and "french toast" with "freedom fries" and "freedom toast" at House cafeterias. The original talk of this sort of renaming was mildly amusing -- part joke, part pugnaciousness. If some restaurant wants to do this, either as a gesture of self-expression or as a publicity stunt, then that's fine.
But when it's done by the House of Representatives, it just seems to me to be silly, petty, and undignified. The French derive no glory from the names "french fries" or "french toast"; it's no skin off their ass to deny this name to them. (Many a Frenchman would probably say "Fine by us -- we want no part of your parodies of real food.") It just seems like empty bluster, a completely unsubstantive response to a substantive question. Yes, I know, Congress does precisely this often enough. It just shouldn't.
UPDATE: Eric Muller correctly points out that "The French do not call french toast french toast, and they don't call french fries french fries. And most Frenchmen wouldn't even know that Americans call those foods that." Of course they don't -- they call french fries "pommes frites," and while I don't know what they call french toast, I'd be amazed that they'd label it with their country's name. After all, what's your own is normal; it doesn't need a special description. (American Cheese is a rare exception.) My point is simply that if the Frenchmen did know that we call pommes frites "french fries" (and I suspect that most Frenchmen who have visited the U.S. have noticed this), they don't think "Wow, we're so glad the Americans honor us this way, and we'd be really upset if they renamed them freedom fries in order to spite us."
RAS