Odd that Muslims are even in France, which has always held the persona of decadence to me. From the wine, women and tasty treats Amy has pictures of - I'm not getting why a rigid Muslim culture would even want to be around such hedonism. From the destruction that happened there it would seem envy is quite a motivator or should I be PR and say economic strife. Being a white male, I don't see any advantages for me over anyone else trying to make a dollar. Scholarships. Nope. Wealthy family ties. Not in my bloodline. Government support. Yeah, right. I had the misfortune of being born in hillbilly heaven WV, so I know a bit about economic strife and have been discriminated against by many different types because of my varied interests, yet I can still manage to control my impulse to threaten, burn and pillage because I got on with living - instead of living to blame.

The French would never sell Victoria's Secrets nor would they burn someone's car. You're supposed to go to France to learn how to smoke. Did you manage that? If not then you were wasting your time, next time why don't you visit a nice atheist country so that you might at least find some solid moral support. Instead, it appears that you have solidified your status as a hand puppet for your childhood friends. Whose side are you on anyway?

I see you didn't get the joke. I buy bras in France, because they are beautiful, even in large sizes, and actually do something for a girl who doesn't have fake breasts (meaning, I need actual bra-age). I'm well-aware that Victoria's Secret does not exist there. Like, duh!

I see you also don't get it about France at all. The French have more separation of church and state than we do in the states, called Laïcité.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La%C3%AFcit%C3%A9

"Solidified (my) status as a handpuppet for (my) childhood friends"?

Huh? Have you been eating funny mushrooms? Or do you just need to have the "asshole" squeezed out of you in the way somebody would squeeze a big, pus-filled zit?

FYI, I had no friends as a child.

Whose "side" am I on? Lighten up. I love Paris, and enjoy much about France and the French, and find it interesting to do a comprehensive personal study of another culture, and I bring back a lot that I use in my column.

http://www.advicegoddess.com/ag-column-archives/2007/12/look_before_you.html

For example from that column:

But, children can be such finicky eaters! Correction: American children can be such finicky eaters, because their parents tend to confuse parenting with working room service at a five-star hotel. In France, on the other hand, the kids' meal is whatever the parents are eating; brains, livers, kidneys and all. And while the kids can pick out bits they don't like, their choice is clear: eat or starve.

I was thinking of the following comment you made:

"...my friends who grew up Catholic, and kids I went to temple with when I was growing up, all actually were allowed to grow up."

It is more cunning to "allow" a non-believer to grow up under control. That non-believer is then a tool that can used to locate others of their kind so that they may be "dealt with". I would prefer solitude to being a tool that is used against strangers who share an alternative view of the world.

The idea behind western freedom is that you aren't "allowed" to grow up... it is your immutable right to do so.

That is quite possibly the most incomprehensible comment I've ever read, Lurker.

"...my friends who grew up Catholic, and kids I went to temple with when I was growing up, all actually were allowed to grow up."

Uh, these are friends who grew up Catholic, but not with me.

You put a lot of words together, but, to second Jordan...huh? None of this makes any sense. Do you just choose random nouns and verbs and articles and put them together in sentences for the hell of it? Because if you have a point, do make it.

I thought Temple was a Catholic school? What do you not understand about the last sentence of my initial comment?

Are you confused about what freedom means? I will presently return to lurking lest my moniker be ruined.

I wrote "temple," not "Temple."

Your entire comment was incomprehensible. The notions in your sentences don't make sense as references to each other. Freedom and western ideas about growing up, etc.

Speaking of English Queens who keep secrets, *Drudge* reports that the red spud Harry has been in Afghanistan for three months. All those famously pissy and independent Fleet Streeters sat on this because the Royals wanted them to.

I need a brit to slap around. Where's Tressider?

Good for Drudge.

Your entire comment was incomprehensible.

I thought so too, but didn't want to be the only one to say so! o_O

Like the red spud Harry, I'm right there at the front lines with my bitch on.

Amy, dear, you've taken the bait of a troll again. Why on earth do you do that? Lurker appears to be one of those people who, while writing perfectly decent English, seems to be speaking an entirely different language. Know what I mean? As if his words map to completely different meanings. IOW, he seems to have a screw loose, but you still take his bait. I don't understand why you let trolls get a rise out of you. But this one is really beneath you, Sweetie.

Ok, Lurker, you've garnered your few moments of attention, now shoo. We've got better things to talk about here.

I've just seen the Telegraph - a fairly respectable paper in the UK - reporting on Harry at war. It's a load of rubbish, detailing how he eats his cornflakes, laces his boots, etc. The only reason it occupies the first three pages is because of his royal connections. It is nothing but an extreme cult of celebrity. Crid, I thought you would be even less of a royalist than I am. Why do you want this trivia reported at all?

All that Drudge has done is destroy a moment's peace and quiet for no good reason.

The first victims of monarchy are the monarchs. Then the rest of us get screwed.

PS Slap away!

Well, now that the news is all over the freakin' place, seems that he's been yanked (you should please pardon the pun) from the front lines. Can't have the royals being shot at, you know. Well, at least not by lowlifes. o_O

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23403696/

PS - *slaps Norman*

PPS - *stomps on Crid's left foot* (just so he won't feel left out) o_O

Speaking of the Rue de la Lingerie sign,
I paid $105.91 for a single, very small pair of Kenzo knickers in France over Christmas (70 euros). The bag was also very pretty, though.

And speaking of the royal spud, Princess Di's half brother deliberately blind dated me with his best friend because he thought we should be married. He was right and we did (Johnny was from the rebel branch of that ridiculous tribe & thus had all the fun).But I can happily slap myself for that, thanks all the same Crid.

And you call yourselves Americans...

There's nothing special about royalty that isn't actually just stupidity floating in the heads of its subjects. There's no reason for the average Brit to have less, or more informations about Harry's service than any other soldiers', including that guy who was washing dishes last summer but is a sharpshooter today.

Is Britain at war, or isn't it?

"There's nothing special about royalty that isn't actually just stupidity floating in the heads of its subjects."

Stupidity with tradition - hence the traction.

Well, yeah... I mean, sure, but....

I'm really, really grateful to Prince Harry for going to do this. By hook or by crook (and I think it's the worst of each), he has special exemplary powers to the people of Great Britain. Afghanistan's a part of the word that decency & dignity never made much time for, and so the rich western world has to go in and mop it up. He killed people there. They were bad people, but it still means he has to sleep with a nightmare that I don't have to sleep with. So there's that.

But I'm grateful to *everyone* who went there to fight. And in a better world, they'd all be men (and a few women) to worry for. The fact that they aren't is Britain's problem... not mine or Drudge's.

In an ancillary but genuine way, the boy went to fight for modernity, which will put people like himself out of business.

Props

In an ancillary but genuine way, the boy went to fight for modernity, which will put people like himself out of business.

Props

And props to you for that comment, Crid. Nicely judged.

As a writer and blogger of course you're guessing

" which I'm guessing you'll find in the Parisian suburbs."

I don't think you've ever stayed in a French suburb on any of your visits or in Strasbourg during New Years.


The link to an article from 2005 is scream. "Boulevard Of Burning Cars" and that's actually the very best you can do?