I can think of no greater insult to the host nation - that their soil isn't fit to hold our dead.

I can think of no greater insult that we can inflict on our own dead than to use their remains as a means of making a political statement unconnected to anything they ever knew. But people insult their family members all the time. Why should it matter if they're dead?

Public opinion polls in recent months have shown a very strong anti-American sentiment in the French population, although a recent poll shows about 40% of the French hold a favorable view of America today, a big improvement over the March results.

The French have a long history of taking a dim view of other countries trying to boss them around. They also have a long history of hot tempers that cool off fast. Have they been co-operating in the pursuit of terrorists? The answer there, where it counts, is yes.

For many years, America bashing has been a popular pasttime in much of Europe but seldom a bigger pasttime than in France.

A number of years ago, Candace Bergen, who was then married to Louis Malle and living in France, appeared on The Tonight Show. Johnny Carson made a joking remark about an American living in a hostile nation, namely France. Ms. Bergen laughed and said that what Americans don't understand about the French is that they're just as beastly to everybody, especially to each other. Plus ça change, plus c’est la meme chose.

All the current antipathy indicates not that the French have changed but that American skin is getting thinner. Why is this?

After all, freedom of choice covers far more than simply abortion.

I may start to bookmark these posts, so that when you complain about repetition in others, I have a handy petard to hoist you from. Whenever anyone mentions freedom of choice, and sometimes when you bring it up yourself, some incarnation of this phrase emerges. You are so fond of it: did you get it for Christmas?

In an era when businesses are international, it will take a tried and true fanatic to locate products that are French, genuinely French, and only French, in order to boycott them. Is that brie made with milk from cows that ate American grain? Where were the parts for that Renault manufactured? Shall we not use the portion of electricity generated from uranium enriched in France?

Regards--
Mary Anne