olivier in france

basically he planned to get out of there as fast as possible... (he had met De Gaulle in Paris during the campaign, hoping the General could play a role in coming negociations with the VietCong , L Johnson who had not yet said he was not running again -and was not planning for peace at all- was terribly angry about that freelance trip to France )

In fact looking at your signatures i think the ones calling you a hippie made a classic confusion! you're a beatnik not a hippie!

absolutely!

Here it's V-Day (may 8th the european front V-Day) that is a non working day but i think D-Day as an off day 'd be a better way to remember those times...

i had tried to discuss that on the PPP forum earlier this week without much success... http://www.stadiumwall.com/index.php?showtopic=66773

De Gaulle in captivity? i think you have missed a few history lessons Crayonz! While in fact a few friends of mine 'd consider passing 4 years in England as being in captivity...

In fact i think Charles De Gaulle has invented that sign during WW2...

Case closed ! You were right!! Too bad such a talent was owned by such a sad character...

No but my point is the tolerance of our countries toward things like racism, sexuality, profanity, violence can be significantly different simply because even if we share lot of common values we have not exactly the sames in the same order of importance. But i don't think that does make one country more respectful of freedom than the other as you suggested... Total freedom is utopy (or anarchy...) but european and north American countries are the most generous in the world in that field anyway... to be frank the country i know where i feel Freedom in all its forms is at the highest level is Spain.

i did not see it but are you sure it was a "2" and not a "V " for victory?

So what? (and it's not totally true as a lot of cable channels do censor profanity and sexuality in the US, and a lot of DVDs and CDS are sold censored in the US...) The same on our side... Public racial slurs in France are illegal but you hear them everywhere anyway...

well you can change "french" in my post with "european", it will still be true...

It's the old debate: should we tolerate intolerance because we are tolerant ? France don't and i don't. You do. I don't say you're right or wrong, your opinion is as moral as mine. In some cases i think France goes too far and alter too much Freedom of Speech, in some cases i think the US goes too far and tolerate criminal and intolerable speeches in the name of Freedom of speech. I think everybody has its own set of values and 'd like the legal limit to be there... The same with profanity, sexuality (in those cases France is maybe too tolerant and the US not enough...) or violence...

And don't forget the first world championship ever played in N America (and so on small rinks) has been won by... the Russians!

yeah right... from what i've seen the Red Wings clock works fine...

What really surprise me here is that the US have kept all those waterways in the public sector. With so many thing private in the US it's a little surprising for me. I had not thought about it but we worked in the same field for a while: During my junior and senior years in college i worked part time at the Compagnie Nationale du Rhone HQs in Lyon. This is the public company that manage all the infrastructures on the Rhone bassin. (was working for their environmental division finding new markets for their production excess of wild plants seeds that they produced themselves to revegetalize the river banks after works...)

Too bad they forget land roads in that 1787 ordinance, that'd have made interstate tolls unconstitutional!

Privatise that canal system, let the chinese buy it, restore it and make money out of it!

Check points in the streets? Did not know DC was in Irak...

did not know the middle east was in the "free world"! well you want to compare? If you want to find american music without "bips" in half the songs i can give you internet adresses of french based sites that will be proud to supply you with uncensored recordings... oh and i got news for you: live shows on French TV are actually shown LIVE not delayed a few seconds to protect sensitive ears with more "bips" like in an other country i know...

A month ago some experts here explained me how teams full of euros always fail in the Playoffs. Well the Wings are the first team to win the Stanley Cup with more europeans (14) in their roster than canadians (13) ...

In the Voltaire "best of" i prefer this one : "lot of errors are born from the abuse of a truth" and your citation has been abused a lot to cover things i do not find acceptable.

Other than racism i don't know any other limits to freedom of speech in France ... And don't tell me there is no limitation of freedom of speech in the US, for everything that is even softly linked to sex you have the greatest censors of the free World! Each country put its limts where it wants to... 99% of Frenchmen me included will never understand how in the US it's perfectly legal to insult a race on TV and a national scandal to show half a breast... is that post "combative" and "pretentious" enough??!! Because i can do even "frencher"!

well if you think that not being able to insult publicly people because of their race is a good and enough reason to emigrate to an other country you have some curious values... i could easily find a thousand better reasons to emigrate from here...

man time to act like a true blue american consumer! Sue them!! i'm sure it was not written on the bag "take the hamburger out of the bag before warming it"