Post by: nico on July 07, 2007, 02:53:27 PM
And intellectuals and media elites in France are ripping newly-elected president Nicolas Sarkozy for a practice they find unacceptable jogging.
The Australian newspaper reports critics see Sarkozy's passion for running as un-French, right-wing and even a ploy to brainwash his citizens.
One celebrated philosopher begged Sarkozy to take up walking and abandon what he called his "undignified" pursuit.
A sports sociologist notes that French intellectuals have always held jogging in contempt and associated it with totalitarian regimes that emphasize physical fitness.
The editor of a sports magazine says "Jogging is, of course, about performance and individualism, values that are traditionally ascribed to the right."
And a media critic claims Sarkozy uses what he calls "hypnotic" daily images of the president running as "a major weapon of media manipulation."
(We need a "WTF" smiley)
Post by: Mabs2 on July 07, 2007, 03:46:37 PM
GOD NO
PERFORMANCE
GADS
MANIPULATION
SOCK LE BLOO
THE FRENCH
DIAF
Post by: K Frame on July 07, 2007, 04:22:30 PM
Post by: Fly320s on July 07, 2007, 04:37:42 PM
Cheese-eating?
Post by: K Frame on July 07, 2007, 04:43:28 PM
White flag waving
The hop, skip, and hands up
Post by: Perd Hapley on July 07, 2007, 05:50:18 PM
MANIPULATION
SOCK LE BLOO
SOCK LE BLOO
Sock le what?
Post by: Warbow on July 07, 2007, 06:13:11 PM
Attributing thoughts and criticisms of these kinds to everyone of a country as a whole is just stupid.
Post by: Mabs2 on July 07, 2007, 07:21:34 PM
Bloo! The color bloo!
Post by: K Frame on July 07, 2007, 07:53:13 PM
Sacre bleu...
Ze zilly American doezen't understand ze sport de Bashing le Frog...
Post by: Mabs2 on July 07, 2007, 08:03:30 PM
Well, zen, take a nap...ZEN FIRE ZE MISSELZ
Post by: Warbow on July 07, 2007, 08:51:38 PM
"Attributing thoughts and criticisms of these kinds to everyone of a country as a whole is just stupid."
Sacre bleu...
Ze zilly American doezen't understand ze sport de Bashing le Frog...
Sacre bleu...
Ze zilly American doezen't understand ze sport de Bashing le Frog...
I don't -- it seems pretty ridiculous to me.
The "white flag" jokes became
after the 500th time. Seriously, how unoriginal can you get?Oh, wait... For sale, one French rifle. Never fired, dropped once.
Oh, man, that's clever. Surely no one has told that one before.
Post by: Fly320s on July 08, 2007, 01:46:57 AM
We are always ready for new ways to ridicule the French. Or Canadians. Even Germans.
Post by: Ron on July 08, 2007, 04:02:20 AM
That article reads like something out of the Onion, I followed the link just to be sure.
Post by: Jamisjockey on July 08, 2007, 04:14:27 AM
The 100 yard surrender
White flag waving
The hop, skip, and hands up
White flag waving
The hop, skip, and hands up
You forgot the 25 yard rifle toss, and the yellow-belly-roll-over-and-get-pumped-by-germans....
Post by: Rudy Kohn on July 08, 2007, 04:25:16 AM
Oh, wait... For sale, one French rifle. Never fired, dropped once.
Actually, I'd never heard that one before. That's pretty funny.
White flag waving
Don't be silly. If the athletes start waving white flags, what will their cheerleaders do?
More seriously, the article linked doesn't name any names or have any links to outside reports, but a quick google search yields:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/06/AR2007070602104.html?nav=hcmodule
...which has a bit more information. I'll reproduce it here, for convenience. (Not sure if putting in such a long article is a faux pas or not...)
Quote
The sight of the new French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, jogging -- often wearing his favorite NYPD T-shirt -- has fired up a tempest in a Reebok in France and Britain this summer. Sarkozy's running is an un-French, right-wing conspiracy, suggests Paris' left-wing newspaper Libération. In response, British commentators gleefully conclude: The French have lost their minds, again.
On the primary state television channel, France 2, Alain Finkielkraut, a leading French intellectual, recently demanded that Sarkozy give up his "undignified" exercise. Not only did he imply that exposing the boss's naked knees is something that never would have occurred in the time of Mitterrand, much less Louis XIV, Finkielkraut claimed strolling is the proper activity of the thinking person, from Socrates to the poet Arthur Rimbaud.
"Western civilization, in its best sense, was born with the promenade," said Finkielkraut. "Walking is a sensitive, spiritual act. Jogging is management of the body. The jogger says I am in control. It has nothing to do with meditation."
Sarkozy has fueled a French suspicion that running is for self-centered individualists like Americans, reports Charles Bremner, Paris correspondent for the Times of London.
"Patrick Mignon, a sports sociologist, noted that French intellectuals had always held sport in contempt, while totalitarian regimes cultivated physical fitness," Bremner writes.
"Jogging is of course about performance and individualism, values that are traditionally ascribed to the right," Odile Baudrier, editor of V02 magazine, a sports publication, told Libération.
The British press is having a wonderful time with all this.
"The Sarkozy jog, say his critics, is a sad imitation of the habits of American presidents, and a capitulation to 'le défi Américain' (a phrase that was the title of a book published here as 'The American Challenge') as bad as the influx of Hollywood movies," writes Boris Johnson, a British member of Parliament and confirmed jogger, in the Telegraph.
"I am not deterred . . . by the accusation that jogging is right-wing," he says. "Of course it is right-wing, in the sense that the facts of life are generally right-wing. The very act of forcing yourself to go for a run, every morning, is a highly conservative business. There is the mental effort needed to overcome your laziness.
"Charles de Gaulle . . . moved with the stately undulation of a giraffe, and never broke into so much as a trot."
Jogging is not a new affectation for Sarkozy. When he was finance minister, visiting Washington for meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, he found it congenial to jog around the Mall, a French Embassy spokeswoman says. Former French ambassador to the United States (and recently named an adviser to Sarkozy) Jean-David Levitte does not indulge, however. Levitte "has a lot of things to do. He is on the run intellectually," she says.
Meanwhile, the readers of British press Web sites are piling on. "No decent conservative would dream of jogging. It's a vulgar, untraditional form of self-advertisement that might frighten the horses. What's wrong with croquet?" posted Ian Morrison on the Telegraph Web site. "Had it been a spot of extracurricular horizontal jogging instead, je pense que ze political classe wouldn't have batted an eye," posted Nixon McVicar.
In the heyday of vaudeville, there was a routine that had one woman complaining about the food at a Catskills resort. "It's terrible," she says. "Yes," agrees her friend, "and the portions are so small."
Just so, not only is Sarkozy's running being criticized, so is his style.
Renaud Longuèvre, a noted coach, tells L'Equipe magazine that Sarkozy's arms hang down, he bends too far forward, his stride is bad and his feet strike the ground incorrectly, Bremner reports. The coach advised the president to get his feet checked, strengthen his abdominal and posterior muscles and to "check your diet because it seems you are carrying a slight excess in weight."
On the primary state television channel, France 2, Alain Finkielkraut, a leading French intellectual, recently demanded that Sarkozy give up his "undignified" exercise. Not only did he imply that exposing the boss's naked knees is something that never would have occurred in the time of Mitterrand, much less Louis XIV, Finkielkraut claimed strolling is the proper activity of the thinking person, from Socrates to the poet Arthur Rimbaud.
"Western civilization, in its best sense, was born with the promenade," said Finkielkraut. "Walking is a sensitive, spiritual act. Jogging is management of the body. The jogger says I am in control. It has nothing to do with meditation."
Sarkozy has fueled a French suspicion that running is for self-centered individualists like Americans, reports Charles Bremner, Paris correspondent for the Times of London.
"Patrick Mignon, a sports sociologist, noted that French intellectuals had always held sport in contempt, while totalitarian regimes cultivated physical fitness," Bremner writes.
"Jogging is of course about performance and individualism, values that are traditionally ascribed to the right," Odile Baudrier, editor of V02 magazine, a sports publication, told Libération.
The British press is having a wonderful time with all this.
"The Sarkozy jog, say his critics, is a sad imitation of the habits of American presidents, and a capitulation to 'le défi Américain' (a phrase that was the title of a book published here as 'The American Challenge') as bad as the influx of Hollywood movies," writes Boris Johnson, a British member of Parliament and confirmed jogger, in the Telegraph.
"I am not deterred . . . by the accusation that jogging is right-wing," he says. "Of course it is right-wing, in the sense that the facts of life are generally right-wing. The very act of forcing yourself to go for a run, every morning, is a highly conservative business. There is the mental effort needed to overcome your laziness.
"Charles de Gaulle . . . moved with the stately undulation of a giraffe, and never broke into so much as a trot."
Jogging is not a new affectation for Sarkozy. When he was finance minister, visiting Washington for meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, he found it congenial to jog around the Mall, a French Embassy spokeswoman says. Former French ambassador to the United States (and recently named an adviser to Sarkozy) Jean-David Levitte does not indulge, however. Levitte "has a lot of things to do. He is on the run intellectually," she says.
Meanwhile, the readers of British press Web sites are piling on. "No decent conservative would dream of jogging. It's a vulgar, untraditional form of self-advertisement that might frighten the horses. What's wrong with croquet?" posted Ian Morrison on the Telegraph Web site. "Had it been a spot of extracurricular horizontal jogging instead, je pense que ze political classe wouldn't have batted an eye," posted Nixon McVicar.
In the heyday of vaudeville, there was a routine that had one woman complaining about the food at a Catskills resort. "It's terrible," she says. "Yes," agrees her friend, "and the portions are so small."
Just so, not only is Sarkozy's running being criticized, so is his style.
Renaud Longuèvre, a noted coach, tells L'Equipe magazine that Sarkozy's arms hang down, he bends too far forward, his stride is bad and his feet strike the ground incorrectly, Bremner reports. The coach advised the president to get his feet checked, strengthen his abdominal and posterior muscles and to "check your diet because it seems you are carrying a slight excess in weight."
This whole fiasco is pretty funny to me. He's getting attacks from both sides, just for a healthful hobby?
I like the guy that complains that jogging isn't meditative. I agree. I think Sarkozy should take up shooting
.
Post by: K Frame on July 08, 2007, 05:24:43 AM
"Attributing thoughts and criticisms of these kinds to everyone of a country as a whole is just stupid."
Sacre bleu...
Ze zilly American doezen't understand ze sport de Bashing le Frog...
Sacre bleu...
Ze zilly American doezen't understand ze sport de Bashing le Frog...
I don't -- it seems pretty ridiculous to me.
The "white flag" jokes became
after the 500th time. Seriously, how unoriginal can you get?Oh, wait... For sale, one French rifle. Never fired, dropped once.
Oh, man, that's clever. Surely no one has told that one before.
Waah waah waah.
You sound like a... Frenchman.
There, that's new.
Post by: K Frame on July 08, 2007, 05:27:37 AM
It's pretty hard to tell the athletes from the cheerleaders. They all have hairy armpits...
"I think Sarkozy should take up shooting."
Except that the puke is anti-gun.
Ultimately, why do we bash the French?
Because they make it so easy to bash them.
Post by: Strings on July 08, 2007, 05:32:12 AM
the French
They even make fun of themselves!
Post by: Antibubba on July 08, 2007, 08:42:07 AM
Quote
"Patrick Mignon, a sports sociologist, noted that French intellectuals had always held sport in contempt," Bremner writes.
Well, at least it explains their inability to win the Tour de France (unless they accuse the winner of doping, of course).
Post by: Gewehr98 on July 08, 2007, 08:42:55 AM
Q: Why did they plant trees along the Champs Elysees?
A: So the Germans could march in the shade.
Post by: Gewehr98 on July 08, 2007, 08:48:34 AM
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-14257.html
Post by: Monkeyleg on July 08, 2007, 12:10:26 PM
Post by: The Rabbi on July 08, 2007, 12:38:13 PM
They do invite this kind of thing.
In his memoirs, Wesley Clark writes about having to interface with his NATO superiors, including the French Minister of Defense. In one meeting they had been having trouble with the Serbs and Clark had a plan of operation to deal with it. When he had briefed the minister on the plan, the minister said:
"That sounds good in practice, but will it work in theory?"
He was serious.*
Why hate them? Because they are double-dealing hypocrites with delusions of grandeur. Chirac promised Bush he would not oppose sanctions against Iraq in the UN and then turned around and did exactly that. France was complicit in the Oil for Food scandal. They hate Americans and all things American, mainly because they didnt think of it first.
And yeah, see my sig line.
*(NB. This did not prevent Clark, when he was running for President, to pledge that he would work closely with our NATO allies on Iraq, unlike the administration.)
Post by: El Tejon on July 08, 2007, 03:04:24 PM
Bwahahaha. Soon all of Paris will be ours, on yoga mats and then jumping rope, bwahahaha.
Post by: Art Eatman on July 08, 2007, 04:33:31 PM
Art
Post by: K Frame on July 08, 2007, 08:46:14 PM
Given France's record of collaboration with the enemy, it makes you wonder why they couldn't get along with their supposed friends...
Post by: Bogie on July 08, 2007, 09:37:47 PM
Post by: Stand_watie on July 09, 2007, 07:10:54 AM
It's just that we're essentially English as a cultural identity, and as such we have to pretend to hate the the French.
No hard feelings intended, it's just that 30% of English "I hate those French bastards" + 20% of French "I hate those English bastards" + a polyglot of others winds up with a nice even 100% of "I hate those French bastards" democratically speaking.
Post by: Mabs2 on July 09, 2007, 07:21:32 AM
We're descendant from French and English. So we hate both.
Post by: Fly320s on July 09, 2007, 07:54:32 AM
Post by: Mabs2 on July 09, 2007, 08:00:38 AM
It's ok to like their products, just not the people.
Post by: Fly320s on July 09, 2007, 08:45:25 AM
Post by: Mabs2 on July 09, 2007, 08:51:45 AM
Post by: The Rabbi on July 09, 2007, 08:55:21 AM
Post by: HankB on July 09, 2007, 09:36:54 AM
Pretty soon, jogging will be the Parisian "in" thing . . .
. . . Ultimately, why do we bash the French? . . .
Because it's completely safe? I mean, it's not like the French will actually DO something about it, right?
Post by: K Frame on July 09, 2007, 10:00:52 AM
Post by: The Rabbi on July 09, 2007, 12:06:19 PM
Don't forget the Freedom Maid and the Freedom Tickler....
I'll be sending you a Freedom Letter on that....
Post by: K Frame on July 09, 2007, 12:09:40 PM
Post by: Mabs2 on July 09, 2007, 12:15:40 PM
Post by: Sergeant Bob on July 09, 2007, 12:37:14 PM
Stinky French dude "Parlevioux Francaise?"
Me "Uhhh, what?"
I like croissants sissy biscuits. And brie cheese.
My job has very few Freedom Benefits......
Post by: The Rabbi on July 09, 2007, 12:41:50 PM
Just don't infect it with the Freedom Disease...
As long as you refrain from any Freedom Kisses we're OK.
Post by: French G. on July 09, 2007, 07:14:16 PM
Nevermind, I forgot, the French do not run away to surrender, that would cut into their collaboration time.
Post by: K Frame on July 09, 2007, 08:04:21 PM
I guess as a moderator here I need to accept your surrender.
After all, you're French.
Post by: Silver Bullet on July 09, 2007, 08:58:54 PM
Unfortunately, as it neared completion, they discovered that it was too short for their newest airplane design that was to be carried on the ship. Their alternatives were to add to the runway length, or tug the planes back from the edge after they landed.
One of the wags on that forum suggested they should change the name of the ship to the Inspector Clouseau.
Post by: K Frame on July 10, 2007, 05:07:19 AM
Don't believe everything you read.
The French have built at least 4 air craft carriers -- Bearn, Clemenceau, Foch, and De Gaulle.
The first three had very long service lives and were quite capable.
The De Gaulle has had numerous issues, but is probably the most capable carrier in service outside of the United States.
The ship had to be modified not to handle a new French plane, but to handle the E2-C Hawkeyes that France purchased from the United States. IIRC the French were developing an air control aircraft of their own but ended up canceling the program.
There were numerous other problems with the ship, ranging from issues with the props to the reactor's extremely short core life (around 5 years, IIRC). That baffles me, as the French are probably the world's leaders in reactor technology. I guess it didn't translate to naval reactors.
Post by: Silver Bullet on July 10, 2007, 06:20:52 AM
Quote
Don't believe everything you read.
Even on FreeRepublic.com ? I used to read that site about ten years ago, but they seemed to be just talking in sound bites after a while, never saying anything interesting. Kind of like Democratic Underground, but without all the foul language.
I did get a link to The Firing Line from the freepers, though. I had been looking for a good gun site on the Internet, and at that time I hadn't found any. The previous gun site I read was CompuServe's "Outdoor" forum, where as I recall you were a moderator.
I think that's when I quit reading Free Republic; the gunnies were much more interesting and reasoned.
Post by: K Frame on July 10, 2007, 06:36:09 AM
I burned out on Freep in about 3 months.