Those fucking rightwingers just do NOT fucking get it:

[Redstone]

I got the following lame, moronic e-mail from one of my (very few) Repub relatives today. I'll give you my reply (sent out to all on the mailing list) first, then the scummy, childish message itself:

------------------------

My reply:

I will bet ANY of you one thousand dollars that NOT ONE of those tired, stupid, nonsensical French-bashing "incidents" EVER actually happened.

I am just SO sick and tired of this pathetic right-wing bullshit. Please, PLEASE, don't anyone send me any more of this crap.

I have never been happier to be an American than I was today. If ANY of you are enough of a bitter racist that you were not proud of your country today, I do NOT want to hear from you.

Remember, I am married to a woman who is half-African. If you didn't know that before, you do now. So be advised that I will absolutely NOT tolerate even the slightest hint of racism, from ANYBODY, family or not, in any form.

PS: My wife is half-French as well. So no more.
--------------------------------------

The pathetic message:

> You could have heard a pin drop When in England, at a
> fairly large conference, Condi Rice was asked by the
> Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an
> example of empire building' by George Bush. She answered
> by saying, 'Over the years, the United States has sent
> many of its fine young men and women into great peril to
> fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of
> land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury
> those that did not return.' You could have heard a pin
> drop. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There was a
> conference in France where a number of international
> engineers were taking part, including French and American.
> During a break, one of the French engineers came back into
> the room saying 'Have you heard the latest dumb stunt
> Bush has done? He has sent an aircraft carrier to Indonesia
> to help the tsunami victims. What does he intended to do,
> bomb them?' A Boeing engineer stood up and replied
> quietly: 'Our carriers have three hospitals on board
> that can treat several hundred people; they are nuclear
> powered and can supply emergency electrical power to shore
> facilities; they have three cafeterias with the capacity to
> feed 3,000 people three meals a day, they can produce
> several thousand gallons of fresh water from sea water each
> day, and they carry half a dozen helicopters for use in
> transporting victims and injured to and from their flight
> deck. We have eleven such ships; how many does France
> have?' You could have heard a pin drop.
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A U.S. Navy Admiral was
> attending a naval conference that included Admirals from the
> U.S., English, Canadian, Australian and French Navies. At a
> cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a large
> group of Officers that included personnel from most of those
> countries. Everyone was chatting away in English as they
> sipped their drinks but a French admiral suddenly complained
> that, whereas Europeans learn many languages, Americans
> learn only English.' He then asked, 'Why is it that
> we always have to speak English in these conferences rather
> than speaking French?' Without hesitating, the American
> Admiral replied 'Maybe it's because the Brits,
> Canadians, Aussies and Americans arranged it so you
> wouldn't have to speak German.' You could have heard
> a pin drop. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ AND THIS
> STORY FITS RIGHT IN WITH THE ABOVE... Robert Whiting, an
> elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane. At
> French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport
> in his carry on. 'You have been to France before,
> monsieur?' the customs officer asked sarcastically. Mr.
> Whiting admitted that he had been to France previously. Then
> you should know enough to have your passport ready.' The
> American said, ''The last time I was here, I
> didn't have to show it. 'Impossible. Americans
> always have to show your passports on arrival in
> France!' The American senior gave the Frenchman a long
> hard look. Then he quietly explained, ''Well, when I
> came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in 1944 to help liberate
> this country, I couldn't find a single Frenchmen to show
> a passport to.' You could have heard a pin drop. If you
> are proud, pass this on! If not delete it.
-----------------------------------

They just will NOT ever get it, will they?

Redstone

[Tangerine LaBamba]

1. I don't understand

What was the point of those idiotic stories? I seriously doubt that any of them ever really happened.

So, what was it? Am I so thick I'm missing the obvious - that they were somehow supposed to show that Fuckface was a great President?

I'm really bad with stupid.

I give up.

In any event, I like your response. Well done.

:toast:

[Redstone]

4. Thank you. I just do NOT understand how anyone can't think of anything better to do

that to trot out that lame, tired French-bashing yet again.

Redstone

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. These things always have the same weird vibe to them. The only

twist here is the "pin drop" instead of spontaneous applause by the on-lookers or restaurant patrons, or plane passengers.

[Redstone]

6. Yes, indeed. They're ALL lame, and anyone who believes any of them is an imbecile.

Redstone

[Terran]

3. Condie sure as hell never said that.

She lacks the wit to make a comeback like that.

[catnhatnh]

5. I sometimes think when I see these right wing fantasies...

..."Well, Reagan is dead but at least he still writes....."

[Johonny]

7. only amount of land we have ever asked for in return

is California, New Mexico and Arizona. The land we didn't give up after the Spanish American war. Not to all mention all the land we acquired in Japan, Germany and the South Pacific following WWII. The stories only seem to prove how stupid Republicans are about history.

[Redstone]

21. Cuba by proxy, Puerto Rico...the list goes on and on.

Redstone

[Ikonoklast]

8. Made-up bullshit stories.

They don't even know the current state of the French Navy.

The Clemenceau.




The nuclear aircfraft carrier Charles DeGaulle





The French would have responded that they currently had one of the most technologically advanced nuclear-powered aircraft carriers on this planet, at that time.

[Redstone]

9. Yeah, how about that. Not that the rightwing shitheels would bother to CHECK

a fact, or anything.

Redstone

[Ikonoklast]

13. Try to insult a Frenchman to his face about his countries military capabilities.

Then you better duck.


Without the French military and economic assistance in our Revolution, we would still be subjects of the British crown.

These freeper fools are ignorant of history.


And any GI returning to the shores of Normandy is treated with great respect, and courtesy.

I've seen it firsthand. They haven't forgotten. T

And we have never, ever as a country even come close to what France suffered in the First World War.

The percentage of men lost by the French, if IIRC, would have translated to thirty MILLION American casualties if our population was the same.

[Redstone]

18. They're good goddamn soldiers, that's for sure.

Redstone

[gratuitous]

12. The French might also have responded

"You know, while you're congratulating yourselves (and please don't hurt your arm patting your own backs) about being so good and American and all, I'd like to remind you that before the U.S. jumped in at the end of World War I, we French lost over 1.5 million soldiers and citizens in the most appalling warfare the world had ever seen. And 20 years later, we went through it all again because the United States didn't have the nerve to follow through on its promises at the end of that war. You lost less than 3,000 in one day, and went batshit crazy, invading other countries, bombing innocent civilians and murdering uncounted thousands who couldn't fight back, couldn't get away, and had never done anything to you."

[Posteritatis]

36. The first and third "happened" but they're both incredibly embellished

One took a fairly innocuous exchange and turned it into a let's-bash-the-French thing (the "asked no more land than" one), and I'm pretty sure the other one was intended as a gag or was shutting up one snotty officer instead of the entire French population. The originals just don't make interesting bigot stories, so they tried to forget about those.

It's better than a lot of these email forwards, but it's still bullshittastic, of course.

One of these days I'm going to understand the pathology the American right seems to have about the French in particular and Europe in general.. oy.

[mitchum]

10. I think Paul Harvey or maybe Red Skelton wrote all of those back in the 50s

[Redstone]

11. Or someone else with significant brain damage.

Redstone

[brooklynite]

14. Ask your relative...

why he/she's disparaging the French troops who are fighting and dying next to American forces in Afghanistan.

[Redstone]

17. Damn, I wish I had thought of that.

Redstone

[lumberjack_jeff]

15. And what was their response?

You could have heard a pin drop, no doubt.

[Redstone]

16. You sure could have. Not a peep.

Redstone

[Ilsa]

19. On the first story, it was not Rice, but Colin Powell who said that

the ArchBishop: http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/powell.asp

I can't find any of the others on Snopes. The last one is just a rude comment. The French had a resistance underground. Whiting could have said, "Not since D-Day," or any other event he was referencing.

[Redstone]

20. Ah, but he didn't ACTUALLY say that. Thanks for the research, though.

Redstone

[Batgirl]

22. If the wingnuts insist on cluttering the intertubes with urban legends couldn't they at least

put something interesting in there? Couldn't one of the fictional characters just one time have a hook for a hand?

Oh, well. These Portraits in Fake Conservative Heroism must serve as some a sort of tattered but comforting binky to the non reality-based community.

[Redstone]

23. "...(a) tattered but comforting binky..." Just absolutely perfect. Thank you.

Redstone

[Redstone]

24. One thousand, six hundred and sixty returns on a Google search for

"a French admiral suddenly complained"

How fucking stupid ARE those people?

Redstone

[Minimus]

25. Well thank goodness the French assisted us during our Revolution

from England - otherwise we might all be speaking English.

[Redstone]

26. Another thing I wish I had thought to include in my reply.

Redstone

[Manifestor_of_Light]

37. They never heard of Lafayette.

Nor did they hear of the Polish fellow who helped us in our revolution, Thaddeus Kosciusko.

Kosciusko, MS is named after him, and so is Kosciusko, TX.

[Warren DeMontague]

27. I saw a mime pretend to spit on a returning Vietnam Vet

and some guy in a beret used a baguette to light an American flag on fire.

I also heard Jerry Lewis hates the troops.

ITS TRUE! PASS IT ON! :patriot:

[Redstone]

28. Bingo!

Redstone

[Horse with no Name]

29. OH Goodie

[Redstone]

30. Horse, I don't get it; maybe you can help me: How can ANYONE be so brain-dead that

they actually

1) BELIEVE this bullshit, and

2) Think that other people are so brain-dead that they'll believe, and further, be INFLUENCED by that bullshit?

3) And, most important, what the FUCK do they hope to accomplish by spreading this bullshit around?

I just do NOT get it.

Redstone

[Horse with no Name]

31. I couldn't tell you Redstone

But I am REALLY trying to wrack my brain--I have read these same stories with different heroes...but it seemed like it was a longggg time ago. In fact, one of them sounds like the one that was going around about the guy walking into the convenience store that had a middeastern clerk and the middeastern clerk said something, etc...the story reads very much like that one.
I will tell you how I FINALLY cured my incoming spammers--I saved every single item and put them in a file.
Hundreds and hundreds of spams--including all the Nigerian scam...Viagra...free certificates at Chili's and everything...and now when some unknowing person spams me--I proceed to send this HUGE file that takes forever to download with the subject line: You showed me yours now I'll show you mine.
Needless to say, my spam problem is solved.
These people HATE. That is the only answer. They just HATE. Ronnie Raygun happened to them. I don't recall people being this socially horrid before that.
Nice response, by the way.

[Redstone]

32. Thanks, Horse. As I've said, I have never suffered for being only half-white, and although

Mrs R did suffer greatly for being half-African when she was a child, but after she moved to America, essentially nobody ever took the time to notice that she's half-African, because they were captivated by her physical beauty.

But my God, you're right; it's pure inchoate hate on the part of those people with the crippled excuses for a human soul. It would be easy to feel sorry for them if they weren't so evil to the core. Racism is a cancer that American MUST excise in order to survive.

And yes it was Saint Ronnie Rayguns who made it possible for this to happen.

Redstone

[BobTheSubgenius]

33. I have no proof, but I BELIEVE the last of those "anecdotes"...

...was - shall we say? - "adapted" from a real incident that occurred during the ceremonies commemorating the liberation of Europe several years ago. (the anniversary, that is; the actual event was more than "several years ago")

The Dutch or Belgian (can't remember which)immmigration official opened the "rope line" for the Canadian commander and men with him, allowing them to enter the country without clearing customs.

I remember this VIVIDLY from the news coverage at the time.

And, should anyone ever feel the need to slap down some freeper for keeping alive this "French cowardice" meme, you might point out that, were the French to erect a wall to commemorate their dead young men from WW1 alone, it would be 32 times as long as the Vietnam Memorial. That is a whole lot of dead "cowards."

[Redstone]

35. There would have been NO America without the French. And they and the Brits lost an entire

generation of men in World War 1.

And futhermore, thank you for pointing out the the rightwing assholes ONCE AGAIN have managed to twist a positive story into a hideous, pointless lie. Damn, are they GOOD at doing that.

Redstone

[Blue_Tires]

34. the same formulaic memes recycled again

At first I was getting disappointed as I read this...Because I know it isn't genuine RW astroturf spam without the golden-oldies "French were cowards in WWII" and "You'd all be speaking German if it wasn't for us!"

[Redstone]

38. They CANNOT resist trotting that one out, can they?

Redstone

[Horse with no Name]

39. I knew I had seen this one around

http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/p/powell-empires.htm

and look at almost 21,000 hits for this statement:

http://www.google.com/search?q=A+Boeing+engineer+stood+up+and+replied+%3E+quietly%3A+%27Our+carriers+have+three+hospitals+on+board+%3E+that+can+treat+several+hundred+people&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

[Smith_3]

40. Regardless wether these stories are true or not, the real problem here is that...

... they are trying to squeeze the very last drop out of that "WWII legacy". As I remember, these stories appeared in response to France not wanting to fight in Iraq. In other words, what they are trying to say is "hey, my grandpa helped to liberate the country of your grandpa, so now you must be part of our war of agression." Its bullshit. America now is not the same America as it was then. The world has changed. And the fact that someone has to point to "past glory" (which in this case is almost 70 years old glory, to many of us ancient history) is a sure sign that they have nothing recent and actually relevant to the current situation to say for themselves.

[mwb970]

42. The French were right about Iraq.

And the wingnuts will never forgive them for it.

[Urban Prairie]

41. Reminds me of

The Vote Obama pin-wearing waiter at a restaurant story who did not get a tip by a group of conservatives, who instead gave the money ($20 to $50 dollars) to a bum or homeless person who just happened to be camped right outside the restaurant (uh-huh) who got the money instead in order to "teach the socialist waiter" a lesson.

I read conservatives' posts of this tale on many websites during the election, and called them out on it. Their reply to save face was: "Well I could have done this, and I think I that will the next time I go out to eat".

Yeah, right, they would more likely stiff the waiter AND keep the tip for themselves.

[Redstone]

43. Thanks for another example of what punks the rightwingers are. And welcome to DU!

Redstone

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

56. I've seen this particular (waiter) story

attributed to actual people, right wing douchebags, in my area as if they had actually said or done this, after the story had appeared on the internet in many different places and forms already.

[Hugabear]

44. Simpletons, every one of them.

They just love these bullshit nationalistic stories.

[Marrah_G]

45. They never do get it

My birth mother stopped communicating after I said "Please stop sending me racist anti-arab, pro-Bush emails".

[Redstone]

48. That's how blind and sheeplike and hateful they are. They will even sacrifice FAMILY

for their twisted "beliefs."

What does THAT say about them?

Redstone

[Marrah_G]

52. It's sad and I'm sorry you are dealing with this issue.

It sucks :(

[Brewman_Jax]

46. The usual RW made-up BS

Here's one you can use: After listening to some fire-breathing neo-con spout some neo-con bullshit, I've asked, "Is that so? Then why aren't you over there in Iraq or Afghanistan fighting the bad guys so we don't have to fight them here?"

You could have heard a pin drop.


:silly:

[Redstone]

49. I've heard that pin drop every time I've said that to a rightwinger as well.

Redstone

[Union Yes]

47. They use the glorification of war to hypnotize the masses.

Fearmonger us to make us live in a state of fear until we snap to attention when they say "Obey".

FUCK the RIGHT!
Fuck them all!
Fuck everything that they stand for.

[kentauros]

50. There is something else to be said about language

and that is where our words come from. I have to wonder if any of the uneducated types ever stop to think about the origins of the words. I don't know what percentage of the English language is composed of French words, but they are there, and closer to the Republicans than they might realize.

From the Online Etymological Dictionary comes the following in reference to the word right:

The political sense of "conservative" is first recorded 1794 (adj.), 1825 (n.), a translation of Fr. Droit "the Right, Conservative Party" in the Fr. National Assembly (1789; see left).

Abbreviations: http://www.etymonline.com/abbr.php

Fr. French, Romance language spoken chiefly in France.

(emphasis mine)

:D

[The Straight Story]

51. My 'pin drop' story

An American walks into a bar and sits next to a French dude (who was drinking wine and eating a baguette of course!). He relays the email you got to the French guy.

He sits pondering for a moment and then says 'Well, at least we never elected someone like bush twice.'

The American hung his head and shame and left. The end.

[Redstone]

53. Perfection, right there.

Redstone

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

54. What kills me is that when I've debunked this

kind of crap as I'v done on neutral message boards, the spam poster is generally not even fazed. There is no shame in promoting a lie with these people.

[alphafemale]

55. kick nt

[HughBeaumont]

57. The Freeper Wis-dumb shuts them dirty LIBS up EVERtime! Series!

Just like the awesome display of patriotism by the Hanoi-Jane-hatin' veterans of Idaho eatin' at the Best Western . . . those brave men stood up to the University's DFH Perfesser contingent with their love of flag and country and embarrased them right outta the restaurant to the cheers and delight of all patrons in attendance. Why, they even sang "GOOOOOOOOOD BLESS AMERICA" together!

That's great, except for the little part about the story being a freeper faery tale.

[sodium]

58. I just went through this again

I went through this two days ago with a former friend. I knew he was a repub that I know from a completly apolitical function but seemed like a decent guy. He decided that it would be a good idea to send me pictures of lynchings, clan rallies, and white supremiscist hate crap. A sort of call to arms I suppose. I was rather stunned, and immediately set up an email filter to bounce all his into the trash. I had no idea.I was very upset over it.

Those who speak hate dont check snopes, dont source anything, and dont care what anybody else thinks; they just hate.