"the dignity of the republic and its symbols"

My prediction is that the silence from the same lefties who criticize the US government for allowing students to say the Pledge of Allegiance in school will be deafening.

 

Hmmm. Of course, you could just view this as yet another nail in the coffin of the idea that you're all that different to France ...

 

Time to prove you wrong: I think it's appalling, pathetic, jingoistic garbage. But I'm not a French citizen, so there's not much I can do about it, now, is there?

 

How quickly they forget. When it's convenient for them, of course.

I seem to recall a furor over flag burning here, featuring various national politicians lining up to pontificate on the sacredness of the flag and tripping over each other to pass laws making burning it, stepping on it, or looking at it funny illegal.

Anyway, you all seem to have missed a term in the article:

"Mr. Sarkozy was described as an 'excellent' or 'good' right-wing presidential candidate by 50% of those polled for a survey published in the weekly Le Point magazine."

Who did they poll to choose who people thought of as a good right wing candidate? I also wonder who people chose as a good left wing candidate or if such a survey was ever done.

 

What in the world are you smoking? You think because he is French that "liberals" will give him a free pass??? As someone else pointed out, if he were in America, he'd be right there next to Rumsfeldand Ashcroft in line for abuse from the left. And deservedly so. As it stands, there isn't much we can do about it, except to make sure Bush doesn't get re-elected in 2004, and whoever takes his place makes it clear to France that we would not be happy if that nut came to power.

 

My obsession with Bridget Bardot prohibits me from every criticising anything french, even fascist french.

 

Like you'd throw her out of bed for eating brie....

 

well, my google search was:

bridget bardot any picture even one that some people would think is ugly

 

If you're looking at her teeth, you're either a dentist or there's something wrong with you...

 

"Was that you whistling ohhhhmaaaahn?"

 

This post has such a serious spin that you just struck out Barry Bonds. No one is against "allowing" "students" to say the Pledge. They are against school administrations mandating it.

 

The hottest thing to ever grace a Parisian screen.

 

yet further evidence that Axis Alex has no understanding of politics in foreign countries. hint, Chirac is a member of the conservative party in France. This guy is that party's response to the strong showing of the National Front candidate in the last presidential election.

another hint for you, Blair is the leader of the Labour Party in the UK. That's the one on the left (center left now) of the UK political system.

 

In France the punishment is basically a misdemeanor. The law hasn't actually been invoked in France since De Gaulle left office, but there was a story about someone being arrested in 1954, I think, for yelling "hoo hoo" at his motorcade as it passed during a parade (in France, that is an insult -- I believe it's mimicking the sound of a goat).

The fact that these so-called "insult laws" (in Spanish speaking countries they are known as "desacato") exist in more modern nations such as France are a continuing problem even if they are not enforced. They serve as an example to their former colonial republics who base their laws on their former masters. For instance, countries such as Senegal will point to France's law as justification for its own similar law. And then Senegal, which has nowhere near the same protections for freedom of expression or the press, will actually enforce that law, often only selectively. The laws may prohibit insult of anything from just the head of state, to the criticism of other officials, official symbols or the state itself.

The comparison to libel laws makes it easy to explain these horrid insult laws but it's not quite the same. First, many libel laws are civil in nature only, not criminal. Second, and more importantly, even when a country has criminal defamation on its books, there are minute differences. The most important is that usually truth is a defense in a criminal defamation prosecution -- if the statement is true, it's not defamatory (except in the US, where truth has to be proven by the plaintiff) However, insult laws prohibit even truthful statements that would tend to injure the official's reputation.

In the US, prohibition of flag burning was indeed the closest thing we've ever had to this type of law (unless you count the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 or the Espionage Act of 1919, but both were before the "modern" era of First Amendment rights). And, of course, these laws were declared unconstitutional in two different cases in 1989 and 1990.

It's really sad that we're trying to bring back the prohibition of flag burning with repeated attempts at a constitutional amendment when there are actual attempts in other countries to eradicate their insult laws, which is the actual step in the right direction.

 

Let's go with french bashing.

Being her corsican (so cousin) I own prelation rights.

 

Next to her: