Jeff Danziger for January 28, 2010

Now, the French DO have a good idea or two.

Well I’m waiting for my grandaughter to go to sleep and have time on my hands so I might as well throw a curve here.

I went and saw Avatar last night, 3-D works, but I don’t see where it will add anything to most movies, but, like all BIG NEW THINGS, I guess it will soon be used in all movies – I sure hope it doesn’t get used in porn, there are some things they shouldn’t be shot over the audiance heads.

But what caught my attention (it wasn’t Avatar, no plot, no story, just action in 3-D) was the previews. I lost count but there must have been over a dozen of them, most aimed at teenage boys. I can see why teenage boys mess things up so much, all of the previews showed that TO BE A MAN you had to look tough, act tough, and beat the hell out of people. The reason this bothers me is that almost all of the “heros” were military men (as will the chief bad guy in Avatar) who lead by being tough and shouting at people.

If you have been in the military you know the best leader, both in the military and in life, are like the Tom Hanks character in Saving Private Ryan, quiet, concerned, and thoughtful.

That is the kind of leadership America needs right now, I’m not saying that Obama is it, but he is better then the “You’re Either With Us Or With The Terrorist” Cheney/Bush that we had for the past 8 years.

I do have to say I like the idea of a naked girl riding a horse, I’ve been lucky a couple of times and met just such girls.

Stupid cartoon…

Pass the croissants, si vous plait.

Some women should, but not because of religion.

Lady Godiva & Joan of Arc are quite different.

yo, turnabout equality in cartoons.

Where’s the burka that covers all of a man except for that mailbox slit where his schlong is seen?

“yet the Libtards defend and coddle Islam like little girls cuddling a Barbie doll…”

Like the Repugnicans defend and cuddle their Sarah doll…

Yep them “kindly” Christians behind the Inquisition, dunking chairs, witch hunts , intended destruction of every culture they met, were real princes.

And yes, Ken, real leadership comes from inner strength and intelligence- most movie “heros” would end up quickly KIA, or fragged by their own men for stupidity.

This is appalling! What “certain cases”? There should be NO exceptions to the ban. Why would it be ok for women to be oppressed in “certain cases”? The French are capitulating to Islamic extremists again.

Not all Muslim women who wear burqas are forced into doing so. Some would no sooner appear in public without one than June Cleaver would show up topless for a PTA meeting. Standards of modesty are relative. If the ban were on Orthodox Jews keeping their heads covered, would that be justifiable? Haven’t the French also tried to ban simple head-scarves?

As a security issue, I can see the value of allowing a ban on clothing which conceals one’s identity in public, but in “certain cases” (I don’t know which cases are being referred to here) I can see that individual freedom of conscience would demand that allowances be made.

Wrong, scott. We are against the slaughter of people who had nothing to do with 9/11 except being of the same religion as the perpetrators. Should the jews kill americans because Hitler was a christian? Yet he killed way more than a mere three thousand.

My opinion; head scarves; it’s an identity symbol to some women. Is it forbidden for a muslim in the west to pray? It is not forbidden to us buddhists, hindus or jews and it shouldn’t. If it makes them look eastern, so what? Should muslim girls have to dye their hair blonde to look french? Should hassidic jews be forbidden to wear their black hats? Should sikhs be forbidden to wear turbans? Now, burqas (those that cover the face); There are only one other category of people who hide their faces like that; thieves. I doubt those women would rob a convennience store, but it just looks like they have something to hide or look down on us. Wearing a burqua is the worse social move a woman could do in a western society. You just don’t want to talk to a walking black curtain. They even hide their hands (then again, like thieves). That is like saying “Everything here is too filthy and unworthy to see my face. I’m holier than you, infidel, and too holy for this decadent country! ”

I don’t think all of them think that, but that’s the image they let us see.

So let’s loose the burqua. It’s not good either for us or for them. It sends wrong messages and creates useless tensions.

Hitler was a Christian…interesting theory, may I subscribe to your newsletter? Hitler was a member of the Thule Society, and he was insanely obsessed with the occult. But yeah, I guess that could be your definition of a Christian.

I honestly thought France was going to hold strong against the Burka issue. Yes, it is discriminatory, but it’s the right thing to do if you want to keep “France,” and I think they know it.

Well, he PRETENDED to be a christian, like most many righties. The rest of the world sees him as a christian and he was from a nation with a christian history.

I work at a big university in Canada, and there are many women there who wear various kinds of head covering, including complete covering of the face, and so far as I can see there’s no problem. You get used to it. I don’t know their reasons, but I figure that’s up to them. I believe in freedom, whenever possible.

”, but it’s the right thing to do if you want to keep “France,” ”

So France has to be discriminatory to be France? I thought they were rather proud about the whole “Liberté, égalité, fraternité” thing.

^France has its “French Supremacists” as well. Check Jean-Marie Le Pen on Wikipedia. (Long story short, he runs for president every election and gets decent votes while being an Holocaust denier.)

Hey DrC – I was born and raised in Maryland, and my father worked for Congress as a staffer. I started at a US college, but things happened, and I ended up getting my BA and MA at UofT, then my doctorate back in the US. I’ve taught both in the US and in Canada, but I got a permanent position in Toronto, and you know that in the academic world you go where the job is. I like Canada and I’m happy to be here, but somehow the US is in my blood. I asked about Canadian elections because I really don’t know exactly how the system works, I just have an outsider’s impression. It all seems much more civilized – even under Harper – than the wild west show that the US provides – which is good entertainment, so long as you don’t take it too seriously, but depressing if you care. And I do care.

Way back in the Reagan administration, when people still watched 60 Minutes and 20/20 for political comments, 60 Minutes did an hour on political ads. One of the experts said: “What you try to do is aim at the stupid people because they are the ones that are easiest to motivate and the most likely to vote.

In America campaigns are dumbed down.

OLD - I’m an American too, so whose butt are we suppose to be kicking?

Uhh…how about we start with “Commies”, Ken…if you pass that test, then we can move on to advanced American Butt-Kicking!

ONS- the “child labor laws” brought to the Americas by those “good Christians” was, for the majority of history since their arrival called-“slavery”. The death penalty is also a good old “Old Testament” punishment for many crimes, supported by many denominations based on the book, not just Islam.

The problem is not “faith” but the frauds who proclaim it as their justification.

The only Americans in Canada left long ago and came to Louisiana; the rest are a bunch of American sucking leeches from Britain. Also, you stipulating that North-Americans can also go by the name “American” brands you as an anal-retentive crybaby who also doesn’t know the facts: Canadians will never go by the name “American” and you know Mexicans won’t either.

Dear ONS – thank you for your intelligent contributions to this discussion. Your insight is matched only by your grace and wit.

ANandy said, 1 day ago Europe is already lost.

That’s why we Africans have come to its rescue.

OLD - Commies? Where are going find any to kick? Only Castro and his brother are left.

Don’t go calling the Chinese Commies, as good capitalist they would resent it, and don’t get them mad becasue they may demand their money back.

Oldnegro; How do canadian women are supposed to get cold?

Sooky Rottweiler says; Where’s Blazin B? He’s my only doggy-buddy on this site. I want to go give him a sniff someday.

ONS, LOL!

The toon is about the French and now Cajuns are AMERICANS who left Canada for Louisiana???? Obviously never been in New Brunswick to see history.

Obviously it was the Yugoslavian armada destroyed by a storm in the English Channel, and Queen Isabella commissioned a Haitian to discover the “new world”.

^They did not left willingly, they were kicked out.

And there are still many acadians in the canadian maritimes, I am one of those and so is 40 per cent of the population of New-Brunswick..

Ken Warren- you got a pretty serious Communist threat in Venezuela, anyway. Again, Commies are just for starters…

Dtroutma, you do have the lack of imagination I would expect of a lib. Think about this…more than a couple of times or it won’t sink in…the topic was, I believe (they took my post down), the supposed ambiguity of the term “American”. Since the Cajuns were thrown out of Canada ( I know this due to the research I followed sparked by our own Acadian Cor Frog and a conversation with my Dad), I posit that they were Americans in Spirit long before they became citizens. If the intellectual/ curiousity of this site does not improve soon…

Senorbullwinkle, please do keep your problem people on your side of the Pond ! We here in «lost» Europe have more than enough on our hands with our own….

Henri

sorrry there, ONS- a missing post does make a difference, yes the ambiguity of “Americans” is something I’ve noted, and the Acadians had settled here before(as Doc notes) MANY of them got kicked out- heck alligators are tastier than snails.

Are you people all Canadians, or what?

NAY or YEAH?