Random Thoughts on Bastille Day
It's Bastille Day, which makes it a good excuse to dis the French. But not here. Read what Molly Ivins had to say on this subject. For those who disagree, I'll be glad to take any spare bottles of Bordeaux or Beaujolais off your hands.

I used to live in Milwaukee - a very pleasant city, if you've never been there - where they had (and still have) a great Bastille Day celebration. The last (and first) time I was in France, S. and I met an English couple who'd lived in Milwaukee (and loved it). They lived in what had been the old Blatz brewery before it got converted to condos - close enough to walk to Jefferson Square and the Bastille Day celebrations, which they did every year they were there. I once heard my uncle Joe say that some of our ancestors where French soldiers who settled in Poland to become farmers during or after the Napoleonic wars. Now the French army is apparently the least feared in Europe and the Germans have become pacifists. Although as Ms. Ivins points out, 16,000 French and German soldiers are helping to try to keep the peace in Bosnia and Afghanistan. Just another example of the gap between the memes of the ideologically-driven and reality.

On the other hand, I still find "Cheese-eating surrender monkeys" hilarious. I never can manage to be politically correct.