Comments on The First Family of France
Daniel -- most likely -- des sont uncut -- bien sur -- tres bon
Ce sont des belles hommes.
Meh. I just like my haystacks, Bobby.
Just out of curiosity, how did two black haired parents have five blonde kids? Is that his second wife or something?
You have to go _lie_ down. Not lay down.
Your editor,
Sachi
Definitely humpable. It's hard for me to look at them though knowing what their politics are probably like.
Sachi: Being the grammar/syntax police on a blog = retarded.
JessB -- Not when Dan Savage is the editor of The Stranger and should know better. I wouldn't bother picking your execrable grammar and spelling apart.
I wonder if Dan's partner gets a little blue when Dan gushes over hot males.
if dan stopped gushing over hot males, dan's "partner" would think he'd been taken over by aliens.
the daughters look too much like their brothers. or is it the other way around? do they all dye their hair at the same salon?
at #3
The article says:
"Then there are the children: two daughters (Judith, 22; Jeanne-Marie, 20) from her first marriage, two sons (Pierre, 22; Jean, 21) from his and one (Louis, 10) whom they had together."
Oh no, she's no Jackie O...
(Did ya catch those teeth? Socialized healthcare at its finest.)
sounds kind of like the Brady Bunch to me.
sarkozy is about as conservative as maria cantwell. its a comparative thing - royale wouldn't have been allowed to talk on american tv, let alone hold office - she's a SOCIALIST!
Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!
They all bore me. I'm with Mr. Crown... er... I mean Mr. Poe.
@3: Both parents could be carriers of the recessive blond gene, so while they're dark haired, their kids could be plausibly blond.
@ 2 - I love Obscure Movie Quotes, especially when they're from The Thomas Crown Affair. Kudos, sir!
There are several reasons to be Highly Suspicious of the new frog. Right away, his name makes him sound like a Bond villain. Ernst Stavro Blofeld...Hugo Drax...Aris Kristatos...Nicolas Sarkozy. In my ear, "sar" sounds like a negating prefix, like "ad" or "im," so I immediately think of Mr. Sarkozy as the Opposite of Cosy. And cosy is a lovely thing to be.
Secondly, as Mr. Savage noted, he immediately pledged his support of the United States and Bush in particular. This may seem counterintuitive, but there's something desperately unsettling about a fledgling government that is so eager to hitch its etoile to our charrette in these, our most politically incompetent days. I'd feel more comfortable with any new government on earth if its first press release was a hearty, "President Bush should go fuck himself running, huzzah!"
Third, Sarkozy's one of those Mandate guys. Remember when Bush saw his 2.5% margin of victory over Kerry -- the most narrow election victory by an incumbent president in the history of the United States -- as a "mandate"? Yeah, well, we all know how Bush spent up all the "political capital" he saw as his mandated bounty (much like I used to spend my allowance as a boy: in a frothy, wild-eyed fit of Twizzlers-induced mania, let loose in a Toys R Us like the Tazmanian Devil), so those Mandate Guys give me gas now. (If you ask me, Bush is guilty of Mandate Rape.) Granted, Sarkozy won with an almost 7% spread (up your ass, 2.5%!), so his claims to delicious, garlic-and-butter roasted, snail-garnished Mandatedness are a little more valid, but still: like all French cooking, it gives me gas.
And lastly, I'm sorry, but Sarkozy looks too much like The Kids in the Hall's Kevin McDonald for me to take him seriously.
Is he married to Celine Dion?
Did anybody else think "Cruel Intentions" when they found out those kids are stepsiblings?
Sure Sarkozy has a mandate. Right up until he does anything to fuck with France's unions or welfare state. Then it'll be 1968 all over again.
And of course the media had to put that one daughter up front. Yeah, right, like I sympathize with her for getting half her arm blown off during the immigration riots last year.
shaggy hair and a big mouth and Dan's happy... too easy, Dan! :)
french conservatives are more stylish than american liberals. or conservatives.
@10 - Your brilliance is overwhelming. As you know, our privatized system makes it so that everyone here in the US has absospanking perfect teeth! Nobody ever gets cavaties or in a bad dental situation here. Ever!
Or maybe you're just saying that only the rich should have perfect teeth? Or that if you're rich, you should have perfect teeth (definitely a requirement) and that evil socialized medicine keeps you from it? I'd love to know how you made the connection between the two.
In that same line of thought, I assume you're against the RTID package too... all that socialized road building must give you major heartburn.
So that's where Hanson's gone to...
giantladysquirrels: I thought of "Clueless" and the stepsibs look all cozy in that picture.
giantladysquirrels:
Absolutely. They're not blood-related? They're all within two years of each other? My first thought was: hmm, wonder if any of them have ever made a pass at one another.
That magazine cover photo doesn't look real, or is it just me?
Leeerker, yes, his second wife, and her second marriage, as well. In fact, he officiated at her first wedding as the mayor of Neuilly sur Seine. (In France, you marry legally at town hall by the mayor, and then you have a religious service, if desired.) They later met again at some cocktail, and it was, according to them, a "thunderbolt" that hit both of them... love at second (or later -- she was a model who had studied law) sight. He had his two sons, she had her two daughters, and they had their son, the youngest pictured.
JessB, his politics are far from objectionable, even for a transplanted Democrat who never voted for a Bush and can't find the words to describe the extent of my disgust with the collective bushies. The French right is our center. Haven't particularly heard that Sarko has any type of affinity for Bush... that's poetic license for Dan (yeah, Dan!) to make his piece funnier (careful, Dan). France has to find ways to pay for her generous social programs (including the best medical system in the world) and fight the abuses of an overly porous border, both socially (intolerance as a consequence of low expectations of new immigrants by the government social service system), abuses of its generosity (practically condoned and encouraged by the government, particularly the left, for who knows what reason that makes absolutely no sense -- sorry, already too long, so no space for details), economic (poor preparation socially and academically to enter the workforce, leading to the sort of dependence on the "welfare state" that Clinton sought to reform), and security (high levels of crime and violence among young second generation immigrants due to low expectations and the eradication of the neighborhood policing programs that have proved to be so effective once established in NYC from Boston -- that was the French right, btw, but they are probably bringing it back).
Of course, there is the element of racism, not unique to the French or anyone, which many feel is best attacked by going after the roots of disharmony between the races and religions (I cross women in Chadors and Burkas regularly. Serious.) coexisting in France -- understood by many French as a refusal of many (not all) new immigrants to integrate and assimilate (when in Rome...). Their sense is that if new immigrants are required to learn French and pass a test of basic French language, law and history, they will be better prepared to help their children find their place in French society. Both the left and the right here are moving towards individualized, teacher-assisted mandatory after-school homework periods so that ALL children will come to school having mastered their lessons, not only those whose parents are intellectually, economically and socially prepared enough to guaranty their children's success.
I have read -- we have all read -- the scary portrayals of Sarko as a Bush or a Hitler. What 53% of the 85% of the French electorate that voted him into office appreciated was his willingness to speak directly about the problems that contemporary French society faces, both at home and internationally in a global economic and political environment. There is great hope among those who listen to him that he and his government -- the new PM Fillon is amazing (Google him) -- will help to liberalize and dynamize French business, generate entrepreneurial creativity (= + jobs), establish controls and guidelines for immigration, while helping those who are allowed to come better integrate and succeed in French society, improving lifestyle and decreasing crime, aggression and violence.
A major objective is to bring back a sense of the importance of work. The French "syndicats", or unions, regularly bring daily life to a standstill, particularly the teachers and the rail transport workers' unions hijacking children's rights to go to school and receive their education or get to work. Strikes are the French way to get what they want (often too much for too little in return, comparatively). Sarko and his government favor a "minimum service" requirement for the unions, meaning that children can count on enough teachers being present at school, parents not having to scramble to find care solutions for their kids who are suddenly on holiday for days and days, and able themselves to get to and from work without being crammed into the few subway and train cars running on the multitudes of tracks.
At present, the French are the LEAST productive of all Europeans -- they work the fewest number of hours and the Socialist party seriously proposed further reductions for increased pay! I challenge our Democrats and Republicans to figure out how to finance that or make a successful economy from it! Enough people here understood the ill logic to say no to the Socialist Party and Segolene Royal this time around.
Many of them, and quite a few who voted for Sarko, are hoping it will be Strauss-Kahn (PS: Jewish, as Sarko is 1/4 Jewish from a grandparent, and the son of a Hungarian immigrant of the Hungarian "petite noblesse") facing off against the UMP and Sarko in 5 years.
Be careful of what you read -- this might amaze you, but it is often written with a slant or a bias to make you think what is not necessarily true or to entertain.
Not in America! (wink)
It's pretty interesting over here -- read about it (and think for yourselves). Ciao!
And, Mr. Crinklebank, be careful how you translate -- or again, what others translate -- because what Mr. Sarkozy pledged was not support of the United States and Bush "in partcular". What he did say, translated into English for the majority who speak no French beyond French Fry was that he supports "our friends, les Etats-Unis", adding that room for disagreement must be left between friends. His enthusiasm for the US extends to American business law and practice, but his view of French international relations is Chiracian.
As for her teeth, #10 You have got to be kidding me, bravo. All children here receive completely free preventive dental care, and the French medical system picks up the vast majority of the tab for dental care. However, many French do not believe in having their teeth fixed by braces, palette separators and/or surgery.
You'll also see more lovely French women in the 16th aging gracefully with a few lovely lines on their faces.
Understand before you make jokes. It works all the way around.
Geez, jdefloris, all I wanted to know is if that was a doctored photo. You really did not have to give so much detail of French political life. Even after all of the bullshit you posted, you still didn't answer my question. Is the photo fake or not?
Sorry you aren't interested, Larry. Not that I was actually talking to you, but you're so right, detail is so uncool. As for doctored, I doubt it. But, hey, maybe they just made it look like she got her lower arm blown off and gosh knows, matching hair and outfits sure make a happy Brady family. Poor little Louis. Happy? Guess what? They aren't actually going to live in the Elysee according to so many sources... she has her lover in NYC. Guess some details of French political life might be interesting after all.
Before I found out the age differences and step-siblings, I thought, 'what are the chances they had two sets of identical twins?' Besides that, I have to agree with bill...the brothers and sisters do look a hell of a lot alike.
@ 29 - It would have been a more effective slam against we retarded Americans that don't speak French to say "beyond lingerie" or Champagne or, more befitting still in your case, douche, rather than "French Fry," which to my knowledge is not, in fact, a French word(1). “Pomme frites,” I'd give you, but the average American -- at least in my (red)neck of the woods here in rural Nebraska -- would sooner punch you in the spleen than properly pronounce "pomme frites," which is impossible to say without sounding hopelessly effete.
I find it odd that you marvel at the average American's ignorance of the French language, when most of us don't do very well with our own indigenous English. Learning to speak the language of our Pleasant, Responsible, Tidy and Inoffensive neighbors to the north is not a high priority for most Americans, certainly not when faced with the linguistic challenges of ordering a cheeseburger or getting the landscaping done correctly (mon dieu!) posed by our Migratory Amigos to the south (witness the sudden cancellation of the Nickelodeon animated series Marie Claire les Femme De Chambre, after getting the shit kicked out of it by the more Latinocentric Dora the Explorer; kids just don’t want to learn French, I’m afraid). Having said that, I took three years of French in high school (at the urging of ma mere, la chienne folle), and another two of Classical French at St. John’s College, having first studied Attic Greek for two years in order to be made to feel like un connard complet. This afforded me just enough French to ask my Parisian cab driver his name and favorite color, to negotiate a room with a view of a sewer at my hotel, and to inform the lovely lady seated next to me at a bar that she had “magnificent spongy turnips.” Bravo!
As for the intricacies of French politics or Thinking For Ourselves, I’m afraid you’re barking up le mauvais arbre there, mon ami. You’re talking about (though certainly not to, not on The Slog) a populace that elected -- and then re-elected -- George W. Bush (cette crotte indescriptible), and that also thinks Darwin was an asshole. We’re not apt to catch a lot of the subtleties of the French political system.
I do appreciate, however, that you called me Mr. Crinklebank. A sign of polite and intelligent discourse and for that I say Kudos, sir, and Huzzah!
___________
(1) The French Fry is actually a delicious French delicacy we Americans stole from the head sous-chef to Colonel Henri-Philippe Petain just moments before he and his entire battalion surrendered to an asthmatic dachshund and a handful of knackwurst at the Third Battle of the Aisne in 1918. Other than the éclair, it is the only French food we gastronomically challenged Americans can keep down.
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