Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for October 16, 2009

It is unAmerican. It is French.

And Polanski actually IS French, which makes him doubly un-American. Triply, if you throw in the pedophile part.

Um. Check your background. He’s Polish.

Honestly. If you can’t even insult someone correctly…

Polanski was born in 1933 in Paris.

All agreed… an old French born Pole Pedophile .

Unfortunately I don’t think the US can honestly claim the moral high ground that pedophilia is a particularly ‘un-american activity’.

Casual racism against the French is, however, perfectly acceptable by any anglophone.

OK, I’m going to lob a grenade…

The French played a major role in securing American independence (lifting blockades, financial assistance, keeping the Royal Navy busy).

They gave you a nice statue in New York.

They’ve been on your side in every major conflict of the Twentieth Century.

They make nice wine.

What gives?

Disclaimer: I am not (nor have ever been) French. ** Disclaimer: Polanski should face trial, whether he’s French or Polish

Umm, and the French gave us (or at least strongly propogated) the Metric system, which most of the world follows even though it’s an evil French “invention”…

Disclaimer: I’m not French, I’m not American, heck, I’m not even from the Western hemisphere!

But then, as a blurb I read somewhere wisely stated - “Opinions are like a**holes, everybody’s got one!”

Over to y’all.

A short vid about the French.

LoL Hugh.

RW back when he was funny…

I wonder what America would be like today if the British hadn’t been so busy with fighting Napoleon that it took its eye off the colonies. Or if the French had won … mon dieu, we’d all be dead of unpasteurised cheese by now (but what a wonderful way to go).

Oh yes, they ironically gave us Pasteurization too ;-)

Here’s another take on “all that is French”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKS0yISz6xQ

As much fun as it is to make fun of the French…racism is racism and molesters (even famous ones) come in all creeds.

FredTedster, those are good points, and well taken. The problems with the “French” is mostly stereotyping. The French are seen as being rude and obnoxious. Let’s face it, the reason there is a sterotype is because there is a grain of truth in it, but you could as easily put the word “New Yorker” in that statement as the word “French,” and be just as valid. I don’t think Trudeau is making that point though.

As I read it, he’s using the political cartoonists right to point out what he sees as wrong, but making sure there’s an absurd curve so it’s funny. The statement about how bad Polanski is how bad what he did is. The statement about the French is how little Boopsi and BD understand. given BD’s development since he lost his leg, that’s probably not accurate, but still funny.

GrimmaTheNome wrote: “I wonder what America would be like today if the British hadn’t been so busy with fighting Napoleon that it took its eye off the colonies. ”

Canada?

The French were key to the American Revolution but so was an important Pole - Kosciuszko, who fortified West Point among other important projects. Read all about it in the highly entertaining new bio - The Peasant Prince. His life was more colorful than any movie.

Agree with David Dow–what does Trudeau have against Woody Allen?

A “great” filmmaker would be Tarkovsky.

These (in every way) little men do not qualify, however accomplished, and however sorrowful their lives.

They auteur be ashamed, but they have no shame. (I auteur be ashamed of such a pun.)

if they get off, all the guys in prison for same should not have to do time for the crime.

The Poles… The French… I’m still thinking about that last panel in the strip and the poke at the role of film critics in all of this. Does a critic have a moral responsibility to take a filmmaker’s private life into consideration when reviewing the filmmaker’s public work? I think Trudeau is suggesting that they do.

OK - this may get me some flack - but why do women shave? Hair grows “there” naturally - legs, pits, etc. Makes they more like pre-pubescent young girls - who started this “tradition”? I’ve heard/read European Women let it grow naturally….be real!

Grimma excepted, y’all are missing the point. As Avenue Q and Gran Torino taught us, casual racism is funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbud8rLejLM

Ok for those of you wondering about the correlation between Polanski and Woody Allen… sure he married a much younger woman… BUT she was his stepdaughter AND he took nude pictures of her when she was TWELVE!! That’s a pedophile in my book! There was some legal charges filed by Mia Farrow (her mother) behind it, but not much came of it.

As far as major conflicts of the 20th century go, it really would be more accurate to say the US has always been on France’s side than the other way around. In both World Wars, the US entered the European theaters to defend France and Britain. I don’t have much patience for irrational French-hating, and the only French I have a problem with are the ones who hate me for being American – yes, I have encountered it – but it’s not like France has been some protecting ally the last 100 years.

At the wedding of Woody Allen and Soon-Yi, did they dance to “Thank Previn for Little Girls”?

When I said, “it is un-American, it is French,” I was quoting Mark Twain, who loved to make fun of the French. As well as the Germans, Brits, and Americans.

It is said ” Justice is Blind “shall WE cutoff the hands also ? Check her ID , under adult age ? Then it must be perfectly RIGHT And Morally OK .

Would this be considered an UN-American concept ?

Ronshua Re: It is said “Justice is Blind” shall WE cutoff the hands also?”

Don’t know about cutting off her hands, but she was draped for a couple of years… Published 29 Jan, 2002

“Curtains For Semi-Nude Justice Statue”

“No longer will US Attorney General John Ashcroft appear in public with a semi-nude statue towering above him. The US Justice Department has spent $8,000 on curtains to hide the statue from the cameras”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/1788845.stm

Like I said a couple of days ago,

There once was a Roman from France, Who had ants in his very large pants. A young girl he did rape, Even put it on tape, And now he must pay for this jape.

polanski has already been tried, he copped a plea & was awaiting sentencing, When the judge would not agree to the plea, polackcy fled to faggotland.

Woody Allen is a creep too – tho the girl wasn’t legally his “stepdaughter,” he helped raise her and then ended up in bed with her. The power differential is the same.