[Vision2020] Fw: BILL MAHRE

[Sue Hovey]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <frye3407 at charter.net>
To: <undisclosed-recipients:>
Sent: Sunday, May 06, 2007 12:06 PM
Subject: BILL MAHRE


> Allons enfants........
>>
>> May 4, 2007 | New Rule: Conservatives have to stop
>> rolling their eyes every time they hear the word
>> France. Like just calling something French is the
>> ultimate argument winner. "Aw, you want a healthcare
>> system that covers everybody and costs half as much?
>> You mean like they have in France? What's there to say
>> about a country that was too stupid to get on board
>> with our wonderfully conceived and brilliantly
>> executed war in Iraq?"
>>
>> Earlier this year, the Boston Globe got hold of an
>> internal campaign document from GOP contender Mitt
>> Romney, and a recurring strategy was to tie Democrats
>> to the hated French. It said, in the Machiavellian
>> code of the election huckster, "Hillary equals
>> France," and it envisioned bumper stickers that read,
>> "First, not France."
>>
>> Except for one thing: We're not first. America isn't
>> ranked anywhere near first in anything except military
>> might and snotty billionaires. The country that is
>> ranked No. 1 in healthcare, for example, is France.
>> The World Health Organization ranks America at 37 in
>> the world -- not two, or five -- 37, in between Costa
>> Rica and Slovenia, which are both years away from
>> discovering dentistry.
>>
>> Yet an American politician could not survive if he or
>> she uttered the simple, true statement, "France has a
>> better healthcare system than us, and we should steal
>> it." Because here, simply dismissing an idea as French
>> passes for an argument. John Kerry? Can't vote for him
>> -- he looks French. Yeah, as opposed to the other guy,
>> who just looked stupid.
>>
>> I know, if God had wanted us to learn from the
>> Enlightenment, he wouldn't have given us Sean Hannity.
>>
>> And I'm not saying France is better than America.
>> Because I assume you've already figured that out by
>> now. I don't want to be French, I just want to take
>> what's best from the French. Stealing, for your own
>> self-interest -- Republicans should love this idea.
>> Taking what's best from the French: You know who else
>> did that? The Founding Fathers. Hate to sink your toy
>> boat, Fox News, but the Founding Fathers, the ones you
>> say you revere, were children of the French
>> Enlightenment, and fans of it, and they turned it into
>> a musical called the Constitution of the United
>> States. And they did a helluva job, so good it has
>> been said that it was written by geniuses so it could
>> be run by idiots. But the current administration is
>> putting that to the test. The Founding Fathers were
>> erudite, well-read, European-thinking aristocrats --
>> they would have had nothing in common with, and no use
>> for, an ill-read xenophobic bumpkin like George W.
>> Bush.
>>
>> The American ideas of individuality, religious
>> tolerance and freedom of speech came directly out of
>> the French Enlightenment -- but, shhh, don't tell
>> Alabama. Voltaire wrote "men are born equal" before
>> Jefferson was wise enough to steal it.
>>
>> Countries are like people -- they tend to get smarter
>> as they get older. Noted military genius Donald
>> Rumsfeld famously dismissed France as part of Old
>> Europe, but the French are ... what's the word I'm
>> looking for? Oh yeah, "mature." We think they're rude
>> and snobby, but maybe that's because they're talking
>> to us.
>>
>> For example, France just had an election, and people
>> over there approach an election differently. They
>> vote. Eighty-five percent turned out. The only thing
>> 85 percent of Americans ever voted on was Sanjaya.
>>
>> Maybe the high turnout has something to do with the
>> fact that the French candidates are never asked where
>> they stand on evolution, prayer in school, abortion,
>> stem cell research or gay marriage. And if the
>> candidate knows about a character in a book other than
>> Jesus, it's not a drawback. There is no Pierre
>> Six-pack who can be fooled by childish wedge issues.
>> And the electorate doesn't vote for the guy they want
>> to have a croissant with. Nor do they care about the
>> candidate's private lives: In the current race,
>> Ségolène Royal has four kids but never bothered to get
>> married. And she's a socialist. In America, if a
>> Democrat even thinks you're calling him a liberal he
>> immediately grabs an orange vest and a rifle and heads
>> into the woods to kill something.
>>
>> The conservative candidate is married, but he and his
>> wife live apart and lead separate lives. They aren't
>> asked about it in the media, and the people are OK
>> with it, for the same reason the people are OK with
>> nude beaches: because they're not a nation of
>> 6-year-olds who scream and giggle if they see pee-pee
>> parts. They have weird ideas about privacy. They think
>> it should be private. In France, everyone has a
>> mistress. Even mistresses have mistresses. To not have
>> a lady on the side says to the voters, "I'm no good at
>> multitasking."
>>
>> France has its faults -- the country has high
>> unemployment, a nasty immigrant problem and all that
>> ridiculous accordion music. But its healthcare is the
>> best, it's not dependent on Mideast oil, it has the
>> lowest poverty rate and the lowest income-inequality
>> rate among industrialized nations, and it's the
>> greenest, with the lowest carbon dumping and the
>> lowest electricity bill.
>>
>> France has 20,000 miles of railroads that work. We
>> have the trolley at the mall that takes you from
>> Pottery Barn to the Gap. It has bullet trains. We have
>> bullets. France has public intellectuals. We have Dr.
>> Phil. And France invented sex during the day, the
>> ménage à trois, lingerie and the tongue.
>>
>> And the French are not fat. Can't we just admit we
>> could learn something from them?
>>
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