once, Louis XVI was Khameni to George Washington's Nasrallah

Re: Gingrich. Funny: you wouldn’t think that at one time, in order to reverse the losses sustained in the Seven Years War, France practically bankrupted itself paying for and equipping an insurgent army to fight against the British in North America. France paid the Continental army’s wages and supplied its uniforms, muskets, artillery and ammunition. And, as time passed, it increasingly supplied the men to do the actual fighting. There were more French troops than Americans at Yorktown, for instance, and the British defeat there was largely facilitated by the only naval reverse the British suffered at the hands of the French between the late 17th century and the present day. There would not, in short, be a USA without the French.

I’m actually surprised that the French never publicly remind the Americans of this. But then there is the counter-example of 1917 and 1944, so maybe they’ve also got a grudge against the fellow who did you a favour to work off.

changed the absolute monarch howler in light of comment pointing out mistake. Also, yeah, that statue thing.

Comments

[cian]

Ron Paul's ad is the funniest. The voice over is the guy who does truck ad's the style is like a burger king ad

One trillion cuts. No problem. Dept of education closed. Ron Paul will get it done!

Incidentally if you haven't seen Cain's ads, you really need to. There's the yellow flower ad - and then there 's the concession speech in which he quoted a Pokemon song. The whole song.

[bert]

That'd be Louis XVI.
Didn't Simon Schama pretty much blame the costs of French involvement in the American revolution for the outbreak of the French revolution?
Which, if you're French, was an unambiguously good thing and a gift to the world. I heard yesterday that a new theme park called Napoleonland is being planned outside Paris. Presumably Hitlerville is tied up with trademarks.
Sorry, at some point there I lost sight of the shiite parallel, which was your point.

[Matt_L]

"I’m actually surprised that the French never publicly remind the Americans of this."

They did. Its called the Statue of Liberty and sits in the middle of New York harbor for the world to see.

[bert]

Given that Louis ended up losing everything, the shiite parallel would work even better if Hezbollah had got its start from the Shah. But that would be like Hamas getting its start from the Israelis, which as we all know would be ridiculous.

[Alex]

The US Navy does make a habit of naming ships after French Revolutionary heroes. La Fayette, Bonhomme Richard, etc.

[Richard J]

And oddly, SSBNs after American humorists. which, led to Will Rogers' name being applied to something capable of singlehandedly wiping out a medium-sized country.

[Chris Williams]

And peacenik anthems.

[ajay]

Bonhomme Richard is the French for "Poor Richard", as in "Poor Richard's Almanac" by Ben Franklin. Lafayette, yes, but I think on the grounds that he was the French commander in America, rather than because of his subsequent revolutionary exploits.

And oddly, SSBNs after American humorists.

Wait, what?

[Richard J]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Will_Rogers_(SSBN-659)

[ajay]

Good God Almighty. What on earth possessed them to do that?

Pity they didn't carry it on.

We should. The first of the Successor bombers should be named after Britain's own Action Transvestite, HMS Izzard.

[Chris Williams]

You could almost accept the anger-driven craziness of being killed by a missile fired from _HMS John Cleese_, but can we justify the immense indignity of being on the receiving end of one from _HMS Ernie Wise_?

Actually perhaps _Will Rogers_ could work as an example of Chris's Law of the Greek Pom Pom: when you're really hard, you don't have to act macho.

I wonder if Jimmy Carter lobbied to make sure that his (entirely appropriate - shouldda named a PR department after Reagan, not a carrier) sub was an SSN not an SSBN?

[Barry Freed]

I'd love to see a USS Groucho Marx or USS Ernie Kovacs (not, however, a USS Bill Hicks).

Those Pom Poms hide a nasty spike.