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Originally posted by Maxno:

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I used Google dork.

ooh. dork. Ouch. Look, ma petite, I challenge you to a duel.

I'm serious. Swords perhaps, or pistols. Take your pick.

Sabers, pistols or rapiers?

...

balloons and blunderbusses.

waht really funny abou this is that it was authored by Valery Giscard, former president of France. So they rejected essentially their own document.

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The Prussians held their own in 1860.

In what war? Seriously! Do you mean 1760?

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I used Google dork.

ooh. dork. Ouch. Look, ma petite, I challenge you to a duel.

I'm serious. Swords perhaps, or pistols. Take your pick.

The land that France gained in the Treaty of Versailles was simply the land they lost in the Treaty of Berlin (or was it the Treaty of Bismarck? I don't remember) after the Franco-Prussian War. Alscae and parts of Lorraine.

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Please stop making things up. They occupied them in WWII. When Else?

ok i apologise for my sketchy history, and in the space of 100 years it was occupied twice.

January 28 1871, Paris surrendered to the besieging Prussian army in the war which preceded the unification of Germany.

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France only took over europe because of Napoleon, then they kicked him out power after his army was decimated trying to reach moscow.

then he came back, and was beaten at Waterloo by the British army with help from the Prussians.

of course it wasn't useful they (the allies) gave it to the frenchies in an attempt to salve their badly battered national ego

France only took over europe because of Napoleon, then they kicked him out power after his army was decimated trying to reach moscow.

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Paris occupied by Germans 3 times in 100 years, eek :-P

No they didn't, eek :-P. They held a small part of Germany after WWII that was given to them by America, England, and Russia. It had no strategical importance whatsoever.

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You do realize that in almost all of the wars fought by france between 1600 and 1871, it took all the powers of Europe just to beat them back to thier own borders.

The Prussians held their own in 1860.

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Paris occupied by Germans 3 times in 100 years, eek :-P

Please stop making things up. They occupied them in WWII. When Else?

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France has indeed been through many revolutions, and one explanation for this is the right-left divide which has been the major social cleavage in French history. My knowaldge isn't as detailed as FMLs, but as I believe the liberal lefties gave way to De Gauls staunch and strict views when the Algerian crisis was in full swing.

Then he gave way to Mitterand after losing a referendum, and in turn his leftist ways set up France for another swing right and France's current coalition government headed by Chirac

Please stop making things up. You missed twelve years and two presidents between De gaulle and Mitterand. Valerie Giscard d'Estaing and George Pompidou. Pompidou died 30 years ago but d'Estain would be very disappointed to be so forgotten.

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I may have an anime charachter amongst my heroes, but you knew who he was. Also I have two anime cahrachters, except one is a dog.

I used Google dork.

If you're talking to me, I wasn't talking about Russia's military. Militaristic power isn't everything.

Secondly, the reason Russia was beaten so badly in WWI was the abrupt overthrow of the Tzar in the middle of the war. After that, it backed out of the war.

What the hell are you talking about? Russia got its *** kicked in WWI. Their army was a joke! After the Tsar fell, by 1950, their army was as good as ours!

all hail constitutional monarchy!

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Had the Communist Revolution never happened, Russia would no doubt be one of the more powerful nations in the world

Paris occupied by Germans 3 times in 100 years, eek :-P

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Had the Communist Revolution never happened, Russia would no doubt be one of the more powerful nations in the world

it was the arms race which crippled russia, they were very powerful despite the communist revolution.

France and Russia (and to a lesser extent Britain) are perfect examples of why monarchies worked. France used to be powerful, very powerful. Heck, it was the French knights that halted the Muslim advance into Europe and constrained the Moors to Spain. After the "glorious" French Revolution, everything went downhill. Sure, little or no class struggles, but everybody was poor and France got its reputation for surrendering to anyone in sight.

Russia in WWI was the same way. In fact, leading up to the fall of the Tzar, Russia's economy was beginning to rise significantly. Had the Communist Revolution never happened, Russia would no doubt be one of the more powerful nations in the world, as opposed to being a semi-democratic cesspool of waste and corruption.

Monarchies are obviously the way to go, in a strictly military sense, of course. No rights, but who needs rights when you rule the world, eh?

yeah like an amplifier and because it sounds good.

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Originally posted by ampmaster:
true but the fine solider portion of france died along time ago and now they just bug me with their annoying better than thou attitudes but thats really just the coast line and paris

My noise name is a referance to a speaker amp or an amp for a as a referance to making a whole lot of noise why do you ask?

Oh, so like short for amplifier amp? I was just curious.


I think the French have been going more and more downhill ever since they chopped off their royal family's heads.

The French people in of themselves, are great people, but the government is stupid.

true but the fine solider portion of france died along time ago and now they just bug me with their annoying better than thou attitudes but thats really just the coast line and paris

My noise name is a referance to a speaker amp or an amp for a as a referance to making a whole lot of noise why do you ask?

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What about the thirty years War? Franco-Prussian War? Dutch War?

The Thirty years war didn't direclty involve the French, and had no clear victor in any case. It was comprised of four phases, whose only commonality was a protestant-catholic struggle.

The Franco Prussian war, I meant to exclude, I should ahve said between 1600 and 1870.

In the Dutch War, the French were defeated only after everyone else joined the Dutch to fight against them.

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see all the wars you mention are proof that they are week if they can't win or lose a war in a time period under a bloody DECADE!

Wars take a long time *******, especially when the entirety of Europe is at war.

Why do you hate the French, they are fine soldiers.

ampmaster, slightly off topic question. What does your noisename mean? Is it supposed to be like the electronic measurement amp, or an acronym AMP, like Americans for Medical Progresd uses AMP I believe.

wow that was long and serious here just to make you all smile

imagine you are an idiot now imagine you are a member of congress but I repeat myself- Mark Twain

As I said, I love French culture, but it's just a sad place. Seriously.

In the words of Mark Twain: "France has neither summer, nor winter, nor morals."

He also said: "France has usually been governed by prostitutes."

He said a lot of other not-so-nice stuff about France...you want them, I'll give them to you, or you can just go to twainquotes.com and look up France.

President Chirac said: "For France, war always means defeat." (I think he meant it differently, but it works either way)

Follow up: Here's his complete thoughts of France (Mark Twain's)



That is the Can-can. The idea of it is to dance as wildly, as noisily, as furiously as you can; expose yourself as much as possible if you are a woman; and kick as high as you can, no matter which sex you belong to. There is no word of exaggeration in this. Any of the staid, respectable, aged people who were there that night can testify to the truth of that statement. There were a good many such people present. I suppose French morality is not of that strait-laced description which is shocked at trifles.
- The Innocents Abroad

A French married lady cannot enter even a menagerie without bringing the purity of that menagerie under suspicion.
- Mark Twain's Notebooks and Journals, Notebook #19, July 1880-January 1882

The objects of which Paris folks are fond--literature, art, medicine and adultery.
- - speech at the Stanley Club in Paris, ca. April 1879

France has neither winter nor summer nor morals--apart from these drawbacks it is a fine country.
- Mark Twain's Notebook

I like to look at a Russian or a German or an Italian--I even like to look at a Frenchman if I ever have the luck to catch him engaged in anything that ain't delicate.
- Extract from Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven

France has usually been governed by prostitutes.
- Notebook #18, Feb.- Sept. 1879

A Frenchman's home is where another man's wife is.
- Notebook #18, Feb.- Sept. 1879

It has always been a marvel to me--that French language; it has always been a puzzle to me. How beautiful that language is! How expressive it seems to be! How full of grace it is! And when it comes from lips like those [of Sarah Bernhardt], how eloquent and how limpid it is! And, oh, I am always deceived--I always think I am going to understand it.
- Mark Twain, a Biography

M. de Lamester's new French dictionary just issued in Paris defines virtue as: "A woman who has only one lover and don't steal."
- quoted in A Bibliography of Mark Twain, Merle Johnson

In Paris they just simply opened their eyes and stared when we spoke to them in French! We never did succeed in making those idiots understand their own language.
- The Innocents Abroad

There is nothing lower than the human race except the French.
- quoted by Carl Dolmetsch, Our Famous Guest

It is human to like to be praised; one can even notice it in the French.
- "What Paul Bourget Thinks of Us"

In certain public indecencies the difference between a dog & a Frenchman is not perceptible.
- Notebook #17, October 1878 - February 1879

It appears that at last census that every man in France over 16 years of age & under 116, has at least 1 wife to whom he has never been married. French novels, talk, drama & newspaper bring daily & overwhelming proofs that the most of the married ladies have paramours. This makes a good deal of what we call crime, and the French call sociability.
- Notebook #18, Feb.- Sept. 1879

French are the connecting link between man & the monkey.
- Notebook #18, Feb.- Sept. 1879

Trivial Americans go to Paris when they die.
- Notebook #18, Feb.- Sept. 1879

It is the language for lying compliment, for illicit love & for the conveying of exquisitely nice shades of meaning in bright graceful & trivial conversations--the conveying, especially of double-meanings, a decent & indecent one so blended as--nudity thinly veiled, but gauzily & lovelily.
- Notebook #18, Feb.- Sept. 1879

...anywhere is better than Paris. Paris the cold, Paris the drizzly, Paris the rainy, Paris the damnable. More than a hundred years ago somebody asked Quin, "Did you ever see such a winter in all your life before?" "Yes," said he, "Last summer." I judge he spent his summer in Paris. Let us change the proverb; Let us say all bad Americans go to Paris when they die. No, let us not say it for this adds a new horror to Immortality.
- letter to Lucius Fairchild, 28 April 1880, reprinted in Mark Twain, The Letter Writer

An isolated & helpless young girl is perfectly safe from insult by a Frenchman, if he is dead.
- Notebook #20, Jan. 1882 - Feb. 1883

A dead Frenchman has many good qualities, many things to recommend him; many attractions--even innocencies. Why cannot we have more of these?
- Notebook #20, Jan. 1882 - Feb. 1883