informant38
.

-
...But of these sophisms and elenchs of merchandise I skill not...
Milton, Areopagitica

Except he had found the
standing sea-rock that even this last
Temptation breaks on; quieter than death but lovelier; peace
that quiets the desire even of praising it.

Jeffers, Meditation On Saviors


-

5.8.04

One of the wonderful by-products of my life as it is now is that paranoia is about twelfth on the list of explanations for bizarre things that come at me through the TV.
The current "Jack-In-The-Box" commercial that shows the company golem debating a "Frenchman" for example. It may well be that the American airwaves are saturated with this vicious bigoted nonsense, but it could just as easily be that some minimum-wage security wannabe is hitting the switch every time we have the TV on here at home. Who knows?
For those of you in saner lands, it's a simple set, a split-screen, the golum on one side at a plain desk, the "Frenchman" on the other with a picture of the Eiffel Tower in the background. The discussion is about the renaming of "French" fries, how this is appropriate because now they're skin-on nutritious and bigger and golden etc. The Frenchman, who has a suspiciously "English"-looking haircut, isn't given much in the way of lines, but his accent is sure to kick off hate reflexes in the lower circles of the American hellscape. He's testy and incredulous, the golum is all confident and slick.
When something's this bad it has a cause, that's my motto. There's a reason for it. It may have been on for a long time, but my mom watches TV every night while I cook dinner, and I never heard or saw it until a day or so after Chirac told Sharon he wasn't welcome in France. This was after Sharon told all French Jews to immigrate to Israel immediately.

My guess is most Americans have no idea that that exchange took place, just as most Americans don't know, or have forgotten, that France gave us the Statue of Liberty, in addition to providing vital support for our insurgency against the British Empire in the late 1700's.
The Statue of Liberty. From France.
Bon jour, mes amis.


Blog Archive