French President Chirac tells Nancy Reagan to fuck off

Chris OConnor

President Chirac decided not to attend Ronald Reagan's funeral. What a slap in the face to the US and Nancy Reagan. Any opinions?

Chris

"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them" -- Mark Twain

scrumfish

First, I would like to say that I find the tone of your post rather extreme. Not going to a funeral to protest a government's policies -if that is the case- is hardly the same thing as deliberately snubbing the widow of someone who chose to sacrifice much of his private life for public office. If Chirac's actions are intended to be taken as a piss off gesture, I would think that it is directed at the government, not a family member of someone who no longer makes policy.

Which brings me to second: where did you get this information? I have googled for an hour and only found one article that explicitly states that Pres. Chirac will not be attending the funeral, and it is not from a source that I am familiar with so I am hesitant to take its say-so without collaboration from anywhere else. The article, although definitely biased, also points out that only the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder have confirmed plans to attend out of the 7 nations that are attending the G-8 summit that is in the U.S. this week. This article is HERE.

I found quite a few articles containing nice things that President Chirac said about President Reagan. A few follow:
www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/06/06/reagan.world.reax/
www.comma nd-post.org/nk/
www.elysee.fr/magazine/actualite/sommaire_afp.php?lang= fr&doc=040605223749.ocbdv3xo.html

But, I did find this article speculating on what exactly Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin's decision not to go means:
www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040608.wxelecreaga n08a/BNStory/specialDecision2004/
I especially enjoyed the following about his statement:

Quote:
The letter referred to Mr. Reagan as one of the most influential leaders of the past 50 years, and stated that he "helped lay the foundations" for the end of the Cold War and much greater co-operation between East and West.
But it was largely observational in tone, steering clear of the kind of rhetoric employed by leaders such as French President Jacques Chirac, who lauded the 40th president as "a great statesman who will leave a deep mark in history."

I don't have an opinion on President Chirac's actions. I don't have enough information yet.

Chris OConnor

www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1150509/posts

"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them" -- Mark Twain

Tiarella

Quote:
Perhaps too busy still mourning the loss of his business partner Saddam Hussein, chief French quisling Jacques Chirac is not only refusing to attend former President Ronald Reagan's funeral on Friday, his government doesn't even list a representative who will go.

Source: newsmax.com

That's not exactly neutral reporting! That is a very biased expression of opinion, in which is buried one fact: Chirac isn't attending Reagan's funeral. $:\$ This does not rate as significant news to me. Seems more like newsmax is looking for a bone to pick with the French.

ZachSylvanus

We clearly ought to bomb them.

Chris OConnor

While we're at it we ought to bomb Norway.

Chris

"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them" -- Mark Twain

Tiarella

Speaking of Norway, read the text at this link carefully!

www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/29/

scrumfish

Hey, wait a minute. I am of Norwegian descent. I feel that in the evaluation of Norway (Trees<Lions=Kenya wins) the fjords were blatantly and wrongly disregarded. I am also a bit worried...am I going to be sent to an internment camp when the bombing begins?

Jeremy1952

yes

If you make yourself really small, you can externalize virtually everything. Daniel Dennett, 1984


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