Patterico's Pontifications

6/1/2005

Deja-Vu, Pardon My French

Filed under: International,Snarkage — Dafydd @ 2:02 pm



Dominique de Villepin, appointed the new French prime minister by Crock Jacques Chirac, has said that his greatest hero is Napoleon Bonaparte. De Villepin even wrote a hagiographic account of Napoleon’s return from exile on Elba: Les Cent-Jours, ou, L’esprit de sacrifice.

Allons enfants de la Patrie
Le jour de gloire est arrivé!

I’m not a historian, but my vague recollection from reading lots of Rafael Sabatini is that Napoleon, the greatest general of the revolutionary government of France, was named first consul — prime minister — following a coup d’etat in 1799; he then seized absolute power following the complete economic collapse of the First Republic. Napoleon declared the First French Empire in 1804, with guess-who as the first emperor.

Now his accolyte agitates for the massive resocialization of France, which will, of course, lead to the complete economic collapse of the Fifth Republic.

Things that make you go hm….

If de Villepin takes to having Beethoven’s Third played whenever he arrives, it may be time to say “l’addition, s’il vous plait,” and grab the first Airbus out of Paris.

6 Responses to “Deja-Vu, Pardon My French”

  1. I think you misspelled his name. The preferred spelling is “Dominique de Villepin (who is a man).”

    Xrlq (6c76c4)

  2. Well pardon my French, Xrlq!

    Dafydd

    Dafydd (df2f54)

  3. I like the Aubrey-Maturin series for an account of the rest of the world’s opinion of Bonaparte.

    colin (16db30)

  4. Daf ab–

    Little something for you below the fold in my Lee Harris post below.

    See Dubya (806435)

  5. CW wrote in another different post:

    Interesting. Two writers of speculative fiction with a strong pro-America, anti-terrorist message? I thought these people were all degenerates and/or Communists. Well, these two must be anomalies…

    (See-Dubya sits back, smirks, waits for Dafydd ab Hugh to stumble across this.)

    Dude, I’m a twenty-year veteran of SFWA (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America), and they are “all degenerates and/or Communists!”

    I think there are about three of us who believe in (a) America, (b) capitalism, the unknown ideal, and (c) going toe to toe with Harry Harrison or Harlan Ellison and telling them why HUAC was the most important government body of the late 1940s. And two of those three are going to be regular posters on my site, when I unpack my brain long enough to finish setting it up!

    Dafydd

    Dafydd (df2f54)

  6. Since the current US Constitution went into effect, France has gone from the Ancien Regime through five republics, two empires, a restoration, a commune, Vichy, and around four occupations.

    Maybe it’s time for another change?

    Amphipolis (fdbc48)


Powered by WordPress.

Page loaded in: 0.0809 secs.