Breaking news: French soldier attacked by man with knife doesn't surrender!

[Sir C]

Remarkable effort from Private Poilu, there.

[redgunamo]

Nobody ever tells me anything nowadays :-(


Remarkable effort from Private Poilu, there.

[Ash]

Remarkable effort from Private Poilu, there.

Hmm. "Ils ne passeront pas!"

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/I_world_war_memorial.jpg

[Burney]

Hmm. "Ils ne passeront pas!"

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/I_world_war_memorial.jpg

Yeah, you know who actually said that, though, right?* :-\






*OK, who it's usually attributed to. It was actually said by Nivelle.

[Burney]

Remarkable effort from Private Poilu, there.

I was reading something very depressing about relative birth rates the other day. :-( Basically, thon Houllebecq fella was right.

[Sir C]

I was reading something very depressing about relative birth rates the other day. :-( Basically, thon Houllebecq fella was right.

He may be a bit of a wánker, but you can't fault his logic.

[Ash]

Yeah, you know who actually said that, though, right?* :-\

*OK, who it's usually attributed to. It was actually said by Nivelle.

Look. A chap makes one teeny capitulation and collabororation with Nazis and it has to tarnish his whole career?

But seriously, over half a million French casualties at Verdun. It's not hard to see why he might not have been keen to do it all again.

[Burney]

Look. A chap makes one teeny capitulation and collabororation with Nazis and it has to tarnish his whole career?

But seriously, over half a million French casualties at Verdun. It's not hard to see why he might not have been keen to do it all again.

Not being keen to do it all again is one thing and - as you say - understandable. The problem was that he and others embraced the old collaboration a little too keenly. Lest we forget, the Vichy regime shipped Jews out to the camps faster than the Germans did and actively resisted allied attempts to invade their territory in pursuance of German defeat. Difficult to justify those things.

[Burney]

He may be a bit of a wánker, but you can't fault his logic.

Yeah. We're fvcked, basically. :-(

[Ash]

Not being keen to do it all again is one thing and - as you say - understandable. The problem was that he and others embraced the old collaboration a little too keenly. Lest we forget, the Vichy regime shipped Jews out to the camps faster than the Germans did and actively resisted allied attempts to invade their territory in pursuance of German defeat. Difficult to justify those things.

I realise that, but my point was not to praise Petain but the men that fought and died for France at Verdun. The cheese-eating surrender monkeys trope does tend to overlook that.

[Burney]

I realise that, but my point was not to praise Petain but the men that fought and died for France at Verdun. The cheese-eating surrender monkeys trope does tend to overlook that.

Oh, I know. It's nonsense and always has been. Although it is fair to say that the prestige of French arms has fallen off pretty spectacularly since 1815.

[World's End Stella]

I used to know a German WW2 veteran, he owned an electronics shop in Canada and had been a radio man in the German infantry.

He had loads of amusing stories about the French, things like his squad being completely surrounded by the French army and blowing a horn which typically signaled an attack and then finding that it caused all the French soldiers to run away.

I also enjoyed his dry comment on the invasion in 1940 'Maginot Line was brilliant, far ahead of its time...so we went around it'.

[redgunamo]

I was reading something very depressing about relative birth rates the other day. :-( Basically, thon Houllebecq fella was right.

Oh, what did he say?

I have a brother-in-law called Michel.

[Burney]

Oh, what did he say?

I have a brother-in-law called Michel.

Basically, Europeans are being out-bred by muslims. The demographics in many large urban centres are shortly going to mean that politicians are increasingly going to have to pander to majority muslim populations and that is going to mean a creeping islamisation of our legal and societal norms.

[redgunamo]

Oh, right. That.

I'm afraid people simply aren't watching enough Michael Mann films :-(

[Burney]

Oh, right. That.

I'm afraid people simply aren't watching enough Michael Mann films :-(

Has he covered this issue? :rubchin:

[redgunamo]

Has he covered this issue? :rubchin:

Only in everything he's ever done!

Not the Muslim bit exactly, but certainly the bit about modern westerners not breeding enough, because of our obsession with work. The old Vito Corleone diktat "a man who doesn't spend time with his family can never be a real man" is basically the leitmotif running through all his works.