Hey Prosper since you like linking to Wikipedia so much here's a neat link about the 2003 heat wave that killed over 14,000 people in France.
14,847 people [[1]], mostly elderly, died in France from heat, according to the country's largest funeral service. France does not commonly have very hot summers, particularly in the northern areas. As a consequence, most people do not know how to react to very high temperatures (for instance, with respect to hydration), and most homes and retirement homes are not equipped with air conditioning. Furthermore, while there are contingency plans for a variety of catastrophes and natural events, high heat had never been considered a major hazard and so such plans for heat waves did not exist at the time.The heat wave occurred in August, a month in which many people, including government ministers and physicians, are on vacation.
Many bodies were not claimed for many weeks because relatives were on holiday. A refrigerated warehouse outside Paris was used by undertakers, because they didn't have enough space in their own facilities. On September 3, 57 bodies still left unclaimed in the Paris area were buried.
That shortcomings of the nation's health system could allow such a death toll is a matter of controversy in France. The administration of President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin laid the blame on (A health system that is oh so much better than the system in the US...GOC)
* the 35-hour workweek (But I thought that was a good thing ... GOC)
* family practitioners vacationing in August. (Many companies traditionally closed in August, so people had no choice about when to vacation. Family doctors were still in the habit of vacationing at the same time.)
* families who leave their elderly behind without caring for them. (Families don't take care of their elderly? ... GOC)The opposition as well as many of the editorials of the local press have blamed the administration. Many blamed Health Minister Jean-François Mattei for not coming back from his vacations when the heat wave struck, and his aides for blocking emergency measures in public hospitals (such as the recalling of physicians). A particularly vocal critic was Dr Patrick Pelloux, head of the union of emergency physicians, who blamed the Raffarin administration for ignoring warnings from health and emergency professionals and trying to minimize the crisis.
Jean-François Mattei was not kept as a minister following from the March 31, 2004 cabinet shuffle. (He could probably get a job working for Mayor Asshole or Governor Useless...GOC)
On the upside, the 2003 heat wave was good for 2003 Bordeaux wines. I've ordered 6 cases.
The Katrina death toll in Louisiana so far stands at 923. This after Mayor Asshole of Nawlins said there were gonna be 10,000 deaths. Less than 1,000 people dead so far and the response to Katrina is considered a failure by the Dimocrats and the LSM. Just think if there had been a competent mayor and a competent governor. The death toll would have been even less. Bush did not do a very good job of killing black people.
Prosper, here is another site that bashes France. They asked me for a link and I think I'll even put them on my blogroll. Here ya go guys.
Posted by denny at September 29, 2005 10:07 PM Category: French BashingSo if anyone wants to invade France and occupy it, August is the month, since with so many frogs vacationing, the surrendering will be so much faster, since most of the able-bodied cheese-eating surrender monkeys will be outta the country, and all that'll be left is the senior citizens. I'm taking over France next August (but don't tell Prosper). I'll dress as a nazi soldier, walk up the Champs-Elysee, and the French will surrender in droves. Cool! I never owned a country before! I can't wait to sell it on eBay!
Posted by: Rob Cooper on September 29, 2005 11:34 PMAnd eBay was started by an American of French heritage...How ironic!
Posted by: Rob Cooper on September 29, 2005 11:35 PMDon't forget Pave France and I think there's a F*** France, too!
Posted by: Sandy P on September 30, 2005 01:15 AMHey, I was on the French Riviera in August of 2003! It was hot as balls.
Posted by: Jimmy on September 30, 2005 02:08 AMYep boys, we lost 15000 old people that summer.
But you know, we loose 275000 people each year, because life is a mortal disease. You know that people in France live longer that in your country ? If you had enough old people, you could lose a bunch of them with heat. And, RobCooper, don't come in france : they're plenty of people from different colors or religion, you'd be disgusted !
RobCooper wrote I'll dress as a nazi soldier
;-)
have always been your fantasy, no ?
or you're just coming out ?
Hey, thanks for the tip on that site Independent Sources. I went to it and found it to be outstanding.
Just kidding, that's us. But we appreciate the plug. You are already on our RSS readers and now on the blogroll too. Awesome site. Yes, we do love to make fun of the French. Why? Because they deserve it.
Posted by: insider on September 30, 2005 04:15 AMInsider : you're comment is stupid, you judge millions of people from what you hear from FoxNews. Your behaviour isn't logical or smart, you prove your inability to think for yourself.
French people do not well understand the terrorist problem, this only implies that their journalists (again) tell them craps and that Chirac is a dickhead - I've known that for years.
But that doesn't imply anything about their way of life.
What's funny is that your doing the same mistakes that the french who do not want believe anything else than French news.
In France, you would have been with the one who refuses to believe that their news and president may be wrong.
You can be for the war, you can be pissed off by Chirac's behaviour and his fucking veto (like I am). But insulting 50 millions of people is just an evidence of your lake of thinking.
You love French bashing, I love assholes bashing. Do you get the meaning of this difference? Fucking racist.
Posted by: Pierce on September 30, 2005 06:47 AMI do like jokes, and I'm not offended by French jokes, they can be pretty funny. But some have to learn that their is a border between a joke and an insult.
Posted by: Piece on September 30, 2005 06:50 AMI'm gonna explain the real issue of the heat wave :
First, 80% of the people who died, died because they didn't drink enough, so I don't feel guilty for what happened.
They need to be told when to drink. !!?
When you get old, the thurst feeling disapear.
That doesn't mean you can stop drinking !!!
I thought this was obvious.
And 10 % died because they would have died anyway.
I feel sorry, I don't feel guilty.
Second Part: WARNING : kind people may be shocked only +18 :)
We have a pension problems, because people live too long in France, (mainly because they're thinner), we got too many ederly people.
so we tried to solve the problem. mwahaha!
Thanks to the heat wave, we spared 240 521 400 € a year.
If their living espectancy was still 3 or 4 years, we spared 721,564,200 €. Which is around 900 000 000 $ !
About the health care money, we again spared around 500 000 000 $.
So we spared around 1,400,000,000 $.
BWAHAHAHAHA, I know, I'm an evil asshole sometimes. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA !
As we are 5 times less numerous, with the same population than the USA this would have been 7,000,000,000$ spared.
How much money did you spare with Katrina ?
This time, we were better at Business . MWAHAHAHA...
(PS : For people stuck on stupid, I precise that this way of talking is black humor, and I'm sorry for those who lost a family member)
Posted by: Pierce on September 30, 2005 07:17 AMPit a few useful idiot trolls against themselves and control them all!
Posted by: Lisakay on September 30, 2005 07:25 AMCrap,, only 14,000 dead frogs !!!, Damn I bet Paris smelled better than ever. Even Florida has more class than France.
Posted by: James Old Guy on September 30, 2005 08:47 AMThe reason the French have longer lifespans (if that is even true) is because they don't do anything useful with their friggen lives except sit around eat fag food and turn their nose up at people. It's not the quantity of life that makes a countries population great, it's the quality of life. And we've got it here in the good old USA. If they'd work full time, they might be able to contribute something to world society, but instead they remain an isolated little soon to be third world nation that they are. I say good riddance.
Posted by: Ray on September 30, 2005 09:02 AMI wanted to see how republicans think. In fact you think like 30 % of the French who don't like the left politic.
- Denny - You are right, the heat wave was a failure, as your Katrina disaster management was.
- Lisakay - why don't you understand that contestating our own governement is normal? Pierce doesn't talk nicely about Chirac, but only 30% of the French like him. 70% don't like Chirac.
35% of the French, like me, are for the war in Irak too.
So I don't have the feeling he is against anyone. He defends his point of view. I don't like very much his black humor since I work in a hospital.
I hope he didn't mean it. This kind of jokes are frequent in France since the heat wave.
Lisakay, what are trying to do ? You're frustrated he didn't play the game you wanted ?
But some of us agree with some of your acts like the war against terrorists, I'm sorry you won't be able to use what you've been told against us. How can you think that all the French think the same ? That's not possible.
Posted by: Isabelle on September 30, 2005 09:11 AMTouche... As usual, good read Denny.
Posted by: Vicki on September 30, 2005 09:27 AMThanks Isa, but that's useless. And sorry for the bad joke.
These guys (Lisakay, James Old Guy) are racist and can't think differently that what they are told to.
They have commented nothing more than racist jokes. Not even good ones.
They can't add anything to the debate, they just want to say racist things. So even if you politically think the same way, as they can't say anything else, they'll insult you.
This is the sign of the Troll, they insult and tell stupid craps.
I'm tired of dealing with this kind of guys. Anyway they won't listen because you're French. Even if you think the war was justified, even if you are fed up being stoled by the government to allow lazy boy to stay lazy.
They are exactly like those extremists with who you can't have any debate, they won't talk to you because you're French as extremist won't ever like you because you're not islamist. And they aren't going to understand that they are doing the same.
So guys go on, spit on me using the only stupid thing you can : your hate and racism. But it won't touch me anymore, I'm done for today. Bye.
Posted by: Pierce on September 30, 2005 09:36 AMYes France does have a higher life expectancy than the USA. I'm not trying to be racist here, but it is our blacks that bring our average down. People of african descent have lower life expectancy than those of European or Asian do. But blacks in the USA have a greater life expectancy than those in many parts of Africa though, even if we factor out AIDs and HIV related deaths. Our European descendants live longer than Europeans do, When the US population is broken down by ancestery, and then compared to the nations of origion, there are only about 10 nations where the residents live longer than their kin who emmigrated. I'm not sure if the CIA fact book factors for violence in their statistic, but that appears to be prospers source.
Posted by: Jeremy on September 30, 2005 09:54 AMYou know, that whole "take the month of August off" thing that Europeans think is a birthright is one reason I've shifted a lot of my major supply lines to Asian countries over the last 20 years. For example, compare doing business with Epson (Japan) to Axiohm (France) or Olivetti (Italy). Work ethic matters. And they wonder why their economies are in the toilet.
Posted by: marcel on September 30, 2005 08:17 PMMy name is Jacques. I am a troll. I didn't read the Rules. I'm also an asshole.
Posted by: jacques on October 1, 2005 12:12 AMPierce called me a racist? Am not! I shared that joke with my little brown maid after she brought me another cocktail! She laughed, and she doesn't even speak French. Pierce, I should hook you up on a blind date with someone who called me a Nazi Hippy, you both have alot in common-no sense of humor. Honey, I don't dislike you because you are French, I dislike you because you are an ill tempered boob.
Posted by: Lisakay on October 1, 2005 04:46 AMSorry for the argueing/on my part in your comment section Denny.
Posted by: Lisakay on October 1, 2005 04:56 AMPierce, give me a break (or give me le break).
You wonder why 66% of Americans dislike the French? Well, let’s look at how “our friend” France has acted toward us during the past 200 or so years:
In the Revolutionary War the French entered the war reluctantly and were above all motivated to harm their British rival.
France sided with the Confederacy during the Civil War.
During the Cold War, de Gaulle did everything he could to weaken NATO.
In 1986, Francois Mitterrand denied U.S. warplanes permission to fly over French Airspace on the way to Libya.
France’s actions against our interests in Iraq (especially at a time that their support might have helped win the approval of the United Nations) is well documented.
As Jeffrey Gedmin (director of the Aspen Institute Berlin) quipped in the Wall St. Journal review of Our Oldest Enemy, “It’s hard to make the case any longer that France is simply an annoying ally. Only the annoying part is reliably true.” Or as Mark Twain said: “I can’t describe to you how poor & empty & offensive France is.”
Posted by: Insider on October 1, 2005 03:08 PMjuste con insider..
Posted by: phil on October 2, 2005 05:48 PMInsider,
I don't give a fuck of what France did before I even existed.
First of all France supported the independance because of its freedom ideas, and I just don't see the point between what happened years ago and the fact you talk to me like that.
Don't try to find excuses to justify your racism.
A lot of americans who don't appreciate the French governement have enough intelligence not to make it personnal and they talk to me with respect.
Furthermore if you read me, you would understand I don't appreciate my governement. So what are you talking about ???
You are simply out of the subject.
Stupid.
Guys - Pierce is not a troll. Cut him some slack. He is a Frenchman who doesn't always agree with us but is mostly polite. He is entitled to his opinions. Please be polite to him. Prosper is borderline. I allow him to stay because he and Pierce have debates that are sometines interesting.
Posted by: Denny on October 3, 2005 12:18 AMThanks Denny.
You see Insider, this is respect. Try it.
- Lisakay, I got "ill tempered" because you said I was getting used against my French fellows. I have my opinions, and I dislike my governement, like the majority of the French. But nobody will ever uses me, I follow what I think and I more agree with the US governement than with mine. That's a fact, I'm fed up with the french leftist politic.
I felt insulted because I didn't see a joke in your comment, just a lake of respect.
Morever, as I usually receive more racism than jokes, you should understand it's difficult to make the difference sometimes. So yes, I might be wrong. I was just sooo tired.
Pierce posted: "You love French bashing, I love assholes bashing. Do you get the meaning of this difference?"
You love to bash assholes, Pierce? I know a couple bars in town that you may enjoy.
Denny, how the hell did these guys find your site? I do, however, appreciate their presence--but strictly for entertainment value. I think it's a good thing that you let them stay.
Posted by: Marksman2000 on October 4, 2005 03:00 AMpierce, don't call your words mine. Si vous por favor. I was enjoying the arguements that you were having. Thank you for calling me a racist no brainer, I took that as a compliment. From now on please refer to me as The Capitalist American Pig Bitch who is of mostly French Heritage. At least that would be more befitting, or make you sound more interesting...
Indeed, I may have misunderstood you, but I'm not sure.
Posted by: Pierce on October 4, 2005 07:24 PMDearest Pierce,
How could you have misunderstood me? How can I be more clear? You took offense to me, called me names, and now you wanna play nice?
Sorry Kermie, but I don't get inner peace from playing nice with euphorians...