Freedom Fries (Sorry, no Victory Gin.....yet)

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Article is outdated, but I'd thought I'd let you Non-Americans know what was going on in the halls of Congress.

link: http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/03/ ... irq.fries/

"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The cafeteria menus in the three House office buildings changed the name of "french fries" to "freedom fries," in a culinary rebuke of France stemming from anger over the country's refusal to support the U.S. position on Iraq.

Ditto for "french toast," which will be known as "freedom toast."

The name changes were spearheaded by two Republican lawmakers who held a news conference Tuesday to make the name changes official on the menus.

Across the country, some private restaurants have done the same.

"This action today is a small, but symbolic effort to show the strong displeasure of many on Capitol Hill with the actions of our so-called ally, France," said Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, the chairman of the Committee on House Administration.

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Ney, whose committee has authority over the House cafeterias, directed the change, after colleague Walter Jones, R-North Carolina, circulated a letter suggesting such a move. Jones said he was following the example of a local restaurant owner in his North Carolina district.

"I represent a district with multiple military bases that have deployed thousands of troops," Jones said in a statement. "As I've watched these men and women wave good-bye to their loved ones, I am reminded of the deep love they have for the freedom of this nation and their desire to fight for the freedom of those who are oppressed overseas. Watching France's self -serving politics of passive aggression in this effort has discouraged me more than I can say."

The name change was criticized by one young man in a House cafeteria.

"That's completely ludicrous to me," he said.

France has pressed the United Nations to give weapons inspectors more time in Iraq, saying the U.S. and British-led move to war is premature.

Its stance has angered some U.S. lawmakers.

Rep. Jim Saxton, R-New Jersey, has introduced legislation in the House that would block any French company from receiving U.S. government aid or financing in any reconstruction of Iraq. Another measure discourages American tourists, businesses and the government from participating in the 2003 Paris Air show.

But House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said he didn't think Congress needed to take any formal steps to signal its disapproval of France.

"I don't think we have to retaliate against France," he said. "They have isolated themselves. They have resigned from any responsibility for the war on terror."

Asked why he was focusing on France when other nations, including Germany and Russia, oppose the U.S. position on Iraq, Jones said it was because France had taken the lead in challenging the United States.

Officials with the French Embassy in Washington could not be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon."

CNN
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Although industrial grade Victory Gin is not yet available (that we know of anyway), Freedom Fries are an important first step. This can be gulped down with Victory Beer, if you wish.
Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_beer

dear god, its 1984 for real this time...

This is so outdated to have probably been mentioned here long long ago, and forgotten. How can you still be obsessed with this?

its ironic that they replaced french with freedom considering the french involvement in the american war of independence


i hope next time they will give back the statue of liberty

What do you have against Victory Gin ??

Hehe...Anyone want some Liberty Cabbage?

Sort of, but not really considering that the French really didn't care too much about our cause so much as getting back at the British. I mean, this led to crap like the XYZ affair and things of that nature as we didn't want to be the servants of the French after the war. It was an alliance of convenience.

Considering that we have had to fix a lot of the Statue of liberty, and that Americans even were involved in the funding of the original, I do not think that we are very likely to give it back. The symbol holds meaning to matter what our relationship with France is.

They did the same stuff during wars. They called sauerkraut Victory Cabbage during WWI simply because we were fighting the Germans. It is more like a stupid political move than a reason for concern. Heck, 1984 is art imitating life more so than current events are life imitating art.

I already said that it was. I just thought I'd bring it up for scruntiny.


yeah, its kinda sad that people obsess over the name of the food, or anything really, when wars are going on. I read this article and I thought that it was absurd that there are some people out there that whole heartily believe that there is some symbolism in such a trivial thing such as the name of food.

Whats even scarier is that we keep on making the same mistakes over and over again. A psychologist I used to know told me that the majority of Americans seem to have some sort of warped conditioning in that if they aren't happy, or if something doesn't fit in with their own ideal of perfect, then something must be wrong. Of course, the war in Iraq had a lot more with the interest of the oil companies than they did with freeing people in Iraq :rolleyes:.

And Crassus made his money by extorting people to pay fire insurance. I think
that we should discuss this outrage, as well.

cough cough lafayette

but ill admit i know next to nothing about American history

Lafayette? The young french noble who helped us? That is all well and good, but it doesn't mean that the French were anything but eager for revenge against the brits. Lafayette was just a rebel and participated in his own nation's revolution and as such cannot be seen as the representative of the French government. I essentially state this: if the French were such good allies then why were they such a problem after the war? We had huge diplomatic problems with them, including having them attack our ships, and other things. We tried to embargo them(and Britain) during Jefferson's presidency, we even wanted to go to war with them back in the presidency of John Adams. That doesn't sound like a strong ally.

I tend to be reasonably well educated about the history of the nation.

Whoa! The whole form and nature of the French government changed between the time of the rebellion to the incidents which you are mentioning. Not that they were really our ally or anything - but this would be like claiming that France wasn't a good ally to Russia, because after all, they opposed the regime put in place by the Russian revolution.

Well, you are right, I am ignoring the French revolution a bit too much and that is definitely a major major issue. The only thing is that we cannot argue that France is our steadfast ally throughout all of history, our nations have had very rough times. The time before the French revolution was not very long after the American revolution so it is hard to do all of the analysis necessary. Not only but it is hard to claim that the French really cared for us even though their system during the revolution was in opposition to American ideals. We were their tool for vengeance against their hated foes if anything.

True. There are no such things as steadfast allies anyhow. Alliances are always matters of convenience. Anything else would be idiotic.

first of all i really don't like that you assume im american

im sorry but im doing the French revolution in history atm and "American ideals" actually had a huge effect in the French revolution and Lafayette was one of very few offishals respected by the people because of his role in America. but again French i dunno jack about american history