The last acceptable American prejudice might be French Catholicism.
Just watch Glenn Beck for 20 minutes and see him explode into a "I don't care what Mr. Frenchie French thinks" juvenille-rant-o-meter off the charts vitriol against anything just French.
You can still find mockery of French accents with less humor than PePe Lepieu.
French, it seems is synonymous in America still with cheese-eating effeminate wino or something equally morally depraved in the red-neck Beck popular culture.
That is why it is still acceptable for Republicans in the Senate to do things like ask a Supreme Court nominee whether she will in fact consider international law- the hubristic undercurrent being, we are the best most moral people on the planet so why do we have to look at what anyone else in the world does? This I call the insular ignorant american myopia. This IIAM syndrome is also at the root of the "teach no student spanish" for fear we become a -God forbid-multilingual society (as if we aren't already.)
Have you people ever been to Provence? The French Alps? They had international ski championships there in Val D'Isere last year. Ever heard of Mont Blanc? Nice (pronounced Neeece) on the Riviera? Normandy? Ever hear of Monet? Dannon yogurt maybe? Seriously? Have you been outside Alabama or Alaska-outside a radio studio ever? Do you know that they have train stations in Paris? With real high speed trains. Ever hear of Lourdes? Cannes (oh, forget that one- all those Holywood A -listers you can't stand for jealousy either)- ever hear of Mont Saint Michele? Champaign (it's really a place)- or Dijon (not just a mustard.) How about Lyon or a Cathedral in Chartres?
Seriously- who put Glenn Beck on the air? Is there really a market for this sort of buffoonish
bulldog without lipstick frat boy flunk-out pseudo-Budweiser-slogfest- patriotism? Is that what Republicanism stands for -because if so, you all can have your head in the sand and ask moronic questions of the most qualified Supreme Court nominee we have put before a Senate committee in a few decades like will she consider foreign law- as if she is going to say- NO WAY! I wouldn't want to be learned about anything going on outside the country- because nothing relevant to us here in this age of globalization happens east of Long Island! Get Serious Senator.
Or- you can tune into French Catholic TV right on line here-
http://www.ktotv.com/
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