French Response to Google is Microsoft

efp writes "Mark Liberman posted over in the Language Log that, in considering alternatives to Google's library initiative in Europe, French President Jacques Chirac would consider a partnership with Microsoft 'since he has so many views in common with its president, Bill Gates'. This comes out of talks between the French president, the head of the French National Library and the Minister of Culture, in in part 'building an alter ego to the American project, before thinking of an eventual collaboration with Google, so as not to negotiate from a position of weakness' as they plan to digitize their cultural resources."

Comments

Talking of common views...

[Walkiry]

I seem to recall that Chirac was on very friendly terms with Saddam Hussein, so having "views in common" with Billy seems like par for the course to me.

Re:France surrendering?

[MightyMartian]

Indeed, through most of the Middle Ages after the failure of the Carolingians, France was Europe's superpower. The collapse during the Franco-Prussian War can largely be blamed on the incompetence of Napoleon III and Bismark's willingness to stoop to any level to provoke a war.

France's defeat in WWII, of course, can be blamed more on the Americans and the Brits who basically sold themselves and France up the river with ludicrous disarmament agreements. The idiocy of the Allied Powers pushed France into this suicidal disarmament. The blame should squarely go on the shoulders of the US for refusing to join the League of Nations, and for the Allies not forcing Germany back when it rearmed the Rhineland which was, for all intents and purposes, a declaration of war upon France.

It may be difficult for Americans to understand as they stuff their faces with Freedom Fries, but the bullshit anti-French crapola they've been fed is nothing more than the ravings of historically retarded goons. Napoleon lead the French Empire to some of the most astounding military victories in the history of the human species. France managed to fight off the English for centuries before finally evicting them permanently. They've had their share of defeats, but the surrender in 1940 was written more by other hands than by their own.