tachyonshuggy -

Yes, and they all move to other countries shortly after realizing it.

French people weren't allowed to work on Sundays for double pay?  The law actually forbid that?  And the socialist idea was to have the government pay people cash handouts to make up for their spending fewer hours making money?  Where exactly did the government think this money would come from? 

"The idea which seemed important to me was to say that we will raise purchasing power by encouraging work. That seems a good idea as measures taken ... to make the labor market more flexible help us to hire. It is positive."

In a prime-time television interview on Thursday, Sarkozy said he would boost purchasing power by making it far easier for people to work more, rather than by raiding already empty state coffers for cash handouts.

He plans to allow firms to circumvent the 35-hour limit if they reach deals on pay increases, allow employees to choose cash rather than time off for overtime, and give workers more scope to work voluntarily, on double pay, on Sundays.

Fuck you, Dave in Texas.

Don't get me started about effin' Columbus Day.

(The French have a) serious military force

I just popped a snot-bubble on my keyboard.

And their euro just keeps getting stronger

Excellent.  Now, if would could just pump up the yuan.

And their euro just keeps getting stronger

What is with you guys and your mind-numbing ignorance of economics?  A strong currency does not translate into a strong economy, nor does it translate into a higher standard of living for Joe Schmoe.  Europeans by-and-large still live packed together like pigs in tiny little crackerjack boxes, drive comically tiny clown cars (if they have them at all), and in general have far less economic mobility and far fewer creature comforts than Americans.

You wail and gnash your teeth when the U.S. has a negative trade imbalance  (despite the fact that most liberals don't know what the hell a trade deficit is, much less can explain why it's supposedly such a terrible harbinger of economic doom), and then you wail and gnash your teeth when the dollar weakens relative to the currencies of our trading partners (despite the fact that a "weak" dollar isn't going to make a damn bit of tangible difference to the average consumer).

Boy, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were reflexively programmed to denigrate the economy (you know, the one that's been in a sustained boom for about four solid years, in which pretty much everyone has a job, in which a higher percentage of people have homes than anywhere else in the world and the median square footage of those homes is 2,200, etc.) as long as the occupant of the White House doesn't have the right parenthesized letter after his name.

Very well said, VJay.