Joyeux jour de Bastille

(Si cet petit part de l'internet était completement bilingue et je peut ecrire avec des accents facilement, puis je ferais le "post" de aujourd'hui en français. Cependant, je deteste d'aller au Babel Fish et le "character map" pour trouver des accents, allors nous ecrirons en l'anglais.)

Well, it is Bastille Day and in honour of the only French national holiday commemorating a riot and total political overhaul, I'm going to do cite the many things that make la France le Force.

• Political expressions like "le metropole" and "les DOM-TOM." Now doesn't that just sound inherently better than just saying "the mainland" and "the dependencies and territories?"
• With the exceptions of Asia and Anarctica, France (see DOM-TOM above) is literally on every single continent: Reunion and Mayotte are in Africa; St. Pierre & Miquelon is right off the coast of Newfoundland (Terre-Neuve aujourd'hui); French Polynesia and New Caledonia in Australasia; Guadeloupe, St. Martin, Martinque, and French Guiana (home of the French space programme) are in Central & South America.
• You know that somewhere in the French National Archives there is a document that can revoke the Louisiana Purchase and cede it back to France. I would certainly support it. I hope that the French found it amusing that some people living in places like Pierre, St. Louis, Vermillion, and Belleville wanted to change the name of french fries to "freedom fries." I certainly did.
• No one does a Eurovision power ballad like the French. For examples see: 1968, 1977, 1979, 1991, 2001, and 2002. Absolutely full of profound meditations on life. (Courtesy of Yahoo's National Final MP3 group, I've also heard some amazing songs from the 1960's French national selections like "Il est mort, le soleil." I'm sorry, but a song like that can only be sung in French, because "The Sun is dead" just lacks the same punch in English.)
• The French also do a good upbeat Eurovision number. See: 1976, 1981, 1990, 1994, 1995, 1998, and 2005.
• As bad as Chirac is, he is no George W. Bush.
• French socialism is truly one of the greatest ideologies out there.
• The glory that is Paris's intermodal transit system.
• Paris itself. What I love about Paris is that it is cold, dirty, modern, snobbish, and the least romantic place on Earth (no matter what the Hollywood films say). It just says "c'est moi." That is my kind of town.
• France Télévisions. It may have scatter-shot content, but it is probably one of the most stylish state broadcasters out there.
• Asterix
• Mathieu Kassovitz. Not only is he handsome, he's also flat out brilliant as a director.
• Every single French person that I have met has been able to pronounce Hikaru correctly on the first try: three syllables, no stress on any of the vowels (the "u" is pronounced, people!)