No Wonder They Don't Get "Casablanca"

Mark Steyn says it well.

Mr Naumetz has the same intellectual capabilities as John McCallum.

Did Steyn say "No-Metzgers" (No-butchers)?

Ah, but yes of course, Mr. Naumetz vould prefer zat vee vould all be speaking german.

Cheers

Hans Rupprecht, C in C

1st St. Nicolaas Army
Army Group “True North"

Mark Steyn certainly pinned back the ears of Naumetz!

Excellent,as always.

Thanks for that Youtube clip, one of my favourites from that flick.

News flash for Naumetz and his fellow travellers: Canada was not created in 1968 and the imposed mythical Trudeaupian version has nothing in common with our roots, history, traditions or the very founding of Canada.

Who is this Numbnutz guy anyway?

" (Any relation to Admiral Naumetz, whom the Bush-Cheney warmongers singlehandedly made a household name in the Pacific?)"

Brilliant, just brilliant.

Also mentioned was jason cherniak, alleged lawyer, who informs us Canadians have freedom of expression due to Trudeau's charter. Before that, of course, we lived in a totalitarian state.
How does a person show their face in public - or the blogosphere - after uttering such stupidity? I guess it helps to have a liberal audience.

Mr. Naumetz is truly a product of our times, much like many of his ilk that profess to be educated; historically ignorant, vocabularly challenged, and void of ability to reason or research. Thank God a lot of us that are still around graduated before 1968.

Casablanca is one of my all-time favourite movies, but I still have to suppress a giggle every time I hear "La Marseillaise";

To arms citizens Form your battalions
March, march
Let impure blood
Water our furrows

This from a nation that hasn't won a war since Napoleon? From the only nation to collaborate with the Nazi regime?

I remember a joke from the Six Day War about Egyptian tanks having one speed in forward and six in reverse. A French design, no doubt.

"The Harper government singlehandedly made Vichy a household name in Canada."

Assuming the he means Vimy, Pierre Burton published an excellent book on Vimy Ridge in 2003. Does Burton not get some credit for making it household name?

At any rate, it SHOULD be a household name, given that it was arguably the most pivotal battle in Canadian history.

Naumetz argues (as best as I can tell from his insipidly written article) that Harper is a militant.

And yet it was Chretien that got us into Afghanistan, and Harper who -- for better or worse -- is getting us out.

Oh please,leave McCallum alone.

His boss,PM Paul Martin confused Normandy and Norway,not once but twice,in a speech to veterans on the 60th anniversary of D-Day.
Here's CTV's coverage of the gaffe.
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/20040415/martin_norwaygaffe_20040415/

Here's CBC's coverage;

Hmmm,

Is it just coincidence that when Jason Cherniak disappeared from the blogosphere, Naumetz appeared.

I do so miss the old days when Cherniak, channeling his inner Turd-Oh was flying high, picking out his office on Parliament Hill, thinking up some officious title that actuallymeans the same as "Person with a Lip-Lock on the Public Teat"

WF Buckley once opined "I would rather be governed by the first tow hundred names in the Boston telephone directory, than the faculty of Harvard".

I'd rather be governed by any telephone directory's first two hundred names, than the 'Canadian Values' and talking heads clique.

To go along with my post about PM Paul Martin mixing up Normandy and Norway.
This is another huge reason that the CBC cannot find bias in their news coverage.
It is impossible to check what has not been covered. The Norway/Normandy gaffe from 7years ago,and more recently,Pablo's wild ride,and Judy's mortgage scheme.There are many,many,more.

Mr Styen has a long loaded gun. Best not to be in his sites.

"Who is this Numbnutz guy anyway?"

Exactly !

KevinB: "A French design, no doubt."
No, they were using Soviet T-54s an T-55s.
The Israelis were still using a few French-built MX-13s.

"From the only nation to collaborate with the Nazi regime?"

You seem to have forgotten about Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Romania, and Bulgaria. Oh yes, not to forget Spain, which happily allowed U-boats to refuel until 1943 and sent troops to the Eastern Front, the Blue Division. That lot joined voluntarily; France had to be defeated first. And last I heard, never supported Germany militarily anywhere.

"This from a nation that hasn't won a war since Napoleon?"

I suppose you forgot about the Crimean War. And also about the Second War of Italian Independence. And yes they managed, along with their allies, to defeat Germany in WWI, fielding most of the troops on the Western Front and taking most of the casualties.

I am shocked, shocked, that Candian journalism is inhabited by dishonest left-wing ignoramuses!

If you don't know what Vichy is, it's hard to figure out Casablanca...

More to the point, if you don't know what Vichy is, it's hard to avoid repeating that particular form of national and cultural suicide.

KevinB

I am a Canadian born and bred but also have the privilege of proudly wearing the "Kepi Blanc" and am personally offended. These are MY band of brothers.....

With a company of our guys years back we ran the Lubyan Army from Chad...without sustaining a casualty....we drove at 60k to conserve fuel and allow them to keep well ahead.

Back in the day I visited Dieppe, the D-day beaches, Vimy Ridge and Verdun....At Verdun the losers, that you describe, stopped the German Army cold.

The French collapsed at Sedan,in the spring of 1940, for the same reason as Denmark and Norway, defeatism by the French government.....and obsolete, run down military.

BTW it would not be clever to insult the Italian military when members/former members of the Bersigliari or Alpini are present.

I recall the events of 1963, in the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination...the assembled crowds belted out the Star Spangeled Banner with the same defiance illustrated in Casablanca....how oh how did we lose our way?

There you guys go with your facts! :)

As long as some people are convinced of that theirs is an unimpeachable intellect, you will always have the foot-in-mouth syndrome.

I can't imagine being a liberal -- an endless diet of half cooked, lukewarm intellectual gruel with never a new flavour, left out on the counter and re-warmed ad infinitum with nothing but a change of label to tell one that it's supposed to be a new dish. How utterly tedious.

For me, the best moment in Casablanca comes at the end when Capt. Renault looks at the bottle of Vichy Water and discards it in the garbage without a word. The image is powerful and the message elegant in its simplicity.

The Franco-Prussian War also did not turn out well for Napoleon III. He was a bonehead for starting a war while his military was still in the throes of reorganization.

I believe that some Vichy troops and sailors did make an effort, even if symbolic, to thwart the Allies in Syria and Algeria.

cgh:

The Crimean war was fought by an alliance of French, British, and Ottoman troops against a mainly Russian force. The Royal Navy was an effective force at sea, sinking, or forcing the Russians to scuttle, most of their fleet, and bottling up what remained in the Black Sea. The land war, which most military historians think is distinguished by the inept leadership on both sides (think Charge of the Light Brigade, consisted of mostly back and forth movements and a few lengthy sieges. The French lost 100,000 of their 400,000 troops; the British about 22,000 out of 250,000. Some general (now what was his name?) once said "You don't win wars by dying for your country; you win by making the other poor bastard die for his country". To suggest that France "won" this war on its own is ridiculous. As for the second war of Italian Independence - that was a four-month skirmish, hardly befitting the term.

They then lost the Franco-Prussian war, which was notable for the French losing both their leader, Nappy III, and almost their entire army in one battle at Sedan. WWI - well as sasquatch notes, they lost most of the troops on the Western front. The soldiers may have been brave, but dying for your country doesn't win wars (see above). The truth is WWI had degenerated into a weary stalemate by 1916, and only the introduction of fresh US troops tipped the balance in the Allies' favour. In WWII, not only did the French collaborate with the Nazis, they refused twice to turn over their naval force to Britain, resulting in the British destroying half their fleet at Mers-el-Kebir, and the French scuttling the remainder at Toulon. Refusing to help your friend by handing over your remaining guns to him after you've already surrendered to the enemy? I suppose some French consider this a point of "honour"; I think a more realistic view is cutting off your nose to spite your face. The French contribution to the Allied victory in WWII was negligible at best, and certainly not as strong as Canada's, a much smaller country.

After that, the French lost a war in Indochina, and another in Algiers. My statement may have been a bit of exaggeration but not by much, and certainly nothing the French army has done since Waterloo stands up to what Napoleon accomplished prior to that.

Sasquatch: I'm sure there are many brave French soldiers. I'm equally sure their generals and politicians have squandered them over the last two centuries. I had teachers in high school who had fought in WWII; I remember my French teacher telling me once that you didn't ask French men of a certain age what they had done during the war. When I asked him why, he told me to watch Ophul's The Sorrow and The Pity.

Finally, cgh, the comment about the tanks was what some people like to call a "joke".

Mark Steyn wrote: "By 'changing the face of Canada', [Tim Naumetz] means Harper is changing it from 'the face of Canada' Pierre Trudeau imposed on the nation 40 years ago. Which was, in effect, M Trudeau's own face."

Reading this, I couldn't help but recall something an Anonymous True-Dopian wrote about the Canadians on Small Dead Animals:

Not exactly. Someone nicknamed "Robert W. (Vancouver)" linked to your web posting (see here: http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/017228.html) while serving as a guest blogger on the far-right wing Canadian blog Small Dead Animals, which has elsewhere gained notoriety for its lovely ongoing commentaries about Aboriginals, Muslims, gays and lesbians, and other groups that its readers do not like.

Link: http://tinyurl.com/3vvk6yl

John Mcallum; The town drunk and village idiot all wrapped in one stumbling gentleman. Oh to be a lieberal, you can forever blame someone else for your utter stupidity all while having the CBC CTV Globes and Starwipes tell the few who watch or read their drivel what geniuses liberals are, Ignatieff, Jennings, Volpe, Turdo comes to mind.

"You don't win wars by dying for your country; you win by making the other poor bastard die for his country"

Didn't Patten say that. It would be his style.

I hope that no one is confusing Numbnutz/Naumetz with American WW-II Pacific Theatre Naval hero ADM. Chester Nitmitz, who would never have confused the heroes of the Battle of Vimy Ridge with the Vichy quislings. This speaks ill of the quality of Canadian education, which apparently is only little better than its American counterpart.

I could go for a nice bowl of Vimyssoise.

Steyn takes Cherniak behind the woodshed in letters. It's a instant classic.

http://www.steynonline.com/content/view/4243/59 and scroll down.

I have come to view WWII as more of a us vs the COmmunist sceanario in Europe. It has been rationalized by history as us vs. the Nazi but that has more to do with WWII propaganda.

After WWI western powers sent support to the White Russians to fight the Bolsheviks. Lenin in turn exported communism into Europe and the USA. Nazism's ability to take hold was a direct response. Millions of refugees left Russian controled areas and settled in western Europe. Not only the French supported anti-communist movements, almost every country had such movements. Hundreds of thousands of non-Germans volunteered on the eastern front during WWII.

Maybe the French didn't want to fight the Germans but then neither did our own French Canadians. An old family friend told me of having to force French Canadian troops onto ships in Halifax at gun point during WWII. I guess they weren't interested in liberating the motherland either.

The Casablanca line is pretty good and this is devestatingly brilliant.

"Long before Harper made Canadian militarism a household name, it was a household name with my grandparents because their household had been liberated by it."

My French Canadian sister-in-law recently disowned me for stating in a letter to the editor that we needed to De-Trudeau-ize Canada. So it goes.

There must be something Freudian in the way the left continually misconstrues "Vimy" and "Vichy". One, a hard fought and won battle that required personal sacrifice, the other a collaborationist government whose troops fired on Brits and Americans, enabled Hitler's romp through Europe, and transferred Jews to the death camps. Huh.

If you don't what Vichy is, you're doomed to thinking that carrots are boring...

Kevin, I'd like to know where you get your Crimean casualty list from. The French never had more than eight divisions in Crimea, and the British were deeply envious of the fact that the French had better supplies and better medical facilities than they did. And it was the French army, not the British, which made the critical attack that finally captured Sevastopol.

As to the WW1 stalemate, yes it became a stalemate because virtually unsupported the French succeeded in stopping the much stronger German army during the first year of fighting. The British were not in France in significant numbers until well into 1915.

No the French didn't lose most of their army at Sedan. They lost less than half of it. Napoleon III abdicated, Paris was taken over by the Communists and the French army settled an armistice with Prussia to put down the Paris revolt. And why did the Prussians agree? Because they were losing thousands of men to local guerrillas every month.

As to the Vichy fleet, the only leverage Vichy had to keep Hitler from occupying the entire country was the threat of turning over the fleet to Britain. Even Churchill in his history of the war admits that Admiral Darlan had a point.

To pretend that the French army hasn't fought well anywhere in 200 years is simply absurd, and you know it.