Too Much To Dream

"They bid us to the English dancing schools,
And teach lavoltas high and swift corantos;
Saying our grace is in our heels,
And that we are most lofty runaways." - The Duke of Bourbon, from Henry V.

I can never decide whether to take Tom Friedman seriously or not.

He oftens says things that sound sensible, but other times seems just plain whacky.

We can play "angry at France" all we want, but what does a New York Times moderate-lefty columnist mean by "enemy" exactly? That France is obstructionist is not news, but....

Ack, I can't take this guy seriously since the "Is the internet God?" column.

I'd say that this time Friedman is noticing what others have already understood for quite some time to be the case.

As to what sort of "enemy" France is -- France is not the all-out, guns-blazing, "we will destroy you!" type of enemy, but rather the "smiles stiffly at you at the ball, is extra-polite to your face in such a way that you feel snubbed though you can't put your finger on it, whispers bad things about you behind your back, tries to turn all your friends against you" kind of enemy. Frankly I prefer the guns-blazing, in-your-face sort of enemy.

Frankly I prefer the guns-blazing, in-your-face sort of enemy.

They also make better friends than the other kind.