French Inflation
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In France it is a crime to display contempt towards a public servant. In America it is a pastime and blood sport.
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| Sans humour, non? |
Not long ago a female politician confused the words for expanding the money supply with a form of oral gratification, which is understandable since they both lead to inflation. During an interview, Rachida Dati said of investment funds “I see some of them looking for returns of 20 or 25 per cent, at a time when fellatio is almost non-existent.”
We will assume she encountered an alliterative transposition and was not commenting on the sorry state of her love life.
Regardless, someone poked her unfunny bone via email by asking her for some inflation, which resulted in the sender no longer laughing at his own joke because he was arrested, jailed, had his computer confiscated and may face imprisonment and fines. Commentary that would cause his face to be slapped in a bar might land this poor pud in the pokey, which might cause him to get pokeyed.
The preposterous prosecutor said of the arrest “contempt is clear when a term is used to lower the reputation of a public servant,” showing that the prosecutor has a poor sense of direction, failing to know that nothing is lower than every politician’s reputation. Even whale excrement can’t sink lower than the public perception of anyone criminal-minded enough to seek office. Even the cumly Dati had her reputation deflowered faster than her chastity was (though on reflection we might assume someone as uptight as she might have avoided getting laid thus far).
America and France are siblings with different personalities, which is why we hold affection and contempt for one another at all times. France saved our butts in the revolution by covertly putting extra arms in our arms and sending the marquis de Lafayette to help our assault on the crown. Later we landed in Normandy to perform a little pest control, eradicating a nasty Nazi infestation. They gave us the Statue of Liberty, a grand monument to our freedom fetish and we returned the favor by sending them Jerry Lewis as a rude joke.
But in matters political, we are slightly further apart than adjacent galaxies. Making fun of politicians appears in no American law book. Indeed, despite some recurring difficulties, Americans assure politicians remain subservient to The People, and as part of the process we demonize, demean and disrespect them, not only for the sheer pleasure, but also as a conditioning exercise. Whack a dog on the nose repeatedly and it will flinch every time you raise your hand. Routinely and rhetorically crotch kick a politician and he will tend to say “yes sir, no sir.” Applying tar and feathers merely accelerates the learning process.
We can hope that Ms. Dati regains her immature composure and asks the prosecutor (who appears to be more a descendant of the marquis de Sade than the marquis de Lafayette) to drop charges and let the French fool continue exercising his inflated sense humor.
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