I was as peeved as anyone by France’s refusal to join in the ouster of Saddam Hussein, but I found it hard to take the over-the-top French-bashing. Now the reliably right-wing James Taranto, who does the Best of the Web blog for The Wall Street Journal web site, has found another example of French perfidy: the estimate by the French Health Ministry that 3,000 people have died in the current heat wave.
Taranto writes: “Might it be noteworthy that the French are claiming almost the same number of deaths from the heat as America suffered on Sept. 11? A popular lunatic conspiracy theory on the ‘European street’ has it that George W. Bush is to blame every time the weather is bad… Don’t be surprised if the America-haters’ next talking point is that by renouncing the Kyoto Protocols Bush killed as many people as Osama bin Laden did.”
Ah-hah! I knew there was something suspicious about that number. How conveeenient…
I assume Taranto wrote this before the power went out in New York, but I think he needs to take a chill pill. Besides, French-bashing is so last winter.