Here's a nice article by Rod Dreher from National Review Online on why he doesn't hate the French. I couldn't agree more. Let me emphasize once again that I like Europe. I like Spain and Catalonia and Barcelona. If I didn't like it here, I'd move. I just think that most European people, who are generally friendly and courteous and generous, are also political idiots. That doesn't make them bad people. It just makes them politically irresponsible.

I mean, Spain has done exactly one politically responsible thing in its history, the transition to democracy between 1975 and 1982. France has done zero politically responsible things in its history. Zero. I guess you could count bailing out of their mostly worthless colonies as sort of responsible, but then look and see what happened in France's former colonies after France left. Morocco and Tunisia are about as good as ex-French colonies get. I suppose setting up the Common Market was also pretty responsible, but what choice did they have? Nasty, Bitchy France-Bashing Comments: the Third Republic rivals Weimar Germany and Popular Front Spain as the Worst Democratic Republic of All Time, and you have to give the crown to the Third Republic because it lasted almost seventy years. And Napoleon III definitely takes the title as Most Tawdry Emperor in history.