For those of you who have been "lurking" around on our beloved S-B board over the past few days, you have no doubt seen some of the "warheads" being lobbed back and forth between the "anti-war" faction and the "this is a just war" group. You all KNOW where I stand on the issue, as I was QUITE vocal in defending the honor of the US in this debate (thanks FWW as well).

If you missed this, our European "friends" are organizing to boycott American made goods as a way to protest our involvement in Iraq. Check this out:

http://seattle.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2003/03/24/daily13.html


I think it is time for us to reciprocate the favor. The following list is a list of countries that ARE part of the Coalition of the Willing. With the upcoming boating season around the corner, I would urge you all to take a careful look at all the products you will be buying (spark plugs, filters, fishing gear, etc) and DO NOT BUY PRODUCTS MADE IN GERMANY, FRANCE, RUSSIA, CHINA, MEXICO, OR CANADA -- amongst others. The following countries should be "thanked" for their support of our troops with our personal spending dollars.

Here is the list of the Coalition of the Willing countries :
UK, Spain, Australia, Kuwait, Poland, Albania, Romania, Czech Republic, Portugal, Italy, Turkey, Japan, South Korea, Denmark, Netherlands, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Macedonia, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Georgia, Phillipines, Uzbekistan, Colombia, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Honduras, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda, Iceland, Singapore, Mongolia, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Solomon Islands, Palau, and Panama.

I encourage you to cut and paste this message onto other bulletin boards you might be a part of, and/or add it to your emails that you send out.

Let's show all these countries, that we have given all our aid to, to stick it where the sun don't shine!

I've been playing on that site for half an hour now. What a bunch of effin cannuckleheads over there :D :bsod:

I just watched CBC News (Canadian News).

A British colonel confirmed that there are Canadian Troops on the ground in Iraq.

This has opened up a can of worms.

The Canadian Minister of Defense is mum.

Methinks the Canadians have balls after all.

http://www.consumers-against-war.de/caw.htm

Let's go to this site and kick some Eurotrash Ass! They are really 'effin with us now... Be speaking Russian or German if it were not for our fathers & grandfathers...

I guess this means I won't have to put up with a bunch of smelly French and German tourists in NYC this summer :D

Can't wait for the ones who do to start asking me for directions :smash:

Maybe I'll just treat them the way they treated me when I lived over there. That means the Germans will still get some decent treatment but for the French, unless the frenchman is from Normandy, the "Frog" will get a cold reception!

It's interesting, the French that live in the swath between Le Mont St Michelle & Calais are extremely nice and honorable people, those that lived from Reims to Versaille were nice as well. Those in Paris were simply rude. The Germans, for the most part, were pretty fair people. Just the young ones really had it in for us Americans....

As for the boycott - what possible French products does one buy? All I can think of is boutique stuff (cheese, wine). I can't think of ANYTHING of substance that they make that Americans buy - other than some CAD modeling software and some computer games.

Well, you could buy a Renault or Peugot ;) Just make sure the AAA membership is up to date.

John-

American Tourism $$$ are where we can really hurt the French.

Don't go there!

-WW

Isn't zee Nautil reel
a French product, no?
eh?
;)

Mitchell (a French company) is a subsidiary of Pure Fishing (an American company).

The Nautil reels are manufactured in Korea.

Make sense to you?

-WW

They may have a plant in St. Paul, MN but the profits go to France.

http://www.vmcpeche.com/vmc/nphistory.html#modern

Ben---you put your finger on why boycotts are a complicated deal. Many GM cars and trucks are built in Canada (Oshawa, Ontario), Ford builds a lot of their products in Mexico, and Chrysler is wholly owned by Daimler-Benz. I guess it's a good thing Japan is in the "coalition of the willing"--and they build most of their cars we buy right here in the US :D

Also---many foreign-made goods aren't wholesaled in the US by the manufacturer, they're sold by a US importer who takes a piece of the sales revenue. A mark-up in other words. Boycotting those goods hurts a US company too. And in the case of VMC hooks, you gotta make a choice whether you want to have Minnesotans lose their jobs just to stick it to France.

The best way to hit the French in their pockets is not to go there unless you're in business and not going is gonna cost you your job.

Guys -- no need to over complicate things......all items must say, "Made in...." by law....those items made in the countries that do not support the US, don't buy......I would also add to not buy from companies whose HQ are in these same countries, as the profits go back to them eventually......my $.02 worth

Ah, but it isn't as simple as that--it IS a complicated issue. What happens to a publicly-traded corporation's net profits? Does it go to the government of the country where it's located, or to its stockholders? And what's the nationality of the majority of its stockholders? If that corporation is publicly held, and is listed on the NYSE, the Amex, or NASDAC, chances are the majority are Americans. If you have a pension, a 401(k), or a 403(b) that's a mutual fund, chances are you don't even know what companies you're investing in. Your entire retirement nest egg might be tied up in multinational firms headquartered in countries that don't support the US.

We all want to stick it to those countries, especially those that stabbed us in the back like France and Germany. But we don't want American workers (those employed here by those companies, or those in the import/export trade) and American investors to suffer along with them. Changing jobs often isn't an option, and when they took those jobs they never realized that it would become controversial some day. You're asking a lot if you're asking Americans who work for Perrier, VMC, Airbus, Air France, Lufthansa, Chrysler and many other French or German companies to quit and find other work in this economy, or for American investors to divest themselves of stocks from those companies in a down market.

Mike P -

You would be correct, but for one premise --- the VAST majority of the corporations located in Germany, France, etc. trade/are listed on the local stock exchanges in those countries and not on NASDAQ, NYSE or another US board (i.e. Chicago Board of Trade).....Americans can invest in these firms in the form of ADRs, but they ARE foreign listed firms.

Also, investors only get DIVIDENDS from their holdings as a result of positive earnings by a publically traded company. Dividends are calculated after profit is assumed, so regardless of the investor's getting their dividend return, the company has already taken THEIR major piece of the pie......remember, dividends are not guaranteed. They are AWARDED to stockholders as the Board of Directors of the company sees fit.

So, for example, Siemens, Alstom, Daimler-Chrysler are all listed on other exchanges. Amercian's can buy ownership through ADRs only.

Our economy is too enough as it is, we do not need to put more Americans out of work. But we should stick it back when we can - no cheese and truffles pleaz :rollem:

What we also don't want to see are the big US companies like an IBM, or a Ford that hire a lot of eruoweenies (I'm normally not like this but I'm a bit tweaked here ::af: ) and have them hit hard too. So where is the middle ground?



Anyway:

"France has neither winter nor summer nor morals. Apart from these drawbacks it is a fine country.

France has usually been governed by prostitutes."
---Mark Twain

"I just love the French. They taste like chicken!"
---- Hannibal Lecter

While speaking to the Hoover Institution today, Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was asked this question:

"Could you tell us why to date at least the Administration doesn't favor direct talks with the North Korean government? After all, we're talking with the French."

The Secretary smiled and replied:

"I'm not going there!"


"I would rather have a German division in front of me than a French one behind me."
--- General George S. Patton


"Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without your accordion."

--Norman Schwartzkopf


"We can stand here like the French, or we can do something about it."

---- Marge Simpson


"As far as I'm concerned, war always means failure"
---Jacques Chirac, President of France

"As far as France is concerned, you're right."
---Rush Limbaugh,

"The only time France wants us to go to war is when the German Army is sitting in Paris sipping coffee."

--- Regis Philbin

There was a Frenchman, an Englishman and Claudia Schiffer sitting together in a carriage in a train going through Provence. Suddenly the train went through a tunnel and as it was an old style train, there were no lights in the carriages and it went completely dark. Then there was a kissing noise and the sound of a really loud slap. When the train came out of the tunnel, Claudia Schiffer and the Englishman were sitting as if nothing had happened and the Frenchman had his hand against his face as if he had been slapped there. The Frenchman was thinking: 'The English fella must have kissed Claudia Schiffer and she missed him and slapped me instead.' Claudia Schiffer was thinking: 'The French fella must have tried to kiss me and actually kissed the Englishman and got slapped for it.' And the Englishman was thinking: 'This is great. The next time the train goes through a tunnel I'll make another kissing noise and slap that French bastard again.'

"The French are a smallish, monkey-looking bunch and not dressed any better, on average, than the citizens of Baltimore. True, you can sit outside in Paris and drink little cups of coffee, but why this is more stylish than sitting inside and drinking large glasses of whiskey I don't know."

--- P.J O'Rourke (1989)

Next time there's a war in Europe, the loser has to keep France.

An old saying:
Raise your right hand if you like the French....
Raise both hands if you are French.

"You know, the French remind me a little bit of an aging actress of the 1940s who was still trying to dine out on her looks but doesn't have the face for it."
---John McCain, U.S. Senator from Arizona

"You know why the French don't want to bomb Saddam Hussein? Because he hates America, he loves mistresses and wears a beret. He is French, people."

--Conan O'Brien

"I don't know why people are surprised that France won't help us get Saddam out of Iraq. After all, France wouldn't help us get the Germans out of France!"
---Jay Leno

"The last time the French asked for 'more proof' it came marching into Paris under a German flag."

--David Letterman

REPLACEMENTS FOR THE
FRENCH NATIONAL ANTHEM:
"Runaway" by Del Shannon,
"Walk Right In" by the Rooftop Singers,
"Everybody's Somebody's" Fool by Connie Francis,
"Running Scared" by Roy Orbison,
"I Really Don't Want to Know" by Tommy Edwards,
"Surrender" by Elvis Presley,
"Save It For Me" by The Four Seasons,
"Live and Let Die" by Wings,
"I'm Leaving It All Up To You" by Donny and Marie Osmond,
"What a Fool Believes" by the Doobie Brothers,
"Don't Worry, Be Happy" by Bobby McFerrin
"Raise Your Hands" by Jon Bon Jovi


How many Frenchmen does it take to change a light bulb? One. He holds the bulb and all of Europe revolves around him.

Mike-

Exactly what I was alluding to. We live in a global economy where borders don't really seem to mean much anymore.

It would be awful tough to really boycott anything in this day and age.

I could live without French wine and cheese, but please, VMC hooks are a staple.

I won't drink German beer for awhile but man it's going to hurt to part with my Heckler & Koch toys. :( Those krauts make the best dang firesticks in the world. No surprise, they've had a lot of practice killing people.

-WW

It is sad that we do not actually penalize corporations for their sins by hitting them in their pocketbooks.

Some of you other old timers out there might remember that Volkswagan actually contributed quite heavily both financially and with equipment in helping Adolph Hitler rise to power in the Nazi party back in the 1930's, and they supplied a lot of equipment for the Nazi's during WWII. In fact, Volkswagan was founded by the German government in 1937 to mass-produce a low-priced automobile. The company was originally operated by the German Labor Front (Deutsche Arbeitsfront), a Nazi organization to build "the people's car."

....and folks STILL buy their products today.

Oh well...

How long is a sufficient time for a nation to atone for its past sins? Lest we all forget, the only foreign invading force that ever landed on US soil after independence was the British, in the War of 1812. They burned the White House and looted the Capitol. I think we all agree that the British have atoned for that sin with interest over the years.

The Japanese planes that led the attack on Pearl Harbor were manufactured by Mitsubishi. IMO Japan has atoned sufficiently, and it's also of note to point out that this was a military attack on a military target. However, they brutalized occupied countries and their treatment of Allied POWs was atrocious. Despite all that, we treated their people magnanimously after the war, allowed Hirohito to remain in power while punishing severely the militarists who led them into war and were responsible for most of their atrocities, established self-rule after a relatively short period of occupation, and they have been a stalwart friend over the years, and remain so today in this war.

Germany is a different issue. I'm still uncomfortable buying German products. And I would not touch anything I knew was made by IG Farber (Faben?) who manufactured the Zyklon-B used as the poison to exterminate 11 million human beings. Whatever excesses the Japanese committed against the Chinese and Koreans during their occupations (and make no mistake--the SS treated POWs as badly as the Japanese), they did not engage in a campaign of mass genocide that resulted in the extermination of 11 million civilians in death camps.

They are willing to boycott American good, but you don't hear them refusing Foreign Aid Money's!! When this conflict is over,we should tell them all that they are now ON YOUR OWN!

Originally posted by Mike P
IMO Japan has atoned sufficiently...

Some of my immediate family who were brutalized by the Japs would respectfully disagree with ya Mike, even though we nuked them...twice.

On another note...I used to work for several European companies that had a lot of English, French, Swiss, Italian (and so on) expats. They all - to the man - intensely dislike the Krauts. :laughs: