A different stance in France

France, whatever else you might say about it, has had a reputation for producing impressive and world-changing individuals from time to time. French President Nicolas Sarkozy seems to be shaping into that sort of Frenchman. Certainly he's doing an impressive overhaul of France's foreign policy.

For the record, overall I have a soft spot in my heart for France. Attempts to mindlessly French-bash in the comments here will be cheerfully stonewalled. That's not to say that I'm not appalled at some of what goes on over there. It is to say that I think the country has its pros as well as its cons, and also that I suspect that the agenda-driven media types too often try to boost the wrong people and policies at the expense of the more decent sorts. I could be wrong on that, of course.

Added: I didn't know this but the word stonewall is sometimes used in Britain in an altogether different way than I'm used to hearing it used. According to The Penguin English Dictionary, Second Edition, in addition to meaning 'to obstruct or delay parliamentary debate' or 'to be evasive or obstructive,' stonewall also can be used to mean "to bat excessively defensively and cautiously in cricket."