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"Do the French Have an IQ of 12?



There was a moment back in the early 1990s when many folks in the wine industry believed fervently that America's Neo-Prohibitiionists would play a key role in inhibiting the marketing of wine in the United States. Mothers Against Drunk Driving seemed to have the ear of every law enforcement agency in America. It appeared their goal was nothing less than stopping all drinking. The news about Fetal Alcohol Syndrome was everywhere and threatened turn off every single pregant woman in America from even having a sip of wine during their 9 months of gestation.

None of these threats to common sense came to any serious fruition.

The apparent French ban on publicizing wine on the Internet is so entirely absurd it reads like something that might have come out of the mind of HG Wells during his most cynical moments.

Try to wrap your mind around this. The French government is very concerned about its wine industry's ability to compete against global competition. So, it goes about reconfiguring the ways by which French winemakers may label their wines, then instructs them: "But don't tell anyone about your wines....Shhhh! You can make the wines, but don't market them."

Yes, the french may have a bit of a problem with alcohol abuse. But are they really dead set on hamstringing perhaps their most famous product, a product that goes a long way toward defining their national identity, in order to address a problem that is unlikely to have anything to do with the production of Bordeaux, Burgundy, Provencal Rose and Chateauneuf du Pape? Really?

I thought it the height of silliness when, after 9/11 America went on an anti-France crusade with out stupid "Freedom Fries" and the ongoing bashing of the entire country. Now I'm not so sure. It appears to me the French do indeed deserve a bit of severe bashing. Not for any stand they may choose to take against American hegemony, but rather because it's down right dangerous to do business and have relations with a country that appears to have a collective IQ of 12."

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