There was a time -- back before 9/11 and "freedom fries" and all that -- when I, in my naiveté, assumed that the reason that many people in the U.S. openly and broadly mocked the French was that it was obvious that we didn't really mean it. Because, you know, it would be ridiculous to actually have that level of bizarre animosity towards one of our major international allies. I imagined it was like the way that you're free to call your close friends names you would never hurl at a stranger; it's OK because everyone knows you're really best buds.

The popular U.S. reaction to France declining to jump on the Let's-Invade-Iraq-Because-9/11 bandwagon was quite the unpleasant eye-opener.