history is fraught with great stories, heros and villans. My favorite is the story of Fisk and Gould, they counterfited Commodor Vanderbilt's railroad stock certificates and when caught, bribed all involved even up to the congress to make the stocks valid and thus got out of jail rich an free. As to the French, just as they make sport of Bush , their own Jock- the less than rock -Jacques Chirac has eyes only for staying in power and padding the national pockets, not leadership in international events. If he wanted to avoid the war, he could have made a better effort with less negative fallout.. but I digress, happy harvesting....