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So, I am concerned that France has gone too far, but I can also see some merit to the notion that France has avoided some bad things by a matter of degree.

Yeah, things are rarely simple, are they...

This reminds me of a case of bigotry we had here in Croatia recently. We have mandatory national photo ID cards, issued by our equivalent of DHS (police, actually). Some local police clerk refused to let some Muslim woman wear her headscarf on the photo taken for that ID. It was funny to read verbal gymnastics the guys employed when trying to explain why said Muslim girl cannot wear her headdress on ID photo, while Catholic nuns can.

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The recent political bashings aside, I find the comparison of the relative tribulations of the USA and France interesting. We have guns. They have cigarettes.

Heh.

Ah, Paris and Athens are among the last places where I could have my small cigar after a meal in a nice restaurant... Well, one has to die of something, doesn't one? And frankly, I think that the mentioned meals do more harm to me than cigar... (In my case heart is a clear favorite, in a very little part helped by that small amount of nicotine, carbon monoxide etc; cancer is faaar beyond.)