[UncleSamUSA]

Now the left wing times is giving us freeping French lessons, for gosh sakes.

I was always taught back in eighth grade french that saying "taissez-vous" was equivalent to "shut up" and was therefore very rude. Seems like Mr Surrender Monkey did in fact come very close to that naughty-word.

But then again maybe you at the Times could translate the following phrase directed at Mr Chirac: "Bugger off, you obnoxious appeasement maggot" into proper diplomatese.

[calico joe]

All anyone need do is look it up in a French dictionary. "se taire" is not neutral. My OED gives one colloquial meaning as "shut up". Other translations are "hold your tongue" or "be silent".

No matter how you cut it, it isn't neutral either in English or in French.

It is, as they say, worse than a "faux pas"; c'est une faute!

[AmishDude]

I have read on NRO that "Cheese Eating Surrender Monkey" does not translate well into French.

I wonder if the NYT went to great lengths to explain that Gerald Ford never actually said "Drop Dead" or anything of the sort to NYC.

Maybe. They resembled a real paper back then.