Last time I was in France, I started most days listening to "Makeda," by Parisian sister duo Les Nubians. Here in the Brooklyn, I still listen to it often. It's a perfect morning song, regardless of whether you're waking up with some good espresso or a buck-fifty cup of sludge from the bodega. Bonjour.

Monsier R, nee Richard Makela, is a French rapper who might be sent to jail for doing the sort of thing that American rappers do all the time. A court recently agreed to consider a complaint lodged by a conservative MP against Monsieur R. Why? Because the rapper referred to France as a "slut" in the song "FranSSe" off of his latest album, Politikment Incorrekt.

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BARACK OBAMA INSPIRES YOUNG BLACKS IN FRANCE From the New York Times "Having always thought it was more racially enlightened than strife-torn America, France finds itself facing the prospect that it has actually fallen behind on that score. Incidents like the ones over the weekend bring to mind the rioting that exploded across France three years ago. Since it abolished slavery 160 years ago, the country has officially declared itself to be colorblind — but seeing Mr. Obama, a new generation of French blacks is arguing that it’s high time here for precisely the sort of frank discussions that in America have preceded the nomination of a major black candidate."

Last month, French politicians introduced legislation that would ban pro-anorexia content from the Internet. There was much buzz about this due to the nebulous definition of "pro-anorexia" material. Now they're expanding their censorship sights — child pornography (blocked from the 'net in several countries, and Verizon, Sprint and Time Warner Cable agreed yesterday to a similar ban in New York ) and "content linked to" terrorism, and racism will all be blocked in France. The blacklist will be compiled based on sites flagged by Internet users. It seems hardly foolproof, particularly the racism and terrorism thing. I mean, here in the states, certain people would have marked a simple dap between husband and wife terrorism. And others, in turn, would have flagged that reaction as racism. Murky waters! [AP]

The French Parliament is on its way to passing an unprecedented bill that recommends fines and prison sentences for people — like proprietors of those hideous and sad "pro-ana" Web sites — who promote and encourage "extreme thinness." The sentiment behind the bill is valid — if you've ever visited one of these sites, which are basically dedicated to teaching teenage girls how to starve themselves, you'd agree that they're bad. But anorexia was thriving long before the internet came into existence and long before models and actresses started looking more like dental floss than humans. As an American and an editor of an opinion-based Web site, I have a hard time condoning the censorship and an even harder time understanding how it is even possible to legislate a thing like this. And while the bill seems to be geared toward pro-ana sites, the wording suggests that anyone, including people in the fashion industry, that promotes an unhealthy level of thinness applies. It's a fact that young women need better messages about body image from the media, I'm just not sure jail time is the way to make that happen.

GOOD OL' GARÇON NETWORK "Six French aid workers who had been sentenced to eight years of hard labor for the attempted kidnapping of 103 children were pardoned and released. The workers had chartered a plane to fly to Europe children they claimed were orphans of the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan. Most of the children were neither orphans nor from Sudan. The workers were serving their time in France, but after France pledged to help defend Chad’s president, Idriss Déby, from rebel attacks in February, he agreed to consider pardoning them."

Unless I have severely misjudged Stereohyped's demographic, most of us were not born when this commercial aired in 1962. Also, most of us wouldn't have seen it, anyway, because we aren't French. But it could have totally aired on U.S. airwaves and Ozzy & Harriet wouldn't have batted an eye. The moral of this commercial is that if you are white, blond, wearing flesh-colored hot pants, and happen to be stuck in a big cauldron about to be eaten by black cannibals, offer them an ice cream bar. They'll eat that instead of you. The end.