h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

First off, I would like to apologize to the French for the Subject Title to this conversation. It is a useless phrase and I propose to send it off into oblivion.
A few years ago when an invasion of Iraq was proposed, the French were opposed to the idea. Point taken, that's another conversation. In typical knee-jerk response, American sentiment at the time was to change all the the American cultural terms from french to freedom. It was a brilliant campaign in US nationalism; "french fries" (chips most everywhere else) were to become "freedom fries", "french toast" was to become "freedom toast", etc.
What they missed, and the only one that made sense, was to replace french with freedom in the phrase "pardon my french". Many people in the US who want to show some basic form of etiquette, use this term before they swear.
Pardon my freedom is what the United States was founded upon. Freedom of speech is the basis of a free society. Pardon my freedom, [because I am about to swear] but I think that Mr. X is a @#$%^!*.
So go out and swear, just make sure to know your audience and give fair (and logical) warning when appropriate. RR