A few days after Vladimir Putin offered a Russian passport to Gérard Depardieu, the (now ex-) French movie star, disgusted with French taxes and offended by his treatment from France's ruling socialists and cultural élites, has accepted and, according to the Kremlin, become a Russian citizen.Go to the BBC link to see Moscow residents commenting on Depardieu becoming a Russian citizen ("Let the president of France tax [wonderful French actors] even more, so they'll all come to live here", 01:45).
Update: Depardieu Has Long Phone Conversation with French President Hollande
In related news, it emerges that at least one of the places that the name de Pardieu ("by God") comes from is Normandy and that the family's motto was Win or Die, i.e., Victory or Death. More interesting, according to some (rare) French libertarians, Nounours (or Teddy Bear, as Gégé has been known since gaining weight) has an extremely appropriate name, as Depardieu can also come from la Part-Dieu (God's Portion), an expression referring to the place where, in the Middle Ages, one went to to pay one's tithe — "an iniquitous tax" not abolished until the 1789 revolution.
Gérard Depardieu porte bien son nom. "Depardieu" désignait, au Moyen-Âge, le lieu où l'on payait la dîme, impôt inique aboli en 1789.Indeed, according to Wikipedia,
Ce toponyme désignait soit une terre ecclésiastique, soit le lieu où étaient recueillis les produits de la dîme.
Pat Buchanan puts it this way:
Socialism creates and exacerbates a conflict in loyalties. A regime that takes three of every four dollars a man earns is an enemy of what that man works to accomplish for himself and his family.
… Californians flee to Nevada, Arizona, Idaho and Colorado to escape Golden State taxes. Are they disloyal to their home state, or are they doing what is right by their families, their first responsibility?
… For many successful Americans, over half of all they earn is now taken by government.
… Can a man love his country and hate its government? Of course. Ask Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Ask the patriots of '76.