Some of us fiftysomethings remember Bizarro, one of the spinoffs of the Superman comics. In the series, Superboy was hit by some rogue radioactive ray and transported to Htrae – Earth spelled in reverse – a cubically-shaped planet where to do or say anything good or right became a crime.

Sounds like contemporary France to me.

Just today a Paris court convicted animal rights activist Brigitte Bardot of “provoking discrimination and racial hatred.” The 73 year-old former film star and pin-up girl must also pay almost $25,000 in fines and damages. Her two-month prison sentence was suspended.

Her crime?

In a December 2006 letter to now President Nicolas Sarkozy – who at the time served as Interior Minister – Bardot objected to the growing public celebration of the Muslim feast of Aid el-Kebir. A rather bloody sheep slaughter – sans anesthetique– is among the highlights of the fiesta.

In the letter to Sarkozy – which was later reprinted in her animal rights quarterly journal – Bardot wrote that France is “tired of being led by the nose by this population that is destroying us, destroying our country by imposing its acts.”

New French anti-racism laws now prohibit “inciting” hatred based on religion or national origin. The court sided with the radical group MRAP, whose lawsuit claimed Bardot’s words were as “inciting” as they were indeed insightful.

For the time being, at least, we in the United States have a first amendment to the Constitution that guarantees free speech. It is the amendment without which all the others are rendered meaningless.

The world of Bizarro never had one.

France just lost theirs.