The resemblance to Bob Dylan is entirely coincidental

He's like, the anti-Bob, or something. His wishful thinking is pissing blowing in the wind.

Crossposted on Marxist Byproducts

What better day to remember Lenin?

Today is Earth Day – the day to celebrate conservation which has been hijacked to become the new ginned-up religion of environmentalism, to replace the old ginned-up religion of Socialism-Marxism-Leninism-Stalinism-Maoism- and now it’s rebranded evil spawn “redistributionism”.

Don’t believe the hype. Real scientists look at human activity to be inconsequential compared to the force of nature when it comes to the latest straw-men and bugaboos concocted by leftism. One needs to bear in mind that virtually no farmers, or rural dwellers buy any of that crap, in spite of a hard fought campaign to feed human paranoiac for remote matters by the likes of the unctuous opportunist Al Gore, and the elitists trying to cash in on the craze.

With little subtlety, several months ago the BBC systematically started using the term ‘pastoralist’ when referring to subsistence farmer. In other words, putting a happy face and concealing the misery of a failed social model which keeps huge numbers of people in the world merely treading water.

In reality it means ranching, only doing it badly and on a scale so small that the division of labor is erased. I hope you can figure out how to perform heart surgery on yourself in their brave new world. What starts with the cautionary principle ends with making rare the expertise and specialization that raises the quality of life for all of us.

Auntie is alluding to Pastoralism is someone who admires the landscape from a safe distance where you can barely smell the manure, and a mountain lions or bacteria can’t get to you. It’s the essence of the popularity of the whole thing – the guilt of the successful for doing anything, anything that elitist feel personally bad about, and the promotion of the nobility of mere subsistence.

Consider for a moment the term subsistence. That means that there is no surplus to have a real exchange economy that can produce sustainable benefitial functions that arise from being able to expend some 'profit beyond sustinence' like medical service, life research, education, science, the arts. Their vision resembles a time when human life was worth very little:

Superstition and ignorance reigned during the Middle Ages, a time when characters we now consider to be simply from fairy tales; pixies, trolls, hobgoblins and so on, were thought to truly exist. Health was controlled by the stars, and affliction was a sign of impurity of the soul-a curse from God.

Basically what far-left environmentalists want for all of us were the same things that made life nasty, brutish, and short in human history’s past. A society with any prospects for the future would be wise to simply ignore them.

Their intellectual kin have tired the same in the past and largely failed.
Only a man who never knew that ‘pastoral’ pre-mechanized farming was hard work could say this. Karl Marx cited in a University student attempted proof:

Under capitalism, Marx argues, work no longer fulfills its vital role in the lives of the people. The division of labor under capitalism "attacks the individual at the very roots of his life". It converts the worker into "a crippled monstrosity" by developing his manual dexterity in a narrow detail "at the expense of a world of productive capabilities and instincts”.

The irony is that the student doesn’t seem to know that the author of the text citing Marx thinks that Marx is an idiot who caused immeasurable harm to the poor.

Pastoralism. Pure pastoralism. Pretending to be the ‘just plain folks’ that they never were.

Trying to win votes among the racaille by making believe he's helping a population of caillera

A pitiful and isolated Chiraq calls out to an absent inexistant Zeropa to help a bankrupt terrorist entity.

Meurtre, mutilation, et idiots bien connus

Murder, mayhem, riots, and celebrity idiots - all grace magazines together where they can all be ignored by a numb and unphased readership. The mere sight of France’s most famous Elvis impersonator makes me want to cleanse myself with a refreshing ablution of the late Johnny Ramone’s fabulous badness just to keep my lunch down.

Do You Remember Rock'N'Roll radio?

Do you remember Murray the K,
Alan Freed, and high energy?
It's the end, the end of the 70's.
It's the end, the end of the century

Those among you unable to tolerate the real deal may enjoy entertaining strangers around you in a café with some pathetically bad and irritating Arabic ringtones to suit the palor of this age.

Another gradiate of the Evelyn Wood sped ridding skul

Nothing left to really protest...

...but what the hell, these old goats try to anyway. Thankfully, Hermann has been observed:

In a pitiful attempt to simulate one of those old-time peace demonstrations when a few people actually seemed to care, roughly 10,000 obnoxious native peaceniks spent part of their Easter weekend symbolically occupying a symbolic bombing range that may one day be used by the Bundeswehr and other NATO forces to drop symbolic bombs upon.

More amusing still is that these protestor’s heyday predates the invention of crack. In fact the little darlings made a nicely shaped target for a passing NATO aircraft's "simulation" reticule. One can't say much for their kerning, but they aren't so Spicolli'ed out that they can't spell.

Crossposted on Marxist Byproducts

European multiculturalism in the crapper

No, really. In the crapper.

¡Ai carumba!

Some enraged Peruvian has taken over Marxist Byproducts, and he doesn’t seem very happy about the new Havana martyr’s brigade looking to create a new era of collective poverty in Latin America.

It's sort of like a medieval lifestyle spa, without the life or the style, and potentially impacting hunderds of millions of people.

When France Does It, It Is Due to Its Lucidity, Its Clairvoyance, and Its Republican Values

Why did Paris lose in its bid for the Olympic Games? Unlike the three other cities that lost out to London for the 2012 Olympics, a "confidential" report by Armand de Rendinger saw the unmistakable truth: it was all due to double-dealing, corruption, and treachery, reports Sylvain Cypel. No other reasons permissable.

Three other cities also lost out to London for the 2012 Olympics, of course, but that is irrelevant, n'est-ce pas? And, needless to say, when a panel votes against Washington (such as at the UN), thanks to Paris, this is only due to France's (and the voting countries') unmitigated desire for peace as well as a reflection of their lucidity, their clairvoyance, and their rationality.

As it happens, you need to read a book review of a book by the same Olympian insider who penned the "confidential" report (on the same Le Monde page as the main article) to learn about the key developments that were left out of the book by Armand de Rendinger (or that he passes over without making a big fuss, which is also known as token pieces of information), the least of which isn't the fact that it is Rendinger himself who stands accused, to some, of being responsible for Paris's defeat.

The major nations have a responsibility to take the new challenges seriously and to treat them as something beyond the sole responsibility of America

As plans for war against Iran (and especially its nuclear targets) emerge, Henry Kissinger weighs in.

The extent to which a renewable energy technology has proved its usefulness is the exact extent to which environmentalists now oppose it

…environmentalists have revealed that their real attitude toward renewable energy is no less hostile than their attitude toward all other forms of man-made power. After the installation of hundreds of "alternative" energy plants in the state [of California] — in the nation's most ambitious program to build environmentally correct power plants — the greens have begun to reject one renewable power technology after another.

After global warming, the environmentalists are starting to come out against the wind industry! Read Jack Wakeland's take on the whole renewable energy movement.

The extent to which a renewable energy technology has proved its usefulness is the exact extent to which environmentalists now oppose it. The extent to which a technology has proved unproductive is the exact extent to which environmentalists continue to embrace it.

…Environmentalists ultimately object to the amount of power produced, regardless of how it is produced. The instant that any technology promises to supply power on an industrial scale, it becomes an unpardonable evil that must be stamped out by force-either by government policy or by direct action.

Perfectly normal. Everything is always perfectly normal. I swear.

Police foiled a potential railway bombing (Paris-Nantes) which seems to have no purpose other than possibly usury, reports the Telegraph. No videos with a flag in the background or statements yet. It makes sense that this would happen in a continent where it’s perfectly normal to never admit responsibility, and blackmailing everyone else in society is the national pastime. One that can never end.

Time. Life lessons. Speaking to them verrrrry slowly. Failure. Lefty never seems to get it.

Either that or it runs a close second to the fine art of talking out of both sides of one’s mouth. Please to observe - a few headlines:

France, Egypt call on leaders to continue aid to Palestinians
France's Chirac to press Egypt to lean on Hamas

Iran with nuclear weapons unacceptable--France
Egypt, France Say Military Strike on Iran Should Be Avoided

It sounds like there’s a theory somewhere in there.

All the derogation that’s fit to print

The Pulitzer's are the subject of the latest portfolio in Al-Jazeera sur Seine. Sbject: USA. Therefore they make an effort to show you the most self-serving bits, and ignoring anything they can to find the most damaging image of the US possible. At least among the “evils” of America that they do so much to promote.

To bring the point home, the item is lead in by a larger than usual image of the transfer of a soldier’s remains. The usual pront page image is about one half to 2/3 of its’ height. It’s placed just below a bit of EUtopian self flattery, an article highlighting European-style diplomacy with regards to Iran. It has yet to succeed, and the only result its’ provided is to elicit placative hot-air from the Iranian. But never mind that, the public can believe this will work, get to feel good about it, and if it fails, blame the buddies and commanders of the deceased shown below. Tidy, non?

"Toutes les options sont sur la table", a déclaré M. Bush, interrogé sur la possibilité d'un recours à la force contre l'Iran. "Nous voulons résoudre ce problème par la diplomatie et nous travaillons dur pour cela", a-t-il toutefois ajouté.
[ … ]
Le président français, Jacques Chirac, a, quant à lui, jugé "inacceptable" que l'Iran se dote de l'arme nucléaire mais a laissé la porte ouverte à la reprise des discussions avec Téhéran, s'en tenant pour le moment à l'option diplomatique pour tenter de faire fléchir l'Iran, dans une interview au quotidien égyptien Al Ahram publiée mercredi, à l'occasion de sa visite officielle en Egypte.

"All options are on the table", declared Mr. Bush, questioned on the possibility of the use of force against Iran. "We want to solve this problem with diplomacy and we work hard toward that", he however added.
[ … ]
In an interview with the Egyptian daily Al Ahram published on Wednesday, French president, Jacques Chirac considered this to be "unacceptable" that Iran obtains the nuclear weapon but left the door open to the resumption of the discussions with Teheran, sticking for the moment to the diplomatic option to try to make Iran alter course. He made his statement during his official visit to Egypt.

Alas, were it not for America, there would be no one to tut-tut, look down on, and provide one with an air of seeming superiority. And we all know that they’re wiser, more lucid, always right. A veritable master race.

Culture Club

"No Feelings"

I've seen you in the mirror when the story began
And I fell in love with you I love your mortal sin
Your brains are locked away but I love your company
I only ever leave you when you got no money
I got no emotions for anybody else
You better understand I'm in love with myself,
Myself, my beautiful self

A no feelings
A no feelings
A no feelings
For anybody else

Hello and goodbye in a run around sue
You follow me around like a pretty pot of glue
I kick you in the head you got nothing to say
Get out of the way 'cause I gotta get away
You never realize I take the piss out of you
You come up and see me and I'll beat you black and blue
One day I'll send you away

I got no feelings
A no feelings
A no feelings
For anybody else
Except for myself, my beautiful selfish

There ain't no moonlight after midnight
I see you silly people out looking for delight
Well I'm so happy I'm feeling so fine
I'm watching all the rubbish, you're wasting my time
I look around your house, you got nothing to steal
I kick you in the brains when you get down to kneel
And pray, you pray to your god

No feelings
A no feelings
A no feelings
For anybody else
A no feelings
A no feelings
A no feelings
For anybody else
Except for myself
Your daddy's gone away
Be back another day
See his picture hanging on your wall

Like lemmings to the sea

Hunger strikes are now a growing trend in Repoublika Franska. Qu'ils crèvent tous la gueule ouverte.

Kill whitey

Whitey must get off the street! No but seriously, it's not racial, it's social. Buy 'em some State funded Nikes and they'll go back to the projects and stop killing.

L'ardoise

The French government has told universities that they will have to foot the bill for the damage caused by rampaging students. In all, a fair decision given that most professors and university directors were supportive of recent events. The French preSS is now doing its best to minimize damage estimates, just as they wildly inflated the estimates for the number of participants casseurs in the demonstrations by student the future unemployed. French universities already looked like bombed out shitholes anyway.

Before	After

Pays de paumés

"I went a little farther,' he said, 'then still a little farther -- till I had gone so far that I don't know how I'll ever get back. Never mind. Plenty time. I can manage."
-- Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad

The French are too busy trying to sustain their self-congratulatory illusion of résistance to notice that they are completely lost.

The Hunt for Recalcitrant TV Taxpayers

Owning a TV set in France sets you up for an annual tax to the French state. Pretending you don't have a television set when you do is illegal, therefore, and can earn you a hefty fine. The good news is that if a non-paying TV owner is denounced (in secret, needless to say) by a fellow taxpayer, the authorities are allowed to use this evidence against the culprit (who has to pay an additional surtax of 30%).

With that in mind, the BAF decided to test if the system couldn't be improved by allowing taxpayers to catch illegals and hand them over to the tax authorities in return for at least part of the surtax (video)…

"Statements about 'the bosses' are such a joke in America, because it's so easy to become your own boss": Basic Lesson in (Caricature-Free) Economics

The "Mexicans only work to make the rich richer" and "minimum wage is evil" arguments are total bullshit. I would kindly ask anyone who wants to defend that argument to present their extensive evidence and experience with this bizarre point of view.

Putting things in their proper perspective, Jonathan has a message for "jacques bélanger and Antoine and everyone else":

My best friend is an immigration lawyer in Chicago and is constantly recounting stories of his experiences with the Mexicans and other Latinos that are his clients. His clients are not only extremely hard workers, they understand the political and economic realties of their situation. They band together in groups of families (from the same town in their home country). They work as many jobs as they can and pool their money to help (legally) bring more family and friends into the country. When they're ready to strike out on their own, they start a landscaping business, or a catering service, or open a diner, or buy a convenience store or a gas station, you name it. Anything to be in control of their own destiny.

They realize that their only way up in America is to stick together and grab economic and political power the old-fashioned way -- by creating value for other people, by starting successful companies and not expecting any handouts from Uncle Sam. The INS teaches them very quickly that the government is not their friend -- the INS can deport people that have already achieved permanent resident status, how nice.

Look -- everyone works for someone else until you're self employed. Statements about "the bosses" are such a joke in America, because it's so easy to become your own boss.

What is the rate of startup creation in France? What does it take to get a new company off the ground in France? Any French entrepreneurs care to tell their story of starting a successful small company, because truly I am curious. Who wants to take the risks of creating jobs when the government takes 60+% of your income and puts hundreds of red-tape roadblocks in your way? Who wants to hire employees when you can never fire them? And do you think starting a company is even remotely possible for any of your North African immigrants? Where are their success stories? It goes on and on...

Chernobyl, 20 Years Later

20 years later, Le Monde takes a look back at Chernobyl, the nuclear reactor in the Ukraine, home to Sebastopol.

Le Pen Dynasty to Continue…

Le Monde's Christiane Chombeau reveals that Marine Le Pen will be a candidate to succeed her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, at the helm of the National Front (which came in second in the presidential elections of 2002).

Guess they were too busy watching American movies to read those books

European books warning of Eurabia go back to 1996. Whodda thunk it? Those cultured Zeropeans, however, prefer other literary fare.

Encore un pédaloïde qui se prend pour un capitaine

French captain loses sonar device at ocean bottom.

A long tradition of circumloqution that should inspire the al-Zarqawi’s of the world

From a prominent member of the Committee of Public Safety we find the ‘same shit, different generation’ paroxysm at work. It most always involves deranged Elves Euros discussing what they think should be other people's options, and talking in circles until freedom and terror start to sound like the same thing.

« La terreur n'est autre chose que la justice prompte, sévère, inflexible; elle est donc une émanation de la vertu ; elle est moins un principe particulier, qu’une conséquence du principe général de la démocratie, appliqué aux plus pressants besoins de la patrie. »

"Terror is nothing other than justice, prompt, severe, inflexible; it is therefore an emanation of virtue; it is not so much a special principle as it is a consequence of the general principle of democracy applied to our country's most urgent needs."

- Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre

Sound familiar?

I've got to stop reading Libération PropagandaStaffel

Strange. If I am to believe the French preSS, Black Americans are all living in cardboard boxes. The more fortunate ones are working three minimum wage précaire jobs just to able to live in trailers and eat pizza. That's what the French preSS tells me.

The Latest French Revolution

I know this was already posted, but I really like this Money quote : ... the Paris demonstrations were more closely affiliated in spirit to what we recently witnessed in Damascus and Karachi than what we saw in Los Angeles.

Probably the only remaining good reason to buy Le Monde

Eric Le Boucher's weekly economic editorial. Le Boucher was recently nominated for the ALEPS Prix du Livre Libéral (along with our very own Erik Svane).

The Bent cunt ...

... is in a fix because of her racaille boyfriend.

Politically and culturally incorrect news headline

Il existe un canard franchouille qui sait utiliser le mot Occident.

On air now (13h00 UT). Ask simple questions.

But dont use too many big words. Ask him why he wants the poor in Africa to, you know, starve to death for his cause, and if hes actually been to a working farm lately.

Lessons in Le Monde

French readers get a lesson in economics from Le Monde, as well as one in humanity…

"Que serais-je aujourd'hui sans cet accident ? Probablement un petit ouvrier au fond du Poitou qui n'aurait pas vécu tout ce qu'il a vécu. Tous les moments forts et rares que j'ai connus depuis, c'est "grâce" à mon handicap, et non "à cause" de lui", explique [l'homme en kit Philippe Croizon], dans sa maison d'Ingrandes-sur-Vienne, un village situé à côté de Châtellerault.…

Philippe Croizon restera deux ans à Valenton. Le temps de se doter d'abdominaux en béton, de s'initier au maniement des prothèses et de réapprendre à "marcher"... Sa volonté et son humeur constante sidèrent le personnel du centre. "Quand quelqu'un se retrouve amputé, deux solutions se présentent à lui, indique Françoise Boite. Soit il n'accepte pas son sort et sombre dans une problématique d'ordre psychologique ; soit il décide de prouver aux autres qu'il peut s'en sortir et se lance défi sur défi. Philippe est dans ce cas. Il fait partie de ces gens à fort tempérament que le handicap va revaloriser. Chez nous, il boostait tout le monde."

L'ergothérapeute n'a pas oublié ces scènes incroyables où l'homme-tronc remontait le moral à des amputés privés d'un seul membre. "A la fin, tous me disaient : "On n'a pas le droit de se plaindre, comparé à toi", se souvient Philippe Croizon. C'est une réflexion que j'entends tous les jours. Cela m'horripile. Tout le monde a le droit de se plaindre et d'avoir mal. A chacun son degré de douleur et de peine, non ?"

…Dans leur malheur, Gérard et Monique Croizon ont quand même la chance d'avoir un fils doté d'un moral inoxydable. Un vrai miraculé de la vie. Toujours déconneur en public, toujours le premier à ouvrir le bal des dîners dansants organisés pour financer ses appareillages, toujours là pour abreuver ses interlocuteurs d'expressions du type "les bras m'en tombent" ou "ça me scie les jambes...".

A professor's advice to graduating students: Let your attitude be closer to that of an immigrant Mexican yard-worker than of a French bureaucrat

Everything, they say, is relative. Half a million French youths on the barricades of their privileged entitlements, united in an unembarrassed, indeed self-righteous, defense of economic stagnation, have given me much needed perspective. … French protestors carried a huge banner: "We Will Never Surrender" (in English, especially for CNN). Bracket the fact that surrender has been France's national outdoor sport for two centuries. What are they refusing to surrender to — apart from common sense, I mean?

I couldn't have spent four decades as a humanities professor without gaining fluency in the sclerotic cliches of a soft left rhetoric. But it appears that in France, the mainstream political spectrum actually believes it. The place is positively crawling with time-warped Socialists who still quaintly believe in Marxism.

Thus speaketh John V. Fleming, Princeton's Louis W. Fairchild '24 professor of English.

Though its ostensible motives had to do with employment, the Paris demonstrations were more closely affiliated in spirit to what we recently witnessed in Damascus and Karachi than what we saw in Los Angeles. Theodore Dalrymple has argued in his remarkable essays that Islamic truculence, including that of some highly visible European Muslim youth, is born not of strength and confidence but of fearful disquiet and perceived inferiority, weakness and vulnerability. In general, similar anxieties command the French "Youth Employment" protests.

What we laughingly call the "real world" can be a scary place. But … I have a few words of advice for graduates.… Do something serious, useful, daring and fun. Travel around, and use the foreign language we helped you learn. Invent something. Start a company. Teach something wholesome to somebody who needs it. Revel in your individuality and personal enterprise in a way that satisfies you by helping our needy world. Take some big risks, and fail a few times. Let your attitude be closer to that of an immigrant Mexican yard-worker than of a French bureaucrat. This country doesn't owe you a living, but it affords you unequalled opportunities to make a decent one. Work really hard. Create the wealth of the commonwealth.

The Crazy Cartoonist's Last Work

(Tak til Rackham)

Nuremberg rolls out the red carpet for Mahmoud

He thinks that the Iranian President has something on the ball, so Wolfgang tells Mahmoud to bring it on.

Faut dégainer sur un Bové qui cherche à dégommer

What will the French government do when José Bové©®™ and cohorts once again resort to vandalism? Will they still cave in to the street, or will they stand up and protect private property? This is no longer a matter for the pouvoirs publics to decide alone. It directly impacts on the millions of new shareholders who purchased EDF shares at 32 euros (now at 47 euros). ... et puis, faudrait arrêter de crier victoire chaque fois que 20.000 oisifs se regroupent pour beugler.

La France doit-elle disparaître ?

Comment faire disparaître une chimère ?

... Voyez-vous les prêtes n'étaient que mots paroles ou images, un vieux film roulant perpétuellement avec des acteurs morts -- Les prêtres et les gardiens du temple s'évaporèrent en fumée argentée quand je fis irruption dans la chambre de contrôle brûlant les codicilles ...

-- La Machine Molle, William S. Burroughs

D-Day and WWII Subjected to Ever-More Historical Revision

Two years ago, No Pasarán noted that the prevalent anti-Americanism in Europe was sifting into the 60-year commemorations of D-Day and World War II. Throughout the media, there was a systematic will to find negative information about the Americans or to minimize their contribution (the 60th anniversary of America's bloodiest battle on the European front, six months later, was basically ignored in France) while extolling the contribution of the French, all the while showing a systematic desire to find cases of suffering among the Germans …and the French themselves (in that perspective, you may find some of the letters to the editor of Le Monde during the commemorations, uh shall we say, edifying).

Which brings us to French television in the spring of 2006: John Rosenthal of the Transatlantic Intelligencer takes on what he calls the "creeping historical revisionism that is part and parcel of the wave of anti-Americanism that has swept across Europe over the last five years." Read his description of the France 3 documentary (sic), La Face cachée des libérateurs.

[After hearing the customary] swing music in the background, and [seeing the customary] stock footage of the liberation -- the joyous celebrations of GIs and French civilians intermingled -- … the upbeat swing giving way to an ominous, funereal march. "These images speak the truth," the voice-over allows, "but not the whole truth." In what follows, "The Dark Side of the Liberators" does its part to dampen the grateful "fervor long inscribed in the collective memory" -- or even to transform it into hate.

The narration talks of "atrocities committed": a formula that would usually imply that the acts in question were sanctioned by the military hierarchy and hence not a matter of simple crimes. A French historian interviewed for the film describes the American troops stationed in Cherbourg tenderly as "a veritable army of termites": "People are fed up. After a while, the French civilians can no longer accept that the Americans act like they're in a conquered land." German women are said to be subject to a "paroxysm of violence" even "exceeding that inflicted on the English and French."

The individual cases discussed are apparently true. They are, after all, based on US court martial records from the time -- a fact that reveals that these are not, after all, a matter of "atrocities" in the usual sense of the term, but rather of crimes that were immediately recognized and prosecuted as such by US military authorities.

I am sad to say, this is nothing new. When interacting with Frenchmen, you will often hear "No, no, of course we are grateful to the Americans of World War II." Then, depending on whether you seem ready for the "truth", they will innocuously add, more or less sotto voce, a but: "But of course, they did it [participated in World War II] for their own interests." Which is their privilege to say, of course (as free men and women liberated by the Allied armies).

Except for two things:

First, it takes a communal view of the matters, one that ignores the individual's thoughts, opinions, desires, dreams, plans, projects, contributions, sacrifices, and sufferings. Apparently, all Americans, as one, made a collective decisison to gain monetary interest in Europe and Asia, sacrificing 400,000 lives in the process. (Question: did the 400,000 dead agree with the decision to fight for Coca-Cola; did their widows, their orphans, their parents, their neighbors, their countrymen?) That makes the description sound ridiculous, right? The only option, then, is to suggest that the American powers that be (those treacherous political and financial of theirs' that we are so familiar with) fooled the American people into going to war for their unspoken interests. (And never mind that any individual of the slightest measure of common sense, whether a soldier getting ready to embark to put his life at risk or the (voting) family member of same, would weigh the pros and cons (and any hint of hidden interests) of so doing — remember, the individual doesn't count in this convenient scenario.)

Which, when you think about it, is exactly how the French think the Iraq war is being conducted. (If you want to know why Europe lags behind America in so many ways, it is because the collective viewpoint is so predominant there, whereas in America it is generally recognized that every individual is first and foremost exactly that: an individual. I have earlier written about how the First World War also illustrates this collective mindset.)

As John writes in the Legend of the Squandered Sympathy,

the very expression “the Americans” has long been used in [France] as a metonym to speak, for instance, of the American government or American corporations, thus suggesting, given the normally accusatory context, a sort of collective national guilt.

The second problem with this collective way of describing the Americans (and suggesting their collective national guilt — notice how, in the opening of her Libération article, Sophie Rostain seems to state unequivocally —and with a sneer of disdain — that all "the handsome GIs who landed in France in 1944 behaved like barbarians") is the double standards involved. Indeed, the French apply the metonym to noone else. Not to the Russians. Not to the Japanese. Not to the Germans (!!). Certainly not to themselves. In fact, often you will hear a Frenchman whine, "How come the Americans didn't join the war earlier, to help us?" Well, if the French were participating in the war for their own interest, why should anybody come to help them?! But of course, that's not the case. How could you even imagine that?! Because with everybody else but the Americans, war becomes nothing but a fathomless tragedy. So, actually, what I have said about the collectivist viewpoint being only applied to the Americans is not entirely true; the difference is that for the Yanks, the collective description is applied with a negative emphasis (treachery, greed, villainy, barbarity, hypocrisy, stupidity, naïveté) whereas for everybody else, it is used in positive terms, or with a heroic aura attached to it. (Think of the innumerable times when you have been reminded of how much the Soviet Union (or the Soviet people) sacrificed during, and for, the war — an opinion with which, again, there should be little controversy except for the fact that double standards are being applied.)

In fact, go back to John Rosenthal's article, and go to the three final paragraphs. What is interesting in the "story made of blood, sperm, and tears" is whom the documentary does not incriminate for World War II-era rapes and crimes (except as part of "an alibi-making flourish with which the film concludes"): The German Army. The Japanese Army. The Red Army. The French Army. (JC Durbant has many more details.)

With rapes and crimes in the wake of every army, asks John,

Why not, then, a film on the phenomenon in general? The narrator also mentions that "the German army" was guilty of "mass rapes" throughout Europe. Curiously, however, unlike for the three Allied nations, no specific numerical estimate or range is given -- as if the inclusion of the crimes of Nazi Germany was an afterthought or a matter of obligation. The very gesture of inserting the Nazi crimes -- and relatively inconspicuously to boot -- among the others, only serves to underscore the revisionist implications of the entire exercise. Were the liberators, then, no better than the conquerors? Maybe worse?

Finally, a question for those of you who think today's hostility to Uncle Sam is not anti-Americanism but only temporary opposition to Bush and the neocons: again, do you notice any familiarity with the war in Iraq?

Update: In response to someone who left a comment here, I would like to ask a question: would you tend to agree with the European intellectual (if that's the word) who said that America is

a decayed country. And they have their racial problem, and the problem of social inequalities … My feelings against Americanism are feelings of hatred and deep repugnance. … How can one expect a State like that to hold together — a country where everything is built on the dollar.

I wonder whether you would tend to agree with the European leader who evoked America’s “historically unique and shameless ill treatment of truth and of right”, adding that America's “so-called” president was “guilty of a series of the worst crimes against international law” and pointing out that

first, he incites war, then falsifies the causes, then odiously wraps himself in a cloak of Christian hypocrisy, and slowly but surely leads mankind to war, not without calling God to witness the honesty of his attack …

A threatening opposition was gathering over the head of this man. He guessed that the only salvation or him lay in diverting public attention from home to foreign policy … Thus began the increasing efforts of the American President to create conflict … For years this man harboured one desire — that a conflict should break out somewhere in the world.

Hmmm… Makes one wonder who uttered those immortal words…

Overused analogy alert.

From The Austrailian:

CONTINENTAL Europe is at a crossroads. No, scratch that. Continental Europe was at a crossroads a few years ago. This week, it appears to have chosen its path. Taken together, the results of Italy's general election (which turfed out an economic reformer in favour of a former EU president) and the French Government's cave-in to rioters protesting against employment law reform suggest that the strongest forces in Europe today are those of appeasement, stasis and socialism. In Italy, voters were faced with a choice between media mogul Silvio Berlusconi, who was swept into office five years ago promising to cure the country's economic troubles, and the centre-left Romano Prodi, whose campaign was tinged with anti-Americanism.

But wait. It gets worse:

None of this is good news for Europe. At a bare minimum, the past week's events suggest that this is a part of the world where no one is capable of facing reality. It also suggests a broader lack of cultural confidence. Europeans are not having children at replacement rates any more; birth rates are supported largely by Muslim immigrants. And that community's more radical members are increasingly flexing their political muscle in the face of a timorous host culture. An example is the fallout of the Danish cartoon controversy. In what was essentially a battle between theocratic and Enlightenment values, the theocrats largely won.

Rêve général

Dreaming, like Debbie Harry sang, is free. The core of Europe is now a shared economic quagmire ... awaiting its utopic nightmare-for-all.

Les esprits libres sont priés de préférer l'original à la copie

Alain Soral, écrivaillon devenu cheerleader d'OBL depuis peu, a pondu un ersatz de roman manifestement calqué sur 'Le Désespéré' de Léon Bloy. Méfiez-vous des imitations. Prenez donc l'original préfacé de Maurice G. Dantec.

A wing and a prayer

The Case for the War on Iran

Melanie Phillips and John Leo reexamine the evidence for Saddam's WMD (thanks to Tom).

In the meantime, the case for war on Iran grows.

Do some more homework, BHL, and then come back and see us again

…it is curious to see Lévy the anthropologist morph into Lévy the missionary when, at Willow Creek, he stops accusing these Christian fellow travelers of over-adapting to the modern world and starts accusing them of under-adapting to it

notes Martha Bayles (thanks to Ashbrook).

Damned if we do, damned if we don't. Our religious wine is either too diluted or not diluted enough. Our war paint and feathers are either too authentic or not authentic enough.

Zeropean newspeak

Pig Latin will soon be outlawed by the EU for the obvious reasons.

Crossroads or cul de sac?

More like a highway to hell.

Soit, c'était les écoles socialo-cocos,soit, Aïcha el-Wafi l'a fait tomber sur sa tête

Yes, being educated in France would constitute a cause of permanent brain damage.

Speaking of A Frogwork Orange

Looks like Uncle Sam has been doing a little bit of the old in-out in-out on Marianne. Suite à ces coups de dedans-dehors, heureuse, salope ?

No American citizen should stoop to apologize for being American; doing so is nothing short of despicable

"…some people just fly off the handle without even talking to me — it's as if they had been waiting to run into an American all day to let their feelings out," [sighs Christian Cox].

Only a couple of days after my post on European racism (the worst of which is that directed against Americans), the BBC reports on American expatriates in London reflecting on how anti-Americanism "feels like racism" (cheers to Chakman).

To avoid confrontations she says she lowers her voice on the Underground and in pubs. [Either "Christian" is a typo and her name is actually Christina or her parents decided to give Ms Cox an original first name.]

But in one incident an older man asked her directly if she was American.

"When I said yes he said: 'I just want you to know that I think you are the poorest people I have ever met in my life' — meaning we were low-life.

"I said I was sorry he felt that way, but that I disagreed."

The man started shouting obscenities at her group. The row developed into a brawl and Ms Cox suffered a black eye as she tried to pull two people apart.

The BBC report goes on to quote Americans who apologize or who pretend to be Canadian, including quite a number in the comments section (for instance this lady who proudly states that 'I usually defuse the situation by saying "Yes, I'm an American — and I'd like to apologise"'). To which I wrote the following comment (minus the hyperlinks, of course), based on the recent post in question as well as on my December letter in the IHT (so far, the comment seems to have been ignored):

No American citizen should stoop to apologize for being American, nor should they even think of apologizing for the current administration (no matter what he or she thinks of Bush) — doing so is nothing short of despicable, especially when the Yankee-haters are guilty of the ugliest of double standards.

As the eminent British historian Paul Johnson has said, "The truth is, any accusation that comes to hand is used without scruple by the Old World intelligentsia. Anti-Americanism is factually absurd, contradictory, racist, crude, childish, self-defeating and, at bottom, nonsensical."

Various commenters claim that anti-Americanism is at best non-existent and at worst exaggerrated, referring to the tired old canard that "it is only America's leaders (or policies) they are against". Really? Is that so?

As the creator of the Americans Anonymous association [which I invite Ms Cox and Francesca Terry to join, by the way] and the author of a book on the subject, I would like to be told, how often have the Europeans commented on the disdain they have for, say, the leaders and/or administrations of Russia, China, Cuba, Zimbabwe, Iran, and (Saddam's) Iraq, and that with the same vehemence they reserve for Uncle Sam? (And how often have Europeans subjected Chinese, Cuban, or Zimbabwean expatriates to the same level of scorn -- or even to statements of disagreement -- for the actions of their truly despotic governments, and how many Iraqi travelers did they take on during the reign of the mass killer Saddam Hussein?)

How often have the Europeans held mass demonstrations against the fighting in Chechnya, the conflict between Ethiopie and Eritrea, and the Iran-Iraq war?

How often have they held vigils against the death penalty in China, in Saudi Arabia, in Sudan, or in Japan (yes, even another democracy) and when did they ever express "concern" over how prisoners in those countries were treated?

Those Frenchmen who stated proudly "Chirac had the balls to stand up to Bush", how did they react when their president said that France would not mention human rights during a visit to the Kremlin because it was necessary "to show consideration for Russian sensibilities"?

How did those humanists react when Paris lit the Eiffel Tower in red for the visit of the Chinese president, when the government banned Nobel laureate Gao Xingjian from attending the Paris Book Fair, or when Chirac, along with fellow peace-lover Gerhard Schröder, tried to resume selling weapons to the saber-rattlers of Beijing?

There was not much of a reaction, was there?

The truth is, the Europeans didn't (and don't) care. They didn't care one way or the other for one simple reason: they were issues in which Uncle Sam was not involved.

Anti-Americanism is quite alive: it is the practice, on a regular basis, of double standards. Nothing more. And nothing less.

An alternative answer Ms Cox might have given to the older man (the one who snorted that 'I just want you to know that I think you are the poorest people I have ever met in my life'), as per AA's (fascetious) guidelines:

"No wonder you think that. That's because we Americans are not as wise as you are. That's because we Americans are not as generous as you are. That's because we are not as peace-loving as you are. That's because we are not as respectful as you are. That's because we are not as tolerant, as visionary, as clear-headed as you are. And of course, if only we rose to the heights of your obvious and incontestable superiority, then naturally, an era of encompassing and lasting peace would ensue on the entire planet."

(Then again, that might have earned Ms Cox two black eyes!)

A Frogwork Orange

The French Left opts for ultraviolence.

Forget BHL

American Vertigo is lightweight. Wanna read a great book by a Frenchman who crisscrosses the US of A and lays it all down on paper afterwards? A guy who really understands America and Americans? Pick up Guy Millière's Le futur selon George W. Bush.