Behind the Façades in France: What expats and the mainstream media (French and American alike) fail to notice (or fail to tell you) about French attitudes, principles, values, and official positions…
Saturday, May 20, 2006
The great "CornGoleo", no got teepee for his bunghole
The German company Nici which manufactures the 2006 World Cup mascot "Goleo" has just filed for bankruptcy.
France finishes a respectable 22nd (out of 24) with 5 points
Some 30 years after Kiss, and 20 after Gwar, the Eurovision Song Context was won by the Finnish group - Lordi - with "Hardrock Hallelujah".
Champagne!
Refreshingly Flakey?
She finds it more remarkable that the Stepford Children of moviedom would not robotically parrot far left views.
I’d also add that his approach to answering a reporter’s question about his views actually provides him with some privacy from the entertainment press which is largely as morally vane as an actor with a burning indingnace to tell us thier views on, say, Malaria. One would guess that they think it’s actually rather a bad thing, thus we can consider ourselves ‘educated’. How else would we ever know, I wonder?
Let’s cut to the tape:
>roll 'em
Truthfully, Grant does not seem like a flake. He seems to be using his acting skills to get scriblers to leave him be. Lost on the likes of people who count every kiss of his, is his desire to produce a film about his grandfather who found himself suddenly to be the senior survivor of his regiment, and successfully planned a breakout from a Nazi POW camp. Knowing how celeb-world emotes and barfs over the sincere, he may be waiting for his age to align with the press’ delusions. The fuse is lit!
Chavez to shut pie-hole by 2010
Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) expects oil prices to average around $40 a barrel by 2010 but said it may not dim the economic prospects of the Middle East in general and particularly the GCC due to the structural changes in economies, mainly Qatar, UAE and Saudi Arabia.
It’s still the economy, stupid. Red + Green = smoldering grey ashes once their populations get the picture.the fuse is lit!
“Progressive vanguard”
Too violent even for the PLO, the PFLP (revolutionary Palestinian Marxists) in Lebanon are still armed and take pot shots at Lebanese soldiers at the behest of Syria. One more dead this week. The last one they capped (for no reason) was an Army topographic surveyor just doing his job.
The Syrians don’t particularly care for them being in their country, so it explains why they’re so big on keeping them paid off and in Lebanon where they can irritate the population and disturb the political balance. Remember that they have a "red" kinship with the Syrian Ba'athists, but come from the era of the Red Brigade, Red Army Faction, and other bands of killers founded with KGB and other Eastern Bloc intelligence aid and money. They are one of the anachronisms of the era that are still around. They have an ideological bone to pick with Jihad, but seem to not bother to say or do anything about it.
Two soldiers and one militant were injured in the clashes and a Lebanese soldier was briefly kidnapped by the pro-Syrian gunmen.
On Thursday, Fatah Uprising militants smuggled reinforcements from Syria into eastern Lebanon, Lebanese security sources said.
'Fifteen military trucks smuggled the reinforcements during the night through a valley in eastern Lebanon,' Lebanese police said.
The Lebanese army also sent reinforcements to the area, deploying about 150 commando troops backed by at least 15 armoured vehicles, a Lebanese army source told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
There are some 367,000 Palestinian refugees sheltered in 12 camps across Lebanon, but only pro-Syrian Palestinian groups maintain military positions outside these camps.
Friday, May 19, 2006
Deja vu EU
« We must have a European legal system, a European appeal court, a common currency, the same weights and measures, the same laws... »
Hint: NOT Giscard
They do more than just make us look good
From the Sunday Times (UK): Thank you, my foolish friends in the West for keeping one of their archaic and vulgar traditions alive.Hugo Chavez of Venezuela is only the latest dictator-in-waiting to bask in adulation from western 'progressives'
And the hits just keep on coming. What’s becoming obvious with the ‘new axis of (don’t laugh) power’ in Latin America isn’t just their penchance for catfights, their suicidal and impoverishing economic politics, but their hard to conceal fascism:
Last year a number of journalists, writers and showbiz figures, including Harold Pinter, Nadine Gordimer, Harry Belafonte and Tariq Ali, signed a letter claiming that in Cuba “there has not been a single case of disappearance, torture or extra-judicial execution since 1959 . . .” Many observers commented that Morales’ decision reflects Latin America’s shift to the left. “Left” in this context does not mean mildly center-left policies. “Left” in the case of Morales and Chavez involves embracing aggressive class-struggle rhetoric and a classically socialist political agenda.
Crossposted on Marxist Byproducts
Up to a point, this is a fair depiction of affairs. But a more accurate description would be to say that Bolivia and Venezuela are experiencing a resurgence of “corporatism.”
Strongly associated with policies pursued by interwar fascist regimes, corporatism blends state-authoritarianism, populism, nationalism, and anti-foreign xenophobia. This is combined with extensive nationalization and regulation of the economy, the militarization of much of society, and the creation of state-controlled civil organizations that gradually suffocate any autonomous free associations
Tut tut.
[ … ]
"There is a moral crisis: the cunning must not prevail"Romano Prodi’s lecture about people going about the immorally black art of making money reminds me of a certain book introduction which appeared recently: “Liberals love to boast that they are not ‘religious,’ which is what one would expect to hear from the state-sanctioned religion. Of course liberalism is a religion. It has its own cosmology, its own miracles, its own beliefs in the supernatural, its own churches, its own high priests, its own saints, its own total worldview, and its own explanation of the existence of the universe. In other words, liberalism contains all the attributes of what is generally known as ‘religion.’ ”
It is in fact a religion of leftist statism where the high priest of the academy may incite violence, and irresponsibly hand blame to any notion they can’t comprehend.the fuse is lit!
Is it time to continue to do nothing?
Simply, civil war
Fine words butter no parsnips, as the starchy British saying goes. The Europeans in their thrall had better start churning.the fuse is lit!
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Can you tell me how to get – how to get to Mumia Street?
The absence of concern for right and wrong is striking. The puke-worthy Libé, Le Monde, La Croix, and LM Diplo report nothing on the naming of a street for a convicted murderer. Only the traffic-and-weather oriented Le Parisien as fit to mention it.
How about a Rue Youssouf Fofana in Philadelphia? Wouldn't THAT go over beautifully?
Skøl, Girgis
From our man in Baghdad evidence that Arabs are more broadminded than the opportunistic peddlers that have been trying to shake the change out of their pockets.
Me talk moonbat someday
From a commercial guide to ESL instructors in France, this little bit of cuteness.
Which should get an F for running on. Number 3 fails for stupidity.
Better to ask Ivan:
ver01.ra
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
A world view too corroded to describe
EdF/GdF HQ atrium
Bertrand Delanoë’s gentle little village names a street after a cop-killing murderer because it fits someone’s amoral view that it’s everyone else who has a prejudice. Despite a history of enablement, the only thing you can be sure of is that the emotional basis for going to bat for a murderer is because the dead are unable to defend themselves.The fuse is lit!
How to lose your job in a Saudi newspaper
Fawaz Turki who wrote for the KSA based English publication, Arab News gives more evidence of the dense. The imperious mind obsessed with its’ superiority can’t absorb the facts of the world.
It’s proof positive that accepting that Israel shouldn’t be ‘pushed into the sea’ as the meme continued to demand must be put to rest. They have to grow to accept that the mere existence of others is no cause for fear, nor cause to express ‘power over’ and do them harm, as the Arabs have to the Arab Jews and to the Druze and Arab Christians in large part.
The other two? Bringing up Islam as an issue and criticizing, by name, political leaders in the Arab or Islamic world for their brazen excesses, dismal failures and blatant abuses.
Imagine a paranoia so acute as to cause parents to compel their children to marry a cousin instead to involving ‘a stranger’. Imagine that and project it on the social and political thought.
Send wildlife to diversity training.
A lot like Woodstock. They’re just striving for that idyll – peace, love, sharing, etc.
Mais où sont les intellectuels d'antan ?
French novelist, and next big thing, Bertrand Latour, gives us his latest take on the state of France : terminal anti-Americanism, radical pacifism, and what might be the final death throes of the 5th Republic. Now on Hotair.com.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Watching the detectives
Now, we are very few who try to have this story corrected. The problem to have this right is that the French elites are very happy with it because it confirms their hate feelings against Israel and the Jews. Israel-bashing is a national sport in France.
And on the undeniabity of denial,
He also has much more to say on economy, media, and taking the temperature of a culture. Excellent stuff. 
...the Iraqi war was launched, according to most of the French people, in the name of Israel. And if you look at the nuclear bomb in preparation in Iran, you see that the French media only focus on the Israeli supposed interest. They just forget that if Iran provides terrorists with dirty radioactive material, it’s Europe that could be affected very soon. They also forget to recall that Europe has no anti-missile defense as Israel has with the Hetz. This means that, objectively, Israel is less endangered by a nuclear Iran than Europe. But, if you hear French media, the only country is danger is Israel and French people don’t want to fight a billion of Muslims to defend 6 million Israelis.
Tax of the day, episode 327
"I suggest this as an idea not only for the EU but also for member states themselves and on the worldwide scale"
-Alain Lamassoure, French MEP
If anything shows signs of success, EUtopians try to tax it - and the export the same failed concept to make it seem universal and thus reasonable even when it isn’t:
"A small tax on an SMS from Paris to another French city could be allocated to the French government, but taxes on emails or SMS messages from Paris to Rome could be dedicated to the EU budget," he said.How typical. Plus, I doubt it would really raise much revenue. If you send 274 emails a day for a year, the tax would be €1. At most this is €100 M per year – “peanuts” -, much of which would be spent collecting it and extorting it out of ISPs. It wouldn't deter spammers since a million emails would only cost €10 in tax and make legitimate their dark art.
"In France an SMS costs 15 cents. We could tax it by 1.5 cents, or less," the MEP added.
For email, the rate could be as little as €0.00001. "This is peanuts, but given the billions of transactions every day, this could still raise an immense income."
“peanuts”The fuse is lit!
Putting the loose screws to the small change boys
But the news came too late to dent the 300,000+ book sales of Thierry Meyssan.
Europe on a losing streak
Multicultural Zeropean brainiacs, unwilling to look their problems head on, continue to blame Europe's dysfunctions on their favorite bogeyman, the extreme right, and on anyone that doesn't toe the official State Party Line© of self-endangering pacifism, radical secularism, and suicide-level tolerance.
More blackmail by the French
French "workers" shutdown airport and make dark threats after EADS decides to close plant.
Escaping to a safer place
Where people fighting for their future are at least sincere about it.Last year, some 2,700 new immigrants and another 300 returning Israelis arrived from North America. Immigration from North America, which has been on the upswing for the past three years, is expected to reach 3,500 people this year, with an equal number arriving from France.
Which is rather amusing when you consider the grand and glorious future their boorish neighbors have. Reader Jonathan alerts us to their positive outlook:
The number of immigrants from France totaled 2,100 in 2003, rose to 2,415 in 2004 and reached 3,000 in 2005. The rise in the number of French Jews moving to Israel is proportionally more significant, since half a million Jews live in France, as opposed to some 6 million Jews in the United States.The Palestinian Company for Economic Development, which is in charge of thousands of greenhouses that used to belong to Morag and other settlements in Gush Katif, said the attack, which took place on Friday, was the latest in a series that began almost immediately after the settlements were evacuated.
He also says that “it looks like it's going be a long, hot summer in Hamastan,” one where the public is significantly more intelligent than the leadership, well at least the ones that are smart enough to turn on the tossers:Internal clashes in the territory have raised fears among Palestinians of civil war.
the fuse is lit!
Last week, three gunmen were killed and a dozen people wounded in violence between Fatah and Hamas. The two organizations agreed to set up a joint committee to defuse
tensions.
Monday, May 15, 2006
The inquisition vs. Paul Belien
Blaming Paul for inciting violence is like arresting a weatherman for predicting a hurricane.
- yet another unmedicated ¡No Pasarán! reader.
Paul Belien, social and polical commentator and blogger is being attacked for his opinions and analysis.
Today Father Johan Leman, a Catholic priest of the Order of Saint Dominic (the inquisition order) and a professor at the Catholic University of Leuven, has joined the chorus. Father Leman is the previous president of the CEOOR (Center for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism), the inquisition center of the Belgian government. In today’s news broadcast on the national radio he says that the CEOOR has been negligent because it has not already started prosecutions against me.
Mr. Belien is being threatened with prosecution under the law for supposedly being part of a neo-con conspiracy, led by Daniel Pipes (whom until then he had no contact with) and the Danish journalist Flemming Rose who became known for publishing the Muhammad cartoons. They are accused of wanting “to anger radical but also moderate Muslims into violent action.”In short non-conformity is attracting what amounts to offending the thought police. It is Cuba with crappy weather along with a priest - a sort of liberation theology type - who has no problem taking orders from a rather more earthly accomodation to human failings rather than taking wrong to be wrong, and right to be right. All drawn through a non-moral process motivated entirely by turning the other cheek, without it ever bceoming an example of resolution or an demonstration of grace. The don't want to reason with anyone - they want him in the dock for not thinking like they do.
In other words, the law is being used to silence speech, and to promote the narrowing of the parameters of discussion as it relates to any notion the left backs.
In the North America, those wanting to take the matter up with the Belgian Government may email or fax the Belgian embassy in Washington DC, Ottawa Ontario, Mexico City, or any of their missions worldwide.
The fuse is lit!
General Leonardo, Volume I: In the Service of the Vatican
Erik Svane et Dan Greenberg dédicaceront leur nouvel album au Boulevard des Bulles (50 Boulevard Saint-Germain) le 20 mai à partir de 15h.
Synopsis: À 32 ans, Léonardo est un des artistes les plus réputés d'Italie, menant une vie foisonnante, s'adonnant allégrement aussi bien à la peinture qu'à des inventions en tous genres.
Jusqu'au jour où le Vatican découvre avec enthousiasme les machines de guerre novatrices imaginées par le jeune Florentin. En effet, il se trouve qu'au Saint-Siège se prépare dans le plus grand secret une nouvelle Croisade -- la première en 250 ans -- dont on confie le commandement au charismatique Général Scharano.
Le Vatican décide aussitôt de se servir des fameux engins inventés par Léonardo afin de mettre à bien son expédition... Ce qui n'enchante pas vraiment l'inventeur au caractère irrévérencieux...
A nation's interests? Google tells all
Google lifted the veil this week on one of its best-kept secretswrites Anand Giridharadas in the IHT:
which nations search for what. Who looks up democracy most avidly? Who seeks out Allah or Christ most faithfully? Who types in "drugs" or "sex" most frequently?
No country's secrets are spared.
Pakistanis look up "Danish cartoons" more avidly than anyone, according to Google. They also lead the rankings for "sex" - with their neighbor and nuclear rival India seldom far behind.
…French users … shed light on France's power struggles. Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy draws as many searches on his own as his rivals, President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, combined.
…Not everything on the site is a surprise. People in Boston and Minneapolis and in Halifax, Nova Scotia, lead the search for "mittens." Dubliners top the list in "Guinness" searches. When it comes to looking up "dowry," surfers in Pakistan and India are clear leaders.
Other findings are quirkier, and at times to difficult to explain.
Even though homosexuality is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia, the kingdom ranks No. 2 for searches for "gay sex," behind the Philippines.
And consider the list of cities that most frequently look up "amour," the French word for love. Paris, allegedly a romantic haven, is absent from the top 10. The top three berths went to Rabat, Morocco; Algiers and Tunis.
Other findings suggest the stirrings of a trend. Searchers for "Allah" come overwhelmingly from the Islamic world. But, in a sign of shifting social realities, the word is searched from the Dutch-language version of Google more avidly than from the Arabic-language one. Norwegian, French, Danish, Swedish and German sites also featured in the top 10 for "Allah" inquiries.
Sunday, May 14, 2006
¿Quiénes son los revolucionarios verdaderos?
A quick glance at the student body at any university across the United States would easily display the many different groups that students sort themselves into. Within these groups, you can find those who display their political ideology very easily. You will see them walking around in their popularized and commercialized “Che Guevara” t-shirts (I wonder what communist Che would say about his face on a popular t-shirt further representing the successes of capitalism). However, do these students truly know and consider themselves revolutionaries? And if so, what revolution are they exactly fighting for?
I wonder how much latitude to speak freely he’ll be afforded once he’s written this?
Ni Dieu, Ni Maître
The producer of this piece seems to be so unsophisticated as to confuse a difference of view with the quashing of said isegoria. It's quite apparent that many are more than willing to silence a Conservative through humiliation of speaking at all because arguing a concept on its' merits requires emotional effort and an exposure to the possibility that one just might be wrong.
As we find today with the war on terror, collaborators and a rather dim intelligentsia in the lands Hitler attacked were more than happy to ignore this notion, and turn the very concept of a right to speech on its' ear.
The parallels with today are striking with the actions of a transnational network of Jihadists offering comfort to the ideas of a transnational network of 'peace' activists. They must be thinking of the peace found with death.
Bush, like Roosevelt is trying to preserve international civil society by quelling jihad's random acts of 'making peace' in the same way, only to find the bien-pensent sophmores of the left channeling Lord HawHaw - valuing a classroom 'time-out' over the arrest, detention, or otherwise active stopping of mass-murders.
All forms of socialism, even the nanny state have at least a subconscious instinct to punish the opinionated into silence. They only want to be loved, co-dependant, and "essential," if you will.
An elderly anti-abortion campaigner in the UK is being punished for legally airing his views by being denied medical treatment.
Odder yet, this man who sent photos of abortions to a hospital must have been surprised at the hospital staff being shocked by seeing medical photos - proof positive that they aren't practicing a great deal of medicine to begin with.
With the ASBO replacing the trust and faith they no longer have in the very population that has been socially engineered by illiberal leftism, one would need these shows of moral vanity to have goals as small as "making the trains run on time," for example - forgetting that these very same trains would run perfectly well were the government not trying to run them.
Americans Are Naturally Anti-Government, the French Are Not
explains Dick Howard, political philosophy professeur at New York State University, to Sophie Gherardi.
Another Dreyfus Affair?
The Clearstream scandal resembles the Dreyfus affair, law professor Didier Maus tells Le Monde's Beatrice Gurrey.