Regardez la ces Chinoiseries

The startling thing about mainland China, is that they actually think their knock-offs are impercetable.

I recall seeing an advertisement about a $50 phone with a six-core processor when I was visiting my family members in China.

I rolled my eyes.

Wow. They’re Like So Freaking Enlightened

In the Netherlands, disposing of bodies seems to be emotionally more available to them than dispensing love.

The proposed bill "is a strong sign of the times," says De Volksrant in a leader article. It notes that this is "a pressing social issue,"

So much so, that they can’t wait to leave their mortal coil:

"The elderly are asking for the right to assisted suicide," says Dutch daily De Volksrant, as the parliament this Thursday discusses a bill presented through a citizens' initiative by an association called Uit Vrije Wil (“Their Free Will’”). The association supports the right to assisted suicide. In a four month period, Uit Vrije Wil gathered 120,000 signatures, including those of many political leaders, in support of a bill to allow assisted suicide for people over 70 years of age if they consider their lives as completed.

Europe... are you “done” yet?

Merci Mickey !

Merci Mickey !

Twenty years after its inauguration, Disneyland Paris has created 55,000 jobs, has developed the entire region East of Paris, and has attracted almost as many visitors as the Eiffel Tower has since 1889, writes Cédric Pietralunga in Le Monde.

"Le bilan montre que, malgré les aléas économiques, le modèle de développement de Disneyland-Paris reste (...) générateur de valeur ajoutée et d'emploi pour l'économie française", peut-on y lire.

En vingt ans, le château de la Belle au bois dormant a attiré plus de 250 millions de visiteurs, presque autant que la tour Eiffel, qui est ouverte au public depuis... 1889. "Disneyland-Paris est le site touristique payant le plus fréquenté de France", assure l'étude. En 2011, 15,7 millions de personnes l'ont visité, loin devant le Musée du Louvre (8,8 millions) ou la tour Eiffel (7,1 millions).

… L'arrivée de Disney en France a également permis de développer toute une partie de l'est de Paris, assurent les rédacteurs de l'étude. "On l'oublie, mais il n'y avait que des champs de betteraves avant l'arrivée du parc, assure Vincent Pourquery de Boisserin, directeur général d'EpaMarne, l'établissement public chargé de l'aménagement de la ville nouvelle de Marne-la-Vallée. En vingt ans, on a créé une agglomération de 29 000 habitants, attiré des dizaines d'entreprises et généré 55 000 emplois directs et indirects."

This leads one typical Le Monde grump to grumble about being "duped", while another one answers:

How many jobs is a leftist capable of creating in his long life of peoples' struggles? Answer: 0.

Combien un gauchiste est-il capable de créer d'emplois dans sa longue vie de luttes populaires ? réponse 0.

We Do All of This for the People. THOSE People. OUR People.

The left are in love with the idea that conservatives’ conversation puts them outside of the norm of the American mainstream. To neutralize this, they typically whip up class, gender, and race warfare of some form that they think they can manage, and attempt to pick up enough electoral pieces that fall to take power.

How wrong they are. Scott Locklin fleshes it out:

On the rare occasion when Democrats attempt to communicate with their white Neanderthal brethren, it is broadcast on a carrier wave of pure condescension. The left has a sort of collective Tourette syndrome involving frequent mention of sexism, racism, and gay rights. These subjects are meaningless to hourly laborers who lack the leisure time to nurse nihilistic resentments against Western Civilization.

The corporate oligarchs and neocon goons who control the Republican Party obviously have financial and political interests which are not aligned with those of the white working classes. But they also do not demonize or condescend to peckerwoods who drive pickups and go fishing. It isn’t that Republican ideas are great for the lunchpailetariat or anyone else, but their lack of seething hostility makes them preferable to Democrats.

There are no angels, but there are certainly more demons in trying to dupe the working man into believing that fake issues such as Gay Marriage, Global Warming, open borders (which costs the working class jobs and lowers their wages), forcing medical insurance companies to cover the contraceptive pill at no additional cost, and the like.

It’s agitprop – plain, old fashioned agitprop thrown out there in the hope that anger at the shlebobbeth can be raised, and the public’s mean IQ lowered. Anger, you see is politically useful to those who assure themselves that the large part of the public (the one with whom they don’t really know personally,) is less intelligent that they are, and certainly less wise. It’s purpose is to buy as much power without yet spending money to do it, something they do later to try to seal the deal for life.

The morphine the left gives itself in all of this is that they are “taking care of people” whom they think can’t make decent choices for themselves. Those choices being the ones that the “Gauche Caviar” would make themselves, because, after all. in a society as diverse as this, we should all think in ways that their prejudices would anticipate.

Lefties should only be confused about the white proles who still vote for them. The left’s “Why don’t you loooove me anymore?” routine with the white working class reminds me of a friend’s crazy-ex-girlfriend story. She cheated on him, lit his car on fire, and gave him the clap. She used to get drunk and scream into his answering machine at 4AM. Then she wondered why he never called back.

Same thing. The simple fact is that for the left, hating happy, normal people makes them feel smart. What’s hilarious about it is that in large part they think the people they actually hate aren’t intelligent enough to tell. They’re confounded because the class analysis and philosophical materialism that they are practicing without identifying it to themselves, just doesn’t work that well on Americans.

I bowl in a league. The people I bowl with can tell. They know who the bullies, elitists and snobs really are, and they don’t especially like them being in charge of their children’s schools, their local governments, their sources of news, or running their country. They just don’t, despite the fact that it confounds the left of our polite, tasteful, better-knowing elite.

In reality, that polite, tasteful, better knowing elite are only human and a lot more like the rest of civilization in ways that they don’t care to think. They are simple political goons trying to talk their way into permanent power, and once again, the salt of the earth will get in their way.

France is a country of citizens proud of having slapped and grateful for having been slapped

After a French mayor slapped a teen-ager (who was climbing over a fence and who called him words that would make Rush Limbaugh — and possibly even Bill Maher — blush), he was taken to trial. A year and a half after the events, the judge made his decision: Maurice Boisart was handed a (suspended) fine of 1000 Euros. Since then, the mayor of Cousolre, 63, has been inundated with messages of support, leading Pascale Robert-Diard to declare in Le Monde that "France is a country of citizens grateful for having been slapped and proud of having slapped."

Depuis qu'il a été condamné, le 17 février, à 1 000 euros d'amende avec sursis pour avoir giflé un adolescent de son village qui escaladait un grillage, Maurice Boisart, 63 ans, maire de Cousolre (Nord), a reçu plus de mille cinq cents messages de soutien. Et ce n'est pas fini. Chaque jour, une épaisse chemise remplie de nouveaux courriers est déposée sur son bureau. On écrit de toute la France, grandes villes, banlieues, sous-préfectures ou villages, mais aussi de la Belgique toute proche, de Suisse, des Etats-Unis ou de Bangkok. Par courriel, bien sûr, mais surtout par lettres. On jette sa colère au stylo-bille sur une simple page de bloc-notes à petits carreaux, ou à la plume sur un épais vélin.

… Cette gifle qui a échappé au maire de Cousolre un jour d'août 2010, c'est la leur. Comme celles qu'ils ont données, celles qu'ils ont reçues, celles qui, pour eux, se sont trop perdues. De ce roman épistolaire national, c'est peut-être cela que l'on retient d'abord : la France est un pays de giflés reconnaissants et de gifleurs assumés. "J'ai 78 ans, un casier judiciaire vierge, et je le dois en partie à la sanction immédiate qui suivait mes nombreuses incartades.""Je suis chauffeur routier et je remercie mon instituteur de m'avoir baffé. D'ailleurs, je lui téléphone de temps en temps.""Je me souviens de la gifle magistrale reçue de mon instit quand j'avais 12 ans parce que je chantais trop fort dans les escaliers, la punition avait été mentionnée dans mon cahier du jour, mon père la tripla.""Un grand merci pour ce geste trop rare. J'ai 57 ans, j'en ai fait des bêtises quand j'étais jeune, mais je me serais biengardé d'en parler à mes parents, j'en prenais au moins une deuxième."

… "Où va notre justice ?", s'interrogent-ils, qui "laisse s'envoler les incivilités", "contribue à renforcer un certain sentiment d'impunité et à réduire encore l'autorité", "préfère soutenir les malfrats", "inique et honteuse". Et que font ces juges, "des nantis soixante-huitards trop bien payés", qui "vivent dans un monde où ils sont à l'abri des tracas quotidiens" ?

De ce sondage grandeur nature émerge une France nostalgique d'une époque où l'on respectait "Monsieur le maire", mais aussi "l'instit" ou "le professeur". …

Une autre a simplement joint à ses quelques mots de soutien un dessin humoristique : 1969, une institutrice droite et sévère, en chignon, regarde deux parents furieux lancer à leur fils honteux : "C'est quoi ces notes ?" 2009 : devant un gamin hilare, les mêmes parents furieux s'en prennent à l'enseignante tremblante de peur : "C'est quoi ces notes ??"

… Au règne de "l'enfant-roi", une mère oppose cet adage entendu de la bouche de son père : "Il disait toujours : "Si tu ne veux pas que ton enfant te fasse pleurer quand il aura 15 ans, fais-le pleurer quand il en a 3."" On convoque Platon - en au moins six exemplaires - "Lorsque les pères s'habituent à laisser faire les enfants. Lorsque les fils ne tiennent plus compte de leurs paroles. Lorsque les maîtres tremblent devant leurs élèves et préfèrent les flatter (...) alors c'est le début de la tyrannie", pour mieux soutenir "le geste de père de famille" de Maurice Boisart. On s'en prend au "galopin", "voyou", "sauvageon", "petit con", "petit morveux", "vaurien", "jeune crétin", "racaille" ou "garnement" qui lui faisait face. "N'ayez pas honte", "vous vous êtes comporté en citoyen", "vous devriez avoir la Légion d'honneur, plutôt qu'une amende", "ne soyez pas triste, c'est le monde qui ne tourne pas rond, pas vous".

… Avec le monde enseignant, les maires sont nombreux à s'être manifestés. "Nous nous sentons abandonnés par la République qui est censée nous protéger d'individus qui connaissent leurs droits mais ignorent leurs devoirs." Ils dénoncent un jugement "qui traduit une méconnaissance des réalités du terrain" et "rend un mauvais service au civisme et, au final, à la démocratie".

… Et les mots griffonnés par ce père : "Je viens de perdre mon fils de 15 ans qui jouait dans un chantier près de la maison, après avoir enjambé un grillage. Pourquoi aucun adulte n'était-il là ce jour-là, pour le gifler et l'empêcher de grimper ?"

Merci à Maxime Lépante pour la vidéo…

Caution: “Awareness” Being Raised

And we all know that hardly a soul on earth is “aware” that there are homeless people, so there really is so much to raise.

BBH Labs, a branch of marketing agency BBH, ran an experiment over the weekend called the 'Homeless Hotspots' project. The company equipped 13 volunteers from a local homeless with mobile hotspots and gave them t-shirts with "I'm [name], a 4G hotspot," on the front. The volunteers were then sent off to offer WiFi access to people in exchange for a suggested donation of $2 for 15 minutes.

They are, of course, being used. But what’s odd and rare about this is that one normally only hears about homeless people when a Republican is in the White House because it’s politically useful.

Unless you use the homeless commercially, and call that “raising awareness” too.

However, the stunt has caused some controversy at SXSW and some have criticized BBH's scheme. Many people on Twitter have labeled it degrading or exploitative. In response to the negative feedback, BBH says the idea is built on the practice of homeless people selling newspapers for a dollar on the street and that they're trying to raise awareness for the homeless.

"Paying Insurance for Nothing": State of Dental Care in France Resembles French Caricature of America's Capitalist Health Care in General

You know the legend that the teeth of Frenchmen are yellow and ugly? Well, it turns out there is a reason for that. While the French, and the Europeans, castigate Americans for not having a health system as humane as theirs, which they are constantly bragging about and lionizing to the skies, it turns out that dental costs are hardly covered by la Sécurité Sociale at all and, indeed, have never been so expensive.

And thus it is that Laetitia Clavreul treats us a series of Le Monde articles that seem straight out of a greedy-and-evil-capitalist-pigs-in-America-preying-on-the-innocent-(and-)toothless-paupers documentary on the France 2 TV channel; from the teacher who opted not to get five teeth replaced and the maid who had to settle for a botched-up job for her broken front tooth to the 49-year-old woman who no longer has any teeth at all and to the other teacher who would rather have holes in his mouth than wear a (humiliating) set of false teeth ("J'ai préféré un trou que la honte. Un dentier, ça passe à 90 ans, pas à moins de 40." La décision a donc été prise : "Renoncer à ces soins et continuer avec ma bouche édentée"). As for a computer specialist, he traveled to Romania to get six teeth replaced by a (French!) dentist for almost exactly half the price.

When he saw the estimate, the teacher understood that he would not have the five teeth that the dentist deemed necessary: the invoice was 12,500 euros, 10,500 of them out of his own pocket, after refunds by the health insurance and his personal insurance company. "I gave up, and I carried on with my toothless mouth," he sighs. That was four years ago. He is still in the same situation. One that is common. Who, indeed, has not, when presented with such an estimate, even a lower one, weighed the pros and cons? And decided to incur the expenses at a later date. If ever.

Quand il a vu le devis, cet instituteur a compris qu'il ne ferait pas poser les cinq dents sur pivot que son dentiste jugeait nécessaires : la facture s'élevait à 12 500 euros, dont 10 500 à sa charge, après remboursements de la Sécu et de sa mutuelle. "J'y ai renoncé, et ai continué avec ma bouche édentée", lâche-t-il. C'était il y a quatre ans. Il en est toujours là. Une situation courante. Qui n'a pas, en effet, devant un devis pas forcément aussi élevé, pesé le pour et le contre? Pour décider d'engager les frais plus tard. Voire jamais.

>>> Lire l'intégralité des témoignages, "Des dents en moins, et pas les moyens".

While the dental profession looks askew, incredibly, at low-cost cabinets having the gall to set up businesses, as chronicled by Richard Schittly, the story of Véronique sounds like a caricatural cautionary tale from the hell-hole of capitalist America:

Faced with the inability to pay, everyone reacts in their own way. Véronique (not her real name) broke a front tooth two years ago. She is a domestic helper. It was unthinkable to go to work with "a hole" in such a visible place, and equally unthinkable to pay for a prosthesis. Her dentist patched up an old piece of equipment manufactured for molars. She wears it "outdoors", and especially not while eating, lest it break.

… Still others opt for abroad. This is what Christian Prado did, a computer scientist who has just been operated in Romania by a French surgeon. He had six teeth replaced. What he had to pay from his own pocket decreased from 7 200 euros to 3 750. "That is still a large amount, but the difference accelerated my decision," he said.

Face à l'incapacité de payer, chacun a sa façon de faire. Véronique (le prénom a été changé) s'est cassé une dent de devant il y a deux ans. Elle est aide à domicile. Il lui était inenvisageable d'aller travailler avec "un trou" si mal placé, et tout autant inenvisageable de payer une prothèse. Son dentiste a rafistolé un vieil appareil fabriqué pour des molaires. Elle le porte "à l'extérieur", et ne mange surtout pas avec, de peur qu'il ne se casse.

… D'autres encore optent pour l'étranger. C'est ce qu'a fait Christian Prado, informaticien, qui vient d'être opéré en Roumanie par un chirurgien français. Il avait six dents à remplacer. Ce qu'il devait mettre de sa poche est passé de 7 200 à 3 750euros. "Cela reste un montant, mais cette différence a accéléré ma décision", dit-il.

So what is the conclusion of at least one person (a Frenchwoman who sounds strangely like an American Tea Partier) — as well as of the Le Monde articles?

"We pay insurance for nothing, it only benefits those who have dough"

"On paye des assurances pour rien, ça sert à ceux qui ont du fric", résume-t-elle.

Related:

• The French healthcare system, even if taken at its best, is like an expensive jewel on a beggar’s neck by Bojidar Marinov

• What the American enamored with French health care doesn’t realize is that the French, too, would love to have such a perfect health system by Guy Sorman

• Call it the grass-is-greener syndrome: the French have their own problems that show there's no such thing as a free lunch — or a free doctor's visit by Investor's Business Daily

And if you have some more time…

• Extra Charges, Bribes, and a Yoke that Fetters Innovation: The Reality of France's State Health Care Is "Rather Insidious" from Le Monde

• The Best Health Care System in the World, Yes; Well, Except for This One Flaw and, Oui, This Other Flaw and, Oh, That Flaw Over There, and… from Le Monde

• French Health Care? Faced With a Health System that Has Become Practically Incomprehensible, Individuals Feel Helpless from Le Monde

• America Needs a National Health Care System Like the Europeans'; After All, France's Medical Accidents Result in No More Than 10,000 Deaths Per Year

Another Reason to Say: “Atomkraft, ja Bitte!”

In Europe they actually call this wierd emotive crap business writing:

The worst-possible scenario for the "Atlantic elites" is that Germany hands itself over to Russian dominance in return for a few barrels of oil, tons of coal and shipments of gas: in fact about 80 billion euro-per-year of Russian energy imports. With that dominance, the scare scenario continues, Putin will use his German bridgehead to push the USA out of Europe, along with its small-size British running dogs, and achieve what Stalin was never able to do. Germany can get its revenge for its defeat in 1945, against the Allies of the time which included the USSR, while Putin's Russia gets its revenge for the 1989 collapse of the Soviet Union, its loss of East Germany, and other satellites in Europe.

I challenge you to find any single assertion that makes sense in a discussion of the European natural gas market. Nonetheless the facts behind all of these political S&M fantasies are all right there, despite the “British running dog” and “Jankee Raus” themed Russo-German matching towels:

E.On and other major German electricity companies with close relations to Russia, starting with RWE, are critical to all three of Germany's major political parties - the Socialists, Christian Democrats and Greens. Whatever additional profits they get from using Russian gas - exporting it to other buyers, converting it to electricity or chemical products - means more coporate revenues and more jobs for Germans. And more contributions to the funds of German political parties.

And they kept saying that their subsidized PV panels and windmills were supposed to make this kind of pathetic blubbering unnecessary!

An Attempt to Write a Narrative of the Algerian War Accceptable to Both Sides

Two articles in Le Monde 's TV section, by Jean-Baptiste de Montvalon and Amir Akef, on the attempt to write a one-version history of the Algerian war, acceptable to both the French and the Algerians (along with numerous other subjects, such as "the weight of silence, i.e., 40 years of censorship in France" and the Algerian government's heavy hand of censorship). The resulting documentary is by Gabriel Le Bomin and Benjamin Stora.

Le premier est réalisateur et scénariste, familier des images d'archives ; le second, né à Constantine en 1950, est historien, spécialiste de l'histoire du Maghreb contemporain et en particulier de la guerre d'Algérie, à laquelle il a consacré de nombreux ouvrages et documentaires. Le fruit de leur minutieux travail en commun sera diffusé sur France 2, dimanche 11 mars à partir de 20 h 45. Poignant, parfois oppressant, Guerre d'Algérie, la déchirure constitue le point d'orgue de la programmation des chaînes publiques à l'occasion de l'anniversaire de la signature du cessez-le-feu.

… Toutes les dimensions du conflit sont restituées, parmi lesquelles l'isolement diplomatique de la France, qui pesa sur son issue. Rien n'est passé sous silence. Notamment pas l'extrême cruauté de ces " événements " que l'on mit trente-sept ans à qualifier officiellement de " guerre ". En témoignent, parmi d'autres, des images inédites de cadavres de soldats français auxquelles répondent d'autres séquences, comme celle qui montre un " indigène " abattu dans le dos.

So Long, Gir

Dan Greenberg, the immensely talented French artist on General Leonardo and on the upcoming Life & Times of Abraham Lincoln, has made a stunning tribute to the memory of Jean Moebius Giraud, who died Saturday morning (click on the drawing for an even larger image).

A Thought for the Day

The liver has been very naughty, and must be punished.

Andrew didn't fall for the notion that, somehow, it's impolite to call the Left on their bullshit; And neither should you

Andrew Breitbart:

“Why is it that the left is allowed to throw around the dangerous accusation of racism without any evidence as a means to malign half the country, yet if I want to use the word ‘socialist’ I have to go to the D.N.C. and get a notary public to sign it for me?”

Or, as Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds testified during the gathering of Conservative bloggers to pay tribute to the late Andrew Breitbart (see 6th video of 9, at 02:32):

…one of the things that the Democrats and the Left really have down — and they totally have gotten inside the minds of most of the GOP politicians and media — is they've established this notion that, somehow, it's impolite to call them on their bullshit. That if you call them on their bullshit, you have farted. You have done something that shouldn't be done in polite society and if you did it, you should at least act ashamed and look the other way for a few minutes. Andrew didn't fall for that. And neither should you.

Ed Driscoll quotes Jonah Goldberg on Hugh Hewitt's radio show:

One thing that he [Andrew Breitbart] and Bill [Buckley] shared was this basic contempt for the premise that the mainstream liberal elite institutions in the United States are in a position to judge and adjudicate the worth of conservatives. That they are in a position to judge our souls. That if we disagree with liberals, that proves that we are somehow wanting or lacking in compassion; lacking in humanity. That is a fundamental thing that enraged Andrew, this idea that if you disagreed about public policy, if you disagreed about how to organize society, that proved you were a racist. That proved you were a fascist. That proved you were a homophobe. It was the fundamental bad faith of the leading liberal institutions that controlled the commanding heights of this culture that infuriated him. And he refused, at the most basic level, to give them that authority over him or his ideas, and that is was fueled his Righteous Indignation, as his book title called it.

This is why, from the very beginning of when I started to blog, I have always said the basic message to pass is to point out that self-declared position of liberals' morality and authority in as clear as possible a way.

It serves little purpose, in my opinion, it does little good, to simply state, say, the official positions of the Republican Party, if the opposition has already falsifié les règles du jeu — by predetermining that all Republicans, or that most Republicans, are simple-minded, greedy, hypocritical, treacherous, lying, racist, neo-fascist, war-loving, capitalist pigs.

For those who have suggested that here in France, all that American conservatives should do is state our positions and then let the public decide: If the left (the American left or other) has pre-established the "fact" that America's conservatives (or Americans in general, from a European point of view) are lying, conniving, greedy thieves (or the equivalent thereof), simply stating that the Republican Party stands for lowering taxes or for opposing Iran will be of little to no import. At worst — according to what the public (in France as in America) has been told — it means you are part of the conspiracy of evil capitalist pigs, at best, it shows you are a mindless dunce of said conspiracy of evil capitalist pigs.

No. What must be done is to counter the premise! This must be the main message of conservatives, not the details of what they stand for (or, in the left's narrative, what they claim to stand for). What must be countered is the idea that Republicans, that conservatives, are these monstrous beings along with the countervailing thought (stated or inferred) — that self-serving thought of theirs — that the Democrats, the liberals, the left, les gauchistes, the Europeans in general are, au contraire, these generous people espousing moderate, tolerant, peace-loving, oh-so-humanitarian views.

We do not have to be (or appear) unduly confrontational about this, but we do need to be sure to point out the left's double standards (the "Left" meaning both the American left and the French in general — for here the notion is fueled by, and it in turns (re)fuels, anti-Americanism throughout society, in America and abroad), even if stated with an entirely calm voice only in a matter-of-fact way.

This is also why we must not refuse to appear on TV shows. They may try to shut us down (Guy Millière, a right-thinking author who wrote the introduction to my book, La Bannière Étalée, remembers getting kicks under the table from the TV présententarice in order to prompt him to keep quiet — and that was when he was the sole conservative voice in a debate including… seven or eight (!) anti-Iraq war pundits), they may succeed in doing so, but, in my strongly-held opinion, we must make an appearance and we must fight back.

Indeed, our being shut up on TV can become a(n important) sub-text of the narrative. If we do not appear, the French will have heard simply the things — the very ugly, grotesque, caricatural things — they have been taught by l'Éducation Nationale since they first went to school. If we do appear, we will have a chance to counter the very ugly, grotesque, caricatural things (if only be pointing out how caricatural they are). Remember, we are not just talking to half a dozen VIPs on a TV set; we (or they, rather, they alone if we do not show up) are reaching hundreds, thousands, perhaps tens of thousands. We owe it to ourselves to at least try to get conservative views and principles across. And if we are shut up — so be it. At least some fraction of the viewership will notice that the politically correct cannot bring their views across, unless they forbid people from contradicting la pensée unique.

Remember: The left asks us — and Europeans ask us — to be polite and decent, and then… But listen to Instapundit quoting

Matt Taibbi at Rolling Stone: “Good! Fuck him. I couldn’t be happier that he’s dead.”

Remember this stuff the next time one of these people tries to play the “Have you no decency?” card. As I said, even in death Andrew is exposing them.

Reminds me of the Frenchwoman I almost dated until she said, when she heard of American and British soldier deaths in Iraq during the summer of 2003, "Bien ! Ah je suis contente ! Bush l'a dans le cul ! Blair l'a dans le cul !" (That ended that romance in a hurry!)

More from Ed Driscoll:

At National Review Online, former Breitbart colleague Michael Walsh describes Andrew as “the Right’s Achilles:”

There was no combat in which [Andrew Breitbart] would not engage, no battle — however small — he would not join with glee, and no outcome acceptable except total victory. His unexpected death last night at the young age of 43 is not the end of his crusade, but its beginning.

No figure on our side was more despised in the whited sepulchers of the media/academic/political Left, and Breitbart wore their loathing as a daily badge of honor. His refusal to grant even a glimmer of moral absolution constantly enraged them, and his very existence was an affront to their carefully constructed — to use one of Andrew’s favorite words — “narrative” of moral superiority. Naturally, they are already dancing on his grave, with the manic joy of being suddenly and miraculously delivered from one of their most potent enemies.

… Confrontation was his métier, and he routinely and gleefully waded into groups of lefties to challenge them face to face. Puckish humor was his stock-in-trade, and he would often disarm opponents with his boyish, goofy side.

Again: perhaps we do not need — not always or not all of us (we can have good cop/bad cop kind of appearances) — to be as confrontational as Breitbart. But we do need to stop letting the left, and the Europeans, have the monopoly on the dialogue!

Update: Bernie Marcus, Home Depot co-founder, on "the rules of the game" (0:41):

…the Republicans play the rules of playing golf. In golf, if you miss a putt or you touch the ball, you call a shot on yourself. We're playing the game of golf. The Democrats are playing ice hockey. It's a killer game. And that's the difference in politics.

Live From CPAC, Iiiiiit's — Da Tech Guy

During the CPAC conference, Pete Ingemi Da Tech Guy with a fedora interviewed a bunch of us for his radio show.

Show 64: Live from CPAC 2012 with guests Nicedeb, Carol Greenberg, Alberto De La Cruz, Mary Chastain, No Pareisan, Glenn Morton and so many others it boggles da mind!