While France Goes Berserk Because of 1 Lone Member of the American Nazi Party, French Extremists Promise to Win Most Votes in Sunday's Election

Because a member of the American Nazi Party has become a lobbyist in Washington, according to Le Monde, this is the image that France's newspaper of reference is showing on its home page.
The map is actually the symbol of the American Nazi Party itself, but unless you click on the link provided by Le Monde, you would imagine that it is a "factual" symbol provided by the Le Monde reporters — as newspapers are wont to do…

In the meantime, Steven Erlanger, echoing John Vinocur and Nicola Clark, notes that

The first round of France’s presidential election takes place Sunday, and voters on the extremes, the far left and the far right, will play a significant role.

Related:
• A Miserable Precedent? In France's 1st Election Round, Extremism’s Total Promises to Beat Either Mainstream Candidate
• “The left longs for Mitterrand and the right longs for De Gaulle”: Extreme Parties Poised to Capture 30% of French Vote on Sunday

Strange Expectations

Three days after a man in Paris Metro line 13 near the garden-spot of Seine-Saint-Denis brandished a Colt 45 “demanding tolerance” of the universe, he was placed in preventative detention.

The actual intolerance of the Metro passengers riding through that bleak, dumpy part of the metropolis with the cracked-up pistolero was not looked into.

If Hollande wins the French presidency, the move to impose higher taxes on the wealthy could get a boost in the U.S.

Nicolas Sarkozy … is in deep trouble and is looking, for now, as if he could be the first one-term French president since 1981

writes Steven Erlanger on the front page of the International Herald Tribune in an article the New York times calls With Vote Days Away, Outlook for Sarkozy Dims but which the IHT entitles, more upbeat-edly (for the French president), Which way will Sarkozy turn?

He appears to be running neck and neck with his main challenger, the Socialist candidate François Hollande, in the first round of voting on Sunday, when 10 candidates are competing. But all the opinion polls show Mr. Sarkozy losing to Mr. Hollande in a face-off two weeks later.

… His possible defeat carries implications that would radiate far beyond Paris. Mr. Sarkozy has had contentious but valuable relationships with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, a fellow conservative, on European and euro zone issues; with the British on defense issues, including the Libyan war; and with President Obama on issues involving Iran and Israel, NATO and Russia.

A victory by even a centrist Socialist like Mr. Hollande, who has advocated higher taxes on the rich and a greater emphasis on growth over austerity, would create immediate strains with Germany and rattle financial markets that are already nervous about the size of France’s debt. Mr. Hollande has also said that he wants to pull French troops out of Afghanistan sooner than NATO has agreed to do. Still, he says that his first visit abroad would be to Berlin, no matter how chilly the reception.

Mr. Sarkozy faces an electoral dilemma that is inherently tactical. Presuming he gets through to the runoff on May 6, does he continue to run to the right, or move to the center? And will it make enough of a difference anyway in a nation that admires what he promised at the beginning of his term five years ago — a “rupture” with the past — but not what he has delivered, which is a stagnant economy and unemployment at its highest level in 12 years?

Even more troubling for Mr. Sarkozy, the polls indicate that many French simply do not like him — his negative ratings are high — and that many of them will vote in the second round for the bland Mr. Hollande or simply stay home rather than see Mr. Sarkozy back in the Élysée Palace for another five years. [The Economist agrees that "All the signs point to a win for the Socialist François Hollande, chiefly because he is the anti-Sarkozy candidate".]

… Working to [the Socialist candidate's] advantage is the fact that the public has tired of the grim business of budget cutting and is yearning for a different approach. Mr. Hollande is providing that, in the form of higher taxes on the rich, more state spending and an assault on inequality, themes that could conceivably reverberate beyond the Continent in subsequent years, particularly if they succeed.

Growing inequality has become a hot-button topic across Europe, and if Mr. Hollande were to win, the move to impose higher taxes on the wealthy could get a boost elsewhere, even in the United States, where President Obama has already promoted the so-called Buffett Rule to impose a minimum tax rate on incomes in excess of $1 million a year.

A potential victory by Mr. Hollande is already making the markets nervous about the willingness of France, and perhaps other European countries, to stick with pledges of austerity. That is true even though he promises to balance France’s budget by 2017. That, in itself, would limit his policy choices, says a prominent economist, Nicolas Baverez. But the same is true for Mr. Sarkozy, he says.

“No matter who is elected, France will have a major confrontation with the markets,” Mr. Baverez said. “There is very low growth and a huge public debt, and a refusal of the French political class to deal with the necessary cuts in public spending.” But with Mr. Hollande, he said, the test from the markets would come sooner.

See also:
• As the French prepare to vote, a fog of financial uncertainty envelops France
• A Miserable Precedent? In France's 1st Election Round, Extremism’s Total Promises to Beat Either Mainstream Candidate
• The Coming Hollandaise Golden Age
• A Good Reason to Vote for the Left in France? More Sex Partners, More Fellatio, and More Sodomy

The Coming Hollandaise Golden Age

A pre-emptive visual overview:      We will be told that the seas will lower, the land will be healed, and so forth. Immediately thereafter, statements will be made to lower everyone’s expectations. Otherwise he will be pulled to the left by a unshakably large constituency of loons with Marxist fantasies and a propensity to make chaotic everything they try to manage.

As the French prepare to vote, a fog of financial uncertainty envelops France

To the list of worries about the euro zone, add one in bold

writes Liz Alderman on the front page of the International Herald Tribune:

the fate of France as it heads into the first round of a closely contested presidential election this weekend.

After a long stretch in which President Nicolas Sarkozy grappled with the euro crisis, investors are now wrestling with the implications of a potential victory by the Socialist candidate, François Hollande. Mr. Hollande’s pledges of higher taxes on the rich, and higher government spending, are luring voters disenchanted by the austerity medicine Mr. Sarkozy has administered in hopes of protecting France from financial contagion.

Many investors, though, are questioning what a government run by Mr. Hollande would mean for France’s economic competitiveness and its ability to keep clear of the financial turmoil that has once again lifted the borrowing costs of two other big euro zone countries, Spain and Italy.

… investors are already alarmed by what they see as an erosion of competitiveness among French companies, a widening current account deficit and declining exports.

As a result, investors say France is drifting away from the “core” of strong European economies that include Germany and the Nordic countries. Instead, it is increasingly being lumped together with the weak large economies of Spain and Italy, along Europe’s troubled southern rim.

… Mr. Hollande, in contrast, is pledging to increase taxes on the wealthy to pay for significant new spending intended to spur the economy. He promises to raise 29 billion euros (about $38 billion) in new revenue while lifting spending by 20 billion euros.

A main Hollande plank includes introducing a 75 percent marginal tax rate on individual income above 1 million euros and forgoing the planned increase in the value-added tax. And rather than cut the government payroll, he has pledged to expand it by hiring 60,000 civil servants and teachers. Mr. Hollande would also reverse changes to the pension system instituted under Mr. Sarkozy, by pushing the retirement age back to 60, from 62.

That platform, Mr. Lefeuvre said, is why many foreign investors are hoping for Mr. Hollande’s electoral defeat.

“If he does win, there will be a lot of concern,” Mr. Lefeuvre said.

A Good Reason to Vote for the Left in France? More Sex Partners, More Fellatio, and More Sodomy

Oh how wonderful it is to be a leftist, purrs Frédéric Joignot in Le Monde's weekly magazine M. He is speaking of Hot Vidéo magazine's IFOP poll, according to which voters on the left get more sex than voters on the right.

Leftists will have an average of 9 partners during their lifetime, while 23% of members of Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP party will only have one.

You will make love 7.6 times per month if you vote for the Socialists' François Hollande, 6.7 times if you vote for Sarkozy, 5.9% if you vote for François Bayrou's center party.

92% of far-left women engage in fellatio, while only 69% of rightist women do so.

Of an average of 45% of Frenchmen who engage in sodomy, 48% are on the left, with 57% of Jean-Luc Mélenchon's Front de Gauche so engaged.

The poll concludes that voters on the right and in the center have a more "more stable" and a "less intense" sexual life than voters on the left. Still, they declare themselves to be satisfied. As do voters on the left…

They Prefer the Absent Conscience

I've known many Europeans who very nearly seem to masturbate to this type of political fiction – in this case it’s spun around the fantasy papalism of a “President Santorum”.

“But do you pray?” the president asked.
The director gritted his teeth.
“With all due respect, sir, that’s none of your business.”
“He is not a pharisee. He does not claim public adoration for his devotion,” the voice said.
The president nodded. Could it be that God was steering him towards an ally, a man so devout that he regarded public display, something which would advance his career in this administration, as sinful for that very reason?

It’s appeal is that it makes passiveness and incapacity on the part of the reader seem intelligent and noble – somehow.

A Miserable Precedent? In France's 1st Election Round, Extremism’s Total Promises to Beat Either Mainstream Candidate

The election in France on Sunday won’t decide its next president but will more likely offer a miserable precedent

notes John Vinocur in the International Herald Tribune:

a success for a “Rejection Front” that combines the bleak compatibility of the extreme left and right.

Notionally at least, with the Left Front and National Fronts scores added together, the beyond-the-mainstream candidates’ total share of the vote could beat the individual first-round scores of either President Nicolas Sarkozy or the Socialist, François Hollande.

That doesn’t change the near certainty that Marine Le Pen at the far right and Jean-Luc Mélenchon on the left’s distant shore get eliminated on April 22 while Hollande and Sarkozy advance to the final round two weeks later.

But if the Rejection Front (my designation) does as well as most polls suggest, France will have legitimized two political currents that spurn serious solutions for France’s economic grief, reject civility and common sense and variously propose regression through loony yet authoritarian economics, class warfare, class or racial prejudices, anti-Western instincts, and the politics of endless rage.

Sarkozy and Hollande are each projected to win between 26 and 29 percent of the votes cast in the first round among 10 contenders. That means that if parallel estimates hold for Le Pen (16 to 18 percent) and Mélenchon (around 15), extremism’s total beats either mainstream guy.

This isn’t a nerdy detail, but a miserable political signpost in an important and usually intelligent country struggling to retain influence in the world.

Mélenchon, who has Communist Party backing, infantilizes the French with promises of an “insurrection” that in the face of the country’s pledges of austerity would create 500,000 new places in public nurseries, 200,000 new low-rent apartments per year, total reimbursement of all individual health expenditure and tenured status for 800,000 public service workers now without permanent contracts. It is not clear how the Left Front would handle the costs (the health bill alone is estimated at €40 billion yearly), but Mélenchon has given a hint: confiscation of annual individual income above €360,000.

Mélenchon’s world-view goes hand in hand with his economics. He describes the United States as “the world’s primary problem” and wants the U.S. Sixth Fleet out of the Mediterranean. More: Hugo Chávez of Venezuela is a hero, the Chinese invasion of Tibet was justified, and Cuba isn’t a dictatorship.

More on Mélenchon's s worldview: A French Presidential Candidate Vows to Valiantly Fight the American Empire and Bring the World Out From Under Its Domineering Shadow.

In a French political universe where no one need tell a significant percentage of the truth, dealing in fantasy is an easy alternative. The problem with Mélenchon is that his routine is showing it works in 2012 France. As Daniel Cohn-Bendit, the left-wing ecologist politician, has said, “He’s succeeded in restoring national nostalgia for old-time class conflict and statist tradition.”

While Mélenchon’s role in the Rejection Front refuses reality, Marine Le Pen’s National Front summons French instincts in the direction of bigotry and spite.

Read the whole thing but be sure not to miss John Vinocur's conclusion:

Through their complaisant maneuvering, Sarkozy and Hollande have reduced the stature of responsible politics in France and with it given both halves of the Rejection Front enough momentum so that, side by side, they may enter the National Assembly in June legislative elections. Leaving this likely indelible (and repugnant) trace behind, the quality of the French presidential race and runoff round beginning Monday has no place to go but up.

Profound Superficiality: The French take “le talk show” very seriously

“Try to be polite,” [Jean-Luc] Gréau shouted. “It’s the least you can do.”

[Matthieu] Pigasse replied, “I am.”

“Then shut up!” Mr. Gréau said.

“Beautiful example,” Mr. Pigasse responded. “Thank you so much.”

“You’ll speak when I have finished!” Mr. Gréau roared.

The French take “le talk show” very seriously

writes Elaine Sciolino.

The clash of ideas has been part of France’s national identity for centuries, and the intellectual — almost anyone with an air of gravitas and the confidence to opine on any subject in three points — enjoys a special status in society and a place of prominence on television. Days before France’s presidential election, the country has gone into talk overload, with both serious debates and silly posturing.

“For you Americans the national sport is football; for us French, it’s talk,” said Philippe Labro, a columnist, novelist, essayist and screenwriter whose program “Don’t Lie to Us” is broadcast Wednesday nights on Direct 8. “We talk, we criticize, we argue. We ask you to share your story, and then we try to destroy you.”

There was a time when “le talk show” meant “Apostrophes,” a live prime-time chat between an author and the host Bernard Pivot. An appearance on his show, which ran for 15 years until 1990, could turn a literary loser into a best seller overnight.

Now more than a score of talk shows compete on national and cable networks and online, with vastly different levels of politesse and combativeness. Many put a premium on what Alain Minc, the consultant and sometime adviser to President Nicolas Sarkozy, calls the hallmark of a true intellectual: “profound superficiality.”

I’d Like you to Meet my Wife and Sister

While a European court upheld a German law keeping incest illegal might come as a shock to ‘Civil Rights’ types who like EUvian supersession in all things, it remains in the competence of the Member States to rule on.

From the weird, left-leaning Bild, titled “A Moral Crime”, exhibiting a surprising capacity to know what that is:

Incest can remain a punishable offence in Germany, the European Court of Human Rights ruled on Thursday. The German Green politician Christian Ströbele wants to make sex between siblings and other close relatives legal, using the argument of the right to sexual self-determination. The German tabloid Bild attacks the initiative, calling it perfidious: "When for example an 18-year-old girl sleeps with her brother or her father, is this really something she does of her own free will? Is it not always the consequence of emotional blackmail? And isn't 'free will' the vile argument always used by perpetrators as an excuse? 'She went along with it of her own free will' - these words are sickening! Incest is a moral crime because it is almost always associated with abuse and dependency! Therefore it's good that the EU judges have now decided: It is and remains illegal!"

Competence of state or mega-state courts aside, incest remains legal in France, and as you might expect, in the Netherlands, but not in West Virginia, as people fancy imagining.

The proponent of removing that “monumental barrier to free will” is none other than a creepy old man who came from the former East and represents “Green” Party, the one that came about on the pretext that it’s single most important remit is the Environment to the exclusion of everything else that doesn’t matter.

Don’t ask them about your free will when it comes to NOT recycling, driving a real car of any sort, GMOs, generating affordable energy, or using it for that matter... the “unfairness” of incest beingt unlawful must be one of those things that “was gesagt werden muss” that German leftists just can’t hold in.

Outside of the usual desire to promote perversion, I guess it’s their way of supporting Europe’s cultural heritage.

How Marvelous: Thanks to Serguei, We Now Know Not to Confuse Peaceful Muslims with Violent Terrorists

Not to be confused,
writes Serguei about a devout (and peaceful) Muslim compared to (or contrasted with) a similarly-pose-striking terrorist — as if only "humanistic" leftists were intelligent (lucides) enough not to make an amalgamation of the two…

Curiously, the Word “Rendition” isn’t Being Used

At least not in the usual operant-conditioned dog-whistle negative reflex kind of way that Europeans are used to using the term “rendition”:

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ordered radical cleric Abu Hamza and four other terror suspects to be tried in the US, saying Britain would not violate EU human rights rules by extraditing the suspects.

Strangely enough, the British lefties defending Hamza likely convinced themselves “9/11 was an inside job,” while Hamza was rather proud of it being a “Martyrdom” Operation, as if murdering innocent, unsuspecting civilians made one a martyr on the level of those who have been murdered for their beliefs.

Ignore the revision and tortured logic employed by Jihadists and their (puzzlingly still active) “Truther” faNboyZ.
A Martyr is someone who loses their life as a result of religious persecution. As their desire was to kill anyone in America not supportive of al Qaida’s dream of a theocratic dictatorship, the VICTIMS of the attacks on 9-11 were made martyrs, not those who planned, executed, and cheered on their murder.

The Diplomad Is Back

Welcome to The Diplomad 2.0
(thanks to Instapundit)

The Wisdom of Men with Unruly Hair

The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.

Albert Einstein

Europe's Humanistic Lesson-Givers to Build a Wall to Keep Illegal Immigrants Out of Europe

While Europeans never cease giving Americans lessons on racism, and on generosity, and on tolerance, along with the meaning of hospitality, Guillaume Perrier has a story on Greece planning to build a wall on its border with Turkey to prevent illegal immigrants from coming into the EU. With 55,000 people arrested at that 12-km breach of the Greek-Turkish border, the part not covered by the river Evros (Meriç) — meaning perhaps three times more crossed successfully, without detection by the authorities — that spot has become by far the nº 1 spot of entry for illegals' entry into the Schengen zone.

Un mur va s'élever à la frontière orientale de l'Union européenne (UE), entre la Grèce et la Turquie. Plus exactement, une clôture anti-migrants : deux rangées de barbelés hautes de 3 m et longues de 12 km, surmontées de caméras, devraient être plantées d'ici l'été entre la bourgade grecque de Nea Vyssa et la ville turque qui lui fait face, Edirne. Le chantier de cette barrière, similaire à celle qui avait été installée autour des enclaves espagnoles de Ceuta et Melilla, au nord du Maroc, vient d'être lancé, en dépit des nombreuses critiques.

Car au-delà de l'image négative d'une Europe qui se barricade, une telle mesure a peu de chances de réduire effectivement les flux migratoires. L'initiative controversée du gouvernement d'Athènes, qui coûtera environ 3 millions d'euros au contribuable grec, est censée fermer l'accès à la zone Schengen pour les clandestins qui, en nombre croissant, franchissent la frontière depuis la Turquie.

Mais la Commission européenne, sollicitée par la Grèce, a refusé de financer la construction d'une barrière jugée " plutôt inutile " par la commissaire suédoise chargée des affaires intérieures, Cecilia Malmström. Début février, la Commission a fait valoir qu'Athènes ferait mieux de consacrer cet argent à l'accueil des migrants, hébergés dans des conditions déplorables depuis des années. La France et l'Allemagne, au contraire, militent en faveur de cette clôture symbolique.

Le mur viendra calfeutrer une brèche de 12 km dans la frontière. Sur les 200 km restants, le fleuve Evros (Meriç en turc) fait office de séparation, mais à cet endroit il fait un coude et entre en territoire turc, formant un couloir naturel par lequel s'engouffrent chaque année des dizaines de milliers de voyageurs clandestins. Un point sensible découvert en 2010 : cette année-là, environ 55 000 personnes ont été arrêtées, côté grec, après avoir franchi illégalement la frontière, à pied, à travers champs, soit une hausse de 415 % sur un an ! Combien sont entrées sans être détectées ? Peut-être trois fois plus. La frontière gréco-turque est devenue, de très loin, le premier point d'entrée des clandestins dans la zone Schengen.

Mission de police européenne

En novembre 2010, l'agence Frontex, chargée de la surveillance des frontières extérieures de l'Union européenne, a donc décidé de déployer pour la première fois une mission de police (baptisée " Rabit "), rassemblant des représentants des 27 pays membres. Cette mission a été étendue avec le dispositif européen " Poséidon ". En 2011, les passages dans la région d'Edirne ont quasiment baissé de moitié. L'agence européenne se félicite d'une diminution de 41 % des interpellations au nord de la zone frontalière.

" La situation s'améliore. La mission Frontex a eu un effet, estime Jean-Noël Magnin, l'un des officiers de la police aux frontières française (PAF) détaché à Alexandroupolis, à l'ouest de l'Evros. Des moyens ont été mis en oeuvre avec, par exemple, un hélicoptère équipé de caméras thermiques qui survole la région. Aujourd'hui, on arrive à briser des maillons de la chaîne. Mais quoi qu'il arrive, cette frontière restera toujours un point sensible. " Selon ce policier, spécialiste des faux papiers, 130 " facilitateurs " (des passeurs) ont été arrêtés en 2011.

En réalité, les routes d'accès à la Grèce se sont déplacées vers le sud. Le nombre d'entrées a été multiplié par trois dans la province grecque d'Alexandroupolis. Environ 60 000 illégaux ont été interceptés en provenance de Turquie en 2011, un nombre en augmentation par rapport à 2010. Et, chaque nuit, des dizaines parviennent à entrer sans être pris. Les migrants traversent désormais le fleuve Evros, en barque ou en Zodiac, sur des chambres à air de camion, parfois même en s'accrochant à une corde tendue entre les deux rives.

" Ils peuvent construire toutes les clôtures qu'ils veulent, nous passerons toujours ", fanfaronne Ali, un contrebandier turc du village de Karaagaç. Les réseaux de passeurs, mouvants et de mieux en mieux organisés, se jouent des obstacles. En 2012, le rythme s'est accéléré : plus de 5 000 passages ont été " détectés " sur les deux premiers mois, soit une hausse de 30 % par rapport à l'année précédente.

Sur le quai de la gare d'Alexandroupolis, un couple de Syriens et leurs quatre enfants attendent le train pour Athènes. Partie d'Alep, entrée légalement en Turquie, cette famille a été prise en charge par des passeurs contre plusieurs milliers d'euros. " Avec la situation politique, cela devenait trop dangereux ", soupire la femme, un bébé dans les bras.

Après Istanbul, puis une traversée périlleuse de l'Evros et, enfin, deux jours passés dans la cellule crasseuse d'un centre de rétention de la police grecque, ils peuvent poursuivre leur route. Une fois enregistrés par les policiers de Frontex dans le fichier Schengen, ils repartent, comme les autres migrants, avec une injonction de quitter le territoire grec dans les trente jours. C'est plus qu'il n'en faut. A peine quelques jours plus tard, ils seront en Allemagne.

Des passeurs qui s'adaptent

Les Syriens comme eux sont de plus en plus nombreux à parvenir jusqu'à la frontière grecque : au moins 1 500 l'ont traversée clandestinement en janvier et février. Conséquence directe des violences qui frappent la Syrie depuis un an. Sur le quai de la gare, les Syriens croisent des Afghans, des Pakistanais, des Iraniens, des Somaliens, des Algériens, ainsi que des Dominicains. Et tous ont emprunté la même route.

Chaque fois que l'Europe renforce ses contrôles, les réseaux de passeurs s'adaptent à la nouvelle donne, estime Piril Erçoban, responsable d'une association turque de solidarité avec les réfugiés (Multeci-Der), basée à Izmir. " Hier, les migrants passaient par la mer Egée, aujourd'hui par le fleuve Evros, demain, ce sera par la frontière bulgare ", dit-elle.

Jusqu'en 2005, les côtes espagnoles et italiennes étaient les plus abordables. Puis les routes migratoires se sont détournées vers la frontière gréco-turque : de 2006 à 2009, les migrants tentaient de rejoindre les îles de la mer Egée, Samos, Lesbos, Kos, entassés sur des barques de pêche.

La Turquie est facilement accessible, et Istanbul, carrefour de tous les trafics, à trois heures de la frontière grecque, est devenue une plaque tournante pour l'immigration clandestine vers les pays de l'UE. Mais la Bulgarie et la Roumanie, dont l'adhésion à la zone de libre circulation de Schengen a été reportée, commencent à voir débarquer de plus en plus de clandestins.

" Pour les candidats à l'émigration, peu importe le temps, les murs, les grilles, qu'il y ait Frontex ou non... déclare Mme Erçoban. Ils ne sont pas en visite touristique, ils fuient des violations des droits de l'homme, des guerres. Il y a toujours un chemin... Cela va continuer mais il faudra payer de plus en plus cher, et de plus en plus de gens vont mourir en tentant de traverser. "

En 2011, environ 80 corps ont été retrouvés sur les rives grecques. Une cinquantaine côté turc, selon le gouvernorat d'Edirne. L'hiver, les noyades dans l'Evros et les cas d'hypothermie sont courants. En janvier, onze Algériens sont morts après avoir chaviré dans les eaux du fleuve en crue.

Dans ces conditions, le ticket pour un aller vers Schengen se monnaie à partir de 500 euros à la frontière. Les voyageurs paient parfois jusqu'à 8 000 euros pour une prise en charge depuis leur pays d'origine, jusqu'à leur destination finale, faisant la fortune des réseaux mafieux.

Guillaume Perrier

Republicans are playing golf while the Democrats are playing ice hockey

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

…the Republicans play the rules of … 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.

Foreigners of every race know that the U.S. is the least racist country in the world but most black Americans and the entire left deny it

In light of the tragic killing of black teenager Trayvon Martin — and the manufactured hysteria surrounding it — one thing needs to be stated as clearly and as often as possible

writes Dennis Prager:

The United States is the least racist and least xenophobic country in the world.
Foreigners of every race, ethnicity, and religion know this.

Most Americans suspect this.

Most black Americans and the entire left deny this.

Black Africans know this. That is why so many seek to live in the United States. Decades ago, the number of black Africans who had immigrated to the United States had already surpassed the number of black Africans who were forcibly shipped to America as slaves.

And members of other races and nationalities know this. Even Muslim and Arab writers have noted that nowhere in the Arab or larger Muslim world does an Arab or any other Muslim have the individual rights, liberty, and dignity that a Muslim living in America has. As for Latinos and Asians, vast numbers of them from El Salvador to Korea regard America as the land of opportunity.

And when any of these people come here — from anywhere, speaking any language, looking like a member of any race — they are accepted as Americans the moment they identify as such. He or she will be regarded as fully American. This is not true elsewhere. A third-generation Turkish-German, whose German is indistinguishable from the German spoken by an indigenous German, will still be regarded by most Germans as a Turk. The same holds true elsewhere in Europe.

… Xenophobic? It is probably fair to say that most Americans are xenophiles.

… The left-wing drumbeat about America as racist is a combination of politics and black memory.

The political aspect is this: The Democrats and the left recognize that if blacks cease viewing themselves as victims of racism, the Democratic Party can no longer offer itself as black America's savior. And if only one out of three black Americans ceases to regard to himself as a victim of racism, and votes accordingly, it will be very difficult for Democrats to win any national election.

The other issue is black memory. Apparently, most blacks either cannot or refuse to believe that the vast majority of whites are no longer racist. Most Americans were hopeful that the election of a black president — thereby making America the first white society in history to choose a black leader — would finally put to rest the myth of a racist America. More than three years later it seems not to have accomplished a thing. I now suspect that if the president, the vice-president, the entire cabinet, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and all nine justices on the Supreme Court were black, it would have no impact on blacks who believe America is a racist society — or on the left-wing depiction of America as racist.

One can only conclude that the smearing of America's good name is one of the things at which the left has been most proficient.

Update: Katie Pavlich: Look around the world and you’ll find that America is the most tolerant and open society on earth

Somewhere in a little town in Belgium…

Somewhere in a little town in Belgium.
On a square where nothing really happens. never.
we placed a button.
push to add drama and see what happens!

(Dank U wel to Duncan)