Sarkozy "l'Américain"

Asking whether France's rightist parties can adhere to ideas dominating in America, Jean-Claude Casanova points out that those who are eager to trip up the America-admiring Nicolas Sarkozy have taken to calling him "Sarkozy l'Américain".

Sarkozy has earned that moniker, adds Jean Birnbaum, because he keeps favoring the search for practical solutions over the Gallic penchant for abstract debate. Birnbaum notes that it is, and has always been, an exceedingly perilous nickname in France for the politician wearing it.

Already less than a generation ago, this was used on one of François Mitterrand's prime ministers. And some two centuries ago, as Philippe Roger notes in his "genealogy" of The American Enemy throughout history, it was used on another prominent French VIP. "From Talleyrand to Rocard, the US label has always made mincemeat of French politicians", says Roger (De Talleyrand à Rocard, l'étiquette US a toujours flingué un homme politique) — more on his book (as well as Jean-François Revel's) here and here.

So forget French chatter about their "American friends" and their assurances about how much they really like the American people ("eet ees only Bush an' zeir o'zair leaders zat oui 'ave somes'ing agains'"). It is all scorn and condescension. To quote MiF, "Americans, you are hated here".

Message to the stinking French	Message aux pourritures de franchouilles
Bush ratings up. Iraq policy ratified. Fuck you all.	Le taux de popularité de Bush est en hausse. Sa politique vis-à-vis de l'Irak est approuvée. Allez vous faire foutre tous. Pas la peine d'écouter les franchouilles suceurs des queues des ayatollahs. Franchouilles, faites vos courbettes!

Kofi Annan Koffee Hard-On does look a bit like Huggy Bear	Kofi Annan Kafé Hardeur ressemble comme même un peu à Huggy les bons Tuyaux
Toil and trouble for the UN. Didn't some paternalistic spittle shooting clown-faced shithead jabber that their was no problem at the UN?	De l'eau dans le gaz à l'ONUzi. Il n'y avait pas un connard de bouseu paternaliste qui postillonnait avec sa bouille à bozo en baragouinant qu'il n'y avait pas de problème avec l'ONUzi?

Super-Cannes	Supplique pour être enterré sur une plage ...
High risk of Mediterranean tsunami.	Les risques sont élevés pour un tsunami en Méditerranée.

The ticket that exploded
Paris backroom chic.	Baiser choc, clamser chic.
Radio MiF: Buju Banton: The Early Years: 1990-1995, Boom Bye Bye

Clueless Yanks, If Only You Had Some Brains, You Would Be Convinced

…of the natural superiority of the French justice system (merci à GS) and the French political system…

"Soft-Power" Europe: Boom Boom for You Yankee Clods, Bonbon-Dispersal for Us

John Vinocur reports on the "grand gesture" that "Europe's ultimate risk-taker, stabilizer, and military guarantor" (a.k.a Uncle Sam) may make towards the "soft-power" Europe (you know, the entity that endows "humanity with a global consciousness" and emphasizes "global cooperation over the unilateral exercise of power") during George W Bush's visit there next month.

…making nice, sounding understanding rather than contemptuous of Europe's soft ambitions, doesn't undermine the hard-power fact of the United States' continuing middle-term role as Europe's ultimate risk-taker, stabilizer and military guarantor.

But what's Europe supposed to be delivering in exchange?

The giveback is soft too, not troops for Iraq, but centering on Germany, where during a Bush stopover in Mainz, Gerhard Schröder would demonstrate pretty unequivocal opposition to the notion of a world based on multipolarity. That's the French scheme for a global future that includes Europe as a superpower, and turns it into a regional pole alongside China, the United States, Russia, India etc — creating, in the American view, artificial divisions, rigidities and the unlovely but obvious subtext of a United States isolated at a table of its so-called polar equals.

If Schröder says world mulipolarity cannot be Europe's forward vision — in Paris last week, Jacques Chirac's personal bugaboo, the presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy, marked himself down as opposing it as a confrontational idea — then multipolarity's place as an emblematic banner for a European superpower would die forgotten as French excess. Should Schröder find this too much disloyalty to Chirac, or if Chirac did not subtly recant beforehand, perhaps on a quick trip to Washington (he is seriously conflicted about how much soft power Europe can acquire before China howls in laughter), then Bush would return home without a quid pro quo.

Not exactly the American way of doing business, and not an easy, empty-handed sell to the conservative presidential constituency. So there are uncertainties about the trade-off.

The fact is there are also a few reasonable American doubts about endorsing, however notional its status, a soft-power European superpower.

The United States can't be interested in consecrating a Europe that could well turn out to be a Righteous Power, instructing, pontificating and limiting its responsibilities to what Robert Zoellick, Condoleezza Rice's future deputy secretary of state, said a year ago was Europe's predilection for endless negotiations in excellent hotels in pleasant locations. This Righteous Power aspect (the phrase is that of a former Bush White House official), sometimes comparing the supposed new nobility of Europe's purpose with the Americans' hard-power clangor, is obvious in many European descriptions of life as the gentle superpower.

For Egon Bahr, once Willy Brandt's chief adviser, Europe should abandon the humiliation of the hopeless task of keeping up with the United States in military expenditure (he skipped referring to risk) and arrive at a refined burden-sharing process in which it was the Americans' job "to force" peace while Europe dealt with peace-maintenance. Boom boom for you clods, bonbon-dispersal for us.

In an article in which she acknowledges plenty of European incoherence, another German, Ulrike Guerot of the German Marshall Fund, all the same projects a dreamlike EU becoming "the real superpower" of the 21st century, "endowing humanity with a global consciousness" that emphasizes "global cooperation over the unilateral exercise of power."…

"The coverage of the Iraq war in some French media was almost cartoonish in its opposition"

reports John Fund as he discusses France's CII satellite TV station, the planned, government-funded "CNN à la française"…

…the French belief that they are losing what Mr. Chirac calls "the battle of footage" to Anglo-Saxon media behemoths is absurd. The message put out by U.S. and British media outlets isn't unified, and to the extent that is true, the output is hostile to much of U.S. and British foreign policy and certainly to President Bush. An independent inquiry found that the BBC had twisted its reportage in a reckless attempt to discredit Prime Minister Tony Blair's Iraq policy.

…France will have to be careful in the message it puts out on its new version of CNN. Jean-Pierre Tailleur, the author of a book that harshly criticizes the French media, says the coverage of the Iraq war in some French media was almost cartoonish in its opposition. "They minimized the atrocities of Saddam's regime and presented Bush as a criminal on the same level as Saddam and Hitler," he wrote.

(Merci à FH)

Check out Jean-Pierre Tailleur's website (while intellectuals and media alike complain about la malbouffe, he complains about le maljournalisme…) and one of his articles in English…

Iraqis Want to Be Martyrs More Than Ever

says Anthony Shadid in the Washington Post as he reports on what a terrible, bloody, horrifying mess Iraq has become since Americans made the "mistake" of (illegally!) overthrowing Saddam.

"Going to the polling stations is a victory for the Iraqi people," said Ali Danif, a 45-year-old writer. …

"It's one of my wishes to die at the gate of the polling station," [a smiling Suheil Yassin] said, a gesture that was self-consciously dramatic. "I want to be a martyr for the ballot box."…

(Shookhran to Iraq the Model)

Franklin on Blockheads

Did Benjamin Franklin, the American statesman  (1706-1790) whose birthday it is today, have intellectuals and other members of the élite in his mind when he said:

A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one.

Other quotations include:

A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats.

A good conscience is a continual Christmas.

A great empire, like a great cake, is most easily diminished at the edges.

A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body.

A life of leisure and a life of laziness are two things. There will be sleeping enough in the grave.

A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle.

A penny saved is a penny earned.

A place for everything, everything in its place.

A small leak can sink a great ship

Absence sharpens love, presence strengthens it.

Admiration is the daughter of ignorance.

All human situations have their inconveniences. We feel those of the present but neither see nor feel those of the future; and hence we often make troublesome changes without amendment, and frequently for the worse.

All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.

All who think cannot but see there is a sanction like that of religion which binds us in partnership in the serious work of the world.

Hide not your talents, they for use were made. What's a sun-dial in the shade?

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

The end of Zeropa	La Zéropa touche à sa fin
Behind the curve.	Courbe ascendante, pente savonneuse.

Confirmed	C'est confirmé
France is suffering from an anti-American virus and the American tourist drop-off is real and hurting. Didn't some paternalistic spittle shooting clown-faced shithead jabber that none of this was a problem?	La France a chopé un virus anti-américain et la baisse de tourisme américain en France est bien réelle et elle fait mal. Il n'y avait pas un connard de bouseu paternaliste qui postillonnait avec sa bouille à bozo en baragouinant que tout ça ne posait pas de problème?

... staggering and limping	... sur trois pattes
Broken propeller again? Three weeks later the French arrive.	Hélice bousillée encore? Trois semaines après les fwançais arrivent sur place.

Headline	à la une
News of France's disaster with regards to relief disaster has hit the big time.	Les infos au sujet du sinistre désastre franchouille en matière de secours aux sinistrés sont arrivées sur La Une.

MLK on Genuine Leaders, Going It Alone, and Risking Ostracism

Today is the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., the US Civil Rights Leader (1929-1968) who said

A lie cannot live.

A man can't ride your back unless it's bent.

A man who won't die for something is not fit to live.

At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.

A right delayed is a right denied.

A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.

A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.

All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.

All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem.

If you can't fly, run. If you can't run, walk. If you can't walk, crawl. The important thing is to keep moving by any means possible.

The following three quotes come to mind when meditating on George W Bush's refusal to "respect" international rules and to abide by what the so-called "peace camp" calls international law, the administration's taking action alone (well, with "only" some 30 allies or so), and America's subsequent ostracism in the international arena.

An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.

Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.

A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.

Hazing	Bizutages
To the French upset because the term 'torture' is misappropriated: words have meanings. Learn them.	Aux franchouilles qui partent en vrille car le terme 'torture' est mal employé: les mots ont des significations bien précises. Apprenez-les.

Some pottery and dusty old statues	De la poterie et des statues vétustes et poussièreuses
Humanist whining about knick-knacks.	Les humanistes gémissent encore au sujet de quelques bibelots.
Commentaire d'Avary: Durant sa campagne foireuse en Égypte en 1798, le général Napoléon Bonaparte établi son camp aux Pyramides où, le 21 Juillet 1798, il remporta la victoire sur les Mameloukes du sultan Mourad Bey. La bataille fût précédée de sa fameuse proclamation : "Soldats de l'Armée d'Orient, du haut de ces pyramides quarantes siècles vous comptemplent!" Si je fais ce petit rappel historique c'est parce qu'un archéologue-moonbat est allé se plaindre qu'établir un camp militaire à Babylone est aussi stupidement criminel que d'en établir un au pied des Pyramides. Peut-on être archéologue et ignorer l'histoire? Avary

Screw the globophobes!	Globophobes, allez vous faire mettre!
Another one just opened.	Encore un qui vient de s'ouvrir.

Pali Psycho Death Cult©®™ and willing henchman	Le Culte Psychotique de la Mort palestinien©®™ et ses tristes sbires
The brat wasn't shot, there was no massacre in Jenin, Kill faster, Total war.	On n'a pas tiré sur le sale gosse, il n'y a pas eu de massacre à Jénine, Tuer plus vite. Guerre totale.

Axis of Evil Countries (and Prospective Members) in the News

A rather objective column on Iran's nuclear capabilities, by Ran Halevi, can be found in the newspaper of reference.

Wanting to explore "a myth", the English National Opera seems to be preparing a Springtime for Kaddhafi, RV informs us, while directing us towards Syria which, besides attempting to sign an arms deal for Russia's SA-18, may soon be, according to GPF, the target of an American air strike.

Referring to the escalating attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq by Iraqi insurgents, [a former senior U.S. intelligence official told United Press International that] "Syria is complicit in the (anti-U.S.) insurgency up to its eyeballs."

"Syria is the No. 1 crossing point" for guerrillas entering Iraq," Gary Gambill, editor of the Middle East Intelligence Bulletin, said. He added that Damascus "does nothing about it." An administration official said Syria has "camps in which Syrians are training Iraqis for the insurgency and others where Iraqis are training Syrians for the same purpose" which could be hit by U.S. air strikes.

… Recently, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said that senior Baath Party officials from Iraq are operating from Syria where they provide financing and direction to the cells of Iraqi insurgents killing Americans …

U.S. officials told United Press International that money, direction, weapons and personnel are flowing into Iraq from Syria, ending up in Iraqi cities such as Iskanderiya, Baqouba, Latafiya and Fallujah.

… In addition to Syria being used as a rear area for insurgents, it is a key center of finance for former Saddam Hussein officials who are leading the insurgency, thanks to stashes of Iraqi cash that could run as high as $3 billion, which is all in the Syrian banking system, according for former and serving administration officials. There are also allegedly "many millions of dollars" from Palestinian groups flowing into Syria that are also being used to help finance anti-American guerrilla groups in Iraq, these sources said.

And how about doing an Iraqi Freedom, swooping in, and getting rid of the entire régime, once and for all? Indeed, couldn't that have been done in April or May 2003, and in less than the three weeks it took to topple Saddam? (Wishful thinking…)

Waiting for the weekend while playing with their navel ring	Toujours attendre les prochaines RTT en se tripotant le piercing au nombril
Zeropa thinks that it is 'reality based'. Better check the definition.	La Zéropa est convaincue d'occuper un espace 'à base de réalité'. L'heure est venue de vérifier la définition.
Sorry, the DNA taken from the hair of your left eyebrow doesn't match the DNA from your right foot toenail.

Message to the stinking French	Message aux franchouilles pestilentiels
Fuck you all.	Allez vous faire foutre tous.

Two Government Insiders Cast a Devastating Eye on the World of French Politics

Casting a devastating eye on the world of French politics, two former ministers have authored books about their experience in the halls of power, at times comparing that world unfavorably with its equivalents in Britain and the United States.

Speaking to Nicolas Weill, Luc Ferry denounces the archaism of the political establishment, the lack of courage of the MPs, and their "almost obsessional" attachment to the media.

The former education minister charges that

the president of the republic probably prefers to have by his side professional politicians who owe him something rather than lay people who owe him nothing. The latter … have nothing to lose or, at least, much less than those for whom politics has become the profession.

For Francis Mer, politics has become a "trade for life", and in spite (or because) of that, the world of French politics is lacking in "professionalism"; specifically, it is lacking in that

"breath" that exists between the public and the private sectors, notably in the United States.

Saying that he calls himself a champion of the "free market, albeit not an extremist", the former economics minister calls on his colleagues to follow the example of the English, "who manage their administrations like a private enterprise", instead of the Omertà that exists in France.

The response to the two men's criticism (as noted by Jean-Baptiste de Montvalon) is not always reassuring — listen to this description of a calling (politician/member of parliament) that its supposed to be that of someone who serves the people:

This job can't be improvised. It's a specialty which has its own language, its own code of conduct, its own culture, and its own mores.

As Iraq's President Visits France, Chirac Tones Down His Voice

The International Herald Tribune's Katrin Bennhold claims that Jacques Chirac is tempering France's criticism of U.S. policy.

While both Chirac and his foreign minister, Michel Barnier, have firmly denied any change in France's policy on Iraq, they appear to have softened their language on some of the main areas of controversy with the United States in Iraq.

Only a few months ago, French officials would still call for "an end to the occupation" and demand a concrete date for the withdrawal of coalition forces in Iraq. Thursday this demand was muted.

Of course, this is all realpolitik. Everything France does and says (or, conversely, doesn't do and say) is presented as being proof of superior wisdom, tolerance, capacity for reasoning, love of justice, avant-garde vision, etc: that is the message when Paris vigorously opposes Uncle Sam abroad and… that is the message when Paris tones down its voice to adopt "a new balancing act".

So far, it doesn't seem to be working…

[During the visit of Iraq's interim president Ghazi al-Yawar, Paris stressed] that it is ready to plan for a long-term cooperation with Bagdhad on issues ranging from education and health to archeology. French officials are also quick to stress that France is ready to pull its weight in the reconstruction of Iraq, pointing notably to its agreement to scrap €4 billion, or $5.2 billion, of debt owed to it by Baghdad.

But so far French goodwill has not won that much tangible appreciation.

While Germany has trained some 1,200 Iraqi police officers in the United Arab Emirates since March, a French proposal made in July for a similar effort has so far been ignored by Iraq.

"We explicitly renewed the proposal today, but there was no reaction," said one of Chirac's aides, who declined to be identified, after Thursday's talks.

Update: Following the historic Iraq election, President Ghazi al-Yawer derides one of the central tenets of French foreign policy as "complete nonsense"…

When Le Monde Teaches You More About WMD Than America's MSM, Something Has Gone Seriously Wrong…

Although it is written by Eric Leser (who invariably ends his piece with a broadside on America), the Le Monde article that accompanies Serguei's cartoon on the end of the search for WMD actually gives more "mitigating circumstances" and all-inclusive information than I have read in the American mainstream media…

The decision to bring the searches to a halt is linked to the risks run in Iraq and to the absence of any new information on potential non conventional arsenals. On December 10, 2004, [Charles] Duelfer was attacked near Bagdad during a routine mission, and two bodyguards were killed.

… Every suspect site in Iraq was the object of thorough searches. Most of them had already been pillaged and emptied of all their equipment. …

[What Saddam Hussein was hiding for the most part] was the technical means to allow him to resume the production of weapons of mass destruction after the lifting of the UN's sanctions. …

In the meantime, RV directs us to NewsMax (No WMDs? Tons of Uranium, Sarin Gas, Buried MiGs):

[Instead of throwing in the towel,] Bush would do better to explain to the American people just what U.S. forces did find in their search for banned weapons in Iraq — starting with, for instance, the 1.8 tons of partially enriched uranium Saddam had s[t]ocked away.

…And if Bush needs more ammunition to refute [top House Dem Nancy] Pelosi, he could cite the discovery of Sarin gas-filled artillery shells.

…And if the White House wants some dramatic imagery to show how easy it was for Saddam to hide banned weapons, how about those photos of the 30 Iraqi jet fighters that weapons searchers found buried in the sand near Baghdad.

…No weapons of mass destruction? President Bush needs to spend more time examining the evidence and less time working through his mea culpas with Barbara Walters.

The WMDs in Iraq are called 'French journalists'	Les ADM en Irak s'appellent 'journalistes franchouilles'
That French fine whine.	Ça n'arrête pas de gémir.
I was wrong, there are no WMDs in Iraq.

and Koffee Hard-On is the pimp	avec Kafé Hardeur comme mac
The UN: the best financed whorehouse in the world.	L'ONUzi: le bordel le mieux financé de la planète.

Sounds funny to me	Ça me fait marrer, moi
... and may the streets will flow with the blood of non-believers.	... que les caniveaux ruissellent du sang des infidels.

Bad apple	Le vers est dans le fruit
Apple attacks bloggers. Not surprising that it makes the computers of choice for brown shirt panty-waists.	Apple s'attaque aux bloggeurs. Pas étonnant que cette boîte fabrique les ordis préférés des pédaloïdes chemises brunes.

Hailed by the French for Defying Bush, Iraq's President Calls Members of the "Resistance" What They Really Are

While their contempt for Prime Minister Iyad Allawi knows no bounds, the French love Iraq's President.

And no wonder: as Patrice Claude states in his first sentence of his portrait on the "amazing" Bedouin who holds a Saudi passport, "The Americans did not want Ghazi al-Yawar."

Before telling the Sheikh's story, Claude takes the time to poke fun at the Americans and the neo-cons. He goes on to wax admiringly on the 'humanitarian' who has "defied" George W Bush, who "never shrunk from speaking his mind to the occupier" (suggesting that anybody who does not challenge the Americans — "the occupier" is taken as a given — can be nothing but a boot-licker or a poodle), and who allegedly wants the Americans to leave as soon as possible. (I always thought that Dubya was supposed to appreciate leaders who were honest and who spoke their minds.)

It is almost as an aside that Claude drops three or four lines about the Sheikh's views on the "rebels",

those forces of evil who boast no program, no idea, and who defile religion.

While Iraq's president is in France for a visit, Jacques Chirac and Michel Barnier are trying to get their country to improve relations with both Iraq and Washington, writes Claire Tréan in one of those articles in which the independent newspaper does little else but rehash French government press releases and spell out the world situation as seen from the Quai d'Orsay (with itself as the incarnation of wisdom and reason).

Expressing the "sadness of the Iraqi people and government regarding the kidnapping of that innocent journalist" (Florence Aubenas), Ghazi al-Yawar made another pointed remark whose (not so) subtle message it is not at all certain was understood by French leaders and media entranced by an Iraqi official who "defies" the Americans:

That makes but one more manifestation of blind terrorism which makes no distinction between human beings, religions, gender, or nationality.

Yes, that's right. The man lionized by Patrice Claude — a representative of an élite hailing the "resistance" to an "illegal occupation" — called the members of said resistance terrorists, and terrorists for whom the victims' nationality makes no difference.

Update: Following the historic Iraq election, President Ghazi al-Yawer derides one of the central tenets of French foreign policy as "complete nonsense"…

Plane Ticket for Malbrunot

Anybody want to start a fund to pool money for buying Georges Malbrunot a plane ticket?

(Merci à RV)

America Is Such a Dangerous Place…

…a country without law and order and full of gangsters and murder and mayhem…

Europe is much safer… and here you have authorities you can trust!

(Where was it the Dutch MP was possibly flown to for her safety?…)

America Is Such an Arrogant and Unjust Place…

…a country that refuses to abide by international standards and that ignores the world's wish for an international court with integrity, equality, impartiality, and justice for all…

America Is Such an Awful Polluter…

…a country which arrogantly mocks international rules of the environment…

Europe is much more green-friendly… just listen to France give her lessons…

(Merci à RV et SGVN)

America Is Such a Prudish Place…

…a country filled with retrograde puritan views on sexuality and such…

Europe has a much healthier attitude to such trivial matters…

Elmer Davis on Applause, Boos, and Hisses

Today is the birthday of Elmer Davis, the US newspaperman, radio commentator, and author (1890-1958) who said that

 Applause, mingled with boos and hisses, is about all that the average voter is able or willing to contribute to public life.

One of the things that is wrong with America is that everybody who has done anything at all in his own field is expected to be an authority on every subject under the sun.

The first and great commandment is, Don't let them scare you.

This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.

This nation was conceived in liberty and dedicated to the principle — among others — that honest men may honestly disagree; that if they all say what they think, a majority of the people will be able to distinguish truth from error.

This republic was not established by cowards; and cowards will not preserve it.

Shock and awe	Secousses et effroi
After a resounding success in round 1, let's move on to round 2. Authors previously published or not: New Paris publisher starting activity in July 2005 is looking for manuscripts from daring French language authors. Contact publisher at nouvelediteur@hotmail.fr. Leftist humanist poets need not apply.	Suite à un succès retentissant lors de la 1ère étape, nous passons à la 2ème. Ecrivains débutants ou confirmés: Nouvel éditeur parisien qui démarrera son activité au mois de juillet 2005 recherche des manuscrits inédits de la part d'écrivains qui osent. Contactez l'éditeur à nouvelediteur@hotmail.fr. Poètes humanistes de gôche s'abstenir.

Religion in the News

The BBC's Robert Pigott reports that "as secularisation takes an increasingly firm hold over French society, Catholic congregations are disappearing and the country's ageing priests are dying."

Meanwhile, Tom Heneghan of Reuters informs us that

Evangelical Christians in France face growing problems as authorities enforce secularism, favor Muslims or view them as supporters of President Bush, French Protestant leaders say.

Evangelicals, who make up 40 percent of the French Protestant Federation, complain of bureaucratic hurdles when trying to open churches and of being seen as sects because they differ from France's traditional faiths.

Leaders of mainstream and evangelical Protestants, who together make up only about two percent of the population in traditionally Catholic France, stress religious freedom is not under threat. But the problems have prompted them to speak out.

… Stephane Lauzet, secretary general of the French Evangelical Alliance (AEF), [and] Jean-Arnold de Clermont, head of the main umbrella group, the French Protestant Federation (FPF) … said that many French, unfamiliar with the varied faces of Protestantism, linked the evangelicals with the U.S. religious right and with Bush, highly unpopular in France.

The left-leaning weekly Le Nouvel Observateur ran a cover story last spring with a picture of Bush and the headline "Evangelicals — the sect that wants to conquer the world."

The magazine apologized after the FPF and AEF protested. …

The deeper problem, he said, was that some French officials wanted to limit religion's role in public life and squeeze all churches into large groups like the FPF to deal with them easily. Most of the new evangelical churches are outside the FPF and remain totally independent.

"The local authorities want to deal with the religiously correct and that means what they can recognize," Clermont said. "When they don't recognize something, they want a good conduct certificate from the Federation, but they are not all members."

Lauzet said even some energetically secularist bureaucrats betrayed hidden religious prejudices. "To them, anything that's not Catholic is a sect," he said.

(Gregory be praised)

In America, meanwhile, George W Bush explains what membership in a sect entails for him.

(Hallelujah, brother RV)

Space is the Place	L'espace, c'est là où ça se passe
Stalker gives us the low-down.	Stalker nous fait le topo.

Throw him down a Trappes door	Qu'il passe par la Trappes
France's lucky charm.	La chance pour la Fwance.

It can be anti-Semitic if it's art	Si c'est de l'art, ce n'est pas de l'anti-sémitisme
Nothing like a little State sponsored anti-Semitism to start off the day.	Ça fait du bien, un peu d'anti-sémitisme subventionné par l'Etat pour démarrer la journée.

Thanks to GMO bananas	Grâce aux bananes OGM
Dieudonné claims to be a genetically re-engineered superhuman.	Dieudonné prétend être un surhomme génétiquement reconfiguré.

Throw the book at 'em	Poésie héliportée
Books for soldiers.	Livres pour soldats.

The more the merrier?	Mégateuf!
'Abortion Party' announced by Paris City Hall. Who writes these things?	'IVG Célébration' annoncée par la Mairie de Paris. Qui c'est le responsable éditorial de ce truc?

The Iraqi Perspective on the "Resistance"

In the New York Times, David Brooks gives us the Iraqi perspective on what French leaders, intellectuals, pundits, journalists, and citizens alike call the "Iraqi resistance" (as well as on he whom they dismiss as the Americans' puppet):

The newspaper Sabah recently published a poll of 4,974 Iraqis living in and around Baghdad. Nearly 88 percent support military action against the terrorists. A survey by the Iraq Center for Research and Strategic Studies suggests that the insurgents' archfoe, the prime minister Ayad Allawi, is the most popular prospective leader in the land.

Writer's block

Hantise de la feuille blanche

Les capitalistes américains sont l'ennemi de l'humanité…

Les humanistes européens, tels les altermondialistes, ne veulent que notre bien…

(Thanks to Carine… and to Ashamed Frenchman, who adds:
"Understand better why I'm talking often about fascism in my no-pasaran comments?")

Have to do your duty ...	Faut accepter ses responsabilités ...
.. if you're elected to represent a bunch of blood thirsty animalistic savages.	... si vous êtes l'élu d'une bande de sauvages animaliers assoiffés de sang.
-- Abbas: Howdy, I'm Mahmoud Abbas. -- Israeli tank: Please to meet you.

Soros Shows He Knows Who His Friends and Foes Are

Left-wing billionaire and Bush-hater George Soros was not content to spend millions to thwart a Bush victory in last November's presidential election

writes Insight's Kenneth R Timmermann in the New York Post (Merci à Grouik).

Now his Open Society Institute in New York is joining forces with pro-Tehran lobbying group to promote the interests and the viewpoint of the Islamic Republic of Iran …

Meanwhile, John Vinocur discusses the fading neocon ideology in Bush's second cabinet;

Mikhail Khodorkovsky writes a letter from a Russian prison;

and Elisabetta Povoledo reports that Italy's ban on smoking is getting off to a fuming start:

Regarding the "tough new law that bans smoking in public places — one of the strictest in Europe", Andrea Pinketts, a Milan-based crime writer and pro-smoking activist, said

Looking at human history, intolerance has caused more damage, even death, than smoking ever did

Alexander Hamilton and Jack London

Yesterday was the birthday of Alexander Hamilton, the American statesman (1755-1804) who said

A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.

A well adjusted person is one who makes the same mistake twice without getting nervous.

Constitutions should consist only of general provisions; the reason is that they must necessarily be permanent, and that they cannot calculate for the possible change of things.

Even to observe neutrality you must have a strong government.

In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men the great difficulty lies in this: You must first enable the government to control the governed, and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.

In the general course of human nature, A power over a man's subsistence amounts to a power over his will.

It is the advertiser who provides the paper for the subscriber. It is not to be disputed, that the publisher of a newspaper in this country, without a very exhaustive advertising support, would receive less reward for his labor than the humblest mechanic.

Learn to think continentally.

Man is a reasoning rather than a reasonable animal.

Today's birthday is Jack London, the American author (1876-1916) who wrote

A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog.

I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.

The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.

You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.

The Superiority of France's Welfare State and the Inherent Brotherhood of Its Members

While scandalized Frenchmen continue, on a regular basis, to blast the alleged egotism, greed, and other horrors prevalent in American-style capitalism — all the while lionizing their unsurpassed government-controlled welfare state (along with the nation's legendary fraternité and solidarité) — Le Monde's Christine Garin informs us that with over 200,000 people living on less than 670 Euros a month, extreme poverty hits one Paris home in eight.

Selon une étude publiée en janvier 2004 par l'Atelier parisien d'urbanisme (APUR), 12 % des foyers parisiens, soit 210 000 personnes, vivent avec moins de 670 euros par mois, soit au-dessous du "seuil de pauvreté" défini par l'Insee. …

Ce pourcentage pourrait même, logiquement, être réévalué … il n'inclut, en effet, ni les étudiants ni les personnes âgées de plus de 65 ans, deux catégories largement exposées, elles aussi, à la pauvreté. En outre, le seuil de pauvreté, défini au niveau national, ne prend pas en compte le coût du logement, très élevé à Paris.

Back in September, La Croix released figures from a Fondation de France poll showing that the French were less and less generous.

And that, while poverty seems to be on the rise in all of France.

(David R Henderson explains what causes individuals in a free society to be naturally more generous than those in a welfare state [scroll to the subhead entitled "Are Market Economies So Lacking in Virtuousness in the First Place?"])

More French Condescension from Plantu

The kidnapping of Florence Aubenas is another occasion for Plantu to show off France's condescending views of foreigners:

Between the war-crazy Americans and the trigger-happy Muslims (see the hatred on their evil faces), a rational, lucid, wise, tolerant, reasonable, peace-loving French(wo)man (or European) with the face of innocence who lives only by the pen…

Now, imagine you are a regular reader of a French (or a European) newspaper, and you see (self-serving) opinions like this one on a daily basis, not only in cartoons but on the op-ed page and inside "objective" articles: who, offhand, of the three characters (and the societies each represents) do you think is better suited to solving problems in the world, whether in Iraq or anywhere else?

(With apologies to W)

"Not Unusual" for French Citizens (and Reporters!) to Agree Wholeheartedly with Their Government's Foreign Policy

In his second International Herald Tribune article on Monday, Roger Cohen interviews Georges Malbrunot, recently released after four months in the hands of Islamic militants in Iraq.

Captured on Aug. 20 on the road from Baghdad to Najaf, held in five different locations, tried by a self-styled Islamic court, Malbrunot and his Arabic-speaking colleague, Christian Chesnot, 38, of Radio France Internationale, came away with an impression of a well-organized movement that had a clear strategy. A militant who said he had trained in Osama bin Laden's Afghan camps listed the objectives as: the overthrow of the Egyptian and Saudi regimes; the defeat of American forces in Iraq; the driving of a wedge between Europe and the United States; the re-creation of the Arab caliphate; and the prosecution on a wide front of a war against the West, depicted as one of self-defense.

…From the outset, Malbrunot and Chesnot made much of France's opposition to the war and said they identified with their government's position.

"I think we are alive today because we are French," Malbrunot said.

The article gives a lot of information about the men who kidnapped Malbrunot, a former actor, and Chesnot, but the point of this post is that, unfortunately, it gives more information about the mainstream media, both abroad and in the United States. Just read the introductory paragraph:

[The French reporter] gives a blunt assessment of where America's Iraqi war is headed: "Straight into a wall."

Not an unusual view for a Frenchman, given the country's opposition to the war.

Can you ever imagine a journalist, American or foreign, saying that an American citizen's support for the Iraq war is "not unusual", given the Bush administration's support for same?! And that citizen, to boot, is (supposed to be) an objective, fact-finding journalist?

There are so many things to write about in what is supposed to be an uncontroversial sentence that I hardly know where to start… Let's try anyway:

• People outside the United States, or Frenchmen, at least, think it entirely normal for the country's citizens to support their government's foreign policy (at least in its general direction);
• When a given country's reporters and national media (and citizens) echo their governments' (self-serving opinions), that testimony is not put into doubt at all;
• What is worst is that members of America's mainstream media — who are so ready (and rightly so) to question a domestic opinion-maker — accept this without blinking, without even thinking twice.

Barnier Sugar-Coating France's Position

Roger Cohen had two interviews in the International Herald Tribune on Monday.

The first was an interview with France's foreign minister:

Michel Barnier … is calling for a "new relationship" with the United States and says its first test will be the capacity of President George W. Bush and his European allies to advance a Middle East peace within the next six months.

"For me, President Bush has a historic responsibility," Barnier said in an interview on Friday.

Notice how the bulk of the responsability is put on others, with little (if any) guilt for bad U.S.-French relations admitted on the French side. If/when a failure arises, the French can say, "see, we told you, we knew it all along…"

This sugar-coating of the French position is also how Barnier characterizes what some call France's betrayal of Uncle Sam:

The EU should be recognized as a steadfast "ally of the Americans," he said, adding: "An alliance does not mean allegiance. It should mean partnership."

He was asked if an alliance meant allegiance at moments of crisis like the Iraq war. "It is never allegiance," Barnier said, his pale blue eyes assuming a steely hue. "An alliance is a partnership based on mutual respect."

All fine words and sentiments worthy of respect. The only problem, as I have said before, is that they are used arbitrarily or, rather, in an entirely self-serving way.

Thus, the French never make these "allegiance" comments (or those concerning "what should only be interpreted as friendly constructive criticism") regarding countries such as China, Vietnam, Russia, (Saddam Hussein's) Iraq, etc. Conversely, they do not regard with a respectful eye other nations' breaking of their "allegiance" to (or alliance with) with France. In those cases, they lose their "mutual respect" for the UK ("the poodle"), Spain ("Bush's small messenger"), and the Eastern countries (who "are not very polite and would have done better to keep quiet")…

Update: Following the historic Iraq election, President Ghazi al-Yawer derides one of the central tenets of French foreign policy as "complete nonsense"…

Solzhenitsyn on Artist-Supporting Régimes and on the Easiest and Most Comfortable Course to Take in Life

One month ago, it was the birthday of Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn, the Russian writer (1918- ) who said

For a country to have a great writer is like having a second government. That is why no regime has ever loved great writers, only minor ones.

Hastiness and superficiality are the psychic diseases of the 20th century, and more than anywhere else this disease is reflected in the press.

I can say without affectation that I belong to the Russian convict world no less than I do to Russian literature. I got my education there, and it will last forever.

I have spent all my life under a Communist regime, and I will tell you that a society without any objective legal scale is a terrible one indeed. But a society with no other scale but the legal one is not quite worthy of man either.

If one is forever cautious, can one remain a human being?

It is not because the truth is too difficult to see that we make mistakes... we make mistakes because the easiest and most comfortable course for us is to seek insight where it accords with our emotions — especially selfish ones.

This is what happens when you don't have the US Marines double-parked outside	Notre Dame de Paris Delanoë s'engage à envoyer des moto-crottes
US military droppin' chronic and French State TV has to admit that it don't stop.	L'armée US met le paquet et la télé franchouille de l'Etat n'essaie même plus de redorer le blason de ses pious-pious sous-équipés sous-doués.

There is something terribly sick in a culture that neither forgives nor forgets…

Shortly before Franco's death, in 1975, Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi delivered to [a Spanish socialist senator] $50,000 to help him liberate the province of Andalusia from Madrid's tyrannical control. Gadhafi dreamed of restoring an Islamic state in southern Spain that would recreate the glory of Granada, the last Moorish redoubt in the Iberian peninsula, seized by the Catholic monarchs in 1492.

Thus begins Carlos Alberto Montaner's article Islam's Gaze is Stuck on the Past.

There is something terribly sick in a culture that neither forgives nor forgets, that looks permanently toward the past, convinced that all the truths have already been inscribed in a sacred book that determines who are the infidels who must be vanquished or exterminated.

Within that moral aberration lies the infinite capacity of Muslim Arabs to inflict harm to others and to themselves without the slightest vestige of remorse. That's something that has nothing to do with the existence of Israel or the position of the United States, as exemplified by the periodic massacres in Sudan, Algiers, Syria, Jordan or Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

This reflection comes to mind after hearing of Yasser Arafat's death. It is true that his disappearance opens a space to the hope that peace may come to the Middle East if Arafat's authority is inherited by Palestinians who are willing to coexist serenely with Israel. But to anyone who knows the despotic behavior of the Arab ruling classes, their manifest contempt for human life and their cult of violence should harbor no illusions.

On the other hand, it is hard to believe that the whole of Palestinian society truly sympathizes with the murderers in Hamas, Hezbollah and the Islamic Jihad. The guilty party is the Palestinian elite, which establishes its hierarchy by means of force and the subjugation of the weak. Ordinary people undoubtedly shudder in horror at the sight of the suicidal assassins who strap bombs to their waists to blow up buses or supermarkets.

These same people must be tired of living in poverty, terrorized by their own bullies in an atmosphere of bloodthirsty heroism fed by the victims those bullies can exact from their enemies — even if victims are innocent children — or by the ``martyrs'' they contribute, fanatical youths goaded to their deaths with the help of the darkest superstitions and the vilest promises.

Goddamn foreigners!	Putain d'étrangers!
Iegor Gran, author of the excellent novel 'NGO!' (now in Folio paperback), which blew away the sanctimonious sentiment surrounding non-governmental organisations, had the following to say in Libération dated 7 September 2003: France, cultural exception? Country of freedom? Balls! France, country of jealousy and fear, eaten away by an inferiority complex, little nation of little conformists! France, which waves its declaration of human rights like a magic charm, a Bové-esque monarchy, a cause for worrying with its good conscience wrapped in chauvinism! With regards to the 2003 literary season dripping with the blood of 9-11 victims he simply declared, 'You get the literature you deserve.' Who are these immigrants who, having lived in France for years, dare to make such commentary. I'm shocked. Shocked!	Iegor Gran, auteur de l'excellent livre 'ONG!' (qu vient de sortir en poche Folio), qui a balayé les sentiments bien-pensants véhiculés par les organisations non-gouvernementales, a tenu ces propos dans Libé de samedi 7 septembre 2003: France, exception culturelle? Pays de liberté? Mes choses! France, pays de jalousie et de trouille, rongée par le complexe d'infériorité, petite nation de petits conformismes! France, qui agite sa déclaration des droits de l'homme comme une amulette, monarchie bovésienne, consternante de bonne conscience tissue de chauvinisme! Au sujet de la rentrée littéraire fwançaise de 2003 dégoulinante du sang des victimes du 11-9-2001 il dit simplement, 'On a la littérature qu'on mérite.' Qui sont donc ces immigrés qui, vivant en France depuis des années, osent parler de cette façon. Je suis outré! Outré!

Cancer remission	Rémission d'un cancer
European labor unions weakened.	Les syndicats du traval en Europe affablis.

Crawling back

Ramper à quatre pattes

France tries to patch things up with the USA. The US will not meet France half way. Let the French swine make the whole trip over. The Zeropean Union tries to patch things up with the USA. The US will not meet them half way. Let the zeropeans make the whole trip over. The UN tries to patch things up with the USA. The US will not meet them half way. Let the bureaucrappers make the whole trip over. Didn't some paternalistic spittle shooting clown-faced shithead jabber that their was no problem at the UN?

La Fwance tente de réconcilier avec les USA. Les Etats-unis n'ont pas à faire des concessions à ces crapules. C'est aux franchouilles de faire la totalité du chemin vers les USA. L'Union zéropéenne tente de réconcilier avec les USA. Les Etats-unis n'ont pas à faire des concessions à ces crapules. C'est aux zéropéens de faire la totalité du chemin vers les USA. L'ONUzi tente de réconcilier avec les USA. Les Etats-unis n'ont pas à faire des concessions à ces crapules. C'est aux bureaucrottes de faire la totalité du chemin vers les USA. Il n'y avait pas un connard de bouseu paternaliste qui postillonnait avec sa bouille à bozo en baragouinant qu'il n'y avait pas de problème avec l'ONUzi?

A more pertinent question would be "Why do they like us?"

Mark Steyn:

I gave up worrying "Why do they hate us?" on the evening of September 11, 2001. But, if I were that [guy wearing an Osama bin Laden T-shirt] watching the infidels truck in water, food, medical supplies and emergency clothing for villagers whose jihad-chic T-shirt collection was washed out to sea, I might ask myself a more pertinent question: "Why do they like us?"

The path of the tsunamis tracked the arc of the Muslim world, from Sumatra to Somalia; the most devastated country is the world's most populous Muslim nation, and the most devastated part of that country is the one province living under the strictures of sharia.

But, as usual, when disaster strikes it's the Great Satan and his various Little Satans who leap to respond. In the decade before September 11, the US military functioned, more or less exclusively, as a Muslim rapid reaction force — coming to the aid of Kuwaiti Muslims, Bosnian Muslims, Somali Muslims and Albanian Muslims. Since then, with the help of its Anglo-Australian allies, it's liberated 50 million Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq.

That's not how the West's anti-war movements see it. I found myself behind a car the other day bearing the bumper sticker, "War Is Costly. Peace Is Priceless" – which is standard progressive generic autopilot boilerplate, that somehow waging war and doing good are mutually exclusive. But you can't help noticing that when disaster strikes, it's the warmongers who are also the compassion-mongers. Of the top six donor nations to tsunami relief, four are members of George W. Bush's reviled "coalition of the willing".

… one day the smarter lads in the Osama T-shirts will begin to wonder what they're getting in return for their glorification of a multimillionaire whose followers these days spend most of their time killing Muslims — in Iraq, in Turkey, in Saudi Arabia, even in Indonesia. With friends like that, who needs tsunamis?

… Maybe it's time for the western self-loathers … to ask themselves: Why do we hate us?

A Couple of Days Ago, Varifrank Martin Was Unprofessional…

…with one of his snickering Euro Colleagues…

(Thanks to Valerie and Valerie)
Yeah, I know: it is the same post as W's below…

Coalition of the giving	La coalition de ceux qui en ont à donner
Bitch slapping Zeropean panty-waists upside da' head.	Gifler leurs têtes de fin de race à ces pédaloïdes de zéropéens.

So long, friend	A plus, bonhomme

Bureaucrappers	Bureaucrottes

Not a squeak of protest from the West's anti-war movements as members of the Iraqi "resistance" murder an Iraqi socialist

Our so-called liberal elite stands back and lets Iraq's fascists fight freedom with terror

writes Nick Cohen in the Observer.

Last week occured an event which was scarcely reported but which further called into question the notion of a principled liberal-left, let alone one coherent and confident enough to form an elite.

Hadi Salih, international officer of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions, was tied and blindfolded and tortured by Baathist 'insurgents' loyal to Saddam Hussein before being forced to kneel, strangled by electric cord and shot.

I shouldn't be shocked that there hasn't been a squeak of protest from the anti-war movement at the killing of a brave socialist, but I am. Two years ago I believed that after the war people who opposed it for good reasons would vow to pursue Blair and Bush for what they had done to their graves, but have the intellectual honesty to accept that Saddam's regime was fascist in theory and in practice and the good nature to offer fraternal support the Iraqi socialists, democrats and liberals in their deadly struggle.

More fool me. The Stop the War Coalition, which organised one million people to march through the streets of London, told the kidnappers and torturers from the Baath Party and al-Qaeda that the anti-war movement 'recognises once more the legitimacy of the struggle of Iraqis, by whatever means they find necessary'. Its leading figures purport to be on the left, but have cheered on the far-right and betrayed their comrades by denouncing Iraqi trade unionists as 'Quislings' and 'collaborators'. There have been a few honourable protests: Mick Rix, the former leader of the train drivers union, walked out in disgust saying that the anti-war movement was putting the lives of Iraqi trade unionists at risk. (Its denunciations of better and braver men and women than the British pseudo-leftists could ever be were reported in Arab newspapers which circulate in Iraq.)

Rix was joined by Unison and Labour backbenchers, but that's been about it. Not only the Stop the War Coalition but the bulk of liberal-left opinion in the country and on the planet, is at best indifferent to the fight to stop the return of tyranny and at worse wants to spite the Americans by having the bombers stop elections. If you doubt how widespread this malign impulse has become, ask why it is that the BBC has never covered the story of the totalitarian nature of the leaders of the anti-war movement when it would have had kittens on air if, say, the Countryside Alliance had been a front for the British National Party.

You could write a book on how the left has gone right. …

(cheers to Mister Hoffmann)

Why Can't Those Greedy Americans Be as Generous as All the Other People in the World?

Le Monde Confirms Indirectly that the Guides of Its Iraq Correspondants Are Often Sympathizers of Saddam

As France starts to realize it may be in the thralls of another hostage crisis, one of Le Monde's former correspondents in Iraq explains the duties of the "fixers" who accompany foreign journalists on their "rounds":

… these often friendly, intelligent, and courageous men are the eyes, the ears, and the unarmed protectors of the reporters. And sometimes they are their true friends. …

The best "fixer" … has friends or acquaintances in the maximum of social circles. … He … knows where to find the minister's assistant for an interview, the appropriate religious or tribal sheikh, even the sympathizers with the resistance who can make contacts. … it is often the "fixer's" responsibility to track down the right subject to speak to.

[The correspondants'] "fixers" have almost become reporters themselves.

As an example, the Le Monde correspondant points to Tareq, a man with nerves of steel described as "a modest former official in Saddam Hussein's defunct information ministry".

Patrice Claude doesn't seem to realize it — he doesn't even realize how subjective his and his colleagues' articles have become — but he has basically confirmed everything that Naseer Flayih Hasan wrote recently. He has confirmed that the reporters are little interested in interviewing the common man (and woman) in the street — the Iraqi citizen — always seeking out members of the élite: the experts, the leaders, even (especially?) the representatives of la résistance…

How was it that Patrice Claude described his driver? A former official in Saddam Hussein's information ministry?

To quote Naseer Flayih Hasan:

… their dogmatic anti-American attitudes naturally drew them to guides, translators, drivers and Iraqi acquaintances who were themselves supporters of the regime. These Iraqis, in turn, affected the peace activists until they came to share almost the same judgments and opinions as the terrorists and defenders of Saddam.

This is illustrated by the weekly mediator's column, in which Robert Solé prints a letter mentioning the "100,000 civilian deaths in Iraq, victims of the horrors of politics", thereby using controversial (and discredited) statistics to lend credence to the theory of the tragedy visited upon Iraq (and the world in general) by Dubya and friends…

The rule of thumb: if a piece of "information" allows for the castigation or the mockery of Uncle Sam, do not hesitate to use it and, insofar as possible, keep the rumor alive…

Notice to the American People: If You Voted for Bush, It Is Because You Are Traumatized and Quivering with Fear

Americans, rejoice.

Thanks to Le Monde and other European heavyweights, we now know that we are traumatised and shaking with fear, and that we live in "an America that feels threatened although that doesn't mean it approves Mr Bush's aggressive policy."

Patrick Jarreau, who should know better (since he is Le Monde's correspondant in Washington), calls Bush's victory nothing less but the grip of fear. The text is more of the same… (Earlier, Edwy Plenel, among others, had explained that Dubya's election victory was due, basically, to Americans being frightened and/or bamboozled by Karl Rove and his ilk, comparing the discourse on moral values with the speeches of Nazi-collaborator Philippe Pétain. [When Bush isn't being compared to Hitler, he is being compared to a Stalinist or a fascist sympathizer…])

I suppose PJ, when moving around the DC area, sees inhabitants much like I saw them on my recent visit to Texas, Utah, Arizona, and Nevada: cowering in terror. Except of course, I never really did see any locals livid with fear; everybody was pretty laid back and, if one did happen to bring up 9/11 or Iraq, it was not fear that came to people's faces, but anger. Anger and determination.

So might it be that PJ hasn't actually met many traumatized Americans, either?

Never mind: needless to say, you know how it is: Europeans know better… As always.

Reporting on the Cultural Wars: Quoting the French Government Officials and Caricaturing the Americans

While Daniel Vernet gives us a typical The Other Side of America (replete with America's unilateralism versus "the rules of international life", "the president […] penetrated by the almost divine mission of his country", and — using an active verb [emphasis mine] — the "odious image that the United States has built for itself around the world"), Nicole Vulser presents an article on cultural diversity, enemy of the United States, in which we are kept informed of

• "the pugnacity of the Americans"
• "an economic battle … led daily by the Americans"
• lots and lots of examples on the "tactics of the Americans", including a "scale in the pressure of the Americans", an attempt to "rid the [Unesco] text of its substance", and the lobbying (through the MPAA) of the Americans
• the fact that, as a French delegate said, "'in order to avoid the worst, there was no choice but for Jacques Chirac to intervene with the Americans'"

A French delegate? Ah oui, there you have it: in an article where almost one half of the text is made up of quotations, just about all of said quotations in the newspaper of reference are provided by …members of the French government.

And what is the language that is used, both by the politicos and by the journalist?

The Americans, the Americans, the Americans. As I have written before, the use of this general word allows for a caricatural view of the situation — and of …the Americans — which, needless to say, is how many, if not most, French citizens view citizens of the United States and any situation involving …Americans.

And why not? With articles and independent newspapers such as these…

Tsunami News

Le Monde has interviews with six survivors of the tsunami…

If you go to its home page, and seek out this photo in the right column, you will get a Le Monde 2 slide show of the devastated areas…