The Land that Time Forgot

Welcome to the lad where it’s always 1923:

the field of 12 presidential hopefuls contains six candidates to the left of the Socialist Royal, including “three Trotskyists [and] a Communist.” You know a country is serious about Marxism when there are so many Marxist candidates that the Trotskyists are listed separately from the garden-variety Communists.

But these fine distinctions are apparently still taken seriously on the far left. The World Socialist Web Site, for example, published a broadside against Olivier Besancenot, the presidential candidate of the Revolutionary Communist League. Accusing him of denying Marxism by publicly disassociating himself from Trotsky, the website quoted Besancenot as voicing tolerance for different strands of communism “such as libertarianism and syndicalism.”

It’s certainly touching to see that French presidential candidates are so inclusive, embracing everything from communist libertarianism to communist syndicalism. Amazingly, that’s not even the full extent of the anti-capitalist choices on the French ballot. Voters can also choose Jose Bove, a sheep farmer and anti-globalization crusader. Candidate Bove preaches ''an electoral insurrection against economic liberalism'' and ''a social, feminist, democratic, anti-racist and ecological revolution'' -- a program rarely advocated outside American university classrooms.

But the most puzzling anachronism about the pre-cambrian European left is the absolute lack of attention to their own world view. For example, it’s perfectly okay to refer to a female candidate in the most condescending sounding and entirely maternal terms:

Royal's bedside manner leaves the French voters cold

A word here, a handshake there, a smile everywhere. This is what Mme Royal is supposed to be good at: retail politics; bringing the aloof, ruling classes of France closer to real people and real issues.

That is the theory. In truth, Mme Royal is not particularly good at it. She is not a natural, I-feel-your-pain, bear-hug politician like a Jacques Chirac or a Bill Clinton. There is something stiff about her, something almost haughty, like an old-fashioned hospital matron doing her rounds.

"I tried to talk to her but she just smiled and walked on," said Louise, 43, a nursing assistant."I do like her, or I want to like her, but I just don't know. I am just not quite sure who she really is."

Ruling classes? Are they kidding? Never. They’ve been using the same barbaric terms for a century, and in the hothouse free from reality will continue to.

Feminists talk ad nauseum about the “glass ceiling” w/o acknowledging the men tied to the “glass cellar”

Demosthenes has some remarks for "the myrmidonic horde of feminists":

Anecdotal experiences WRT women & the military:
-Freedom of speech doesn’t exist in the MILITARY: privately criticize the “double standards” applied to FEMALE personnel in front of the wrong person & you career will end that day
- While in country in HAITI I had to evacuate “98 lbs wet” FEMALE O-1 right out of OCS out of harm’s way because I thought she was going to be snatched & assaulted by the natives. Her presence compromised the mission.
-At the Academy, underclass females routinely engaged in affairs w/ upperclass “ALPHA” males- nothing ever happened to them.
-When one of the female underclassman under my purvey was warned repeatedly to stop harassing a male underclassman to point where she physically assaulted him- the gutless Administration refused to press charges and court-martial said female. Why? Because the military, like society, doesn’t hold women accountable for their actions, e.g., US Naval Academy-educated USN CAPT Lisa Nowak
-I graduated w/ a BS in Electrical Engineering - 95% of all EEs in my class were MEN (Big Surprise)
-I dated a USNR nurse who told that married USNR enlisted females in her unit routinely had affairs w/ their male counterparts during drill weekends. One female in particular had committed paternity fraud on two separate occasions. It was an open secret and no one did anything about it.
-I had an academy classmate who committed adultery with an E-8 and then attempted to commit paternity fraud on her husband. What eventually happened? Nothing: Academy-educated women don’t exploit their authority & engage in group relations w/ subordinates. She later divorced her husband (got the house, kids etc. after making unsubstantiated “domestic violence” charges.) CAPT Nowak is hardly the exception to the rule.
-At my current reserve unit, an EMAIL has been promulgated by all the militant females and their chivalrous male enablers: The obituary of recent outstanding West Point graduate killed in Irag by an IED. Why? Because she was a minority female and the implication is that her life is more valuable than the lives of her minimally-franchised white male classmates.

Feminism verses reality:
“First Wave” Feminism was ostensibly sold as “equality of opportunity.” When that didn’t produce enough engineers & scientist to suit the feminists, “Second wave” Feminism became all about allowing upper-middle class women the luxury of “equality in outcome” (e.g., Affirmative Action, quotas, Title IX set asides and other forms of Fascism) in the world of men while retaining their domestic power-base. Gender is course a social construct when it applies to the traditional world of men, but women should have the privilege of maintaining their traditional “matriarchal” power monopoly because they have an innate “nurturing” nature endemic to a uniquely “esoteric” female insight into reality in general. “Third wave” feminism is all about “female-chauvinism” in the guise of gender neo-marxism:
+ “pregnancy should be seen as a super ability” that should be compensated/subsidized by society rather than a disability,
+ “comparable worth”: Nurses (female dominated profession) should be paid the same as Engineers (male dominated profession) , etc.
But, speaking as member of the “disposable” gender, I’m all in favor of an ERA (“Equal Responsibility Amendment”) which should contain the following items:

(a) Women are legally held accountable for their actions (e.g., CAPT Nowak, Mary Winkler, Andrea Yates, Debra LaFave, etc.) like their male counterparts;
(b) Current paternal court system is overhauled to be gender-neutral WRT divorce, alimony, child custody & child support
(c) The law mandates automatic paternity tests for all children born in the U.S. (NOW will fight this tooth & nail)
(d) Women accept the consequences of engaging relations w/ men with whom they really don’t want to have children rather than using abortion as de facto birth control (apparently 20% of U.S. children conceived are currently aborted- pretty pathetic behavior on the part of the “morally superior” gender);
(d) Women are prosecuted for committing the most despicable form of domestic abuse: PATERNITY FRAUD (we will need to build more prisons because this will apply to at least 10% of the female population)
(d) The U.S. government spends as much $ financing male specific disease research as it does female specific research (e.g., prostrate vice breast cancer research) which includes the average life-span disparity (men on average lived longer that women prior to the 20th century)
(d) Women comprise 50% of mining, construction & other work-related deaths (not likely since the lives of women are more valuable than men), e.g., “poor” women should be taken off the welfare rolls IOT be given the opportunity to die along side poor men since gender is a social construct;
(e) Women work 50% of all overtime;
(f) Women pay 59% of all income taxes (59 cents on every dollar collected by the federal government goes to pay for entitlements that almost solely benefit WOMEN)
(g) Men are accorded the opportunity to stay at home to raise their children without being subjected to the usual misandrist “shaming language”, nor losing their home & children
(h) The Social Security Retirement age for women should be extended to 72 IOT compensate for their artificially enhanced life spans;
(i) “Chivalry” (i.e., Pro-female sexism) will be treated as a felony; and
(h) Women do 50% of all standard dirty/analytically-challenging male domestic chores: e.g., replace/re-wire dishwasher, move 8 tons of river rock around the pool area, repair sprinkler piping, inspect crawl space, rip out & replace crawl space door, administer home WLAN, etc.

Feminists, like children, see rights without the associated responsibilities. They see a “Patriarchy” w/o acknowledging the power of the traditional domestic “matriarchy.” They see the female as “Goddess” but not likewise as the “Devil.” They talk ad nauseum about the “glass ceiling” w/o acknowledging the men tied to the “glass cellar”, e.g., men still dominate the 20 most dangerous, low-paying professions & suffer 95% of all workplace-related deaths & injuries. There are pathetic, petulant, pedantic women-children & if they aren’t careful, the ADULTS with get tired of doing all the heavy lifting and allow the Bogymen to come in and put all of the women of this country in Burkas.

Ladies, don’t bother to consider the merits of anything I have stated. Merely brand me a “woman hater” & start to attack my manhood. Let the “invalidation games” begin…

You can not be both a scientist and a global warming crusader at the same time

"…we have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements and make little mention of any doubts we might have."

Benjamin Duffy takes on global warming.

Dr. Robert Giegengack of the University of Pennsylvania has firsthand knowledge of what it means to be working among scientists who double as advocates. When the Ivy League professor suggested that other sources (not simply carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases) were responsible for the slight warming of recent years, he was shunned by some colleagues. "People would come to me and say: 'Stop talking like this. You're hurting the cause.'" In case you were wondering, the "cause" was not the unbiased pursuit of the truth, as you might expect from scientists. The "cause" was making the theory of manmade global warming as commonly accepted as gravity.

These advocate-scientists already know what they want the science to reveal. The evidence is then fitted to the theory, not vice-versa.

Pointless. Newsless. Meaningless.

And contextually nonsensical. But it doesn’t matter.



Published in Al-Jazeera Sur Seine nonetheless.

Mahmood’s “Gift”

And the only way you can use the word “gift” is in the original German. To put into context what “shnuggums” is up to, I leave you to the brutally honest characterization of Ahmedinejad’s treatment by the peaceniks and the press by the charming and talented Ex-Blond:

Have a nice day.

French youths send message to Sarkozy ...

... and it's in a bodybag.

15 French youths start fighting while taking a spin on an amusement park attraction. When a policeman tries to put a stop to the violence, he is pushed in the way of one of the attraction's moving parts and is wacked. A second policeman just barely escaped when he was pulled out by the ride operator.

Sounds like an ambush by angelic French youth.

Let them eat yellow cake

Mycle Schneider, the Paris-based nuclear consultant who wrote the report for the MEPs, was shocked by what he discovered. "The continuous deep involvement of Iran in the world's largest multinational uranium enrichment plant in France is the perfect illustration of the stunning level of hypocrisy that has governed the non-proliferation treaty," he said.

You and what army?

Europeans, as usual, wait for someone with balls to do the dirty work.

Hard Power = "Let's Roll"

Soft Power = "Let's Roll Over"
UPDATE: Cream Puff Power = "Let's Roll Over All The Way To The Bank"

For the Corporate Dead

Eugene Schlanger, the Wall Street Poet, will be reading poems from "September 11 Wall Street Sonnets and Other New York City Poems" at the Cornelia Street Café, 29 Cornelia Street, New York on April 9 at 6PM.

Le Pen welcomed by the French youth

The French preSS still refuses to believe that Le Pen will score big in France's suburban shitholes.

Just a Spoonful of Sugar...

...makes the hatefulness go down...

Let's face it: even the most confident and stylish among us knows that some considerable proportion of French people we encounter are sizing us up by sizing us up. Other countries produce fat people too, but the association of America with obesity is not only — and unfortunately — statistically a truism but an image of which the French media just can't get enough. It's hard to find a story about French obesity rates in the French press that doesn't at some point raise the frightening possibility of French people looking one day like: Americans.

Speaking of going down, (or not), I always knew Le Pen was a wanker. Oh – sorry. That’s that extra special sooper-dooper quirky and sophisticates of politics that no-one’s ever allowed to criticize. I don’t know about you, but I start getting a little edgy when I hear any kind of European use the word “genetics,” especially the fat ones.

From Les 4 Vérités

Guy Milliere- Wednesday March 28, 2007

The whole of the French media did not fail to mention that four years have passed since the American decision to intervene militarily in Iraq.

The comments, of course, spoke (as ever) of it as a “quagmire”, to list of the attacks, note the number of dead which “does not cease growing”. It was added that George Bush, very “insulated”, still required “a little time” before withdrawing the troops. It was said that the Americans are “increasingly isolated”. The current political topic is dominated by discussing the greater “wisdom” of the decision of Chirac during his second term was his opposition to the war.

In the countries where information is free, that’s all that’s said even if a few scrupulous journalists hint at refuting it. In France, it is particularly difficult to do as much of that, and I often think that if I didn’t write about it from time to time there would be near or total silence.

The reasons I don’t remain silent are varied, but can be summarized in two points. First of all, although I don’t want to invite insults or be boycotted, I learned from my mentors that professional work requires scrupulousness courage. Then, I then notice that the lie, even by omission is not something I can resist opposing. It’s in my nature.

Given that I have to note:

a) There are difficulties “achieving peace” but the initial objectives of the war were achieved long ago. Iraq is no longer a base for terrorism and took considerable steps towards freedom, with all due respect to leftists, along with the gaullists, islamist and the French extreme-right.

b) Since the change of strategy implemented by the General Petraeus considerable progress has been made in security, so much so that Robert Kagan, writing in the Washington Post wondered if those who hoped for the worse might soon have to face their own attitudes. According to Kagan, to win from now on is a question of months.
c) It was long known that the alternative to the liberation of Iraq had been continuing the intolerable sanctions, mass graves, and corruptions which were impossible to lift except through war, which while allowing Iraq to become unruly again. It’s also well known that the Chirac’s “wise decision” had entirely to do with that corruptions and fear.

D) We are in a global war declared on the free world by radical Islam. The beginning of this war (which goes beyond Iraq), is much older. Some say it began with the first attack on the Twin Towers in 1993, others date it to Khomeini’s seizure of power in 1979.

This war will mark the 20th century. If (what I do not dare to imagine), it was not to show the victory of freedom, that would mean the end of civilization in which we let us live.
The American leaders distinguish it, just like the most enlightened thinkers of the Moslem regions. The American left, in prey with the phantasms come from the time of Vietnam, does not distinguish anything. The left, the gaullists and the extreme-right-hand side in Europe do not distinguish anything either, hide their contempt for the Arab populations behind weak remarks, dissimulate their cowardice behind the illusion which the appeasing can function, and prepare, in fact, consciously or not, a total tender with the radical Islam which they seem to find preferable with a victory of a free world led by the United States.

As an economist and a liberal geopolitical observer, I regard it as an honor to be insulted in the same terms by the descendants of Pétain, Mussolini and Chamberlain and by the distances disciples of Marx and Lenin. I leave all and sundry to their mental indigence. I carry on. And by doing this I wish good luck to the American armies of liberation, the free Iraqis who still face the test, and with all the friends of freedom and clarity on earth.

Football Factory

Boys will be Boyz.

Animal Europe

Gang muggings and beatings during 2006 Paris student protest

Don't ever let the French forget to what point they are an animal society.

Our Gallant and Intrepid Media

Ah, yes, the media's fair and balanced coverage of The Eagles vs The Idiots

writes Valerie.

Happens here too unfortunately. In a pouring deluge we went to a support the troops rally. Amazing thunderstorm. Hundreds of pro-troop/Bush supporters turned out. Folks from all walks and stripes of life. There were Kurds and Iraqis there too. Just wonderful. And across the very broad street? Twelve bedraggled, woe-begone looking losers who had come to "shout you down!" Their exact words.

Guess which side of the street the media covered?

But that IS their History

André Glucksmann points out how action can speak for themselves:

The protagonists of this shady entanglement include not only heads of the military industrial complex (like Gergorin, who worked at Lagardere, EADS, Airbus and Ariane), top figures at the foreign ministry (Villepin) and secret service spies (General Rondot), they also include members of the government's geopolitical think-tank CAP, which works out diplomatic and strategic initiatives of the Elysee, for example France's "Arab" and "African" policies, and its support for Milosevic and Saddam Hussein in their heydays. This heterogeneous black cabinet which prefers to avoid publications and media attention, quietly gathers together post-communist intellectuals and post-Gaullist elite-bureaucrats under the banner of a respectable anti-Americanism, open to both left-wing anti-imperialists and right-wing sovereigntists: Regis Debray and Emmanuel Todd are esteemed advisers.

This endearing family presides - without either undue modesty or parliamentary control - over the worldly destinies of France. A country with a mere hundredth of the world's inhabitants has worked its way up to be the planet's third-biggest arms dealer. Cock-a-doodle-doo! In a demonstration of "soft power" and universal moral sovereignty, Dominique de Villepin's famous speech at the UN in 2003 revealed to the four billion people of the world, in Jacques Chirac's words, that France was still France. The Paris-Moscow axis pursues its objectives to the detriment of Europe of the 25; arms and patents are delivered to China to the detriment of the Atlantic Alliance: all this raises our camarilla far above the classic, measured anti-Americanism from De Gaulle to Mitterrand which in times of danger (be it the Cuba Crisis or the question of the Russian SS20 missiles) always came home to the fold of Euro-American democracies. Today, all of that is history. Down with "hyper power"!

Translation of Erik’s post: « Il n'y a pas de médias qui traitent l'information correctement sur les Etats-Unis »

From ¡No Pasarán!: Il n'y a pas de médias qui traitent l'information correctement sur les Etats-Unis : “None of the Media [in France] Describes Anything About America Accurately”

So said Nicolas Lecaussin to France-Etats-Unis's Carine Martinez.

Don’t forget that we are the only country to have published a review devoted entirely to anti-Americanism called Empire. Another example is a publication handed out for free in the subway called “Practical Voyage”, which is supposed to give travel advice. The lead article was an anti-American item about the biometric passports there by blaming Americans for not wanting to give us to get passports to go over there when everyone knows the passports were held up by the national printing trade unions which refused to lose their monopoly on of printing passports.
None of the media describes anything about America accurately. Two months ago in Le Figaro an article compared Guantanamo to a Gulag. It is an insult to the victims of the Gulags, if one had compared it to Auschwitz, I think that it would be an insult to its’ victims.
The Gulag was an extermination and concentration camp, where million of people died by being exterminated, massacred, from hunger, and cold in the depths of Siberia. When one sees an article in Le Figaro making this comparison, one can only wonder just how dishonesty of our journalists are.

Il n'y a pas de médias qui traitent l'information correctement sur les Etats-Unis

Il n'y a pas de médias pro-américains [en France,]

Nicolas Lecaussin tells France-Etats-Unis's Carine Martinez.

Il ne faut pas oublier que nous sommes le seul pays à avoir publié une revue consacrée uniquement à l'anti-américanisme, Empire. Un autre exemple, je trouve une revue distribuée gratuitement dans le métro, qui s'appelle "Voyage Pratique", qui est censée donner des conseils sur le voyage, et j'y trouve un éditorial anti-américain à propos des passeports biométriques en accusant les Américains de ne pas vouloir nous donner des passeports pour aller là-bas alors que c'est la faute, tout le monde le sait, des syndicats de l'imprimerie nationale qui ont refusé de perdre le monopole pour la délivrance de ces passeports. Il n'y a pas de médias qui traitent l'information correctement sur les Etats-Unis. Il y a deux mois, j'ai vu dans le Figaro un article qui comparait Guantanamo à un goulag. C'est une insulte aux victimes du goulag, c'est comme si on l'avait comparé à Auschwitz, je pense que ce serait une insulte aux victimes d'Auschwitz. Le goulag était un camp de concentration et d'extermination, où des millions de personnes sont mortes exterminées, massacrées, mortes de faim, de froid au fond de la Sibérie. Quand on voit un article du Figaro faire cette comparaison, on peut se demander quel est le degré d'honnêteté de nos journalistes.

Their Last Remaining Clue has Already PCS’ed

In Europe, reality is always away on TDY:

The Air Force and Navy, in an undeclared competition to use the first Rafale against the Taleban, are deploying the new French multi-role fighter at the same time, with its new ground attack capability (F2 standard.) Having left France last week, three Air Force Rafales have been based in Tajikistan since Monday [12 March]. They were due to make their first flight yesterday. Three more have joined the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle via Djibouti.

This deployment is something of an event for both forces. It is indeed the Rafale's real baptism of fire, since these aircraft will be used in ground attack missions, whereas hitherto they have been used only for surveillance over Afghanistan. "At the operational level, the aircraft's multi-role capability permits a leap forward," Air Force Chief General Stephane Abrial explained.

So, I guess that as long as there’s a product coming to market to demonstrate, use of aerial bombing is perfectly okay.

To deploy the new fighter in Afghanistan it was necessary to pursue a crash programme, since the possibility of delivering laser-guided bombs was not initially envisaged.

In other words, they could only have been envisioning the indiscriminate use of unguided gravity weapons when they designed this thing to support ground operations. This brings us to the delusional, slanderous scribble of the day:


Elsewhere:

It is not the beginning of a withdrawal, but just seems like one. The French contingent in Cote d'Ivoire is to be reduced by 500 men during the coming weeks, from some 3,000 troops to 3,000
[figures as received].

Maybe they were breeding while they were there.

In Bed With Evil

Fret all you like.

The status quo is based on an EU policy paper dating back to 1996 which says that "the objective of the EU in its relations with Cuba is to encourage a process of transition to pluralist democracy and respect for human rights" but despite its tough wording the old EU model has done little to strengthen pro-democracy opposition groups.

But since 1996 the best they’ve managed is to attempt to conceal from view engagement endeavors with the Cubans using EU and member state monies and private arranged efforts. Imprisoning dissidents? Don’t ask, don’t tell!

But Spain, supported by Greece and Cyprus, wants Berlin to shelve the new EU paper despite its softly-softly approach. Madrid says any EU policy shift in mid-2007 could damage prospects of a "new era" in Cuba-EU relations, with the opening created by the fragile health of 80-year old leader Fidel Castro and upcoming elections in March 2008.

Aside from the wishful thinking that an election in Cuba could matter, one has to point out the obvious – even a “softly-softly” approach to the advancement of human freedom and the alleviation of poverty and misery is more than the ideologues in Madrid can bear. Quite simply, without a veneer of fake radicalism, it’s inadequate.

Alas, off in the distance, can’t one hear the thundering clamor for a “human rights Europe”?

"The visit of the Spanish minister of foreign affairs to Cuba is driven by bilateral economic interests," People in Need analyst Kristina Prunerova said, predicting that Mr Moratinos will not meet any real dissidents on the trip but that Havana might release a handful of political prisoners to help Madrid "sell" its policy back in Brussels.

Or is that the desperate sound of begging?

Forcing the other side to shut up is the goal of the movement

The chicken-hawk argument stacks the deck in favor of the antiwar movement because it permits only veterans and those currently serving to disagree with them

writes OIF veteran Benjamin Duffy as he compares presidents present and past.

Military service is a prerequisite for supporting the war effort, whereas absolutely anyone can oppose it. If you have no military service, you can either agree with them or you can shut up. Forcing the other side to shut up is, in fact, the goal of the movement.

…It is the knee-jerk reaction of the Left to bat away real arguments with the stale response of "why don't you go enlist." It systematically disqualifies most of the population from holding a particular point-of-view, and essentially shames them into silence. I don't have to worry about the chicken-hawk argument, because I almost always have more honorable military service than the person commanding me to "go enlist." Other people, however, should be free to support the war effort, whether or not they have actually served.

Read also:
• Shape Up, Shut Up, or Ship Out
• Dissecting the Chickenhawk Charge: The accusation is less an argument than an insult; it's also a form of bullying and it rejects the Constitution
• If your house is being broken into or is on fire…

Update I (thanks to trainer):



Update II: • America Victorious in Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq
• An Armed Liberal Asks the Iraqi People About U.S. Withdrawal

When in Doubt, Start “Diebolding”

Maybe they think the machines will read their minds and suck out their souls. They also seem somewhat convinced of their own overraught accusations of others:

But with election day less than three weeks away, opposition to the electronic voting machines has grown, in part because a small percentage of them are made by the same American company whose machines were involved in a bitterly disputed Congressional election in Florida last November.

These machines... you know that their don’t just count votes, they, they, know the ideology of some electrons, and not others... and their cosmic rays are poisoning us!

Behold the NYT’s “frightened” looking French voters

“We have doubts about the reliability of these machines,” Gilles Savary, a spokesman for Ségolène Royal, the Socialist Party candidate, said in an interview. “I don’t want to lecture America. But we don’t want France to fall into the same Kafkaesque balloting as happened in the United States.”

Bullshit. When have the likes of this guy NOT lectured America? The only thing that was Kafkaesque about it to leftists was that they lost, and like 2000 and 2004 were caught stuffing ballot boxes, and then accused others of stealing elections.

Does America's Electoral-Vote System Reflect a Lack of Democracy, Something That Is Better Provided For By European-Type Popular Voting?

The post in the paragraphs below originally appeared in August 2004. Because of news from Arkansas, it is being reprinted today…

This October [2004], French periodicals will again be ringing with protests that America is a "false democracy" and with clamors to the effect that the only wise course would be to scrap America's outdated electoral-vote system in the presidential election in favor of a popular-vote system.

In that case, a newspaper would do well to publish a translation of George Will's Newsweek article. But… don't bet on it.

(Thanks to the Ashbrook Center)

(Read also Paul Greenberg's point of view
[Merci à Gregory Schreiber])

Kiss His Puckered Starfish, Get Gas

It’s all about oil. Again.

Simple Minds

KISS.

Tête de lopette

Pouêt pouêt.

It's All America's Fault

How was Airbus allowed to get in the mess it did? The threat of the lurking Americans was used a uniter. Because when you evoke the/an American bogeyman (Boeing, in this case), everybody shuts up and unites (while keeping their eyes — conveniently — shut). Airbus got good press, all its rosy declarations were believed, the champion of Europe brought hope and ecstatic pronouncements from all (from citizens to rosy-eyed reporters), and, then suddenly, when the whole edifice crashed, there was little choice but to open one's eyes. (I say "little" choice instead of "no" choice, because you may remember — and this (unfortunately) is the main lesson here — the number of Frenchmen in our comments section who leaped to the defense of the company and its thieving executives.)

In France, (un)covering the Total scandal is all about (or mainly about) dressing the portrait of the treacherous, lying, devious Americans. (And the people are nothing if not eager to buy an umpteenth time this (self-serving) story about the American bogeymen and their numerous plots.)

Incidentally: note that Jean-Michel Bezat grants two entire paragraphs to arguments (sic) supporting French officials' position (as well as a — self-serving — government report warning about the …American bogeyman and the attending plots!).

Dans un rapport intitulé Stratégies de désinformation des médias américains à l'égard des entreprises européennes, la délégation aux affaires stratégiques (DAS) du ministère de la défense recense les attaques avant et après le veto de Paris à la guerre en Irak et décrit les liens entre l'administration Bush, les think tanks néo ou ultra-conservateurs et les médias américains.

Le document note que les groupes français restent dans le collimateur, même si le French bashing ("casser du Français") est moins hystérique qu'en 2003 et 2004. "La création au Pentagone, en mars 2006, d'un "Iranian Directorate" constitue une claire menace pour les entreprises françaises ou européennes ayant des projets/activités avec l'Iran, comme Technip/Cryostar, Total ou BNP Paribas", prévient le rapport.

There are several things that the French forget; left untouched, for starters, is France's own anti-Americanism (or America-bashing) and whether it should rightfully be described as hysterical (oh que oui, and this very article serves as a perfect illustration thereof). Nor do the Americans get the benefit of the argument (in reverse) that anti-Americanism (or -bashing) is not such albeit only (understandable) anger because of Washington's policies and who is in the White House (the counter-argument, in this case, might be, hysteria and French-bashing (as far as those are the correct terms) are understandable because of Chirac and Villepin's policies opposing the Iraq war).

So, at this point, the question begs: should we be diplomatic and conclude that France's America-bashing and America's French-bashing, hysterical or otherwise, are at best equivalent and both actors are equally to blame? No. As I have argued before, there is a difference between a country that takes action and one that remains passive. In America's case, Bush (and Blair) — rightfully or wrongfully — took risks. George W Bush put his politics at risk, he put his popularity at risk, he put his presidency at risk, he put his party at risk, he put his country at risk, and most importantly, he took decisions that put the lives of his soldiers at risk. In France's case, it did nothing — nothing being lauded as courageous by one French citizen after another ("au moins Chirac a eu les couilles d'opposer Bush"). That was its policies (or lack thereof) — all the while bringing opprobrium on America and its foreign minister going out of his way to get the most autocratic countries to oppose Washington in this riskful undertaking. Trust me, America's anger was anything but hysterical.

The Great Glogal Warmering Swarndle

One can't say it often enough.

Up Yours, Europe

Go fly a kite! (Oh, and by the way, the Kyoto lesson-givers are far from implementing their own lessons, anyway…)

More on John Howard here…

Medievalism is the New Black

Andrei Markovits, writing in the Huffington Post (of all places) notes:

As I argue in my recently published book, Uncouth Nation: Why Europe Dislikes America, anti-Americanism precedes the misdeeds of the Bush administration and will remain largely intact even when - God willing - we will see this eight-year-long nightmare end on January 20, 2009 with the inauguration of a Democrat as our new president. Anti-Americanism has become a welcome currency in Europe and for Europeans.

Even to the mature ones who can’t seem to countenance conservatives find decades of demeaning anti-American propaganda in evidence. Nonetheless an entirely typical witch-burning peasant of the new, deeply superstitious progressives pops up like Dr. Strangelove’s arm:

It may be because GW Bush has murdered half a million people.

Attributing it in the only way they know how, to ill humors spread somehow with a time machine from 2007 to 1968.

Wow. Impressive.

Freedom: Not In Their Name

Amir Taheri:

Iraq's parties of the Left were shocked when the new Socialist government in Spain decided to withdraw from the U.S.-led coalition in 2004. "We had hoped that with a party of the Left in power in Madrid we would get more support against the Islamofascists, not a withdrawal," says Aziz al-Haj, the veteran Iraqi communist leader.

Elsewhere, on leftists being unable to conceal their hatred of civilization, one can easilt see that

While Chomsky and Moore see the United States as "an evil power," many leftists in the Middle East see it as a force for good that ended the tyranny of the Taliban in Afghanistan, dismantled the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq and forced the Syrians out of Lebanon after 30 years of occupation.

"In our region, the United States has become a force for the good," says Jumblatt, who recently met President Bush at the White House for a surprise meeting.

Nostalgia Department

Rememberin' the good ol' days at the ("shameful-stain-on-America- needs-to-be-closed-down") camp of Guantánamo Bay…

Watch out! Behind you! Duck!

Check out the pair of duellists in Club-Internet's funky new ad…

Considering the side that kills the most has the easier path of victory, how can Democrats saying we're losing without telling us what the score is?!

"I'm not going to say, 'I support the troops'", says Bob Parks (gracias para Cubanology).

The word 'troops' is impersonal and political. You have names, and you chose a branch. I support the men and women of the United State armed forces — army, navy, air force, and marines.

In a 10-minute speech directed at service members in Iraq, a veteran of the USS Midway (aka the USS Neverdock) takes on "pantsy-ass politicians" and "a memory-challenged media".

The liberals in this country routinely tell us how may of you have died serving your country. … Will anybody in the media please tell me, how many of the enemy you have killed? … As the object of most wars is to win, and the easy way of judging success is in the body count of our enemy, why haven't we heard this number? Are we even going to? Considering the side that kills the most has the easier path of victory, how can Democrats saying we're losing without telling us what the score is?! Are you really losing? How many times have you had to retreat during a battle? Why are we being told at home that you are not able to get the job done?

…people who think so less of you and your potential … want to bring you home like some little kid picked on by the school bully. The only difference here is that today's school bully will leave a bomb in your house if he's not left in the school yard with a bloody nose. … Many who went to work on September 11, 2001, sure as hell felt safe that morning.

…many [in the West] … want you dead. Should you die, they can point their fingers in all of our faces and tell us, they were right. It's all about them. I know that's harsh and I'll tick off those anti-war types (like they have it bad) … some pantsy-ass politicians … want no part of victory. Should every one of you come home in a flag-draped coffin, they will declare it a victory. If you are victorious, they will be forever stained…

Those who use you for their own political gain are below the elements that make up dirt. … I believe President Bush when he sent you to find [the weapons of mass destruction]. It is a shame that while the UN, distracted by Germany, France, and Russia, stalled in enforcing one of the more than a dozen resolutions, the dearly departed Saddam Hussein probably hid those weapons in Syria. It would seem Saddam knew how to play our liberals…

"Europe has failed us in the Iran crisis"

This whole encounter is an excellent illustration of why Eastern European countries continue to look towards the hard power of the US and not towards the Franco-German led soft power thingy otherwise known as the EU. The EU will always leave its members and/or allies out to dry when reality comes barging into their little fantasy land.

"I was sitting there and I thought, 'why the hell is nobody in Europe realizing what is going on!'"

Which step comes after denial? Joschka Fischer has the answer:

Relating a recent incident where a former Indian foreign minister came to lecture at Princeton and said that the 21st century will see three superpowers – India, China and the US – Mr. Fischer said "I was sitting there and I thought, 'why the hell is nobody in Europe realizing what is going on!'"

Welcome to their world – one where their own population and press are so dissembled that they can’t figure out what’s fishy about state mandated Molotov cocktails.

The Golden Age of Dada

“Work, but at what price” is the topic on today’s Ripostes on the deeply irresponsible France 5. Adding to the cluelessness of this display of stupidity is that the guests are all selling books on the subject, when they know full well that property is theft!

How to develop a personal identity without working? Is all better than unemployment? The government announced loudly that unemployment fell to 8,4%, but does one have to take these figures seriously?

In truth, does one really have to do away with the 35 hour workweek, and reform the fair labor standards act to put France’s hourly workweek on par with the rest of the world? Or does one rather have to further protect the workers in their guarantees as the CGT proposes to have a social security for the job?

Other questions: is it necessary to set wages so that work pays more than being unemployed? How do you employ the greatest number of people without the anguish of terrible competition, and not devouring us with stress or even suicides which occur one per day at work?

Old Serge should open the show by welcoming the other 99% of humanity to the hall of mirrors.

Of course all the other channels in a culture which, no better than the most backward corner of Absurdistan is still dominated by state-run output. As such what better way could you find to blot the violent domestic gang warfare out of the public’s mind than to barely report it, and toss up a penetrating investigation of the violent gangs in... California!

Fresh Piffle Served Daily

Think the artist-general of the great continental suicide pact just has it in for Bush’s policies, and not America? Three decades of Plantu don’t hide a great deal.

• The 70’s: Jimmuh Carter rips his (naïve and overly) friendly mask off, as if he did.
• The 80’s: Reagan is beneath contempt, but characterizing Queen Elizabeth II with incredible indignity is fair game.
• The 90’s: the culture that tch-tchs the prudish view that their president shouldn’t be getting blowjobs from subordinates was tch-tching the president getting blowjobs from subordinates.
• The 00’s: all and anything to degrade W, all the time.
  

The French exception

They have two unemployment rates (a new one was just imposed upon French authorities by Eurostat because even the EU finds the French figures more than dodgy) and both vastly underestimate the reality of the situation.

Stating the obvious

EU reports no progress ... No kidding.

Fwance, ton militantisme politique fout le camp

Talk about jobs that only foreigners will do. Clear Channel has the monopoly for putting up French political campaign posters this year because no one in France wants to do it.

Since 2002, French political parties have a choice: get their militants to put up the posters (for free), or subcontract the work to a private sector company. French political party members, who traditionally did this kind of stuff for zilch, no longer seem to be sufficiently motivated.

With 1 million posters to be displayed in front of 85,000 polling stations, Clear Channel's French subsidiary won the 3 million euro contract. Clear Channel has in hand signed authorisations from all 12 Presidential candidates, including the most extreme America haters on both ends of the French political spectrum: José Bové and Jean Marie Le Pen. Clear Channel will be paid by the French préfectures (with French taxpayers' suckers moolah) to the tune of 2.02 euros for the posting of large format posters and 1 euro for each small format poster. The multinational estimates the profit margin to be 50% for this contract that will entail 8 days of work for 1,000 people starting on April 9 at midnight. Tell that to the 3 Trotskyst candidates and the altermondialiste globophobic-Luddite running to the extreme Left of the French Communist Party.

The American multinational was the only company that answered the call to tender. Something that saddens the campaign team over at José Bové's place. "We looked into this and no other company seemed capable of putting up the posters", according to Bové's Financial Director Roland Mérieux (... and what about your altermondialiste minions? They don't want to work for free while they await the advent of the French inspired post-capitalist era?).

Clear Channel is surging on the French political campaign market, having taken on the work for 7 of the 16 Presidential candidates in 2002, the French regional and the European elections in 2004, and winning a monopoly for this year's Presidential campaign.

Despite an ever growing French hatred of all things American and the constant use of Uncle Sam as a bogeyman by French candidates on the Left and the Right, Clear Channel has pledged to deliver a professional service for all the French presidential candidates, from one political extreme of the spectrum to the other. "All French political parties will be treated equally without any judgement as to their positions" declared Philippe Jay, Director of Business Development and Institutional Relations at Clear Channel France. La classe, quoi !

The Rancor

The last of three telling extracts from Andrei S. Markovits’ Uncouth Nation:

This rancor against Europe in American mass public opinion is of a completely different magnitude from anti—Americanism in Europe. In American politics and society; Europe is—if anything—a sporadic and insignificant element of the public discourse. For most Americans, Europe as such is a lovely vacation spot, something fine, quite tasteful, old, safely remote, and—basically—a matter of indifference. Surely this very indifference provides additional grounds flir Europeans’ anti—Americanism, since it intensifies the European notion of Americans’ narrow—mindedness. But, above all, this American disinterest offends European pride. It is, as everybody knows, worse when one is not hated but simply ignored.

Even linguistically there is no American counterpart to the European concept of “anti-Americanism” The word “anti—Europeanism” certainly exists as a concept, but except for the Europhile readers of the New York Review of Books, this is an almost unknown, and above all unused, concept for most Americans.49 Until the very current debate conducted on both sides of the Atlantic about anti— Americanism, the term “anti-Europeanism” did not really exist. Chat these two terms—and by implication their social reality as well - do not have at all the same weight in their respective historical anti-societal contexts is demonstrated by the following bit of Internet research: if one enters “anti—Europeanism” into Proquest, a search engine for scholarly journals and papers of record in Great Britain and the United States, 669 entries appear. For “anti—Americanism” the tally comes to 14,170. Google yields 2,420 entries fir “anti-Europeanism” hut 1 [6,000 for “anti—Americanism,” which in the world of search engines is the equivalent of “no longer countable.” Gerard Baker performed a similar experiment with Yahoo. Entering “anti—Europeanism in America,” begot 358 items. But “anti-Americanism in Europe” gave him 21,400, whereby the round number, as Baker properly notes, is simply Yahoo’s way of reporting “we haven’t got a clue how many are out there hut here’s the first hatch.”
This is confirmed by Herbert j. Spiro’s research. In a historically oriented essay about anti-Americanism in Western Europe, Spiro writes that expressions like “anti-Europism” or “anti-Europeanism” do not occur in either American linguistic usage or ways of thinking.’ This does not mean that even the slightest anti-Europeanism in the United States should be tolerated or justified. But to equate it with the phenomenon of European anti-Americanism would simply be wrong, both analytically and politically. The former is the temporary, marginal affair of conservative Bush fans who make themselves look laughable before the American public with things like “freedom fries,” while the latter is a resentment occurring on the entire European continent whose potential for politics and society is becoming clearer with each passing day. Gerard Baker wrote the following perceptive passage about this issue:

I will wager that, rough as the diplomatic road may get with the Europeans, no American will throw a brick through the gaslit windows of bijou brasserie chains in the Midwest, or carve rude messages about German labor-market rigidity into the back of a Porsche 944,
For even’ Euro-hater in the conservative establishment there arc. at least half a dozen Americans ready to laud Europe. The cultural elite still likes to decry US TV and it longs for the virtues of British television, blissfully unaware that almost every piece of trash on American TV screens -from American Idol to I’m a Celebrity, Get lie Out of Here - has a British provenance Many will chatter fondly about French cinema—though I doubt any of them has actually seen a French film since Belle de Jour. You can still reduce Americans to whispering awe by telling them that you attended Oxford or the Sorbonne, even though the average State University of Wherever knocks the best European academic institutions into a cocked hat. And they might scoff at the nonsense of medieval pageantry but they will roil over like a royal corgi at the prospect of an honorary gong. And it is not just the National Public Radio—listening, Chablis—swilling, cosmopolitan elite of Washington and New York I am talking about, either. out in the great heartland, you will find attitudes to Europe that are far from hostile.

The phenomenon is well captured by die words of Paul Lee, chief operating officer of BBC America: “There is no door you can’t open [in America] with a British accent.”

Great Moments in French History

Socialism blows.

Hot wheels

French youths' car torching makes it into State Department warnings to Americans abroad:

In the historic center of the French city of Strasbourg, cars face nonmoving threats as "vehicle arson has come into vogue here with an unofficial New Year's Eve competition" among vandals wrecking numerous autos each December 31, the report for France says.

Curiouser and curiouser

As things get more Orwellian in Europe, they get less Orwellian elsewhere.

Apartheid? Sure, why not? Call it Apartheid. What's the Harm in That?

A 33 year old employed Frenchmen is called a “alienated youth” for lack of any other reason given to avoid noticing the ugliness around them. His incitement to riot should be understood. Plantu reinterprets political Dada, and from the mouths of reds, we find willful and fake charges of class-warfare 7 sur 7...

« Ségolène Royal, the Socialist candidate, said the riot was a legacy of Mr Sarkozy's time at the interior ministry - including the November 2005 riots - which had worsened animosity between police and young people from ethnic minorities.

"Naturally passengers should pay for their ticket. But for a simple stop-check to degenerate into such violent confrontation proves that something is not right any more," she said »

...and a legacy of any other undefinable mist in the air that sounds nice too.

Some Definitions

The second of three curious extracts from Andrei S. Markovits’ Uncouth Nation:

Lest there he any misunderstandings or conceptual uncertainties as to what exactly I mean by anti—Americanism, here is the definition offered by Paul Hollander:

Anti—Americanism is a predisposition to hostility toward the United States and American society, a relentless critical impulse toward American social, economic, and political institutions, traditions, and values; it entails an aversion to American culture in particular and its influence abroad, often also contempt for the American national character (or what is presumed to he such a character) and dislike of American people, manners, behavior; dress, and so on; rejection of American foreign policy and a firm belief in the malignity of American influence and presence anywhere in the world.

Alvin Rubinstein and Donald Smith second Hollander’s definition of anti-Americanism with their own in which they see anti—Americanism“ as any hostile action or expression that becomes part and parcel of an undifferentiated attack on the foreign policy, society; culture and values of the United States.” And ‘Todd Gitlin offered the following trenchant view on this topic: “Anti-Americanism is an emotion masquerading as an analysis, a morality, an ideal, even an idea about what to do. When hatred of foreign policies ignites into hatred of an entire people and their civilization, then thinking is dead and demonology lives. When complexity of thought devolves into caricature, intellect is close to reconciling itself to mass murder.”15 Agreeing with all three of these definitions, I see anti-Americanism as a generalized and comprehensive normative dislike of America and things American that often lacks distinct reasons or concrete causes. Ant-Americanism has all the tropes of a classic prejudice. Beyond that, anti-Americanism also constitutes a well-identified and well— established “ism”—thus bespeaking its entrenched institutionalization and common usage as a modern ideology Indeed, with many of the major “isms” of the twentieth century; such as “communism,” “socialism,” “Leninism,” “fascism,” and “Nazism,” either moribund or certainly past their prime as ideas and, above all, as movements with international appeal, a definite global charisma, and the panache of antinomy and a direct challenge to the existing order; “anti-Americanism” might indeed have assumed at least partly such a function in the world, By being “anti-American,” one ipso facto seems to stick it to “the Man,” even if West Europeans, in notable contrast to people of the developing world, objectively constitute the very same “man.”

Vinvin en Amérique

Bonjour, America!

Cyrille de Lasteyrie, better known as Vinvin, might be a nominee for le Français le plus sympathique de l'année.

En Irak, la situation s’améliore

Article de Guy Millière paru dans Les 4 Vérités.

Stating the obvious

Fred Thompson rags on Zeropean radical pacifism.

Paris riots filmed via cellphone cameras

A short sequence shows tear gassed French youths trying to recover after fleeing to the Paris Métro subway. And here are some still shots of the action.

Personality Crisis

France has a little problem with its identity.

REMINDER

The official description of this blog is

What expats and the mainstream media (French and American alike) fail to notice (or fail to tell you) about French attitudes, principles, values, and official positions…

It was born three years or so ago, in response to the ugly responses, in France, in Europe, and around the world, to 9-11 and the War in Iraq.

In that perspective, it is vital to check out what is going on now with the Total oil company. We have always said that it is not enough to notice (and analyze) the anger (foreign or domestic) directed — the anger conveniently directed — at Washington's foreign policy; one must also see what is not spoken, i.e., what remains — conveniently — hidden beneath the "root causes", i.e., the hardly-mentioned benefits or advantages (whether financial or "merely" psychological) of those clamoring "No oil for war!"

As Frank Hart reminds us, the Wall Street Journal does a good job of describing the decades-old scandal.

The company and [Chief Executive Christophe] de Margerie deny any wrongdoing, but the Total experience is all too typical of the way European firms cut deals with dictators while their own governments provide political cover.

Never must we forget that this includes — and this is far from an innocent detail; au contraire — lots of self-righteous clamoring against the sins (supposed or real, but in the final analysis, rarely greater or even as great as the castigaters' own sins) of the greedy, the treacherous, and the simple-minded American leaders, American capitalists, and American citizens.

The Five-Year-Old Utopia that they've been told is the only hope for mankind

(…As in five-year-old child…) If and when you have three quarters of an hour available, do take the time to listen to Evan Sayet (thanks to btesh) — and don't forget to check out his blog.



From the blog:

John Kerry, in so many words, recently called those who serve in the American military "stupid." This is important not just because Kerry is a United States Senator and the Democratic Party's most recent standard-bearer, but because it is the way Democrats in general feel about those who serve others.

The definition of a Democrat today is narcissism. With nothing bigger than themselves to believe in -- not G-d, not America and typically not children which a great many do not have for one reason or another and those who do typically consider them nothing more than playthings ala Madonna or pawns in their political activities ala Rosie O'Donnell. It is not a coincidence that one of the groups most likely to vote en mass for the Democrats are unamrried, childless women and children themselves (college kids).

With nothing bigger than themselves to believe in they become their own gods. And jealous gods at that. Jealous of those who would give their service to things like Jesus or America or their children. Their efforts are expended, then, trying to undermine others' belief in the things that take reverence away from them.

It's not surprising, then, to find so many of these narcissists are found in positions that basically demand "look at me!" "revere me!" "I'm like a god!!!"

So you'll find them larger than life on the giant movie screen, and bringing you "the truth" on the nightly news and being in position to lecture to the children in classrooms where they are they only ones to give voice to their beliefs.

Don't forget that Evan Sayet is a comedian, though:

George Bush could be Jesus Christ himself and liberals would say, "Well, sure. His father got him the job."

And check out some of the other conservative jokes on Luke Ford. My favorite was a Jeff Wayne joke:

I have the solution to gays in the military. We should have a separate gay army. Scare the hell out of everybody. "If you don't settle down, we'll send our gay army over there. They take prisoners."

Soft-Powernap

Continental divide:

Disputing the oft-asserted claim that Europeans work less than Americans because they have perfected the art of living, Messrs. Alesina and Giavazzi contend that European idleness is the predictable result of stultifying labor market regulations, high taxation, and the excessive power of Europe's labor unions. In France, Germany, and Italy especially, shortened work hours are now coupled with diminished productivity and lack of technological innovation. In 1970, the authors note, Italy's gross domestic product per capita was 68% of America's; by 1990, it had reached 80%. Today it is back down to 64%. At current rates of relative decline, Italian GDP per capita will in 25 years time be one third that of America.

And why is this a problem? After all, a country with one-third the GDP per capita of America is still a rich country. It is a problem because relative decline tends to become absolute decline.

I’m So Disillusioned

I though they would be different. I thought they farted daisies.

It must be America’s fault.

So Much for that “Accidental Tourist” Argument

Australian David Hicks is seen holding a bazooka in this undated photo taken in Kosovo. Hicks, a 26-year-old from Adelaide, southern Australia, has been captured by northern alliance fighters in Afghanistan. The Australian government says he has trained with the al-Qaida terror network.

In spite of it being an RPG, justice delayed remains justice denied, even if he was a foot soldier who doesn’t deserve any, so with Hicks’ defense using stalling tactics, one can obviously only blame George Bush for the detention of this “Man of Peace”, of course.

Newsflash to Australians wondering “whose victory” a Hicks hearing is: no-one in the United States, save for the usual desperate defenders of their own world-view from reality cares who David Hicks is.

Quite predictably for the Borg hive-mind of the Daily Kos, they have managed to objectify opposition to terror as support for the right while they support someone also known as Abu Muslim al Australia which makes no sense at all in Arabic, aka Abu Muslim Philippine, and aka Muhammad Dawood, which at least has the name “David” in it.

Their love seems to know no bounds.

Too little, too late

Flyers are being distributed door-to-door in the notorious Nine-Three Paris suburb begging residents to support the police before the worst occurs. The first thing wrong with the flyer is ... it's written in multisyllabic French which won't get you far in the Nine-Three. Thanks to Jawa Report.

French youths riot, like Clockwork

French socialism and Nanny State policies are, at last, leading up to the implosion of this flacid excuse for a country.



Ah, pour une splendeur c'était une vraie splendité, miamiamiamiamiam. Et quand c'est arrivé au Scherzo je me suis reluché aussi net cavalant et cavalant sur des nogas genre tout ce qu'il y a de léger et de mystérieux, et en même temps je taille tailladais à grands coups de mon britva coupe-chou dans tout le litso du monde, qui critchait. Et il y avait encore à venir le mouvement lent et ravissant dernier mouvement avec les voix qui chantent. Pour ce qui est d'être guéri, je l'étais.

Support French youth

T'en veux ?

Just do it. Turn up the sound or you won't hear it above the rioting outside.

The antiwar movement didn't shorten the Vietnam War by a single day

[To the question,] "What was the purpose of the 1968 Tet Offensive?" [Colonel Bui Tin, the NVA officer who received the unconditional surrender of South Vietnam in 1975,] replies, "To relieve the pressure Gen. Westmoreland was putting on us in late 1966 and 1967 and to weaken American resolve during a presidential election year."

In "Dangers of the Fifth Column", Benjamin Duffy compares Iraq and Vietnam.

"What about [Tet's] results?" asked [reporter Stephen] Young. The colonel replied, "Our losses were staggering and a complete surprise; [Commanding General] Giap later told me that Tet had been a military defeat, though we had gained the planned political advantages when Johnson agreed to negotiate and did not run for re-election � If the American forces had not begun to withdraw under Nixon in 1969, they could have punished us severely."

Tin simply confirms basic intuition. The antiwar movement didn't shorten the Vietnam War by a single day. It made the war longer and bloodier, and it eventually resulted in our nation's first unequivocal military defeat. The movement didn't prevent a single name from being etched onto that black wall. To the contrary, our boys could have been home years earlier, and South Vietnam could be a free country today if the antiwar movement hadn't acted as Hanoi's useful idiots.

Benjamin Duffy proceeds to wonder what questions some people should ask themselves.

Last night's Jungle Boogie at the Gare du Nord

The Kids are Alright ... Tear gas and mob violence. Paris au Printemps.

Art Imitates Art

Ah, another day in paradise...

The youths responded by throwing trash cans and other objects at the officers. A group of youths smashed the windows of a sporting goods store and looted boxes of shoes. Others attacked automatic drink dispensers and set fire to an information booth.

While “yoofs” riot over the police arresting a crate-jumper, we discover EUtopia reaching another pitched peak of civilization:

Inspired by the success of up-market wine centres in California and Australia, a French wine merchant from Bordeaux this month opened a new 20 million-euro (26-million-dollar) complex, the first of its kind in France.

For-shame. On one hand they start modeling the wineries wine-snobs and enthusiast can visit after those found in California and Australia, not to mention the composition of their wines, but can also take solace that their massive sums of “humanitarian aid” have been well spent in Gaza.

A huge sewage reservoir in the northern Gaza Strip collapsed Tuesday, killing five people in a frothing cascade of waste and mud that swamped a village and highlighted the desperate need to upgrade Gaza's overloaded, outdated infrastructure.

Similarities can be readily found with the Gare du Nord, a massive, sprawling complex of creepy old access tunnels and modern concourses punctuated with evidence of 70’s élan that I like to call the Bronze-anodized aluminum Age, and only slightly more evolved than the Stone Age. But I digress...

They get to join others who are also full of shit. Pitched luddism should find this just: Imagining whirled Peas, Greenpeace occupies a nuclear power plan in what may be a misguided attempt to repeat the great Gaza surfing challenge:

We want to denounce the dangers of nuclear power in general and the EPR in particular," said a Greenpeace spokeswoman Adelaide Colin. France derives more than three-quarters of its electricity from nuclear power, the highest ratio of any country in the world,

It’s a great moment for reality.

The Underworld with Bayrou

As Don Chiracone gets ready to retire, which potential successor will receive the support of the gangsters of France? Since the UDF claims to represent the center (uniting the left and the right) and since the expression "the Middle" in French is synonymous with the Underworld, it was only natural that La Baf would conclude that the Mafia would place its support behind François Bayrou, the man who unites all "the families", and that it would pull its latest prank (starring Jixie Juny) at the UDF's Zénith convention, in front of 6,500 supporters…

Anti-Americanism: Comparisons to Anti-Europeanism

The first of three extracts from Andrei S. Markovits’ Uncouth Nation:

Just as an imagined America has served all kinds of purposes for Europeans, so too have the different notions of Europe that Americans created in the course of their history served to sketch out a sense of “being different” for Americans, The phenomenon of America as Europe’s counterimage and vice—versa has best been characterized by Bernd Ostendorf, certainly one of Germany’s most profound America experts, a compulsive folie à deux for over three centuries with a remarkably stable set of choreographies, but with a rather uneven, historically specific set of performances.”

I detect, however, an important difference in the respective agencies of folie à deux on the two continents: Whereas, in the United States, the carriers of prejudice and antipathy toward Europe have been located predominantly (if at all) among the lower social strata, American elites (especially cultural elites) have consistently extolled Europe, and they continue do so.

This love for and emulation of European tastes, mores, fashions, and habits remained a staple of American elite culture even during the country’s most nativist and isolationist periods. Practically all sophisticated culture in America is European. One need on]v look at the humanities departments of any’ leading American university to observe this continuing cultural hegemony, which, even in the persistent attempt to negate its own Eurocentrism, resorts to ideas and methods that are completely European. American elites continue to he completely fixated on Europe, in spite of the repeated fear voiced in Europe that America might be drifting toward Asia. That dr ft exists—although only partially—in the economy, hut by no means in the realm of culture A European vacation after final exams remains more or less obligatory for every graduate of an elite university in the United States. Every aspect of the consumer profile of American elites—from classical music to cuisine, from ears to vacation spots, from interior decoration to preferences in clothing—shows a clear predisposition for Europe and things European.

In massive contrast to the negate and pejorative—at best ambivalent—notions that the word “American” conjures up in Europe, “European” invariably invokes positive tropes among Americans (elites and mass alike), such as “quality,” “class,” “taste,” and “elegance,” be it in food, comfort, tradition, romance, or eroticism (as in European massage, European cleccr, European looks ... and the list can go on and on). Every Madison Avenue ad agency knows full well that the best way to sell quality and rare curiosities to American elites is to conjure up European associations.

4 potes de Djamel Debbouze serrés

Des chances pour la Fwance passent à la Trappes.