France's Brain Drain: "The notion of competition, the acceptance of competition is more in harmony with the American culture than the French one"

Academics are increasingly leaving France for the United States, which carries the risk of a “brain drain” in France, according to a report this month by an independent study group.

Thus starts Maïa de la Baume's article in the International Herald Tribune, which points out that many French scientists say that the "French lifestyle, which puts a higher value on quality of living and less emphasis on competition and getting ahead, is no longer sufficient to keep talented researchers in France".

The report, by the Institut Montaigne, a leading independent research group in Paris, found that academics constitute a much larger percentage of French émigrés to the United States today than 30 years ago. According to the report, between 1971 and 1980, academics represented just 8 percent of the departing population; between 1996 and 2006, they represented 27 percent of the departing population.

“The acceleration of French scientific emigration to the United States is recent and worrisome,” said the report, called “Gone for good? The expatriates of French higher education in the United States.”

… The number of French scientists who leave France for the United States remains limited, but the exodus of the country’s most talented scientists could hurt the economy, the report suggested.

“Those who leave France are the best, the most prolific and the best integrated on an international scale,” said the report, which surveyed about a hundred French researchers and professors who studied in France’s top universities and elite schools like the École Normale Supérieure and the École Polytechnique.

… “The notion of competition, the acceptance of competition is more in harmony with the American culture than the French and Latin one,” … said Gérard Karsenty, a professor of genetics and and development at Columbia University in New York.

… The brain drain in French academia has been observed in other arenas, as well. The field of musical composition, for example has been hurt by the trend, and composers are few, training offers scarce and jobs rare. “We are in the process of killing contemporary music in France,” said an unidentified composer cited in the report.

Today, many French academics working in the United States say their choice to leave their country was largely motivated by an American system “where universities are larger, richer and more flexible than in France,” said … Thomas Philippon, a French economist who began teaching finance at New York University Stern School of Business in 2003.

… Upon moving to France after nine years in the United States, [said Rava da Silveira, a physicist who teaches neuroscience at the École Normale Supérieure and collaborates with researchers at Princeton, Harvard, and Stanford], his salary was cut by about two-thirds.

Like many other researchers, he agreed that the rigidity of the French higher education system and a lack of financing, infrastructure and administrative help have prevented France’s scientific talents from reaching their full potential in France.

Well, you can't say nobody told you so

Courtesy of England Expects:

The Next Boondoggle

EU says joint-up energy grid will cost €1 trillion

I’m just waiting for the “hooking all of our windmills up together” fallback argument. As to large suspicious-looking “targets”, this has become a requirement in EUtopian bombast:

"Making the EU target to reduce energy consumption by 20 percent by 2020 binding will be crucial if it is not to be missed," said French Green MEP Yannick Jadot.

Parliament's Green group was disappointed by the commission's new energy strategy however, saying it showed a "shocking pro-nuclear bias" and dubbed its energy efficiency targets as "vague."

Congress's Lightbulb Ban — The Perfect Reason That Fred Upton Should Never Head a House Committee

The man who banned Thomas Edison's incandescent light bulb wants to serve as chairman of the House Energy & Commerce committee, no less…

A Handful of Terrorists Arrested in Paris; By Some Incredible Coincidence, All Four Are Young Middle Eastern Males and Sport Muslim Names

Parisian police have unraveled an attack aimed at, among other things, assassinating the rector of the Grande Mosquée de Paris. Apparently, Dalil Boubakeur was targeted because he represents an Islam that is "too moderate". Haing said that, in no case must we make facile judgments or devolve into political incorrectness. It is only by an amazing coincidence that it turns out that the four accused — they were arrested in Paris and at Roissy's Charles de Gaulle airport (one woman picked up with them was later released) — are all young males of Middle Eastern origin, that they all have Muslim names, and that a couple of them had recently made trips to Pakistan and Egypt.

Ibrahim Ouattara, 22 ans, né à Aubervilliers (Seine-Saint-Denis), Ymad Bilel Benouahab, 21 ans, né à Villeneuve-sur-Lot (Lot-et-Garonne), Hakim Soukni, 24 ans, né à Aubervilliers lui aussi, et Arnaud Barotteaux, alias Abdelkarim, 25 ans, né à Paris, sont incarcérés et mis en examen pour "association de malfaiteurs en vue de préparer des actes de terrorisme", depuis le 12 novembre.

Related: In a nutshell, "Israelification" is a system that protects life and limb without annoying passengers to death

Another Exhilarating Dispatch from the Fake-Crisis Management Center

Another reason that so many Europeans need to get a life:

Last week Google Street View went online in Germany, after which isolated Google fans threw raw eggs at pixelated buildings in Essen. Enno Park defends people's wish to protect their private sphere in Blog Carta. "Street View is Google, no more and no less. Google can manipulate the service as it likes, make it payable or even take it off the Web. Of course building facades are public and can be seen by everyone, but that doesn't change the fact that these images may lead people to draw true or false inferences about my person - especially in small towns and detached house neighbourhoods. ... Now the pixelators are under general suspicion of having something to hide and are already being called crackpots, squares, sticks-in-the-mud and even fascists. Nevertheless it is precisely in its dealings with such Street View opponents that our Web culture shows itself for what it is. ... If we netizens can't come to terms with the Street View 'dissidents', then we are the ones who aren't ready for Street View."

That’s what dissent and argumentative debate have now boiled down to in the strange little world of their zeitgeists.

After decades of the sexual revolution, the pill, abortion on demand, "no-fault" divorce, "Friends" and "2 1/2 Men," marriage is still the ideal

…while [the latest Pew Research Center report, "The Decline of Marriage and the Rise of New Families"] reflects growing acceptance in practice of the radical feminist view that marriage, family life and sexual morality are just "evolving," many people are uneasy

writes Robert Knight.

They should be. Even many who have chosen unconventional paths admit that the timeless model of a married dad and mom with kids is optimal. And the wreckage of "no-fault" divorce, particularly its impact on children, is all around us.

… After several decades of the sexual revolution, the pill, abortion on demand, "no-fault" divorce, "Friends" and "Two-and-a-Half Men," we might take some solace that marriage is still the ideal.

And why not? It was created by God before any other human institution, it is universally practiced, and it remains, as the U.S. Supreme Court once noted, the "sure foundation of all that is stable and noble in our civilization."

Birds of a Feather

Aged, self-absorbed, and committed to being a evolutionary dead end:

The European Commission has launched a probe into an Elton John concert in Italy after it emerged officials spent €720,000 of EU money organising the event.

"A concert has been held ... from which the EU was paying money from the regional development fund," commission spokesman Ton van Lierop told a regular news conference in Brussels on Friday (12 November).

"A claim was made by the managing authority [in Italy]. We're looking into this. We want to know why this ... will fall under the operational programme," he said.

Do they really need to pay people to see an Elton John show? Of course not. But they know no other way of being:

"Cultural projects and cultural infrastructure can fall under the scope of the regional development fund but there are rules for eligibility," added Mr Van Lierop.

”Culture” as they broadly refer to it that requires funding and management, is not a sign of vibrancy, but of its’ stagnancy. It’s a natural progression for pasty old tarts.

From Each According to His Ability: In France, Google Learns that Marxist Welfare Mentality Also Covers the Internet

The Connexion (France's English-language newspaper) is reporting that

POPULAR websites such as Google, Facebook and YouTube should be made to pay for the amount of traffic they generate in France, France Telecom has suggested.

The telecoms operator said it was only fair that Google and other big content providers that use up a lot of bandwidth should pay some of the cost of maintaining and upgrading the network.

Director-general Stéphane Richard said France Telecom was investing heavily in improving the internet infrastructure in France and had a 10 per cent operating margin, while Google made no contribution and had an operating margin of about 33 per cent.

He singled out video-sharing website YouTube, which he said hosted the equivalent of 2,000 years of clips and consumes a large amount of bandwidth.

Mr Richard told a telecoms industry conference in Montpellier that there needed to be "a billing system at the heart of the internet whereby the big traffic-generators must support the costs of the network".

He said: "Using the network should be subject to a charge. Those who generate a lot of traffic should contribute according to the traffic they generate."

Stick it in your Fundament

If you buy this argument, somebody needs to check your freezer for human heads.

"What is the greatest threat to our way of life and democracy in the years ahead?” asks Anatole Kaletsky. For the Times columnist, the growing problem is inequality. “(T)he widening gap between the very rich and everybody else, now threatens the social consensus and political stability, not only in Britain but also in America and Europe, to a degree not seen since the terrible era before the two world wars.”

Remember, this is RELATIVE poverty that they’re talking about. In other words, no matter how much the conditions of absolute poverty improve, it will always exist as long there is anyone left who is successful to exist in “relative terms” to.

The burgeoning wealth of the rich squeezes out the middle class, who are “priced out of desirable neighbourhoods and cannot enjoy the comforts their parents took for granted, from good schools to eating at the best restaurants.

Despite their humbler tastes, lack of automobiles, Wiis, multiple flatscreen TVs, their crushinh work schedules, and without the false memories your nostalgia is feeding you.

Our latest information indicates that the poor still aren’t hiring, so as far as poverty alleviation goes, we’ll stick with giving those icky rich people a chance.

So if the best you can come up with is some idea that our REAL problem is that we suffer from aspirational hopes for the future, or affluenza, let’s hope your passive ass isn’t in charge of anyone else’s fate.

So, was it worth it?

What a difference a day makes...

Almost a Whole Thought for the Day

Never confuse movement with action.

- Ernest Hemingway

A Fan of No Pasarán Begs One of Your Webmasters to Pose for a Picture

MAM

When American expatriates boast that Obama's election makes them proud to be Americans again

I really like visiting France, even if the expats get on my nerves

writes Joe Queenan in a Wall Street Journal article entitled Mon Dieu ! You Like the New Speaker?! (merci à Gary Zuercher).

If you travel to France, as I did last week, a French dinner companion will eventually tell you: "We were all so proud of America when you elected Barack Obama president." It's a condescending thing to say, but the sentiment springs from an affectionate place, and I myself am proud that my native land two years ago affirmed its vigorously multicultural character, repudiating, if only by proxy, its racist past, something no one is likely to do in France, Italy, Germany or England anytime soon.

After that brief introduction, regarding foreigners, Joe Queenan turns to the subject of American expatriates (aka "all those America-hating left-wing expats"), and that's when he truly lets his anger show.

What I don't like is when American expatriates tell me that Mr. Obama's election made them proud to be Americans again. This not only implies that Mr. Obama's predecessors were wicked or incompetent, but that patriotism is an exclusively partisan activity. It's like only loving baseball the year your team wins the World Series. My love of country has nothing to do with who's running the government at any particular time …

Last week, just for chuckles, I had a couple of Parisian tête-à-têtes with expats about American politics. As soon as they started in with their generic Obama-pride spiel, I told them that I had never been prouder to be an American than when John Boehner got tapped to be Speaker of the House.

"He smokes, he drinks, he has a tan and I'm pretty sure he golfs," I exclaimed. "For me, he's the complete package."

Expats are incredulous when you say things like this. Their idea of America is derived entirely from YouTube clips of Rachel Maddow. Expats always repeat the vacuous cliché that they get their news from "The Daily Show," because the mainstream media cannot be trusted. To them, it is almost criminal to say anything nice about a public figure like John Boehner. No, it is criminal.

"John Boehner?" one expat demanded. "John Boehner makes you proud to be an American?"

"I didn't say Eric Cantor or Jim DeMint," I replied, somewhat sheepishly. "I didn't say Sarah Palin. But John Boehner really does it for me. I just love his Midwestern, salt-of-the-earth stolidity."

"How can you say that?" one sneered. "He's the head of the party of no."

"I've always liked people from the Buckeye State," I replied. "They've got their finger on the pulse of America. Ohio is the pulse of America. But I also like Boehner's maverick quality. The smoking. The drinking. The tan. He reminds me of the guys on 'Mad Men.'"

I usually waited until dinner was over before I expressed my burgeoning Boehner pride; otherwise I might never have gotten dessert.

From the comment section, we get these gems:

• I can usually forgive the French. They are a product of their culture. The expatriate Americans who CHOOSE to embrace that particular brand of snobbery and condescension have no excuse.

• I am … eternally ashamed of the ugly Americans. You know them. They’re the ones who frequent Paris. restaurants and are obnoxious with their loud jokes. They are also the social climbers who take anti-American positions at foreign dinner parties and portray genuine proud Americans as traitors. Or they are the ones on short-term contracts who socialize only with fellow Americans. Then they come home and speak with authority on their foreign non-experiences. But you should also know that their gracious hosts are not fooled, They know them for whom they are.

• I don't have a problem with all those America hating left wing expats. If we could just get 80 million more of them to move out we would be well on our way to fixing what is wrong with America.

Building (Another) Bridge to the19th Century

The Problem with western-Europe’s faux Wagnerian notion of itself in diplomacy is that a) it doesn’t work, and b) it does a hell of a job of selling the EU member states who actually NEED security up the river.

A study recently published by the European Council on Foreign Relations already speaks of the new architeture of European security that will be determined within the framework of a trilateral dialogue between the EU, Russia and Turkey. NATO does not enter into the equation. But the EU does not really mean Europe’s 27 member states. Merkel made promises about European policy to Medvedev without consulting her European partners, and there is no denying the symbolic importance of the Russian President’s refusal to accept an invitation to the Lisbon summit addressed to him by the General Secretary of NATO, before finally agreeing to turn up on the behest of Sarkozy and Merkel.

Writes România liberă international affairs editor Cristian Câmpeanu. It describes very nicely what the leaders of the European anthill imagine is power and brinksmanship.

Decades of buffoonish mewling by the decrepid and aging quarters of western Europe about how they “deserve” power, and if they didn’t, well, then we need a multipolar world to triangulate some power, etc., etc., etc., ad nauseum. Guess what: this is what you get for your obsession with signing anything that will look good on tonight’s news, making summitry have about as much depth as the goings-on of a gossip magazine, and the like.

Romanians should get used to the idea of living in a Europe where NATO will no be longer able to guarantee their security. The Paris-Berlin-Moscow axis has left us with only one option: the United States.

Hello and welcome to the 19th century! From now on — now being the first day of the "historic" NATO summit in Lisbon — we will be living in a new historic reality and a new geopolitical era. The summit is "historic," but not for the reasons cited by NATO officials and political leaders.

Then there will be the question of “who killed NATO”. Here’s a hint: it’s whoever took a entity structured as a military deterrent and tried to turn it into just another talking shop for continental political grandstanding.

The wars in the Balkans highlighted Europe’s military weakness, and the war in Afghanistan created a rift between the US and its European allies. Their inability to make a significant contribution to victory over the Taliban or to the stabilisation of the country, and the fact that some members of the alliance seemed to be incapable of joining in the fight while others were forced to take most of the casualties, resulted in the gradual crumbling of the alliance.

To those for whom pointless never-ending summitry IS the point, I have a suggestion: move yourselves and your families to an EU member state that’s forever in play over things like energy shut-offs, manipulation of border states, and possibly even threats of force.

Then tell me just how it is that Europe’s next feeble, irritating lecture about “world peace” being some vintage that only they have the wits to know about, is anything other than selling out their brothers for their own vanity?

"A Fool's Bargain"? In Years Past, France's New Defense Minister Expressed Skepticism About France Joining NATO Several Times

It turns out, reveals Le Monde, that Alain Juppé, France's new defense minister (François Fillon's entire government was renewed last weekend) heading to the NATO talks in Lisbon, was one of the politicians expressing skepticism in 2008 and 2009 with the idea of having France return to the integrated command in the organization out of which Charles de Gaulle pulled France in 1966.

A peine nommé, le nouveau ministre de la défense français est attendu au sommet de l'OTAN, qui se tient à Lisbonne pour deux jours, à partir de vendredi. Une coïncidence cocasse, quand on sait qu'Alain Juppé avait critiqué le retour de la France au sein du commandement de l'alliance atlantique.

Le maire de Bordeaux, quand il avait pris du recul vis-à-vis de Nicolas Sarkozy, s'était montré peu avenant à l'égard de la politique de défense du chef de l'Etat. En février 2009, dans une tribune au Monde, il se demandait : "La France a-t-elle intérêt à réintégrer en 2009 le commandement militaire de l’OTAN qu’elle a quittée en 1966 ? La question n’est pas sacrilège. Nul ne sait comment le général de Gaulle y répondrait aujourd’hui."

Annoncée disparue par Le Canard enchaîné de mercredi, la note qui reproduit ce texte est toujours consultable sur le blog de l'ancien premier ministre. Le bien-fondé du rapprochement de la France et de l'OTAN, dominée par les Américains, a été mis en cause plusieurs fois, sur divers tons, par Alain Juppé : "Je me demande si on n’est pas en train de faire un marché de dupes en rentrant sans conditions", avait-il lancé en juin 2008 lors d'une conférence. Peu après cette sortie, il avait toutefois estimé sur son blog que Nicolas Sarkozy avait répondu de façon convaincante à ses inquiétudes.

Pourtant, deux ans plus tard, en mai, Alain Juppé fait de nouveau part de ses doutes : "Je ne suis pas sûr qu'on ait gagné à perdre notre position originale", estime-t-il, dans un entretien à la revue Défense cité par le Nouvel Observateur. Malgré les promesses de Nicolas Sarkozy, "il n'y a pas eu d'avancement sur le plan de l'Europe de la défense", ajoute-t-il.

Hoping to Milk it Until Retirement, Were We?

Icelanders to the EU: keep it real.

Icelandic minister wants to finish EU talks in two months

Iceland officially started face-to-face negotiations with officials of the European Commission on Monday (15 November), but the country's justice minister is already calling for the talks to be concluded swiftly in two months followed by a snap referendum to bring closure to the issue.

Which is a real novelty to the who Empire building exercise.

Describing how the EU bid "fits into the dreams of the old colonial powers powers of Europe," he asked in the article: "Is this democracy? Tough questions arise. What are 300,000 people [the population of Iceland is 320,000] against the empire with a thick wallet?"

Strangely enough, that’s one contry that the vampire squid can’t really tacitly threaten with economic “alienation of affection”, as would be the case of anyone bordering the core EU would. They wouldn’t have to make a choice every nascent Roman province did before absorption: could they survive on the margins of an entity that would exclude from the arrangements it made with its’ pre-Borg-assimilation neighbors and trading partners. Pantalooned boffins with scrolls of rule to be read aloud to the local peasantry might as well show up, and they wouldn’t think to use the term.

Strangely enough, you don’t get hyperventilation over this blatant and naked empire making, but rather a population that are fond of referring (with a “my porridge is too cold” sneer) to the US as an empire.

Two Chirac Allies with Gaullist Tendencies Are Elevated to the Helms of the Defense and the Foreign Affairs Ministries

In the wake of the French government's resignation last weekend, write Nathalie Guibert and Natalie Nougayrède in Le Monde, a couple of nominations in the new administration (François Fillon stays on as prime minister) show the country's turn towards the Gaullist right. Two people affiliated with Jacques Chirac — Alain Juppé and Michèle Alliot-Marie — have been elevated to the helms of, respectively, the defense and the foreign affairs ministries.

Une nouvelle tonalité pour l'action extérieure de la France ? Les nominations de deux personnalités chiraquiennes de filiation, Alain Juppé à la défense, et Michèle Alliot-Marie aux affaires étrangères, confèrent un affichage plus "gaulliste" à la diplomatie du pays.

Depuis 2007, Nicolas Sarkozy avait imprimé un tournant atlantiste. Le retour dans le commandement intégré de l'OTAN, l'emploi de la notion de "famille occidentale", le rapprochement avec l'Amérique de George Bush, le réchauffement des relations avec Israël, avaient composé ce nouveau paysage. Bernard Kouchner, au Quai d'Orsay, était pleinement en phase avec ces choix, au-delà de ses tensions chroniques avec les conseillers de l'Elysée.

Although in years past, France's New Defense Minister Expressed Skepticism About France Joining NATO Several Times, observers doubt that there will be a 180º turn in foreign affairs and defence policies:

Mais l'impression de virage "néogaulliste" doit être relativisée. … Peu d'observateurs s'attendent à ce que les choix opérés depuis 2007 soient inversés. Le nouveau ministre de la défense ne reviendra pas sur le fond.

I’m Here, I’m Sober. What More do You Want?

The European work ethic, explained.

Ignoring the Ramifications of the Viktor Bout Case, Apologizer-in-Chief Calls Russia "a Partner, Not an Adversary"

… just as the United States and Russia have reset our relationship, so too can NATO and Russia. In Lisbon we can make it clear that NATO sees Russia as a partner, not an adversary. We can deepen our cooperation on Afghanistan, counter-narcotics and 21st century security challenges — from the spread of nuclear weapons to the spread of violent extremism. And by moving ahead with cooperation on missile defense, we can turn a source of past tension into a source of cooperation against a shared threat.

As Barack Obama heads to Europe for his second visit abroad since the mid-terms shallacking, the Apologizer-in-Chief has authored another feel-good homily for the benefit of the European allies — something that is far easier to do if you ignore the ramifications linked to the case of Viktor Bout — which promptly made (a huge headline on) the front page of Le Monde.

"Notre relation avec nos partenaires et alliés européens est la pierre angulaire de notre engagement dans le monde" affirme le président américain dans une tribune au journal Le Monde sur le sommet de l'Alliance.

This Just in From the “Things one is Obliged to Say in Public Department”

In other words: ritual parroting.

Some countries like Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany and Norway believe that “these weapons have no military purpose.” However, given their proximity to Iran and Russia, Turkey and the Baltic countries are staunchly opposed to any withdrawal.

Staunch opposition presumably because... they have no purpose ?

Neutering Iran: How Obama Could Get Support from the Republicans and Possibly Win Reelection

What happens if Barack Obama keeps U.S. troops in Afghanistan for the long haul, modernizes the American nuclear infrastructure as a counterweight to the signature of the New Start treaty with Russia, and gets tough — real tough, going beyond sanctions — on Iran?

That is the question asked in the International Herald Tribune by John Vinocur. And the reply he gives is:

The president gets stand-up support from a group of Republicans who are concerned about a potential wave of isolationism coming from “an unholy alliance” of right- and left-wing outriders in Congress who disdain the country’s engagement in the world.

And Mr. Obama receives an acknowledgment from one of the Republican Party’s leading spokesmen on national security that, “If he does a good job in keeping us safe, I would not be surprised if he gets re-elected.”

Of course, some not-so-small fine print slips in here: A second-term Obama White House, in this view, also presupposes an economic rebound and avoiding a major terrorist attack.

But Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina — described by Bob Woodward in his book “Obama’s Wars” as regarded by Mr. Obama as “the most reasonable Republican ally” on issues like Afghanistan — is saying these days that his party’s ascension in Congress can mean foreign policy support for the president in exchange for clear demonstrations of a new firmness, particularly on Iran.

… according to Mr. Graham, the Republican notion of a swap in their cooperation with the president involves Mr. Obama’s “need to start talking more openly” about possible military solutions.

“That’s what I mean by being tough,” the senator said.

Very tough. If Mr. Graham were giving advice to the president, eventual strikes would not just be to neutralize the Iranian nuclear program, “but to sink their navy, destroy their air force” — and, “in other words, neuter the regime.”

Those Bible-Thumping “Faux News” Worshipping Americans are Such Prudes

As if Europeans were just as likely to be fat, violent, stupid oafs as any other sample of humanity. One town in Italy prudishly clamps down.

In a seaside town in Italy, officials of local body administrations have decided to ban miniskirts and low cut tops to clean up the raunchy image of the town

In fact the entire continent is one big whinging, walking, talking Yemeni toner cartridge magnet.

Elsewhere, another “Daddy drinks because you cry” argument:

Rise in Anti-Semitism linked to rise in Islamphobia

You’ll note that those most likely to attack those assumed to be Jewish or Gay in the Netherlands aren’t mentioned: feral man-boys of origin in the Muslim world who’ve been fed hatred by cowardly Fagans, and violent leftist adolescents spoon-fed hatred by revolutionaries.

Because Hating Happy, Normal People Makes Them Feel Smart

Leftist harbor a special venom for Sarah Palin, more incisive than other identifiable objects of their fixations and fears. S. E. Cupp writing in the New York Daily News plausits that Sarah Palin's happiness is what really irks liberals.

Liberalism, after all, needs to imagine an unhappy populace. Passing sweeping entitlement programs and convincing voters that big government is the answer only works if people are frustrated with their stations in life.

Of course there are always “the comments”, founded in reason, thoughtfulness, and so forth:

Oh, and one more comment Ms. Cupp. All of Sarah's smiling - it is my understanding that the village idiot is always smiling.

It's clear that hating happy, normal people makes him "feel smart."

It also validates the idea to themselves that they are apart and above others. It is a defense against the possibility of anyone you disagree with ever being right about anything. It is an inversion of the humanistic reasoning that the hater claims to have a monopoly on.

Pope, Gods of Olympus, Drop a Deuce on the Elfen King

Europe’s George Washington, speaking at Berlin’s once-Commie-run Pergamon museum tried to sum up European values. George Weigel tried to sum up Van Rompuy:

Here is the post-modern theory of the triumph of “narrative” run so far amok that it becomes self-parody. Putting aside the question of whether, on present demographic trends, there will be all that many “children and grandchildren” to whom to tell stories of Attic courage, or the figure-skating gold medals of Sonja Henie, or the fall of the Bastille, or the breaching of the Berlin Wall, Van Rompuy’s European Story Hour is just that: a disconnected conglomeration of “narratives” telling no one compelling tale.

That’s because he was prattling on about “diversity” as if one could celebrate a stationary object, something that just IS, invoked Homer, yadda, yadda, yadda, thus as newly redefined virtues:

Courage, respect, responsibility, tolerance, a sense of the common good.

Evidence of which are hard to find.

The simpler question still is asked by Weigel:

What, in fact, is “Europe”?

The irony is that one cannot even begin to hint at an answer to this question without receiving a raft of complaints that one might alienate someone.

Coming on the heels of another notable address, the Pope appears to retort Herman’s drivel:

But Europe must also reclaim the fullness of the riches of her civilizational patrimony: “not only the Biblical . . . but also the classical, the medieval, and the modern, the matrix from which the great philosophical, literary, cultural, and social masterpieces of Europe were born.” Thus “the Europe of science and technology, the Europe of civilization and culture, must be at the same time a Europe open to transcendence and fraternity with other continents, and open to the living and true God, starting with the living and true man.”

By “true, living man”, I don’t think he meant “the animation you feel when your welfare payment clears at the bank.

Blinding Revelations, a continuing series

Who knew this information, why have they been hiding it?

We look back on the late 1990s as a rare time when the federal government ran budget surpluses. We tend to forget that those surpluses came as a surprise to almost everybody.

As late as 1998, the Congressional Budget Office was predicting a deficit for 1999. In fact, Washington ran its biggest surplus in five decades.

What happened? Above all, economic growth. And that may be a big part of the answer to our current problems.

In Europe, "Let's roll" Means “Let’s Roll up into the Fetal Position”

"New Orleans! Haiti! Pakistan!... Flanders!!"
Heavy rains have provoked floods in northern Belgium, leading to three deaths.

In a nutshell, "Israelification" is a system that protects life and limb without annoying passengers to death

While North America's airports groan under the weight of another sea-change in security protocols, one word keeps popping out of the mouths of experts: Israelification.

That is, how can we make our airports more like Israel's, which deal with far greater terror threat with far less inconvenience.

Almost one year after it was published, Cathal Kelly's Star article is more relevant than ever (toda raba to Hervé).

…in a nutshell … "Israelification" [is] a system that protects life and limb without annoying you to death.

…All drivers [coming to Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion International Airport] are stopped and asked two questions: How are you? Where are you coming from?

"Two benign questions. The questions aren't important. The way people act when they answer them is," [Rafi Sela, the president of AR Challenges, a global transportation security consultancy] said.

Officers are looking for nervousness or other signs of "distress" — behavioural profiling. Sela rejects the argument that profiling is discriminatory.

"The word 'profiling' is a political invention by people who don't want to do security," he said. "To us, it doesn't matter if he's black, white, young or old. It's just his behaviour. So what kind of privacy am I really stepping on when I'm doing this?"

Once you've parked your car or gotten off your bus, you pass through the second and third security perimeters.

Armed guards outside the terminal are trained to observe passengers as they move toward the doors, again looking for odd behaviour.

…Five security layers down: you now finally arrive at the only one which Ben-Gurion Airport shares with Pearson — the body and hand-luggage check.

"But here it is done completely, absolutely 180 degrees differently than it is done in North America," Sela said.

"First, it's fast — there's almost no line. That's because they're not looking for liquids, they're not looking at your shoes. They're not looking for everything they look for in North America. They just look at you," said Sela. "Even today with the heightened security in North America, they will check your items to death. But they will never look at you, at how you behave. They will never look into your eyes ... and that's how you figure out the bad guys from the good guys."

…[All this] doesn't begin to cover the off-site security net that failed so spectacularly in targeting would-be Flight 253 bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab — intelligence. In Israel, Sela said, a coordinated intelligence gathering operation produces a constantly evolving series of threat analyses and vulnerability studies.

"There is absolutely no intelligence and threat analysis done in Canada or the United States," Sela said. "Absolutely none."

…So. Eight years after 9/11, why are we still so reactive, so un-Israelified?

Working hard to dampen his outrage, Sela first blames our leaders, and then ourselves.

"We have a saying in Hebrew that it's much easier to look for a lost key under the light, than to look for the key where you actually lost it, because it's dark over there. That's exactly how (North American airport security officials) act," Sela said. "You can easily do what we do. You don't have to replace anything. You have to add just a little bit — technology, training. But you have to completely change the way you go about doing airport security. And that is something that the bureaucrats have a problem with. They are very well enclosed in their own concept."

And rather than fear, he suggests that outrage would be a far more powerful spur to provoking that change.

“We went it alone – and there was progress”

Even to Europeans, going into conflict without “Europe” is like going fishing without an accordion. Thank goodness for the boots on the ground for flipping off Brussels, because in their deeds, they want the mission in Afghanistan to fail:

The European Union’s high-profile police mission in Afghanistan is ineffective and suffers from top-down management from Brussels, where those without any knowledge of local conditions limit local officers in carrying out their jobs, according to the former head of Eupol in Kabul.

Yes, THOSE “internationalist”, lesson-giving sophisticates.

As an example of the difficulties, Vittrup says that NATO and the Afghan government wanted the EU to start training and setting up a 5-6,000 officer Afghan CID department. The EU waited so long to handle the issue, that Vittrup decided it was better to seek forgiveness after the fact, than to wait for the go-ahead.

And they imply that they’re some sort of divine example, a inspiring light in the world.

Discontent with Eupol in Afghanistan is one of the reasons that NATO is expected to set up its own civilian task force at the NATO summit in Portugal next week. Cooperation with the EU just doesn’t work.

It seems as though 'Hope' is a strategy afterall

Ireland's day of reckoning has arrived. When Brian Lenihan meets his fellow European Union finance ministers in Brussels Tuesday, he will find himself in the surreal position of being begged to accept a European Union bailout, despite the fact Ireland doesn't need to tap bond markets until the middle of next year and his government will next month deliver a budget which it believes will enable the country to bring its borrowing under control. But this crisis is now about the survival of the euro zone. Mr. Lenihan should take the money — and the rest of Europe must hope that does the trick.

Other approaches under discussion: wearing cloves of garlic, a pinch of salt over the shoulder, spitting if you see a black cat, touching wood.....

No need to worry, our betters are obviously on top of things.

San Francisco’s Regression into an Evolutionary Dead End

Don’t get all surprised, now, it was only a billion dollars:

The stimulus money generated in Washington that came to San Francisco was used entirely to subsidize the pensions of city employees.

’Cause they’re all about the future. N’ stuff.

Continuing to Miss the Point

The Guardian, AKA the media mouthpiece of al Queda’s cheering section, mapped every casualty found in the mass of field reports stolen by Wikileaks. One of the usual masturbatory comments went:

This data should be looked at in every classroom in America.

I suppose they like the idea that children should be programmed using operant conditioning into doing their political work for them, but that aside, the commentator, Roger Blank is almost right.

It should be shown to every autocrat in the world who abuses their people – as in “this could happen to you.”

That aside, the morons promoting the potentially lethal release of informants’ and citizens’ identities in the Wikileaks war on democratic societies (that aids and abets the enemies of human rights) are no different than anyone else who constructs delusional, self-aggrandizing notions of who they are. Take for example this factually inverted political cartoon from the Guardian:



The US military using force against the imaginary “martyr,” Julian Assange? Grow up! Assange should be shown driving the armor on behalf of the world’s mass-murdering tin-pot strogmen.

A President and His Pooch

Makes you wonder to what extent it was deliberate: I kind of like the way that Dubya's "W" seems to highlight the commander-in-chief's canine companion (it doesn't look like Barney, does it?) on the cover of the French edition of George W. Bush's Decision Points…

ArtHausArt

After a debate which virtually ripped apart the NP editorial offices, we have decided to open up the following unedited and shocking video for the thoughts of our readers. Is it high art? A complex reading of contemporary mores? A stupid video with no redeeming qualities? You the reader decide.

Warning: Video contains graphic depictions of a bromance

Can Bush Redeem Himself?

While the French spit'n'sputter at the gall of George W Bush to wish to defend his record in the White House, France 24 hosts a debate…

As George W Bush breaks a two-year silence since leaving the White House to plug “Decision Points”, can the former U-S president make something of a political comeback with his memoirs? The France 24 Debate looks at the book and the man with guests that include a member of Republicans abroad and Radio France International's former Washington bureau chief.

A debate with François Picard and guests:

• Marjorie PAILLON, Founder of www.ilovepolitics.info
• Stuart HAUGEN, Former Vice-president of Republicans Abroad France
• Donaig LE DU, Former Washington Bureau chief for Radio France International RFI

Programme prepared by Charlotte Oberti and Perrine Desplats

Everything you ever Really Needed to Know about the European Left

They're vapid, and consumed with hate.



“One World, One Enemy”
(From the German language Leftist political organ “Bahamas”)

It’s so palpably sad, that even some in the left get it:

Israel is the Schibboleth of the yet-so-close revolution, the uncomprehended shadow of its failure. It is the Menetekel that involuntarily both illustrates the minimal categorical conditions of communism while simultaneously demonstrating the beastliness of which the bourgeois national state is capable. Those who have failed to grasp the hatred against this state—embodied in anti-Zionism and antisemitism, both of which harbor a will to eliminate those who live there as well as the Jews who live in scattered cosmopolitanism around the world—have not understood the essence of antisemitism: the unconditional hatred of the idea of mankind living in free association. They fail to grasp communism as the riddle of history solved.

- Initiative Sozialistisches Forum (Socialist Initiative Forum)

Yes, Lefty, Militant Gay Bashing is more Important than ‘the Bee Crisis’

Another potential large scale mugging by reality may well be on its’ way: since the majority of gays in the Netherlands are supporting the PVV, where will the “big-tent” supposed protectors of that group be on the fact that they see those most likely to attack them as also being a (specially useful) victim-group?

Klein Verzet

Personally I'd say that isn't so much the "youths with an ethnic minority background" as the extreme coddling of those yoof by political parties, mostly on the left, who fly gay rights high in their rethoric, but fail to act accordingly. Action. Louder. Words. Or some such...

Or some such. How about the fact that the nodding muddle-brained twits have been crash-testing civilization for decades, and don’t really care who among their supporters or political opponents they’ve hit?

This, my friends, is how the left make people back into the Classical Liberals who champion individual rights that their idealism compelled them to be.

The River of January in One Minute

(Obrigado para Denise)

A Pittance of Time

(Thanks to Valerie)

Gallic Shock that George W Bush "Dares" Defend His Policies in His New Autobiography

How dare he? How dare he?!?! Le Monde's Nicolas Bourcier can barely hide his shock at the fact that, in his new autobiography, George W Bush "has the gall" ("l'ex-président … ose") to defend his policies, from the War in Iraq to waterboarding. How typical of Dubya ("Du Bush dans le texte")!

Certes, il défend toujours sa guerre en Irak, l'utilisation du "waterboarding" (méthode de torture simulant la noyade) et affirme que son autorisation avait été nécessaire afin d'éviter une répétition des attentats du 11 septembre 2001. D'ailleurs, justifie-t-il, cette technique controversée — "utilisée uniquement contre trois détenus" — aurait permis d'obtenir des informations qui ont empêché d'autres attaques. "Il ne fait aucun doute que c'était quelque chose de dur mais les experts médicaux affirmaient que cela ne causait pas de séquelles durables", ose même l'ex-président. Du Bush dans le texte, dira-t-on.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal's Daniel Henninger wrote a book review of Decision Points while Kimberley A Strassel published an interview with Dubya, in which we learn that

there are the anecdotes about Jacques Chirac, who at several points lectures the U.S. on the folly of morality or idealism. When I ask the president if he wants to expand, he starts, stops, and gives that Bush chuckle. "Let's just say he wasn't a freedom-agenda guy."

Other excerpts:

If his book has an overriding theme, it is Mr. Bush's case for his "freedom agenda." He defines it broadly: from Afghanistan and Iraq, to his African AIDS work, to tax cuts. One major criticism of his Iraq policy is that the turmoil in that country has empowered Iran, which continues to move toward a bomb.

"The notion that we went into Iraq and therefore the Iranians became emboldened—it was the opposite," Mr. Bush says. "The Iranians, it turns out, suspended their program," he continues, referring to a 2007 National Intelligence Estimate finding that Tehran had halted its weapons program in 2003. He says that it wasn't until mid-2005 that Iranian elections brought to power Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who announced the process of nuclear enrichment would accelerate.

As for those who feel Mr. Bush wasn't aggressive enough, the president disputes the notion that Iran can be compared to Iraq. "Diplomacy was just beginning in Iran, the world was just beginning to focus," he says. Mr. Bush takes credit for "helping focus" that attention.

…What about the critique that Afghanistan was left to fester while the president dealt with Iraq, setting up a return of the Taliban and the need for President Obama to send more troops? "What I say is, we had a large coalition of troops in Afghanistan and it looked like we were making progress." He notes that "when it became apparent that the NATO coalition was not able to cohesively deal with the Taliban," he ordered a 2006 "silent surge" in Afghanistan—a 50% troop increase. "We were plenty capable of doing two things at the same time."

Mr. Bush writes that one of two major "setbacks in Iraq" was not finding WMD. He writes it still gives him a "sickening feeling." I ask why, given the myriad reasons he lays out for removing Saddam. The problem, he says, was what the lack of WMD meant for the public's perception of the war.

Daniel Henninger:

In contrast to the ugly cartoon figure drawn by his opponents, Mr. Bush is unfailingly gracious to virtually all his opponents, including Cindy Sheehan, the antiwar activist who had lost a son in Iraq.

In Sean Hannity's Fox News interview (thanks to Vincent), the "Former president reflects on years as commander in chief during driving tour of Crawford ranch"
Merci, Monsieur Reynolds

Let’s Put Today in Context for those Special Political Types

Today marks the last day of the war when “western Christian devils” used disproportionate force to throw Ottoman oppressors off of Muslim lands.

You’re welcome, asslickers.

They Still know a Douchebag when they See One

Happy Birthday

(Thanks to Valerie)

Iowa (Hearts) Deutschland, Soon to be Unrequited

I just love these stories that induce hysteria in Germany... A 19 year old German citizen by the name of Christopher Mettin decided to join his Ami girlfriend back to Sioux City. They forged a driver’s license and birth certificate. His forged identity, though, was tripped up when he tried to vote.

Behaving as though they live in a far away village where nothing dramatic is supposed to happen, expect Germans to be hysterical anyway, but the apoplexy will come from the fact that he’s going to be deported and, horror of horrors, wasn’t asked for his passport when he voted as they would in Gutmensch Land. As in, the opposite of their usual datenunschutz style hysteria when they discover that there are Americans who are concerned that non-citizens, inhabiting the US legally and illegally, are voting.

Of course they can go back to the old “the US justice system is so cruel and severe”. This, from a country where you can legally be held in preventative detention after you’ve finished serving your sentence in the crowbar hotel. Yeah, whatever you say, Udo.

Mettin made a false statement or claim that he was a citizen on a voter registration form, according to the indictment. The indictment also alleges on October 12, Mettin falsely represented himself to be a U.S. citizen to agents of the Department of Homeland Security.

Right before they pop a blood vessel in their eye, they might think back to the annual German-press ritual of “declaring the American Dream dead”, something that they’ve been doing for decades, as far as I can remember. Strangely enough, Christopher Mettin didn’t think so, enterprising as the zit-faced punk was.

Keep your Filthy Bribe

Reykjavik resists manipulation by the vampire squid: Iceland spurns €30m over fears of EU propaganda.

I didn’t know that saying no was a spruning. Do they really think that nations are anthropomorphic beings that have feelings and “sprun” as though this was just a movie date?

The idea that they didn’t want a dose of Brussels’ date rape drug being taken as a disappointment says more about the EUvian outlook than the Icelandic government’s actual decline of the money.

It’s this simple: little Iceland’s democratic traditions make the EU look like Zimbabwe.

Suite à "la raclée" d'Obama dans les mid-term elections, un Républicain débat un Démocrate au Press Club de France

Suite aux mid-term elections de 2010, dans lesquelles Barack Obama a reçu "une raclée" (a shellacking), Stu Haugen participe à un débat au Press Club de France avec le Démocrate Joseph Smallhoover, le tout sous les auspices de Marjorie Paillon…

Steal Horatio’s Book – If he ever Publishes One

Gutmenschtum cause requires flexibility. Flexibility, that is, with the reality of any situation over which you decide to become as theatrically outraged as those who tell you that you should (if you want to remain a good little Gutmensch.)


Sign and Sight, the product of near-monopoly mega-publisher Bertelsmann (AKA the Death Star of European gutmenschliche non-diversity of thought and opinion), takes up the matter in their unsalable digital form over a tempest in a teapot governing Argentine copyright law. Apparently it’s draconian because at it’s heart, it doesn’t exempt professional academic philosophers from stealing others’ copywritten work.

The article 17º states that "Every author or inventor is the exclusive owner of his work, invention or discovery, for the term granted by law".
Juan Bautista Alberdi intended for the copyright term to be indefinite, but during the writing of the Constitution it was decided to give a time limit, as done in Chile and the United States.

Pretty damn typical, and a good friend of authors who want to defend themselves from theft of their work by those evil corporate publishers, not to mention comforting the publishers enough to believe that if they print something, some ass isn’t going to turn around and give it away. It’s hard to see any publisher committing to print ANYTHING without that protection.

Alas, enter the outraged:

in 2009, something happened that no one in their right mind would have believed possible: the Argentinian Book Chamber filed charges against a university professor who was running a number of websites on philosophy. Among other things, these featured unpublished or unavailable texts by Derrida, Heidegger and Nietzsche.

Because laws are for vanity, I guess – not to be enforced!

[in 1913] Clemenceau learned that one of his theater plays was being played without authorization. After a dispute about the topic, the first copyright law was enacted in 1913.

The interview’s hero, Horatio Patel further bumbles:

In my naivete I had assumed that the existence of such a wonderful medium for sharing texts would mean that within a decade, the majority if not the entirety of philosophical writ could be available online. Which would mean that everyone would have a complete library in their homes, making it unnecessary to travel or wait, and that the 'books' could be leant to thousands simultaneously, and would be easy to locate. And finally I thought of philosophy magazines which are published once a year at most, and then only in editions of 50, which is barely enough to supply the specialist libraries. This would all change, I thought. Everything that had ever been or would ever be produced, could be published online. This was utterly fantastic, I thought.

Which in the case of copywritten work, can easily made spontaneous with online sales and e-book readers. However, that’s not good enough. The author or rights-holder must never be compensated for their work, even if they want to.

The source of his horror?

Horacio Potel's name was picked up by the European, Asian and US media. The case of the Argentinian professor who was taken to court for putting philosophical texts online, with no intent to make a profit, made it painfully clear that if everyone breaks the law, anyone could be prosecuted.

Picked up, because the idea of defending the hero of all great truths from intellectual repression couldn’t matter more based on the logic that the man wasn’t making a profit. He was giving away other people’s work without their permission, but that’s okay, because there wasn’t any profit involved in his giving something away.

Tell you what... I feel generous. I’m going to give you Potel’s shoes. How does that sound. There’s no profit involved, so we can all feel good and warm inside! Property is theft, Pal!

Doesn’t Horacio Potel realize that if the rights-holders of Derrida, Heidegger’s and Nietzsche’s work wanted their otherwise unavailable writings released for free, they would do it? Even Abbie Hoffman didn’t surrender his rights to “Steal this Book”. Even he understood that it wasn’t yours’ to give away.

She Used to be so Sweet, Shy, and Retiring

Sara Lee goes Bimbo.

National Death-Spiral 2.0

1.0 was Marxist-Leninism that DIDN’T require help from Hollywood.

Chavez promised Sunday to crack down on construction and real estate companies that he accused of unjustly boosting prices, which he labeled "housing fraud."

A grasp of supply and demand isn’t his strong point, is it?

In some mostly middle-class residential complexes, groups of neighbors have implemented security measures aimed at keeping squatters out, such as organizing around-the-clock surveillance teams and putting a siren at entrances to be sounded in case of emergency.

Apartment owners from one of the expropriated complexes — El Encantado Humboldt — issued a statement over the weekend criticizing the state takeover and throwing their support behind the company responsible for building the gated community, saying it never stopped construction as government inspectors have alleged.

Besides whatever happened to that Affluenza that humanity was afflicted with?

More than 1 million of Venezuela's estimated 28 million inhabitants do not have adequate housing while millions more live in dangerous, laberinth-like slums ringing the South American nation's cities.

Because a decade of neo-Communist coercion isn’t enough to cure the other 27 million Venezuelans of it.

Created to Compete with CNN and the BBC, France's Cable News Channel Is In Trouble

The TV channel that a number of Paris-based conservative (and liberal) Americans have appeared upon this past week is actually in difficulty, writes Daniel Psenny in Le Monde, due to the feud waged at the top of the corporation, between a famous publicist (Alain de Pouzilhac) and a famous news anchor (Christine Ockrent, who doubles as the significant other of foreign minister Bernard Kouchner), which has led to a "rédaction … décapitée" et "une confusion totale".

[L'époque de la] solidarité … à toute épreuve … est révolue. Il est loin le temps où, en bon publicitaire, M. de Pouzilhac lâchait à ses interlocuteurs : "La reine Christine à la tête de France 24, ça a de la gueule, non ?" Depuis des semaines, il ne lui parle pratiquement plus. En face, les partisans de M^me Ockrent accusent le PDG de France 24 de se comporter "tel un prince" qui considère la chaîne "comme sa propriété personnelle, avec sa cour et ses favoris".

dans

Leur rupture remonte au début de l'été. M. de Pouzilhac, qui s'est investi dans l'AEF, veut reprendre en main France 24. Selon lui, la chaîne est gérée de façon catastrophique par l'équipe de M^me Ockrent. Dérive budgétaire, erreurs stratégiques, mauvaise gestion humaine, audience en panne : France 24 serait au bord du gouffre éditorial et financier. De source syndicale, le déficit s'élève à 7 millions d'euros.

How is the feud between Alain de Pouzilhac et Christine Ockrent likely to conclude?

Tous deux [le publicitaire en vue et la journaliste vedette] savent que c'est l'Elysée qui sifflera la fin des hostilités.

Let us just briefly remind readers how the cable channel — obviously not as independent from the government and therefore not as objective as could be hoped — originated…

"Nous voulons transmettre en arabe notre vision du monde, a répété M. de Pouzilhac. France 24 présente une perspective française, différente de ses concurrents anglo-saxons, une diversité d'opinions en opposition aux Américains, qui ont une vision unifiée du monde."

… Voulue, dès 1995, par Jacques Chirac, qui estimait que, lors de la première guerre du Golfe (1990-1991), "la voix de la France" avait été absente face à l'américaine CNN et à la britannique BBC, la chaîne française d'information internationale (CFII), devenue France 24, naît, le 6 décembre 2006, après nombre de rapports parlementaires et d'arrangements politiques.

They Mostly Like to Come in for the Colorectal Exam

Gee, and I thought it was a utopia where everything in life is free...

Report finds that EU member states carry out fewer than half the targeted screenings that the European Commission has recommended.

I didn’t know the state was carrying them out, but whatever. That’s how they’re used to referring to anything that happens in society.

A Typical Wise, Understanding European

What would be do without the guiding hand of our patronly European cousins?

Last month, the joint “Media Academy” of Germany’s two public television networks, ARD and ZDF, hosted a three-day seminar in Wiesbaden on the topic of “Islam in the Media and in Society.”

And so forth with the kumbayas with the nodding, academic-sounding types that attempt to sound like steady-handed, thoughtful types known for an even temperament and the ability to clearly communicate facts. We are chided to thank the likes of you when Americans get that sort of “experienced” European criticism, because, after all, it’s for our own good.

Abu Bakr Rieger regretted lack of “thoroughness” of Holocaust, defends “justified doubts” about the “official version” of 9/11 attacks.

Prove it, you bearded clam.

Whereas [Andreas Abu Baker] Rieger emphasizes the Islamische Zeitung’s explicit rejection of terrorism in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, he is notably ambiguous when it comes to assigning responsibility for the attacks.

I knew that it had to be those Lutherans that did it. After all, why would it have been called the Hamburg cell?

A Xenophobic Lot, they are

China bites into Europe’s soft underbelly

Maybe they get something out of their paranoia when it’s laced with crypto-domination imagery.

Elsewhere: France excited by whips and chains.

Commander-in-Chief's Rival Wants to Be Their Party's Candidate in the Presidential Race in 2012

It's not only American politicians who are maneuvering for a presidential race two years from now. The Sarkozy-Villepin feud continues as Dominique de Villepin prepares a challenge for the 2012 elections, the former prime minister being quoted in Le Monde as saying during a Grand Rendez-vous Europe 1/Le Parisien debate that

"Je dis que Nicolas Sarkozy est aujourd'hui un des problèmes de la France et parmi les principaux problèmes qu'il faut régler et qu'il est temps que la parenthèse politique que nous vivons depuis 2007 soit refermée" …

Ce réquisitoire tombe cependant mal pour certains cadres de République solidaire (RS). Même avec le procès en appel de Clearstream en mai 2011, ils espéraient voir leur leader tourner la page de l'antisarkozysme et prendre de la hauteur pour crédibiliser son offre de candidature alternative à droite en 2012. "L'antisarkozysme ne mène à rien. Les Français ne veulent pas d'un président qui clive, fabrique de la distance et pas de l'adhésion. Il faut dépasser cela si on veut apparaître comme un homme d'Etat, sinon, on se 'bayrouise'", analyse-t-on dans l'entourage de l'ancien premier ministre.

"On est à 7 % dans les sondages. On a vocation à être plus haut. Il faut repartir sur une dynamique politique", affirme la porte-parole de RS, Marie-Anne Montchamp, qui évoque une "séquence de la responsabilité" pour faire "un pont entre l'homme de l'ONU [non à l'intervention en Irak en 2003] et l'homme du combat présidentiel de 2012". A l'Assemblée nationale, Mme Montchamp et François Goulard, autre pilier de RS, ont mis ce principe en application en votant avec le reste de l'UMP la réforme des retraites, au risque de brouiller leur message en faveur d'une alternative à droite.

France 24 et les voix de l'Amérique

While the counting of America's mid-terms had started, France 24 decided to seek out the voices of America (or, at least those American voices in Paris like the Republicans' Ellen Wasylina and the Democrats' Joseph Smallhoover).

Elections – Les voix de l’Amérique

A l’heure des élections de mi-mandat, il semblerait que la population américaine soit focalisée sur la crise qu’elle traverse. Alors que Barack Obama se trouve dans une posture difficile, comment vivent les Américains aujourd'hui ? Quels sont leurs espoirs et leurs inquiétudes ? Leurs revendications ? Et dans quel camp pensent-ils trouver la solution ?

Jean-Bernard Cadier reçoit :
• Joe SMALLHOOVER, Democrats Abroad
• Ellen WASYLINA, Republicans Abroad
• Anne DEYSINE, Professeur d’études américaines à l’Université Paris X-Nanterre, spécialiste de la politique des Etats-Unis et auteur de « Etats-Unis – une nouvelle donne »

Emission préparée par Bilal Tarabey et Perrine Desplats

Prescience from the Top of the World

In the storied land of Svalbard, a career journalist who landed near the top of the world as he bounced. That alone is a blogworthy item (or is that bløgworthy...), but I digress. He’s brave enough to come right out and say what we’re all thinking when we see a news story about protestors on TV: what a bunch of maroons.

The cause of these folks, or how angry they are at these idiots?

They throw pies at world leaders. I admit it's a great photo, but I haven't got the slightest idea what their cause is.

That I share a fairly similar view of the likes of the adolescents at Greenpeace is beside the point. If the point of protesting is to be seen, gather attention, and sway the unmoved, the best that these snapperheads will do is make more people into confirmed carnivores.

Climate change is bad. But among the leaders and citizens who aren't convinced, are demonstrations like this and stripping naked by the hundred in vineyards more likely to advance serious debate or generate "hey, Martha, look at what those whacky Greenies did today" comments?

Whoever Iceman is, he is an evil genius likely plotting in obscurity to take over the world. The notion of inadvertently finding oneself someplace that remote makes me want to move to Longyearbyen and open a Burrito cart.

Hate is not a Family Value, you Bu$hChimpMcHitlerBurton tool!

- with thanks to Melanie Phillips.