Americans and their Crazy Do-it-Yourself Hope ‘n Change

What was really that historic about the election of Barack Obama? The extent to which he’s simply repellant.

Number of U.S. Expatriates Continues to Soar

Andrew Mitchel reports that the number of individuals renouncing their U.S. citizenship (or terminating their long-term U.S. permanent residency) and expatriating from the U.S. continued to soar in the first quarter of 2011

What the MSM Doesn't Tell You: Reasonable Doubts Persist Regarding the Claims that Jefferson Fathered Some or All of the Children of His Slave Sally

While the tests did show that one descendent of Sally Hemings had a Jefferson male line haplotype, … there are at least seven Jeffersons other than Thomas with that same haplotype who were frequent visitors to Monticello and may also have been the father (John H. Works, Jr)

In view of the fact that the rumor of Thomas Jefferson being the father of one of his slave's children (and thus a hypocrite and/or a liar) has been taken as an established fact ever since the famous DNA tests of 1998 — it has been brought up a couple of times recently on Instapundit, albeit more as an aside (and remember that in the Army of Davids, Glenn Reynolds is General Dwight (David) Eisenhower) — it bears mentioning that there are quite a few serious scholars who are not convinced that TJ (as my history teacher used to call the man who penned the Declaration of Independence) fathered the children of Sally Hemings.

During my visit to Monticello in February, I picked up a couple of books on the subject. (Many, if not most books sold at the Monticello book shop do accept the proposition that TJ shared his bed with Sally and it is important to note that there is a spat between two bodies involved in this controversy — Monticello's Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, which propounds the father story, and the Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society, which denies it.)

Indeed, a number of authors bring the theme into question (either as an aside or as their main subject) — pointing out that there are at least "seven other [members of the Jefferson family], any one of whom could have fathered [say] Eston Hemings" and more likely, indeed, to have done so in view of their character or the lack thereof (dissolute lives and/or a lack of interest in politics and personal renown).

You will notice that in negative comments on their books on Amazon, the authors are regularly denounced as imbeciles, radicals, extremists, lunatic white people, or, or course, racists. (A couple of examples from the press come from the New York Times who referred to the "Hemings-Jefferson Deniers" as "Desperate" and from American Heritage's editor-in-chief, who ridiculed "the extremes to which the true disbelievers are driven in their fervor to exonerate the third president from charges of miscegenation.")

Of course, it is not impossible that the skeptics are deluded (far from it), but do you recognize a common theme here? It's the age-old racer movement in operation again, demonizing, as racists or worse, anybody who does not agree with their self-serving platitudes or who is even the tiniest bit skeptical of their claims ("warts and all" or otherwise). Even to the point of using a "deliberately loaded term" — "Deniers" — likened (à la Al Gore) in at least one instance to "Holocaust deniers". (Plus ça change…)

According to David Murray's contribution to the Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society's The Jefferson-Hemings Myth (Anatomy of a Media Run-Away), the whole affair sounds uncomfortably like the JournOlist all over again, a decade before the JournOlist:

Much of the coverage [when the story surfaced in 1998] demonstrated a remarkable flight from careful and skeptical reporting. All too often, the news stories, commentary, and analysis transformed an intriguing but admittedly indeterminate scientific finding into a dead certainty. Several journalists went on to turn the DNA results into some sort of referendum on the current state of race relations and presidential politics [Bill Clinton was in the midst of the Monica Lewinsky scandal]…

What did the DNA match positively establish? The findings show a probability that the DNA of Eston [Hemings] shows a descent from some male in the Jefferson paternal line [but not necessarily, and conclusively, from Thomas Jefferson himself] …

It became apparent to anyone following the actual evidentiary trail that more was going on here than strict science; in some measure, Thomas Jefferson had become a national symbol on a a battlefield of the current culture war, his behavior being treated by media and by many scholars as an implicit referendum on race, gender, and Clintonian politics ["the story gave the everybody-does-it line both pedigree and prestige," Charles Krautahammer wrote a few days before 1998's mid-term elections]. Some news accounts made this moral narrative quite explicit [examples follow from Newsweek, Reuters, and the Washington Post, among others]…

The conclusion is given by John H. Works, Jr:

Historical revisionism is perfectly legitimate when it rests on a careful reassessment of the past. But what is presented as revision in this case is based on a misleading headline in the journal Nature, scientific evidence that was interpreted unscientifically, and conclusions in the media that have no basis in the actual scientific facts. [The above are linked to the] efforts by many historical revisionists to portray Thomas Jefferson as a hypocrite, a liar, and a fraud.

While the tests did show that one descendent of Sally Hemings had a Jefferson male line haplotype, … there are at least seven Jeffersons other than Thomas with that same haplotype who were frequent visitors to Monticello and may also have been the father

Without doubt, Thomas Jefferson is the foremost intellectual founder of our nation, and the chief spokesman for those principles of liberty and self-government that have become the guiding light to oppressed people around the globe. … The allegations concerning his behavior do not merely provide an interesting sidelight on an otherwise great man. They are, in fact, frontal assault on him and his principles, and have as a stated purpose by many proponents the aim to throw out those principles and replace them with something new but as yet poorly defined.

Fundamental differences in world view regarding what this country is about: Why 2012 looks like 1860

As the season of presidential politics 2012 unfolds, Star Parker is

struck by similarities between today and the tumultuous period in our history that led up to the election of Abraham Lincoln and then on to the Civil War.

So much so that I’m finding it a little eerie that this year we are observing the 150th anniversary of the outbreak of the Civil War.

No, I am certainly not predicting, God forbid, that today’s divisions and tensions will lead to brother taking up arms against brother.

But profound differences divide us today, as was the case in the 1850’s.

The difference in presidential approval rates between Democrats and Republicans over the course of the Obama presidency and the last few years of the Bush presidency has been in the neighborhood of 70 points. This is the most polarized the nation has been in modern times.

This deep division is driven, as was the case in the 1850’s, by fundamental differences in world view regarding what this country is about.

Then, of course, the question was can a country “conceived in liberty’, in Lincoln’s words, tolerate slavery.

Today the question is can a country “conceived in liberty” tolerate almost half its economy consumed by government, its citizens increasingly submitting to the dictates of bureaucrats, and wanton destruction of its unborn children.

We wrestle today, as they did then, with the basic question of what defines a free society.

It’s common to hear that “democracy” is synonymous with freedom. We also commonly hear that questions regarding economic growth are separate and apart from issues tied to morality – so called “social issues.”

But Stephen Douglas, who famously debated Abraham Lincoln in 1858, argued both these points. In championing the idea of “popular sovereignty” and the Kansas Nebraska Act, he argued that it made sense for new states to determine by popular vote whether they would permit slavery.

By so doing, argued Douglas, the question of slavery would submit to what he saw as the core American institution – democracy – and, by handling the issue in this fashion, slavery could be removed as an impediment to growth of the union.

Lincoln rejected submitting slavery to the vote, arguing that there are first and inviolable principles of right and wrong on which this nation stands and which cannot be separated from any issue, including considerations of growth and expansion.

…But another lesson to be learned from 1860 is that conventional wisdom of establishment pundits is not necessarily reliable.

These pundits will explain why the more unconventional stated and potential candidates in the Republican field – Cain, Palin, or Bachmann – don’t have a chance and why we should expect Romney, Pawlenty, or Huntsman.

But going into the Republican Convention in Chicago in 1860, the expected candidate to grab the nomination was former governor and Senator from New York, William H. Seward.

It’s What You get for Programming you Population into a Bunch of Needy Crypto-Marxist Ninkompoops

There are no takers. Literally none. Even at 28%, no-one is willing to lend the Greek government money. Zip. Nada. Nichts. Bupkus. The trade volume at the point I took the screen shot was 0. In other words, even crazy people aren’t buying it.



28 percent of nuthin’ is still nuthin’. Elsewhere Spain is biting it’s pillow, and even at 26% interest, there is no interest in their bonds.

What Would that Wall of Worry Really Look Like?

Hyperventilating CNBC host, and evil genius of stocks, Jim Cramer outlines the unlikely but worst-case scenario for PIIGS defaults. It doesn't look good, but doesn't mean that its all impossibly bad.

Fourth, Europe's recession pulls down the USA because of the tie-ins and because two or three U.S. banks had hidden exposure to Europe. The U.S. learns about the exposure too late because there still is not enough transparency and U.S. banks are still buying and insuring un-insurable risk over there. These banks are merged with healthy banks that have raised a lot of capital, but the stocks get hammered to their 2008 and 2009 lows.

Fifth, massive layoffs strike the U.S. because of Europe. The U.S. economy wasn't growing anyway, though, and the country is sinking under the weight of higher commodity prices, Washington dithering and a president, who has failed to create jobs. As the U.S. continues to sink, commodity prices plummet and construction stops due to weak demand. The industrials take a beating every day.

Sixth, money flows from risky assets to high-yielding companies that weren't' high-yielders all that long ago. Safety stocks rally because commodities collapse and margins widen. This move happens on the way down, even as corporations were prepared for the downturn. The cyclicals don't get much love, though, and fall to their 2008 and 2009 levels, as well.

Go to your nearest European bank and thank them for not having secured a damned thing.



Booyah this already...

A Tale of Two Rationalizations

Spain’s Cinco Días

Germany's demand that private investors contribute to the bailout package must be softened, notes the business paper Cinco Días: "Even if yesterday was just a preparatory meeting it seems clear that Germany won't be able to push through its position without adjustments at the EU summit on June 23-24. It would of course be desirable that the private sector participate in the bailout, but not at the price of provoking an exodus of investors that would leave the public deficit bigger than ever. ...

It looks like a flash of awareness, although one that has the vague stench of compulsion or expropriation of assets. In effect, this is a tax on the population. “Whatever” is assumed to be the social thinkers view of this.

This is not to be confused with another apparent effort to “fight for fairnesss”.
The Netherlands’ Trouw

The Dutch parliament has approved further help for Greece on condition that the private sector also contribute to the package. The Christian-social daily Trouw considers this just: "We need to be realistic if we want to avoid deceiving the Dutch people. Stopping the bailout is not an option, nor is getting away without a certain amount of financial damage. ... It's a matter of being patient and providing a basis for Greece to overcome its plight. So far this has mainly been done with tax money. Finance Minister De Jager now emphatically wants the banks and pension funds to help back the bailout. This is progress. After all, they're the ones who invested in Greece's national debt. The risk can be borne by the state for a while, but not forever. The financial partners must be included if we want to discuss a markdown of Greek debt."

...as if the phrase “financial sector” were about a handful of detestable capitalists, as opposed to the depositors of banks. At least they appear to be reaching to a solution. Although one that has the vague stench of compulsion or expropriation of assets. In effect, this is a tax on the population. “Whatever” is assumed to be the social thinkers view of this.

Federal and state laws and subsidies that undermine marriage are the biggest fiscal as well as cultural issue of our times

The 1.7 million out-of-wedlock babies born last year and their unmarried moms now look to Big Brother as their financial provider

writes Phyllis Schlafly (another expert on this subject is Stephen Baskerville).

The left is content to let this problem persist because 70 percent of unmarried women voted for Barack Obama for president. They vote for the party that offers the richer subsidies.

…Ronald Reagan's advice is still on target. If we subsidize something, we'll get more of it; if we tax it, we'll get less.

The financial subsidies that encourage non-marriage are the biggest reason why federal spending is out of control. There is no way to make significant cuts in the federal deficit unless we address the marriage-absence problem.

Poverty is massively greater for children living with a single, divorced or cohabiting parent than with parents who are married to each other. The poverty rate for single parents with children is 37 percent, but only 6 percent for married couples with children.

Marriage breakdown is a double-edged sword. At the same time that it forces government to become the financial provider for millions of children and their caregivers, it also reduces the government's tax receipts to pay for the handouts.

… Among other unfortunate effects, the trends toward non-marriage and toward same-sex marriage are a direct attack on fathers. The bond between a child and his mother is an obvious fact of nature, but marriage is the relationship that establishes the link between a child and his father.

There are many causes for the dramatic reduction in marriage, starting with unilateral divorce, which spread across the United States in the 1960s and '70s, putting government on the side of marriage breakup. Then came the legalizing of abortion, diminishing the custom of shotgun marriages, which in earlier years was often the response to surprise pregnancies.

The feminist notion that women should be independent of men, followed by affirmative-action/female quotas in employment, tended to carry out the goal stated by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg that the concept of husband-breadwinner and wife-homemaker "must be eliminated." These feminist ideas and practices demean marriage by discriminating against men and also against fulltime homemakers.

Since the federal government created the child-support bureaucracy, the majority of divorces have been initiated by women. They confidently expect that pro-feminist family courts will award them a steady income for which they will never be held accountable.

The more child support that divorced fathers are ordered to pay, the more federal funds flow through the hands of the states, which compete for federal bonuses given to states that collect the most child support. It is profitable to state bureaucrats to make sure that fathers are permitted to see their own children only a few days per month so support payments can be set at the highest possible level.

Women have discovered they can use a request for an Order of Protection against their husband as "the gamesmanship of divorce" (in the words of the Illinois Bar Journal) in order to get sole child custody plus generous so-called child support. It's easy to get such orders without any evidence of abuse or even a threat, without notice to the husband and with no danger of prosecution for perjury.

Federal and state laws and subsidies that undermine marriage are the biggest fiscal as well as cultural issue of our times.

Great Moments in Self-Awareness

They're finally admitting how dull and pointless their summits are. Now for the stunning epiphany:

"Arguably, the two sides could save a huge amount of time and money by holding a video conference or even just exchanging position papers. In an age of government austerity, excessive debt and budget cuts, the public would surely applaud the move," he said in a written statement.

What does the meeting really amount to? EU: Kan I haz your revenue?

Cameron dubbed the event 'The Vegetable Summit' because of a mini-drama involving E. coli.

Otherwise, intimidation comes cheap in Russia. The fringe benefit is that it turned what would be a pointless European circus into a rather more effective phone call.

Authorities cancelled at the last minute a 9 June press conference to be held by Russian NGOs in the so-called EU-Russia Civil Society Forum. One of the forum's leaders also had her car number plates stolen - putting her at risk of arrest - and her credit cards blocked.

"The Catastrophe" to the Party: Some Socialists Are Calling for the Expulsion of DSK Victim's Mother from the PS

Nine years ago, Anne Mansouret dissuaded her daughter from filing a legal complaint for attempted rape against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a prominent member of the Socialist Party in France and the former husband of one of her best friends

writes the New York Times' Maïa de la Baume as The Economist claims that "the aftershocks in France have already been felt."

But now she is speaking out about what happened and what other Socialist leaders knew. And some Socialists — deeply embarrassed by the allegations against the wealthy man who was likely to be their presidential candidate next year — have called for her expulsion from the party.

In a series of interviews, Mrs. Mansouret — by turns defensive, emotional, argumentative and uncompromising — said she did it to protect her daughter, Tristane Banon, now 31, and the party itself.

Ms. Banon, a journalist and novelist, asserts that Mr. Strauss-Kahn, who is facing criminal charges in New York of attempted rape of a hotel housekeeper, tried to rape her during an interview in an empty apartment in 2002 — grabbing her arm, pulling off her bra, trying to unzip her jeans, fighting with her on the floor and ignoring her cries of “no.” She described him as “a chimpanzee in rut.”

Party leaders knew of her daughter’s experience with Mr. Strauss-Kahn, Mrs. Mansouret said, but chose to ignore it. And she herself felt stymied, in part, because Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s second wife, Brigitte Guillemette, was one of her best friends and the godmother of Ms. Banon.

“Many people knew the story, but didn’t want to talk about it,” Mrs. Mansouret said. …

Since the arrest of Mr. Strauss-Kahn in New York, Mrs. Mansouret, a Socialist member of the regional council of Haute-Normandie, has been caught in a highly politicized drama. She is widely seen as a betraying mother who silenced her daughter’s trauma for nearly a decade and who is now tarnishing the image of the party she originally tried to protect.

Michèle Sabban, vice president of the regional council of Île-de-France, asked for her expulsion from the Socialist Party.

“She has no spirit of responsibility,” Mrs. Sabban told the French radio station RMC. “She didn’t take the measure of the catastrophe” to the party, she said, after the indictment of Mr. Strauss-Kahn, the party’s leading candidate for the presidency and head of the International Monetary Fund. …

“I knew the Socialists would deny it,” Mrs. Mansouret said. “Between the truth, what you know as being true, and what people present as being true, there is a often a difference in politics.” Ms. Banon herself said in 2008 that she was struck by a “general hypocrisy on this story,” which the mainstream press did not investigate.

As for The Economist, the London weekly says:

How the mood has changed since the arrest in New York of Dominique Strauss-Kahn on charges of sexual assault and attempted rape. …

The sight of an American court taking seriously the word of an African immigrant chambermaid against that of a rich, powerful man has been sobering in France. The country may have ousted its monarchy, but it treats its elite as a caste with special privileges. Ministers seldom resign promptly, even after scandals unrelated to the bedroom. Earlier this year, President Nicolas Sarkozy dithered before ditching Michèle Alliot-Marie as foreign minister over her ties to the discredited Tunisian regime. …

As for sexual harassment, cases rarely surface. Politicians dismiss accusations as vengeance or fantasy; women, sometimes threatened, fear for their jobs or reputations; the press steers clear.

The DSK affair is changing all this. It “has been a catalyst,” says Valérie Toranian, editor of Elle, a magazine. “There will be a before and an after.” …

Overnight, the French seem to have found that their democratic temples of liberty, fraternity and equality are in fact hotbeds of sexism and predatory behaviour.

1850s: "Discourage litigation" and "Persuade your neighbors to compromise"

As Righthaven's case of frivolous lawsuits (rightfully) collapses (hat tip to Glenn Reynolds) — with Clayton concluding that "Righthaven's scalp needs to be clearly visible as a reminder that being a lawyer has ethical requirements" — it bears reminding that already in the 1850s, a prominent frontier lawyer, disturbed by what he saw, felt compelled to offer the following advice in a speech to aspiring lawyers.

Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser — in fees, expenses and waste of time. As a peacemaker the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough.

Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely be found than one who does this. … A moral tone ought to be infused into the profession which should drive such men out of it.

Abraham Lincoln — for it was he (drawn above by Dan Greenberg) — concluded: there is a

popular belief that lawyers are necessarily dishonest . . . the impression is common, almost universal. Let no young man choosing the law for a calling for a moment yield to the popular belief — resolve to be honest at all events; and if in your own judgment you cannot be an honest lawyer, resolve to be honest without being a lawyer. Choose some other occupation, rather than one in the choosing of which you do, in advance, consent to be a knave.

They Really Don’t Get any Phonier than This Guy

Typical, usual, like whatever.

Sadly, the Internet is the predator's venue of choice today. We need to update our strategies and our laws to stop these offenders who are a mere click away from our children.

- Anthony Weiner, elected by
the great state of New York.

The whole point is the effect of what Weiner did on the House of Representatives and on the country as a whole

…among liberal commentators and millions of other Americans, there is a great deal of flawed thinking about whether [Anthony] Weiner should resign

writes Dennis Prager who points out that "Most Americans understand that Congress, like every other institution, including their local church and synagogue, is composed of sinners."

The two most common arguments offered against his resigning have been that (1) what Weiner did was not illegal and (2) it was not even as bad as an extramarital affair because he never met, let alone had physical contact with, any of the women to whom he sent naked and semi-naked photos of himself.

The argument's entirely beside the point.

The point — the whole point — is the effect of what he did on the United States House of Representatives and on the country as a whole, especially young people.

There is a simple way to prove this. Let us imagine that some congressman had walked onto the House floor in his underwear. I think it is fair to assume that just about every Democrat and Republican in the country would demand his resignation. But why? That action is not illegal, and it certainly does not constitute a form of infidelity to his wife.

The reason people would demand his resignation is that such behavior disgraced the House of Representatives.

That is the issue here. When a member of Congress sends pictures of his penis to women around the country, he has demeaned Congress.

And he has done so far more than any member of Congress whose extramarital affair was publicly disclosed.

…I cannot think of a single event that symbolizes the decline of American society — and especially of its liberal elite — as much as Weiner's actions and his retention of his seat in Congress.

For One African Leader: 7 Ferraris, 4 Mercedes-Benzes, 5 Bentleys, 4 Rolls-Royces, 2 Bugattis, 1 Aston Martin, 1 Porsche, 1 Lamborghini, & 1 Maserati

Africa's "Ill-Gotten Gains" Are Embarrassing France, writes Le Monde on its front page, as it emerges that a Paris investigation into the matter has been at least partly squelched. As Philippe Bernard explains,

Threats to the ongoing judicial investigation on their alleged "ill-gotten gains" acquired in France have not tempered their taste for luxury. The stockpiling of luxuries and swanky cars, by three African presidents mentioned in the 2008 complaint filed in Paris by the organization Transparency International France (TIF) for "concealment of embezzled public funds", has continued unabated, as if they felt untouchable.

Revealed by documents which Le Monde has seen, the list of recent acquisitions by the Bongo (Gabon), the Sassou Nguesso (Congo), and the Obiang (Equatorial Guinea) families makes the head spin. These lavish purchases take on a new political dimension in the context of the Arab revolutions where the dictators' personal enrichment fueled popular anger.

Police officers from the Office central pour la répression de la grande délinquance financière (OCRGDF), instructed by investigating Paris judges Roger Le Loire and René Grouman, thus established that Ali Bongo, son of the late Omar Bongo, acquired a Bentley in France in 2009, a few months before being elected President of Gabon, following the death of his father in June of that year. The police say that the choice of Mr. Bongo, current head of a state with 20% of the population living on less than $2 a day, fell on a Continental Flying Speed model. The 2.5 ton car, capable of reaching 322 km/h, costs over 200,000 Euros.

The family of Denis Sassou Nguesso, President of Congo-Brazzaville, is far from lagging behind: while in France in early 2010, his wife Antoinette acquired an E-class Mercedes registered in the name of the Diplomatic Corps. As for Wilfrid Nguesso, the nephew of the head of state and boss of the Congolese shipping company responsible to Brazzaville for collecting taxes from tankers of Congolese oil, he set his sights in October 2009 on a Porsche Panamera turbo (priced at 137,000 Euros).

But the most stupefying find of the police concerns Teodoro Nguema Obiang, 41, son and near-namesake Teodoro Obiang Nguema, 69, who has reigned over Equatorial Guinea with an iron fist since 1979, and who happens to be the current president of the African Union (AU). Customs investigators have established that in November 2009, "26 luxury cars and six motorcycles […] for a value of almost $12 million were shipped to Marne's Vatry airport from the United States [by Teodoro Obiang Nguema] for re-export to Equatorial Guinea."

The lot included 7 Ferraris, 4 Mercedes-Benzes, 5 Bentleys, 4 Rolls-Royces, 2 Bugattis, 1 Aston Martin, 1 Porsche, 1 Lamborghini, and 1 Maserati. … The tastes of Obiang Junior are not confined to luxury cars. A Tracfin (the government's anti-money laundering unit) alert, dated March 7, 2011, reports that the Malabo dictator's son "purchased 109 lots for a total of 18,347,952.30 euros" [during] the sale of the Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé [shareholder of Le Monde] collection" in February 2009 organized by Christie's France. The endless inventory of antiques acquired is breathtaking: from the 17th-century "scarlet bull" costing 298,604 Euros to the 112,724-Euro "coconut cup", through the 744,716-Euro "bronze Hermaphrodite figure".

…The quite logical conclusion of the Tracfin investigators reads thusly: "Given the positions that the person concerned holds in Equatorial Guinea and the particularity of charging his purchases of works of art to the Somagui company [of which he is director], the presence of 'ill-gotten gains' could be suspected." Mr. Obiang's need for so many works of art becomes clear when you discover that he has no fewer than six homes, including one in Malibu (California), one in Ville d'Avray (Yvelines), and another on Avenue Foch (Paris). According to a witness quoted by Sherpa, a group of lawyers leading the case, his Paris abode extends over four levels and includes several dozen rooms, including "a dining room in coral and a Turquerie with Lalique panels."

Aussi dans Le Monde :

• Biens mal acquis : deux magistrats instructeurs désignés (AFP)

• Biens mal acquis : une enquête vise le président du Cameroun (AFP)

• L'arrêt sur les biens mal acquis ouvre des perspectives pour les ONG anticorruption (Philippe Bernard)

• Biens mal acquis : l'enquête empêchée (Éditorial dans Le Monde)

Bitter, Party of One!

Many Europeans, just like fantasy-“revolutionary” Jack-in-the-Box Juan Cole, are reacting as expected the warning-laden message in Robert Gates’ recent speech on the failure of most of the EU’s member states in the arena of supporting their defense.

Shorter SecDef Robert Gates: European members of NATO need to bankrupt themselves with military spending and wars just as the United States has done, or else the US Congress will stop being willing to support NATO's war efforts.

In these nation-states where governments typically and chillingly represent more than half of all GDP, eclipsing the capacity of civil society to work hard enough to sustain the elephant compelling them to give them a piggy-back ride, spending 2 percent of their GDP on their own security and stability is “bankrupting them”. Somehow asking them to commit 2% to receive the benefit of what is likely the effect of an 8-10% commitment is too much.

One-time Fulbright scholar and nominally pro-NATO blogger Joerg Wolf (whose position is to discuss and theoretically to promote the interest of Germany in NATO) repeats Cole’s emotional tone, resorting to citing moronic adolescent taunts typically heard at a “peace” rally:

Let's talk truth to the NYT: Europe seized the opportunity of the peace dividend after the end of the Cold War, while America's elite of neocons and liberal interventionists have turned "Perpetual War" into US ideology as James Joyner argues.

If the result of this passive-aggressive tone, and the desire to smother criticism is to be assumed to be anything, it is an attempt to have the US continue its’ “perpetual war” stance just enough to relieve the burden of Europeans having to protect the Smurf village that they conceive of their lands to be.

Don’t forget that these are the people who have tried to mask their never-ending and useless invective direct at the US as “the concern and advice of an older brother”. How do they understand one statement of objective criticism every five years or so? Exactly as you see it. Many of their public intellectuals still mad that about one minor statement about “Freedom Fires” a decade ago, and that a Hollywood script writer once fashioned a character called Hans Gruber in 1988.

As to the message “responding” to Gates’ warning? Okay. We get it. Gates doesn't have to make his point again.

The European critics of his measured warning just did it for him.

Compare with Bin Laden's Death at the Hands of the U.S.: When a Cuban Dissident Is Killed by Havana, Only a Couple of French Readers Bother Reacting

While a Cuban dissident dies in the custody of the Santa Clara police, excitement is the order of the day as the AFP recounts in Le Monde that Che Guevara's unpublished journals from his guerrilla years in the Sierra Maestra are to see the light of day…

Le journal d'Ernesto Che Guevara, écrit pendant la campagne dans la Sierra Maestra, avant la révolution cubaine de 1959, devait être publié pour la première fois mardi 14 juin à Cuba, ont annoncé lundi les éditeurs. Le Journal d'un combattant recueille, selon la quatrième de couverture, "des moments uniques de la lutte armée à Cuba, depuis l'arrivée du yacht Granma" le 2 décembre 1956 sur la côte avec 82 révolutionnaires à bord, jusqu'au triomphe de la révolution dirigée par Fidel Castro.

"Le témoignage humain de grande valeur qui ressort de sa lecture permet d'approcher les perceptions du Che sur la réalité de l'île, sa culture, son identité et le contexte politique", ajoute le texte de présentation du livre édité par la maison australienne Ocean Press-Ocean Sur. Cette dernière a travaillé main dans la main avec le Centre d'études Che Guevara dirigé par la veuve du guérillero, Aleida March.

To return to the article Un dissident cubain meurt sous les coups de la police: noting that there are only a handful of reactions to Juan Wilfredo Soto's death in the article's comments section, one Le Monde reader points out the double standard, comparing the reactions to the Cuban's death with those to a hypothetical case of a similar nature in the United States and with those to a real killing five or six weeks ago that nailed America's public enemy nr 1:

2 réactions ! C'est tout ! Changer de titre. " Un contestataire américains...police" : minimum 50 réactions scandalisées. "Ben Laden est tué par des militaires" : 90 réactions scandalisés ! Les citoyens français sont des défenseurs des droits de l'homme, mais il y a les petites préférences et les petites obsessions ; il y a homme et homme.

A couple of reactions! Is that all?! Try changing the title: "An American Protestor Dies Because of Police Brutality" — there would be at least 50 incensed comments. "Bin Laden Killed by Soldiers": 90 comments voicing outrage! French citizens are defenders of human rights, but they have small preferences and small obsessions; there are humans and then there are humans.

Highly Recommended

David Mamet's The Secret Knowledge
(On the Dismantling of American Culture)

The European Members in NATO should just “Declare Victory and Go Home”

In a policy speech given in Brussels, outgoing US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates took umbrage with NATO’s European members’ dismal non-participation in an alliance that they insist on remaining members of.

The U.S. has tens of thousands of troops based in Europe, not to stand guard against invasion but to train with European forces and promote what for decades has been lacking: the ability of the Europeans to go to war alongside the U.S. in a coherent way.

The war in Afghanistan, which is being conducted under NATO auspices, is a prime example of U.S. frustration at European inability to provide the required resources.

"Despite more than 2 million troops in uniform, not counting the U.S. military, NATO has struggled, at times desperately, to sustain a deployment of 25,000 to 45,000 troops, not just in boots on the ground, but in crucial support assets such as helicopters, transport aircraft, maintenance, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and much more," Gates said.

Call it “tough love” if you like, but to be it looks more like a warning that much of Europe’s parasitism is going to have to come to an end if they don’t want to lose American support altogether.

The question is simple: do you want to put in half a loaf and get some? Or will you rationalize some more nonsense about not needing NATO to function as Europe’s continental defense and deterrent and get nothing from the US?

It’s a simple, simple question.

To illustrate his concerns about Europe's lack of appetite for defense, Gates noted the difficulty NATO has encountered in carrying out an air campaign in Libya.

"The mightiest military alliance in history is only 11 weeks into an operation against a poorly armed regime in a sparsely populated country, yet many allies are beginning to run short of munitions, requiring the U.S., once more, to make up the difference," he said.

And when it comes to dealing with a third rate thug with aging Soviet and Russian equipment, most of Europe’s over-downsized armed services remain flummoxed.

"While every alliance member voted for the Libya mission, less than half have participated, and fewer than a third have been willing to participate in the strike mission," he said. "Frankly, many of those allies sitting on the sidelines do so not because they do not want to participate, but simply because they can't. The military capabilities simply aren't there."

"A victory for biodiversity in Europe”: EU Court Backs French Hamsters

The wheels of justice have spun in favour of the Great Alsatian Hamster,

reports the Wall Street Journal's John W. Miller from Brussels,

as the European Court of Justice, in one of 11 decisions released on Thursday, ruled that France needs to do more to protect the little golden critter.

(Merci à Damien, whose e-Nough carries the whole backstory and who, indeed, has been reporting on the situation for three (!) years…)

Enjoy that Amish Future of Yours’, Deutschland!

Germany’s phasing out of nuclear power generation will make them more vulnerable that they already are to manipulation by commodity producers such as Russia.

As Steve LeVine recently pointed out in Foreign Policy, “Germany—already reliant on Russia’s Gazprom for 30 percent of its natural gas—will be buying much more gas in order to compensate for the loss of nuclear power, which provides 28 percent of Germany’s electricity.” Of course, maybe the Germans will rely more on coal or hydraulic fracturing instead—surely the Greens would have no objection, right?

It’s interesting, because you would think a nation where half of the politically-active students and the foam-at-the-mouth activist types who seem so fond of rattling on about the US being Saudi Arabia’s lapdog don’t seem to register much concern for their own bogeymen: Gazprom and “big solar”.

Meanwhile, Merkel’s conservative critics—those in the media and in the business sector—are already scoffing. They talk of impending blackouts. Some nuclear energy companies are threatening to sue for damages in the billions. According to Die Welt (translation by Der Spiegel), “The nuclear phaseout marks a creeping rejection of the economic model which has transformed Germany into one of the richest countries in the world in recent decades. .  .  . What will the new energy age cost us Germans in terms of money and jobs?”

What about all of those “green jobs” making windmills and the need for masses of manual labor after power outages force de-mechanization?

I mean, do the proponents of this trash REALLY hate the blue-collar working class THAT MUCH that they would lie to them, and themselves about “green economy” lunacy? Have they forgotten that it was just a talking point to deflect anyone who disagreed on reasonable economic terms?

Droit du Dirty Old Man

SINCE … Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund, was arrested on sexual assault charges in New York, French politicians have been loudly expressing their horror at his “violent” treatment at the hands of America’s criminal justice system

writes Stephen Clarke, the author of 1,000 Years of Annoying the French, while Martine Laronche tackles le mur du silence in Le Monde.

France may think it had a revolution, but in fact it just got a new, and even more powerful, elite. They believe themselves so indispensable to the running of the country that trying to topple one of them is a bit like threatening to shoot a prize racehorse for nibbling your lawn. You’re meant to shut up and let them nibble.

This is why the French establishment sees Mr. Strauss-Kahn — rather than the traumatized chambermaid the police say he attacked — as the victim. The same case would never have come out in the open in Paris. The woman would have been quietly asked whether she thought it was worth risking her job and her residence permit. She would have been reminded that it was her word against his, and frankly, whom would people believe? The witty, famous man with the influential friends, or the nobody?

French politicians are known to be serial seducers, and as a rule no one bothers them about it. …

… The most telling parallel with the Strauss-Kahn case is that of Roman Polanski. Whatever his talents as a filmmaker, he fled the United States to France in 1978 to avoid being sentenced for unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl. When he was arrested in Switzerland in 2009, at the request of the American authorities, the whole of the French cultural establishment rose up to defend him.

At this year’s Césars ceremony (the French equivalent of the Oscars), Mr. Polanski received an award for “The Ghost Writer,” which, to quote France’s most respected newspaper, Le Monde, “marked his return to the family after his legal troubles.” They made it sound like a speeding ticket.

All of which leads me to my belief that even if Dominique Strauss-Kahn is convicted and has to serve time, he will someday return to France, publish his autobiography (which will, of course, be adapted for the big screen by Mr. Polanski) and eventually be made a government minister. Minister of gender equality, perhaps?

Kameradschaft, 1931

The film was a landmark in cinéma verité stylization, but that’s not what’s interesting about it. What’s interesting about it was that it was that it was just another case of the arts being used as a platform to promote socialism, and a phonied-up “internationalism” of promoting German-French "solidarity" like so many dopey, government funded foundation exercises today.

It’s time to celebrate eighty years of that sort of awkward propagandizing, so rah-rah, and all that. It’s just as wooden then as it is today.

As it is with Socialism, the film has the vague stench of Communist era “brother-nation to brother-nation friendship parades” which amounted to a compulsory attendance for school children, troops, and factory workers. Drag out the German-Mongolian comradeship banners again Fritz!”

How much of this day and age's EU happy horseshit amounts to the same sort of rah-rah-ing that only the young really buy?

I Call it Terroirism

Behold the monomaniacal European mindset on display.

The French government regulates speech for no reason other than commercial purposes. Twitter and Facebook may no longer be mentioned in television unless the story is about Twitter or Facebook, and you can expect the same sort of passive-aggressive resentful coverage to be all that the two operations will be left with.

Why? Because they are foreign businesses. They would do this to other Europeans if need be.

President Nicolas Sarkozy's colleagues have agreed to uphold a 1992 decree, which stipulates that commercial enterprises should not be promoted on news programs, the Daily Mail reports.

Broadcasting anchors would be forbidden to refer to the popular social networking site and the microblogging phenomenon, unless it is relevant to a news item.

...unless it’s a domestic commercial enterprise, of course, especially if the state still has an ownership stake in it.

When you really see what laws are on their books, or when domestic motives are exhibited, there is no point in calling them free societies in the slightest way.

Christine Kelly, spokesperson for France's regulator of broadcasting Conseil Superieur de l'Audiovisuel (CSA), believes that the government is correct to uphold this law.

"Why give preference to Facebook, which is worth billions of dollars, when there are many other social networks that are struggling for recognition?" Kelly said.

Regulating television content and speech using free enterprise as a pretext. The fact is that most of the natives are too far gone to grasp just how bizarre that statement really is.

The Reference Book That Has Been Missing from Your Bookshelves

…cet énorme dictionnaire coordonné par Christophe Bier et requérant les compétences d'une petite trentaine de rédacteurs entend constituer une étape vers une meilleure compréhension d'une cinématographie aujourd'hui disparue (c'est désormais l'affaire des productions vidéo, exclues de l'ouvrage)

writes Jean-Luc Douin in his Le Monde book review about (editor) Christophe Bier's "enormous dictionary" which "intends to constitute a step towards a better understanding of a cinematography that has vanished".

At almost 1200 pages, the Dictionnaire des films français pornographiques et érotiques — listing French erotic and porn movies from Les Brouteuses to Dehors-dedans through Hippopotamours and Miss Partouze — costs 89 Euros and it gets rave intellectual reviews from Jean-Luc Douin. (The reason that this is a cinematography that has supposedly "vanished" is that porn films are no longer shot on 16-mm and 35-mm film but on video, and porn videos being excluded from the encyclopedia, the titles are limited to 1,813 "films", most of them shot between 1974 and 1996 — although there is also space for Luis Buñuel's L'Age d'or ("anthropologie psychanalytique et surréaliste étonnante"), Bernardo Bertolucci's Le Dernier Tango à Paris ("grand film d'auteur, polémique et dérangeant"), Jean Becker's L'Eté meurtrier ("cinglant réquisitoire contre le viol"), and Georges Lacombe's La Lumière d'en face.)

Ce cinéma-là plaide ici pour un droit à être étudié avec son histoire, ses codes, ses modes, ses auteurs, ses stars, et cet outil de référence sur un genre déconsidéré, oublié des histoires officielles, affiche son ambition d'expliquer pourquoi il appartient au patrimoine culturel du cinéma français. "L'ambition n'est pas d'écrire un guide, mais bien cette évolution des représentations de la sexualité et du désir", écrit Christophe Bier.

Oh, and by the way, in pure intellectual fashion, in this dictionary of movies, XXX or otherwise, there are no… photos, no outtakes, no posters, no on-the-set shots, or any other image of any kind (never mind a DVD)…

Aucune illustration ne vient troubler les motivations d'un lecteur ciblé comme historien, sociologue, cinéphile plutôt que voyeur.

Comments by Le Monde readers include:

Un livre à lire de la main gauche ?

Ecrire un tel dictionnaire: quel b(l)eau job pour cette trentaine de raides-acteurs!

Chirac at the Helm of the Republic: 12 Years of Solitude

At 78, Jacques Chirac is publishing the second part of his memoirs, writes Béatrice Gurrey in Le Monde, that take us from the end of François Mitterrand's presidency to the beginning of his successor's term, via his problems with Israel and his alleged sagacity vis-à-vis Bush regarding the Iraq War. But Nicolas Sarkozy appears throughout the book, often engaging in what Chirac takes for actions undermining his authority.

…ce qui reste sa passion durant deux mandats : la politique étrangère. Nul n'a oublié le voyage à Jérusalem, où le président français, bousculé par le service d'ordre israélien, finit par exploser de colère.

Chaque détail de cette journée vaut d'être lu, jusqu'au clou, la rencontre en tête à tête avec le premier ministre israélien, Benyamin Nétanyahou. "Jacques, je suis vraiment désolé, me dit-il d'un air un peu roublard, mais si tu savais comment "ils" me traitent moi aussi. Je reçois des coups dans les côtes en permanence !" Lui aussi, se dit pourtant in petto le Français, ressemble "à un garde du corps".

… Si le septennat est marqué par la guerre des Balkans, sur laquelle M. Chirac s'explique longuement, la grande affaire diplomatique du quinquennat reste la guerre d'Irak. "Voilà exactement ce qui va se passer. Dans un premier temps, vous réussirez à prendre Bagdad sans trop de difficultés", dit-il à George W. Bush, avant de lui prédire d'inextricables problèmes entre chiites, kurdes et sunnites. Malgré quelques longueurs, le récit du suspense sur le veto aux Nations unies contre la guerre tient la route.

Weiner Caption Contest

(Thanks to Frank)

MSM in France: French Citizens Remain with That Bad Taste in the Mouth of Always Reading, Watching, or Listening to the Exact Same Information

There was a time when the officials of the 8pm newscasts were waiting for the afternoon appearance of Le Monde on the newsstands in order to figure out with which stories to lead their broadcasts

explains Daniel Psenny in his Le Monde book review of Hervé Brusini's Copie conforme : Pourquoi les médias disent-ils tous la même chose? (Certified Copy: Why Are the Media Outlets All Saying the Same Thing?), which shows just how similarly countries' respective mainstream media work (i.e., à la JournOlist).

Regarded as the "newspaper of record," the evening daily would give the tempo of information even if it so happened that, prior to its printing during the morning hours, its reporters had listened to the radio while reading ​​the dailies of the competition, which had themselves, in turn, been more or less inspired the night before by the 8pm newscasts... In short, each outlet turned out to be a "certified copy" and there was little chance of getting an echo of information from elsewhere!

With the emergence of the Internet and the social networks which, often without hindsight or analysis, make information instant, the tectonic plates of journalism have moved. Anyone can, if desired, learn where and how he so desires. Yet there remains this bad taste in the mouth of always reading, watching, or listening to the exact same information.

…Formatting, competition, economic pressures, acceleration of time, "googled" information, use of pictures for decoration, and infotainment, "the trade is reaping the costs of its own failures," [writes Brusini] as he stigmatizes "uniformity" and the "standardized information" of newsrooms overcome by "an editorial laxity and a laziness without equal."

Suicidal Dissemblement is the New Black

In a convoluted juxtaposition, the childishly scholastic world view of European “strategic thinking” is on broad display here. First off, retelling without any notion of the optional consequences, and exhibiting selective outrage through omission of the enemy’s horrors, nukes are simply called bad. It’s not naïve, it’s a willful to condemn the good societies of the world to act out some penance for the strange, guilty feelings of its’ academic leisure class – or their desire that we all “Do something! Anything!” about the things that keep them up at night.

Otherwise programming and behavior modification for the young is advocated, probably because they are pliable and don’t ask questions, and the blindingly obvious is overlooked:

Although more advanced weapons are proliferating, the question is actual again today, under the shadow of, for example, North Korea having tested rockets. The Secretary-General of the UN, Ban Ki-moon, said today that as long as the nuclear weapon exists, we will live under the threat of it. He also stressed the need for disarmament education in schools, including teaching that “status and prestige belong not to those who possess nuclear weapons, but to those who reject them.”

In other words, the construction of status and prestige needs to be reserved for oppressive dictators who build personality cults, and murderous theocracies.

Otherwise depend on the UN to save us from it all. After all, years of European negotiation with Ahmedinejad’s Iran over his “peaceful, energy only” nuclear program have been so fruitful.

College students' judgment of Obama has cooled significantly — sometimes to the point of disillusionment

Oberlin is one of the United States’ most traditionally — read doggedly — liberal and distinguished small colleges.

As the Ohio school is "Always earnest, often estimable and not particularly wacky in terms of lifestyle," muses John Vinocur (the most conservative commentator working for the New York Times) in the International Herald Tribune, that is a reason why it is significant to note that a

professor of politics at the college, describing Oberlin students’ judgment of President Barack Obama, said it had cooled significantly — sometimes to the point of disillusionment.

…Oberlin students now being described as “disheartened” by the performance of their President Obama, or standing at a distance from Oberlin’s badge of honor of engaged, left-wing politics?

That’s a speck of confetti in a storm of pre-2012 election indicators in America, but it’s also a fact that Mr. Obama’s most diligent canvassers in 2008 often came from the country’s campuses. Without the enthusiasm and activism of millions of students — and their authenticating support for the would-be president’s pitch as the unifying candidate of change — Mr. Obama might not have found a bridge for bringing groups of independents and Reagan Democrats into his camp.

… Michael Parkin, the faculty voice who described the Oberlin trend, placed the change of affection in relationship to the president in an emotional framework.

In a conversation after the symposium, he spoke of a love affair that, to a palpable degree, had wound down. “It started hot and heavy,” he said. “And with extremely idealized notions. Then a reality dawned in the way that a once charming laugh becomes an irritating giggle: He’s a politician who no longer corresponds to the grand ideas that many students had in their heads about him. And that’s deflating and disheartening for them.”

… Potentially pleasing to his campus activist supporters, his initial areas of focus — a world without nuclear weapons, or an apologetic refusal to hold up U.S. democracy as a model for the Arab and Islamic world — have been scaled down as presidential hallmarks.

So where are the “Peace Protesters” in Orange Jumpsuits Now ?

And were they so fond of comparing Gitmo to a concentration camp, when this kind of thing is perfectly normal in much of the Arab world?

Hamza was picked up by security forces at a protest in Jiza, a village in the rebel province of Dar'a in Syria on April 29.

For an agonising month, his desperate family waited for him to go home, terrified of what had become of him.

And when his broken body was finally returned, the injuries which disfigured almost every part of his flesh told the horrific story that he could not.

Amid the mass of cigarette burns, the bullet wounds and bruises, it is impossible to know what finally killed him.

Elsewhere: getting the attention that they deserve. That is to say, little to none.

Zukunft? Nein danke!

Thanks to Observing Herrmann for pointing this out: Europeans have been carrying around prejudices of one another around forever, despite all facts the most enduring trope is the Protestant work ethic, a.k.a. the superior productivity and output of the northerner:

A statistics-based report published by French bank Natixis chief economist Patrick Artus said Germans worked less annually and during their lifetime than Southern Europeans, and did not work more intensely than their neighbours either.

The study, based on OECD and Eurostat figures, said a German's average annual work duration (1,390 hours) was substantially lower than for a Greek (2,119), an Italian (1,773) a Portuguese (1,719) and a Spaniard (1,654).

A French person works 1,554 hours per year, said the study which was published on Monday.

"Germany's productivity per head remains close to the average of southern European countries. Its hourly productivity rate is above average but not better than France or Greece," the study added.

They do seem more productive somehow, or at least more prone to sweep the streets. But how long will this last?
The only other visible differences could be a result of:

A) higher value of the goods that Deutscher und Detscherinnen are making/adding value to, or:
B) There is a higher percentage of population in the workforce, or,
C) cheaper (relative) inputs to that output.

Either way, it doesn’t bode well. The Asians will be spanking them on (A), the workforce is aging which will nuke (B), and the biggest single input into everything (C), energy is now wholly controlled by loons who think that their little life, their coffee in the morning, their bus ride, etc. somehow is immune to relying on solar panels, windmills, opposing hydro power, not allowing a coal mine to operate, and nuking nuclear power.

Once again, some observer might note that “the lights are going out across Europe”. Again it will be a result of self-induced popular hysteria.

Many Men Are Tired and Weary…

The story of D-Day.

So I Belong in the Crowbar Hotel... What’s it to Ya?

Even Swedes think All Swedes Look Alike

It turns out that Ingmar Bergman (not the famous ventriloquist, nor his dummy,) is not Ingmar Bergman.

Ingmar Bergman, the famed Swedish director who died in 2007, was not his mother's biological son, according to the results of an investigation by his niece published on Thursday.

Sure. And I guess I’m supposed to believe that this really isn’t his work!

EU's Human Rights Budget Being Used to Promote Left-Wing Causes in the U.S.

So in which of the world's troubled hotspots and seats of oppression do you think that the European Union is advocating human rights and battling despotism? Syria? Yemen? Zimbabwe? North Korea? Belorussia? You will be happy to learn, courtesy of The Daily Mail's Tim Shipman (merci à Hervé), that

Brussels is pouring nearly £20million a year from its human rights budget on lecturing the Americans on left-wing causes.

The EU Human Rights Fund is intended to help promote Western values in the developing world. But a shock report has found at least £17million of cash – around £2million from British taxpayers’ – has been ploughed into promoting the pet causes of Eurocrats in the U.S.

It is being spent on promoting abolition of the death penalty, discussion of climate change, green energy, and the International Criminal Court – all controversial subjects in the U.S.

The study by the Heritage Foundation, a centre-right Washington think-tank, found a further £4million has been ploughed into pro-EU propaganda in the U.S., including funds for advertising and publicity material.

More than £3million has been funnelled to American universities to promote the benefits of European integration and a further £3million to think-tanks who want to study EU affairs.

The European Commission’s own accounts show millions have also been paid to unnamed individual opinion formers in the U.S.

The report’s British author Sally McNamara said: ‘It is impossible to justify EU human rights budgets being spent in one of the world’s freest nations.’

Tory MP Douglas Carswell said: ‘The U.S. was founded by North Americans fed up with Europeans interfering in its internal affairs.

'The U.S. as a country has done more to bring liberty and human rights to the world than anyone in Europe. They don’t need any lessons from Brussels.’

Stephen Booth, research director of the Open Europe think tank said: ‘The EU has absolutely no mandate to wade in to politically sensitive debates in the U.S.’

That makes but an additional reason why some of America's university professors are always so impressed with the EU's social democracies and so eager to have the United States follow their path…

France restricts mentions of Twitter and Facebook on the airwaves

French regulators have forbidden broadcasters to direct their audiences to Twitter or Facebook

the Global Post quoted CBS News as reporting (merci à — may I mention his name?! — Duncan).

According to a ruling this week, French radio and television broadcasters aren't allowed to mention either of the big social networks on the air unless they are covering a story about the specific network, Atlantic Wire said.

As a Business Insider article explained, citing expat blogger Matthew Fraser, if Facebook or Twitter make the news, they can be mentioned on a strictly “information” basis. But broadcasters are not allowed to urge their audiences to connect via Facebook or Twitter to learn more, ask questions, give their opinions, and all the rest of the things that broadcasters and media outlets do with social networking.

Those wacky French, you might say. What were they thinking? Well, the reasoning goes like this: citing a 1992 law that prohibits surreptitious advertising, the ruling is meant to keep networks from giving an unfair advantage to the two already very popular services, Atlantic Wire said. …

Fraser has a possible explanation for the baffling move:

Facebook and Twitter are, of course, American social networks. In France, they are regarded — at least implicitly — as symbols of Anglo-Saxon global dominance — along with Apple, MTV, McDonald’s, Hollywood, Disneyland, and other cultural juggernauts. That there is a deeply-rooted animosity in the French psyche towards Anglo-Saxon cultural domination cannot be disputed; indeed, it has been documented and analyzed for decades.

All of this is reminiscent of another august French body, the Academie Francaise, and its decidedly interesting rules that are meant to protect the French language. …

Bring a Pair of Hookers and Some Smack, and We’ll Talk Business