Looking Over TV Shows Inspired by 9-11, Le Monde Discovers (Surprise!) "a Culture of Fear"

…jamais un événement historique n'aura été si vite, si abondamment représenté et commenté de manière fictionnelle.

Le Monde has a dossier by Macha Séry on TV films and TV series [but not movies] inspired by the 9-11 attacks (The Event, Rubicon, and The Killing, along with even Mad Men and episodes of West Wing), which of course includes the subhead "a culture of fear"; which misspells the name of Georges Bush, while castigating Fox News' alleged "propaganda" in Dubya's favor; and which includes Martine Delahaye's fillers on shows such as Fringe (Fringe), FlashForward (FlashForward), Rescue Me, les Héros du 11-Septembre (Rescue Me), and of course 24 Heures Chrono (24) as well as the documentary Les Routes de la terreur.

Après le 11-Septembre et la guerre en Afghanistan, deux perspectives se sont ouvertes aux scénaristes : dépeindre une Amérique qui doute, traversée par une perte de confiance (séries conspiration-nistes, type « Alias ») ou renforcer le patriotisme en suggérant la victoire morale des Américains.

Dans "Science-fiction et paranoïa", un documentaire américain de 2011, Steven Spielberg avoue qu'il n'aurait jamais fait Rencontre du troisième type et E.T. : « Je pense qu'après le 11-Septembre, j'ai perdu un peu de mon innocence. L'inconnu n'est peut-être pas aussi bienveillant que ça. » Aux espions de l'Est, aux communistes armés de la bombe nucléaire, au fantasme de cinquième colonne, a succédé à l'écran, jusqu'à y proliférer, la figure du terroriste, de l'ennemi invisible, des cellules dormantes.

« A partir de 2002, nota l'historienne Olivia Brender dans une étude publiée en 2007 par l'institut Pierre Renouvin, les personnages d'«Arabes» se multiplièrent dans les séries télévisées. Si, par le nombre d'intrigues où des Arabes furent suspectés à tort d'être des terroristes, la fiction télévisée hollywoodienne sembla assumer un rôle pédagogique en combattant les clichés qu'avaient pu faire naître les attentats du 11-Septembre, force est de constater qu'elle participa insidieusement à alimenter la peur à l'égard des Arabes vivant sur le sol américain. (...) Par sa seule présence physique, le personnage «arabe» crée un danger potentiel. »

As for Radio France, writes Alain Constant, it has prepared a theme for every day:
• terrorisme, état de la menace (jeudi 1er septembre),
• génération 11-Septembre (vendredi 2),
• le 11-Septembre inspire la culture (samedi 3),
• ma vie a changé (dimanche 4),
• la guerre de dix ans (lundi 5),
• l'économie mondiale (mardi 6),
• les religions (mercredi 7),
• les transports (jeudi 8),
• les dix ans des Etats-Unis (vendredi 9).
• Des reportages en direct de New York et du Pakistan seront diffusés
samedi 10, et dimanche 11 pour les cérémonies de commémoration.

France Bleu programme mardi 6 septembre sur ses 43 antennes une journée spéciale, en partenariat avec le Mémorial de Caen. Le lendemain, c'est France Culture qui propose une journée intitulée " New York/Le Caire : le choc des civilisations est-il derrière nous ? ", avec des rendez-vous en direct du Caire, de New York et de Kaboul. Vendredi 9, de 6 heures à minuit, France Inter propose, en direct de New York, des rendez-vous avec de multiples invités, dont Jay McInerney et Patti Smith. Toujours vendredi 9, Le Mouv' diffuse les reportages d'Antoine Giniaux en direct du French Institute.

French Puss in the Big Apple

After his French owners emigrated to New York, Texas (that's the cat's name) opened his own blog.

Welcome to my weblog!

I finally got my human to finished my weblog so we can have more serious conversations about serious issues: cat food, catnip, napping, playing with your human, domesticating your human…

(Dogs welcome too if they can behave)

Don't Mess With Tunisia

On either side of a skull and crossbones on a wall in the Tunisian city of Tataouine (which inspired George Lucas, who filmed scenes of the first Star Wars movie near the town, for the name of Luke Skywalker's home planet) are the words "Texas Liberty" and "Don't Mess with Tunisia." (، والقراء Instapundit ترحيب)

P.S. However, those aren't longhorns above the word "Texas" but some sort of Arabic script (Yeah, I too wonder what they mean)

"More taxes, not less spending, is their underlying creed": The patent nonsense of Europe’s most unreconstructed Socialist Party

France’s Socialists have yet to come to terms with the modern world

comments Charlemagne as The Economist analyzes those whom it calls "the dinosaurs".

The oddity is that almost everywhere the European left is in decline. Among the large countries, Socialist parties rule only in Spain, where they look likely to lose November’s election. The only big place where the left has a good chance of returning to power is France, at next spring’s presidential election. Yet France’s Socialist Party also stands out as Europe’s most unreconstructed. Hence the contorted spectacle of a party preparing for power at a time when the markets are challenging its every orthodoxy.

… Next to such patent nonsense [i.e., the French Socialist thinking of an “anarchic globalisation”-denouncing Ségolène Royal or of a “deglobalisation”-promoting Arnaud Montebourg], promises by the two front-running candidates, Martine Aubry and François Hollande, seem merely frozen in time, circa 1981. They want to return to retirement at the age of 60 (it has just been raised to 62), and to invent 300,000 public-sector youth jobs. Each supports Mr Sarkozy’s deficit-reduction targets, but refuses to approve his plan to write a deficit rule into the constitution. More taxes, not less spending, is their underlying creed.

The party is not out of tune with public opinion. The French are almost uniquely hostile to the capitalist system that has made them one of the world’s richest people. …

The causes of French left-wingery are various, but a potent one is the lingering hold of Marxist thinking. Post-war politics on the left was for decades dominated by the Communist Party, which regularly scooped up a quarter of the votes. In the 1950s many intellectuals, including Jean-Paul Sartre, clung to pro-Soviet idealism even after the evils of Stalinism emerged. Others toyed with Trotskyism well into the 1970s. François Mitterrand, who mentored Ms Royal, Ms Aubry and Mr Hollande, was swept to the presidency in 1981 by offering a socialist Utopia as a third way between “the capitalist society which enslaves people” and the “communist society which stifles them”. …

Please allow us a moment of madness

All this requires heroic faith among centrists considering voting Socialist that reason will triumph over fiscal folly. Moreover, experience suggests that the Socialists, if elected, may feel compelled to introduce some signature policy as a sop to their disappointed base. Under Mitterrand, it was the wealth tax. Under Mr Jospin, it was Ms Aubry’s 35-hour working week. With France’s recovery fragile, the prospect of more such lunacy is chilling.

Reporting Data on Things That Have Yet to Happen

The apocalypse brigade continues to onanisticly fools itself:

RATES of mental illnesses including depression and post-traumatic stress will increase as a result of climate change, a report to be released today says.
The paper, prepared for the Climate Institute, says loss of social cohesion in the wake of severe weather events related to climate change could be linked to increased rates of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress and substance abuse.
As many as one in five people reported ''emotional injury, stress and despair'' in the wake of these events.

...in the past tense. Honest of them isn’t it?

The conclusion?

Mental illness rise linked to climate

Surely. But isn’t everything?

The report also looks at mental health in the aftermath of major weather events possibly linked to climate change.

It shows that one in 10 primary school children reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder in the wake of cyclone Larry in 2006. More than one in 10 reported symptoms more than three months after the cyclone.

Which is weather, despite the fact that we are told that weather is not climate. Sometimes.

Market Economy the Leftist Way

I guess with all of that “most ethical congress” transparency stuff on their minds, they forgot to hide their graft and cronyism.

Since Regina Dugan became the director of Darpa, the Pentagon’s top research division has signed millions of dollars’ worth of contracts with her family firm, which in turn owes her at least a quarter-million dollars. It’s an arrangement that has raised eyebrows in the research community, and has now drawn the attention of the Defense Department’s internal auditors and investigators.

She was a program manager at DARPA from 1996-2000 when Clinton was in office. She then founded RedXDefense, the recipient of the contracts in question in 2005.

Her strength was not in engineering as is so firmly touted, but rather in the business of gaming tax money:

The company allowed Dugan to dig into a range of business activities -- she worked on developing relationships, fundraising, legal and financial work, as well as marketing.

It’s Hard Work, but Somebody has to do it

It’s a side effect of France’s one psychosis policy.

Chinese women come home super sluts after studying in France, according to an associate judicial professor lecturing his class.

Poverty in France Has Worsened

On est loin de la promesse faite par le gouvernement, en octobre 2007, de réduire la pauvreté d'un tiers en cinq ans.

After a dip in 2008, poverty in France resurged in 2009 ("France's worst recession since the Second World War"), writes Philippe Le Coeur in Le Monde, with the poverty rate reaching 13.5% (although the median standard of living improved that year) and with the government promising to bring an "exceptional" tax for the country's richest citizens.

Meanwhile, Louis Maurin points out that the number of people living under the poverty level has grown (from 7.5 million to 8.2 million people) between 2002 to 2009, as has the poverty rate (from 12.9% to 13.5%). Needless to say, the Observatoire des inégalités director, interviewed by Anne Chemin, castigates tax decreases (as "wasted money").

…la pauvreté augmente dans notre pays. C'est un tournant historique…

…Si l'on veut améliorer de façon durable la situation de ceux qui sont le plus en difficulté dans notre pays, il faut agir de façon concrète. Imaginez quelle serait la situation de notre pays si les 80 milliards d'euros gâchés chaque année en cadeaux fiscaux aux catégories aisées avaient été consacrés pour moitié à réduire les déficits et pour moitié à des programmes d'investissements concrets, qu'il s'agisse de transports en commun, de logement social, d'accès aux soins !

L'un des volets les plus importants est une vraie réforme du système éducatif, de la maternelle à l'université. Taillé sur mesure pour les milieux favorisés, c'est lui qui fait que les plus démunis le restent de génération en génération. Bref, dans les années 2000, la France a loupé l'occasion de se moderniser. Tout ce que l'on peut espérer, c'est que la crise actuelle débouche sur une véritable remise à plat. Les niches fiscales n'ont déjà plus la cote.

To Understand Liberal Issues Like Gay Marriage Correctly, It Is Vital to Get the Basic Premises Right

There are few times that I do not agree with John Stossel, but the Fox News libertarian doesn't understand what could possibly be wrong with gay marriage, ending a recent column with the words:

Sorry, but I still don’t see what divorce and unwed motherhood have to do with gay marriage. It’s mostly straight people who are doing the divorcing and unwed mothering.

1) John Stossel doesn't seem to realize it, but when he mentions "alimony, child support", "divorce and unwed motherhood" as well as "straight people" — along with comments such as "I don’t care if there are three fathers and six mothers [if] it’s a stable relationship and the kids are connected with their parents" — he is answering his own question (notwithstanding the fact that the libertarian does not seem to be noticing all the ways in which judges, lawyers, divorce industry experts, and other government bureaucrats and parasites have managed to infiltrate themselves inside what was once called the sacrosanct family unit — check out Stephen Baskerville to see how bad that problem is).

First of all, no one is preventing two people from living together and from loving each other and from "commit[ting] to a life partner", and to a certain extent, nobody ever has. The gay sense of victimization throughout the centuries has been exaggerated, certainly this past century or two. In its obituaries of the 19th century, for instance, The Times of London would note that a certain person had been a "lifelong bachelor", and everyone understood what the newspaper meant by that.

So is there still a good reason to prevent gays from marrying? Well, the problem is — and I think that, upon thought, many a gay person would not disagree with me here (in fact, I believe that a gay person — a Log Cabin Republican? — could have written this post in the exact words I did) — not that gays want to get married, but what had to happen for them to want to get married in the first place…

Tell me if I'm wrong (I admit to being no expert on the new-fangled college courses on gay history or gay literature), but throughout the centuries, throughout the millennia, there have been no calls, and no examples of longing (or very very few) for marriage between two men or between two women — nor indeed were there (m)any calls to "commit to a life partner" in the first decades of the gay rights movement.

For lifelong love, yes, and for tenderness and sweet nothings, yes, for lust for lean or muscular bodies, certainly, but for the desire of nuptials and a life spent together as "husband" and "wife" in a single bourgeois-type home, not really (or they are few and far between or with a touch of a smirk attached).

These calls came about only after — and only because of — the decline of traditional marriage (agreed, between straight people) along with the advent of open marriages and no-fault divorce. In other words, the desire of gays, male or female, for the "benefits" of matrimony only came about after, and only came about because, feminists and leftists dumbed those "benefits" down by making it OK to divorce on a whim and by making it alright to commit (what is now considered passé to be called) adultery.

Again — tell me if I'm wrong, but gayness has mostly to do, rightly or wrongly, with lust (and I mean that in a neutral way, neither in a positive nor in a negative sense), which is the same that we feel (or some of us feel) for a member of the opposite sex. Now, many heterosexuals are attracted to "hot chicks" (guys) and "hot bods" (gals), which is normal and neither good or bad, but our grandfathers and our grandmothers would have told us (or they would have told our fathers and our mothers) that marrying someone, solely or mainly, because of lust (say, a "bad boy" or a "trophy wife") was not necessarily a good idea. Get rid of your lust first (whether for same-sex partners or partners of the opposite sex), get it out of your system, if necessary, and then marry; but do not marry (solely) because of the lust and/or do not lust for others once the wedding is consummated…

Certainly, marriage due to lust, or with widespread lust remaining in the "hearts" (and in the loins), was commonly understood not to be a good idea until the feminists and their allies on the left brought us open marriages and no-fault divorce. The same can be said for gay marriage, and the calls for gay marriage, like the tendency for quickie marriages between heterosexuals, would start vanishing when and if (as soon as, in fact) the legal underpinnings as well as the cultural support for open marriages and/or for no-fault divorce came to an end.

2) Now, from a libertarian perspective, Amy D asks:

Why should the government have a bloody thing to say about marriage other than recognizing the legal contract issues?

You other conservatives say you want smaller government with less intrusiveness....would this not be the way to go?

The answer has been given in Harry Jaffa's A New Birth of Freedom: Marriage came before society; the advent of married couples came before the advent of individuals organizing themselves into societies; the one led to the other. All of the left's theses in the past century or so are basically based on the premise that society, and government, came before, and/or is superior to, marriage and that the bonding of two (necessarily clueless) people (of different sex or of the same sex) is hardly more important than — it is but one more issue for the state (for government) to solve — fixing the roads or organizing society's defense. Therefore, the raison d'état predominates, and a (married) couple, like an individual, exists to serve the raison d'état. And if the government decides to "make" individuals, say, "tolerant" — if only to make those who govern look good by making them feel like the heroic defenders of the (allegedly) downtrodden — then that is how those individuals should act…

What Jaffa states eloquently is that originally, society did not "create" matrimony; the fact of matrimony was what led to the creation of societies — and of governments. There is no mention of gay rights whatsoever in any of his books (that I remember), but the following premises will give you an idea of why details such as gay marriage cannot be seen without getting the premises correct and why, in conclusion, strong marriages (necessarily between a man and a woman) are important.

Individual rights become valuable only insofar as they result in a good society — a society in which man's moral and intellectual virtues can find their fullest measure of opportunity. There is in Jefferson none of that radical individualism that sees the rights of the individual transcending and opposing the moral demands of a good society. The opposition between the demands of society and the rights of the individual, so familiar in our time, arose only as those rights were no longer understood to be natural rights subject to the natural law.

…Self-realization was in fact the only correlate of the new atheism. As there could no longer be any distinction between man and God, which distinction is as fundamental to the Declaration of Independence as to the Bible, there could be no distinction between base and noble desires. All desires were understood to be created equal, since all desires were seen as originating in that highest of all authorities, the self-creating self.

…fathers as well as mothers usually prefer the preservation of their young to their own individual preservation. It follows from this that among humans it is the family, rather than the individual, that seeks survival…

…it is human families or their representatives, rather than "abstract" human individuals, who found or institute political communities…

…Only as one understands the priority of the partnership of male and female in the generation, nurture, and education of the young can one understand the relationship of individuality to community in the political order…

Update: Back in the 1830s, Justice Joseph Story wrote:

Marriage is … in its origin a contract of natural law … It is the parent, and not the child of society; the source of civility and a sort of seminary of the republic.

Update 2: Ed Morrissey:

Marriage has always been a forward-looking institution aimed at protecting and nurturing the next generation of children, not a love license for the adults of the present

Update 3: Canada's Precedent in Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage:

… marriage and family become mere adjuncts of the state after the removal of the de facto conditions that make the traditional family a pre-political institution in the first place. No longer is family something that, in the words of Douglas Farrow, “precedes and exceeds the state.” No longer is the family a hedge against the totalitarian aspirations of the state because no longer is the family prior to the state.

Update 4: 5 Gay Marriage Myths:

It is those who oppose same-sex marriage who are the true champions of liberty. Indeed, if gay “marriage” is ever legalized, it is likely to result in unprecedented restrictions on freedom of speech and even thought.

The Term "Shoah" Is Non Grata in French High School Textbooks, While Palestine's "Nakhba" Is Acceptable

A type of negationism is infecting France's high school history textbooks, warns Claude Lanzmann in Le Monde (the day after a post on France's obvious anti-Americanism and antisemitism appeared on No Pasarán), with the word "Shoah" for the Nazi Holocaust of World War II being banned (but only for grammatical reasons, you understand, "because it is a foreign word", and so it has been replaced by the "annihilation"). Read on:

Une circulaire … sur la nécessité de supprimer le terme "Shoah" des manuels scolaires. …

Il y a une douzaine d'années, après une réunion à Stockholm de tous les chefs d'Etat et de gouvernement accompagnés de leurs ministres de l'éducation nationale, dont le but était d'élaborer un compendium sur la Shoah qui aurait force de loi et d'usage dans le monde entier, M. Dominique Borne, doyen de l'inspection générale d'histoire au ministère français de l'éducation nationale, déclarait sans précaution ni fard : "Il faut bannir le mot “Shoah” des manuels, car c'est un mot étranger."

M. Borne n'est plus doyen, mais il demeure puissant et sa tendance semble largement majoritaire, il est en tout état de cause suivi par les éditeurs de manuels mis en vente à la rentrée 2011, puisque le mot de Shoah n'y apparaît plus sauf, pour certains, en note de bas de page indiquant que c'est le terme par lequel Israël désigne… quoi au fait ? Le manuel des éditions Hachette, qui suit à cent pour cent la recommandation du bulletin de l'éducation nationale, nous le dit on ne peut plus clairement : il faut utiliser désormais le mot "anéantissement".

There is only one slight problem — besides the fact that the Shoah (sorry, the "annihilation") of the Jews is said to be comparable to the "annihilation" of the gypsies, no more and no less — because while Shoah is non grata in France's high school history textbooks (remember, it is a foreign word), Nakhba is acceptable and does in fact appear in the textbooks. Needless to say, a vast number of Le Monde readers have reacted in the comments section, most of them seeming to castigate Claude Lanzmann and wax ironic, and scornfully, about his column in the daily.

… Savoir si la guerre contre le nazisme était une juste guerre n'intéresse pas nos nouveaux concepteurs, qui mettent en parallèle et sur le même plan les bombardements des villes allemandes par l'aviation alliée, Hiroshima, et la Shoah. Pardon, non, l'anéantissement. C'est une vieille histoire : refuser l'unicité ou la spécificité des événements historiques, les noyer dans des catégorisations abstraites et réductrices, tout cela se préparait de longue date. Aujourd'hui on passe à l'acte. Le mot "Shoah" est éradiqué, mais pour la première fois, dans un manuel d'histoire (Hachette), apparaît celui de "Nakhba", terme en miroir, forgé par les Palestiniens pour nommer leur propre catastrophe : la création de l'Etat d'Israël. Lequel Israël tient très peu de place dans ces nouveaux livres, qui prennent les choses de plus haut, faisant référence au seul "Moyen-Orient, foyer de conflits".

Manuela Wyler has more, as does Jean-Marc MOSKOWICZ…

Even if Handguns were Banned, they would still find a way to Shoot Us in the Foot

Russians of virtually every sort seem to get along rather nicely with America’s left – for the simple reason that they like to promote the same, convenient “Hate America” causes and campaigns.

Experts are looking for a reason behind Tuesday afternoon’s unlikely 5.8 magnitude earthquake that shook people up and down the East Coast, and some are saying that a recent rise in fracking could be the culprit.

Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” is the man-made splintering of underground rocks to expedite the exploiting of natural resources. It’s become a widespread phenomenon since its introduction in 2004, and though the practice can help increase supplies of oil and gas without reaching out internationally for imports, the result it can have on the geological make-up of the Earth can be ravaging. Now some experts say the rise in fracking could be to blame for yesterday’s quake.

So long as it denies employment, prosperity, or self-sufficiency to Americans, they both agree that it must be opposed. Alas, why, you ask?


The irony is that the American Left probably don’t understand WHY Russian might want American to not extract fuel that they might otherwise import. Russia is basically little more than a Banana Republic of petroleum at this point, and RT is a sort of occasionally “not completely unhinged-seeming” house organ. The more rabid and impractical your environmentalism, the better it is for sales, if not to Americans, that to others who reduce the supply of energy on the market through their demand.

The left’s hatred of their own societies has made them into permanent and predictable suckers. In effect, they shill for polluting de-facto dictatorships.

Because the Poor Still aren’t Hiring

Thank God that someone on the continent permanently blighted with envy and class-hatred is saying it.

In Portuguese daily Público professor and political scientist João Carlos Espada criticises the notion of levying an extraordinary tax on the super-rich. “Taxes are not the primary source of improving the living conditions of the majority. The wealth of Europe and the West – which even today is worthy of the admiration of the rest of the world – was not the product of redistribution of wealth from the rich to the poor through taxes. It was the product of the creation of wealth in a climate of economic freedom, generally associated with low taxation, swift justice and, above all, the absence of barriers to the entry of new competitors”.

Espada argues that “the best contribution of the rich to the common good lies in ensuring that goods or services are being produced in a way that is most affordable to the greatest number of people; it consists of guaranteeing that this good or service is not artificially protected from competition and that it is chosen willingly by those who consume it”. Espada believes that this is the factor that was the great “social elevator” in Europe and the West that enabled successive generations of ordinary people to afford goods and products that previous generations never dreamed of having.

As you can expect with apostacy, the article was deleted.

As early as 1945, France, instead of recognizing mistakes, opted to divert attention by cultivating an ungrateful and hypocritical anti-Americanism

… Thanks to General de Gaulle, France, instead of recognizing its [World-War-II-era] mistakes, opted to divert attention by cultivating, as early as 1945, an ungrateful and a hypocritical anti-Americanism

writes Michel Garroté as he launches into a rant against "That Judeophobic and Americaphobic France".

Today, in 2011, the anti-Americanism and the antisemitism in France are obvious. And one must be deaf and blind — or an accomplice? — to fail to notice.

Indeed, France, instead of reducing — immediately and dramatically — the Pharaoh-sized costs of the apparatus of the French state, prefers to continue its borrowing habit in order to live. But to do this with impunity, it is necessary for France to have scapegoats, "guilty" bodies who in fact are not guilty. As early as October 2008, I warned on this blog of the formulas against "international finance", "financial oligarchy", "New York finance", and other neo-Pétain slogans which implicitly accuse the Jews and the Yanks of all the ills of Europe, and even of the entire planet.

... Le Point comments: "Professor Philippe Dessertine [thanks to him for his good common sense in this matter] says that the outburst of Laurence Parisot reflects the French temptation to look for scapegoats to deflect the responsibility of public and private officials in the crisis. It's very, very dangerous to move towards the idea of ​​an Anglo-Saxon economic news business that is beholden to a political ideology, this is absolutely false. It [the Anglo-Saxon business press] is one of the few to provide accurate information" [finally a French professor of economics who recognizes that].

... On the one hand, the false allegations against the United States on an economic basis, and on the other hand, the conspiracy theories against the so-called "Jewish power" are part and parcel of a single fraud. It is both disturbing and distressing to see France, in 2011, in the twenty-first century, in the third millennium, resorting — once again in its history — to such processes.

Can you Smell that, Son? Can you Smell the Mendacity?

The relationship between climate change and hurricanes is one that scientists are still trying to understand.

This somehow leads to this level of certainty:

Irene’s Potential for Destruction Made Worse by Global Warming, Sea Level Rise

We live in an age of propagandists, and the bien pensents simply accept that as a social good.

The Reality? Enh! Don’t believe ‘da hype!

Scientists Slam Link Between Hurricanes and Global Warming

Just like the hyped predictions of disaster to the East Coast from Irene over the weekend, the new report says that models used by global warming scientists "over-estimate" the the warming trends of the globe to back up their warnings of future droughts, killer storms, and famine.

Meanwhile back in the land of politics of trying to prove that you’re Moses: Obama Narrowly Escaped 31 MPH Winds And 0.03 Inches Of Rain At Martha’s Vineyard

And to think that we nearly lost him!

"The poor" are the human shields behind whom advocates of ever bigger spending for ever bigger government advance toward their goal

While Bill Whittle reports that "Despite what you hear from the media and the Democrat party, the poor are getting richer" and while Star Parker writes that "The Poor Are Not Poor Because the Rich Are Rich" ("The formula for more black wealth: less government, more ownership and initiative"), Thomas Sowell steps up to the plate and lays it out, black on white:

The whole future of the welfare state depends on how poverty is defined. "The poor" are the human shields behind whom advocates of ever bigger spending for ever bigger government advance toward their goal.

If poverty meant what most people think of as poverty — people "ill-clad, ill-housed, and ill-nourished," in Franklin D. Roosevelt's phrase — there would not be nearly enough people in poverty today to justify the vastly expanded powers and runaway spending of the federal government.

Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation has for years examined what "the poor" of today actually have — and the economic facts completely undermine the political rhetoric.

Official data cited by Rector show that 80 percent of "poor" households have air-conditioning today, which less than half the population of America had in 1970. Nearly three-quarters of households in poverty own a motor vehicle, and nearly one-third own more than one motor vehicle.

Virtually everyone living in "poverty," as defined by the government, has color television, and most have cable TV or satellite TV. More than three-quarters have either a VCR or a DVD player, and nearly nine-tenths have a microwave oven.

As for being "ill-housed," the average poor American has more living space than the general population — not just the poor population — of London, Paris and other cities in Europe.

Various attempts have been made over the years to depict Americans in poverty as "ill-fed" but the "hunger in America" campaigns that have enjoyed such political and media popularity have usually used some pretty creative methods and definitions.

Actual studies of "the poor" have found their intake of the necessary nutrients to be no less than that of others. In fact, obesity is slightly more prevalent among low-income people.

The real triumph of words over reality, however, is in expensive government programs for "the elderly," including Medicare. The image often invoked is the person who is both ill and elderly, and who has to choose between food and medications.

It is great political theater. But, the most fundamental reality is that the average wealth of the elderly is some multiple of the average wealth owned by people in the other age brackets.

Why should the average taxpayer be subsidizing people who have much more wealth than they do?

If we are concerned about those particular elderly people who are in fact poor — as we are about other people who are genuinely poor, whatever their age might be — then we can simply confine our help to those who are poor by some reasonable means test. It would cost a fraction of what it costs to subsidize everybody who reaches a certain age.

But the political left hates means tests. If government programs were confined to people who were genuinely poor in some meaningful sense, that would shrink the welfare state to a fraction of its current size. The left would lose their human shields.

Over at the National Center for Policy Analysis, John Goodman quotes the same Heritage Foundation report, then responds to a liberal criticism of the report.

More than 30 million Americans are living in "poverty," according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That’s one out of every seven people. But what does it really mean to be "poor" in America? …

To most Americans, the word "poverty" implies significant material deprivation, including inadequate food, clothing and shelter. The actual living conditions of America's poor are very different, however. …

The home of the average poor family was in good repair and not overcrowded. In fact, the typical poor American had more living space than the average (non-poor) European, the Heritage scholars note. The poor family was able to obtain medical care when needed. When asked, most poor families stated they had had sufficient funds during the past year to meet all essential needs.

Does that mean it’s game, set, match. Case closed? Well not quite. Liberal blogger Matt Yglesias says the Heritage report leaves out three things: housing, education and health care. …

But what do these three sectors have in common that’s missing from the market for television sets and video games? Government.

… Don’t blame it on capitalism.

If Nations were Lawyers, Germany Would Advertise on the Side of a Bus

On Libya:

Germany Just Wants To Help
To help itself to a piece of Libya’s reconstruction pie, that is.

The funny thing is that most European anti-semitism is inaccurately founded on accusations of mercantilist parasitism that German society actually practices, and actually calls "pacifism".

And they will get it, too. They always do, although they may have to squirm and grovel around for a bit first. Damn. If this were the US we were talking about here I’d have to say that they are only in it for the oil.

Things Which May not be said "for the Good of the Man".... Sound Familiar?

Gore explained that in order for climate change alarmists to succeed, they must “win the conversation” against those who deny there is a crisis.

Al Gore has reduced himself to the social tactics of fascism.

So to please him, some may not utter specific opinions, or otherwise be sanctioned for saying them. That's okay by Al. Those are the tactics of totalitarians.

In one respect, he's gotten it right... about apocalypse peddlers who confuse political fealty with propriety. Scientific investigation must be banned from his little world to uphold his absolutism:

“This is an organized effort to attack the reputation of the scientific community as a whole, to attack their integrity, and to slander them with the lie that they are making up the science in order to make money,” Gore said.

Planking for Ché

Here it is reaching its’ natural conclusion as he would have had it.

Good for society: Child labor, ticket scalping, price gouging, kidney selling, blackmail

We grow up learning that some things are just bad

writes John Stossel:

child labor, ticket scalping, price gouging, kidney selling, blackmail, etc. But maybe they're not.

What I love about economics is that it can show that what seems harmful is actually good for society. It illuminates what common sense overlooks.

This is all covered in the eye-opening book Defending the Undefendable by economist Walter Block. …

Nasty, Brutish, and Short

So where is this armpit of the European Union, this cancer of the continent?

Stop that! I know what you’re thinking!

Greece? The Balkans? Not exactly. Behold the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, population 503,000, a tiny freckle on the map between Belgium, France, and Germany.

Actually, I would call it a pollup. It’s one of those highly unusual places where, if you weren’t told were you were dropped in, you would have some sense you’re in northern Europe, but would be unable to establish where.

Luxembourg boasts the world's highest per capita GDP, $108,832 in 2010. But something must be wrong.

Much as no-one seems to make the strange and politically specious “affluenza” argument anymore, one wonders what they’re measuring:

The miserable Luxembourgers – who rate lower than all but one other European country on the Happy Planet Index (they're tied with war-torn Sudan!) – buy more cigarettes and alcohol and have a higher per capita carbon footprint than any other country.

Why can’t they practice self-immolation like the REAL believers in a desperate cause?

The feminist goal was never equal pay for equal work but always was for more pay for less work

The feminists are so accustomed to having their gender doctrines prevail in the courts, in the bureaucracy, in the media and in academia

writes Phyllis Schlafly,

that they can't deal with being told the truth, i.e., that their notions don't make sense and are unfair to others, especially employers, husbands and fathers. …

[The 64-page decision in a workplace class-action suit brought by the feminists' friends in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission] is another example of the fact that the feminist goal was never equal pay for equal work but always was for more pay for less work.

… Mirabile dictu! The judge really shocked the feminists since they usually win when they assert fault against the so-called patriarchy without any evidence or fear of prosecution for perjury.

The trouble with many younger women is that they've been falsely taught by feminism to plan their life career in the workplace without any space or time for marriage, husband or children. They have a total lack of understanding of how demanding a new baby is, and also of the way their own attitudes can change in regard to how they really want to spend their time after a baby arrives.

When Mother Nature asserts herself and babies appear, the women who have been misled by feminist ideology expect their employers and, indeed, the rest of the world, to accommodate their change of schedule. The feminists expect their employer to assume the costs of the priorities and the interruptions that once were easily absorbed in the traditional lifestyle of husband-provider and fulltime homemaker.

However, as Judge Preska wrote, "the law does not mandate 'work-life balance.'"

… How to balance work and family is the number-one topic in women's magazines today. Article after article tries to present a plan for balance between baby and job, plus advice to help the mother feel not guilty when baby gets the short end of the stick.

However, the articles sound hypocritical because for years the feminist movement has carried on a strenuous campaign to move all homemakers out of the home ("a comfortable concentration camp," in Betty Friedan's words), and into the workplace on the argument that caring for babies is not a worthy occupation for an educated woman. Feminists have even propagated the myth that expecting mothers to care for their own babies is an example of the oppression of women by the patriarchy.

Update: A person who used to work for a California law firm shares his experience in this matter:

Years (and years, and years) ago I was an associate in a big law firm in LA. Now, the way law firm finances work (this depends on the firm, and things are a lot more diverse now, but...), an associate has an associated cost: salary, benefits, of course, but also overhead, a secretary, office space, computer, phone, etc. Typically, an associate's collections (money collected from clients based on work the associate performed) are viewed as 1/3 salary, 1/3 overhead, 1/3 partner profit (meaning the associate is expected to bill and collect enough to cover those costs, though partner profit is not really a cost, it is an expectation). If you aren't working, you are not collecting, and you become a serious cost center.

During one two-year period, I had two children (admittedly, the wife did most of "bearing" work). During the same two-year period, one of my direct peers also had two children. She did the bearing work, in that case. Thus, during that two-year period, she was able to take 6 months off (four with full pay, and of course she kept her benefits, her office lay empty, her secretary still kept a job, etc. the entire six months), three months for each child. I, on the other hand, took 2.5 days off (it helped that one kid was born on a Friday, but that was the second kid so I probably would have been in the next day anyway).

Yet when we came up for partner or for bonuses or whatever, we were both to be treated equally.

Despite what you hear from the media and the Democrat party, the poor are getting richer

Despite what you hear from the media and the Democrat party, the poor are getting richer. In fact, America's poor are so rich, we should be celebrating it. Bill Whittle has the facts to back it up [merci à Carine].

And for more information, check out the excellent research from the Heritage Foundation: http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2011/07/What-is-Poverty

Democrats have been running our inner-cities for the past 30 to 40 years, and blacks are still complaining about the same problems. More than $7 trillion dollars have been spent on poverty programs since Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty​ with little, if any, impact on poverty. Diabolically, every election cycle, Democrats blame Republicans for the deplorable conditions in the inner-cities, then incite blacks to cast a protest vote against Republicans
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=16500
Since 1964 we have spent $8--10 trillion on antipoverty programs.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=16860

Update — Thomas Sowell: "The poor" are the human shields behind whom advocates of ever bigger spending for ever bigger government advance toward their goal

Waaah! We’re Oppressed!

Only in firmament of the needy EUtopian leftist mind would somebody compare a 14 day suspended prison sentence as being “treated like a terrorist”.

Greenpeace Copenhagen Gatecrashers Convicted – Fret They Are Being Persecuted

Great! Take Them Back With You!

NASA has expended some of its’ waning brain power speculating on the political affiliation of aliens, or at least a rosy sci-fi imagining of who they might be.

Of course, the fact that this is also the chosen political affiliation of people who are prone to be hostile to religious faith seems entirely lost on them when said energy is expended contemplating something as spiritually relevant as “ abduction by small greys”.

It’s sad. Their leftism is showing.

"Nowhere Can Real Checks and Balances Be Found": How France Is Seen By Foreign Correspondents 3/3

" Les médias français, notamment audiovisuels, ont une attitude de respect énorme par rapport au pouvoir en place ", relève … Paulo Dentinho [correspondant de la Radio-Télévision portugaise]. " J'ai l'impression que Paris est un centre très spécial où les élites politiques, économiques et les médias se rencontrent dans un cercle fermé. Peut-être cette proximité est-elle trop grande ", note Michael Strempel [de la télévision allemande ARD].

Apart from Nicolas Sarkozy and, to a lesser degree, the Le Pen politicians, foreigners have little interest in French persons and subjects, writes Jean-Baptiste de Montvalon in the final part of a Le Monde series on how France is seen by foreign correspondents based in Paris.

Dans la majorité, tout converge vers Nicolas Sarkozy : affaire de style, mais aussi de système institutionnel. Côté style, la recette qui a fonctionné ici a connu ailleurs le même succès. " Les deux premières années de son mandat ont été formidables pour l'image, note l'Italien Alberto Romagnoli (RAI). Du vrai théâtre : Sarkozy divorce, Sarkozy parle avec des ouvriers, Sarkozy épouse une Italienne... " " Sarkozy ? Ah oui, ça, c'est un personnage ! s'exclame Pierre Marlet (RTBF). Quand on le met en titre, on est sûr d'être consulté sur Internet. "

Evoquant " une certaine curiosité " par rapport à " quelqu'un qui sort du comportement normal des anciens présidents de la République ", Paulo Dentinho juge que la présence à ses côtés de Carla Bruni, cette " beauté féminine au parcours un peu exotique ", compte désormais pour beaucoup. " Sans elle, il ne serait pas très intéressant pour le public international ", estime-t-il.

But this people-based journalism is not only the doings of irresponsible foreigners interested only in artifice. The lack of interest in other subjects derives naturally from the France's monarchical presidency.

" NULLE PART UN CONTRE-POUVOIR "

Pragmatiques, les correspondants étrangers basés à Paris se sont ainsi adaptés à la présidentialisation du régime, tout en étant plutôt circonspects sur sa nature, qui reste un sujet de curiosité. " Il est intéressant d'observer un tel pouvoir du président, une personnalité qui domine à ce point dans une démocratie ", note Michael Strempel, qui rappelle qu'en Allemagne, " la politique, c'est le compromis éternel ". La comparaison produit chez lui un sentiment ambivalent.

Un ton en dessous de Jim Bittermann, qui estime que le système institutionnel français est " beaucoup plus efficace " qu'aux Etats-Unis, Michael Strempel concède une " relative admiration dans certaines circonstances ", lorsque la France prend des décisions de manière " plus rapide et plus claire " que l'Allemagne. La présidence française de l'Union européenne (du 1er juillet au 31 décembre 2008) est là encore citée en exemple. Pour autant, le correspondant allemand juge " un peu étrange " le " manque de contrôle du pouvoir " dans notre pays. " Personnellement, je trouve que les pouvoirs du président sont exagérés. C'est un peu trop pour une démocratie ", conclut-il.

" On ne trouve nulle part un contre-pouvoir valable ", constate lui aussi Joav Toker, évoquant notamment " la faiblesse du Palais-Bourbon ", siège de l'Assemblée nationale. Pour le correspondant israélien, cette toile de fond pèse sur les médias, qui sont " seuls au front, face à un homme et sa cour ". Résultat, même si des progrès ont été accomplis depuis vingt ans, " la capacité et la volonté critique de la presse française à l'égard du pouvoir restent en retard par rapport à la pratique dans les autres pays démocratiques. " " C'est un problème organique, une question d'ADN ", ajoute Joav Toker.

" Les médias français, notamment audiovisuels, ont une attitude de respect énorme par rapport au pouvoir en place ", relève également Paulo Dentinho. " J'ai l'impression que Paris est un centre très spécial où les élites politiques, économiques et les médias se rencontrent dans un cercle fermé. Peut-être cette proximité est-elle trop grande ", note Michael Strempel.

Jean-Philippe Schaller, de la télévision suisse romande, a observé lui aussi ce " côté connivent " du journalisme politique à la française, ainsi que son corollaire, " le risque d'être plus indulgent ". Il en a fait l'expérience en couvrant un voyage de Nicolas Sarkozy dans l'Orne, en septembre 2009. Alerté par des syndicalistes qu'il avait interrogés pour préparer ce déplacement, il obtient confirmation que les salariés présents sur l'estrade aux côtés du chef de l'Etat ont été sélectionnés en raison de leur petite taille. Diffusé sur la TSR puis sur la RTBF, le sujet fait le tour du Web avant d'être repris par les télévisions françaises.

" Les correspondants étrangers ne subissent pas la même pression, reconnaît Jean-Philippe Schaller. On peut se permettre une certaine insolence, une prise de distance. Ici, on sent que la presse se bride un peu, pratique l'autocensure. Certains journalistes français m'ont dit : "Vous, vous pouvez faire ce qu'on ne peut pas faire." "

Where do I get the Feeling...

That men of a politically minded persuasion will want to get a blowjob in front of this sign.

"Mes compatriotes ont été très choqués; Ils découvrent une France dure, et c'est nouveau pour eux": How France Is Seen by Foreign Correspondents 2/3

Le Brésilien Franz Vacek [correspondant depuis trois ans et demi à Paris de Rede TV, grande chaîne de télévision brésilienne] : " Entre les expulsions de Roms, les trains d'immigrés tunisiens bloqués à la frontière franco-italienne et les campements de Calais, mes compatriotes ont été très choqués. Ils découvrent une France dure, et c'est totalement nouveau pour eux. "

Cette rudesse a aussi surpris les auditeurs allemands : "Chez nous, on aime le compromis. La rapidité d'intervention des autorités françaises contre les Roms a choqué, témoigne Anne-Christine Heckmann [correspondante à Paris pour plusieurs stations de radios publiques regroupées au sein de l'ARD]. Cette image négative est contrebalancée par l'activisme diplomatique de Sarkozy. Les Allemands se disent que tactiquement, c'est bien de prendre des initiatives sur la scène internationale et ils admirent cette stratégie."

In the second article in a series of three of how France is seen abroad, written by Alain Constant and illustrated by Patrick Chappatte, treats foreign viewpoints of France's foreign policy.

Le poids du passé colonial de la France est aussi présent dans les sujets envoyés par l'Américaine Eleanor Beardsley, correspondante à Paris de NPR (National Public Radio). " J'ai fait des sujets sur les pieds-noirs, sur les soldats musulmans qui se sont battus pour la France et ont ensuite été rejetés. Cela intéresse les Américains, qui ont de la France l'image d'un pays très antimusulman. J'ai également beaucoup traité du volontarisme de Sarkozy sur le front libyen. Aux Etats-Unis, les gens sont étonnés de cette réalité car ils gardent en tête l'image d'une France refusant de combattre en Irak et rechignant à faire la guerre. Je rappelle régulièrement dans mes papiers que la France est engagée aux côtés des soldats américains en Afghanistan ", souligne la journaliste qui, entre autres sujets ayant trait à l'action militaire française, est allée sur la base aérienne de Solenzara (Corse-du-Sud) rencontrer des pilotes de combat français.

… La France et les Roms, un sujet qui n'intéresse pas que l'axe Paris-Bucarest : " Les actions de la police française contre les Roms ont fait beaucoup de bruit au Mexique. Lors d'un sujet, j'ai interviewé des Roms qui m'ont dit avec un certain humour : Sarko nous déteste parce qu'il est hongrois ! ", raconte Kasia Wyderko. Même intérêt chez les Chiliens, si l'on en croit le témoignage de Paola Martinez Infante, correspondante de la radio indépendante Bio Bio : " Mes compatriotes ont été très étonnés d'apprendre comment la France traitait les Roms. Le décalage entre l'image du pays des droits de l'homme et les expulsions a choqué. Mais le Chili, où vivent beaucoup de "gitanos", n'est pas épargné par le racisme. Là-bas, ce sont les Boliviens et les Péruviens qui en sont victimes."

Where’s my Insane-O-Meter?

Firmly planted in this donkey’s sphincter:

A state lawmaker is explaining his remark that suggests the impact of Pennsylvania's booming natural gas industry includes the spread of sexually transmitted disease "amongst the womenfolk."

Democratic Rep. Michael Sturla of Lancaster County was expected to discuss the remark at a previously scheduled hearing Wednesday on gas drilling.

To wit, the CYA was unleashed on the gift that keeps on giving:

However, Sturla was apparently citing testimony by Troy Community Hospital from May that says among its experiences with the influx of drilling crews is an increase in sexually transmitted diseases.

”Drilling crews” Huh. Huh-huh.

Right. That makes about as much sense as attributing it to something like this:

The Latino population in Lancaster County has grown by 68 percent in the last 10 years, the fifth-largest gain in Latinos statewide.

In the city of Lancaster, nearly two out of every five city residents identify their ethnicity to Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba and other Latin American countries.

By Sturla’s “concurrence” reasoning, one could even blame the “womenfolk’s” contagious affliction on virtually anything.

Cliché-opolis

Guides try their best to recreate the odd world behind the Wall. "Safari" guests are subjected to traffic checks by men dressed as officers of the former East German police force. A now they are also forced to exchange their euros for East German marks, which they can spend on such classic Socialist fare such as "Solyanka," a Russian soup, or an Eastern European version of ragoût fin.

But are businesses like this trivializing East German history?

No, they are trivializing East Germans, and trivializing their accomplishments. Worst still, the Soljanka he’s talking about is hard to find and awful. Newsflash, Wessie exploiter: ketchup is not Tomatenmark.

That aside, Frank Hornig’s article in Spiegel’s online English edition has provoked me to think about the eternal vacuity that seems to accompany the Art School black “fake seriousness” in Berliners’ discussion of Berlin’s history.

Thus the Wall, which the East Germans had officially dubbed an anti-fascist protective barrier, finally became a wall in people's minds, an imaginary place that various players from the federal and state governments now seek to occupy. Some prefer to emphasize the victory of freedom and the market economy, while others would rather draw attention to the policy of détente and the East German civil rights movement.

With all of their usual self-absorption and “unseriousness”, how could a trivialized history of the Berlin wall become that “wall in the mind?”

The context he’s now using the stale term seems to be limited to the mind merely capturing images of it, if not a few memories of it.

At least he isn’t pretending to play pop psychologist, as one would find almost universal to the usual dragging out of the “wall of the mind” phrase.

It’s Never Blood for Oil when EUvians do it, Silly!

EU oil companies get set to return to Libya This includes a curious redefinition of the word “goodwill”:

EU oil firms are preparing to return to Libya amid good will generated by Nato support. The military alliance has also carried out "prudent planning" for a potential peacekeeping mission.

ONE hit. Yes, only ONE, and it’s also lampooning
the “No Blood for OOOOOOOil!!!!” crowd.

"150,000 Americans less! Excellent!": Le Monde Remembers 9/11

"Tu regardes la télé ?
— Euh, non.
— Tu devrais."

In another summer series, Le Monde has asked for remembrances from a dozen people, from writers André Aciman (translated by Myriam Dennehy) and Jorge G. Castañeda (whose main regret is not the thousands of dead but "La panique sécuritaire, l'hyperbole militariste et le climat d'hystérie qui s'empareraient inévitablement des Etats-Unis [et qui] auraient des conséquences désastreuses pour le monde entier" — also translated by Myriam Dennehy), to photographer Susan Meiselas, viaTom Roger, whose daughter Jean, 24, was a flight attendant on the first plane to smash into the North Tower.

"There is a huge smoke on your left" ("Il y a une immense fumée sur votre gauche"). Je suis alors sorti de ma demi-somnolence, j'ai regardé par le hublot et, effectivement, j'ai vu un gros nuage gris-blanc au-dessus de Manhattan.

Juste après, l'avion s'est cabré, avant d'accélérer comme jamais un avion de ligne ne le fait d'habitude. Puis nous avons atterri à l'aéroport Logan de Boston, d'où nous avons été éjectés dans la précipitation la plus totale. (Pierre Moscovici)

But mostly, there are Frenchmen: Patrice Jarreau, who had recently become Le Monde's America correspondent; Radio France's Jean-Luc Hees (who says he was brought out of the mourning for 9-11 by the election of Barack Obama); Jean-David Lafitte, who was serving as France's ambassador to the United States; Pierre Moscovici, who was on a plane close to Manhattan; Denis Kessler, an insurer who was in Monte Carlo (Une journaliste me tend un micro en me demandant : "De combien les primes d'assurance automobile et habitation vont-elles augmenter en France, à la suite de ces attentats ?"); the actor François-Xavier Demaison; and of course Jules Naudet, who was filming a documentary on New York's firefighters with his brother Gédéon and whose footage became some of the most vivid documents of the era.

But the most repelling memories come from the writer Charles Dantzig:

As I was leaving my home, shortly before 6 pm [Paris time], I overheard two shopkeepers talking on their doorstep, "Attacks in New York ... tens of thousands of deaths ..."

What was amazing was the immediate insolence of the fanaticism. We saw images of East Jerusalem and Nablus where crowds were shouting for joy. The report was quickly removed, to avoid giving ideas to ticklish Islamists, or to otherwise avoid giving in to their sensitivities, some people having the right to call for the annihilation of others while decrying the persecution if they are asked not to put their elbows on the table. A great stupidity was spoken by the composer Karlheinz Stockhausen when he called the attacks "the greatest work of art ever created." A German should use his brains more before mixing aesthetics with destruction (Stockhausen later denied speaking the words).

La Revue des deux mondes offered a cocktail of reactions. A far-right journalist who fantasizes he is of the left because he opposes the "plutocracy" etc, was crossing the boulevard Saint-Germain: "150,000 Americans less! What excellent news!" At the Revue, rue de Lille, where cocktails had been canceled out of decency, a left-wing sociologist sputtered: "When Hanoi was being bombed, we didn't pause!" In times of crisis, evil speaks faster than good does. The good and the decent are dumbfounded. They have nothing to do but feel sorry. Evil, hitherto sleepy, goes on the attack without a warm-up period. The swiftness of evil as soon as it feels a weakness is incredible.

Interpretative stupidity arrives next. In the aftermath of malicious joy, conspiracy theories and other certainties allows one to believe oneself to be both intelligent and swindled, this second reaction being the delicious fantasy-filled proof of the first one.

Comme je sortais de chez moi, peu avant 18 heures, deux commerçants parlaient sur le pas de leur porte : "Des attentats à New York... des dizaines de milliers de morts..."

…Le stupéfiant a été l'immédiate insolence du fanatisme. On montrait des images de Jérusalem-Est et de Naplouse où des foules hurlaient de joie. Le reportage a vite été supprimé, pour éviter de donner des idées aux islamistes chatouilleux, ou au contraire céder à leur susceptibilité, certains ayant le droit d'appeler à l'anéantissement d'autrui tout en criant à la persécution si on les prie de ne pas mettre les coudes sur la table. Une belle sottise a été dite par le musicien Karlheinz Stockhausen qualifiant les attentats de "plus grande oeuvre d'art jamais réalisée". Un Allemand devrait réfléchir avant de faire de l'esthétisme avec la destruction — Stockhausen a ensuite nié l'avoir dit.

La Revue des deux mondes donnait un cocktail de rentrée. Un journaliste d'extrême droite qui se fantasme de gauche parce qu'il est contre la "ploutocratie", etc., passait sur le boulevard Saint-Germain : "150 000 Américains de moins ! Excellent !" A la revue, rue de Lille, où le verre avait été annulé, par décence, un sociologue d'extrême gauche tempêtait : "Quand on bombardait Hanoï, on n'arrêtait rien !" Dans les moments de crise, le mal parle plus vite que le bien. Le bien et le décent sont sidérés. Ils n'ont rien à faire que s'apitoyer. Le mal, jusque-là somnolent, passe à l'attaque sans progression. La prestesse du mal dès qu'il sent une faiblesse est inouïe.

La sottise interprétative arrive en second. Après la joie mauvaise, les théories du complot et autres certitudes permettant de se croire intelligent et floué, ce second est la preuve fantasmatiquement délicieuse du premier.

"Paris fait toujours rêver": How France Is Seen by Foreign Correspondents 1/3

« C'est vrai, nous envoyons des cartes postales, soupire Alberto Romagnoli, de la RAI. Avec la baguette de pain ou Carla Bruni, pas besoin de rappeler le contexte. »

Martine Valo has a piece in Le Monde (illustrated by Mix & Remix), which starts a mini-series of three articles about how France is seen by foreign correspondents based in Paris.

David Picazo annonce, réjoui, son projet du moment : une traversée touristique de la capitale pour les dix ans du film Amélie Poulain. En Espagne, ça va plaire. …

« La cuisine, la mode, le tourisme marchent toujours auprès des Américains. J'ai eu pas mal de retour sur les truffes, les huîtres, le Tour de France », témoigne pour sa part Eleanor Beardley de la NPR (National Public Radio). « En Allemagne, Paris fait toujours rêver, assure Anne-Christine Heckmann, de l'ARD (la radio publique allemande). J'envoie beaucoup de sujets sur l'art de vivre, la culture, les vacances. Je pourrais en vendre un par jour sur les fromages, les endroits insolites à Paris. » L'exotisme étant une donnée relative, vu du Brésil, du Mexique ou du Chili, le Vélib' — une véritable vedette — et Paris Plages le disputent désormais au champagne. Le strip-tease reste une valeur sûre. Quant aux Bleus et à leur « bus de la honte », comme dit Kasia Wyderko, de Televisa Mexico, ils ont fait un carton universel lors de la dernière Coupe du monde de football en Afrique du Sud. …

TÉNOR ITALIEN ET ACADÉMICIEN BELGE

Seidik Abba suit l'agenda du Quai d'Orsay. Mais, curieusement, lorsqu'au ministère de l'intérieur on parle de l'immigration subsaharienne, on oublie de l'inviter. Cela ne risque pas d'arriver avec les chefs d'Etat africains en déplacement. Le travail de tout correspondant est en effet rythmé par la venue de ses compatriotes célèbres : joueur de tennis espagnol, ténor italien, écrivain belge qui entre à l'Académie française, entrepreneurs de poids et pléthore de personnages poli-tiques qui aiment se mirer aux JT du soir, filmés dans quelque prestigieux décor parisien.

… Quant à Dominique Strauss-Kahn, il a donné lieu à d'innombrables interventions, a fait la « une » pendant trois semaines des JT belges, un sujet magazine d'une heure à la télévision espagnole... « En Italie, cette histoire a beaucoup plu. L'argent, le pouvoir, le sexe, l'Amérique, il y avait tout », glisse Alberto Romagnoli.

…Au bout de quatre ou cinq ans, un correspondant est prié d'aller voir ailleurs, souligne David Picazo, sinon il risque d'adopter la vision des autochtones.