At 7 pm, I Will Be Participating in a France 24 Debate in French on the Debt in America and the World

Ce soir, à 19h heure continentale (one hour from now), je participe à un débat sur France 24 concernant la dette aux États-Unis.

The Barbarians are Behind the Gates

As one might expect:

U.S. money market funds, which are key providers of liquidity to banks and have been pulling back from the euro zone since May, cut their exposure to European banks by a further 9 percent in October, according to ratings agency Fitch.

But here is the interesting part on their counterparties’ fate. The ECB is curtailing bond sales to European banks. This is the precise opposite of what one does to bolster the banks, and seems somewhat fishy. Do they want banks to increase their appetite for Member-State bonds that the ECB are being coy about backing up through repurchases?

The ECB's weekly, limit-free handout of funding underscored the widespread problems, with 178 banks requesting 247 billion euros, the highest amount since mid-2009.

Despite that, they say that the ECB ‘floodgates are open’.

Not quite it looks like they’re holding back for what they suspect will be the worse to come.

"The reality is it's hard to see investors get any confidence (before the end of the year), as the sovereign crisis is out of control. Confidence has disappeared from the banks as they are a conduit for the sovereigns," a senior debt market banker said.

The strangest part of the story is that it reacting to what have been announced to be to repurchasing and bailout rules so far: bondholders, those banks bullied into putting depositors’ money into buying BAD sovereign debt have been told that in a ‘haircut’ scenario, that they will be paid AFTER governments holding other governments’ debt.

Now imagine the scenario: the public gets 50 cents on the Euro for their government bonds, and this send whatever liquid assets still inside Fortress Europe abroad. Recession looks more like influenza than a short case of the sniffles.

THEN the ECB will have put governments into a position where recapitalization of the banks that have had their depositors’ funds lost to bad government debt have to then pay for the socialization as well.

And to think that until just a few weeks ago, Trichet was aimlessly fighting non-existent inflation and beavering away on his price-stability mandate.

The world will catch this cold, all because of European governments’ social “largesse” and “generosity” that put marooned them in this cycle of borrowing. The reaction of the economically illiterate European population will be, as usual “Gimme-gimme-gimme! Me-me-me!” and unable to think anything up for themselves, pick up the work “bankseters” as a fixation for their blame. What they need to do is turn their attention to governments who sang “I’m just a girl who can’t say no” who spent those staggering borrowed sums despite collecting more than half of all GDP in taxes.

Now that population who has been paying for those punitive taxes and had their banks used as “an additional revenue stream” will have the restoration of the system thrust upon them too. It seems that there has never been a better time to be on the dole.

13-Year-Old Girl Murdered by Teenage Rapist Thanks to the Left's Altruism Fairy Tales

Agnès, a 13-year-old schoolgirl, is dead thanks to the Left's fairy tale of generosity and altruism for criminals, reports the AFP in Le Monde (with a different choice of words), which let a teen-age rapist, now 17, return to school after four months in the slammer without telling the school authorities why he had been behind bars.

Interrogé sur la connaissance qu'avait l'établissement du passé judiciaire de l'élève, source de polémiques, le magistrat a souligné que "la loi ne permet pas aux juges ou aux éducateurs de communiquer officiellement les éléments sur les mises en examen en raison de la présomption d'innocence".

…l'établissement du Chambon-sur-Lignon avait admis qu'il savait que l'élève avait fait quatre mois de prison avant d'intégrer le lycée, mais sans en connaître le motif. Auparavant, son directeur, Philip Bauwens, avait créé la polémique en déclarant : "Nous avions des éléments de sa scolarité, mais pas connaissance de son passé judiciaire. On savait qu'il avait eu des ennuis avec la justice, mais on n'en connaissait pas la nature. Et nous n'avions aucun contact avec les services de justice."

Moreover, Hélène Bekmezian sets up the history of the Sarkozy government's history of sexual delinquent laws passed every time another scandalous crime rises.

Interviewé par Patricia Jolly, Daniel Zagury explique que

A chaque drame, le discours des faux-savants et des chevaliers de l'après-coup – qui laissent entendre qu'ils auraient tiré la sonnette d'alarme si on leur avait confié l'expertise – donne l'illusion qu'on peut disposer d'une traçabilité du mal. Il prétend qu'on doit déceler le plus précocement possible les sujets susceptibles de commettre des infractions sexuelles. Mais ce modèle simpliste est plus incantatoire qu'efficient.

Our Vapid Friends go to their Usual Place to Explain the World’s Complexity

By demonizing anything that seems foreign. As if they fart daisies.



France’s fiscal behavior makes their bonds a bad prospect, not Moody’s mentioning it.

“Europe Needs Enemies”

In an entirely roundabout and subconscious manner, Prague’s Hospodářské Noviny newspaper explains the purpose of Europeans’ outlook toward Americans: because Europeans seek unity and high personal regard by imagining that they have enemies. It also helps that those enemies won’t actually do anything about that enmity, and otherwise just ignore that atmospheric hatred, especially when they are in a pinch.

This crisis of having nothing to hate is downright existential:

So long as Europeans do not feel a sufficient sense of belonging, the French and Germans will be able to go on negotiating coordinated taxes or changes to the Lisbon Treaty. In the long run, though, this kind of united Europe is doomed to disappear all the same.

Since many of them regard any form of national pride as jingoism, and they’re willing to let each other drown economically, “the enemy without” appears to be their source, (and possibly their sole source,) of unity and pride in the circle jerk of stars.

Nothing illustrates that childishness like thinking that “pride in Europe” is in fact anything other than nationalism too:

In a global economy, one has to lay aside old national and ideological categories. A stronger European identity, which could be the basis for restoring the prosperity of the peoples of the old continent, could be created by tighter restrictions on a quite different class of people: politicians who are unable or unwilling to look beyond the horizon of a term in office, who speak a language remote from the everyday lives of ordinary Europeans, who are unwilling to resign even while dragging their countries towards the brink of bankruptcy...

not to mention that it also make a tidy argument for suspending elections, very much after the fashion of Canadian fake-crisis promoter Naomi Klein, who James Delingpole calls out to be the tyranny promoter that she is.

The “Europe needs toothless frenemies” screed is no less of a reality-evading useful bit of catnip.

National identity has all too often been shaped by a variety of traumas, as societies were brought together by a sense of shared fate. European identity, Professor Řezník believes, needs a deep, thorough-going crisis, in order to test its own viability.

So the instead of people making valiant sacrifices for the good of society, people have to be made a sacrifice for the good of society. Got it.

That’s sharp thinking Perfesser, bus hardly new despite being incredibly European. Let’s test that theory by making professional political philosophers destitute, and start from there. After all, I think you ran out of Jews, Gypsies, and whatever Foreign laborers are around to use as a unifying instrument a long time ago. I’m not being cute. That was precisely the purpose of that form of hatred then, and in it’s distinctly less plausible form the reason now: to serve in the absence of a unifying, positive social principle.

The Difference Between Palestine and Tibet and Why It Shows that Israel Isn't China

The monks have been protesting about the erosion of Tibetan culture and their treatment by the Chinese authorities.

A BBC news story reports on how the suicide of a Buddhist nun by fire is symbolic of how the increasingly frustrated Tibetans choose immolation in order to protest the presence of the Chinese occupiers.

A few years ago, I was told — in no uncertain terms — that Israel was the only country in the world occupying another; when I mentioned China and Tibet, the subject was rapidly changed.

Notice how the Tibetans resorting to suicide in order to protest Chinese occupation do not choose to "take" any of the occupiers with them; they do not try to kill as many as they can, they do not even try to kill a single one of them, military or civilian.

Think about it. What does that tell you about Israel and about its "occupation" of Palestine?

(Perhaps, for starters, that one reason that Tibetans do not target their occupiers is that, besides being part of a culture that is taught some basic human values, they know to what degree their compatriots will be made to suffer, disproportionately, by the occupiers if they were to target the latter. Perhaps, this means that, in turn, the Palestinians are not suffering as much from their alleged occupiers as they claim to be in the first place…)

Coluche and the French Republic Which Is Not as Republican as Often Vaunted

Patrick Jarreau has a Le Monde book review about Jean-Jérôme Bertolus and Frédérique Bredin's Tir à vue : La folle histoire des présidentielles, which doubles as a documentary on the France 3 television channel with Michel Royer.

Ce livre n'aurait pas pu être écrit il y a dix ans. Les personnages qui s'y expriment auraient tenu des propos plus évasifs, et les journalistes auraient dû s'en contenter. Pourtant, de Charles de Gaulle cherchant à éliminer Georges Pompidou, en 1968 et 1969, jusqu'à Jacques Chirac tentant de se débarrasser de Nicolas Sarkozy en 2004, en passant par la rivalité Mitterrand-Rocard des années 1980, l'attraction de ce pouvoir suscite des comportements peu édifiants et fabrique une vie politique décevante. La défiance qu'expriment les citoyens envers leurs dirigeants en est la conséquence.

La France "a des institutions qui invitent à la trahison", observe François Bayrou, parce que "tout pouvoir vient du sommet" et qu'on tente de prévoir qui sera le maître demain pour se ranger à temps derrière lui. Ce constat lucide est le revers du dithyrambe chanté par Henri Guaino, pour qui, "en faisant adopter l'élection du président de la République au suffrage universel", le général de Gaulle "a renoué un vieux fil de l'histoire de France", car "l'élection est un sacre". Comment mieux avouer que cette République-là n'est pas tout à fait républicaine ?

In a separate article, Daniel Psenny reveals how the tongue-in-cheek 1981 presidential campaign of a humorist was taken very seriously by the powers-that-be (the state "panicked") and how the humorist — Coluche got up to 16% in the polls — was put under surveillance and was hassled, receiving death threats so credible that he finally caved and withdrew from the race.

En quelques mois, il est crédité de 16 % d'intentions de vote. Un score qui inquiète autant la droite que la gauche. Mais, en avril 1981, au grand dam de ses comités de soutien, il annonce son retrait de la course présidentielle.

Que s'est-il passé ? Dans leur documentaire Coluche : un clown ennemi d'Etat, Jean-Louis Perez et Michel Despratx racontent, à l'aide de nombreux témoignages, comment l'Etat a demandé aux Renseignements généraux (RG) d'utiliser tous les moyens pour obliger le comique à renoncer à sa candidature.

Pour la première fois, les auteurs montrent le dossier des RG n° 817706 au nom de Michel Colucci, où sont consignés son casier judiciaire et toutes ses activités quotidiennes. Une opération supervisée de près par

le « groupe de direction » des RG qui n'a pas hésité à sortir des clous de la légalité et à utiliser des moyens très musclés, comme le révèlent plusieurs flics ayant participé à cette déstabilisation. « Il est vrai que le «groupe de direction» des RG était un Etat dans l'Etat policier », reconnaît Yves Bertrand, directeur des RG de l'époque.

A plusieurs reprises, Coluche a reçu des menaces de mort signées « Honneur de la police », un commando qui avait revendiqué l'assassinat de Pierre Goldman quelques mois auparavant. Les auteurs montrent aussi que la surveillance de Coluche ne s'est pas arrêtée après le retrait de sa candidature.

Elle a continué jusqu'au 19 juin 1986, jour de son accident de moto mortel. Le lendemain, la main anonyme d'un fonctionnaire de police a écrit sur le dossier : « DCD ».

Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places

One amazing feature of the modern nanny state, especially the sort that recuse themselves from anything that matters, is that people become bored, silly, and stupid.

Thanks to Arf, a friend of this blog, has remitted to the editors of ¡No Pasarán!, a report on this warped Canadian broad who duct-tapes food to herself in the hope of having raccoons, already gorged on residential waste, flatter her orally.





The muffdiving rodentia in action

7 If you’re really coon smitten and want to go the extra mile for your soon-to-be new best friends, find a fishmonger who will sell or give you a bag of discarded fish stewing in their own putrid juices (the raccoon equivalent of foie gras topped with caviar). Voilà! In a matter of seconds you will be up to your genitals in raccoons.

8 While you’re at it, why not get creative and be fulfilled by encouraging a little coonilingus? If you find one that doesn’t mind the broccoli, consider it a keeper.

Be Proud, "les Internautes," The Grass is Always Browner Next Door!

Adulating in the French internet media is an odd thing. It came late, and arrived awkawardly, yet it’s stellar compared to the Internet-Journalism fare of all of its’ neighbors apart from Britain. Never mind the fact that the list is largely headed by knock-offs of the paragons of pandering in America, Slate and Huffington Post.

The strangest thing about the issue, is that it’s being delved into this month by a double-antithesis of the nouveaux médias is coming straight from a dead-tree outfit whose mainstay has always been covering the one-way, non-interactive boob tube.

In that light, expect a domestic version of Mad Men in about 5-7 years.

Gaddafi "Bodyguard" Remembers Life From Age 15 as "Daddy Muammar's" Sexual Slave

Libyans erupt in glee at the news of the capture of Gaddafi's son, but for one Libyan woman — indeed, for many — that will not bring back the lives destroyed by Saif al-Islam's father.

In Tripoli, Annick Cojean meets a Libyan woman who was kidnapped by Muammar Gaddafi at 15 and remained his sexual slave for five years, as were the alleged members of the Colonel's much-vaunted personal bodyguard ("blue uniforms were for real [female] bodyguards who had undergone training; khaki was generally just for show"). Among other things that we learn from the Le Monde article is that the Libyan strongman, famously a supporter of leftist causes, was violent and sadistic in bed, that he was constantly taking cocaine, and that he also had "numerous" male lovers.

She is 9 years old when her family, originally from the East, moves to Sirte, the birthplace of Colonel Gaddafi. She is 15 in 2004, when chosen, amongst the girls in her high school, to present a bouquet to the "Guide" visiting the school where he has cousins. "It was a great honor. I called him 'Daddy Muammar' and it gave me goose bumps." The colonel puts his hand on her shoulder and strokes her hair, slowly. A sign of the hand to the address of his bodyguards, meaning: "That one, I want her." She would only learn of it later.

The next day, three women in uniform, dedicated to the service of the dictator — Salma, Mabrooka, and Feiza — enter her mother's hair salon. "Muammar wants to see you. He wants to give you gifts." The girl — let's call her Safia — follows willingly. "How to suspect anything? He was the hero, the Prince of Sirte."

She was taken into the desert, where the caravan of the Colonel, 62, is set up for a hunting trip. She is rapidly brought before a hieratic Gaddafi with piercing eyes. He asks about her family, the origins of her father, her mother, their financial means. Then he coldly asks her to stay and live with him. The girl is taken aback. "You'll have everything you want, houses, cars ..." She panics, shakes her head, says that she is close to her family, that she wants to study. "I'll take care of everything," he says. "You'll be safe, I assure you, your father will understand." And he calls Mabrooka to take the teenager in hand.

In the hours following, Safia, frightened, is set up with underwear and "sexy outfits". She is taught to dance, to strip at the sound of music, and "other duties". She sobs, asks to return home to her parents. Mabrooka smiles. Return to normal life is no longer an option.

The first three nights, Safia dances alone in front of Gaddafi. He listens to the tape of a musician whom "he will later kill." He looks at her, does not touch her. All he says is: "You will be my bitch." The caravan returns to Sirte, Safia with them.

And on the evening of his return to the palace, he rapes her. She struggles. He beats her, pulls her hair. She tries to flee. Mabrooka and Salma intervene and strike her. "He did so again the following days. I became his sex slave. For five years he raped me."

She finds herself in Tripoli, in the Bab Al-Azizia den, the area protected by three walls with several buildings, the living space of the master of Libya, his family, his employees, and the élite troops. At first, Safia shares a small room in the master's residence with another kidnapped girl from Benghazi, but who manages one day to escape. On the same level, in tiny rooms, two dozen girls, most of them aged between 18 and 19 years, are permanently on hold, usually recruited by the same three emissaries. These three brutal and ubiquitous women domineer this sort of harem, where girls, clad in bodyguard attire, are available for the colonel. Most only stay a few months before disappearing once the master tires of them. They have but minimal contacts amongst themselves, any personal conversation being prohibited.

Elle a 9 ans lorsque sa famille, originaire de l'est du pays, déménage à Syrte, la ville natale du colonel Kadhafi. Elle en a 15, en 2004, lorsqu'elle est choisie, parmi les filles de son lycée, pour offrir un bouquet au " Guide " en visite dans l'école où il a des cousins. " C'était un grand honneur. Je l'appelais "papa Mouammar" et j'en avais la chair de poule. " Le colonel a posé sa main sur son épaule et caressé ses cheveux, lentement. Un signe à l'adresse de ses gardes du corps, signifiant : " Celle-là, je la veux. " Elle l'a appris plus tard.

Le lendemain, trois femmes en uniforme, vouées au service du dictateur - Salma, Mabrouka et Feiza - se présentent au salon de coiffure que tient sa mère. " Mouammar veut te voir. Il souhaite te donner des cadeaux. " L'adolescente - appelons-la Safia - les suit de bon gré. " Comment se douter de quelque chose ? C'était le héros, le prince de Syrte. "

On la conduit dans le désert, où la caravane du colonel, 62 ans, est installée pour un séjour de chasse. Il la reçoit rapidement, hiératique, les yeux perçants. Il lui pose des questions sur sa famille, les origines de son père, de sa mère, leurs moyens financiers. Puis il lui demande froidement de rester vivre avec lui. La jeune fille est interloquée. " Tu auras tout ce que tu veux, des maisons, des voitures... " Elle panique, secoue la tête, dit tenir à sa famille, vouloir faire des études. " Je m'occuperai de tout, répond-il. Tu seras en sécurité ; je t'assure, ton père comprendra. " Et il appelle Mabrouka pour qu'elle prenne en main l'adolescente.

Dans les heures qui suivent, Safia, effarée, est équipée de sous-vêtements et de " tenues sexy ". On lui apprend à danser, à se dévêtir au son de la musique, et " d'autres devoirs ". Elle sanglote, demande à rentrer chez ses parents. Mabrouka sourit. Le retour à une vie normale ne fait plus partie des options.

Les trois premiers soirs, Safia dansera seule devant Kadhafi. Il écoute la cassette d'un musicien " qu'il fera tuer plus tard ". Il la regarde, ne la touche pas. Il lance simplement : " Tu seras ma pute. " La caravane rentre à Syrte, Safia dans les bagages.

Et le soir de son retour, au palais, il la viole. Elle se débat. Il la tabasse, lui tire les cheveux. Elle tente de fuir. Mabrouka et Salma interviennent et la frappent. " Il a continué les jours suivants. Je suis devenue son esclave sexuelle. Il m'a violée pendant cinq ans. "

Elle se retrouve vite à Tripoli, dans l'antre de Bab Al-Azizia, le domaine ultra-protégé par trois murs d'enceinte où vivent, dans divers bâtiments, le maître de la Libye, sa famille, des collaborateurs, des troupes d'élite. Au début, Safia partage une petite chambre dans la résidence du maître avec une autre fille de Benghazi, kidnappée elle aussi mais qui, un jour, parviendra à fuir. Au même niveau, dans des pièces minuscules, se tiennent en permanence une vingtaine de filles, la plupart ayant entre 18 et 19 ans, en général recrutées par les trois mêmes émissaires. Ces trois femmes brutales, omniprésentes, régentent cette sorte de harem, où les jeunes filles, grimées en gardes du corps, sont à la disposition personnelle du colonel. La plupart ne restent que quelques mois, avant de disparaître, une fois le maître lassé. Elles n'ont entre elles qu'un minimum de contacts, toute conversation personnelle étant interdite.

Quote of the Day

I keep getting told that the Occupy Wall Street is a legitimate political movement, every bit as legitimate as the Tea Party… Just with more rapes, murders, shootings, riots, tuberculosis outbreaks, public sex, rampant drug use, drug overdoses, and still no real coherent message other than “We want more stuff!”

- Larry Correia

Europe: Where the Most Obvious Slander Counts as Hard-Hitting News

If you can’t process the fact that nothing has changed in Italy, outside of trading in an elected government that has actually balanced its’ budget for unelelected technocrats, then Plantu will satisfy your need to remain igonarant.

Owing to the “masonic” nature that every enlightened European knows about and the Bunga-bunga slant of a Conservative politician, a feigned horror strangely forgotten about with great lights of the left, Plantu’s economic illiteracy is laid bare.

Because in his Gaullic brilliance and subtlety, he is just too prescient stupid to understand anything other than his obsession with sexualized normally child-like figures, and finding straw-man to blame as an explanation to anything that has ever happened in the world... If we borrowed and spent too much, well, it must be bacause Goldman Sachs made us do it.

c'est comme ça.

Markets, Über alles

Guess what? Ever since I've come to this "trou à merde", uppity Zeropeans have been preaching to me about how "C'est pas grave..." or "Je cotise..." when I ask them to explain the theory behind the sustainability of their welfare or whatever they call their handouts these days. They've never come up with an explanation "qui tient debout". In fact, they themselves are rarely "debout" except to cash in their welfare checks.

And now... ?

I can't stop laughing at these shiftless, lazy motherfuckers when I see their cocksucking faces at the very moment they are told that: "There's no mo' money."

Don't tell me I didn't tell you so. "Bande de bâtards."

...and don't you dare blame "the markets". Look in the mirror for a change. Loser.

Stating the obvious

Jesus H. Christ, I do so hate Europeans with every fiber of my being. On se fait une bouffe ??? A ciao...

Close to 50% of Violent Thefts in France Are Committed by Minors

Debate is once again raging in France on the subject of teen delinquency, reports Laurent Borredon in Le Monde, as statistics show that close to 50% of thefts with violence are perpetrated by minors.

Le débat fait rage, régulièrement, sur la hausse de la délinquance des mineurs. Un ministre de l'intérieur, ou un député de droite, assure que celle-ci est "de plus en plus importante et de plus en plus violente", comme Claude Guéant, fin octobre, qui propose en conséquence une "réforme profonde" de la justice des mineurs (Le Monde du 27 octobre). En face, spécialistes et élus de gauche crient à la manipulation, et relativisent les statistiques. Mardi 15 novembre, l'Observatoire national de la délinquance et de la réponse pénale (ONDRP) apporte sa pierre à l'édifice. Et conclut, notamment, que près de 50 % des vols avec violence ont été commis par un mineur, mais aussi que les moins de 18 ans sont plus susceptibles d'être les victimes de ces actes.

Your Time and Effort are No Longer Your Own

It's the same everywhere 'activist' government probes its' ugly green forefinger. Apparently, your effort in proving or disproving the carbon emmissions claims of government is not up to them, but rather the productive part of civilization that the connected, non-productive 'activist class' feed off of like parasites.

Businesses that tell customers their prices will rise because of the carbon tax face huge fines unless they can actually prove it.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has warned small businesses they must quiz suppliers, analyse bills and make mathematical calculations before blaming the carbon tax for soaring costs, adding a new layer of red tape for companies already overburdened by paperwork

Marine Le Pen: France Should Leave NATO, "Turn Its Back" on the American "Hyper-Power", and "Turn Towards Russia"

Leftists in France, and all over the world, have tarnished America's conservatives by comparing them to the alleged fascists in what they call the Le Pens' ultra-right Front National party. Meanwhile — and conversely — America's (rightfully skeptical) conservatives have wondered whether France's Front National isn't perhaps the equivalent of the Tea Party in another sense, of simply being common sense-minded free marketers, falsely accused of being far right and "fascistic". Indeed, now that a new, younger generation of leaders has taken over the FN and a younger Le Pen has replaced the older one, maybe there is something more inviting in the party?

As it turns out, the castigators of America's conservatives are wrong — fortunately or unfortunately, as you would have it — as are America's conservatives.

It seems that if anything, Jean-Marie Le Pen's ideas in the 1980s and the 1990s might — might — have been close to those of the Tea Partiers, at least as far as a French journalist like Le Monde's Jonathan Parienté might be concerned (Jean-Marie Le Pen did use to be a big admirer of Ronald Reagan), but his daughter is the one who is, or who has become, radically anti-free-market and anti-American.

Not only has Marine Le Pen said that Obama is way to the right of us (many more examples at the hyperlink), she is now denouncing the American "hyper power" and saying that she would prefer that France should leave NATO, turn its back on America, and turn towards Russia.

In the 1980s, Jean-Marie Le Pen had been a sympathizer of Atlanticist policy, something that he abandoned during the war in Iraq. Marine Le Pen is highly critical of U.S. foreign policy [even in the age of Obama's smart diplomacy?!]. She wants France to exit NATO. And in a recent interview with the Russian daily Kommersant, she explained that she would prefer that France "turn towards Russia," all the while "turning its back on the United States," something that, she believes, the current crisis [echoes of Rahm Emanuel's pet phrase?], allows the country to consider doing.

***

… l'idéologie de Marine Le Pen […] dénonce la "toute puissance" américaine. …

Depuis qu'elle a amorcé son ascension à la tête du parti d'extrême droite, M^me Le Pen a infléchi la position que défendait son père dans les années 70 et 80 qui, économiquement, avait une certaine proximité avec celle défendue aujourd'hui par les Tea. Le Front national se bat désormais pour "bâtir un Etat fort et stratège" qu'il conspuait jadis.

… En 2007, le dernier programme présidentiel de l'ancien élu poujadiste trace une nouvelle voie. L'"étatisme" et le "syndicalisme archaïque" ne sont plus les seuls maux de l'économie. Il faut désormais y ajouter le "mondialisme ultra-libéral".

Marine Le Pen a poussé plus loin cette logique. Réhabilitation de l’Etat fort qui doit orienter l’économie, souveraineté monétaire et retour au franc, protectionnisme, remplacement du clivage droite gauche par celui des nationaux contre les mondialistes, constituent désormais la base de son programme.

Dans les années 1980, Jean-Marie Le Pen avait eu une sympathie atlantiste qu'il a abandonnée au moment de la guerre en Irak. Marine Le Pen est très critique sur la politique étrangère des Etats-Unis. Elle prône la sortie de l'OTAN. Et, dans un entretien accordé récemment au quotidien russe Kommersant, elle expliquait préférer que la France se "tourne vers la Russie" tout en "tournant le dos aux Etats-Unis", ce que, estime-t-elle, la crise actuelle lui permet d'envisager.

All the News that's Fit for a Ouija Board

Would You Rather Have Someone Report Reality or Explain it Away ?

Le Monde attempts to find an explanation to what will certainly be made punching bag and demon:

Mario Monti, Lucas Papademos and Mario Draghi have something in common: they have all worked for the American investment bank.

Okay, that may be true, but is it all that matters? I mean, would anything else matter to the conspiratorially minded? Roche goes on to say that...

According to its detractors, the European network of influence woven by American bank Goldman Sachs (GS) functions like a freemasonry. To diverse degrees, the new European Central Bank President, Mario Draghi, the newly designated Prime Minister of Italy, Mario Monti, and the freshly appointed Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos are totemic figures in this carefully constructed web.

But the ZOG-obsessed of the world might also want to note that they also all got PhDs from MIT. That’s like, so, almost “skull and bones!”

As to why these guys have their jobs and the old jokers don’t, the obvious will be sure to be overlooked.

Serious and competent, they weigh up the pros and cons and study all of the documents before giving an opinion. They have a fondness for economics, but these luminaries who enter into the temple only after a long and meticulous recruitment process prefer to remain discreet.
Collectively they form an entity that is part pressure group, part fraternal association for the collection of information, and part mutual aid network. They are the craftsmen, masters and grandmasters whose mission is "to spread the truth acquired in the lodge to the rest of the world."

Ergo, would it not be a safe assumption that Goldman Sachs might, occasionally, either hire of make a competent employee? Or is that too much for the world’s fevered minds to digest, preferring their news to hint at Freemasonry?

In That Case, Where Can We Be?

• The Naked Man by Serguei: Overpopulation, filth, rapes, suicides…

• Where are we? In a country at war? 

• The Man in Uniform: No, Monsieur. We are in a French penitentiary.

In His Very Own Saintly Words, Part VI

"Given the prevailing lack of discipline, it would have been impossible to use Congolese machine-gunners to defend the base from air attack: they did not know how to handle their weapons and did not want to learn,"

- Ernesto "Che" Guevara

Che Guevara-Like T-Shirts: Fans of Mandela Like to Forget That One of the ANC's Biggest Supporters Was Muammar Gaddafi

All over the world (including, and especially in, the United States proper), people love criticizing American foreign policy with an ironic smile while pointing out their double standards, real or alleged, with a cynical line of queries: "Why are the Americans obsessed with such-and-such a dictator and not the dictator of this other country?!" or, worse, "If they are taking on so-and-so, why, then, do they remain the allies of such-and-such son of a bitch?!"

It's an exercise that such people are much less inclined to hold vis-à-vis their own heroes, such as leftist icons. It's alright to sneer caustically about an American (even a leftist like Franklin Delano Roosevelt) for a cynical statement such as saying Such-and-Such "may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch", but heaven forbid that the Left do that the same with distasteful allies on their own side.

All of which is witnessed by the Che Guevara-like T-shirts worn by ANC members in a Jerôme Delay (AFP) photo illustrating the Le Monde article of Christophe Châtelot: one of the greatest supporters of Nelson Mandela — thanked publicly by the South African leader on numerous occasions — was Libya's Muammar Gaddafi.

(Then again, the "Brotherly Guide of the First of September Great Revolution of the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya" — himself in the process of becoming for some an icon of the Left — seems to have had a history of supporting the Left's most lionized paragons…)

Gaz Ora No Gaz ?

Spittle emitting carbonation obsessed critics of America need to get a life.



You won't find me worried about "green, aware" Europe's nocturnal emmissions, just it's blatant arrogance in who they single out for criticism for things they fail miserably at.

The chart corellates with one very obvious thing. American use of domestic natural gas accomplishes a gread deal more than the fussbudgets' phoney idea that the only future possible is with their wind generators or solar panels installed, of all places, an part of the world as gloomy and dim as the north of Europe.

BHL, the Byron of Romantic France and the Emancipator of the Libyan People

As Bernard-Henri Lévy comes out with a book on the Libyan civil war, Natalie Nougayrède has an article in Le Monde evaluating the philosopher's role in French diplomacy. (In it, we learn that Nicolas Sarkozy was ready, if necessary, to intervene in Libya without a UN resolution, "as in Kosovo", but that's okay, because that kind of initiative is only scandalous when taken by conservative Americans.)

Longtemps, l'écrivain-militant a rêvé de faire l'Histoire. Son panthéon personnel, son imaginaire politique, ont toujours tourné autour de cette ambition : être l'acteur d'une grande cause, réveiller le mythe des brigades internationales de la guerre d'Espagne. De grandes figures le hantent comme autant de héros à imiter, à célébrer : Malraux, Izetbegovic le résistant de Sarajevo, Massoud le héros du Panchir...

… BHL apporte au président une théâtralité et une caution intellectuelle que Bernard Kouchner, le grand absent de l'intervention en Libye, aurait eu du mal à fournir : écarté du gouvernement, le défenseur patenté du droit d'ingérence apparaissait déjà comme une étoile déclinante.

… Car Nicolas Sarkozy a enterré d'une phrase, dès le 25 février, le "Guide" dont il s'était péniblement rapproché en 2007 : "Kadhafi doit partir." Il est le premier dirigeant occidental à s'inscrire dans une logique de changement de régime. Quelle meilleure occasion de balayer l'image désastreuse donnée par les ratages de sa diplomatie en Tunisie et en Egypte ? Il veut entraîner dans son sillage David Cameron. Le jeune premier ministre britannique pressent un moment "churchillien" et souhaite neutraliser les critiques qui l'assaillent sur sa politique étrangère jugée trop mercantile dans le monde arabe.

… Nicolas Sarkozy … n'exclut pas d'intervenir sans résolution de l'ONU, comme cela a été le cas en 1999 pour le Kosovo.

… Dans le livre qu'il publie, mercredi 9 novembre, La Guerre sans l'aimer (Grasset, 640 p., 22 euros), BHL n'écrit pas, noir sur blanc, que l'intervention armée n'aurait jamais eu lieu sans lui. Il en diffuse l'impression. Il répercute, au fil de son épopée libyenne, les commentaires des acteurs ou des observateurs convaincus que son activisme a été décisif. En premier lieu, les chefs de la rébellion libyenne, auxquels le philosophe a parfois servi de scribe, pour des déclarations ne manquant pas de féliciter Nicolas Sarkozy pour son action : la boucle était bouclée.

… Le président se sert du philosophe comme d'un puissant agent de promotion de sa politique. Si l'intellectuel n'est pas dupe, il entre de plain-pied dans son combat. Tel un barde, il apporte à Nicolas Sarkozy, clé en main, un récit lyrique : la comparaison avec la colonne Leclerc qui libéra Paris en 1944, la référence à Srebrenica qui ne fut pas sauvée, les "ratages" de François Mitterrand et de Jacques Chirac qu'il fallait corriger au nom des valeurs de la France...

Et peu importait, à ses yeux, le passé "kadhafiste" de certains membres du CNT, les mentions de la "charia", ou encore, la présence parmi les rebelles d'anciens soutiens d'Al-Qaida. Malgré des inquiétudes, rien n'a découragé le philosophe, grand pourfendeur de l'"islamo-fascisme", d'ériger les insurgés, en bloc, en combattants de la liberté.

Au-delà d'une méditation sur le bien et le mal et la peine des hommes à les départager dans l'Histoire, le récit déployé par BHL est une chanson de geste pour Nicolas Sarkozy. Un cadeau qu'aucune stratégie de communication de l'Elysée n'aurait pu égaler. L'entourage du président s'en délecte à l'avance : "Il y aura aussi le DVD !", se réjouit un proche, car un film doit suivre le livre.

Pour le philosophe, âgé de 63 ans, l'aventure libyenne est l'accomplissement de toute une vie. Il tient enfin le grand roman de la liberté. Après le calvaire de Sarajevo, après l'annulation de la visite de l'Afghan Massoud à Paris, après la non-ingérence armée au Darfour : la Libye, opération réussie ! BHL, en nouveau Byron romantique, s'est vu en émancipateur d'un peuple. En toute sincérité.

Will the European Union Meet the Same End as the Soviet Union?

Will the European Union meet the same ending as the Soviet Union did? asks François Heisbourg in Le Monde.

L'affirmation pourra surprendre, d'autant que la fin de l'empire soviétique fut vécue comme une libération, à l'inverse des sentiments qui accompagneraient la dissolution de notre Union.

Cependant, les processus de la déliquescence sont comparables. Dans les deux cas, nous assistons à la perte de vitalité économique, avec la même érosion de la croissance, malgré les différences entre les systèmes économiques en cause.

… Que l'euro meure et l'Union mourra. Et si l'euro revit et prospère, l'Union n'est pas assurée de survivre.

… Si l'horreur devait être au rendez-vous, ce serait plutôt celle des Balkans des années 1990.

Nos peuples, instruits par les expériences désastreuses du XX^e siècle, ne se livreraient pas à ce type de tragédie. Leur sort serait plutôt celui du déclin et de la dépendance. La sécurité et la prospérité de nos pays seraient subordonnées aux exigences des grandes puissances, anciennes ou émergentes.

… Le sauvetage de l'euro par la création d'une eurozone fédérale poserait d'autres défis stratégiques. Comment concevoir une politique de sécurité et de défense européenne alors que le Royaume-Uni serait hors jeu et que les vues de la plupart de nos autres partenaires européens sont moins ambitieuses que celles de notre pays ? Comment éviter que les pays d'Europe centrale ne se trouvent à nouveaux condamnés à leur sort historique de glacis entre l'Europe occidentale et la Russie ? En sauvant l'euro, nous aurons une chance de bâtir une nouvelle Union.

In His Very Own Saintly Words, Part III

"Mexicans are a band of illiterate Indians."

- Ernesto "Che" Guevara

They’ll Find out that Belt-tightening has Nothing to do with BDSM

In a land where people don’t have any disposable income thanks to taxes and “syndicalist” consumer price bloating, any form of reality bites.

Budget cuts that might once have sent French people marching into the streets look set to pass in silence as anxiety about debt and deficits, long non-issues in free-spending France, loom large in voters' minds ahead of a presidential election.

And you can always expect the usual teenager-like passive-aggression:

Yet the response has been muted, and early signs are that little outcry is to be expected. Labor unions issued statements denouncing the new round of cuts as unwarranted austerity. But they are vague about any plans to respond with protests.

The Continent's New Europeans

Europe's newest citizens are first and foremost Moroccans, Turks, and Indians, reports Le Monde, integrating the countries that they are historically linked to, i.e., France, Germany, and Britain who, together, take in over half (respectively 135,800, 96,100, and 203,600) of the continent's new arrivals. The trio is followed by Spain (79,600, mainly from Ecuador) and Italy (59,400, mostly from Albania and Morocco). Altogether, the number of new Europeans has risen from 528,000 in 1998 to 776,000 in 2009.

Les acquisitions de nationalité sont avant tout marquées par les liens historiques entre pays d'origine et pays d'accueil.En France, en Espagne et au Royaume-Uni, les pays d'origine en tête des acquisitions sont tous issus des anciens empires coloniaux.

Les conditions d'accès à la nationalité varient considérablement d'un Etat membre à l'autre, en fonction du caractère plus ou moins restrictif des politiques en vigueur mais aussi de la demande. En Allemagne, oùla loi a pourtant été assouplie en 1999, le nombre d'acquisitions de la nationalité a été divisé par deux en dix ans. A l'inverse, l'Espagne, qui est passée d'une terre d'émigration à un pays d'immigration, amultiplié ce chiffre par sept entre 1998 et 2009 ; l'Italie par 6, le Royaume-Uni par 4. En France, la baisse observée depuis 2004 fait suite à la loi du 26 novembre 2003 qui a durci les conditions d'acquisition de la nationalité par le mariage.

Plus de la moitié des nationalités octroyées en Europe le sont par le Royaume-Uni, la France et l'Allemagne. Un trio de tête constant depuis dix ans. Le nombre d'acquisitions de nationalités dans l'UE reste peu élevé au regard des 32,5 millions d'étrangers qui y vivent (dont un tiers sont originaires d'un autre Etat membre). Près de la moitié des nouveaux citoyens européens ont moins de 30 ans.

In His Very Own Saintly Words, Part II

"The Negro is indolent and lazy, and spends his money on frivolities, whereas the European is forward-looking, organized and intelligent."

- Ernesto "Che" Guevara,
erudite toleration promoter

John McCrae: In Flanders Fields (1915)

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

What Part of Europe Are You From?

Annoy a Liberal

Work Hard & Be Happy

Veteran's bumper stickers

Seen at Bull Run battlefield, Manassas, Virginia

Lefty Loves the Extortion Racket

Sunny feels harassed by Herman Cain

Actually he said you All Suck

Not just the EU:

Using language recalling German tabloid depictions of "lazy Greeks", the chairman of China's sovereign wealth fund has said the EU as a whole suffers from "sloth" and "indolence."

Ah! No! It’s that slow food sort of quality of life thing, not parasitism and indolence! Besides, he was talking about all of Europe, not just the EU.

"If you look at the troubles which have happened in European countries, this is purely because of the troubles of a worn-out welfare society. I think [the EU's] welfare laws are outdated. The labour laws induce sloth, indolence. The incentive system is totally out of sink," he said.

After much consternation about whether or not the self-appointed Gods of the universe would “let” those un-classy go-go-all-business Chinese use their CIC to buy ECB bonds, Jin asked the real question:

Our people would ask: 'Hey. Are you sure we can get a fair return on our investment?'"

Of course not. That’s why the market isn’t buying. It’s why the yield on the Greek 2 year is nearly 100%, which is more than what any loan shark will take on risk.

Do you really think the Chinese what to lend money to an entity inhabited by people generally sympathetic to revolutionary Communism who might nationalize their assets?

Fallujah "Is Worse Than Hiroshima": What French TV Is Showing These Days

"'It's worse than Hiroshima,' remarks a [so-called] British expert."

Martine Delahaye has an article on the type of documentaries made by Frenchmen and shown on Canal +. In Iraq: The Sacrificed Children of Fallujah, we learn that it is a city where "one doctor" recommends to women not to have children anymore (one out of five kids is born handicapped, it is claimed) because the "United Statesian" army dropped illegal, cancer-provoking bombs on the city during the war. Guess there won't be much time devolved to interviews of any of the many Fallujah residents who helped American troops smoke out Al Qaeda operatives…

Les nouveau-nés face aux nouvelles bombes chimiques américaines
CANAL+ 22.45 |DOCUMENTAIRE|

B ébés nés avec la tête difforme, des organes en moins, ou des membres atrophiés... Dans la ville irakienne de Falloujah, à cinquante kilomètres à l'ouest de Bagdad, un nouveau-né sur cinq serait atteint de malformations graves. Lorsque le réalisateur Feurat Alani parvient à entrer dans la ville pour le tournage du documentaire Irak : les enfants sacrifiés de Falloujah (Baozi Prod), l'hôpital de la ville (300 000 habitants) a connu en une seule semaine cinq cas de bébés nés difformes. Si bien qu'un médecin de la maternité de la ville conseille aujourd'hui aux femmes de ne plus concevoir d'enfant.

BOMBES À L'URANIUM APPAUVRI

Ces malformations, apparues depuis 2005, auraient un lien direct avec les deux guerres du Golfe.

En rébellion contre l'arrivée des Américains, la ville, à partir de novembre 2004, a connu des mois d'affrontements extrêmement violents, quelque 2 000 Irakiens s'opposant alors à 15 000 soldats de la coalition. Sans oublier plusieurs semaines de bombardements, l'aviation américaine ayant largué des centaines de tonnes de missiles sur Falloujah jusqu'en 2010 pour l'écraser définitivement avant de la quitter. " Avant l'invasion de la ville, on nous a dit que ce serait la plus grande bataille depuis celle de Huê au Vietnam ", explique d'ailleurs un vétéran américain de la guerre d'Irak (27 ans).

Alerté par des médecins du pays et des ONG qui accusent les Etats-Unis d'avoir alors usé d'armes interdites en zone habitée, et peut-être même de matériels secrets en cours d'expérimentation, Feurat Alani mène ici l'enquête sur les possibles fondements de cette dénonciation.

Or des scientifiques ayant pu mener des recherches sur place, des experts internationaux et d'anciens officiers de l'armée américaine eux-mêmes ne doutent plus que l'armée états-unienne ait eu recours, à Falloujah, à des bombes au phosphore blanc, une arme chimique et incendiaire interdite sur les populations.

Mais ce documentaire tend surtout à prouver qu'il y a pire encore : seul l'usage massif de bombes à l'uranium appauvri permet d'expliquer les cancers enregistrés à Falloujah à des taux jamais constatés ailleurs. " C'est pire qu'à Hiroshima ", commente un expert britannique.

En témoigne un ancien haut gradé de l'armée américaine, atteint de plusieurs cancers et de problèmes rénaux après avoir supervisé un programme de recherches sur les conséquences de l'arme à l'uranium appauvri et avoir vu mourir les membres de son équipe : " L'uranium est utilisé dans les munitions américaines (missiles, obus de chars, blindages de véhicules) depuis 1991. Ce sont des déchets nucléaires qui contaminent tout : l'air, l'eau, la terre, la nourriture, note-t-il. Ce sera contaminé pour l'éternité. "

Martine Delahaye

Feurat Alani

(France, 2011, 52 minutes).

Lincoln, U.S. Grant, DSK, and My Mother: Didn't Herman Cain in Fact Behave Like a Gentleman?

As Abraham Lincoln once said (quoting an old-timer he knew from his Kentucky childhood):

It's been my experience that folks who have no vices have generally very few virtues.

More famously, when told that his most successful general was a drunkard, or an alcoholic, Lincoln replied that he wanted to find out which brand of whiskey Ulysses Simpson Grant drank — so that he could send a barrel of the beverage to each of his other generals.

Offhand, I am tempted to lend credence to the Sharon Bialek woman (although you can hardly deny that she does look like a bimbo), but in any case, I don't care — especially with what is at stake (Obama's plans for transforming America, etc). Like Dr. Helen says to Andrew Klavan, don't fall into the Alinsky trap.

In any case, Cain backed off immediately. Like my mother quipped (before Nancy Reagan), shaking her head at all the feminists' ranting and raving and lawsuits and other hysterics, "Just say No!" (which seems to be exactly what Bialek did).

What seems surprising is not how many claimants there are, but how few. And how soon the "harassment" ended (one single No each time sufficed).

The Deeper Problem

On Ann Althouse's blog (thanks to Instapundit), a commenter says that

Republicans would look pretty stupid to defend Cain after all the fuss over Clinton and Edwards.

The main problem conservatives have regarding the Clinton and Edwards cases is not the sex they had but the liberals' and the MSM's double standards.

99% of the comments here [on Althouse's blog] are in defense of Cain and reflect an overwhelming belief that all of the women are just out and out liars.

99% of us do not believe, we… know (!)
1) that the Left and the MSM has double standards for liberals and conservatives (Clinton and Edwards vs. Thomas and Cain)
2) and that the feminists and the PC crowd have gone overboard with their attempts to demonize men for their every action, thought, and instinct as men (see Stephen Baskerville's Taken Into Custody:The War Against Fathers, Marriage, and the Family), and that (as a result) in many cases, the latest scandal and the latest accusations against men, in general or against one man in particular, tend to be, if not (partly) fabricated, (highly) exaggerated.

The left and the MSM pretend to be neutral, objective observers, and yet they use these double standards. If being economical with the truth (deliberately holding back relevant facts) is akin to deceit and telling a lie, then who are the people who are really "lying through their teeth"?

Therefore, it is not being a "foolish dupe" to bring in what Bialek defenders call "distractions", it is the height of intelligence and common sense.

Indeed, when you buy, or when anyone buys, into the left's self-serving view of history — of conservatives as wicked hypocrites and of themselves as defenseless victims and/or as the heroic knights coming to the latters' rescue (viz. Barack Obama) — then who is the foolish dupe?

Sharon Bialek's Testimony

Several times on the Ann Althouse post, one pro-Bialek commenter asks, incredulously:

Did you even listen to the press conference?
What press conference did YOU watch??

I watched the press conference where Sharon Bialek said when she arrived at her room, it turned out to be a suite and when she met with Herman Cain, she was told she had been "upgraded". Then drinks in the lounge, then driving to a restaurant (more drinks? romantic music? candles?), then plans for driving her home to her hotel… suite.

Right then and there — when she had heard about the upgrade — she should have said No. Or maybe not No, but put a damper on the restaurant business and on a myriad of other things…

Again, I am going to quote my good ol' mother — and she is a lifelong Democrat; this time from a time in the 1990s where there were two rape trials at the same time, one involving Mike Tyson and another involving a Kennedy family member named Smith.

My mother had zero sympathy for either alleged victim. One girl should never have gone to the boxer's hotel room, the other should never have followed the Kennedy cousin home to the Kennedy beach house in the middle of the night to sit with him on the beach under the moonlight. It's that simple.

Didn't Cain in Fact Behave Like a Gentleman?

I'm beginning to think of Cain as pretty smart and gentlemanly, actually — even if the claims, all of them, turn out to be true. Maybe he's something of a cad, certainly a married man should not behave like that, but he is not a Dominique Strauss-Kahn (DSK) who hurls himself at the first woman he sees, uninvited. Cain proceeds wisely one step at a time (wisely, that is, if you don't know you will run for president a decade from now)…

First, a comparison to the height, say, of a woman he is intimate with (his wife), then he lets the woman take the next step (a giggle or an inviting remark), and if she doesn't react positively (or at all), he immediately lets it go… No wonder that one claimant was perturbed (still, hardly reason enough to file sexual harassment charges) but, on the other hand, no wonder that he says — quite honestly and quite correctly — that he "has never harassed anyone." (Still, one must assume that he must have had positives responses a few times, so are we going to see any of those alleged women who agreed to have a fling with him come out with their stories (any Penthouse cash offers in the year to come)?)

Okay, it shouldn't happen on the workplace, and a married man shouldn't behave in that manner, but still, that's what is called un pas de deux.

With Sharon Bialek, assuming her story is true, it was all the ooh'ing and ah'ing the day of his speech, which certainly could seem like flirting, then — what was it, a few weeks later — came a call for a rendez-vous, followed by a room upgrade (not a single protest from Bialek), then drinks in the lobby, then a ride in Cain's car (with Cain as chauffeur), then dinner (candles? romantic music? constant eye contact? batting eyelids?), and back to Cain's vehicle… And nevertheless, here again at the very first obstacle — Bialek's protest — Cain immediately lets it go… And according to Bialek herself, he drove her back to the hotel — dare we say gentlemanly? — not even showing anything akin to anger or annoyance.

Cain is obviously not the part of the caricatured sex maniac (à la DSK) preying on his victims…One can hardly deny that he has something of the gentleman in him…

In any case, if he is a cad he is a cad with business and financial sense, and that is what the nation needs right now…

It should be known that the hero of the rather prudish (non-smoking, non-drinking, non-fooling around) Lincoln — his "beau ideal of a statesman", as he put it himself — was Henry Clay, who, we are told, had some of that same reputation — besides drinking and gambling and dancing, one of the greatest statesmen of the 19th century loved to "kiss the ladies" (although, admittedly, he failed several times to win the White House) . But, again, as the 16th president said, quoting some wizened anonymous old-timer from the Kentucky hills,

it's been my experience that folks who have no vices have generally very few virtues

Inspired by America's Black Studies, French Specialists Publish Book on Black France

That'll work…

Inspired by America's black studies, as well as by Britain's, coos Elise Vincent, a group of historians, researchers, and "recognized specialists on the history of Africa and the colonial period" are printing a book on the "sensitive question" of La France Noire.

Existe-t-il une histoire des " noirs " de France ? Peut-on regrouper sous la même bannière les personnes issues des migrations d'outre-mer et africaines ? Un collectif de chercheurs, parmi lesquels des spécialistes reconnus de l'histoire de l'Afrique et de la période coloniale, a décidé de répondre par la positive à cette question sensible, en publiant, jeudi 3 novembre, un vaste ouvrage : La France Noire (La Découverte, 59 ¤).

Cette approche historique est nouvelle en France. Elle s'inscrit dans la droite ligne des " Black Studies " anglo-saxonnes, ce mouvement universitaire né aux Etats-Unis dans les années 1960 lors de la lutte des noirs pour leurs droits civils. Les étudiants afro-américains pensaient alors que la défense de leurs intérêts passait aussi par l'étude historique de leurs propres racines et la création de départements de recherche spécialisés.

La France Noire revendique surtout sa filiation avec le travail d'un sociologue britannique : Paul Gilroy, membre de la London School of Economics. Auteur de The Black Atlantic (1993) et de Black Britain (2007), il est l'un des intellectuels outre-Manche qui a le plus contribué à l'affirmation d'une identité noire au Royaume-Uni.

Not that all the tidbits are not interesting and not that everything black is sugarcoated:

Pour Pascal Blanchard, il faut ainsi rappeler, d'une part, que l'arrivée des noirs en France " n'est pas une immigration récente : ils sont là depuis le XVIIIe siècle ! ". De l'autre, il faudrait cesser d'affirmer, selon lui, que les " tirailleurs sénégalais ont servi davantage de chair à canon que les Bretons, les Corses ou les Occitans ". Et d'ajouter : " Comme on n'avait pas confiance en eux, ils étaient sur l'arrière-front et ne se sont pas beaucoup battus. "

De la même façon, l'historien considère que la " mémoire noire " a eu tendance à ne retenir que les figures qui lui convenaient. " Tout le monde a oublié par exemple l'histoire de Gratien Candace ! ", rappelle-t-il. Cet homme politique né en Guadeloupe avait rejoint le régime de Vichy pendant la seconde guerre mondiale et en était devenu l'un de ses principaux cadres.

Europe: a Helpless, Pitiful Elf

When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. On the other hand, you can’t solve decades of complex economic problems with diplomacy.

That task has become even more tricky after European leaders failed to get any firm commitments to invest from cash-rich countries like China or Brazil at a summit of the Group of 20 leading economies in France last week.

“This current financial turbulence is really eroding the foundations of economic growth and employment in Europe,” European Union Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn told the European Parliament before the finance ministers’ meeting. “So the first thing to do in the current situation is to stop the rot.”

Desperate times demand desperate measures, not to mention desperate statements like this one:

FILLON SAYS HE HAS CONFIDENCE IN `WHATEVER ITALIAN GOVERNMENT'

Caption Contest

"Wassa-Matta-You?" You ask? Well, nothing but this food for thought: before frisky Silvio the singin' fool came along, continuity in the Italian governement lasted about 6 months, and normally involved fantasy Communists and a lot of childish bickering. It was worse for the National reputation that the words "bunga bunga" could ever be.

So be careful what you wish for.

In His Very Own Saintly Words, Part I

"We're going to do for blacks exactly what blacks did for the revolution. By which I mean: nothing."

- Ernesto "Che" Guevara