A Pope from… the "Southern Hemisphere"?!

Plantu's take on the (s)election of Franciscus I to the papal office is to give the event a definite anti-racist bent of the (habitual) inane variety.

You've heard (or read) of Francis I being the first pope from South (or Latin) America, the first pope from the Americas (in the plural), the first pope from the New World, indeed the first pope from outside of Europe.

Well, what take does Plantu take on that? He calls Francis the first pope from the… Southern Hemisphere, with the world's downtrodden (all Southerners and most if not all "colored") all joining in a rush of joy and song, as if the world is only, or mainly, divided between the evil rich Northerners (look at the other — clueless, joyless, and heartless — "insider" cardinals in Plantu's cartoon) and the poor innocent victims of the South. Thus, the poor Southerners, arrive in triumph to see one of their own kin, one of their protectors, finally in power. (Because "insider" popes like Benedict XVI and John Paul II, you realize, had not an iota of love for them — well, certainly not for those rotten Southerners…)

I guess that all this Southern unity of the downtrodden will be news for Paraguay and all its neighbors, as well as the Hutus and the Tutsis, and I could probably come up with many other examples, if I didn't want to go to bed now…

In addition, Plantu has obviously not heard the theory that in turning to Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the (mainly Italian) cardinals of Rome chose deliberately chose a man, even if (Latin) American, of Italian extraction.

Incidentally, check out Plantu's previous take on the Vatican, before the choice was known:

For the left (those nuanced souls, those deep thinkers), when everything in the world doesn't boil down to racism, it all boils down to sexism.


Black-out at the Vatican's conclave

• So? Any hints?

• They believe it will be somebody male!

Lure of Islam Grows in France; and Western Converts Represent a Critical Element of the Terrorist Threat in Europe

French antiterrorism officials have been warning for years that [Western] converts [to Islam] represent a critical element of the terrorist threat in Europe, because they … do not stand out

writes Maïa de la Baume in a New York Times "Memo From France":

Agnes Dherbeys for The New York Times

The Sahaba mosque in Créteil, a Paris suburb, popular with those converting to Islam, which is a small but growing number.

CRÉTEIL, France — The spacious and elegant modern building, in the heart of this middle-class suburb of Paris, is known as “the mosque of the converts.”

Every year about 150 Muslim conversion ceremonies are performed in the snow-white structure of the Sahaba mosque in Créteil, with its intricate mosaics and a stunning 81-foot minaret, built in 2008 and a symbol of Islam’s growing presence in France.

Among those who come here for Friday Prayer are numerous young former Roman Catholics, wearing the traditional Muslim prayer cap and long robe.

While the number of converts remains relatively small in France, yearly conversions to Islam have doubled in the past 25 years, experts say, presenting a growing challenge for France, where government and public attitudes toward Islam are awkward and sometimes hostile.

French antiterrorism officials have been warning for years that converts represent a critical element of the terrorist threat in Europe, because they have Western passports and do not stand out.

In October, the French police conducted a series of antiterrorism raids across France, resulting in the arrests of 12 people, including at least three French citizens who had recently converted to Islam.

Converts “often need to overdo it if they want to be accepted” as Muslims, and so veer into extremism more frequently than others, said Didier Leschi, who was in charge of religious issues at the Interior Ministry under former President Nicolas Sarkozy.

There are persistent concerns that French prisons are fertile ground for conversions and for Islamic radicalism; observant Muslims are thought to make up a least a third of the inmate population, according to French news reports.

Many Muslims counter that they regularly face prejudice, and consider a 2010 law banning the full-face veil from public spaces and the growing concern with conversions as reflections of French intolerance.

Whatever the impact, there is little doubt that conversions are growing more commonplace. “The conversion phenomenon is significant and impressive, particularly since 2000,” said Bernard Godard, who is in charge of religious issues at the Interior Ministry.

Of an estimated six million Muslims in France, about 100,000 are thought to be converts, compared with about 50,000 in 1986, according to Mr. Godard. Muslim associations say the number is as high as 200,000. But France, which has a population of about 65 million, defines itself as secular and has no official statistics broken down by race or creed.

For Mr. Godard, a former intelligence officer, it is the “nature” of conversions that has changed.

Conversions to marry have long been common enough in France, but a growing number of young people are now seen as converting to be better socially integrated in neighborhoods where Islam is dominant.

“In poor districts, it has become a reverse integration,” said Gilles Kepel, an expert on Islam and the banlieues, the poor, predominantly Muslim neighborhoods that ring Paris and other major cities.

Many converts are men younger than 40, experts say, often born in France’s former African colonies or overseas territories.

 … In many banlieues, Islam has come to represent not only a sort of social norm but also a refuge, an alternative to the ambient misery, researchers and converts say.

Map

 … Hassen Chalghoumi, the moderate imam of Drancy, another suburb near Paris, says he thinks conversions have also been propelled by France’s official secularism, which he says breeds spiritual emptiness.

“Secularism has become antireligious,” Mr. Chalghoumi said. “Therefore, it has created an opposite phenomenon. It has allowed people to discover Islam.”

Many experts note the influence of celebrity converts, particularly soccer players. Nicolas Anelka, who played on the French national team and whose parents came from Martinique, changed his name to Abdul-Salam Bilal Anelka when he converted to Islam in 2004. Franck Ribéry, a popular player from northern France, converted to Islam in 2006 to marry a Muslim woman, Wahiba, and took the name Bilal Yusuf Mohammed.

 … Recent arrests of radical Muslim converts have also increased concern among public officials and Muslim leaders, though radical Islam is by no means the norm among converts.

One Black Nobel Peace Prize Winner Complains About the Decisions of Another

From Desmond Tutu comes opprobrium, the kind of which can always be counted on being leveled against America alone, and perhaps the West in general, but never against anybody else…

Also notice how the United States in general is being criticized when a leftist is in the White House, whereas during the Bush years, Dubya would have been ostracized…

I am deeply, deeply disturbed at the suggestion in “A Court to Vet Kill Lists” (news analysis, front page, Feb. 9) that possible judicial review of President Obama’s decisions to approve the targeted killing of suspected terrorists might be limited to the killings of American citizens. 

Do the United States and its people really want to tell those of us who live in the rest of the world that our lives are not of the same value as yours? That President Obama can sign off on a decision to kill us with less worry about judicial scrutiny than if the target is an American? Would your Supreme Court really want to tell humankind that we, like the slave Dred Scott in the 19th century, are not as human as you are? I cannot believe it. 

I used to say of apartheid that it dehumanized its perpetrators as much as, if not more than, its victims. Your response as a society to Osama bin Laden and his followers threatens to undermine your moral standards and your humanity. 

DESMOND M. TUTU
Aboard MV Explorer, near Hong Kong Feb. 11, 2013

The writer, winner of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize, is archbishop emeritus of Cape Town.

French Cartoon Has Snickering Devious Yanks Thrilled to See "Their War" Being Fought by Their Unsuspecting Victims, the French

While Selçuk pens a strange (and gratuitous?) "clash of the titans" in Le Monde between a foreboding American eagle and a puny French rooster, anti-Americanism is back in vogue at Le Canard Enchaîné with the ugliest possible of Americans, the devious and treacherous kind (hat tip to Bill):

Americans Overjoyed
• Snickering, gun-loving, devious Yank:
Cool! Our war is being fought by the French, now!

The Only Place That the MSM Admits to the GOP's Central Role in the Fight for Blacks' Civil Rights Is in the "50 Years Ago" Section

The only place nowadays that you can read about the historically central role of the Republican Party (you know, those awful, terrible racists) in the fight for civil rights is in the MSM newspapers' 50 Years Ago section:

1963 Republicans Seek Civil-Rights Program

WASHINGTON — Nine Republicans in the House of Representatives plan to introduce a broad civil rights program and make as much noise as possible about it. Although their chances of enacting the program are small, they could embarrass the Kennedy administration by their move. Led by Rep. John Lindsay, of New York, the Republican members of the Judiciary Committee will introduce bills to establish a fair employment practices commission, give the Attorney General increased power to bring civil action in discrimination cases and abolish literacy tests.

French Troops in "a Landscape as Seductive as a Bayonet in the Back": "We Have Broken an Al Qaeda Dungeon" in Mali

From Jean-Philippe Rémy in the Valley of Amettetaï (Tigharghâr Adrar, northern Mali) comes a report on the French army's destruction of an Al Qaeda group:

… les soldats ont une raison de se réjouir : ils sont en train de terminer la conquête de la vallée où était concentré un dispositif majeur d'AQMI dans le nord du Mali, dans la vaste zone de l'Adrar des Ifoghas. Les hommes sont rincés, leurs lèvres sont gercées, leurs nez pèlent, ils ne se sont pas lavés depuis des jours, mais l'air de la victoire leur donne des envies de fantaisie, et même d'oignons.

Dans la première phase de l'opération Serval, les soldats ont été sur les pistes, à avaler de la poussière. L'avancée des premières semaines a permis de prendre Gao, Tombouctou, Kidal et Tessalit.

 … Pour une armée conventionnelle, le paysage de cette région, vu de loin, est aussi séduisant qu'un coup de baïonnette dans le dos. De près, c'est pire encore. Entouré par des plaines qui dérivent vers le désert, l'adrar de Tigharghâr, à l'ouest du massif des Ifoghas, ressemble au résultat d'une grande colère géologique échouée sur le sable, avec son relief tourmenté d'éboulis, de pitons, d'amas de pierres volcaniques noires et coupantes, truffées d'anfractuosités.

…  La guerre au Mali n'a pas pris fin, mais à Amettetaï, elle vient de connaître un renversement majeur. C'est la première fois que les forces françaises et leurs alliés tchadiens ont affronté, au sol, des combattants qui, depuis le début de la phase terrestre, dans la foulée des frappes aériennes entamées le 11 janvier, ont vu à chaque fois les hommes d'AQMI fuir l'affrontement direct.

Comparing Chávez to De Gaulle, French Government Minister Says: "The world would benefit from having many more dictators like him"

"The world would benefit from having many more dictators like him", declared France's Minister of Overseas Territories as he attended the funeral of Hugo Chávez as the French government's official representative.

Victorin Lurel went on to compare him to de Gaulle mixed with Léon Blum, reports Le Monde, while denying that the Venezuelan strongman was a dictator at all, as the Frenchman claimed that Chávez had never failed to respect human rights.

Victorin Lurel s'attire de nombreuses critiques depuis vendredi. Ce jour-là, le ministre des outre-mer, qui représentait le gouvernement français lors des funérailles du président vénézuélien défunt, déclarait à Caracas que "Chavez, c'est De Gaulle plus Léon Blum" et que "le monde gagnerait à avoir beaucoup de dictateurs comme [lui], puisqu'on prétend que c'est un dictateur [alors qu'il] a, pendant ces quatorze ans, respecté les droits de l'homme".

Invitée de France 3 dimanche 10 mars, la présidente du Medef, Laurence Parisot, a dénoncé une "déclaration très choquante". "Comment peut-on dire d'un homme qui était un dicateur, un démagogue, qui incarne le populisme dans toute son horreur, puisse avoir les qualités que prétend notre ministre ?", s'est indignée M^me Parisot.

Le député UMP de la Drôme et ancien ministre de l'outre-mer Hervé Mariton s'est dit "choqué par ces propos". "J'ai été ministre de l'Outre-mer, c'est une responsabilité importante de la République mais ça n'autorise pas, que ce soit en France de métropole ou d'outre-mer ou à l'étranger pour représenter le gouvernement, de tenir des propos aussi invraisemblables, a-t-il affirmé. Je considère qu'on est là, non pas dans une erreur de communication, mais qu'il s'agit d'une faute majeure, d'une faute grave dont il conviendrait que le président de la République, le premier ministre, s'excusent."

Le président du Nouveau centre, Hervé Morin, en a lui aussi appelé à l'exécutif, dimanche matin sur Twitter : "J'ai honte pour mon pays quand le gouvernement ose déclarer que #Chavez c'est Blum et de Gaulle. M. Hollande, réagissez !"

75 Years Ago: Neville Chamberlain Challenged on Policy of Desiring Alliance with France, Hitler, and Mussolini

February 21:

1938 Eden and Chamberlain Clash

LONDON — In one of the most stirring scenes in the modern history of Parliament, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and his resigned Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden today [Feb. 21] challenged each other as to the wisdom of their conflicting ideas for preserving the peace of Europe and keeping Great Britain out of another general war. “Tony” Eden took his stand by the side of the League of Nations and respect for treaties as opposed to the methods of power politics and the philosophy that might makes right. Now was the time, Mr. Eden warned, for Britain to stand firm and show its traditional temper, instead of submitting to the threats of the dictators. Mr. Chamberlain paid lip service to the League, but made it plain his heart’s desire is for a four-power alliance of Britain, France, Germany and Italy to control Europe’s affairs in place of the League.

March 7:

1938 Reich Fleet Twice Size of Britain’s

LONDON — The British government plan to spend over £350,000,000 this year on its Air Force, Navy, Army and air raid precautions was approved late tonight [March 7] in the House of Commons after a disquieting debate in which Winston Churchill charged that the Royal Air Force expansion had fallen two years behind schedule and that Germany possessed an air force more than twice as strong as the British. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain refused to commit himself as to the relative strength of the British and German air forces, but he did attempt to clear up his position in connection with his attempts in Rome, Berlin and London to make peace with Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler. Mr. Chamberlain made it plain that he was not afraid of the dictators and would fight, if necessary, for democracy.

600 Years Later: Is the Battle of Agincourt Still Being Fought Between Britain and France?

50 Years Ago,

Britain vowed [on Feb. 1, 1963] to do everything it can to wreck President Charles de Gaulle’s plan for a French-dominated Europe. Indicating that the United States might join in this campaign, a British Cabinet minister implied that Britain will try to align France’s five Common Market associates against Gen. de Gaulle. Meanwhile, Britain does not accept his “curt dismissal” of this country from Europe and will not abandon its hope of joining the Common Market, Cabinet minister Iain MacLeod said in a speech at a Conservative party meeting in Norwich. Mr. Macleod, chairman of the Conservative party and sometimes mentioned here as a possible future Prime Minister, is leader of the House of Commons. Mr. Macleod accused Gen. de Gaulle of “slamming the door” on Britain’s Common Market entry application, threatening Europe with division and jeopardizing the Western alliance.

Which contributes to Alan Cowell penning the following piece (although half of it concerns pacifist political correctness regarding the House of Windsor):

It has been tempting this past week to recall the Battle of Agincourt between the French and English armies, not because of any looming anniversary — the 600th is not due until 2015 — but because some things never seem to change. 

Once more, England has a royal warrior called Harry, although he is a prince of the realm and a helicopter pilot, not the equestrian king immortalized by Shakespeare in “Henry V.” 

And, as Prime Minister David Cameron’s effort to redefine his land’s relationship with the European Union seemed to show, the nation still harbors old ambitions to mold events in the vast Continent separated from it by a narrow band of sometimes fog-bound water and by large dollops of mutual incomprehension.

“In all history,” the columnist Simon Jenkins observed in The Guardian, “the conundrum of Britain’s relationship with the rest of Europe has never been resolved.” 

But one function of that tangled past is to hold up what the historian Barbara W. Tuchman called a distant mirror to the present, and so it was last week when Prince Harry returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan. 

Almost immediately, he was ensnared by a public dispute that a medieval monarch would have found quite baffling. 

When Prince Harry acknowledged in interviews that he had opened fire on the Taliban insurgents — what else would the gunner of an Apache attack helicopter in Afghanistan be expected to do? — he inspired a media frenzy that seemed to reflect a degree of doubt about whether the nation wanted its royal warrior to be quite so warlike, or, at least, to talk about the realities of war in a way that other royals on military duty, like his brother, uncle, father and grandfather, have not. 

“We fire when we have to, take a life to save a life,” Prince Harry said, stirring Taliban ire by ascribing his aptitude as a gunner to his prowess as a player of video games. 

As the younger son of Diana, Princess of Wales, who had her own fraught relationship with the paparazzi and the press, the 28-year-old prince should perhaps have understood that discretion is sometimes the better part of valor.

“Never in her 86 years has the queen been a fraction as indiscreet as Prince Harry was in his interview,” the author Harry Mount wrote in The Daily Telegraph. 

“Royal service is not a pick-and-mix game. You can’t just pull out the plums — the money, the girls, the servants, the palaces, the private jets.” The prince, he said, would do well “to button his lip.” 

The furor raised the same questions of privacy and privilege as have clung to Harry through a catalog of missteps and nurtured his ever greater acrimony toward the media. 

The episodes include being photographed naked playing strip snooker in a Las Vegas hotel room last year — “probably a classic example of me probably being too much army, not enough prince,” he said in his post-Afghanistan musings on the struggle to compartmentalize life between private, military and public moments — in other words, between the normal and the extraordinary. 

War in Afghanistan, Harry lamented, is “as normal as it’s going to get.” 

Arguably, though, the response to his remarks showed a broader ambiguity in a post-imperial Britain wrestling with diminished status on the global stage that it cannot quite accept or seem to reverse.

Before an audience in London, Mr. Cameron projected his land as doughty and resilient. “We have the character of an island nation — independent, forthright, passionate in defense of our sovereignty,” he said as he promised a referendum within five years on membership in the European Union if he is re-elected in 2015. 

(The qualities resembled those listed by President Charles de Gaulle of France in vetoing Britain’s entry into the forerunner of the European Union 50 years ago this month, concluding that by its very nature Britain differed “profoundly” from the Continental Europeans.) A day later, speaking to business leaders in Davos, Mr. Cameron expanded the definition. “We are a global nation, with global interests and global reach.” 

That seemed to echo his calls for a robust response to a newly perceived threat in what he has called the “ungoverned space” of North Africa after the Algerian hostage crisis. But it also came as Britain announced new military cuts. 

“It looks a little odd to be thinking about a developing situation in a very difficult part of the world when you’re making your defense capability smaller,” said Gen. Richard Dannatt, the former head of the British Army. 

Compared with such uncertainties, the English triumph at Agincourt was a model of decisiveness, but it was not the only marker. 

In the Bordeaux-based Sud-Ouest newspaper, the columnist Bruno Dive preferred to cite the Battle of Fontenoy in 1745 as an example of Gallic guile trumping British maneuvers. “Every day that passes,” he went on to say, “shows that General de Gaulle was right” in 1963 to block British ambitions at Calais. 

Plus ça change....

Send in the clowns....

An unfortunate reality of modern reality is that reality is often times unrecognised. While it is hip and with it to drag about with your windmills and solar panels, regardless of their collective umph, such things as real reality gets lost in the hipster mix:

State politicians have slammed German Transport Minister Peter Ramsauer for not taking action sooner. "We're making ourselves the laughing stock of the world," Schleswig-Holstein Economics Minister Reinhard Meyer said.

Why?

The Kiel Canal, one of Europe's most vital shipping lanes, was shut down this week when two neglected locks broke down. The closure threatens to cause major disruption to shipping in Northern Europe, but Germany's Transport Ministry has promised rapid repairs.

While we go on and on and on and on about God knows what in terms of futurism (which should be pursued, prudently), reality takes a back seat, fyi - IMHO - btw - OMG - etc........

50 Years Ago: Plotters Who Tried to Kill de Gaulle on Trial

February 4:

1963 Plane Ready to Bomb Elysée

PARIS — The man who led the machine-gun attack on President Charles de Gaulle last August said yesterday [Feb. 2] there were pilots ready to bomb the Elysée Palace, his official residence, or his country home at Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises had they really wanted to kill him. Former Lt. Col. Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry, an American-trained guided-missile technician, made the disclosure in the sixth day of the trial of 15 men accused of trying to kill Gen. de Gaulle Aug. 22. Bastien-Thiry said the anti-Gaullist National Resistance Council (CNR) which planned the attempt had two choices: a summary execution, or putting Gen. de Gaulle out of the way by an “arrest.” 

February 13: 

1963 De Gaulle’s Son-in-Law Tells of Shots

PARIS — The special military court trying 15 men accused of attempting to kill President Charles de Gaulle last August today [Feb. 13] heard testimony from his son-in-law describing the Chief of State’s dash to safety through a hail of machine-gun bullets. Col. Alain de Boissieu, who occasionally acts as his father-in-law’s aide-de-camp, said: “I heard gunfire and saw bullets ricocheting. ‘Step on it,’ I told the chauffeur. I asked the general and Mrs. de Gaulle to duck. They didn’t obey immediately. Then I saw that the window nearest Gen. de Gaulle was broken.”

March 4:

1963 The Plot to Kill de Gaulle

PARIS — Three ringleaders in the machine-gun attack against President Charles de Gaulle last summer were sentenced to death tonight [March 4] by a special military court. The condemned men are Lt. Col. Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry, 35, Lt. Alain de Bougrenet de la Tocnave, 37, and Jacques Prevost, 31. All 14 men on trial were found guilty of participating in the attempt to assassinate Gen. de Gaulle Aug. 22. However, five defendants were tried in absentia, and by law, their cases must be reconsidered before a court if they are captured. Three of the men tried in absentia were also condemned to death. The other sentences ranged from three to 15 years in prison.

Guest Writer: Sarah A. Hoyt on Being American

Being American

By Sarah A. Hoyt [website]

I read No Pasaran for years, while I hid in ignominious duplicity.  Or, if you prefer – it happens to be true – while I tried to hide my political beliefs because I thought after I had achieved some status in Science Fiction I could then have more influence on those who were already reading me, and, until then, I could reach minds that would, otherwise, close hard against me.  Or, if you prefer – it’s also true – I was keeping my mouth shut and keeping my job because baby needed shoes.

Well, about two years ago I broke.  And this year I really broke.  It is one thing to keep your opinions to yourself when the “war” being conducted on the political sphere doesn’t threaten your adopted home and the future of your children, but when it is doing both…  “they shall not pass” comes to mind, and one opens that political closet door and comes out swinging.

Recently your post on immigration found an echo in me.

Our immigration system is beyond broken: in fact, it seems, at this point, to strive to encourage exactly the type of immigrants who DON’T wish to assimilate: people who walk over the border and fully intend to walk back (and many of whom buy into the lie we stole what should have been theirs); refugees from political messes, who wish to continue conducting their battles on our ground (as opposed to those who wish to live the mess behind and become American); various sorts of people who get in by political favor and who come with who knows what intent.

I can’t say much – I had full intention of immigrating legally, perhaps starting with (I had an offer) an assistantship at an American college, then seeing if I could get a permanent job and a worker’s visit.  As it happened though – even before I came here as an exchange student – I was already mad in love with the US, I fell in love with a US citizen, also, and we married, which gave me a leg up on the line, ahead of all those other people.

How long and how tough is that line?  When I was in high school one of my teachers (who had a Masters’ in French and her husband, who had an Engineering degree) had been waiting through ten years and ever more intrusive/abstruse bureaucracy to be allowed to immigrate.  When I came moved here five years later, she was still waiting.

This couple were both highly accomplished people, intelligent and already – in their heart – Americans in beliefs and yearnings.  (Possibly the only thing I agree with the current president on is that one can be an American already in one’s heart before he sets foot on these shores.  The point on which I disagree is, of course, the idea that this gives one a right to come in illegally and/or to vote in our elections.) They were, in fact, that of which good citizens are made.  There was no rhyme or reason to keeping them waiting that long – nothing, in fact, but the fact that immigration from Europe is all but shut down.  And part of the reason it is all but shut down is the streaming of immigrants (not just from Mexico) over the border – those who don’t bother with passports or visas.

To an extent this is the predictable result of how long that line is and how impossible to get past and the fact that no one does anything to curtail the illegal stream.  If the only option you give people is to break the law, any number of them will take it.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t give people any respect for our laws or our processes, once they get here.

What we have, in the US is an ideal that attracts people from all over the world – citizens of the US already in their heart.  Even when our principles are honored more in default.  Even when our economy is in a nose dive.  I wanted to come here even while Jimmy Carter was president.  I probably would still want to come here if I were out there.  Any number of people will want to.

A rational immigration policy will be built around letting those who yearn to be Americans come.  And leaving the grievance mongers and those who resent America and all it stands for behind.

To continue in this path will lead us to my future world, in Darkship Renegades and A Few Good Men, where the only USA left is carried deep in the secret of the heart and liberty has vanished from the Earth.
Related: It So Happens That Every Illegal Alien in America Already Does Have Papers

Statutory law in America has expanded to the point that government’s primary activity is no longer to protect, preserve and defend our lives, liberty and property, but rather to stalk and entrap normal American citizens doing everyday things

Statutory law in America has expanded to the point that government’s primary activity is no longer to protect, preserve and defend our lives, liberty and property

writes Bill Wilson,

but rather to stalk and entrap normal American citizens doing everyday things.

After identifying three federal offenses in the U.S. Constitution — treason, piracy and counterfeiting — the federal government left most matters of law enforcement to the states. By the time President Obama took office in 2009, however, there were more than 4,500 federal criminal statutes on the books.

“Too many people in Washington seem to think that the more laws Congress enacts, the better the job performance of the policymakers,” Lynch notes. “That’s twisted.”

Not long after Skyler Capo’s battle with Virginia game wardens, former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese joined Lynch in testifying before a House committee exploring the problem of overcriminalization. “The federal criminal code is overly extensive,” Meese testified. “There are more laws than are needed or could possibly be enforced. There are too many redundant, superfluous and unnecessary criminal laws. They should be consolidated and/or eliminated.”

A compelling new study on overcriminalization by University of Tennessee professor Glenn Reynolds (of Instapundit fame) shows that there are many solutions to this problem, including an end to prosecutorial immunity, “loser pays” legislation and a ban on plea bargains.

But more drastic measures may be required. Reformers should really begin by going through the entire body of federal criminal law — starting with all statutes that carry jail time — operating under the presumption that every statute should be eliminated unless it can be justified as essential. The federal government, especially, has no business duplicating state functions or applying criminal penalties to advance mere social engineering objectives.

No one talks about legal immigrants who are hard working men and women, who wait for the frustratingly slow process that seems to discriminate against those who want to do it by the book

… from personal experience, regardless of how welcoming and friendly the American people were, and are, the immigration system is severely broken in the USA 

muses Mark I Sutherland in the Daily Telegraph.

Our first experience of it was on my first visit. The abusive nature of the customs official was eye-opening and intimidating. Luckily, that attitude of "if I don't like you, you're back on the plane" was limited to the official. The people in the Midwest could not have been nicer.

My next experience with the immigration system was after we had waited in line for a number of years, and our green card applications were approved. This time it was an official at the US Embassy in London. I think if he had his way, we'd have been hauled off in irons for some fun waterboarding in the basement. Fortunately

 … as a legal immigrant, I watched the ongoing debate, and sometimes pure vitriol, surrounding immigration. There is the positioning by both sides, the special interest groups that take an all-or-nothing approach. And there are the children who never knew they weren't born here and the families who risked their lives to enter the land of opportunity, albeit illegally. And finally, those who refused to break the law and sought to enter legally, waiting in line, for years, and years, and years.

These are the forgotten. No one talks about these people, who like me, are not interested in breaking the law, regardless of how attractive America looks. These hard working men and women, who wait for the frustratingly slow process that seems to discriminate against those who want to do it by the book. These are the type of people who come here and started my favourite Scottish restaurant – and employ Americans. These are the people who emigrated from southern England and started a tea room where I can get Duke and Duchess tea, with a side of Branston Pickle and cheese – and employ Americans. These are the people who emigrated from China, started the best Chinese restaurant I have ever experienced – and employ Americans.

These are the people who after creating jobs for Americans, embrace the culture while also bringing the celebrations of their home country with them, adding to the vibrancy and diversity that is the American melting pot.

 … I have a glimmer of hope. Because I know how welcoming American is. I know how special America is. And my hope is that the locked door, where the No Vacancy sign hangs, will be unlocked and thrown open, and we again hear the refrain of Lady Liberty welcoming those yearning to be free.

Update: Being American

Breaking: Hugo Chávez Dead

Hugo Chávez has gone to meet his maker, according to Venezuela's vice president…

French Minister Condemns Islamo Fascism, Using the Same Expression that Brought George W Bush So Much Opprobrium a Decade Ago

France's minister of the interior has condemned "an Islamic fascism that is on the rise just about everywhere." The words of the socialist Manuel Valls against "this obscurantism" is of course the very language that got George W Bush into so much trouble (as his BDS critics conveniently forgot the times when the American president referred to Islam as a religion of peace).

Manuel Valls, ministre de l'Intérieur, a réagi … aux manifestations qui éclatent en Tunisie depuis l'assassinat de l'opposant Chokri Belaïd. Sur Europe 1, il a dénoncé "un fascisme islamique qui monte un peu partout". Il a estimé que "cet obscurantisme (...) doit être évidemment condamné (...) puisqu'on on nie cet état de droit, cette démocratie pour lesquels les peuples libyens, tunisiens, égyptiens se sont battus."

Selon lui, la France doit "soutenir les démocrates" en Tunisie pour que les "valeurs de la révolution du jasmin ne soient pas trahies". Il a également assuré que "la France ne coopérera jamais quand il s'agit de réprimer un peuple". Le ministre de l'Intérieur a dit toutefois "garder espoir dans le rendez-vous électoral pour que les forces démocratiques et laïques, celles qui portent les valeurs de cette révolution du jasmin, demain l'emportent". "C'est un enjeu considérable (...) pas uniquement pour les Tunisiens mais pour tout l'espace méditerranéen, et donc aussi pour la France."

This comes of course as a new book comes out revisiting Jacques Chirac's Foreign Policy and France's opposition to Bush during the Iraq War, and as France is involved in a Muslim region war of its own, in Mali where François Hollande is compared to Charles de Gaulle (regarding the horrors of white racism, incidentally, check out the post Mali Native Tells Incredulous MSM Reporter That He Would Like Nothing Better Than for Mali to Be Colonized by Whites Again (VIDEO)).

Oh, and the information about the speech of Manuel Valls (who was asked questions by by Le Parisien's readers) would not be complete without this surprise: The mainstream media (neither French nor international) hardly seems to have tried to make anything close to front page news about the Manuel Valls statement, much less to cry bloody murder regarding this piece of news (as they would have were Dubya involved). At the time of this writing, few of the search results after a Google search of the words fascisme islamique manuel valls lead to any MSM reports of the event (Merci à Bill).

(Update: Et un merci pour le Professeur Reynolds) Related: • 9 to 10 Years' Jail Time for Italy's Secret Service Honchos for Helping Bush White House 10 Years Ago (The international left's fight against the Bush Administration in particular and against conservative America in general continues…)

• Speaking French in Paris, John Kerry Takes Dig at America's Clueless Conservatives (VIDEO)

Kim Jong-un Treated with More Respect Than Any U.S. Conservative

That is the world we live in — and one that Obama obviously lives in: one where Kim Jong-un is treated with more respect, and with more understanding (tolerance, anyone?), than any American Republican.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un wants US President Barack Obama to call him, and does not want war, according to retired basketball star Dennis Rodman.

Speaking on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Mr Rodman claimed: "He said, 'If you can, Dennis - I don't want [to] do war. I don't want to do war.' He said that to me."

When questioned about Mr Kim's human rights record, Mr Rodman said he was not apologising for the North Korean leader, "but as a person to person, he's my friend."

Related: When to Bring Up Human Rights Issues?
Only When Dealing with (Conservative) America and the West,
Never with True Despots, Like Russia

Plantu Compares "General" François Hollande to Charles de Gaulle

Plantu has "General" François Hollande channel Charles de Gaulle's free Paris speech from 1944
• François Hollande:
Mali humiliated…
Mali wronged…
But Mali liberated!

"Jacques Chirac's Foreign Policy" Re-Visits France's Opposition to Bush During the Iraq War

In a book review of Christian Lequesne and Maurice Vaïsse's La Politique étrangère de Jacques Chirac (Jacques Chirac's Foreign Policy), Daniel Vernet claims that Chirac's anti-American quote is false. ("In foreign policy, I operate on a simple principle," he was said to have told Tony Blair and Gerhard Schröder. "I look at what the Americans do, and then I do the opposite. That way I know I am right.")

La résistance à l'unilatéralisme américain atteint son apogée en février 2003 quand la France, avec l'Allemagne et la Russie, s'oppose à la guerre de George Bush en Irak. "J'ai un principe simple en politique étrangère, explique le président français au premier ministre britannique Tony Blair et au chancelier allemand Gerhard Schröder, je regarde ce que font les Américains et je fais le contraire. Alors je suis sûr d'avoir raison."

La phrase est plaisante mais elle est fausse. Avec les Etats-Unis, Jacques Chirac n'est pas animé par un antiaméricanisme systématique. Il continue de jouer du mélange d'amitié et d'hostilité, caractéristique de l'attitude française traditionnelle. Tantôt il les presse d'agir, comme en Bosnie où il ne tolère pas que des soldats français soient pris en otages, tantôt il les contrarie comme en Irak ou fait cause commune avec eux comme au Liban à propos duquel il se brouille avec le clan Assad à la suite de l'assassinat de son ami Rafik Hariri.

Meanwhile, Béatrice Gurrey reports on a TV documentary about the Chirac clan:

Le mérite du film de Pierre Hurel est d'avoir exhumé des archives oubliées ou mal connues pour raconter l'histoire de cette famille dévorée par la politique. Celle de trois femmes fascinées par un seul homme, le mari et le père, pour le destin duquel tout sera sacrifié. D'abord, il y a l'épouse, Bernadette, avec ce front très grand, cette bouche trop pâle, qui assure d'une voix timide se contenter d'une "petite fleur de temps en temps" de la part de son mari : ses débuts à Matignon, en 1974, semblent marqués du sceau d'un ennui sans fond.

"PAPA PRÉFÈRE ME VOIR DANS "ELLE" QUE DANS "LUI""

Puis il y a Laurence, l'aînée, si sérieuse et précise, qui pèse chaque mot, dont la maladie va bouleverser la vie de la famille. Mais pas la trajectoire du père.
En 1984, le maire de Paris commente, face caméra : "On est beaucoup plus puissant qu'un ministre. Le goût du pouvoir est beaucoup plus satisfait. On n'a pas au-dessus de soi un président ou un premier ministre." Bouffée de cigarette. "Voilà", conclut-il, dissimulant ses failles.

Enfin, il y a Claude, alors jeune fille délurée adepte des nuits parisiennes, qui déclare avec aplomb au magazine Confidences : "Je ne serais pas capable de me sacrifier pour un homme, comme maman." Elle pose dans Elle avec son boy-friend, Vincent Lindon, et assure avec impertinence : "Papa préfère me voir dans Elle que dans Lui."

Even Russians Are Leaving France for Tax Reasons

The lack of trust of the socialist government and its tax policies has grown so much, muses Cécile Prudhomme, that even Russians are starting to emigrate.

Les différents collaborateurs du groupe ont par ailleurs indiqué, mercredi 6 février, avoir traité depuis six mois une cinquantaine de demandes de Français cherchant à s'installer à Londres, une quarantaine à New York, 70 demandes pour habiter en Suisse. …

"FACILE À FAIRE ET À DÉFAIRE"

Beaucoup de vendeurs en France, donc, mais... pas assez d'acheteurs. Car même les étrangers ont été effrayés par les mesures fiscales de l'équipe Hollande.

"Les clients haut de gamme russes commencent à comprendre que tous ne sont pas concernés par les mesures fiscales", explique Irina Artemova, chargée de la clientèle russe. Entre-temps, certains ont renoncé. "On a même le premier Russe qui a décidé de partir de France pour des raisons fiscales", en vendant l'immeuble qu'il avait acheté à Neuilly, explique M. de Saint Vincent.  

 … "En 2013, on estime à 5 000 le nombre d'expatriés fiscaux", a indiqué M^e Jacques-Henry de Bourmont, avocat fiscaliste associé du cabinet Lefèvre Pelletier & associés. Certains, a-t-il argumenté, parce qu'ils anticipent que l'exonération de la plus-value sur la résidence principale puisse un jour être plafonnée et que les biens au-delà d'un certain montant soient soumis à l'imposition sur les plus-values. "En France, on a une loi fiscale qui est trop facile à faire et à défaire ", a-t-il ajouté.

Related: Check out the photos in the Le Monde portfolio of
the Cossack cadet academy in Volgograd (the former Stalingrad)