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Columns of Entropy Rise Over Paris
Oregon Magazine ^ | November 8, 2005 | Larry Leonard

Posted on 11/08/2005 3:10:44 PM PST by WaterDragon

Pat Buchanan describes it in terms of the fall of the West. "Rome conquered the barbarians, then the barbarians conquered Rome." Pat often dons his twenty league boots, these days, but it is he, not the West, who has seen his best days. Rome, whose senate from time to time officially declared this or that caesar a god, will never select Buchanan for the pantheon.

Paris is a tourist destination, these days, nothing more. Eastern liberal college students traditionally spend some time there, casting about for culture and trying out their skill with the lingua franca. Painters pay homage visits to the Louvre, and places made famous by impressionists. Some writers try to be there as young men, and to feel the bad weather come in so they can rise in the night and close the shutters against the wind and the rain, for Paris is a moveable feast.

For all that, Paris is a wedding cake -- baked flour covered with fancy icing. Since fashion is important only to dilettantes, the only significant thing that happens in the entire nation is the production of wine, and the cuisine which has developed to accent the craft of the vine. Both are ephemeral, like the butterfly. Beautiful and briefly here, then gone. So, nothing happens in France. It is a nation of the senses, like a summer afternoon.....

So, other than simple human compassion for injuries to the innocent during these riots, why should anybody care about the fall of France? Well, France has the Bomb....

(Excerpt) Read more at oregonmag.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Government; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: entropy; france; insurgency; intifada; jihad; nuclear; paris; parisriots; quagmire; rust; surrender; terrorism; uprising; west
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1 posted on 11/08/2005 3:10:44 PM PST by WaterDragon
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To: WaterDragon
If Pat is so past it, then why are the liber-weenies so concerned about him??
2 posted on 11/08/2005 3:12:13 PM PST by MCCRon58 (Just say NO to Democrats!)
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To: WaterDragon
Rome conquered the barbarians, then the barbarians conquered Rome

Yes, but by then Rome had moved to a better neighborhood.

3 posted on 11/08/2005 3:14:49 PM PST by RightWhale (Repeal the law of the excluded middle)
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To: WaterDragon
"...trying out their skill with the lingua franca."

Just to be pedantic ... "lingua franca" does not mean the French language.
4 posted on 11/08/2005 3:26:40 PM PST by USFRIENDINVICTORIA (")
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To: WaterDragon

For what it's worth, "I am become death, the destroyer of worlds," is from the Bagavad Gita and was spoken by J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Excellent article. I think we need to send a few copies to Chirac.


5 posted on 11/08/2005 3:32:46 PM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: WaterDragon
But, the question is, is the fall of France the same as the fall of the West, as Buchanan seems to imply? That depends on what is done, or not done, in the capitol of the West in the next few years. Europe, except for the former Soviet slave states, is sitting on a park bench, talking about the events of its youth.
Ouch!
The only energy for freedom left on the planet is right here, in the U.S.A.
<sigh> Yep, and there's no rest for the weary...
6 posted on 11/08/2005 3:33:47 PM PST by jennyp (WHAT I'M READING NOW: Art of Unix Programming by Raymond)
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To: WaterDragon
"Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without your accordian."

ROTFLMAO!!!

7 posted on 11/08/2005 3:34:18 PM PST by fso301
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To: WaterDragon
I wish I could credit the nuclear physicist who watched an explosion, and saw what he had wrought, but I just cannot recall the man's name. I'll guess it was Neils Bohr, but don't quote me on this one. Anyway, as the hellish fireball expanded into the sky, the physicist in question said, "I am become death, the destroyer of worlds."

Is this writer lazy or what? It was Oppenheimer, and he was quoting the Baghavad Gita.

8 posted on 11/08/2005 3:36:43 PM PST by VadeRetro (Liberalism is a cancer on society. Creationism is a cancer on conservatism.)
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To: WaterDragon
"The only energy for freedom left on the planet is right here, in the U.S.A."

Yes, and in the American Heartland--Bush Country--the last great bastion of Western Civilization on earth--but enough! It's still ascendant.

The Leftist enclaves of America are as decadent as fourth century (A.D.) Rome and are detested, as such, by the energetic, freedom loving, and liberal Americans of the Heartland.

Today my wife and I browsed through an antique store filled with exquisite French pieces, including may religious statues and other works of art.

"Next week," the dealer said, "I'm getting in an enormous shipment of priceless antiques from France."

"You mean, the French garage sale has begun?" I asked.

"Yes!" she said.

"I hope they get as much of it over here as they can before the Muslims blow it all up," I replied.

The American Heartland will be still ascendant, still liberal, still powerful, still optimistic, still alive, and still demanding and defending liberty long after darkness has descended upon the decadent and uncivilized hellholes of the world!

This is where the American Dream will live on! And those who live in centuries to come will bless us for preserving our heritage.

9 posted on 11/08/2005 3:40:41 PM PST by Savage Beast (The French secretly want to be aristocrats, repeat the Revolution, and get their heads chopped off.)
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To: Cicero

Can Chirac read?


10 posted on 11/08/2005 3:41:51 PM PST by Savage Beast (The French secretly want to be aristocrats, repeat the Revolution, and get their heads chopped off.)
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To: jennyp

Buchanan is right. But then Larry Leonard is taking only a short term view of the situation. Buchanan is talking about the next 50 years or so, and about Hispanic immigration from the south without integration into US Society.

See: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1517892/posts#comment?q=1

Larry is right for the wrong reasons? Reasons are important
if we are to secure our borders North and South, and ask all immigrants to integrate by learning to speak English, for example. Cultural diversity as a political philosophy just bit the bullet this last week in France. We know where it leads.
fer shure!


11 posted on 11/08/2005 3:41:52 PM PST by Candor7 (Into Liberal Flatulence Goes the Hope of the West)
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To: WaterDragon
Since fashion is important only to dilettantes,

And to women. Millions, billions of women and in fact is a huge industry. How much of the GNP of Frahns is fashion related?

12 posted on 11/08/2005 3:42:08 PM PST by Veto! (Opinions freely dispensed as advice)
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To: USFRIENDINVICTORIA
Just to be pedantic ... "lingua franca" does not mean the French language.

From the 17th century until the end of WW II, it could be argued that French was a lingua franca, certainly in diplomacy. Since that time, English has displaced it.
13 posted on 11/08/2005 3:42:21 PM PST by George W. Bush
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To: USFRIENDINVICTORIA

What does it mean?


14 posted on 11/08/2005 3:42:34 PM PST by Savage Beast (The French secretly want to be aristocrats, repeat the Revolution, and get their heads chopped off.)
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To: USFRIENDINVICTORIA
"lingua franca" does not mean the French language.

I figured it means "tongue that licks stamps."

15 posted on 11/08/2005 3:43:37 PM PST by Larry Lucido
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To: Larry Lucido

"I figured it means "tongue that licks stamps."

Or some kinda fancy-pants french noodle or sumpin' lol.


16 posted on 11/08/2005 3:51:12 PM PST by RegulatorCountry
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To: Savage Beast

Originally, a language for Mediterranean traders -- a mix of various European (Frankish), Arabic and other languages. Now, it's any language that people speaking various different languages can use for communication. In most of the world today, that would be English. Esperanto was an attempt to create a universal lingua franca, which would have no political baggage. Pidgin is another example. When I think about it -- the way things are going in Eurabia, lingua franca might make a comeback.


17 posted on 11/08/2005 4:04:37 PM PST by USFRIENDINVICTORIA (")
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To: George W. Bush

Can't argue with George W. Bush.


18 posted on 11/08/2005 4:07:23 PM PST by USFRIENDINVICTORIA (")
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To: USFRIENDINVICTORIA

Thanks. And I thought I knew everything. ~S


19 posted on 11/08/2005 4:19:24 PM PST by Savage Beast (The French secretly want to be aristocrats, repeat the Revolution, and get their heads chopped off.)
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To: WaterDragon
"I am become death, the destroyer of worlds."

Oppie.

20 posted on 11/08/2005 4:22:15 PM PST by ncountylee (Dead terrorists smell like victory)
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