Ya call that a Soccer riot? Let's take em to school boys!
He also wrote the prophetic piece "Barbarians at the gates of Paris" http://www.city-journal.org/html/12_4_the_barbarians.html
...don't tell me they hold out their pinkies
Doogle
Number of cars burned in Baghdad this year = less than 8000
"cars were sometimes festively burnt on Christmas and New Year’s Day"
"between 20 and 40 cars were burnt out every night in France"
WTF. What's the statistics for nightly burnt cars here in the US?
He is very good.
Great article, and thanks for mentioning his earlier piece. It's spot on.
".... a group of 15 who were peacefully breaking into a workshop when the police arrived ...."
Nice - just the right amount of sarcasm.
Not to take anything away from the article, but maybe the irony of the whole situation is becoming so obvious that it is easy to do so....
This guy has a way with words!
How does one pronounce the authors last name? Looks like a joke to me.
Pretty much like people in urban US cities do--blow up stuff in their own neighbourhoods and make the economic conditions afterwards 100% worse. Think of Watts, etc.
BIG BUMP !!!
C'mon France, open up your doors and let some more muzzies in. Don't you want to show the world how tolerant and politically correct you are? At least you can smile and feel good while they are killing you.
We know what to do:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1514489/posts
bump
Well, the ones who got zapped were certainly heroes of resistance.
If Britain is the car-theft champion of the world, France is the vehicle-arson champion.
Hense the term,"Autoflambe".
A short history of French surrenders table of contents
http://www.thbz.org/e2/french_surrender.php
Alésia, Gaul, 52 B.C. Vercingétorix surrenders to Julius Caesar. However, Astérix will always win.
Crécy, France, 1337, and Agincourt, France, 1415. The French surrender to the English, because they don't have the nuclear weapon (yet). A few battles are lost, but the war is not over: Joan of Arc will expel the English from France on her own. Almost.
Montreal, Quebec, 1760. the French lose Quebec. But who cares? What's important for us, French people, is that a Frenchman, Jacques Cartier, has previously discovered Canada.
Paris, France, 31 March 1814. Invading Europe has been a piece of cake for Napoleon Bonaparte (ok, 15 years earlier he abandoned his defeated army in Egypt, but he brought so many Egyptian treasures to France that it was almost a victory). He has brought good French laws, French civilization and the French idea of freedom to countries previously rules by stubborn and old-fashioned kings. But every story has en ending. Napoleon suffers from an illness called hubris, and he now surrenders to anybody who surrendered to him before.
Waterloo, Belgium, 18 June 1815. Napoleon, during his holidays on the island of Elba, gets bored. He comes back and takes over France on his own. Almost. Then he surrenders to Wellington in Belgium, probably because nothing interesting has ever happened there. Read Astérix in Belgium for details about the battle.
France, 26 February 1871. Bismarck's Germany defeats Napoleon's nephew. France loses Alsace and Lorraine. The French are really pissed off. This is only a temporary defeat. Pupils in schools learn that they will take revenge one day. Read on.
France, 1914-1918. France does not surrender. The nation proudly resists Germany during four years and leads an Allied coalition which, owing to the help of the United States and other countries, eventually defeats Germany. By way of consequence, millions of people die, national treasures disappear, large parts of the country are devastated. Pétain becomes a national hero because he has killed 300 times more people in Verdun than Ousama Bin Laden later in New York. France and the Allies force Germany to pay huge and unfair war penalties. The Germans are really pissed off. Read on.
Rethondes, France, 22 June 1940. Pétain is now an old and wise man. That's why he chooses to surrender to the Germans, saving hundreds of thousands of lives. Then he sets up a soft fascist governement, which turns into a hard nazi government. The Jews lose their French nationality, and many of them are sent to Hitler before he even asks for them. Cowardice is not always good, after all. Of course, this is not really a French defeat. The real France is De Gaulle's Free France in London, which will eventually liberate Paris and help the Allies to defeat Germany. End of story.
Dien Bien Phu, Vietnam, 8 May 1954. General de Castries surrenders to the Viet Minh. It's difficult to turn that defeat into a victory, so we'll just try to forget about it. After all, even the US, who thought they had a hell of an army, were to be humiliated later in Vietnam.
Korea, June 2002. The French football team, just like Napoleon, are bored with winning every competition they take part in. So they bring their wives to the World Cup, lose their matches, and leave Korea soon. Then the French media support Senegal because the Senegalese are nice, they speak French and they play in French clubs, so their victories are almost a French success. Later Brazil wins the tournament owing to a stunning performance by Ronaldo. So the journalists remember that Ronaldo's health problems have been cured by French doctors. So, again, this is a kind of French victory, in a way.
2. A short conclusion table of contents
The foreign point of view: France loses wars. However, this country of losers, in spite of all the wars it has fought, has existed as a political unit for more than a millenium with only short interruptions. This is difficult to understand.
The French point of view, which is implicit in schoolbooks and in the media: France doesn't really lose wars. Defeats are temporary, or they are victories from another point of view. France loses when it's not really France. And when someone wins, there must be something French about it. For example, when a foreign movie is good and successful, there is often French money in it. France is a big country when you're inside.
Don't blame the French. National spirit, that warm and comforting sensation you feel when you waive a flag and congratulate yourself, is always based on overstatements and historical inaccuracies. Even in your country.
read later bump