Paris Burning: How Empires End

Human Events Online ^ | 11/7/05 | Patrick J. Buchanan

[B Knotts]

The Romans conquered the barbarians—and the barbarians conquered Rome.

So it goes with empires. And comes now the penultimate chapter in the history of the empires of the West.

This is the larger meaning of the ritual murder of Theo Van Gogh in Holland, the subway bombings in London, the train bombings in Madrid, the Paris riots spreading across France. The perpetrators of these crimes in the capitals of Europe are the children of immigrants who were once the colonial subjects of the European empires.

At this writing, the riots are entering their 12th night and have spread to Rouen, Lille, Marseille, Toulouse, Dijon, Bordeaux, Strasbourg, Cannes, Nice. Thousands of cars and buses have been torched and several nursery schools fire-bombed. One fleeing and terrified woman was doused with gasoline and set ablaze.

The rioters are of Arab and African descent, and Muslim. While almost all are French citizens, they are not part of the French people. For never have they been assimilated into French culture or society. And some wish to remain who and what they are. They live in France but are not French.

The rampage began October 27 when two Arab youths, fleeing what they mistakenly thought was a police pursuit, leapt onto power lines and were electrocuted. The two deaths ignited the riots.

[Alberta's Child]

. . . many Lopez, Gomez, Garcia, etc. don't even speak Spanish.

That's a very good point. How many people know that 1950s pop star Ritchie Valens was actually a young guy from Los Angeles named Richard Valenzuela, and he had to be trained to sing the words to his trademark song "La Bamba" phonetically -- because he didn't speak any Spanish?

[SaxxonWoods]

I'm still trying to figure out how these "impoverished youths" afford cell phones, internet use, scooters, and the gas to drive the scooters, as well as the gas for the bombs. Gas is almost $7.00 (American) in France!

BTW, did you know that Chirac's approval rating in France was 35%----before all this started???? Most of teh French can't stand Chirac, and like America. His main support is Parisan urban elites, celebs and academia (sound familiar?).

[Clemenza]

The poll that Patsy was quoting was of first generation Mexican immigrants. According to this poll, about 58% believed that the SW belonged to Mexico. Not a bad figure, considering Mexicans have it beaten in their head by the public schools down there that "the land was stolen."

If such a poll was taken among second and third generation, then I would be concerned.

[Truthsearcher]

Your point has nothing to do with what I said.

I was refering to the point made in the article that suggested that the Muslim uprising in Europe is a preview what what the Mexican immigrants will do in the U.S. in the near future Which I find to be nonsense.

[Dionysiusdecordealcis]

I think Buchanan is right to point out that huge bodies of unassimilated immigrants in the long run doom any culture. Those who are protesting this piece are equally right to point out that Hispanics are in many ways more assimilable than Muslims but even there, a strong enough host culture under the pluralism originally envisioned by the Constitution could assimilate any Muslims willing to accept the principles. (Whether they would thereby necessarily embark on a path of secularization, I don't know--I think Islam makes it much harder to accept the pluralism-bargain we started out with. But it really doesn't matter much because we abandoned that approach to religious pluralism when SCOTUS started legislating public secularism.) I think that the fundamental problem is not how assimilable or unassimilable the immigrants are but whether the host culture still has enough cohesion to assimilate the newcomers.

France clearly does not. Old Europe has been hollowing out it's culture now for at least 200 years, since the French Revolution, if not before. Already by WWI it was an empty shell. It is a testimony to the edifice built by Christianity that it lasted for 500 years after being split in two culturally in the 1500s.

Our culture is not quite so deracinated, but is a long way down that path toward ruin. In order to assimilate Hispanics (and immigrant Muslims who wish to be assimilated--the others should not be permitted in--though how to distinguish them would be a nightmare and would be slapped down by the liberal thought police, which is one more reason why SCOTUS has to be transformed), we not only have to change border policy, get rid of silly multicultural and ethnic enclave education approaches etc. but we also have to find our way to some sort of consensus about what really holds us together as Americans. The Red-State/Blue-State divide is in many ways a cultural divide, with Blue-Staters in many cases taking a self-loathing attitude toward the remnants of the culture that produced them. Perhaps the underlying center is strong enough to reassert itself--some recent electoral trends indicate that, but the divide between Libertarian conservatives and religious/social conservatives shares some characteristics of the divide between Blue and Red-Staters. It's complicated. I am not really at all optimistic (a rational analysis) but remain hopeful (a religious or ethical virtue).

[Spiff]

Sky-is-falling arguments against the Mexicans this time instead of the neocons (Jews). Buchanan loses all credibility with this cr@p. Yes. Control the borders. Yes. Deport illegals. But bogus statistics undermine efforts to do just that.

From the Migration Policy Institute:

Mexico represents the largest source of immigration to the United States. Of the 32.5 million foreign born covered in the March 2002 Current Population Survey, 9.8 million or 30 percent were from Mexico.

From the Migration Policy Institute:

The largest immigrant group in the United States is composed of people born in Mexico, according the Census 2000. This group is also growing rapidly. And while Mexican immigrants are still settling in "traditional" destination states, such as California and Texas, over the last decade the foreign born from Mexico, like other immigrant groups, have begun moving to "non-traditional" settlement areas such as Georgia.

• There are approximately 9.9 million foreign born from Mexico in the United States.
• There are more foreign born from Mexico in the United States than any other immigrant group.
• Between 1990 and 2000, the number of foreign born from Mexico in the United States more than doubled.
• The foreign born from Mexico make up three percent of the total US population, but 12 percent of the total population of California.
• Mexico continues to be the leading source of unauthorized immigration into the United States.
• About one in every five immigrants who obtained legal permanent resident status in 2002 was from Mexico.

Bogus statistics, my ass.

[caryatid]

Psst! Don't tell the French ... LOL

[Dionysiusdecordealcis]

And are you so sure you understand Coughlin, if you are so convinced Buchanan is his acolyte? Evidence, please.

[B Knotts]

Yes. I'm familiar with that stuff. But it really is a fringe movement.

I do think we need to crack down on illegal immigration, though. And we should design our legal immigration system to be beneficial both to the immigrants and to the country as a whole.

Multiculturalism is a miserable failure. Immigrants, while they can certainly retain their ethnic identities in certain specific (and limited) contexts, must also become part of the whole, in order for a cohesive society and culture to exist.

That, I think, is the lesson from what is going on in France, in Europe, and across the West.

[RoseofTexas]

Drudge:
"Citizens Mount Anti-Riot Protests"

THIS is getting good!....gotta run to the store for popcorn! :-)

[Edit35]

Apartheid for France is good...

Any society which eats froglegs for dinner is a sitting duck, especially to an army of Muslim thug terrorists.

[dagnabbit]

Worth noting that our government continues to pour Islam into this country..to the tune of 100,000 new foreign, LEGAL immigrant muslims yearly.

There's a reason Islam is "the fastest growing religion in the USA". Our government sees to it that it is.

Birth Country	Legal USA Immigrants 2002	Muslim population percentage	Estimated 2002 Muslim Legal Immigrants
Pakistan	9,415	97	9,133
Iran	7,230	99	7,158
India	50,228	14	7,032
Philippines	45,250	14	6,335
Nigeria	7,872	75	5,904
Ethiopia	6,635	65	4,313
Bangladesh	4,616	85	3,924
Egypt	3,348	94	3,147
Morocco	3,137	99	3,096
Turkey	3,029	100	3,023
Jordan	2,927	95	2,781
Albania	3,362	75	2,522
Russia	13,935	18	2,508
Somalia	2,444	100	2,444
Iraq	2,450	97	2,377
Lebanon	2,956	70	2,069
Syria	1,938	90	1,744
Indonesia	1,805	95	1,715
Sudan	1,883	85	1,601
Yemen	1,382	99	1,368
Ghana	4,410	30	1,323
Uzbekistan	1,445	88	1,272
Afghanistan	1,252	100	1,252
Guyana	6,809	15	1,021
Sierra Leone	1,492	65	970
Kenya	3,209	30	947
Algeria	759	99	751
Niger	808	91	735
Saudi Arabia	735	100	735
Romania	3,655	20	731
Azerbaijan	746	93	697
Togo	1,187	55	653
Kuwait	707	89	629
Malaysia	1,200	52	624
Serbia and Mont.	2,994	19	569
Bulgaria	3,825	14	536
Liberia	1,766	30	530
Cameroon	927	55	510
Senegal	522	95	496
Eritrea	556	80	445
Thailand	3,126	14	438
Israel	2,741	14	384
UAE	380	96	365
Tanzania	554	65	360
Tunisia	353	98	346
Cote d'Ivoire	483	60	290
Kyrgyzstan	356	76	271
United Kingdom	9,527	3	257
Macedonia	653	30	196
Germany	5,064	3	172
Canada	11,350	1	168
France	2,375	7	166
Uganda	455	36	164
Libya	140	100	140
Mauritania	131	100	131
Guinea-Bissau	176	70	123
Fiji	1,095	11	120
Burma	1,193	10	119
Tajikistan	137	85	116
Sri Lanka	1,246	9	112
Mali	124	90	112
Singapore	582	17	99
Nepal	2,095	4	84
Georgia	735	11	81
Oman	76	100	76
Turkmenistan	84	87	73
Qatar	72	100	72
Argentina	3,129	2	63
Japan	5,971	1	60
Bahrain	59	100	59
Zimbabwe	358	15	54
Panama	1,164	4	47
Suriname	180	25	45
South Africa	2,210	2	44
Zambia	280	15	42
Cyprus	123	33	41
Australia	1,836	2	38
Brazil	6,331	1	38
Hong Kong	3,574	1	36
Sweden	963	4	35
Burkina Faso	60	50	30
Netherlands	981	3	29
Guinea	29	95	28
Cambodia	2,263	1	23
Malawi	62	35	22
Italy	1,644	1	16
Djibouti	16	94	15
Maldives	15	100	15
Burundi	74	20	15
Angola	59	25	15
Croatia	1,153	1	14
Brunei	20	63	13
Benin	76	15	11
Mauritius	57	20	11
Mozambique	36	29	10
Greece	651	2	10
Madagascar	40	20	8
Chad	8	85	7
Mongolia	153	4	6
Malta	37	14	5
Norway	320	2	5
Cen. African Rep.	6	55	3
Comoros	3	86	3
Swaziland	23	10	2
Namibia	40	5	2
Aruba	27	5	1
Botswana	27	5	1
United States	32	4	1
Rwanda	109	1	1
Bhutan	15	5	1
Slovenia	64	1	1
Reunion	3	20	1
Lesotho	5	10	1
TOTAL			95,577

[B Knotts]

the real wonderment on France is not that it fell, but how did it last so long

LOL

Good point!

[Walkin Man]

Thousands of cars and buses have been torched and several nursery schools fire-bombed. One fleeing and terrified woman was doused with gasoline and set ablaze.

The barbarians aren't at the gates in Europe, they are all inside. Invited guests.

When you allow a poisonous snake access to your home, don't be surprised when he strikes and kills your wife and children.

He is a poisonous snake after all!

The USA has done the exact same thing that France and the rest of Europe is guilty of.

The snake is coiled and ready to strike right here in the good ol USA too my friends.

[peyton randolph]

I don't think Buchanan is a racist.

One cannot find a single issue with respect to Israel and the Jews in which Buchanan's views are separate and distinct from that of Coughlin. This is not surprising given that Buchanan's father was a big Coughlin supporter and the kids undoubtedly grew up listening to Coughlin because of it. Coughlin became such an embarrassment to the Catholic Church because of his anti-semitic views that they ordered him to stop his radio broadcasts.

[RoseofTexas]

Just one problem pal...We have the GUNS! Let them try and see how many cars they can torch here in the USA!
I guarantee you, I'll be standing next to MY car with a ....you get the gist of it!

[R.W.Ratikal]

France is a socialist country. If the Muslims take over the running of the country it is indeed lost. Under socialism there is no way to accumulate capital even if the Islamics knew what to do with it.

All great civilizations were pulled down by exactly the same mobs now destroying France. The French are so involved with the Middle East its leaders dare not do anything harsh to the rioters.

France must make up its mind in the next few days whether it wants to continue as a civilized nation or surrender to a group of people who have not advanced in 2000 years.

[expatpat]

The British gave up India in or about 1947, hardly 300 years ago. Both the Brits and the French still have one or two colonial islands left, I believe.

[Deaf Smith]

I would like to think that Texas is prepared.

[R.W.Ratikal]

France is a socialist country. If the Muslims take over the running of the country it is indeed lost. Under socialism there is no way to accumulate capital even if the Islamics knew what to do with it.

All great civilizations were pulled down by exactly the same mobs now destroying France. The French are so involved with the Middle East its leaders dare not do anything harsh to the rioters.

France must make up its mind in the next few days whether it wants to continue as a civilized nation or surrender to a group of people who have not advanced in 2000 years.