France - French government announces measures to appease rioters

Le Monde via Babelfish ^ | November 8, 2005

[HardStarboard]

>>>France gets tough by asking, "HOW HIGH?" <<<

It's not "How High"!.....its "we have grabbed the ankles, and to please you further we will try to touch our elbows to our shoetops!"

[BJClinton]

But it's pretty cool that we got to see France surrender. I think every generation should get to see the surrender at least once.

[giobruno]

Not only is the decree stupid, but even more idiotic is the idea that they would actually adhere to it. I think is is reductionistic to think a free market alone will solve this; a greater commitment to capitalism will help, but must coincide with a strong commitment to rule of law, property rights, and the insistence that western cultural norms be enforced. The libertarians are as wrong as the Marxists to view man as a offshoot of his economic environment (homo economicus); men are animated by many things that economists cannot fathom. That said, socialism is also an economic theory established on a social theory about what human beings are and what they desire most, and it is wrong on all the first principles.

[LikeLight]

Lest anyone wrongly conclude that the destruction in France is confined to cars, the following pictures and snippets were gleaned just from my own FR posts over the last few days, from dozens and dozens more available on various press websites...

The one below is inside a Kindergarten...

The one below is one from inside a police station after arson in Evreux...

And this last one is a school at Bruay sur Escaut, near Valenciennes...

Some other press reports...

Saint-Etienne: Arsonists destroy two schools and a bus on 6-7 November

Aulnay-sous-Bois: Shops set ablaze

Bordeaux: Employment agency office hit by a petrol bomb on 7-8 November

This night the Protestant church of Meulan (78) underwent a terrorist attack. The roof is completely devastated. I do not know if the interior is completely destroyed or not.

a gymnasium was set on fire in the Paris suburb of Noisy Le Grand, early November 6, 2005

Firefighters extinguished a fire at a kindergarden Sunday night in Lille. Youths fired at police and hurled flaming Molotov cocktails at churches, schools, cars and a daycare center in an 11th night of mayhem in France

A school was torched in Savigny-sur-Orge.

The Public Treasury in Trappes was targeted by an arson.

A police station was smashed by a vehicle in a suburb of Rouen.

A pre-school was torched in Saint-Etienne

In Grasse, the offices of the Nice-Matin newspaper suffered important damage after being targeted by arsonists.

In Arras, 2 large stores were looted and burned (But and St Maclou). Over 10,000 square meters were lost to the flames.

[rattrap]

rowr! FOX has nothing on french news.

[A message]

Top notch, great post LikeLight.

Aw, the fruits of ones labors, barbarians.

Uncivilized, uncouth, barbarians.

Amazing to think in the 21st century we still have to deal with pirates and barbarians.

[TaxRelief]

It goes without saying that property rights are intrinsic to a free market. How could capitalism exist if property could be easily confiscated? Would I buy a turkey from you if there were no laws allowing me to protect my turkey from thieves? Would I buy wood from you, to build a house, if my land could be taken and transferred to a councilmember's friend?

But are western cultural norms essential to a thriving democracy? How do you define western cultural norms?

A free economy simply provides a platform for individuals to pursue their own dreams. In no other society can each individual determine his own fate and his own relationships.

[OB1kNOb]

[Diva]

The white and gold colors of the Bourbon flag are a reference to the colors of the crusader flag, that is the flag of the kingdom of Jerusalem which was a gold cross on a white feild. In point of fact the Bourbon flag is a royalist flag, I contest that even the weak Bourbons would not have allowed what's going on right now to happen. At least not without sending in some Swiss mercenaries. If you must know the weakness of France can be traced to the Revolution, when they cut out their own soul and learned to despise honor.

[giobruno]

There is a huge corpus of literature on why free markets alone are insufficient, but a particularly good one is H. de Soto's recent effort:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0465016154/103-5602383-4616611?v=glance&n=283155&s=books&v=glance

I'm well aware of the Austrian School and their key assertions, but they are only describing a facet of society and an incomplete man. The trouble is what men dream. Describing liberal democracy, Leo Strauss said it was "low, but solid." Leaving aside the question of whether those dreams are either prudent or desirable is a key weakness of classical liberalism, and why I do not consider it a real philosophy.

How do I define western cultural norms? Well, since we are talking about France, I would begin with Denis Diderot and the Enlightenment and work from there. Basically, compelled assimilation into French cultural mores; a rejection of competing beliefs about how practices from Algeria or Morocco or Ghana are acceptable in France; a decisive rejection that alternative cultural models are viable alongside the dominant French cultural model.

[TaxRelief]

How would Democracy and a free market economy be a hindrance to man's dreamy tendencies, and why should government be involved with the spiritual aspects of humanity?

Are you suggesting that man can only achieve a state of personal utopia within a culturally homogenous society?

[TheSpottedOwl]

I didn't know that. As a matter of fact, I really didn't give much thought to where we got the notion of using a white flag for surrender. Now I do : )

[supercat]

That profile reminds me of Bela Lugosi.

[gotribe]

France grabs its ankles.

[gondramB]

You shouldn't be allowed to be in government until you get the basic principle of human behavior - when you give rewards for something, you get more of it, not less.


Give rewards for illegal immigration and illegal immigration goes up and so on....

[Victoria Delsoul]

Good grief! Well, this is where France is going after all.

[TaxRelief]

I will read de Soto this weekend, if you will read "The Road to Serfdom". Deal?

[KarlInOhio]

To end the rioting the French government will move from Paris southward, leaving the northern and western segments of France to Islamisist control. They just had to dust off some of the old maps.

[LibertarianInExile]

I don't think immigration policy is an issue any more--they're all EU countries. As soon as you're in one, you're in the other just swimmingly, since there are no borders in the EU world any more.

[modest proposal]

oh hoho ho

this is rich

for years i have been wandering around saying the muslims were trying to take over europe by building up a population base. if the country was 30 percent muslim..just imagine what kind of crap they would get up to

please keep that out of the states