Posted on 11/12/2005 8:21:09 PM PST by smoothsailing
Article published November 12, 2005
France's rampaging elephant
IT'S harder to ignore the elephant in the living room when the elephant is setting fire to it.
The elephant in France - whose name begins with the dreaded M word journalists dare not mention - hasn't been allowed in the living room. He's been locked in the shed out back.
This gives liberals an excuse to blame the rioting in France - which at this writing has entered its third week - on the standard liberal villains, poverty and racism.
But if racism is a cause of the rioting, poverty isn't. As Theodore Dalrymple noted in a prescient article in the City Journal three years ago (The Barbarians at the Gates of Paris), those whom the media choose to describe as "French youths" have cell phones, cars, boom boxes, and gold chains around their necks. "They enjoy a far higher standard of living than they would in the countries of their parents' or grandparents' origin, even if they labored there 14 hours a day."
The economic part of the problem is a lack of social mobility, compounded by idleness. An idle mind is indeed the devil's playground.
Since the lack of social mobility is a product of the welfare state, the standard liberal "solutions" - appeasement, coupled with great gobs of taxpayer money - are unlikely to be effective.
There is no social mobility in France because the economy is stagnant. Unemployment is high. If French scientists have to emigrate to find work, what chance do those with few job skills have of grabbing a rung on the shrinking corporate ladder, much less climbing it?
For the children of immigrants to have the same opportunities in France that they do in the United States, taxes must be cut, regulations slashed,.....
(Excerpt) Read more at toledoblade.com ...
I've always wondered -- how do these guys know which car to torch? How do they know it doesn't belong to one of their fellow gangbangers.
local newspaper today had actually dug up an article blaming the "kid's" parents, specifically the lack of spanking. The reason no spanking? French laws against it and fears of a "policeman knocking at the door" if corporal punishment alleged. Thus the MSM leftists, in order not to attribute the violence to Muslims, are being forced to call for spanking!!
They had an article about this the other day ... they don't torch cars with decals indicating that they are Muslims or that have a koran on the seat.
You might want to check out this post...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1520399/posts?page=16#16
What about cars with the Koran soaking in a bucket of urine?
Hey, it's OK it's ART!
This article quickly and simply defines the french situation and it's causes better than any I've seen yet.
"Hey Yusef, are you sure we're on the right street? This looks like Ahmad's Renault."
You have to be careful since it sloshes around when you corner hard or stop suddenly.
that's the same stupid article, cut more or less.But we had a by-line you're not going to believe: "Scheherezade Faramazi."
bttt
"The cops are petrified of us. Everything must burn," said a poster on an Islamic Web site.
"We aren't going to let up," said another. "The French won't do anything, and soon we will be in the majority here."
That Islamist may be right. Though fewer than 10 percent of Frenchmen are Muslims, more than 30 percent of those under age 20 are.
There is no French law against spanking.
There is not even a law against teachers spanking children. And they DO.There is a law in France against CHILD ABUSE (as in: battering children with fists, whipping them, etc.).
So, the whole pretext here: "We can't hit our kids, therefore we are powerless", in the context of a country where spanking is legal and widely used, is "We can't beat our kids nearly to death, and this renders us powerless."
Presumably because you can beat your kids to death in some countries, but not France.There is another phantom idea out there making the rounds on this thread that France is like Sweden, where all spanking is outlawed.
France is nothing like Sweden.
Stampy Ahkbar!
it's ludicrous that 16+/- days into this embryonic intifada, the only explanation that the AP is putting out is this garbage
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