Free Republic

Paris --- The European press on Monday changed tack in the row over Pope Benedict's comments on jihad, switching its critical focus from the pontiff to questioning whether the scale of Muslim outrage was justified. Many European papers lamented that the moderate voices of Islam were being drowned out by hardliners and open debate was being thwarted by political correctness. In London, the conservative Daily Telegraph editorial said that 'now is the time for other churchmen to tell their Muslim counterparts that, in addition to dishing out criticism, they must learn how to take it'. French newspaper Le Figaro said...

It was close one, but last week, the U.S. lost the war in Iraq. I only have this stack of Brit mags and newspapers to go by, but apparently, what happened is that what Dominique de Villepin began describing as a "spiral of violence" has now turned into a maelstrom of mayhem, with the U.S. military flailing wildly and ineffectively against a brave cadre of rebels in Iraq, while in Washington, Bush is taking the advice of the French, who know how to handle this kind of situation, and running for cover to insure his reelection. Meanwhile, according to Max...

PARIS — At a recent dinner party held at a friend's country house here, I was seated next to a charming young Cambridge thing, an anthropologist doing the European lecture circuit. Not counting my wife, she was definitely the table's beauty-on-duty, and with a huge roast beef in front of me, wine to the right and her to the left, I was a happy Yankee in the land of King Jack. We discussed weather and earthquakes, Italian cars, and African history. I told jokes; she laughed! Finally, she leaned closer, looked me in the eye and asked, "So what...