France Fries
Clever, eh? The frogs have no choice but to surrender to my toweringly superior wit.
Of course, I suppose I'll have to wait at the end of a very long line, judging by continuing developments. These days, the French seem to be surrendering to everybody - at least everybody who follows Mohammed, anyway.
We've checked in on the French Intifada periodically. I suppose that's a product of my particular style, or perhaps temperment - why scatter-shot four or five posts on the same subject over two days when you can post one comprehensive entry instead? And, once again, it's time for another update, because the Muslim uprising in the land of Gaul, like that Limp Bizket song intones, just keeps rollin', rollin', rollin'.
This past Saturday the violence, which had finally taken a breather, ramped back up again:
Despite a government ban on free speech and free assembly in Paris proper, the insurrection didn't miss a beat on Sunday:
Judging by Chirac's virtual disapperance from public view, and then his even less inspiring reappearance, you have to wonder what it would take for the French establishment to finally start giving a damn about their cultural survival. Just listen to Jim Geraghty's account of Black Jacques' recent public comments:
If I'm a Frenchie watching Jacques with a nervous tic of this magnitude, the facial fidgeting alone would convince me he didn't mean a word he was saying. And that's if I didn't already know he is a congenital liar.
But this observation from J-Ger is particularly telling:
In other words, classic denial. They are now inundated with the inevitable result of welfare statism and an unrestricted influx of hostile aliens they've done nothing to culturally assimilate. And rather than finally confront the problem and try to solve it - which would necessarily include conceding, even implicitly, that their ideological worldview is wrong and that the "right-wing" was right all along - they prefer to just pull the covers up over their heads and pretend that the Islamic dagger pointed at their cultural jugular doesn't exist, or will go away by trying more of the same poison that brought them to this crisis. Their pride, in short, means more to them than their freedoms or their lives.
Is it any wonder that Mark Steyn pronounces the doom of "bi-cultural" Europe?
That returns me to my working theory, which I have yet to see echoed anywhere else, but will eventually: Europe's historical tendency to resort to strongmen and dictators in times of crisis.
It is the nature of appeasement that free societies progress to prosperity and decay to decadence. In the latter stage they grow increasingly unwilling to defend themselves in seeming direct proportion to the magnitude and clarity of external threats. They become willing to do anything to duck that day of reckoning, and in so doing steadily whittle down their options until the only one left is the one they sought to avoid all along: war, at maximum disadvantage.
The time is rapidly approaching when the choice for Frenchmen and Belgians and Germans and Dutchmen will be between Islamic domination and whatever secular indigenous alternative that can save them from it. And they'll be stuck with those two options because they willingly discarded all the more palatable ones.
"The French they are a funny race, parlez vous" indeed.
[HT's: Captain's Quarters]
Of course, I suppose I'll have to wait at the end of a very long line, judging by continuing developments. These days, the French seem to be surrendering to everybody - at least everybody who follows Mohammed, anyway.
We've checked in on the French Intifada periodically. I suppose that's a product of my particular style, or perhaps temperment - why scatter-shot four or five posts on the same subject over two days when you can post one comprehensive entry instead? And, once again, it's time for another update, because the Muslim uprising in the land of Gaul, like that Limp Bizket song intones, just keeps rollin', rollin', rollin'.
This past Saturday the violence, which had finally taken a breather, ramped back up again:
A ban on all public meetings likely to provoke disturbances has come into effect in the French capital. The move - imposed under new emergency measures - started at 0900 GMT and will remain in force until Sunday morning. ...
Rioting that erupted two weeks ago is now less intense across France, but unrest continued on Friday night, as more than 500 cars were set on fire.
Two police officers were wounded and 206 people were detained across the country. This was an increase on the previous night, when 395 vehicles were torched and 168 people were arrested.
Despite a government ban on free speech and free assembly in Paris proper, the insurrection didn't miss a beat on Sunday:
Violence has continued in deprived city areas of France with a tally of at least 374 cars burnt out and 212 arrests despite an official ban on public meetings in an attempt to curb riots that have rocked the nation.The "incidents" also included the torching of a nursery school and the attempted arson of a convalescent home. And they continued into Monday, entering their fourth week, a fact that alone ought to give further credence to the notion that this uprising is not a random reaction of disaffected "youths" but an organized strategy of jihad directly aimed at challenging the sovereignty of a Western government. As Jack Kelly observed, "the 'disaffected youth' shout 'Allahu Akbar' as they toss Molotov cocktails into churches and synagogues. They talk of turning Paris into 'Baghdad on the Seine.'" The "kids" know exactly what they're doing, even if the Black Jacques Chirac regime and the Western press insist on indulging in blissful, suicidal ignorance.
In a 17th night of disturbances two police officers were injured Sunday, with one hospitalized after being hit by a metal object in the Paris suburb of La Courneuve.
Incidents involving the burning of cars also spread overnight to several towns in neighbouring Belgium. ...
Judging by Chirac's virtual disapperance from public view, and then his even less inspiring reappearance, you have to wonder what it would take for the French establishment to finally start giving a damn about their cultural survival. Just listen to Jim Geraghty's account of Black Jacques' recent public comments:
“We must restore… (his eyebrows leap up his forehead) order… (eyebrows come back down, and brow furrows) we must ensure… (his eyebrows leap up his forehead again) public safety… (back down again, looking serious) We must demonstrate (eyebrows bounce back up high again, looking inspired) the strength of the Republic…”
If you are a French citizen, did your government do anything in the past two weeks and change to inspire any confidence or faith whatsoever?...
If I'm a Frenchie watching Jacques with a nervous tic of this magnitude, the facial fidgeting alone would convince me he didn't mean a word he was saying. And that's if I didn't already know he is a congenital liar.
But this observation from J-Ger is particularly telling:
...I’ll note something - watching and reading the European media – EuroNews, Sky News, BBC, CNN International, the International Herald Tribune, etc. in recent days, I’ve sensed more fear in the coverage than I have after terrorist attacks. Maybe it’s because Europe is used to terrorist attacks; al-Qaeda bombings in Madrid or London are only bloodier recreations of earlier IRA and ETA attacks. But European elites seemed to feel the reverberations of these urban violence in their bones. They know this is only a mild taste of what could happen next; if the folks happy burning cars and municipal buildings move on to more organized methods of terrorism to express their hatred and disdain for the civilization that surrounds them. [emphases added]
In other words, classic denial. They are now inundated with the inevitable result of welfare statism and an unrestricted influx of hostile aliens they've done nothing to culturally assimilate. And rather than finally confront the problem and try to solve it - which would necessarily include conceding, even implicitly, that their ideological worldview is wrong and that the "right-wing" was right all along - they prefer to just pull the covers up over their heads and pretend that the Islamic dagger pointed at their cultural jugular doesn't exist, or will go away by trying more of the same poison that brought them to this crisis. Their pride, in short, means more to them than their freedoms or their lives.
Is it any wonder that Mark Steyn pronounces the doom of "bi-cultural" Europe?
Europe's present biculturalism makes disaster a certainty. One way to avoid it would be to go genuinely multicultural, to broaden the Continent's sources of immigration beyond the Muslim world. But a talented ambitious Chinese or Indian or Chilean has zero reason to emigrate to France, unless he is consumed by a perverse fantasy of living in a segregated society that artificially constrains his economic opportunities yet imposes confiscatory taxation on him in order to support an ancient regime of indolent geriatrics.
France faces tough choices and, unlike Baghdad, in Paris you can't even talk about them honestly. As Jean-Claude Dassier, director-general of the French news station LCI, told a broadcasters' conference in Amsterdam, he has been playing down the riots on the following grounds: "Politics in France is heading to the Right and I don't want Right-wing politicians back in second or even first place because we showed burning cars on television."
Oh, well. You can understand why the Quai d'Orsay is relaxed about Iran becoming the second Muslim nuclear power. As things stand, France is on course to be the third. You heard it here first. You probably won't hear it on Mr Dassier's station at all. [emphases added]
That returns me to my working theory, which I have yet to see echoed anywhere else, but will eventually: Europe's historical tendency to resort to strongmen and dictators in times of crisis.
It is the nature of appeasement that free societies progress to prosperity and decay to decadence. In the latter stage they grow increasingly unwilling to defend themselves in seeming direct proportion to the magnitude and clarity of external threats. They become willing to do anything to duck that day of reckoning, and in so doing steadily whittle down their options until the only one left is the one they sought to avoid all along: war, at maximum disadvantage.
The time is rapidly approaching when the choice for Frenchmen and Belgians and Germans and Dutchmen will be between Islamic domination and whatever secular indigenous alternative that can save them from it. And they'll be stuck with those two options because they willingly discarded all the more palatable ones.
"The French they are a funny race, parlez vous" indeed.
[HT's: Captain's Quarters]
posted by JASmius at 8:37 AM
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