In unrelated news, kids, if you are having a riot in the area where you live, then burning cars is very much the sensible thing to do….

Dan that’s just a brilliant polemic. Mark my words, it will bring out French youth en masse, (heh) every class and coloration, etc., and no matter what foot they dig with. (Perhaps not the poor devils locked in the attic chained to a sewing machine by evil stepmothers and the like. You don’t see that sort of thing as much nowadays. Even in France, if you can believe it. In any event, their numbers are too small to be decives. What is to be done, can be done, and quite nicely, without them.) Les jeunes camarades français can liberate them at leisure in the detailed, house to house work necessary in any event for the total reordering of “French” society which you no doubt plan to implement a outrance once the state is smashed, no pulverized, its rubble consigned to the trash heap of history.

I know it’s going to work out just as I’ve said, because there is nothing that impresses kids, or insipres them to action, more than advice from older people telling them to do sensible practical things, and telling them what things are sensible and practical. Back in the late 60’s-early 70’s when I was up to my neck in left-wing antiwar extremist politics I always followed whatever words of wisdom of this nature that I was lucky enough to come by, no matter what my own foolish notions were. That just how young people are. It’s their nature, always has been and always will be.

The ‘68 French uprising failed because it got a reputation for jokes and silliness. The young people naturally lost interest, and that was that.

Below is an attempt at insurrection humour. I trust you’ll keep it away from the children.

French bourgeois: Vous Diable!! Zat ees an ‘undred zowzand dollaire BMW!

French insurgent: Nuut ennimaaw.

Listen to the original (MP3 file)

The point, again, is how difficult it is for media chatterers with deeply-held, preconceived notions—be they rightist or left-leaning bloggers, cable network anchors, old media pundits—to put aside a dearly beloved meme and try to understand a situation or event on its own terms, with clear eyes. The media botched reporting of Katrina, and nearly all of the American bloggers are botching their analysis, if you can call it that, of these race riots-cum-car-torching orgy.

Here’s a Communications Workers of America (CWA) strategist on French unions:

in France, unions count only 10% of the workforce as dues-payers but unions negotiate in nearly all industrial sectors based on long standing support for collective bargaining. Unions actively compete against each other – both for membership and votes for government mandated workplace committee members open to all workers in the same workplace or firm. But the country’s various labor federations then find ways to engage in common contract campaigns with management or the government; as a result, nearly 90% of French workers have collective bargaining agreements. The right to strike is well-established and widely supported by members and non-members alike….

In fact, FEMA was incredibly incompetent and we haven’t even now learned the full story behind this incompetence. Moreover, FEMA’s incompetence is much more important to this country because all of us potentially depend on FEMA for responding to a natural disaster. WRT New Orleans and Louisiana, all we can do is shake our heads. WRT FEMA, we fear for what may happen to us or our communities should a natural disaster strike us. There was absolutely nothing overblown about the reporting on FEMA’s incomptence.

heh. I probably spilt beer on you.

In unrelated news, kids, if you are having a riot in the area where you live, then burning cars is very much the sensible thing to do. It has all the same visual impact as burning buildings, it ties up nearly as much time and effort for the authorities and it is much cheaper and less inconvenient when the riot has finished. We had riots in Newcastle and Manchester (? locations) about ten years ago when they set about burning houses and community centres that have still not been rebuilt.

2 interesting statistics:

Level of unionization in France:
1970: 21.5%
2005: 8%

Unemployment
1970: 2.5%
2005: 9.8%

2 interesting statistics:

Level of unionization in France:
1970: 21.5%
2005: 8%

Unemployment
1970: 2.5%
2005: 9.8%

I’m glad I dropped by again. I’ve gotten a perspective I’ve not found anywhere else.

Thanks.

The biggest threat to the spectacular success of our laissez-faire policy toward immigrants—ie, obey the laws, work hard, and you can expect to worship as you choose (whether you’re mormon or sikh or scientologist or venusian or whatever) and be given abundant opportunity to become prosperous and pursue happiness—comes from the cultural left. It’s these clowns who are desperate to cap U Cal Berkeley’s asian-american enrollment, just as the ivy league admission committees sought to cap jewish-american enrollment in the early-mid 20c. You need to get out a bit more.

Err, you are talking about my country? Or is there some America I haven’t heard of, one which “they should learn our language and our customs” isn’t just daily fodder for comedy clubs, work cafeterias and AM radio but a constant subject of attempted legislation?

And give it up on New Orleans. That’s why we have a FEMA - stuff like this way beyond a given state’s resources no matter how competent, like it or not.

The Bush regime sucked ass in this situation, and it wasn’t some “librul media” that made it so, they just reported it.

Sorry to others for going off thread, but how an otherwise lucid fellow like thibaud can suddenly start spouting this crap is something that is gonna be a subject of neuroscientific research very shortly, I’m thinking.

“France utterly lacks self-awareness, doesn’t think about racism, only racism in America. Liberals love France.” Etc.

The column is signed “Ralph Peters,” but I think it’s a bot.
.

Huh? The rioters’ own parents are reportedly planning to march against them, the imams are against them, their neighbors whose cars have been gutted are against them.

The only clear winner from this will be the marketing genius who comes up with an interactive video game called “Grand Torch Auto.” (insert trendy gothic script fonts and thong-clad female avatars with molotov cocktails)