Youth of France Declare War on Multiculturalism (Video)

There is a youth movement in France that seems to be gaining steam.  It is called "Generation Identitaire."  Would our own youth wake up and follow suit.  Hear what they have to say.

Atlas is Shrugging in France: High Earners Prepare to Depart

The U.K. Telegraph reports that the affluent of France are preparing to depart their new socialist president and move elsewhere, mainly to England.  Just as in "Atlas Shrugged," those capitalists who are robbed of their production by socialist greed will simply move their wealth, their productivity, their jobs and their tax revenues, elsewhere.  Atlas is shrugging in France.

The Telegraph reports:

Mr Hollande plans to implement a 75pc tax rate on earnings over €1m (£800,000), on top of a 45pc rate for people making €150,000 or more. He is also expected to raise "wealth taxes" on property assets and end his predecessor's tax incentives to lure bankers back home.

In addition, France's high earners feel increasingly unwelcome in a country now led by a man who has admitted: "I don't like the rich." So where are they looking? London. It comes as no surprise – while Hollande prepares to raise taxes, over here David Cameron is cutting the 50pc tax rate for income above £150,000 to 45pc.

Read it all here. 

Democracy Doesn't Work

Greek Ruins

France and Greece, both insolvent or nearly so, have rejected austerity measures and candidates in their recent elections.  By "austerity measures," they mean living within your means, reducing "free" government services so prior services provided on credit can finally be paid for.

Alas, in a Democracy, the masses can vote themselves the keys to the Treasury.  Now there are only dead moths in the French and Greek treasuries, but that's okay, because the credit cards are still there.

Liberalism leads only to ruin.  It teaches the simple-minded masses that the world owes them a living, that government has endless free stuff to hand out, that there are no consequences to living like the proverbial drunken sailor.  Right now the French and Greek voters are like drug addicts; they don't care if stealing the rent money from mom's purse will result in homelessness, they must have that heroin hit RIGHT NOW.  Let tomorrow take care of itself.

Hmm, if the Left was to have a motto, that would be it.  Let tomorrow take care of itself.

I am almost at the point where I have concluded that democracy doesn't work, at least not in its present form.  Critics of democracy point out that it carries the seeds of its own destruction, and perhaps that is an accurate observation.  Democracy is the rule of the mob, and mobs are extremist and psychotic.  The French peasants who stormed the Bastille were such a mob.  Instead of celebrating July 14th as Bastille Day, it should be a day of national mourning in France.  It was a day when madness replaced civilization.

Perhaps democracy could work, if there were legally enforceable bars to leftism, liberalism and socialism.  Some examples might be (1) allowing only those who own property to vote (as in the early days of our founding); (2) allowing only those who are self supporting to vote; (3) assessing an equal tax on everyone, including the so-called poor, i.e. by a flat tax on gross income, so that those who vote for higher taxes will feel the effects of it in their own pocketbooks.  When people are spending their own money, rather than someone else's, they tend to be a lot more conservative.

In Western Civilization, our societies have devolved, thanks to "progressive" politics, to a self-consuming, self-destructing mob.  Ruin is inevitable.  This is not what the Founding Fathers intended.  They did not intend to establish a mobocracy, but a Constitutional Republic, wherein the rights and property of the individual were protected against the caprice of the mob, where even the majority is limited in what it can do.

Many Jews Preparing to Leave France for Israel

Far left Francois Hollande has many ties to anti-Israeli populations, and as a result many Jews are now preparing to leave France for Israel.

Breitbart says:

According to the Jewish Agency for Israel, over 5,000 Jews from throughout France attended a fair in the heart of Paris about immigrating to Israel. The fair was attended by the Chairman of the Jewish Agency, former member of Knesset, Soviet expatriate and dissident Natan Sharansky. “I cannot recall having seen such a massive number of people interested in aliyah [immigration] since the days when lines of people stretched out of the Israeli embassy in Moscow,” said Sharansky. The fair took place the same day as the election that rousted Nicholas Sarkozy, a reliable anti-Iran voice in Europe, from power, replacing him with the far less reliable Francois Hollande, a socialist with heavy ties to anti-Israel populations.

Francistan now is on the verge of becoming both a collectivst, Islamic cesspool.

Read it all here. 

I am happy I was able to visit France in 2007, while it was still part of Western Civilization.

French"citizens" expressed their enthusiasm after the results with red flags and flags from Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, and "Palestine" (See photo above).

Hollande, Captain of the Titanic?

Here's an excellent Photoshop from France, regarding the recent election of socialist Francois Hollande as President of France (and Captain of the Titanic?).

It reads:  CAPTAIN OF TITANIC - Ready for Departure?

Ah yes, French voters.  Enjoy your voyage...to the bottom.

French Electorate: "Socialism Has Never Worked, Let's Give It Another Try!"

France has again shot itself in the foot by electing a socialist president in Francois Hollande. This French conservative cartoon tells the story. It reads: "The catastrophe was announced 3,000 years ago. The Mayans were right!"   The Mayan reference is to the ancient Mayan calendar which foretold the end of the world in 2012.

Yes, people are basically greedy and lazy...they want what others produce. They want free stuff. They are always in search of economic perpetual motion, in which lots of goodies flow from the destruction of the goodie-makers, productivity is punished and sloth rewarded.  They never seem to learn: If you want more you must produce more.  That would, however, require work.

The French Ship of State Is Leaking, French Leftists Drill Holes to Let the Water Out

The French Have Decided to Go Down With the Ship

Ah, les Français!  Leur char de l'état se coule vite, mais l'on a la solution!

Yes, their ship of state is sinking fast, but they have the solution!  Drill holes in the bottom of the boat to let the water out!  Brilliant!

Feeling a little sick? Swallow arsenic!

It appears that France, suffering from economic woes that can only come from high government spending, a huge welfare roll, and lots of socialism, knows how to fix it!  Vote for a socialist for president!  Yes, that will do the trick!

French logic:  when your house is burning down, throw some gasoline on it!

Brilliant logic, French people.  Que vous êtes tellement intelligents!

Charlie Hebdo: French Magazine's Cover Cartoon of Muhammad Draws a Molotov Cocktail

Earlier this week a French satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, published an issue naming Muhammad to be its Editor-In-Chief, including a cartoon of the glorious "Prophet" on the cover.  The name of the magazine was temporarily renamed "Charia Hebdo."  (Charia, or Sharia, is Islamic law.)  Muslims in Paris quickly fire-bombed the offices of the magazine, destroying all of its property and equipment.  Charlie Hebdo is fighting back, by printing more of the issue and making it available to anyone who wants to read it.

Below is the cover that the Followers of the Bearded Imposter (also known as Muhmmad) found so obectionable.  It reads in French, "100 lashes if you don't die laughing."  (More outrageous Hebdo covers below the fold.)

France Deports Illegal Immigrants, is Compared to Third Reich by EU Justice Commissioner

For the past few months France has seen an incursion of gypsies across its borders.  The gypsies, or Roma, are nomadic people from Romania who have set up camps in France.  Per a report in the Associated Press:

In recent weeks, French authorities have cleared out some 100 illegal immigrant camps, most inhabited by Gypsies — also known as Roma, a nomadic ethnic group believed to have roots in the Indian subcontinent.

The gypsies, or Roma, have been given some money by the French government and returned to Romania via commercial airlines.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has predictably drawn substantial criticism from liberal European politicians, inferring that the deportations are "racist." Once again we see the leftist brain hard-wired to act against its own self interests:

Earlier this week, EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding sharply criticized France's deportations of Roma and linked them to France's mass deportations of Jews during World War II. She later expressed regret over the wartime comparison, but maintained her threat to take France to court for targeting an ethnic group in the expulsions.

French conservatives have voiced disgust and outrage over Reding's slander and threats.  La Pensee Neoconservatrice had a post "Vivian Reding Should Shut Her Trap."  The article charges Reding with ignorance of history.  They write:

Perhaps Reding doesn't know that the Third Reich did not deport gypsies by [commercial] aircraft, nor give them a sum of money so they wouldn't be broke, nor coordinate the deportations with the country of origin.

Another writer at La Pensee Conservatrice criticizes the liberal notion, as voiced by Danielle Mitterand, wife of the former French president, that "we are not the earth's owners, but only its stewards" and therefore people should be allowed to go wherever they want, regardless of national borders.

Dave writes:

It's been a long time since we've heard from the bigamist President's wife.  A long time since we've heard her far left positions, her politically correct garbage, and to be honest, no one was the worse for it.  She, wife of the French president who found Fidel Castro a formidable ally in the fight for freedom, now has declared that "we are not the owners of the earth, but only its stewards."

Ecological expert?  Not at all, the old battle ax was referring to the unacceptable policy of the government against the gypsies, a "nomadic people whom they want to prevent from crossing borders."

So for Danielle Mitterand, eternal Care Bear, anyone can move anywhere because the Earth does not belong to us.

I therefore advise the Romas who live in fear of being returned to Romania with their little government-alloted nest egg, to make their camp at the home of Mrs. Mitterand:  her property is not her own and she will be overjoyed to welcome them, right?

I suspect that she won't really do it, but if all the people of good conscience who criticize the government [over these deportations], gave lodging to only one family in their homes, the problem would be quickly solved!

It's interesting to note that illegal or unwanted immigration is not only a problem for the United States; it is felt also in Europe, with the same results:  liberals want to erase national borders and scream "racism" (or some variant thereof) against all who disagree.

French Conservative and Anti-Islamization Movements Ignored by the Press

I received the following message from reader Atikva, who is French but now a citizen of the United States.  It demonstrates that the tactics of the mainstream media are the same in France as in the U.S.:  ignore all events that do not further the leftist agenda.

On June 18, 2010 at a rally in the place de l'Etoile, to protest against the islamisation of France, gathered about 2,000 people. Not one political or famous personality was present, not one. The only reason why it was at all reported by a few media was due to the fact that the municipality's decision to ban the "Apéritif géant" had made headlines the previous days - but they downplayed the number of participants to 800. 

The following day, some 10,000 Chinese living in Paris took to the streets to protest against the attacks by young muslims they have had to endure for too long in the districts where they live - not a peep from the media. Again, a few days later, there was yet another rally of some 15,000 people in favor of Gilad Shalit (he has double nationality, Israeli and French). The media were mum again. 

The French media follow the same leftist tactics than the US media when it comes to any action by "we the people": they ignore it or minimize it, and those who would join the resistance have no way of getting organized. 

It doesn't mean that the French are not fed up and willing to fight to recover their independence, but short of starting a civil war they have no means of reversing the trend - not one valid candidate for whom to vote, no recourse to referendum (vetoed by government), and the dictum of the European Community to hamper any attempt at reversing the deadly trend.

UPDATE:  Atikva describes France's loss of sovereignty (to the European Union) to be a major factor in its continuing demise:

Stogie, there are no frontiers any more between members of the European Union, and the latter has decreed that immigration from "developing countries" was a good thing. Even if the French government wanted to stop the invasion, it couldn't close the country's borders and the immigrants would continue to pour in from other European countries. And the EU has just asked Switzerland, who is not even a member, to ignore the vote of the Swiss people on the erection of minarets, just to show how impossible it has become for the EU members to protect their own countries!

Algerians in Paris Break and Burn Things After US Soccer Win

La Pensee Neoconservatrice, a French blog, describes Algerian antics in Paris after the U.S. soccer team defeated Algeria.  This post, like the last, shows the cultural aggression that occurs when unlimited numbers of Muslims are allowed to immigrate without any requirement to assimilate.

LPN tells the tale (translated into English by Stogie):

Ah, how beautifully integrated they are into France.  When the USA [soccer team] pulled out a win in the last minute (after being refused a perfectly legitimate goal in the first half), fans of the Algerian team took advantage of the defeat to engage in their favorite sport:  rioting!

Modestly referred to as "incidents" by the media, disgruntled fans broke shop windows, overturned cars, defaced buses, burned scooters, and confronted the police...the long, ordinary litany of misdeeds by hateful groups who are incapable of enduring the most minor frustration.

It should be noted that the City of Paris provided these fans with a giant viewing screen in Charlety Stadium.  No thank-you is expected.  France allowed a mass gathering of these fans to watch a match, in spite of their thuggish behavior last November, but wine and sausage gatherings are forbidden in the name of public "security."

Understand that if you can!

The Modern Battle for Paris: Sausages, Wine and a Working Class Neighborhood

During World War II, when France was occupied by the Nazis, Parisians found ways to resist.  Today France is again undergoing a foreign occupation, and Parisians are forming strategies of resistance.

The occupation today is from Muslim immigrants, who are aggressively foisting their culture and customs onto an unwilling host.  The central battle is around a working class neighborhood called "La Goutte d'Or," translated as "the drop of gold."  The term was originally in reference to a white wine from ancient vineyards.

Today La Goutte d'Or is largely occupied by Muslim immigrants of African and Arabic origins.  Many of these immigrants are illegal.  Most are not loyal to France and are hostile to its language, culture and customs.  Every Friday in the Goutte d'Or, thousands of Muslims illegally fill the streets to pray (see photo), blocking traffic and commerce.  Shopkeepers are unable to open their stores and conduct business.  This activity is not just about praying.  It is cultural aggression, an assertion of Islamic superiority over the streets and neighborhoods of France.

Many French are alarmed and believe that the "Islamization" of France is well underway.  One of the ways they are fighting back is to stage large block parties in Paris on Fridays, where "salami and booze" are served and consumed. Both foods are traditional to France but forbidden and repulsive to Muslims.

Does this annoy and irritate the Muslim interlopers?  Too bad.  If the Muslims of Paris want to get "in your face" about their religion, the Parisians will get right back in the faces of the Muslims with the preservation of their own cuisine, culture and customs.  It's a way of saying, "We French are here to stay and will not be displaced."

The French term for these finger-food outings is "Apéro-Géant," roughly translated as "Giant Aperitif."  (Apéro means a drink served before meals, accompanied by appetizers or finger foods.)

Unfortunately, a planned "Apéro-Géant" in the Goutte d'Or was prohibited by French authorities, who feared a confrontation between Muslims and non-Muslims.  On June 18, the pro-French protestors moved the party to a new venue, one more symbolic of France, at the Place de l'Etoile, near the Arc de Triomphe.  This area is historically significant. It was here, on November 11, 1940, that university students assembled to protest the Nazi occupation.  Many were arrested and imprisoned, but they sparked the Parisian resistance.

According to the Blog Bloc Identitaire, This gathering was intended to commemorate 70th anniversary of General De Gaulle's call for French resistance to its Nazi occupiers.  More than 800 Parisians showed up for the event, intent on making themselves heard in their refusal to accept the Islamization of France.  Speeches were made, the French national anthem was sung, French flags were waved, wine was poured, salami was eaten, flares were fired to ward off the dark of early evening.

In spite of the French left's usual cries of "racism," the event was considered a large success by its organizers, gathering much media attention and scoring a win in the battle of public opinion.

Bloc Identitaire summarizes the event as follows:

The aggressive proselytism of Islam is symbolised by the illegal occupation of public space in the Goutte d'Or for Muslim prayers on Fridays.  Even though denounced for years with no effect, Muslim aggressiveness was fully unmasked on this important day. 

This opposition [to Islamization] is today recognized as a just cause.  The French people have been exasperated by the daily denial of their identity, their roots, and even their culinary and festive traditions.  This has been a direct result of the demands of an Islam for which "multicultural" France is to be considered conquered territory.  French voices have now been liberated in the media, the internet and the streets, and at last have been heard.

Wine and sausages seem a delicious but mild way of fighting back.  However, it's a start.

Note:  some links and photo credits are provided by the blog Bivouac-ID.  See all of their videos and photos of the June 18 event here.

France Grows a Pair: Burqas, Illegal Muslim Immigrants Not Welcome

According to the UK Mail Online, France appears to be waking up to its internal Islamic threat.  Burqas are banned and Illegal Muslim immigrants are being deported by the thousands.  Further, France is taking steps to preserve its language and culture in the face of Muslim immigration into the West.

France is to adopt a series of measures to 'reaffirm pride' in the country and combat Islamic fundamentalism.

They include everybody receiving lessons in the nation's Christian history and children singing the national anthem.

Using words which infuriated ethnic minority groups and Socialist opponents, immigration minister Eric Besson also said he wanted 'foreigners to speak better French'.

Mr Besson defended a decision to send illegal Afghan immigrants - all of them Muslim - back to Kabul on charter flights organised in conjunction with the British government last week, saying there would be many more.  

More than 21,000 people have been deported from France this year - with 27,000 the ultimate target, said Mr Besson.

He also reignited the debate about face and body-covering Muslim veils, saying they should definitely be banned.

'For me, there should be no burqas on the street,' said Mr Besson. 'The burqa is against national values - an affront to women's rights and equality.'

Some aspects of the France we used to know and love are reappearing. It is a good sign.

Read the entire article here.

Hat tip:  Atlas Shrugs

Update:  I did this Photoshop today, showing the Mona Lisa on the left, and the Mona Lisa after Europe is fully Islamicized on the right.  However, that really isn't accurate.  If Islam ever gains control of Europe, there will be no art like the Mona Lisa.  Islam forbids drawing or painting people as they consider it a form of idolatry.  The Mona Lisa's likely fate would be the fire, along with most of the other paintings and sculptures in the Louvre.  When you consider that a lot of this art is of women, some nude, the fate of this art would appear certain under Islam.

Imagine a France with no Louvre, no art, no Mona Lisa, no wine, no music, no Poodles or cats or other pets.  Are you starting to get the picture?  That's Islam.

In Europe, Modernity vs. The Medieval

I found this photo on the excellent French blog DRZZ. A photo is indeed worth a thousand words. As Muslims continue to immigrate to Europe in large numbers, the cultural divide becomes increasingly obvious.

Where do you stand, in favor of modernity or the medieval? Personal freedom and self-expression or the suffocation of a rigid, backward and anal ideology?

Note the expression on the burqua bearing women. Is it one of envy, outrage or frustration?

Thoughts on a Young French Soldier Killed in Afghanistan

Foreword

This article, which I have translated, was taken from the French blog "La Pensee Neoconservatrice." It is about a young French soldier who was recently killed in Afghanistan; the author criticizes the pacifist attitudes of his countrymen, while explaining just what it is that the soldier died for.

The article is titled "Mort Pour La France?" This phrase "Mort Pour La France" (Died for France) is usually engraved on the tombstones of French soldiers who have fallen in battle.

Did He Die for France? (by David Martin of La Pensee Neoconservatrice)

Once again a French soldier has been killed in Afghanistan. Once more the parade of cowards and appeasers has flooded the media with this question: "did he die for France?" The point of the question is to immediately imply the Politically Correct response: No. For the pacifist media, this corporal of 22 years of age died for nothing, in a country far away, for people who didn't want him there.

One finds in these statements all of the contempt of the French middle class for the people liberated since 2001, and the latent racism in the statement "they do not want democracy." It is an easy thing to say when you are living in a democracy.

This is also an easy excuse for those who want nothing to change. Let the Afghanis deal with the Taliban. After all, they must find their own solution, right? This is a sickening attitude on the part of most of the French people, illustrating so well a people who so easily accepted the collaboration with Germany, who so quickly yielded up their Jews to the Nazis. Nothing has changed in the "Country for the Rights of Man."

Did he die then for France? No!! He died for liberty, died for a people able to hope for something other than Islamic barbarism, died for the idea that to live with such opinions is not a crime.

He died only for a small minority in France: those who refused Vichy, those who fought against Communism, those who have dared to state that the intervention in Iraq was just. He did not die for the scum who wallow in the putrid swamps of collaboration and surrender.

May he rest in peace.

La Place de l'Europe, temps de pluie

Pamela Geller just posted a painting of the French painter Gustave Caillebotte. I love his art. My favorite painting of his is "La Place de l'Europe, temps de pluie," which means "Europe Place on a Rainy Day." It's a depiction of downtown Paris in the rain, 1877. It's posted on the left.

Europe Place was a high rent district in Paris -- the wealthy frequented that section of town.

I love the picture of the office building in the background. Every office had its own fireplace, since they didn't have electricity in 1877. Note the complicated array of chimneys on the roof, each one linked to each apartment or office. When I was in Paris last Fall, I noticed that there are many similar buildings still in operation, still with the arrays of chimneys on the roofs, though the fireplaces are probably no longer used.

I love the details that allow the viewer to see everyday life in Paris in the 19th century. A man and his wife walk along the sidewalk, carrying umbrellas. Umbrellas in those days were reinforced with whale bone, which was the plastic of the 19th century. Whale bone was also used in women's hoop skirts. It must have been challenging to live back then, with horse manure all over the streets and horse-drawn carriages for transportation.

While in Paris, I visited the Louvre and the Musée D'Orsay museums, and saw many famous paintings up close: the Mona Lisa, Whistler's Mother, and Nuit Etoileé (Starry Night) by Vincent Van Gogh, the latter of which was the inspiration for Don Mclean's song "Vincent," also known as "Starry, Starry Night." Unfortunately, I didn't find any of Caillebotte's art. I was hoping to see "Temps de Pluie," but failed to find it. I don't know where the painting is today.

Où est mon amie Kate ?

Où est mon amie Kate? Kate, vous me manquez, écrivez-moi!

French Army Falling Apart

From the U.K. Telegraph (hat tip the Brussels Journal):

According to confidential defence documents leaked to the French press, less than half of France's Leclerc tanks – 142 out of 346 – are operational and even these regularly break down. Less than half of its Puma helicopters, 37 per cent of its Lynx choppers and 33 per cent of its Super Frelon models – built 40 years ago – are in a fit state to fly, according to documents seen by Le Parisien newspaper.

Two thirds of France's Mirage F1 reconnaissance jets are unusable at present.

According to army officials, the precarious state of France's defence equipment almost led to catastrophe in April, when French special forces rescued the passengers and crew of a luxury yacht held by pirates off the Somali coast.

Although ultimately a success, the rescue operation nearly foundered at an early stage, when two of the frigates carrying troops suffered engine failure, and a launch laden with special forces' equipment sunk under its weight.

Later, an Atlantic 2 jet tracking the pirates above Somali territory suffered engine failure and had to make an emergency landing in Yemen.

Read it all.

One can only wonder if the French model of defense is what President Barack Obama has in mind for the United States.

French Female Blogger Criticizes France, Defends America

One of my favorite French blogs is "Le Blog de Lisa," or Lisa's Blog. That's her on the right. She wrote a great post that I have translated into English. It is posted below.

Blue, White but Most Especially, Red

Nearly twenty years after the fall of the Berlin wall and the end of communist dictatorship, the French mentality continues to be suffused in Marxist and communist ideology.

The red flags of the CGT [Confederation Generale de Travail, or General Confederation of Labor] and other labor unions regularly invade our streets. With cries of "It is the struggle," we are again plunged into class warfare; the poor enslaved proletarians confront the bastard shopowners with multiple strikes. The unions, clearly aligned with the left, regularly hold the country hostage. The Internationale floats in the air. The country is paralyzed.

Besancenot, spokesman for the Communist Revolutionary League, attends each strike to encourage the working class. Invited on the popular Michel Drucker TV show "Vivement Dimanche" [loosely, "Looking Forward to Sunday"], he has inflamed the audience. Drucker's red sentiments make those of the French public seem pale by comparison. On many a Sunday afternoon viewers are treated to an insane furor that is anticapitalistic, anti-american, anti-business, but pro Marx and pro Che Guevara. Besancenot has described the latter as "a source of inexhaustible inspiration."

France is Red. Slowly, the French public has been subverted to Marxist thought. In weekend TV variety shows, during prime time, people dance to and applaud the voice of Natalie Cardonne, who sings [in Spanish] "Here rests the bright light of your dear presence, Commandant Che Guevara..." In the street, young people display a tee shirt with the likeness of the revolutionary who massacred thousands in the name of his ideology.

Yes, France is Red, but not only that. It is also cowardly and arrogant. The French are dense and cowardly, starting with Jaques Chirac and Dominique de Villipin. Two individuals who planted a knife in the backs of the Americans, our allies of yesterday. In 2003, Jacques Chirac, President of the Republic, opposed the war in Iraq and placed France in principal opposition to the United States. The America of George Bush needed us, and we shut the door in their faces, with a minister of foreign affairs (De Villipin) who used his veto in opposition before the Security Council of the U.N. Except for a few brave people like Bernard Kouchner and Andre Glucksman, no one in France dared to criticize the French opposition.

The fact that points to our cowardice is that we never took the time to listen, to give them the attention they deserved. We didn't even have the intelligence to question them on the reasons for the war, or the general reasons why America would ever go to war. They fight for liberty and democracy against all dictators. On a certain June 6, 1944, baptized "D-Day," we were quite happy that they came to liberate us from German troops.

During the Cold War, they fought and vanquished a despotism that ravaged the nations of the East: Communism. Today they fight against a murderous tyranny, one of religious fanaticism, (and especially, of power and blood), which menaces freedom and democracy in the 21st century. And it is a cowardice of the worst sort that renounces they who fight those who want to impose their will on the world through violence and death. France is opposed to the war, but has never proposed any alternative. We had a president for twelve years who was a mere puppet, who did nothing in his years at Elysee [the French presidential palace] but puff on his cigars in his armchair while lecturing others.

Anti-american, the French have, for sport, preferred to view the United States with deep contempt and prejudice. People with the strongest opinions tend to be those who never set foot there. The French anti-americans disparage Americans for their petroleum politics. But what hypocrisy! Because we have no need of gasoline in our daily live, perhaps? This petroleum, our access to which is secured by the United States? Unemployment, marginalization, poverty, all the maladies of the earth are attributed solely to the United States by the French. It is easy to forget that we have the same problems, sometimes in worse proportions (an example is unemployment, which is 8% in France, compared with 4% on the other side of the Atlantic.) But the French are only content to preach to others, while never sweeping the dirt in front of their own door.

This cowardice and anti-americanism become most outrageous when, each day, young American soldiers are dying. Even while people call the United States names and attribute to them all earthly defects and after having cowardly abandoned them, fathers of American families are risking their lives, far from their wives and children, to defend our freedom for us, and allow us to continue living in a free world. I saw, on the beach of Santa Monica, near Los Angeles, a memorial dedicated to all the soldiers who died for liberty. I saw on this beach dozens of crosses planted in the sand, and dozens of coffins covered with the American flag, to remind us that America is a country at war. I saw a little girl of 5 or 6 years of age, who placed a little note saying "I love U Dad" on a white cross, where a photo was attached, of her papa who died in combat.

During my time there, the only worry for a young French woman was to know who was going to win the Star Academy, while United States citizens were praying every day for their father or their brother in combat. I felt shame before this memorial, which reminded me that France pukes on the United States, turn their backs on it, but without ever having to endure a day like September 11. It's so easy that way.

The French have thus caused France to become a country off course. Awash in Marxist thought, they are egotistical cowards in meditation upon their navels. As long as they can have their LDA ("Lay Down Always!!), take five week vacations and watch Besancenot on Drucker's show, the rest of the world does not interest them, they are quite able to do without it.

Pro-American French Blogs: Pensée Néoconservatrice

A while back a French friend called Nexus gave me a list of the best French blogs that are conservative and pro-USA. I had some time this week so I began perusing them. One of them is called Pensée Néoconservatrice (Neo-Conservative Thought). It's hosted by Dave "the Sith," and focuses on the US presidential elections, the war in Iraq, Global Warming (réchauffement climatique) and other topics of interest. If you don't speak French, you will nevertheless recognize the photos that adorn the front page -- they are all very pro-American. The blog is also openly pro-Israel.

On an article about John McCain's recent visit to France, a woman named Deborah commented on the author's observation that the French Left would like to see the United States rendered "lower than dirt." She responded:

L'Amérique plus bas que terre? Ils sont tarés! C'est le pays le plus
puissant au monde (je parle de faits reconnus) et l'un des plus beaux
endroits au monde (avis personnel)! Ceux qui traitent les USA de pays
fasciste ont bien vite oublié que lors de la deuxième guerre mondiale, c'est
là que beaucoup de juifs ont trouvé refuge... Si ce n'est pas un pays de
liberté ça, what else? Sur ce, God bless America & McCain
president!

Translation: America lower than dirt? They're crazy! It [America] is the most powerful country in the world (I speak of known facts) and one of the most beautiful (my personal opinion). Those who would label the USA as fascist have quickly forgotten that, during World War II, many Jews found refuge there...If it isn't a country of freedom, what is? For sure, God bless America and McCain, president!

I responded to her post to thank her for kind words and friendship.

Unfortunately, pro-American French citizens are in the minority. Approximately 77% of the French hold hostile views towards the USA.

Update: While browsing French blogs today I came across one called Support American Soldiers. The site is filled with pro-American sentiments and support for our military. It was strange reading in French about American heroism on Mt. Suribachi (on Iwo Jima) in World War II. I didn't know it, but 6,821 US Marines gave their lives to conquer that island off Japan. Almost 7,000 lives to win one battle -- contrast that to the 4,000 lost in five years of war in Iraq. Our notions of sacrifice have certainly changed.

..

We have friends and allies among the French. I am going to seek them out.