Surely the poster is coming.

Pretty soon we'll get the lame and mentally deficient excuse that all this rioting by muslims has nothing to do with Islam, but jobs.

I can feel it coming.

I think that rate-wing hate radio incited them to violence. I blame Rush Limbaugh.

I think we should take up a collection to send the Protest Warriors over to France ... sort of a WWI era Lafayette Escadrille / Hat in the Ring deal.

And, to add insult to injury, ask them to use protest signs written only in Engish.

My hunch is that things are going to get rather bloody rather quickly.

.

I guess it wouldn't be all that surprising if I pointed out that WaPo copied this lame-ass notion that "African youths" are torching the country for "recognition" from Reuters, who used the catch-phrase as early as last Wednesday.

W's got his faults; but Lord, I'm glad that President Kerry isn't spouting this Euro-blather from the Oval Office. Bad enough that the MSM insists on spoon-feeding it to us.

But don't you understand? They're just misunderstood youth. If we throw money at them they'll go away. After all their religion is one of peace and tolerance. Unlike your crucifixtion-torture based religion.

I wonder how long before the French Intifadah start using aks and suicide bombers.

Maybe they are big Darryl Strawberry fans

Iblis - you forgot cannibalistic muslim baby-eating.

Wow. They got as far as the Place de Republique? I also read at the link they are going to impse a curfew. Duh. Isn't that a couple of weeks too late?

On a message board I frequent, we were talking to two French guys in Paris, asking about the situation, commenting on how it seems to be getting progressively worse by the day.

The guy said "Well, it's all off in the suburbs 5 miles away (!) we just carry on with our business. I was just out to dinner last night with friends and this Czech model, nobody was worried."

The response from everyone else (mostly Americans) was outrage and disbelief, reminding him the French didn't take Hitler too seriously either, then woke up to see German soldiers marching through Paris.

I f I was French, I'd be freaking out. Either buying guns and ammo, or making preparations to emigrate to a less-than-doomed country. It's like the French don't even care their country is in deep peril.

FRANCE IS NOT BURNING.

-aka-

"It's merely a flesh wound!"

At the risk of appearing like a complete geek (though that's fairly well proven by my presence in the intersection of posting here and not having breasts), I was playing World of Warcraft last night when the topic of France on Fire came up in IF chat. I was surprised by three things. The first was that many people hadn't heard about it. The second was that many people who had heard about it assumed it was just "French" youth acting out a la soccer hooligans and had no idea it was North Africans. The third, in a conversation I had with someone with a much different view (from what I could tell a man of North African descent who had knowledge of the situation) that no one had died, true as of last night. I had just assumed that people were getting killed left and right.

I was not surprised, however, to be labeled a racist for pointing out that it was people from Muslim neighborhoods who were rioting.

Clearly that's what they get for supporting the imperial running dog Bush in his quest for world domination and control of Mideast Oil!

If only they had taken bribes from the UN Oil for Food project and worked tirelessly to derail Saddam's overthrow.

And besides, the disaffected youths only wish to throw off the chains of oppression they feel from all the socialist programs of the French government. Lech Walesa couldn't have done it any better in Poland.

Misguided youth, you say?

The AP is spinning this into a "woe is them" yarn:

French Youths Say They're Marginalized
Nov 07 3:01 PM US/Eastern

By JAMEY KEATEN
Associated Press Writer

LE BLANC MESNIL, France

Theirs is a drab life of days spent smoking hashish, hanging out on street corners. They fidget and talk big. The only things they have in abundance are time and rancor. Ask what their dreams are, the response is blank stares.

Shouting over each other to be heard, the young toughs vented about their lives in Paris' suburban housing projects and the rioting setting them ablaze.

Young toughs? We use to call them losers and punks.

[snip]

All French-born children of Arab and black African immigrants, this group of a dozen or so teens at Les Tilleuls housing project north of Paris complained of being marginalized by French society.

Note how the writer failed to tell the reader exactly how the "young toughs" articulated their savvy social commentary. Yea, that's right, the writer is making shit up. And to support his case, he adds:

Years ago, France welcomed their parents as labor, often to do menial jobs most French did not want, they noted. And now, there are no jobs _ or no one willing to give them one, they said.

"The 'elders' of the projects have tried to calm us down, but we don't care," said 20-year-old Karim, gesticulating wildly with his arms and then concentrating on rolling a joint.

They're fucking losers!, you stooge. Society hasn't wronged them, their own parents failed at parenthood.

He said the rioting has unified various housing projects that previously fought among themselves. The target of their rage is Sarkozy, who angered many in the suburbs by calling neighborhood toughs "scum."

Ahh, so it's Sarkozy's fault it has escalated. Otherwise, these animals would just be killing each other. Fine by me, either way.

"Before it was a gang warfare between different projects. Sarkozy's given us a common target _ the government," said Karim.

"If they fire Sarkozy, we'll head straight to the police station and pop champagne with them," said Bidou, 22, his baseball cap cocked to the side.

Karim is 20, and Bidou is 22. These are grown men, not youths.

Before the riots, police rarely came by, and generally patrolled in cars with windows rolled up, the youths said. They have nicknames _ like "Lucky Luke" and "Cortex" _ for some officers they know.

Can someone tell me what that has to do with anything. Did the writer need 32 more words to fulfill a quota?

They complained that police manhandle them during identity card checks, even claiming that some officers plant hashish on them as a pretext for arrests, and that they regularly fire off rubber pellets during sweeps.

Sorry, I'm not really inclined to believe the "toughs" version of events. From what understand, there is no need to "plant" any drugs on the "toughs" and they desrve pellets in the ass.

"You wear these clothes, with this color skin and you're automatically a target for police," said Ahmed, 18, pointing to his mates in Izod polo shirts, Nike sneakers and San Antonio Spurs T-shirts.

What, no pants?
Seriously, Izod shirts and Nike's make you a target for da Po-leece? Damn, those French are pricks.

Some of the non-conservative stuff I see suggests that the rioting isn't that bad, only one guy is dead after all. But there is something wrong with that line of thinking. How is this going to end? Are parked cars the new endangered species in France? And what does burning a church down have to do with alienation? There aren't many real Christians in France so I don't see how that helps.

Lapsed Leftist: Heh, you're a WoW player as well. I can totally see that happening. There are a lot of children running around Azeroth, so what do you expect?

Bart: I think we see "youths" used a lot because the French themselves use the term "les jeunes" when describing these people. "Les jeunes" I think refers to a wider age range than our term "youths" (we wouldn't use it describing twentysomethings, if we used it at all). The AP has probably bought the French MSM's view of things, but it is a subtle translation problem.

France "has not done everything possible for these youths, supported them so they feel understood, heard and respected," Vike-Freiberga quoted Chirac as saying.

Dominique: "Mr. Prime Minister, the Youths of Undetermined Ethnic Extraction (Local 635) are rioting in the streets"!

Jacques: "Mon dieu! Le checquebook! Hurry you fool"!

I just had a horrible thought-- you don't think these poor misguided youths were inspired by watching too much Bill O'Reilly, do you?

Think "the following hour" and "No Irish Need Apply". But "The Cadaver" is not in on it, totally innocent.

I concur, Lapsed. I realize most people aren't political junkies, and that's probably just as well for the species, but I was amazed when I mentioned the riots to someone and her reaction was, "yeah. Those French kids. Huh." She had no awareness that the riots were among the children of North African immigrants, or that Paris was ringed with, basically, angry Muslim housing projects. She didn't seem particularly interested, either.

I'm amazed when I run across people who are smart but incurious. It's like an attitudinal ignorance.

They have nicknames -- like "Lucky Luke" and "Cortex" -- for some officers they know.

"Lucky Luke" is a roving, crime-fighting cowboy in an eponymous French comic-book series set in the American Wild West.

/useless trivia

The next prepared statement we get from al Qaeda, whenever it comes, should be very, very interesting. Will they mention France, or even explicitly show support for the rioters there? If so, then all the talk about poverty, joblessness and such, even to the extent that it is true, will cease to matter in the least, because Old Europe would then officially have a full-blown, homegrown, revolutionary jihad on its hands.

Assuming, of course, that they don't already.