Posted at 12:56 pm by Johnny B

	Posted by BP @ 03/06/2006 04:21 PM PST
	You all know of course that the US already has a woman President: Geena Davis. TV is WAY more important than the real world. So they just need to create a French version of “Commander in Chief” and VOILA!…all the stodgy old French Ministers will become comfortable with the idea.

Apparently mosques are being attacked, too.

Police detained 206 people during the night, during which youngsters attacked a primary school in Savigny-Le-Temple southeast of Paris and destroyed its creche.

Two shops were destroyed in Rambouillet, southwest of Paris, and a person on a scooter threw two fire bombs at a mosque and in the southern town of Carpentras before fleeing.

There was no major damage and no one was hurt but Chirac, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFSM) swiftly condemned the attack.

(Nice to know what these guys priorities are! JIB)

“We firmly ask the authorities in particular to protect our mosques, which seem to be becoming the target of violent demonstrations and provocations,” the CFSM said.

Wikipedia has a good table and graphic on the extent of the damage. Troublemakers in Greece, Spain, Belgium. Apparently there is a big plan to riot in Brussels as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_civil_unrest_in_France

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Posted at 10:19 pm by Johnny B

	Posted by BP @ 11/09/2005 10:54 PM PST
	this is indeed just the beginning. I’m torn, though. I can’t decide whether to feel sorry for the French for having an unruly populace, and hence feel a little proud that even with our problems we don’t let these sort of things get so bad. OR…do I say to hell with France and it’s tyrannical UN buddies for daring to pose as authorities on human rights.

	Posted by JohnnyB @ 11/10/2005 09:20 AM PST
	I wouldn’t be so quick to pat ourselves on the back…the Rodney King riots were just over 10 years ago. I will say our immigration problems are not nearly as bad as those in the EU, however. Check out “Songs from the Second Floor” http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120263/ a movie recommended by none other than Rothell, which gives clues as to why European youths are so depressed.

A couple more points before I get back to work:

Posted at 02:32 pm by Johnny B

As much as Black Jacques Chirac can be a jackhole, I’ve got give him cred for at least letting his people vote on this EU thing. From what I understand, he could have sent it to parliament for an easy win. That’s what most of the EU countries do. My take is this: as long as the Franco-Prussian alliance was running the EU, the French were happy. Now the unwashed masses in Lithuania and Estonia etc. are jumping in, the French want to take their ball and go home. Well, duh! Would Americans want the Guatemalans and Hondurans etc. to dictate trade and immigration policy in the U.S.? It’s good to see the people of a country stand up and say “non” to an overbearing nanny-state government.

Posted at 12:12 pm by Johnny B

I’m curious to know what the experts on France say about this referendum vote. I haven’t been to France, so what do I know? I know some of y’all have traveled there and know a lot more about what’s going on than I do. My first take is that if the French are worried about their sovereignty and don’t want to be too influenced by eastern europe or (allah forbid) Turkey or Belgium, maybe they are right to vote, “non”. Maybe I’m just saying this so the euro can drop and I can afford to travel there.

Posted at 11:50 am by Johnny B

	Posted by Michael Gahagan @ 05/29/2005 01:05 PM PDT
	According to NHK, the debate seems to be about the future of France’s immigration, cultural, and labor policies. The right-leaning population of France wants a no vote because a yes vote will open the French borders to low paid European immigrants who may take thier jobs; and currently France has double-digit unemployment (for reasons that are too numerous to mention). Also, France is very nationalistic and some people are afraid that the French culture will be diluted by immigrants, bringing with them thier own culture. France even has a Minister of Culture to oversee things like this. One interesting note is that France has the largest Muslim population in Europe and recently the French voted to outlaw religious (i.e. Muslim) symbols and headgarbs in public schools. The left-leaning population wants to protect the poorer citizens of the EU by opening the borders. This seems to be similar to our CAFTA debate going on in the U.S. In my opinion, the EU is bad news for the US since a common currency and laws will allow for the more powerful, liberal leaders of the EU, namely France and Germany, to eventually turn all of the EU into a socialist area that could cause the US export problems in the form of very high tariffs on US goods. Heaven forbid the EU forms a common military, which may lead to another Il Duce.

	Posted by BP @ 05/29/2005 07:14 PM PDT
	European military? Does anyone have the numbers on European military power? If they were to combine them all what kind of force would that mean?