[Bigh4u2]

"it won't be long before the rioters will have to go to Germany or the Low Countries to express their social conscience in a practical way.."

They aready have.

Check out the Dutch and Germany.

[American Quilter]

Theodore Dalrymple has long been an accurate chronicler of the disintegration of British culture as liberalism gains more and more control over its culture, government, and economy.

This article mentions at the bottom that he lives in France. He used to be a physician working in British jails. Perhaps he's retired?

Anyway, his article is excellent, as usual. Will France rise up and expel the invaders who are destroying French culture and society? No evidence of it so far.

I hope Americans are watching. Saying "It can't happen here" is just what I'm sure the French did up until the last couple of weeks. It's also what western European Jews said in the 1930s. Our safe and comfortable lives make us believe we're somehow protected from the violence and conquest that are the norm for many other countries. We're not, and the evidence that we're going to have to fight and defeat the would-be conquerors is mounting.

[GOP_1900AD]

Your link does not go to the article. It goes to the WSJ front page.

[GOP_1900AD]

Actually, the top link is OK ... only the bottom one misses it's mark.

[Cicero]

The Paris stock exchange has every confidence that, in the end, Sarkozy or no Sarkozy, the French state will emerge victorious over the disorganized racaille, and everything can continue as before. The index has risen steadily -- or calmly, to quote the officer of the CRS -- throughout the disturbances.

Interesting detail I have not seen elsewhere.

[Drew68]

If push were ever to come to shove, the trains to the townships could be turned off, assuming they were not wrecked first by the inhabitants themselves, and the roads to the center of Paris (and other towns and cities) could be blocked with a few armored cars or a couple of tanks. A state of emergency could be declared, after which the CRS could go about its business in all calmness and serenity.

Bump.

[samtheman]

A French employee works 30% fewer hours than a British worker, and a much smaller percentage of the French population than the British works at all, yet total French output is very nearly equal in value to British. In other words, the French are much more efficient economically than the British. But their relative efficiency has been bought at a price: the creation of a large caste of people more or less permanently unintegrated into the rest of society.

Wow. What a hodge-podge of barely-connectable quasi-cause-effects blurted out in a burble of near-thought, all in a single paragraph, barely taking a breath. C'mon, this is stupid. Total output equals Britain? Per capita? Aggregate national? Doesn't say. Efficiency bought at the price of permanently unemployed? What? How is it more efficient... or what is the connection between permanent unemployment of one group and the efficiency of another? Doesn't say. By what measure is France "more efficient" than Britain? Doesn't say.

the French had accepted with equanimity a kind of social settlement in which all those with jobs would enjoy various legally sanctioned perks and protections, while those without jobs would remain unemployed forever

Are the perks and the protections the source of the efficiency? Doesn't say.

Whatever else this guy is or isn't... he has serious mental impairment when it comes to all things economic.