Farewell to the Jeanne d'Arc

It's always sad to see a fine ship sail its last voyage. The French helicopter-carrier, cruiser and training vessel Jeanne d'Arc having completed her 46 years of duty, and traversed 1,800,000 nautical miles, has been decommissioned. The ship was built in the early 1960's and by all accounts has become obsolete. However the men who served on the Jeanne evoke their fondest memories and some denounce Sarkozy for not replacing her. For those French readers interested, Secret Defense has a lot of comments.

The last key mission of the Jeanne was to deliver text books to the school children of New York City. If you are interested, click here for an excellent gallery of 44 photos of this March 2010 visit to NYC. The men on board, the scenes of the ship, are a reminder to me of how France should look to the outside world - proud and capable, disciplined, reserved, and yet approachable.

The photos above and below are from another slide show at Le Point. Below, on a foggy day the Jeanne d'Arc sits in Le Havre before one last visit to Rouen. She then moves on to Brest, the final destination.


Note: The link above to Secret Defense has been fixed.

Twin Princes for the House of Bourbon

The heir to the French throne, Louis de Bourbon and his wife princess Marie-Marguérite, now have twin boys. Louis and Alphonse were born on Friday May 28, in New York, one minute apart, making Louis second in line to the throne after his father. The young princes Louis and Alphonse will bear the titles duc de Bourgogne and duc de Berry. The couple already had a daughter, princess Eugénie, born in Miami in 2007.

Since the 19th century, two Capetian lines have battled over the right to the throne of France and the title duc d'Anjou: the legitimist branch represented by Louis de Bourbon and the younger Orleanist branch represented by Henri, count of Paris.

The following is from Wikipedia:

Louis Alphonse and Margarita had their first child, a daughter, named Eugenia on 5 March 2007 at Mount Sinai Medical Center, Miami, Miami-Dade County, Florida. She was baptised at the papal nunciature in Paris in June 2007. French legitimists recognise her as Princess Eugenie of Bourbon; in Spanish her name is Doña Eugenia de Borbón y Vargas.

The couple had twin boys, Prince Louis and Prince Alphonse, on 28 May 2010. Louis, as Dauphin, will succeed his father as head of the French Royal House. In Spanish, the boys are Don Luis and Don Alfonso de Borbón y Vargas.

Louis Alphonse of Bourbon is the legitimist pretender to the French crown and could take the name and number Louis XX, if he were reigning and chose to use the name "Louis" as king, and the preceding legitimist pretenders were also assigned regnal names and numbers. He is currently the Head of the House of Bourbon, and claims the following titles:

* Titular Duke of Anjou
* Titular Duke of Touraine
* Titular Duke of Bourbon
* Titular King of France
* Titular King of Navarre
* Head of the House of Bourbon
* Bailiff Grand Cross of Honour and Devotion of the Order of Malta

Note: The articles on Louis de Bourbon and his wife sometimes use French spelling, sometimes Spanish. Eugénie becomes Eugenia, Marie-Marguérite is often written María Margarita, etc... Sometimes even English-language articles refer to him as the duc d'Anjou, instead of duke of Anjou.

The Implantation of Islam in France

These lengthy excerpts posted at Le Salon Beige are drawn from a longer article at the Centre de recherches sur le terrorisme (center for research on terrorism). The author outlines the implantation of Islam in France from 1922 to the present. I have used LSB as my main source, but included some material from the original article:

The first visible sign of Islam's implantation on French soil goes back to 1922, when the Paris Mosque (above) was completed. (...) Its construction was well-intentioned: to show our gratitude to the North African soldiers for their war effort at our side in the trenches of the First World War. This fine intention was nonetheless vitiated, since it was based on a denial of our laws. Ever since the passage of the December 9,1905 law, known as the separation of Church and State, according to the wording of the law itself, "the Republic does not recognize, salary, or subsidize any religion." (...) Now in order to build the Paris Mosque, the government passed the August 19,1920 law, that permitted the financing of the site and that allowed the City of Paris to furnish the land free of charge. The beginning of the arrival in force of Muslims was in 1962, when those Harkis who had been saved by their officers from the FLN butchery landed in France. We gave them a very poor welcome, reserving greater favor for the next wave - the immigrant workers from the Maghreb. With them began the era of demands.

Note: Two points to retain from the above: 1) a special law had to be passed to build the Paris mosque. The 1905 law, therefore, had been overridden long ago, long before the current wave of mosque financing through long-term leases. 2) The French government and people held the Harkis in contempt. The Harkis were Algerians, often Muslims, recruited to fight on the side of the French in the Algerian War.

The first tensions exploded in the early 1970's, in the housing projects built by Sonacotra. Rent strikes were planned (...) Maoist students were the organizers. Then these left-wingers began making religious demands. They insisted on closing the bars and places of worship in the projects. To calm things down, the State yielded to their demands. Of course, from 1979 on, there was no more talk about such strikes or demonstrations within the projects, but the Republic had revealed its weakness. And in so doing had prepared the way for the Islamists who were already present on our territory.

Note: Sonacotra built housing projects for the immigrant workers.

It all began with the arrival of "Foi et Pratique" (Faith and Practice), in 1962. This organization belongs to the Jamaat Al-Tabligh (...) In groups of two or three, they go into the bars frequented by Maghrebins and tell the customers to break the habit. (...) But already a new Islamist wave had arisen out of the Maghrebin immigration. It combined political demands, identitarian frustration, and religious radicalism. It was to benefit from financial aid from Saudi Arabia. In 1977, Saudi Arabia opened a branch of the World Islamic League in Paris on rue François Bonvin, in the 15th arrondissement. This NGO nourished the hope of converting the entire world to Islam. In order to implant its influence it distributed money to all those who presented an "Islamic project" - to build a mosque or to support a religious association. (...)

Can one speak of a tacit agreement between the French government, Saudi Arabia, and the Muslim Brotherhood? By all indications that was the case. In 1983 the UOIF, or Union of Islamic Organizations of France, was born. It settled into a bourgeois apartment building on rue Dunkerque, in Paris, and had no visible financial difficulties. In fact, the money arrived from Riyad, carried in suitcases by Saudis. The days of distributing money to any and all were over. By making the UOIF their main recipient, they gave it power and imposed on smaller associations to join the Union in order to benefit from Arab subsidies. It was only the first step in the institutionalization of political Islam in France.

Note: The original article points out that the Muslim Brotherhood was behind the birth of the UOIF, while the financing came from Saudi Arabia. The underlying purpose of the UOIF was to put order into chaos, since there was at the time a maze of different Muslim associations and organizations in France. Both the Saudis and the Brotherhood sought the implantation of Islam in France and to achieve this goal, simplification was necessary.

Also a reminder that in 1983 François Mitterand was president.

The reference above to "suitcases" is perhaps an allusion to the Algerian War when those who collaborated with the FLN (National Liberation Front) funneled money into Algeria via suitcases. These collaborators, many of them celebrities, became known as "porteurs de valises", or carriers of suitcases. French readers may want to review that grim story here.

The article explains that even though Saudi individuals had funded the UOIF, Saudi leaders did not like the young idealists who had been rebellious in their homelands. Morocco also felt the same way. In response to the UOIF, therefore, the FNMF was created.

Officially the FNMF (National Federation of Muslims of France) aimed "to represent the Islam of France", at the expense of the Paris Mosque. The UOIF was urged to join the new organization, to meld into it. A way of committing hara-kiri. Adroitly, the UOIF yielded, but kept its own identity and structures. The FNMF eventually claimed to represent 500 Muslim associations, a figure no doubt inflated. Within the FNMF, one country - Morocco - became particularly influential. When two founding members of the UOIF, one Tunisian, one Iraqi, were removed, they were replaced by two Moroccans.

The French authorities attempted to find a way to exert control over the development of the Muslim religion. Eventually, the CFCM (French Council on the Muslim Religion) was created in 2003 by Nicolas Sarkozy, then Interior Minister under Jacques Chirac. It was an idea that transcended the division between Left and Right and became instead an integral part of government policy.

Originally it was meant to give the government a tool comparable to the one Napoleon I used when he created the Consistory to force the rabbis to place the laws of the State above Jewish law. But times have changed. If, under Napoleon, the majority of Frenchmen practiced a religion, it is not the same today. In 1808, the Consistory received the vote of nearly all the Jews and gathered under its aegis all schools of Hebraic thought. In 2003, however, only Islamists, and not all practicing Muslims, belong to religious organizations such as the UOIF and the FNMF. Moreover, representatives of such organizations, rather than independent individuals, sit at the CFCM. (...) In other words, by creating the CFCM, Sarkozy ensured a legitimacy of the FNMF and the UOIF in the eyes of the ensemble of Muslims in the country. Better yet, he gave them an authority - for example, in the matter of the slaughter of animals for halal meat and the training of imams.

Note: This "authority" granted by Sarkozy to the CFCM is tantamount to saying that sharia law is above French law, at least on certain issues. Sarkozy's motives in creating the CFCM were therefore far from benign. And all of this is a far cry from the original intentions underlying the building of the Paris Mosque.

Finally, we see that despite internal disputes and differences among the Muslims, they all had the same goal: to implant Islam firmly on French soil.

Ethnic Births Exposed

This map has elicited over a thousand comments at François Desouche. The French government, it is well known, does not allow ethnic statistics to be published, but someone found this in a scientific journal on sickle cell anemia, a condition that afflicts primarily blacks, be they African or Antillian. The numbers in red indicate the number of babies screened; the numbers in green indicate the percentage of at-risk babies.

While at first I assumed that only black babies would be screened, this made no sense for two reasons: First, since ethnic statistics are not available, how would this journal have access to them, let alone print them? Second, would not the percentage be the same everywhere, no matter how many black babies were counted? For example, in America roughly 1 in 500 black babies has the disease. This is a relatively small percentage (0.002), but it would be consistent no matter how many black births were screened.

The figures in red are, instead, the total births for a given period (it isn't clear to me what the period is), and the percentages must refer to black babies since they are at risk. So, if, in Alsace, there were 30 births, then 26.74% of them must be black, since they are the only ones at risk. Likewise, out of 1491 births in Ile-de-France, more than HALF are black.

In other words, the scientific journal, unwittingly, revealed how many black births occurred in France in a given period. The journal also indicates, in the text accompanying the map, that in all of metropolitan France 25.6% of babies are at risk. This simply means that one quarter of all births in France are black. It does not include Maghrebin, Turkish or Asian babies.

Not surprisingly, the readers at François Desouche had a lot to say. Here is a small sample:

- I was in Paris this weekend and I thought I was in Bamako... unreal. I have never seen fear on so many European faces as I did in the metro. The people have lost their pride; democracy and "divertissage" have killed the joie de vivre of thousands of people and the worst thing is that they are the cause of their own fear, of their ruin, for having voted for stateless politicians. Do not think that only Paris is in this situation. Marseilles, Toulouse, etc... are under occupation. The situation is quite troubling.

Note: There is a new French word - "divertissage" - a combination of "diversité" and "métissage", diversity and miscegenation. A forced marriage between two opposing concepts. French readers may be interested in this article by Pierre-André Taguieff.

- Our people are disappearing under our eyes.

- (from an African named Mamadou) This is only the beginning. You haven't seen anything yet! When a country has such a guilty past with regard to certain peoples, it will reap what it has sown...

- (to Mamadou) As for crimes against humanity, genocide, pillage and all manner of falsehoods, you don't need us. You do it very well among yourselves. Africans have practiced slavery and genocide among themselves, long before the Europeans.

- We have lost Ile-de-France

- No surprise. They've been legalizing everybody for 20 years.

- I'd say 30 years... even almost 40 years! Ever since the duo Giscard-Chirac, followed by the xenophile Mitterand.

- (from a reader named Humanismus) (...) just the two world wars, the colonization of America and Australia, slavery in America, I'm speaking of those millions who were born and died in slavery in America... the list would be very long. Europeans are in fact at the origin of the destruction of pre-Colombian civilization, of the peoples of Australia, Tasmania, the Khoïsans in South Africa. And they tried to destroy African civilization, but failed.

- (to Humanismus) What are you saying, Humanismus? If those peoples had reached our level, they would not have hesitated to do the same! Or else, you're speaking of a return to the myth of the noble savage, and it's particularly racist on your part to regard these peoples as big innocent children...

- (...) more than half of the new-born, which means they are already in the majority in terms of births, not in terms of the total population... Having said that, the Great Replacement - this genocide by substitution - is well on its way. As for ethnic stats, obviously they will be banned until the G.R. is an established fact, then they will be required by the powers-that-be in order to force the French see the fait accompli. This is why the Crisis is an historic opportunity to get out of this nightmare. The problem is the general lack of courage.

Note: The "crisis" in question is the current economic crisis.

- I agree completely. The crisis has some positive aspects... I hope it acts as an electrical shock. It is better to solve the problem now than in 10 or 20 years when we are faced with a power struggle that is even less in our favor.

Regarding a discussion on the relative importance of race and culture:

- They both count, race and culture. But for the culture to have a beneficial effect like the effect it has had on the Western world, there must be certain racial prerequisites, otherwise, there is no civilization. That's all. A white guy who acts like an ass can be reformed, but a "civilized" black will never win a Nobel Prize. For decades America has had "affirmative action" that allowed minorities to have free passes, to advance more quickly in their studies. The results show that no measure will elevate them to the level of our world. Do you know which category of foreigner succeeds best in The United States? Asians. Even those from the poorest Asian countries. And that makes the African-American mad with jealousy. They cannot tolerate the Asians, their very existence is a thorn in their side, because they can no longer cover themselves with the excuse of "I come from a poor family, I've had no luck, I've endured racism"...

That said, an ethnic group can always regress. The white nation that is the most affected by this is England where the "chavs" - white thugs - are rapidly increasing in number, while the educated bobos (i.e. liberals/progressives) prefer not to have children.

The Killer Euro

The euro is not only in trouble, it has become a dysfunctional currency symbolic of the dysfunctional EU and of the entire globalization fantasy. Bernard Antony minces no words, but his concentrated language is tough to translate. This hasty attempt on my part will have to do for now:

Only the fullest measure of abasement, of brain death, of the aged, debilitated and disintegrating countries comprising "Euroland" could prevent crowds from howling in the streets to send to the gallows the indecent liars of the murderous Eurocracy.

All the self-satisfied declarations by the promoters of the euro are every day proven false. Violated too, every day, by the same promoters are the founding principles of the common currency. Even the most imbecilic among those who believe in the Maastricht and Lisbon treaties end up sooner or later by realizing that the euro is nothing more than an evil currency manipulated by the counterfeiters of the globalist Utopia.

The euro accompanied the human genocide in the countries of abortion, of declining birth rate, of euthanasia, of gay mania, of reverse racism, all these things going together, pursuing a terrible death instinct with the drying up of industry and the elimination of millions of jobs.

Breaking the chains of the euro, returning to our own money, is not to destroy Europe but to pull it out of its monetary numbness, out of its economic paralysis. It would mean giving back to our countries their resilience, and awakening the energies in our peoples, ensuring the retirement of the old through the rebirth of the young.

"Franc" we should remember means "free". The return of the franc will be a first step in the reconquest of freedom that can only come with truth.

Dear Mr. President...

To announce my return to posting after a long week of misery that I will not dwell on, here is a letter to President Obama sent to me by a reader in France. Enjoy.

MOVING TO MEXICO

Dear President Obama:

I'm planning to move my family and extended family into Mexico for my health, and I would like to ask you to assist me.

We're planning to simply walk across the border from the U.S. into Mexico , and we'll need your help to make a few arrangements.

We plan to skip all the legal stuff like visas, passports, immigration quotas and laws.

I'm sure they handle those things the same way you do here. So, would you mind telling your buddy, President Calderon, that I'm on my way over?

Please let him know that I will be expecting the following:

1. Free medical care for my entire family.

2. English-speaking government bureaucrats for all services I might need, whether I use them or not.

3. Please print all Mexican government forms in English.

4. I want my grandkids to be taught Spanish by English-speaking (bi-lingual) teachers.

5. Tell their schools they need to include classes on American culture and history.

6. I want my grandkids to see the American flag on one of the flag poles at their school.

7. Please plan to feed my grandkids at school for both breakfast and lunch.

8. I will need a local Mexican driver's license so I can get easy access to government services.

9. I do plan to get a car and drive in Mexico but I don't plan to purchase car insurance, and I probably won't make any special effort to learn local traffic laws.

10. In case one of the Mexican police officers does not get the memo from their president to leave me alone, please be sure that every patrol car has at least one English-speaking officer.

11. I plan to fly the U.S. flag from my house top, put U. S. flag decals on my car, and have a gigantic celebration on July 4th. I do not want any complaints or negative comments from the locals.

12. I would also like to have a nice job without paying any taxes, or have any labor or tax laws enforced on any business I may start.

13. Please have the president tell all the Mexican people to be extremely nice and never say critical things about me or my family, or about the strain we might place on their economy.

14. I want to receive free food stamps.

15. Naturally, I'll expect free rent subsidies.

16. I'll need Income tax credits so although I don't pay Mexican Taxes, I'll receive money from the government.

17. Please arrange it so that the Mexican Gov't pays $4,500 to help me buy a new car.

18. Oh yes, I almost forgot, please enroll me free into the Mexican Social Security program so that I'll get a monthly income in retirement.

I know this is an easy request because you already do all these things for all his people who walk over to the U.S. from Mexico . I am sure that President Calderon won't mind returning the favor if you ask him nicely.

Thank you so much for your kind help. You're the man!!!

The Revenge of Islam

In March of 2009, I posted my translation of an article by René Servoise, former ambassador of France to Indonesia. At that time, the article appeared at several French websites, but only after much searching did I locate what might have been its original date - sometime around or before 1993. I entitled the article A Warning to the French People, but I could have entitled it The Handwriting on the Wall. My version received tremendous coverage on the Internet.

After more searching I found another, similarly prescient, article by ambassador Servoise, one that had appeared in Le Monde, specifically dated January 7, 1988, entitled Listen, White Man... and reprinted later at Voix des Français. Bear in mind this date, because there are references to the USSR:

Today, borne on one of those immense deep waves that periodically lift it high, Islam is enjoying a renewal born from the depths of its being. But there is more; in our time, it is fed by the resentments of proletarian peoples. Thus, religious aspirations and material dissatisfaction are closely mixed, and often connect to a concern for the future.

From the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Morocco to Indonesia; from North to South, from the Islamic Republics of the USSR to black Africa, Islam is awakening. Islam is imposing itself through its numbers (a thousand million faithful) and even more so through the simplicity of its doctrine: "Obey the will of God and force the infidels to obey." Young Islam, young through the composition of its growing population, while the West that "snuffed out its sons in its bed" is aging and not renewing itself. Islam, decisively aided by its women who are terrified by the society into which Western amorality, so lethal to the weak, is drawing them. Islam, which like any movement cannot succeed unless it is confronted by an opponent that aggrandizes it. It has found such an opponent in the West, and combining its own combat with the aspirations of the Third World, it has transformed this combat into the struggle of the century.

Only the West could have allowed Islam to mobilize and re-mobilize. Why? Because the West, having consummated its rupture with the Eternal, is a scandal in the eyes of believers throughout the world. The West more and more is affirming its true nature. "The Westerner, at bottom, is an atheist." (Alain) The Oriental, by contrast, is religious and refuses the desacralization of the universe, perceiving it as a mutilation. In addition, the liquidation of colonial empires is on-going in our time. Here is the second phase: the eradication of the moral heritage bequeathed by the West, denounced for its cultural domination and its economic exploitation. That is the general cause. What is the particular detonator? The hundreds of thousands of refugees, sons and daughters of Palestinians, who were yesterday sitting in refugee camps, and today are strewn like so many twigs in the immensity of the Islamic world, following the creation of the State of Israel in 1948.

Islam has incorporated into its combat all those aspirations of men naively denied and systematically rejected by atheist Marxism. Islam has integrated them into its demands. The revolt is therefore not only that of a few countries affected by Islamic fundamentalism. Black Africa or Latin America or the Far East certainly could have conceived of it and formulated it, but they could not have universalized it in its articulation. For that, they needed a philosophy, a religion which, transcending the borders imposed by Europe, proves itself capable of uniting, in one same wave, peoples who differ from each other by their skin color, of bringing them together under the same banner, and of leading them by means of commandements. We are indeed, let's admit it, confronted with a tremendous pulsation of history.

After decades, if not centuries, of slumber and at times submission, the hour of revenge has come. The hour of inebriation too, even if in this heterogenous coalition there are opposing ambitions and rival dogmas. In countries where there is sunlight or shadow, the believer or the infidel, the vision is simple: everything is either black or white. Good or Evil are incarnated in people. There is God or Satan. In shanty towns and in universities, hundreds of thousands of Julien Sorels - their minds uncultivated or turned towards mystic callings - are chomping at the bit. Marxism offers a simplified explanation for their misery and their underdevelopment. And here they are, spiritually armed. In short, they are resentful and they are after us.

At a time when Maoism has joined its founder in the grave, when Marxism is being questioned even in the USSR; when Christianity is more preoccupied with self-analysis than with inspiring the West, Islam (which means "submission") is affirming itself in the world as an immense upheavel. Its contradictions are not so much weaknesses as they are opportunities for oneupmanship. It reflects and conveys the aspirations of the third world as entitlements. Muslim fundamentalism is on the march.

Note: Alain (1868 - 1951) is the nom de plume of Emile-Auguste Chartier, a French writer devoted pacifism and anti-fascism.

Julien Sorel is the confused and naively ambitious protagonist of The Red and the Black, a novel by Stendhal. You can read a synopsis of the story at Wikipedia.

Below, submission.


Below, celebrating Eïd in Trafalgar Square


Below, New York City lights up green for Eïd.

Two Comments

Here is an interesting comment I received about two months ago from a Muslim reader, on the purpose of the Burka, the full body covering for women. The article he was commenting on dealt with the notion that the burka was a sign of the failure of the West to maintain decency in its women and girls, hence the inevitability of the appearance of a totally opposing custom, one that proclaimed not only modesty, but near-anonymity of the female face and figure:

As a non-Western Muslim son of a Sunnah-observant Burqa-wearing zoologist mother,I totally concur with the author of article.I found the article while googling "Consequences of Western decadence" while writing a review of Samuel Huntington's book: Clash of Civilisations as part of a university project.

Since, we tend to think in religious terms of Islam, we view the contemporary Western decadence as the rise of the forces of Dajjaal-the Islamic equivalent of Antichrist among the non-Islamic humanity whose destiny is secularisation owing to their inherent spirtual void that can't resist the global Dajjaal movement.

Hence, Burqa is a global phenomenon because Godlessness is a global phenomenon in the globalised world. My mother didn't wear Burqa a decade ago, but when I became more devout, my mother started wearing Burqa because she knew in heart that God loves Burqa.

We see from his observations that the burka is not mandated by Islam, but is rather a choice. That it is, in today's situation, an antidote to Western de-Christianization, filling the gap left by our Godless society. Above all, it is not a sign of female submission to the male, but of Muslim submission to God.

Whatever one may think of his comment, I found it honest and measured.

The link he provided is to a website about Muslim women. Take a look.

Today (May 14), I received a much angrier comment from someone who appears to be a Muslim also. This was in regard to the Miami-Dade County bus posters, that were ultimately allowed to be displayed following a court action:

For a teacher it's sad to see this attitude toward Islam and muslims in France. Would you want us exterminated or abu-graibed?

The two anonymous comments full of lies about Islam make me wonder if they ever read any islamic book.

You'll have to renounce all of your phony baloney freedom of speech and belief, equality of all humans, justice....or you can stick your head in the sand, but rest assured Islam is here to stay.

The slaves you imported from africa and north africa are rising now. Their kids are getting educated so you can't hire them any more to wash dishes and sweep your streets and jam them in concentration living quarters and still treat them like dirt. When they were needed no one complained about that.

When Algier come to my mind here's what stands out. A picture that made me tremble: a dead man with his genitalia in his mouth. was anyone arrested and convicted for that? Nooo. The french live with that refusing even to ecknowledge these crimes while still dreaming about a sahara safari or a beach vacation in Marocco or Tunis.

I have doubts if you grade your students based on their name or their papers?

My answer to him:

@ anonymous

We do not want you exterminated or "abu-graibed", unless you attack us, in which case we have to have prisons for you, just as you would for us. Islam does not belong in the West. It has arrived here because the Western world lost its core beliefs in freedom, including freedom of speech. We are now persecuted by laws if we say anything critical of you. You have said it yourself, the countries who wanted their independence, who fought for their independence, are now rising up in hordes and taking over the West. Revenge is sweet. But because we had LOST our morality and our religious beliefs, we allowed this to happen. We have renounced our freedom of speech for YOU; we have renounced standards in education for YOU; we have renounced the basic notion of self-preservation and are committing suicide for YOU. The notion of "equality" does not mean that all men are the same. Two entirely different cultures may be "equal", but still incompatible.

But you are not to blame except for what you do. WE did this, because we lost the will to survive. No, we won't be hiring the kids to wash dishes. Within one hundred years or sooner we may not be here to hire anybody. You'll have to fend for yourselves.

If it comes to all-out war it is our fault for not sealing the borders, for not forcing minorities living in the West to adopt Western values. We caved in to them. The more we gave them, the more they wanted. Now they are devouring us. Serves us right.

Regarding the other two comments, they are not intelligent. You should not have wasted your time over them.

Philippe de Villiers vs LICRA

Philippe de Villiers has been in the news recently because of an incident involving LICRA, the International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism, a left-wing anti-racism organization, whose former president Patrick Gaubert (left), attributed racist comments to Villiers, and who, in turn, sued for libel:

The former head of LICRA, Patrick Gaubert, appeared on Monday before the criminal court of Paris for defamation after having wrongly attributed racist remarks to Philippe de Villers.

An article that appeared in the weekly journal Nouvel Observateur on September 3, 2009 entitled "Sarkozy, Villiers and the rats" was presented as incriminating evidence.

In this article, the weekly quoted a communiqué from LICRA dated August 13, 2009.

The communiqué from LICRA made a reference to the rapprochement between Nicolas Sarkozy and Philippe de Villiers during the summer of 2009. After the EU Parliamentary elections, the UMP and its partners had opened up to Villiers' sovereigntist party, via the "liaison committee."

In the communiqué LICRA wrote that this action was in fact a way for the UMP to give support to the intolerable racist comments of Villiers regarding those who "reproduce like rats."

Remarks that Philippe de Villiers contests on grounds that he never said them.

During Monday's hearing, Patrick Gaubert acknowledged that the remarks had been wrongly attributed to the president of the Vendée General Council. If he did not say them, he could have said them, Gaubert said to justify himself.

Monsieur Gaubert's attorney Emmanuel Trink continued: Philippe de Villiers "is an aristocrat", "a courteous man who loves the French language", but "he is despite everything on the extreme Right of the French political spectrum" on immigration issues. "What I mean is that Monsieur de Villiers says exactly the same things as Monsieur Le Pen but with more elegance."

Note: In other words, if you say something that Jean-Marie Le Pen MIGHT have said, even though in this case the plaintiff did NOT say them, you are quoted in the press AS IF you had said them????

Alexandre Varaut, Philippe de Villiers' attorney, surprised that anyone could justify the attribution of remarks to someone who had never said them, noted ironically that such an analysis "opened a bottomless pit with regard to matters of the press". He added that never, in 24 years of political life, had his client been convicted of defamation or insult.

Philippe de Villiers is asking for 20,000 euro in damages. The judgment is set to be rendered on June 7.

Note: It is unthinkable that Gaubert will be let off without some kind of fine, since he admitted the accusation was false. If he IS exonerated, it will be as if the courts actually think PDV is guilty of something he did not do.


A quick reminder that Villiers (left) was for a while a presidential hopeful, with an agenda similar to that of the Front National, minus the anti-Semitism, the cynical pro-Iranian stand, the pro-nuclear technology for Muslim countries stand, and with a much more pronounced connection to monarchical France and the various regions than the FN under Jean-Marie Le Pen. Villiers, a Catholic of aristocratic heritage, is the general councillor of the traditionally very conservative department of Vendée. He was the only French politician I know of that befriended Alexander Solzhenitsyn, and that attended the Russian writer's funeral. Generally Solzhenitsyn is snubbed by French politicians and media. Villiers often espoused an anti-Islamization and pro-sovereignty stand, but was never able to garner any real political support, and in a decision that blew his reputation apart he joined his own party, the MPF, to Sarkozy's UMP, via a so-called "liaison committee", all the while insisting that his values had not changed. He has never recovered from this decision, but he still seems to be active despite a recent serious illness.

Horror!

The French website Bivouac has reported that a mega-mosque will be built at Ground Zero in NYC. I think it must be a hoax. Then again, I fear it is not. Read the Daily News article if you can. The Ford and Rockefeller Foundations are left-wing entities, contrary to the image many have of them.

This is unbearable - first that anyone would consider allowing it, second that there is so little protest so far.

Horror of horrors. That is all I can think of.

Update: May 13 - Lawrence Auster sent me this information conveyed to him by a reader:

It gets worse. The imam of the "9/11 mosque" (as some have dubbed it), Feisal Abdul Rauf, is an anti-American and anti-Christian radical. He has blamed the West and Christianity for Islamic terrorism and made excuses for jihad terrorists. That such a figure would be given clearance to build a mosque next to the site of the Muslim-bombed World Trade Center demonstrates, yet again, the destructive and suicidal nature of liberalism.

Horowitz Exhange with "Student"

This three-minute video may be of interest to you, unless you've already seen it - there are loads of David Horowitz videos online. The girl, as far as I can tell, is an "American". Her accent gives her away. David pushes her until she admits to being in favor of exterminating the Jews. Only one small example of the Islamization of America, in particular our college campuses that have been hotbeds of anti-Western hatred since the 60's.

For another, far more sinister example of the dire straits we are in, see my next post.

H/T: NRO via Lawrence Auster.

If you have trouble understanding the video consult this transcript of the exchange.

Turks Demonstrate in D.C.

Here's a brief video posted at Islamisation of an anti-Armenian rally that took place in Washington on the day of the commemoration of the genocide - April 24. The demonstrators, of course, are Turks. According to Islamisation:

After two hours of "festivities", the Turkish ambassador Namil Tan finally came out to congratulate the protesters.

Tunisia in the EU?

According to this Novopress article, the latest non-European country to seek membership in the EU is Tunisia.

While Jacques Chirac pleads for the "closest possible ties" between Turkey and the European Union, in anticipation of Turkey's admission into Europe, another Muslim country is knocking at the door of the EU: Tunisia, governed with an iron fist since 1987 by Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali (above). The North African country and the European Union, linked already by an association agreement, today launched negotiations in Brussels for the purpose of strengthening their relations.

In typical technocratic manner, an agreement has presumably been reached on the "formation of a special task force to study the possibility of an advanced status", that would be granted by the EU to Turkey. This announcement was made by a very pleased Spanish secretary of State on European Affairs, Diego Lopez Garrido, to the immense joy of the Tunisian Foreign Minister, Kamel Morjane. The first step will be to intensify the political dialogue and commercial relations between the two entities.

Novopress wonders:

Will there soon be ten million Tunisians and seventy million Turks in the European Union?

Question: Is it likely any of this will come about, in view of the economic disaster some European countries are facing? Greece, Portugal, etc... are bankrupt or about to be. If Turkey and the Maghreb enter the EU, who will foot that bill? Or do they feel that Turkey and Tunisia will provide the funds to bail out other countries?

The question of "advanced status" for a North African country has come up before, with regard to Morocco.

Chirac for Turkey

Former French president Jacques Chirac has been in Turkey to receive an honorary degree from the University of Galatasaray. While there, he made a big pitch for Turkey's admission to the European Union. Novopress reports:

Jacques Chirac will be in Turkey until tomorrow (May 12). In an interview with the Turkish paper Posta, the former French president pushed for "the closest ties possible" between Turkey and the European Union. A marriage that must be "the strongest possible" in the years to come, while a "community of destiny" exists between France and Turkey, declared Chirac.

Jacques Chirac believes that these strong ties represent "one of the conditions for peace and stability of the European continent."

Novopress isn't so sure:

It isn't sure that the influx of 71 million new Muslims into Europe would be a guarantee of "peace" and "stability", with an EU undergoing a vigorous Islamization - a source of many divisions and tensions.

Question: Why are France and Turkey united in a "community of destiny"? Was there something in their past histories that foreshadowed this seemingly inevitable "marriage"? Or is this a recent slogan, made up for the purpose of deceiving the French people?

Chirac's words echo those of Sarkozy who on many occasions has spoken of close, closer, closest ties with Turkey. Any closer, they would be on top of each other. Possibly Chirac was on an unannounced diplomatic mission for Sarkozy. Chirac had actually put a safeguard into the French Constitution, that required a referendum of the people before any new admission to the EU could be voted on by the French Parliament. Nicolas Sarkozy had that safeguard removed.

Sarkozy Assesses Sarkozy

What has Nicolas Sarkozy been up to recently? He's been assessing his term in office thus far, and thinking ahead... Yves Daoudal reports:

Yesterday, according to those present at the meeting, Nicolas Sarkozy declared to the UMP deputies:

"By mid-2011, we will be able to say that we have passed our entire program of reforms. Then, from the end of 2011 on, we will only take care of political matters."

You can decide if that means that he will run for office again in 2012, or not.

But what is most striking in his remarks is that for Nicolas Sarkozy, all his "reforms" are not politics. Not even the reform of territorial collectivities, or of local and regional elections... none of that is politics.

For Sarkozy, "politics" refers only to the little political game that is played before the national elections.

Then what is it that relates to civic affairs?

The answer is anything that is apt to serve the political game. But when the moment arrives, you drop the civic affairs (you pretend to care about civic affairs), and you only concern yourself with the political game.

We are really light years away from concern for the common weal.

Another article on Sarkozy at François Desouche is based on a text published by Elysée Palace itself. The document paints a rosy picture of the accomplishments of Sarkozy's first term:

Three years after the election of Nicolas Sarkozy (...) it is useful to enumerate the reforms launched and the results obtained, for each of the main objectives of the President's actions. And to look ahead to what remains to be accomplished and the new projects to come.

Thanks to the cumulative effect of these measures and the actions of the police, France has witnesses its 7th consecutive year of improvements in the fight against crime. The number of reported crimes, both serious and minor, has decreased by 15% between 2002 and 2008. It had increased as much between 1997 and 2002. Moreover, the rate of crime verification ("élucidation") increased by 50%, and today it stands at 38% compared to 25% in 2001.

Note: The statistics cited by Elysée are not for the past three years, but for a period that includes his term as Interior Minister. Possibly the official stats on 2009 are not yet published? Certainly the stats for 2010 are in progress, but won't be available for a long time. Sarkozy, in the past has pointed with pride to his record on crime, often failing to note that while certain types of crime may have decreased, physical crime against people has increased. Also, it must always be remembered that many crimes are never reported, and that the cumulative effect of crime on the white French population is corrosive, even if statistically there has been a decrease.

Going further, the government launched a vast program of development of video-protection. Almost 20,000 cameras have been installed in France so far. Their number should triple by 2011 and reach 60,000 to allow for much greater efficiency of the police, who are working on behalf of the French people.

The adoption in 2008, during the French presidency of the European Union, of a European pact outlawing massive legalization of undocumented aliens.

Note: lol.

Toughening of the rules on family reunification: mastery of the French language is henceforth imperative. In 2009 alone, 100,000 Reception and Integration Contracts were signed, by virtue of which those admitted onto our territory vow to respect the laws of the Republic. The level of legal immigration has stabilized at 173,000 in 2009, compared to more than 200,000 in 2002 and 2003. Since 2007, the annual average of requests for asylum has been reduced to fewer than 35,000, a level comparable to that of Great Britain and Germany, vs more than 50,000 at the beginning of 2000.

Note: The Reception and Integration Contract can be viewed at the website of OFII - Bureau of French Immigration and Integration. Click the language you want on the left.

The above excerpt is drawn from a very long document published by Elysée. French readers who are interested can click here for the complete text.

The section of the document on crime includes many other points cited by Sarkozy as success stories. Among them:

- the implementation of minimum jail terms for recidivists. The practice of collective pardons was totally abolished in 2007.

- the criminalization of gang membership. Voted on in February 2010: belonging to a violent gang is a crime punishable by three years in prison.

Note: The fact that there are so many gangs in France would seem to make this a dubious success story.

- "security retention", voted on in February 2008. By virtue of this law dangerous criminals who complete their prison sentence may be "retained" in a center where they are under constant medical, social and psychological surveillance.

Note: This has been discussed before at GalliaWatch. It is absurd to "retain" them after their term is completed. Rather they should be given longer jail terms. In France no criminal can be imprisoned for more than 22 years. Thus, a dangerous murderer sentenced at the age of 22 will be 44 when he leaves prison. Retention is a necessity. But life in prison would be a better solution, since capital punishment seems to be out of the question.

- the joining of the police and the gendarmerie under the authority of the Interior Ministry.

Note: This too has been discussed here. The gendarmes are not happy, to put it mildly, about the change. Having been part of the military, they must now behave like policemen, meaning that they have less latitude in using force against criminals.

- 11 new prisons opened as well as 6 new jails for juveniles, resulting in the creation of almost 7500 new places available out of the 13,200 projected to be ready by 2012.

Note: That IS good news. The ever-growing prison population will have the spanking-new facilities they so richly deserve after working so hard to destroy France!!!

The "faux" poster below was sent in by a reader. When Sarkozy was running for president, his theme was "Together all things are possible". Below it reads, "Together, on to Civil War"

Thanks to zazie

Russian Art at the Louvre

If you are interested in Russian Christian Art and happen to find yourself in Paris, you still have about two weeks to visit what appears to be a gorgeous exhibition at the Louvre of icons, manuscripts, garments, carvings, jewelry, etc... The exhibit began on March 5 and ends May 24. It covers the period from the initial conversion from paganism to Christianity in the 10th century, up to the time of Peter the Great. There are eight divisions: the conversion, the first Christian expansion, the time of the Mongols, the great centers of the Middle Ages, the emergence of Moscow, Moscow as the "Third Rome", the time of trouble, and from Michael Romanov to Peter the Great.

Above you see the 11th century document signed by the King of France, Philippe I, son of Henri I, in which he consents to the abbey of Saint-Crépin de Soissons. It is the only known document, where, under the monogram of the King, you can read the signature of the Queen, Anne of Kiev, written in Slavic characters. Anne was the second wife of Henri I and took the reins of government, as their son was only seven years old when Henri I died.

Below a striking icon of John the Baptist, from the 16th century.

H/T: Novopress

Mother's Day

Mother's Day, like Valentine's Day and Halloween, has ballooned in importance in recent decades, as if to compensate for the loss of love in today's promiscuous world, the loss of souls in today's paganized, world, and the loss of traditional motherhood in today's world of "working moms, single moms, moms on welfare and other newly created icons of the liberated woman. There are even "cougar moms" who, in front of their own daughters, prey on men. These holidays at one time were mostly for the benefit of children who would make Valentine cards at school, dress up on Halloween to knock on doors and ask for candy treats, or buy (or make) a small precious gift for Mother (before she became, by feminist diktat a "mom").

You can read some thoughts on this at Laura Wood's website, The Thinking Housewife. Since Laura's site is devoted largely to the condition of the modern woman, and the catastrophic consequences for society of the loss of traditional motherhood and femininity, you will find a plethora of articles to choose from.

Looking at the more pleasant side of today's holiday, flowers are a reminder of the infinite beauty and variety of nature. So many shapes, colors and textures. I know little about gardening, but I love to see the window boxes bloom and the shops with buckets of bright blossoms for sale out front. A reader has been sending me lots of photos of flowers. My favorite is the myosotis (above) or forget-me-nots, for their exquisite color - my favorite color - periwinkle blue (at any rate, blue is my color, however it is qualified).

Below, of course, the irresistble velvety pansy, in French "pensée", which means "thought". The pansy is a type of violet.

In France, the Fête des Mères falls late in the month of May, this year for example, on May 30.

Thanks to zazie.

New Blood for a New Church

Here's a summary of an article sent in by a reader. It appeared at Yahoo News on April 30. Is it good news or bad news?

Chaldeans from Iraq, Africans, Lebanese, Syrians and Vietnamese: This is the immigration that is filling the Catholic churches in France, as the launching of the construction of a new church in Vaulx-en-Velin, in the suburbs of Lyons, illustrates.

Cardinal-Archbishop Philippe Barbarin laid the first stone on Friday. At a time when the Catholic Church is losing ground, this project appears to be an exception and even a "national event" in the eyes of father Régis Charre, priest of Vaulx-en-Velin. The church will be erected on the site of a makeshift chapel in ruins, scheduled to be demolished in a few days.

Note: A reminder that the Archbishop of Lyons is also the Primate of the Gauls.

In this suburb of Lyons, immigrants have for decades filled the ranks of the faithful and injected new blood into the Catholic Church. Hence the decision of the diocese to make a four million euro investment.

"I've counted 25 nationalities among my faithful," explains father Régis Charre. "Ever since the 90's numerous Iraqi families have come here. There are eight hundred Chaldeans who are very close to their church."

Among the other populations filling the Catholic church in Vaulx-en-Velin, he cites Africans from the Congo, Benin, Cameroon and Rwanda, Creoles from Martinique, Guadeloupe, Reunion Island, Maurice and Madagascar and "Orientals" such as Lebanese, Syrians, Vietnamese, Indian Tamils, Portuguese and Italians.

"And let's not forget the Gaulois," he smiles.

Note: How kind of him to remember the "Gaulois".

The future church, to be built in a contemporary style, will be baptized Saint-Thomas in honor of the "Orientals" who have made him their evangelist.

"It's a major project, essential," said Cardinal-Archbishop Philippe Barbarin before celebrating Mass, recalling that he, too, was a "child of the suburbs". "There reigns here a collective joy," he emphasized. (...)

In his latest newsletter, available only through subscription, Yves Daoudal has some thoughts on this new church. First he points out that Vaulx-en-Velin has become infamous for its "young people" and its riots:

"To build a house of peace in a place engraved in the collective memory of France as a place of upheavals is very symbolic," emphasized Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, who laid the first stone on April 30.

Daoudal: This site is unique in France say the media. Alas, yes, it is unique, when not a week goes by that we don't learn about a new plan to build a giant mosque. The one in Vaulx-en-Velin, for example: the land has been purchased, the building permit filed, and the financing about to be completed.

"Immigrants, new blood for a new church," was the headline of Reuters.

Daoudal: The immigrants decidedly are a universal opportunity for France, even for the Church (that's something new). The population of Vaulx-en-Velin is essentially of immigrant origin. And we are delighted to learn that a certain number of them are Catholic and that they will have a church. But we have to be more specific. Looking beyond the obligatory clichés, such as the one in the local paper Le Progrès that called it an "open and racially mixed ("métissé") site", we note that the priest of Vaulx-en-Velin speaks of 25 different nationalities, the majority of whom are Chaldeans from Iraq. Not to mention the Tamils, who follow the same liturgy as the Chaldeans. Now, the future church is projected to house 450 persons. Even if these Chaldeans are not all practicing, about half of them are. And the church will be called Saint-Thomas, the name of the apostle evangelist of Iraq and India.

"The Christians of the East know how we bear their sufferings, and we are happy to give them this church named after Saint-Thomas, the first to evangelize the Middle East," emphasized Cardinal-Archbishop Barbarin, before laying the first stone, actually two first stones, one of which comes from a 13th century Iraqi church, and which will be encased in the altar.

All of which makes one wonder why they don't build a Chaldean church... Since they are building not only a church, but a whole parish complex, they might have imagined two churches next to each other, one for the Chaldeans, and another for the Catholics of diverse origins, but who follow, in their majority, the Latin rite.

Why? It seems that, once again, it is because of the ideology that prevails even unto the Church of France: the church must be for everyone, open to everyone, etc...

"The religious building will be for all Catholics - Africans, Tamils and others - who can attend the Mass of their choice," says Le Progrès. As if they were building a liturgical supermarket... In truth, they are mocking the liturgical and spiritual traditions. Will they at least conceive the interior of the church in such a way that the Chaldeans can celebrate their liturgy in accordance with their own rite? It could not be less certain. We fear that nobody in the Lyons bishopric explained to the architect that the Chaldean liturgy (like the Syriac liturgy in general) is very special and that it is organized around two altars built face to face.

Clearly the arrangement of the liturgy is secondary in this "Church that is in France," and the essential thing, as the priest re-stated is "to do the Church thing", which is the Catholic version of "living-together". But they are not even aware of the disdain that that implies for Christians who hold their liturgy dear to their hearts, a liturgy they preserved through the Muslim invasions, through centuries and centuries of persecution, and for the Chaldeans of Turkey, even through a genocide.

From what we see of the architecture of the new church, we are not inclined to think that they were very preoccupied with tradition... Here too, it's about "living-together", melting into the landscape: one concrete cube amidst other concrete cubes...

He closes his article by saying that despite everything, it is nice to see a church built on a site that is a reminder of the worst consequences of uncontrolled immigration.

Note: A reminder that "living-together" (in French, "vivre-ensemble") is one of the government's touchy-feely slogans to force people into accepting multiculturalism.

Regarding the riots in Vaulx-en-Velin, the NYT has a summary. Inequality of income, and other social evils are presented as the cause of the riots that took place in October 1990, prompting Socialist President François Mitterand to cite marginalization of the immigrants as the cause, and to vow to repair the problem. The man killed on the motorcycle was Thomas Claudio. Note that even back then the Front National was regarded as "extreme Right". But look at how brutally honest the Front spokesman was, even talking about sending them back! The FN would do well to recover some of its former courage.

Below a plan for the new church. Very inspired, isn't it?