Fighting Islamophobia

If you happen to be in Nanterre, west of Paris, on October 30, you can let your voice be heard at the Conference against Islamophobia, organized by the CCIF (Collective Against Islamophobia in France) and a consultative member of the U.N. Above is the poster advertising the event and you can't miss its meaning: the innocent Muslim couple holding hands, bathed in the French national colors, is the target of the racist Islamophobic French who want to shoot them. And there is no time to waste: this is an "emergency" ("état d'urgence"):

The goal of the conference is to fight against "the hatred towards Muslims and an ideology that seeks to reject all visible signs of Islam," because, naturally, Muslims do not feel hatred when they massacre Christians, when they call for the slaughter of Jews, when they beat homosexuals to death or hang them, when they strike their wives on grounds they are inferior… The speakers will discuss the denunciation of Islamist hatred by making this denunciation itself appear to be hatred. You accuse your dog of having rabies when you want to kill it, that is well-known.

The guest speakers are all well-known Muslims and Muslim sympathizers, dissenters having been excluded from the guest list.

Source: Riposte Laïque

French Hotel Magnate Murdered in Paris

A reader just sent me this story about a gangland-style murder in Paris. The victim was Claude Dray, 76, a billionaire hotelier famous for a collection of Art Deco furniture and other objects that he and his wife amassed and later auctioned off for 55 million pounds. His wife Simone was in the United States at the time of the crime.

Read more in the Daily Mail.

I know nothing about Dray for now except for the information in the Mail. Since Dray lived in Neuilly-sur-Seine, there are several references to Nicolas Sarkozy, who was mayor of Neuilly from 1983 to 2002.

Turks Demonstrate in Saint-Etienne

Turkish nationalists paraded loudly through the streets of Saint-Etienne on Saturday night in protest against attacks by the Kurdish PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) on Turkish soldiers in the province of Hakkari, in which 26 Turks were killed.

The information comes from Islamisation, via Le Progrès:

The store-front of a bar on rue Antoine-Durafour was shattered yesterday evening around 4:00 p.m. The owner, Richard Sissi declared: "I am a Frenchman of Kurdish origin. When the Turkish demonstration passed in front of my store, some of them said, in Turkish, 'Set it on fire'. Some wanted to return home. My cashier who is pregnant became ill. She went to the ER. Then the demonstrators broke my store window. I don't think it was by chance that they came this way." Richard does not understand this attack: "Here, we do our job. I employ nine people. We don't care about politics or religion. I'm not a part of the PKK. We're in France. They should demonstrate against the PKK!"

He is still wondering why the police did not intervene. "They told me they didn't have enough men. Tonight I'm afraid for myself and my family. (…)

Note: The demonstrators never obtained permission from the prefecture to hold their rally. About sixty persons, with Turkish flags camped on the steps of City Hall (see first video above), then a march was quickly organized and they traveled along the main thoroughfare (see second video above), only to come back via rue Antoine-Durafour.

The Turkish presence in France is often overlooked amidst the massive North African immigration. If Turkey is admitted to the EU, Turks living in France will feel empowered to make their presence more strongly felt. Not only Kurds, but Armenians as well may begin to feel uneasy.

The store owner displays the usual surprise a the ferocity of the demonstrators. Why such naïveté? He says: "We're in France". Since he's in France, where crime is common and police are impotent, he should not be so surprised. Below, Richard Sissi in front of his store.

Sick Europe

Cheradenine Zakalwe, writing at Islam versus Europe, informs us of a new EU manual that, he says, "gives educators guidance on how European children can be conditioned to accept their own genocide".

He says the manual is built around a Slovenian poster exhibition called Faces of Racism Revealed. If you click the link to Faces of Realism, you will read:

"The manual was developed within a project entitled 'Ljubljana Poster Festival '11: The Faces of Racism Revealed.' The aim of the poster festival is to use posters as a means of promoting positive social change."

Then click the link to Poster Festival Ljubljana for a look at the posters, two of which I have dared to post below, though I may have to remove them. (Remember this has the seal of approval from European governments and the European Union. I did not invent this.) It is altogether unbelievable that the first one of a black man sodomizing a white woman could have been accepted as a teaching tool for anything but sexual depravity and white female degradation. And what does the caption mean? That once you sleep with a black man you can never go back to being a racist??? Furthermore these posters were done by young people of Slovenia, and other European countries, including France. (Note: Regarding the meaning of the poster below, see the comment section for a discussion.)

Update: October 27 - A reader suggested I Google the phrase "Once you go black, you never go back" for the meaning. I must confess I had never heard the phrase, but apparently it is well-known among knowledgeable young people today. The expression means "Once you have dated a black you will never want to go back to any other race." So the obscene poster below is indeed a tribute to interracial sex. And more, it almost makes a mockery of anyone who does not engage in interracial sex, for that poor person is surely missing out on something that cannot be matched by any other race.

The second poster of a black man in white face, by a Polish artist, is more comical than degrading, except perhaps to the European Union.


I find these posters pathologically racist and deadly in their intent and in their inevitable consequences, which will be more anti-white racism and greater white guilt, and more white girls raped, voluntarily or otherwise. Although, they are so egregious, so outlandish in their misbegotten principle of anti-white racism, you could almost laugh, were it not a question of the survival of our civilization. But maybe our civilization is already dead, and only the time and date of burial need to be worked out.

The Poster Festival website proclaims:

"Welcome to the website of Poster Festival Ljubljana '11, The Faces of Racism Revealed, which takes place between 16 and 20 September. The overall theme of the festival connecting four exhibitions in the National Gallery, lectures, catalogues, the festival newspaper and film screenings is the issue of racial intolerance, with the focus on the poster as a basic medium of mass communication. The Festival is organised by the Brumen Foundation in partnership with Amnesty International Slovenia and foreign design academies, and with financial support from the EU. It seeks to address everyone, from the uninformed and the youngest, to the most informed and the oldest. We invite you to visit our website and we hope to meet you in person at lectures, exhibitions and film screenings."

The posters featured above and below came from the following group:

Youth, Student Works
125 posters, 111 students, 4 countries
The exhibition presents racism as seen by the young (students) from different European countries. There is 125 posters on view, designed by 111 designers from four academies: the Dutch Hanzehogeschool Groningen – Academie Minerva, the Polish Akademie Sztuk Pięknych in Warsaw, the French Ecole d' art Maryse Eloy in Paris, and the Ljubljana Academy of Fine Arts and Design. The students designed their posters under the guidance of mentors Justyna Czerniakowska, Radovan Jenko, Cyprian Kościelniak, Lech Majewski, Ranko Novak, Thierry Sarfis and Mieczysław Wasilewski.

Here's one more, from a young French artist, that appears to portray typical Americans and their shotguns (!): "You are not born a racist, you become one."


So we all train our kids to carry rifles and to shoot blacks? It's never the blacks that kill us.

Indoctrinating Western Children

Here's the opening paragraph of an article from Ouest-France, also posted at François Desouche. Unfortunately, the rest of the article is accessible only through subscription.

The awakening to religion is accompanied by an intimate knowledge of places of worship. Eighth-graders from the Saint-Pierre aux Essarts middle school, open-minded and curious, came to look at the mosque. An in-depth exchange with Ali Bensaada, the prison chaplain, followed. Thanks to this visit, the children will have an image of the place where Islam is lived. A good way to best understand their courses dealing with the beginnings of Islam.

The mosque in question is located in La Roche sur Yon, department of the Vendée, a department that has remained more traditional than the rest of France. But apparently not traditional enough.

Remember, the French children are from a Catholic school. The man standing in the back of the photo looks like a priest, but I can't be certain. And the Catholic Church has no problem with this?

Above, the French children. Below, a similar scene in England that I find absolutely chilling.

"I am the image of France..."

Here is an abridged version of an interview conducted by journalists from Le Parisien with Marine Le Pen:

- What do you expect from the European Summit taking place today on the crisis?

- Nothing. The euro is going to collapse, it's inevitable. It is our responsibility to prepare for this reality rather than to endure it. What we need is a concerted plan for a return to national currencies.

- But that means risking a loss of purchasing power and a devaluation of our money…

- It's a false topic: 95% of the countries in the world have their own national currency. How do Switzerland and Great Britain manage? The devaluation of a currency has no consequences on the interior market. In order to avoid the game of labels, it could be decided that one franc equals one euro. Instead of earning 1000 euros, you will earn 1000 francs. And your loaf of bread will be 1 franc, not 1 euro.

- Can France keep her triple A rating?

- No. It's a matter of a few weeks. Even if Nicolas Sarkozy's goal is to hang on until the election. But he won't be able to. The fact is, the triple A is already lost, since the interest rates have become greater than those in Germany, which also has a triple A. Therefore, this is a sign that the banks no longer have confidence in us.

- The election is seven months away. How are you doing with respect to your sponsors?

- We began in late September. It is still to early to judge, but I have the impression that there will be cause for concern.

Note: In order to become a presidential candidate, it is necessary to obtain 500 signatures from elected officials throughout France. This includes mayors, deputies, councilors,etc… The story of the 500 signatures was the topic of one of my posts in 2007.

- What do you mean?

- Since the sponsors' names are made public, fewer and fewer mayors are signing in order not to have problems. They especially fear reprisals that would rob them of needed subsidies.

- What would happen if you couldn't get enough sponsors?

- I would see in that a sign that we are no longer in a democratic country. It is obvious that those responsible for this would pay dearly at the polls, with devastating consequences for them in the legislative elections.

(…)

- Is an open primary possible for the Front National?

- I don't have the 3 million euros to arrange it! I don't even have a room for a meeting… so let the law mandate it.

- Is François Hollande a good candidate for you?

- Yes, more so than Martine Aubry. Hollande is the Siamese twin of Sarkozy on all the issues that concern the French people today. Moreover, someone who has just been named presidential candidate and who begins by saying that he's going on vacation for a few days, that really strikes me very special!

(…)

- Has Nicolas Sarkozy already lost the election?

- Yes. I'm not even sure he will run. If he is still at 22% in January, he won't go all the way.

- What would have caused him to lose?

- His lies and his style. Lies on purchasing power, on crime, immigration, on the irreproachable Republic… The business climate weighs heavily. There were such expectations at the moment of his 2007 election that the disenchantment is equal to the height of the dynamic he was able to create. It's a total fiasco. As for his style, the outer man indicated the inner. The French caught on quickly, with Fouquet's and l'Epad. They knew they had been tricked.

Note: On election night 2007, Sarkozy celebrated at Fouquet's famous restaurant on the Champs-Elysées. In 2009 he offered his young and inexperienced son Jean the prestigious post of chairman of Epad, the development agency for the Défense, the largest business district in Paris, that extends for miles westward from the Arc de Triomphe. This act of obvious nepotism triggered an uproar in France and beyond. The dinner at Fouquet's was seen as a sign of Sarkozy's snobbish tastes.

- Why do you feel you are better suited for the job than he?

- With all my imperfections and my contradictions, I am the image of France. For example, I am attached to my Christian roots, but I hardly practice my religion. I am for free enterprise, but not for a liberal State (she means "liberal" in the economic sense). I am for a strong State, but I am not an anti-capitalist like the NPA (a left-wing anti-capitalist party). I am attached to traditional values but I am for moral freedom ("liberté des moeurs"). I am against immigration, but I am not xenophobic… like many French people.

Note: A very interesting self-analysis, but she has to work out some of these contradictions. If she is for "moral freedom", she has to realize how harmful such a notion has been for the country. She also has to realize fully that to prefer and preserve one's own civilization is not to be xenophobic, and that uncontrolled immigration is bad for any country.

- And is the working class voter your main target?

- I'm reaching for those who have the greatest need. That is, the middle class and the working class. I almost feel like saying that those who are the most privileged in the country need me less.

(…)

- Do you really want to be president of the Republic?

- I'm going to be very honest: I never envisaged being president of the Republic, not during my adolescence, nor after. It is not a desire, but a duty. I want to change France. Otherwise, I would be with my children and getting ready to go on vacation.

- So you're experiencing this as a sacrifice?

- Of course, it's the sacrifice of a life! And those who deny it are lying. Those who do not conceive this commitment as a sacrifice have such personal ambition that their sacrifices do not count. But my sacrifices do count. For my family life, my friends, for everything. I was raised in a sense of duty. But if tomorrow it turned out that I were no longer useful where I am, then, in that case, I would take advantage of the situation and do something else.

Opera's Loss - Off-Topic

Normally I try to keep up with news from the world of opera, but I missed one event early in September: the shocking death of Italian tenor Salvatore Licitra in a scooter accident in Sicily. I only learned about it on Saturday when the latest issue of Opera News arrived. Though I am not certain what happened, according to the article he suffered a stroke and then lost control of the scooter. He smashed against a wall and sustained serious head injuries, but I don't know if the injuries killed him or the stroke. He entered a coma for a couple of days before dying at age 43, and at the height of his career. The New York Times has his obituary.

Despite his obvious talent, some critics and opera-goers were not always pleased. At his best he was very good, but he had some vocal problems. The video below features the beautiful French aria "Je crois entendre encore", sung here in Italian, from the opera The Pearl Fishers by Georges Bizet. The person who uploaded the aria used illustrations by Salvador Dali as a backdrop. It took a while for me to acclimate myself to the strange and often garish images that clash with the exquisite melody, but I finally decided the video had merit. This is Licitra at his best.

Looking in the Crystal Ball

Marine Le Pen is more than just visible at the French websites, she has become one of the main topics of discussion. Here, for starters, is a short item from Nations Presse, a site connected to the Front National:

Two thousand nine hundred fifty-two persons voted at the Grandes Gueules website (a blog of Radio Monte Carlo), to determine who will be present in the second round of the 2012 presidential election.

The results are undeniable: Marine Le Pen and François Hollande.

Not Nicolas Sarkozy, who will be incapable of making it through the first round.

Marine Le Pen is even ahead in the betting with 1,071 votes, compared to 979 for François Hollande.

The listeners to Radio Monte Carlo were lucid enough to realize the emptiness of Sarkozy's record (business woes, higher debt, unemployment, poverty, crime, greater than ever immigration), and the strength of Marine Le Pen's recovery plan.

François Hollande, the candidate with no ideas, the other half of the UMPS, only came in second.

Note: Regarding this radio program, according to Wikipedia, it consists of two parts: first, two and a half hours of round table discussion with listener participation, followed by a half-hour interview with a person currently in the news. The show was created in 2004 by its two hosts Alain Marschall and Olivier Truchot. Recently Tariq Ramadan was one of its celebrity guests.

In an interview with Le Parisien which I hope to post in condensed form, Marine Le Pen asserts that Sarkozy is out of the race, and that he may not even run as a candidate.

If she and François Hollande face off, she has a chance. But so much can happen between now and then.

François Hollande - The People's Choice?

The second round of the first-ever Socialist primary was held on October 17, with François Hollande defeating Martine Aubry, the pro-Islamist mayor of Lille.

François Hollande, is virtually unknown outside of France. In this article from #143 of his weekly newsletter (available through subscription), Yves Daoudal explains why he is (with good reason) unknown, and why his victory in 2012 would expedite the long death agony of the country:

François Hollande, wearing the halo of popular legitimacy as the Socialist presidential candidate, went to Spain and met with the Socialist head of government José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. A visit that aimed to strengthen his international stature, they say. To strengthen, or to begin to try to establish. For François Hollande is unknown outside of France. The very serious German journal Die Welt explained to its readers why he is nicknamed Flamby, a brand of caramel custard. For The Economist, he is a "dinosaur", like Martine Aubry, since both of them seem frozen in the past, in 1981": retirement at 60, creation of public jobs, more taxes and unreduced expenses… One wonders if Hollande asked Zapatero how to get the ratings agencies to downgrade you by two points all at once, before hurtling you into a Greek hell, but it wasn't necessary: all he has to do is implement his platform.

A platform that isn't a platform. A feeble caricature of the old Socialist program. But they need it. It is significant that the website dedicated to the much-talked-about Socialist primary gave no indication at all of the candidates' platforms. Curiously, the site was called "The Citizens' Primary" as if it were a Socialist monopoly, and their goal was to designate "the candidate of the Left" as if the other leftist candidates were impostors. I don't remember hearing Monsieur Mélenchon (another leftist candidate) howling that he was denied his right to exist. But it's true that I didn't pay close attention to things that have no importance whatsoever.

Candidate Hollande's first act was to participate in the ceremonies commemorating the "massacre of 300 Algerians" by the Paris police on October 17, 1961, thus paying homage to the FLN (National Liberation Front). Yet the archives of the medical examiner prove that there were perhaps two deaths. To participate in such a sham at least has some meaning. François Hollande is a true Socialist with a true hatred of France. Hence, he espouses Europeanism, and Euro-globalism tainted with Alter-globalism, and the desire to give foreigners the right to vote (naturally they participated in this primary).

To which we can add a disdain for marriage and family, as his personal life attests, and an enraptured acquiescence to anything related to the culture of death.

In any case, François Hollande is not very far removed from what they call the Right. The difference is not one of nature, but of zeal and celerity. With the Left, we just go more rapidly into the wall, economically speaking, and into the depths of decadence, in all other areas.

Polls indicate to us that this is what the French want. They affirm that 59% of the French hope the Left will be victorious, and that François Hollande will win the second round of the election against Nicolas Sarkozy, with 62% of the votes. Of course, besides the usual reservations regarding polls, we must remember that they were conducted at the very moment when François Hollande had become the media's superstar (which is rather surreal considering the inconsistency of the man…) But, just the same, these polls are quite amazing: a majority of Frenchmen hope to go faster into the suicide of France.

Note: The Paris massacre of 1961 is a topic in itself. The event made headlines world-wide, and the fierce controversy over the number of Algerians killed persists to this day. Wikipedia has a long page devoted to this violence that erupted in the time of the Algerian War. A Google search on October 17, 1961 will provide you with ample reading for many days.

The photo at the top shows the Socialist candidates in a gesture of solidarity. Hollande is second from the Right. Ségolène Royal is in a red jacket, Martine Aubry in white.

Below, François Hollande and his current partner Valérie Trierwilier, a divorcée with three children.


Below, with his civil union partner of 25 years Ségolène Royal, the mother of his four children, and his political rival in the recent primary. She came in fourth, after Martine Aubry and Arnaud Montebourg.


Below, a rather sober photo of Hollande on the cover of the leftist journal Nouvel Observateur.

"French" Tourists in San Antonio

Here's a short article from Le Salon Beige dated October 20:

Five French persons were arrested in the United States for breaking into a Texas courtroom. Le Figaro speaks of "young people, ages 21 - 25."

An American report says explicitly "five Moroccans."

Here is one reader's comment:

- Americans are not afraid of stigmatizing. They call a spade a spade. When will we have such courage here in France?

He flatters us. The English-language article from the LA Times that describes the event does indeed name them as Moroccans. But it also reveals that for the Texas police it was probably just a prank, "a case of road-trip drinking gone awry."

Just a prank!!! Here is an excerpt from the article:

Three of the men's names match those on an FBI watch list, Bennett said. The names, which have not been released, are not common, he said.

San Antonio police officers were initially called to the courthouse at 1:40 a.m. after three of the men tripped a silent alarm by pulling down a fire escape to climb into a fourth-floor window, Bennett said.

Two of the men were found in a nearby recreational vehicle, photographed by the San Antonio Express-News. The vehicle had California license plates and was rented in New Jersey, Bennett said.

Police officers who went inside the RV told Reuters it contained "photographs of infrastructure" including shopping malls, water systems, courthouses and other public buildings taken in cities across the United States.

San Antonio police officials later declined to confirm those reports, and Bennett said authorities were attempting to obtain a warrant to search the RV Wednesday afternoon.

"We’re still trying to determine whether these individuals had a plot or were just on a little vacation trek," Bennett said.

"There was some alcohol involved, so that leads us to believe they might not have known what they were doing, what building they were breaking into," he said. "We’re leaning towards a party prank at this point."

The moral of the story is: if a bunch of thugs belong to a protected minority, then whatever they do must be regarded as a party prank.

The American media, with very few exceptions, do not call a spade a spade. Even if they reveal ethnic identities, they cover up the true nature of the crime. If a man is killed in his home, the papers speak of a "robbery gone wrong." If a white guy is beaten by a gang it is a "senseless" act.

The article from Le Figaro does refer to them as "French", and as "young people", although they are not teenagers. Le Figaro claims that nothing was found in the RV, but informs us that the FBI is opening an inquiry to determine the motive for the break-in. As of now, the five men are behind bars.

As I go to post, there is another article, this one from the Houston Chronicle, that indicates none of the men were on the FBI's lists. The article concludes that it was all a farce. The men were certainly drunk, and on a spree, but the whole incident remains cloaked in mystery:

Officials had stated that the men, all in their mid-20s, were from Morocco but corrected themselves later in the day, saying they had French driver's licenses and passports. The French Consulate in Dallas has been notified of the incident, they said. (…)

“They were clowning around in the courtroom,” Ortiz said, adding that sheriff's investigators could find no apparent terror or political motive for breaking in. Federal law enforcement sources agreed, although they said their investigation remained open.

Given their foreign status and the oddity of the situation, every possible motive had to be investigated, Ortiz said.

“Why would a bunch of tourists choose a courthouse to break into? That is the part that's very hard to reconcile,” First Assistant District Attorney Cliff Herberg said. “So we're not taking anything for granted on them and we're going to be seeking a high bond.” (…)

Four of them started their trip in the New York area, officials said. They paid for the RV rental with a credit card and cash, a $10,000 booking, a spokesman for the rental company said.

“There was nothing suspicious about them,” said the spokesman, Daniel Schneider. “They were just normal guys.” (…)

All judges were invited to a special meeting at noon in which the danger was downplayed. Bomb-sniffing dogs from at least three agencies already had scanned the area, said state District Judge Victor Negrón, whose gavel had been grabbed.

The memento — still wrapped in a red, white and blue ribbon from when it was given to Negrón at his swearing-in ceremony — was dusted for fingerprints and returned to him later in the day. The men likely saw it as a potential trophy of their prank, Negrón said, laughingly referring to it by a new nickname: “the Moroccan hammer.” (...)

The relentless effort by the authorities to underplay the incident and to laugh it off lends ominous overtones to these American newspaper reports.

So with thanks to the French reader for his belief in our "courage", I can't help feeling that those Texas authorities could use some lessons in how to call a crime a crime.

Below, the San Antonio courthouse.

Carla Gives Birth

See Update at the end.

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy gave birth to a baby girl Wednesday night at about 8:00 p.m., according to Jean-Marc Morandini.

She has said that she will never allow the child to be exposed to the media. Nor will we see a photo of the baby. In one of her few references to her pregnancy she declared to Le Figaro in September: "I don't believe that you have a child by asking yourself questions… it happens rather in a sort of happy unconscious state and this is how it has been since the dawn of time."

"We are in a period of crisis, but if human reproduction were linked to a perfect life, we would not be here, you and I, to talk about it."

"Moreover, I think that the survival instinct is manifest in the desire for a child," added the president's wife.

"As for the baby, of course, I will take care of it, but I don't see why that would prevent me from working," she said, adding that she has a "great deal of help" and that her life was "not difficult."

She gave birth at the Clinique de la Muette in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. She already has a ten-year-old son, Aurélien, by the "philosopher" Raphaël Enthoven. Nicolas Sarkozy has two sons Pierre and Jean by his first wife, and another son Louis by Cecilia, his second wife.

Below, a photo from September showing Carla eight months pregnant. If what she says is true, this may be the closest we ever get to seeing the baby.

They say that this is the first birth ever in the history of the Republic. I don't quite understand this secrecy. A birth should be a happy occasion and the people should be able to see the baby at least in an official photograph. Possibly the mood in the country is so pessimistic, or cynical, and Sarkozy so disliked that it is necessary to hide what would normally be a public event.

Update: October 21 - The baby's name is Giulia. It's a pretty name but it's not French, it's Italian. Once again, Carla makes a point of distancing herself from the people. If she is proud to be Italian, that is understandable. But a French name would have been more appropriate, and an elegant gesture on her part.

Marine Le Pen Defies the Feminists

Here's a 5-minute video for those interested in Marine Le Pen's views on women, and her ability to take on an opponent who misconstrues the reasons for her rise to political power. However, I don't feel she acquitted herself as well as she might have mainly because she missed some opportunities to explain crucial points, but possibly she did not have the time. The following is a somewhat reduced version of the first two minutes.

The moderator enumerates the women who are today running for office, and wonders if there is a "Women's Power" movement in France. Then her guest, Soumaya Benaissa, a journalist with France 24 (who dominates the first half of the video), cites a new book called Women and Power that shows that in the course of the Fifth French Republic, the increase in the number of women in office has been due not to institutional or legislative changes, but only to arbitrary decisions by the country's leaders. Thus, she says it is, paradoxically, easier for a woman to become a minister (i.e., an appointed office) than a deputy voted in by the people, and that from Charles de Gaulle to Nicolas Sarkozy there has been a steady rise in the number of women ministers and junior ministers. She mentions that Marine was recently on the cover of the feminist magazine Elle featuring an article that raised eyebrows because here was a magazine, feminist par excellence, that profiled a woman, who is a product of feminism, but who espouses ideas that are intolerable to feminists and feminist values.

MLP - What are the feminist values?

SB - For example, the Veil law (legalizing abortion). Your vice-president, who is working on a policy regarding women's issues... the last time she spoke about the law said that there was no possibility of revoking it, but it was necessary to reduce its usefulness.

Note: The vice-president in question may be Marie-Christine Arnautu, but I can't be certain.

At this point Marine gets angry.

MLP - Do you in all honesty think you can reduce the role of women to the mere issue of abortion? Women are citizens like everybody else, they work, they worry about their children, they want their children and their family to live without fear of crime...

SB - No, it's that up to now, the Front National has always considered women from the viewpoint of children and the family.

MLP - But that's not true! It's all the politicians who have done that. I find it shocking that women's magazines reduce women to the questions of abortion and children…

(unintelligible)

SB - No. To the question of the body. That is different.

SB and the moderator insist they are talking about "gains" ("des acquis").

(unintelligible)

MLP - For my part, I don't choose a person according to his or her sex, but according to his or her merits, competence and qualities. But to reduce women to the sole question of abortion, again...

They all speak at the same time. Benaissa and the moderator insist that they are not "reducing" women, but are referring to the "gains" made. Benaissa brings up the issue of a bill for the National Assembly that may threaten the Veil law.

MLP - What bill? There is no bill. I've talked about this a dozen times. But if you think that because there are two hundred thousand abortions (per year) in this country and you say "Oh that's great!", well I don't think it's great.

SB - And pre-natal adoption?

MLP - And you find pre-natal abortion scandalous?

SB - No, but it calls for a review of the Veil law.

MLP - You think that the possibility of implementing a plan for pre-natal adoption which would bring down the number of abortions is scandalous?

(unintelligible)

MLP - If we've reached that point then we will find ourselves saying outrageous things.

(unintelligible)

At that point the moderator stops the conversation.

They fear that Marine Le Pen wants to abolish the Veil law, but this has not been her position. She wants the National Health System to stop funding abortions, and she wants to increase the birthrate of Frenchwomen. Through her adoption plan, she clearly wants to prevent some abortions.

I think she missed a chance to respond to Soumaya Benaissa's comment that she is a "product of feminism." Marine Le Pen is not a product of feminism, and if she is politically powerful today it is only because there is nobody else. There may have been several promising conservative male politicians in the recent past who seemed poised for political stardom, but they lost interest, or could not garner enough votes. Marine Le Pen has been immersed in the political and cultural fate of her country for most of her life. She has had to convince the people, first, that the Front National has always been the patriotic party of France and second, that she will not make the blunders (intentional or not) of her father. So far, she has succeeded.

It would also be beneficial for her and her constituents if she clearly defined the differences between "feminine" and "feminist", where the former is an innate quality of women, and the second an ideology of conquest that derives from and is attached to the Left in all its forms. There are times in any woman's life when she feels revengeful and "feministic", but these should be passing moments, not permanent obsessions. The feminine woman will not drive a wedge between men and women, she will not be out for absolute parity, she will worry more about her home, her family, the quality of her children's education, the moral health of the society in which she lives and the strength of her heritage than about glass ceilings. Most important, she will not betray her country when it is in danger.

There have always been courageous women. Joan of Arc is the most striking example, and while Marine may not be Joan, she's doing a lot better than the spineless prince in Elysée Palace today.

Headline Stories

Three events in the French news are (1) the dropping of charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn in the Tristane Banon criminal case though she can still sue him in a civil trial; (2) the results of the second round of the Socialist primary election with François Hollande, former civil union partner of Ségolène Royal, emerging victorious; and (3) the record of what happened on board the Air France Airbus that went down in the Atlantic off Rio de Janeiro in June 2009.

For the latest on DSK (above, looking a bit hoary - pun intended) you can begin with this English-language article from the Mail, sent by a reader. You will learn of a prostitution racket, organized by a high-ranking official in the French National Police, and implemented for the pleasure of Mr. Strauss-Kahn. You will learn as well that he admits attacking Tristane Banon.


As for François Hollande (left), I will try to get better information on him from the French blogs. Here's a typical MSM article from The Telegraph.

I had read a few months ago that the pilots of the Air France jet appeared to be poorly trained and had no idea what to do. However, some readers comments indicated this was not true, that Air France was to blame for not replacing a faulty part on the Airbus. The latest news includes a portion of the flight recorder data that confirms they did not know what to do. But I cannot tell if it was their fault or the fact that the plane itself was faulty.
Read the story in the Mail.

Is Turkey In?

Here's an article that has appeared at numerous blogs over the past several days. I first saw it at Islamisation, but you can find it at Les 4 Vérités, among others. It reminds us that since 2002 the European Parliament has been voting for special funds, called pre-accession credits, for Turkey, and that so far no country that has received similar funding has been denied admission into the EU. The very short video below, which must date from 2008 or 2009, shows Mme Françoise Grossetête of Sarkozy's UMP party, voting in favor of the funds for Turkey.


Turquie : l'UMP vote les crédits de pré-adhésion... by L_pour_Libertas

Despite all the European reports that confirm the lack of respect for religious minorities and the persecution of journalists by the Islamist government (of Turkey), the administrative monster that calls itself "The European Union" has just initiated a decisive step that has slipped under the radar screen.

A key agreement between Turkey and the European Commission was signed behind closed doors on September 28 by the Turkish Foreign Minister, Egemen Bagis, and the vice-president of the European Commission in charge of administrative affairs, Maros Sefcovic.

This agreement marks a new stage in the admissions process of the Asiatic country: the truth is that Turkish experts will be transferred to the European Commission. The Turkish minister, in a communiqué sent to European deputies, is clear as a bell:

"In other words, the Turks are going to have a role in the formation of future European policies and legislation."

He goes on: "The network created in the halls of the European commissions and institutions between Turkish and European bureaucrats is not only going to contribute to a mutual understanding, but it will also sweep away the errors of perception and the prejudices against the admission of Turkey that exist in the minds and hearts of certain Europeans."

Dutch deputy Geert Wilders brought this agreement to the attention of the public and strongly denounced it.

Let us remember that the French people are in the majority hostile to Turkish membership in the EU.

Another article from Islamisation dated February 16, 2010 gives us some idea of the enormous sums of money the EU has been giving to Turkey. Not only enormous, but distributed haphazardly with no concern for how the money should be spent:

(…) for those who can decode the language of technocrats, this means that the money was spent any way they wanted. The Accounts Court also deplored the lack of transparency - if not the waste, and even the corruption pure and simple - of the projects that were financed. (…) The great sums allocated - 1.249 billion euros between 2002 and 2007, and 4.873 billion euros between 2008 and 2013 elicits the following question:

"Can we still prevent the accession of Turkey to the European Union?"

The sums cited above total over 6 billion euros.

A third article from the indispensable Islamisation quotes the Turkish President Abdullah Gül who spoke last month during a trip to Russia:

"Europe will have to prepare for the arrival of more immigrants and accept diversity."

The Islamist Gül also expressed his concern over the rise of anti-immigrant and anti-Islamic feeling in Europe and suggested that more ought to be done to fight this "plague". What cynicism and incredible nerve from Gül, considering that the situation of Christians in Turkey is not getting better. The Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew recently affirmed on CBS that Christians are "second class citizens", and did not hesitate to say his community was being "crucified", and was unable to recover confiscated goods, or open churches, or re-open the Halki seminary that had been closed in 1971 by Turkey's racist decision… Bartholomew is closely guarded day and night, following the assassinations of priests by Islamists. Such is hardly the case for the imams of Europe.

For those who doubt the Islamist character of the Turkish president, we remind you of this statement:

"We will definitively change the secular ("laïc") system. The Republic is living its last days."

Note: I presume he is talking about the Turkish Republic.

He closes the article with the results of a poll taken in Turkey that shows that most Turks believe non-Muslims should not be allowed to discuss their ideas at public meetings, or publish documents explaining their faith.

Photo below of President Gül.

The World According to Eram

Eram, a French shoe manufacturer, has launched a highly provocative and altogether ludicrous campaign promoting the joys of the "modern" family. This means homosexual marriage and adoption, changing partners, mixed races, undetermined genders, etc… The whole panoply of destructive behaviors vaunted by the Left and its "progressive" allies. At first I thought Eram was parodying this type of behavior, but no, apparently it's not a parody, it's for real. And the goal is to make money. Let's hope they go broke.

In nº 141 of his weekly newsletter (available through subscription), Yves Daoudal denounces the campaign, its intentions and its potential consequences. However, he does point out that there was an uproar and Eram had to explain itself.

He begins his article with a detailed description of the ads. The one above reads:

"As my two mommies say, the family is sacred."

Besides promoting homosexuality, there is "diversity" and "gender" ideology, "reproduction" without procreation. We don't know if this child will be a man or a woman or what kind of family it will form with someone of the opposite sex or the same sex, depending on what they choose to become, but they will have, we don't know how, children, because "the family is sacred."

The poster on the right below reads:

"As my mommy and her boyfriend who could be my older brother say, the family is sacred"

And the one on the left:

"As my dad, my mom, and my dad's third wife say, the family is sacred."


Note: As I indicated above, I thought these were jokes. SNL could not have done better.

Yves Daoudal goes on:

The good news is that these ads triggered an uproar. At least many people protested. Enough for the company to feel obliged to react, by creating a Facebook page where everyone can speak freely, and through the following communiqué explaining its decision:

"At a time when there are more and more divorces in France, when homosexual marriage has just been legalized in New York, Eram is getting into the act and showing, both in billboards and in magazines, family portraits of a type never shown in the advertising world: unstructured, recomposed, shattered, deconstructed. Children who have two moms, others with one father, one mother, and three step mothers, still others where the step father has the same age as the older brother. Hey, this is "real" life. But if families explode, the spirit of the family remains. For, no matter what, the family is sacred."

You will note that for Eram, that is "real" life. Exploded families. Families with several fathers, several mothers, children who have two mothers and no father, etc… If there are still any families composed of a man and a woman, married for life, who have children, they should be informed that they are not leading a real life: they are leading a false life, an illusory life…

That is what the Facebook messages stress. For there is no dialogue. The few who dared to maintain that a family is a man, a woman and their children, were submerged by the horde who emphasized the accuracy, truth and excellence of Eram's ads, treating the opponents as medieval or prehistoric, or simply denying that there can exist such a definition of the family. These remarks fall between two disgusting attacks against the Church for having imposed such an absurd model for such a long time.

What was most often repeated was the affirmation that what counts is love, and that each one lives his love as he likes with whom he likes, etc… The family is "just a cocoon of profound love among the persons who are part of it, be they homos, bi-sexuals, heteros, mixed, alone with children, or a couple…"

One of the dissenters at the Facebook site was René Poujol, a professor from the Law School of Toulouse who wrote:

"I have just spent a lot of time - much too much - at these pages. An interesting example of an impossible dialogue. Eram checks out the current trends in order to make money. They are not the first, nor will they be the last. But I see how difficult it is to put rationality into debates where the only criterion is emotional and where the so-called "rights" of an adult lead to the abuse of the rights of the child."

Another dissenter was a priest, Father Louis de Villoutreys:

"Besides the desire to sell shoes, what you are promoting here is not the family, but a weakening and a decomposition of the family. Homosexual parenting is a violence done to the child because it is a lie about his identity! Every human being is born from a man and a woman. The sexual difference is not a fantasy, but the very essence of our humanity!"

Yves Daoudal concludes:

I did not read all of it, but I did not notice anyone denouncing this egoism that has become a kind of insanity, where the only thing that counts is a so-called "love" among adults, that is in no way concerned about children. Yet Eram's campaign stresses the child, since he is at the center of it, he is the one who speaks. This child has every chance of being miserable, even traumatized. Adults say that "the family is sacred," but they change partners like they change shirts and the child is tossed about, and pays the cost of their inevitable quarrels, hatreds and jealousies. Eventually, he no longer knows who he is. Many of those people are child torturers and don't know it. They don't want to know, because what counts is their individualistic, egoistic and petty sentimental and sexual life, where they take refuge like an oyster in its shell.

Remember what Eram said: real life means unstructured, recomposed, burst apart, deconstructed families. In truth it is the children who are unstructured, recomposed, shattered, deconstructed. Atomized.

No. That is not love.

In the comment section of one of several posts on this topic, Le Salon Beige published this response from Eram to criticism from a priest, abbé Grosjean, that confirms to some extent the feeling I had that it was a joke:

"We received your message dated 09/28/2011, in which you expressed your displeasure with our new publicity campaign.

Your remarks are very important to us.

As you know, Eran has a long tradition of humor and impertinence in its ads. Sometimes it happens that this humor shocks some people. This is completely unintentional.

In truth, Eram is a popular brand that reaches out to everyone and has no desire, no cause, to upset any of our consumers.

The new publicity campaign shows that despite the undeniable changes taking place in society, one value remains unchanged: the spirit of the family.

By affirming that the family is sacred and having this idea expressed by children, Eram is not judging the evolutions of society, and even less do we encourage them. But we are deliberately placing ourselves on the side of all families such as they are today." (…)

I'm afraid that Eram's answer, as good as it is, is not good enough. Because they are a popular brand they should either abstain completely from any involvement in these issues, or their ads should show children in traditional families.

Update: October 15, 2011 - Lawrence Auster at VFR has linked to this article and adds a few comments of his own about a well-known "conservative" American journalist who feels it is an "abomination" to ban homosexual marriage.

Message from Norway

Here is a message from Peder Jensen, alias Fjordman, that appears at Vladtepesblog. It is a request, a plea, for financial help, now that he has been forced to leave his job and move to a new location.

Hello from Peder Jensen alias Fjordman. I will continue writing under one name or the other and hope to publish several books in the next year and a half, but after the Breivik case in Norway, which I got mixed up in against my will, I no longer have a job and I am also moving out of my old flat in Oslo, which I already left weeks ago. There are always some costs involved in moving to a different location and creating a new life somewhere else. If you have enjoyed some of my essays in the past I would be grateful if you donated a few bucks this time. Think of it as a Fjordman Relocation Fund. Just mark the donations as being for me and I will get it via Vlad’s fine website.

Thank you, and thank you for all the support and kind words I get from long-time readers.

Peder

If you want to make a donation, click the link above, then the "Donate" button at the top right of the page.

In addition to this message, Fjordman has written a response to an article that appeared in Aftenposten that compared him to a Nazi. You can read his response at Gates of Vienna.

Here's an interesting passage from that response in which he talks about the Muslim Brotherhood in Norway:

The Islamic Council of Norway, which is being funded by native Norwegian taxpayers, receives guidance from the European Council for Fatwa and Research about issues such as whether or not to support the death penalty for homosexuals. The Council is led by the powerful Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the spiritual guide of the Muslim Brotherhood. Qaradawi, who supports marriage with underage children, has openly boasted that Muslims will conquer Europe, spoken in positive terms of the Holocaust perpetrated by the Nazis, and suggested that the next mass murder of Jews will come at the hands of Muslims. As Walid al-Kubaisi points out, the Brotherhood has a big influence in many countries, the West included. Representatives of Jonas Gahr Støre’s Foreign Ministry have met members of the Muslim Brotherhood for talks in Oslo.

A reminder that the Nobel committee recently awarded the Peace Prize to a woman closely associated with the Brotherhood. The Norwegian prize committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland has said he disagrees with critics of the Brotherhood which he sees as an "important part" of the Arab Spring.

Well, he's not entirely wrong.

The 2012 Immigration Budget

Here's a short but significant article from Français de France about Nicolas Sarkozy's priorities:

Mind-boggling! As France experiences one of the worst financial crises of the last fifty years, the government has just decided to increase the budget for immigrants' expenses. Now, the portion meted out for immigration and asylum in the 2012 budget has increased by 27%. An increase of practically 30% because, according to the Interior Ministry, we must "take into account the high level of housing needs of the asylum seekers."

In all, the cost of the immigration, asylum and integration mission has risen by 14% for 2012, and reaches 632 million euros, of which 376 million are for asylum compared to 296 million in 2011, according to figures provided by the ministry.

The cartoon shows a man running with the immigration budget in his hands. He cries out: "Look at this, you bunch of boneheads!"

The three "bien pensants' reply: "No we don't want to see those obscenities!"