Riots in France declared over
<p>The Brussels Journal <a href='http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/490'>reports</a> that the<br />
French government has officially declared the banlieu riots over.  The<br />
article continues:</p>
<blockquote><p>
Police figures are at exactly 98 cars torched on Wednesday<br />
night. This, the police say, is <q>a normal average.</q> Consequently<br />
the 20th consecutive night of violence was declared the last one.
</p></blockquote>
<p>Yes, you read that correctly.  98 car-torchings a night is<br />
&#8220;normal&#8221; in the glorious Fifth Republic in 2005.  Civil order in the<br />
banlieus has collapsed, but instead of addressing the breakdown the<br />
French response is to define it out of existence. (In other breaking<br />
news, war is peace, freedom is slavery, and ol&#8217; George Orwell is<br />
spinning in his grave.)</p>
<p>The American mainstream media, alas, have so much invested in the belief<br />
that Eurosocialism is what <em>we</em> ought to be doing that they&#8217;ll<br />
certainly take this as an excuse to drop the story.  They&#8217;d rather cover<br />
fictional riots in New Orleans than factual ones in Orleans, if only because<br />
they can more easily blame George Bush for the former.</p>
<p>The article also observes:</p>
<blockquote><p>
&#8230;the French state was obliged to borrow money last week to pay the<br />
wages of its civil servants. <q>The money has run out. One must<br />
concede: this is no example of a strong state.</q>
</p></blockquote>
<p>My previous <a href='http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=219'>prediction</a><br />
stands.  We&#8217;ve seen only the beginnings of the reckoning for decades<br />
of folly.  I expect to have the last laugh on every single one of the<br />
useless idiots who insisted on the superiority of &#8220;humane&#8221; European<br />
welfare-statism over American cowboy capitalism. But I don&#8217;t expect to<br />
enjoy that laugh very much, because the payback is going to be brutal,<br />
bloody, and horrible.</p>
