You can pry my Halliburton shares from my cold, dead hands

France, Britain, and Europe

Thursday, July 29, 2004

As anyone who has looked at the French economy lately can tell you, here’s a shocker.

French men and women spend more time sleeping than people polled in nine other European nations, staying in bed over eight hours per day, according to a survey on time use released this week by Eurostat, the EU statistics office.

I would be curious to see a study comparing rates of hygiene between France, Britain, Australia, Germany, and the UK.  Perhaps the reason they bathe less is because they’re always asleep.

As France keeps racing along the downward spiral toward becoming a majority Muslim nation in the next 30 years or so, expect to see more of this.

Just 10 days after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon enraged French leaders by urging France’s Jews to leave for Israel, a group of 200 French Jews arrived to start a new life in the Jewish state, with Sharon at the airport to greet them.

As one émigré told CBS News Correspondent Mark Philips: You wear something to say you are Jewish and you have difficulty. We are afraid. It’s simply that we are afraid."

If they’re afraid now, wait until France’s leadership is fundamentalist Muslim.

Tuesday, July 27, 2004

If only puritanical old America would emulate enlightened Europe in terms of sex education, we wouldn’t have any of the societal hangups that we now face. 

Rates of sexually transmitted infections in Britain rose again last year despite new programs aimed at reining in a decade of increases, health experts said Tuesday.

The number of infections — 708,083 — was 4 percent higher than in 2002, but Britain’s Health Protection Agency said the pace of the increase appears to be slowing. The statistics do not include HIV infections, which are tracked separately.

Sexually transmitted diseases have been on the rise across Europe since the mid-1990s. Health experts partly blame complacency over condom use and casual sex as fear of HIV has eased.

Let us not forget, gentle reader, that this is the same country that aims to reduce teen pregnancy by encouraging teenagers to perform oral sex on each other.  Could this attitude have contributed to the rising rates of STD?  Perish the thought.

Wednesday, July 21, 2004

Reason 86,241,899 to hate the French.

Tour de France director Jean-Marie Leblanc admitted he had seen fans spit at five-times champion Lance Armstrong during the 15.5-km time trial to L’Alpe d’Huez on Wednesday.

Leblanc also said the swarming crowds on the twisting climb had frightened him as riders, including Armstrong, were forced to weave through excited fans who jumped out on to the road.

“I was scared too and I felt relieved when we reached the section with barriers,” Leblanc told Reuters after stage winner Armstrong described the stage as a “bad idea” and hit out at some German fans.

“Until this morning, everybody thought this time trial was a good idea and now we realised it was not so.

“There were lots of aggressive fans surrounding the riders and I even saw two idiots spit at Lance Armstrong.”

“Unfortunately I doubt you can put barriers on the 14 kilometres of the climb,” he added.

I also doubt you can expect the French to act with any modicum of decency or respect.  It’s a shame that such a vile, vulgar people have to ruin such a beautiful country.  The next time I get the urge to go to France I’ll go to Paris Las Vegas instead.  “Everything you like about France, minus the French.”

Wednesday, July 14, 2004

See, European asshat politicians say crap like this, then whine like petulant 13 year old girls when America tells them we don’t care what they think.

José Manuel Barroso, the outgoing Portuguese prime minister who has been nominated as president of the European Commission, on Tuesday criticised the US for its occasional “arrogance” and sought to distance himself from some of his recent domestic policies by underlining his social and environmental credentials.

Questioned on Portugal’s involvement in the US-led war coalition in Iraq, on the first day of hearings before the European parliament, Mr Barroso said that, while he was a long-standing admirer of the US, he also hated what he described as American “arrogance” and “unilateralism”. He added: “I think there are magnificent things that exist in the US as well as some fairly horrific things.”

While he would not be drawn, for example, into taking sides on the contentious issue of providing European passenger name records to Washington, he said he would fight for reciprocity in this kind of agreement and ensure the EU was not considered “second-class” in international negotiations.

I hate to break it to you, Portugese-guy, but Europe is second-class in international negotiations.  Apart from the UK you really don’t have much of a military, and what you do have is functionally useless, a token gesture at best.  So when you don’t lack the military or economic clout to be relevant in the modern world, why should we bother to consult with you?  If you don’t want to be irrelevant, stop acting like it.

Tuesday, July 13, 2004

Well, following up on this post, it seems that we were had.  The French woman who was attacked on the train and had swastikas scribbled on her?  She made it up.  But why was this story so believable in the first place?  As the story itself says,

"The explosion in the number of racist and anti-Semitic acts committed in our country these past few years is a reality that we must fight,” government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope said Tuesday.

The number of such incidents recorded in France—home to Europe’s largest Jewish and Muslim communities—soared in the first half of the year, according to interior ministry figures.

There have been tons of these types of attacks in France over the past few years, I’ve blogged on a ton of them.  So even as this story is revealed to be a hoax, I stand by my orginal statement, “Muslims are safer in the streets of the United States than the Jews are in Europe.”

Monday, July 12, 2004

Once again our close allies in the War on Terror demonstrate just how serious they are about this sort of thing.

Six people attacked a young mother on a suburban Paris train, chopping off her hair and scribbling three swastikas on her stomach in what leaders denounced Sunday as yet another case of anti-Semitism.

The 23-year-old woman was attacked Friday as passengers on the train watched, but they did nothing to help her or her 13-month-old baby, who was knocked out of a stroller in the melee.

Neither was seriously injured.

Ah yes, the French male in action.  “No, I do not zee anyzing.  I am going to get off zees train and walk straight out of zees station and pretend zees ‘orrible incident never transpired.” Sixty years ag a generation of French men bent over for the Nazis, and now their granschildren and great grandchildren, otherwise known as our valiant partners in the global war against terror, are bending over for the Nazis again.

The attack is the latest in a string of reported anti-Semitic incidents in recent months.

On Friday, the government reported more such incidents for the first half of 2004 than for all of 2003.

Interesting, isn’t it, that these figures are hardly ever reported.  It’s been said other places but it’s absolutely true: Muslims are safer in the streets of the United States than the Jews are in Europe.

Friday, July 09, 2004

How do you convince wacko European hand-wringers that there’s nothing wrong with Frankenfoods?  Give them a Frankenbeer.

Spurned across the continent by food-fastidious Europeans, the biotechnology industry has turned in its quest for converts to the ultimate ice breaker: genetically modified beer.

A consortium of the world’s largest biotech companies led by St. Louis-based Monsanto Co. helped fund a Swedish brewer’s new light lager that’s produced with the usual hops and barley—and a touch of genetically engineered corn.

Brew master Kenth Persson hopes to profit from the notoriety his biotech brew is generating, while biotech companies hope it can gently sway consumers as European regulators slowly reopen the continent to genetically altered foods.

So, we’ll now see which is stronger in Europe:  (a) Their love of beer, (b) their irrational paranoia over GM foods, or (c) their hatred of America.  Anyone want to make a prediction?

Wednesday, July 07, 2004

Thus spake New Europe.

President Bush is disliked by more Hungarian secondary school children than former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, according to an opinion poll published on Wednesday.

Bush also topped the list of most-liked foreigners with eight percent of the vote, ahead of Pope John Paul with six percent.

The survey of 34,000 students, aged 16-18, from 655 high schools showed Adolf Hitler was the most disliked foreign personality with 25 percent of the vote, followed by Bush with 23 percent and Bin Laden with 16 percent.

Bush was even more unpopular than former Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, according to the poll.

I’m really starting to become more and more of an isolationist.  I’m sick of the US expending blood and treasure to help people in the rest of the world, when all we get in return for it is ingratitude and anti-Americanism.  Fuck the rest of the world, let them rot.

Austria’s president has died two days before he was to retire.

Austria has declared four days of mourning for President Thomas Klestil, who died in a Vienna hospital on Tuesday aged 71.

Mr Klestil’s coffin will lie in state at the presidential office, so that members of the public can pay their respects before Saturday’s funeral.

He died of multiple organ failure after suffering a heart attack on Monday.

President Klestil’s death came less than two days before he was due to leave his largely ceremonial post.

Riggs was unavailable for comment, though Murtaugh said in a statement, “He was getting too old for that shit.”

Tuesday, July 06, 2004

The anti-American left will stop at nothing to prevent successful Democracy from taking foot in Iraq.

The judge in charge of Saddam Hussein’s trial was in fear for his life today after his identity was revealed by a UK newspaper.

The Iraqi Special Tribunal had asked the media to protect his anonymity. But he was named by Robert Fisk, foreign correspondent of The Independent.

Good old Fisk.  He wants Bush to fail so badly that he’ll sell out the Iraqi people.  Now that’s compassion!

Monday, July 05, 2004

There’s an alliance being forged between the Master Race and the Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys.

France could use its nuclear capability to defend its neighbours, French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said in an interview Monday, while also urging European Union states to increase military spending.

She said that rogue states “could one day point their missiles toward France and its neighbours. We could say to those countries: ‘Watch out, if you try to carry out your threats we will destroy you before you know what’s hit you.”

“If Germany asked us for help, it is probable that European solidarity would come into play,” she told the Berliner Zeitung newspaper, and added: “For us, nuclear weapons are the ultimate protection against a threat from abroad."

Let me get this straight.  Frange and Germany opposed a targeted military strike against Iraq, one which left the country virtually intact, after which a massive reconstruction effort was undertaken, and sovereignty returned to the Iraqi people.  It is worth noting that France and Germany did virtually nothing to aid in this effort.  Yet they think it is perfectly acceptable to go around threating to nuke the world?  Can you imagine what the world’s lefties would be saying if Rumsfeld had made this statement?

Friday, July 02, 2004

If Neville Chamberlain were alive today, I wonder what he’d make of this?

Muslim militants claiming links to al Qaeda vowed new attacks on Europe once a “truce” offered by Osama bin Laden expires in two weeks, newspapers said on Friday.

Governments and analysts played down the threat, noting the group in question had made unfounded claims before. French President Jacques Chirac said he took any such report seriously but that little could be done to improve already tight security.

Oh, gee, how about taking the fight to your enemy, and trying to destroy him before he destroys you?  But, then again, in 30 years or so France will be an Islamic country anyway, so that effort would ultimately be a waste of time.

But a U.S. intelligence official said the al Qaeda deadline could not be ignored, regardless of the authenticity of the purported statement by the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades.

“We can’t confirm that the Abu Hafs Brigade speaks authoritatively for al Qaeda, but absent that, it is fair to say that there would be some concern about the expiration of this deadline which could potentially presage other attacks,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

As much as I don’t want to see anyone suffer from terrorism, if it has to happen let’s hope that Europe will finally wake up from the delusional head-up-the-ass attitude they’ve taken towards the threat of Islamic fundamentalism.

Monday, June 28, 2004

My friends, I present the delusional world of Jacques Chirac.

French President Jacques Chirac has taken U.S. President George W. Bush to task over his call for Turkey’s admission to the European Union.

“If President Bush really said that in the way that I read, then not only did he go too far, but he went into territory that isn’t his,” Chirac said of a remark Bush made over the weekend.

“It is is not his purpose and his goal to give any advice to the EU, and in this area it was a bit as if I were to tell Americans how they should handle their relationship with Mexico."

Or, it would be like Chirac telling America that France will veto any proposal before it at the UNSC that will provide justification for America’s use of force against Iraq. Oh, wait, France already did that.

Wednesday, June 23, 2004

You know the French, those close allies of ours that we’ve supposedly isolated?  They’re still acting very French.

TEHRAN Undeterred by Iran’s pariah status in the United States and by the shortcomings of the Iranian commercial climate, French companies have been increasing their presence here in the past few years. New Peugeots and Citroëns flood crowded highways and streets. French business people dine in the capital’s restaurants and work on Gulf oil platforms. Air France resumed flights to Tehran this month after a seven-year hiatus. And the carmaker Renault is about to make the first large-scale, long-term direct investment in the country by a French company since the 1979 revolution that toppled the pro-American Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.

“The French are eager to come to Iran,” said Bernard Hourcade, a Paris-based Iran scholar and a consultant to French companies considering doing business here. “It is the only major place in the Middle East to invest, because the other countries are more or less in a revolutionary or prerevolutionary situation.” Though companies from Germany and the United Arab Emirates have a bigger presence in Iran, France is catching up. French exports to Iran have nearly doubled in five years, totaling E2 billion, or $2.4 billion, in 2003, according to the economic mission of the French Embassy in Tehran. And the number of French-connected companies registered with the embassy - some of which are joint ventures and some representative offices - has risen from a handful several years ago to more than 40.

Among the French exports are luxury goods for Iran’s increasingly affluent middle class. If even a small fraction of the Iranian population of 68 million is “rather prosperous,” a Western diplomat said, that market could exceed the total population of all the smaller, wealthier Gulf kingdoms.

Remember, folks, the French (along with the Soviets) armed Saddam, and they have a long history of dealing with Iran.  These are the longtime allies that Bush’s bellicosity supposedly alienated.