July 3, 2013

Al Dura Show Trials End Badly

An apparent victory for state-owned France Télévisions network and Jerusalem correspondent Charles Enderlin in the long legal battle they initiated against French citizen Philippe Karsenty may turn out to be the last stage in a cascade of strategic e...

November 8, 2012

They the People

The gap is enormous; it's an abyss, and its name is Benghazi.  They the people have re-elected Barack Hussein Obama, and we have been talking to ourselves.  If the disastrous consequences could be clearly perceived, they might lead to a nat...

October 23, 2012

The Real Reality Check

The real reality check is lurking in the wings, hanging over our heads, creeping up behind us. It didn't really appear in Monday night's presidential debate. Why? Was it, in fact, a debate? Or more like two gentleman on the riverbanks, fishing and ch...

October 17, 2012

Crowley: Obama's Teleprompter Substitute

We can now fairly assume that both Democrat and Republican analysts concluded that President Obama's weak performance in the first presidential debate could be attributed to the absence of a teleprompter. The president's reputation -- earned or unear...

June 17, 2012

François Will Bring the Croissants*

* "croissants" = flaky, buttery, crescent-shaped pastry; "croissance" = growth    Well, that's settled!  Angela will provide the meat and potatoes, and François will bring the croissants.  From each according to his means, to...

May 19, 2012

François Hollande the Pacifier

François Hollande was elected president of France on May 6 with a score of 51.6% to Nicolas Sarkozy's 48.4%.  It was not the landslide that had been predicted before the first round, and it was not the photo-finish upset I had guessed at (or wis...

May 6, 2012

Socialist Hollande elected

François Hollande is elected with an estimated 51.9%. I was wrong. The polls were right. It's a democracy. Now we'll have to live with the result. Ronny Gordon writes that France's Tricolor has turned a bit more red and brings us this rendering of P...

May 5, 2012

French elections: Virtue, the Debt, and the Jewish Question

The French presidential elections, initially presented by pollsters and commentators as a pushover for the Socialist contender François Hollande, turns out to be a cliff-hanger.[i] The best comparison with the United States might well be the 1948 Dew...

April 15, 2012

Toulouse La Rose in the Shadow of Death

March 11, Toulouse: parachutist Imad Ibn Zlaten, 30 years old, is shot dead by a lone gunman on a motor scooter. March 15, Montauban: parachutists Abel Chennouf, 25, and Mohamed Legouade 23, are shot dead by a lone gunman on a motor scooter. The cri...

October 23, 2011

France 2 TV Markets a 'Palestinian State'

Eleven years after the al Dura hoax -- produced and broadcast by state-owned France 2 TV -- the same outfit treats us to a ludicrously staged Palestinian State promotional film.  Was the 2陆 -hour "documentary" aired on October 3 in the geopoliti...

August 28, 2011

Wreaking Havoc in London, Dancing in Tripoli

As the summer of 2011 draws to a close, an uninterrupted chain of violent events buffets the public's mind.  Havoc in Great Britain pushed aside mayhem in Norway.  The murder of eight Israelis in a cross-border attack from Egypt was briefly...

July 28, 2011

Mayhem In Norway

It seems indecent to analyze mass murder, and all the more so when perpetrated against young people.  There are lessons to be learned from a national tragedy, a personal disaster.  But an endless minute of silence runs like an undertow thro...

May 27, 2011

DSK Scandal Shakes French Socialists

It is too soon to measure the extent of damage caused to the Socialist party by the Dominique Strauss Kahn scandal, and it would be a mistake to underestimate the effect it will have on the collective French conscience, but the simple answer to both ...

March 20, 2011

Same Mob, Different Caption

Since December 2010 I have spent long hours watching television footage of what is now dubbed in France as "le printemps arabe." Echoes of the Prague springtime and other inappropriate comparisons. I watched the BBC, CNN, SkyNews, GuysenTV, and the m...

December 13, 2005

French Intellectual Tells Truth, Faces Consequences

In the aftermath of November's street fighting, French opinion--makers have pounced on an expiatory victim: philosopher Alain Finkielkraut, a man of integrity who seeks to shed light on events as they happen.  His intelligent analysis of, in his...

September 20, 2005

France passes judgment on Katrina

Do you know why France is never hit by hurricanes, even though she once owned Louisiana?  It's because France signed the Kyoto Protocol.  Do you know why la petite Camargue in the south of France, with its famous bulls and free--range horse...

June 22, 2005

The Iraq prison scandal TimeMagazine won't cover

The prisoner, a 44 year--old female captured near Baghdad University, was held incommunicado for five months in a dark airless 6 by 12 foot cellar where it was impossible to stand erect.  The prisoner spent her days and nights confined to a matt...