Thursday, November 03, 2005

Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys

Paris burns, and I don't feel bad for the French government. If you didn't know, for the last few days there has been rioting in some of the poor, immigrant neighborhoods in Paris http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/03/international/europe/03paris.html. The rioting started over the death of two immigrant muslims who may or may not have been indirectly killed by police. I'm not pro-rioting but...

I don't feel bad. I could not stand the self-righteous coming from France after Hurricane Katrina. I read an editorial at that time in Le Monde which basically went, "Here in France, we should be thankful that our government views all its citizens as equals." Hey France, where's your "liberté, égalité, fraternité" this week?

In fact, western Europe has a bigger problem with migrant poverty than the U.S. does. Migrants in Europe overwhelmingly live in poverty. Second generation immigrants aren't seen as European and when they visit their home countries they aren't seen as the nationality of their parents. They are alienated and therefore become radicals that bomb London buses or sneak into Iraq. American muslims aren't becoming violent radicals. Our government enriches immigrants faster than any other country in the world. If you got a decent job and don't live in squalor, you're satisfied enough not to take on the life of a jihadist. France should take a page from our playbook.

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