The French public isn't the only one being kept in the dark about France in Flames. And Pave isn't the only one who's noticed this is no big story stateside. Fausta at Bad Hair Blog comments on the unnatural quiet and reports on who's paying attention.

THE VANISHED FRENCH RIOT STORY,
AND ASSOCIATED PRESS DEFICIT DISORDER

November 11, 2005 - Yesterday's BBCA morning news, and this morning's, too, simply didn't mention at all that arson and rioting have continued across France. If that was all the news you watched/read, you'd think the whole thing is over. The story simply vanished.

This morning's Beeb broadcast dedicated 5 minutes to eulogize report on Yasser Arafat, and an interview with one of his associates, who declared how vital Arafat was to the "peace process". It speaks volumes on the Beeb's attitude towards murderers. Of course, showing Arafat's death a year ago in flattering terms is clearly more vital to the current state of Europe than fifteen continuous days of rioting and arson -- which started last month -- not only in Paris, but across La France profonde, isn't it? ...

[Emphases in original]

HAPPY! HAPPY!
It's Always Good News In France!

¡No Pasarán! continues its blow-by-blow of France in flames. U*2 gives last night's arithmetic and highlights:

THE CALM THAT NEVER STOPS COMING

November 13, 2005 - 374 vehicles burned, 212 arrests, 2 police injured (1 in the hospital after getting hit with a metal bocce ball in the Paris suburb of La Courneuve in the Seine Saint Denis area where police are on minimum duty), riots in the city center of Lyon, public demonstrations banned in the Paris which is cordoned off to prevent rioting youths to gain access to the capital, and continual government bleating that everything is getting calmer.

Car burnings continued in the suburbs of Toulouse and Lyon. In Carpentras, a pre-school was burned down, a car was torched in front of a retirement home, and a school was rammed into by a vehicle.

[Emphasis added.]

PFFT (What is this?): No-big-deal coverage 5 | Rayonnement français 0

On the TV news this evening, some rep of the French govt said "it was a normal night tonight".

179 cars burned.

If that was "normal", I wonder what an abnormal night would be like....I guess les banlieux chaudes really have been.

Do the French have a word for schadenfreude? Not that I or anybody I know feels that way.

I think I laughed at that pic for even longer than it took to make. Thanks, that was golden. :D

If that was "normal", I wonder what an abnormal night would be like....

Probably as normal as your monthly shooting rampage...

M. Zmx,

You truly are pathetic. With France torched and trashed, you hunt up an incident from an American police blotter, swan into the thread, and report your treasure as a monthly statistic.

You also tacitly assume in your tu quoques that you are comparing equals, America to France. No doubt it has escaped your notice that America is 5x the population, 18x the geography, and 10x the economy of France. Scale your comparisons accordingly.

Of course, even the AFP carries French crime stories -- sex rings, shootings, murders -- but here's what it can't carry, stories of continuous weekly rioting across the American nation by a highly defined disenfranchised racial group.

Everyone from the Palais de l'Élysée to the racaille now openly admits France is one screwed up place, that there is little clue what being French means, and if you are an Arab, African, Muslim, or poor French person there is little chance you'll ever find out. Neither can the AFP report American rates of unemployment of 40% among this 5+ million underclass.

Nor can the AFP report on a massive failure of the American health system resulting in a phenomenal 14,800+ preventable heat deaths in the space of a month. Nor can the AFP report on a permanent state of American labor disgruntlement that requires whole sectors of the economy to be shut down on an almost monthly basis.

There, I have given you a leg-up on discovering what it is to be French.

Your weak posts belie the very arguments you advance. Or, you do not think France worth the effort of a strong defense. Or, perhaps you realize strong defenses are not available to you. Whatever is behind your mediocre posts, if you are here to argue a point, try showing a little more forensic muscle and a little less wrist.

DGB

Did I touch a raw nerve, Damian?

Scale your comparisons accordingly.

Certainly. As if this was news.