Article

2005-08-04 Europe

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by anonymous5089 2005-08-04 08:01|| || Front Page|| [2 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 *snicker*
I don't feel a sense of schundenfreud for the French people and I sincerely hope that they can turn things around. I'm not sure what the word is, cause I don't want anything bad to happen to anyone, but there is overwhelming satisfaction in seeing the self-rightous, pious, preachy, screechy liberals fially begin to grasp, what any person with a shred of common sense and logic should have been able to see a long time ago; that their holier-than-thou lets-just-wish-and-make-it-so beliefs were stupid, failed and harmful. Hey lefty liberals.. You were wrong others were right. Now shut up and go sit in the corner, your status of idiot has been confirmed.

/rant off.

Posted by 2b 2005-08-04 08:39|| 2005-08-04 08:39|| Front Page Top

#2 oops..schaudenfreud.

Posted by 2b 2005-08-04 08:43|| 2005-08-04 08:43|| Front Page Top

#3 Pre-revolutionary? Give me a break. Revolve to what? This is nothing a good election couldn't fix. The French can get hysterical.

Posted by Mrs. Davis 2005-08-04 08:48|| 2005-08-04 08:48|| Front Page Top

#4 I'm certainly feeling some Schadenfreude here.

Posted by gromky">gromky 2005-08-04 08:58|| http://communistposters.com/]">[http://communistposters.com/] 2005-08-04 08:58|| Front Page Top

#5 "This country is upside down, as were the U.S. and Great Britain in the seventies..."
There was the oil "shortage" of '73-74 (our thank you present from the Saudis for supporting Israel who won the Yom Kippur war), but aside from that, economically we weren't doing so bad and still had pretty solid growth.
Not so's you'd compare us to the complete toilet the French are in now.
They brought it on themselves: Bon appÃ©tit!

Posted by Jennie Taliaferro">Jennie Taliaferro 2005-08-04 09:39|| http://www.greatestjeneration.com]">[http://www.greatestjeneration.com] 2005-08-04 09:39|| Front Page Top

#6 "Growth is stuck at 1.5% per year while productivity and purchase power rise less than 1% yearly"

This is why socialist countries do not survive for long. If you are only required to work 35 hrs a week, exports are down dramatically, and welfare handouts to the un-productive Muslim leeches are up, I would say that you have a major problem on your hands. When French companies do make a profit, heavy government taxes puts the company at risk. Where
's the incentive for growth? Where's the incentive to stick around? Where's the incentive to branch?

California is a perfect example. California is our French state. A vast number of companies are deserting California. Business profits are taxed heavily in California to provide food stamps, welfare checks, medical & dental, and even college education, to the illegals. France has their Muslims and California has their illegals. I am not saying that Muslims and illegals don't work at all. I am saying that the taxes that they pay (if any) doesn't balance the amount that is needed to offset the cost of the social programs that they receive.

Most Americans already have seen this danger coming and that is one of the reasons that the GOP is the majority in the U.S. The GOP promotes small businesses, lower taxes, productivity and, in my opinion the most important item, moral and ethical values. Moral and ethical values are the core of every society. Once you have morals and ethics, everything else necessary, in a successful society, automatically comes in line. This starts with a moral and ethical government. Hence, one of the reasons Bill Clinton is despised. Due Bill Clinton's assertion that oral sex is not adultery, we now have thousands of middle school girls wearing braclets with different colors on them, because Bill Clinton has established that oral sex is not really sex.

This citizens of U.S. already have resisted the dumbing down of this great country. Now, it's time for the capitalist loving, freedom loving and values loving French citizens to stand up like a man and take your country back from the spineless worms in your government. As I have stated above, start with placing men or women with the highest moral and ethical values, not opportunists, in your government and the rest will fall inline. I promise you.

"But presidential elections in the Vth Republic are intended to be a turning point when the people choose not only a president but a destiny for the nation."

We chose President Bush. What say you?

Posted by Poison Reverse 2005-08-04 09:50|| 2005-08-04 09:50|| Front Page Top

#7 California is our French state I'll second that comment. What's up with the different color bracelets?

Posted by 2b 2005-08-04 09:56|| 2005-08-04 09:56|| Front Page Top

#8 I see France sinking deeper and deeper into crisis, much like the Ottoman Empire did in the 1800s, until it dissolves into a Somalia type civil war. I don't see the spark from the people wanting to change things in the next election; I don't see any real move other than to maintain the status quo. The 'Non' vote against the EU was just that, maintain what we got. The bright and energetic people will continue to leave and France will get dimmer and dimmer until its light flickers out.

Posted by mmurray821 2005-08-04 10:01|| 2005-08-04 10:01|| Front Page Top

#9 What's up with the different color bracelets?

A teenage fad. They wear stacks of different coloured translucent plastic bracelets on their arms, and supposedly each colour represents a different sexual behaviour they are willing to engage in. Trailing daughter #1 says that if anybody approaches her in that belief, he'll find himself walking away with broken kneecaps. She just thinks the bracelets are pretty.

Posted by trailing wife 2005-08-04 10:07|| 2005-08-04 10:07|| Front Page Top

#10 Mrs Taliaferro

In the late eighties the USA was impacted by an economic catastrophe called Jimmy Carter. Last time I looked at it, the US economy was in the toilet by the time Reagan was elected.

I will not mention the military and diplomatic debacles: Iran, the hostage crisis (who were crucial in the development of Islamism) and that at a time where the US military was being reequipped with weapons like the F14, F15, F16 and M1 Abrams all immensely superior to their Soviet counterparts the Soviets were gaining ground during all of the Carter presidency (Angola, Mozambique, the perceived military imbalance in Europe who led to appeasement in European countries)

Posted by JFM">JFM 2005-08-04 10:46|| 2005-08-04 10:46|| Front Page Top

#11 Yup, JFM. We had our troubles in the US, serious ones that were mostly self-inflicted, and are still fighting the remaining battles against the entrenched PC insurgents here.

Posted by reads history 2005-08-04 10:51|| 2005-08-04 10:51|| Front Page Top

#12 aside from that, economically we weren't doing so bad and still had pretty solid growth

Huh???

I remember 18% mortgage rates, serious un/under-employment and wage & price controls.

They were real, they hurt and it was NOT obvious that they were going to get better on their own.

Serious misreading of the history on that claim.

Posted by reads history 2005-08-04 10:54|| 2005-08-04 10:54|| Front Page Top

#13 By the end of Jimmy Carter presidency it really looked like the US would lose the cold war.

Posted by JFM">JFM 2005-08-04 10:57|| 2005-08-04 10:57|| Front Page Top

#14 True, guys.
Sorry, I forgot about Carter.
(LOL--it's not like I want to remember him!)
But comparatively speaking, the US still wasn't in that bad of a shape economically even in the late '70's as France is now.
This country's had explosive growth since WWII and we've never looked back.

Posted by Jennie Taliaferro">Jennie Taliaferro 2005-08-04 11:06|| http://www.greatestjeneration.com]">[http://www.greatestjeneration.com] 2005-08-04 11:06|| Front Page Top

#15 Oh, and I don't know if it looked like we were losing the Cold War, but it didn't hurt that we saw the invasion of Grenada (to upset a Communist rÃ©gime) or the support of the Contras in Nicaragua under President Reagan.
I visited the Soviet Union in 1976 and they were in real bad shape!
Life was horrible there (there was no food) and no-one could even figure out who was in charge.
(Kosygin and Breshznev were both "ill and out of sight.")
So we had our problems (Jimmy Peanut was probably ready to give this country to the Commies!), but looking back, you could see the Soviet giant starting to crumble in a far more systemic way.

Posted by Jennie Taliaferro">Jennie Taliaferro 2005-08-04 11:12|| http://www.greatestjeneration.com]">[http://www.greatestjeneration.com] 2005-08-04 11:12|| Front Page Top

#16 And don't forget the effect of Nixon' wage/price controls. That plus the oil crunch hurt us pretty badly.

Posted by James">James 2005-08-04 11:33|| http://idontknowbut.blogspot.com]">[http://idontknowbut.blogspot.com] 2005-08-04 11:33|| Front Page Top

#17 I was about to say the same thing. I paid 18 percent for my first house around 1982.

Posted by BillH 2005-08-04 12:22|| 2005-08-04 12:22|| Front Page Top

#18 Guys, I know the 70's had their bad moments, but you have to look at it in comparison to France; our standard of living, average amount of disposable income and rate of economic growth and productivity were still way ahead of France and certainly the USSR.
Monsieur Baverez is not correct to compare 21st Century France to America of the 1970's;
For us, it is a matter of getting a great President like Reagan in there after the disaster of Carter, but for the French, the problems go much deeper.
Bavarez is hoping that it will be that simple for France, hence his cite of Sarkovsky, the new Great White Hope of the 5th Republic.
Sarko, Dominique and Chirac all went to the same school for bureaucrats and policy wonks.
When it comes to government effecting economic and political change in France, plus Ã§a change, plus c'est la meme chose(The more things change, the more they stay the same.)

That being said, I'd loved to see the French pull out of this slump.
I've lived in France and found the French charming, when they aren't being arrogant (LOL).
The cure for their problems would be a Conservative like President Reagan or President Bush.
But believe it or not, Jacques Chirac is considered a "Conservative" in France.
It's almost impossible for the leaders of these EU countries to convince their citizens that to lower taxes and improve business growth, they'll have to cut social welfare programs like "free health care."
Or that they need to be able to work more than 35 hours a week.
The British refused to adopt the EU 35-hour work week, because they like the extra income.
Even though they've been so awful to us, I hate to see France in decline, but c'est la vie.
And then there's those banlieu(suburbs) full of angry Arab/Muslim young boys/men...

Posted by Jennie Taliaferro">Jennie Taliaferro 2005-08-04 12:25|| http://www.greatestjeneration.com]">[http://www.greatestjeneration.com] 2005-08-04 12:25|| Front Page Top

#19 Maybe the Soviet giant was crumbing, but it was Reagan who took a wrecking ball to the structure. Look how badly North Korea and Cuba are doing, and yet they're still around regardless.

Posted by gromky">gromky 2005-08-04 12:32|| http://communistposters.com/]">[http://communistposters.com/] 2005-08-04 12:32|| Front Page Top

#20 Mrs Taliaferro

You are wrong about Sarkozy (Hungarian ie not Slavic name so no vski in it). Unlike Chirac and Villepin he wasn't a product of the ENA (French school for high ranking bureaucrats) and unlike them he didn't make a carreer as a bureaucrat but in the private sector (sort of, he was a lawyer).

Posted by JFM">JFM 2005-08-04 13:57|| 2005-08-04 13:57|| Front Page Top

#21 A bit more: Father of Sarkozy was Hungarian nobility. He enlisted in the Foreign Legion but was released before end of term for health reasons.

One of his grand-fathers (mother side) was a Jew.

Posted by JFM">JFM 2005-08-04 14:13|| 2005-08-04 14:13|| Front Page Top

#22 Time for another Paris Commune to sort it all out. Oh, and reserve a spot on the Place de Concorde for the 'ruling class' that got them into this mess again.

Posted by Omiger Snaviting1691 2005-08-04 15:09|| 2005-08-04 15:09|| Front Page Top

#23 But comparatively speaking, the US still wasn't in that bad of a shape economically even in the late '70's as France is now. Agreed! France's economic performance has deteriated sharply in the last 10 years (relative to USA/UK/Oz).

Posted by phil_b 2005-08-04 19:55|| 2005-08-04 19:55|| Front Page Top

#24 For them to have any hope at all, they've got to run the Muzzies out NOW and make it perfectly plain that they won't be coming back. That includes the French-born ones. Just think of it as Algeria in 1962 all over again, except in reverse. It would not be that hard for France since they could easily bribe the generally corrupt governments of the Maghreb to accept them.

Posted by mac 2005-08-04 20:23|| 2005-08-04 20:23|| Front Page Top

#25 A lot of France's problem is that their elite hasn't been backflushed in a long time. In America, when that happens, things get changed. In France, they play musical chairs with the same people in different jobs. They have a government custom designed for Le Grand Charles and it's not clear it works for mere mortals. Looks like maybe it's time for Republic VI. Some day they'll get it right.

Posted by Mrs. Davis 2005-08-04 21:45|| 2005-08-04 21:45|| Front Page Top

00:09 JosephMendiola
00:03 trailing wife
23:58 trailing wife
23:54 trailing wife
23:50 JosephMendiola
23:36 Phil Fraering
23:33 plainslow
23:32 JosephMendiola
23:25 Jackal
23:19 trailing wife
23:19 Sock Puppet 0â Doom
23:15 Danielle
23:07 Atomic Conspiracy
23:06 Red Dog
23:04 SteveS
23:01 Jackal
22:58 trailing wife
22:56 Rafael
22:55 Rafael
22:50 SteveS
22:49 trailing wife
22:45 LC FOTSGreg
22:36 3dc
22:26 Laurence of the Rats