Earth To Left

clipped from fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com Journalists are infidels too. Austin Bay looks at a Charlie Rose interview with Iraqi journalists who explain why Islamic radicals target newspapermen. "The reason why these attacks against the media the media itself and journalism is seen by Islamists and fanatics as something invented by the West. It (journalism) is not an invention of Islam. They regard as something you should not do. It is only infidels that go into journalism and into the media. That’s actually the main reason. If you say you are a journalist you are saying you are an infidel." Strangely, this explicit declaration of hostility against liberalism and the left goes largely unnoticed. Even by the infidel journalists who are a target of radical Islam. In fact, the exact opposite conclusion is inferred. Earth to the Left: "There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his Prophet." Repeat until understood. Got it yet? Well, no? Don't worry. Someday, even you will understand.

Pigs Do Fly!

clipped from www.jpost.com French President Nicholas Sarkozy called Wednesday for sanctions on Iran to be tightened if the country does not adhere to the West's demands to cease its nuclear agenda. If Iran attains nuclear weapons, Sarkozy warned, a road to an arms race will be paved that could endanger Israel and southeast Europe, he said during an interview with a German magazine. Sarkozy announced that France will join the official US-led struggle against head of the International Atomic Energy Agency Mohamed ElBaradei, who recommended that Iran be allowed to enrich uranium in some of its nuclear plants.

Tings Are Looking Peaceful Ya You Betcha

clipped from littlegreenfootballs.com Kohut pointed to one of the study’s key findings that only 29% of all respondents agreed that “bloody, random violence against infidels” was “always” or “frequently” justified, versus 56% who said such violence was “seldom” or “never” justified. The approval of violence rose slightly among younger Lutherans and when the hypothetical violence was targeted against Presbyterians, but still fell well short of a majority. “The only demographic cohort we saw where murderous random violence had a majority support was among 18-35 year old male followers of the Wisconsin Synod,” said Kohut. “And that was barely above the margin of error. Even then, fewer than half (41% to 46%) said they would personally volunteer to carry out the violence themselves.” Further bolstering the findings, Kohut noted that fewer than 6% of respondents physically attacked field interviewers during the survey.

Absolutely Amazing

clipped from pajamasmedia.com “While I was at the Combined Press Information Center in Baghdad on my recent trip to Iraq, a pair of Spanish journalists—a newspaper reporter and a photojournalist—walked in, fresh from their embed with the 1-4 Cavalry of the First Infantry Division (the unit with which I embedded only days later). They had spent two weeks amongst the troops there, living and going on missions with them, including house-to-house searches and seizures, and their impressions of these soldiers were extremely clear.” (Jeff Emmanuel @ American Spectator / OpinionJournal) “Absolutely amazing,” said David Beriain, the reporter (and the one who spoke English), said of the young Cavalry troops. “In Spain, it is embarrassing—our soldiers are ashamed to be in the army. These young men—and they seem so young!—are so proud of what they do, and do it so well, even though it is dangerous and they could very easily be killed.”

United We (Don't) Stand

clipped from hotair.com

Downsize Me!

clipped from instapundit.com Glenn, I'm not sure anyone's brought this up yet with Michael Moore's *Sicko*, but one of the biggest costs on US health care is... people like Michael Moore: The World Bank has estimated the cost of obesity in the U.S. at 12 percent of the national health care budget... The Lewin Group examined the costs of fifteen (15) conditions causally related to obesity. They included: arthritis, breast cancer, heart disease, colorectal cancer, type 2 diabetes, endometrial cancer, end-stage renal disease, gallbladder disease, hypertension, liver disease, low back pain, renal cell cancer, obstructive sleep apnea, stroke and urinary incontinence... This method established the direct health care costs of obesity at $102.2 billion in 1999. [Indirect costs surely boost that figure even higher].

Can You Say "D'oh"?

clipped from instapundit.com After suffering more than 1,000 dead in battles with the Parachute Regiment and Royal Marines in the last year, the Taliban retired to regroup and re-equip last winter. A spring offensive was ordered by the Taliban leadership based in Quetta, Pakistan, and was meant to be launched in late March. But a lack of mid-level commanders has meant that there has been little co-ordination to bring about the offensive. Hey, I guess killing these guys does help. (Via Don Surber).

Sercular Delusions

clipped from onecosmos.blogspot.com As I touched upon above, it must be said that Christianity is doing a mediocre job of marketing itself, to the extent that otherwise sophisticated people believe that you must disable your intellect in order to be a practicing Christian. There is no question whatsoever that I suffered from this delusion in my sercular days, when I just dismissed religion -- western religion, anyway -- as so much shallow-minded fantasy, nothing worthy of even a moment's serious coonsideration. Now I wonder: how did I come by this attitude? -- for it was not grounded in any personal experience I had ever had. Rather, it was all just the secular brainwashing I had endured by virtue of being plunged into secular culture. But had I ever personally read, much less comprehended, the works any of the great Christian intellects -- Origen, Dionysius the Areopagite, Gregory of Nyssa, Clement of Alexandria, Maximus the Confessor, John Climacus, Augustine, John Scotus Eriugena, Meister Eckhart, and so many others?

What's It Good For?

clipped from victordavishanson.pajamasmedia.com What, then, is the radical Left good for? Mostly psychological cover. It is our version of the Athenian elite demagogue’s dung on his boots or Medieval indulgences or the Bible in the hand of the philandering fundamentalist. Its rhetoric alone allows Edwards to enjoy his mansion, Gore his jet, the Kennedys’ their drink and drugs, Bill Clinton his sex, and Soros his billions—and China its cutthroat acquisitions abroad and its suppression at home. Proclaiming to be a man of the people these days can cover almost anything from living like 18th-century royalty to making the foreign policy of the United States look downright saintly.

Anything That Moves

clipped from fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com The exodus of refugees from this seaside camp, home to 40,000 people, was spurred by a temporary ceasefire Tuesday afternoon. The ceasefire was arranged to allow a convoy of six United Nations trucks to enter the camp to deliver food, water and medical supplies. But the convoy was struck by several mortar rounds while unloading its emergency provisions. Although none of the crew were harmed, three vehicles were damaged and had to be abandoned. The U.N. said it was unsure whether the mortar fire was from the Lebanese army ringing the camp or from the Fatah al-Islam militants holed up inside. But the drivers of the trucks said they were sure it was Fatah al-Islam. "They waited for us to stop then they opened fire. They are shooting at anything that moves inside the camp," said Ahmad, one of the truck drivers, who refused to give his full name.

Blinkered Ignorance

clipped from fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com What was missing from that halcyon world? Any perception of danger from radical Islam. Any inkling that the West faced a demographic challenge. Any idea that multiculturalism was a threat to Europe's social program. Any suspicion that Russia would once again challenge Europe. Any understanding of networked terrorist warfare. A Google search done on these subjects filtered for the years 1990 to 2000 would return very little. It was not an age of safety so much as an era of blinkered ignorance.

Still so true for so many though...

Better Than Disaster So Far

clipped from powerlineblog.com These data, taken as a whole, portray a group of people who are integrated into American life economically to a remarkable degree; socially to a considerable degree; and ideologically to a reasonable degree. Too many of them are Democrats, to be sure, both because they disapprove of our efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan--a great many Muslims aren't opposed to the murder and oppression of Muslims, they just want it to be done by fellow Muslims--and because they tend to want an activist government. But only a tiny minority express views that are really alarming. The story of Muslim assimilation in America is still being written, of course, but the extent to which Muslims have succeeded economically bodes well, I think, for the future.

But more Trutherness than would be optimal...

Too Good Not To Be Brought To You In It's Entirety

clipped from instapundit.com DON'T BRING AN UNLOADED GUN TO A GUNFIGHT: A robbery and crime spree aided by an unloaded gun came to a halt late Thursday when the gunman met more than his match: a gun with bullets. Charles Parker Jr., 18, of Detroit was killed when a 53-year-old man pulled out a 9mm handgun and shot the teen, who was armed with an unloaded .22-caliber handgun. Detroit police are calling it self-defense. What else would you call it? And if you'll read the whole story, you'll see that the assailant had already been involved in carjacking attempts. Plus, I like this: After the shooting, police questioned the 53-year-old man and released him, noting that he had a valid concealed weapons permit. Then they gave him back his gun. As they should have.

On Opposing Torture

clipped from instapundit.com THE MAIN FRONT IN THE WAR IS CONGRESS: Iran is secretly forging ties with al-Qaida elements and Sunni Arab militias in Iraq in preparation for a summer showdown with coalition forces intended to tip a wavering US Congress into voting for full military withdrawal, US officials say. Well, if they're targeting Congress they're certainly targeting our weak spot. UPDATE: Reader Drew Kelley emails: "Wouldn't we be better off if we gave them Congress?" As I've said before, I oppose torture.

Except That We Do Not Exterminate Them

clipped from www.usatoday.com Many had nowhere to go, their families among the 6 million Jews consumed in the Holocaust, their homes destroyed or handed out to new occupants. Those who wanted to get to Palestine were shut out by a British ban on Jewish immigration to the Israeli state-in-waiting. Inmates were kept under armed guard to maintain order. They still wore their old striped, pajama-like concentration-camp-issue uniforms and slept in the same drafty barracks through a bitter winter. Compounding their misery, they could watch through barbed wire fences and see German villagers living normal lives. In some places, those villagers were forced to tour the camps and help with the burials or at least face up to what their Fuehrer had wrought. But it was scant comfort to the victims. "As things stand now, we appear to be treating the Jews as the Nazis treated them, except that we do not exterminate them," wrote presidential envoy Earl G. Harrison in his famously quoted report to Truman after visiting that summer.

No Distraction

clipped from www.theweeklystandard.com America has vital national interests in Iraq. The global al Qaeda movement has decided to defeat us there--not merely to establish a base from which to pursue further tyranny and terror, but also to erect a triumphant monument on the ruins of American power. Al Qaeda claims to have defeated the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, and its recruiting rests in part on that boast. If America flees the field of battle against this foe in Iraq, al Qaeda will have gained an even more powerful recruiting slogan. That is why al Qaeda fighters from across the Muslim world are streaming into Iraq and fighting desperately to retain and expand their positions there. Al Qaeda does not think Iraq is a distraction from their war against us. Al Qaeda believes Iraq is the central front--and it is. To imagine that America can lose in Iraq but prevail in the war against jihadism is almost like imagining that we could have yielded Europe to the Nazis but won World War II.

Even If We Wanted To

clipped from fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com Here's the problem. Iraq really isn't confined to Iraq. Combatants from Syria, Saudi Arabia and Iran are pouring into it. Combatants are pouring out of Iraq. Combat is being stirred up in the region by the al-Qaeda Global network probably headquartered somewhere in Pakistan. The War on Terror, it may be shocking to discover, is related through different streams. You don't have to buy the Counterterrorism Blog's analysis completely to admit at least the partial truth of that. Ideology, recruits generated from madrassas and mosques, support groups in the West, as described vividly by Christopher Hitchens are all working together to create a complex, global effect. Maybe one that will impact on Manhattan or some other American city again someday. It's going to be really interesting to know how we can withdraw from it at all, even if we wanted to.

It's My Job!

clipped from antiprotester.blogspot.com For instance, I arrived at one sensitive Afghan installation unannounced and when I explained to the lead gate guard that I was there concerning a future construction project at that facility, he immediately got on his radio and spent about 15 minutes trying to get permission to let me in. Once successful, he personally escorted me to the Afghan general in charge of the facility, who saw me at once. After the general looked me over and asked some questions, he appointed one of his officers to guide me to the site and answer all my questions. Then the general gave me his card to take to other agencies so I could "drop" his name if such need arose. Such reasonable, good-faith effort on the part of any Iraqi official would have been immediate cause for giant celebration after my initial shock had worn off. But when I thanked this Afghan general for seeing me and helping me he simply said, "But of course - it's my job." After hearing that I almost fell out of my chair.

Who's Watershed?

clipped from www.pittsburghlive.com Corallo remembers a politician once telling him that if you are not having fun, you need to get out of the game: "The business of governing is serious, but the business of campaigning should be fun." "I am just glad that Fred has an innate sense of humor," he added. "Should he decide to run, people are going to see that." Republican strategist Kent Gates said it clearly was Thompson's moment: "It was quick, clever and precise in the way he responded to the attack." Thompson has said he wants to run a different type of campaign, and the video clip proves it. It was the almost-candidate himself stepping up and doing something Americans haven't seen. The question is not if this was a watershed. The question is, whose watershed was it -- Thompson's, mainstream media's or new media's?

Z For All!

clipped from instapundit.com Instead of attempting to draw the undocumented out of the shadows, it might be fairer to allow the rest of us to "live in the shadows", too. My suggestion is that, on the day this bill comes into effect, all 300 million US citizens and legal residents should apply for a Z visa.

The One-Sided War

clipped from instapundit.com JOHN HINDERAKER: "I think it's fair to say that the bureaucracy's war against the Bush administration is more or less over, and the bureaucracy won." It was a pretty one-sided war.

The Capitalist Hipsters -- The End Of Western Civ

clipped from victordavishanson.pajamasmedia.com I support globalization, and see that at its essence it is Westernization, and that bright people make the world better by allowing an exhange of ideas and life-saving appurtenances. But I want no part of the necessary globalized CEO, who believes in nothing, says nothing, knows nothing other than a sort of adolescent watered-down Gorism. Every MBA program should have one, just one introductory class in Western Civ to introduce to these historically illiterate that the basis for their present globalized system was the West, so that they might not so often preen that it was cobbled together from the Middle East, the Orient, Africa, in some sort of alaphabet soup concoction. And if global warming is a ‘must’ concern, then please, a commensurate class on the carbon footprints of Citations and Gulfstreams. and ultimately the real amoralists of this new century. Global warming and not overreacting to somebody with a suicide vest are their Mark and Luke.

Fred On Kucinich As America's Chavez

clipped from www.captainsquartersblog.com I had planned on talking a bit today about Venezuela. The president there doesn’t like the way his media is covering him, so he’s doing away with the free press. He’s established rules on what he thinks is fair, and he’s denying licenses to television and radio stations that don’t play by government rules. I can’t criticize him now, though. After all, how would it seem for me to complain about another country, when our own congressional leadership is trying to put the same sort of rules in place here? To do so, they’re pulling the Fairness Doctrine out of the dustbin of history. ... The real issue here is not what you “can” see or hear — which is what the Fairness Doctrine was about originally. It’s what you’re “choosing” to see or hear.

And how right that is...

Those Superior British

clipped from www.captainsquartersblog.com As I have written many times, engaging with the militias was the biggest mistake the British made. It legitimized people like Sayed Youssif and Moqtada al-Sadr. The US has made its share of mistakes as well, but we have always insisted that the only use of force for security had to come from the Iraqi government through the national forces we train, not by attempting to blend militias into a police force. The militias should have been fought and stamped out, as we are trying to do it Baghdad. Now what we have is all of the makings of a real civil war of the kind we see in Gaza now. We will have state-armed groups organizing into armies that will control territories and conduct operations against each other as soon as the British leave. With Teheran pulling the strings, the Shi'ite south could erupt into a new kind of internecine war that could undermine the Shi'ites in the national government.

More Red Meat

clipped from corner.nationalreview.com “With this bill, the American people are going to think they are being sold the same bill of goods as before on border security.  We should scrap this bill and the whole debate until we can convince the American people that we have secured the borders or at least have made great headway.”

Chlorine Gas? What WMD In Iraq?

clipped from fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com Bill Roggio describes the battle between al-Qaeda and Coalition forces in Mosul and Diyala with the enemy sustaining heavy casualties, though more civilians have died in Diayala as the al-Qaeda attacked again with chlorine gas.

The Prospective First Blogger Asks The Question

clipped from pajamasmedia.com In the same editorial, Sowell also told a story about Churchill. When British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain died, early in the Second World War, Churchill delivered his eulogy. Though Chamberlain had turned a deaf ear, for years, to all of Churchill’s warnings that could have prevented that war, Churchill praised him. “He acted with perfect sincerity,” Churchill said. “However the fates may play, we march always in the ranks of honor when we have done our best.” Compare that magnanimity to what is going on in Washington and much of the Internet today. Sowell asks us, “In this day and time, can’t we have a responsible adult discussion of issues while the nation’s fate hangs in the balance in its most dangerous hour?” That’s the question. If the answer is going to be “yes,” it will be due in large part to sites like this one. So thank you for all you’ve done here and for all the encouragement you’ve given me. Hopefully, we’ll continue this conversation.

Welcome To Iraq Gun Control

clipped from instapundit.com 50 heavily armed men abduct 7 police: four them of them found dead, three missing, gun battles leave 20 dead. About a thousand people so far this year shot or decapitated. Iraq? No, northern Mexico, about a hundred miles south of here. Betting is that the gang was a drug lord's entourage.

Luckily There Was No Connection...

clipped from www.americanthinker.com This new al Qaeda document, when combined with the CNS documents, provides a sequential timeframe for the events and the human linkages to carry out the order from Saddam to his intelligence service to Ayman al Zawahiri to Mohammed Atef and then to his terror trainers. The revelation about Mohammed Atef comes just days after former CIA Director George Tenet caused a political and media stir with the release of his new book At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA. Tenet devotes a portion of the book to discussing al Qaeda-Saddam ties. In it he writes about the case of Ibn Sheikh al Libi, "a senior military trainer for al-Qa'ida in Afghanistan." Al Libi told his interrogators that "a militant known as Abu Abudullah had told him that...al-Qa'ida leader Mohammed Atef had sent Abu Abdullah to Iraq to seek training in poisons and mustard gas."

More "Dirt" For The Weak Horse

clipped from www.michaeltotten.com And so all the fretting about “respect” and “dialogue” amount to more than just comforting creations of the western imagination and impositions of a hoped-for reality. For the Iranian regime they are yet another layer of evidence vindicating a set of beliefs about America's inability to stand up for its interests -- or even for its citizens. Meanwhile, inquiry into the more plausible sources of Iran’s actions, such as the regime's ideological contempt for America and its need to demonstrate revolutionary strength and western weakness, continues to be avoided. In 1981, after the American embassy hostages had finally been released, Iran’s chief negotiator said, “We rubbed dirt in the nose of the world’s greatest superpower.” His comrades are no doubt saying the same thing today about their newest hostage, Haleh Esfandiari.

If You're Not Reading Lewis...

clipped from opinionjournal.com Stage One of the jihad was to drive the infidels from the lands of Islam; Stage Two--to bring the war into the enemy camp, and the attacks of 9/11 were clearly intended to be the opening salvo of this stage. The response to 9/11, so completely out of accord with previous American practice, came as a shock, and it is noteworthy that there has been no successful attack on American soil since then. More recent developments, and notably the public discourse inside the U.S., are persuading increasing numbers of Islamist radicals that their first assessment was correct after all, and that they need only to press a little harder to achieve final victory. It is not yet clear whether they are right or wrong in this view. If they are right, the consequences--both for Islam and for America--will be deep, wide and lasting.

... you're not getting it. RTWT. (via Glenn)

And The New "White Flight"

clipped from www.donaldsensing.com If the insurgents emerge emboldened, what next? In five years’ time, there will be even more of them, and even less resolve on the part of the French state. That, in turn, is likely to accelerate the demographic decline. Europe could face a continent-wide version of the “white flight” phenomenon seen in crime-ridden American cities during the 1970s, as Danes and Dutch scram to America, Australia or anywhere else that will have them.

Welcome To The Quiet Death

clipped from www.donaldsensing.com There is no longer a single country in Europe where people are having enough children to replace themselves when they die. Italy recently became the first nation in history where there are more people over the age of 60 than there are under the age of 20. This year [1998 - DS] Germany, Greece and Spain will probably all cross the same eerie divide. [link]

How Bad Is It?

clipped from instapundit.com How bad is it? Even Democrats mostly disapprove of Congress. Only 37% of the majority party's voters think that Congress has performed well; Gallup doesn't mention the percentage that disapproves, but it seems almost certain that it outstrips 37%, unless more than 26% are clueless. Congress gets its worst ratings not from Republicans (25%), but from independents (24%). That should get the attention of leadership in both chambers, who owe their majorities to those independents.

The Forgotten Lobotomies

clipped from fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com This curious relationship implies that in actuality multiculturalism is playing a losing game with itself; and that the eventual outcome of Western multiculturalism advancing side by side with a confident and ascendant Islam will not be multiculturalism at all but simply a form of Islamic society. The Brussels Journal sees this absurd result and explains that multicultural theorists, having lobotomized themselves have already forgotten their lobotomies. I have heard individuals state point blank that even if Muslims become the majority in our countries in the future, this doesn’t matter because all people are equal and all cultures are just a mix of everything else, anyway. And since religions are just fairy-tales, replacing one fairy-tale, Christianity, with another fairy-tale, Islam, won’t make a big difference. All religions basically say that the same things in different ways.

The Background (Music): Fred On Guillen Landrian

clipped from www.townhall.com If Moore wants a subject for a real documentary, I would suggest looking into the life of Cuban painter and award-winning documentarian Nicolás Guillén Landrián. He was denied the right to practice his art for using the Beatles' song, "The Fool on the Hill," as background music behind footage of Castro climbing a mountain. Later, he was given plenty of free Cuban health care when he was confined for years in a "mental institution" and given devastating, repeated electroshock "treatments."

Mental Institution Michael...

clipped from www.breitbart.tv

We Have Always Been At War With Eastasia

clipped from www.claytoncramer.com Remember in 1984, where Winston's job was to revise newspapers of the past to keep up with the ever changing present? This is very interesting. A couple years ago, during the Katrina disaster, I linked to a CNN report and quoted it: Overnight, police snipers were stationed on the roof of their precinct, trying to protect it from gunmen roaming through the city, CNN's Chris Lawrence reported. One New Orleans police sergeant compared the situation to Somalia and said officers were outnumbered and outgunned by gangs in trucks. "It's a war zone, and they're not treating it like one," he said, referring to the federal government. ... One of my readers ran into that posting of mine--and noticed that the CNN report at that link no longer said anything like that. It was much, much more upbeat. Nothing about the police snipers on the roof. Did I copy the wrong link? Did I have a brief attack of delusion, and make something up?

Sad, Sad Nancy

clipped from www.nypost.com May 15, 2007 -- How often has President Bush warned of a strong al Qaeda presence in Iraq - to derisory hoots from such critics as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi? "Hey, no al Qaedas there," say the Dems. "They're all hiding out in Pakistan, where Dubya let 'em escape to after 9/11." Or words to that effect. Well, yesterday, al-Qaeda-that's-not-in-Iraq issued a press release - boasting of having taken three American GIs captive in Iraq, and threatening to kill them if U.S. forces continue to hunt for them. "Your soldiers are in our hands . . . What you are doing in searching for [them] will lead to nothing but exhaustion and headaches," said the online statement from the Islamic State of Iraq - one of al Qaeda's Iraqi incarnations. The warning recalls Pelosi's words from 2006; she said she felt "sad" over President Bush's insistence that al Qaeda is operating in Iraq.

And I do mean sad...

107-0

clipped from www.opinionjournal.com "Universal" government health care has once again returned as a political cause, with many Democrats believing it's the key to White House victory in 2008. They might want to study last week's news from Illinois, where Democratic Governor Rod Blagojevich's tax increase to finance health care became the political rout of the year. The Democratic House in Springfield killed the proposal, 107-0, after Mr. Blagojevich came out against his own idea when it became clear he was going to be humiliated. Only a month earlier he had said he was prepared to wage "the fight of the century" in defense of his plan to impose a $7.6 billion "gross receipts tax" on Illinois businesses.

Wish Sarkosy Luck...

clipped from www.commentarymagazine.com So what chance, really, is there for a change in 2007? Interestingly enough, three of the four front-runners as of the end of March—Sarkozy, Bayrou, and Le Pen—were not enarchs. Of the four, Sarkozy, openly pro-American and a (cautious) critic of the welfare state, was probably the only candidate to have given serious thought to France’s necrotic condition, hinting at various constitutional reforms—from the abolition of the prime minister’s office to a stronger parliament and stronger parliamentary commissions, not to mention progressive cuts in the civil service—that would bring the republic closer to the American political model. Not to be outdone by Sarkozy, Bayrou announced in early April that, if elected, he would abolish the ENA altogether. But suppose a reforming, anti-statist president were actually elected. Who would assist him in carrying out his declared program, when enarchs and other state servants are all there is?

... he's going to need it...

And The U.S. Is Not Far Behind

clipped from www.commentarymagazine.com What used to be said of Prussia—other states have armies, but Prussia is an army that owns a state—applies to France today, with a slight difference. Other countries may have a state bureaucracy, but France is a state bureaucracy that owns a country.

France: The 130 Percent Problem

clipped from www.commentarymagazine.com But what is called public debt in France is less than half of what would be listed under that heading in countries like the United States or Canada. The category does not include the retirement funds for the civil service (between 800 billion and a trillion euros), the national-health-service deficit, or various private debts (like that of Crédit Lyonnais) taken over by the state. In fact, the true public debt amounts to something like 2.7 trillion euros, or 130 percent of GDP. Marseille warns that it may double over the next fifteen years. This is on the scale of the debt of the Ottoman empire in the late 19th century.