In an effort to compete with the dominant BBC and CNN channels, the French government has announced that it will launch it's own 24-hr news network, en francaise.

Executive marketing decision #1 should be:

Hire THIS woman, Melissa Theuriau, and CNN will end up closing their Paris bureau.

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"You're mother was a hamster, and your father smelled of elderberries!"

Glenn Greewald reminds us of all the French taunting that the U.S. received in the aftermath of Katrina. Including such gems as:

"This tragic incident reminds us that the United States has refused to ratify the Kyoto accords. Let's hope the US can from now on stop ignoring the rest of the world. If you want to run things, you must first lead by example. Arrogance is never a good adviser!"
- Jean-Pierre Aussant in France's Le Figaro

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A lot of attention is being focused on the conditions in France that have led to this mess that theyÂ’re currently trying to get under control. And certainly those conditions, which have been glossed over in the past, have helped create the powder keg thatÂ’s not only exploding in the socialist utopia of France but is now spreading to her European neighbors.

First there is the economic problem. Dick Morris writes today in the NY Post about a French society designed to provide a high-quality (and high cost) of life for the traditional white French citizens. A major negative consequence, however, is that there is no chance for upward-mobility within this cushy system that creates few jobs and grows anemically at best. And those most affected are its immigrants. more...

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"There's a sucker born every minute" is an oft-quoted phrase attributed to the famous 19th century huckster. Well in China, where the population is well over one billion, there must me several born every minute. Apparently, there is a company over there that just had its license suspended for trying to sell real estate on the moon.

The Beijing Lunar Village Aeronautics Science and Technology Co. managed to sell large swathes of pristine lunar property before being shut down, the state -owned Xinhua news agency reported on Monday.

The company, claiming to act on behalf of an entity referred to as the Lunar Embassy in China, charged 298 yuan (37 US dollars) for each acre (0.4 hectare) on the moon, according to the report.

Each lucky new owner of lunar soil was issued a "certificate" that ensured property ownership including rights to use the land and minerals up to three kilometers (1.9 miles) underground, Xinhua said.

Li Jie, CEO of Lunar Embassy, said that 34 clients bought 49 acres (20 hectares) of land on the moon in the first three days after his company became operational last month.

Barnum would find it all very amusing. So many suckers, so little time.

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France is burning and all Chirac can do is declare a state of emergency.

President Jacques Chirac declared a state of emergency Tuesday, paving the way for curfews to be imposed on riot-hit cities and towns in an extraordinary measure to halt France's worst civil unrest in decades after 12 nights of violence.

Ralph Peter's in the NY Post today:

Utterly devoid of self-awareness, the French cherish their image of America as racist. But minorities in the United States have opportunities for which their French counterparts would risk their lives. Our problem is that demagogues convince the poorest of our poor to give up on getting ahead. In France, the non-white poor never have a chance of any kind.

France has no Colin Powell or Condi Rice, no minority heading the equivalent of a Fortune 500 company, no vibrant minority political culture. When Americans who adore la vie en France go to Paris (the intelligentsia's Orlando), they don't visit the drug-and-crime-plagued slums. If tourists encounter a Moroccan or a Senegalese "Frenchman," he's cleaning up the sidewalks after the dogs of the bourgeoisie.

Willfully blind to reality, liberals continue to praise the racist culture of France by citing the Parisian welcome for Josephine Baker or the Harlem jazz musicians in the 1920s. But the French regarded those few as exotic pets. The test is how they treat the millions of immigrant families whose members don't play trumpets in bars or sell their flesh in strip clubs.

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