Welcome! This is an unapologetic, agenda-free zone. Just commentaries on current events that’ll move you to think, laugh, rage, and even cry.
With the latest media feeding frenzy over President Hollande’s love life, the French have utterly destroyed their enviable reputation for discretion in affairs of the heart. Here’s how I presaged this unseemly twist in their national character six years ago: So much for the reputed quizzical insouciance of the French when it comes to marital… Read more.
How gallant! How French! And here’s why: Every French newspaper is emblazoned with headlines about the intriguing split between Ségolène Royal, the Socialist candidate I endorsed in last month’s French presidential election, and Francois Hollande, the leader of the Socialist Party… [T]hese two have been ‘partners’ forever (30 years) and have four children, but never… Read more.
It is no exaggeration to assert that throughout much of the Cold War, France seemed almost as determined as the Soviet Union was to keep America’s military power in check. This is why it came as such a surprise when France enlisted in President George W. Bush’s coalition of the willing to invade Afghanistan to… Read more.
Fourteen years before former President George W. Bush launched a war of dubious justification against Iraq, his daddy, former President George H. W. Bush, launched a war of equally dubious justification against Panama. Actually, baby Bush seemed hell-bent on a personal vendetta to get Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein for allegedly plotting to assassinate his daddy. And… Read more.
France has the largest Muslim population in Western Europe, which is estimated at 5 million. No doubt this is why it has been more beset by tensions arising out of the post-9/11 Talibanization of Islam than any other country in that region. These tensions came into stark relief in 2004 when France passed a law… Read more.
