France Votes

Victory Cigar?

The future, the Project History, the making of our lives... it is not disposable, not a throw away. The European Union was founded by people who survived World War II and who had the concerns of the common men and women in their minds.

World peace requires a globalism which eschews elitism, which is a form of globalization we have not yet seen since the early EU.

A World joined in common amity is not a painting by a pseudo-Magritte:  La vraie democratie n'est pas un cigare jetable... true democracy is not a throw-away cigar.



Disposable Smokes

Les cigares jetables de 400 souffles...
myriad de bars à cigare,
couleurs illimitées,
sumptueux,
verts, grises, rouges,
etc.
pour que vous choisissiez...

Choisissez s'il vous plaît;
O, que vous choisissiez!
avant la fin du monde,
avant fin de la vie,
etc.
avant que la prière d'enfer...

soit tou'c'qui reste...


--
note:  Red Auerbach, the coach of the Boston Celtics in the years I loved basketball, celebrated a victory by smoking a victory cigar.

L' Hebdomadaire or Hebdomedarius

 Which Monk Is The Hebdomedarius?

While I was in Toronto at the beginning of the year, my friend Gil and I spoke of various and sundry things. Somehow "Charlie Hebdo" came up and one thing led to another and it ended up with me saying, "Do you actually think that most people do not know that 'Hebdo" is an abbreviation for French "hebdomedaire",  which is from Latin 'hebdomedarius',  and means a weekly magazine... literally (every) seven days?!"

He bloody laughed at me.

Well, the only reason I knew it was the fact that I was familiar with the Latin "hebdomedarius":

The Hebdomedarius (otherwise termed Aquillarius Canonicus) was, as the name implies, the officiant of the week; each monk in holy orders being obliged to perform divine service in rotation.
(i.e., every 7 days)

ECCLESIASTICAL RECORDS OF ENGLAND, IRELAND, AND SCOTLAND,
FROM THE FIFTH CENTURY TILL THE REFORMATION:
BY THE REV. RICHARD HART, B.A.,
VICAR of Catton in the diocese of Norwich

and "hebdo" itself was Greek, since the Latin for "seven" was septem and one would expect something like "septenary". (The "s" in septem in Greek became an aspirate "h", the "p" became a voiced "b" and the "t" became a voiced "d", so the sequence in Latin s-p-t is Greek h-b-d.)

So....... Charlie Hebdo means Weekly Charlie, and I learned a valuable lesson of some sort. So did he. I think he got the better lesson.

--

Not Ready For Prime Time Players?

Marie Le Pen

(This photo is set up in a very unfortunate manner. I saw the original in a small format, and from a distance, Ms. Le Pen's eyes looked like part of the nose on the large portrait in the rear, and I wondered what Miss Piggy had to do with politics?)

Shades of the American Tea Party in France's election.

Reading an Opinion piece in Al Jazeera:

Marine Le Pen's victory is a bigger threat than ISIL
The National Front's track record of ineptitude, corruption and nepotism might herald the end of the French republic.
08 Dec 2015 06:58 GMT
Remi Piet
Remi Piet is assistant professor of public policy, diplomacy and international political economy at Qatar University.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2015/12/marine-le-pen-victory-bigger-threat-isil-151207111642814.html

... In the few cases when the National Front has been able to win a local election, its track record is appalling. In Hayange, the extreme-right mayor was found to have falsified its electoral budget. In Beziers, the National Front mayor Robert Menard has encouraged the creation of private militias and the religious listings to target minorities. In each of the Southern cities of Toulon, Vitrolles, Orange and Marignane, once held by the National Front, corruption, nepotism and mismanagement have been endemic.

After a few years of National Front administration, each city ended up in severe debt and unable to balance budgets despite severe cuts in spending in culture and social welfare.
On every occasion, the National Front has proved to be inept in any power position. Unfortunately, the very electoral system that prevented the parliamentary representation of the National Front might end up ushering a tsunami of incompetent and corrupt politicians in the coming years...

If you can control your gag reflex, try to remember the Tea Party Republicans in Congress seriously considering back in 2011 to default on the national debt. They were serious to the point that a special delegation from Standard & Poors had to come and give them some quick pointers about how not to destroy the world financial system.

I wrote about it in July, 2011. The Republicans had expressed a desire to talk with Mr. Milburn Drysdale, president of the Commerce Bank of Beverley Hills, accompanied by his able assistant, Miss Jane Hathaway instead of the Standard and Poors guys.

Ms. Hathaway and Mr. Drysdale

--

The French Elections, Terror, And Democracy

Marion Maréchal-Le Pen

(I do not know enough about French politics, but I would guess that since this is the first round of the elections, the extended index fingers in the photo above are sort of a half-victory V sign.)



I am reading Le Figaro this morning about the first round of elections in France. The Front National has done better than ever, and the electorate moved away from the Socialists and closer to the far right.

Yahoo News
Marine Le Pen and niece lead France's FN into dominant territory
http://news.yahoo.com/marine-le-pen-her-niece-set-lead-far-111250372.html

Paris (AFP) - One is a pragmatist: a 47-year-old lawyer by training who has steered France's far-right National Front (FN) from pariah status to mainstream.

The other is an ideologue: her 25-year-old niece, a Roman Catholic traditionalist whose easy smile and youthful good looks belie a stance on abortion, homosexuality and Islam that critics say is dangerous or sectarian.

On Sunday, Marine Le Pen and Marion Marechal-Le Pen -- respectively the daughter and grand-daughter of the FN's firebrand founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen -- established themselves as major players in France's political landscape...

After the Paris attack, this is not a total surprise.

Politics is a Group process.
As such, it is neither good nor bad.
What the group in power decides to do has the possibility of being good or bad.

How far any group - far right or far left - will go is not known, although Jean-Marie Le Pen, the patriarch, made a post on Twitter concerning the fact that Christian Estrosi,  a member of the République Solidaire party and deputy mayor of Nice,  was trailing the Front National candidate, Marion Maréchal-Le Pen (mentioned above), in the polling in the region Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur...

The post is described thusly:
http://www.lefigaro.fr/politique/le-scan/couacs/2015/12/06/25005-20151206ARTFIG00201-regionales-l-etrange-derapage-de-jean-marie-le-pen-sur-twitter.php

Pour moquer le score de Christian Estrosi (36%), candidat les Républicains arrivé derrière Marion-Maréchal Le Pen (41%) en Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, l'octogénaire a cru bon de poster sur Twitter une vidéo du député-maire de Nice en train de danser avec des juifs orthodoxes...

(To mock the score of Christian Estrosi (36%), candidate of  République Solidaire [RS] was trailing Front National [FN] candidate Marion-Maréchal Le Pen (41%) in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, the old octogenarian posted on Twitter a video of the deputy mayor of Nice dancing with some Orthodox Jews... )

and one wonders who or what is the terror which haunts or vivifies old man Le Pen.

It should be pointed out that Marine Le Pen pretty much kicked the old man, Jean-Marie, out of any semblance of influence in the party a while ago.

So, things can always get out of hand.

Faith in God is a solitary pursuit. Group dynamics are politics, and politics and religion do not mix, for religion is overwhelmed by Power and Compulsion.

As William Ralph Inge wrote:

Types Of Christian Saintliness, 1915, London, page 36


Even though Protestantism is the democracy of religion, it may lead to a dictatorship of the righteous, such as Calvin established in Zurich and others.
Once democracy loses its emphasis on the individual, it loses almost everything, because as it swings to group reactions, group politics, group opinions... , then it becomes stagnant and oppressive.

The greatest weakness of a democratic society is wild swings of group, public sentiments.
The Athenians experienced it; when Mytilene wished to leave the Delian League and revolted, the Athenians voted in assembly to kill all the men of Mytilene and to sell the women and children into slavery, and sent a ship to the troops at Mytilene to carry out this command.
The next day, realizing the unprecedented barbarity of their actions, they reversed the vote, and sent a second ship after the first, but it arrived too late to save the Mytilenians.

Hitler knew the weakness of democracies.

Terrorists know the weakness, too:  drive the people of democratic countries into paroxysms of fear and anger; make them give up their individual morality and embrace the amorality of group dynamics of revenge and the illusive satisfaction of horrible punishment to instill fear into ones' enemies.

If you lose the individual, you lose God, you lose morals and ethics, you lose democracy, you lose everything in the end in an unceasing dream time of night terrors.

The Nightmare, Henry Fuseli

--

Phantom Of The Bataclan

2011, Le Figaro:
Al-Qaida à Gaza voulait frapper la France
Par Philippe Cohen-Grillet Mis à jour le 20/02/2011 à 21:07 Publié le 20/02/2011 à 21:06
http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2011/02/20/01016-20110220ARTFIG00175-al-qaida-a-gaza-voulait-frapper-en-france.php

...Car, en janvier 2007, Le Bataclan a été la cible de menaces de mouvements islamistes pour avoir accueilli un concert en soutien «aux gardes frontières israéliens». Lors de leur arrestation en Égypte, plusieurs comparses de Dodi Hoxha ont reconnu que l'Armée de l'Islam projetait des attentats contre «une synagogue en France, l'ambassade de France et le Centre culturel français au Caire». Des aveux à prendre, certes, avec beaucoup de précaution tant en ce qui concerne les auteurs des déclarations que les conditions des interrogatoires. Cependant, la France et ses compatriotes semblent effectivement dans le viseur des terroristes de la «Jaish al-Islam». Une autre «filiale» d'al-Qaida, jusque-là méconnue, mais qui a déjà fait couler le sang...

Portion emphasized:
For in January 2007, The Bataclan Theater was the target of threats from Islamist movements...

So apparently the Bataclan Theater has been targeted for at least 8 years...

There are many more comments in the French press about this.

--

Brennt Paris?

As World War II was ending, Hitler ordered General von Choltitz to destroy Paris before he pulled his troops back, and every day thereafter Hitler would call and ask "Brennt Paris?",  "Is Paris burning?"
There is an ironic attraction Paris has for monsters, as indicated in the photo above, where emergency workers are busy at a bar named Voltaire, named after Voltaire of the smile of reason and in the midst again of unreason.

The Light attracts the Dark and causes it to burn with hatred of self and others.

I am reading in the Recklinghauser Zeitung:

Der Horror von Paris
https://www.recklinghaeuser-zeitung.de/nachrichten/thema/Report-nbsp-Der-Horror-von-Paris

Paris (dpa) Zehn Monate nach «Charlie Hebdo» ist Paris erneut Ziel einer Terrorattacke. An mehreren Orten gleichzeitig fallen Schüsse, sind Explosionen zu hören. In einem Konzertsaal richten Unbekannte ein Massaker an. Die Zahl der Toten und Verletzten ist riesig...

"Ten months after "Charlie Hebdo" Paris has experienced yet another terror attack..."

10 months...
Not a long time...

Every month we should pick up the telephone and ask, "Is Paris burning?"
And every month, when the person at the other end answers "No. Paris is not burning.", we shall know that hope and freedom endure and have triumphed yet again over death and destruction.

--

Siberian Odyssey

Young Cadets In Siberia

The Siberian Times
Stunning photos of Siberia and its people feature in new book
By Derek Lambie
21 October 2014
http://siberiantimes.com/culture/arts/features/stunning-photos-of-siberia-and-its-people-feature-in-new-book/

Stunning images of everyday normal life in Siberia have formed the basis of a new book by a French photojournalist. Guillaume Chauvin, who was born in 1987, spent a year documenting Russia armed with nothing more than his camera and a note pad.

Much of his research for Le Vie Russe – Russian Life – came during a long, but fruitful, stopover in Siberia where he admits he fell in love with the area and its people. Part-photo book, part-diary, it spans 272 pages and is a snapshot of the vast country as it stands at a crossroads between the traditions of the past and the modern world.

[...]

Le Vie Russe, Entre Siberie et Aujourd’hui  can be purchased directly from Guillaume Chauvin’s website www.guillaumechauvin.fr for 19Euros.

--

ps
the boys are playing with some electronic game.

The Fruit of The Lemon Tree

In the south of France, the Lemon Festival of Menton is on from Mid-February until early March.
I wonder how they express the sentiment that we accompany by the nonce expression "When life gives you lemons..."?

Confitures ou liqueurs au citron, les épiceries fines de Menton regorgent de produits pour les touristes gourmets.

Jams or lemon liquors, the fine grocers of Menton are "choked" with items for touring gourmets.
--

La France

Hurrah for France!

Finally people of the EU are standing up to the lie of globalization. When I hear a meretricious media speak of "leveling the playing field", I cringe violently.

"Leveling the field" means that if I make $40/hour and someone in China makes $2/hour, our Ministry of Welfare has the objective to see both of us to end up around $42/2 = $21/hour at best. This is a windfall for China and a tragedy for me. (Note: I've gotten into the habit of speaking of the present government as if we were in the novel 1984. Of course, the ministries were self-contradictory to our way of thinking, the Ministry of Truth being devoted to Misinformation. Now you've got the idea.)

There is nothing inherent in the capitalist system which leads to globalization. It is a choice to increase the Rate of Return on investment. Please notice that the choice not to implement certain safety measures in West Virginia mines could also be seen as a choice to increase the Rate of Return.

Now that unpleasant events have forced mine owners to put these safety measures into effect, they will be forced to wait a few more years for their desired full return on investment. My daughter listens to Bill O'Reilly. I cannot. When I do, I feel like Alex in Clockwork Orange forced into behavior corrective discipline. He was speaking to an author, Jeff Faux, a few nights ago. Mr. O'Reilly had an arsenal of penny-candy notions strung out on his fingers, which he uses as an abacus to tally his debate points. The problem here was the author seemed to have been picked to be agreeable, and he could not, because he was actually an independent thinker. So Mr. O'Reilly would say that the French could not fire anyone from a job and Mr. Faux would say that this was not the case. And so on. And so on. An appropriately absurd update of Alphonse and Gaston.

The display was almost as memorable as that of certain people on the right arguing against global warming because lefties were using it to criticize the President on Hurricane Katrina. Note to righties: do NOT pick a fight with the global climate! It WILL win! Ask Hurricane Epsilon. Mr.O'Reilly seems to support globalization. One does not support a historical force which cannot be denied. Therefore, it is a choice of certain powerful people. It must be sold to the people of the US, they must be forced to "take their medicine" as Stephen King has so aptly and macabrely put it in his stories. What is the result of this medicine? Nothing more but continued subservience to those who caused your pain. And now they must devise new ways to increase their rate of return upon your backs. Not bad work if you can get it.

The point of all this being, I have actually read Leo XIII's encyclical Rerum Novarum for the first time in my life. "...charity... whose Godlike features are outlined by the Apostle St. Paul in these words: 'Charity is patient, is kind, . . . seeketh not her own, . . . suffereth all things, . . . endureth all things.' " If you do not know who Leo XIII is, if you never heard of Rerum Novarum...(I'll make it easier: if, in Spring 2003, you had never heard that William Tecumseh Sherman said "War is Hell!"); then you have just won the Babylonian lottery, first prize being the chance to repeat the bad stuff of History ad infinitum.
--