Stephen M. St. Onge looks at the future of France, through the prism of this country in the ’60s. Key points:

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The first bird flu death has been confirmed in the US.

CAUTION: Graphic photo at link.

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When Russ Feingold says he’s “impressed” with a Republican nominee, it’s hard to see how Alito won’t be confirmed.

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David Warren understands why it won’t be easy to address the “root cause” of the Paris Riots:

And part of the joke is that, since long before they were born, the Muslim young raised in these ghettoes were in fact prevented from getting the usual sorts of jobs, and thereby insinuating themselves into bourgeois French society. And this because the powerful, leftwing unions of France — themselves quite willing to riot for results — have long since achieved 30-hour weeks, high pay, and perpetual employment for three-quarters of the labour force. It is an arrangement, secured in a form of

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I’m a day late with the link, but don’t miss this report on the Paris Riots, written by a Parisienne.

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We have our “porker of the month“:

WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 /U.S. Newswire/ — Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today named Rep. John Spratt (D-S.C.) Porker of the Month for working to thwart a budget reconciliation package that could save taxpayers $53.9 billion over five years. As ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee, Rep. Spratt preaches fiscal restraint yet refuses to offer savings proposals and even held a mock hearing to misconstrue miniscule spending reductions as deep cuts. The House is scheduled to vote today on the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (H.R. 4241).

My local congressman earns some small amount of praise:

But Rep. Joel Hefley (R-Colo.) has proposed seven across-the-board cuts — of one percent each — to appropriations bills this year, and Rep. Spratt voted against every one.

One percent each, eh? That’s better than nothing – but still a lot lot treating cancer with a Band-Aid.

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Peggy Noonan seems to have shaken her blahs from a couple weeks back. Today’s column is light and breezy and mostly fun. Check it out.

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… this is going to be cool.

Den Beste is back.

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Burned two fingers tonight experimenting with this week’s Friday Recipe. Nothing to do with the recipe and everything to do with my innate klutziness. Some days, I wonder I how made it to 36. Every day, I wonder why I have only one visible scar on my face.

Typing is quite literally a pain right now, so I’m going to pour a third glass of this marvelous cheap Zin and load up Tuesday’s Nip/Tuck on the TiVo.

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Orson Scott Card rips a new one for Brent Scowcroft:

When our soldiers go off to kill and die, they had better be dying for something that actually matters or we won’t stand for it. Stalemates feel like losing; realpolitik feels like we’re no better than the cynical 19th-century border-drawers who got the world into such an ugly shape in the first place.

Americans will not long endure a government whose goal is a “balance of power.” We don’t want power to be balanced. We want to feel like our power is enormously lopsided, but that it is used exclusively for either a noble cause or our own direct national defense.

What is more, “realism” does not work. It cannot work, because the equations of power-balancing are fully readable by our enemies and opponents and rivals. When they know that we will go this far and no farther, we become predictable to them.

And when we are predictable, then our enemies are free to act as they wish within the safe, “realistic” boundaries we have laid out for them.

Read the whole thing here.

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Now that the PJ Media launch party/conference is less than a week away, I’m getting emails from lots of folks wanting to get together for drinks or chat or whatever. I’m looking forward to meeting all of you, and there are bunches of other people I’d like to at least have a little meet & greet with.

So. If you’ve signed your blog away to PJ and are planning to be in NYC next week, leave a comment here. I’m sure we can put together something fun.

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I’ll have something on the election fallout tomorrow. Meanwhile, there’s this:

AMMAN (Reuters) – At least five people were killed and more than 12 others were wounded on Wednesday in a blast at a major hotel in the Jordanian capital, Amman, Reuters witnesses said.

The explosion shook the Radisson hotel and several wounded people were seen in the lobby, witnesses said. The hotel is known to be popular with Israeli tourists.

More here and here.

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Steve hasn’t mentioned it yet himself, but his “Monster” post from yesterday was picked up by the reigning guru of American politics, Michael Barone. Barone mentioned the post on Fox News last night, and writes about it today on his own blog.

It’s an interesting world these days. Five years ago, a Barone never would have read anything by a Colorado Springs investor and racouteur, and the Washington Post or BBC never would have dreamed of quoting an obscure engineer and occasional sports writer from suburban Atlanta. Interesting world, and in a real and better way, a much larger one.

As for myself, while Steve gloats and prepares to buy the Boeing, I’ll just sit around in reflected glory–and only moderately insane jealousy…

UPDATE: Correction time, I misread an email about Barone, thinking it said that’d he’d appeared on Fox News Tuesday and referenced Steve’s post. I was apparently incorrect, and the fault in this case is entirely mine. All apologies. I stand by my reporting of the post on Barone’s blog, since, er, that part wasn’t wrong.

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I am so willing to sell out.

We’ll start the bidding at $600,000.

Anyone?

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Reporting from Texas – where the cause of gay marriage just suffered an election setback – Nospeedbumps.com argues that the battle against it has already been lost.

I agree.

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Yesterday, I gave you 3,000 words of well-thought out prose. Today, not so much. Instead, let me tell you that…

…whoever called the cops on these two sweet, sweet girls is the one who really deserves to get arrested and go to jail and lose their job.

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It’s funny because it’s true.

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Four years into the Terror War, “What’s the most important element for victory?” is a question long overdue. It’s also a question our national leadership, nearly all of our intellectuals, and none of our mainstream media have yet to answer.

President George W Bush hasn’t told us, because he doesn’t know. His rivals for the Oval Office never answered the question

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I’ve promised myself, at long last, to finish the long-promised Monster Essay. It’s 10:02pm now, and I’m hoping to have it finished by midnight.

Finished, not polished.

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Blogger Bill Roggio wants to embed with USMC Regimental Combat Team

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Score one for the good guys:

Australian authorities believe they have foiled a major terrorist attack, arresting 15 people on Tuesday during raids in the country’s two biggest cities of Sydney and Melbourne.

The arrests come less than a week after Prime Minster John Howard said Australia received intelligence about a “terrorist threat”.

“We believe … we’ve disrupted a large-scale operation which, had it been allowed to go through to fruition, we certainly believe would have been catastrophic,” New South Wales Police Commissioner Ken Moroney told Australian television.

Full story here.

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I finally broke down and got the FRIGGIN’ HUGE TV set that I’ve been lusting after for lo, these many years, and verily, it is good (okay, honesty time–it was my wife who broke down; I’d been ready to buy the thing for months). At Steve’s suggestion, I added a DirecTV HD Tivo box, and it’s also very, very good.

My only problem at this point–other than the looming credit card bill–is tuning in the local CBS affiliate in HDTV.

(Oh, don’t start. It’s not for 60 Minutes. It’s for SEC football, and the Auburn-Alabama game is next Saturday, so pay attention.)

The DirecTV box includes an off-the-air tuner, which I’ve hooked up to the ancient 70′s-vintage VHF/UHF antenna on my roof, which is pointed as near as I can manage at that station’s transmitter. Unfortunately, even after installing new coaxial cable and new connectors from the antenna to the house, CBS is the only station in town that isn’t coming in 5X5. It’s running about 70% max signal on the DirecTV box’s signal meter, and the picture is subject to frequent breakups.

All you RF and/or digital TV experts out there (and you know who you are), any suggestions?

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This is shocking:

France announced plans on Monday to impose curfews on rundown suburbs hit by violence to try to halt almost two weeks of unrest in which one man has been killed and thousands of cars have been torched.

If France is imposing a curfew only after two weeks of riots, then it would seem hardline Interior Minister Nickolas Sarkozy doesn’t have that much pull in the Cabinet.

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Robert Bidinotto asks, “Jihad begins in Europe?”

Perhaps. But Robert certainly has me convinced that no matter the scope or aims of the riots, multiculturalist relativism is to blame for them.

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It’s hard to tell ust how bad things really are in France, or even the real motivation of the rioters. Intifada? Kids just having some bad-natured fun? Something in between?

Then again, a line was crossed today:

Rioters shot at police and torched more than 1,400 cars in the worst violence since unrest erupted in France’s poor suburbs 11 days ago, and a man beaten by a youth became the first fatality on Monday.

And:

“This is real, serious violence. It’s not like the previous nights. I am very concerned because this is mounting,” said Bernard Franio, head of police for the Essonne area south of Paris, after about 200 youths attacked his colleagues in Grigny.

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La Shawn Barber’s blog turned two years old this weekend. Give her a visit and help her blow out all those candles.

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Curtis Nieboer has more on the Chinese spy ring, including what it all means for the Navy.

By the way, if you didn’t take last week’s advice and bookmark The Officers Club, do so now.

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