Ummm...Paris...Still Burning? Liberty? Fraternity? Anyone?

For almost two weeks now, the riots have grown and spread, all the way to Belgium (!)

The French Interior minister called the rioters "rabble," which has a rather unfortunate Louis XVIth air about it. In any event, while real poverty, racism, and alienation are a huge factor here, as a Greek friend of mine from Reed, Nikkos, once pointed out from his own experience in communist riots in Athens, rioting is a lot of fun for the rioters. But it's evolved into beating - and now killing- random citizens. And there is a feeling of Islamo-Fascism, as Chris Hitchens calls it.

In an increasingly rare event, George W. Bush appears unblameworthy. Except, well, the increasingly poisoned climate between Arabs and Europeans. And of course if the war in Iraq hadn't..., .... and mutual cultural suspicion...and.. oh hell.

The French have some awfully big riots under their belt. There was, you know, the Bastille, and the Paris Commune, and stuff. The riots in the late 1960's nearly brought down the government.