So Maybe not the Last Word

Boing Boing directs us to an interesting video, The French Democracy, made with gaming technology that tells the story from the POV of the disgruntled youth in the Paris suburbs. Not perfect but worth a watch.

Back from Paris... Let this be the end of the story

Rap 'not cause of French riots'

France
The French Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin, has dismissed claims by some of his party colleagues that rap music fuelled suburban rioting in France.


Spent a week in Paris, saw no evidence of the unrest. It was sort of like Disneyland in there, totally insulated from whatever reality that was going on outside. By the time I got there most of the action had died down and there was nothing within the center of the city to indicate that there had been any uprising at all. In fact, Paris was wonderful! I sometimes feel a little guilty for enjoying Europe as much as I do, but then I just get over it and have fun.

My 23 Days In Iraq--A War Story From a Kos Diary

Fri Nov 11, 2005 at 06:15:16 PM PDT

Bang-Bang-Bang-Bang-Bang...Hell yeah! I think I killed the fucker! Oh fuck. I'm out of ammo. Time for a mag-change. As I changed my magazine, little did I know, a hajji(In this case a Fedayeen Guerilla) had moved out of the bunker in the back yard that I was in. He moved up to where the guy I just wasted was now lying, dead. As I put another magazine in my M-16 A-2 service rifle, he was aiming in on me...from a short 40 ft. away. I racked another round in the chamber, then looked up to see a hajji aimed in at me. And before I could even raise my weapon, I saw an orange muzzle flash. Then I saw black. I slowy opened my eyes and realized I was on the ground and my rifle was about 5 ft away from me. I was sitting kinda on my knees. Then I realized...I was shot. And not only that, I was paralyzed from the neck down. And then I saw the Hajji still shooting in my direction. "Holy shit", I thought. "I'm a fucking gonner".

Fight the Power

Maybe I just have Public Enemy on the mind, but something seems to be going on in France. Gary Younge of the Guardian says:

'If there is no struggle, there is no progress," said the African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass. "Those who profess to favour freedom and yet depreciate agitation are men who want crops without ploughing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters ... Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."

By the end of last week it looked as though the fortnight of struggle between minority French youth and the police might actually have yielded some progress.

The Greatist is still the Greatist

As if I didn't have enough reasons to love Muhammad Ali, his response to the current occupant of the White House upon receiving the Medal of Freedom might have been reason enough.

Bush, who appeared almost playful, fastened the heavy medal around Muhammad Ali's neck and whispered something in the heavyweight champion's ear. Then, as if to say "bring it on," the president put up his dukes in a mock challenge. Ali, 63, who has Parkinson's disease and moves slowly, looked the president in the eye -- and, finger to head, did the "crazy" twirl for a couple of seconds.

Paris in Wartime

Having missed '68 it seems that now is the perfect time to go to Paris. At least that's what the Times says.

Indeed, the thing to know about "les émeutes," the riots that have wracked much of France in recent days, is that the Paris of tourists - the kingdom of the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, L'Opéra and just about every other famous site - remains largely untouched. So far, no center-city businesses or museums are known to have closed because of the rioting, no Métro subway trains have been stoned or hijacked, and taxis remain as plentiful as ever (or as elusive, depending on your outlook).

One Way Time Travel

We can't travel to the future yet, but now at least one can send her future self a note. At first glance I think that it is a wonderful idea, but then I pause and consider, what would I want to say? I have a list of things I might say to the younger cuter me, but thinking about talking to the older wiser me leaves me with a certain aphasia.

What a Woman Can Do

Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester of the 617th Military Police Company, a National Guard unit out of Richmond, Ky., received the Silver Star...

Being the first woman soldier since World War II to receive the medal is significant to Hester. But, she said, she doesn't dwell on the fact. "It really doesn't have anything to do with being a female," she said. "It's about the duties I performed that day as a soldier."

"Your training kicks in and the soldier kicks in," she said. "It's your life or theirs. ... You've got a job to do -- protecting yourself and your fellow comrades."

Déjà Vu

First torture, now chemical weapons. Isn't stopping those types of practices why we invaded Iraq in the first place?