Several different polls concur on the low standing of Nicolas Sarkozy among the French people one year after his election. The following is a simplification of the statistics:

Spanish conservatives are now in open warfare against each other as two opposing factions seek to gain control over the ideological future of the center-right Partido Popular (PP), the main opposition party in Spain. The internal battle has been brewing for a number of years, but has become a very public affair ever since Mariano Rajoy, the party’s leader, lost the general election on March 9.

The fact that the winner of that election, Socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, was at best a mediocre candidate, one who should have been relatively easy to defeat at the polls, has added to calls for a major reform of the PP. And adding injury to insult, the 2008 vote was a virtual replay of the previous general election in 2004, when Zapatero defeated Rajoy by a similar margin.

A quote from Yves Daoudal at his blog, 22 April 2008 [English translation here]

The torrent of "information" on the Chinese anti-French demonstrations is truly amazing. To read the articles and dispatches you would think that all of China had risen up against the evil French who have it in for the Olympic Games, and consequently for the Chinese people.

As if the Chinese had the freedom to think anything at all about this subject let alone... demonstrate!

A new book by Martin Peltier, published by Renaissance Catholique, is briefly summarized at the publisher's website. The very short précis is hardly sufficient to make a judgment, but what struck me was the remark about Nicolas Sarkozy's ulterior motives in his so-called campaign for "positive laïcité", i.e., placing all religions on an equal footing and encouraging equal respect for all of them:

By raising the issue of the "Christian roots" of France and of "positive laïcité" in Rome last December 20, 2007, Nicolas Sarkozy made waves. The outrage of the old guard of defenders of laïcité reached the boiling point, and they declared the republican pact to be in danger.

The republican pact referred to is the strict separation of Church and State as decreed by the law of 1905. Since being elected, Nicolas Sarkozy has launched a veritable campaign to bring religion back into the public debate and to persuade the population of its importance. But, of course, he had his reasons...

A quote from The Dissident Frogman at his blog, 21 April 2008
 
I understand the temptation to paint Brigitte Bardot as yet another example of the crushing of dissent brought upon the West by the conquering armies of Islam […] As far as I am concerned, this particular case is a dogfight between two equally totalitarian factions. I certainly do not recognize myself in the kind of France Brigitte Bardot (and the company she keeps) mourns […] [H]er getting in trouble for that is not enough of a reason for me to drop my principles and side with one flavor of Fascist just to oppose the other. I’ll just wait on my side of the line in the sand, to see which one comes on top. Rifle at the ready, if need be.

A letter from Howard Stapleton

Dear Sir,

My name is Howard Stapleton. I am the inventor of the Mosquito. The main drive behind my invention was that my 15-year-old daughter was unable to enter our local shop owing to a gang of badly behaved teenagers loitering in the doorway and making a nuisance of themselves. As I discovered later, and sales of my device have proved, this was not an isolated case. Can the Members of the European Parliament who are campaigning to ban my device offer an alternative so that the blight of anti social teenage behaviour can otherwise be resolved without involving millions of Euros?

Rachida Dati, the French Minister of Justice, who holds French as well as Moroccan citizenship, has a family that is keeping her ministry busy. Jamal Dati, 35, one of her brothers, is benefiting from a decision to grant him partial freedom as part of a lessening of his one-year prison term for drug trafficking. Another brother, Omar Dati, 36, has also been convicted for drug trafficking.

Last week student demonstrations in Paris revived fears of another May 68, although so far there is no indication that an event of any magnitude is about to happen. Gérard Pince, economist and founding member of the Blue Revolution attended one of the rallies and tells us why this is no May 68:

Some of the bits in the mosaic of our time are overlooked because we look for boulders. This column presents underrated issues that might deserve attention.
 
1. About the State of “Nuke Korea.” North Korea seems to get a better deal for disarmament that the old USSR got. Part of the difference – expressed in donations in exchange for unverified disarmament – is explained by a “nut bonus.” Equally dangerous is another divergence. It is the tendency to minimize the problem of consistent non-compliance by treating North Korea as an obnoxious funny midget. In doing so some lose sight of the fact that atomic weapons are our time’s Colt-like “great equalizer.”