Glee and the Bonfire of Insanity

I can only describe my reaction to the news from France as glee. Those snooty bastards are finally getting a taste of American-Style teen violence. As for the worry that these kids are islamists, it has been completely erased by the fact that they are all wearing basketball jersies. I can't think of anything better: second generation immigrants to france are taking on our culture and rejecting that of France, in an extremely violent and American way. Others share in my pleasure:

What the Aussie pundit Tim Blair calls the nightly Paris car-B-Q looks great on television, but without being sufficiently murderous to provoke the state into forcefully putting down the insurgency.

Indeed, it's an almost perfect tactic if your aim is to have the entire French establishment dithering in grievance-addressing mode until you've extracted as much political advantage as you can. Look at it this way: after two weeks, whose prestige has been more enhanced? The rioters? Or Mayor Debré, President Chirac and Prime Minister de Villepin? On every front these past two weeks, the French state has been tested and communicated only weakness.

This from the Telegraph.