Fausta's Blog

Yesterday in Paris, Charlie Hebdo got firebombed out of existence for daring to publish a special Charia Hebdo issue.

TIME Mag took the side of the terrorists:
The tab title is “Offices of Satirical French Newspaper Charlie Hebdo Get Firebombed.” Innocuous enough. If you look at the official article title, Firebombed French Paper Is No Free Speech Martyr; it goes on to state,

So, yeah, the violence inflicted upon Charlie Hebdo was outrageous, unacceptable, condemnable, and illegal. But apart from the “illegal” bit, Charlie Hebdo’s current edition is all of the above, too.

However the article’s original title, i.e., how the author posted it initially, is “Firebombed French paper a victim of islamists, or of its own obnoxious Islamophobia?”

You can see it on the URL:

http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2011/11/02/firebombed-french-paper-a-victim-of-islamistsor-its-own-obnoxious-islamophobia/#ixzz1ceST2k4g

Had TIME kept that title it would have saved having to read the rest.

Now, you’ll say, “another op-ed by a freelancer or a guest.”

Not so.

Bruce Cromley, the author of the piece, is described by TIME as,

Bruce Crumley, Paris bureau chief for TIME, helps shape TIME’s coverage of France and Europe in areas including business, politics, religion, terrorism and sports.

And,

He has been particularly active in TIME’s coverage of al Qaeda-sponsored terrorism since September 11, 2001-an area he has followed closely since 1994, when France became the favored European target of Islamist extremists.

Helping “shape TIME’s coverage” with full sympathy for the arsonists.

This is what Charlie Hebdo’s offices look like now,

Charlie Hebdo, the Paris satirical paper that in 2006 was the only in the country to publish the Mohammed cartoons, was firebombed last night, since they wouldn’t submit:
Satirical Magazine Is Firebombed in Paris

The office of a French satirical magazine here was badly damaged by a firebomb early on Wednesday, the publisher said, after it published a spoof issue “guest edited” by the Prophet Muhammad to salute the victory of an Islamist party in Tunisian elections. The publication also said hackers had disrupted its Web site.

The magazine, Charlie Hebdo, had announced a special issue for publication Wednesday, renamed “Charia Hebdo,” a play on the word in French for Shariah law.

Here you see it,

Gateway Pundit reports,

Meanwhile, a play that [has] Jesus covered in crap is also playing in Paris.
No firebombs were reported.

¡No Pasarán! has more.

France bans ketchup in cafeterias

Jacques Hazan, president of the Federation of School Pupils’ and College Students’ Parents Councils, told the Times of London that the new regulations are a “victory.”

However, they will still allow ketchup over French fries.

No word on whether Belgian exchange students eating at French school cafeterias will be allowed to eat their fries with mayo.

Remember Jacques’s City Hall escapades?

[In March of 2005] I posted that 47 people were on trial for rigging public works contracts (ah, a whiff of New Jersey chez le Seine?) and that on Nov. 2002 Chirac had avoided prosecution over his exhorbitant food bills (which avearaged 600 euros (£420) a day on average between 1988 and 1995) from back when he was mayor of Paris because the statute of limitations had ran out.

Jacques, as you may recall, also had shenanigans in the Clearstream affaire, Jacque’s part in a coup in the Comoros, Jacques’s own secret service mentioned above, and the Chirac connections in the Oil-For-Food scam.

Jacques is now on trial for embezzlement charges during his tenure as mayor of Paris – this time the statute of limitations apparently didn’t run out?

But fear not, Jacques will not be unduly stressed: French Court Lets Chirac Skip Trial, because he had his physician sign something saying Jacques is (conveniently) suffering from memory loss.

Maybe he ought to lay off the hooch,

Mr. Chirac was seen in good shape this summer, sipping piña coladas in Saint-Tropez or eating mussels with a beer in Brittany.

Sing it, Jimmy!

Imagine, dear readers, that you are in the airline industry, and your most notorious passenger is, shall we say, lacking in self-restraint. He is also immensely influential, and you can not, by any stretch of the imagination, deny him the service available to any other person willing to pay for transport.

What to do, then?

Air France ordered male-only cabin crew for Strauss-Kahn

The claim was reported Thursday by Le Parisien newspaper, which also says lawyers for the former IMF chief’s alleged victim, Nafissatou Diallo, are soliciting testimony from female flight attendants at the national carrier, who may have been subjected to inappropriate behavior by the Frenchman.

The lawyers already received two accounts from disgruntled staff, along with an anonymous letter detailing the Air France male-only order, the report said.

How out-of-control are we talking about?

“Air France has a few hundred complaints from clients, employees, crew members who met the man suspected of having abused your client Madame Diallo,” the letter alleged, adding, “it was decided by Air France that ‘only male employees should be deployed in the first class cabin when this client [Strauss-Kahn] was traveling.’”

A few hundred?

Where is Tina Brown when he needs her?

UPDATE,
Linked by Dustbury. Thanks!

From suicide watch to the lap of luxury in Tribeca’s most expensive rental at 153 Franklin Street,
DSK hops to luxe lily pad
Frisky frog’s ‘townhouse arrest’ in 50G/month TriBeCa home

The uber-luxury, $50,000-a-month townhouse at 153 Franklin St. — replete with a home theater, gym, spa, bar and rec rooms — is where the former head of the International Monetary Fund will sit out his house arrest as he awaits trial on charges he sexually assaulted and attempted to rape a Midtown hotel maid.

I’d like to know what the facilities are like for the hotel maid, who is in protective custody.

The silver-haired French Lothario, who just a week ago was on suicide watch in a tiny isolation cell at Rikers Island, moved last night into a three-story, 6,800-square-foot townhouse — just steps from the Robert De Niro-owned sushi hot spot Nobu — that was secured by his heiress wife, Anne Sinclair.

DSK wasn’t even handcuffed for the move.

You can watch a slide show of the new digs here.

Epistemic closure among French Socialists, via Instapundit,

it seems a bit rich for Socialists to overwhelmingly take the side of the wealthy powerful politician with a history of sexual abuse allegations against what appear to be quite credible allegations of a poor Guinean refugee.

It’s all about power, and Socialists crave power.

Giethner just doesn’t understand,

Since the accuser is in protective custody and can’t be reached, Strauss-Kahn’s pals bid to pay off woman’s kin, in the best mobster-movie tradition

Friends of alleged hotel sex fiend Dominique Strauss-Kahn secretly contacted the accusing maid’s impoverished family, offering them money to make the case go away since they can’t reach her in protective custody, The Post has learned.
The woman, who says she was sexually assaulted by the disgraced former head of the International Monetary Fund, has an extended family in the former French colony of Guinea in West Africa, well out of reach of the Manhattan DA’s Office.
“They already talked with her family,” a French businesswoman with close ties to Strauss-Kahn and his family told The Post. “For sure, it’s going to end up on a quiet note.”

And that’s the guy the Socialists were going to run as presidential candidate.

Meanwhile, in another development yesterday, it emerged that Strauss-Kahn allegedly shouted, “Do you know who I am?” as he assaulted the victim, according to a new report.

Oh, we know all too well indeed.

More from Mr. Bingley.

Via Patterico,

And, Dominique Strauss-Kahn: DNA samples confirm sperm traces on maid’s dress
DNA samples taken in the Dominique Strauss-Kahn case have confirmed traces of sperm on the maid’s dress, according to reports.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn Placed on Suicide Watch

Droit de signeur, meet HIV: The Maid Allegedly Raped By Strauss-Kahn Lives In Housing For Adults With HIV.

Bloomberg headline: Sarkozy’s Wife Fends Off Questions on Speculation She’s Pregnant

French first lady Carla Bruni- Sarkozy, the 43-year-old wife of President Nicolas Sarkozy, again fended off questions on whether she’s pregnant.

“You are doing your job in asking, and I’m doing my job in not responding,” she said today in an interview with Paris- based RTL Radio. “I try to protect my private life as best I can. I think people understand.”

She declined to answer a similar question in an interview in the Le Parisien newspaper earlier this month. Speculation that Bruni-Sarkozy is pregnant was first reported in celebrity magazine “Closer.”

If true, Italian-born Bruni-Sarkozy’s baby would be the first for a French incumbent head of state since Empress Eugenie gave birth to Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte at the Palais des Tuileries in Paris 155 years ago. Sarkozy may seek a second term in the May 2012 presidential election.

So far, it looks like Sarko’s going to have to wait until after the baby’s born for a bounce, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy’s ‘pregnancy’ fails to bring husband baby bounce
Nicolas Sarkozy has held on to his title of the most unpopular president in the history of the Fifth republic, dashing any hopes of a Bruni-Sarkozy baby boost to his re-election chances. There’s still time, though,

Ms Bruni-Sarkozy is said to be preparing for an October delivery just seven months before France goes to the polls for the 2012 presidential elections.

particularly if she has twins, as long as the Sarkos don’t overdo the lifestyle bit,

His champagne lifestyle with Ms Bruni-Sarkozy, a multi-millionaire heiress, is also known to have made him intensely unpopular.

Perhaps the Sarkos are taking a hint from the “champagne lifestyle” critics – apparently Carla’s 300euro shopping trip is being described as a “shopping spree”. Back in the day 300 euros would have been enough to pay for 1 blouse, if that.

And there’s no point in firing the newsmen, either, even when they call him a child-king and her a maneater. The advertisers are already having fun with the pregnancy, which is yet to be officially confirmed.

En fin, maybe all that perineal tectonic training was well worth the effort.

Sing it, Carla!

Blogging on more serious topics shall resume shortly.