The Best Fisking In A While

James Lileks fisks a Frenchman hard. Régis Debray, a former aide to President Francois Mitterrand of France and compatriot of Che Guevara, wrote a ridiculous op/ed for the NY Times that is as smug as it is wrong.

One of my favorite lines that the frog wrote:

Europe no longer takes its civilization for civilization itself, no doubt because it is better acquainted with foreign cultures, notably Islam. Our suburbs, after all, pray to Allah.

This is laughable on its face. He's actually trying to say that the US is intolerant of different religions and cultures? We need to learn from France? I recall my own French ancestors came to US because they were Huguenots and unwelcome in France (to put it mildly). I also remember an embarassing incident for France last year when a reactionary jingoist placed second in the Presidential election. For some reason I can't remember any similar success for Ross Perot or Pat Buchanan.

Read the op/ed then read Lileks tear it apart. Good times.