Sacré Bleu! France Aims To Enshrine Emergency Anti-Terror Law In Constitution
Posted: December 23, 2015 Filed under: France, Global, Law & Justice, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Aéroports de Paris, Agence France-Presse, Charles De Gaulle, Charlie Hebdo, François Hollande, France, French people, Islamic fundamentalism, Islamism, Paris 2 Comments
President Francois Hollande called for the emergency powers to be protected from litigation by placing them in the constitution.
(AFP) – The French cabinet backed reform proposals Wednesday that could see the state of emergency called after last month’s Paris attacks enshrined in the constitution.
“The threat has never been higher. We must face up to a war, a war against terrorism, against jihadism, against radical Islam.”
— Prime Minister Manuel Valls
Special policing powers used under the state of emergency — such as house arrests and the right to raid houses without judicial oversight — are currently based on an ordinary law which can be challenged at the constitutional court.
In the wake of the Paris attacks that left 130 dead, President Francois Hollande called for the emergency powers to be protected from litigation by placing them in the constitution.
“The threat has never been higher,” Prime Minister Manuel Valls told reporters following a meeting of government ministers on Wednesday.
“We must face up to a war, a war against terrorism, against jihadism, against radical Islam,” he said.
The constitutional reforms must now be passed by a three-fifths majority in the upper and lower houses of parliament, where debates will start on February 3.
Valls said the latest figures showed more than 1,000 people had left France to join the jihad in Syria and Iraq, of which an estimated 148 had died and 250 returned.
“Radicalised individuals from numerous countries join Daesh (the Arab acronym for the Islamic State group). There are many French speakers and we know that fighters group themselves according to language, to train and prepare terrorist actions on our soil,” he said. Read the rest of this entry »
Paris Attacks: Actualité à la Une Le Monde Front Page, 11-13-2015
Posted: November 13, 2015 Filed under: Breaking News, Mediasphere | Tags: 9-11, France, French people, Jihadism, Le Monde, media, Newspapers, One World Trade Center, Paris, Paris Attacks, Terrorism, Twitter Leave a comment
Source: Le Monde.fr – Actualité à la Une
After 9/11 this French newspaper said, “We are all American.” Today “We are all French.
source: Katie Love @KLOVEREPORTER via Twitter
One World Trade lit in blue, white and red in solidarity with the people of France.
David Harsanyi: The Future Should Belong To Those Who Can Slander the Prophet of Islam
Posted: January 7, 2015 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, Religion, Think Tank | Tags: Barack Obama, Cairo, Charlie Hebdo, Cyberwarfare, France, French language, French people, Global Panic, Interview (2007 film), Islamic terrorism, List of satirical magazines, Paris, United States, White House 3 Comments
David Harsanyi writes: On September 9, 2012, Egyptian demonstrators in Cairo scaled the walls of the U.S. Embassy and pulled down the American flag, threatening the lives of those inside to protest a film they claimed was insulting to the prophet Mohammad. Reacting to this attack on our sovereignty and the lives of our citizens, the administration acted in the most un-American way imaginable, sending out this preposterous message:
The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims — as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions.
The producer of this pointlessly inflammatory video was well within his rights to mock any religion he chose however he pleased. So the statement irresponsibly perpetuates a false notion about how free 
speech works around here. Neither The Embassy of the United States in Cairo nor the president of United States has the power to apologize for your views on religion.
That’s the most obvious problem. But the gratuitous groveling we do to allay the sensitivities of violence-prone Muslims (because who else are we attempting to placate?) has become a cringe-worthy aspect of American policy long before Barack Obama ever showed up. When the Bush administration, in the middle of the Danish carton controversy, claimed that “Anti-Muslim images are as unacceptable as anti-Semitic images, as anti-Christian images or any other religious belief,” it was equally wrong. As far as the state goes, they’re all “acceptable.”
But only one of those can put you on kill lists.
After the deadly terrorist attack on the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris, France, it’s worth remembering that there is no amount of conciliating rhetoric that will stop attacks on our liberal values – even undermining them. Which is something we’ve done.
World’s Cartoonists, Satirists Unite in Condemning Paris Attack
Posted: January 7, 2015 Filed under: Breaking News, Censorship, Mediasphere, Religion, War Room | Tags: Abu Dua, Cartoon, Charlie Hebdo, David Cameron, French language, French people, List of satirical magazines, Muhammad, Paris, Twitter 2 Comments
In Paris thousands took to the streets to protest the attacks, holding pens in the air in tribute to the slain journalists and holding signs saying “Not Afraid” or “Je suis Charlie” (“I am Charlie”), in solidarity
Scott Roxborough reports: “Very little seems funny today,” said Ian Hislop, the editor of British satire magazine Private Eye, commenting on the brutal attack on his French colleges at Charlie Hebdo, which left 12 people dead. “I am appalled and shocked by this horrific attack – a murderous attack on free speech in the heart of Europe.”
His comments were echoed by satirists and cartoonists from across Europe and the world in response to the shootings, the most deadly terrorist attack in Europe since the July 7, 2005 bombings in London.
Shortly after news of the attack broke, Dutch cartoonist Ruben L. Oppenheimer tweeted his sketch of plane flying into two upright pencils, similar to the visual of the Twin Towers.
Cannes President Pierre Lescure and past president Gilles Jacob retweeted the sketch, one of dozens by prominent cartoonists posted in solidarity with Charlie Hebdo and with the dead, who included cartoonists Georges Wolinski, Bernard Verlhac and Jean Cabut and magazine editor Bernard Maris. The French satirical magazine had been the target of a firebomb attack in 2011 after it reprinted controversial Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.
One of the most retweeted cartoons was from Australia’s David Pope, which shows a dead cartoonist in a pool of blood. Above him, a masked man holding a smoking machine gun says “he drew first.”
In Paris thousands took to the streets to protest the attacks, holding pens in the air in tribute to the slain journalists and holding signs saying “Not Afraid” or “Je suis Charlie” (“I am Charlie”), in solidarity. The Twitter tag #JesuisCharlie quickly went viral. Similar demonstrations were held in cities across Europe. The Notre Dame church in Paris announced it will ring its bells at noon Thursday – a very rare occurence – to mark a minute of silence to be observed at schools and government buildings throughout France.
French actress Adele Exarchopoulos (Blue is the Warmest Colour) attended the rally in Paris’ Republique square, posting a photo to her Instagram account of the demonstration, as did actress Charlotte Le Bon (Yves Saint Laurent). Read the rest of this entry »
Sacré Bleu! French Man Jailed for Texting and Calling his Ex-Girlfriend 21,807 Times
Posted: September 5, 2014 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Humor, Law & Justice, Mediasphere | Tags: Agence France-Presse, France, French people, iPhone, Lyon, Psychiatry, Rhone, Text messaging, Texting, Washington Post Leave a comment
French man jailed for texting and calling his ex-girlfriend 21,807 times http://t.co/St8Pp0FQLT
— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) September 5, 2014
Sacré Bleu! McDonalds: Vive la France!
Posted: August 29, 2014 Filed under: Food & Drink, Global | Tags: Business Insider, France, French cuisine, French people, McDonald, Moscow, RUSSIA, United States 1 Comment
A customer enters a McDonald’s in Chicago, Illinois. (Getty images/Tim Boyle)
Michael Barone reports: I have never eaten at a McDonald’s in France. But evidently a lot of French men and women do. Business Insider reports that France is McDonald’s most profitable country after the United States. So much for all the French cuisine snobs who lament the presence of McDonald’s in la belle France…(read more)
[PHOTO] Ooh La La! French Teenagers on a Boat on the Seine, Paris 1988
Posted: June 19, 2014 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment, Food & Drink, Mediasphere | Tags: Eiffel Tower, France, French people, Paris, Pont des Arts, Rive Gauche, Rome, Seine Leave a commentFrench teenagers on a boat on the Seine river. Paris. 1988. Photograph by David Alan Harvey. pic.twitter.com/f1dSGh9QYM
— Historical Pics (@HistoricalPics) June 20, 2014
Sacré Bleu! French Study Shows a Majority of Men and a Third of Women Cheat
Posted: January 22, 2014 Filed under: Art & Culture, Global | Tags: Cheating, François Hollande, France, French people, Gleeden, Hollande, infidelity, Julie Gayet, les liaisons dangereuses, Marriage, Paris, Sex 1 Comment
The majority of French men and a third of French women cheat on their partners, a new poll has found Photo: ALAMY
Poll finds that 55 per cent of French men and 32 per cent of French women are unfaithful and that infidelity is on the rise but that the French are champions of forgiveness
From Paris, Henry Samuel reports: A majority of French men and a third of French women cheat on their partners, a new poll, has found indicating that infidelity is on the rise in France among both sexes.
The study also found that Left-wing French are more likely to cheat on their partners than those who identify themselves as on the Right
In figures that could help explain why so many French are unfazed by the dalliances of their president, François Hollande, the Ifop study found that some 55 per cent of French men and 32 per cent of French women admit to cheating on their other halves.
François Hollande Named Worst Politician in the World
Posted: September 9, 2013 Filed under: Breaking News, Global | Tags: François Hollande, France, French people, Harris Interactive, Hollande, Paris, President of France, Socialists 2 Comments
Over at the TopTens World, a website that specializes in ranking all sorts of things, French president François Hollande has earned the dubious honor of worst politician in the world. Here is the explanation given by the author of the list: Read the rest of this entry »
