So much for national unity:
Just a day after the Charlie Hebdo shooting left 12 dead and had politicians calling for the country to unite, a row between politicians broke out after the National Front were not invited to take part in Sunday's rally for "national unity" in Paris.
In the most recent national election in France, Marine Le Pen's National Front won. So the national unity rally excludes the most popular national party. That seems likely to work.
~The French establishment is co-opting these brave men's deaths for their own purposes, and for the most part the world's media are helping them get away with it. I spent much of Thursday on TV and radio, and my irritation with the dismal #JeSuisCharlie campaign increased as the day wore on. The self-flattering evasiveness of all those cartoonists around the world offering lame variations of "the pen is mightier than the sword" was especially feeble. The cartoon at right, by Chimulus (Michel Faizant) of Le Nouvel Observateur, at least confronts the ugly truth of Wednesday morning, rather than tippy-toeing around it:
Mohammed publishes a comic strip on the death of Charb.
With plenty of boxes.
The only problem? Chimulus drew that two years ago - December 31st 2012. This week, when his remarkably prescient cartoon came true, his courage deserted him.
~As to those TV and radio appearances, first up was with Joyce Kaufman at 850 WFTL in Florida, which you can hear by clicking here. It was a lively ride: as Scaramouche says, "Made my day."
In the course of the interview, I mentioned the French author Michel Houellebecq, who was taken to court over "anti-Islamic" statements by a character in one of his novels. That's to say, a fictional character was dragged into a real courthouse over his views on Islam. That helps to keep in perspective all these pious politicians' newfound commitment to free speech.
Next was Hugh Hewitt, whose highlights we'll post later, followed by my biennial appearance on the CBC with Evan Solomon. Click below to watch:
Evan is good enough to have me on every couple of years, and we always have a grand old time. What I especially enjoy is the live Tweeter feed full of apoplectic Ceeb viewers who don't dispute a single statement you make but are simply furious that you're there at all. All Canadians pay for the CBC, but hardcore CBC-ers resent the intrusion of anything outside their comfort zone as reflexively as any firebreathing imam. The devotees of multiculti tolerance and the Allahu Akbar crowd are united by their reliance on the shut-up card. Still, at least the CBC types merely issue a couple of queeny Tweets rather than reaching for the scimitar. On such slender distinctions does our fragile civilization rest.
I look forward to my next appearance with Evan, circa 2017.
My final port of call for the night was with Sean Hannity at Fox News. You can see the video here.
As for my Wednesday appearance with Megyn Kelly, more commentary on that from Allahpundit at Hot Air and Katie Pavlich at TownHall.
~From The Palm Beach Daily News:
The employee told police that Limbaugh and his wife were concerned with the nature of the emails. The emails called Limbaugh a "perv" and a "DEAD MAN," and threatened to kill Limbaugh and cut his wife's head off. Police traced the emails to a 46-year-old Cleveland man.
After researching the email account, police found it had been the source of "numerous harassing emails to various people dating back to 2011," including one to Mark Steyn, who has guest hosted for Limbaugh.
Police called the man in Ohio on a recorded line. The man admitted sending both emails to Limbaugh and one to Steyn, the report said.
Several readers asked me about this story. I don't usually comment when it comes to things like this, but, seeing as how it's in the paper, I'll say a word. It's trickier than you might think, when you get an email from a guy promising to chop your loved ones' heads off, to distinguish between a 46-year-old Cleveland loser sitting in his basement and taking a five-minute break between masturbation sessions, and the more motivated types issuing real threats they intend to carry out. I'm all for the rich, vibrant tapestry of diversity, but I think, if you're going to let loose with the old blood-curdling head-choppery, you should actually mean it.
~I can't claim to have known Georges Wolinski, the 80-year-old cartoonist among the dead on Wednesday, but I met him briefly, a few years ago. Via Laura Rosen Cohen, I learn of the strange, circular journey of his life and death. His father was a Polish Jew who fled to Tunisia to lead a life free of pogroms. Georges was born there in 1934. Two years later, his dad was murdered, and the family moved again, this time to France.
And on Wednesday, like his father, the son was killed.
Wolinski père fled Jew-hate in Europe to be murdered in the Muslim world.
Wolinski fils fled Jew-hate in the Muslim world to be murdered in Europe, by Muslims.
