Author: s1e2t3u4p5

Robert Bidinotto has a terrific new article on the riots in France. He begins:

As many observers have noted, the mainstream media (MSM) have marched in lockstep in their desperation to minimize the role that Islamism may be playing in the wave of rioting and vandalism plaguing France during the past two weeks. Typical of this effort by “reporters” not to report the bald (if politically incorrect) facts is The New York Times of November 5, which declared: “While the vast majority of the young people behind the nightly attacks are Muslim, experts and residents warned against seeing the violence through the prism of religion.” Apparently we are to believe that the more significant causal factor is the fact that they are “youths,” or “young people,” or even “youngsters” — words which appear prominently in every article, in order to bury any rare, passing mentions of the word “Muslim.”
But truth will out, and it’s getting harder and harder for the Leftist press to maintain this fiction. References to Islam are increasing, and even Newsweek now speculates about the role of Islamists in the Paris terror. If this trend continues, pretty soon the MSM might even begin to acknowledge the wisdom in columns by Mark Steyn.
But what is the specific cause of the Muslim uprising in France?

Keep reading…

Shannon Love offers useful free-market insights into the root causes of the increasingly widespread riots in France:

Via Instapundit comes a discussion on whether the riots in France, and the general breakdown of law and order in some sections of other European countries, are primarily the result of Islamo-facism, runaway multiculturalism or the welfare-state. All three factors play into the problem but I think the primary driver is the welfare state.
One might ask, however, why should anyone riot when the welfare state provides all the basic material necessities of life? It’s not as if the residents of the suburbs of Paris are starving, exposed to the elements or deprived of medical care. By the standards of most of humanity, they live quite opulent lives. Why doesn’t the welfare state make them happy?
The short answer is that human beings are not cows. Cows are quite content if their material needs are met but people have hopes, dreams and aspirations. It is precisely these psychological benefits that the welfare state ultimately cannot provide. People are rioting not because they are deprived of material benefits but because they are wholly dependent on the whims of others for the benefits they do receive. They have no status and no control. It is these social, psychological and spiritual deprivations that they are ultimately striking out against.

Keep reading… (via Instapundit)