Wednesday, May 16, 2007

France, Falwell

In Paris, Jacques Chicac has finally left the Palais de l'Élysée: he is no longer Président de la République, Co- Prince of Andorra or Grand-Maître de l'Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur. The new occupant of the beautiful Élysée, and holder of all those splendid, rather monarchial, offices, Nicolas Sarkozy, is in Berlin visiting the Germans. The Daily Telegraph story linked above has an excellent photograph of the new President trooping the line of the infantry, band and colour party of the Garde Républicaine. I hope the new President enjoys his fête: his job will bring him little enough joy, and much heartache.

Meanwhile, the good Mons. Chirac’s immunity from prosecution expires in a month. I have always thought this immunity while in office was an intelligent feature of French law, if only because it prevents the trial by scandal so beloved of the American press and opposition politicians here: the better to transact the public's business. But when time in office is concluded: so is the immunity, and Mons. Chirac has some problems left over from his time as mayor of Paris from 1977-1995. Given President Sarkozy’s raft of problems, Mons. Chirac's retirement might possibly be more interesting than he thinks. Bon voyage Jacques.

Closer to home, Jerry Falwell has died. Undoubtedly, Reverend Falwell did much good work, including the founding of Liberty University. I never listened much to his public pronouncements: no more than I would much listen to the pontifications of a politician on God or religion. But I certainly don’t think Reverend Falwell, nor his family, deserved the venom projected in his direction -- nobody does. I confess that, if anything, I thought better of the Reverend Falwell because of some who declared themselves his enemies. But the final verdict on Falwell, as on all of us, will be rendered elsewhere, by He who disposes of all things properly. R.I.P.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

while i share excellency's comments regarding ref. falwell, i wish to make this post for a brief announcement.
this being due to the passing of ref. falwell yesterday, and comments made yesterday within earshot.
the announcement is:
my favorite liquor store in tulsa is at the center of blue america. everyone that comes in here is a flaming anti-christian, anti-american, liberal.......is that triple redundant?????
everyone who comes in here defames & criticizes the founding principles of our nation, makes apologizes for those who will kill us, and denies us our right to defend ourselves.
every john murtha/john kerry/cindy sheehan/rosie o'donnell wannabe comes in here to give me grief.
the moral relativity/equivalence, or as i refer to it, moral ambivalence, that i hear daily makes me want to puke.
on them.
pundits across america, and el jefe is one, have said that the democrats actions will hurt them in the future, to that i say hogwash.
you want to see the future of america, look at/to nancy pelosi. that is where we're headed, and gaining momentum daily.
my first indication of this opinion of mine came in the immediate aftermath of el jefe explaining to LL the reason for the bushate that engulged the nation as soon as he was elected. i printed out several copies of the explanation, passed them out to various people. the result was amazing. half a dozen people instantly pronounced it non-sense. three people carried it out to their cars, read it, and brought it back in. haven't seen them since.
i AM the only conservative in tulsa, oklahoma.
that is not hyperbole.
that is a fact.
my apologies to excellency for this off-topic comment, or as cap'n ed calls it, thread hi-jacking.

El Jefe Maximo said...

Hey LL,

A longer answer will follow, but meantime, I need to focus on some work.

If you're the only conservative in Tulsa -- which I've never quite thought of as a hotbed of Leftism, I'd say things do look somewhat bleak.

But take heart, the Lefties will roast themselves soon enough. Leftism is worse than wrong: it's stupid.