IT'S NOT A VACUUM, FRANCE JUST SUCKS (via David Hill, The Bronx):

Hooded children of the revolution (James Button, November 8, 2005, Sydney Morning Herald)

They wear hoods, baggy jeans and brand-name sneakers and their heroes are American rappers such as 50 Cent. They describe their antagonists as "white", hate the police and when they are fighting they say they're "dancing with wolves".

They are the young men whose rioting has laid waste to Paris's outer suburbs, is spreading across France and licking the heart of the capital.

The riots are described as the worst to hit France since May 1968 and have been linked to radical Islam. However, it is better to compare the unrest to the riots that burnt down African-American ghettos across the United States in the 1960s.

"It is nothing to do with radical Islam or even Muslims," said Olivier Roy, research director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research and a leading authority on political Islam.

Although many of the rioters come from Muslim backgrounds, "these guys are building a new idea of themselves based on American street culture. It's a youth riot - they are protesting against the fact that they are supposed to be full French citizens and they are not."

They even have to import an anti-culture.

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 8, 2005 12:00 AM