[éditorial du figaro] pas d'excuses pour les mineurs

Il n'est jamais trop tard pour ouvrir les yeux. Les chiffres de la violence augmentent, 180 000 mineurs sont, chaque année, mis en cause, une moitié d'entre eux sont âgés de 13 à 15 ans lorsqu'ils sont traduits en justice. Mais si la gravité du constat commence à être partagée, les solutions, elles, divisent encore. Et là, la gauche, saisie par ses traditionnels démons, chausse ses vieilles lunettes. Pour accuser le ministre de l'Intérieur de « pompier pyromane », et asséner sa culture de l'excuse. Refusant d'admettre que c'est précisément celle-ci qui a favorisé le développement de la délinquance dans les banlieues. Suivez ici.

[australia] highest greenhouse gas per capita

UN figures released this week show that, per capita and discounting tiny Luxembourg, Australia pumps out more greenhouse gases than any other nation and more than twice the levels within the European Union. The sprawl of Australian cities, relatively cheap petrol and fuel-inefficient cars have made transport emissions particularly high. And having one of the world's highest populations of cows per head gives it ‘spectacularly high emissions of methane’, which cows burp out endlessly. Those Aussies.

[george allen] never spit

In a nutshell, if I understand it correctly, Sen George Allen and James Webb [Virginia race] both allegedly have skeletons in the closet and a political prankster, Mike Stark, decided to ask, on his website, for donations to help with one of his pranks. He sucked in $4000 and began with a question to Allen about spitting on his first wife, after Allen’s team zeroed in on Webb’s sexual references in a book he wrote. There was biffo but at least it put the issue on the agenda. Read the details here.

[feedback] pretty vital, actually

Thinking of employing this little chap as my blog-mascot – for a start, he is wearing my football team’s strip.

Coming around to thinking that we can’t blog alone. I’d heard previously that my site was slow-loading but had it confirmed today by one blogger and I’m at a loss what to do about it. Too many pictures? Non-standard template? Too many links out? At one point I put it down to Kaspersky but that can’t be so; so if you could advise, it would help a lot.

[heather mills] amputee or gold digger

Nice debate over at Samizdata. Johnathan says: “One of the problems with Political Correctness … is that it will invite a backlash. That backlash will not necessarily be for the good, but could encourage a new sort of ugliness: a desire to say things that are by any yardstick offensive, rude and coarsening of public life.” He refers, of course, to the Heather Mills biz, to which Guido commented that she was fair game. I’d agree and so is PC itself.

[senator kerry] remarks might just be the truth

Skull & Bones member, Senator Kerry, told students at Pasadena City College, "You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq." Kerry may just be telling the truth: "A very large proportion of today's military is comprised of young people who barely made their way through high school and had nothing close to an educational or career prospect. " That would explain a lot in Iraq and why the insurgency is of the intensity it is.

[today’s holiday] all hallow’s day

Today, as you know, is All Hallows’ Day [all saints, tousssaint], the day we remember those who suffered for their Maker. Because we didn’t personally know these people, it’s a little hard to get enthused, as it would be difficult to get enthused over some village in Somalia or the Sudan which has just suffered atrocity. Easier to be outraged over, say, climate change. Human nature. Anyway, that’s today; yesterday was All Hallow’s evening [or Hallowe’en] and tomorrow is All Souls Day. Just to set the record straight, like.

[commons vote] iraq enquiry after troops home

Far be it for this blog to praise Tony Blair but the vote to hold the enquiry on Iraq after the troops have been withdrawn seems the right decision. I wouldn’t like to be over there myself, knowing I could die today and also knowing there’s an investigation underway on why I actually need to die today. That wouldn’t be so good, methinks.

[china] live and be executed

How would you like to live in China? China's highest court must now approve all executions under legislation enacted Tuesday, prompting human rights activists to express hope that the country will reduce its use of the death penalty. This follows reports of wrongly convicted people being executed and criticism that the death penalty has been imposed arbitrarily by lower courts, even for tax evasion. In a previous report, China has equipped its courts with mobile execution vans to make the process quicker and easier and have started using the new "civilised" lethal injection.

[wodnesdaeg] day to pause and reflect

On the day of Woden or Mercury, two supposed psychopomps, the sun has just broken out, whereas yesterday here was falling snow. Have a happy Wodnesdæg [or Day of the Sumerian Enki, the Babylonian Nabû, of E-zida, in Borsippa, the Greek Hermes or the Roman Mercurius].