Just for the Record

Not exactly in our G&H mission statement, but we'll always make a quick note to help a friend.

The Anchoress notices that some in the French press concede a political strategy in refusing to air pictures of recent rioting and arson, for declared ideological reasons, so as not to give political opponents any material.

A web site from France remedies the oversight. Available here in a JPG file .

From the site, The Stalker:

Now, in the conflict that occupies us at present, it is important that reality and truth prevail over the emptiness and chaos that some would substitute for them. We cannot cheat Europe and the remainder of the world, who today have their eyes fixed upon us.

and

To kiss reality is to kiss the truth.

We may also hope for a future uptick in reality reporting from Patrick at Oxblog, his motivation having enjoyed certain recent enhancements:

I had a little scrape in a cité in north Aulney, and so now need to modify two claims made in my previous post. I have now met some rioters, and I no longer have pictures to share, nor come to think of it, a camera. I got nothing of theirs. On the other hand, taking care of myself decently enough I rather nicely got to keep my unbacked up dissertation, wallet, and the passport and press card I'd kept with me in the off chance I had to give an accounting of myself to police. Nasty horrid villains. Pluck though being a virtue, OxBlog will be out there again tomorrow. With a disposable camera, this time. But a thousand words being worth a picture, I suspect I can make it up to you lads.

Update: Reporting further, Patrick seems convinced that the unrest is young louts, grooving on the choreography of empty-minded destruction, frustration, and ennui. He says they associate the behavior with a "performative identity" that takes pride in adopting American media "anger and power" images -- "ghetto," "south Bronx."