There's a certain "je ne sais quoi" about those "youths"

France still doesn't quite get it. I read somewhere that France is threatening to "punish" the rioters. Punish? Huh? Those "youthful insurgents" are lucky to still be alive. In normal countries they would have all been shot or arrested, but not in France. After 12 days, France's politically correct leaders still think they can make nice with these terrorists by giving them the benefit of victimhood; by making excuses for them saying they have "good reason" to riot because of the economy and so on. Some grown up is going to have to step up and let the enlightened elites know that it doesn't really matter WHY they are rioting. The fact that rioting has been out of control now for almost two weeks is reason enough to get serious in battling these so-called "youths."

Victor Davis Hanson, who is in France this week on a lecture tour, told Hugh Hewitt today in an interview, that he fears this could spawn the advent of "a man on a horse," as he put it, an "adult" as it were, a radical to counter the failing leftist policies. This has been Europe's history and according to Hanson, if these riots grow into a larger Jihad encompassing more and more European countries, someone like that might appear. That wouldn't be a good thing!
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Patrick Buchanan has a "must read" over at Human Events Online titled Paris Burning: How Empires End. Check it out. It's an important piece.