Nous sommes tous Charlie

At Least 12 Die In Shooting At Magazine's Paris Office; Suspects Named : The Two-Way : NPR

via liberation.fr

French blogger fined over restaurant review's Google search placing

BBC News - French blogger fined over review's Google search placing

Image via Khushbu Shah: Google Maps/Google+

Wrong on so many levels:

The judge ordered that the post's title be amended and told the blogger Caroline Doudet to pay damages. 

Ms Doudet said the decision made it a crime to be highly ranked on search engines. 

The restaurant owners said the article's prominence was unfairly hurting their business. 

Ms Doudet was sued by the owner of Il Giardino restaurant in the Aquitaine region of southwestern France after she wrote a blogpost entitled "the place to avoid in Cap-Ferret: Il Giardino". 

According to court documents, the review appeared fourth in the results of a Google search for the restaurant. The judge decided that the blog's title should be changed, so that the phrase: "the place to avoid" was less prominent in the results.

Wrong to sue. Beyond that, wrong to sue the blogger if you're going to sue. Beyond that, wrong ruling despite the first two wrongs.

Hope the SCOTUS isn't getting any ideas from this about how they can defend religious corporations from bloggers here ...

Digit, a gorilla, adopted by French (zookeeper) couple

BBC News - Gorilla adopted by French couple:

Digit at home.

A childless French couple have adopted a 13-year-old female gorilla named Digit.

The gorilla spends the day at the Saint Martin la Plaine Zoo, before going home with zookeepers Pierre and Elianne Thivillon.

DSK arrest reads like L&O:SVU script, we shouldn't be surprised if Hargitay and Meloni are already rehearsing.

After Complaint, IMF Chief's Arrest Was Swift : NPR: 

Strauss-Khan (via NPR.org)

Detectives from the Midtown South precinct were dispatched and interviewed the woman. 'Police often get flack for interviewing rape victims too aggressively,' says Deputy New York Police Commissioner Paul Browne, 'but they do it for a reason, to make sure the story hangs together, that there are no inconsistencies, and they were convinced.' Then, amazingly, while the police were there, Strauss-Kahn called the hotel, mistakenly believing that he had left a cell phone behind. The police coached hotel personnel to tell Strauss-Kahn that they had the cell phone and to ask where he was, and that they would get the phone to him.

He told them he was at JFK Airport, about to leave on a plane. Whereupon, the police called the Port Authority Police, said they were on their way and to hold the plane if necessary. They, in fact, got there 10 minutes before the plane was due to leave. According to police sources, the Port Authority officers boarded, asked Strauss-Kahn to come with them, that they had his cell phone, and when he got off the plane, the New York Police Department clapped the handcuffs on and took him away to the Special Victims Unit, the unit made famous on Law and Order.

In France, Civil Unions Gain Favor Over Marriage

In France, Civil Unions Gain Favor Over Marriage - NYTimes.com:

Whatever their reasons, and they vary widely, French couples are increasingly shunning traditional marriages and opting instead for civil unions, to the point that there are now two civil unions for every three marriages.

Dunkirk, 1913, from the tram.

Tramway - 1913 - Europa Film Treasures

Tous En Greve: The Big Picture Is Everywhere

France on strike - The Big Picture - Boston.com:

Detail from the Big Picture via Boston.com

Weeks of strikes, protests and demonstrations have brought much of France to a standstill as workers, students and others voice their strong opposition to a government proposal to raise the age for a minimum pension from 60 to 62. A quarter of the nation's gas stations were out of fuel, hundreds of flights were canceled, long lines formed at gas stations and train services in many regions were cut in half. Protesters blockaded Marseille's airport, Lady Gaga canceled concerts in Paris and rioting youths attacked police in Lyon. The unpopular bill is edging closer to becoming law as the French Senate is preparing to vote on it today. Collected here are recent images of the unrest around France. Update: Pension reform bill just now passed by French senate. (40 photos total)

Screw You George Will

Molly Ivins has a nice little piece on why it's fashionable, but maliciously unfair, to call the French "cheese eating surrender monkeys" over their refusal to toe the line on Iraq.

George Will saw fit to include in his latest Newsweek column this joke: "How many Frenchmen does it take to defend Paris? No one knows, it's never been tried." That was certainly amusing. One million, four hundred thousand French soldiers were killed during World War I. As a result, there weren't many Frenchmen left to fight in World War II. Nevertheless, 100,000 French soldiers lost their lives trying to stop Hitler.

On behalf of every one of those 100,000 men, I would like to thank Mr. Will for his clever joke. They were out-manned, out-gunned, out-generaled and, above all, out-tanked. They got slaughtered, but they stood and they fought. Ha-ha, how funny. In the few places where they had tanks, they held splendidly.

Relying on the Maginot Line was one of the great military follies of modern history, but it does not reflect on the courage of those who died for France in 1940. For eighteen months after that execrable defeat, the United States continued to have cordial diplomatic relations with Nazi Germany.

I still like french fries.

America, faites-attention!

35 Hour Work Week Does Not Destroy France. The reporting in this article is a little light in the loafers. Witness: "There is even anecdotal evidence that French male, blue-collar workers are doing the midweek shopping; or learning how the iron works." Still, there's a valuable lesson to learned from the French. (Never thought you'd hear that, eh?) People can have more free time without the country falling to pieces. Despite dire forecasts, going to a 35 hour work week didn't make France into Germany's bitch. (link via the web today)


Looking for other reporting on the change to shorter work week, I found an interesting article at The Economist's website about another change to French labor law recently passed by the National Assembly to make it more difficult for employers to lay off workers when their business is profitable. The conflict between the ideals of social justice and economics are fascinating. As with the 35 hour work week, business types are predicting this will hurt the competiveness of French industry and reduce foreign investment. It may be too soon to say if the 35 hour work week is a success or not, but it seems to me you have to applaud the French for at least trying to make business act like it's part of society (which it is) and bound by rules other than the those of the markets.