Awhile back I was disagreeing with someone I respect on the nature of France and its need for democratic revolution, same as the rest of the unfree world. Today, I feel sad but sort of vindicated.

The eighth day of rioting in France can’t be called a democratic revolution, but it’s the end result of what happens when you don’t get one. The persistent joblessness, the inability to assimilate immigrants, the government control of every aspect of life and above all the lack of freedom are exactly what’s behind this spreading explosion.

Yes, France needs to expand its democracy. Badly. The dead old people two summers ago, as well as the repeated fires in immigrant housing areas earlier this year were the warning shots that something was very wrong with the neat bureaucratic French model that promised to take care of everything and everyone because the bureaucracy ‘knew best.’ The socialist bureaucracy running things, in every sense an elite, is little different from the one Louis XIV set up back in the 1600s. But add in some West-hating multiculturalism, which Louis XIV never would have put up with, and you get the dry dead squeaking of maggots on a beautiful civilization. Nostalgie de la boue, we know of this French invention well. Socialism and brutalism at work. Now, the bill is coming due and it’s not just payable in money.

Via Real Clear Politics, Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit has a first class roundup on this front-page news story that has gripped the world.

Here is another long, but worthwhile account of the problem in France by Theodore Dalymple here.

UPDATE: Glenn at Instapundit has much more here. It’s a must read.

UPDATE: Animals.