Thursday, March 08, 2007

Who says they're not after us?

There are so many clichés I can throw out here. "Leave it to the French to surrender before the war starts." "You're only being paranoid if it isn't true." On and on. (And yes, if you take offense to the first one realize just how French the neighborhood I live in is and you'll understand that it's purely tongue-in-cheek. C'mon, lighten up.) If it weren't so comical it would be downright threatening. From CWN:

Paris, Mar. 8, 2007 (CWNews.com) - The Green Party candidate in the French presidential race has declared flatly that religion has no place in public life.

“In today’s France, religious can only exist as a private matter,” Dominique Voynet said an interview with La Croix newspaper. He said that he could see rare exceptions to that rule, such as the inclusion of religious representatives on the National Ethics Committee.

The Green Party candidate opposes public funding for the construction of mosques. Instead he proposes that unused Catholic churches “which are after all the property of the entire nation and must not only serve Catholics” be given to other religious confessions.

No, wait. I'm not laughing either. Tell me how someone who thinks Catholic Churches should not be reserved for Catholic worship (and replace the word "Catholic" with any other denomination or indeed replace "Catholic Church" with "mosque" and invert the sentence) can rightfully be called a serious candidate. It was not long ago someone who publicly said such a thing would be rightfully and clearly identified as a bigot and sent along on his way. Now, instead, the person is a candidate for the presidency of a country who is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.