Fair is fair

A couple of stories, both courtesy of American Thinker but the first one leads us back to the National Review and would lead us back to the New York Times if we had stronger stomachs. It seems that Nicolas Sarkozy, President-elect of France, is not popular everywhere in the United States.

Now, normally, I would just laugh and say that it serves all Europeans and, particularly, European politicians and the media right. After all, did they not arrogantly and outrageously root for Kerry in 2004 and called President Bush names that even our enemies do not deserve?

Except that it is the New York Times, in itself much given to Bush Derangement Syndrome, that dislikes Sarkozy because he is hard-hitting, arrogant, reform-minded but, above all, pro-American.

Ed Lasky on American Thinker quotes from some of the other articles in the New York Times, all supporting the anti-American socialist Ségolène Royal. My favourite is the fragrant hackette, Maureen Dowd, usually distinguished by some of the silliest comments about the United States. Here she shows that she is just as ditzy when it comes to France.

Beauty has been chased off by the Beast.

Now France waits to see just how feral and domineering Nicolas Sarkozy will be.

The lovely Ségolène Royal - more phenomenon than politician - ran a maternal, Manichaean campaign painting her intense, Napoleon-sized opponent as an immoral political animal and a brute whose election would spark riots and "a sort of civil war."

The luminous Sego did not even deign to address the "dark" Sarko by name, either in the debate or in her concession speech Sunday night.

Luminous? Maternal? What is this woman on? Royal, as is clear from Robert Harneis's distinctly admiring biography is a politician unscrupulous even by French political standards. That may be one reason why she is mostly disliked by members of her own party.

Still, this is only one funny story on American Thinker. The other one is absolutely hilarious. It seems that, ahem, 12 Iranian divers have been arrested by the Emirates coast guards, accusing them of trespassing into their waters.

Naturally, the Iranian Foreign Ministry is furious:

These divers were 18 miles from Abu Musa Island and 24 miles from Emirates; therefore their arrest is completely illegal," this official explained.

"So to solve this misunderstanding we have communicated with the related organizations and due to this our officials from Iran's embassy in Emirates have met with these individuals," this official noted, while adding that the arrested were in a good condition and their release was being closely followed up.

"As we have been informed a carrier boat, which had left Dubai for Deylam port had sunk on the 20th of March in an area estimated to be 18 miles from Abu Musa Island and 22 miles from Emirates. The arrested divers had been sent to recover that carrier's load, but unfortunately were arrested by the Emirates coast guards," this official said.

No news yet as to whether any of them lost their iPods, teddy bears or pirated tapes of the latest Mr Bean film.

COMMENT THREAD