1 What I don't understand is that the reason for this unabated immigration to Euopean countries is because they claim is they need the labor. Then the same liberal idiots say the immigrants are rioting because of lack of employment???????????????? Bullshit, all bullshit. They are rioting because they are muslims.

2 Rooster, you're right as usual.

3 Rooster, You have identified the problem, now haven't you? Why do they need cheap labor in a country where there is no work? To a certain degree we have the same problem here in the US. The unemployment rate for hispanics is higher than for many others. So why do we need more illegals? There is an answer. It is the same for Europe and the US. The Leftists want to bring more immigrants to both the US and Europe in an attempt to stay in power. The Left is using the Muslims in Europe and other minorities, especially the Mexicans(but the Mexicans sometimes turn the tables on the Leftists and become conservative, which is more in tune with their culture) in the US as a means to not only stay in power but to control even more. Hence the continuous deluge of new laws and court decisions favoring the status quo. Immigration needs to be stopped in both the US and Europe until the laws on immigration are enforced. For instance, the law says that immigrants must be able to speak English before becoming US citizens, but you know that law is never enforced or is bypassed.

4 Well, the unemployment is real. About 40% in the "ghettos." And it's also true that the western European population is declining and aging. And the economies aren't expanding either. So bringing immigrants to fill current jobs becomes a permanent solution to a temporary problem. It reminds me of a story Brautigan tells in A Connecticut Yankee at Big Sur about this guy with a pond on his property that's infested with frogs. They make such a racket at night he can't get to sleep, so one day he goes to a pet store and buys a couple of baby alligators. They take them down to the pond and he releases them saying "See, no more frog problem." And the other guy just nods and says: "Yeah, now all we have to worry about is the alligator problem." What they need is a kind of Thatcherist revolution to make the economies productive. But this is France (and Germany and Belgium and Holland) not England. Whether they'll make the turn is unknown.

5 This may just sound like the inane ramblings of someone who doesn't really know much, and I'm not entirely familiar with France's domestic policies but ... The more you take from productive people to subsidize unproductive people the less productive the first group is inclined to become. It's human nature. And then the entire economy tends to stagnate. Or like the tax laws here. I might only be able to get a raise of about 25 cents an hour from a particular employer who doesn't exactly own a "booming" business, but it's the best he can do for me. However, why would I work harder to get that 25 cents if it means my net check will actually be lower than if I hadn't because of progressive taxation? You can't keep rewarding inactivity and punishing ingenuity and resourcefulness. Will France take this lesson and kickstart the economy by offering more opportunity and incentive? That remains to be seen. They have a very young population (even thought some are immigrants) they're not tapping into. Forget this runaway, indiscriminate charity. Governments should never be in the business of charity anyway. It never works. Even our own government has an abyssmal record in the execution of its social programs. They're mired in bureacracy and lobbied incessantly by special interests.

6 Why is it that the truth so plain to see, yet so many refuse to see it? As communist countries abandon their structured economies, China springs to mind, why is it that Western countries want to abandon what works and replace it with socialism? We are beset by idiots who are so stupid I can't possibly see how they don't die from it.

7 IM, because once you've suckled at the teat of the Benevolent State, you will do anything to stay there. Apparently that includes selling your future out for the benefit today.

8 Or better, selling your childrens' future. Or even better still, killing your children before they're born so that you can spend all your money on yourself for important things like Viagra, breast implants, and facelifts. Everything that is wrong now can be laid at the feet of the Boomers, here and in Europe.

9 Oyster and all: Good stuff. Problem is that it is still too early for the majority to see. I fear for the future of my grandson.