Mark Steyn - Lights Out

A third monument, a third country: France. This one was unveiled at the end of October in Clichy-sous-Bois. If that name rings a bell, it’s the bell on the fire truck racing through the streets to douse the flaming Citröens and Renaults in last year’s riots. They began when two of France’s legions of – what’s the word? – “youths” were fleeing the cops and decided to hide out in an electrical sub-station. Bad choice. They were electrocuted. Their fellow “youths” blamed the police and launched a three-week orgy of destruction. Now Clichy-sous-Bois has put up a monument to the unfortunate Zyed Benna and Bouna Traore. As in Arizona and London, this is an official memorial. That’s to say, the Mayor of Clichy-sous-Bois unveiled the monument to Messieurs Benna and Traore in the front of their school and then led a “silent march” to the sub-station where he laid a wreath commemorating their death – or, indeed, manslaughter, if some of the complaints against the pursuing gendarmes come off.

Now let’s take it as read that the deceased were as they’re portrayed – lovable rogues who were alienated only by the lack of employment opportunities, etc. Granted all that, is it still necessary to put up a formal monument to them? Weren’t the thousands of newspaper columns saying these riots were nothing to do with Islam and were all about the need for more public spending monument enough? Wasn’t Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin’s “raft of measures” – the creation of an anti-discrimination agency, 20,000 job contracts with local government agencies, an extra 100 million euros for community associations – monument enough? Weren’t the French government’s desperate entreaties to A-list imams to serve as interlocutors with the “youths” monument enough?

No, no, no. They had to go and build an actual monument.

America, Britain and France are not peripheral members of the developed world but its heart. They’re the west’s three permanent representatives on the Security Council, the three nuclear powers. But if these monuments truly represent the spirit of each nation as those monuments to Nelson and Napier did in their day then you would have to be an unusually optimistic sort to bet on the long-term prospects of all three countries. The poseur diversity of Trafalgar Square slips easily into the self-loathing of Arizona, and from there it’s but a short step to the open appeasement in Clichy-sous-Bois. If you seek our monument, look around: We cannot state who we are, what we believe, why we fight.

Steyn on composer Jule Styne, lyricist Dorothy Fields, plus a Cole Porter classic

Steyn on people, from Artie Shaw and Ray Charles to the Princess of Wales and Idi Amin

Steyn on everything – from the crowned heads of Nepal to Fergie’s toe, via Sinatra’s voice, Kosovar lungs and Bill Clinton’s “executive branch”

Steyn on war and the world

Steyn on stage – a classic romp through a century of showbiz

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Mark Steyn is the author of America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It , a New York Times bestseller in the United States and a Number One bestseller in Canada, where it was the subject of three separate complaints to the country’s many “human rights” commissions. Steyn is also National Review’s Happy Warrior; a contributing editor to Canada’s bestselling newsweekly, Maclean’s ; an internationally syndicated columnist; a visiting fellow at Hillsdale College; and a popular guest host of some of the highest-rated radio and TV talk shows.

Broadway Babies Say Goodnight: Musicals Then And Now (1997)

The Face Of The Tiger and Other Tales From The New War (2002)

Mark Steyn From Head To Toe: An Anatomical Anthology (2004)

America Alone: The End Of The World As We Know It (2006)

Mark Steyn’s Passing Parade: Obituaries & Appreciations (2006)

Mark Steyn’s American Songbook: Words, Music, Song (2008)

A Song For The Season (2008)

Copyright © 2009 by Mark Steyn

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher.

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ISBN 978-0-9731570-8-6

First eBook Edition

If you think it’s the “sex-obsessed west” that’s hung up on the 72 virgins, consider this sales pitch by the leading Saudi cleric Omar al-Sweilem. Obviously, when the alternative is a Saturday night out in Riyadh, many young lads are tempted by the idea of strapping on the old plastics explosives and self-detonating their way to the virgin jackpot. But how hot are our 72 cuties likely to be? Imam al-Sweilem, while stopping short of offering a “Your body parts back if not fully satisfied” guarantee, is nevertheless very reassuring on the general quality control:

Harith Ibn Al-Muhasibi told us what would happen when we meet the black-eyed virgin with her black hair and white face – praised be He who created night and day.

What hair! What a chest! What a mouth! What cheeks! What a figure! What breasts! What thighs! What legs! What whiteness! What softness! Without any creams – no Nivea, no Vaseline. No nothing..!

When they get hold of you, they will push you onto your back, on the musk cushions. They will push you onto your back, Jamal! Allah Akbar! I wish this on all people present here… Another one would press her cheek against yours, yet another would press her chest against yours, and the others would await their turn. There is no god but Allah.