Safest place in France? The new Islamic art exhibit at the Louvre

Is this the safest place in France right now? No, not the offices of Charlie Hebdo, which are probably the unsafest. But if you want to avoid getting caught in an outpouring of anti-Western rage, try the Louvre, which has just opened a new $130 million wing devoted to Islamic art. Says the BBC:

This is the most significant and innovative architectural extension to the Louvre since IM Pei shook the venerable institution with his glass pyramid in 1989.
At the time, there were many who argued that his structure would destroy the classical beauty of this palace of art. Now, of course, it is among the most popular attractions in Paris.
Opening this weekend in the neo-classical, 19th Century Visconti courtyard of the Louvre, the new Department of Islamic Art has a undulating glass and metal roof, resembling a floating carpet, under which will be displayed the largest and most significant collection of Islamic art in Europe.

There’s always the danger that something in the display will offend a mullah somewhere, but the odds are improved by the fact the biggest single donor to the exhibit was Prince Waleed Bin Talal,of Saudi Arabia, who gave about $20 million. “Since 9/11, it is the duty of all Muslims to explain to the West what real Islam is like and how peaceful the religion is,” he told the BBC. Let’s hope there isn’t a video display.
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Even without the exhibit, the French government has figured out a way to deal with protests against  “Innocence of Muslims” and Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons of Muhammad: Ban them.

Interior Minister Manuel Valls said prefects had orders to prohibit any protest and to crack down if the ban was challenged.
“There will be strictly no exceptions. Demonstrations will be banned and broken up,” he told a news conference in the southern port city of Marseille.

Who knew it was that easy? Good thing France got rid of that right-winf Sarkozy government and its ridiculous law-and-order agenda, and brought in the more even-handed government of Francois Hollande. Socialist are so much better at dealing with these things. Germany also closed embassies in Muslim countries Friday, raising the question: What do German embassies have to do with a crappy U.S. video or a bunch of French cartoons? What does any government have to do with them, not that we mention it? Do the rioters realize that neither video or magazine were government sponsored? Do they even ask why they’re rioting, or just do what they’re told? Spiegel.comreports that the U.S. embassy in Pakistan spent $70,000 running TV ads in which President Obama and Hillary Clinton condemned “Innocence of Muslims.” The result: 17 killed in Pakistani riots.
BTW, Spiegel says a German satirical magazine, Titanic, announced Wednesday it intends to publish an “Islam issue” later this month. Clealry insulting Muhammad is the new black. Can Madonna insulting Islam be far behind?
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At some point you start to feel sorry for politicians who get on the wrong end of the media feeding frenzy. This may be the moment for Mitt Romney, whose campaign, already struggling, took a nosedive when Mother Jones released the video of him writing off 47% of the country as moochers. On Thursday, wife Ann had had enough, and let radio listeners know it during an interview in Iowa:

“Stop it. This is hard. You want to try it? Get in the ring,” she said. “This is hard and, you know, it’s an important thing that we’re doing right now and it’s an important election and it is time for all Americans to realize how significant this election is and how lucky we are to have someone with Mitt’s qualifications and experience and know-how to be able to have the opportunity to run this country.”…
…“It’s nonsense and the chattering class…you hear it and then you just let it go right by,” she told Radio Iowa. “…Honestly, at this point, I’m not surprised by anything.”

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Well, did she expect this? Tim Pawlenty, one of her husband’s challengers during the Republican nomination contest, has quit his job as Romney campaign co-chair to take a job as chief lobbyist for Big Bank. Nice timing, Tim. He starts Nov. 1, five days before the vote. Bankinvestmentconsultant.com said Pawlenty “shocked most of the national media” by taking the job.

Until very recently, he had been seen as Romney’s likely choice as vice president (Romney chose Rep. Paul Ryan instead). But Pawlenty was also a probable cabinet pick in a potential Romney administration. Pawlenty said in accepting the Roundtable position he had pledged not take any job in the new administration should Romney win.

During his campaigning days Pawlenty said his message to Wall Street would be “get your snout out of the trough.” Now, presumably, he’ll insist snouts in troughs are good for the American worker.
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Really bad news for ill-educated white people: not only is harder than ever to get a job, but they don’t live as long as they used to. The New York Times reports that the life expectancy of the least-educated U.S. whites has fallen by four years since 1990. Women are down five years, men three.

Researchers have long documented that the most educated Americans were making the biggest gains in life expectancy, but now they say mortality data show that life spans for some of the least educated Americans are actually contracting. Four studies in recent years identified modest declines, but a new one that looks separately at Americans lacking a high school diploma found disturbingly sharp drops in life expectancy for whites in this group. Experts not involved in the new research said its findings were persuasive.
The reasons for the decline remain unclear, but researchers offered possible explanations, including a spike in prescription drug overdoses among young whites, higher rates of smoking among less educated white women, rising obesity, and a steady increase in the number of the least educated Americans who lack health insurance.

The figures indicate there is now a huge gap in life expectancy between educated and non-educated whites: “The latest estimate shows life expectancy for white women without a high school diploma was 73.5 years, compared with 83.9 years for white women with a college degree or more. For white men, the gap was even bigger: 67.5 years for the least educated white men compared with 80.4 for those with a college degree or better.”
National Post

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