The French Are Revolting.

Now in another sense.  For seven days straight young immigrants have been burning houses and buildings.  This from Fox News, which up until yesterday was one of the few networks that thought the story newsworthy.

The caption reads

Nov. 3: Riot police secures a firefighters truck in Paris suburb, Le Blanc-Mesnil.

And highlights from the text of the article:

AULNAY-SOUS-BOIS, France  — Rampaging youths shot at police and firefighters Thursday after burning car dealerships and public buses and hurling rocks at commuter trains, as eight days of riots over poor conditions in Paris-area housing projects spread to 20 towns.

Youths ignored an appeal for calm from President Jacques Chirac (search), whose government worked feverishly to fend off a political crisis amid criticism that it has ignored problems in neighborhoods heavily populated by first- and second-generation North African and Muslim immigrants.

Its funny how, just a short while ago, the alleged breakdown in social order in New Orleans was thought to be evidence of what was wrong with Bush's America.  Of course, it took a category four hurricane to do it.  And in fact most of the breakdown in social order never occur ed.  There was no epidemic of rape and murder, as the press at first reported, let alone cannibalism.   Stories of shots fired at police and fire fighters turned out to be unconfirmed. 

The French have now managed an authentic breakdown in social order without requiring any natural disaster, thus revealing the superior capabilities of the European social model.  You'd think the free health care and lavish social benefits, not to mention the absurdly long vacations, would have somehow uprooted the root causes of injustice and inequity.  But health care doesn't seem to be such a big deal when you are young, and long vacations are not much use to someone who doesn't have a job.  This is what French unemployment looks like.

That's one quarter of all job seekers under 25.    No wonder the U.S. Press tried to bury the story.

UPDATE:  Apparently the unemployment rate among immigrant youth is even higher than that reported above.  It is somewhat over 30%.