Tim Blair

'Although the heat has subsided, parts of southern France are still suffering forest fires - many blamed on arsonists.

Mr Chirac vowed that there would be no mercy for those responsible for starting the blazes, after three firemen died on Monday in a fire near Cogolin, in south-eastern France.'

This better be good.

No mercy, Chirac style.

No mercy to the fire-starting, granny-neglecting chocolate-eaters! Our boys in Iraq will come over and sort them out!

Actually, no mercy, except those who are burning and looting Jewish establishment. Afterall, he didn't lift a finger before.

No mercy, Chirac style. = Britney Spears and Justim Timberlake videos 24x7 for LIFE.

My French is a little rusty, but I think "no mercy" means we unconditionally surrender.

My French may be a little rusty, but I think "no mercy" is written in English.

Or was that "non merci"?

Man, when France offers cradle to grave government care, the people take it quite literally. Why bother to pay to bury grandma when the government will have a nice ceremony for her without your having to lift your wallet? (See how the government "feels your pain?" They don't want anyone to feel bad because they neglected grandma!) I thought socialism was supposed to foster brotherhood and love, with everybody living for everybody else in true altruistic fashion. No grandma left behind, and all that. I wonder what went wrong? (That was sarcasism, by the way. Trolls need not reply.)

The socialist menace in France needs to be stopped now. We need regime change immediately. France has the bomb, they export arms all round the world - they could wipe us all out within a 45 second ad break! Quick, off to the security council to demand an invasion. France must realise it's days of posturing as an independent nation cannot go on any longer. We must rid the world of this socialist scourge. We have no argumant with the people of France, just their entire way of life. We know they will be eternally grateful when we blitzkrieg their commie state apparatus, the product of filthy working class types. Strategic planning will win the day, share option plans for all! Insider trading must be restored to the decent honest French men and women who are living under this hellish gulag we call France.

RIGHT ON MIRANDA!

Merde! When are people going to stop worrying about people and start worrying about climate change? If only Fance had gone to 100% nuclear power stations instead of 80%, this might not have happened.

But hang on - didn't a dozen Italians and few Brits die in the same heatwave conditions?
But they're not EVIL... they're GOOD. How come they died? This is all very confusing.

Please, labor pimp, I seek no followers. You must find your own path out of this backwater blogmire. Me? I still have much work to do.

Firth, dear. It ain't that they died & that makes them evil.

Point is, I think, that (1) when the bodies were piling up in France, apparently many of them had to wait in cold storage while their "relatives" finished their vacations, and (2) now 400 of them still aren't being claimed at all.

Which is sorta disturbing. Is this really evidence that France has become a blighted, amoral nanny-state headed down the tubes? I don't know. It just looks ugly.

Hey, it's a gulag of their own making. More power to 'em.

400 unclaimed bodies? That's more than the total number of U.S. combat deaths in Iraq, both pre- and post-"major combat operations." What does this mean? Heck if I know...

Some slogans for the downtrodden and oppressed who aspire to Miranda-status:

[Raised fist]Fight the Power!

Speak Truth to Power!

Grooooovy, baby!

Now we see the violence inherent in the system!

Help! Help! I'm bein' repressed!

(Ooops, I've been hypnotised by the space rays beamed straight into my frontal lobe by Murdoch's Evil Empire)

We report, you decide...Fair and balanced...

/right-wing death beast rant