From No More Mister Nice Blog, an excerpt from an interview with Chirac. Do you think any of our “leaders” have worked in menial jobs in Europe, even really know anything about it?

Courtesy of Travelers Diagram:

“If all the barbarian conquerors had been annihilated in the same hour, their total destruction would not have restored the empire of the West: and if Rome still survived, she survived the loss of freedom, of virtue, and of honour.”

–Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chapter 35

I can’t find this anywhere else.

But there’s more to it than that. The Bush administration – which is in the midst of trying to sell the war to the public – filed a brief urging the judges to uphold denial of the permit. And the Bloomberg administration has no intention of forcing a St. Patrick’s Day standstill instead of a parade – even though it’s bigger and likely more raucous.

Thanks to Atrios for the link.

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Update: The Village Voice wrote about it in this week’s issue.

Even though I think the 250,000 number is low for NYC, look at the numbers in this Reuters story:

NYC: 250,000
London: 500,000
Berlin: 500,000
France: 300,000 (For the whole country? Maybe because their government is on the right side?)

Barcelona: 1.3 million
Rome: 1 million