Springtime in Paris, again and again. "Car showrooms were once the wonders of the modern world. grand temples to the mystery of mechanical progress. Citroën, always one of the most forward-looking of firms, was amongst the first to embrace modern architecture’s potential for making spaces to showcase their wares," says Yanko Design. Now Citroen's "famous double chevron logo is woven into the 30m-high faceted front" of the carmaker's flagship showroom, C42. Designed by Manuelle Gautrand to replace Citroën's once cutting-edge Art Nouveau showroom on Paris's Champs Elysées, it features a "central mast rising up the full height of the space, containing suspended rotating platforms to display cars and concepts." Their "Unmistakenly German" ad has left us reeling. Thanks to Archinect for the heads up.
"The Al Dura controversy is the biggest media scandal in the world," French media watchdog Philippe Karsenty told Front Page's Jamie Glazov in May of 2006, just under two years to the day before the French court pleasantly surprised the seekers-of-wisdom-and-truth community this week by dismissing charges brought against Karsenty by truthiness-monger France2. Congratulations to our dear friend Richard Landes for his ongoing, heroic efforts to expose the big lie that is "Pallywood … the staging of scenes by Palestinian journalists in order to present the Palestinians as hapless victims of Israeli aggression." As Richard has written:
They are able to succeed in this endeavor in large part due to the credulity and eagerness of the Western press to present these images, which reinforce the image of the Palestinian David struggling valiantly against the overpowering Israeli Goliath.
"Originally a mass-market car maker with relatively straightforward designs, Citroën shocked the world in 1934 with the innovative Traction Avant, the world's first mass-production front wheel drive car (1934-56)," according to Speedace.info. Isn't that the cutest car ever was? They've never had much of a business model, having been forced into foreclosure and been taken over by their biggest creditor, Michelin in 1934. Another takeover was completed in May 1976, as Peugeot SA purchased a 90% stake of Citroën SA and the companies were combined into a holding company, known as PSA Peugeot Citroën. Nobody said being cutting edge was going to be easy.
We were particularly struck by something Karsenty said to Glazov in that Front Page interview:
[Al Dura] occurred more than five years ago and it twisted the brains of hundreds of millions of people, thinking that the Jews, or the Israelis, which is the same for many people in Europe, kill Arab kids on purpose. This image is now in everyone's brain. It’s a forgery that developed anti-Semitism, but not only, also anti-Americanism and I’d say, anti-Western values all over the world. Never forget it occurred a year before 9/11.
But, but … didn't "the world" love us before Bush McHitler made them hate us? Just ask Barack Obama. As with every totalitarianist ever was, rewriting history — or is it merely not studying history? — seems to be his stock in trade. As we've blogged here from way back in December of 2006, we're with Karl Rove and Charles Krauthammer re "Obama's Troubling Instincts" and "A Gaffe, an Absurdity, and a Policy."
A great victory for Karsenty and Landes and a very few others who persisted in the truth until that truth was recognized in the French courts.
But that image of that photo remains seared in too many brains and can not be undone.
Posted by: Jill | May 27, 2008 at 09:37 AM