WHY I LOVE FRENCH DINING: TWO QUIRKY FRENCH RESTAURANTS

Praising French cuisine has become a cottage industry. Likewise, trashing French cuisine has become a cottage industry. Love it or hate it, but you have to have an opinion. I have an opinion: If you want to investigate well-prepared, well-presented, reasonably priced (usually) restaurant fare, you could hardly do better than to start your investigation in France.

We've had the opportunity to dine at Michelin Star restaurants serving multiple courses paired with appropriate wines and we've soaked down artisanal beers while eating burgers at our local bar. The sheer number of pleasant places to pass a leisurely two or three hours across a lunch or dinner table beggars the imagination. To flourish in such an environment, the food had better be fresh, should be as locally produced as possible, and must be reasonably priced for its slot in the restaurant pecking order.

During summer, we have a tendency to go casual. Perhaps a seasonal pop-up restaurant on the beach, perhaps a 'guinguette' or roadhouse, likely but not necessarily seasonal as well. Which leads us to today's scribbling, two quirky restaurants, one a neighborhood joint and one a pop-up on a river bank, that Michelin has passed by but that we have really enjoyed. 

GUINGUETTE ROQUEBRUN

The term guinguette comes from the name of a cheap green wine served at roadhouses in the small towns outside of Paris and other French cities in the 17th Century. Today, the makings of a seasonal guinguette are stored in warehouses or shipping containers in the winter, set up along rivers and in campgrounds in time for the summer crowds, and packed away again a few months later when the season is over. Today, you can bet that a successful guinguette doesn't sell cheap green wine. In fact, today many modern guiguettes have bottles of good, local wine to go with an interesting and varied dinner menu. Lunch is usually not so fancy, featuring the obligatory burgers and a couple of different salads. One of the better guiguettes in our region sits on the banks of the Orb River, calling itself simply the Guinguette Roquebron.

The picture that I took of Roquebrun that appears at the head of this post has not been altered in any way. I just walked over to the front of the guinguette at sunset, pointed my phone, and shot. In other words, Roquebrun is one of those French villages that looks exactly like the typical French village that you have pictured in your mind's eye. During COVID lock down, we took picnics by the riverside. When the nieces come visit, we take them to swim in the river. Last week, we had dinner there with friends.

I won't force your mouth to water by describing every dish. Check out the pictures. All properly prepared and portioned, presented at a leisurely pace by reasonably attentive servers, and thoroughly enjoyable. Every bite. Of our party of five, two had two starters and no main dish, one of us had a main dish but no starter, and two of us had both a starter and a main. Three desserts and two coffees. A bottle of white wine and a liter of house rosé. And the bill came to about $40 pp plus tip, which in France is just a few euros to show appreciation because servers are paid for their work and don't rely on tips. 

The Guinguette Roquebron closed on September 8th and will return next June. The good lord willing and the creek don't rise, we'll be back then.

Rump Steak with Garlic Butter, Fries and Salad

Slow-Cooked Lamb Shank with Polenta and Veg

Gazpacho

Ceviche

Lemon Cheese Cake

Au fil de l'air

Above the air. Over the air. Through the air. That's the translation of the name of a restaurant with small, simple interior and a nice-sized terrace with a great view of the Orb valley below. Maybe the name of the restaurant references that view. Maybe, it's a play on words on the town's name - Les Aires - and the fact that the restaurant and the Les Aires town hall share a parking lot. We'll have to ask. But that's just the name, never fully capitalized for those of you who have noticed. It's all about the food. And the food's good.

Each day, they post the lunch special on a Facebook page. 16€ plus wine. Three courses. We've been twice. For starters we had tomato and mozzarella slices with pesto the first time, Serrano ham and slices of sweet melon the next. In season, fresh, and nice little portions. For the mains, slow-cooked rabbit quarters the first time and aligot with grilled sausage the next. (For those who don't know aligot, it's from the hills of the Massif Central. Mostly potatoes and cheese with butter and garlic and such, you almost have to wind it up like pasta it's so cheesy, twirling it on your fork. Keeps those folks up north warm in the winter.) Again, good portions, well-prepared, and faithfully executed. Not farmhouse cooking. Country cooking. Finishes of fresh peaches in vanilla-flavored syrup and a layered raspberry pastry made for excellent, lunch-sized desserts. 

With the menu and wine, maybe 20€ per person. With an aperitif, wine, and coffee, 25€. 

Every town needs on of these, a place to spend an easy couple of hours over a good meal in a nice space and leave with your wallet relatively intact. If we lived closer, it'd be on the circuit. Well worth the drive.

Au fil de l'air prepares 20 servings of the posted menu, so get there early if that's what you want.

AUGUST IN THE SOUTH OF FRANCE: A PERSONAL SNAPSHOT

Cooler, fresher air began filtering in during the second half of August this year, surprisingly on schedule in this climate-changing world. Drought persists in our little corner of southwest France, though. We’ve had a bit of rain lately, and the local vignerons say that it came at just the right time. I’m happy for my neighbors, many of whom make their living in one way or another off the land. Still, the water table remains well below normal and mild restrictions apply. But we’re retired. When the sky is this particular shade of blue, when there’s no noise to be heard on our terrace except the calls of two or three species of birds that nest in our rooftops, when our Siamese cats pose among the summer flowers, my heart tells me that, when we decided to spend the rest of our days in a rural French village, we made the right choice.

Make no mistake. We’re American. No matter how well that we speak the language, the French know that we are Anglo. It’s uncanny. Wearing clothes that have all been purchased locally, walking into a shop that we’ve never visited before and without saying a word, we are greeted in English. We must all be wearing an invisible sign that only the French can see. It’s not a problem, though. Often, as we practice our French on shopkeepers and tradespeople, they practice their English on us. These sometimes comical, impromptu language lessons are usually good natured, though, improving the vocabulary and grammar of both parties.

I digress. Blue sky. Birds. Yes, and sometimes a neighbor's wailing toddler. Even that poor, unhappy child adds to the feel of the place. I don’t mean to romanticize our village. It’s not special. Maybe that’s its charm. It’s just a place off the main road, without anything to attract tourists, where people live and work and send their kids to school and get together several times a year to celebrate holidays with each other. Writers like me may make it seem like Paradise, but we still have to do the dishes and the laundry, run the vacuum, and pay the electric bill.

I’m willing to bet that there are no cold calls in Paradise.

 

But I digress. Blue sky. Birds. And it being mid August, one other set of sounds begins to creep into the mix. Tractors and harvesters and bouncing trailers, empty going in one direction, filled with grapes going in the other. The vendage, the grape harvest, begins. First the whites, then the reds. Signs all along the two-lane blacktops in the region warn us. We add an extra few minutes to every car trip to compensate for being stuck behind a slow mover. And because the weather is also good for bicyclists, and because folks from the north take the month of August off, as the French do, and caravan to the neighborhood, the simple act of going out shopping can turn into an obstacle course. I used to be frustrated, back when I was new to the region, newly retired, and in a hurry. Not any more. Once you settle into the pace of rural life in the south, you wonder why you were ever inclined to hurry anywhere for any reason. I have informed Cathey that if I ever fail to notice the beauty of Occitanie, even while driving, she should just shoot me.

Another digression. Can't be helped. Birds. The swifts have gone, continuing their epic, migratory loop. We celebrate their arrival every spring and wish them God speed every August. Eating machines with the zoomies, dive bombing and swooping in raucous packs, eating bushels of insects that would otherwise be eating us. And kestrels and house martins and hoopoes and pidgins perching on the gutters and pooping on the sidewalks below.

 

Once again, I have digressed. Blue sky. Birds. Sunlight that seems to emanate from the landscape rather than reflecting off it. The Impressionists lived here and painted here for a reason. I don’t paint, but I can understand why. It’s August in the south of France. Nothing quite like it.

TIM WALZ: MY HOT TAKE ON HARRIS' VP CANDIDATE

FULL DISCLOSURE: I have never voted for Donald Trump. I would never vote for Donald Trump. I would rather vote for Barry Goldwater than Donald Trump and Goldwater has been dead for a while now. Even dead, he'd make a better President.

When Biden stepped back and anointed  Harris as his successor, the Veepstakes immediately began. My thinking on the matter was fairly simple. I counted five attributes/qualities that would be required to be named Harris' VP. I got four of the five right.

The two easiest qualifications to predict were political necessities. The VP candidate had to be male and had to be white. I'm not particularly proud of my country for having to say that, but as Teddy Roosevelt's favorite political commentator opined in the late 19th Century, politics ain't beanbag. The rest of the quote is highly indicative of the 10th Century male mentality, but at least the part about beanbag applies. Obama's candidacy and election unleashed a supposedly dormant racist streak in the American electorate and Hillary Clinton's candidacy added misogyny to the equation. Those two streaks run sufficiently deep in the hearts of a sufficient number of voters, even a portion of those who might otherwise be partial to a Harris candidacy, that a ticket with two persons of color or two women just does not make political sense in the real world of American politics.

If I had had Harris' ear during the decision-making process, my next two criteria would have been to choose a governor from the Midwest to add executive experience to the ticket. Although Harris holds the second highest executive office in the country, she came to it from the Senate. Senators generally value consensus. They are masters of shifting the goalposts to come to an agreement. But it's the job of the President to set the goalposts and determine how much, if any, they should be allowed to shift at all. It's a different mindset, one that neither Obama nor Biden ever mastered. A governor on the ticket might assist Harris in developing that skill. Midwestern? Geographical balance, particularly since there's a Left Coast liberal at the lead.

I got the last bit wrong though. I expected her choice to balance the ticket in another way, to be more centrist than Harris. But Walz is not a centrist, as were the main challengers for the nod. No, I think that Harris chose Walz because he was as close to her progressive leanings as anyone else in the running. She doubled down. No deep policy divides. No clashes of style - although there are clearly style differences. Just not clashes. This pairing is not JFK and LBJ, or Lyndon and Hubert for that matter. Kamala and Tim will have no problem holding hands and singing Kumbaya together all of the way to the White House.

THE ATTACKS

       Military Service: Walz enlisted in the Army National Guard as a teenager. After 24 years of service, he had risen to the rank of Command Sergeant Major. I have read interviews with both superiors and subordinates that confirm that for some time prior to his retirement, Walz had discussed with them his desire to run for Congress and his concern that doing so would require him to leave the Guard because the Hatch Act prohibits federal employees from participating in political activities. He did indeed file for his run for the House in early 2005, some time before his unit was informed that they should prepare for the possibility of being deployed to the Middle East sometime in the next two years. Before. The charge that he deserted his unit because they had been cautioned to prepare for deployment is false. I suppose that he could have withdrawn from the Congressional election or asked the Pentagon for an exception to the Hatch Act as would have been required if he stayed with his unit. He did none of that. He simply continued with his planned retirement. I suspect that those in his former unit who accuse Walz of cowardly behavior will be voting for Trump. They’re entitled. I thank them for their service.

Walz's bio said that he had retired as a Command Sergeant Major. And the day that he retired, he was addressed as a Command Sergeant Major and treated like a Command Sergeant Major. The day after his retirement, because he had failed to complete a correspondence course to confirm his promotion from Staff Sergeant Major, he was considered a Staff Sergeant Major for benefits purposes. You say to-MAY-to. I say to-MAH-to. He's changed his bio.

In supporting gun control legislation, Walz once said that he opposed civilians carrying weapons such as he carried "in war." He misspoke. Although he carried such weapons and trained with such weapons, he never served in a combat zone. It is correct to say that Walz misspoke.

        Governor of Minnesota.: Tampon Tim is the sort of sniggering teenage nickname that one might expect from immature males uncomfortable discussing women’s periods. Such men are mostly Republicans, apparently. As governor, Walz signed a bill requiring that public schools make menstruation products freely available to students beginning at fourth grade. His critics charge that the law requires such products in bathrooms for boys. Not true. The law leaves the matter of distribution up to the individual school district.  I have read of several districts that do not require such products in boys rooms. I have not read of a single one that does.

Walz also signed a bill making free breakfast and lunch available to all students. In addition to simply making certain that kids were fed properly while in their charge, the law was intended to relieve districts of the administrative burden of qualifying students for free meals and of tracking families in debt to the system. Saving children the embarrassment of being refused service due to debt or administrative error was also a consideration. The attack comes because a contractor to the state’s Department of Education was found to have  defrauded the feeding programs of the Department of over $250M. The problem with this attack is that the fraud predated the law that Walz signed. It even predated Walz’s governorship, having begun during the administration of his predecessor. Yes, the buck stops at the governor’s desk. But in this case, the buck had been being passed before Walz had anything to do with the program.

IN CONCLUSION

Walz can be shown to have made mistakes. He has spent his entire life in the public eye in one way or another, so there are nits to be picked. But Walz has done nothing so egregious as to come close to losing my vote. In fact, the more that I dig, the happier that I am with Harris’ choice. I will vote Harris/Walz enthusiastically and with a clear conscious.

FOOD POISONING, BASEBALL, FROG BUTTS AND MORE: #24

I can't help it. I attract silly stuff.

Turtles can breathe through their butts. That's not precisely true. But when you read the reason for that rumor, it boils down to this: Turtles can breathe through their butts.

Only female mosquitoes can bite. Am I a misogynist if I say that makes perfect sense?

When elephants talk to each other, they call each other by their names. Might indicate abstract thought. Proven through AI. Now all that we need to do is prove that artificial intelligence is, in fact, intelligent.

Slugs have four noses. Crocodiles can't stick out their tongues. I've got a million of 'em.

WILLIE, MICKEY & "THE DUKE"

I write subsequent to the recent death of Willie Mays, the last survivor of the great New York trio of center fielders.

I was born in 1948 into the New York City television market. The first television baseball broadcast had occurred 10 years earlier. (True. You could look it up.) Finally having integrated, the best baseball players in the country had just begun playing against each other. And the best baseball teams were in New York. The New York Yankees. The New York Giants. The Brooklyn Dodgers. And the games were broadcast for free. All you needed was an antenna and a set and you could sit in your living room and watch the best teams in both leagues at play. Two leagues. No divisions. Win the American League or the National League pennant and you went to the World Series. And the World Series was broadcast for free, too.

Starting in 1949, the next year that a World Series was played without either the Yankees, the Giants or the Dodgers participating was all the way up to 1967. (Yes. My Dodgers had moved to LA. But they were still the Dodgers.) The three center fielders for those teams for much of that time provided the engine for that success. Willie Mays. Mickey Mantle. Duke Snider. All in the Hall of Fame. Three of the greatest players to play the game. (Duke often gets short shrift compared to Willie and Mickey and, to be certain, their career numbers in just about every category were superior to The Duke's. But I am a Dodger fan. And in his best four years in the 1950s, Duke led them all, averaging 42 home runs, 124 RBI, 123 runs, and a .320 batting average.)

If you are a baseball fan, go to YouTube  and search for a song called Willie, Mickey & The Duke.

OUR DYSTOPIAN FUTURE

A continuing theme of science fiction, past and present, is the idea of a dystopian future, the idea that an idyllic society characterized by the equitable (but not necessarily equal) distribution of plentiful resources to improve the lives of everyone on Earth is just a pipe dream. Instead, we are doomed to deal with climate change, resource depletion and a restless, lawless and permanent underclass. 

I fear that sci-fi is too often predictive, particularly as it relates to our health. Flu. Bird Flu. Mad Cow. MRSA. COVID. We are getting to the point when everyone will be a little bit sick, all of the time. A sniffle here. A cough there. A rash that won't go away. And because we all have ready access to antibiotics, both from the medicines that we take and from the foods that we eat, the bugs are evolving to be stronger and more resistant. The new national anthem will be the song by The Police: Don't Stand So Close To Me.

And just to make you feel even worse, a Delta flight recently had to turn back when passengers were served rotten food. Dozens of staffers of TikTok's parent company in Singapore got food poisoning in their cafeteria. And 7 tons of deli meat were just recalled due to possible listeria contamination. 7 tons...

MINNESOTA GOVERNOR TIM WALZ 

A thorough discussion of his candidacy and the attacks against him deserve a separate post. Tune in next week.

DIONYSIUS AND THE LAST SUPPER

The idea that the French were mocking daVinci's painted rendition of the Last Supper during the opening of the Olympics is simply ludicrous. The secular French couldn't possibly care enough about Catholic symbols to spend time, energy and money mocking them. The French are, however, perfectly capable of venerating depictions of a god of wine and pleasure, two topics that Catholic clergy spend too much time venerating themselves.

BIDEN, HARRIS, TRUMP, OBAMA AND AMERICAN POLITICS 2024

I wouldn't be much of an American who blogs his opinions if I didn't chime in on the events of the past week or two in American politics. FULL DISCLOSURE: I believe Trump to be an existential threat to sanity and civility in public life. His picture appears in the OED in the definition of egotistical narcissist. Anyway, here are my quick takes:

* During the recent televised debate, Biden looked like a tired and deflated old man. Trump presented as a confident and unapologetic liar. In other words, both men came across true to their respective natures. 

* I'm 75 years old. I ain't what I used to be. The excuse that Biden was tired after flights and meetings just doesn't cut it. Presidents are not allowed to fail on the world stage at critical times because they are tired. Yes, we expect too much of the mere humans that we elect to that office. Tough cookies. That's the minimum requirement. When the phone rings at 2am, you'd better damn well be wide awake and ready to eat raw meat.

* Harris was the obvious choice. An open Democrat convention would have been a disaster. Uncontrolled chaos. Everybody who mattered understood that Harris was inevitable except, apparently, for the Obamas. If nothing else, that proves that Obama was never an executive type. A true executive makes reality-based decisions, even if their preference would be a different reality. Harris is the reality. Not acceding to that reality after 48 hours is either pettiness or delusion. Now, today, her election prospects are not an issue. Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their party. (By the way, that's not a quote about politics uttered by some wag like Churchill. It was a drill created by a typing instructor a century ago.) EDIT: The endorsement from the Obamas has come. Thank you, Captain Obvious.

* Speaking of Obama, can you tell that I found him a disappointment? In today's world, nuance is not an option. The education system has failed. Analytical thought is missing in action, even on elite college campuses. Netanyahu, for all that I dislike him, was correct in his speech to Congress when he likened Gays for Gaza to Chickens for KFC. We now live in a bumper sticker world in which Obama's careful attempts to walk the lines do not bear electoral fruit. Championing a law called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) cannot compete with chanting Build the Wall. At the other end of the spectrum. the 900 pages of the Affordable Care Act cannot satisfy those who advocate Medicare for All. One can wish for a better world. One can work to create a better world. But in order to do so, it's necessary to navigate the world as it exists with open eyes and effective strategies.

* Trump will get his votes. That can't be helped. The Kool-Aid has been drunk. The election will hinge on the turnout on the Democrat side. If Harris energizes women, people of color, and those whites who have resisted the Kool-Aid, even in states that are trying to make that difficult for them, she wins. Especially in states that are trying to make it difficult. Energy and enthusiasm will decide this election. Harris' task is to create that energy and enthusiasm among her constituency. Or she will lose.

COST OF ENERGY IN FRANCE AND BITS AND BOBS IN BRIEF: #5 AND LAST OF A SERIES

 

* Although France depends more on nuclear power than about any other European country, that has not translated into cheap rates. And the rates have been climbing. In 2023, we used 29% less electricity that we did the previous year, but the bill was only 5% lower. So far this year we've used 10% less than last year, but our bill is 10% higher. Last year, my total bill was just over 2,560USD. This year, our first six months will run just over 1,500USD. So yes. The cost of electricity in France can be painful. If I had to say it. we are wasteful. If it comes to it, I can identify ways to economize. It's getting to be time that we'll have to.

* Another cost of living in France that can be painful is fueling the family car. We own a used Renault diesel. I like Renault because they are still going racing. I like diesel because the motors last longer and the fuel is cheaper. But because France has to import all of its oil, it ain't very cheap at all. When we arrived, I was paying the equivalent of about 5.40USD per gallon. Today, I'm paying 6.80USD. I get 42 MPG, but it's still a hit to the wallet. And France takes climate change seriously. That means that the sale of diesel cars is being phased out and that diesel cars are prohibited from certain cities during bad air days, certain downtowns permanently. But for now, I'm keeping the Renault.

* We heat and cool with a heat pump, so our heating is covered in the electric bill. But we supplement with a wood-fueled fireplace insert. As the cost of electricity and fuel oil has risen, so has firewood. It takes about one cord of firewood to take me through the winter. In the past three years, the price has increased by about a third. I expect that when I order my next cord in a few months, I will pay over 400USD.

* Like everything else, the cost of water has increased, not least because we have been experiencing a lengthy drought, so the water tables are low. And water is essential to the main crop locally, grapes for winemaking . We're paying about 90USD per month for water/sewer, up about 30% over the last couple of years.

* We pay about 60USD monthly for our landline, two cell phones, and 4G wifi. Free calls to the USof A on the landline, but we are more likely to FaceTime or WhatsApp than phone. Just enough data to get by because neither of us are screenheads, particularly when we are out of the house. Fiber was installed throughout the village last year and we signed up. 5G and more data would run us an extra 25USD monthly. We passed on that.

As you can tell if you have been following this series, I have not attempted to present a detailed, all inclusive budget. Just snapshots of the sorts of things that I think might interest folks. Specific questions? I would be happy to answer in the comment section below.

HOBBYHORSING AROUND, THE GREATEST GENERATION, DRUNK DRIVING AND MORE: #23

 

THE GREATEST GENERATION

Friends were taking the ferry from the UK to  France and came across these gents headed for D Day ceremonies. They represent the best of us. If there is such a thing as valor in the ugliness that is war, they are the case study. There's nothing more that needs to be said.

DRUNK DRIVING

I would guess that not many of the boys in that photo are still driving. Certainly not driving and drinking. But consider the case of Tony Rolt and Duncan Hamilton. Drivers for Jaguar at Le Mass in the 50s, their car was disqualified the day before the race on a technicality. Both men spent the entire night drowning their sorrows in traditional alcohol-fueled fashion only to discover as they greeted the dawn that Jaguar had successfully appealed and their car was ready to go, almost as well-oiled as they were. Twenty-four hours of racing with no sleep and with a raging buzz on lay ahead. As they got ready, they realized that the traditional hangover remedies weren't working. So they tried the last one, hair of the dog. They downed a bottle of brandy and went racing.

They won, I suppose that it proves that there are times when a lack of inhibitions is essential to victory. True story. Google 'Drunk Le Mans' and learn more.

COMPETITIVE HOBBYHORSING

No foolin'. It's a thing. Associations. Governing bodies. Rules. Judging for style and creativity. National championships in several countries. 

They jump fences, they trot and they prance. They push to make hobbyhorsing an Olympic sport. And yes, it's not just kids. The most serious ones are adults.

I have said it before and I will say it again. You can't make shit like that up.

CAITLIN CLARK

Yes. I'm paying a bit of attention to the WNBA because I do love basketball. It's an interesting moment in their sport - maybe the Bird/Magic moment.  I remember how Bill Russel, Bob Cousy and John Havlicek sucked me into men's basketball in the 1960s. We'll see if Caitlin and Angel Reese and the rest of the league can suck in today's generation. 

If I had to guess, I would guess that no matter how good Clark or Reese or any other WNBA player becomes, attendance at WNBA games will diminish over time but settle at better than pre-Clark levels. Think of women's soccer. Even after winning World Cups with some highly visible and compelling athletes to market, league attendance increases over the past decade were driven almost entirely by opening new franchises in more soccer-friendly locales. 

There just are not enough eyes on the WNBA to lift it to major league status. 

CLICKBAIT ABOUT FOOD IN PARIS 

I thought that I saw an interesting article to read in BBC's Good Food newsletter. I was wrong. 

The article was titled Top 20 Foods to Try in Paris. The subtitle was 20 Local Food (sic) to Eat in Paris. 14 of the 20 were generic dishes that are available to me in our little village of 1,750 souls, 800 kilometers from Paris. Baguettes? Eclairs? Steak/frites? Duck confit? Really? Those are not local to Paris. They are foods that are French. Period. Most of the rest of the list had at least some merit - a particular chocolatier, a particular pâtissier, a particular cocktail in a particular bar.

 

Content. Websites need content. Any content will do. The internet has become a dumping ground for lousy writing about inane subjects as vehicles for eyes on advertising. Please. More cat videos. Less crap.

MUSLIM DEATHS AND DISPLACEMENTS

Do you know how many Muslims have been killed, how many Muslim children have starved, how many refugees have been displaced, during the civil war in Syria? 600,000 dead. 80,000 children starved to death, 5,000,000 refugees. Now you know.

Pakistan is preparing send back nearly 1,000,000 refugees from Afghanistan. What do you suppose that the Taliban will do to those folks? Did you even know that many refugees had fled the Taliban into Pakistan in the first place?

Is Sudan on track to become another Somalia? Both countries are Islamic states. Both countries are failed states, tens of thousands dead, millions displaced. 

Who marches against Muslim on Muslim violence? Apparently, violence against Muslims is only worth notice if there are Jews involved.