Jonah Goldberg: What Americans can learn from the French protests

On Monday, France s Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez admitted that police have lost control as some cities continue to see massive waves of looting and mayhem. Social media brims with images of stores being ransacked, cars burning, and mask-wearing goons running wild. In Limoges, the beautiful Hôtel de Ville was burnt to the ground. The work of nationally syndicated columnist Jonah Goldberg now appears in the Grand Forks Herald and on grandforksherald.com. But the chaos, as is so often the case, began peacefully. And many supporters and leaders of the protests have condemned the violence. I think that violence has more to do with France s miserable record of assimilating immigrants from North Africa and the Middle East than with budget cuts. Call me cynical, but I don t believe the goons pillaging Louis Vuitton stores are planning to resell the handbags to buy better school supplies or to bolster their teachers salaries. The initial protests were about budget cuts, p