READER DAVID NISHIMURA EMAILS:

I am constantly astonished how “Old Europe” routinely comes up with
scandals of this sort, of a depth unthinkable to most Americans —
yet still see fit to lecture us on everything from individual rights
to modes of governance.

Indeed. Here’s what he’s talking about:

AN anti-pornography campaigner, who heads France’s broadcasting authority, has been accused of attending sadomasochistic orgies and conniving in the murder of a transvestite prostitute who threatened to expose him and other pillars of the establishment in the city of Toulouse.

So serious are the allegations against Dominique Baudis, 56, the former mayor of Toulouse, that President Jacques Chirac may be forced to sack him from his post as director of the watchdog Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovision.

You gotta watch those anti-pornography crusaders. And it does give a bit more credibility to Eva Joly’s remarks made in connection with a different scandal:

“Mme Joly, 57, said the French establishment was one of the most rotten in Europe. “It is a country of networks that don’t like to be challenged.”

In their defense, I believe that the French regard rampant and widely-acknowledged corruption as a powerful protection against totalitarianism. David Carr, who’s doing a better job defending France than Woody Allen, seems to think it works.