A far-right writer and activist shot himself dead in front of the altar of Paris’s famed Notre Dame Cathedral on Tuesday, shortly after calling for “spectacular” action to protect France’s identity.
Police and his publisher confirmed the man’s identity as Dominique Venner, 78, a long-time essayist and activist linked with France’s far-right and nationalist groups.
Police said Venner shot himself with a pistol shortly after 1400 GMT and that the cathedral was then calmly evacuated.
In a final essay on his website Tuesday, he railed against France’s adoption of a law legalising gay marriage and adoption, urging activists to take measures to protect “French and European identities”.
In a possible reference to his suicide, Venner wrote: “There will certainly need to be new, spectacular, symbolic gestures to shake off the sleepiness… and re-awaken the memories of our origins.”
Well you certainly cannot say he did not demonstrate the power of his convictions.
Part of me wants to feel badly for a guy who simply could not accept progress, but the other part makes me want to send this article to all of the conservative assholes on the internet and over at Fox News with a note that says "Are you going to let a French guy out Right Wing you?"
I know that's bad right?
Heh, heh, heh.
ReplyDeleteDarwin Award.
Yeah, one less sphinctor taking up space.
DeleteYeah, my French is rusty, but "viva la stupidite au e droit" or at east viva until they all off themselves like this.
DeleteSuicides are specifically excluded from winning a Darwin Award.
DeleteSend it to FOX, IM!!! Great idea!
ReplyDeleteI'd even load the gun for them.
ReplyDeleteLet's be glad he didn't take anyone out with him.
ReplyDeleteMaybe this could be a trend.
ReplyDeleteThat seems like a reasonable question to me!
ReplyDeleteThis guy managed to not kill/damage anyone else with a stray bullet, but he was clearly intelligent enough to comprehend the danger to his fellow humans when discharging a firearm in a public place. His "principles" didn't extend to concern for innocent human life. scum.
ReplyDeleteWell you certainly cannot say he did not demonstrate the power of his convictions.
ReplyDeletei would say that he's a coward for not staying around to defend his convictions.
Here's what happens when anyone commits suicide. It becomes their legacy.
ReplyDeleteAnything they've done before in their life simply vanishes and the final thought that is left is they murdered themselves. It's something that I've experienced first hand, so I know what I'm talking about.
It becomes their legacy in hushed tones how they killed themselves, not what they did in their life on this earth. It's a truly far reverberating act that robs the person of anything they did in their lifetime, any way they contributed to their families, their society, their world.
Regardless of what their political leaning or religious leaning may be, they are snuffing out a life they should value and hold precious and that is reflected in the clarity of their legacy of self inflicted murder, whether anyone likes it or not.
If you are speaking in terms only of his or her friends and family, I can agree with you.
DeleteBut I have one question for you which has striking contradictions to your flat statement: ever heard of Ernest Hemmingway?
Whenever I think of Ernest Hemingway it's always as the "real man" who blew his brains out. He wrote books but I've never read one.
DeleteThen you have missed a great deal. But the point I make is simple: your flat statement is wrong.
DeleteMany, many MANY people read him daily and love his writings. And a tremendous number of them know nothing of his suicide.
So I go back to MY original statement. If you are speaking of those who knew the person or his/her family, you are right. That's the fist thing that pops up.
But others? Not necessarily so.
Leland, 1:15 is (or may as well be) illiterate.
Deletewonder if s/he has ever heard of Socrates? Seneca? Charlotte Perkins Gilman? Sylvia Plath, John Berryman, Virginia Woolf? Hart Crane?
Wonder if s/he also refuses to listen to the music of Smetana or Tchaikovsky? or the musicians Del Shannon, Kurt Cobain or Stuart Adamson? Richard Manuel.
Damn, bitches! Why y'all yelling at OP?
DeleteThey were simply making the point that SUICIDE overshadows almost everything, perhaps because it is violent, or because that is the end of the career as well- ergo, everything they created is held in a higher regard because nothing more will ever be created by them.
I DO think of Plath as the one who killed herself, and it's difficult to think of Cobain without realizing how much life he had left, esp. Now that his daughter is older.
Point being, lay off the OP, they have a valid point.
What a dumbass.
ReplyDeleteDid Ted Nugent read this yet?
ReplyDeleteI'm going to post it to his facebook or something and tell him to quit wussing out. He made a pledge, and he should stand by it.
DeleteSarah,
DeleteYou go first.
Ted
Because I'm a devout atheist, I believe this poor dude just ended his existence for no good reason because there is no afterlife: heaven, hell or whatever.
ReplyDeleteIf he is a devout Roman Catholic (he did kill himself in a RC cathedral, after all,) he will not 'go to Heaven,' neither will he be allowed to be interred in holy ground, etc, etc, etc, so his actions to the RC crowd will be one of futility.
Naturally, seeing that we are living in an enlightened time, most RC churches will overlook a suicide by claiming that the person was mental deficient, depressed, etc, or in other words, possessed by the 'Devil', and not responsible for his actions, thus he will 'go to Heaven' after all.
Pure sophistry.
Might they do an exorcism on his corpse? Ooooooo! -:)
DeleteHoly shit, THANK YOU!!!
DeleteYou are SO committed to Your beliefs of what GOD thinks about homosexuality that you somehow conclude that God would prefer your Self-Murder so that you could make a point?
This fool didn't believe in God or goodness.
He was not a devout Catholic, he was a self-admitted pagan. Probably because Christianity was of a too semitic origin for him.
DeleteYes, that kind of guy.
This is how it's done, Ted Nugent! Please follow suit.
ReplyDeleteI suspect there are many in the USA that wish others would do the same thing.
DeleteCannot believe someone would kill themselves over this matter - the world is changing and he assuredly wasn't!
I'm just sorry that he desecrated that lovely art-treasure of a place with his "tantrum" and ruined the experiences the visitors there there were enjoying before his selfish act.
ReplyDeleteNope, his Hate can't hurt Notre Dame. For all we know it may have even witnessed the odd murder- there was a gun battle last century, and the church was desecrated during the French Revolution. Sad old gay-hater wasted his time. Nobody cares.
Deletehe shot himself in the fucking head because people in love want to get married.
ReplyDeleteAnd because of what they do in the privacy of their bedrooms, too...
Delete78 year-old Dominique Venner was a former member of the nationalist terrorist movement. Venner placed a pistol in his mouth and shot himself dead in front of scores of tourists inside the most visited building in France, the Independent reports.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/farright-french-historian-78yearold-dominique-venner-commits-suicide-in-notre-dame-in-protest-against-gay-marriage-8625877.html
Mr Venner, a prolific author of books and tracts on extreme nationalist themes, has been one of many vociferous critics of the law. Some of his work as a historian has been well-received, incuding a 1981 book on the Red Army which won a prize from the Académie Française. Much of his work has been steeped in the racist ideology of the far-right, apologising for the pro-Hitler regime in Vichy in the Second World war and warning of conspiracies to destroy European civilisation and to swamp the white race.
Mr Venner was also an expert, and the author of several books, on hunting and fire-arms. In the 1960s, he was a member of the Organisation de l'Armée Secrète - the extreme nationalist terrorist movement which opposed the French withdrawal from Algeria and attempted several times to assassinate President Charles de Gaulle.
In other words, the root of his homophobia was the belief that (white, northern European) men and women needed to marry each other and birth lots of children so as to bring up the (white, northern European) birth rate cuz otherwise the Browwwwwns and the Mussssssssslins will take over mankind and it will no longer be (white, Northern European) just like Adam and Eve.
DeleteSounds like Sarah would really dig this guy what with him being all into guns and stuff.
DeleteMy bet is that he was a closet homosexual man who couldn't face it and his final act was simply his full on denial of his sexuality.
It sounds as though this guy had plenty of things he was bothered about and for a long time, too. He was 78 years old and now he wants to "make a statement" by killing himself? No, a 22 year old buddhist monk setting himself on fire is making a statement. I think it's more likely that he was recently diagnosed with inoperable cancer or something and only had a few months left to live anyway. Now he wants to "make a statement".
DeleteI don't think he expected to make so little of an impact.
DeleteThe day he died, it was in French news, but only after the latest from TV celebrities and football. Today, it's gone from the news.
Sic transit gloria mundi.
I didn't evn know who was the old fart before he offed himself. Good riddance.
HOO ... RAY !!!!
ReplyDeleteA M F !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh well, one less bagger in the world.
ReplyDeleteTime for Sarah to take a page from the French and become a member for the cause. You can do it, Sarah, if you really believe in all the things you've been spouting at us.
ReplyDeleteInvite RAM, Todd, Krusty and the rest of your possee to say some anodyne prayers, and all get ready to meet whatever will face you on the other side. Let us know what you find!
Hope this is the catalyst
ReplyDeleteThat ends gay marriage
Everywhere in the world
So you're racist *and* homophobic (and stupid, and un-American, etc.).
DeleteQuelle surprise.
ROFL
DeleteFiled for intellectual Chapter 11 yet?
And how would it do that?
DeleteMaybe if you go ahead and kill yourself your dream will come true.
DeleteTennessee now evenly split on marriage equality; nearly 2/3 support benefits to same-sex partners
ReplyDeleteIt's going to take a while, but the trends are clear:
A poll conducted this month for Vanderbilt University found that 49 percent of Tennesseans support gay marriage or civil unions while 46 percent are opposed to both, suggesting the state is now evenly divided on whether to extend legal recognition to same-sex couples.
Meanwhile, 62 percent of Tennesseans say health insurance and other employee benefits should be extended to the domestic partners or spouses of gays and lesbians. Thirty-one percent oppose the idea.
When the homophobes have lost even deep-red places like Tennessee, there's not much left for them. It also makes House Republican efforts to prop up the Defense of Marriage Act, which arbitrarily denies benefits to same-sex couples, look even more ridiculous.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/05/22/1210952/-Tennessee-now-evenly-split-on-marriage-equality-nearly-2-3rds-support-benefits-to-same-sex-partners
Dude is creepy looking.
ReplyDeleteI've seen nuns with that look in their eyes. What is it??
He offed himself to "protect France's identity"??
ReplyDeleteHow do marriage equality and adoption change France's identity? They still eat croissants, drink wine and speak french. As Marcel Marceu once said:
" "
Anita... brilliantly "" said!
DeleteM. Marcel Marceau's expressions would have "told the tale" in all of its intricacies.