Say one thing for those cheese-eating surrender monkeys, they can keep their cool. Take a look at the chart of the CAC 40 Index below. With blood flowing in the streets and flames devouring police cars and public buildings by the score, lapping at the gargoyles, French stocks have rallied almost as though nurtured by the riots. In the past, we’ve seen the Dow Industrials and London’s FTSE index perform the same cynical feat. Borne aloft by the vapors of hubris, they have surged higher when acts of Islamic terrorism topped the headlines. But who’d have believed that the French, of all people, could keep such a stiff upper lip? Millennial history is being written as jihad takes to the streets of Europe, yet share indexes both here and abroad are acting as though the insurrection were just a sit-in at Starbuck’s.

This is an implicit act of solidarity with France’s contemptuous ruling elite, which so far has faced down the violence with pledges to gild the Muslim ghetto. Could Chirac have been inspired by President Bush’s grandiose promise to rebuild New Orleans bigger and better than ever? Are investors perhaps looking beyond the charred rubble toward a day when religious fanaticism can be harnessed for the greater good, enabling the ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity to triumph? Will the riots prove to be the catalyst for an epochal rapprochement between Islam and the West? Will bin Laden see the error of his ways?

Naaahhhh.