France's brilliant idiots.

Beautiful, but stupid.

"Sorry for the mess," Floréale Mangin says, apologizing to visitors. "We've had a pretty busy day." Early in the morning, UNL members were arrested while blockading Paris's city freeway. In the afternoon, others invaded a train station and stopped traffic for two hours. And Mangin, one of the union's leaders, is now getting ready for a night of meetings and phone calls to prepare for the next wave of demonstrations.

At 17, she has already mastered the French rules of protest. Rule No. 1, she says, is to use any means necessary to put pressure on the government -- including disrupting the lives of normal people with traffic jams and train delays. "Making noise is the only way to get heard," Mangin explains in a soft-toned voice. Rule No. 2: When the government seems ready to bend, demand even more. Mangin remains unmoved by Chirac's plan to water down the CPE: "We won't negotiate until they fully back down."

Additionally, if you want to understand why the French youth seem so clueless about economics, or life in general. You need to read this.