Saturday, April 27, 2002
We're only a week away from the 128th Kentucky Derby. Harlan's Holiday is still considered the favorite and he really does look like he's going to win. You won't make any money on him though, so stick to the middle. Here's a link to the ESPN sight that is pretty good.
http://espn.go.com/horse/triplecrown02/index.html
10:22 PM
Friday, April 26, 2002
Have you seen the new pictures of the columnists on the NY Times webpage? Jesus Christ! Those other ones must have been like twenty years old! What a bunch of geezers. I used to think Maureen Dowd was hot, but not any more. Ain't nobody lookin' good now. When is that new "Sun" paper coming out?
1:39 PM
Monday, April 22, 2002
This article from the South African Broadcasting Corp. shows why having a state owned media company is a bad idea. Read how biased this is.
http://www.sabcnews.com/africa/north_africa/0,1009,32845,00.html
3:26 PM
The Economist sums up the problems with the French election and France itself in today's follow-up article on the primary:
"What a pity. France's grudging liberalisation has had much to do with its recent success. If the country liberalised more, it would succeed more. The high rate of structural unemployment will not nudge down much further without more drastic tax and welfare changes, less red tape and a much looser labour market. The benefits of the 35-hour week may yet cramp French competitiveness and make public services less efficient; they will certainly harm small businesses, where the new law has yet to take effect. French pensions need a complete overhaul: the system is becoming unaffordable. So does the health service. The civil service is far too big. On all these issues, neither leading candidate has proposed anything radical or courageous.
France is culturally and commercially impressive. But no longer is it exceptional in the sense that it can stand gloriously aloof from the sweep of the global economy, protecting its own businesses and movies, pretending to maintain a system that is neither capitalist fish nor socialist fowl, promoting a foreign policy that can no longer make a difference on its own. The first round of the presidential election was notable for a dismal lack of candour about where the country is going or should go. With Mr Le Pen now facing Mr Chirac, there does not seem to be much chance of that changing in the second round. And yet perhaps the shock of Mr Le Pen’s success will shake the country out of its self-delusion. Beyond May 5th, if France’s mainstream politicians, and many of its voters, want to find a way to stop the likes of Mr Le Pen, they should try a dose of reality."
2:24 PM
Sunday, April 21, 2002
God am I happy about the French election. They always act so civilized and criticize the U.S. for racial issues, now they have a fascist running in the final election. I partly blame us though. We should have tried to help those barbarians learn about the modern world after we saved them from the Germans.
10:55 PM
Now, just a reminder to all the idiots in my political science class last year. Who was right about the electoral system? What was that bitch?! Say it louder! Yeah, Nick Teske and Lisa Fuller and your Ralph Nader shit. First your radial extremism cost Gore the election, now your French friends ruin theirs. I was the only one in that entire class (besides Doc) who stood by the electoral system and remembered its purpose. The two party system is good, because it stops whakos from winning support and oppressing the split coalition. I used the Nazis as an example and nobody listened. Maybe now those losers will understand me. Hausser 1 – Losers 0
7:19 PM
Holy Shit!
The results from the French primary came in and things are a lot different than most people predicted. Jean-Marie Le Pen, the right winger, eliminated the Socialist candidate, Lionel Jospin, from the contest. There are several consequences of this that will affect contemporary French politics for the next couple of years.
-Jacques Chirac will win the Presidency in a landslide, since the left wing parties will throw their support behind him now.
-French politics will shift to the right (, as are the politics of Europe as a whole) and the country will become far more anti-immigrant and anti-Semitic.
-Extremism will decrease once the voters learn what results come with it.
7:13 PM
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