Bill Maher takes to task those who reflexively denigrate France for simply being France. Being an ex-pat of the United States who currently lives in France, I couldn't agree more with what he has to say. The first-round of France's most recent election drew a whopping
84.60% of the electorate with votes spread over 12 parties. The second-round will go down tomorrow, 5/6, with
Nicolas Sarkozy and
Segolene Royal vying for the presidency. To further back up Maher, here is data on
France's poverty rate (note that the U.S. has the highest poverty rate among industrialized nations). And this despite a 9% unemployment rate. Furthermore, as a direct beneficiary of their healthcare system, I must say that it really is top notch. No data to back that up, just personal experiences. If you are interested in finding out more about French popular attitudes, history, politics, food, customs, economy, philosophy or anything else, may I whole-heartedly recommend
Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong.
10 Comments
choggiesays...Thank heaven, for little girls......got no real problems with France, cept the problem with most countries with nukes and power mongering puppets for leaders....(thank goodness the Israelies destroyed the N-reactors given to the Iraqis by this wonderful nation....in the "highest bidder wins, who cares what they will use it for"., race to insanity....Can't stand Maher, and especially Sean (no-actin) Peenass..... mahers smart-ass socialist writers and their over-used smug, clever, schtick....fuking idiots would shrivel up and die if they had to actually work or care for humanity in any substantive way.....growing weary....must have braaaaaaainnnns!!
jacksinmusicdotcomsays...Hell yeah choggie, well put!
colinrsays...There was an interesting Newsnight clip on Friday night (the BBC puts their programmes up on their website, but I'm not sure whether it is still up) where it was suggested that Segolene Royal will probably not win because many French women are jealous of her for her looks (the segment suggested that French women don't 'stand together' but instead pick each other apart - as in every other country then. Baaa-zing! ;-) )
The thing that worries me about the French elections is that both parties have committed to fundamental change, but it looks like both sides will only end up damaging the country further. Nicolas Sarkozy is the right winger that called rioters 'scum' a few years ago and there are apparently fears of heavy rioting breaking out if he wins (which initial polls are suggesting he will). Segolene Royal is the left winger who has said how much she admires what Tony Blair has done in Britain and she would like to do the same thing in France - yikes! Blair destroyed the left wing in Britain to make his party electable and then since has basically copied Margaret Thatcher's policies..and Royal wants to emulate him?
She also said her relationship with Blair will be a help if she wins the election as she will have connections. Well only as long as Blair stays in power, and there is the question of how much people listen to Blair anyway especially after that incident last year where the microphones were left on during the Blair/Bush chat "Yo, Blair!"!
conansays...btw: Sarkozy made it.
mkonesays...*dead
siftbotsays...This published video has been declared non-functional; embed code must be fixed within 2 days or it will be sent to the dead pool - declared dead by mkone.
siftbotsays...oxdottir has fixed this video's dead embed code - no star awarded because oxdottir was awarded too recently.
gorgonheapsays...*dead
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siftbotsays...Awarding Kuga with one star point for fixing this video's dead embed code.
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