Bill Maher - New Rules
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Stumble ThisBill 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.
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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!"!