Interactive Fireworks

Look no further, blast off with thundering fireworks on your screen:
http://www.maylin.net/Fireworks.html

OVERHEARD IN PARIS

THE CAT IS (STILL) IN THE BAG

Emily just got back, with this 'knowing smile' on her face. "Where I'll take you tomorrow evening will blow your mind." My dry reply, "Again?"
After a pause I said: "Ya know, I've been a few times on the Embankment at New Year's and watched the fireworks on River Thames." -
Emily: "Pffft."

OVERHEARD IN PARIS

OVERHEARD IN PARIS

After an argument yesterday near the Centre Pompidou with a Brit fuck, Emily recorded my retort to this wanker:

"The most idiotic claim to justify self-righteousness is, 'I am older than you, therefore I know better.' It merely provides a superb argument for euthanasia."

China jails free speech advocate

PR China: Rotten to the core

Chinese writer Chen Wei has been sentenced to nine years in jail for "inciting subversion of state power". Mr Chen dared to publish several essays online calling for freedom of speech and reform of China's one-party system. The Chinese leadership felt cornered and intimidated enough to order the court to impose the outrageous verdict. 

He was among hundreds of dissidents detained earlier this year after online calls for protests in China inspired by the uprisings in the Middle East. He told the court he was not guilty and that "democracy will prevail" in China.

Posted via

Nice, France

Happy Hanukkah!

We are invited tomorrow evening to participate with friends of Emily's family to light the third candle of the Menorah in celebration of Hanukkah, an evening with lavish food, lots of joy music. It will be my fourth Hanukkah to participate in, each time in a different city: Vienna, London, Paris and now Nice.

Current Music: Orchestra Of The Vienna Musikgesselschaft, Michael Gielen & Felicja Blumental – Piano Concerto No. 2 In C Minor, Op. 18: II. Adagio Sostenuto (Rachmaninoff)

Christless Christmas

The world owes America its very survival, and much more. US scientists have over the past 200 years stripped the Roman Catholic church, and many of earthling leaders who felt they were accountable only to the gods, of virtually all its concoctions to amass more power and have smashed its claim to be the ultimate authority on Earth.

The "big bazooka" of US scientists to destroy Christian inspired fables is the Kepler Space Telescope. Punctially ahead of Christmas, another - maybe the biggest - lie from the secretive catacombs in the Vatican has been nullified: that there is only one Earth, and it was created by a god.

 

The telescope has so far discovered 207 planets outside our Solar system, ten of which are "earth-like" and called earth twins; with the promise of discovering more. With every new discovery we're getting closer to the 'holy grail' of an Earth-like planet around a Sun-like star, and bring down the fictitious scenario once spread by ancient disciples and their ordained successors. There is no god; no Santa Claus anyway.

Master & Servant

Master and Servant: Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey received Eurozone vassal Sarkozy last week in Istanbul for a humiliating public dressing-down. The press photo tells it all...

 

Concert

Ravel, St-Saëns,Poulenc et Bizet

Grand Corps Malade, Ensemble Orchestral De Paris, Louis Langré and Katia Labèque et Marielle Labèque

Wednesday 21 December 2011 at 8:00pm

 

Théâtre des Champs-Élysées

15 avenue Montaigne
75008 Paris
France

Lofty Figure Skating

A cute Brit/American/SA/French couple will go good-figure ice-skating at the world's most spectacular and exclusive ice rink: 57m above ground, tangled within the metal structure of the Eiffel Tower. Be envious!

Trip

Itinéraire de Noël: 22 au 27 décembre au soeur d'Emily

Political Compass

 

My Political Compass

When it comes down to the nitty-gritty of politics, it turns out I am rather moderate (tame), unlike my reputation and to my own surprise.

Economic Left/Right: 1.38
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -1.54

Try for yourself:

http://www.politicalcompass.org/test

 

 

Eurozone doldrums: Panic in Paris and Berlin

Panic in Paris:
The president of the French National Bank, Christian Noyer, demanded that the UK should be downgraded ahead of France. It's peculiar that a Banque de France executive gives advice to rating agencies.

S&P and Moody's reaffirmed today that the UK's Triple A rating is not under review; however, the eurozone members, the EMS and the EFSF are all under review with a downgrade possible as soon as January 15th.

In the meantime, the IMF has advised Eurozone leaders in a meeting behind closed doors last week to revamp the eurozone and to consider the reduction of the eurozone by 4 or 5 members.

Two weeks ago the IMF discussed a possible break-up of the eurozone with German chancellor Merkel, causing Merkel to adopt a hard line against issuing "eurobonds" - ostensibly in expectation that the eurozone cannot be rescued, and that providing German guarantees for such bonds would be too costly in the probable case of default. Merkel then contacted Sarkozy (December 3rd), causing the Frenchman to quickly abandon his previously vehemently advocating of eurobonds.

EU summit: the losers

EUROZONE TURMOIL: Realizing the downside of Britain's absence from future EU policy making, the EU Commission has formally asked Britain to accept an invitation to "observer status" and to continue to participate in future negotiations. The EU acknowledges the supremely authoritative position of Britain and admits that the Gallic-Teuton rhetoric during and after last week's summit was counter-productive and damaging to Europe.

The change of heart of the EU also follows polls that show severe repercussions for Merkel's CDU and Sarkozy's popularity (-5% and -9%) and a sharp rise of voter support for the Conservative Party (+12%).
So much for winners and losers...

Adieu, Monsieur Président!

Sarkozy's life as president
expires on April 22nd

The latest polls indicate that incumbent Nicholas Sarkozy will finish third on Election Day, punishment for Napoleonesque megalomania in office, abuse in office (for which his predecessor Facques Chirac has just received a 2-year prison term) and subordinating the French nation to Germany in EU-wide plots. Mr Sarkozy is guilty of using state entities (police, Justice and Interior ministries, gendarmerie and several mayors of French towns) to persecute former Prime Minister Villepin who has just announced he would run for president himself.

The poll from December 13:

N Sarkozy, UMP: 19.5% 

M Le Pen, FN: 21%
Borloo, Alliance: 8.5%
D Villepin, RS: 10%
Hollande, PS: 33%
Bayrou, MoDem: 7%
In the run-off between Hollande and Marina Le Pen on 6 May:
Le Pen: 42.5%
Hollande: 57.5%

THIS BLOGSITE SUPPORTS MARINE LE PEN FOR THE FRENCH PRESIDENCY

Avec Le Pen

Loss of a good friend

In Memory of

Elizabeth Cochrane Chinchilla

July 25, 1960 - December 11, 2011

ELIZABETH "ELLIE" COCHRANE CHINCHILLA, 51, of Jackson, passed away on Sunday, Dec. 11, 2011 at Ocean Medical Center in Brick Born in Greenock, Scotland, she came to the U.S. in 1964 and was raised in Alpine and Tenafly, moving to the Jersey Shore in 1999. Ellie enjoyed and loved her time with her three caring and loving children and her two dogs, Heidi and Toby. Surviving is her mother, Agnes Cochrane of Toms River; her sons Matthew and Christopher; her daughter Jacquelyn; a sister Linda Cochrane of Toms River; and loving Aunt to Jenna and Justin Cochrane. A private funeral service and burial was held for Ellie. There will...

ELIZABETH "ELLIE" COCHRANE CHINCHILLA, 51, of Jackson, passed away on Sunday, Dec. 11, 2011 at Ocean Medical Center in Brick Born in Greenock, Scotland.

 

She came to the U.S. in 1964 and was raised in Alpine and Tenafly, moving to the Jersey Shore in 1999. Ellie enjoyed and loved her time with her three caring and loving children and her two dogs, Heidi and Toby.

Surviving is her mother, Agnes Cochrane of Toms River; her sons Matthew and Christopher; her daughter Jacquelyn; a sister Linda Cochrane of Toms River; and loving Aunt to Jenna and Justin Cochrane.

A private funeral service and burial was held for Ellie. There will be a Memorial Service at a later date to celebrate the life of Ellie. The announcement will be posted in January.

 

The family would like to thank the many caring people for their kind and compassionate expression of sympathy at this difficult time. It means a lot to all of us. Ellie will forever live in our hearts.

 

I have known "ellieshere" since 2007 and I shall miss her greatly.

10 Myths about Cameron's Veto

Up Yours, EU!

Article in The Spectator: 10 Myths About Cameron's EU Veto

http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/7471178/ten-myths-about-camerons-eu-veto.thtml

Eurozone cracks

Cracks in the Eurozone: the frontrunner of next year's French presidential election, the socialist Hollande, promises to renegotiate the fiscal treaty of the eurozone if elected (he leads in the polls by 18% ahead of Marine LePen and 20% ahead of incumbent Sarkozy. And my dark horse, former PM Villepin has just entered the race, making sure that Sarkozy loses his office.

The winds of change are sweeping through the fractured eurozone.

Thorny truths and sour grapes

Part of the reasons for the ostensibly displayed irate of central Europeans over Britain's "Thanks, but no thanks" attitude for more British contributions to the EU is sheer envy. "How dare they, preserving their own AAA rating and tackle the fiscal problems assumed under Labour on their own - without 'advice' and interference from a Commission in Brussels, while we are forced to goose-step behind the Gallics and the Teutons?"

It's peculiar when people suggest that the Eurozone bloc would solve Britain's fiscal and debt problems, when the eurozone is on the brink of collapse and bankruptcy, and the EU caused many financial problems in the UK in the first place. Under 13 years of Labour, net immigration to Britain was 1.8 million, stretching public finances to the limit.

Eurozone blame game

As European media level criticism on Britain for "refusing to rescue the euro" one needs to remind the idiots that Britain is not a member of the eurozone and has not caused the dire crisis in the eurozone, nor was a rescue package for the euro subject of last night's debate at all. On the table were French-German plans to curtail London's financial clout and to undermine free market philosophies, and to plan for additional new debts to cover for old ones.

Britain, in a staunch pro-Europe stance, signed up to Croatia's ascension to the EU as of July 1, 2013.

Unibrow distrust

A few months before introduction of the euro, the German then-finance minister Theo Waigel lectured Britain:"Do you want to be reduced to another Switzerland, on the periphery of the new Europe with a currency succumbing to speculation?"

On January 4th 1999 the euro traded at CHF 1.6070; on August 1st 2011 it was down to CHF1.0950. Since then the Swiss National Bank (SNB) and the ECB have spent $1.6 billion to defend THE EURO. It took the Swiss Government's decision to fix the rate at CHF1.20, and its stated threat to use up to $800 billion to defend that benchmark.

Eat your words and shut the fuck up for all times, Theo!

11th summit at the 11th hour of 2011

Eurozone-I:

Broad failure from the 11th summit of 2011, as the euro crisis has not yet even been discussed in the overnight meetings; the 17 members only settled to amend eurozone criteria by March 2012, delaying the immediate actions demanded from the markets.

The leaders ominously fail to grasp the urgency of the crisis. The main attack from Berlin and Paris against the City of London and its financial supremacy in Europe imploded as the British PM refused to sign up on restrictions on the free movement of capital and the imposition of a punishing financial transaction levy.

The summit is a summary failure and it casts even darker clouds over the sustainability and future of the eurozone.

Return of the Bling Panther

The hope of Europe

Eurozone: of clowns, buffoons and other idiots

Enter the face of your favourite eurozone leader

The public spat between the "Anglo-Saxon capitalists" and the Gallo-Teuton revanchist axis has reached a new climax: befuddled by the perpetual woes within the eurozone, the Gallic leader Sarkozy, in his convincing role as populist simpleton, blames now Anglo-Saxon capitalism for the financial crisis.

That's as daft as it is curious: for it was the satanic axis in the first place that pushed for eurozone entry of highly indebted nations, supported accounting tricks and outright fraud to make them appear as qualified for membership, allowed more excessive debts at lower interest rates, awarded them with a common currency and permitted their own banks to lend to Greece, Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Belgium and Spain like there was no tomorrow!

Now is the time of reckoning: "haircuts" - the figurative yet nebulous term to disguise multi-billion losses for investors and banks - lead to the debtor nations in tatters and the lenders hairless (to continue the figurative speech). It's only natural that the Axis powers huddle at the line of scrimmage, blaming with panic and in rage the markets and referees (the rating agencies) for the consequences of past sins during the forced forging of the eurozone.

And so the string of "summit" meetings in the financial Bermuda Triangle between Brussels, Berlin and Paris continues, with the next one, starting tomorrow, promising to be nothing else but just another lollapalooza of hysteria, clownery and clueless buffoonery.

S&P warning to eurozone

After the downgrade warning from S&P, Europeans are licking their wounds.

In first reactions several government leaders whince that S&P do not recognize the latest French-German rescue plan for the eurozone. Which plan? I am diligently following news coverage and government cables around the clock, but haven't discovered any hint of a cunning plan, other then Sarkozy abandoning his past demand for eurobonds, caving in to the German chancellor (and to reason, for once).

It is the EU's familiar "Shoot-the-messenger syndrome":

The chieftain of a miniscule tribe in central Europe, JC Juncker from the Luxembourg theme park (490,000 visitors during opening hours), calls the credit rating warning "excessive and unjustified, as the eurozone is in the midst of sorting out its problems." And he added with a quip: "One must not take the rating agencies seriously, and not to give them more credibility than they deserve."

Oh really?? It may be inconvenient for the schemers of a European master-plan, but the threat of adding $2 Trillion more in debt and disguise that as a plan to "sort out the debt crisis" can only fly in the wonderful world of Oz, but will not convince anyone in the real world.

Where are the concerned demonstrators that burn down Brussels and other eurozone capitals, and hang their leaders, who fire-sell countries to the lasting detriment of future generations?

Mapping Death

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15975720

Map of British traffic fatalities between 1999 and 2010

Euro-Trash

Napoleon's Mini-Me, Nicholas Sarkozy, proclaimed a week ago:"Euro-bonds are the only way to bolster the eurozone." The same dwarf, as host of German chancellor Merkel, stated this afternoon: "Eurobonds are in no case a solution for the euro crisis."
And these morons are surprised that markets punish them, the media ridicules them and the electorate chases them out of office as soon as it has the chance?

Merde, notre frère Jacques (Delors)!

Alzheimer's or being truly contrite about past euro sins?

Who knows what possessed former EU chief commissioner Jacques "Phuck" Delors to state in today's Daily Telegraph that "the eurozone is inherently flawed" and to express doubts it may survive in a complete reversal of his past claims while he was EU commission president.

This from a man who pushed most fervently for unqualified Greece, Portugal and Ireland to become eurozone members, who accepted the grossly corrupt fashion in which qualification criteria have been watered down and accommodated to accept the lagging economies, and whose commission was the most crooked and tainted mis-managed public body in Europe since Caligula ruled in Rome. It is most peculiar that a man of such dubious credentials feels now that he can lecture today's European leaders on how to solve the eurozone dilemma.

"Prodi to the rescue?"

Pro-Euro? When one of the most vocal voices in the line of defense for the eurozone, Germany's DER SPIEGEL, has to ressort to print an interview with disgraced imbecile Romano Prodi, you know how futile the attempts to rescue the euro have become!

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,800351,00.html

Musical Goose-steps

LMAO! History bites!

Midas Touch

There is justice after all:

Three wealth managers who live in one of the richest cities in the US have won a lottery jackpot of $254m (£163m). Greg Skidmore, Brandon Lacoff and Tim Davidson, from Greenwich, Connecticut, won the 2 November Powerball draw after buying a $1 ticket.

World's Greatest Cities

In response to Mercer's 2011 list of most liveable cities of the world I came up with my own Top-15, based on cities I have either lived in or have repeatedly visited over the years:

1. Vienna; 2. San Francisco; 3. New York City; 4. London; 5. Seattle; 6. Geneva; 7. Paris; 8. Lisbon; 9. Sydney; 10. Nice (France); 11. Zuerich; 12. Singapore; 13. Duesseldorf; 14. Montreal; 15. Prague

http://www.mercer.com/knowledgecenter/reportsummary.htm?idContent=1128060

Euro death row

Office News:
in a presentation today I called the break-up of the eurozone "unpreventable at this point and unavoidable in the very near future." Reminiscing over the first business cycle since the euro introduction I described it as "an entirely half-baked, economically reckless and contradicting basic yet fundamental economic rules, politically ignorant and illegitimate enterprise, gone terribly yet predictably awry."

Little Britain

Shrinking Britain: our office predicts Britain to experience flat (zero) growth for the 1st half of 2012 and critical budget deficit; today's Autumn Statement of George Osborne in the Commons will be closely watched; fears that after 13 years of Labour assaults on Britons, the economy is in a state of disrepair.

SOS! M&S in Paris!

I thought to have left all bad memories of Brit cuisine, culture and style behind me. But no, one of the top brands of low Britishness, the food & produce dispenser Marks & Spencer had to make a return to Paris! Blasted, goddammit!

Top-notch in Britain means sub-par in Paris

Even though the French rightly scoff at British cooking and fashion, the retailer still reckons defiantly that Parisians are yearning for its disgusting ready-made chicken tikka masala, repulsive "gourmet" chutney and sensible knickers in the style (and often of the size) of tableclothes. And so the veteran British retailer opened a flagship store on Paris’s Champs-Elysees on Thursday after a decade’s absence from French soil, bringing the taste and feel of Britain to a city that sees itself as a world capital of food and good living. As if!

Emily was there (not to buy anything, of course) and thought that 90% of the lost souls there spoke English, American, Nigerian or English English accent...

I always considered the "M&S" logo as some sort of cry for help, sort of an SOS for famished souls....

SWIFT JUSTICE: The Pope and Traffic

SWIFT JUSTICE: From time to time I pass judgment on prolific legal cases. The latest is the case of a German who filed a complaint against Pope Benedict. The reason? During last year's visit to Germany the pope did not use safety belts when he crossed towns in the "Popemobil."

After careful deliberations I have come to the conclusion that the Pope is exempt from traffic laws and enjoys diplomatic immunity. The complaint is therefore frivolous and will result in sanctions against the German complainant. I therefore sentence the civilian for abuse of the legal system and waste of state resources to

a) 20 lashes;

b) a fine of $3,000.00;
c) a psychiatric evaluation;
c) a suspended sentence of 30 days in jail;
d) 50 hours of communal work, to be served at the discretion of the Roman Catholic Church; and
e) 30 Our Father and Holy Mary prayers, audible to 5 court appointed witnesses.

APPEAL AGAINST THIS JUDGMENT IS NOT POSSIBLE

Brit women Europe's fattest and ugliest

UK women are 'fattest in Europe'
The UK has the highest ratio of obese women in any country in Europe, according to European Union figures.
The BBC report proves me right: I have always claimed that Brit women are fat hags and wenches, with shit for brains and raised on fat and lard. And they are the ugliest wenches in the world.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15901351

The ANC Hoodlums Strike Again

The ruling ANC pushed through parliament a "secrecy law" that effectively muzzles the media in South Africa to a worse extent than Communist China, Belarus or Burma. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Nobel peace laureate, said: “It is insulting to all South Africans to be asked to stomach legislation that can be used to outlaw whistleblowing and investigative journalism ... and that makes the state answerable only to the state.”

Sports Affiliations

With the frequent relocations in my life came (and went) a string of sports franchises that I have/had interest in. In soccer, past fanship included Austria Vienna, 1860 Munich, AS Monaco and Cosmos New York (all history for me), lasting sympathy for Fortuna Duesseldorf, Werder Bremen and Chelsea, and the newly emerged fanship for Paris St-Germain (PSG). Guess what, David Beckham is bound for PSG in January, that's the rumor buzzing along the Seine these days.

 

And finally, there are the teams I will always dig: US Football, the best team sport there is, and my fingers are crossed hard for the San Francisco 49ers and the New York Giants each season. What a joy it is to be a 49ers fan nowadays: yesterday they annihilated the Cardinals for the 8th straight win. San Francisco (9-1) could wrap up the NFC West with a win at Baltimore on Thursday and a loss by Seattle against Washington next weekend. So I wish for both, to my daughter's muted delight...

Gaddhafi - Hang 'im 'igh!

The most vicious of the Gaddhafi offspring has been captured today; hoping for a speedy trial (in Tripolis) and a date with the hangman for Saïf.

Posted via BlackBerry

Rennes, Dear!

Emily suggested to take a w/e trip to Rennes, kinda a spur of the moment idea. So, off we go, returning tomorrow evening. Bon weekend to all!

Euro oder Krieg?

Die praepotent penetrante Behauptung - vor allem in Berlin, Paris und Wien propagiert - dass ein Auslaufen der Eurozone zu einem erhoehten Risiko fuer den Frieden in Europa fuehren muss, zeigt allenfalls eine kaum noch verschleierte traditionelle Lust auf Krieg, und Ignoranz wirtschaftlicher Realitaet.

Die Welt von Tokio, Peking, Moskau bis Washington nimmt heute zur Kenntnis dass manche Regierungen in Europa sich selbst so einschaetzen, dass oekonomischer Zwang zur Selbstaufloesung der Eurozone unweigerlich erhoehte Kriegsgefahr aus diesem Europa mit sich bringt.

Dies werden London, Washington, Peking und Moskau bedenken muessen wenn sich die EU aufschwingen sollte und einen Staendigen Sitz im UNO Weltsicherheitsrat verlangt.

Haute culture

http://www.france24.com/en/20111116-lulu-gainsbourg-from-gainsbourg-to-lulu-serge-charlotte-l'eau-a-la-bouche-camille-ilo-veyou-eve-jackson-en-culture

Benetton's Kiss

Sealed with a (French) kiss -

Pope and Imam

Mocking the eurozone

The involuntary joke of the EFSF:
When the vehicle [EFSF] that is supposed to borrow on behalf of countries that can’t borrow, can’t borrow, then that pushes the crisis into an even more dangerous phase. The first attempt to find investors of just $4bn for the EFSF failed miserably last week as global investors shunned the market, accompanied with ridicule and mockery for the ECB, the EU commission and the French-German axis.

The dramatic deterioration of the ability to raise funds of some eurozone countries continues as yields of government bonds climb to new record highs today. Italy's 10-yr bond yields rise to 7.21%, Spain's to 6.43%, Belgium's to 5.03% and France's to 3.77% currently.

Northern Rock becomes Virgin Money

I applaud to the successful sale by Chancellor George Osborne of Northern Rock to Richard Branson's Virgin Money for £747mn ($1.17bn; SFR 1.08bn). Under the leadership of the Conservative Government part of the taxpayers' contributions have been recouped, and the condition placed to keep the headquarter of the new bank (and 3,000+ jobs) in Newcastle.

Neo-Nazi Blatter

Seppl Blatter, the infantile Swiss-German megalomaniac FIFA chieftain with the pomp of Congo's late emperor Bokassa, should not be afforded with the nicety to resign from his post, but chased out of office with sickles and instruments used during the Spanish Inquisition's dungeons. The buffoon, who claims there is no racism on a soccer pitch, during a week when six such incidents make headlines in Britain, beggars belief. And not a handshake, as Blatter advises us, but criminal investigation and prosecution should deal with such racism. But how would Blatter, a sponsor in the past of neo-nazi groups in Germany, be a source of reason and logic? I hope he gets run over by a truck today.

Eurozone doldrums / -2

It is most peculiar and absurd that some eurozone governments applaud and rejoice over the fact that two of its members are now governed by unelected officials who both oversaw and sanctioned the demise of their economies as EU commissioners to begin with.

The current cost for 7 eurozone countries' sovereign debt, based on 10-year government bonds (Bond yields over 6% are perceived as unsustainable):

Greece 32.25%; Italy: 7.13%; Portugal: 8.61%; Spain: 6.35%; France: 3.70%; Belgium: 4.93%; Germany: 1.83%

Eurozone doldrums

The eurozone is quickly descending into a crippled and dysfunctional entity, shunned by investors and ridiculed by outsiders. When rating agencies started to downgrade member states because of the reckless scale of indebtness, the EU began to lambast the messenger instead of reminding its members to abide by the rules set up to protect the eurozone before its creation in the first place.

The bond market, as the ultimate judge on the insane and chaotic measures taken by EU officials, pummels sovereign debt of eurozone members, going beyond Greece and Italy now. Within days the whole eurozone will be dragged down, with bond prices (and therefore the cost of new debt) soaring and making the survival of the eurozone impossible. Just as I predicted back in 1991...

Alpha-Giants 49ers

Wow! Wow, wow, wow!

 These "Niners" of 2011 are blasting their way to the play-offs in a style not seen since 1997. Thanks to Jim Harbaugh, who did wonders already in Stanford, the 49ERS have their lead in the NFC with a record of 8-1 set in stone. Yesterday's game against the Giants was stuff reminiscent to the times of legendary Joe Montana. After a 10+ year draught, this fan can jubilate again, week after week.

"Two-speed" eurozone?

While the latest realization of European "leaders" to consider at least a break-up of the eurozone is commendable in principle, the delusions and megalomania of cohorts in Berlin and Paris continues: to label the eurozone as a Tier-1 Europe, and nations outside of it as Tier-2 Europe reminds of past Teuton plans to carve Europe into pro-Reich and a hinterland to provide cheap labour and raw materials. To box countries like Switzerland and Norway as Tier-2 countries, who could buy up the eurozone 10 times over, shows the full scope of pathological madness that still has a firm hold on Germans.

In 1991 I wrote a dissertation on the then yet to be created eurozone. In it I argued that a core of 4 or 5 compatible economies should be ganged together, allowing new members to subsequently join as their economic progress merits it.

It took 'leaders' from France and Germany until November 2011 to arrive at similar conclusions, but only after sinking the continent into a slow growth, multi-Trillion blackhole. The damage in financial terms on the continent has been greater than World War 2 since then.

Let's follow other pipers than Murkyel and Narkozy!

événements à venir

Nov 15

Oh Land
Venue: La Maroquinerie, Rue Boyer, Paris


Nov 22

The "Horses and High Heels" Tour /
Marianne Faithfull + Doug Pettibone
Venue: L'Imprèvu, Saint-Ouen l'Aumone

Cozy under a China/EU flag

AT the failed G20 meeting in Cannes, communist China told its EU comrades of the precondition for economic aid and funds for the rescue fund EFSF (European Financial Stability Facility). Freed of any moral scruples and doubts, the EU leaders will find it easy to accept Chines hegemony in the Far East, issue an arrest warrant for the Dalai Lama, support China in the Tibet issue, support Chinese efforts to annex Taiwan, accept China's foreign exchange regime, support China's political aspirations on the African continent to secure raw material resources, allow China to enslave 25 million Africans, accept Chinese claims of Japanese islands and hoist a new EU flag.

Burning the Soviet-EU flag

The financial nonviability of the eurozone is topped by the immorality of its leaders. They are not ashamed to ask for help of "unlimited resources" from the IMF, an organisation designed to help ailing and emerging economies in the Third World, and to beg for hundreds of billions of dollars from IMF member states such as Brazil, South Africa and China, at the expense of countries such as Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and the Congos.

We will participate at noon in the Jardin du Luxembourg in the event to burn the EU flag, and all it represents.

G20 held captive by French and Germans

Member states of the SovietEUnion must be bewildered as Germany and France have usurped all decision-making and unilaterally determine the fate of its members.

When Greece decided to hold a referendum over its future within the eurozone, horror and fury broke loose in Paris and Berlin. Today, without consulting any other member state of the eurozone or the SovietEUnion, the leaders forced Greece into surrender: "if Athens decides to leave the eurozone, the Greek nation will also be expelled from the SovietEUnion. Faced with the abyss, the Greek PM caved in and cancelled plans for any referendum.

On the sidelines looms Italy, to sink into bankruptcy within six months...

Cameron warning to G-20 on "Tobin" tax

PM heeds advice to oppose "Tobin" tax

Presentation to Chancellor on October 18 bears fruit
ERS

David Cameron has poured cold water on proposals – backed by the buffoonish Archbishop of Canterbury who dubbed a transaction tax as a “Robin Hood tax”  - to be levied on financial transactions, claiming that some European countries were merely backing the levy as a way to wriggle out of their commitments to increase overseas aid.

Mr Cameron will make it clear at the Group of 20 summit in Cannes on Thursday that Britain will not support a tax unless it is implemented at a global level – something which is highly unlikely to happen because of opposition from the US, Canada and some Asian countries.

The levy – sometimes also wrongly called a Tobin tax – was endorsed on Wednesday by economically unaware and uneducated Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, in a Financial Times article. He cited dubious guesses that it might raise more than $400bn globally each year for aid projects and boost the “real” economy. As if!

Greek Plebiscite on Euro Membership

Shock, dismay, revulsion - these are the sentiments amongst the leaders of the euro zone after the Greek PM decided to - quelle horror! - ask the Greek nation to vote on the rescue package forced down on Greece last week.

Once the reflex of condemnation of the PM's decision eases, the leaders should rather feel shame and embarassment over their own actions in the past  of either ignoring the electorate when it made the "wrong decision" (such as France) or denying the population the right to decide (as in all other of the 17 member states). Greece effectively became the fig leave of the euro zone's stripped down derivative of democracy.

EU Travesty #2,326

I think it is a travesty that euro zone leaders are desperately looking at communist China with a per capita annual income of $4,000 for an emergency bail-out, while the per-capita income in Europe is $38,000.

 

Let alone the peculiar proposition to "invest" in the euro zone, when just barely a week ago many investors saw their investments cut by $62.00 for each 100 "invested."

Halloween Parisienne

Halloween à la Paris, this will be interesting.
Emily drummed up a gang of six others (making it 4 pairs) to celebrate Halloween on the ice of the Pailleron. She also got us costumes, transforming me quite fittingly into a henchman (carton ax included) while she thought a blood soaked Queen Mary, especially around the neckline for added dramatic effect, will be my perfect consort for the ice-capades tonight. The best costume will be rewarded, so I think I will add some more blood to her gown. Maybe I use the ice skates later today...

7 Billion

The media report that the "7 billionth earthling" was born today, and they show pics of babies in China, India or the Congos to prove their point.

Whereas I have irrefutable evidence that the 7 billionth arrival was in Tasiilaq, Greenland, population 1,923 (2010 census).

Bonjour!

After countless (musical) eye-openers from the missus, I am happy to return the favours and provide for concert tickets of my own. I'm happy I obtained tickets for the brilliant Alternative band THE BLACK KEYS from Ohio on January 25th at Le Zénith. We also look forward to their new album El Camino to be released early December (I believe on the 6th). Last year's album Brothers contains the single "Everlasting Light," the best song of 2010 in my book.

La Vie en France

Vivre comme un coq en pâte!

Nous habitons à Paris, Ile-de-France maintenant, juste entre le Jardin du Luxembourg et le Jardin du Plantes

EU Travesty #2,322

European banks, many in dire shape, will be forced to bolster their balance sheet by $150 billion, according to the "big plan" of German and French leaders. How will banks be able to do that when they will also be asked to "voluntarily" write off more than $100 billion of Greek debts, face increases in taxes and face the imposition of a Tobin (financial transaction) tax and a EU tax to finance the non-producing infrastructure of the European Union?

Sarkozy numpty

Shut the fuck up, Monsieur Sarkozy! He said he was "sick of reading in newspapers about advice Mr Cameron and his Chancellor George Osborne were offering the eurozone." At one point in the exchanges, Mr Sarkozy told Mr Cameron: "We are sick of you criticising us and telling us what to do."
AS THE EU PLANS CHANGES TO THE TREATY TO SPREAD THE BURDEN OF THE CATASTROPHIC STATE OF THE EUROZONE, ALL 27 MEMBERS OF THE EU HAVE THE RIGHT AND DUTY TO PARTICIPATE IN THE DEBATE TO SAVE THE EURO!

Fuck Scotland

Scotland's inferiority complex ridden chief thug Alex Salmond tells London that "the days when the British Government can tell Scots what to do are over." It's time that London tells the Scots that the days when the tribal reservation can expect the annual aid package of £12bn delivered are definitely over.

Libyan Mob - Our Ally?

Our Allies? The PM of Libya says that Muammar Gaddafi died in crossfire between NTC troops and gangs loyal to Gaddafi. The videos show a different story: it was a mob lynching. After sobering up from yesterday's frenzied blood orgy we should ask some hard questions and start a credible investigation. We have been cheated of a trial and possible execution of the former dictator.

EU aims at rating agencies

"Shoot the messenger, eh?"

The EU, spooked by weekly downgrades of banks and sovereign debt, plans not to rectify the pitiful state of its finances, but rather curtail the rights and scope of rating agencies. Yet another push for investors to leave Europe.

It's yet another chance and argument for Britain to ignore, opt-out and shun the EU.

Lynching of Despot: Who's Next?

Feeling jittery already, Mr Assad?

Muammar Gaddafi, shortly after being pulled from a hole in the ground

Escapees' Escapades

About 50 tigers, lions, bears and leopards are on the loose in Ohio...

GOP-smacked

GOP gobs: "Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" The prophetic words of US President Ronald Reagan (remember the time when a president was still presidential?) resonated throughout the world, echoing around the Kremlin until eventually the Soviet empire crumbled with the same finality as the Berlin Wall disappeared, are in stark and curious contrast to the message from 2011 Republicans who advocate a 1,200 mile long double fence between the US and Mexico. Strange, that!

GOP gifts for Obama

Election Tremors:
Thanks to CNN, the Southern involuntarily funny Comical News Network, I was able to watch a "debate" among the Republican hopefuls for 2012. What a bunch of loonies, moderated by a completely out of his depth newsman Anderson. Except for former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, the rest of the band are just a hilarious incarnation of daftness and utter lack of dexterity. Sadly, the GOP is Obama's trump card to four more years in the White House.

The What-the-Fuckers on CNN





This felt like the 88th debate in two weeks between the Republican candidates and it’s only the second. Lord.

The CNN Tea Party Republican Debate rolled into Tampa, Florida on Monday night. The much-hyped contest featured the eight Republican candidates for the presidential nomination: Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman, Herman Cain, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, and Ron Paul.

As with all Republican debates, there was enough WTF in the room to go around. But this time they were in front of a Tea Party audience. They added to the fun with local Tea Party groups being asked questions via satellite also.

Here are some takeaways from the debate:

• The candidates love to debate the whole Social Security/Medicare topic. They took extra time to hammer Rick Perry over his “Ponzi scheme” comment about Social Security in last Wednesday’s MSNBC debate.
• Herman Cain - the Republican fig leaf and alibi negro - should not worry about making English a national language. He doesn’t speak it well now with words like “Chuh-lay-un” (Chilean) and “Nine-tuhn aye-tuh won….” (1981).
• Before the Republican National Convention, Mitt Romney and Rick Perry went  to rip each others ponytails off like school girls. They delve on going at each other.
• Rick Perry has a smart mouth but not the brains to match. He needs to tone that down before Wolf Blitzer or one of the candidates pops him in the mouth.
• Michele Bachmann - a "mini-me" of Sarah Palin minus the sugar high animation - is clearly at home in front of the Tea Party. She rambled on about “Obamacare” and she was off running. She even increases her volume on the topic.
• Mitt Romney is not going to lightly back down to Rick Perry. Call him what you want, but Mitt is in it no matter what the polls say.
• Rick Perry is NOT America’s next public speaker. He is easily taken off course, angers quickly, and takes several seconds to get back on track. He doesn’t have the ability to retaliate with speed against his opponents. It makes him look sort of dumb and drowsy.
• The back-and-forth between the candidates about the mandatory HPV vaccine in Texas was classic. Michele Bachmann, in particular, tore Rick Perry to shreds and ate him A-LIVE on national TV.
• Ron Paul might remind you of a drunk uncle. But, he was telling the honest to God truth about these "long, illegal wars we are in." He also got boo’ed pretty firmly when he said that the American government provoked its attackers prior to 9/11. He buried his chances right there and then. ::whistles and looks out the window::
• The candidates don’t know how to attract the Latino vote ahead of the erection of an electric fence between the US and Mexico. Rick Perry holds the most credibility on this issue, strangely, and none of the others are touching him by a longshot on it. His state of Texas is on the U.S./Mexican border. Duh.
• Candidates are eager to blame the Federal Reserve communist-style(!) for our financial problems. But, they acted like these mega-banks (their pimps) don’t exist and overlook their complicity in the problem.
• The uninsured facing catastrophes might as well die under Ron Paul-Kevorkian. In a straw man argument, he totally killed off a 30-year-old that couldn’t afford insurance and got sick.

• Overall, the candidates are debating the same issues with the same boring talking points. It’s the delivery, not the substance, that provides the few interesting moments for me.

Winner(s), in my opinion:

• Michele Bachmann for her tenacity
• Mitt Romney with his substance and common sense answers

A disilliusioned Conservative

Counting Down

COUNTDOWN 
- 09days:21hrs:09mins

Sarkozy & Obama in 2012

Prediction:
What have the French Socialist Party and the GOP in common? Both will field a candidate in next year's respective elections that will fail to unseat the incumbent presidents: in France Nicholas Sarkozy will benefit from the torn and bickering party that just selected Francois Hollande as its standard bearer, while Obama appears to be secured in his bid for a second term thanks to the Republican stalemate over boring, indecisive or fervently extremist candidates. Most peculiar!

Seeds of Greed

Protesting greed?
The weirdos in rags who soil and destroy a park in Lower Manhattan these days are curiously out of step with reality in their perceived protest. Ten years too late, they coincide with austerity programmes around the world, splitting up of global banks, an onslaught of new restrictions and limitations of corporations and the realization that the "greed" they lament was mostly displayed by tens of millions of consumers - especially in the US - who heaped debts upon themselves they can't pay off. These protests are irrational.

BlackBerry Dead End

"Good bye BlackBerry Way, I can't see you, I don't need you, good-bye BlackBerry Way..." a refrain from Sixties group The Move.
And that's the way it is, with my barely one year old BlackBerry not-for-use mobile phone. Fuck it, drop it, bin it, eh?!

Two votes against Obama

Last night's vote in the US Senate to condemn China for its foreign exchange regime is foremost a bleak assessment of lawmakers on Obama's impotent foreign policy. To heap insult on injury for the prez, the Senate also voted down his $447 billion economic programme. A double-whammy for a man widely dubbed as incompetent and daft.

Work Update

I get daily reminders that my work is coming to an end: cut off from projects that spill beyond October, I also received word today that I have to surrender my Parliamentary Pass on October 21. Last day at City Hall is October 25. One-way ticket on Eurostar booked for October 27.

NO to funding Gaza Strip

Cutting Gaza Strip off from US funding: I hope Congress decides to cancel the $500 million transfer to Hamas and PLO in the coming days. Calling these organizations rightfully "terrorist groups" on the one hand, and secure massive payments each year to them on the other, can hardly be reconciled with a consistent and principled policy.

Dr Liam Fox addressed Parliament

Brilliant performance by Dr Liam Fox in the Commons this afternoon; the Labour hoodlums trying to hound him looked utterly stupid, immoral, surreal and - impotent. The British public, the electorate, have banned Labour from government, and we could witness today why.

More shame on the ANC

Is it moral high ground, as they so often claim to walk on, that the ANC did not allow Peace Nobel Prize winner Dalai Lama to visit fellow Award Winner Bishop Desmond Tutut to visit on his 80th birthday? The ANC hoodlums again demonstrate their vicious and opportunistic nature and appease to communist China. Utter shame!

SWIFT JUSTICE / Amanda Knox

SWIFT JUSTICE  

My long-running albeit irregular column on famous court cases features today Amanda Knox, whose appeal of a 26-year prison term for murder will be decided within days in Perugia. Back in 2009 I already gave this
VERDICT:
Guilty of involuntary manslaughter (a charge she rejected and was sentenced for murder in the trial) /
MY SENTENCE:
32 months in prison.
Sadly, the appeal has to be squashed now and Miss Knox will spend at least 24 more years in prison.

European Dis-Union

State of Dis-union:
When chief commissioner Barroso holds what daft Europeans call a "State of the Union" speech (another copycat ploy from the Americans) this Wednesday, it will be an exercise of infantility, imbecility, incompetence, ignorance, ridicule, self-flagellation and head-in-the-sand cluelessness. It's a sure "10" on the Vomit Scale!

Jag

Roaming London...

No PLO State

I oppose vehemently statehood for Palestinians. Hamas, a globally recognized terrorist organization, would hold the reigns of power in such a ill-conceived stae, closely alligned with terror regimes of Iran, Syria and Yemen. Deprived of measurable means to sustain itself economically, a PLO state would also immediately become a basket case, totally depending on hand-outs from the EU and aid organisations.

Those Arab nations who call today for the creation of a Plaestinian state today have in the past exercised brutal persecution and forced expulsions of Palestinians from their own territory. It's the sort of scheming, back-stabbing, spitting and double-crossing attitude Arabs are renown for best.

Across the Tyne

Millennium Bridge, Newcastle-upon-Tyne

Newcastle Wail

At the Great North Run in Newcastle this morning,
cheering on 3 members of our London team!
Good weather, even!!

Posted via BlackBerry

NEW YORK STATE OF MIND

I'm in a New York state of mind. Nothing bad will happen today in New York. Those cowardly thuggish desert rodents who attacked ten years ago are gone, and their psychopath missions won't be repeated in a place prepared to strike back. They are only after the innocent, the unsuspecting, the unaware, the defenseless. Today New Yorkers are too prepared. I'm in a New York state of mind.

Commemorating is so much easier this year, knowing that the chieftain of Massmurder &Co cannot enjoy the amenities of a European prison cell under the auspices of a International Court Of Justice in Holland, hot showers and Cable TV included, but had his head recently cut in two by bullets from some US law enforcement.

Yeah, I'm in a New York state of mind.
Current Music: CARMEN McRAE  -  New York State of Mind

Before 9-11

Before 9-11...

Two dates are etched into my memory: my date of birth and September 11th.
It doesn't matter if it were the 1st, the 10th or the umptieth anniversary of that fateful day in 2001. The pain never stops, good memories nearly edging out but never completely succeeding to destroy them: I did enjoy good times, so many of them, at the Windows On The World, the top notch eatery and bar way up above Lower Manhattan. I have been a Friday evening regular there when I worked just a stone's throw to the south.

The weekend will be solemn, in the presence of a loved one. She too has connections to the WTC: as an intern with CNN, when they were still located on Ground Level.

The picture I posted was the view from WOTW down on the World Financial Center; on 9-11-2001 both disappeared.

Sacrebleu!