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.