Hmm. Looks like the French are at it again.
A shame really, that a nation with a culture like France should fall into relapses of this violence every few years. I suppose, that's the price you pay for the society of moochers which has always been the end product of socialism.
Unfortunately, this has always gone hand-in-hand with the idea of "liberty". The combination of the two has never been pretty -case in point: the French Revolution.
While the NAACP in the US is claiming that banks unfairly targeted black home-buyers with easy credit, a new study conducted in Germany and Eastern Europe has found that fully 5% of German 15 year olds is a neo-Nazi, with larger numbers in the far-right of German politics.
This is why I hate the detractors of America pointing to Europe as an example of racial equality: beneath the clean exterior of European statism, a huge amount of social tension still exists in the continent. In parts of Britain and France, huge numbers of Muslim immigrants live in huge ghettos that the police won't go into, where Islamic violence spreads -almost all Islamic terrorist attacks in Europe are carried out by Muslims who've lived there their whole lives in the countries they hate. In Germany and Eastern Europe, neo-Nazism is on the rise amongst teenagers and young adults, with the accompanying crimes*. In Russia, the situation in Chechnya is all the proof of racial tension in Putin's new USSR.
With racial tensions as bad as they are in Europe, perhaps race relations have in fact improved the most in that most racist of nations, the USA?
*from the article: "Government figures have shown anti-Semitic crimes rose at the end of last year."
Situated by the River Seine in the heart of Paris, the Eiffel Tower symbolizes the ingenuity and technological progress that was being made in the 19th and early 20th Centuries. Over 500,000,000 (!) people have visited the tower since its completion in 1889 -which makes it 118 years old, with over 6.7 million people visiting the Tower in 2006 alone.
Designed by Gustave Eiffel, the Eiffel Tower is the tallest building in France, 115 metres higher than the second tallest, Tour Montparnasse. The Eiffel Tower was built for the Paris World's Fair, held in the same year as the Tower's completion, to celebrate the French Revolution. Like so many other famous structures, a lot of criticism was directed at it for some time. Eventually, the Tower caught on and became the world-famous structure it is today.
The Eiffel Tower weighs 10,000 tons. Although it doesn't have any "floors" in the conventional skyscraper sense, the tower sports a restaurant, and two observation areas. The Tower took only two years and two months to finish.
So much for being the favourites in the tournament-the All Blacks were kicked out of the Rugby World Cup by the French a mere few hours ago, in the Quarter-finals, making our ending on this RWC the worst so far. Damning stuff.
Luckily, the next World Cup will be hold right here in NZ (although I'm kind of worried about the capacity of our stadiums, as they're rather small compared to what you get overseas). Because of that, I think we should be able to finally win again.
Until then, we'll just have to get over the recent loss. Although the referee should be fired.
BTW, did anyone see French President Sarkozy in the crowd?
"I am at the head of a state that is in a position of bankruptcy. I am at the head of a state that for 15 years has been in chronic deficit. I am at the head of a state that has not once passed a balanced budget in 25 years. This can't go on."
That was the statement that French Prime Minister Francois Fillon told farmers on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica, who (surprise, surprise) were demanding more government money. Mr Fillon is going to announce the French budget for 2008 next week, which will have a fine deficit of €41.5 billion. Already, France has not had a balanced budget since 1982.
The black hole of Socialism is determined to keep France the most dysfunctional state in the West, and one of the most dysfunctional states in the world.
A French left-of-centre newspaper, "Liberator" (they obviously don't know what the word actually means) called jogging "an individualistic, self-centred activity". If that's what the French left think of exercise, I'm surprised they're not all overweight slobs. Perhaps exercise involves too much thinking?
There are a lot of things I like about France-the language, history, landscape and culture to name a few, but I absolutely HATE their politics.
