Escape from Paris: we’re off to Orleans for the weekend.
Archive for July, 2006
Get them to stop doing this sh*t…
Note to Israel:
Total destruction. Bomb bridges, roads, powerplants, television and radio stations, cell phone transmitting stations, factories, farms, bomb sheltering civilians, ambulances, fleeing civilians, anyone, everything, and everyone, whatever moves. Don’t hesitate! No excuses… Oh and by the way, cluster bombs are especially effective. Remember, the best targets are the ones that can’t defend themselves and those that no one cares about (hint: the poorer the better!).
Don’t forget that when you are doing things that some may consider as not nice, third party neutral observers are not a good idea to keep around. It’s best to take them out, too. Afterall it’s a war and accidents will happen, including convenient accidents. Of course everyone will know what you did, but as a bonus you get to play the victim of vicious accusations when they find out. It’s always best to play the victim.
I am sure that there are some who might say that hundreds of thousands displaced, rendered homeless and even more destitute without food or clean water, out of a population of 3.8 million is a big deal… Just ignore them! Refugees, heh! Oh, and if anyone ever criticizes you for targeting civilians, just say that the cowardly terrorists are hiding behind and among civilians. It’s the best excuse for indiscriminate destruction. Buzz words like collateral damage work wonders to justify all kinds of stuff! Remember, you must dehumanize whoever is on the business end of your bombs. It works every time!
…Oh, I give up. Can’t you at least be honest about it?? When the vast majority of your victims are civilian, why even pretend to be concerned for civilians? After all, every time they end up injured or killed in massive quantities or their livelyhoods destroyed isn’t it such a hassle to keep doing all those mental gymnastics justifiying it? Does anyone with access to information believe you anymore? But I guess that access (of lack thereof) to information is exactly the point. It’s not expected to be believed by anyone on the outside. Propaganda is a heck of a tool to get people to let their government get away with anything.
La fin du Tour de France
We went to see the last stage of Le Tour de France today. It finished up in the center of Paris with eight loops up Rue de Rivoli to the Place de la Concorde up to the Champs-Elysée, the Arc de Triomphe, and around the Jardin des Tuileries on the south side and back up Rue de Rivoli. Here’s a shot of the riders coming up Rue de Rivoli. We also got some shots from the Champs-Elysée, though that was more crowded.
It was crowded, but not nearly as crowded as the 14 Julliet celebration. That meant that we were both able to get a peek at the action while keeping both pairs of our feet planted on the ground. Though most of the time our view was obstructed by other spectators. By the time we arrived, the best unobstructed view would have probably been to go inside of Jardin des Tuileries and to look through the fence which is high enough off of the street to see over the crowd of onlookers lining the sidewalk.
Congratulations to all the riders!
Le Tour
…That’s Le Tour, as in Le Tour de France, not to be confused with La Tour, as in La Tour Eiffel, or La Tour, as in Georges de La Tour, the famous French painter.
This year the tour might not have been as interesting since the top finishers behind Lance last year we all banned this year due to doping concerns, but at least that opened up the field to other riders. However, this year another American, Floyd Landis, is in a position to win the tour, which is amazing because he will have to undergo hip-replacement surgery after the tour.
It’s too bad that Lance Armstrong retired after winning the tour last year. We would have loved to go to see him finish up the tour on the Champs-Elysée. In any case, we’ll go to the Champs-Elysée Sunday to watch the finish of the race.
French news casters
「フランスのニュース・キャスターが皆セクシーだね」と言ったのは僕の妻です。僕もそうだ思う。化粧をしすぎるアメリカなのと違って、フランスなの方がおしゃれだと思う。服装が全然保守的じゃないと言う訳でしょうか。もっと自由に服装が選ぶことができているので、あんまり化粧をしなくても印象がかけれる。今、夏なのでタンクトップもしている（おしゃれよりセクシーだね）。保守的じゃないといえば、男の人のニュース・キャスターも結構派手な服を着ている。ちょっと前、意外に蛍光ピンクシャツをしていたのを見た。まじで本当に蛍光だった。
il fait chaud
It’s summer in Paris and there’s no airconditioning. It’s hot.
Il fait trop chaud et il n’y a pas souvent des salle de climatisation.
暑い！暑くてパリには冷房がほとんどなくて扇風機しかない。
Impunity
This is what my tax money pays for: death and destruction.
Which countries can get away with massively bombing civilians and civilian infrastructure with essentially nothing but impunity? There are only two in the world. The number two is currently going at it.
… I hope that Israel is careful not to ever get on the bad side of the U.S. You see, Israel, all of these really nasty things that you are doing now have a way of coming back to haunt you should the U.S. ever decide that you should suddenly lose that coveted favored nation status. Just look at Hussein, the Taliban, Noriega, or any one of the former favorite dictator/despotic regimes. You may be held accountable for all those abuses of the civilian populace one day. Yes, one day billions of dollars of military support, and the next day, bam! No more impunity: Regime change, ’shock and awe’ style, baby!
こんなひどい事は僕がアメリカ政府に払わせる税金なのですよ。世界中、こうゆう一般市民に対する攻撃をお咎めなしでするのは二ヶ国だけだ。今二つ目のは他国を攻撃やりつつある。
ça commence
Ajourd’hui était ma premier cour de la langue Française à Alliance Française.
Actually, the instructor did not show up. We had to send someone to the information desk to sort out the situation. A substitute (maybe? we’ll never know…) came after 30 minutes. Not a good sign? We’ll see. It wasn’t all that bad after that.
Peut-être c’est un peu simple mais bon practique pour moi. donc, ça commence.
Solde
Today we went to “les soldes”. Sales in France are only allowed during a set time period. This one started at the end of June and continues for a month. During that time there is typically a 30-50% reduction on many items (shoes, clothing, etc.). … of course this just brings the normally astronomical prices down to something the could conceivably be considered reasonable…
A sampling of what we got…
Shoes for my wife:
Q: How many pairs of shoes can a girl have if she only has two feet?
A: Never enough!
A mosquito net:
Finally a defensive barrier against the dastardly mosquitos at night! Though we haven’t been having much trouble with them lately since we’ve been using katorisenkou (蚊取り線香), mosquito coils.
A spare judogi:
On sale at 16 euros, cheap!! It seems ok, but I just hope the stichings don’t fall apart after the first use…
When we got home we realized something funny… How did we end up with more stuff for me than my wife??
feu d’artifice
Next up on this 14 Juliet are fireworks from the Eiffel Tower. We’ll go out to eat with some friends and then stake a claim on the Champs de Mars.
…more to come!
Updated with some pictures of the spectacle:
