My wife got her carte vitale yesterday in the mail. Finally! We had been waiting since the beginning of July when we went to the securitie sociale office to have it sent to her. They had told us that it would take 10-20 days. But of course it took a little longer. Perhaps they meant 10-20 business days? Or perhaps it was just due to the month of August (the holiday month in France when everyone goes on vacation)?
Archive for August, 2006
Cluster bombs and unexploded ordinance
Cluster bombs. Just in case anyone had any lingering beliefs that the government of Israel actually cared to avoid civilian casualties. Why would it? That would just make it look weak, not serious in staring down threats. Dropping cluster bombs on villages is a good way to show how serious you really are. And the bomblets that don’t explode right away stick around waiting to teach the children a lesson, too.
Anyways, the specious justification that the government of Israel has used for heavily bombing civilian areas in Lebanon is getting pretty old. Let’s think up of some new ways we can justify it:
- Some people might think that the 10% rate of failure it a bit high. Well, don’t think of the 10% that posses a danger because it didn’t explode. Think of the 90% that did safely explode. That’s a pretty good success rate!
…or this
- Of course who can blame Israel for following the exemplary lead of the US in its humanitarian use of cluster bombs. Remember, you can’t have shock and awe without the shock and awe, baby!
… or this
- Little do bleeding heart human rights organizations realize, is that all those bombs dropped on civilians are actually a good thing. A whole new industry of mine and unexploded ordinance clearing has sprung up. For example, now the Vietnamese can exercise their capitalistic ingenuity and turn a profit selling the unexploded ordiance. It’s all good. In destroying Vietnam, the US was actually saving it while helping to cultivate a nascent entrepreneurial spirit, thus defeating the spectre of communism in the longrun…
… naw, that’s too cerebral. The best justification would have to be along the lines of the arguments actually used by politicians:
- When the bad guys will stop at nothing to kill you, why should you pull any punches? You’ve got to get the bad guys before they get you.
It works every time!
weather!
I want to go for a jog, but it’s raining cats and dogs. Il pleut trop forte!
It has actually been quite cool recently. Last night it was in the lower teens and it barely got up to 20 during the day. It’s the middle of August!! This is quite a change from just a few weeks ago when it was in the middle 30’s. It’s been cool ever since we went to Orléans. England was similarly cold and wet, however at least in Paris it has been sunny during the day.
Yesterday evening when I went running, it was in the teens, overcast, and misty. I could see my breath. It was fantastic. It was perfect weather to run in.
… ah! The rain has let up. Time to lace up!
Back from London
On a retourné de Londres.
We skipped all the airport nonsense, thanks to the Eurostar. However, there was a one hour delay leaving from Paris Gare St. Lazare due to a suspicious bag in the station. They had to evacuate people and then blow it up. They were nice enough to make an announcement regarding the imminent detonation. I have been told that they usually blow up unclaimed bags every once in a while.
Although we did literally have to run through several tube stations to catch our train back to Paris, after we spent too much time watching the royal guards prance around the outside of Buckingham Palace. Somehow we were able to fly through immigration and make it onto the train just moments before it departed. We then had to walk through 17 cars to get to our seats, almost the full length!
To London!
We’re off to London. It’s a good thing that we aren’t going by plane. It still looks like a disaster. We had some friends come from the States yesterday who, fortunately left for Paris just before they would have gotten caught in that mess. Anyways, we’re thankful for the EuroStar!
Various problems getting things done right in France
Living in France during this past half a year we’ve pretty much experienced all kinds of administrative problems. Most of the problems I haven’t blogged about, however, we’ve had plenty of problems.
Problems. Problems with the bank. Problems with getting an ID. A small problem with the carte de sejour. Problems with the apartment. More problems with the apartment. Lots of problems with the apartment. Problems with the phone. Problems with the post. Problems getting our carte vitale…
Now we are back to another problem with the bank… Never before have we had any troubles like this neither while living abroad in the States nor while living abroad in Japan. We’ve almost grown accustomed to expecting things not to work the way they are supposed to work.
Burnt car
Last night my wife’s sister arrived in Paris. We were walking back from dinner and we came across this:
Wow, what a sight. Even more so because it caught us by surprise: A burnt out car, right there in front of us, parked on the streets of Paris, with cars in front and behind. Almost everything in the car had been completely consumed by the blaze, except for the metal frame. It had been recent. The leaves of the trees overhangning the street were still singed and a faint smell of burnt rubber wafted from the car. I noticed that there were deep bootprints in the asphalt next to the car, perhaps from the pompiers after the fire had died down.
Submission
I submitted my abstract for a conference coming up this fall. I hate writing abstracts. Even this short one took a good two and a half days to write, and the end result was nothing like what I started with. However, I really do enjoy this particular annual conference. Not only are there plenty of interesting presentations on the latest research, but it is also a nice chance to catch up with old colleagues and acquaintances.
…I just hope that I can get some financial support for the airfare. Flying from Europe to the States just isn’t anywhere near as cheap as flying within the States.
cat blogging
“Cat blogging”. Many bloggers do it. Posting gratuitous pictures of their cats on their blogs. Now I am about to do it for the first time, though it isn’t our cat…
Here is a curious little kitty peeping into our apartment. She peeped in two nights ago and again last night. We’ve never seen her before. Where is she from? We hope that she isn’t lost or abandoned.
