Comments on: Back from France

By: Pierre Igot

Pierre Igot — Mon, 14 May 2007 01:29:06 +0000

jking: I get my French-language news from France via TV5. :-) Québécois TV is unwatchable as far as I am concerned… More generally, I really do not watch much “journalistic” TV anymore. It is indeed very depressing, and quite puzzling. It’s almost as if pictures and thought are incompatible. There are exceptions, but they are few and far between. What frightens me is that so many people rely only on TV for “serious” news. It does make you wonder where democracy is heading… (In case this isn’t clear, I am not talking about deliberate manipulation, of course—only the mind-numbing uselessness of most TV reporting. Every time I see a news report on TV, I have dozens of important questions that are simply left unanswered. Journalism should be so much more than just showing pictures of people and stuff. Yet, that’s what most TV “journalists” seem to be doing.

ssp: There will probably be new laptops soon. Maybe the rumoured “subnotebook.” But I don’t anticipate major changes that will suddenly make the current laptops obsolete. And like I said, we definitely do not want to be early adopters this time anyway. It is much more important to us to have a machine that operates quietly and reliably. Based on my experience setting up a couple of MacBook Pros for other people and on what I have read online, the 17″ MacBook Pro looks like the surest bet at this point in time. Thanks for the offer for the “8″ key, but the problem is more serious: The space bar is really becoming unusable, and the whole keyboard would need to be replaced.

By: ssp

ssp — Sun, 13 May 2007 21:55:24 +0000

Don’t you think there should be new MacBook Pros soon? They seem so overdue. And I keep telling my dad to not buy a new computer just yet as I thought the should be out by summer.

I might be able to get you a (white, iBook) 8 key if you still need one. At least that’s how I solved the problem of a key or two on my TiBook going astray.

And yup, that Sarkozy thing looks a bit creepy :/

By: jking

jking — Sun, 13 May 2007 21:04:08 +0000

I don’t generally pay attention to foreign politics, and I am only vaguely acquainted with the nodern French systems of politics and governance, but your account certainly does make me believe that journalistic atrophy is, if not a global problem, at least one that plagues many mature democratic states. The complete lack of professionalism evidenced on RDI, some parts of CBC and especially CTV both depresses me and completely frightens me—not to mention what I see on the few snatches of American broadcasts I see. I’m glad I at least reside in a province where we have real political debate; the political climate in Quebec is downright backward—and good luck getting French-language news (and especially debate) from any other province in any meaningful amount from Radio-Canada. :(

As far as political coverage focusing progressively more on personalities, I’m hoping we will ultimately avoid plunging head-long into that sort of thing, much as our bankrupt journalists may try. Since the head of government is not directly elected, political debate will hopefully continue to revolve more or less around policy. I hope, anyway. :)

By: Pierre Igot

Pierre Igot — Sun, 13 May 2007 18:58:01 +0000

I know my accusation is a bit harsh, but it’s just my way of saying I find him very creepy. I guess that ultimately we’ll have to judge him on what he does during his term. But he’s been around for a while, in positions of significant power, and his lack of respect for the working class and use of the immigration card for political purposes are rather sickening.

I seriously doubt that he’ll achieve even half of what he says he wants to do, simply because he’s such a divisive figure that I don’t see how he can get the support that he would need for that. You don’t fix unemployment by accusing unemployed people of cheating the system.

It’s this “us vs. them” attitude that makes me feel that he would have been on the wrong side in the context of a conflict such as World War II. But of course I’ll never be able to prove this… It’s just a gut feeling.

By: iLux

iLux — Sun, 13 May 2007 14:17:03 +0000

About Nicolas Sarkozy : the only French president who was an actively know collaborator was François Mitterand. I don’t like him too, but I guess that accusation was a little too…I don’t know…

About the media : nothing to say. The coverage of the campaign’d have been hilarious if it wasn’t that serious.