Where do you get yours?

[YesNo]

Martin Scorsese admitted that he stole the idea of the dancing girls from Citizen Kane.
The UK parliament voted in favour of war with Iraq on the basis of a highly dubious intelligence report. However, Sadam Hussein wouldn't allow a second UN inspection, and that played into the hands of the pro-war factions.
The French didn't support the USA stance on Iraq but their attack on Libya in unison with the UK would later undermine any support for their non-compliance with the USA's attack on Iraq.
Although very powerful press barons might have played a decisive role in the decisions of governments, ultimately, it's the politicos who send in the troops.

So Scorsese ripped off Orson Welles! I'll admit for a fraction of a second, I thought it was the other way around, but then I realized which movie was older.

I remember prior to the start of that war watching cars going by carrying small US flags flying from the windows. I remember people telling me the Iraqis were hiding the WMD in their back pockets leaving just before the UN inspectors arrived. I remember people telling not to eat what we call "French fries" (which I think you refer to as "chips") as a protest against the French because they did not support the coalition. But I agree it ultimately was the politicians rather than the press barons that caused the trouble.

L'Express is in the local library so I've started reading it off and on. France is far enough away from me that the news doesn't seem real. I did find out that Carla Bruni was a former first lady of France and I have started listening to her music.

[prendrelemick]

L'Express is in the local library so I've started reading it off and on. France is far enough away from me that the news doesn't seem real. I did find out that Carla Bruni was a former first lady of France and I have started listening to her music.

This is sort of post that I just find astounding - the world we now live in now. Where you can pick up a French newspaper in Chicargo, or (as I did recently) download a letter from the Pope to King Edwin of Northumbria written 1200 years ago, with no more effort than scratching my nose. When I was a lad, Halifax (8 miles away)was as far as I knew. Now I can chat to my brother in New Zealand about nothing, whenever I like. And information! Its all there to be had at a whim. The trouble is the internet disseminates ignorance as well as knowledge.

[Emil Miller]

L'Express is in the local library so I've started reading it off and on. France is far enough away from me that the news doesn't seem real. I did find out that Carla Bruni was a former first lady of France and I have started listening to her music.

L'Express is pretty good and I had it on subscription for a couple of years. Carla Bruni is said to be a singer of sorts but I have no wish to hear her. Sarkozy had a penchant for pop singers and footballers among his circle of friends, hardly the kind of people that Jacques Chirac would have cultivated but although a certain intellectual acuity goes a long way in French politics, Sarkozy seems to have done alright without it.

[YesNo]

I have been listening to Bruni's "Little French Songs". It was in the library. Her voice isn't as pleasing (to me) as Celine Dion's or those two in the Brigitte group, but "J'arrive a toi" is pretty good and she wrote it herself. What French singers do you listen to? Or is it only news?

Intellectual acuity isn't something I expect from politicians. I assume they appoint others with those skills.

[YesNo]

This is sort of post that I just find astounding - the world we now live in now. Where you can pick up a French newspaper in Chicargo, or (as I did recently) download a letter from the Pope to King Edwin of Northumbria written 1200 years ago, with no more effort than scratching my nose. When I was a lad, Halifax (8 miles away)was as far as I knew. Now I can chat to my brother in New Zealand about nothing, whenever I like. And information! Its all there to be had at a whim. The trouble is the internet disseminates ignorance as well as knowledge.

The internet is worse than any newspaper as far as spreading ignorance goes, but it does force one to be critical. I grew up on a farm in Indiana. I don't recall reading anything except for school assignments. The TV and radio were the windows on the world. Even if I got 8 miles away, there was nothing much there but more farmland.

[Methinks]

That's right, most popular news sources (maybe since the invention of newspaper) are a joke. I ignore the news, except for obvious headlines that alert me to tsunamis and other obviously non-fabricated items of interest. Otherwise it's just sensationalist hogwash.

[Emil Miller]

I have been listening to Bruni's "Little French Songs". It was in the library. Her voice isn't as pleasing (to me) as Celine Dion's or those two in the Brigitte group, but "J'arrive a toi" is pretty good and she wrote it herself. What French singers do you listen to? Or is it only news?

Intellectual acuity isn't something I expect from politicians. I assume they appoint others with those skills.

I had never heard of Carla Bruni until she married M. Sarkozy but the French singers I prefer belong to an older generation and this is arguably the best chanson of them all: it's certainly one of the most famous and was writen by the singer Charles Trenet, whose recording knocks spots off of all the others.

https://youtu.be/fd_nopTFuZA

Intellectual acuity isn't something I would expect from US politicians and neither from those in the UK, but several members of the French National Assembly have been notable academics.

[YesNo]

Yes, Charles Trenet's "La mer" is wonderful.

[fleamailman]

(the goblin thought it best to revive this thread and return to topic too, by saying "...if it's in the news then if probably isn't news, but instead it's those olds together with the distractions and half truths that placate the masses into not questioning the given line there...", in fact, the goblin preferred youtube where the debates upon youtube had dared say and show that which the news couldn't relate, saying "...if you need a qualification to be a journalist, moreover if you need a broadcasting license to relate the news too, then isn't that ample reason why not to follow the news but to pre guess it by youtube...", and yes, youtube was not the truth neither, only that freer to relate that which the authorities were hiding...")

[YesNo]

Welcome, fleamailman! I'm one of the gullible masses. That's my official excuse for not reading the news: I'm too impressionable. The truth is it bores me. Like sports.

[prendrelemick]

... and I've reached the shouting at the telly age.

[fleamailman]

Welcome, fleamailman! I'm one of the gullible masses. That's my official excuse for not reading the news: I'm too impressionable. The truth is it bores me. Like sports.

("...ah now, the truth will catch us unaware if one is not aware of it first..." replied the goblin who could have lived quite comfortably with the news coverage as it were had there been no internet to refute it utterly, sighing "...alas I'm my soapbox would collapse under the weight of my own conjectures if I were to relate them here, but on youtube I like the keiser report and gerald celente amongst many others now...")

[Emil Miller]

The media are able to shape public opinion to their own ends because the general public are too busy getting on with their own lives or
they are simply not interested in pursuing the truth about a given news item.
A good example occurred in the French business paper Le Figaro two days ago. The front page headline was 'The New Germany stirs up
Europe': this was in reference to the 25th anniversary of German reunification and its emergence as the most powerful economy in the
EU, even to the point of leaning on the other members.
Page 2 was given over to a resumé of Germany's economic dominance despite certain reservations among its neighbours.
On page 22 there was another article about how Portugal is turning the corner because of the programme of austerity enacted by the
government.
To the untrained eye, these are simply news stories but Le Figaro is the businessman's paper and, as elsewhere in Europe, the
manufacturers are pro EU.
So despite the problems of Greek debt, the VW scandal, the illegal mass migration from Africa etc and the consequent disillusion among
the French populace, the main reason for these articles is to convince people that Germany is strong enough to keep the European project
afloat.

[Clopin]

How come Germany, regardless of its current political stripe, is constantly Hell-bent on destroying Europe? I mean seriously.

[Emil Miller]

How come Germany, regardless of its current political stripe is constantly Hell-bent on destroying Europe? I mean seriously.

Frau Merkel's behaviour in relation to Germany and the EU is highly suspicious. Europe has been enslaved by the Euro to the extent that being in the Euro currency zone, means that its members will do anything that Germany demands in order not to lose the Euro that has infinitely more purchasing power than their former currencies. It's worth remembering that Merkel comes from the former GDR which was a member of Comecon, the last failed attempt at a Pan-European economic union.
Her throwing open Germany's borders to potentially millions of 'refugees' will destroy Germany; not to mention the devastating effect on the rest of the EU .
Stating that the decline in Germany's population requires an influx of people from elsewhere doesn't hold up. After WWII Germany's manpower was decimated but they encouraged Turkish Gastarbeiter to come to the country on a limited stay and that plugged the gap, but the Turks were generally not allowed German citizenship.
A similar arrangement could be put in place now but it seems that she and her Brussel's cohorts are determined to destroy the nation states of Europe.