Sunday, June 12, 2011

12 June 2011: News of the day

Reading Le Parisien, a bit late:

Former Minister of Education, "philosopher", media whore Luc Ferry thought he would get some nice media luvvin by accusing, without naming him, a "former minister" of being caught in a pedophile orgy in Morocco. Alas, it just brought attention to him, and not in a good way. Among those taking note of Lucky Luc was his employer, a university president, who sent him a letter reminding him that he was in theory a university professor, but that he hadn't been doing any actual teaching.

To try to cover the story, the Prime Minister's office decided to cover the cost of his salary, because he was in theory working for a commission under the authority of the Prime Minister.

Alas for the Prime Minister, that has people wondering just what this fictional commission was supposed to be doing. France has any number of commissions created mainly as make-work schemes for friends of the powerful, for politicos who lose a race, or to quietly get people to go away.

In 2003, Eric Woerth, minister of the budget (who has since resigned over suspicions of illegal campaign finance... it finally occurred to Sarkozy that having your minister of the budget be the treasurer of your political party could raise some questions) said he would reduce the 650 commissions by half. There are now nearly 800 of them.

Here are some: Committee for Prevention and Precaution, Consulting Committee on Household Packaging Waste, Committee for the Polar Environment, National Committee for the French Initiative for Coral Reefs, Consulting Council for Amerindian Populations, Committee for Industrial Mobilization, National Committee for Intensive Calculation, Permanent Consultating Committee on Oenology, and a great double play: The National Council for Associations and the Council for the Development of Associations. There's also the National Council for Facilitation, or the Strategic Committee for Modernization. Luc Ferry's was the "Council for the Analysis of Society".

Luc Ferry says that it's a PLOT, a CONSPIRACY by his ENEMIES!!! He says that this council, which he presided, did important things! Like writing the law on volunteer firefighters, and the civilian service for young people. (That's all he was able to come up with.)

Ferry also claims he would LOOOOOVE to return to teaching, but he's such a celeb that the security would be impossible to manage.

The Socialists are pouting because their "friends" on the left, the Communists, aren't helping them organize their semi-legal presidential primaries.

Although it's the Left that has the tax-and-spend reputation, I have the feeling the Right is even better. They're still pushing for another day of slavery to pay for old people. The PM who let those old people die in the heat wave says the French still have too many days off.

The MPs are still putting pressure on Air France to buy Airbuses rather than Boeings. Idjuts.

In an article about the human-milk-producing cloned cow, the journalist manages to claim that this cow produces human antibodies which are so useful for babies' health. Um, no.

It's in the middle of the paper, but DSK still gets a page, with a big article on Tribeca and the stars that live near DSK. Also, DSK has the support of our doddering rocker national Johnny H.

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