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Post by Kimby on Sept 22, 2018 23:00:17 GMT
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Post by patricklondon on Sept 23, 2018 4:27:22 GMT
I find it interesting that ISIS attacks Iran. I would have not done so, in order to give the pretence that Iran not being targeted was thus a friend of ISIS. Never a chance of that, given the Sunni/Shia divide, and the not unrelated fact that they chose different sides in Syria. The latter point makes any new rapprochement with the West unlikely, however appalling this attack is.
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 23, 2018 5:39:20 GMT
Saudi Arabia is behind the attack.
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Post by questa on Sept 23, 2018 12:23:22 GMT
Seems that Saudi Arabia is behind a lot of bad stuff going down.
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Post by Kimby on Sept 23, 2018 12:36:20 GMT
Almost all of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudi... So we invaded Afghanistan and Iraq....
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Post by mossie on Sept 23, 2018 15:56:30 GMT
It's good to know who your friends are............the ones with most oil and money.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Sept 27, 2018 21:14:19 GMT
OH worked in Yemen in the 80s on power lines there...in those days there was a rumour that there was loads of oil in Yemen but that the Saudis were paying them to leave it in the ground. Don't know if that's true... OH said that the Yemeni were some of the nicest folk he's ever met, really friendly. It's terrible what's happening there now...we probably sold the Saudi government the arms they're using to bomb them...
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 2, 2018 14:16:35 GMT
I see that the winds of change are also blowing to the right in Québec. Multimillionaire anti-immigration prime minister... Ontario already went to the right in the last election. It looks like Justin Trudeau's days are numbered in the next national elections.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 2, 2018 14:50:58 GMT
I have no one to discuss that with. An old friend who is Canadian is tragically conservative. When Trump was elected and we Americans were wringing our hands and gnashing our teeth on facebook, she aggressively posted on more than one occasion that it was a done deal and we should shut up about it and suck it up. Then along came Justin Trudeau and she responded with onslaughts of hate posts about him. Never told her to suck it up, but did block many of her posts.
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Post by bjd on Oct 2, 2018 15:51:16 GMT
Oh, you can discuss it with me, Bixa, although I only read about it in the NY Times. I don't know anything about the new leader in Quebec, but it certainly looks as though the wind is blowing from the right.
The new head of the government in Ontario is the brother of the former mayor of Toronto, who gave the city a bad name. The brother seems just as awful and has been trying to change things as quickly as possible. He probably enjoys being compared to Trump.
I think Trudeau might be a bit of a disappointment given the expectations when he was elected, but compared to the previous PM, Harper, he is a breath of fresh air.
I guess Lagatta will have something to say.
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 5, 2018 6:19:01 GMT
Apparently the bookmakers are betting on President Moon Jae-in of South Korea and President Kim Jong-un of North Korea to receive the Nobel Peace Prize today. If this happens, I am expecting President Trump to either be outraged for not sharing it with them or else to congratulate himself for being behind it all. Or both.
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Post by bjd on Oct 5, 2018 10:59:29 GMT
Well, they were wrong. I just saw that it went jointly to a Congolese surgeon and a former captive of Isis “for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict.”
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Post by Kimby on Oct 5, 2018 13:12:23 GMT
Praise be! Trump doesn’t need anything else propping up his fragile ego.
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 5, 2018 13:45:33 GMT
Well, in a way, Trump helped opponents of sexual violence win the prize.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 5, 2018 16:13:12 GMT
I think Trudeau might be a bit of a disappointment given the expectations when he was elected, but compared to the previous PM, Harper, he is a breath of fresh air. At first Trudeau seemed to be in way over his head, and in terms of self-presentation he has made a few moves that I could see making Canadians roll their eyes. However, he seems to have been quite poised and effective in the recent NAFTA unpleasantness provoked by the orange bully. I just saw that it [Nobel Peace Prize] went jointly to a Congolese surgeon and a former captive of Isis “for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict.” I can't remember where I first saw reference to this, but it looks as though it would be simultaneously uplifting and painfully hard to watch: www.rottentomatoes.com/m/city_of_joy_2018/
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 12, 2018 17:16:20 GMT
I would think that with all the places you have to go and the different people you have to meet and the all the information you have to have at your fingertips, that you MUST be well organized!
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Post by questa on Oct 13, 2018 0:25:11 GMT
Your social skills....and you have tonnes of them, specially your sense of humour, would let you excel at whatever you do.
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Post by whatagain on Oct 13, 2018 20:26:49 GMT
Hey, thank you ladies !!! I do think sense of humour is a must - at least for me - and is the reason why I am still alive ... and married ! Nevertheless, I could not find a thread about Le Touquet - we should send Kerouac there to make a report, but I post the link to the B&B we went to - for the third time. About the reasons why we go there : - fantastic house - clean, quiet - they have 'table d'hôte' (you eat there - meaning you can also drink, nobody will be driving) - great breakfast (not a strong point in France usually) - they invite kids who suffer from Leukemia to stay for free They are expensive (the 'suite' we slept in was 240 € for one night - but 2 separate bedrooms and one gorgeous bathroom - and we were four of us + dog) www.demeure-hote-haecotia.fr/As one can see, small house ...
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Post by mickthecactus on Oct 13, 2018 20:54:41 GMT
I’ve been to Le Touquet. Lovely place by the sea.
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 15, 2018 16:45:52 GMT
It is the home away from Paris for the Macrons (Brigitte's family home). In fact, she went there by herself for a few days in July after a spat with her husband.
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Post by mossie on Oct 15, 2018 18:13:15 GMT
I have fond memories of Le Touquet, used to have a 'boys day out' there once a year with some work friends. Always involved lunch at Perards fish restaurant which was famous for the soup, always washed down with Muscadet.
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 15, 2018 18:49:56 GMT
Now that my building has been wrapped in scaffolding up to roof level, I feel as though I am living in a cage.
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Post by questa on Oct 16, 2018 8:24:04 GMT
La cage aux folles?
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 16, 2018 13:44:05 GMT
Less festive.
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Post by lagatta on Oct 17, 2018 11:53:02 GMT
Yes, François Legault (new Québec premier) is bad news, though not as off the wall as Doug Ford (Ontario's).
He also wants to clamp down on the new legalisation of cannabis, for one thing trying to raise the legal age in Québec to 21, while the legal age for alcoholic beverages is 18 here. This is really the pits as it would mean young people (the largest cannabis consumers) would continue to be saddled with criminal records for simple possession.
The worst thing about Legault is his utter lack of concern for the environment and support to solutions. While he does advocate greater restrictions on immigration, he is not in the same league about that as some of the governmment leaders in certain European countries such as Hungary, Austria or Italy.
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Post by tod2 on Oct 22, 2018 12:31:54 GMT
I would love to see a photo of your "caged" building Kerouac!
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 22, 2018 14:20:06 GMT
I'll post one soon. I have taken pictures of the evolution almost every day.
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Post by whatagain on Oct 23, 2018 20:30:09 GMT
I googled how many people wear tattoos in France (because I am lazy to check for Belgium and estimate there will be no difference). I found a study dating a few years stating that proportion went from 10 pc to 16 pc in 20 years. Obviously the young are the ones wearing most tattoos. It seems 30pc of them have at least one. More for the girls. And with the trend going up it could very well be 25pc right now. I dislike tattoos. I am not bothered and find some nice but find it completely stupid to get one. It is like in my eyes deciding to wear the same shirt for the rest of my life everyday.
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 23, 2018 21:04:48 GMT
I don't think that quite a few of us "older" people will ever understand the attraction of tattoos. We already don't understand Snapchat or Instagram, which do not even do permanent vandalism.
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Post by Kimby on Oct 23, 2018 21:34:48 GMT
Looking around our local Walmart in summer weather, I have seen that a pretty high percentage of shoppers now have tattoos. (A too-high percentage are also wearing tights instead of pants in spite of being grossly overweight, but that’s a topic for another day.)
When fat ladies in mumus are sporting tatts, it’s time to move on to something else. No longer leading edge...
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