"Prime Minister Tony Blair admitted during an interview this week that he has smacked his children, though only because he believed reports that they were carrying weapons of mass destruction."

Many people will use this terrible tragedy as an excuse to put through a political agenda other than my own. This tawdry abuse of human suffering for political gain sickens me to the core of my being. Those people who have different political views from me ought to be ashamed of themselves for thinking of cheap partisan point-scoring at a time like this. In any case, what this tragedy really shows us is that, so far from putting into practice political views other than my own, it is precisely my political agenda which ought to be advanced. Not only are my political views vindicated by this terrible tragedy, but also the status of my profession. Furthermore, it is only in the context of a national and international tragedy like this that we are reminded of the very special status of my hobby, and its particular claim to legislative protection. My religious and spiritual views also have much to teach us about the appropriate reaction to these truly terrible events.

one of the favorite topics of discussion on conservative blogs was the inevitable crash of the euro in favor of the mighty dollar. Most of this had nothing to do with any thought about economics but instead a general association between perceived penis size of your country and the value of its currency

"So let's give another big tax cut to the super-rich. That'll teach bin Laden a lesson he won't soon forget."

"There is a tragic flaw in our precious Constitution, and I don’t know what can be done to fix it. This is it: Only nut cases want to be president."

It's full of the 'turtle neck' Anglophile French men who only pounce on the women once their men are in the loo

From about 380 kph, vibrations in the train became more and more noticeable. At 490 kph passengers started to get slightly dizzy. At 540 kph it became difficult to remain standing up despite the stability of the train.

"Some members of Congress are thinking about impeaching President Bush because he is adamant about not withdrawing troops. What are the odds of that? That's pretty ironic -- two presidents in a row would be impeached for not pulling out?"

THE NEW REPUBLIC deeply regrets its early support for this war. The past three years have complicated our idealism and reminded us of the limits of American power and our own wisdom.

In the end, this struggle will be over the difference between a largely intolerable outcome and a completely intolerable one.  This magazine has long advocated deploying U.S. power to halt the mass slaughter of innocents. Saddam Hussein distinguished himself at the mass slaughter of innocents: About this, there can be no dispute. Yet, in this case, we supported an invasion that has led to the same savage result.

Any surviving GOP members of Congress can stop worrying about going to jail for selling their vote, because nobody will want to buy it.

But are they right to hang Saddam Hussein, of previous good character, for a first offence? Will the death penalty deter other people from committing genocide? It will be egg on face time if they string him up, then it turns out they got the wrong guy.

Anton Oliver wrote of English 'arrogance' and 'hubris', and of the 'opprobrium' heaped by the Twickenham crowd on some of his Kiwi mates. All Black hookers traditionally have a rich and colourful lexicon when it comes to their colonial overlords, but in the short history of blogs by their number, rarely can 'hubris' and 'opprobrium' have enjoyed each other's company.

In your story about the secrets of French politics you choose to describe the daughter of Francois Mitterand - without quotation marks or irony - as 'illegitimate' and a 'bastard'. Apparently these terms were used in your article because President Mitterand was not married to his daughter's mother. The parents of half the children born in New Zealand today are not married. Most of the children are nevertheless very legitimate to everyone born since the nineteenth century. And unless they edit newspapers, perhaps they don't deserve the other term either.

"The French are becoming lazy people who don't want to work. But they shouldn't decide for those who are eager to earn their bread and sweat for it."

there are 12 countries in Europe alone that smoke more than France. 40% of the Greeks, 37% of Austrians and 27% of Europeans overall smoke.The French: between 25% and 20%, depending on the source.

"We have to prevent this wildcat outsourcing...The capitalists have to be frightened."

By failing to distinguish clearly among the overlapping security threats presented by rogue states, nuclear proliferators, and supporters of terrorism, Bush helped bring his own nightmare to life.

a "major communication effort" on enlargement

Women may have a reputation for demanding lengthy foreplay, but they become sexually aroused as quickly as men, according to a new study

Not when I'm around they don't.

young boys are simply not good enough at aiming, and the point was to have a pleasant toilet that could be used by both boys and girls.

"The Senate has voted to approve the building of a 700-mile fence along the 2,000-mile border of Mexico. This is what happens when you let President Bush do the math.

"With Tony Blair, we have already had one European leader serving the interests of the Americans in Europe. We don't need a second one with Sarkozy."

"My diplomatic position will not consist of going and kneeling down in front of George Bush."

Le Monde, voice of the leftish establishment, and a Radio France commentator, wondered whether France might be reaching the end of a 45-year cycle in which it has defined itself through its opposition to the United States. 

When I shopped around the arguments against homework, I discovered that how you feel about it depends a lot on what you think kids will do if they don't have any.

"It's nice to learn stuff....No it's GOOD to learn stuff. With the maitresse [teacher]. I like it because then it's all quiet. Also IU like it becasue I always make it good."

A poll taken on August 29 and 30 shows that 47% of respondents prefer her as the Socialist Party candidate. Although this marks a slight decline from polls a week earlier she maintains a strong lead over all other candidates. Her closest competitor, Lionel Jospin (loser, incompetent, dreary) receives 21%, Dominique Straus-Kahn 16% (wide boy, economics professor, best of the rest), Jack Lang 12% (lunatic former culture minister, weirdo), Laurent Fabius 9% (Rainbow Warrior bomber, cynical untrustworthy looks like he has closet sexual confusion) and François Hollande 8% (dull, like hospital paint is dull. Politically flabby. Party leader).

an economic culture that penalises work; the failed integration of African and Arab immigrants; and a dysfunctional system of government.

In the last 20 years, he writes, France has plunged from sixth to 17th place in the country rankings of GDP per inhabitant; social expenditure has shot from 20 to 33 percent of output; unemployment is stuck at near 10 percent; and more than half of workers earn less than EUR 1,500 (1,885 dollars) a month.

he again praises the US system of "affirmative action" - which he says has allowed millions of black and Hispanic Americans to enter the middle-class. "Positive discrimination is an experience that could inspire us," Sarkozy writes.

"Well, of course, when you cut taxes, government revenues go up. Why couldn't I see that before?"

Slovakia got hothouse economic growth and a surge of foreign investment that has turned it, against all expectations, into the automotive manufacturing center of Eastern Europe. But it also saw sharply increased inequality in income and wealth; and while unemployment went down, the jobs created were mostly available to the young, the urban, and those willing and able to pick up stakes. Jobs may be going begging in the capital, but a few hours west, on the Ukrainian border, the unemployment rate is over 25%.

Study and learn the Code de la Route. This is the huge and diabolically difficult body of knowledge everyone in France has to master before getting a driver's license. It includes things like a sign with a bicycle facing left versus a sign with a bicycle facing right, and the dates of opening of mountain passes.

"the Marxist fingers go click and the working class dreamers will awake from their slumber."

The French economy isn’t actually in trouble. Growth, although not great, is ticking along, inflation is controlled, unemployment is higher than the UK but lower than Italy or Germany, and the demographics ... look a lot better than many other countries.

a two-speed economy; a core of high productivity, highly globalised but also highly labour-protected industries that you really don’t want to compete with (think Alcatel-Lucent, nuclear power, high-speed trains and AXA), and a crappy small business sector that tends to combine poor social protection with worse productivity

"It annoys me when France is portrayed as an awkward, backward country. It is not."

I will never employ any device with a digital count-down. If I find that such a device is absolutely unavoidable. I will set it to activate when the counter reaches 117 and the hero is just putting his plan into operation.

I will never utter the sentence "But before I kill you, there's just one thing I want to know."

I eschew all so-called personal development, instead dying under the premise that, when I'm a biodegrading mess of worm feed hopelessly buried beneath a fathom of dark earth, being able to type 70 words a minute really won't do me a modicum of what you so ignorantly refer to as "good."

Your picture feels incomplete to me. Formwise, it's a staticky blue cloud hovering in space. There's nothing dynamic about it. You didn't even push down on the crayon very hard, so there isn't really any depth of color.

"Who will look after the children?" (Laurent Fabius)

"The presidential race is not a beauty contest." (Jack Lang)

"Je suis la!."

"Today's youth don't have dreams, they have illusions."

No food without politics. No politics without food. Vive la France.

There were many forms to fill out in what became known as Dossier 52219220. One form confirmed, reasonably, the cancellation of the trip. Another, again reasonably, was the original bill for the ticket. Another, beginning to shade into the unreasonable, was a letter from his new employer testifying to his hiring. Then he had to supply his salary, his insurance with his employer, his expense account qualifications and his "compulsory payment for fixed-term contract."

At one point, the cops were lined up long, fifty in a line, standing wait. In front of them was a deep row of open space. Herb, drunk and laughing, walked straight in front of them, and started to put on hero poses, flexing his muscles. He has the build of a stringy professor. He started to wiggle around and Gary flew in front, miming photographer motions. They were isolated. The crowd grew silent and, while Herb and Gary put on a show worthy of Blow Up, the cops became increasingly agitated.Finally, one of them stretched out and pulled Herb’s hood, throwing him down on the ground. They wrestled briefly until the cop managed to pull out Herb’s flask of gin, pouring it out in front of him and the watching public. Herb stood alone with a smile on his face. He shoved his hand in his pocket, searched for a moment, then pulled out triumphantly his backup flask of whiskey. The crowd roared with laughter and Herb skipped gaily back towards us.

An ardent defender of the French tongue, Chirac said he had been "deeply shocked" to hear English on the lips of the Frenchman in a speech at the two-day European summit.

"I was deeply shocked that a Frenchman would speak at the council table in English," he told journalists, explaining for the first time his abrupt walkout when the summit opened on Thursday.

"That's the reason why the French delegation and myself left so as not to have to listen to that."

I was discussing, with a Parisienne student today, the nature of the recent violence and crime associated with the protests (the group of people who came in to beat people for their cellphones) and she said it actually made her scared. She felt that a boundary, the unspoken boundary of the Periph, had been crossed. The violence and crime associated with disaffected youth from the suburbs had finally breached the barrier.Which, in turn, made me realise how the protestors are those who will have access to jobs in the higher eschelons, and that their protests are not recognised by young uneducated thugs precisely because they don’t even see this kind of future as possible. Which in turn brings me to the CPE. It was created to help ease employment situations among the discontented and discouraged youth of the suburbs. Is fighting against the CPE then a means for the privileged class to remain privileged?

"It's warm outside, the sun is shining and you can walk around in your shirtsleeves. In fact it's too hot to wear a jacket outside."

"Those nude branches lining the rues and the avenues are flickering with spring. We are in the uncertain weeks between overcoats and suncream, like Island Bay any week of the year. In the parks, busy gardeners dress more stylishly than any casual visitor in suits of gleaming green trimmed with thick silver bands, tuned perfectly with their trucks and their trolleys."

"This is the most devastating cyclone that we could potentially see on the east coast of Queensland for decades," Mr Pagano told reporters in Brisbane. "There is going to be destruction - we are very certain this cyclone will not peter out."(Residents) should be really considering about evacuating any low-lying areas ... that may become mandatory in the future."

New Zealand Post made $34.7 million after tax in the six months to December, largely as a result of rapid growth at Kiwibank. ...The result was driven by Kiwibank – which contributed a $5.4 million profit.

"discounting by the three major beer companies - DB, Lion Nathan and Independent Distillers - had caused the latest price drops."

"overwhelmingly in favour of retaining the tradition of wearing full academic dress for examinations."

"Just because you are 40, I'll be 41 at the next Olympics, doesn't mean you are down and out."

Australian workers really hate suckophants

The two women, both named April and with the middle name Dawn, lived in different parts of Fairfax County and dated 22-year-old men. Now, both women have been charged in separate murder-for-hire plots with trying to have those boyfriends killed, police said yesterday.

Italians have unleashed their most powerful weapon: pure sex appeal. How gorgeous is this car? Imagine the languid flanks and silky thighs of an Italian starlet — say, Monica Bellucci — minus the flimsy sundress.

National Police Chief Michel Gaudin said on Tuesday the decline showed France was "getting back to normal".

"Japanese Princess Sayako, the emperor's only daughter, quit the world's oldest monarchy and married a commoner, setting out for a new life at age 36 as a middle-class housewife. Sayako quit her job as a part-time bird researcher and, under a now controversial tradition, loses her imperial status by marrying a commoner."

The parents of a Palestinian boy killed by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank have donated his organs for use in Israel, in the hope of promoting peace.

"Tomorrow let him love who has never loved; he who has loved, let him love tomorrow."

"All the politicians care about are laws for homosexuals and all those immoral things. They are against headscarves, against beards and against the mosques."

"Patenting is in the works for a non-alcoholic fermented beverage that smells and tastes like coffee but has the body of beer."