Hot air

Dear all,

Stuff is good. Here is a photo of us trying to sell orange juice and drying laundry to our neighbors. Work is going well for both of us; Virginie has decided to no longer take care of kids and move over to working with handicapped and old folks. We will go to Frank's County this week, where Ray and Colette live.

I am so arch-conservative, that I don't have writer's block, I have pre-eminent writer's block. I think of super things to write when I'm in the car, then, even before I get to the computer, I forget. Arch-conservative...like Bismarck with his pre-eminent war...and pre-eminent social security.

Bismarck gets a bad name in American history classes for being that guy who started all those wars, among them the Franco-Prussian War(1870), the precursor to WWI. What he also did was start social security for Germany, which included, at the time, Alsace-Lorraine.

Fast-forward to 2006. When France talks about its social security woes, they don't mention Alsace, because it makes everyone else look bad. Alsace is the only region in France (maybe the only one in the world) whose social security is in the black and making money! There is generally less fraud and people lie less about being sick to avoid going to work, as opposed to the rest of France where it's rather commonplace.

Caveat -- Social security puts huge restraints on 1.)businesses and 2.)paychecks, two market-type things that make America great. So no, I'm not advocating what America should do, I'm just saying how cool Alsace is compared with the rest of Europe.

Speaking of the rest of Europe, what's up with these Lebanese soldiers that might be sent to the Lebanon-Israeli border?!?!? If the UN had done its job, maybe Hezbollah wouldn't be dancing around in the vacuum that is Southern Lebanon. If Chirac wants his immediate ceasefire, all he has to do is send the troops that he doesn't have to go and not disarm Hezbollah. Unifil...hmmm, sounds like a gas station, and when I say "gas," I mean "hot air." UN peace is bought at the price of chains and slavery. The Israelis know what the price of peace is and are willing to pay it. May the best man win.

John out