RE: Electional surprise in France

Well Rosco you are correct, the US has its share of political and social problems no doubt about it, but at the moment at least, the French political spectrum (if that is a good term) is much broader with respect to left, right and centre with more than one party representing each view, some quite extreme and the crime issue is a major deal with immigration overtones I believe.

Note that the three major parties didn’t poll much more than 50% of the votes cast so there are a significant number of lesser parties, many of which are quite far to the left or right or with very specific issues. One got 5% of the vote on just one issue, hunting and fishing rights! The US parties are all more or less in the centre and govern that way regardless of who wins.

It seems that France is dealing with something of a protest against leftwing policies which have been strong on promoting liberal ideals, big government, collective rights as opposed to individual rights, pro-immigration, pro-European union at the expense of traditional French values etc., while being soft on crime and government corruption.

Regards

RE: Electional surprise in France

Well Le Pen is anti-semitic but at least he is a equal-opportunity anti-semitic, as he hates both the Arabs and the Jews.

It would seem the French political system is rather corrupt, reactionary, crime tolerent and just generally incapable of identifying with the concerns of many of the average citizens who then either don’t vote or vote for the right wing parties who make crime an issue and link it to immigration.

Regards

RE: Blue Angels

Phantom I will trade my Phantoms for your F/A18E. I have been fortunate to see many Phantoms at the local show but I am certainly looking forward to the Super Bug. Maybe next year.

Geforce, I will try and get the story on the Phantoms but I believe they are US unless they are Luftwaffe training units operated with US markings. This year the Luftwaffe contribution to the show is a pair of Tornados also listed as being from Holloman.

Regards

RE: Ok, the results…

Glenn

I don’t want to whine but the Chinese entered the Korean war on the night of November 25, 1950 not October.

I would hate to be in your class. I suppose I should have said 870AD but I figured it was understood as Islam didn’t exist in BC. (whine, whine whine).

Regards

RE: Israel vs Palestine

As usual the Europeans side with the PLO.

It all stems from the fact that the British, French, Germans, Italians, etc, ran away from the political and social mess they helped create in the mid-east during their colonial days.

After the WWII, instead of accepting responsibility for the situation in the middle-east, which was the result of a long history of treating both Jews and Arabs like dirt, they ran off hoping that the problems would get resolved once and for all as a result of a second purge of the Jews, this time at the hands of the Arabs. Let the Arabs solve the Jewish problem and their own social problems their own way and lets get back to commercial exploitation.

Now the sh*t has hit the fan again and as usual, the Europeans and the Arabs are willing to fight until the last Pallestinian and everyone blames the US for the mess.

Regards

RE: New Jumbo Variant

Comet

Log on to the Boeing site. They have a graphic which illustrates their stated range of both the 747-400 – 13445km/7260m, and the 747-400ER – 14,205km/7670m. There is no mention of direct fights from London to Sydney that I could find.

Regards

RE: VC10 OR 707

The 707 was well established and making a profit for BOAC well before the VC-10 came along. The VC-10 was an imposing aircraft and fine looking, but as a commercial item it could not compete over the long run with the American design. If it had been able to, BOAC would have keep it in service and purchased more of them. As far as ‘violent’ American intervention is concerned – well if you are a believer in that type of story, they provide a ready excuse whenever cold hard facts get in the way.

It seems every time an American design wins a contract, a story pops up that they put the strong arm on someone, made a bribe, or used some other underhanded approach when the fact is they make good aircraft and are good salesmen.

Regards