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David is an occasional blogger, software engineer, Nintendo fanboy, liberal, news magazine addict, voracious TiVo user, and bibliophile. He was born in St. Louis, grew up in southern Indiana, and returned to St. Louis to attend Washington University. He hasn't managed to escape yet. He's a fan of free wine tastings, too many tv shows to name, and eating out. David makes his living developing web applications used internally by his employer. He doesn't blog about work because he's heard too many stories about that causing workplace troubles. There's more on the about page. |
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18 February 2003 - 10:04 pm
I didn't intend this to be a warblog-esque post. I've never really felt like voicing my political opinion here. You most likely don't care what I think about Iraq, Osama, the death penalty, or abortion and I certainly don't want to be involved in any of the arguments that seem to inevitably follow the discussion of these or any number of other issues. However, while doing some reading related to michael's (gasp!) post, I came across an opinion piece that I found particularly interesting. That article is here.
I find the article less interesting for its opinion, which I happen to mostly agree with, than for the perspective it gives me. Europe has been working for a decade to make themselves into a cohesive force that, once combined, rivals the US as, if nothing else, an economic power. And now it seems that Jacques Chirac is throwing all of this away for popularity in France. I guess this proves that Europe isn't yet enlightened enough to throw away 1000 years of petty and not so petty squabbles and a daunting language barrier. Tip O'Neill said that "all politics are local." This is apparently as true in Europe today as it ever was in the US.
As an aside, and I really ought to be saving this for a different post, I believe that the main problem with the media here in the US is a lack of foreign coverage. How many of you knew that Tony Blair was staking his personal popularity and legacy on the war with Iraq? His approval rating is down lower than it has ever been before, and I doubt if many people here in the US realize the sacrifices he's been making to support our policy against Iraq. Certainly, no one really cares. It's a bit of an eye-opening experience to read a periodical with a decent coverage of foreign issues, and I'd recommend everyone give it a try.
Posted by on 18 February 2003 at 10:05 PM
Comments
Note to dave: You need to fix the index template for JoL. It doesn't quite match the archive-individual entry template. Plus, make the arrows bigger.
Posted by jim on 20 February 2003 - 11:25 PM