Results tagged “france” from The Daily Nugget

Protesters in Paris were so rowdy that officials extinguished the Olympic Torch and rushed it onto buses at least five times during the parade route.  The Olympic flame itself, lit from the birthplace of the ancient games in Olympia, Greece and used to light the torch, continued to burn in a small lantern inside the bus.  Things got so ugly that the last part of the torch relay was cancelled.  The torch was was to head into a sports stadium in south of Paris at the end of the relay.

Please keep in mind that the protests in London and Paris were in places where there isn't a large Asian population.  San Francisco will likely have many Chinese and Tibetan people organizing to support and protest the torch relay respectively. And it seems that nobody is on the wrong side of this issue, which makes it complicated. With charged emotions on both sides, expect there to be a brouhaha during the torch route on Wednesday.

The Olympic Torch relay in San Francisco will start at AT&T Park and will make its way up the Embarcadero to Aquatic Park.  It will then return through Fisherman's Wharf and down the Embarcadero to end its journey at Justin Herman Plaza across from the Ferry Building.  This short 6-mile route will be run from 1:00pm to 3:30pm on Wednesday afternoon.  Let's get ready to rumble!

Melissa read an article about Americans retiring in Costa Rica and Panama and the trend is increasing. Apparently, there are many factors to consider when choosing a retirement destination. There are considerations for getting your worldly possessions there, affordable housing, the cost of living once you get there, access to health care and travel considerations to see your kids.

The country of Panama offers a few incentives for retirement. The government will issue you a special retirement visa that will allow you to move your stuff to Panama without charging you any import taxes, will not charge you taxes for income earned outside of Panama, and will not charge you property taxes for 20 years. Additionally, the visa will allow you discounts on medical costs, utility bills, mortgages, hotels, public transportation, and airfare. Many people are moving there because of these incentives.

We are always thinking of visiting Paris. This got me thinking, what if we could live one to two hours from Paris in our retirement years, how much would a house there cost? Well as it turns out you can buy some huge chateaus and castles in France for fairly cheap. Also, rural living in France tends to be much cheaper than living in a city like Paris. So check out some of the properties I found:

Castle Between Paris and Reims
4375 sq. ft of living space on 8 acres. 10bd/10ba on 3 stories. The ground floor includes 600 sq. ft. reception hall with 26 ft. high ceilings and views of the park grounds, 635 sq. ft formal dining room with views of the park grounds, and a 400 sq. ft. kitchen, a 600 sq. ft. master suite with a 200 sq. ft. office. The first floor includes a 500 sq. ft. library, and 2 bedrooms with baths that are 300 sq. ft. each. The second floor includes 7 "small" bedrooms with baths. Vaulted cellars. Other structures include guest house, keeper house, orangery, stables, sheepfold, greenhouse, workshop, and garages. 845,000€

As of this writing, France has seen eleven straight nights of rioting and civil unrest. Last night alone, rioters burned 1,408 vehicles and over 4,300 vehicles have been burned since the riots began. The violence seems to be worsening, increasing four fold since just two nights ago when only 345 vehicles were destroyed. In addition to burning cars, rioters are now taking shots at police and becoming increasingly defiant. At this point, it doesn't look like the French government can get this under control on their own.

Now freedom must be fundamental
In Johannesburg or South Central
On the mic, 'cause someone should tell 'em
To kick in the township rebellion
-- Township Rebellion By Rage Against the Machine, 1992

This has not received a lot of press in the United States, but the residents of poor Paris suburbs have been rioting for the last week because a couple of teenage kids were electrocuted as they tried to evade police. The rioting, which started on Thursday of last week, has spread to about 20 towns outside of Paris. Somehow this has become less about the kids that died and more about the injustices and inequalities that the poor people in these towns have suffered, just like the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles over a decade ago. Hey, living in the projects sucks no matter what country you live in. But alas, can't we all just get along?

Fiery riots spread beyond Paris, CNN 11/04/05
Arson attacks plague France as unrest spreads, MSNBC 11/04/05

Two Republican geniuses (I know that's an oxymoron--I'm just being sarcastic) changed the names of "french fries" and "french toast" in the House cafeterias to "freedom fries" and "freedom toast" respectively. This is their cool way of "sticking" it to the French. What are we in fifth grade you dumb fuckers!? I hate to think that my tax dollars pay for the salaries of these two idiots. Surely, there has to be a more mature way of fighting the political battle with the French government. P.S. French fries are from Belgium!

A French chef kills himself after an influential food guide lowers their rating of his restaurant. Although I admire passionate people, there's nothing serious enough to justify suicide. Funny, the French don't want a fight with Iraq but can kill themselves over food. Well, at least they have their priorities straight.

It seems that the country of France just beat out the State of California to become the world's 5th largest economy. California has held the 5th place spot for years largely in part to the dot-com boom and now slips to 6th place.