22. April, 2002 - it's the best planet we've got

• Happy Earth Day. [daypop]
• Protecting the planet, pedal by pedal. Gary Hoover's an example of how you can live without a car. [strib]
• The man who would feed the world. It takes about 15,000 to 30,000 square feet of land to feed one person the average U.S. diet. I've figured out how to get it down to 4,000 square feet. How? I focus on growing soil, not crops. [boing boing]
• Secret compound may curb smog and acid rain. A Minnesota company has a product that looks like it can reduce sulfur and nitrogen oxides in coal powerplant exhaust by more than 99%. [strib]
• On a more personal note, once again, nobody in the house I live in was together enough yesterday to haul the garbage to the curb. The trash guys went by about a half hour ago. The recycling hasn't gone out either, but there's a couple hours left before the recycling truck comes by. I'm as guilty as the rest of not getting the job done yesterday, but it sometimes seems that if I don't take care of that sort of thing, it just doesn't happen. Oh well. Full dumpsters next week.
• There were some elections in France. They seem to have surprised people.
  • CNN.com - Le Pen: From also-ran to contender - April 21, 2002 - It's further evidence of the rise of anti-immigrant feelings amongst Europeans. Presumably, Le Pen will lose in the second round, but... [Jim]
  • BBC News
  • Irish Times
  • Times of London
  • The Glasgow Herald says Fascist stuns France in poll - I had to add it for using the proper term for Le Pen. Fascist. [Jim]
  • Far-right candidate in runoff for French presidency. [strib]
  • Finally, the InstaPundit comments on the French elections, mentioning another blogger who comments on the ease with which the French seem to swing from near-communism to near-fascism. [instapundit]
  My take is that the French seem to be awfully fond of a government that takes care of them (a nanny state). And while I don't have problems with a government that tries to protect me from foreign enemies, one that tries to protect me from myself rankles. I'm not really surprised that the French picked a right-leaning control-freak over a number of left-leaning control-freaks this time around. There's really not all that much difference between them.
  
  Just don't expect the EU to ostracize France the way they did with Austria when Haider was elected there. Expect to see a lot of political weight thrown behind Chirac in a sort of Anybody but Le Pen effort.

Copyright 2008, Dave Polaschek. Last updated on Mon, 22 Apr 2002 08:46:08.