quanticle writes "As you may recall, France previously threatened to cut off broadband access for file sharers. However, after lobbying by the public, the legislation failed in the National Assembly. Now, the government of Nicolas Sarkozy is trying to revive the the measure by pushing it as an amendment to the pan-European Telecoms Package. This amendment has the potential to impose 3-strikes across Europe, not just in France."
You are there to represent the people and your country. If you find yourself having to subvert the will of your public, your constitution, your own justice system etc., then take that as a big fucking clue that YOU ARE WRONG and the best way for you to help is to STFU.
In France, the money for presidential campaigns comes from taxes, is limited, and of the same amount for every candidate. But if you got less than 5% of votes, you have to give back this money to the government (this can be painful).
And there is no way that lobbyists could get around this by lobbying the opinion formers (eg, the press) rather than by directly funding the political campaigns, is there?
And there is no way that lobbyists could get around this by lobbying the opinion formers (eg, the press) rather than by directly funding the political campaigns, is there?
Of course there is, but they don't; maybe because they haven't got the idea, because their morale is too high, or because they are afraid it would backlash their candidate.
I think the main difference between elections in the US and Europe is not the amount of regulation, but the amount of shit the electors tolerate.
On the other hand, there will be a certain malicious delight in seeing this proto-fascist slimeball force this law through backed by hefty bribes from media companies, only to watch Frances economy shut down. When all DNS records become illegal to serve up for access, when all index.htmls and the servers they live on become illegal, and essentially the internet in France is switched off over night.
Its nearly as silly as mandating CPUs lacking CPY or MOV, or operating systems that cannot open or copy files.
You just don't get it do you? These days politics is all about getting brownie points for when you are out of office. Three or four directorships of big companies will rapidly make up for the less than stellar political earnings.
Some might look at this as a just reward - Why not see it as it is. It is bribery of a public official. The significant difference is that the pay-day is deferred some years and comes disguised as a seat on a board.....Usually with a bunch of crooks who have taken the same bait.
You are there to represent the people and your country. If you find yourself having to subvert the will of your public, your constitution, your own justice system etc., then take that as a big fucking clue that YOU ARE WRONG and the best way for you to help is to STFU.
Wrong.
De jure they are there to represent the people. De facto they are there to represent their own self-interest. When these come into conflict (which is the normal state), de facto will win. The politicians are not "retarted" or "wrong", they're doing exactly what is built into the system. No, I don't know of a better system, but at least regognising that this behaviour is built-in leads to less political surprises, and gives (some) politicians credit for intelligence if not honour.
You are there to represent the people and your country.
That's correct.
If you find yourself having to subvert the will of your public...
This is where you go off the rails. The job of a politician is NOT -- repeat, NOT -- to implement the "will of the people". That's because they can't. Everyone has a different opinion on what should be done. For example, you think your opinion on filesharing should supersede everyone else's. Believe it or not, a LOT of people think sharing copyrighted material should be
At a technical level this appears similar to China's Internet meddling in that it will always be defeatable and the chances of being caught are never going to be especially high. Given that, what is the point?
by Anonymous Coward
on Friday July 04 2008, @07:13AM (#24057487)
The french law project which establishes an independant authority with power to ban users from the Internet (by cutting the Internet access) after three strikes has not failed to pass in the National Assembly : IT STILL HASN'T BEEN EXAMINED THERE !
It is scheduled to be examined soon by the Senate first and then eventually by the National Assembly. You can read it there in french : http://www.senat.fr/leg/pjl07-405.html
What is true is that right now the French ISP association (including every french ISP), the web services association (including Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! and such), the commission in charge of regulating telecommunications, the commission in charge of the defense of privacy and several others have all said they were against this law.
Besides, even though I can imagine Nicolas Sarkozy being pleased if there were european legislation copying his ideas, I don't see any particular lobbying from his part in the European Parliament. Just look at the amendments and who wrote them (in the IMCO, ITRE or LIBE committee).
And I'm not even speaking of the usual fierce independance of MEP toward national governments. They're much nicer with regular lobbying groups, in this case the music and movie industries.
This rule would still have to be approved by the European Parliament for it to become law. If you're an EU citizen, do like the FA says and write your MEP:
drill down the map until you get to the member page; there are three postal addresses at the bottom of page. I'd either write to them in Brussels or their constituency address, since they're only usually in Strasbourg once a month. There's an email contact too, at the top.
On a side note, I've actually been in the mailroom at the EP building in Brussels, and it's really nice. It's in a prominent position right on one of the main corridors between the offices and the hemicycle.
Curiously, some French politicians are brilliant, but they're not part of the French government.
A French "European deputy" (for lack of a better name) has opposed this three-strike legislation, arguing (rightly so imho) that "an industry that is not able to make do with new consumer habits [the Internet]" shouldn't impose its rules to the government. The French government hasn't listened.
Michel Rocard is famous for opposing software patents. The French government hasn't listened.
The consumer habits change argument is hardly convincing. Copyright law does indeed secure a source of income for artists but it is not the rationale for its existence. At the root, the idea is that a temporary monopoly over one's works is necessary to motivate artists to devote time to creating new works.
If it were simply a change in consumer habits, I'd happily say laissez-faire . If people are not interested in music anymore, let record companies disappear! Here, however, we are faced with a slightly d
In the absence of copyright law, the amount of music created would not be the socially optimal one. Fewer people would choose a career in music (and, contrary to popular misconceptions, it is not true that genuinely talented individuals would play anyway -- you can be incredibly talented and motivated by profit, romantic myths notwithstanding), less good music would be made (since record companies would have less money to spend on new artists), etc.
This is where you are 100% wrong. A 99% reduction in pro
You people had better not be sharing that illegal copy of Linux distro on your file sharing software!!! Three times you share that and we'll shut you down and ban you from any Internet connections for the rest of your life!!!
Aye but well, even though they might seem to have most power in EU, in reality most of Europe doesn't get much worried when they try to push through some idiotic rulings like that. The french and the italians are doing that constantly and it is not often they get something actually through.
Do you know what since [reference.com] means? It cannot, in the temporal rather than the causal sense, refer to something that is ongoing. Got that?
the general impression in this thread is that there's a consideration that electors were stupid or misguided in voting for a certain leader.
What's wrong with that? Don't you think it's possible that (hindsight being 20-20) they made a bad choice - not necessarily in this case, but anywhere, ever? To avoid Godwin's law I won't mention the obvious example.
The rest of Europe (indeed, the rest of the world) should have no say in the democratic election, but is free to have an opinion on the resulting democratically elected official. After all (checking carefully for Godwin), the fact of his initial democratic election did not prevent much of the rest of the world taking a view of Adolf Hitler, did it?
The rest of Europe should have nothing to say with a democratically elected president.
But of course they should, if they feel like it! That's freedom of speech and freedom of opinion and all that crap. Being democratically elected, saying something about him becomes saying something about the people that elected him, of course. But all the more reason to say it, and perhaps the voters of that country will think more carefully at the next election!
Most French don't like him either (and no, not just because of filesharing).
As a brit living in France for the past 12 years or so, this is one of the most annoying traits of the French vox populi. They forget very, very quickly that most of the French actually voted for him. His politics since he's been in power aren't that different from what he announced, and certainly not that different from his opinions in previous government positions. Short memory, and quick to criticise, the French - they did pretty much the same thing when Jacques Chirac got a landslide victory when most of them couldn't be bothered to vote and so Le Pen got to the second round.
From what I'm told by the few French citizens I know, there are many that call Sarkozy Bush's lapdog. or poodle or something similarly flattering. As far as I know as a US citizen, being politically associated with Bush in any way is an insult. Here it's been something like the kiss of death in the current political circus atmosphere. One thing in Sarkozy's favor is his lack of airtime on Faux News.
I've been trying to figure out lately why it is that the neocons seem hell bent on protecting IP? Or at least
errr... could it be that big companies, by definition, pay a lot of tax to the government, and create a lot of jobs. If a government is not looking after big companies, its likely not looking after the economy either, and not surprisingly, that would be a bad move. There are people whose jobs depend on IP law. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions of them. Those people vote, and pay taxes.
Most French don't like him either (and no, not just because of filesharing)
Geez, he didn't get elected all that long ago. What did he do to piss everyone off so quickly? Or was it a case of George Bush-style "elected, but not really"?
Most French don't like him either (and no, not just because of filesharing)
Geez, he didn't get elected all that long ago. What did he do to piss everyone off so quickly?
Well, he just did what he promised to do : help rich people to earn more money, throw more and more dark skinned people in jail, etc...
Indeed, at least 53% of french people can't read and vote for the candidate most seen on TV.
The problem is : all elections are over, president and national assembly are elected and we're stuck with him and all his friends for the next 4 years.
If you're American then surely you'd be hating the Freedoms from that European country called Freedom that's between Germany and Spain?
(This post is a dig at the American tantrum where they changed "French Fries" to "Freedom Fries" and not an implication that France is the nation of Freedom;) )
that was a press thing, do you really believe we americans would add an extra syllable to our fries, we actually prefer to communicate in grunts as we stuff our faces.
In America, the technically correct and longer name for French Fries is potassium delivery system. Of course, to be effective they must be first heated and saturated with animal fats. Despite the glorious skill used to hone the techniques for loading potassium into the potato strips, 'fries' is all the effort we put in when order... with a 'supersizem' at the end.
I do find that there seems to be a lot of job searching advice that mentions the delicacy, far to often I might add.
There are two kinds of democracies. Representative and direct. They go under the same name, but they are very different. Unfortunately, we are stick with the first type. People need to realize there is a difference between those types, and not rely on honesty of politicians.
Although I think direct democracy would have its own problems too - we'd be under the will of the masses.
There are some things that referendums are appropriate for (issues that affect everyone), but just look at what happens when you put questions like "Should gay people be allowed to marry" to referendums as I believe has happened in some US states.
I'm not sure how things would work in this case - whilst few people would care about the record industry and most people happily copy CDs/tapes, filesharing is still something only done by a minority of people AFAIK, and most people probably don't see the Internet as some fundamental need, so I fear that a proposal to ban filesharers (especially with a bit of campaigning that associates "filesharing" with not only "stealing", but terrorism and p0rn) would still get passed in a referendum.
Here in the UK, our unelected second house is the only thing that can stop some of the authoritarian measures the Government is pushing through (similarly with the unelected Supreme Court in the US being the thing which protects the Constitution).
And democracy, strictly defined, is a pretty bad idea. Ask anyone who lives in a country where a hostile ethnic majority gets to vote on what happens to minorities it doesn't like.
Well, for starters, maybe it's also impossible to determine whether the right to vote is objectively good or bad?
Regardless, the major problem with your analysis is to assume that people do indeed vote randomly. If it were the case, your argument would be spot on and one of democracy's biggest flaws would not be a source of concern. If uneducated people vote randomly, their votes basically cancel out (as your correctly pointed out) and smart people choose which policy will be implemented.
Politician and honest - I thought that they were mutually exclusive attributes.
And shutting of people from broadband for one type of offense will also shut them off also from a lot of other services. We are going toward a society of people with broadband access versus people lacking that access - and the people lacking broadband access are becoming second-grade citizens with less ability to get information, access bank services and communicate with friends and family.
France Seeks To Push 3-Strikes Law Across Europe...pushing it as an amendment to the pan-European Telecoms Package. This amendment has the potential to impose 3-strikes across Europe, not just in France.
Across, doesn't mean all of Europe, it simply means it stretches across Europe, sorta like the Trans-Canada Highway [tc.gc.ca]... goes across Canada, however, it doesn't reach all the Provinces, and actually only covers a really small area of it land-wise.
Yeah, the French public medical system works so well that 92% of its residents carry supplementary private medical insurance and there are copayments or deductibles ranging from 10-40%. And despite the public oversight it still manages to be the 3rd most expensive system (in terms of % of GDP) in the world.
That does not change the fact that in France, people don't go broke, lose their homes, declare bankruptcy just because their child got sick. More important, the French don't have to make the Sophie's Ch
Well, this is why France is not the United States. (Score:5, Interesting)
For fuck's sake (Score:5, Insightful)
Why are politicians so retarded?
You are there to represent the people and your country. If you find yourself having to subvert the will of your public, your constitution, your own justice system etc., then take that as a big fucking clue that YOU ARE WRONG and the best way for you to help is to STFU.
Re:For fuck's sake (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Re:For fuck's sake (Score:5, Informative)
In France, the money for presidential campaigns comes from taxes, is limited, and of the same amount for every candidate. But if you got less than 5% of votes, you have to give back this money to the government (this can be painful).
Parent
Re:For fuck's sake (Score:4, Informative)
Oh, and I forgot to say that they all have the right to the same amount of time on TV. And all of this is controlled and enforced.
(Well, that is in theory.)
Parent
Re:For fuck's sake (Score:5, Insightful)
And there is no way that lobbyists could get around this by lobbying the opinion formers (eg, the press) rather than by directly funding the political campaigns, is there?
Parent
Re: (Score:3)
Of course there is, but they don't; maybe because they haven't got the idea, because their morale is too high, or because they are afraid it would backlash their candidate.
I think the main difference between elections in the US and Europe is not the amount of regulation, but the amount of shit the electors tolerate.
Re: (Score:2)
On the other hand, there will be a certain malicious delight in seeing this proto-fascist slimeball force this law through backed by hefty bribes from media companies, only to watch Frances economy shut down. When all DNS records become illegal to serve up for access, when all index.htmls and the servers they live on become illegal, and essentially the internet in France is switched off over night.
Its nearly as silly as mandating CPUs lacking CPY or MOV, or operating systems that cannot open or copy files.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Why are politicians so retarded?
You are there to represent the people and your country. If you find yourself having to subvert the will of your public, your constitution, your own justice system etc., then take that as a big fucking clue that YOU ARE WRONG and the best way for you to help is to STFU.
Wrong.
De jure they are there to represent the people. De facto they are there to represent their own self-interest. When these come into conflict (which is the normal state), de facto will win. The politicians are not "retarted" or "wrong", they're doing exactly what is built into the system. No, I don't know of a better system, but at least regognising that this behaviour is built-in leads to less political surprises, and gives (some) politicians credit for intelligence if not honour.
Re: (Score:2)
You are there to represent the people and your country.
That's correct.
If you find yourself having to subvert the will of your public...
This is where you go off the rails. The job of a politician is NOT -- repeat, NOT -- to implement the "will of the people". That's because they can't. Everyone has a different opinion on what should be done. For example, you think your opinion on filesharing should supersede everyone else's. Believe it or not, a LOT of people think sharing copyrighted material should be
this can't possibly work (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Wrong. (Score:5, Informative)
The french law project which establishes an independant authority with power to ban users from the Internet (by cutting the Internet access) after three strikes has not failed to pass in the National Assembly : IT STILL HASN'T BEEN EXAMINED THERE !
It is scheduled to be examined soon by the Senate first and then eventually by the National Assembly. You can read it there in french : http://www.senat.fr/leg/pjl07-405.html
What is true is that right now the French ISP association (including every french ISP), the web services association (including Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! and such), the commission in charge of regulating telecommunications, the commission in charge of the defense of privacy and several others have all said they were against this law.
Besides, even though I can imagine Nicolas Sarkozy being pleased if there were european legislation copying his ideas, I don't see any particular lobbying from his part in the European Parliament. Just look at the amendments and who wrote them (in the IMCO, ITRE or LIBE committee).
http://www.laquadrature.net/files/amendements-compromis_ITRE-IMCO_7juil/
And I'm not even speaking of the usual fierce independance of MEP toward national governments. They're much nicer with regular lobbying groups, in this case the music and movie industries.
Write your congresscritter, EU-style! (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/members.do?language=EN [europa.eu]
drill down the map until you get to the member page; there are three postal addresses at the bottom of page. I'd either write to them in Brussels or their constituency address, since they're only usually in Strasbourg once a month. There's an email contact too, at the top.
On a side note, I've actually been in the mailroom at the EP building in Brussels, and it's really nice. It's in a prominent position right on one of the main corridors between the offices and the hemicycle.
Shamed of being French right now (Score:5, Insightful)
Because I am.
Curiously, some French politicians are brilliant, but they're not part of the French government.
A French "European deputy" (for lack of a better name) has opposed this three-strike legislation, arguing (rightly so imho) that "an industry that is not able to make do with new consumer habits [the Internet]" shouldn't impose its rules to the government. The French government hasn't listened.
Michel Rocard is famous for opposing software patents. The French government hasn't listened.
French automobile club leaders, the least of which is not the president of the ACO (Automobile Club de l'Ouest, supervising the 24 hours of Le Mans) said that the pollution tax is a mistake, because one already exists and that's the TIPP (Taxe Intérieure sur les Produits Pétroliers, Internal Tax on Petrol-derived Goods, for lack of a batter name) that one pays for each centilitre of gasoline/Diesel in the tank, and that there's no reason than a guy driving only 3000 miles a year in his Ferrari should pay more than one driving ten times that in his Diesel Renault Logan. The French government doesn't listen.
Just, where has common sense gone?
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
If it were simply a change in consumer habits, I'd happily say laissez-faire . If people are not interested in music anymore, let record companies disappear! Here, however, we are faced with a slightly d
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
This is where you are 100% wrong. A 99% reduction in pro
You people better not be sharing... (Score:2)
You people had better not be sharing that illegal copy of Linux distro on your file sharing software!!! Three times you share that and we'll shut you down and ban you from any Internet connections for the rest of your life!!!
Why "Three Strikes"? (Score:4, Funny)
Is baseball that popular in France?
Re:so we can hate the french again? (Score:5, Informative)
If you would hate just Sarkozy, it should be quite enough. Most French don't like him either (and no, not just because of filesharing).
Parent
Re:so we can hate the french again? (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh trust me, the rest of Europe isn't too keen on him either
Parent
The worst since Berlusconi (Score:2, Insightful)
Sarkozy is the worst leader in EU since Berlusconi.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Re:The worst since Berlusconi (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
What's wrong with that? Don't you think it's possible that (hindsight being 20-20) they made a bad choice - not necessarily in this case, but anywhere, ever? To avoid Godwin's law I won't mention the obvious example.
Re:so we can hate the french again? (Score:5, Insightful)
The rest of Europe (indeed, the rest of the world) should have no say in the democratic election, but is free to have an opinion on the resulting democratically elected official. After all (checking carefully for Godwin), the fact of his initial democratic election did not prevent much of the rest of the world taking a view of Adolf Hitler, did it?
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
The rest of Europe should have nothing to say with a democratically elected president.
But of course they should, if they feel like it! That's freedom of speech and freedom of opinion and all that crap. Being democratically elected, saying something about him becomes saying something about the people that elected him, of course. But all the more reason to say it, and perhaps the voters of that country will think more carefully at the next election!
Re:so we can hate the french again? (Score:5, Interesting)
Most French don't like him either (and no, not just because of filesharing).
As a brit living in France for the past 12 years or so, this is one of the most annoying traits of the French vox populi. They forget very, very quickly that most of the French actually voted for him. His politics since he's been in power aren't that different from what he announced, and certainly not that different from his opinions in previous government positions. Short memory, and quick to criticise, the French - they did pretty much the same thing when Jacques Chirac got a landslide victory when most of them couldn't be bothered to vote and so Le Pen got to the second round.
Parent
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
From what I'm told by the few French citizens I know, there are many that call Sarkozy Bush's lapdog. or poodle or something similarly flattering. As far as I know as a US citizen, being politically associated with Bush in any way is an insult. Here it's been something like the kiss of death in the current political circus atmosphere. One thing in Sarkozy's favor is his lack of airtime on Faux News.
I've been trying to figure out lately why it is that the neocons seem hell bent on protecting IP? Or at least
Re: (Score:2)
I've been trying to figure out lately why it is that the neocons seem hell bent on protecting IP?
Because doing so is good for the profit of big companies (i.e. big donors).
Has anyone seen any tinfoil hat links for this?
No need for any tinfoil hats ... this is so obvious that no conspiracy is necessary.
IP Companies employ people... (Score:2)
errr... could it be that big companies, by definition, pay a lot of tax to the government, and create a lot of jobs. If a government is not looking after big companies, its likely not looking after the economy either, and not surprisingly, that would be a bad move.
There are people whose jobs depend on IP law. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions of them. Those people vote, and pay taxes.
Re: (Score:2)
Geez, he didn't get elected all that long ago. What did he do to piss everyone off so quickly? Or was it a case of George Bush-style "elected, but not really"?
Re:so we can hate the french again? (Score:4, Insightful)
Geez, he didn't get elected all that long ago. What did he do to piss everyone off so quickly?
Well, he just did what he promised to do : help rich people to earn more money, throw more and more dark skinned people in jail, etc ...
Indeed, at least 53% of french people can't read and vote for the candidate most seen on TV.
The problem is : all elections are over, president and national assembly are elected and we're stuck with him and all his friends for the next 4 years.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
If you're American then surely you'd be hating the Freedoms from that European country called Freedom that's between Germany and Spain?
(This post is a dig at the American tantrum where they changed "French Fries" to "Freedom Fries" and not an implication that France is the nation of Freedom ;) )
Re:so we can hate the french again? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
In America, the technically correct and longer name for French Fries is potassium delivery system. Of course, to be effective they must be first heated and saturated with animal fats. Despite the glorious skill used to hone the techniques for loading potassium into the potato strips, 'fries' is all the effort we put in when order... with a 'supersizem' at the end.
I do find that there seems to be a lot of job searching advice that mentions the delicacy, far to often I might add.
Re:This and G8... (Score:4, Informative)
There are two kinds of democracies. Representative and direct. They go under the same name, but they are very different. Unfortunately, we are stick with the first type. People need to realize there is a difference between those types, and not rely on honesty of politicians.
There is an excellent book about direct democracy: http://www.democracy-international.org/book-direct-democracy.html [democracy-...tional.org]
Parent
Re:This and G8... (Score:4, Insightful)
Although I think direct democracy would have its own problems too - we'd be under the will of the masses.
There are some things that referendums are appropriate for (issues that affect everyone), but just look at what happens when you put questions like "Should gay people be allowed to marry" to referendums as I believe has happened in some US states.
I'm not sure how things would work in this case - whilst few people would care about the record industry and most people happily copy CDs/tapes, filesharing is still something only done by a minority of people AFAIK, and most people probably don't see the Internet as some fundamental need, so I fear that a proposal to ban filesharers (especially with a bit of campaigning that associates "filesharing" with not only "stealing", but terrorism and p0rn) would still get passed in a referendum.
Here in the UK, our unelected second house is the only thing that can stop some of the authoritarian measures the Government is pushing through (similarly with the unelected Supreme Court in the US being the thing which protects the Constitution).
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Although I think direct democracy would have its own problems too - we'd be under the will of the masses.
I do believe that's pretty much the exact definition of democracy.
Re: (Score:2)
And democracy, strictly defined, is a pretty bad idea. Ask anyone who lives in a country where a hostile ethnic majority gets to vote on what happens to minorities it doesn't like.
Re:This and G8... (Score:5, Funny)
The problem with the public is this.
Think of how stupid the average person is; well, half of the public are stupider than that.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Yeah. Some of them don't even know the difference between median and average :).
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Or maybe they know that IQ is normally distributed - therefore the median and the mean would be the same :-)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Regardless, the major problem with your analysis is to assume that people do indeed vote randomly. If it were the case, your argument would be spot on and one of democracy's biggest flaws would not be a source of concern. If uneducated people vote randomly, their votes basically cancel out (as your correctly pointed out) and smart people choose which policy will be implemented.
In the real wo
Re: (Score:2)
And shutting of people from broadband for one type of offense will also shut them off also from a lot of other services. We are going toward a society of people with broadband access versus people lacking that access - and the people lacking broadband access are becoming second-grade citizens with less ability to get information, access bank services and communicate with friends and family.
Essentially - the penalty of the 21'
Re: (Score:2)
Semantics,
France Seeks To Push 3-Strikes Law Across Europe ...pushing it as an amendment to the pan -European Telecoms Package. This amendment has the potential to impose 3-strikes across Europe, not just in France.
Across, doesn't mean all of Europe, it simply means it stretches across Europe, sorta like the Trans-Canada Highway [tc.gc.ca]... goes across Canada, however, it doesn't reach all the Provinces, and actually only covers a really small area of it land-wise.
Re:Why do Politicians actually care? (Score:5, Insightful)
To anyone who's had their financial life destroyed by medical bills here in the US, I bet it sounds pretty good, actually.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
That does not change the fact that in France, people don't go broke, lose their homes, declare bankruptcy just because their child got sick. More important, the French don't have to make the Sophie's Ch
Re: (Score:2)
Get back to your potato fields, Paddy!
NB: I'm mostly Finnish, so you may require the services of a Swede, Norwegian or Russian to stereotype me.