Ion-Marc + Julian

From time to time we're committed to publish photos of OPCK (other people's cute kids) - in this case frenchboy Julian with his hunky dad Ion-Marc in Paris

Because Da Mao can't help himself - here are some comments about recent news events:

MUSLIM CARTOON - I think both the western & muslim world media & politicians has misinterpreted the events as a matter of freedom of expression vs regligous freedom. The uproar has to be with repressed emotions by certain (not all) Muslim communities all over the world - remember this started in europe and has spread to asia and africa - it's not a middle east issue - with the feeling of dissatisfied youth over lack of opportunities, respect, jobs and a sense of prosecution by the United States of America. The cartoons are just an excuse to channel that anger. The newspapers published these cartoons not because they are such defenders of free speech. They did it in on purpose to provoke, to stir controversy and I think the results suprised them. To not publish something offensvie is not censorship, it's called editing.

HAMAS - In a twisted way it's a classic example of democracy. They had a free election and they elected right wing wackos. The governments in Israel & the US are beside themselves and blaming Hamas - but what of the people who voted Hamas in? Are we paying attention to why they voted for Hamas. I think that's a very important question.

Speaking of elections it's interesting the west and the middle-east are all getting more right-wing. Conservative governments now run the US, Canada, Australia, Britan, Denmark, Netherlands and Germany on one side and Iran, Palestine, Egypt and soon Israel. Even the fake election in Iraq gave more power to the more conservative Islamist parties, and don't forget last time Afghanistan had a real election the people voted in the Taliban. I think this booster the argument of the coming clash of civilization as both camps dig in.

BUSH: Americans are funny because we really only care about things that matter to us today. Take for example the approval rating for George Bush - arguably even by conservatives to be one of the worst president of all time because he has wasted our surplus and balloned the deficit, he has allowed government and pork spending to grow, gave more money to the super wealthy, tout education while cutting the budget to students, tout energy while giving huge contracts and subisidies to energy companies, spys on americans, invades Iraq for no real good reason that has cost us billions of dollars, thousands of lives and now the whole world hates us and took resources and attention away from fighting terrorism. But you know what - none of these matters because these things really only interest pundits and intellectuals. You know what Americans care about? Rising gasoline prices and poor people crying on TV (Katrina). Bush's rating only dipped when TV showed Katrina victims (those poor people....sniff, sniff) and when gas price went above $3 - nothing else matters.