France, Food, Scooters and More

Perhaps the one thing that bothers us the most about the COVID pandemic is the closing of our favorite restaurants. If I had to name one thing that makes our move to France worth the effort, it would be the incredibly fresh and tasty food and wine. Of course, Cathey is still a truly amazing cook. But she does enjoy going to one of our favorite restaurants and sampling the work of our local chefs. Maybe we can't go out to eat at a restaurant these days, but with the weather warming up as spring approaches, we can still go out to eat. We picnic. Here are some pics from our recent forays around the region.  GRUISSAN  Our first picnic, on a breakwater by the Med. BOUZIGUES ROQUEBRON

My thoughts on how the French have responded to the pandemic.

In this first in a series of short videos, I discuss the 2020 Presidential election in the USofA as seen by an American living in France.

Let me clear from the outset. The people who are championing a single-payer healthcare system in the United States are lying to you. At the very least, they are misrepresenting - one assumes intentionally - what the savings would be should the US institute a system like Medicare For All. Such a system will not mimic the healthcare offered in such places as France or the Scandinavian countries for one important reason. In those countries, costs are strictly regulated. Doctors can only charge so much per visit. The rates are set by regulation for all sorts of specialties and services. And those rates are substantially lower than what is normally charged in the US. So if there is to be money saved by switching to a single-payer, Medicare For All system, that money will almost certainly have to come from price controls. That's NOT the way that Americans do things. In the US, healthcare is considered a business like any other. And that means that providers are, by and large, in it for p

  A teenager carries a gun illegally in a city and state away from his home. He shoots two people dead. Now a discussion ensues that includes the media and public officials as to whether he should be considered a villain or a hero.    What has changed? Something must have changed. Have we changed or have the rules changed?    Are we so habituated to violence that the idea of a high schooler, a kid barely old enough to shave, walking down a street and shooting people indiscriminately - apparently including someone begging him to stop - is OK as long as we agree with his politics? Or have we decided that the Ten Commandments or, if you are not religious, The Golden Rule no longer apply in modern America? Is that the real answer, that our opinion of the use of violence depends on our politics and not our morality? Because if that's the case, then the folks who believe that America no longer values their lives have every right to walk down Main Street and start shooting too. So far, th

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