Randow on Sarkozy

Die Zeit's France correspondent, Gero van Randow, gives Sarkozy's presidency a failing grade.

Iggy Pop on Tocqueville

Amazing what turns up on the Internet:

Pop admits he's tired of writing about his own personal experiences and, after basing his last solo album on Michel Houellebecq's novel The Possibility of an Island, his plans are equally epic for the next record. "I've said everything about myself that I care to say in life," Pop says. "Right now, I'm reading Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville. It's pretty heavy what he says about America. It could be an album."

Hard to imagine what Tocqueville would have made of that, or of being mentioned in the same paragraph as Michel Houellebecq. I hope, of course, that Mr. Pop is reading my translation.

Nostalgia

President Sarkozy seems nostalgic for the days when he was interior minister and tough talk was enough to keep attention focused on him. He's certainly talking tough: expulsions, revocations of nationality, "la nationalité française se mérite," etc. And the election is still almost two years away.