Listen to an Interview with France's Marine Le Pen, Leader of the Ultra-Conservative National Front

by Nomad

In this podcast interview France's Marine Le Pen, leader of the ultra-conservative National Front demonstrates why she could very well be the next French president.  

Meet Madam Le Pen

If you never listened or watched the BBC program HARDtalk, it might come as bit of a shock to hear what outstanding journalism actually sounds like. There's nothing to compare it with in American news. 

In this podcast, interviewer Stephen Sackur quizzes Marine Le Pen, president of France's far-right National Front (NF) Party.
According to polls held in October, a far-right or extreme-right National Front party leader Le Pen would win 30 percent of the national vote if elections were held today. As of last week, Le Pen has taken a sizeable lead over former French president, Nicolas Sarkozy.
According to one source:

Under the French election system, barring the unlikely possibility one candidate gains an overall majority in the first round vote, the two candidates with the most votes will contest a second and decisive round on 7 May.

Many of her policies have been compared to those of Donald Trump, in particular, her anti-establishment appeal to nationalism. Critics, (and Le Pen has many) claim her advocacy of anti-immigration is heavy laden with Islamophobia. 

Le Pen and Trump

Ms. Le Pen was recently asked about the comparison. She expressed her happiness about the Trump victory and declared that the stunning result of the election shows power is slipping from global "elites" who have "acted like carnivores" and "used the world to enrich only themselves."
(Given the very elite, very carnivorous Donald Trump's willingness to mix his business interests with his political responsibilities, Le Penn might have to revise that assessment.)

Between Victims and Heroes: Searching for Those Things that Unite Us

by Nomad

In the aftermath of two terrorist attacks, one in Beirut and another in Paris a day later, we must take a moment for reflection, not about our differences, but about the things that unite us. 

For the last few days, the world's attention has been fixated on the coordinated attacks in Paris on Friday which left 129 dead and 352 injured. What should have been the pleasant start of a weekend, a warm autumn evening turned out to be a stage for nothing short of a blood bath and a city under siege.

A Vain Search for Answers
In every respect, it was a senseless act and yet the human mind tries in vain to make sense of it. How could it happen and why?

What kind of evil could transform a convivial scene at an outdoor cafe, with crowds of people enjoying the company of friends into a war zone massacre with bodies strewn on the streets and sidewalks?

How could this happen? To what purpose? Who actually benefited by the murder of 23-year-old Hugo Sarrade, who was enjoying a night out at a Bataclan concert? 

How did the vicious slaughter of Mathieu Hoche, Quentin Boulanger, 29, or Marie Lausch, 23, and her boyfriend, Mathias Dymarski, 22, truly further any political cause? 

These were not martyred for a great cause. These were not crusaders for their religion. And they certainly were not soldiers defending their nation. 

They were, in fact, not representatives of anything more than themselves. They were targeted simply because, like the victims on the beach attack in Tunisia in June, they were easy to kill en masse.