- Alleged Hollande affair shows 'old rules no longer apply'
Special to CNN January 11, 2014
Tabloid: Hollande had affair with star
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Closer magazine has alleged Hollande is having an affair with actress Julie Gayet
- Hollande, who was elected President in 2012, lives with partner Valerie Trierweiler
- Matthew Fraser says a media omerta that protected politicians' private lives is ending
- And he says French privacy laws are increasingly irrelevant in the social media world
Editor's note: Matthew Fraser is a professor at the American University of Paris and lecturer at Sciences Po Paris. His most recent book, "Home Again in Paris: Oscar, Leo and Me" can be found at his author site. The views expressed in this commentary are solely his.
(CNN) -- At first blush, Francois Hollande seems comically ill-suited in the role as ardent seducer of fetching actresses. And in many respects the astonishing allegations of his secret love trysts are like the improbable plot of a door-slamming French farce.
Hollande's alleged sexual escapades, revealed by the gossip magazine "Closer," are buzzing through the French media and burning up Twitter streams gushing with shock, sniggering and outrage that so much attention is being devoted to something so irrelevant to affairs of state. Yet, at a time when the French are tired of reading how depressed they are, claims of Hollande's bedroom romp may well be a welcome distraction. It may even help him in the polls.
Hollande is nonetheless threatening legal action against "Closer" for privacy invasion. That gesture itself is extraordinary for two reasons.
First, Hollande has not denied the affair with 41-year-old actress Julie Gayet --- the magazine has pulled its article from its online edition under pressure from Gayet's lawyers, but says that does not mean its claims are inaccurate.
'Bizarrely comical'
Second, in the past Hollande's predecessors in the Elysee Palace -- notably Francois Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac --- never had to worry about the French press reporting their feminine conquests.
2. Christie's rising star now a target
CNN January 9, 2014
 

'Bridgegate' snarls Christie's rise
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Timothy Stanley: With bridge scandal, Chris Christie's rising star is tarnished
- E-mails between Christie operatives paint lane closures as political payback
- He says voters may well see Christie as bullying kingpin using government power to hurt them
- Stanley: Dems, conservatives who want Christie to lose now have stick to beat him with
(CNN) -- Politics is a cruel road. One minute you're sailing along the open highway, winning elections, keynoting political conventions. Next minute you're accused of something politically dirty and you're stuck in the gridlock of scandal.
Let's consider New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who in November was "the GOP's lone superstar." That was how I described him after he won re-election by 22 points. But, I added, his "mixed record in office may come back to haunt the governor and be used against him." Two months later, and in a slightly different context than I would have expected, this appears to be coming true.
In September 2013, lanes were closed on the New Jersey side of the George Washington Bridge. At first it was dismissed as a "traffic study" and Christie turned early accusations that he had something to do with it into a political joke. ("I worked the cones, actually," Christie said, deflecting a question at a news conference last month. "Unbeknownst to everybody I was actually the guy out there, in overalls and a hat.")
But e-mails obtained on Wednesday morning confirm that it wasn't so funny, and the closure actually appears to have been an act of retribution against a local Democratic mayor. "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee," wroteBridget Anne Kelly, a deputy on Christie's senior staff, in an e-mail to David Wildstein, a Christie appointee at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the bridge.
This led to long traffic jams and safety hazards, none of which apparently bothered Wildstein. In one exchange, a person whose name has been redacted from the e-mails and text messages wrote to Wildstein that he was worried about children on school buses, and Wildstein replied, "They are the children of Buono voters," a reference to Barbara Buono, Christie's opponent in his last election. What an ugly mind Wildstein must have.
3. Ariel Sharon, Fierce Defender of a Strong Israel, Dies at 85
The New York Times JAN. 11, 2014
Ariel Sharon, 1928-2014
Ariel Sharon, one of the most influential figures in Israel’s history, a military commander and political leader who at the height of his power redrew the country’s electoral map, only to suffer a severe stroke from which he never recovered, died Saturday in a hospital near Tel Aviv. He was 85.
Gilad Sharon, one of his two surviving sons, told reporters at the hospital where the former prime minister spent most of the last eight years that his father “went when he decided to go.”
A cunning and unforgiving general who went on to hold nearly every top government post, including prime minister at the time he was struck ill, Mr. Sharon spent his final years in what doctors defined as a state of minimal consciousness in a sterile suite at the hospital, Sheba Medical Center. Visits were restricted for fear of infection.
Prof. Shlomo Nov of the medical center said heart failure was “the direct cause of his death,” resulting from organ deterioration that had deepened over “a number of days.”

As a warrior and political leader whose reputation rose and fell with the times, Ariel Sharon left a profound imprint on Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the nation bowed its head to a man he described as “first and foremost a brave soldier and an outstanding military commander” who “had a central role in the battle for Israel’s security from the very beginning.”
In many ways, Mr. Sharon’s story was that of his country. A champion of an iron-fisted, territory-expanding Zionism for most of his life, he stunned Israel and the world in 2005 with a Nixon-to-China reversal and withdrew all Israeli settlers and troops from Gaza. He then abandoned his Likud Party and formed a centrist movement called Kadima focused on further territorial withdrawal and a Palestinian state next door.
Mr. Sharon was incapacitated eight years ago, in January 2006, and in elections that followed, Kadima still won the most votes. His former deputy, Ehud Olmert, became prime minister. But the impact of Mr. Sharon’s political shift went beyond Kadima. The hawkish Likud Party, led by his rival, Mr. Netanyahu, was returned to power in 2009, and Mr. Netanyahu, too, said then that he favored a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
4. To Stop Procrastinating, Look to Science of Mood Repair
New Approach Focuses on Helping People Regulate Their Emotions
The Wall Street Journal Jan. 7, 2014
Several new studies help explain what's happening in the brain when people
procrastinate. WSJ's Sue Shellenbarger unpacks the latest research and software engineer Sean Gilbertson shares his story. Photo: Getty Images.
Procrastinators, take note: If you've tried building self-discipline and you're still putting things off, maybe you need to try something different. One new approach: Check your mood.
Often, procrastinators attempt to avoid the anxiety or worry aroused by a tough task with activities aimed at repairing their mood, such as checking Facebook or taking a nap. But the pattern, which researchers call "giving in to feel good," makes procrastinators feel worse later, when they face the consequences of missing a deadline or making a hasty, last-minute effort, says Timothy Pychyl (rhymes with Mitchell), an associate professor of psychology at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, and a researcher on the topic.
Increasingly, psychologists and time-management consultants are focusing on a new strategy: helping procrastinators see how attempts at mood repair are sabotaging their efforts and learn to regulate their emotions in more productive ways.
Time Travel: If you are rebelling against the feeling of having to work, try projecting yourself into the future. Imagine the good feelings you will have if you stop procrastinating and finish a project (or the bad feelings you will have if you don't finish). Kyle T. Webster
'Just Get Started': If you are feeling frightened of possible failure, just get started. Tell yourself you don't have to do the whole project. Just do the first one or two steps on it. Kyle T. Webster
Forgive Yourself: If you are feeling guilty about procrastinating, stop beating yourself up. Replace the negative thoughts with something more positive. Kyle T. Webster
Easy Things First: If you are feeling a lot of dread about one task in particular on your to-do list, start with something else, preferably the task you feel most like doing. The momentum you gain will help you start the toughest task later. Kyle T. Webster
The new approach is based on several studies in the past two years showing that negative emotions can derail attempts at self-control. It fills a gap among established time-management methods, which stress behavioral changes such as adopting a new organizing system or doing exercises to build willpower.
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