A loss? Some might think so....

Peter woke me up this morning to tell me that right radical Jörg Haider died in a traffic accident last night.

Being just out of bed, I said, 'Ok, the press has been full of stories about him driving reclessly and too fast. So are the splinter parties going to unite and kill us all?'

If you take Anne Coulter, Sarah Palin, the Holocaust deniers and everyone else to the waaaaay right, that was Jörg Haider, the rat catcher.

The only Austrian politician to scare half the world with his rhetoric.

Am sorry he died unexpectedly, but what the hell, am not happy either.

What bugged me was the local reporting. OOOOOOH, we lost a great politician, from the very people who went bonkers over his statements. Crocodile tears, but the Austrians love nothing like a 'schöne Leich'' a good wake. And of COURSE the bishop of the state of Klagenfurt is going to give him a great send-off..... to hell, I hope....

The German news kept it proper. 'Right wing populist politician Jörg Haider died in a car accident last night'. That is correct reporting. And they gave some clips of his most outrageous statements.

Meanwhile, the reporting in the local stations has become more balanced.

And somehow.... I fell a bit relieved and guilty for feeling like that. But I really didn't like him at all, and can't find anything to do so...