Thanks to WordPress, I get to use firestats to see just where visitors to my website are coming from. The only thing is, a whois trace ends up ending at RIPE.NET, the portal to Europe’s internet link. Given the vast amount of “junk” websites out there, I’m wondering who in Russia and in Germany are using my site as the springboard for another junk site. On another stats provider through PowWeb, I’ve been seeing a lot of referral sites that are junk sites with no actual links to my site. Also, given the fact that the homepage for my site was hacked about 10 months ago, I’m questioning whether my hosting provider – PowWeb – can truly assure security of my site.

If anyone knows where those visitors to my website are coming from and would like to share, please let me know. Otherwise I might be .htaccess-ing those IP addresses from accessing the site. Not ideally that I’d like to need to moderate my site, but I’m finding the site hits to be really odd (especially since the 4th most visiting hostname is ‘webmaster2.firstvds.ru‘ and I have no idea what that is).

In other news, I might be offering some thoughts later on the French presidential election and the recent rise of Bayrou in relation to Segolene Royal. It’s going to be an interesting race and I’ve been following it rather closely. If Royal can nip Nicolas Sarkozy in the bud, she has the potential of stemming the Bayrou tide. And Bayrou has the potential of stemming the Le Pen tide. However, she really needs to spend her time attacking Sarko’s record, his policies, and his right-wing extremism. Based on my past readings of Sarkozy, he definitely seems to be a moderate version of Jean-Marie Le Pen. And that’s good for no Frenchmen, especially since most National Front supporters tend to hold their tongues on their votes, deflating poll numbers on the extreme-right.

Now in some respects, all the candidates aren’t really of high-calibre candidacy. Sarkozy is too right wing, Le Pen is way too right, Royal has no real stance on anything and might mismanage the treasury, Bayrou is a poseur for the right as well (but capitalising well on the anti-establishmentarianism against the main contenders). I’m not sure who should come in for any run-off of substance other than maybe Jose Bove, the altermondialization activist. However, Bove is an extreme long shot who barely mustered the signatures to qualify as a candidate.

I believe I had more to say about the election, but for the time being, I suppose its time for some shut-eye. Keep reading…