Carnival in the Rhineland enjoys its Rosenmontag today. Floats parade the streets and the people are showered with sweeties.
In Mainz and Duesseldorf this afternoon, among the many floats featuring political themes, there´s one with an effigy of President Bush baring his bottom, allowing Angela Merkel (leader of the supposedly conservative CDU party) ingress up his arse. On another, a grinning Bush as Uncle Sam aims a crucifix mounted with a rocket-head - "God Bless America!". Finally, moving from political to religious lampoon, a smiling Cardinal Meissner puts a torch onto a woman who has had an abortion.
Good-natured knockabout stuff. Just as well, in fact, that they stayed on the safe side and omitted to lampoon any Islamist figures of fun. That might have led to trouble. And Rosenmontag, at least until sunset, is for the children. We wouldn´t want some suicide bomber to get the wrong idea.
Monday, February 07, 2005
Sunday, February 06, 2005
Neo-Nazi support grows in Germany
In an interview in today´s Welt am Sonntag, opposition leader Edmund Stoiber puts the blame for the increased support of the neo-Nazi NPD squarely at the door of the German government.
Stoiber sees record unemployment figures as one of the main reasons for a growth in support for the extremists.
Unfortunately for Stoiber, the spin put on his pronouncements is unlikely to win new supporters for his own party. The government immediately rejected Stoiber´s "instrumentalisation" of the neo-Nazis. SPD boss Muentefering says that Nazis become strong thanks to the support of rich people in ties and suits, not the support of the unemployed.
A moot point, to put it mildly. Nevertheless, the political mainstream in Germany always reacts badly to uncomfortable comparisons with the Nazi period. It´s not really done to make such unwelcome comparisons. And although Stoiber´s remarks were relatively bland, the SPD repsonse is designed to make them seem irresponsible and beyond the pale. In this way the government will wriggle out of any attempt to discuss the scandal of over 5 million unemployed, something indeed unknown since Weimar times.
"Schr?ders Versagen hilft der NPD"
Stoiber sees record unemployment figures as one of the main reasons for a growth in support for the extremists.
Unfortunately for Stoiber, the spin put on his pronouncements is unlikely to win new supporters for his own party. The government immediately rejected Stoiber´s "instrumentalisation" of the neo-Nazis. SPD boss Muentefering says that Nazis become strong thanks to the support of rich people in ties and suits, not the support of the unemployed.
A moot point, to put it mildly. Nevertheless, the political mainstream in Germany always reacts badly to uncomfortable comparisons with the Nazi period. It´s not really done to make such unwelcome comparisons. And although Stoiber´s remarks were relatively bland, the SPD repsonse is designed to make them seem irresponsible and beyond the pale. In this way the government will wriggle out of any attempt to discuss the scandal of over 5 million unemployed, something indeed unknown since Weimar times.
"Schr?ders Versagen hilft der NPD"
Saturday, February 05, 2005
IRA to keep its weapons
Irish terrorists the IRA, having announced that they´re withdrawing from the weapons-decommissioning scheme, now protest that the British and Irish governments aren´t taking their announcement seriously enough. "They need to take their heads out of their asses for a start," Sinn Fein´s leader Gerry Adams remarked of the Irish and British governments.
The IRA are murderers and gangsters. That they were offered the chance to participate in government was one thing, arising out of the understandable desire to bring them within some kind of responsible political framework. Not all terrorist groups are willing to surrender the source of their power so easily, however. The IRA have clearly realised that they would prefer to hang on to theirs. One hopes that this will provide the signal to expel them from politics, and confine them to the illegal paramilitary activities at which they excel. That way, at least, their crimes and murders can be dealt with by the law, rather than being shrouded by the wilful blindness of the peace process.
RTE News - Govts playing down statement says IRA
The IRA are murderers and gangsters. That they were offered the chance to participate in government was one thing, arising out of the understandable desire to bring them within some kind of responsible political framework. Not all terrorist groups are willing to surrender the source of their power so easily, however. The IRA have clearly realised that they would prefer to hang on to theirs. One hopes that this will provide the signal to expel them from politics, and confine them to the illegal paramilitary activities at which they excel. That way, at least, their crimes and murders can be dealt with by the law, rather than being shrouded by the wilful blindness of the peace process.
RTE News - Govts playing down statement says IRA
Friday, February 04, 2005
Banning the Nazis: Action vs Actionism
Chancellor Schroeder is throwing his weight behind efforts to ban the neo-Nazi NPD party (which has MPs in the Saxony Parliament).
Paul Spiegel, head of Germany´s Central Jewish Committee, warns against "actionism", saying such measures will neither address the ignorance of many Germans about the Holocaust - nor remove the appeal of neo-Nazis to voters. Only the voters themselves can do this, he remarks in this article in today´s Tagesspiegel.
-Tagesspiegel Online : Politik#art
Spiegel is right. Political actionism is the equivalent of empty rhetoric - it makes the people doing it feel better, but does nothing to further the cause it purports to defend.
In the case of banning the NPD, it is indeed more likely to harm the cause, and allow the NPD to pose as the oppressed champion of democratic capitalism´s downtrodden victims. In a country with more than 5 million unemployed, that isn´t a good idea.
Paul Spiegel, head of Germany´s Central Jewish Committee, warns against "actionism", saying such measures will neither address the ignorance of many Germans about the Holocaust - nor remove the appeal of neo-Nazis to voters. Only the voters themselves can do this, he remarks in this article in today´s Tagesspiegel.
-Tagesspiegel Online : Politik#art
Spiegel is right. Political actionism is the equivalent of empty rhetoric - it makes the people doing it feel better, but does nothing to further the cause it purports to defend.
In the case of banning the NPD, it is indeed more likely to harm the cause, and allow the NPD to pose as the oppressed champion of democratic capitalism´s downtrodden victims. In a country with more than 5 million unemployed, that isn´t a good idea.
Thursday, February 03, 2005
Foffi and Sweety (2)
It´s official!
Foffi and Sweety WILL be going to the Ball tonight (see The Prince and the Widow, posted 13th January below, for the full, heartwarming context)!
Recent scares - to the effect that the invitation had been lost in the post - have been shown up for the demeaning scraps of tittle-tattle they were. People of Vienna - kneel before the new Regal Pair!
Tatjana Gsell stellt Lugner auf Opernball vielleicht zur Rede - fashion_news_klatsch - Yahoo! Nachrichten
Foffi and Sweety WILL be going to the Ball tonight (see The Prince and the Widow, posted 13th January below, for the full, heartwarming context)!
Recent scares - to the effect that the invitation had been lost in the post - have been shown up for the demeaning scraps of tittle-tattle they were. People of Vienna - kneel before the new Regal Pair!
Tatjana Gsell stellt Lugner auf Opernball vielleicht zur Rede - fashion_news_klatsch - Yahoo! Nachrichten
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
EU and Cuba: Appeasing the Dictator
The EU has ended the "Cocktail Wars" by agreeing not to invite opponents of Fidel Castro´s dictatorship to its parties in Havana.
This sorry and sordid appeasement is a cause for shame. It contrasts unflatteringly with President Bush´s call to spread democracy across the world, and it discredits the name of Europe.
Vaclav Havel articulates it well:
EU and Cuba: Freedom vs. appeasement www.vcrisis.com: "I can hardly think of a better way for the EU to dishonor the noble ideals of freedom, equality and human rights that the Union espouses -- indeed, principles that it reiterates in its constitutional agreement. To protect European corporations' profits from their Havana hotels, the Union will cease inviting open-minded people to EU embassies, and we will deduce who they are from the expression on the face of the dictator and his associates. It is hard to imagine a more shameful deal."
This sorry and sordid appeasement is a cause for shame. It contrasts unflatteringly with President Bush´s call to spread democracy across the world, and it discredits the name of Europe.
Vaclav Havel articulates it well:
EU and Cuba: Freedom vs. appeasement www.vcrisis.com: "I can hardly think of a better way for the EU to dishonor the noble ideals of freedom, equality and human rights that the Union espouses -- indeed, principles that it reiterates in its constitutional agreement. To protect European corporations' profits from their Havana hotels, the Union will cease inviting open-minded people to EU embassies, and we will deduce who they are from the expression on the face of the dictator and his associates. It is hard to imagine a more shameful deal."
EU will focus on economy
Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, today announced that the EU would focus on economic growth and job creation.
EUROPA - Rapid - Press Releases
A step in the right direction, even if Barroso doesn´t make any reference to tackling the EU´s labyrinthine bureaucracy and endemic corruption.
Even so, however, the Socialists, the Greens and the trades unions wasted no time in attacking the Commission President´s overly "American" focus on the economy, at the expense of more congenial environmental and social engineering projects.
They obviously haven´t heard about the extensive Eurowide goat-testing initiative featured here last week (see EU to test 200,000 goats, posted January 29th, 2005). If they knew how tenderly Markos Kyprianou, the EU Commissioner for Goats, is husbanding our goats, they wouldn´t rabble-rouse in so deplorable a fashion.
EUROPA - Rapid - Press Releases
A step in the right direction, even if Barroso doesn´t make any reference to tackling the EU´s labyrinthine bureaucracy and endemic corruption.
Even so, however, the Socialists, the Greens and the trades unions wasted no time in attacking the Commission President´s overly "American" focus on the economy, at the expense of more congenial environmental and social engineering projects.
They obviously haven´t heard about the extensive Eurowide goat-testing initiative featured here last week (see EU to test 200,000 goats, posted January 29th, 2005). If they knew how tenderly Markos Kyprianou, the EU Commissioner for Goats, is husbanding our goats, they wouldn´t rabble-rouse in so deplorable a fashion.
China buys 60 Boeings and 5 Airbus A380´s
So it looks like China is rewarding the intensive European efforts to have the arms embargo lifted - 5 Airbuses sold! Way to go!
Xinhua - English
Xinhua - English
Banana War Looms Once Again
The EU is tripling its import tariffs on bananas as of January 2006. Looks like we could be on course for another Banana War.
TRADE-EU: Banana War Looms Once Again
TRADE-EU: Banana War Looms Once Again
Home-grown imams...
France and Holland are to invest in the training of home-grown imams. The aim is to have imams familiar with the local culture, something many of them currently don´t have.
See Aljazeera:
Aljazeera.Net - European imams to receive funding
See Aljazeera:
Aljazeera.Net - European imams to receive funding
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
Killing Patients with Kindness: Indoctrinology
The debate about political correctness often seems inconsequential: a mere spat between good manners and plain speakers. Sometimes, however, the ramifications of PC involve fantastical constructs of such obscurantist, neo-superstitious lunacy that they cry out to be demolished.
Take medicine, where the rigours of impartial medical science are increasingly threatened by the self-regarding dogmas of social engineering. AIDS, for example, is described in a paper from Brown University as a "biological expression of social inequality."
Plenty more examples of that kind of idiocy can be found. This article, from New Criterion, refers to it as "indoctrinology", the work of "indoctrinologists". A new if not especially catchy name for the old practice of killing patients with kindness - or, to give it an un-PC name, wilful stupidity.
Notes & Comments
Take medicine, where the rigours of impartial medical science are increasingly threatened by the self-regarding dogmas of social engineering. AIDS, for example, is described in a paper from Brown University as a "biological expression of social inequality."
Plenty more examples of that kind of idiocy can be found. This article, from New Criterion, refers to it as "indoctrinology", the work of "indoctrinologists". A new if not especially catchy name for the old practice of killing patients with kindness - or, to give it an un-PC name, wilful stupidity.
Notes & Comments
Misappropriated DutchTax Money
In the referendum on the new European constitution, governments will spend taxpayers´ money to tell them which way to vote. Cynics won´t bat an eye at this; the rest of us can only weep for our misappropriated euros!
Today´s example comes from Holland, where 1.5 million euros have been earmarked to instruct electors to vote "yes". If it looks like enough taxpayers might vote "no", then their own money will be spent to persuade them otherwise.
This has become necessary in light of the latest poll results. Whereas normally the Dutch are reliably pro-EU and were assumed to be solidly in favour of the new constitution, a poll by Maurice de Hond last week showed a dramatically opposite tendency. The Dutch government realises, to its horror, that the debate is far more open and undecided than it had thought. Hence the need to help guide voters subtly toward the correct voting intention.
It seems foolish to waste money in this way. Surely it would be cheaper to cancel the whole referendum and approve the wretched constitution by government fiat?
Today´s example comes from Holland, where 1.5 million euros have been earmarked to instruct electors to vote "yes". If it looks like enough taxpayers might vote "no", then their own money will be spent to persuade them otherwise.
This has become necessary in light of the latest poll results. Whereas normally the Dutch are reliably pro-EU and were assumed to be solidly in favour of the new constitution, a poll by Maurice de Hond last week showed a dramatically opposite tendency. The Dutch government realises, to its horror, that the debate is far more open and undecided than it had thought. Hence the need to help guide voters subtly toward the correct voting intention.
It seems foolish to waste money in this way. Surely it would be cheaper to cancel the whole referendum and approve the wretched constitution by government fiat?
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