Takes One to Know One ...

... or: Playpen Seeks New Playmate Made in China

The ricey version of a State Department subservient to the bushbaby has announced, contrary to ALL other assessments of the situation there, that China has "improved" in human rights! Shocking considering the nearly daily reports of censorship and bludgeoning that its "citizens" must endure, including the fact that most do NOT even have any form of state retirement (now that's comm(unist)ando-style economics for you!).

To wit:

Reporters Without Borders
Beijing Games update
12.03: monks arrested in Lhasa protests, while exiles in India start long march

The New York Times, Washington, By HELENE COOPER, Published: March 12, 2008
U.S. Drops China From List of Top 10 Violators of Rights
"The State Department no longer considers China one of the world’s worst human rights violators, a decision that immediately earned the ire of human rights groups."

Washington retire la Chine de la liste des Etats les plus répressifs
LE MONDE 12.03.08
La Chine, qui figurait l'an dernier et en 2005 sur cette liste, change de statut. Le département d'Etat la requalifie en "pays autoritaire en pleine réforme économique ayant vécu des changements sociaux rapides mais n'ayant pas procédé à des réformes politiques et continuant à nier à ses citoyens les droits de l'homme et les libertés fondamentales basiques".

©

The Washington Post
U.S. Delisting of China Upsets Rights Activists
By Jill Drew, Washington Post Foreign Service, Thursday, March 13, 2008; A13

BEIJING, March 12 -- Human rights activists on Wednesday decried the U.S. State Department's decision to drop China from its list of the world's worst human rights violators, saying that China's crackdown on dissent is getting worse as it prepares to host the Olympic Games in August.
"We and others have documented a sharp uptick in human rights violations directly related to preparations for the Olympics," said Phelim Kine, Asia researcher with New York-based Human Rights Watch. The decision comes at the worst possible time for activists seeking to pressure Beijing to relax restrictions on free speech, release political prisoners and improve human rights protections, Kine added.

Human Rights Watch (New York, March 12, 2008)
China: Beijing’s Migrant Construction Workers Abused
Builders of the ‘New Beijing’ Cheated of Wages, Denied Essential Services – Migrant construction workers building the “new Beijing” are routinely exploited by being denied proper wages, under dangerous conditions with neither accident insurance nor access to medical and other social services, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today.

U.S. State Department: 2007 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices

For example, China’s overall human rights record remained poor in 2007. Controls were tightened on religious freedom in Tibetan areas and in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region and the treatment of petitioners in Beijing worsened. The government also continued to monitor, harass, detain, arrest, and imprison activists, writers, journalists, and defense lawyers and their families, many of whom were seeking to exercise their rights under the law. Although the government pursued some important reforms, such as the Supreme People’s Court’s resumption of death penalty review power in cases handed down for immediate execution, efforts to reform or abolish the reeducation-through-labor system remained stalled. New temporary regulations improved overall reporting conditions for foreign journalists, but enforcement of these regulations was not consistent, hindering the work of some foreign journalists. The year 2007 saw increased efforts to control and censor the Internet, and the government tightened restrictions on freedom of speech and the domestic press. The government continued to monitor, harass, detain, arrest, and imprison journalists, Internet writers, and bloggers. NGOs reported 29 journalists and 51 cyber-dissidents and Internet users remained in jail at year’s end. There was a 20 percent increase over 2006 in convictions of citizens under China’s overly broad state security law that is often used to silence government critics. In December, well-known human rights activist Hu Jia was arrested at his home and detained for suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power.” His wife and infant daughter were reportedly put under house arrest at the same time. NGOs, both local and international, faced intense scrutiny and restrictions.

The above quote from the report is enough to show how little the chinese plutocrats care about their citizens and their rights. Perhaps they're too busy making cheap plastic copies of everything westerners desire for their big smoke and veil olympic-show, coming to a tv near you. They deserve total scorn and no audience at all.

Second Round

The Berlin mom is back in for her second round of chemo, started yesterday, hoping to get out on Friday. It was all delayed by a week due to her running a fever which put her in to the hospital over the weekend a week ago as her counts were still too low. Other than being ticked off by having to spend time away from home, and recognizing that her hair is going, she's hanging in there, doesn't want any visits (!), just peace and quiet, and wants to cook for us on the weekend (!), which we hope she'll have the energy and stomach for (at least for a visit even if she can't see food then, who knows).
Anyway, we're hoping she won't have any secondary problems this time, since the fever induced hospitalization really got on her nerves. She didn't want to go, till we insisted that she's not in the same situation as before.
At least she agreed to let us call her (but only once a day)! And she's promised to pay attention to what the doctor says (for fear we'll otherwise consult her ourselves).

The Brainless Preserve a No-Brainer

The bushbaby, seeking to satisfy the chaingang in his playpen and prove he's still in charge of the rattle, vetoed a bill to prohibit torture (which is actually already forbidden by international law and many treaties the US has signed and all of which the playpen ignores) by the central-agency-for-unintelligence (the one that was caught with its pants down when the Berlin Wall fell, not even to mention in september seven years ago).
Fitting is that the tortured mac-cane himself voted against this bill, cause you just have to let the spies torture to find out stuff, he mumbled in exasperation though not able to throw his arms up in the air for emphasis. Cane that bushbaby!
Embarrassing!
Justice and democracy are different.

The New York Times: Bush’s Veto of Bill on C.I.A. Tactics Affirms His Legacy

By STEVEN LEE MYERS / Published: March 9, 2008 / WASHINGTON

President Bush on Saturday further cemented his legacy of fighting for strong executive powers, using his veto to shut down a Congressional effort to limit the Central Intelligence Agency’s latitude to subject terrorism suspects to harsh interrogation techniques.

Mr. Bush vetoed a bill that would have explicitly prohibited the agency from using interrogation methods like waterboarding, a technique in which restrained prisoners are threatened with drowning and that has been the subject of intense criticism at home and abroad. Many such techniques are prohibited by the military and law enforcement agencies.

International Women's Day 2008

Best wishes to all the women we know and all who happen to read this blog on this day in recognition of them and their rights and achievements.

"In just three years time, 2011 will see IWD's Centenary - 100 years of women's united action for global equality and change. Organizations around the world have already commenced planning for their IWD Centenary celebrations.

The first International Women's Day was launched on 8 March 1911 in Copenhagen by Clara Zetkin, Leader of the'Women's Office' for the Social Democratic Party in Germany. This followed many years of women's campaigning dating back to British MP, John Stuart Mill, the first person in Parliament calling for women's right to vote.

On 19 September 1893 New Zealand became the first self-governing nation in the world to give women the right to vote."

International Women's Day 2008

A Strike is No Insult

That the employees of Berlin's BVG public transportation system for buses, subways, and trams have been on strike since yesterday and will continue it indefinitely is certainly an inconvenience for the city and its citizens and visitors, as only the regional trains and S-Bahn express trains (another company) remain in operation for the millions of people who use the system daily. Some 3.5 million trips daily must be reorganized, and the S-Bahn, though fast, does not have as frequent stops, given that the BVG net should be the more local. On Monday, life could become yet more difficult, as the D-Bahn, operator of regional and S-Bahn trains, will probably again face a driver's strike for not signing the contract they negotiated with them in January. Then, there will only be feet, bikes, mopeds, cars, and taxis for everyone in Berlin (and for many in other towns served by DB or communal firms whose workers are also on strike).

Yesterday, one of this winter's ultra-rare snowstorms further complicated matters, cars stood more than they drove, bike riders arrived with numb fingers, and pedestrians came as snowmen. (Here a photo of the situation from the Berlin newspaper Der Tagesspiegel: )

Nonetheless, when an employer deigns to label a strike an insult or an idiotic action rather than negotiating in good faith with the unions on the latters' (legitimate) demand for salary and wage increases, when that employer refuses even to consider paying workers more after years without a pay raise, then those staff members have only one means of pressure in their hands: going on strike, withholding their work.

It is time that stockholders, managers, owners, counseling firms, etc. STOP maintaining that paid work is something to be eliminated, that workers should be reduced at all costs, that wages should only be cut, whether the firm is doing well or not. Workers are people. Companies are not. People work for money to live on. They must. Companies are constructs, but it is not legitimate for them to maintain that their existence and rising profitability is more important than the people working there. THAT IS NOT SO!

So, though we may have to bike or walk to work and appointments, most of us here in Berlin SUPPORT the demands of the BVG strikers and understand their plight. Let us citizens put pressure on the government (who is the employer here) to offer the workers a decent wage increase. And to set a good example for all other employers. Social responsibility and the general welfare of society is much more important than any return on investment anywhere.

Let There Be Art ...

Again it is time to speak out and up for freedom of expression, artistic expression, even satire, even if someone claims to be or is insulted by a work of art, as long, at least, as it is not personally libellous or slanderous.

In this case, a Berlin art gallery

GALERIE NORD - KUNSTVEREIN TIERGARTEN

has temporarily, we trust, been forced to close its exhibition opened on February 22 entitled

ZOG-Surrend - Subversive Practice in the Public Space

because six neighborhood thugs stormed in and threatened to return with stones and more if they didn't remove one of the works, a poster of the Kaaba with the title (in German) "Stupid Stone", an insult to their religion, a poster, it must be added, hanging next to one of an orthodox Jew wearing what in the title is called a "Stupid Hat". The entire exhibition is to lay bare the absurdity of neo-Nazi claims of Zionist Occupied Governments, a claim also widespread in the Arab world.

All authorities have agreed to reopen the exhibition on Monday after speaking with law enforcement agencies about measures to protect the exhibition and its visitors and staff.

It is time to put an end to all these iconoclast ravings and be sure we protect and promote the only thing that makes us human: the ability to speak and think freely, even of the uncomfortable and disturbing.

Here, a photo of the corpus delicti from Der Spiegel and the link to their article with more photos; next, the article in Berlin's alternative newspaper TAZ Die Tageszeitung reminding us that this is the sort of thing Putin attempts to do in his "managed Russian democracy" to protect his and his cronies' status and prevent the spread and usage of rights; and finally, the New York Times article from an AP report summarizing the whole situation in English.

Right to Privacy of Electronic Data in Germany Ensured

Das Bundesverfassungsgericht, Germany's supreme court on the constitutionality of laws in the country, yesterday struck down a state law allowing government agencies to use "trojans" to spy on private computers via internet without court order or establishment of due cause in a dire situation.
This is being hailed as the establishment of a new civil right to bring the right to privacy and freedom of expression and research into the 21st Century and the Internet Age.
The link above is to the court's own press release, where there is also a link to the full text of the decision. Here, an excerpt from the press release:

§ 5 Abs. 2 Nr. 11 Satz 1 Alt. 2 VSG, der den heimlichen Zugriff auf informationstechnische Systeme regelt ("Online-Durchsuchung"), verletzt das allgemeine Persönlichkeitsrecht in seiner besonderen Ausprägung als Grundrecht auf Gewährleistung der Vertraulichkeit und Integrität informationstechnischer Systeme und ist nichtig. Die Vorschrift wahrt insbesondere nicht das Gebot der Verhältnismäßigkeit. Angesichts der Schwere des Eingriffs ist die heimliche Infiltration eines informationstechnischen Systems, mittels derer die Nutzung des Systems überwacht und seine Speichermedien ausgelesen werden können,verfassungsrechtlich nur zulässig, wenn tatsächliche Anhaltspunkte einer konkreten Gefahr für ein überragend wichtiges Rechtsgut bestehen.Zudem ist der Eingriff grundsätzlich unter den Vorbehalt richterlicherAnordnung zu stellen. Diesen Anforderungen wird § 5 Abs. 2 Nr. 11 Satz 1 Alt. 2 VSG nicht gerecht. Darüber hinaus fehlt es auch an hinreichenden gesetzlichen Vorkehrungen, um Eingriffe in den absolutgeschützten Kernbereich privater Lebensgestaltung zu vermeiden.

Playpen to Lapdog's Successor in Government: Oops, we lied!

Not only did they violate British and European law by using British bases to "render" suspects to secret cia prisons, the playpen (bushbaby & cunninglizard) also claimed never to have done so, putting the British government in the positon of lying to the British Parliament.
Today they corrected it. Just a mix-up.
OOOPS ! Sorry! Won't happen again!
(It would never happen if they would simply abide by recognized standards of justice: charge suspects, bring them to a court for arraignment and trial, let a jury determine a verdict, and, if guilty, let the court impose a sentence...)
Easy. And no more OOPS !

Miliband admits US rendition flights stopped on UK soil

David Miliband's statement Politics guardian.co.uk

In its Report on Rendition the ISC (28 June 2007) said 'we are satisfied that there is no evidence that US rendition flights have used UK airspace (except the two cases in 1998 referred to earlier in the report) and that there is no evidence of them having landed at UK military airfields'. The Government welcomed these conclusions in its response to the Report in July 2007. Parliamentary answers, interviews and letters followed this evidence. I am very sorry indeed to have to report to the House the need to correct these and other statements on the subject, on the basis of new information passed to officials on 15 February 2008 by the US Government.
Contrary to earlier explicit assurances that Diego Garcia had not been used for rendition flights, recent US investigations have now revealed two occasions, both in 2002, when this had in fact occurred. An error in the earlier US records search meant that these cases did not come to light. In both cases a US plane with a single detainee on board refuelled at the US facility in Diego Garcia. The detainees did not leave the plane, and the US Government has assured us that no US detainees have ever been held on Diego Garcia. US investigations show no record of any other rendition through Diego Garcia or any other Overseas Territory or through the UK itself since then.

U.S. says sorry to U.K. on rendition flights

"We came up with fresh information that in short order we shared with the British government," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. "We regret that there was an error in providing initially that inaccurate information to a good friend and ally," he told reporters.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice telephoned Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Wednesday to express U.S. regret over the error, he told reporters.
Miliband told Britain's parliament earlier on Thursday that contrary to earlier U.S. assurances, two planes used for "rendition flights" in 2002 had refueled at a U.S. base on the British Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia.
The British government had previously insisted it was not aware of any British territory being used to transfer terrorism suspects outside normal extradition procedures since U.S. President George W. Bush took office in 2001.
McCormack strongly denied there was an initial cover-up in providing information to the British government about the flights and attributed it to an "administrative error" by the Central Intelligence Agency.

Timeline: CIA rendition

A recent history of the US programme of moving suspects from one country to another without due process (from the Guardian online)

Miscellaneous Good News

1. Berlin mom home a week after chemo and doing splendidly well! No complaints whatsoever!
2. Stitches removed from heel of palm of right hand without difficulty, healing fine, sometimes bandaid free.
3. US Congress passed measure against torture in interrogations, even by the CIA (even if the playpen and its newly outed playmate McCANE are against it).
4. The German DA charged the multimillionaire head of the "Post AG" here with tax fraud in the millions, and others are about to get whacked!
5. Danish papers republished the mohammed caricatures in response to the murder plot against one of the cartoonists.
6. Beautiful sunny cold day here in Berlin.

weekend update

The Berlin mom is doing extraordinarily well! 5/8 finished with her first course of chemo, Edith was happy to see us, is ready to go home Monday morning after her last infusion Sunday evening, has to relieve her bladder more often than usual and is a bit puffy faced from all the fluid she's getting, but has yet to have any queasiness, perhaps due to the anti-nausea meds she's receiving, and consumed a big bowl of green-bean soup in front of us to prove it, is joking that she doesn't even need the wig yet, and announced we should head on out so she can have some peace & quiet.

May she continue just as spunkily and go on being spared side effects!

She even sympathized with me about my hand; admonished me for not having scrubbed every last trace of the surgical disinfectant paint from my hand, then accepted the explanation that I can't wash it freely and only today did the first home-change of bandages - a real hassle -but thereby had the opportunity to preserve photographically the stitchs for posterity.

Towit:

Glass Out, Stitches In, Sleepless Infusee

It looked dramatic enough, with the surgical disinfection paint and the gauze wound around my entire lower hand, to frighten Koko and make him temporarily a left hand sitting bird, but the 3 glass splitters are gone (I did NOT save them.), the zigzag incision with 7-8 stitches is healing fine, the surgeon was pleased when he changed the bandage to a smaller one this morning, which no longer frightens Koko and which I can finally replace with a waterproof bandaid to be able to wash again, and (sorry Sis) it hasn't really hurt much at all. Just pulls a little with a slight burning sensation. A week from today, the doc will remove the stitches and, as he put it, I'll finally be finished with this story.
Our Berlin mom finally got her first infusion yesterday beginning at 3 in the afternoon, running until this morning at 3; the only disturbance she reports till now is that she couldn't sleep as long as the stuff was running (she uses any excuse not to sleep), so we told her the nurses can watch it without her help, but she wants them to start earlier today so she can fall asleep around 10. Tomorrow we're going to visit her, which she has forbidden us to do today. Then we can report more, and are of course hoping she continues to cope well...
Should we take the camera? Or should I photograph my stitched up hand the next time I change the bandage? Time will tell.

Big Tuesday Primaries

If you are registered to vote in any of the 24 states holding primaries today, be sure and do so. Citizens of democracies who do not bother to vote have not understood what privilege they have to live in a system where their voices count! Stand up for your rights and fulfill your duty to participate in decisions concerning the state you live in!

Another step on the slow but steady road to the end of the playpen....

Protect Ayaan Hirsi Ali !

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: DC\696833EN.doc PE399.291v01-00 / 2004-2009 / 10.12.2007 0110/2007
WRITTEN DECLARATION pursuant to Rule 116 of the Rules of Procedure by Benoît Hamon, Ana Maria Gomes, Véronique de Keyser and Harlem Désir on the EU taking over the protection of Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Lapse date: 26.3.2008 / PE399.291v01-00 2/2 DC\696833EN.doc / EN 0110/2007

Written declaration on the EU taking over the protection of Ayaan Hirsi Ali
The European Parliament,
– having regard to Articles 6, 10(1) and 11(1) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights,
– having regard to Rule 116 of its Rules of Procedure,
A. whereas Mrs Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Netherlands citizen, is under threat of death for having exercised her freedom of expression as guaranteed by the Charter of Fundamental Rights, and whereas Article 6 of the Charter states that ‘everyone has the right to liberty and security of person’,
B. whereas the EU is founded on the values of democracy and the rule of law, and whereas religious fundamentalism, when it threatens death to anyone who dares to criticise the symbols or ideology of a religion, is a direct threat to the fundamental freedoms of the individual, and whereas therefore European citizens should be protected from it, particularly when they have sought refuge from this danger in the EU,
C. whereas, whatever one’s opinion of what Mrs Ali says, she has the right to express herself freely, including on religious, political and philosophical matters,
1. Calls for the EU to take the necessary measures to take responsibility for protecting Mrs Ali, since such protection is no longer afforded by the Netherlands, whatever country she chooses as her country of residence, so that her liberty, already infringed by threats, is not further restricted;
2. Instructs its President to forward this declaration, together with the names of the signatories, to the parliaments of the Member States, the Council and the Commission.

++++

PARLEMENT EUROPÉEN: DC\696833FR.doc PE399.291v01-00 / 2004-2009 / 10.12.2077 0110/2007
DÉCLARATION ÉCRITE déposée conformément à l'article 116 du règlement par Benoît Hamon, Ana Maria Gomes, Véronique De Keyser et Harlem Désir sur la prise en charge par l'UE de la protection d'Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Échéance: 26.3.2008 / PE399.291v01-00 2/2 DC\696833FR.doc FR 0110/2007

Déclaration écrite sur la prise en charge par l'UE de la protection d'Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Le Parlement européen,
– vu l'article 6, l'article 10, paragraphe1, et l'article 11, paragraphe 1, de la Charte des droits fondamentaux,
– vu l'article 116 de son règlement,
A. considérant que Mme Ayaan Hirsi Ali, citoyenne néerlandaise, est menacée de mort pour avoir exercé sa liberté d'expression, garantie par la Charte des droits fondamentaux, laquelle dispose en son article 6 que "toute personne a droit à la liberté et à la sûreté",
B. considérant que l'Union européenne se fonde sur les valeurs de la démocratie et de l'État de droit et que l'intégrisme religieux, dès lors qu'il menace de mort quiconque ose critiquer les symboles ou l'idéologie d'une religion, menace directement les libertés
individuelles fondamentales; qu'en conséquence, il faut protéger les citoyens européens contre un tel intégrisme, a fortiori quand ceux-ci ont fui ce danger pour trouver refuge dans l'Union européenne,
C. considérant que, quel que soit le jugement que l'on puisse porter sur les propos de Mme Ayaan Hirsi Ali, cette dernière a le droit de s'exprimer librement, y compris sur des questions d'ordre religieux, politique ou philosophique,
1. demande que l'Union européenne prenne les mesures nécessaires à la prise en charge de la protection de Mme Ayaan Hirsi Ali – qui n'est plus assurée aujourd'hui par les Pays-Bas –, quel que soit le pays où celle-ci a choisi de résider, afin de ne pas restreindre davantage sa liberté, déjà entravée par les menaces;
2. charge son Président de transmettre la présente déclaration, accompagnée du nom des signataires, aux parlements des États membres, au Conseil et à la Commission.

***

EUROPÄISCHES PARLAMENT: DC\696833DE.doc PE399.291 / 2004-2009 / 10.12.2007 0110/2007
SCHRIFTLICHE ERKLÄRUNG eingereicht gemäß Artikel 116 der Geschäftsordnung von Benoît Hamon, Ana Maria Gomes, Véronique De Keyser und Harlem Désir zur Gewährleistung des Schutzes von Ayaan Hirsi Ali durch die EU
Fristablauf: 26.3.2008 / PE399.291 2/2 DC\696833DE.doc DE 0110/2007

Schriftliche Erklärung zur Gewährleistung des Schutzes von Ayaan Hirsi Ali durch die EU
Das Europäische Parlament,
– gestützt auf die Artikel 6, 10 Absatz 1 und Artikel 11 Absatz 1 der Charta der Grundrechte,
– gestützt auf Artikel 116 seiner Geschäftsordnung,
A. in der Erwägung, dass Ayaan Hirsi Ali, niederländische Staatsangehörige, aufgrund der Ausübung ihres von der Charta der Grundrechte garantierten Rechts auf freie Meinungsäußerung mit dem Tod bedroht wird und dass gemäß Artikel 6 dieser Charta „jeder Mensch das Recht auf Freiheit und Sicherheit“ hat,
B. in der Erwägung, dass die Europäische Union auf den Werten der Demokratie und der Rechtsstaatlichkeit beruht und der religiöse Fundamentalismus, indem er jeden mit dem Tod droht, der es wagt, die Symbole oder die Ideologie einer Religion zu kritisieren, die grundlegenden persönlichen Freiheiten unmittelbar bedroht und den europäischen Bürgern daher Schutz zu gewähren ist, was umso mehr gilt, wenn sie bereits vor einer solchen Gefahr geflohen sind und in der EU Schutz suchen,
C. in der Erwägung, dass Ayaan Hirsi Ali unabhängig von den Auffassungen, die zu ihren Äußerungen bestehen mögen, das Recht auf freie Meinungsäußerung zusteht, einschließlich der Äußerung zu religiösen, politischen oder philosophischen Fragen,
1. fordert, dass die Europäische Union die erforderlichen Maßnahmen zum Schutz von Ayaan Hirsi Ali ergreift, der von den Niederlanden derzeit nicht mehr gewährleistet wird, und zwar unabhängig von dem Land, das sie zu ihrem Wohnsitz erkoren hat, um ihre bereits durch die Bedrohungen beeinträchtigte Freiheit nicht noch weiter einzuschränken;
2. beauftragt seinen Präsidenten, diese Erklärung mit den Namen der Unterzeichner den Parlamenten der Mitgliedstaaten, dem Rat und der Kommission zu übermitteln.

SOURCE FOR ALL THREE VERSIONS:

LAST ENTRY on this EU Parliament Site

English PDF Document

In Paris, there will be an important meeting to help achieve this goal on February 10th:

Avec Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Protégeons la liberté de penser

Le Meeting aura lieu le 10 février à 20 H à l’Ecole normale supérieure (annexe, amphi Jules Ferry), 29 rue d’Ulm 75005 (venir dès 19h en raison du dispositif de sécurité).
La soirée est organisée par : La Revue ProChoix, La Règle du Jeu, Libération et Charlie Hebdo
En présence de Darina al-Joundi, Monique Canto-Sperber, Caroline Fourest, Benoît Hamon, Laurent Joffrin, Dominique Sopo, Bernard-Henri Lévy, Mohamed Sifaoui, Pascal Bruckner, Philippe Val, Ségolène Royal, Rama Yade, et bien sûr Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

For details see: Tous autour d'Ayaan Hirsi Ali le 10 février à Paris

One Year Ago / Two Days from Now

Unbelievable, but one year ago today I was arriving to visit the Countess, still at the Ducal station, and then to accompany her and the Lady-in-Waiting to Chicora Court for the following month.
Just as unbelievable is that the Berlin mom will begin chemo two days from now, having completed her six radiation doses in three weeks without noticeable impairment. She's already bought a wig, was out with Steffi to do so today. She'll be in the hospital for three-four days for the chemo, then released, barring infection danger, to return three weeks later to repeat the process, a total of five-six times. So we're talking 15-18 weeks total, close to the Chicora Court duration.
But this story is different, heading in another direction. And the Berlin mom's in top spirits and ready for the ordeal to ensure full cure.

Biking in the Wind

Thanks to the BVG strike of subway, buses, trams, and ferries today we headed to work on our bikes. The strike will continue till tomorrow around 3pm, because the BVG refuses to make any decent offer of wage increases to its employees for the new contract period.
We have no problem whatsoever with them striking for their demands. Employees have no other power with employers, especially such who these days would prefer to have employees pay for the privilege of working rather than give any money at all.
Without its employees, the BVG would have a lot of empty useless immobile trains and buses, as they did today. We all want a decent living, so lets be willing to pay those whose services we use.
The DB train company's locomotive engineers managed to get a new contract only after months of occasional strikes, which includes the S-Bahn, the only transit system operating in Berlin today. Hopefully the BVG management will negotiate a decent contract with its workers more quickly!
They can't outsource transit workers to some third-world country! It's time "globalized" firms begin to learn that personnel is their most important resource. And every member of the personnel is also, if he receives enough money to buy anything, a potential customer. If they don't get paid for their work, they aren't anybody's customers anymore.

CDU-Candidate in Hessia Gets the Hard Punishment He Sought for Others

Two articles with appropriate assessments of the convicted party balance sheet fraudster Koch's loss in yesterday's election in Hessia, both from

taz.de :

Amtliches Ergebnis in Hessen: Roland Koch droht die Abschiebung

Roland Koch droht die Abschiebung
Der CDU-Ministerpräsident kann in Hessen nur noch in einer Großen Koalition weiterregieren. Doch die ist unwahrschienlich. SPD-Chefin Ypsilanti will lieber eine Ampelkoalition.

Cohn-Bendit für Minderheitsregierung

Nur Rot-Grün verhindert Lähmung
Der Grüne Fraktionschef im Europaparlament, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, plädiert für eine rot-grüne Minderheitsregierung in Hessen als Weg aus dem Patt. Die müsste sich von den Linken tolerieren lassen.

After his latest gambit of playing the law-and-order trump card and blaming crime on foreign kids, while his own administration had cut funding for police, district attorneys, and judges in his state while also reducing programs for integration, education, and social work, this Minister President had to eat some crow, finally. Already, in the CDU slush fund scandals, the courts had deemed him indeed guilty of falsifying his party's books with his signature verifying fraudulent donations and money laundering through third countries, though it was not punishable, as fraud in political party books at that time was not a crime! Unethical it was, though, as was his entire campaign this time round.
Now he and buttoned up Chancellor Merkel are claiming he should form the next government there anyway, because everything he did, of course, was, in their opinion, right, though he has no chance of assembling a coalition majority and his party (and hers) was the major loser in the election, despite squeaking to first place with 36.8% of the votes ahead of the SPD with 36.7%.
Cohn-Bendit's proposal of a minority government with toleration by the Linke may be the only possibility open, if the FDP, till now in the CDU swindler's pocket, continues to resist a three-party coalition with Greens and SPD.

The results were as follows, in percent, 2003 in parenthesis, change afterwards:
CDU 36,8 (48,8) -12,0
SPD 36,7 (29,1) + 7,6
Grüne 7,5 (10,1) - 2,6
FDP 9,4 ( 7,9) + 1,5
Die Linke 5,1 ( --) + 5,1

Seats in the parliament in Hessia will now be divided up as follows:
CDU 42
SPD 42
Grüne 9
FDP 11
Linke 6
110 seats in total, for a majority, a coalition needs 56 seats.

We may soon see some of Merkel's buttons pop soon!

55%

Fifty-five percent for Obama with a message of change in South Carolina is indeed a sign that my homeland may finally be ready to return to the path of advancement it left with after the murders of those calling for a turn to the future in my childhood and adolescence (JFK, RFK, MLK, Malcolm).
Fifty-five percent in South Carolina for a black man as nominee of the Democratic Party for the presidency of the United States is reminiscent of the hope for progress I knew when we merged into a single highschool the white and black ones in my hometown in the '60s without negative incident.
Whoever ultimately wins the nomination, I hope with every breath that this sentiment for change and progress and civilization and justice and fairness and equitability and future wins in November. Obama, Clinton, and Edwards should ALL play major roles in the next administration! The rest of the world could then heave a sigh of relief, to witness the US returning to the ranks of civilized, enlightened, democratic countries committed to human rights and justice and freedom everywhere.
When it is darkest, as it surely is with that bushbaby in his playpen (even his Wolf-O-Witz [="wolf-of-the-joke" in German] has been restored to a place of "honor" among the playmates), this light may still gain force and remind constantly the candidates in November that the United States is NOT the land of torture and senseless war and spying and police-state measures, but a land where the people can indeed still stand up and say: Change it!

Contemplating Freedom

Having read this essay several times, today I found myself concentrating on two paragraphs concerning freedom. In a treatise on the danger and chance of technology (not of technologies, but of the essence of technology, the concept of Being it derives from), these thoughts on freedom, liberty, Freiheit, liberté may appear abstract. Perhaps that is precisely the reason we so often do not consider freedom in essence. Perhaps that is precisely the danger. So here, at the risk of bemusing some, disturbing others, and giving some few pause to think, I am providing my own translation of those few lines, followed by the original. For the moment the English version satisfies me somewhat. Whether it still will do so tomorrow is difficult to predict; for I will continue thinking about what is thought worthy. What is worth considering is worth saying in another way another day. But it must at all costs be spoken. It's worth thinking about!

Freedom’s essential sway (essence) is not originally attributable to will or merely to the causality of human desiring.
Freedom administers the free, in the sense of the illuminated, i.e. of the revealed. The occurrence of revealing, i.e. of truth, is what freedom is most closely and most intimately related to. All revealing is part and parcel of a sheltering and a concealing. Liberating, however, is concealed and always conceals itself, the secret. All revealing comes from the free, goes into the free, and brings into the free. The freedom of the free consists neither in unbound arbitrariness nor in the bonds of mere laws. Freedom is illuminating concealment in whose illumination that veil flutters which conceals the essential swaying of all truth and which makes that veil appear as one that shrouds. Freedom is the realm of that sending forth which each time sets a revelation on its path.

[-RG transl.]

Das Wesen der Freiheit ist ursprünglich nicht dem Willen oder gar nur der Kausalität des menschlichen Wollens zugeordnet.
Die Freiheit verwaltet das Freie im Sinne des Gelichteten, d.h. des Entborgenen. Das Geschehnis des Entbergens, d. h. der Wahrheit, ist es, zu dem die Freiheit in der nächsten und innigsten Verwandtschaft steht. Alles Entbergen gehört in ein Bergen und Verbergen. Verborgen aber ist und immer sich verbergend das Befreiende, das Geheimnis. Alles Entbergen kommt aus dem Freien, geht ins Freie und bringt ins Freie. Die Freiheit des Freien besteht weder in der Ungebundenheit der Willkür, noch in der Bindung durch bloße Gesetze. Die Freiheit ist das lichtend Verbergende, in dessen Lichtung jener Schleier weht, der das Wesende aller Wahrheit verhüllt und den Schleier als den verhüllenden erscheinen läßt. Die Freiheit ist der Bereich des Geschickes, das jeweils eine Entbergung auf ihren Weg bringt.

[„Die Frage nach der Technik“ in MH GA Bd.7, S.26 bzw. Klett-Cotta-Ausgabe S.24-25]

Playpen Security Shenanigans to Snoop on YOU

The FISA Follies, Redux - New York Times

The Senate (reportedly still under Democratic control) seems determined to help President Bush violate Americans’ civil liberties and undermine the constitutional separation of powers. Majority Leader Harry Reid is supporting White House-backed legislation that would expand the administration’s ability to spy on Americans without court supervision and ensure that the country never learns the full extent of Mr. Bush’s illegal wiretapping program.

The 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA — which Mr. Bush decided to ignore after 9/11 — requires a warrant to intercept telephone calls and e-mail messages between people in the United States and people abroad.

[...]

It is now up to the House to protect Americans’ rights. Mr. Bush has already started issuing the ritual claims that if his bill is not passed instantly, Osama bin Laden will be telephoning his agents in the United States and no one will know. Let us be clear, Mr. Bush has always had the authority to order emergency wiretaps — and get court approval after the fact. That has never been the problem with FISA.

The House should vote to extend last summer’s flawed rules for at least 30 days and go on recess, forcing the Senate to do the same thing, and then bring the whole matter to a conference committee. There will then be plenty of time for a real debate.

Lawmakers and the rest of the nation should bear this in mind: Mr. Bush’s version of this law does not make intelligence-gathering more robust. Opponents like Senators Christopher Dodd and Patrick Leahy want to spy on Al Qaeda, too. They’re just not willing to do it in a way that undermines the very democracy that the spies, Congress and the president are supposed to be protecting.
- The New York Times, Editorial, Published: January 26, 2008

It's time to start concentrating on real security issues, real efforts to protect democracy and justice, human rights and freedom, and, yes, our physical safety, instead of trampling on everything the "enemy" is supposedly trying to destroy in Western civilization while telling a grandmother she can't bring two jars of homemade marmelade onto an airplane to take them to her grandchildren. Security risk. The simple question is, who and what is the security risk ?

Recognize Anything ?

A little contest: If you recognize anything in these photos, then you can also guess what must and will be done. Enter your hypotheses as comments.

This is all an aftermath of the incident referenced in my post from January 3rd, the sixth paragraph concerning the perils of sobriety.

Having Fun in the Playpen (Middle East Version)

Yes, that darling bushbaby has been on the road again, perhaps imagining that other countries might be nicer to him, i.e. be even less intelligent than those he has bamboozled back home. Sooo, I'm giving space to Comedy Central, to sum up the import and impact and impotence and implosion and impossibility of what the clown's up to these days.

(By the way, my absentee ballot for the NY primary, Dem, is already in the mail, so you can't change my mind on that one anymore, whoever you are, however much you scowl or cry or grin or sermonize or cajole or coax. My vote has been cast.)

subterfuge, scandal, shock

Undertake whatever is necessary to maintain each and every individual's freedom to speak, write, sing, paint his/her own opinion and to uphold the right to read and look at whatever we want, in other words: to think!

CHARTER OF FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

TITLE II

FREEDOMS

Article 11

Freedom of expression and information

1. Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.
2. The freedom and pluralism of the media shall be respected.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Article 19
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Stop the Shame / Institute Justice !

The sixth anniversary of the opening of the prison camp at Guantánamo is a reminder of how long its inmates have been confined there without receiving any semblance of JUSTICE. They have not been charged, have not been tried, have not been convicted or sentenced. They have been held against all enlightened and democratic principles of justice for as much as six years.

Close this place down. If we hope to protect democratic principles, an essential one being justice, then we must charge and try, have a jury convict or release, those held up to now without anything even resembling what justice demands.

Here, photos from The Atlantic of this place outside of any legal system.

This sad anniversary as seen by the Associated Press in the Washington Post, by Libération, and by Die Zeit.

Essential Knowledge

Go to the mailbox, take out an envelope from DHL, open it, read a notice about some package for you from the US having been given to Customs for processing of duty fees, with the address where you have to go to pick it up and pay whatever, without knowing what it is, and all within 3 days or you'll be charged a "storage" fee. The place is nearly an hour away, halfway between 2 S-Bahn stations, which means a hike is also involved, only open till 6:30pm and it's now 4. So you take off immediately, get there shortly before 5 to see a line a mile long, wait a half hour to be asked if you have a receipt for the order from Amazon, tell the customs agent you don't know what it is, it must be a gift. OK. You can wait in the next waiting room till they call your name, which they do after another half-hour, again ask what it is, you say open it and we'll both find out. Then you see it's a book from your wish list, was sent on December 6, is your Xmas present from your sister, and tell the guy so. A gift is good, he says, and wants to know how much it costs, cause it doesn't say on the packing slip (of course not, it says merry christmas from T), but the jacket bears a price, which you tell him would be lower at Amazon, and he says that's ok, cause the dollar amount shown amounts to less than 45 euros, the maximum amount permissible for a gift without duty on it, and you can take it and leave. And take the packaging off the counter.

It was "The New York Times Guide to Essential Knowledge", and picking it up also expanded my knowledge about christmas presents arriving from across the ocean. Today is almost mid-January.

HO HO HO, MERRY CHRISTMAS !

( And thanks, really, for the present, sis, it's great ! )

Reason means THINKING

And that's what Ayaan Hirsi Ali does in her review of Lee Harris' new book The Suicide of Reason. Here a link to that book review-essay in the NYTimes Book Review.
The necessity to defend reason, free thinking is an utter necessity, an urgent need, and it is my hope that this year will bring some light into the jungles of mystical romantic fundamentalist mindsets.
It does not help to look the other way: darkness must be seen to give light a chance.

"And behold, another year begins, [...]

[...] It knows what it is. And somehow, as if by magic, everyone in the whole world does, as well. The sweet sound passage of time."
(Bubble, from Absolutely Fabulous, comprehending the beginning of 1995)

Today is the beginning of the election of a a non-bushbaby so that the US can finally have a president again.

"Etwas, das noch so leis ist und kaum entstanden, soll man nicht gleich mit Worten belegen. Es ist genug wenn man es spürt." -W.Bräunig: Rummelplatz, S.584.

But once you can find the word, can speak it, you are contemplating existence.

Tomorrow we accompany the Berlin Mom to the radiation therapy planning session.

My hand stopped bleeding about an hour after I fell on some glass on the way home from an otherwise very enjoyable New Year's Eve celebration in Erich's village. It doesn't even hurt anymore, just looks disgusting, but now only scabbed, also bruised. D was my first-aid man, as he is anyway in my life. And we weren't even inebriated.

Enjoying some time to finish up some books, write a bit, think, before I start teaching again next week.

So, Happy New Year, everyone!

For 2008

The Berlin Mom is home again, will be facing radiation and chemo-therapies in the next months to ensure that, despite the successful removal of all cancerous tissue detectable, no malignant cells are flitting around to give rise to some new tumor elsewhere. So we will be caring for this mom to get through this ordeal, but in the knowledge that this is a battle for maintenance of health rather than for defeat of any specific malignancy.

This encourages us to think of the wonder of being, something that only we as humans are able to do, as we are the only creatures who, mortal, can consider that mortality.

So in 2008, whatever the malignancies affecting the world - and there are many, so many I've alluded to here, far too many to list again -, let us simply strive TO BE, to be thinking humans feeling what it means to know we will one day die, loving the life that we can enjoy by thinking and loving, living in this world so as to let it continue to be a place hospitable to human life, to thought, to love. Perhaps we can make the world even more livable for thinking beings.
Let us not fall into the dark contemplation of death, for that is the true victory of nihilism; let us not await some pie-in-the-sky glory or joy, for that is nihilism's destruction of life : LET US BE WITH ALL THAT WE CAN BE ! That is joy here and now and then and in the future and for all time.

Dangers offer a chance to see the void into which all can be tumbled and out of which all can emerge ! Fear is a nihilistic mode of existence, one that cancels being and prevents us from considering the wonder of what it means TO BE !

And I will continue to think and speak and read and write and live and love with all my might in this coming year.

Being Patient

Biopsy report for Edith still not available due to the holidays, we are all exercising patience, but the GOOD NEWS: She'll be released from the hospital on Saturday. Detlef & I will go and pick her up and walk home with her (!) as she insists on doing and said this morning the doctor said she's allowed to do. Hopefully we have the other report before she leaves, but in any case, she is quickly becoming physically fit again, which will be of great help to her if it should prove that she does need follow-up radiation or chemo treatment. But all signs are looking good. And Christmas is proceeding apace!
Christmas Eve was with Heiko & Steffi and today we're off to Bernhard & Rosi.

No Results Yet, and everything you shouldn't do in the hospital

Well, still waiting on biopsy results for the Berlin mom, who's recovering ever more feistily from her operation. May well be after Xmas before we hear for sure that there's (as we're telling ourselves) nothing needing further treatment.

Anyway, Edith informed us that in the hospital:
- you don't take flowers with you, they must stay in the room when you leave;
- you should tell her well in advance before they move her for the holidays to consolidate stations, but they didn't;
- that you shouldn't take photos, but allowed it after all when I told her I knew about that trick of hiding under the covers: then she came out and smiled;
- that you don't bother the nurses when the laxatives they give you cause you to make a mess: you clean it up yourself, which she did;
- that you don't watch TV when they're doing a quick surgery on another patient in your room, as another roommate of hers did
- that you don't have to come visit her every day, even though she's glad when you do.

(We were only able to slip two snapshots past her.)

Necessary Quotation

From Ligne de risque n°23, novembre 2007, p.40, François Meyronnis in answer to a question on language, literature, "loving words":

Celui qui a un mauvais rapport avec le langage a un mauvais rapport avec la vie. Avec un langage misérable, toute possibilité d'affranchissement se retire.

And here, for those who wish to grasp, even if not for the masses, my English and German versions:

Anyone who has a bad relationship with language has a bad relationship with life. With miserable language, all possibility of liberation is withdrawn.

Wer einen schlechten Bezug zur Sprache hat, hat einen schlechten Bezug zum Leben. Mit einer armseligen Sprache zieht sich jede Möglichkeit einer Befreiung zurück.

-----------UPDATE---------

As if leaving a physical commentary to this post, Jennifer surprised the bonkers out of me/us as we just returned from visiting Edith (with freshly shampooed hair and some kind of foam fixer ?? she likes to put on it and ever more rambunctious), with a delivery crammed in our mail box. It contained the wonderful (from first glance) volume ENGLISH AS SHE IS SPOKE by Fonseca & Carolino, which I'm sure will prove even more fantastic upon more thorough perusal. So thanks, Jenn, for commenting on this post - in a proper manner - without even yet having been able to know about it. (Like minds, etc......)

everything out

The docs confirmed that the long surgery was indeed good: all of the tumor, along with uterus, ovaries, lymph nodes, was removed and there were at least no visible signs of anything left.
So Edith is having her patience tried while having to be still to recover from the operation, can finally eat again, and yesterday walked a bit. Today, she said, the nurses expect her out in the corridor.
Otherwise, biopsy results by end of the week (hopefully) will reveal whether there is anything more that would require follow-up treatment.
And we've already threatened to make hospital photos for web-posting. Let's hope the results remain as positive as the surgery indicated.

Waiting

OP - long, long - behind her, our Berlin mom is slowly and feistily recovering from the surgical ordeal. Long should mean good. We think. MMMT / carcinosarcoma is what she's dealing with, and there would have been the chance they couldn't have operated anything out, then surgery would have been short. That's why we think long surgery means good results. Today we're off to the hospital, hope to learn more, see her smile. But this Berlin treasure still needs a lot of support, which is hard for her as a determined care-giver to take, but we're giving and counting on everyone else to think of her and beam her what they can. Probably means part of Christmas will be bedside in the hospital. Unrealistic to expect her home already then....

Time to Take Care of Another Mother !

Well, there's another Countess who needs tending to, a true Berlin treasure of a mom and mom-in-law who's in the hospital for a radical hysterectomy and has lots of strong wishes from us all for success in removal of the tumor completely in surgery without signs of metastasis. Should there be any, well, then we're calling on radiation therapy to handle that.
She's a great lady who deserves many more years: and the chances, we're sure, are good.
Think of Edith, please, and all the people she's so dear to!

U.S. Supreme Court Considering JUSTICE for Guantánamo

As the media around the world report and the civilized world where justice is done sincerely hopes, the Supreme Court will apparently again decide that the playpen must abide by the rules of law and order, of justice, of fair procedure, that it claims to be upholding by denying inmates in Guantánamo the right to a trial. A fair trial could still be ordered by the Court, a speedy one, as the constitution also requires, is no longer possible: many have been sitting there for 6 years already. Two previous Supreme Court decisions ordering rights for those detainees have met with measures of circumvention by the playpen. Every time the courts order them to do something, they change a side issue and force the whole thing through the courts again. Perhaps with this decision, not due till summer, the bushbaby will finally have to administer justice !
We can only hope.

The New York Times
Washington
Justices to Answer Detainee Rights Question
By LINDA GREENHOUSE; Published: December 6, 2007
A majority of the Supreme Court on Wednesday appeared ready to agree that detainees were entitled to invoke some measure of constitutional protection.

No Irani Nuke Program : Good News

The National Intelligence Estimate of the joint US spy and intelligence services today made public its November report stating that Iran suspended efforts to develop nuclear weapons four years ago. That they aren't working on them and no war can be justified - at the moment - as necessary to stop what they've already stopped is a double bit of good news !

The New York Times
International / Middle East
U.S. Says Iran Ended Atomic Arms Work
By MARK MAZZETTI, Published: December 3, 2007

A new assessment by American intelligence agencies concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that the program remains on hold, contradicting a previous intelligence report.

U.S. Officials: Iran Halted Nuclear Weapons Program in 2003 - washingtonpost.com

WASHINGTON -- Iran halted its nuclear weapons development program in the fall of 2003 under international pressure but is continuing to enrich uranium, which means it may still be able to develop a weapon between 2010 and 2015, senior intelligence officials said Monday.

Russia Electing a New Tsar ?

The NYTimes says the only thing Putin doesn't yet control in Russia is culture and the arts and seems to take for granted that he will become the new potentate after todays "election" of a new Duma.

French Papers speculate on whether he will take over the National Security Council (leaving Cunning Condy to wonder why she gave up that post in the playpen) or have himself elected Tsar as in 1613 when the Romanovs came to power or have himself granted plenipotentiary powers as did Stalin in 1937.

Le 2 décembre de Vladimir Poutine, par Marie Jégo
Visiblement, la Russie, tiraillée entre le modèle de pouvoir de 1613 et celui de 1937, a tourné le dos à la modernité. "Tout est fait pour éradiquer les mécanismes européens de transfert du pouvoir au profit d'un système byzantin de succession", explique l'ancien dissident Sergueï Kovalev. L'ancien compagnon de Andrei Sakharov en est sûr : le modèle byzantin est appelé à durer.

LE MONDE 01.12.07

©

In any case, Glasnost is over in that vast land, and the world is witnessing the slow choking of a fledgling democracy.

And here, a reproduction of a photo made by Russian artists V. Mizin and A. Shaburov which Putin's Kremlin and National Unity Party have declared an insult to the fatherland and successfully forbidden from exhibitions in Russia and managed to have removed from an exhibition of new Russian art in Paris.



Here a link to their gallery, which was unable to fight off Putinesque censorship, where there are also links to the two artists. At least THIS cannot be censored.

Wake up call

From Philippe Sollers' Guerres secrètes, the following short quote in my English rendition, followed by his French original (Paris, CarnetsNord, 2007, p.298) and then my German version. A method well worth trying in our world of distractions from what we should be considering, since, as Sollers says, we need to be awake.

Saying yes to the "passing" of time, if that's possible, delivers you from resentment and the spirit of vengeance whose secret war against joy never pauses for even a second. [...] Awakenings to the constancy of transformation, or, if you prefer, to the renewal of the immutable.

Dire oui au « passer » du temps, si c'est possible, vous délivre du ressentiment et de l'esprit de vengeance, dont la guerre secrète contre la joie ne cesse pas un instant. [...] Reveils à la constance de transformation, ou, si vous préférez, renouvellement de l'immuable.

Dem "Vergehen" der Zeit ja sagen, wenn möglich, befreit Sie vom Groll und vom Geist der Rache, deren geheimer Krieg gegen die Freude keine Sekunde innehält. [...] Erwachen zur Beständigkeit der Veränderung oder, wenn es Ihnen lieber ist, zur Erneuerung des Unveränderlichen.

You could also say, Being is always a chance, IS a chance.

A Cousin Lost, An Uncle to Cherish

Pamela Tyson Allen
Pamela Tyson Allen, 48, of 1921B Stokes Road died Sunday, Nov. 25, 2007, at U.N.C. Chapel Hill Hospital. A memorial service will be held Thursday at 8 p.m. from the Church Street Chapel of the Farmville Funeral Home by the Rev. John Bowman and the Rev. Clynt White. Ms. Allen was preceded in death by a son, H.R. Allen IV; her mother, Helen B. Tyson; and brothers, Amos Tyson Jr. and Alan Tyson. She is survived by a daughter, Lacey Lynn Allen of Greenville; and her father, Amos Tyson of Farmville. The family will receive friends from 7 to 8 p.m. prior to the service and other times at the home of Amos Tyson, 6522 Stantonsburg Road, Farmville.

Amos is a bulwark of love and is due the respect and support and love of all his extended family, who will surely let him know how dear he is to us all. To his sister he was always simpy "Brother", an endearment he understood and returned to her and her children as he lost his own. You helped us, Amos, when mama was dying, just by being, and I hope you can feel the sustenance our being provides for you.

Too little time for billboards...

A disease (another one) is rampant in our age and in our cities: billboards, or actually gigantic posters several stories high covering the entire sides of buildings to advertise for something that I, for one, will never buy, even if I had before intended to. In Berlin it has gone so far that some buildings as yet unbuilt, on Leipziger Platz for example, are "indicated" by a scaffolding in the shape they may one day have with a canvas covering to show how the facade may look but which is to about 90% itself covered with a billboard advertisement, the real purpose of the whole thing. Fake buildings - you could say a Hollywood set or Potemkin village - placed there only to bear enormous ads. On the north side of Leipziger Platz there are more fake than real buildings. The Catholic cathedral on Bebel Platz has covered its facade in a building-sized billboard for some other form of escape, I believe it's an internet provider, before it was a car, maybe the church thinks it can reach more people that way. The bed tower of the Charité hospital is completely wrapped in an ad poster. Many of the buildings Unter den Linden are shrouded in consumer hypes. It has become impossible to look at the city as more and more buildings are hidden by ads.

Meanwhile, there is so little time in so many lives, no one knowing when, but surely that, their life will end. There is so much beauty to see if we allow ourselves and each other to look. There is no time for advertisements at all, much less for billboards.

And many people pay more attention to these unrealities than to the reality around them, which, I'll admit, has become more difficult to perceive, but let us try. Best would be for our many individual gazes to burn holes through all those posters of the unreal hiding the real from us. How about getting a campaign going against mammoth posters advertising junk, a campaign for looking at the real world around us?

A Parade you can be thankful for

Thanks, NYTimes, and thanks, Macy's for letting us see this parade everywhere! And thanks, New York City, for being, thanks from a former New Yorker and current Berliner, thanks, merci, grazie, danke!

NYTIMES: Photographs from the 81st annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.

... but no thanksgiving for the playpen!

Bush More Emphatic In Backing Musharraf - washingtonpost.com:

President Bush yesterday offered his strongest support of embattled Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, saying the general 'hasn't crossed the line' and 'truly is somebody who believes in democracy.'
Bush spoke nearly three weeks after Musharraf declared emergency rule, sacked members of the Supreme Court and began a roundup of journalists, lawyers and human rights activists. Musharraf's government yesterday released about 3,000 political prisoners, although 2,000 remain in custody, according to the Interior Ministry.
...
Tom Malinowski, Washington director of Human Rights Watch, said that "it's hard to imagine how the administration will be able to achieve anything in Pakistan if the president is so disconnected from reality."
"Almost everyone in Pakistan who believes in George Bush's vision of democracy is in prison today," Malinowski said. "Calling the man who put them in prison a great democrat will only discredit America among moderate Pakistanis and give Musharraf confidence that he can continue to defy the United States because Bush will forgive anything he does."

And here's the transcript of the bushbaby's latest proof of his inability to understand what democracy, human or civil rights, justice, or anything else important is: the transcript of that interview in which he made his ludicrous statements, from ABC-News.

This man doesn't deserve a turkey: he is a turkey. And Musharraf is anything but a democratic leader... And he has nuclear weapons, which he, unlike the bushbaby, can probably pronounce, and which in his country might easily get into the hands of fundamentalists lusting for a go against the playpen fundamentalists.

So don't forget to laugh about these fools, while being sure to comprehend their foolishness. These are the worst technocrats. And their faces are splattered with the mud of their idiocy.

UPDATE, Sat. 24.11.2007: Since this posting, the Commonwealth has suspended Pakistan's membership due to its disrespect for democracy stating that it can regain membership only after bushbaby playmate M ends emergency powers and restores democracy in Pakistan. So much for the one the bushbaby thinks is good for democracy there!

Happy Thanksgiving

... thankful for each human life and its unique and vital link to, implication in, necessity for Being itself, to the EVENT of Being. Enowning each of us as we enown ourselves with Being.

It is a wondrous event to BE.

Consider the depth of the statements I AM ; YOU ARE ; Being IS the necessity for each human.

( And IS, as well as all other forms of "to be" here, are to be taken TRANSITIVELY ! )

What makes each of us human is our ability to speak, not to babble, but to SPEAK, to form the WORD that IS, to consider, to know that death is always approaching us, but that this knowledge is unique, a gift and a responsibility to THINK about what it is to BE.

We are the only creatures capable of thinking of our own death and of our own BEING.

Being relies on us to consider it ; We shouldn't relinquish this responsibility to the calculators and technicians, for they are unable to think Being and allow it to withdraw into darkness.

And Being considered is the site of LOVE. Love IS Being. Being IS Love.

When you love, you are, and you are at once and at the same time another as well.

Happy Thanksgiving!

...***...

Added on Thanksgiving Day, something else to be thankful for: a new issue of Ligne de Risque has just been published, n°23, ICI LA PAROLE, with the participation of Valentin Retz, Jean-Jacques Schul, Jean-Claude Milner, Philippe Sollers, Laurent Bevilacqua, François Meyronnis, and Yannick Haenel.

Visiting the Fish

Friday, we finally took a day off to let Lea cash in on her birthday coupon: A trip to the big aquarium in the middle of Berlin. There, she confessed she'd already visited it with her kindergarten group, but she wanted her outing with "the boys". Edith brought her into town, we met them at Alexanderplatz, and all walked over to Spandauer Straße for Sealife's fish spectacle, ending with a trip via elevator through Europe's biggest fishtank. Somehow, it seemed that Lea enjoyed eating noodles with tomato sauce at our house afterwards and seeing Koko again just as much as she enjoyed the fish. Anyway, we had fun, and so did she.

Mixed Report from IAEA on Iran's nuclear aspirations

The Real News:
"Iran: IAEA report sparks controversy
Aijaz Ahmad: New IAEA report says Iran has not lied; US demands new sanctions, China says no."

Don't let Iran thumb its nose at the world; demand a diplomatic resolution; block the spread of nuclear weapons.
Operate within the UN to achieve these aims; avoid unilateral action; laugh at petty dictators with long names.

Norman Mailer: Jan. 31, 1923 - Nov. 10, 2007

Another of the few Americans writing with intelligence, compassion, concern, and thought has died.

Norman Mailer

If for nothing else than the following remarks excerpted from his contribution to The New York Review of Books' article in its issue of November 4, 2004, Vol.51, No.17, "The Election and America's Future", he earned undying respect and admiration, at least from the writer of this blog. His was another voice which will be sorely missed and hardly possible to replace.

A victory for Bush may yet be seen as one of our nation's unforgettable ironies. No need to speak again of the mendacities, manipulations, and spiritual mediocrity of the post–9/11 years; the time has come to recover from the shock that so abysmal a record (and so complete a refusal to look at the record) looks nonetheless likely to prevail. Who, then, are we? In just what kind of condition are the American people?
[...]
People in Alcoholics Anonymous speak of themselves as dry drunks. As they see it, they may no longer drink, yet a sense of imbalance at having to do without liquor does not go away. Rather the impulse is sequestered behind the faith that God is supporting one's efforts to remain sober.
Giving up booze may have been the most heroic act of George W.'s life, but America could now be paying the price. George W.'s piety has become a pomade to cover all the tamped-down dry-drunk craziness that still stirs in his livid inner air.
[...]
Perhaps it is no longer Jesus or Allah who oversees our fate but the turn of the Greek gods to take another run around the track. When it comes to destiny, they were the first, after all, to conceive of the Ironies.

And he is remembered especially in New York and Old Europe:

The New York Times
Focus

Norman Mailer, mort d'un géant de la littérature américaine
LEMONDE.FR 10.11.07

©

A Real No-Brainer !

The playpen's infamous chainy once called waterboarding a no-brainer, and meant that anyone with a brain must know it's something you do when you want information from someone resisting your efforts to get it out of him, necessary for the war on terror, etc. At the time I could only take no-brainer literally and consider the chainy one to be one with none, i.e. with no brain. If you waterboard someone you can probably get him to confess to having given birth to the virgin Mary, to Buddha, and to Abraham Lincoln while smoking a cigar and standing on one foot: really essential information, in other words, and especially reliable, since the only thing the waterboarded person's words mean is "STOP IT!"

So, it is indeed heart-warming to learn that according to

a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. telephone poll of 1,024 American adults
Waterboarding is torture
Story Highlights
69 percent say technique is torture; 58 percent say U.S. shouldn't use it.
Interrogation method an issue in attorney general nomination.
Michael Mukasey's refusal to reject technique troubles some senators.

Let us hope that ever more see the light!

Pakistan Syndrome

Pakistan's got nuclear weapons, tests them, threatens its neighbor India with them, is in an unending conflict over Kashmir, and is home to throngs of fundamentalist Islamists, terrorists, Taliban leaders, and even al-Qaida militants. So the president there puts the constitution out of effect, declares emergency powers and arrests thousands of opposition members (of the democratic, not fundamentalist or islamist variety), and gets slapped on the wrist by Condy, while the bushbaby says its important to keep funding the junta's military. Is that the BBW3 beginning? Is that an explosive device about to fall into the hands of terrorists?
With friends like those...
North African terrorists unite in joint efforts with al-Qaida, which calls for attacks on Spanish, French, and U.S. interests there. Or is this the beginning?
Guantánamo's closure, in the face of court cases, is once again being "considered" (until the court cases are over, probably). Justice would demand immediate closure without discussion and the trial of those being held there in a court of law. A country that is a model democracy would do so. Its closure might just convince some enemies of US sincerity and reduce the risk of war.
But perhaps the playpen is suffering from the Pakistan Syndrome.
Or wishes to do it like Putin in his neo-czarist Russia.
Or like the commando communist capitalists of the "People's" Republic of China.
Or pick your dictator or leader on the way to becoming one or wishing he could be one at the very least.
Sources for these remarks:
All English, American, French, German, and Italian newspapers that are not boulevard rags.

18 Years Later

EunSook Lee, S. Korean artist, has installed this plastic illuminated “wall” from 31 Oct - 9 Nov, 2007, to "fall" on the 18th anniversary of the fall of what you can see below. The art is a lot friendlier than the real thing was (and the art is on the correct side of, but not as far away from, the Gate as the real thing, since a street is now there full of traffic).

Life in the city.

Mutating Pumpkins

On the day after Halloween, Jennifer's jack'o'lantern is well on the way to turning into a real spook. Here's a picture of another such case of the bushbabyblight debilitating pumpkins. First they regurgitate their innards, then get a whitish mold, and finally end up moulting like this.


In other news, the Saudis, the royal family, are still kindly supporting western democracy by financing the publication of hate literature and calls for killing gays, apostates, critics of Islam, etc. and paying for distribution of it in mosques in Great Britain. Also in the US? in Germany? in France?

With friends like these, who needs enemies ...

Guardian Unlimited
Matthew Weaver and agencies
Tuesday October 30, 2007
"The controversial state visit of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, which got under way today with a lavish ceremony, has prompted new criticism over his regime's alleged role in distributing hate literature in British mosques.
[...]
Some of the literature advocated violent jihad, murdering gay people and stoning adulterers, its researchers found.
Most of the material is produced by agencies closely linked to the Saudi regime, according to the investigation."


The Independent
Hate material 'in one in four UK mosques'
By Nigel Morris, Home Affairs Correspondent
Published: 30 October 2007
"Material urging hatred of other religions can be found in mosques across Britain, most of it linked to Saudi Arabia, according to a new investigation."