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!