Cure the Ones Who Are SICK !

Maledictus has not only recommunicated reactionary fundamentalists who deny the Shoah, but also appointed as Bishop in Austria a lunatic who claims the hurricane that destroyed New Orleans was god's punishment on that sinful city and Harry Potter is an exercise in satanism. The same man now claims homosexuality is a disease and that it can be treated and healed.
I AM NOT ILL, will accept no treatment, need not be healed, because I am extremely HEALTHY! But Bishop Wagner of Linz, appointed AGAINST the counsel of Austria's bishops by Maledictus XVI, is DANGEROUSLY ILL and the cure can only be found in determined efforts against all forms of fundamentalism.

Another diseased mind can be found in the Pius Fraternity, Mr. Williamson, an archreactionary Lefebvre bishop recommunicated by Maledictus. Despite the Vatican (not the papa personally) demanding him to retract his statements denying the Shoah, this fundamentalist has announced he has no intention of doing so until he finds proof of the Holocaust. This man is reactionary beyond imagination and is hiding under the cloak of Maledictus' reintroduction of the Latin mass and purported efforts for church unity. The evidence seems to speak for efforts to turn the church in Rome into one of the most fundamentalist organizations of the world, i.e. a band of terrorists against democracy, human rights, justice and freedom.

Holocaust Denier's Vow
"A bishop who faces a Vatican demand to recant his denial of the Holocaust said he would correct himself if he is satisfied by the evidence but insisted that examining it "will take time," the German magazine Der Spiegel reported.
Richard Williamson is one of four bishops from the ultraconservative Society of St. Pius X whose excommunication was lifted by the Vatican last month. The decision sparked outrage because Williamson had said in a television interview he did not believe any Jews were gassed during the Holocaust."

More on the illness of the recommunicated fundamentalists:

Le Monde

"Insensible aux critiques, hermétique aux appels demandant qu'il se rétracte, l'évêque intégriste Richard Williamson ne veut rien entendre. Dans sa première intervention depuis la polémique née de ses propos négationnaistes, Williamson explique qu'il va se pencher sur les "preuves" historiques de l'existence des chambres à gaz avant d'envisager une "rectification"."

Holocaust-Leugner Williamson lehnt Widerruf vorerst ab [Der Spiegel]
Der Papst hat ihn zum Widerruf aufgefordert, doch dazu ist er derzeit nicht bereit: Holocaust-Leugner Richard Williamson sagt dem SPIEGEL, er wolle zunächst die historischen Beweise prüfen - "das wird Zeit brauchen".
Hamburg/Berlin - Er hat die katholische Kirche in eine tiefe Krise gestürzt - und wird zu deren Lösung vorerst nicht beitragen. Der umstrittene Bischof der Piusbruderschaft, Richard Williamson, will seine Thesen zum Holocaust vorerst nicht widerrufen. Er werde zunächst die historischen Beweise prüfen, sagte der Katholik dem SPIEGEL: "Und wenn ich diese Beweise finde, dann werde ich mich korrigieren. Aber das wird Zeit brauchen."

And the people in such an organization claim to have a right to decide whether you and I are "ill" or not, are allowed to partner or not, to protect ourselves from STD or not, to decide about when and how many children to have, about what is "moral" or not; yet these are people of the most immoral sort, trampling on the rights of others and unconcerned about anything but their so precious dogma.
NO TO FUNDAMENTALISM EVERYWHERE !
WE ARE NOT DISEASED; THEY ARE !

Adequate Descriptors

elegance

vivacity

rigor

gaiety

insolence

pleasure

*

TIME TRAVELLERS !

[Figure from the Art Institute of Chicago]

*In hommage to PhS: Les Voyaguers du Temps

Maledictus Too Reactionary for Conservatives?

Germany: Pope Is Asked for Holocaust Clarification
NYTimes, By RACHEL DONADIO, February 4, 2009

In a rare case of a head of state openly criticizing the pope, Chancellor Angela Merkel asked Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday to make a “very clear” rejection of Holocaust denial. Benedict recently revoked the excommunication of four bishops, including Richard Williamson, who had said there were no Nazi gas chambers. Responding to outrage, the pope, who is German, expressed his “full and indisputable solidarity” with Jews and warned against Holocaust denial. “I do not believe that sufficient clarification has been made,” Mrs. Merkel said. The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the pope’s repeated condemnation of Holocaust denial “could not be more clear.”
A version of this article appeared in print on February 4, 2009, on page A8 of the New York
edition.

And just think how obedient Bishop Williamson is being to his Holy Father by denying the Holocaust as Bishop in Maledictus' own church! Others had to go to Rome on their knees, Luther was demanded to recant, Galilleo to deny his astronomical findings, etc., etc. But this man can just go right on with his dirty claims recanting nothing. (And this is not the only or the first malfeisance of Maledictus. He just appointed a fundamentalist bishop in Austria and he has allowed the Latin mass again himself.) Now other bishops are openly questioning his authority.

Auf Grundlage der mir ausdrücklich vom Heiligen Vater Benedikt XVI. übertragenen Vollmacht hebe ich kraft dieses Dekrets für die Bischöfe Bernard Fellay, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, Richard Williamson und Alfonso de Galarreta die Strafe der Exkommunikation latae sententiae auf, die von dieser Kongregation mit Datum vom 1. Juli 1988 erklärt worden war. Ich erkläre das damals erlassene Dekret ab dem heutigen Datum für juristisch wirkungslos.
Rom, am Sitz der Kongregation für die Bischöfe, 21. Januar 2009
Kard. Giovanni Battista RePräfekt der Kongregation für die Bischöfe

My modest proposal: In a final act to end his pontificate, this pope should excommunicate himself !

Just now, fresh reports have appeared online that the Vatican is demanding Williamson to retract his statements before he will be allowed to exercise the office of Bishop. The following is the original Italian statement just released:

NOTA DELLA SEGRETERIA DI STATO

A seguito delle reazioni suscitate dal recente Decreto della Congregazione per i Vescovi, con cui si rimette la scomunica ai quattro Presuli della Fraternità San Pio X, e in relazione alle dichiarazioni negazioniste o riduzioniste della Shoah da parte del Vescovo Williamson della medesima Fraternità, si ritiene opportuno chiarire alcuni aspetti della vicenda.
1. Remissione della scomunica.
Come già pubblicato in precedenza, il Decreto della Congregazione per i Vescovi, datato 21 gennaio 2009, è stato un atto con cui il Santo Padre veniva benignamente incontro a reiterate richieste da parte del Superiore Generale della Fraternità San Pio X.
Sua Santità ha voluto togliere un impedimento che pregiudicava l’apertura di una porta al dialogo. Egli ora si attende che uguale disponibilità venga espressa dai quattro Vescovi in totale adesione alla
dottrina e alla disciplina della Chiesa.
La gravissima pena della scomunica latae sententiae, in cui detti Vescovi erano incorsi il 30 giugno 1988, dichiarata poi formalmente il 1° luglio dello stesso anno, era una conseguenza della loro ordinazione illegittima da parte di Mons. Marcel Lefebvre.
Lo scioglimento dalla scomunica ha liberato i quattro Vescovi da una pena canonica gravissima, ma non ha cambiato la situazione giuridica della Fraternità San Pio X, che, al momento attuale, non gode di alcun riconoscimento canonico nella Chiesa Cattolica. Anche i quattro Vescovi, benché sciolti dalla scomunica, non hanno una funzione canonica nella Chiesa e non esercitano lecitamente un ministero in essa.
2. Tradizione, dottrina e Concilio Vaticano II.
Per un futuro riconoscimento della Fraternità San Pio X è condizione indispensabile il pieno riconoscimento del Concilio Vaticano II e del Magistero dei Papi Giovanni XXIII, Paolo VI, Giovanni Paolo I, Giovanni Paolo II e dello stesso Benedetto XVI.
Come è già stato affermato nel Decreto del 21 gennaio 2009, la Santa Sede non mancherà, nei modi giudicati opportuni, di approfondire con gli interessati le questioni ancora aperte, così da poter giungere ad una piena e soddisfacente soluzione dei problemi che hanno dato origine a questa dolorosa frattura.
3. Dichiarazioni sulla Shoah.
Le posizioni di Mons. Williamson sulla Shoah sono assolutamente inaccettabili e fermamente rifiutate dal Santo Padre, come Egli stesso ha rimarcato il 28 gennaio scorso quando, riferendosi a quell’efferato genocidio, ha ribadito la Sua piena e indiscutibile solidarietà con i nostri Fratelli destinatari della Prima Alleanza, e ha affermato che la memoria di quel terribile genocidio deve indurre "l’umanità a riflettere sulla imprevedibile potenza del male quando conquista il cuore dell’uomo", aggiungendo che la Shoah resta "per tutti monito contro l’oblio, contro la negazione o il riduzionismo, perché la violenza fatta contro un solo essere umano è violenza contro tutti".
Il Vescovo Williamson, per una ammissione a funzioni episcopali nella Chiesa dovrà anche prendere in modo assolutamente inequivocabile e pubblico le distanze dalle sue posizioni riguardanti la Shoah, non conosciute dal Santo Padre nel momento della remissione della scomunica.
Il Santo Padre chiede l’accompagnamento della preghiera di tutti i fedeli, affinché il Signore illumini il cammino della Chiesa. Cresca l’impegno dei Pastori e di tutti i fedeli a sostegno della delicata e gravosa missione del Successore dell’Apostolo Pietro quale "custode dell’unità" nella Chiesa.
Dal Vaticano, 4 febbraio 2009 [00216-01.01] [Testo originale: Italiano] [B0087-XX.01]

• The section in Italics is, though not by the Pope personally, at least a clear call for retraction of statements by Williamson. Earlier in the text, it is pointed out that the ex-excommunicated bishops have no church office or right to perform liturgical functions, and here, roughly translated concludes:
  Bishop Williamson, for admission to bishoprical functions in the Church, must also absolutely, unequivocally, and publicly distance himself from the positions he has taken regarding the Shoah and which were unknown to the Holy Father when he rescinded his excommunication.
• Better would have been a statement by Maledictus himself, but we can hope this will produce results and be followed up and enforced should this revisionist not quickly recant!

Koko Had Guests for Coffee and Supper and Playtime

Lea, Malte, and their parents, Steffi & Heiko, paid Koko a visit, and their grandparents Bernhard & Roswitha also came along (not in the pictures). Lea made us Blitzkuchen and for supper we had a nice thick veggie soup, bread, and cold cuts.
Koko rode around on Lea's shoulder and let her feed him peanuts, sunflower seeds, apple, and lettuce leaves; at one point after letting Lea know he didn't want to come, he gave Steffi a harsher beak warning. Malte spent most of the time watching him and repeatedly telling us all that Koko is a Papagei (parrot in German).
(And the cake Lea baked us, with her mom's help, was really yummy.)

And These Guys Were Ex-Excommunicated !

Maledictus should call his renegade ex-excommunicated priests and bishops to order! (Or is he secretly pleased that they are denying the reality of the Shoah?)

Prete lefebvriano: "Camere a gas per disinfettare" Rabbini cancellano l'incontro con i cattolici - esteri - Repubblica.it

TREVISO - "Io so che le camere a gas sono esistite almeno per disinfettare, ma non so dire se abbiano fatto morti oppure no, perché non ho approfondito la questione". Sono parole shock quelle pronunciate, in un'intervista alla Tribuna di Treviso, da don Floriano Abrahamowicz, capo della comunità lefebvriani del Nordest. Le dichiarazioni del religioso - che rifiuta però di definirsi antisemita - riaccendono la polemica sul negazionismo nonostante il mea culpa pronunciato dal leader del movimento tradizionalista Bernard Fellay addolorato dalle parole del vescovo Williamson.

Pope Gesture to Traditionalists Outrages Jews - Washington Post

One of the four, the British-born Richard Williamson, has made statements denying the full extent of the Nazi Holocaust of European Jews, as accepted by mainstream historians.
In comments to Swedish television broadcast on Wednesday and widely available on the Internet, Williamson said "I believe there were no gas chambers" and only up to 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps, instead of 6 million.

Healing Schism, Pope Risks Another - The New York Times

On Saturday, he said he would welcome back into the fold the four members of a sect founded in opposition to the reforms of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. The bishops are members of the St. Pius X Society, which was founded in 1970 by a French archbishop, Marcel Lefebvre, in opposition to Vatican II reforms. They were excommunicated by Pope John Paul II in 1988 after Archbishop Lefebvre consecrated them in unsanctioned ceremonies.
The most contentious of the four is the British-born Bishop Richard Williamson, who in a recent television interview said he thought the “historical evidence” was against six million Jews dying in Nazi gas chambers.
Some saw the pope’s decision as part of a trend, or at least an indication of his priorities.
“There is obviously a theological strategy, but the repercussions on the public opinion
field beyond the church are obviously only secondary in priority,” said Mordechay Lewy, the Israeli ambassador to the Vatican.
The move baffled Alberto Melloni, a professor of church history and the director of the liberal Catholic John XXIII Foundation for Religious Science in Bologna, which produced a history of Vatican II. “What is very inexplicable to me is how it’s possible to not calculate the consequences. This is abnormal,” he said.

Abnormal is the least you can call it. Maledictus may well be reactionary, purely reactionary!

++++ And this on the consistent revisionsim of the de-excommunicated Pius Society!

One Voice Fewer

In Memoriam

JOHN UPDIKE

March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009

A writer of American literature at its best has left us.

You can also watch him discuss his craft at the following link to a video:

A Conversation with John Updike, published by the New York Times, January 27, 2009:

In October 2008, John Updike spoke with Sam Tanenhaus, the editor of the NYT Book Review, about the craft of fiction and the art of writing.

Holocaust Memorial Day

On this day in 1945, the Soviet Army liberated the concentration camp at Auschwitz. This is a date on which all mankind must pause and recall what horrors man is capable of. With the liberation also came a responsiblity for humanity to prevent such from ever happening again.

Auschwitz survivors mark camp's liberation
IHT - The Associated Press, January 27, 2009
OSWIECIM, Poland: Dozens of Nazi death camp survivors gathered Tuesday in the southern Polish town of Oswiecim — which the German occupiers called Auschwitz — to remember the horrors they lived through and celebrate the acts of humanity or randomness of fate that kept them alive.
Survivors and government officials marked the 64th anniversary of the day the advancing Soviet army liberated the camp in 1945. The anniversary has been established as an annual Holocaust remembrance day by the United Nations.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in the centre of Berlin is Germany's central Holocaust memorial site, a place for remembrance and commemoration of six million victims.
The Memorial consists of the Field of Stelae designed by architect Peter Eisenman and the underground Information Centre and is maintained by a Federal Foundation."

Don' Think the World's Not Watching !

Many of us are watching Russia and dismayed by what we see as we seek the advancement and protection of human rights and essential liberties all around the world.
Freedom of the press is essential, and hard to achieve in Russia as the thugs are let loose to silence anyone who speaks up against the machinations of the machine, or, as in this recent case, to kill a lawyer who defended those fighting for their rights in Russian courts.
RUSSIA is a great country, but POOR if it continues to trample liberty and justice! We will not look the other way! Russian gas cannot buy everybody!

Thousands in Chechnya Protest After Lawyer Is Killed
The New York Times

A masked gunman shot the lawyer, Stanislav Markelov, in a brazen daylight attack on Monday not far from the Kremlin. Anastasia Baburova, a journalist who was with Mr. Markelov, was also killed. Officials have not identified any suspects. [...]
Mr. Markelov spent more than a decade involved in contentious human rights cases, and counted among his clients those who claimed to have suffered torture and other abuse under Mr. Kadyrov’s [of Chechnya] government.
“Investigators believe that the murderer could have been a professional hit man or a single criminal who disagreed with Markelov’s public statements in the course of his human rights work,” said Vladimir I. Markin, a spokesman for the prosecutor general’s investigative group.

L'avocat d'une Tchétchène abattu dans les rues de Moscou
Le Figaro

Feue Anna Politkovskaïa avait salué en Me Markelov le premier avocat des victimes de crimes de guerre dans la république insoumise du Caucase. Parmi ses clients, figurait aussi Viktor Beketov, journaliste et opposant au maire de Khimki, une banlieue de Moscou, sauvagement tabassé récemment.

Justice, Moscow-style

The Guardian

The assassination of human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov is a message to Russians: don't count on the law.

The assassination on 20 January of Stanislav Markelov, the human rights activist and advocate who represented many victims of lawlessness, administrative pressure and nationalist violence in Russia, is yet another blow to hopes for a happier future for this country.

Thank You, Mr. President !

For so long I have been demanding that Guantánamo be closed, that those in favor of water-boarding be labeled no-brainers and forbidden to continue their torture of suspects, that the United States adhere to its own and international principles of the rule of law and maintenance of justice in all necessary efforts to stop terrorists, who, as I have also long maintained, seek to destroy precisely that system of justice and freedom we must defend and which the bushbaby was all to ready to abandon.
Therefore I must here state how enormously grateful I am to President Obama for signing these executive orders to close Guantánamo, to cease the operation of secret CIA prisons in other countries, and to forbid the use of torture.
It will be difficult, because of the illegal torturing of many of those suspects, to bring them to trial; this is the legacy of the bushbaby playpen. Therefore it is all the more important to adhere to the rules of the legal system in future so as to be able to bring suspects to trial, determine guilt or innocence, and properly punish the guilty.
It is a delight to see the playpen dismantled and the rattlers of power removed from the hands of its denizens! Mr. Obama is fulfilling his promises!

Obama Reverses Key Bush Security Policies
The New York Times, Washington, January 22, 2009

President Obama reversed the most disputed counterterrorism policies of the Bush administration on Thursday, declaring that “our ideals give us the strength and moral high ground” in the fight against Al Qaeda. [ ... ]

Mr. Obama signed executive orders closing the detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, within a year; ending the Central Intelligence Agency’s secret prisons; and requiring all interrogations to follow the noncoercive methods of the Army Field Manual.
“We intend to win this fight,” he said. “We are going to win it on our own terms.”

Barack Obama décrète la fermeture du centre de détention de Guantanamo d'ici un an
LE MONDE 22.01.09

Le président américain a décrété, jeudi 22 janvier, la fermeture du centre de détention de Guantanamo d'ici un an. Le camp, qui compte actuellement 245 détenus, avait été ouvert sur la base militaire de Cuba après les attentats du 11 septembre 2001 pour détenir ce que l'administration Bush classait comme des "combattants illégaux". Dès mercredi, au lendemain de l'investiture de M. Obama, deux juges militaires ont suspendu, à sa demande et pour 120 jours, les procédures judiciaires en cours à Guantanamo.

Dans un autre décret, Barack Obama a également imposé que les Etats-Unis se conforment aux conventions de Genève sur les prisonniers de guerre. "Le message que nous envoyons au monde, c'est que les Etats-Unis ont l'intention de poursuivre le combat engagé contre la violence et le terrorisme, que nous le ferons avec vigilance, que nous le ferons avec efficacité, et que nous le ferons dans le respect de nos valeurs et de nos idéaux", a-t-il dit. Les Américains savent, "comme je l'ai dit lors de mon investiture, que nous ne perpétuerons pas le mauvais choix entre notre sécurité et nos idéaux", a-t-il ajouté.

Bush's 'War' On Terror Comes to a Sudden End

The Washington Post, January 23, 2009; Page A01

President Obama yesterday eliminated the most controversial tools employed by his predecessor against terrorism suspects. With the stroke of his pen, he effectively declared an end to the "war on terror," as President George W. Bush had defined it, signaling to the world that the reach of the U.S. government in battling its enemies will not be limitless.

Six médias appellent à la vigilance démocratique !

Six médias appellent à la vigilance démocratique

Le droit à l'information, à la libre expression et à la libre critique, ainsi qu'à la diversité des opinions est une liberté publique fondamentale. C'est un droit des citoyens et non pas un privilège des journalistes: sans information libre, sans une presse indépendante et pluraliste, il ne saurait y avoir d'authentique délibération démocratique.
[ ... ]
Tous ensemble, défendons la liberté de l'information! Nous vous donnons rendez-vous, vendredi 30 janvier, au Théâtre du Châtelet, à Paris.
Charlie Hebdo, Les Inrockuptibles, Marianne, Mediapart, Le Nouvel Observateur, Rue 89,
avec le soutien de Reporters sans frontières.
- Prochoix, la revue pour le droit de choisir, dirigée par Caroline Fourest et Fiammetta Venner

The 44th President !

President Barack Obama's Inaugural Address

And today he can get to work and begin to fulfill the promise to repair what a rampant playpen has broken. The road is one, with thought, to justice for all, freedom, social responsibility, caring, cooperation, light.

Hopeful Congratulations !

As this day begins, I would just like to wish Barack Obama success as he is inaugurated 44th President of the United States and perserverence in upholding principles of justice, international cooperation, and human rights as he assumes the duties of that office.

Close It ! Close IT ! CLOSE IT !

An essential task for President Obama to begin tackling immediately after the Inauguration!

The New York Times, January 17, 2009, Editorial
Closing Guantánamo

In a long series of valedictory speeches and interviews, President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have been crowing about Guantánamo Bay, secret prisons and abusive interrogations, claiming they met the highest legal standards and that no prisoner had been tortured. Fortunately, the truth broke through the noise, in the words of some of the very people ordered to carry out the policies.

In an interview in The Washington Post, Susan Crawford, the retired judge who runs the military tribunals at Guantánamo, said that harsh interrogation methods had endangered the life of Mohammed al-Qahtani, a Saudi national accused of planning to take part in the 9/11 attacks. Authorized by then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, they included sustained isolation, nudity and prolonged exposure to the cold.
“We tortured Qahtani,” Judge Crawford said, adding that she was therefore unable to prosecute a man who seemed to pose a real threat to the United States.
Judge Crawford was not the only one speaking out. Major David Frakt of the Air Force Reserve, who was assigned to defend another Guantánamo prisoner, told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow that he and all the other defense lawyers in the system consider the tribunals “unfair, rigged” and unconstitutional. He noted that his client’s prosecutor resigned to protest the lack of evidence in the case.
That is the real nature of Mr. Bush’s grotesque legacy: abuse and torture at an outlaw prison where hundreds of men — many of whom did nothing — have been held for years without real evidence or charges. And truly dangerous men were treated so badly that it may be impossible to bring them to justice.

It will be hard enough to close down Guantánamo as Barack Obama has vowed to do, but the legal burdens Mr. Bush is dumping on his successor are much greater.

[ ... ]

We recognize that this is a daunting agenda, and that to succeed, Mr. Obama’s White House, Justice Department and Pentagon will also have to rebuild demoralized legal divisions where professionals were replaced with apparatchiks whose mission was to twist the law to justify their masters’ decisions.
This work is essential to restoring the rule of law. It is essential to restoring this country’s reputation around the world. And it is essential to restoring Americans’ faith in themselves and in their government. That is the only way to move forward.

This is necessary for a restoration of American ideals and for renewed conformity with those of the enlightened world: LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL !

Beautiful Vulnerability

Suspendus (critique), Théâtre de Nesles à Paris - Les Trois Coups

La beauté des vulnérables
Traiter d’un sujet aussi grave que le mal-être et le désarroi face au sida, avec une philanthropie pleine d’espérance et de poésie, tel est le projet de « Suspendus » de Franck-Olivier Laferrère. Un très beau texte à entendre au Théâtre de Nesle.
L’histoire se passe dans un petit village de Provence. Jean-François (Jean-Claude Falet), la soixantaine, partage sa vie entre ses parents qui vivent à deux pas, son jardin, ses regrets de l’homme qu’il a aimé mais n’a pu accompagner dans les derniers jours de sa maladie, la maladie… et l’accueil de jeunes plombés à qui il offre un havre pour se reconstruire. Et voici que déboule Louise (Héléna Soubeyrand), du haut de ses vingt ans, déjà aigrie, meurtrie tout autant par le virus qu’elle a chopé que par la désillusion d’un idéal et d’un amour qu’elle n’a su rencontrer.
[ ... ]
Cette pièce fait se rencontrer deux êtres recroquevillés qui s’ouvrent l’un à l’autre, exposent leurs fêlures, dévoilent leur histoire. Parce qu’ils se rendent accessibles l’un à l’autre, ils rendent possible une rencontre et une parole authentiques. Ils s’ouvrent à la vie, s’ancrent, s’épaulent.
Olivier Pradel
Les Trois Coups

IN MEMORIAM - 90 YEARS AGO TODAY

THE MURDER OF ROSA LUXEMBURG AND KARL LIEBKNECHT
On January 15, 1919 - 90 years ago today - Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were arrested by Berlin Freicorps troops, interrogated and tortured in their headquarters in the Hotel Eden, across the street from the "Elephant Gate" to the Berlin Zoo, drug across the street into the Tiergarten Park and murdered, Liebknecht with three extremely shortrange shots, and thrown into the canal there.
They were both committed to human rights, social welfare, and freedom for all, extremely internationalist, and were deemed a clear threat to the ultranationalistic elements rising to become the Nazi murderers of Europe. Their murder was the beginning of the downfall of the first democracy in Germany. Their memory later often misused by the GDR's SED central party, Rosa Luxemburg's slogan - "Freedom is always the freedom of someone with a different opinion" - was long forbidden, and its reappearance at demonstrations in 1988/89 marked the beginning of the end of the GDR and the people's rejection of limitations on their rights.

Die Ermordung von Rosa Luxemburg und Karl Liebknecht
Am 15. Januar 1919 - vor genau 90 Jahren - Freikorpssoldaten der Garde-Kavallerie-Schützen-Division verschleppten Rosa Luxemburg und Karl Liebknecht in das Hauptquartier des Freikorps im Hotel Eden in Berlin, wo sie sie verhörten und schwer mißhandelten. Dann erschossen sie Liebknecht im Tiergarten mit drei Schüssen aus nächster Nähe, ermordete Luxemburg ebenfalls und warfen Leiche in den Landwehrkanal.

"Freedom is always the freedom of someone with a different opinion!"

"Freiheit ist immer Freiheit des Andersdenkenden!"

NIE VERGESSEN!

NEVER FORGET!

EU Seeks Cross-Border Recognition of Gay Civil Unions and Marriages

Today, the European Parliament passed, with a vote of 401 representatives voting yes, 220 no, and 67 abstaining, a report calling for progress on basic human rights in member countries in several areas, including excesses in the fight against terrorism, CIA activities in the EU, women's reproductive rights, living wills, discrimination against Roma, immigration and integration, regional languages, and homosexual rights.
The latter is the particular subject of this posting, although I indeed welcome the entire initiative. Excerpts from the EU Parliament Press Release follow in three languages:

Same-sex couples: partnerships should be recognised

The House calls on Member States to take legislative action to overcome discrimination experienced by same-sex couples by recognising such relationships. Member States with legislation on same-sex partnerships are invited to recognise provisions with similar effects adopted by others.

Anerkennung von gleichgeschlechtlichen Partnerschaften

Das Recht gleichgeschlechtlicher Paare auf Freizügigkeit innerhalb der EU solle unter den gleichen Bedingungen Anwendung finden, wie dies in Bezug auf heterosexuelle Paare der Fall sei. Das Parlament fordert diejenigen Mitgliedstaaten, die Rechtsvorschriften hinsichtlich gleichgeschlechtlicher Partnerschaften erlassen haben, auf, die von anderen Mitgliedstaaten angenommenen Bestimmungen, die ähnliche Auswirkungen haben, anzuerkennen und Leitlinien für die gegenseitige Anerkennung der bestehenden Rechtsvorschriften in den Mitgliedstaaten festzulegen.

Diskriminierende Bemerkungen in Bezug auf Homosexuelle, die religiöse Würdenträger sowie Persönlichkeiten des sozialen Lebens und Politiker äußern, schürten Hass und Gewalt. Daher fordert das EP die jeweils verantwortlichen Gremien auf, diese Äußerungen zu verurteilen, und unterstützt zugleich "voll und ganz" die französische Initiative zur weltweiten Entkriminalisierung der Homosexualität; Homosexualität ist in 91 Ländern nach wie vor eine Straftat und in einigen Fällen sogar ein Kapitalverbrechen.

Couples homosexuels

Dans ce rapport, le Parlement appelle les Etats membres à prendre des mesures législatives contre la discrimination dont sont victimes les couples du même sexe, et à en reconnaitre les unions. Les Etats membres disposant d'une législation en matière de mariage homosexuel sont invités à reconnaître les unions équivalentes existant dans d'autres Etats membres.

HOORAY FOR THE EUROPEAN UNION AND ITS PARLIAMENT !

Yes, Time to DO Something - Finally

I for one just want to see EVERY effort made EVERY day as diligently as possible to bring about the closure of Guantánamo and ALL other illegal detention centers as quickly as possible. The announcement of a pending executive order is merely the first, but an important, step towards restoring JUSTICE and the rule of law in the United States and bringing the United States back into accordance with recognized international law!
With this, President Obama can begin to prove that he meant what he said during the campaign ...

Obama’s Plan to Close Prison at Guantánamo May Take Year - NYTimes.com

President-elect Barack Obama plans to issue an executive order on his first full day in office directing the closing of the Guantánamo Bay detention camp in Cuba, people briefed by Obama transition officials said Monday.
But experts say it is likely to take many months, perhaps as long as a year, to empty the prison that has drawn international criticism since it received its first prisoners seven years ago this week. One transition official said the new administration expected that it would take several months to transfer some of the remaining 248 prisoners to other countries, decide how to try suspects and deal with the many other legal challenges posed by closing the camp.

Time Travellers can also speak English...

I just got back from the Firing Range Center. Botched some at first (tired, short of breath), and then I was precise. Some American poet or other, I've forgotten which, once wrote these two lines: "a nice quite paradise / over the shambles". That's my state of mind when I'm training. Up there, if I manage to think as little as possible, there's blue sky, luminous quiet. Down below, exlosions and tears.

I focus on the word "word". I see it over there in my sights. It's breathing a little, growing; that's what I aim at, what I want to hit and pierce WORD. Add a single letter and you get WORLD. In French you'd have MOT and MORT. I fire at the world, I fire at death. Just a little joke, but it helps. My neighbor in the stand, Viva, congratulates me for hitting the target. I don't know anything about what she does, nor does she know what I do. We just smile at each other. That's enough.

[My own English rendition of the two paragraphs Sollers chose to represent his new novel on the back cover of the nrf Gallimard edition which has just appeared, as I noted a couple of posts down. Perhaps the translation will need revision after I have read the whole work, but this is what you get without knowing the context. A cover blurb you could call this, but one directly from the narrative. I hope it might make more people in the English speaking realm aware that French culture is far from dead and that they might be missing something when publishers don't offer them such works in translation. Your only hope: Learn French !]

By the way, "some American poet" is Ezra Pound and those verses are the 49th and 50th from Canto CXVI (1969), one of the last of his Cantos. I don't know why Pound was immediately my idea, but after only a little research I was able to verify it. Perhaps that's part of the power of Sollers' writing! (And Pound's!)

"Suspendus"

In a new play running in Paris by Franck-Olivier Laferrère, life is suspended, the characters just hanging on...
Here, the "trailer" for the production in Théâtre de Nesle from January 7 through February 14. If you're in Paris, take advantage of the chance to see it !

Suspendus Bande-Annonce
envoyé par Cid-Errant

TIME TRAVELLERS !

Just out and received today, the long awaited and already highly praised new "novel" by Philippe Sollers:

Les Voyageurs du Temps

Here's the short excerpt taken from page 18 which Sollers himself chose for the back cover:

« Je viens du Centre de tir. Quelques bavures pour commencer (fatigue, souffle court), et puis précision. Je ne sais plus quel poète américain a écrit ces deux vers : “Paradis calme/Au-dessus du carnage”. C’est mon état d’esprit à l’entraînement. En haut, si j’arrive à penser le moins possible, ciel, bleu, calme, lumineux. En bas, explosions et larmes.
Je me concentre sur le mot “mot”. Je le vois là-bas, dans la ligne de mire. Il respire un peu, il grandit, c’est lui que je vise, que je veux toucher et trouer. MOT. Avec une lettre de plus, c’est MORT. En anglais, ça ferait WORD et WORLD. Je tire sur la mort, je tire sur le monde. Petite plaisanterie, mais qui fait du bien. Ma voisine de stand, Viva, me félicite d’avoir mis dans le mille. Je ne sais rien de ses activités, ni elle des miennes. On se sourit, ça suffit. »

A Trial to Look Forward To !

Sollers devant la Justice
- Par Grégoire Leménager (Billet du jour / Nouvel Observateur)

Avec ses petits trafics d'influence et ses tropismes avoués pour le maoïsme, le sadisme, le papisme, le tabagisme et autres sollersismes, il agace si bien son monde depuis tant d'années que cela devait finir par arriver: un tribunal se réunira le 29 janvier prochain pour juger le fondateur de «Tel Quel». Des témoignages accablants auraient été rassemblés. De quoi accuser Sollers «d'attentat à la sûreté de l'esprit, d'association de bienfaiteurs en vue d'une action culturiste et d'atteintes aux bonnes mœurs».
[...] pour inaugurer une série qui aura vocation à «promouvoir les livres et les écrivains, en attirant aussi l'attention sur de jeunes auteurs» [...] «L'idée du ‘‘Livre en procès'' est née en septembre dernier, dans un café, pour répondre à ceux qui prétendent que la culture française est moribonde. Tous les trimestres, un nouvel accusé comparaîtra, mais ce pourra aussi être un thème: la rentrée littéraire, par exemple, où l'on pourrait consacrer une minute à chaque livre pour en démonter le système».

I hope they record it on all possible internet video channels. An author defending his work against charges of "attacking mental security and conspiring to form a group of benefactors for culturist activities and attacks on good morals". This will be a brilliant day for all interested in the human mind and what it is capable of thinking! This could become the best series of tribunals ever!

First '09 Wednesday

In the headlines:

• Natural gas pipelines from Russia to the rest of Europe through the Ukraine enable the latter to snub the former's demand for payment and contracts for natural gas delivery by filching from the transit pipelines what was supposed to go to Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, etc.
• Most of western Europe is cold and snow covered.
• Many Palestinians are dying in the Gaza Strip because of a few idiotic Palestinians blindly firing rockets at Israel which responds with typically over-reactive, if necessary, massive bombardment to protect the lives of Israelis and stop radical Hamas. Daniel Barenboim of the Staatsoper Berlin, with his Israeli-Palestinian youth orchestra Divan, is one of the few these days to stress the obvious: these people MUST live together. As he puts it: it is their blessing or their curse; which is up to them to decide.
• Knut likes the weather in Berlin these days.
• Adolf Merckle, a German billionaire, has killed himself as a result of speculation losses in the course of the financial crisis, relevant only because this loss (of life and money) affects his gigantic corporate empire of pharmaceutical and building material firms.
• Europe wonders why Obama is saying nothing about the current Israel-Gaza Strip conflict; a few recall that he is not yet president.
• The governing CDU-CSU-SPD coalition in Germany is nearing agreement on a second economic recovery package of some €50 billion, mostly with infrastructure investment measures and some tax relief and social insurance payment reductions, coupled however with a legal requirement to avoid deficit spending under normal economic conditions.
• The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra will hold two concerts in the Berlin Staatsoper next Monday to replace the concerts for the opening of this year's tour scheduled in Cairo and Katar, but canceled because of the current situation in Gaza. Daniel Barenboim conducts. The first is already sold out.
• Putin is visiting Berlin next week for the first time as Premier.
• Tourists continue to flock to Berlin, setting another record last year, and I for one seem to encounter hardly anyone else on the 100 or 200 buses in the city.
• Most shops here are offering sales with huge discounts on almost everything.

I suggest smiles, negotiations, recognition of common humanity, more cultural activities, refraint from violence as good means to ensure a good year.

The End COULD Be a New Beginning...

Take the time to read these two articles in full. The madness of the Wall Street casino and the fatal agony caused by forgetting everything and everyone for money, profit, return MAY provide us a chance to recenter mankind's thinking on what is good for the human race!

Op-Ed Contributors - The End of the Financial World as We Know It - NYTimes.com

Incredibly, intelligent people the world over remain willing to lend us money and even listen to our advice; they appear not to have realized the full extent of our madness. We have at least a brief chance to cure ourselves. But first we need to ask: of what? ...
The Madoff scandal echoes a deeper absence inside our financial system, which has been undermined not merely by bad behavior but by the lack of checks and balances to discourage it. “Greed” doesn’t cut it as a satisfying explanation for the current financial crisis. Greed was necessary but insufficient; in any case, we are as likely to eliminate greed from our national character as we are lust and envy. The fixable problem isn’t the greed of the few but the misaligned interests of the many. ...

Op-Ed Contributors - How to Repair a Broken Financial World - NYTimes.com

Stop making big regulatory decisions with long-term consequences based on their short-term effect on stock prices. ...
End the official status of the rating agencies. Given their performance it’s hard to believe credit rating agencies are still around. There’s no question that the world is worse off for the existence of companies like Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s. There should be a rule against issuers paying for ratings. Either investors should pay for them privately or, if public ratings are deemed essential, they should be publicly provided.
Regulate credit-default swaps. ... The most critical role for regulation is to make sure that the sellers of risk have the capital to support their bets.
Impose new capital requirements on banks. ... Another good solution to the too-big-to-fail problem is to break up any institution that becomes too big to fail.
Close the revolving door between the S.E.C. and Wall Street. ... As it happens, the most critical job, chief of enforcement, now has a perfect candidate, a civic-minded former investor with firsthand experience of the S.E.C.’s ineptitude: Harry Markopolos.
The funny thing is, there’s nothing all that radical about most of these changes. A disinterested person would probably wonder why many of them had not been made long ago. A committee of people whose financial interests are somehow bound up with Wall Street is a different matter.

Another name for this could be "A Modest Proposal", but this time not ironic and certainly more likely to help eliminate hunger and poverty for the masses.

Let's get started.

(Another hint for assistance: F.D.Roosevelt's FIRST Inaugural Address, from 1933. When you read or hear that today, you will surely notice how little has changed (or was changed back after the reforms FDR introduced to protect people against business).)

Reading TINA while waiting TINA in print

Here you can peruse some literature you'll hardly find elsewhere.

Get your own - Open publication

And it's enjoyably edifying!

A Year for The People !

Let's all make PEOPLE, humanity, the focal point this year, not profits or business or stocks, but PEOPLE, humanity in all its creative potential, people in all their needs and ability to share with each other to fulfill the needs of all, people, with all their rights and respect for the rights of one another, people in a great expression of solidarity for humanity, humanity in its unique ability to think, to consider, to reflect on being there, here and now, and on the responsibility we alone bear for the condition of the so beautiful world we inhabit, for the thoughts that we alone can think. Let us think and every day and everywhere promote peace and well-being for all people.

HAPPY NEW YEAR !

MAKE IT HAPPY !

: the new year, the one about to begin, 2009 -
a new president for the US who at least understands what justice and human rights mean
20 years of free passage from east to west and west to east in Berlin and all of Germany
in only a few days, the new novel by Ph.Sollers, Voyageurs du Temps
13 years with my beloved Detti
such enthusiasm for reading and writing as never before
the sunshine and the intense winter-blue sky outside this very window

YES, there is plenty of cause to be HAPPY !
So, happy new year to everyone.
Bonne année nouvelle!
Frohes Neujahr.

Consider and be, consider being, be considerate, be the custodian of Being, HAPPILY !

Happiness Is Free

Happiness
Glück
bonheur
felicità
è / est / ist / is
only for the few who can enjoy what is free.
nur für die wenigen, die das Billige genießen können.
seulement pour les rares qui peuvent jouir sans payer.
per la minorità della gioia senza denari.

Le bonheur selon dante - Eden caché - Philippe Sollers

En réalité, personne ne veut du paradis parce qu'il est gratuit. La joie, le bonheur, l'amour sont gratuits. Un amour qui n'est pas gratuit n'est pas de l'amour. C'est la raison pour laquelle le bonheur réel ne peut être que farouchement clandestin dans un monde livré au calcul. Dante, dans sa jeunesse, a commencé par un coup de foudre, il termine sa «Comédie» par une fulguration illuminante. Maintenant, si la proposition «L'amour meut le soleil et les autres étoiles» vous est indifférente, ou si vous préférez, à ce sujet, hausser les épaules ou ricaner, libre à vous. Ce n'est ici que la réaction d'un petit fini qui a peur de l'infini. Le bonheur fait peur, il est très lourd à porter et à vivre. Il passe même pour une imbécillité, alors qu'il est la raison et l'intelligence mêmes. Comme l'a dit un excellent auteur, en renversant une proposition courante : «Pour vivre cachés, vivons heureux». Le bonheur rend invisible. C'est la grâce qu'il faut se souhaiter.

- Philippe Sollers
Le Nouvel Observateur - Nº2303 SEMAINE DU JEUDI 23 Décembre 2008

Dante's interpretation of JOY as Sollers once again patiently explains it. Above only the last few lines of an exquisite essay.
Consider, and BE happily, happy !

Pope Pompously Puffing - But Humans Can Think !

Maledictus proves had evil sounds pouring from the mouth of a robed pontifex, attacking gays as destructive of creation and the work of a god. (Were that the case, then fundamentalists would have no chance. Unfortunately, many of them are still on the road to a theocracy in a hell-car.)

Pour le Pape, l'homosexualité est coupable de détruire l'oeuvre de Dieu
-Prochoix, la revue pour le droit de choisir, dirigée par Caroline Fourest et Fiammetta Venner

Benoît XVI n'est pas prêt de renoncer à son rôle de pape ultra-conservateur puisqu'il a de nouveau attaqué l'homosexualité lors de son traditionnel discours de Noël. Benoît XVI y a expliqué que l'homme doit «se protéger lui-même contre sa propre destruction» citant à cet effet l'homosexualité :
«Tout ce que l'on désigne communément par le terme d'émancipation de l'identité de genre, se traduit en définitive par l'émancipation par l'homme de la création et de son
créateur». Le Pape a donc accusé l'homme d'être coupable de vouloir «se faire seul et disposer seul de ce qui le concerne». S'appuyant comme à l'accoutumée sur les dogmes pour pilonner le rationalisme, le pape a conclu qu'en agissant ainsi l'homme «vit contre la vérité et contre son créateur».
Les propos de Benoît XVI ont soulevé un tollé auprès des chrétiens chez qui le pape ne fait guère l'unanimité.

Christmas Over, Year Fading, Thinkers Die ...

And the kids had fun with their uncles again yesterday at their grandma's, so much fun that we got no photos of that (no hands free) only of the aftermath once all were gone and things were quieting down again.

And the year is fading and a great man has died, a great writer of the English language for the stage, a ready commentator of the malaise of our age.
HARALD PINTER was a man of brave words and critical judgement. His plays are essential to thinking the condition of man. His Nobel Prize Speech blasted the bushbaby playpen with all the appropriate epithets. At least Mr. Pinter lived long enough to see that the US was ready to reject the playpen and make a go with change. It would, however, have been good to have his critical voice still to accompany critically whatever path Obama will walk.
Thank you, Mr. Pinter, for enriching our world! You were a Christmas present for so many of us for so long!

Kids at Christmas

Yesterday at Heiko & Steffi's, the kids got a pack of toys etc. from Santa, who came and left while we were all singing "Jingle Bells"! (Yes, Lea is already learning English in the 1st grade and requested this one herself, had Steffi copy the music and lyrics for everyone.)
Today we're off to Edith's for traditional Christmas dinner at noon. The kids will be there also, which is a good thing, because, yesterday evening as we were leaving, I told Malte, who looked unhappy that everyone was leaving, just to pack his suitcase and come along. Well, as I was putting on my shoes, he disappeared and came back with his little travel case packed full of toy animals, cars, and his new farm tractor, ready to go with us. Only because we promised we would see him today at Edith's, and that he could bring his suitcase with him, as it was already packed, and that his dad, who'd had to go to work the late shift, would be glad to find him there in the morning and then come with him and Steffi and Lea, only then did he smile and agree to wait to see us today.
So, we have to go play and eat some more!

[This slideshow includes the previous holiday photos,
will contain those from today as well,
as soon as we're back and upload them.]

German Holidaily Report

Though today nervous exam candidates performed their best under my monitoring eyes and for my discriminating ears, yesterday saw us doing the family thing at Detlef's dad's with the latter's wife, her son and his girlfriend, Detlef's brother and his wife and their kids, and yours truly.

And so, below are a few choice photos to document the event, the method chosen this year to enable quick information access for all sides of the ocean.

Merry Christmas everybody!

Rights !

In a First, Gay Rights Are Pressed at the U.N.
The New York Times, by NEIL MACFARQUHAR, December 18, 2008

UNITED NATIONS — An unprecedented declaration seeking to decriminalize homosexuality won the support of 66 countries in the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, but opponents criticized it as an attempt to legitimize pedophilia and other “deplorable acts.”
The United States refused to support the nonbinding measure, as did Russia, China, the Roman Catholic Church and members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. The Holy See’s observer mission issued a statement saying that the declaration “challenges existing human rights norms.”
The declaration, sponsored by France with broad support in Europe and Latin America, condemned human rights violations based on homophobia, saying such measures run counter to the
universal declaration of human rights.
“How can we tolerate the fact that people are stoned, hanged, decapitated and tortured only because of their sexual orientation?” said Rama Yade, the French state secretary for human rights, noting that homosexuality is banned in nearly 80 countries and subject to the death penalty in at least six.

Click on this map to be able to zoom in on information about the stand of gay rights in various countries around the world.

Homosexualité : deux tiers des pays du monde refusent un appel à la dépénalisation universelle
LEMONDE.FR avec AFP 19.12.08

C'est une simple déclaration, mais elle suscite un vent de fronde. Jeudi 18 décembre aux Nations unies, un appel historique à la dépénalisation universelle de l'homosexualité a été lancé par un tiers des pays du monde, sans parvenir à obtenir le soutien de certains poids lourds de l'organisation. Plusieurs Etats arabes, mais également le Vatican, les Etats-Unis, la Russie ou la Chine se sont ainsi opposés au texte présenté devant l'Assemblée générale, dont Rama Yade, secrétaire d'Etat française aux droits de l'homme, est l'une des inspiratrices.
N'engageant que ses signataires, cette "déclaration politique" ne revêt aucun caractère contraignant. Notamment signée par tous les pays de l'Union européenne, le Brésil, Israël et le Japon, elle place la question des droits des homosexuels, lesbiennes, bisexuels et transgenres à l'ordre du jour de l'Assemblée de l'ONU et se fonde sur le principe d'universalité des droits de l'homme, consacré dans la déclaration
universelle de ces droits. Il réaffirme encore "le principe de non-discrimination qui exige que les droits de l'homme s'appliquent de la même manière à chaque être humain, indépendamment de l'orientation sexuelle ou de l'identité de genre".
"En ce XXIe siècle, comment accepter que des personnes soient pourchassées, emprisonnées, torturées et exécutées en raison de leur orientation sexuelle ?", a lancé Rama Yade, après la lecture de l'appel, qualifiant d'"historique" l'initiative des "66".

All countries should finally sign this recognition of rights. The US can show a new direction under Obama and leave the Vatican and other fundamentalist "states" with the mud and muck of hatred on their faces!

Finally Barcelona's in Berlin

And Woody Allen provides an insight into American psyches once more while providing us with true entertainment. (As usual, we were the only ones in the cinema who laughed, but, well, globalization, you know...)

This is the official trailer, cause a movie at Christmas time is always a good idea.

Scheduling the Holidays

• Today - fitness training already and now free to do whatever
• Tomorrow - Coffee & cake, then supper with Rosi & Berni (Detlef's dad) and their kids with partners etc. (fourth Advent, semi-traditional)
• Monday/Tuesday - work days - I'm the examinations board (easy for me)
• Wednesday - Christmas Eve with Steffi & Heiko (Detlef's brother) and their kids and all the family that pulls in (children's free-for-all)
• Thursday - Christmas Day #1 (Germany has two) - Holiday lunch/dinner at Edith's with her friend (traditional)
• Friday - Christmas Day #2 - Time with Berlin friends (uncomplicated)
• Weekend - rest (and at least by then more fitness training)

Details as they occur.

Attack Back Against Those Who Attack You

Onu, nuovo attacco Vaticano alla Francia "Abbatte la differenza uomo-donna" - esteri - Repubblica.it:

CITTA' DEL VATICANO - Il Vaticano torna a lanciare strali contro la mozione che la Francia ha presentato alle Nazioni Unite contro il perseguimento penale dell'omosessualità in vigore in diversi Paesi del mondo. In realtà, afferma l'Osservatore Romano in una nota intitolata 'Difesa dei diritti e ideologia', l'obiettivo non è quello di tutelare diritti fondamentali ma affermare
l'identità di genere che supera la differenza biologica uomo-donna e stabilisce che gli orientamenti sessuali sono frutto della cultura. Da qui la strada è aperta, per il quotidiano della Santa Sede, al matrimonio fra persone dello stesso sesso e all'adozione dei bambini da parte delle coppie gay così come alla procreazione assistita, tutto in base a un concetto astratto di individuo.

I hope the Vatican is absolutely right about all the implications of the UN declaration against discrimination and repression of gays in all countries! That is precisely the reason to be IN FAVOR of it! Rights to homosexuals everywhere NOW! (The Church has had enough money and enough time, now it's OUR TURN!)

Fun Videos - One French, One German

Watch this little French literary film! It's absolutely bearable! It's a silent film. You needn't speak French to understand it. It's called "Folding TINA 2".

TINA: pliage TINA 2 (suite et fin)

You could also call it awesome. Es ist toll, super, wunderbÄr! Formidablement authentique!

And then watch the satirical review of the year 2008, German and international, with a cast of stars you will recognize most of wherever you come from.

Satirischer Jahresrückblick 2008

von zdf

including

Song and dance numbers, bushbaby, Angie, Obama, Stevie Wonder, the German Army in Afghanistan, old bin L the renegade, Kotz-Koch, and tips on how to survive the economic crisis.

Restore the Rule of Law in the U.S. - Justice for All, Torture for None!

It is essential that the playpen be closed and sealed once and for all and its policies dumped into the deep blue sea before they drown what is left of democracy, liberty, and justice in our world!

Editorial - The Torture Report - NYTimes.com

Most Americans have long known that the horrors of Abu Ghraib were not the work of a few low-ranking sociopaths. All but President Bush’s most unquestioning supporters recognized the chain of unprincipled decisions that led to the abuse, torture and death in prisons run by the American military and intelligence services.
Now, a bipartisan report by the Senate Armed Services Committee has made what amounts to a strong case for bringing criminal charges against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld; his legal counsel, William J. Haynes; and potentially other top officials, including the former White House counsel Alberto Gonzales and David Addington, Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff.
The report shows how actions by these men “led directly” to what happened at Abu Ghraib, in Afghanistan, in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and in secret C.I.A. prisons.
It said these top officials, charged with defending the Constitution and America’s standing in the world, methodically introduced interrogation practices based on illegal tortures devised by Chinese agents during the Korean War. Until the Bush administration, their only use in the United States was to train soldiers to resist what might be done to them if they were captured by a lawless enemy.
The officials then issued legally and morally bankrupt documents to justify their actions, starting with a presidential order saying that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to prisoners of the “war on terror” — the first time any democratic nation had unilaterally
reinterpreted the conventions.
[...]
Mr. Obama should consider proposals from groups like Human Rights Watch and the Brennan Center for Justice to appoint an independent panel to look into these and other egregious violations of the law. Like the 9/11 commission, it would examine in depth the decisions on prisoner treatment, as well as warrantless wiretapping, that eroded the rule of law and violated Americans’ most basic rights. Unless the nation and its leaders know precisely what went wrong in the last seven years, it will be impossible to fix it and make sure those terrible mistakes are not repeated.
We expect Mr. Obama to keep the promise he made over and over in the campaign — to cheering crowds at campaign rallies and in other places, including our office in New York. He said one of his first acts as president would be to order a review of all of Mr. Bush’s executive orders and reverse those that eroded civil liberties and the rule of law.
That job will fall to Eric Holder, a veteran prosecutor who has been chosen as attorney general, and Gregory Craig, a lawyer with extensive national security experience who has been selected as Mr. Obama’s White House counsel.
A good place for them to start would be to reverse Mr. Bush’s disastrous order of Feb. 7, 2002, declaring that the United States was no longer legally committed to comply with the Geneva Conventions.

ACT ACCORDING TO PRINCIPLE - JUSTICE IS NOT A MATTER FOR PLAYPENALERS!

Chain-Gang Reasoning for the Playpen !

The Senate Intelligence Committee has reported on Chainy's involvement in torture approval and misleading of the US public and the world after 9/11 and for the Iraq war; the culprit himself remains playpen typically unapologetic, arrogantly maintaining his role of father knows best.
Watch the disturbing interview with ABC from the 15th, which includes the following zinger quote on using "harsh interrogation methods", i.e. torture: “I was aware of the program, certainly, and involved in helping get the process cleared, as the [Central Intelligence] Agency, in effect, came in and wanted to know what they could and couldn't do.. And they talked to me, as well as others, to explain what they wanted to do. And I supported it.”
Another reason to feel relieved that the playpen will be closed down forever in a month.

No to a Few ...

NO to sciencelesstology! (You know what bunch of loons in a sect I mean.)

No to Cruising Tom! (You know what grinning front man I mean.)

No to a bad film with a bad premiere to make a bad position of a bad sect with a bad performance by a has-been actor seem like resistance.

No to his new film Valkyrie ! (German title: Operation Walküre)

No to fundamentalists of all sorts. (You know plenty and I mean them all.)

So DON'T go to see SciencelesstOfficerCruise's film! (By now you surely know what I mean, or check the papers, any papers, even the scandal sheets.)

Read instead a book about those few honorable people who plotted to murder the dictator-warmonger of the Third Reich (you know who I mean) and, unfortunately for Germany, themselves, and the world, failed and were executed. Von Stauffenberg was an upright resister, Cruising Tom is a fundamentalist propagandist!

BushBabyShoes

"These shoes are made for walking ...

... and that's just what they'll do. One of these days these shoes are gonna walk all over you."

It will be REALLY nice when the playpen is finally closed and the world can get serious again!

Being Gay Is A Human Right !

Document - United Nations: General assembly to address sexual orientation and gender identity - Statement affirms promise of Universal Declaration of Human Rights Amnesty International:

"The draft statement condemns violence, harassment, discrimination, exclusion, stigmatization, and prejudice based on sexual orientation and gender identity. It also condemns killings and executions, torture, arbitrary arrest, and deprivation of economic, social, and cultural rights on those grounds."

The statement proposed for adoption in the UN General Assembly, supported by ALL EU countries:

1 - We reaffirm the principle of universality of human rights, as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights whose 60th anniversary is celebrated this year, Article 1 of which proclaims that “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”;
2 - We reaffirm that everyone is entitled to the enjoyment of human rights without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status, as set out in Article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 2 of the International Covenants on Civil and Political, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, as well as in article 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;
3 - We reaffirm the principle of non-discrimination which requires that human rights apply equally to every human being regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity;
4 - We are deeply concerned by violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms based on sexual orientation or gender identity;
5 - We are also disturbed that violence, harassment, discrimination, exclusion, stigmatisation and prejudice are directed against persons in all countries in the world because of sexual orientation or gender identity, and that these practices undermine the integrity and dignity of those subjected to these abuses;
6 - We condemn the human rights violations based on sexual orientation or gender identity wherever they occur, in particular the use of the death penalty on this ground, extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, the practice of torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment, arbitrary arrest or detention and deprivation of economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to health;
7 - We recall the statement in 2006 before the Human Rights Council by fifty four countries requesting the President of the Council to provide an opportunity, at an appropriate future session of the Council, for discussing these violations;
8 - We commend the attention paid to these issues by special procedures of the Human Rights Council and treaty bodies and encourage them to continue to integrate consideration of human rights violations based on sexual orientation or gender identity within their relevant mandates;
9 - We welcome the adoption of Resolution AG/RES. 2435 (XXXVIII-O/08) on “Human Rights, Sexual Orientation, and Gender Identity” by the General Assembly of the Organization of American States during its 38th session in 3 June 2008 *;
10 - We call upon all States and relevant international human rights mechanisms to commit to promote and protect human rights of all persons, regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity;
11 - We urge States to take all the necessary measures, in particular legislative or administrative, to ensure that sexual orientation or gender identity may under no circumstances be the basis for criminal penalties, in particular executions, arrests or detention.
12 - We urge States to ensure that human rights violations based on sexual orientation or gender identity are investigated and perpetrators held accountable and brought to justice;
13 - We urge States to ensure adequate protection of human rights defenders, and remove obstacles which prevent them from carrying out their work on issues of human rights and sexual orientation and gender identity.

*OASAG/RES. 2435 (XXXVIII-O/08) HUMAN RIGHTS, SEXUAL ORIENTATION, AND GENDER IDENTITY (Adopted at the fourth plenary session, held on June 3, 2008)
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY, REAFFIRMING: That the Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights and that everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in that Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth, or other status; That the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man establishes that every human being has the right to life, liberty, and the security of the person; CONSIDERING that the OAS Charter proclaims that the historic mission of America is to offer to man a land of liberty and a favorable environment for the development of his personality and the realization of his just aspirations; REAFFIRMING the principles of universality, indivisibility, and interdependence of human rights; and TAKING NOTE with concern acts of violence and related human rights violations perpetrated against individuals because of their sexual orientation and gender identity,
RESOLVES:
1. To express concern about acts of violence and related human rights violations committed against individuals because of their sexual orientation and gender identity.
2. To request that the Committee on Juridical and Political Affairs (CAJP) include on its agenda, before the thirty-ninth regular session of the General Assembly, the topic of “Human rights, sexual orientation, and gender identity.”
3. To request the Permanent Council to report to the General Assembly at its thirty-ninth regular session on the implementation of this resolution, the execution of which shall be subject to the resources allocated in the program-budget of the Organization and other resources.

Lighting Up the World !

See the Amnesty International site on the commemoration ceremony at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, for example.

And never forget to utter your opinion on whatever you wish to!

Human Rights Day 2008

Human Rights Day 2008:

"On this Human Rights Day, it is my hope that we will all act on our collective responsibility to uphold the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration. We can only honour the towering vision of that inspiring document when its principles are fully applied everywhere, for everyone."
-UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

Important Anniversary

Tomorrow, December 10, is the sixtieth anniversary of the proclamation of the UN General Assembly of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Here the link to find this important document in ALL languages.
May this birthday remind us all to do everything possible and necessary to implement and secure these rights everywhere!

Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Preamble
Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,
Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,
Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,
Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,
Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,
Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in cooperation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,
Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,
Now, therefore,
The General Assembly,
Proclaims this Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.

Déclaration universelle des droits de l'homme
Préambule
Considérant que la reconnaissance de la dignité inhérente à tous les membres de la famille humaine et de leurs droits égaux et inaliénables constitue le fondement de la liberté, de la justice et de la paix dans le monde,
Considérant que la méconnaissance et le mépris des droits de l'homme ont conduit à des actes de barbarie qui révoltent la conscience de l'humanité et que l'avènement d'un monde où les êtres humains seront libres de parler et de croire, libérés de la terreur et de la misère, a été proclamé comme la plus haute aspiration de l'homme,
Considérant qu'il est essentiel que les droits de l'homme soient protégés par un régime de droit pour que l'homme ne soit pas contraint, en suprême recours, à la révolte contre la tyrannie et l'oppression,
Considérant qu'il est essentiel d'encourager le développement de relations amicales entre nations,
Considérant que dans la Charte les peuples des Nations Unies ont proclamé à nouveau leur foi dans les droits fondamentaux de l'homme, dans la dignité et la valeur de la personne humaine, dans l'égalité des droits des hommes et des femmes, et qu'ils se sont déclarés résolus à favoriser le progrès social et à instaurer de meilleures conditions de vie dans une liberté plus grande,
Considérant que les Etats Membres se sont engagés à assurer, en coopération avec l'Organisation des Nations Unies, le respect universel et effectif des droits de l'homme et des libertés fondamentales,
Considérant qu'une conception commune de ces droits et libertés est de la plus haute importance pour remplir pleinement cet engagement,
L'Assemblée générale
Proclame la présente Déclaration universelle des droits de l'homme comme l'idéal commun à atteindre par tous les peuples et toutes les nations afin que tous les individus et tous les organes de la société, ayant cette Déclaration constamment à l'esprit, s'efforcent, par l'enseignement et l'éducation, de développer le respect de ces droits et libertés et d'en assurer, par des mesures progressives d'ordre national et international, la reconnaissance et l'application universelles et effectives, tant parmi les populations des Etats Membres eux-mêmes que parmi celles des territoires placés sous leur juridiction.

Allgemeine Erklärung der Menschenrechte
PRÄAMBEL
Da die Anerkennung der angeborenen Würde und der gleichen und unveräußerlichen Rechte aller Mitglieder der Gemeinschaft der Menschen die Grundlage von Freiheit, Gerechtigkeit und Frieden in der Welt bildet,
da die Nichtanerkennung und Verachtung der Menschenrechte zu Akten der Barbarei geführt haben, die das Gewissen der Menschheit mit Empörung erfüllen, und da verkündet worden ist, daß einer Welt, in der die Menschen Rede- und Glaubensfreiheit und Freiheit von Furcht und Not genießen, das höchste Streben des Menschen gilt,
da es notwendig ist, die Menschenrechte durch die Herrschaft des Rechtes zu schützen, damit der Mensch nicht gezwungen wird, als letztes Mittel zum Aufstand gegen Tyrannei und Unterdrückung zu greifen,
da es notwendig ist, die Entwicklung freundschaftlicher Beziehungen zwischen den Nationen zu fördern,
da die Völker der Vereinten Nationen in der Charta ihren Glauben an die grundlegenden Menschenrechte, an die Würde und den Wert der menschlichen Person und an die Gleichberechtigung von Mann und Frau erneut bekräftigt und beschlossen haben, den sozialen Fortschritt und bessere Lebensbedingungen in größerer Freiheit zu fördern,
da die Mitgliedstaaten sich verpflichtet haben, in Zusammenarbeit mit den Vereinten Nationen auf die allgemeine Achtung und Einhaltung der Menschenrechte und Grundfreiheiten hinzuwirken,
da ein gemeinsames Verständnis dieser Rechte und Freiheiten von größter Wichtigkeit für
die volle Erfüllung dieser Verpflichtung ist,
verkündet die
Generalversammlung
diese Allgemeine Erklärung der Menschenrechte als das von allen Völkern und Nationen zu erreichende gemeinsame Ideal, damit jeder einzelne und alle Organe der Gesellschaft sich diese Erklärung stets gegenwärtig halten und sich bemühen, durch Unterricht und Erziehung die Achtung vor diesen Rechten und Freiheiten zu fördern und durch fortschreitende nationale und internationale Maßnahmen ihre allgemeine und tatsächliche Anerkennung und Einhaltung durch die Bevölkerung der Mitgliedstaaten selbst wie auch durch die Bevölkerung der ihrer Hoheitsgewalt unterstehenden Gebiete zu gewährleisten.

Wirsing-Roulade

Wirsing is Savoy cabbage, something between turnip greens and spinach, with sturdy leaves which enables you (or in this case the wonderful Berlin mom Edith) to make roulade (rolls with spiced groundbeef inside) of them. Add tasty veggies, spices etc. for a sauce to simmer them in forever and eat them with potatoes.

You can enjoy them until you're ready to pop and then keep eating, as we did yesterday for lunch. A great visit in Köpenick and a great cook. A feast!

The Snow Is Attempting To Do Something

Since the morning post, two down, it has been snowing on and off, flurry like, but not to much avail, as the streets melt it as fast as it falls. Perhaps it looks nice in the forests around and in town, but today provided no chance to check.

But plastic is over!

Perhaps more snow will fall tonight and tomorrow will be a white wonderland on the way to my ending group's last session in the morning.

L'Infini 105

Wonderful to have already received this latest issue of a quarterly publication full of thought and language at their best!

Here the link to the Sollers site with full table of contents and links to some of the articles included. Worth clicking, worth reading, worth spending time with!

Where's the Snow?

I keep asking that question, because they keep threatening it will come and I'd love to see a lot of it, but, well, it just hasn't amounted to much of anything here yet. We did have those couple of mornings of white dusting, but it was all mush and melt before we ever made it out the door with a camera.
U.S. friends and family are all ranting about their Thanksgiving festivities, and I'm glad they had fun, but we are just patiently working on until the real holidays come. Tomorrow I'm seeing one class off on their last day with my usual final difficult program mixing Mother Goose and Shakespeare, will however regale them as well with 'Twas the Night Before...
Next week the next-to-the-last session before Xmas with another group of English afficionados followed by the final one the week thereafter and two days of monitoring written and assessing oral exam performance for another group's international certification diploma at the beginning of Christmas week.
All not such a load, hardly any stress, and all the more importantly, I've almost finished with the magnus opus on plastics (thermo, engineering, etc.), intend to kill it off today, as it is truly one of the most boring things ever written in any language. And I've had to deal with it in TWO.

By the way: I'm pleased about O's selection of Hillary for Sec. of State, had always hoped they would finally come around and work together. He can keep her in the right direction and she can use her mettle where it counts.

Enough procrastination: I must return to the plastics, test to distinguish them at this point, and wrap up the whole thing before it renders me incapable of touching a plastic bag, a keyboard, or any of the nearly all other things made of that stuff. Give me paper, metal, wood, glass, flesh. And give me real words!