but one of the most important decisions about the future of European security was announced Monday in Germany. Defense Minister Peter Struck has been on the airwaves and in the papers a great deal since the beginning of the year, talking about military reform. He’s been having a bit of a rough time of it. [...]

So there we were in the corner Italian restaurant — not staffed by Italians mind you, though maybe the cook is, but by Hungarians and Croatians — wondering why Swedish mystery writers (crime novelists, to some) are so big in Germany, and so much better than most German practitioners of the genre.
Not that we figured [...]

Maybe
“A few days before 25 European Presidents and Prime Ministers met in Brussels to try to ratify a constitution, former French President Val?ry Giscard d’Estaing had dire words of warning. Failure to approve the 265-page text, of which he had been the principal author, would be a disaster for the cause of a united Europe: [...]

The front page of today’s Washington Post has a none-too-flattering analysis of Gov. Howard Dean, the man most likely to challenge GW Bush for the White House in 2004. It starts:
“Former Vermont governor Howard Dean stands on the brink of a remarkable achievement in American politics, having transformed himself from rank obscurity to clear favorite [...]

And to all a good night!
See you again around the 28th…

Did you know that in Bavaria, it is illegal to run a service station’s car wash on Sunday?
Apparently, this falls under the category of disturbing the peace. Equally apparently, the coin-operated industrial-strength vacuum cleaners do not disturb the peace.
I learned this where the six-lane A9 autobahn deposits its traffic onto the eight-lane Mittlerer Ring, [...]

…but I think you’d enjoy reading them anyway. While we get all exercised about one small corner of Eurasia, they’re eyeballing exciting things from around the whole world.
The inimitable Bruce Sterling:
Beyond the Beyond
The slightly wacked Cory Doctorow and the definitely out there Mark Frauenfelder:
A Directory of Wonderful Things
Getting more or less serious about building a [...]

One of the things that I do in addition to ruminating about ‘Europe’ is to report on the biotechnology industry in Germany and Austria. One of the tools that I use to make the job easier is Google’s News Alert service. And sometimes the service turns up surprising articles.

European summit ends in failure
EU constitution talks set to fail
Es ist vorbei
Echec des n?gociations sur la Constitution europ?enne
Wlosi oglaszaja fiasko negocjacji
Update:
Liberum veto, an old Polish custom with unfortunate precedents and consequences.

Is that there won’t be a compromise under the Italian Presidency. I remeber hearing a few weeks back that the Irish government has been making plans to finish up the IGC’s business during its six months at the helm.
How much of the current worry is due to Berlusconi’s initial fumbles? Six months disappear awfully [...]