Everybody (well; nearly everybody) is aghast at revelations that US troops have been routinely torturing Iraqi detainees. One predictable consequence of the scandal is a return to that much-loved hypothetical, ‘Should torture be permitted where the information it may produce could save innocent lives that are in real, imminent danger?‘.
Continue reading
Author Archives: Mrs Tilton
Die Wacht an der Oder
Worried grumbling is a bit of a national sport here in Germany, and let me just say as a spectator that the game has rarely been as good as it is right now. Tune in any Sunday night to Christiansen for an action-packed match. Or, if you haven’t the time, let me give you a pr?cis that fairly sums up pretty much every week’s exchange:
Sabine Christiansen: We desperately need to reform, yet we can’t. Why not?
CDU/CSU/FDP (to SPD/Greens): it’s your lot’s fault.
SPD/Greens (to CDU/CSU/FDP): no, it’s your lot’s fault.
[repeat ad nauseam, week in, week out.]
Far be it from me to stand in the CDU’s corner. Still, as it’s the SPD that is in government, it’s they who’ll receive my brickbats for the moment. So here I go, nervously mindful that the only likely result is Scott von M. pounding me on the head while Edward edges carefully away, lest he be branded a neo-liberal by association.
Continue reading
Item
Baden-W?rttemberg has become the first German state to ban headscarves in state schools. Unlike the controversial French ban, this one affects only teachers, not schoolgirls. Also unlike the French ban, this one is targeted solely at Muslim symbols; Christian and Jewish religious accessories remain permissible. (From the tageszeitung; link in German)
Item
Ireland’s smoking ban claims a prominent victim, reports the BBC: Fine Gael TD (that’s like an MP, only in Irish) and justice spokesman John Deasy has been thrown off the front bench for lighting up outside the parliamentary bar. (The place has since been designated a smoking area; another Irish solution for an Irish problem.)
The beautiful game
Crooked Timber goes from strength to strength, now adding John Holbo and Belle Waring to the masthead. (John & Belle will also continue to maintain their own blog.)
Kieran Healy notes that CT now has the numbers to field a rugby side. (He even provides a diagramme.) Down in the comments, Cryptic Ned asks:
When?s the home-and-home against Fistful of Euros set for?
Now maths are not my strong suit, but a quick tally down in the sidebar suggests that the Fistful has too few fingers for rugger. But, if I count correctly, there are eleven of us, which lends itself nicely to the other code.
And anyway, AFOEers (and CTers) – who wants to be a gentleman when one can be a hooligan instead!
Item
If you’re off to the pub in Ireland, leave your ciggies at home. As of today. smoking is illegal in public workplaces. Those near the border may slip across to the wee North for a fag with their pint.
Budding liberals
The fumes are billowing thick and hot in Berlin. The two parties that make up Germany’s governing coalition are at a standoff. J?rgen Trittin, the Green environment minister, plans to introduce emissions trading, and wants to achieve an initial reduction in emissions by 2007. Economics minister Wolfgang Clement of the SPD wants no reduction in emissions.
This is shaping up to be an ugly intra-coalition squabble. Chancellor Gerhard Schr?der is going to have to make a decision, and whichever way he goes, it’s not likely to have a happy ending for him. If he backs Clement, he risks by far the most serious crisis his coalition has yet faced. If he backs Trittin, Clement may walk. (You can read more about this, if you can read German, in this Spiegel article and on the pages it links to.)
Continue reading
More on the Spanish elections
If you’re looking for an eminently sensible warning againt misinterpreting the PSOE’s electoral upset of the PP, see Edward’s post below. This here is just my own ?0.02 cast in about the margins.
Continue reading
Item
Ivan Rybkin now claims that his disappearance wasn’t entirely voluntary after all. Just to be on the safe side, he’ll stay abroad till the elections are over. (From the BBC.)
Item
If Der Spiegel has its facts right, Elizabeth II is a pretender and the true King a beer-drinking Australian farmer. If so, this would clear things up for the Scots, who wonder how they can have an Elizabeth ‘the second’ when they never had a first one: Good Queen Bess would’ve had as little claim to the throne as her latter-day namesake. The putative King Mike I, though, would just as soon stay on in Oz with his mates. (Report in German.)