A piece over at Crooked Timber by D-squared caught my eye this morning. Although it is primarily about using the Internet to slag off your MP/MSP/MEP, this bit piqued my interest:
It’s very useful for sending letters to MPs who don’t have readily available email addresses but (for example) helped sort out a parking ticket [...]

The extraordinary nature of the disaster and the suffering caused by the Tsunami that hit East Asia are obviously calling for extraordinary measures. I’m not sure this is the first time the entire EU felt the need to jontly commemorate, but I’m not aware of any previous instance.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Union [held] [...]

Has it escaped notice that the brunt of the tsunami catastrophe has fallen on the world’s most populous Muslim country? One that has an active branch of al Qaeda?
This is an ideal time for Western governments — especially European ones — to do well by doing good. Conspicuous aid to suffering Muslims can only be [...]

David at Dialog International has an interesting review of a new book by Anrei S. Markovits, Karl W. Deutsch Collegiate Professor of Comparative Politics and German Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, The book is called “Amerika, Dich hasst sich’s besser” (America, it’s easier to hate you) and tries to give the popular [...]

“This is a crime. Even God will not accept it.” And God, we know, is willing to put up with a lot.
I don’t think there’s anything to be said beyond the obvious about the death of Margaret Hassan: This person sounds like a real heroine, it amazes me that two or more people can [...]

Condoleezza RiceColin Powell, who in all likelihood will renounce to using the phrase “between a rock and a hard place” for the rest of his life, is leaving the US administration, and Condoleezza Rice, currently US National Security Advisor, has been nominated by President Bush as next Secretary of State. Many in Europe,

BusinessWeek has joined the ranks of those in the US who are sulking because of international, particularly European, criticism, concern, laughter, and disbelief about both process and result of the US Presidential election. The magazine’s John Rossant is now beating back in this week’s issue, explaining that - even in today’s Europe - life’s not [...]

In addition to being a valuable opportunity for the western world to revisit important enlightenment concepts like religious tolerance and the importance of secular government, the re-election of President Bush could also lead to a more effective transatlantic division of diplomatic labour in the Middle East outside Iraq, as - possibly - indicated by this [...]

Or as they say in Hungarian, “H?llosztok!”
Hungary announces Iraq pull-out

So it’s done. We have four more years of George W Bush to look forward to. A quick tour of the American blogs shows a few trying to pull some sort of moral victory from this election, but the truth is that they’ve lost everything. Not only has the president finally won [...]