tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35734002011-04-21T20:02:07.898+02:00Almost a diary. Tobias Schwarz' blog.Need an opinion? Borrow one here. Tobias Schwarz' thoughts, opinions, and ideas of the moment aka Tobis Gedanken und Grundlagen zum Verstaendnis des Dramas. A German perspective. Published in English since 2002.Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comBlogger2881100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-1059963064259275852003-08-04T04:11:00.000+02:002003-08-04T04:19:41.160+02:00Gentle Readers!
With a little weather induced delay (it was so hot in the Rhein-Main area this weekend that it was literally impossible to do anything but taking showers and drinking iced coffee), I herewith announce the move of "almost a diary" to its new MT powered home. Please use "www.almostadiary.de" as link, whatever your browser might tell you about the document's location, as the former Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-1059844272486302572003-08-02T19:11:00.000+02:002003-08-02T19:15:57.340+02:00Happy Birthday! We're moving!
My gentle readers, let me tell you that today, this blog is celebrating its first birthday. While you might or might not have been disappointed that I have been rather silent lately, the reason for this has been the preparation of a movable type installation over on www.almostadiary.de (no need to link, the auto-forward to blogspot is still working). The "Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-1059376113414393842003-07-28T09:08:00.000+02:002003-07-28T09:09:49.283+02:00­
in preparation of this blog's move to a movable type installation and into autumn clothes, I am modifying the code a bit and have also tried soft-hyphenation with the "­" entity in the last post. The justified paragraphs look better this way - on my Internet Explorer 6.
Netscape 7 and Opera 7.11 just ignore the soft-hyphenation, so using it doesn't hurt. That covers roughly 86% of Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-1059355987223038592003-07-28T03:33:00.000+02:002003-07-28T03:36:24.260+02:00Quality Journalism?
At least for the moment, I am not really commenting the quarrel between the Labour government and the BBC that very likely led to the tragic suicide of Dr. David Kelly, who was the original source behind the BBC Radio 4's defence correspondent Andrew Gilligan's claim that the British government, most prominently Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair's Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-1059248013819704092003-07-26T21:33:00.000+02:002003-07-26T21:33:33.786+02:00A New Kind Of Democracy
Look what I found on "ciao.com" while looking for credibilty ratings of an ebay pro-seller.
Now that's what I call "political marketplace". For those not literate in German, the image below is a screen capture from ciao.com, a website where people can leave their opinions on everything from white laces to, well, globalisation. The latter, of course, is only 68% recommendedTobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-1059060808144317292003-07-24T17:33:00.000+02:002003-07-24T20:40:48.326+02:00Sex, Lies, And Dossiers.
Today, Salon.com's Nicholas Thompson looks at recent examples of US-Presidential truth-tampering and decides that lying about war is worse than lying about sex. Many, certainly on this side of the pond, will agree with him that lying about the reasons for the sanctioned killing of human beings is actually lying in a league of its own.
But however much I believe that Mr. Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-1058817498206091132003-07-21T21:58:00.000+02:002003-07-21T22:09:39.946+02:00Fly away, astray...
Papascott links to this worldmap on the homepage of AirIndia, wondering if their pilots will know where to go when on their way to European airports. Not too bad a question, I have to say...
But let's face it, geography, particularly European geography, can be tricky sometimes, as the US edition of the National Geogrpahic found out last November in a poll regarding the Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-1058476461670747182003-07-17T23:14:00.000+02:002003-07-17T23:20:58.336+02:00A New Atlantic Charter?
Tony Blair just addressed a joint session of the US congress and I suppose he will have convinced many in Congress that the right way for America is to fill out an application to the Commonwealth right now - or at least to again change the US constitution to allow Blair to run for President should NewLabour ever want to dispose of him.
While I won't analyse the speech in Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-1058195346585277782003-07-14T17:09:00.000+02:002003-07-14T17:13:16.250+02:00Deep Throat.
I wonder what Mrs Clinton wants to tell us here - personally, I suppose she's indicating that she can solve the puzzle about the identity of Bob Woodward's and Carl Bernstein's secret helper in uncovering the Watergate scandal, deep throat. On the other hand, regarding the traumatic oral experiences her husband made her go through back in 1998, different interpretations are clearly Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-1057956128837198712003-07-11T22:42:00.000+02:002003-07-11T22:45:25.750+02:00Oh Gino, Oh Gino Ginelli
Yesterday, a friend reminded me of what name Stefano Stefani reminded me - a popular Italian Ice cream advertising character from the late 1980s, Gino Ginelli.
As for Stefani, he has been signalled by someone important to take a longer vacation. He supposedly resigned a few minutes ago. Apparently his apology did not please his master, even though it is indeed funny - Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-1057919241205982242003-07-11T12:27:00.000+02:002003-07-11T14:17:51.233+02:00A Movie, With Me.
It might come as a shock to you, my gentle readers, but from time to time I do act in student short films. And as this week saw the premieres of two more recent productions, I thought to myself 'why not experiment with streaming media and put an older one on the web?'
And so I did. Clicking on the image below takes you to a realmedia-encoded version of a largely improvised shortTobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-1057848805447905602003-07-10T16:53:00.000+02:002003-07-10T16:57:55.590+02:00Naumann on Ze Tschermans
Michael Naumann, editor of Die Zeit is pondering in the leader of this week's Die Zeit about stereotyping Tschermans as blonde beasts, Kraut bashing and the historical hand "we" have been dealt.
He's basically writing about the same I wrote about in my Kraut bashing comment from January, re-posted below. But his perspective is rather different. I suppose that must be a Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-1057791108047723592003-07-10T00:51:00.000+02:002003-07-10T01:40:29.393+02:00Shorter Denis Boyles.
Denis Boyles over at the National Review Online reviews last week's European Press for the literate American conservative. Here's a summary :
"Germans are sissies for not agreeing with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi that calling the "annoying socialist" Martin Schulz a Nazi is indeed really funny. Why? Germany is Unpatriotic/ Antiamerican/ LEFT/ EVIL to its core Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-1057770242389281132003-07-09T19:04:00.000+02:002003-07-09T19:04:02.330+02:00Kraut Bashing Re-Post.
I don't know why, but I am getting quite a few google hits of people looking for "Kraut bashing" today.
Could be related to the Stefano Stefani story, or to the rebranding Germany campaign that has been started in the UK last week. The BBC has written a little about it.
I know that blogspot archives can be moody, so I decided to repost my personal "Kraut bashing" Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-1057769636684403182003-07-09T18:53:00.000+02:002003-07-09T18:55:27.973+02:00Spoke too soon.
I did indeed. Looks like this morning's press reports have been wrong. Gerhard Schroeder is not going to do the Hanibal this summer, after all. Now he's just staying at home in Hannover. Not quite the same, I have to say. Although the town does have beautiful corners here and there...
According to Spiegel Online, his Italian friend and host, the artist Bruno Bruni explained the Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-1057730083085692032003-07-09T07:54:00.000+02:002003-07-09T08:00:20.223+02:00The Psychology Of WMDs
Salon.com's Louise Witt is wondering why America is in collective denial that [someone in] the Bush administration knowingly "sexed up" the WMD charges against Saddam Hussein, as the administration is now admitting itself -
"[f]inally, on Monday, the White House admitted the president relied on inaccurate, incomplete information for that crucial passage of his State of the Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-1057724430772482052003-07-09T06:20:00.000+02:002003-07-09T14:59:50.603+02:00Sommerloch.
Sorry for the recent lack of updates... my very own "Sommerloch" - "summer-hole" -, meaning lack of real news in July and early August.
I thought this year there was not going to be a big one in Germany, given the economic situation and the government's reform agenda. Well, I might have been wrong. Usually, the fact that nothing is really happening during the summer in conjunction Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-1057328108094550342003-07-04T16:15:00.000+02:002003-07-04T23:01:21.143+02:00Berlusconi apologizes. Or Not.
From the Guardian. Berlusconi apologized to Gerhard Schroeder (who was not exactly offended by him, but had demanded a formal apology).
"Italy's billionaire prime minister Silvio Berlusconi last night expressed regret for his Nazi jibe against a German MEP, in a bid to end a serious diplomatic stand-off between the two countries just as Italy takes over the Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-1057243921155802592003-07-03T16:52:00.000+02:002003-07-03T16:52:01.143+02:00Way To Go: Germany On The Move
Sure, one has to be extremely careful when citing a sitting chancellor's opinion that things are going well. But when Gerhard Schroeder opened today's Bundestag debate by saying that "Germany is willing to change [economically], Germany is on the move" he is right.
It wasn't his reform Agenda 2010 in the sense that people think it contains the only possible measuresTobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-1057240225678967432003-07-03T15:50:00.000+02:002003-07-03T15:52:11.663+02:00Italian Press Review.
The Guardian has compiled and translated a nice collection of commentary from today's Italian newspapers regarding Berlusconi's loosing his cool. It's quite interesting to see the constrasting perception of reality - compare yourself (the Guardian has more quotes):
La Repubblica (left-leaning) Editorial
"As Silvio Berlusconi drifts tragically further each day, yesterday he Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-1057207515678765402003-07-03T06:45:00.000+02:002003-07-03T06:53:53.596+02:00From Bad To Worse?
In a press conference after yesterday's Parliamentary session, MEP Martin Schulz told the press that he had been told that Mr Berlusconi had allegedly instructed his television channels to ignore his insulting remarks.
I don't if that is true, I haven't heard any other source in relation to this matter. Personally, I doubt it. I doubt that someone with Berlusconi's tactical Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-1057170793762900592003-07-02T20:33:00.000+02:002003-07-02T23:30:48.540+02:00Schultz, and Schulz
Maybe Silvio Berlusconi had an overdose of the 1960s American tv series "Hogan's Heroes", in which a stereotypically imbecile Tscherman POW camp guard named Hans Schultz (played by John Banner) is the prime target of allied humour. Maybe he is just bad with German surnames and somehow mixed up Schultz with Schulz while not actually trying to offend the vice chairman of the Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-1057090861163013612003-07-01T22:21:00.000+02:002003-07-01T22:26:04.250+02:00Crime Scene Report
I'm just realising the following:
It should be punishable by law to sell postcards but not stamps. As this problem persists all over the world, I suppose this crime would make a prime opportunity to test the efficiency of the International Criminal Court. Or am I the only one who suffers from stamp unavailability whenever I try to send postcards?
I'm not kidding here. I just Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-1057074270046362202003-07-01T17:44:00.000+02:002003-07-01T17:59:23.850+02:00Cap & Capper, part XXIV...
Oh my, they finally did it - again. The British Parliament yesterday night voted in favour of an outright ban of foxhunting, or hunting with dogs. For those of you, my gentle readers, who don't really have any idea what this is about, remember the Disney film "Cap & Capper": In a nutshell, people who favour a ban on foxhunting want Cap & Capper to stay friends, those Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-1056956294219859182003-06-30T08:58:00.000+02:002003-06-30T09:05:39.053+02:00Too cocky indeed.
Just two links to articles in today's Sueddeutsche Zeitung in this post. But since they are about Mr Cocky mentioned in the previous post I decided to put them here.
In the first article, Juergen Peters is described as failed missionary, while the second reports that some people in his union want to see his head on the block after IG Metall's historic defeat.
You can tell the Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-1056923743775592862003-06-29T23:55:00.000+02:002003-06-30T01:01:53.466+02:00Strange Happenings...
Now at least the universe loves us ;-). From sixsixfive via Le Sofa Blogger...
Entirely unrelated - the desk-cleaning action did take longer than expected, so I won't be able to comment in lenght on this weekend's exciting developments in German politics. The proposed accelrated tax break is quite remarkable in itself, as is the CDU's refusal to do some serious subsidy Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-1056904274325789762003-06-29T18:31:00.000+02:002003-06-29T18:53:55.856+02:00My Good Old Desk.
I don't know if you have heard about the commercial that won this year's Cannes advertising festival's grand price. In this spot, developed for Ikea by the Miami based advertising agency Crispin Porter we are encouraged to take pity on an old lamp that's being tossed on the street as garbage. Then, from the perspective of the old lamp out in the pouring rain, through the windowTobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-1056748514485478772003-06-27T23:15:00.000+02:002003-06-28T05:53:48.776+02:00Unintended Consequences.
The investigation against a Ukrainian criminal women trafficing organisation that has also led to cocaine possession charges against the tv talk show host and vice chaiman of the Central Council of Jews in Germany is having a positive side effects. Just as Mr Friedman's home was raided and searched for cocaine because he had talked to call-girl-ring pimps whose phones Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-1056744998303393482003-06-27T22:16:00.001+02:002003-06-27T22:27:37.040+02:00The Next Tirpitz?
Ha - I knew it. My gentle readers, I am going to tell you a little secret.
On last new years eve I bet a young German Navy officer for six bottles of Champagne that, in ten years, Germany would have at least ordered a brand new Aircraft carrier... and today - according to Spiegel Online - Roland Koch, the premier of the German state of Hessen and friend of George W. and Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-1056744983579985062003-06-27T22:16:00.000+02:002003-06-27T22:16:23.580+02:00The Next Tirpitz?
Ha - I knew it. My gentle readers, I am going to tell you a little secret.
On last new years eve I bet a young German Navy officer for six bottles of Champagne that, in ten years, Germany would have at least ordered a brand new Aircraft carrier... and today - according to Spiegel Online - Roland Koch, the premier of the German state of Hessen and friend of George W. and eternalTobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-960036652003-06-25T05:57:00.000+02:002003-06-25T05:58:40.000+02:00God's Own Agenda?
Haaretz reports that, according to Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas President Bush allegedly explained at the recent Akaba summit that
"God told me to strike at al Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East. If you help me I will act, and if not, the elections will Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-959663672003-06-24T04:21:00.000+02:002003-06-24T04:26:50.000+02:00National Security Update.
Lillimarleen tells us about "the real state" of national security in the United Kingdom.
According to several news reports Aaron Baarschak, a comedian, crashed Prince William's 21st birthday party by climbing over a Windsor Castle wall wearing a false beard, a turban and a pink dress. According to newspaper reports, he climbed on the stage, took the microphone from theTobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-959570102003-06-23T22:09:00.000+02:002003-06-23T22:29:17.000+02:00A Common Sense Of Inevitability.
What made the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, the agreement that started the power-sharing government in Northern Ireland, possible? I believe, above all, it was shared expectations about the demographic future. True, there are still more problems than solutions to most practical, especially procedural questions of a truly open-ended devolution in Northern Ireland.Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-959322672003-06-23T05:12:00.000+02:002003-06-23T05:22:26.000+02:00My Gentle Readers,
I would like to inform you that recent hardware rescue efforts have been rather successful.
As a fortunate consequence I am now able to post again. So in my next entry, I will try to explain why I - contrary to most German commentators - believe the Israeli policy to militarily weaken Hamas and other extremist groups could actually be helpful for a peace process in the Middle Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-958119022003-06-19T04:06:00.000+02:002003-06-19T04:12:01.000+02:00Argh!
My (main) computer is still experiencing an extreme amount of unwarranted file-system induced "strokes". Keeping it running and online long enough to write this is as good as it gets today. Hopefully, I'll be able to fix this tomorrow. If anyone has any idea why my system (Win98SE) suddenly crashes all the time - and certainly when copying files larger than, say, 5 Mbytes from one partitionTobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-957788182003-06-18T06:18:00.000+02:002003-06-18T06:22:21.000+02:00It's Been A Hard Day's Night
and I'm having trouble with my computer. So I won't be exactly long winded for a change ;-).
There are many reasons for people to pursue a particular lifestyle or live in a particular culture. Some do it by choice [disregarding for practical reasons that any discussion about "choice" will sooner or later approach the "free will" dilemma], others less so - if for Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-957360742003-06-17T03:11:00.000+02:002003-06-17T03:19:22.000+02:00The Occasional Freaky Bit
You know, my gentle readers, how I am usually quite understanding of many kinds of political behavior - but then there's the occasional bit that really freaks me out (if correct).
Paul Krugman wrote last Friday in the NYTimes that -
"after the Columbine school shootings, Mr. DeLay [the Republican House of Representatives majority leader] called a press conference in Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-956986502003-06-16T02:58:00.000+02:002003-06-16T15:40:58.000+02:00Can't Buy Me Lo-hove! Money Can't Buy Me Love.
So it turns out, my vote was not needed. The Czech Eu referendum is over - 55% turnout, 77,33% said 'yes'. Done. Welcome in the EU, guys!
Nonetheless, judging from the opinions those (not too many) Czech people held whom I talked to in Praque, a lot of the 3,48 million votes in favour of EU membership seem to have been cast not out of any European Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-956405302003-06-13T22:07:00.000+02:002003-06-13T22:08:51.000+02:00I'm in Prague this weekend...
... and I really think I should be allowed to vote in the EU accession referendum the Czech Republic is holding today and tomorrow, given the apparent lack of any exitement for the community the people over here show quite visibly. I was wandering around the city all afternoon and late evening and all I saw was a single, lonely EU flag - at the tourist information Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-955733492003-06-12T04:27:00.000+02:002003-06-12T05:06:58.000+02:00American Girls Are Easy. German Guys Are boo-ZAH.
For the better or worse, in my experience it's the same with American girls as with girls from anywhere - some are easy, most aren't. However, two self-proclaimed easy ones, Erin and Meghan, who are "young enough to pay an added fee on rental cars, but old enough to feel uncomfortable in college bars", have written an internet travel diary during Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-955129382003-06-10T19:00:00.000+02:002003-06-10T19:18:17.000+02:00Jane Galt on Signal And Noise
Megan McArdle has an interesting post about the difficulties of gaining useful data through polls. She correctly states that - however carefully chose your sample may be - some people will always lie, that is, she implies, a lot of people will lie.
Personally, I think that questionnaire framing in conjunction with the reality construction effect of increased Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-954935012003-06-10T07:27:00.000+02:002003-06-10T07:33:39.000+02:00Living History. Deleting Posts.
After Blogger decided to shred two of my planned entries today I have settled for one involving only very little typing.
I was in Washington, DC, back in 1998 when the Starr-Rreport was released, and I have never in my life seen so many journalists per square-centimeter. I only had a tiny disposable camera with me, and the reddish part in the right hand side - Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-953425152003-06-05T22:49:00.000+02:002003-06-05T23:02:54.000+02:00Skydiving. The Life and Death of Juergen W. Moellemann.
There are a lot of things one could say about Juergen W. Moellemann. And I am pretty sure that the German media is going to say pretty much all of them in the coming days and hours of reporting the details of the circumstances surrounding his dramatic death earlier today, when he - in what clearly looks like suicide for an experienced Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-953098352003-06-05T03:45:00.000+02:002003-06-05T20:45:51.000+02:00Does Pride Indeed Cometh Before The Fall?
There are moments in life when we have to wonder how things would have turned out differently if we had taken a different road at a particular crossroads. Today, I am wondering if it was the right decision not to read "Die Welt" on a daily basis, because the Frankfurter Allgemeine provides more than enough Conservatism for a single breakfast. Plus, Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-952831242003-06-04T15:51:00.000+02:002003-06-04T19:38:54.000+02:00Blogging Your Way To A Civil Society?
Papascott links to Jeff Jarvis, who believes that Salam Pax - the blogger who shared the sights and sounds of his life in Baghdad and is now writing a forthnightly column in the British Guardian - is an example of how sponsoring Iraqi blogging could create a true Iraqi Civil Society -
"What comes out of this: A hundred Salam Paxes. A thousand Salam Paxes. TheTobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-952673972003-06-04T05:35:00.000+02:002003-06-04T06:17:11.000+02:00Body Language. N'Sync.
Tonight, CNN dug out footage from the "scandalous" Munich Security Conference from February this year where Joschka Fischer lashed out at Donald Rumsfeld in English - "You have to make the case, excuse me, but I am not convinced."
Back then, Michael Kelly [who tragically died in Iraq as embedded journalist] excused Fischer in the Washington Post by saying that there is no Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-951381412003-06-01T04:25:00.000+02:002003-06-01T16:30:07.000+02:00M.'s Big Fat Greek Birthday!
My favorite Greek relative celebrated his 50th birthday today. I still remember how he fascinated me when we first met, back in 1987. How he sparked my interest in all things binary. He will always remain my digital superhero. The man who taught me my first three-and-a-half lines of code. And there was not even a "hello world" in them...
10 for i = 1 to 100
20 print iTobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-951050482003-05-31T04:09:00.000+02:002003-05-31T05:00:21.000+02:00Stupid, stupid, stupid idiots!
Lillimarleen links to "pro-gun" tirade by Rachel Lucas called just like this entry. Rachel furiously tries to point out why previous cases of civil strife, ethnic persecution, or class warfare are valid arguments in favour of uninhibited gun ownership in general, and specifically in the USA -
"If you make self-defense illegal, or even problematic, you're making Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-950966442003-05-30T23:12:00.000+02:002003-05-30T23:46:37.000+02:00"Vanity, definitely my favorite sin."
Now if *that* couldn't become a conspiracy theory of truly Faustian dimensions... instaed of simply forging evidence and continue lying about the real reasons for the war in Iraq, Paul Wolfowitz, one of the brains of Washington's neo-conservative foreign policy gang, has taken the high road of telling the truth for once - what else should one expect in a "Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-950601572003-05-30T03:51:00.000+02:002003-05-30T04:16:47.000+02:00Less Common Browsers.
I recently had the opportunity to look at this page with an old NS 4.x browser and - it was not pretty. I checked this page in NS 7 and Opera 7 and there were only minor deviations from the intended look (in IE 6). The share of users with less common browsers is evidently limited, but there are nonetheless quite a few. So if those of you not using any of the above mentioned Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-949622532003-05-28T01:31:00.000+02:002003-05-28T01:34:16.000+02:00Conspiracy theories in the FT?
Quite to the contrary argues Paul Krugman in today's NY Times oped piece - the FT is just waking up to the cold and scary truth of how America is being turned into a "Banana Republic" by a semi-feudalist governmental gang -
"The Financial Times suggests this is deliberate (and I agree): 'For them,' it says of those extreme Republicans, 'undermining the multilateral Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-949594732003-05-28T00:11:00.000+02:002003-05-28T00:21:45.000+02:00The Digital Dilemma Revisited
Quote 1: The BBC News Online today -
"Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, told BBC News Online earlier this year that digital piracy could become "debilitating" for the industry.
'Digital piracy has become a real menace,' he said.
Despite the availability of pirate copies, The Matrix Reloaded has made more than $363.5m at the box Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-949263332003-05-27T06:53:00.000+02:002003-05-27T07:25:31.000+02:00Even More Zeitenwende
Finally online. In this post, I try to address some of the points raised by the two discussants Markus and Hans ze Beeman with regard to my Zeitenwende entry below.
Is there really a "union demonisation game" going on, as Markus alleges? It would be a very interesting academic question to identify in detail the extent of "responsibility" the unions have to bear with respectTobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-948986152003-05-26T17:03:00.000+02:002003-05-26T17:17:22.000+02:00Bowling For Criticism
A Canadian article criticising Michael Moore's film "Bowling For Columbine" has made to the top ranks of the MIT's blogdex today. It's easy to see why given the linking-power of anti-Moorians on the web. But they, like most of those getting at Moore miss a rather important point:
"Bowling For Columbine" isn't a documentary. The film is essentially a sort-of fact based Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-948853762003-05-26T07:33:00.000+02:002003-05-26T07:33:23.340+02:00Zeitenwende
Something happened to my Zeitenwende-reply post. I don't know what. It will be online again later today. No comments are lost.
Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-948852892003-05-26T07:30:00.000+02:002003-05-26T07:34:24.000+02:00In Search Of Lost Time
Gentry Lane reminds me that football might be more than a game sometimes. But it will never be one of the more important things in life. She has decided to take a break from blogging to care for her possibly terminally ill fluffy cat Kipper.
I will clearly miss her almost daily injections of superficially shallow wit. But she is right to remind her readers that there is a Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-948845102003-05-26T07:02:00.000+02:002003-05-26T07:02:25.973+02:00Sometimes Football Is More Than A Game
On Sunday, the definition of "tragedy" was rewritten. Mainz 05, the local football team lost the race for the third promotion spot to Germany's premier league, Bundesliga, by a single goal, and a single second, to local rival Eintracht Frankfurt. Both teams had scored 59 points in 33 games. Befor the last, and decisive, game, they were separated only by Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-948415182003-05-25T01:22:00.000+02:002003-05-25T01:23:43.000+02:00I want to read The Sun tomorrow!
The annual Eurovision Song Contest is over. And Turkey is taking the cup to Ankara. As usual, however hyped, there's no reason to watch the entire event if you are able to catch the replays intended to remind the voting public of earlier entrants. These ten minutes are usually not only sufficient but at times as much as is possible to bear. The real reason to Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-947667412003-05-23T04:43:00.000+02:002003-05-23T04:43:31.896+02:00Matrix Overloaded.
Don't get me wrong. "The Matrix Reloaded" is very good film. Actually, it is quite remarkable for a sequel that is also the second part of a trilogy. But that said, it is not, as opposed to its predecessor, a great film.
Why is that? Well, where the first film was able to intelligently translate the existential questions which we carry around with us - whether we are able and/Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-946133082003-05-20T05:04:00.000+02:002003-05-20T06:04:48.000+02:00Zeitenwende. End Of An Era.
It took some time and more of their money to make Germans understand.
It took more than ten years of subdsidizing consumption and unemployment in a previously bankcrupt former communist economy and virtual non-growth to make us see that it is not only necessary to think about the problematic long-term consequences of the current incentive structure in the German Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-946089782003-05-20T03:27:00.000+02:002003-05-20T05:58:04.000+02:00Did I miss something?
My sister is doing a masters degree in journalism these days. You know, masters programmes are the hype at German universities these days. It doesn't matter that there have never been any other degrees offered by German universities, except for the name, of course. The programme she's doing has been taught since 1993 and was previously described as an "journalistic add-on" Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-945905862003-05-19T19:51:00.000+02:002003-05-19T19:53:58.000+02:00Political Correctness, ad 1920.
In light of the spiral of violence that has once again engulfed the peoples living in Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip, Spiegel Online has published a feature containing articles covering the main stages of the conflict in the course of the last fifty-five years.
Of course, for well known reasons, they could not go further back to cover the - non religiousTobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-944489842003-05-16T15:58:00.000+02:002003-05-16T16:21:37.000+02:00Inabilty? Or Willful Wreckage?
So Colin Powell and the German chancellor tried to look forward, not to explain, and not to complain. And what does Geroge W. do? He behaves like a spoilt kid trying to get even by chatting for fifteen minutes with Roland Koch, the premier of the German state of Hessen, a leading figure of Germany's main opposition party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
No oneTobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-944029192003-05-15T20:18:00.000+02:002003-05-15T20:39:36.000+02:00Another Perspective.
Just stumbled on the US Census website and found this genealogical break-up of the US population. Not that their ancestors' cultural origins would matter in current affairs - US immigrants of German descent always assimilated quickly and - given the German history in the 20th century understandably - were never too keen to showcase their heritage like the Irish or Italians. Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-943611332003-05-15T03:19:00.000+02:002003-05-15T03:56:34.000+02:00Veto Players On The Move.
Democracy is a tricky thing. That is true not only for the Middle East, where the current US government claims to be implementing it. That is apparently also true for the current US president's home state of Texas, where the Parliamentary opposition, more than 50 Democratic politicians, has turned into extra-Parlamentarian opposition by fleeing the state before a crucialTobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-943115802003-05-14T07:28:00.000+02:002003-05-14T07:37:32.000+02:00Fame Is Money Indeed.
Remember the song? "Fame, I'm gonna live forever, Baby remember my name..."
When I just went through the advertisment Salon.com requires my to read their articles, I was shocked looking at the top right corner of the sponsor's website, a new Fox tv reality show, for I suddenly remembered a face, and a name.
The show is hosted by a woman whose fame is based on little more Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-942864962003-05-13T22:46:00.000+02:002003-05-13T22:59:17.000+02:00Paul Krugman Agrees With Me
that increased scrutiny of media control issues is one of the major policy lessons of the Iraq war [see my recent post]. In addition, his current NYTimes column, "The China Syndrome", adds an interesting analysis of corporate regulative bargaining with governments. Whatever your opinion regarding the "biased BBC" - or for that matter, biased German tv - discussion, Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-942112072003-05-12T18:39:00.000+02:002003-05-12T18:39:55.080+02:00Being Indexed.
So my post about the most disgusting porn spam ever has apparently been indexed by the search engines. How do I know? Well, when I just looked at my access statistics I was surprised to see a significant blip. So I checked for referring sites and realised that pretty much all the additional visitors came here to look for, well, "Iraqi whores".
Of course, I don't know why they are Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-941768462003-05-12T04:00:00.000+02:002003-05-12T04:02:13.000+02:00Still Alive.
Thanks for all your nice wishes! Well, so I did run. And I am still alive - well, I never actually questioned that ;-). Although some people did drop out and had to get treated by paramedics, which is not the most pleasant thing to see while running.
However, things did not go as smoothly as I had hoped for, which is why I had to call it a day after a half-marathon - and therefore Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-941276592003-05-11T03:35:00.000+02:002003-05-11T03:50:42.000+02:00Gutenberg-Marathon Me.
In a few hours, I'll be on the run.
If I'm still alive afterwards, I'll let you know ;-)
By the way, reader AL had an interesting comment regarding the unintended consequences of the Wal*Mart-Taleban story below:
"Part of this has to do with when Wal-Mart got big enough to move into a rural area and put all of the local small businesses out. In some western states, local Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-940254952003-05-09T03:49:00.000+02:002003-05-09T03:59:29.000+02:00The Most Disgusting Porn Spam Ever
I just received the most disgusting spam mail I ever saw. It read "Iraqi Whores. People attacked in their homes and savagely raped at gunpoint. Footage smuggled out of Iraq by the troops who did it. Sexually deviant soldiers run wild. CNN would not play that footage."
In all likelihood, this never happened. CNN would not play the tape, but they would certainly Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-940244582003-05-09T03:26:00.000+02:002003-05-09T08:15:52.000+02:00Criticising the Critics.
The Washington Post's Jonathan Chait has written an article critizising liberals for the fact that they are allegedly blinded by Bush-hatred -
"Perhaps the most disheartening development of the war -- at home, anyway -- is the number of liberals who have allowed Bush-hatred to take the place of thinking. Speaking with otherwise perceptive people, I have seen the same Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-940217332003-05-09T02:25:00.000+02:002003-05-09T08:24:40.000+02:00And The Winner Could Be...
George W. Bush and Tony Blair - that is, if the Nobel Peace Price committee actually follows the advice of
"Jan Simonsen, formerly from the Progress Party, (now an independent MP), [who] have proposed George W. Bush and Tony Blair as candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize, following the successful war on Iraq"
as Bjørn Stærk tells us today. While he realizes that giving Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-939948332003-05-08T17:27:00.000+02:002003-05-08T17:27:22.793+02:00I-loo.com
I rarely just quote things. But this time, there is really nothing to add to this item from the Guardian's Informer newsletter...
"It's not a joke," a Microsoft spokesperson assured AFP. But it certainly sounds like one. According to Voila.fr [link in French], the software giant is launching the I-Loo - a portable toilet with an adjustable plasma screen, a wireless keyboard and an Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-939399632003-05-07T20:01:00.000+02:002003-05-07T20:22:34.000+02:00Ode An Die Freude.
Brad DeLong always finds a new twist to inquire about the fundamentals of human civilisation - here's what he writes today:
"By what right is Beethoven's Ninth Symphony so damn good? Why do we like it so much?"
The 4th movement was my first hit-single, believe it or not. And deaf Ludwig van B. was my first pop-star, when I was six (it never mattered that much that the words areTobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-938991442003-05-07T03:46:00.000+02:002003-05-07T04:08:49.000+02:00Of course, No One Will Have To Burn Books...
when suppoedly indecent material cannot even be sold at first place. Today, the NYTimes reports that Wal-Mart is banning 3 men's magazines (Maxim, FHM, and Stuff, of which I have never heard) because of the allegedly offensive nature of their cover designs.
According to the NYTimes
"[t]he decision to stop selling the so-called lads' magazines is the Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-938790842003-05-06T21:14:00.000+02:002003-05-07T04:17:47.000+02:00Homeowner.
I am sure, that you, my gentle readers, will be thrilled to hear that this little page from now on has a second home. One with its very own diskspace and domain. Ladies & gentlemen, "tschwarz.blogspot.com" is now also "www.almostadiary.de".
You don't have to update your links yet as I will continue using blogspot for the time being. But I thought I let you know that it feels good to beTobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-938060662003-05-05T17:59:00.000+02:002003-05-05T18:03:43.000+02:00A Big Place...
America is indeed. The country formerly known as the "Land Of The Free" may no longer be regarded as such by the majority of the world's thinking inhabitants, but there is anecdotal evidence that Mars and Venus may have not yet actually decided to put the Atlantic between them as they still seem to believe the Rocky Mountains provide a sufficiently high geological divide.
In the Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-937490402003-05-04T18:08:00.000+02:002003-05-04T18:12:34.000+02:00Who likes Iceman?
This time Maureen Dowd got it wrong. W's campaign video shooting on the American aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln just off the Californian cost may be provoking comparisons to 'Maverick', the protagonist of Don Simpson's and Jerry Bruckheimer's 1985 hit-film TopGun - but it's dead wrong.
'Maverick' is a good cowboy, not a bad one. He's the bearer of the good America of my youthTobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-936724392003-05-02T23:03:00.000+02:002003-05-02T23:06:13.000+02:00They'll get the pricing wrong.
For at least five years. If you search my blog you will find that I have repeatedly said that all attempts to sell musical downloads will suffer from problematic price policy. Apple's new itunes download service is no exception. True, it is probably closer than anything previously seen to actually enhancing the user experience with digital music. According to wired Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-936043602003-05-01T19:10:00.000+02:002003-05-02T02:50:20.000+02:00Does it matter...
that I forgot to mention Paul Krugman's latest column so far? It probably doesn't. The very fact that I am reading his columns confirms that Paul does get sufficient public exposure even without my mentioning him [I wonder - does this sound pretentious or merely ironic to your ears ;-)]. But as Paul Krugman wonders whether it matters that the US population has been misled into Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-935678152003-05-01T03:58:00.000+02:002003-05-02T02:54:53.000+02:00De-Merging Patriotism
Last year, Michael Wolf, a director in McKinsey’s New York office, published an article in the WSJ (here via McKinseyQuarterly) explaing that market forces - especially a sluggish advertising market and the general trend to digital distribution - would continue to pressure media companies to merge into ever larger entities. Last year, Mr Wolf's article was triggered by a USTobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-934741932003-04-29T18:43:00.000+02:002003-04-29T18:49:19.000+02:00AAAAAAAAAAction!
Two weeks or so ago, a friend asked me if I knew anything about the budgetary problems California is facing during the current economic bust given a rapid fiscal expansion during the previus - particularly Sillicon Valley powered - economic boom. Well, I had to admit that my knowledge of US state budgetary affairs is minimal, to be exaggerating. But the good thing is, I am not Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-934449732003-04-29T06:19:00.000+02:002003-04-29T06:37:03.000+02:00Quicklinks, Tony Blair, And The Borg
Sorry for the apparent recent lack of updates. Not that there's not enough stuff I'd like to comment on, I just did not find the time lately. But there's exciting news, too. Look to your left, my gentle readers, and you'll find a seamlessly integrated second blog called "Link Of The Minute." This is where I hope to post even when I don't find the time to put Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-931393112003-04-24T00:16:00.000+02:002003-04-24T00:19:35.000+02:00The Middle Ground.
The Guardian "Backbencher"-newsletter (could not find a web address...) also believes in C-movie screenplays and goes on to explore the middle ground in the Galloway affair. This is what it might look like -
"The Backbencher approached Guardian security affairs editor Richard Norton-Taylor and asked him to untangle the web of intrigue surrounding George Galloway MP.
'I think Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-930219422003-04-22T05:08:00.000+02:002003-04-23T07:07:42.000+02:00Dead Man Walking.
In March last year, Ben Bradshaw (for whose Parliamentary Office I worked in 2001), then Junior Minister in the British Foreign Office, answered to the House of Commons in a debate regarding the British government's stance on the then emerging war-on-Iraq-question. This House sitting even made it into the Bagehot column of the Economist - for it was suspended after a heated Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-928180742003-04-18T05:58:00.000+02:002003-04-18T17:13:07.000+02:00Pride Goeth Before The Fall
Lillimarleen points to a Salon.com article by Arianna Huffington that begins with this quote from the Bible and deals with the increasing smugness of the Beltway neocons -
"From the moment that statue of Saddam hit the ground, the mood around the Rumsfeld campfire has been all high-fives, I-told-you-sos, and endless smug prattling about how the speedy fall of Baghdad Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-928120642003-04-18T03:54:00.000+02:002003-04-18T04:44:25.000+02:00More Reality Construction
Sorry I did not post that much interesting stuff this week. But, luckily, I have readers who do.
Sebastian Holsclaw commented on my analysis of Steven denBeste's theory and points out that it only makes sense as long as one assumes that Germany and France never actually believed they could keep the US from pursuing a violent regime change in Iraq. He writes -
If they Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-925827882003-04-14T16:08:00.000+02:002003-04-15T05:38:49.000+02:00Reality Construction.
One of the currently more popular theories of US-war-blogosphere regarding the German and French government's opposition to the war is that they opposed it in order to conceal the extent to which they were involved in the built-up of Iraq's pool of WMD. This theory has been prominently publicized by Steven DenBeste.
For all those who hold the opinion that no thinking human Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-924581382003-04-12T01:59:00.000+02:002003-04-12T02:07:16.000+02:00To Guard The American Poo
Ok, I know this place is getting progressively monothematic. And I know there is a lot of note/newsworthy stuff going on that too many people, including myself, are forgetting about because the war in Iraq is requiring too much of our sensory bandwidth. But there's hope: yesterday morning, for the first time in weeks, if not months, something not Iraq related - a Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-924557392003-04-12T00:57:00.000+02:002003-04-12T01:07:06.000+02:00Too Big? Too Small!
I contend that the United States of America might be not powerful enough. And Henry Kissinger - whatever your personal take regarding his personal moral responsibility for doubtful US foreign policies, he is clearly someone with a certain grasp of international realities - would probably agree with me.
After all, it was he who once claimed that a lot of the problems of the Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-923305412003-04-10T04:07:00.000+02:002003-04-10T05:35:19.000+02:00A Tale of Perle and Pirls
So Baghdad sort of fell today. The Iraqi regime seems to have disappaeared overnight. This is clearly a very good thing. I still believe that this war was unnecessary as well as unwise and I still believe that it is going to be far more costly - monetarily as well as in lives and in terms of international security - than the US administration seems to have reckoned in Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-920408532003-04-05T16:42:00.000+02:002003-04-05T16:42:41.013+02:00Anti American Room Cleaning.
Although it could be, this entry is not about the certainly soon-to-be-amended amendment to the White House war financing budgetary requests excluding German, French, and Russian companies from receiving US funds for the future Iraq reconstruction that the American legislature passed two days ago.
In these times of increasingly global interaction, there are more and Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-920169512003-04-05T03:58:00.000+02:002003-04-05T05:14:04.000+02:00Hoping For The Best. But Expecting The Worst.
Anthony Zinni, President Bush's former Middle East peace envoy said that he resigned from this posiition a month ago in part because he mentally weaseled out of the party line by believing that
"[t]his is in fact the wrong war at the wrong time."
His assessment is shared by - if I am counting correctly - most people with expert knowledge of the regionTobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-919372792003-04-03T23:16:00.000+02:002003-04-03T23:21:24.000+02:00Desperately Seeking Simplicity
Somehow, I hate to restate something as obvious as this - the world we are living in is an extremely complex system. A system far too complicated for any individual to understand. That's why we tend to categorize and model the world in order to reduce complexity and gain a little insight into the "underlying causes" of the reality constructed by our sensory system.
Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-918125472003-04-02T04:34:00.000+02:002003-04-02T04:44:46.000+02:00Stalinism.
Andrew Northrup is concerned with the distorted reality that mass media is constructing in our heads, specifcally by the notion that the western public is more and more appalled even by small numbers of wartime casualties, citing an article by Greg Easterbrook who seems to hold this opinion -
"[a]s we weep for the Iraqi dead - whoever slew them, they did not deserve their fates--we Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-917431262003-04-01T02:52:00.000+02:002003-04-01T03:19:57.000+02:00Rubber Bands vs. Cannons
Earlier tonight, RTL television broadcast an in-depth 25 minutes interview with Richard Perle, the former chairman of the Pentagon's defense policy board who stepped down at the end of last week due to alligations of possible conflicts of interest between public and private consulting engagements (see earlier post). I tuned in too late so I don't know when this interview Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-916711882003-03-31T01:26:00.000+02:002003-03-31T01:28:12.000+02:00Quote Of The Minute.
Gentle readers, I have introduced a new and exciting service, which I, in all modesty, decided to call "Quote Of The Minute...". You can find it in the previously rather unused left sidebar on this page. Despite the column's title, don't expect me to update it every minute - that is, at least until I have a certain number of quotes and a php-script to rotate them for me ;-).Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-916231062003-03-30T00:25:00.000+01:002003-03-30T00:26:25.000+01:00Champagne Blogging
this is my first attempt of live-blogging, so give me some credit here... i am writing this on a public terminal in the museum fuer kommunikation in frankfurt, typing with only one hand, as i am holding a glass of champagne in the other. it is the "long night of museums" here and on of the special exhibitions in this museum for communication puzzled me - it's an exhibition Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3573400.post-916160182003-03-29T21:17:00.000+01:002003-03-29T21:20:25.000+01:00Ministry Of Silly Talks
And now for something completely different: Geoff Hoon, the British Defense minister seems to have single-handedly redefined the meaning of British Humour. He's clearly missed a career in Monty Python's Flying Circus... Electrolite heard the following on Sky News tv:
"Umm Qasr is a town similar to Southampton," UK Defence Minister Geoff Hoon told the House of Commons Tobiashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03996189521378670414noreply@blogger.com