How the Irish saved civilization, again

The EU constitution has been agreed upon. (Fortunately, God didn't make it in.) We have Irish PM Bertie Ahern to thank for this amazing feat:

The leaders gave a standing ovation to Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, who resurrected negotiations that collapsed last December and steered them to success through Dublin's six-month presidency of the bloc.

Now all we have to do is wait for is a couple of hundred Maltesers or Cypriots to decide to refuse to ratify it or somesuch.

Not that I'd want him writing Gawker

I've raved about Alex Ross, the New Yorker's music critic, in the past, and I'm now overjoyed that he has his own blog. This is the best new blog I've come across in a long time: the entries are not too long, not too short, and always interesting. On Tuesday, he gave us some wonderful analysis of the connections between James Joyce and Richard Wagner, while today I've reread his list of obscure composers many times, never without a smile on my face. This has to be the blog sentence of the year so far:

Vernon Leftwich, Fleetwood A. Diefenthaeler, Armand Balendonck, Bainbridge Crist, Julia Klumpkey, Edna Frida Pietsch, the Right Rev. Fan Stylian Noli, Alexander Skibinsky, Lamar Stringfield, and Uno Nyman.

Neologism of the week: Mailage

mail·age  Pronunciation Key (mlj)
n.

   1. Text from previous emails that accumulates at the bottom of new messages because of constant replying in a heated email conversation.

Putin to the rescue

It now seems it wasn't just Iranian intelligence Bush relied upon in his decision to go to war. Russian intelligence pitched in as well.

Mosh

Reverted to teenagehood last night when Linkin Park blasted its way through Hong Kong. Battered my way to the front and slammed like a molecule throughout a tight, concise set, along with, uh, a lot of teenagers. Massive primal release, fueled by Heinekin, Yeagermeister and some kind of brown shot whose name I never learned. Awesome.

Although I very much feel 34 years old today! In truth I don't know if I could have survived this band had I seen them in the US or Europe. The local authorities were obviously nervous about what the youngins might get up to when tempted by nu-metal, and security was ridiculous. The cops also forced the band to keep the volume moderate, which was annoying. Only the tremendous energy of the band and the crowd overcame nanny state BS. But still, moshing with International School seniors is probably not that intense, which is a good thing for someone who spent much of last week at a chiropractor's.

Toys in Babel-land

Lance Knobel points me to one of those productivity-destroying internet tools which can quickly eat up hours of your day: the Modern Language Association's interactive Language Map. You can see the density of speakers of thirty-seven languages and language groups from the national level right down to individual zip codes, or even by age groups; you can generate charts of the distribution of languages in each state; you can compare and contrast different states or towns... the list is almost endless. Above is the density of Spanish speakers in New York: pretty, no?

In Flanders Field

Hélène's funeral was this past Saturday, in her hometown of Kortrijk, Belgium. Two thousand friends, family, and colleagues showed up; even more of us were there in spirit.

With the blessing of her boyfriend and family, we have talked to Médecins Sans Frontières, and they have agreed to let us make donations in Hélène's name towards their efforts in Afghanistan. Those of us who knew her in Bologna would like to keep the work of MSF in Afghanistan going as a living monument to Hélène.

So today, on what would have been Hélène's thirtieth birthday, I ask you to consider joining us in making a donation to MSF. They do wonderful work in many places that we hear about and more that we don't. Here in the United States, donations can be made via their website or a check made out to "Doctors without Borders" and sent to:

Doctors without Borders
Attn: Sarah McGowan
333 7th Avenue, 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10001-5004

For those of you beyond the US, let me know below if you need help contacting your local MSF chapter.

As she was always one to have the last word, I leave it to Hélène to remind us of why it is important to take note and remember events like this. As she wrote in response to a query about the muted bolognese response to the Istanbul bombings in November:

What is there to say when such a thing happens? I think everyone feels despair in their heart and of course condemns this atrocity. It is not because we do not speak out that we are insensitive. I am sorry if you believed this and I would like to set the record straight... I feel deeply grieved that it happened in such a beautiful and hospitable city.

I don't think the scale of violence is important at all. Even when one single person dies at the hands of hate it is "big enough" and I mourn every time it happens. I've seen a lot of hate having worked in Afghanistan, Iraq and West Africa over the last year. It is everywhere but the only thing we can do is to resist it with all our might.

Hélène

Microsoftly into the night

I have long felt Microsoft's finest hour was over around the time it won the browser wars, and that anti-trust moves were pointless, much like with IBM ten years earlier, because Microsoft would have a much tougher time in a saturated market selling upgrades than when it benefited from the network effect during times of rapid growth, but I've never really have the knowledge to back up my hunch. Joel Spolsky does. A long and technical but important and accessible read.

EUseless

Despite the Euroskeptic backlash at the EU parliamentary elections last weekend, in part due to a sense EU parliamentarians are beginning to get an outrageous sense of entitlement, some MEPs appear not to understand. Among tips offered by incumbents to newcomers quoted by the BBC, Here are some of those by a certain William Abitbol, from France:

• Choose a political group which includes Latin countries; this way you will travel to Mediterranean countries every three months for regular meetings.

• Don't hesitate to offer champagne to the drivers, your car will arrive more quickly.

• Use a matchstick when voting in parliament. I usually vote against most texts, so I find it handy to stick a matchstick into the No button so I don't have to keep pressing it.

• Choose nice assistants, it makes life more pleasant.

Actually, I think I'm on to him: He's a Euroskeptic himself, but only because the EU is not sufficiently in favor of subsidies for his constituents, French farmers. Makes sense, from his perspective, to play up the abuses. Bastard.

Baptist fight!

Straight out of South Park, see if you can follow: The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) today voted to sever its ties with the umbrella Baptist World Alliance (BWA) because according to the SBC the BWA is no longer taking its scripture neat. The BWA denies all this and more in a press release:

The BWA rejects the allegations that it holds aberrant theological views, is anti-American and anti-capitalist and did not follow proper procedures when it admitted the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF) into its membership.

What would Jesus, who was demonstrably a pro-American capitalist stickler for procedures, do?

As if it wasn't ugly enough...

I'm looking forward to a glorious scorched-earth Presidential campaign this fall, with the congressional races taking back seat, but it looks like events in Congress could boil over on the front burner (if I may switch metaphorical horses mid-stream).

Charles Babbington is reporting in tomorrow's WP that a (Democratic) Texas Representative is going to file an ethics committee complaint against Rep. Tom "the Hammer" DeLay for campaign improprieties.

I wouldn't be surprised to see some of these complaints bear out (DeLay is notorious for playing hardball, and was the impetus behind the Texas Legislature redistricting showdown -I can't believe I just wrote that- earlier this year). But the quote that raised my eyebrows was:

A DeLay ally, Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-Calif.), said Republicans "are going to have to respond in kind" by filing ethics charges against key Democrats. From now on, he said in an interview, it's a matter of "you kill my dog, I'll kill your cat." Doolittle said he plans to file ethics charges against a prominent Democrat but would not name the target.

Given that I'm sure as many Democrats have electoral skeletons in their closets as the Republicans do, this will bring what little work is done on the Hill to a screeching halt.

(N.B. that this complaint can all be chalked up as sour grapes by the representative, who lost his district in the redistricting; what's interesting is that Pelosi is letting him go forward with it)

Underdog vs. under God

The US Supreme court today let stand the "Under God" part of the pledge of allegiance, exactly 50 years to the day that it was added to the original, secular version as an intended snub to godless communists everywhere.

The reason was a technicality: Justices agreed 8-0 that atheist Michael Newdow did not have sufficient authority to sue on behalf of his daughter, who spends schooldays with her born-again mother, who thinks keeping "Under God" is a great way to annoy her estranged former husband.

What's interesting, however, is the fact that Rehnquist, O'Connor and Thomas wrote separately that they would have ruled that the presence of "Under God" in the pledge was not in violation of the constitution. Which leaves five justices who were not moved to voice or agree with that opinion. Does that make ruling on a technicality a cop-out? Does Scotus see Newdow's point, but in today's ideological climate of religio-patriotic fervor feel that upholding the constitution would be too controversial?

Nul points

Vlaams Blok got 24.2% of the EU election vote in Flanders, up from 15.8% 5 years ago, making it the region's second largest party — a close second. In Antwerp province it is the largest party outright, with 30.1% of the vote, vs 21.2% at the previous elections. Conclusion: One in three people from Antwerp are either racist bigots or so stupid that they think voting for Vlaams Blok is a harmless way to lodge a protest vote.

It doesn't help that voting is mandatory in Belgium, enforced with fines. I think mandatory voting should stop immediately, because there is a demonstrable correlation between education levels, voter participation, and voting for anybody but Vlaams Blok. The apathetic classes should not be forced to the polling booths where they express their annoyance by making a mockery of democracy.

The sound and the Führer

Via Marc in Berlin, who is penning his article as I write this: Something called the German Language Council is trying to counteract the unfair notion that German is an ugly language by sponsoring a competition to find the German language's most beautiful word. Entries so far include Glück (luck), Vergissmeinnicht (forget-me-not) and Frühlingserwachen (the awakening of spring). You can submit your own word here. So, what is your favorite German word? Submitting Blitzkrieg, Wehrmacht or Anschluss is probably impolitic.

Doomed?

I had splashed some cold water on the new interim Iraqi government but since then two things have happened. First, the United Nations security council unanimously agreed to recognize it and worked out a good fudge about its powers vis-a-vis American troops. Second, as now reported, Shia firebrand Moqtada al-Sadr is urging his followers to back it. Why?

Continue reading "Doomed?"