This is from the “No comment” sections of the EuroNews website. Their description of the section: “Images speak for themselves: the most striking pictures from around the world, unedited, with original sound: draw your own conclusion”. Even so I’d like to know what is really going on in this Real Video Stream (doesn’t work directly, please see the update below). It looks as if a dog is dressed as a Shinto priest and then participates in a religious ceremony; his handler is turning the pages of the prayer-book for him. I googled around but could find no reference of dogs joining the Shinto clergy, so my interpretation is probably wrong. Here is the No comment section and this is the English language main page of EuroNews, in case somebody’s interested. They have a pro-EU bias, but some of the footage at their website is quite interesting. Update: The direct link to the stream doesn’t work, so I took it down. Just go to the No comment section and click on the video stream from Tsuru, Japan.
Ralf Goergens
Jacques Chirac, Stand-Up Comic
I finally saw the footage of Chirac’s alleged outburst at Brussels where he told the East Europeans that they lost a great opportunity to keep quiet. It was anything but an outburst, though, more like a comedic performance. His tone, facial expressions and gesticulation made me laugh, as it did the Presidents and Prime Ministers of the countries he criticized. Their replies were also delivered in good humor without being in the least conciliatory. There is nothing humorous about the situation, though. Chirac’s remarks were coldly calculated, however hilariously delivered. That’s worse than having him blurt out some threats in a fit of pique, he actually thought he could bring New Europe to heel. This speaks of a dangerous level of delusion and makes me wonder if he is even capable of realizing when he is beaten (like right now, for example). He can and probably will do a lot of damage until his own people make him stop. It was a double loss to humanity when he decided to become a politician instead of a comedian. I have tried in vain to find a video stream or file of the event. Should I find one I’ll post the link.
Sorry
My apologies for the light posting of the last days. I’ve written quite a lot lately, but delayed posting a number of entries because they grew to unexpected size; once they become longer than a page I really don’t feel like putting them on the blog offhandedly and want to polish them first. I even had to shelve projects entirely because I had bit off more than I can chew and they started to mushroom to at least term-paper length. I still have the manuscripts lying around, but am unlikely to ever finish them. At least they were good practice, you really learn how to write just by writing.
The Chairwoman Speaks Up
Angela Merkel, the chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the largest opposition party, has written an article for the Washington Post: Schroeder Doesn’t Speak for All Germans. As a citizen of former East-Germany she has as much claim to being a “New European” as any Pole or Czech and never had much time for (West-) Germany’s political establishment. The Schroeder government reacted to the article by accusing her of embarrassing Germany by publicly sucking up to America, or at the very least of taking domestic disputes overseas, basically washing dirty linen in public. In my opinion it is obvious who really embarrassed Germany by his behavior and I myself do not hesitate to let my views on domestic German affairs be known at blogs which are mostly read by Americans. I’m as patriotic as the next fellow, but I won’t defend the indefensible and from a certain point on I have to make my disgust known. As I see it the disagreement over the war on Iraq isn’t really one between nations like Germany and America anyway, rather a left-right policy dispute, one more reason to let my voice as a German conservative be heard here.
Berserkers With Red Stars?
exile’s “war nerd” thinks that North Korea might offer the last decent chance for a classic full-on war.