Some stats on MoA: 5 months, 300 posts, 10,500 comments, 170,000 hits and an amazing average visit duration of some 16 minutes.
MoA has taken more time, soul and energy than I imagined and it would take even more to keep it going. The non-monetary opportunity costs are increasing. I do not want to afford them any longer.
I plan to shut the site down at the end of December. Until then I will leave you an open thread and may rotate it once a while.
You may want to download and archive the wealth of thought the site generated. For your convenience there are now links to monthly MoA archives in PDF format at the About page.
Warm thanks for what I have received from all of you who wrote, read and commented and an extra thank you to Billmon.
Goodbye
Bernhard
That is shut away down there
Are they crazy
Are they sainted
Are they heroes someone painted
Someone painted
Are they -isms
Later ornated
Once they come they have been tainted
Lyrics
Before the iron curtain came down, I crossed the West German-East German border for some visits in Berlin. To pass the eastern border guards unhassled or at all, there were some informal rules to follow. Don´t smile, don´t laugh, don´t joke – it was no fun and not funny, just like this author describes:
On a Wednesday morning we walked across the Border at Checkpoint Charlie. We left the hustle and bustle of downtown West Berlin and (again) subjected ourselves to the East German border guards. One, who looked like Broom Hilda, got VERY agitated when Big Red had the temerity to smile.
The People In Gray
The iron curtain is gone. How about smiling?
"The subject’s expression should be neutral (non-smiling) with both eyes open, and mouth closed. A smile with a closed jaw is allowed but is not preferred," according to the guidelines.
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Smiling "distorts other facial features, for example your eyes, so you’re supposed to have a neutral expression. … The most neutral face is the most desirable standard for any type of identification," said Angela Aggeler, spokeswoman for the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs, which handles travel-document guidelines.
US smiles:
Smiling frowned upon in visa photographs,
UK smiles: Grins banned from passport pics and
Canadian smiles: New passport rules nothing to smile about
We left. Our overwhelming impression was that of Grayness. Lack of color. Lack of spirit. Lack of vitality. This place, East Germany, was a prison. The people were prisoners, and they knew it.
The East Germans finally let us out and the West welcomed us with a smile and a wave.
The People In Gray
This is not a face-recognition issue. Something deeper has changed. Why are we not allowed to smile?
According to the German news site Spiegel Online the US Center for Constitutional Rights plans to file a complaint against Rumsfeld, Tenet and eight other US officials with the German federal general prosecutor.
The German laws covering war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity, formed under the impression of the Nuernberg Processes, allow for prosecution in Germany, even if the defendant is not German and the deeds were not done on German ground.
Main theme of the 160 page complaint is said to be the Abu Ghraib crime complex.
Details will follow at a press conference tomorrow morning.
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This could get entertaining. It will be very hard to turn the case down legally and the German public will love it. The politicians will not like it as it makes for even more trouble with the Bush administration.
Finally Iran agreed to stop – for now – their Uranium enrichment program and the IAEA has verified this. The deal, with Germany, France and the UK, underlines that Iran has the right to enrich Uranium and that this is a voluntary step.
An Israel Defense Forces officer and soldiers at the Beit Iba checkpoint near Nablus forced a young Palestinian on November 9 to open a violin case he was carrying and play the instrument, while local residents waited behind him in a long line.
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According to Machsom Watch, another volunteer reported several months ago about a similar incident in which a Palestinian was forced to play for soldiers at a checkpoint in the Jerusalem region.
Haaretz: Soldiers force Palestinian to play violin at West Bank checkpoint
And now I noticed, from the corner of my eyes, that the murderer Kapo picked up his iron pipe again and was walking toward me. And I knew I’m gonna be killed. I knew it. So my right hand and my left hand all of a sudden started moving in perfect harmony. And the Strauss Blue Danube was heard coming out of my violin. Now, how? I never thought of the Blue Danube. Never. I heard it, in fact, I, I am even, hate to admit to you, I never even played it really.
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And the Kapo looked at, eagerly, to, to the SS, "When shall I whack him? When shall I hit him?" Instead, the SS guard was humming the melody, and was beating the rhythm with his fingers–like 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3. And he, he just smiled and, "Let him live."
Sandor (Shony) Alex Braun Describes playing the violin for SS guards in Dachau.
News, views, opinons …
The Report of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Strategic Communication has some remarkable insights:
– Muslims do not "hate our freedom," but rather, they hate our policies. The overwhelming majority voice their objections to what they see as one-sided support in favor of Israel and against Palestinian rights, and the longstanding, even increasing support for what Muslims collectively see as tyrannies, most notably Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Pakistan, and the Gulf states.
The Nation: Falluja’s Health Damage
In one case, according to Dr. al-Jumaili, three children died of dehydration when their father was unable to find water for them. The US forces cut off the city’s water supply before launching their assault.
The lost election has put the Democrats back in their shelters to lick their wounds. Having presented a candidate "just like Bush only better" has ended in a disaster.
The Republican side has the Presidency, the House and the Senate. There is only on worse situation for a President than having the other party ruling Congress. It’s when his own party rules the hill. He now has to bend to all of their boondoggle projects while at the same time there is no "obstruction on the hill" to blame when things go wrong.
This is a 20 year chart of the traded US Dollar Index. This index is computed using a trade-weighted geometric average of six foreign currencies against the dollar.
Many traders in the stock, commodities and currency markets use Technical Analysis (TA). TA suggests that, based on human behaviour like "herding" and basic market dynamics, certain price pattern develop and can be plotted. Such pattern have been observed in many charts and experience allows predicion of future market behavior when distinguished pattern occure.
Share your links and thoughts …
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim …
Proclamation by the President
Links:
Blue Lemur on the billboard
Billmon: The Future Belongs to Me
In Europe there is a lively political discussion about models of a multi-cultural-society versus a dominant-culture-society. Different cultures with different rules living in parallel in one state versus states where the majorities culture sets the rules and laws and the minority cultures have to adopt.
In this context Helmut Schmidt, social-democratic Chancellor of West-Germany 1974-1982, talks about integration of Muslims into European societies:
"There was no success so far, in mixing European and non-European cultures. The reason is the adverseness against other religions, taught by all Christian churches to the Europeans, especially against Judaism and Islamism. Against Judaism for nearly 2000 years and against Islamism for over 1000 years. We have developed a tenor of defense against these religions and when now some idealist calls for tolerance, that plea comes hundreds of years late."
Schmidt thinks a multi-cultural society is only possible within a quite authoritarian state like Singapur. An open democracy can not, for now, support multiple cultural models. "Maybe in the long run," he says.
(Today’s Schmidt interview in German Wieviel Anatolien verträgt Europa?)
The United States has for 200 years integrated immigrants, but those people adopted essentially voluntarily to the language and to the rules and laws. With the growth of Hispanic sub-societies that model may start to unravel.
Where are the limits of not-integration? Are separate language, separate schooling, separate application of law, i.e. multi-culti societies, functional and acceptable?
How do you apply the concept of law to armed robbers who have no clear superiors to accept responsibility for their crimes?
If we battle the mafia, laws should apply. But when the criminals are just individuals united by one cause – armed robbery – doesn’t that put the police at a distinct disadvantage to obey the rules of law, when the criminals won’t? Police tactics are scrutinized and criticized by lawmakers and judges, while armed robbery is hardly even worth commenting on because
everyone knows armed robbers don’t care about how criminal they are.Rather than quibble with lawmakers and judges about definitions and standards, as policemen maybe it’s time to just be straight and say laws do not envision armed robbery, period.
Do you think the above is moronic? Read on.
One seldom sees such a sober US bashing in economic circles: Andy Xie – Asia Should Sell Treasuries Now
Fuel for nought
The adoption of biofuels would be a humanitarian and environmental disaster
Your news, views, opinions …