Wanting to fix our anti-spam hack, I noticed Strang’s blog, including the relevant post, has disappeared. As a public service, I reproduce the entry here.
[Removed. Read my own tutorial instead..]
Author Archives: David Weman
EU Suspension?
This was unexpected.
Franco Frattini, the European commissioner for justice and home affairs, warned that any countries found to be allowing the CIA to operate the detention centres – part of a global secret gulag used to hold al-Qa’ida suspects and other “ghost detainees” – could have its voting rights suspended.
I don’t think it’s going to happen, though it’ not wholly inconceivable. It probably should. In any event, cheers to Frattini for raising the issue.
….Henry Farrell comments.
Revolting High Rises
Le Corbusier called houses “machines for living.” France’s housing projects, as we now know, became machines for alienation. In theory, the cause of this alienation is some mix of the buildings themselves and the way they’re joined to the city. But in practice, the most effective urban renewal has tended to focus on the buildings. It focuses on the buildings by razing them.
A new history of Europe since 1945.
The New Yorker: The Critics: Books
Still, “Postwar†can fairly be called an interpretation of European history since 1945, and its thesis can be put in a sentence. It is that Europe was able to rebuild itself politically and economically only by forgetting the past, but it was able to define itself morally and culturally only by remembering it. The forgetting was necessary not just because the behavior of most Europeans under Fascism and Nazi occupation was less admirable than anyone wished to acknowledge—but that was, naturally, a big part of it.
Hollywood’s Big Loss
No more free money from Germany.
Even though its focus may be far removed from the geopolitics of Europe, Hollywood has reason to be concerned with the recent results of the German elections. The newly designated Minister of Finance Peer Steinbrück announced on Nov. 12 that he was retroactively eliminating the part of the tax code that allows German investors in media funds to defer their taxes. This German tax shelter, as I have previously pointed out, provided Hollywood with an El Dorado of easy cash for the past quarter-century and allowed studios to increase their earnings without any risk. Now it is dead.
I love Edward Jay Epstein’s columns.
Ukraine’s Unfinished Revolution
Can the new democracy withstand a murder investigation?
So, when Viktor Yushchenko was catapulted to power last December, there was widespread expectation that the government would finally solve the crime. After all, ex-President Kuchma appeared to have been implicated in the murder by audiotapes provided by a former guard.
Alas, it’s been 10 months since Yushchenko took power, and, so far, little progress has been made: The alleged murderers have been arrested, but the men behind those men have yet to be identified.
Bigotry in Central Europe
Here’s a post form Reflections on European Democracy that I’ve been meaning to link to for a while.
Elections in Azerbaijan
The Head Heeb on the Azerbaijan elections
“This seems to be one of the many recent cases where the government stole an election that it didn’t really have to steal, and ended up with a victory that was large but tainted rather than narrow but clear.”
Also: BBC.
Bloggers on the Paris riots?
We would like to be the go-to blog for all things European and political, but we’re obviously not quite there yet (to my great annoyance). There’s little point in commenting if you can’t add anything to what the mainstream media is already offering, and we don’t necessarily have any special expertise or insight here. We also have work to do. I for example maybe have something to say, but hardly something so valuable that I can ignore tomorrow’s deadline.
Anyway, I’m wondering if anyone know any francophone or especially anglophone blogs or websites that does provide quality coverage of the riots, and does compliment the MSM?
I will say ( through gritted teeth) that our leftwing counterpart European Tribune does add value here, though I find some wrongheadedness in their takes on the riots (wish I had time to elaborate).
And the Wikipedia article is better as a primer and summation of the facts than any newpaper article.
More bad news for French people
The Head Heeb: A murder in Cote d’Ivoire
“While unsuccessful attempts continue to break Cote d’Ivoire’s political deadlock, the latest scandal to arise concerns the murder of a local gang leader by French peacekeepers”
Jonathan’s conclusion:
“Absent a political solution in Cote d’Ivoire, however, it is unlikely that this will be the last or only such case. The French are being dragged, unwillingly but inexorably, toward the point where peacekeeping becomes occupation.”