Miss Cellaneous

Who says reading the flist isn't educational?

- jwaneeta links to the thing we have all been waiting for: BREAD WANK.

Hilarious, isn't it? Then again, the only time I ever got close to a vocal argument with witchsis, and also the only time family members raised their voices and stormed out of the room in a huff after our teenage years was when we we were in the kitchen together, baking or cooking: Srs bznss, indeed! It's fascinating to see so many people feeling so strongly about their recipes, methods, and ingredients--sure, yes, it's food, I'm a foodie, and all of us need that more than music or shows on tv...but still. Is it in part because we've grown so used to Doing It This Way (And No Other), since childhood if our parents taught us or since the eureka! moment at the stove if we're self-taught and proud of that?


- fishsanwitt links to a few articles about John McCain. I confess I don't know half as much about him as I know about the Democratic candidates, and that isn't the most extensive knowledge ever either, but I know just enough to be vaguely confused about friends of mine who tell me they consider him a bright politician and could imagine voting for him--Germans and US-Americans alike. And no, not talking about Republican/CDU-FDP voters: I mean the usual (US-)liberal, moderate crowd.

( Exerpts & links )

I had some pleasant chit-chat post planned yesterday--grundbuch's & my trip to the movies, a review of No Country for Old Men, a praise of the mean Cosmo he mixes--but the news about the Chinese military killing eighty protesters in Tibet, the news about a 'people's war' declared against separatism, made me too sad and angry at once. And I thought about about these developments and my reaction.

Because we see citizens' uprisings and dictatorial governments brutally squashing them all the time on the news; what's different about Tibet? ( ... )

Presentation in front of three wise men given and received metaphorical pats on the back.

Yesterday, I watched

1. ( Tatort: Verdammt )

& of course,

2. ( the Hessia Election 2008 )

I also bought ( a bottle of Primitivo )

In conclusion, a good Monday.

People who rock my political socks:

- Buddhist monks in Burma. Hundreds of prominent members of the religious caste standing up -- peacefully -- against a dictatorship -- wow. I'm awed and not a little bit humbled.

- Angela Merkel, our chancellor, for inviting the Dalai Lama into the Federal Chancellery to further human rights against the prior warnings and current outrage from the Chinese government. (Pravda being the most prominent English-language on-line newspaper reporting this? Interesting.)

In other news, I watched the Munich Tatort. Aw, Batic & Leitmayr: fifteen minutes in, there were yet again bickering like an old married couple.

Waitasec....

Tatort icons featuring favourites of mine -- the teams in ( Muenster, Munich, Hannover, Hamburg, Cologne, & Ludwigshafen )

* Don't use the "track messages" function on this new fave SGA story unless you really want to find 73 new messages in your inbox when you're just starting to kick back and relax and that time happens to be significantly after midnight.

* Do post if you have something on your mind before you either forget or lack time-slash-energy. I made this awesome Swiss? German? Austrian? *Vaguely Germanic* Kind of Tomato-Leek-Cheese Soup, and also Vegan Ginger Almond Coconut Muffins (no eggs, almost no flour, and no, I'm totally not vegan; I'm just vegan-curious) but never got around to my usual pics, thoughts, and recipe offers.

* Don't be like me and sink into a brief state of angry fugue upon the acquittal of Lt. Col. Jordan as all-too-representative of what happens when you're not a low-ranking soldier abusing but among the ones creating the hateful climate all the way up to Rumsfeld.

* Do tell if there are outwardly anti-gay male Republicans left who don't solicit other men in public toilets/airport bathrooms, please? I read my -- respectable, most lauded, and all around awesome -- newspaper all the way through today and, in a right-hand column, found out about the Representative from Idaho. (Corollary: Boy, those undercover cops are everywhere these days, and obviously lookin' mighty fine. Or maybe the term "agent provocateur" is more appropriate.)

* Don't tell me that Joe Flanigan could get any cuter if he tried. I won't believe you.

I. Don't you just love it when certain people in power decide we, the citizens, shouldn't worry our pretty little heads?

1.
You thought I was using "in power" metaphorically? Not necessarily: If you ask, "Why worry about nuclear power in times like these, with technology so advanced, and Germany's reactors so safe?" I found a possible answer for you here (Spiegel Online article).

What gets me is not so much the incident in the reactor as Vattenfall's, the energy company's, reactions, and the late response from State politicians.

2.
Regarding Bush first commuting Libby's sentence and explicitly not ruling out a later pardon, let me not point to all the criticism from Europe but instead give you a brief collection of editorial excerpts from US-American newspapers as listed here.

mmmchelle also has a link here.

II. More light-hearted news of note:

1. Occasionally, (quasi-)governments amuse me. Did you know that the European Commission -- the predominantly (but not exclusively) executive body of the Union -- has launched a site with YouTube called EUTube? (What? I think it's funny.)

Either way, EUTube has -- among other videos relating to EU policies and programmes -- one rather interesting advertisement for European films. Here's the (not work-safe due to mature content) link.

2. ( Nur für die, die Deutsch sprechen, fürchte ich )

Last but not least: Happy Independence Day to my US friends!

1. From rez_lo in this post of hers (emphasis mine):

You might want to take a look at the YouTube footage embedded in this post. It's pretty dramatic, in a buttoned-down kind of way.

James Comey, the former chief of law enforcement for the United States, telling a Senate committee how the President's legal counsel and chief of staff tried to coerce a hospitalized, drugged, post-operative Attorney General into signing off on an illegal program of covert domestic wiretapping. The U.S. solicitor general Director of the FBI felt it necessary to instruct the FBI agents who were present not to allow Mr. Comey to be removed from the room while the President's men were there.

It's some of the most dramatic footage I've ever seen, and the quietest, given the destruction it reveals. Edifices bigger and more important than the World Trade Centers. And the man who's speaking knows it.

2. Re: the FanLib discussion: astridv shares her two cents (and is promptly visited by one of the FanLib founders, like other participators in the debate, e.g. telesilla).

3. As an addendum to this earlier post of mine,

a) let me share this tidbit about the first transgender prom queen in Fresno. Remember the teen born as a girl but identifying as a boy nominated for Prom King? Yeah, same city. I don't know what they put in the water in Fresno, but whoa -- they should clearly supply all of the US, and more.

b) quotheravyn is giving us the metaphor of a big square where we can comprehensively locate gender/sexual identities and preferences.

Back! ( From what? )

French election results? Bah. Don't like Sarkozy, don't trust him as far as I could throw him. Would have been very suspicious of Royal's approach in the economic realms, though, so I guess it remains to be seen what will happen. Que sera and all that.

...Why Real Life Is JUST Like Fandom:

Romano Prodi does the Fandom Flounce -- successfully!111!! & ;-)

*

Vidders who are also SGA fans -- or perhaps SGA fans also vidders -- may ( click this for my latest Oh My God, Someone MUST Vid This! impulse. )

Is there a community where you can beg kindly ask for vidders to perhaps look at your vidbunny?

I read the Süddeutsche Zeitung because it resonates with me -- your main newspaper should match you, I think, because no matter how challenging and new-angle-y it is, you just won't read it otherwise -- but even so, I don't often find this kind of concord.

Translated but otherwise unchanged. What an oxymoron.

Family Minister Ursula von der Leyen will need nerves of steel to live through the discussion within the [Christian Democratic] Union about the improvement of day care (pre-school). Few other political debates let us witness arguments quite as deceptive from the traditionalists -- or rather, fundamentalists -- in the Union when it comes to their resistance against a modern kind of family politics. ( The Conservatives' Life Lie, SZ 23-2-2007 )

Surfacing briefly from the swamp to offer both this and my apologies for it:

As per diluvian's prompt, a drabble: ( Shepherd Book & Fox Mulder - Firefly & The X-Files. Rated G. Spoilers for 3x01 *The Blessing Way* )
*

In other – much more important but also much more anxiety-inducing – news, it seems several US States' voting computers have broken down. Indiana, Ohio, notably East Cleveland. Shortly after the election started, there were already 250 notifications about issues with the voting process. (Spiegel Online citing phw/AFP/AP/reuters/dpa)

One day after the military overthrow of Thailand's democratically elected government, Gen. Sondhi Boonyaratkalin has promised to hold elections next October.

Poll #825772 Thailand & The State of my Finances
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

You believe the general will do just that?

If you said yes, can I interest you in this really nice bridge that links Manhattan Island with Brooklyn?

ETA: ladycat777 brings up valid points and information from inside Thailand. Check it out before you answer, if you will.

Speaking of Thailand, I just ate a fresh pineapple with 100% pure Thai coconut juice drizzled over it. Okay, yes, so it lacked a certain something -- go suggest! -- but hey. Gotta try, right? Needed a sweet snack after the FIVE HOURS OF EXAM written from 8:45am to 1:45pm. Don't ask about my back; you know the answer already. On the positive side, I've finished and sent off my (partly pre-constituted) application folder in roughly 1 h 47 min, which I think is a new record. Let's see about the result, but if it works out, kangeiko might be pleased about the sector.

Re: Election Results in two German States: What's *wrong* with people?

In other -- both social and political -- news, now that we've elected a woman our chancellor, some wonder, Is Germany Ready for a Gay Chancellor?

God, please let Romano Prodi win against Berlusconi...

Bill Napoli

All further explanations HERE. Excuse my brevity; if I start dealing with all of it, I'll never be able to calm down enough to make my two deadlines.

ETA: viciouswishes has written a letter to Bill Napoli.

We, the undersigned, affirm our support for Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that saved women's lives across the nation. Decisions about childbearing should be made by a woman, in consultation with her family and doctor, not by the government. We urge the Senate to defend the protections for women's health guaranteed by the U.S. Supreme Court in Roe by confirming only nominees who will uphold these constitutional protections.

Sign this petition. Please.

You know how I am one of these haughty Europeans who secretly believe Europe is totally the Promised Land of liberalism coupled with sanity and a reasonable amount of intelligence?

Wellll.

frogspace provided a link to a translated version of the much-debated Naturalisation Exam of the Federal State Baden-Württemberg. (Only the questions are original questions -- but I have no doubt that you, gentle reader, would have been able to discern that.)

Take Baden-Württemberg's New Citizenship Test!

2006 isn't even half a month old, and already, we got...

( mutated avian flu )
&
( an(other) Iran Crisis )

Some things are unbelievable, but it's not enough to just mutter this under your breath. Yesterday, sitting in front of the laptop with one of my friends -- he has a news site as his home page -- we both froze almost simultaneously and stared at the words on the screen, reading about ( Ahmadinejad's latest hate tirade )

On a more positive note, yesterday, running errands and walking along Main Street, I saw a group of four little girls sitting on the doorstep of a clothes store -- one with a recorder, one with hand drums, and two with sheet notes full of Christmas music...and when I came closer, they started singing Stern über Bethlehem, which is one of my all-time favourite Christmas songs. I sighed, remembered the good old days when I m'self stood there with my friends, caroling and playing the alto recorder like whoa, and I gave them all my change. ( Four little carolers. Because Christmas time makes me sappy-sweet every year. )

Don't know if the news have been widely circulated -- for the first time, a German, Susanne Osthoff, has been obducted in Iraq, a charity worker and archaeologist who'd won an award for bravery from the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper for being the first civilian to transport medical supplies to Baghdad from Jordan at the height of the war in 2003. ( In this morning's *Presseclub on TV... )

Congratulations to Regina Halmich for defending her title as World Champion in Boxing, Jr. Flyweight category. I don't follow boxing, but I fondly remember her playfully kicking Thomas Raab's butt after he'd challenged her in his tv show. *g*

Finally, if you're bored, you may want to take a look at the SPIEGEL SURFS THE WEB column.

The chancellor is gone. Long live the chancellor!

...or something like that: Germany's finally got its first female leader. Not a fan of Angela Merkel; she is an addition to the league of female heads of their nations, though.

***

The things you learn when you browse through regulations in order to find out pertinent details -- did you know § 8 ff of the StAG (yup), the German Citizenship Code, allows for naturalisation of a foreigner married to a German only if "it is guaranteed that he will integrate himself into German society"? I mean, I'm all for high levels of abstraction, but...

***

Didn't go for dinner yesterday night -- we just sat back, dishing the dirt, drinking enough tea to make an Englishman jealous, and eating the rest of the chocolate-covered gingerbread. (Mmh. Chocolate-covered gingerbread.) Tonight, after French course, a few of us élèves will go and see L'Auberge Espagnole II -- depending on who of the course participants actually joins the fun, it'll sound a lot like the beginning of a joke: A German girl, a Russian guy, an Italian girl, and a Moroccan guy went to see a movie... Anyway, the first one was priceless, and not just for people who did a university exchange year. Anyone here watched it?