Segacs's World I Know

Posts Tagged ‘germany’

Believe it or not, other newsworthy things happened in the world yesterday and today. You’d never know it from watching the local news, of course, which has been covering Dawson nonstop since yesterday afternoon. But here are a few things that happened in the world outside our little corner:

• Sadaam’s judge doesn’t think he was a dictator. So what was he, then? A democratically-elected leader? A royal monarch? The winner of the first season of Iraqi Idol?
• The new Palestinian “unity” government appears likely to get its funding back from Europe, though the U.S. isn’t on board.
• Amnesty said Hezbollah committed war crimes, in what Charles Johnson over at LGF dubbed a flying pig moment. I’m shocked too. Amnesty gets so much more money and support when it’s directing its wrath at Israel.
• In a big sign of normalcy returning to the country, Israel’s getting its international soccer games back.
• Germany ordained its first rabbis since 1942. See that big middle finger in the air, you neo-Nazi assholes?
• Speaking of Jews and Europe, Pajamas Media is all over this under-reported story about the defamation trial that just begun in France against three Jewish citizens who questioned the French Channel 2 network for its coverage of the Mohammed Al-Dura affair.
• The Pope has pissed off Muslims, it seems, by making some statements that, regardless of their intent, will surely be taken way out of context. This could be a thing.
• Bibi said that Ahmadinejad is “more dangerous than Hitler”. You’d think such a normally-competent debater would’ve heard of Godwin’s Law, no?
• And in other news, Stephen Colbert’s bridge in Hungary looks like it isn’t going to happen, despite his large margin of victory in the online naming poll, due to the tiny problem of his failing to meet one of the qualifications – being dead. Whoops! (By the way, Budapest rocks!)

Okay, I think that about does it for the ten-second catch-up. Or, as the BUZZ puts it, some “temporary relief from ignorance”.

Saddam’s lawyers keep getting bumped off:

Gunmen killed a second defense lawyer acting in Saddam Hussein’s trial on Tuesday, renewing questions over whether the former president can get a fair trial amid Iraq’s daily violence.

Another defense lawyer was slightly wounded in the attack on their car in Baghdad, police and defense team sources said.

The shooting followed the murder of another defense lawyer who was shot the day after the televised start of proceedings on October 19.

Meanwhile in Germany, it turns out that Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel’s lawyer was disbarred and jailed for – what else? – inciting racial hatred:

Judge Ulrich Meinerzhagen ruled that Horst Mahler, a disbarred lawyer associated with the violent far-left Red Army Faction in the 1970s who has since become a supporter of far-right and anti-Semitic ideas, could not be part of the defense team.

He also dismissed Zuendel’s publicly appointed defender Sylvia Stolz on the grounds that Mahler’s ideas were reflected in her written submissions to the court.

Mahler, whose license to practice as a lawyer was withdrawn last year, was sentenced to nine months in prison in January for inciting racial hatred.

One of the cornerstones of a free and fair justice system is the right of everyone – including the most despicable excuses for human beings – to a fair trial and to a competent defense.

Now, Zundel made the decision himself to hire an incompetent defense lawyer, and his trial will surely continue once he has secured new representation. Germany’s legal system has provisions for this, and Zundel will be tried – and likely convicted and punished appropriately.

But Iraq is not Germany, and the notion of an impartial judiciary there is extremely shaky. Saddam’s trial was never going to be anything other than a political circus – but it was also supposed to have important symbolism to the people of Iraq that a judicial system can work. Unfortunately, that’s not working out so well.

Muslims marched against terrorism in Cologne, Germany today, in a heartening display of the so-called silent majority’s opposition to Islamist extremism:

About 20,000 people marched through the western German city of Cologne Sunday in a demonstration against Islamic terrorism that was organized by a Muslim group.

Carrying placards proclaiming that “religion doesn’t produce terror” and that “terror is a crime against humanity,” two groups estimated by police at about 10,000 each converged for a rally in a downtown square.

Germany’s Muslim community is largely Turkish in origin, and its institutions are perhaps less hijacked by extremist groups than other Muslim communities in Europe – for example, France.

I can’t find any reports on whether this march also denounced terrorism against Israel. I somehow doubt it. But even despite this, it is encouraging to see people speaking out against terrorism, because the battle between the moderates and the extremists for the hearts and minds of Muslims in the West is still raging.

Burnside has the secret to a long, healthy life: drink beer, avoid exercise:

Hermann Dornemann, the oldest man in Germany, celebrated his 111th birthday on Thursday. The secret of his longevity? Avoid exercise and drink lots of beer.

Health experts might be inclined to shake their heads in disapproval at Hermann Dornemann’s lifestyle, but his disavowal of all sporting activities and a taste for his home town’s local brew seem to have done the trick.

It’s the next Atkins diet! I think even I could get on board with this one.

How to know when sex ed is severely lacking in some people’s educations…

London – A German couple who went to a fertility clinic after eight years of marriage have found out why they are still childless – they weren’t having sex.

[ . . . ]

A clinic spokesperson said: “When we asked them how often they had had sex, they looked blank, and said: “What do you mean?”.

“We are not talking retarded people here, but a couple who were brought up in a religious environment who were simply unaware, after eight years of marriage, of the physical requirements necessary to procreate.”

(Hat tip: West Coast Hippie)

I’ve heard a lot of discourse lately on what’s gone wrong in Europe – why there’s so much of a propensity to support false moral equivalences, why antisemitism is on the rise, and why the EU is so quick to criticize Israel while defending Iraq.

There are tons of theories out there, but I think I’ve finally got the winner: Lack of priorities. Most Europeans would rather give up sex for a month than quit smoking.

Nearly 80 percent of British smokers, almost 70 percent in the Netherlands, France and Germany and more than 55 percent in the Belgium and Spain would forgo sex rather than live without cigarettes for a month.

Well, that explains it perfectly.