respublica

Missing in Berlin

Today is the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, a time we remember very well.  It wasn't long after the news reports of the first celebrations at the wall were televised that Dale was making arrangements to get to Berlin.

During the months which followed he made numerous trips to what had been East Germany in order to help support the re-birth of the Lutheran church there.  Previously, East Germans saw their church buildings turned into swimming pools or rec clubs or merely abandoned.  Worship was done in secret or at great risk.

We have pieces of the wall he picked up during the time the wall was little by little being torn down and carried away.

World leaders are meeting in Berlin today to mark and celebrate the anniversary.  Our president, Barack Obama, will not attend.  

To know what the West stood for during most of those years, one merely had to go to Berlin, see the Wall, consider its purpose, and observe the contrasts between the vibrant prosperity on one side of the city and the oppressive monotony on the other.

Those contrasts were even more apparent to the Germans trapped on the wrong side of the Wall. Barbed wire, closed military zones and the machinery of communist propaganda could keep the prosperity of the West out of sight of most people living east of the Iron Curtain. But that wasn't true for the people of East Berlin, many of whom merely had to look out their windows to understand how empty and cynical were the promises of socialism compared to the reality of a free-market system.

World climate chief wants everyone on vegetarian diet

Another reason why the Copenhagen world climate conference coming up in December is something to be feared and avoided.

A former British climate chief and leading spokeman for global warming, Lord Stern said the other day:

"Meat is a wasteful use of water and creates a lot of greenhouse gases. It puts enormous pressure on the world’s resources. A vegetarian diet is better."

And, he hope that the upcoming climate change conference in Denmark would lead to "soaring costs for meat" in order to get people to stop eating it.  "Meat is a wasteful use of water and creates a lot of greenhouse gases."

I don't know about anyone else, but I do not want "the world" telling us what we can or cannot eat.

As the world turns

Grocery shoppers in Sweden are finding a new addition to food labels--the amount of carbon emissions used to produce that product.

The powers that be hope that changing the way people eat will help global warming emissions in the same way as changing the car one drives or doing away with the clothes dryer.

Ok.  People in Sweden are doing away with their clothes dryers?  A country with a long cold snowy winter are hanging their clothes out to dry? 

And, oh no, the Swedes have official food guidelines now, all dedicated to eating without emitting any gas.  haha.  But, again, oh no.  Try not to eat many bananas or tomatoes.  Have a carrot instead.  Skip salad vegetables like lettuce and cucumbers, stick with the root vegetables and beans, lots of legumes. 

This type of thing, labeling food by carbon dioxide emissions is just one more reason I hope the U.S. does not bother with the United Nations Copenhagen climate change conference in December. 

I don't want to live like this, it's too Orwellian.

I do not want the rest of the world deciding what we eat or how we dry our clothes. 

The audacity prize

Everyone is waking up to the news that President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace prize. 

The first question asked is "For what?"

Flipping through the morning news shows, the common reaction has been one of disbelief, even from his own supporters and his media friends.

My advice would be for him to thank the Nobel committee and then turn it down.  That would give him much more elbow room in which to negotiate his legislative and foreign affairs plans.  Not to mention some measure of respect which would negate what will be fodder for all kinds of commentary.

Some reactions to this news:

Obama wins the Nobel peace prize on the very morning he bombs the moon.

"This is the first time the award is given for wishful thinking."  Israeli Kismet member.

"The prize seems to be more for Obama's promise than for his performance. Work on the president's ambitious agenda, both at home and abroad, is barely underway, much less finished. He has no standout moment of victory that would seem to warrant a verdict as sweeping as that issued by the Nobel committee."  AP

"Absurd decision on Obama makes a mockery of the Nobel Peace Prize."  "Rarely has an award had such an obvious political and partisan intent."   Times Online

"It's not April 1st, is it?"  A White House aid.

"What's next, the Heisman?"  Politico

"Riddle.  Why didn't Barack Obama win the Nobel Prize for Literature?  He wrote two books."  Ann Althouse

This could, and will, go on all day.

One shocking morning

A few news items which shocked me awake this morning.

Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize

We bombed the moon.

The Cardinals lost a game they should have won in an inexplicable manner.

Mizzou lost to Nebraska.  They were ahead 12-0 in the 4th quarter.  We went to bed.  How did Nebraska score 27 points in 13 minutes?

Happy Planet Index

Another study, this time from the New Economics Foundation-the Happy Planet Index which lists which world countries are the greenest and the happiest by combining some measure of their ecological footprint with how happy their people are. 

How do they measure happiness?  And how much does it have to do with the country's ecological footprint? 

The 15 top happiest countries can be seen at the above link.  The United States is no where to be found on the happy list but Saudi Arabia is and so is Cuba and Egypt and Vietnam.  What?  Cubans are in the top ten happiest countries?  Wait.  Why are people still trying to get to the U.S. on anything what will even marginally float?

The study must only have asked men questions in Saudi Arabia.

Selling gold like chocolate

Those Germans.   Now vending machines will soon be selling gold in 500 locations around that country. 

Called 'Gold to Go' consumers not happy with the financial markets will be able to purchase a 1 g wafer or a 19 g bar.

CNNFail

One of the most widespread conversations on the web over the weekend came from Twitter as millions of people flocked to CNNFail to protest and express their frustration over CNN's lack of coverage of the election protests going on in Iran.

One Saturday as people in Iran marched in the streets over what they believe was a fraudulent presidential election result, CNN news was largely absent.   News from Iran was coming in large part from Twitter, ironically.  Ironically because the CNN news people constantly push their Twitter pages for up to date news.  On its American Morning program today, CNN called Twitter "annoying."  After all the Twittering CNN pushes, this is just laughable. 

The Daily show did a great riff on the cable news channels last Monday.  Stewart hit CNN on their Twitter obsession at about 7:35 on the time bar below the screen.  Just move it to the right to watch the CNN Tweet/Twitter thing, if you have time watch the whole bit which hits Fox and MSNBC as well. 

For those who love to hate Fox News, they did cover the protests on Saturday while MSNBC continued their practice of taking the weekend off in favor of an endless loop of true crime stories.

The Queen, a truck driver?

Now here's some news to tuck away for the next trivia night.

Queen Elizabeth is not amused, rather she is downright angry, at being left out of this year's D-Day commemoration ceremonies in France.  But that is not the best part of the story.

At 83 she is one of the few head's of state who actually has WWII memory and experience.  "As Elizabeth Windsor, service number 230873, she volunteered as a subaltern in the Women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service, training as a driver and a mechanic. Eventually, she drove military trucks in support roles in England."

Now that's an image.

Clearly the Queen of England is excited to meet the new American President

A CNN afternoon report yesterday on the Obamas meeting with Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh at Buckingham Palace featured one over the top studio anchor.  I mean, good grief man.

When the video feed opened with the Queen, Prince Philip and the president and his wife the anchor really went nuts:

"Oooh!  there it is there it is."  Later he whined about how Prince had the nerve to motion Obama into place for an official photograph.  "I don't like the Duke telling the president to turn around turn around, buddy."

Anyway, the oddest part of the video is seeing the Queen with her purse on her arm.  Carry around a purse in your own home?

Maybe she was heading out to shop for a new video to put on the new iPod Obama gave her.