From my observations, the people of Europe are evenly divided into two groups: those who want Obama to win and think he will, and those who want Obama to win, but think "they" won't let him.

OK, it's basically content-free, but it made me laugh.

The best President right now would be one who is unGodly boring, in every sense.

...and in other news, the Pot vs. Kettle debate continues, with the consensus tending towards "black".

...as a nipple ring.

Read it all. And weep.

...I'm moving to Canada. 

Just got a call from one of the local papers, asking my opinion about Obama and McCain.

I have decided henceforth to wear a flag lapel pin and a black and white scarf.

...this is more something to get upset about:

Criticizing people for not wearing lapel pins is character assassination.

At least it's food for thought, no pun intended...

The British Home Office and the Dutch equivalent seem to think gays aren't persecuted in Iran.

Nevermind that homosexuality is punishable with the death penalty in Iran, and executions are still routine. Including that of the boyfriend of the gay man in question. But no, he's in no danger when he gets sent there! Pshaw!

I'm sick of the bashing of "asylum seekers" and "illegal immigrants". It's like Prohibition. Why criminalize something that ought to be a self-evident right, particularly when cases like this one are frequent? Immigration law that is designed to simply keep people out is inherently unjust and nonsensical -- but most people don't think about it because they've never been confronted by it. So it continues.

Hat tip to Jeremiah Cornelius.

You may have heard about the ongoing firestorm regarding the speech by and BBC interview with ++Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury and spiritual head of the Anglican Communion.

The thing is, this is a fascinating case of where both the press (feeding off the Beeb's initial report) and the blogosphere (kneejerk-reacting to the initial Beeb headlines) have got it all wrong, and are collectively creating the Himalayas out of a molehill. There are even calls for ++Rowan to resign for things he never said.

Here, for example, is an interesting comparison of the original Beeb article to a revision that appeared a mere ten minutes later:

http://www.newssniffer.co.uk/articles/95137/diff/0/1

Note how the message is subtly changed and the tone less sensationalist. But the initial article was enough to ignite a firestorm on the blogosphere long before anything even went to "press" in meatspace.

Here is another article examining the reaction and counter-reaction:

http://www.mattwardman.com/blog/2008/02/13/archbishop-rowan-firestorm-was-started-by-the-bbc/

The problem is that the wire services picked up on the initial article and parroted it mindlessly without checking their sources or going to the original interview and lecture. Which, by the way, was immediately available on ++Rowan's website:

Lecture to the Royal Courts of Justice
BBC Radio 4 interview
and for added interest:
Archbishop's reaction to the press firestorm

The thing is, what ++Rowan was saying was not that he advocated the introduction of sharia courts in Britain, or even that there should be parallel jurisdictions, and he certainly never meant that Muslims should have their own separate legal identity in Britain. Even his much-quoted word "inevitable" was shorn of its context and made to look like he wanted sharia introduced sooner rather than later.

But none of the subtlety of his attempt to start an honest, intelligent debate about religious law in a secular country came across. His reiteration of the rights of the individual and strong support of the common law were utterly ignored. Instead, verbal images of hands and heads being lopped off in English courtrooms made the rounds, nevermind that it had nothing to do with what he actually said.

What was even more astonishing was how the Times religion correspondent Ruth Gledhill -- who is widely read in Britain and Europe -- seemed to encourage it all, claiming in based on erroneous information in the Daily Telegraph that the Queen was going to dismiss him (which she can't, actually, and anyway she never criticized ++Rowan personally, but rather the ensuing brouhaha -- at least the Telegraph got that much right while getting other facts wrong) and perpetuating some of the other misquotes and distortions. But it sure attracted eyeballs to her blog, where she happily is leading the charge against him, going so far as to say "everyone knows what he said" while conveniently never, ever pointing people to his actual words (as I did above).

It gets better -- such as headlines claiming the Church of England General Synod is angry with him, but fail to mention that he got a standing ovation at his speech to the Synod (reported here).

Mind you, I'm not even arguing for or against what the Archbishop was suggesting. But it sure would be nice to debate what he said on its own merits -- and not based on the inane knee-jerk reactions to quotes taken out of context, or even outright lies.

As far as I am concerned, if I hear a news report, I don't trust anyone anymore. I don't care if it's CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, the BBC, the Economist, the New York Times, or any other publication. Go to the source and make up your own damned mind.

I've seen some nonsense floating around the Web that John McCain supposedly doesn't qualify to run for the Presidency. Whatever you may think of him, it's simply untrue -- the result of a common misconception.

The premise of this is that McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone and not on US soil. To wit:

7 FAM 1116.1-4 Not Included in the Meaning of "In the United States"

(TL:CON-64; 11-30-95)

a. A U.S.-registered or documented ship on the high seas or in the exclusive economic zone is not considered to be part of the United States. A child born on such a vessel does not acquire U.S. citizenship by reason of the place of birth (Lam Mow v. Nagle, 24 F.2d 316 (9th Cir., 1928)).

b. A U.S.-registered aircraft outside U.S. airspace is not considered to be part of U.S. territory. A child born on such an aircraft outside U.S. airspace does not acquire U.S. citizenship by reason of the place of birth.

c. Despite widespread popular belief, U.S. military installations abroad and U.S. diplomatic or consular facilities are not part of the United States within the meaning of the 14th Amendment. A child born on the premises of such a facility is not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States and does not acquire U.S. citizenship by reason of birth.

Sounds damning, doesn't it? Well, it isn't.

Ius soli, the "right of the soil", is only one way to become a natural-born American citizen. The other way is ius sanguinis, "the right of the blood". Since McCain's parents were/are American citizens, he therefore is a natural-born citizen.

Similarly the Confessor is a natural-born American citizen and has American citizenship because I'm an American citizen. See US Code § 1401 (g):

(g) a person born outside the geographical limits of the United States and its outlying possessions of parents one of whom is an alien, and the other a citizen of the United States who, prior to the birth of such person, was physically present in the United States or its outlying possessions for a period or periods totaling not less than five years, at least two of which were after attaining the age of fourteen years...

Won't BoE be pleased to know she is an alien. Well, I always knew that, but I married her anyway. As for McCain,US Code § 1401 (c) says:

(c) a person born outside of the United States and its outlying possessions of parents both of whom are citizens of the United States and one of whom has had a residence in the United States or one of its outlying possessions, prior to the birth of such person...

German citizenship law is pretty much ius sanguinis only, but since his mother is German, he thus also gets German citizenship. Currently Gloriana only has German citizenship, but she is entitled to American citizenship as well (we just haven't bothered to go to the embassy to claim it). Should either child live continuously for 14 years in America, and reach 35 years of age (as per the US Constitution, Article II, Section 1), he or she would thus also qualify to run for President -- just as John McCain does now.

The US health care system now ranks dead last among 19 industrialized countries in a Commonwealth Fund survey of preventable deaths and timely health care. (To my surprise, Germany only ranks only eighth.) In the late 1990s it still was 13th on the list, but has failed to improve as quickly as the other countries.

Even the UK ranks higher. (And that, dear friends, is saying something.)

Ye gods.

Heh. Now that's dedication.

On the front page of the local section of today's local paper, it was reported:

• that the fire department was summoned by a fire alarm at a big supermarket. It turned out to be a balloon that had gotten itself in the laser detectors and was tripping the alarm. The fire department didn't have any ladders tall enough to retrieve it, so they in turn called the animal control department to bring a dart gun, which was used to shoot down the balloon.


• that the local airport was laid low by a mouse. It seems the mouse chewed through a cable on a transformer in a nearby hotel, which set off a chain reaction that caused a temporary power outage, delaying some flights. The mouse, alas, did not survive.

Though a rather more lively report was that the neo-Nazi political party NPD had a party meeting in Hannover, with some 500 attendees. The city tried everything it could to block them from having the meeting in the city's convention center, but legally there was nothing they could do, since the NPD is a registered political party. So the meeting went ahead -- oddly enough they had to share the building with a New Age esoteric trade show that had already been booked previously, and which decided to stay in spite of the neo-Nazis next door.

Panicked about a possible violent confrontation, 2,000 police were brought in from all over Germany to seal off the meeting.

In response, the hoi polloi of Hannover organized an anti-NPD rally, with leaders of all the major churches, other political parties, Jewish representatives, union leaders, leading business figures and so on participating in a rally at the opera house, then a march to the convention center, and culminating in a rally in front of the convention center, with the theme Bunt statt braun (literally "colorful instead of brown", brown referring to nationalist extremism in German political jargon). In all, the police estimated 20,000 people joined the various rallies, which for a city of Hannover's size is pretty huge.

Thankfully, no serious confrontation happened -- one policeman was injured by a lefty radical breaking his hand (needless to say, the radical was arrested) and one NPD member was arrested for greeting the demonstrators with a Heil Hitler salute, but otherwise everything went peacefully and without incident.

Hannover's boring. And I like it that way.