pay no attention to that man behind the curtain

With the debates on US healthcare reform providing a sufficient and numbing cover, the Senate and the Congress voted to renew the US Patriot Act, which is actually an uncatchy acronym for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism--like our unnecessary and tautologically named SORT program (aka, Keep your Neighbourhood Tidy) which is separate or recycle trash, without any safeguards or promised curtailments or gaspy, relieved sunsets.

budgetary guidance

Despite telling figures that a quarter of US home mortages are underwater, housing-starts have slumped, American consumer confidence is crestfallen, massive layoffs, endemic underemployment, and planned or threatened buget cuts in all sorts of social services are circulating, there are still priorities (aside from defense, people seem to always find the money to perpetuate wars). 

After a decade of complaints from the community for being a bad neighbor (draconian security and general bother, as well as unpaid parking tickets and some 32 million pounds in unpaid congestion fees), the US is abandoning its embassy in storied Grosvenor Square for a planned site in posh and shabby-chic Battersea.  The US apparently has a billion dollars of ease-worthy funds to invest on this crystalline Borg ship, complete with a moat.

The American government is also allocating more funds for federal prisons, in the face of general cut-backs and Grecian--stoic--austerity measures elsewhere.  That decision seems a little prescient with the proposals for a civil policing corps and all the citizens that might be pushed to resorting to what passes as criminal behavior when their budgets can't be balanced.  So many things are criminalized US and punishable with incarceration, but there still won't be a cell block reserved for the robber-barons.  Of course, at the rate that US and UK attitudes are converging, they may well arrest the hapless photographer who snaps a picture of the construction site and disappear him away to a prison in America.

suffragette city

Though still not yet a German citizen, I did receive this personal invitation to vote by mail with an official ballot to choose no more than ten candidates (out of thirteen in the running) for parish representatives to speak up for Bad Karma in the larger diocese of Bavaria.   It is not the same as being chosen as a member of the conclave to elect the next Pope, but I plan to take this seriously and am just glad for the chance to be able to vote here, even for the chance to be apathetic, confused or dismissive, too

hoi polloi

Greece, it seems, invented democracy, philosophy, scientific inquiry, art and architecture--and then called it a day, some say 3500 years past its prime.  Yesterday, the European Union temporarily rescinded Greece's voting rights until the Greeks can put their finances in order--also perhaps as retribution for hiding their insolvency behind currency swaps.  It is more symbolic than anything on the part of the EU to suspend Athens for this one inconsequential vote, but it is really a shock to the idea of suzerainty and self-determination are betrays some of the EU's latent power.  Last week Germany refused to toss the Greeks a life-line in the form of an American-style bailout, which proved wildly popular with the Germans who don't believe that the dissolute should be funded by their thrift. 

 Before full sovereignty is restored, Greece must reign in its deficits to within three percent of their Gross Domestic Product and reform the tax-collecting system, or Greece could lose control of its own fiscal policy altogether.  This seems harsh but maybe other countries should take a cue: if America suspended California's voting rights, though, there would be a new US civil war.  Of course, California's connection with the US is not just through a common currency but it is also, for what it's worth, a political bloc.  The EU, on the other hand, can only hope to maintain a viable and meaningful euro, without a political union, through adherence to its rigourous monetary standards. 

diet of Worms

PfRC is not going on sabbatical just yet, but soon H and I are going to take a short tour of the Moselle region and visit the two cities that have been vying for centuries for the title of the oldest in Germany, Roman Trier and Wagnerian Worms.  In the coming days, be sure to visit our companion, Our Little Travel blog, for regular updates and postcards from the edge.

carnivale

Since some time now, I have been rather a humbug when it comes to Fasching celebrations (the German equivalent of Carnival)--not keen on dressing up or partying on a school night.  My sister in the States braved blizzard conditions in the Deep South to make the trek along the coast to New Orleans for Marti Gras.  I hope she's having a blast, and I am sure the drive will be most memorable, if snow in Mississippi does not become common-place in the next years.  Even if Lent, what all this lead-up is about--sage old Carnival queens and krewes should tell a Lenten story like they do for Passover, why is this night different from all other nights?--is all about privation and shunning temptation, it really kicks off vacation planning in earnest, especially after this winter's captivity.   H and I have quietly plotted our escapes, and though I am useless when it comes to long-term planning and the business of logistics, I am overwhelmingly excited about the trips and dates held in reserve that we have on slate.  Those vintage Star Wars travel posters are not reflective of our next destinations (for next time), but are the very stylish and clever work of graphic artist Justin van Genderen.

UR doomed

Just scant hours after the EU bravely and laudably refused to comply with US requests for banking data sharing in the name of prevention of terrorism, the Obama administration made a statement in support of new initiatives to cull cell phone tower pings (and call logs rendered freely by telecoms) and triangulate users' locations, because citizens should have no reasonable expectations of privacy or anonymity of their whereabouts, or more precisely, the whereabouts of their cell phones.  This sounds like some poor, B-movie glomming onto the plot from the last Batman or Echalon Conspiracy.

the more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems that will slip through your fingers

I really have not followed the now disputed presidential election results for the Ukraine and the subsequent havoc and calls for a recount.  I only try to keep up with the politics because opposition Julia Timoschenko reminds me of Princess Leia, and her challenger, the ostensible winner, makes me think she's up against some dark sith lord or power-hungry Grand Moff Tarkin, that she's rallying the Rebel Alliance against the Evil Empire.