raubkopier

There is a fairly impassioned debate going on in the German government about the ethicality of reviewing the financial data on a pilfered CD-ROM from a Swiss bank clerk.  German already paid a tidy ransom to the bank clerk for a list of reportedly 5000 German individuals who have been stashing money away in the Confederacy to avoid paying taxes.  The German government justified its purchase, since it stands to recoup up to a billion euro in tax revenue.  Not every one is pleased with Germany's conduct for dealing in stolen goods.  What if it was not a stolen list of tax-evaders, but a list of welfare grifters or people with outstanding hospital bills?  What sort of message does it send to Switzerland--that there should be a similiar bounty on German confidential files?  There was a big to-do already in Davos over what previous few props are available for banking giant UBS and what would it mean to hand over a slice of bailout pie to Zurich.  It does not seem any different than state-supported piracy to me.  Last year, this sort of exchange between Vaduz and the States led me to cleaning out and closing my Liechtensteiner, Swiss-Lite account.  Now, however, I understand that there is a plaintiff in case against the partner bank that surrendered his financial data, that made him cough up his back taxes, who has successfully sued for several millions due to distress incurred.

hosana superstar

Since first seeing a passion play as a little kid put on in other worldly crater in the Witchia Mountains in Oklahoma, I have wanted to see the play performed in Oberammergau.  It's not an opportunity that comes up everyday to see that sort of spectacle and I didn't want to miss it.  I was there once to visit the NATO school there--I wonder if those students take part.  For over four hundred years, the residents have performed this grand play to fulfill a pledge to God, promising to do so because the village was spared during the pestillence.  I guessed, like most passion plays, they have a limited run and confined to the Eastertide.  It turns out, I discovered while plotting vacations and other such get-aways, that the Oberammergauers take this show on, daily, for an entire season, running from May to October.  Jesus, for this decade, will be portrayed, by the village psychologist, and Mary will be played in this performance by an airline stewardess.

teach me tiger

This year Valentines' Day and the Chinese Lunar New Year coincide.  This year is the year of the Tiger, and according to the Feng Shui Index it will be volitile but especially auspicious for people born during the year of the Dragon (I count myself as one of those, dim sum and then some).  As you celebrate the dawn of the new year with your special Valentine, I'd recommend listening to the April Stevens classic.

semantic memories

I have a host of strange dreams, almost nightly.  A lot of them invoke some architectural associations, vast halls and impossibly high and steep drops, endless stairwells.  I dreamt the other night I was in an ancient Russian fortress, which had seen an incarnation as a firestation.  Deep wells ran through the turrets that formerly had fire poles to slide down.   Nothing so strange or spectacular there, but I distinctly remember taking out my digital camera and snapping a few shots of the castle.  I cannot recall ever having the wherewithal to have a dream camera at my disposal.  When I woke up, I reviewed the photos on the camera, just to make sure.