eurotrashing or the columbian union

Although the most recent rhetoric against the general deportment of the body eurotique has been toned down somewhat—or at least, transmuted into a pseudo-intellectual soapbox about the urgent need for urgency and action, it is still very much cachet in Anglo-Saxon political debate and attacks to summon up the Continental, European leanings of one’s opponent—thereby ending all possible discussion.

The spectre of socialist regimes and bloated bureaucracies and welfare states are yet ammunition enough for a moment’s deflection at the expense of a distant and abstract punching-bag. One, I’m sure, can expect the criticism of the European club to become harsher and more pointed as the election season in America approaches. Meanwhile, the dissonant coda to all these judgments from critics, skeptics and sophists is that the EU government and member states ought to be converging towards a so-called United States of Europe, with common policies and standards.

I cannot imagine, however, a more disjointed and decodified union than America. The EU is not demanding that Alibamo impose the same sin-taxes as Nieuw Amsterdam does—or that Tejas or Øklahomå adopt their standards for vehicle registration plates or levy duties on income, retail sales or property uniformly either. Hopefully, once all the shouting is done with, people will realize that there are aspects, both traditional and experimental, about Europe and its organization worthy of emulation.

iconoclasts or gerrymandering

Soon it will be the regionally-observed German holiday of the Feast of the Assumption (Maria Himmelfahrt) commemorating the passage of the Mother of God into Heaven without having to suffer the pains of death. It is not a federal holiday, however, and is only celebrated in communities that are historically predominately Catholic. I knew that religion cut a strange figure over the Free State of Bavaria, differing confessions triggering potential disruptions in mass-transit (as one locality might take on a holiday schedule while the destination might not), postal deliveries and stores and businesses being open, aside from church processions and services—but until I saw it expressed cartographically, like in this map from the state government, I did not realize what pockets, exclaves and enclaves there were and how the footfalls of Protestantism and the Counter-Reformation looked on the march.

I wonder about the history and consequence of each small subdivision and where and when the schism came about. The light blue areas represent places that observe the holiday and the white areas ones that do not. The purple-grey areas are “parishes of trees”—quite a lot more of them than I realized too—Gemeindefrei districts that are forests and unpeopled.

resupinate

After some months of dormancy, my little orchid again budded and came into full bloom. These flowers have a very specific and peculiar architecture, and there are more kinds of orchids than there are different species of birds and are closely related to asparagus. Resupination refers to the structurally downward facing dog yoga pose that the parts of the flower assumes as it develops and suggests being upside down, though almost all flowers grow this way so I wonder upside down to what.

My orchid does not display the advanced and a little smug mimicry of this wild cultivar (evolved, coerced to look like something it’s never seen) but I can certainly see the family resemblance.

sing-a-long

A group of artists have collaborated to create luggage-labels for all the des-tinations mentioned in the folk standard “I’ve been Everywhere,” covered by Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson. There are some really brilliant designs and I certainly would not mind seeing this group applying themselves to bigger undertakings.

werewolf x-ing

dbase or paying peter to rob paul

The German state of North Rhine-Westphalia is again bringing scrutiny on itself by putting on airs of vigilantism and proceeding with the purchase of more data CDs from Swiss banking institutions with information on German account holders.

While I can understand and do sympathize with the slowness of reform and the byzantine channels of bureaucracy, NRW is really airing its frustrations—continuing to pursue this tactic in order to reclaim hypothetical tax revenue loss from citizens who might be seeking to hide wealth in the Confederation and then previously threatening to withhold financial assistance meant to help the former East Germany develop economically—by taking matters into its own hands and exercising a prerogative that is criminal, at least by proxy, is exacerbating and threatens to unseat the whole process. Such volleys of deals that are not above board, however indirect, and trafficking in stolen goods would make the Swiss, I think, unwilling to entertain more transparency and reform in a legal framework, and turn German depositors into anathema, unwelcomed like their American counterparts already shunned by the US’s world-policing. Further, Switzerland, in order to dampen the effects of investors seeing the franc as a safe-haven and the follow-on inflation of its value (being bad to trade and export), is buying up quite a significant amount of German bonds. In other words, servicing German debt, and while I don’t think that act against its own interests like the government of NRW (or what the American authorities are doing) by doing something rash and outside of jurisdiction, decisions are suspended on a delicate equilibrium that is not beyond being passive-aggressive.

countermand

Lest we forget, our friendly anti-terrorism office sent out a message recently that August is Anti-Terrorism Awareness month and we are admonished to be ever-vigilant and that it was also a perfect occasion to review and renew annual mandatory training requirements.

August, additionally, is Cataract, Psoriasis, and Spinal Muscular Atrophy Awareness and Audio, Goat Cheese and Panini Appreciation (according to one’s communion, I guess) Month. What inspired collusion results in such a horrendous and random patronage? The terror bit is especially disconcerting, I think, because I guess the message is not such a subtle reminder that had we always remained ever on guard, suspect and omnipresent, the events following in September may never have happened. Such a sentiment seems rather sorry and insulting, considering all the theatre and duplicity that’s imposed unchecked but very easily and beyond reproach justified and indoctrinated in all our everyday activities. Is it a resilient or circumspect thing to accept and cower to a thousand small tactics affecting freedoms of movement and one’s privacy that certainly are far-removed from peace and reconciliation—or even from triangulation and appreciation of the broader connections? Reminders of the patent and obvious are only cues, become ornamental as the rest of the theatre syndicate, even if the time of the year has been appropriated too to recall or foreshadow things to come.