a berlin blog
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a berlin blog |
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Saturday, December 31, 2005 Sundown on 2005 ... from out here by Poland. UPDATE: Doughnut Boy Andy has a roundup of hangover cures. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 4:18 PM (4) comments Friday, December 30, 2005 Usage NoteI've had the rare opportunity in recent weeks to look at this website through Windows-based software, not to mention Internet Explorer. It looks like crap. So if you've been reading Radio Free Mike for years without understanding why I have such a strange taste for huge headline fonts, or why I can't keep my my columns together, use another browser. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 8:14 PM (1) commentsWednesday, December 28, 2005 I'm Just on the PhoneThis cracks me up. Is that wrong? posted by Michael Scott Moore | 7:04 AM (4) commentsLeap SecondWhen you count down to 2006 this weekend on your digital watch, remember the New Year won't start for an extra second, at least according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 6:57 AM (3) commentsFriday, December 23, 2005 Friedrichstrasse, Berlin
posted by Michael Scott Moore |
9:37 AM
Wednesday, December 21, 2005 Darwin, Dover, and DoofusesThe judge in Dover who struck Intelligent Design from the school district's science curriculum basically called the old school board a bunch of doofuses. I agree that a court case won't kill the craze for ID in America, or quell the desire to show rational evidence of God (which is centuries old and always misleading), but defenders of Design have been Missing the Point for most of the day. This quote has been repeated in articles around the world, from John West at the Discovery Institute:"Americans don't like to be told there is some idea that they aren't permitted to learn about. It used to be said that banning a book in Boston guaranteed it would be a best-seller. Banning intelligent design in Dover will likely only fan interest in the theory."Would someone like to tell John West what's wrong with this statement? Here's another howler, from William Dembski's web site: 1) The devolution of Darwinism to mere “court science” is both the symptom and the means of its ultimate demise.Not in a country where church and state are separated, they can't. My piece on Dembski and ID is here. UPDATE: Lee Strang argues that the circumstances of the case in Dover "forced even a judge like Judge Jones, who was appointed by George W. Bush, to make bad law." He doesn't seem to realize that Jones, instead of sounding regretful about the whole thing, spat this case out of his courtroom with contempt. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 7:06 PM (0) comments Sunday, December 18, 2005 Christmas Cheer This is a Berlin Weihnachtsmarkt. At most German Christmas markets, you shove your way through crowds of recalcitrant and impatient people and try to look at the merchandise -- sweaters and scarves, woolly hats, Lebkuchen, quaint wooden figurines -- then relieve the stress of battling other holiday-minded strangers with a cup of Gluehwein (mulled wine) or, more mysteriously, Gluehbier, which is a cup of steaming beer shot with cherry syrup.  Notice a few people in this photo are sitting on radiators and strapped into big brown coats suspended by thin cords from black metal racks. This is not a Teutonic torture device, but a way to keep warm. I tried it and almost fell off the radiator.  This is a portable sauna, open only after 6pm, when it's too dark in Berlin to discreetly photograph strangers dashing naked from the wooden-walled trailer into a Swedish hot tub. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 9:15 PM (5) comments ToleranceTEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's denial of the Holocaust is a matter for academic discussion and the West should be more tolerant of his views, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman said on Sunday. Good point! Why isn't Israel in Alaska? And did the Holocaust really happen? (If so, how can we be sure?) And while we're at it, why are so many scientists so passionately opposed to Intelligent Design? Are they against God? The truth in these matters must lie along a Middle Way between the two rabid extremes of current popular opinion. Right? posted by Michael Scott Moore | 4:11 PM (1) comments Wednesday, December 14, 2005 Ray's Vast BasementA murky, haunted, old-California kind of site, belonging to a folk band that composed a score for a stage version of Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, which I reviewed long ago and kept the complimentary CD from. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 10:06 PMTuesday, December 13, 2005 Tookie's Long GoodbyeSpiegel Online has a little something on Tookie, and so does James Walcott. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 7:34 PM (4) commentsSunday, December 11, 2005 ShameI agree, this is both disgusting and relevant, since Germany hosts the World Cup next year: These Cottbus soccer fans seem to think "Jews" is a fitting insult for the opposing Dresden team. (The word Juden is spelled here with the d as the Dresden logo. Imagine, say, Duke fans holding up a banner reading "Yids!" to taunt Miami.) (Only not as funny.) No one on the pitch seems too concerned, and the game wasn't stopped, though the Cottbus team issued an apology the next day. These are second-league teams, not world-class, but Germany needs to make sure this kind of behavior doesn't turn the World Cup into a nightmare next June. England is already hoping for self-imposed restraint by its fans in the matter of a little World War II ditty. I'm not sure it's a national disgrace that the big-time German press failed to run this photo -- national attention for petty nastiness only encourages the thugs -- but at the right level this stuff should be aired and flogged like a musty rug. Thanks to Andy. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 12:01 PM (3) comments Saturday, December 10, 2005 Hack WorkA new installment of Babelsberg is up. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 5:33 PM (2) commentsFriday, December 09, 2005 Save Tookie!Seriously. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 9:47 PMThursday, December 08, 2005 A Religion of Peace and ThugsSome Christians in Kansas, apparently at the absolute end of their tether over all this nasty resistance to "intelligent design," have beaten up a religious studies professor.Thanks to Sven. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 12:27 PM (1) comments Monday, December 05, 2005 It's Holiday Gift-Giving Time... And what better way to stuff a stocking than with a novel about lawless kids in the wasteland of Southern California? Think about ordering Too Much of Nothing for that special someone today! [Fade Muzak] posted by Michael Scott Moore | 11:32 PMSaturday, December 03, 2005 BabelsbergThe new column's up, with an explanation of the name. If you missed "Ideologies Flambe" last week, it's over in Politics and Prose. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 11:18 AM (2) comments | |
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 Too Much of Nothing, a novel  Politics and Prose  about our editor 
The Underground Grammarian  current Berlin blog page  |
