As for Nietzsche's skeleton

Friedrich Nietzsche declared famously that “God is dead!” so it is probably safe to assume that he did not much care what happened to his skeleton.

Thus Mr. Boyes decided to start his article, published March 26th.

Good news for the gentleman:

Nietzsche's birthplace, baptistry and grave will persist.

Bad news for the gentleman: His inference (above) does not lack of illogicality.

Advice: It's probably (sic! - not: perhaps) safer to think before mauling the keyboard.

The advisor knows this from own experience. :)

37 laughable Popes

With the attack of Fort Sumpter, today 147 years ago the American Civil War began.

Exactly 100 years later, thus 47 years ago , Juri Gagarin happened to be the first human earthling in the orbit.

Well, and 375 years ago was the first day of the process Pope(s) versus Galileo Galileo.

And only 37 Popes or 359 years later, 23 years after Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, the damned heliocentrist, got rehabilitated, which makes me still laughing. Ha. Ha. Ha.


Ah, anybody feeling offended?

So ... err ... No sorry. You see, I am agnostic. Thanks god? :) Oh well, anyway, I am.


... Well, yes :) Science by itself, cannot supply us with an ethic. [Bertrand Russell, 1950]

Good for bilateral relations

Berlin police have found a body that is probably* that of a missing Russian artist who had been condemned by the Orthodox Church for an exhibit in her homeland. The death was an apparent suicide, police said Friday.

Anna Mikhalchuk, [unfortunately not English entry, yet - sj] who moved to Berlin in November, has been missing for three weeks. She created a stir in Russia with an 2003 exhibition that the church considered blasphemous, and was tried and acquitted by a Moscow court on charges of inciting religious hatred.
To be continued here.

Apparently!! I see.

In German - although most Germans would not know :) - there is a big difference between scheinbar (only looks like being true/a fact) and anscheinend (it looks very much like; thus seems quite probable).

This allows the conclusion: Apparently Anna Politkovskaja committed suicide by shooting herself into her back.

Thanks for having me.

* Meanwhile according to Spiegel online (German edition), Anna Mikhalchuk has been identified by her husband, the Russian philosopher and author, Mikhail Ryklin.

O tempora, o mores!

Today German lawmakers agreed to allow broader embryonic stem cell use. But they signaled their ambivalence by refusing to completely do away with restrictions.

Germany's science minister, Annette Schavan, said reforming the law was key to fostering research in Germany.

“This is a good day for both protecting life and also for research in Germany,“ Schavan, of the Christian Democratic Union, said after the vote Friday. *

Hear hear!

And may I add it is a good day for Mrs. Schavan et al.: Here questions like this one will not be asked.

There was, however, a German philosopher whose name is being pronounced like one of the words you could read in the devil's title: Kant.
And I am quite sure Kant would agree: What a bunch of hypocrites, per se!

Having followed the discussion about stem cell research from its beginning in the past milennium, I am not surprised, though.

To give you at least a glimpse, of what made me come to call hypocrites hypocrites, I commend reading this article.




* Full article here.

Wordy Wednesday IV

'Oh Sean - your Wordy Wednesday is now an institution.'

Of course, I could imagine one of his eyes twinkling when reading my dear friend James' (*) comment on last week's 'Wordy Wednesday'.

* Is it too much to call 'a' blogger your friend? - This, readers, is worth a post of itself, would you agree? :)
As this *idea* came - as most of my ideas - spontaneously - it would not be suprising, had you to remind me of this; in case you are interested in my thoughts/convictions. :)

Anyway, here's Wordy Wednesday IV. And again I do hope you will enjoy; and again I do ask you to leave comments on those posts you like (or dislike), 'cause (your) comments are the salt in the soup of any post. :)

Prodicus can be sure that I shall pinch this very post, but before doing so it's my pleasure linking to his site.
No, I do not agree to every detail he is posting about, but he's what I do call 'unique'.
In order to preparing you for what you are going to read:

I read the first part to Mrs. J, then stopped as if it were the end.
Her one word-comment: 'Impressive.'
Then I added the rest.
Mrs J: 'Sean, it's good to know you have an alibi. This would have been very embarrassing for me and the whole family.'
I, myself: Laughing and laughing and laughing.

Now you know a little more about my sense of humour, let's get a bit serious:
The Old Brit about a man I once (around 1990) tended to 'admire', until I started to learn that he has his personal Blairney stone (not to mix up with the Blarney Stone): Tony Blair.

Call me lazy: But here is another one by the Old Brit.

Ah, Ben Hur, ah Soylent Green; and despite I could go on praising the actor: here is the title I call the best of this week, made by Colin Campbell your host at the Adelaide Green Porridge Cafe. :)

No poem today? No. But a painting - by Fabian Perez**. Which one? Ah, difficult to decide. Actually, I should like to show you four. But as a copy of Dali's 'Girl in the window' (the fifth painting when you are scrolling) is hanging in our front building - I chose this one:

** Hat tip Sandra Singh at Internation Musings.

Remains a question to myself, tonight: Am I playing with Death, or is Death playing with me?

The Peace of the Night.

If the Games fail ...

"International companies are ignoring basic human rights in return for business opportunity, while the Communist party is offering profits in return for continued control of the internet and the ability to intimidate dissidents."

"The collusion of these two kinds of ugliness means that there is no way for western investment to promote freedom of speech in China, and that in fact it greatly increases the ability of the Communist party to blockade and control the internet.”

“You are helping the Communist party maintain an evil system of control over freedom of information and speech."

Three core statements from an open letter to yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang quoted by the Financial Times - almost 30 months ago, October 18th, 2005.
Its writer: Liu Xiaobo, Chinese intellectual human rights activist who accuses Yahoo of betraying its customers and supporting dictatorship by providing information on journalist Shi Tao to Chinese authorities.
Full article here.

Of course, Mr. Liu who had the pleasure of several years being spoilt by 'his' leaders' unlimited love - in prison - would be delighted by the increasement of voices demanding a boycott of the Olympic Games in Beijing, wouldn't he?

Hm, and that's what he said according to a yesterday published Spiegel-interview:

"That wouldn't be a good way to punish China. If the Games fail, human rights will suffer. The government would stop paying any attention to the rest of the world. I personally think: We want the Games and we want human rights to be respected."

And what do you think?