More on Felicia Langer and the German "Merit Cross"

The Baden-Württemberg government's account of the ceremony in which Felicia Langer received Germany's highest honor emphasizes Langer's engagement on behalf of "humanity," "peace," and "human rights." Who could object to that? But in the meanwhile, we know more about what government representative Hubert Wicker actually said at the ceremony and his words reveal that Langer’s anti-Israeli militancy was part and parcel of the reasons for bestowing the award upon her.

See my new post on NewMajority.com here.

Felicia Langer's "Special Contributions" to Germany

Why would Germany award its highest honor, “The Federal Cross of Merit, First Class”, to the Israel-bashing attorney Felicia Langer? An examination of a selection of her statements as taken from a variety of sources provides some obvious clues.

See my new article on NewMajority.com here.

Honduran Archbishop Blasts Zelaya and Chavez

According to the Catholic news agency Zenit, Cardinal Óscar Rodríguez Maradiaga, the Archbishop of Tegucigalpa, has said that the Catholic Church is "not taking sides" in the current conflict in Honduras. But this is hardly the impression one gets from a lengthy interview he has given to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

See my new report on the American Spectator blog here.

Obama: Working with the Pope to Help the World?

This is the title of an interview with President Obama that was published last week in an Italian Catholic daily -- though minus the question mark.

For some select quotes, see my new post on the American Spectator blog here.

Climate Change and Nazism: Sarko Said It First

Much of the blogosphere is presently up in arms about Al Gore comparing the "battle against climate change" to that against Hitler and Nazi Germany. But only a month ago, none other than French President Nicolas Sarkozy made precisely the same comparison during the ceremonies marking the 65th anniversary of the Normandy invasion.

See my new post on the American Spectator blog here.

EU Democracy: What an Endorsement!

One of the surprises of last month’s European Parliament elections was the success of the EU-critical list of the Austrian journalist Hans-Peter Martin. Martin’s “Dr. Martin List” won some 18% of the Austrian vote.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung recently ran a review of Martin’s book “The European Trap: The End of Democracy and Prosperity” [Die Europafalle: Das Ende von Demokratie und Wohlstand]. Reviewer Frank Decker accuses Martin of populism and employs a curious argument to support the charge:

It is certainly true that the elite-based structure of the EU may be one of the principal causes for the EU’s vexatious democracy deficit. But it also provides the explanation for the epoch-making progress in the process of [European] integration, which would never have been possible in a fully democratized system of decision-making.

Was Ahmadinejad an Accomplice to a 1989 Assassination in Vienna?

Since 2005, there have been rumors that Mahmud Ahmadinejad was involved in the July 1989 assassination of three Iranian Kurdish opposition figures in Vienna. Now, the Austrian politician Peter Pilz has published the deposition of a German arms-trafficker who appears to corroborate the claim. How credible are the allegations? And what lessons can be drawn from the 1989 episode as concerns the current power struggle in Iran? In fact, even supposing that Ahmadinejad was somehow involved, they are by no means as clear-cut as Peter Pilz would suggest.

See my new article on NewMajority.com here.