Category Archives: Politics

Last scene of the fourth act

[Hindsight note: This prediction was wrong.] Most people won’t realize how serious this is until it happens. Within a week. June 26th was the Greek tragedy’s third act: The conflict couldn’t be resolved short of a catastrophe. The Greeks wouldn’t … Continue reading

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Confusion and the Morning After Pill

About two months ago the German bishops made the news with a statement on the Morning After Pill and rape. I was dissatisfied with basically all sides’ knee-jerk reactions but also too busy to explain lots of details. So  here’s … Continue reading

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It’s official

The circumcision act is in yesterday’s Bundesgesetzblatt (the federal official journal), which means it’s now in force and circumcision is again unambiguously legal in Germany. I guess there will be some unsuccessful court challenges, but basically it’s over. Here’s an … Continue reading

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Glooooooooooooooria in excelsis deeo!

So I kind of expected the committee to take its time, relegated the question to the back of my mind, forgot to follow the parliamentary calendar – and dropped the ball on reporting the main event. The Bundestag passed the … Continue reading

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The circumcision bill

Most of you are probably bored of my reports on Germany dealing  with that idiotic court decision on circumcision a few months ago. But I’m not relenting, so here’s the newest update: Today the federal cabinet resolved on the bill … Continue reading

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Returning to civilization

You may remember that in June a German court went berserk and found circumcision a crime. About two weeks later, I told you about government plans to clarify its legality statute. Now the ministry of justice is polling the states … Continue reading

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Circumcision update

After the circumcision judgment I mentioned about two weeks ago, the federal government has now announced it is committed to keep religious circumcision possible and restore the security of law rapidly and is presently investigating ways to to that including … Continue reading

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On that circumcision decision

You probably heard the news of a German court declaring circumcision illegal. As a German religion blogger blogging in English I probably should comment on that. So first I’ll explain what happened and then I’ll offer some commentary. The abstract … Continue reading

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Constitution blogging day wrapup

This ends my day of blogging on the German constitution. Technically, the day ended two hours ago, but I didn’t finish in time.  I didn’t cover everything worth covering. For example, a lot could be said about proportional representation, international … Continue reading

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Delegation and Europe

Germany is traditionally big on European integration. And indeed European integration has gone much further than anyone would have expected, say, 30 years ago. In fact it has gone much further than most Europeans realize. Right now I won’t explain … Continue reading

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