Tag Archives: politics

Last scene of the fourth act

Posted on 2015-07-12 by Gilbert

[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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Oversimplification by Catholic cardinals and atheist bloggers

Posted on 2013-04-19 by Gilbert

Atheist blogger JT Eberhard has a piece accusing the Catholic Church of supporting the Pinochet regime in Chile. This is somewhat surprising given the conventional wisdom is that the Chilean Catholic Church under Cardinal Silva basically ran what little internal … Continue reading →

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It’s official

Posted on 2012-12-28 by Gilbert

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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And another note on the circumcision bill

Posted on 2012-11-13 by Gilbert

Like I predicted, the Bundesrat forworded the circumcision bill to the Bundestag without objections. The first reading in the Bundestag is scheduled for the 208th session on the 22nd of November.  Thats a bit later than I predicted, probably because … Continue reading →

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Returning to civilization

Posted on 2012-09-25 by Gilbert

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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The prophesy of Caiaphas

Posted on 2012-09-09 by Gilbert

So the chief priests and the Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin and said, “What are we going to do? This man is performing many signs. If we leave him alone, all will believe in him, and the Romans will come and … Continue reading →

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Some political worrying on the side

Posted on 2012-08-01 by Gilbert

So when the Euro unravels and if it does so disorderedly, how much of the rest of European integration does it take down with it?

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Constitution blogging day wrapup

Posted on 2012-03-18 by Gilbert

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

Posted on 2012-03-18 by Gilbert

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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No direct democracy

Posted on 2012-03-17 by Gilbert

One standard criticism of the Basic Law is that it doesn’t allow the people to ever vote on federal laws directly. This is a point I fully agree with. As I said in my last post, a simple majority at … Continue reading →

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