Germany

In light of the news that Barack Obama will be appearing with Hillary Clinton in Unity, New Hampshire on Friday, it's worth noting that Obama has already started borrowing from Clinton's campaign rhetoric.

"Germany, a country as cloudy as the Pacific Northwest, is now a world leader in the solar power industry and the quarter million new jobs it has created," Obama said today in Las Vegas.

That echoes Clinton's familiar, and sharper, line about Germany's solar power production. As she said in Fresno on October 24, "Explain to me why Germany gets more of its electricity from solar power than California.  read more »

At first glance, the cover of Susan Sontag’s final book—the  almost-complete manusc  read more »

In Oct.  read more »

Florian Henkel von Donnersmarck’s The Lives of Others, from his own screenplay, has been chose  read more »

Diane Keaton graces the screen so rarely that when she makes an appearance of any kind, attention mu  read more »

To the Editor:  read more »

It can happen here.  read more »

Germany-Argentina. Two great teams, playing a great competition. And what does it come down to in the end, the farce of penalty kicks! And one of the best players in the stadium, Lionel Messif, has never taken the field. I hate this game.

In a great sport, the ending is marked by the greatest achievement—Maxi Rodriguez's left foot in overtime against Mexico the other night, a dream goal. Letting a great competition drain off into the stultifying gutchurning spectacle of Penalty Kicks is as demoralizing as, say, letting a baseball game be decided by a home run derby contest with coaches from each side throwing batting practice. Or letting a football game be decided by a field goal competition. Or a basketball game come down to a competition from the free throw line.

Please change this game. Give us endless substitutions, so the world can see Messif, and Ballack is not crawling up and down the field, and the score is 3-2 or 2-1, not 1-1.

Soccer fans, tell me why I'm wrong.

On C-Span today, an executive for Amnesty International warns that 1 million men will enter Germany next month for the World Cup, likely resulting in an increase in trafficking of women. The Amnesty International web site speaks of the likelihood of "forced prostitution" surrounding the games.

I went into the Observer offices yesterday to see my editor. We're old friends. (Yes, Virginia, it is about who you know). I complimented him for the Sopranos cover of the Observer then I asked him what he was doing on The Da Vinci Code—why it wasn't in his paper. He said, "Are you crazy? It's a piece of shit movie based on a piece of shit book. Do you know anyone who thinks that's a good book, really? Do you know anyone?" I thought of a couple of people, but didn't want to open my mouth. "Mrs. Weiss doesn't like it, does she?" "She's read it," I said. (I haven't; it's not for me.)

When I got home I told my wife about the conversation and she agreed with my editor. She said, "It's not a very good thriller." "Then why did you read it?" "I read a lot of bad thrillers." I asked her to elaborate. She said, "It's badly written, formulaic, cliched, clunky, and shtik-driven. The book he wrote before has exactly the same structure. I think it's about the Pope."

I asked her why it was so successful—because of the Catholic church? She said, "No. It's the business of a thriller to make something scary up about something. You can say that the Nazis are going to rearm and take over Germany. That's what a thriller's supposed to do." I asked her again: "Well then how do you explain that it's been such a big hit?" "I can't. I'm mystified."

I don't usually stump my wife. I gotta get to the bottom of this.

"If you had told me we would have had this many people for a friggin' mortgage company opening--give me a break," said Donald Trump, speaking to several hundred people crammed into a lower level space at Trump Tower.

It's not typical that an 11 a.m. mortgage company launch could turn into a media circus.

"When Don [Trump, Jr.] and I struck the deal, we said, 'We'll have a new conference," continued Mr. Trump. "What we didn't expect was Extra!, Access Hollywood, Entertainment Tonight, and some of the other folks up here. Take a look Lois--my friend Lois [Weiss] from the New York Post."

Mr. Trump was joined by E.J. Ridings , the new company's President and CEO, and his son, who is also involved in the project. Sadly, Ivanka--who was scheduled to attend--didn't show up.

"The business they're doing is unbelievable," said Mr. Trump in typically, grandiose fashion. "Literally, we signed the lease a few months ago, they are going to take an additional floor."

And to appease the audience that was packed together (and the tourists riding up and down the escalator overhead, snapping photos on cell phones), Mr. Trump uttered the famous phrase. He told Mr. Ridings that the company needs to keep up with the current pace, or else....

"If it's not, E.J., You're fired!"

After Mr. Trump's short speech, the motley crew of reporters--ranging from Life & Style to National Mortgage News--pushed up to the stage where the developer was fielding questions.  read more »

One of the curiousities of American politics is the utter failure of the Green Party to make an impact, despite its strong presence in countries like Germany and the poll-tested appeal of environmental issues. (Ralph Nader is kind of the exception that proves this rule.)

The Web site of one of the Green candidates for Governor, Sander Hicks, offers a reason why. Hicks is a pleasant guy who runs a good coffee shop in my Brooklyn neighborhood and who started a successful small press. His main political thrust, however, is discovering who really committed the 9/11 attacks.

From the site:

"Our campaign does not claim the entire Federal Government was behind 9/11. But a secretive compartment of the US intelligence machine has close ties to Pakistani intelligence and their shock troops, "Al Qaeda". ...[I]ndependent Green candidate Sander Hicks wrote a devastating book about the 9/11 cover-up. Carefully sourced, his book has been called one of the best on the subject.

"Sander Hicks pledges that, as Governor, he will hold an independent investigation on the 9/11 attacks. 9/11 has ushered in an assault on the soul of America, and only an independent governor, working with the movement for truth, can lead us to start the healing."

Vote Green!

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A Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in the Conquered City, by Anonymous. Metropolitan, 261 pages, $23.  read more »

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In 1649, long before the phrase "ethnic cleansing" was introduced to the vocabulary of horror and at  read more »

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