FAITH MATTERS: Trivializing evil is a GOP mistake
By Uwe Siemon-Netto It is disconcerting that probably the most compelling statement made in this year’s disagreeable U.S. election campaign has received virtually no public attention. Bishop Thomas John Paprocki of Springfield in Illinois warned Catholic voters of planks in the Democratic Party Platform “that explicitly endorse intrinsic evils.” He meant abortion and same-sex marriage. […]
WORLD MATTERS: Proud, for once, to be a German
By Uwe Siemon-Netto It’s been more than two years since my last visit to Germany, my native land. This time I traveled home at the height of the Eurozone crisis. I returned to California just before Christmas filled with pride in my compatriots. Don’t get me wrong. I am not particularly proud of the fact […]
JOURNALISM MATTERS: The Casey Anthony story and the demise of U.S. media
By Uwe Siemon-Netto No self-respecting newsman will shed a tear over the demise of The News of The World, London’s reprehensible Sunday paper whose reporters acted like a cross between KGB spooks and Mafia thugs for years. These weren’t journalists. Professional journalists don’t tap other people’s telephones; nor are professional journalists vile bigots stirring their […]
FAITH MATTERS: Explaining Germany’s anti-nuclear fanaticism: In a word, Schwärmerei
By Uwe Siemon-Netto Germany’s radical decision to quit nuclear power by 2022 has me worried, and not just for economic reasons. My concern is primarily philosophical for this development suggests the robust return of a troubling mindset that has served Germany and the world badly for centuries. It is called Schwärmerei, which translates literally into […]
WORLD MATTERS: Has Strauss-Kahn run amuck?
By Uwe Siemon-Netto We have been treated to degrading images of the unshaved, handcuffed Dominique Strauss-Kahn (“DSK“) after his arrest for an alleged sex offense of a very serious nature. We have seen the head of the International Monetary Fund, gaunt and hollow-cheeked, before Judge Melissa Jackson who sent him to Rikers Island, where he […]
HISTORY MATTERS: Did Lincoln owe his victory to Germans?
By Uwe Siemon-Netto One century ago, on the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the American Civil War, historian Wilhelm Kaufmann concluded that without his 216,000 German-born soldiers, President Abraham Lincoln could not have won that conflict. More recently, Thomas Adam, professor of history at the University of Texas in Arlington, suggested that this might […]
WORLD MATTERS: U.S. press ignores outrageous media award to an enemy of the free press
By Uwe Siemon-Netto When a renowned university of a major nation honors a despot for restricting his people’s access to information the world should be alarmed, especially the United States. Earlier this week, the journalism school of Argentina’s National University in La Plata awarded Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez its coveted Rodolfo Walsh Prize […]
FAITH MATTERS: Tsunami-inspired, angst-driven landslide in Germany
By Uwe Siemon-Netto “Angst is a bad counselor,” a German axiom says. Angst has just caused a landslide in the most prosperous state of Europe’s richest nation. Angst fed by the nuclear disaster 5,900 miles away in Japan has ended the Christian Democrats’ 58-year rule in Baden-Württemberg, home of industrial giants such as Daimler-Benz, the […]
WORLD MATTERS: Ashamed by Germany’s cowardice
By Uwe Siemon-Netto This column calls for an elucidation: I am German, and I am ashamed by the cowardly foreign policy of the government I had voted for. My country’s abstention in the United Nations Security Council’s vote to enforce a no-flight zone over Libya and her refusal to participate in NATO’s military operations are […]
FAITH MATTERS: The tsunami last week and the Apocalypse . . . eventually
By Uwe Siemon-Netto The Bible cautions believers against speculating about the date and time of the Apocalypse, although current world events and calamities seem to invite such conjecture. There are the uprisings in the Middle East. In Japan, the tsunami and earthquake disasters are fueling nuclear fears. And then the nuttiness of clergymen fitting Luther’s […]