They say that they’re all against beating demonstrators, of course.

Top diplomats from all but two EU embassies in Iran attended the inauguration of president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran on Wednesday (5 August). The Swedish EU presidency, the UK, France, Spain, Finland, Greece and the Czech republic were present at ambassador level, the Swedish foreign ministry told EUobserver.

Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia sent charges d'affaires - acting heads of mission when the ambassador is away.

The British foreign office in a statement described its decision to attend as "hard-headed diplomacy."

"We have not sent a message of congratulations to president Ahmadinejad. But ...communication channels have to be kept open," it also said.

Only Germany and Austria stood out by sending lower rank representatives.

Mourn, if you can. In very continental fashion, philosopher (and aren't they all philosophers...) Francis Jeanson made the argument that for the love of his country it had to be defeated, an argument he continued to qualify and recycle as he went along. Doesn’t that sound familiar?

In "Our war", a book published in 1960 and immediately seized from the shelves, he explained his fight, responding to those who accused him of supporting France’s enemies that he was defending France’s values.

Tried in absentia and sentenced in October 1960 to ten years in prison after the trial of its network of associates, he was pardoned in 1966.

He then turned to the cultural and social work in psychiatric institutions.

About 100 local residents and Chinese migrant workers have clashed in the Algerian capital, some brandishing knives and rods, reports say.

"I told him not to park his car in front of my shop, but he insulted me," 31-year-old Abdelkrim Salouda said.

I am tempted to look for the pull string in their backs when I hear over and over and over and over about the inherent wrongness of American social practices. One which always has as a counterpoint of the European supremacists the idea that something that is done right is explained as simply being European, always as if wasn’t the policy, idea, or measure that offers a planet holding its’ breath for wisdom to be thankful for, but something about their culture or race which conveniently explains anything that need not be explained to point to the superiority of whatever nutty example is brought out to make that point.

One bright American PoliSci major suffering through the Kabuki of being a straw man for his fellow students in Germany explains this tedious phenomenon which has been going on for centuries, with Europeans lecturing others even when they stand on the rubble of the lives they and their forbearers have thrown away idly.

As a student studying in Berlin for the year, I’m fighting that tired stereotype Europeans hold of the United States of America: that Americans are heartless and lack compassion. They point to our cutthroat capitalist system as well as our failure to guarantee a more equitable distribution of our nation’s wealth. They also bring up the disregard we show for the natural environment. One even mentioned our propensity to resort to violence, both domestically with our high incidence of gun-related crimes and internationally with our notion of foreign intervention.

I stopped my selfish habit of simply placing my empty bottles in the trash can; I now prefer flinging them into bushes that homeless people must eventually sleep in, or setting them down right after I chug them on street corners, in order to save them some searching. I imagine as a sort of homeless treasure hunt, all facilitated by my heartfelt generosity.

As much as I never much respected Montgomery Clift’s choices, I can recommend this very interesting picture from 1950 centered around Berliners and American Airmen during the Berlin Airlift. Made in Berlin on location not even a year after the Airlift ended, it also offers a hidden surprise to Berlinophiles and history buffs, a sense of what the city looked like in 1950 which is especially interesting to those who know those same urban features as they are today, and what they were like before the wall came down, leading to the the eventual dissolution of the German Democratic Republic, an event that will see its’ 20th anniversary this fall.

You’ll note in the film the sight of the civilian population clearing rubble, knocking the mortar off of brick, and placing them in neat piles. It’s worth noting that in many parts of the east, some of those pallet-stacks of bricks remained untouched for 35 years.

Who knew that a totalitarian leftist regime could be SO, um, “ with it” as to take up a rather incongruous sexual fetish – especially for a society where the proletariat are all so “equal,” and being absorbed with oneself is a state crime. Unless you’re one of the of the elite in that society where everyone is supposed to be equal. In that case, it’s everyone else that get the golden shower.

Then again, when you’re done foraging for non-collectivist food, what else are you going to do?

תודה, גיא ביישן -

When all the right people hate you...

The group condemned the use of the interview with Mr Abu Aita. “This was a dirty use of our brother, Ayman, and we don’t accept that the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades is part of the film,” the statement said.

Mr Abu Aita claims that he was tricked into appearing in the film and that he is no longer involved with the Martyrs’ Brigades. He has threatened to sue Baron Cohen. “This man, I think he is not a man,” Mr Abu Aita said. “He is not saying the truth about me. He lied.”