George Bush's brief "massage" of Angela Merkel's shoulders at the G-8 summit in Saint Petersburg last week has provoked a sort of fit of mass hysteria in those parts of the American media, both old and new, whose authors and editors were already the most severely afflicted by Bush-Derangement-Syndrome. Symptoms have included, for instance, a long pseudo-scholarly disquisition on whether the gesture constitutes "sexual harassment" (from the International Herald Tribune) and the knowing assurance from a young American blogger in Germany that "the Germans [seemingly all of them without exception] are pissed!"  
 

In an article on George Bush's visit to Germany last week, the NYTimes reported that German Chancellor Angela Merkel (in a joint press conference with the President) had insisted that Israel "must use proportionate means" in its current conflict with Hezbollah. The problem is: she didn’t say that. For what she did say and for a comparison between George Bush's reception in Germany this time and his reception in Germany in May 2002, during his first visit to Germany, see my new article on TCSDaily.

Two years ago the New York Times declared that "desperate poverty" in Europe had been "abolished". The streets of Paris tell a different story. For more, see my new article "France's New Poverty" on TCS Daily.

My apologies for the lack of activity recently on the site. Expect things to stay slow for the remainder of July and August and then pick up again in September. I strongly encourage regular readers to sign up for the newsletter via the sign-up box to the left. This will ensure that you are notified when the site becomes more active again. All it requires is an e-mail address and, of course, this address will not be shared with third parties.