On December 14th, which is two days from now, the winner of the Worst EU Lobbying Award 2005 will be announced in Brussels. Since then everybody can vote on his or her favourite. Or, as the organisers of the award put it:

This is your opportunity to decide which of the ten cases deserves to be remembered as the most ruthless influence peddler, the fastest spinner of spin, the grand master of disguise, in short who will become the ‘Worst EU Lobbying’ Award 2005 champion.

As of today, the Campaing for Creativity (C4C) is leading with 87 percent. C4C is lobbying pro software patents and - although backed up by SAP, Mircosoft and others - claims to be an initiative supported by individuals. It was nominated as "a fake NGO brilliantly disguising corporate demands as grassroots concerns".

Tired of living in a village where nothing ever happens? Looking for 15 minutes of fame? Why not create some crop circles and wait what amazing stuff some people will find out about the place you are living? But stay mystic, don't get too concrete.

I don't know what's happening, maybe it's the weather. Two Months after her 100. birthday, Grete Humbach died on April 20th in Cologne. Grete Humbach was one of the few people who actively fought the Nazis in Germany, and therefore earns deepest respect. Beeing a communist, she also was persecuted in the early days of the Federal Republic.

Spiegel Online will einen Skandal gefunden haben, wo keiner ist: Hitlers Mein Kampf in der Micky Maus?

Das ist ein alter Hut. Allerdings ist die fragliche Geschichte April Foolers zum ersten Mal unzensiert in einer Micky Maus erschienen. Die Originalversion - mit Mein Kampf auf der Müllhalde - war bisher nur in der Barks Library Comics Nr. 18 verfügbar. In ältere Versionen wurde Mein Kampf retuschiert:

Carl Barks put this book on the trash dump where it belongs. With it Barks made a statement about Hitler, bigotry and the culture of hate. All this belongs to the lowest of places, the trash.It seems that Barks made a pretty inside gag into his story that appeals especially to the older readers. And yet when the German editor and translator came across this gag they decided to cut it out. [...] The editor of the German comic book "Micky Maus" confirmed my first assumption but gave me another reason. This cover has no place in a Disney comic, he said. I am of a different opinion. Why can't there be a place in a Disney story that can be understood by the grown-ups who will be pleased by this little inside gag. As I saw it for the first time I thought that Carl Barks had found the perfect place for this book.

Profaner warf man dem deutschen Ehapa-Verlag einfach Zensur vor. So ändern sich die Zeiten - und wie man's macht ist es verkehrt.

Ein pikantes Detail am Rande: Obwohl gleich drei AutorInnen für die Non-Story verantwortlich zeichnen, wusste anscheinend niemand von ihnen, dass Carl Barks kein Deutscher war.