Eddie Campbell

Eddie Campbell interview in comics form.

He's the greatest.

Killer Workout

Do gyms breed terrorists?

The three cells appear to have had at least one thing in common, though—their members' immersion in gym culture. Often, they met and bonded over a workout. If you'll forgive the pun, they were fitness fanatics. Is there something about today's preening and narcissistic gym culture that either nurtures terrorists or massages their self-delusions and desires? Mosques, even radical ones, emphasize Muslims' relationships with others—whether it be God, the ummah (Islamic world), or the local community. The gym, on the other hand, allows individuals to focus myopically on themselves.

Political Tide Still Flowing Leftward in Italy

Prodi's majorities in Parliament are still slim, and factional infighting is likely to remain Florentine, but Berlusconi's political fortunes continued to float away in municipal elections just passed.

The municipal elections held in Italy from May 28 to 29 did not offer Berlusconi the revenge he was seeking. Massimo Giannini, the daily's deputy editor, looks at the results and at a missed opportunity for the former prime minister. "The revenge, the dirty trick, the stiff uppercut, whatever the precise lexical nuance, Berlusconi's political sally has failed. The municipal elections as an instrument of grass-roots 'Jacquerie' that was supposed to definitively deprive the centre-left government of its legitimacy - this strategy did not work. ... And the 15 million Italians who went to the polls did not change the result of April 9 to 10 [legislative elections]. Much to the contrary. ... The centre-left no longer has an alibi; it now has no choice but to govern. It can count on a new base: the roughly three million young people who massively voted for it."

From La Repubblica via Eurotopics

No Way Forward in France?

An establishment voice casts further doubt on whether French elites see possible progress in the European Union

Jacques Julliard, the weekly's deputy editor, explains in an interview with François Sionneau that he does not see how the constitution could return to the agenda. "Projecting five to 10 years into the future - the most that is possible - I am frankly not that optimistic about Europe's political hopes. We have fallen too far behind. We must also remember that an enormous gap exists between the motivations that pushed people to vote 'no' - reasons having to do with domestic politics which may be legitimate - and the consequences of this 'no', which transcend domestic politics and are not remediable in the short term. The world's major dates with destiny will proceed without Europe. Large European countries will participate, but not as a Union."

From Le Nouvel Observateur, via Eurotopics.

The Union's energy is now mostly coming from the east, but will it be able to overcome blockages from the old members in the west?

Start in Cologne.

The New York Times' Jeff Z. Klein decided to go to Germany early so he could tell his travelling countrymen how to best organize their trip to and through Germany during the football world cup next month. Now he's all figured it out, and it's easy: If You're going to "The World Cup's World Class Party", start in Cologne, he says,

"... where the spirit is welcoming and properly fixated on fussball.

"The World Cup is not really for us here," said Christian, a 40-ish punk musician who was watching the German Cup Final in a tiny bar on Weidengasse. "It's for all the people coming from around the world."

Raising his glass of whiskey and laughing he added, "And we'll be right here ready to show everyone a good time."