"This is Europe," a commitment by The Guardian "to reporting on every aspect of Europe."

As the Manchester newspaper lately is making clear: Britain is leaving Europe. The Guardian is not.

The result is a series called "This is Europe," and accordingly, since I've just cancelled our subscription to The New York Times (no David Brooks or Thomas Friedman, ever again -- the dipshits), I plan to up the yearly tithe to The Guardian.

First things first. This pictorial was exhilarating and depressing in equal measure. Surely one of these 27 countries will take us in as refugees from American "exceptionalism." Looking at these views and contemplating these places makes me yearn.

Our Europe: 27 things we love about the continent

To celebrate Europe, writers in all 27 EU countries share a favourite place that evokes the spirit of their nation.

Somehow the photo of Mystra, Greece was omitted, so I found one and posted it here. I've been to all these countries save on (Cyprus), and if time permits, it would be fun to offer my own choice of favorite places experienced during the past 35 years of traveling.+

Here's an excerpt from The Guardian editor Katharine Viner's introduction to the series of articles about Europe.

Today we are making a renewed and deeper commitment to reporting on every aspect of Europe – the continent, its people, its politics, institutions, economy and culture.

The Guardian is a European news organisation with a close relationship with our large and committed audience in Europe. And we believe readers, from Paris to Porto, Madrid to Munich, want journalism that tries to understand our continent better and to explore hopeful solutions to the crises and challenges facing it. At this critical moment in history, where many are turning to disengagement, introspection and national self-interest, we will stay open to shared perspectives and the public sphere.
We will interview and challenge European leaders. We will tease out trends and dig into the data that tells us why life is different in Copenhagen, Cardiff and Cádiz. We will focus on the things that unite us as Europeans: culture, food, business, the arts, sport, books, science, health, ideas.

From now on, European voices, issues and people will be more visible and present across everything we publish, from our news pages to opinion, to culture to fashion and beyond ...

... From Monday we will launch a dedicated space on our digital front page with news from, and about, European issues – take a look at theguardian.com. We are relaunching our curated This is Europe newsletter, covering all things European, which will now be weekly – readers can sign up here. And in future we will also host live events in Europe to bring our readers and supporters together.

In Europe today, crises and challenges – migration, the environment, populism, the digital revolution, contagious diseases – almost always transcend national borders. But so does the Guardian, as a genuinely transnational publisher. As Britain moves further from the EU in political terms, we know many of our readers both in the UK and across Europe remain as interested as ever in common themes and common ground, in all that we share. We will meet that need by informing Britain about Europe, Europe about Britain, and

Europeans about each other.

Family planning: the unsung human right.

International Planned Parenthood Federation

Then there is this.

Pro-choice activists have delivered abortion pills to women in Northern Ireland using a drone. The stunt aimed to highlight the strict laws around terminations on both sides of the Irish border.

It is the impetus for an editorial.

EDITORIAL: the Guardian view on family planning: the unsung human right 

Millions of women are barred either by cultural taboo, cost or availability from being able to decide for themselves when they have children. Empowering them to take control should be a basic objective of every human health project.

"Prejudice tends not to arise directly from low intelligence but from the conservative ideologies to which people of low intelligence are drawn."

Been to a city council meeting lately, George?

The right's stupidity spreads, enabled by a too-polite left; Conservativism may be the refuge of the dim. But the room for rightwing ideas is made by those too timid to properly object, by George Monbiot (guardian.co.uk)

Yes, conservatism thrives on low intelligence and poor information. But the liberals in politics on both sides of the Atlantic continue to back off, yielding to the supremacy of the stupid. It's turkeys all the way down.

The 1%: "Their apparent success is a cognitive illusion."

Required reading for One Southern Indiana's wannabe small-pond oligarchs.

The 1% are the very best destroyers of wealth the world has ever seen; Our common treasury in the last 30 years has been captured by industrial psychopaths. That's why we're nearly bankrupt, by George Monbiot (guardian.co.uk)

If wealth was the inevitable result of hard work and enterprise, every woman in Africa would be a millionaire. The claims that the ultra-rich 1% make for themselves – that they are possessed of unique intelligence or creativity or drive – are examples of the self-attribution fallacy. This means crediting yourself with outcomes for which you weren't responsible. Many of those who are rich today got there because they were able to capture certain jobs. This capture owes less to talent and intelligence than to a combination of the ruthless exploitation of others and accidents of birth, as such jobs are taken disproportionately by people born in certain places and into certain classes.

A glorious autumn day for "The Ides of March."

Gracious, has it really been six years since this?

George Clooney's “Good Night, and Good Luck” will lure NA Confidential to the multiplex.

Yesterday afternoon, we viewed Clooney's most recent politically-themed work, and found it very good. The campaign platform Clooney espouses in the film as the character of Governor Morris perfectly positions Clooney, Morris or both as the candidate I'd happily favor in 2012, although perhaps there is still hope Barack Obama will embrace them.

The Ides of March – review, by Philip French (http://observer.guardian.co.uk)

The Ides of March is a serious film that reveals Clooney as a director capable of welding his fellow performers into a superb ensemble while sustaining both dramatic tension and moral focus. He's a liberal of a critical kind, and his respect for the audience takes the form of expecting us to understand that in bringing a self-critical searchlight to bear on events surrounding the Democratic party he isn't attacking the liberal left. He's simply addressing himself to the complications and vagaries of electoral politics.

From the Guardian: "Occupy protests mapped around the world."

Occupy protests mapped around the world

Where are the Occupy protests taking place in the world after the camps in Wall Street and Madrid? See the full list of places we have found so far - and help us collect more

• Explore the list - and help us add more
The map shows events for which there is at least one independent verification, based on readers suggestions and Guardian research. It's possible we're missing details - go to the full list to add or change events

As briefly as possible.

Anniversaries provide writers with an invitation to compete with each other for profundity. I’ve taken the bait myself, and plead abject guilt wherever it is applicable. However, I will not indulge as we near the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, other than noting the occasion in this paragraph, and reprinting the Guardian link below.

Numerous other scribes far more talented will unleash their skills, and many already have. Some of them might even be worth reading. All I’ll say is that history is meaningless without the perspective of a longer view, and this standpoint of judgment will be impossible to fathom until long after we're dead. The Civil War began 150 years ago, and we've yet to reach conclusions on its legacy. This is the way of the world, whether we like it, or not.

9/11: A 'babble of idiots'? History has been the judge of that ... The Guardian's comment editor at the time of 9/11 on a savage response to those who foresaw the reality of a war on terror

"World Beard and Moustache Championships - in pictures."

From The Guardian. Why am I suddenly nostalgic for the Oakland A's baseball club, circa 1972? And who does the US champ Burke Kenny think he is, anyway? An owner/employee of Three Floyds Brewing Company?

World Beard and Moustache Championships - in pictures

The contest, which took place this year in Trondheim in Norway, began in 1990 and has been running regularly since 1995. Entrants compete in an array of moustache, partial beard and full beard categories.

Thomas Cook timetables live!

I concede to a fit of nostalgia: A bag filled with dirty clothes, salami and bread, Eurailpass, and the Thomas Cook timetable. Later, I fell in love with the bicycle as mode of European transport. But trains ... ahh.

In praise of ... Thomas Cook timetables Guardian Editorial

You don't have to be an obsessive to find a sort of romance in their pages - and happily they now record a growing rail service ...

Not bridges, but a railway project in the UK.

There's a great line in The Guardian's look at a resumption of local rail service in County Durham, UK -- and from a man of the cloth, no less:

The Northerner: Weardale Railway is back but gravy train has left the station.

... The train that left Bishop Auckland at 11.40am on Saturday was blessed by the Dean of Durham, the Rt Rev Michael Sadgrove, a railway enthusiast.

He said: "I believe God cares about the whole of life, and this includes the welfare of local communities for whom the railways mean a great deal, and the many visitors who come to north-east England, who we hope will enjoy the best possible experience of our region.

"This railway will enhance the lives of both visitors and the people who live and work in Weardale. Railways also make an important contribution to creating sustainable environments, and this too is a real benefit."

I suspect that in our neck of the woods, more than a few preachers caught talking about "sustainable environments" would be regarded with suspicion. Shouldn't he be prattling on about gays, abortion and curbing personal freedoms?

The second half of the story details the budget cuts to come as Britain's new coalition government sharpens its axe for wielding against those regions of the country more likely to have supported the losing party, Labour. Perhaps all they need is a Major Move or two, eh, Mitch Daniels?

UK election: Lib Dem coalition with Labour?

As previewed here in early March, the British have had their election, and "nobody won." Now what?

The scenario outlined in the Guardian's editorial below is less implausible than it might seem at first glance. A coalition of all non-Tory parties, including Scots and Welsh nationalists and a stray Green, would total roughly the 326 seats needed to keep the still reviled Conservatives safely away from #10 Downing St. However, there is some question whether the non-right should even bother, given the approaching painful phenomenon that Thomas Friedman refers to as "root canal politics" in today's New York Times.

To seize this historic moment, the Lib Dems must turn to Labour ... To ensure the country's support, Gordon Brown must announce his plans to step down, a Guardian editorial.

Nobody won. That is the basic definition of a hung parliament. The newly elected members might not see it that way. The leaders of the three main parties might couch the results of last week's election in historical and statistical terms that make them feel better. But the fact remains: nobody won.

The Conservatives have the most plausible claim to some kind of victory. They took the highest national share of the vote and gained 97 seats. But Mr Cameron was battling to restore majority Conservative rule. He campaigned vigorously against a hung parliament, all but demanding unchecked power. He was rebuffed: 10.7 million people voted for Tory government; more than 15 million people did not.

But the non-Tory vote was divided, largely between Labour and Liberal Democrats. Despite many local skirmishes, there is a strain of cousinly feeling in both parties that sees the Tories as a common enemy. From that impulse now springs the idea that Labour and the Lib Dems could join forces to prevent Mr Cameron from taking power.

Guardian comentary: "The Republicans are like frat boys in Animal House."

I wouldn't have looked to "Animal House" for analogies, but if the shoe fits ...

The Republicans are like frat boys in Animal House; Reckless, anarchic and strident, the American right is living in a parallel world where fear and rage drive out the facts, by Gary Younge (Guardian).

... On the one hand there are the Blutos – characterised by their contempt for even the most basic facts. Their assertions are often not only verifiably false but patently ridiculous. The very people who claim that Obama is a Muslim were the ones who fumed about his relationship with Reverend Jeremiah Wright, his pastor in Chicago. Muslims don't have pastors. Last year the Investor's Business Daily claimed that if the renowned scientist Stephen Hawking were British he would be dead: Hawking is British and alive.

Charlie Brooker: "Newspapers are the biggest threat to the nation's mental wellbeing."

The United Kingdom, that is. It's classic Brit-write, with wonderful drug abuse analogies, and a topic often addressed here at NAC.

The most dangerous drug isn't meow meow. It isn't even alcohol ..., by Charlie Brooker (The Guardian).

... In its purest form, a newspaper consists of a collection of facts which, in controlled circumstances, can actively improve knowledge. Unfortunately, facts are expensive, so to save costs and drive up sales, unscrupulous dealers often "cut" the basic contents with cheaper material, such as wild opinion, bullshit, empty hysteria, reheated press releases, advertorial padding and photographs of Lady Gaga with her bum hanging out.

Sugar high for the GOP as Brown carries Massachusetts.

Maybe now that Republicans nationwide are in such a good mood, the ones in Indiana will vote in favor of our Sunday growler sales legislation, based on a consideration of its merits, and not burying their heads to ask what God thinks. Funny, that deity, and I was going to ask about God's whereabouts when Barack Obama was elected, but why dabble in theology when Progressive Pints are so much more enriching?

Brown wins, now what?, by Michael Tomasky (Guardian).

... (Scott) Brown ran a smart race. He worked at it harder than (Martha) Coakley did. His name will appear instantly now in GOP veepstakes conversations, and I guess it deserves to. He won a seat the GOP hasn't won since the 1940s. But conservatives, caveat emptor: he's pro-choice. Or at least, that's how he ran this race. Kinda rules him out.

But the more vital question now is what the Democrats do with their importantly but ever-so-slightly diminished majority. Do they cave on everything? Do they act as if they just lost not one seat, but 19 more?

But it was a peachy photo-op, wasn't it?

In the Guardian, Timothy Garton Ash recalls the fall of the Berlin Wall in the context of the year 1989, "the biggest year in world history since 1945."

With Mikhail Gorbachev's breathtaking renunciation of the use of force (a luminous example of the importance of the individual in history), a nuclear-armed empire that had seemed to many Europeans as enduring and impregnable as the Alps, not least because it possessed those weapons of total annihilation, just softly and suddenly vanished.

Nowhere in this article does Ash so much as mention Ronald Reagan's name ... nor should he.

Best headline of the day, so far.

Britglish practiced by native speakers ...

France: 'Autistic Tories castrated Britain in Europe'

Minister says Cameron pledge to reclaim EU powers is 'pathetic' and will leave UK isolated

Are squat scenes moveable?

It is Bastille Day, but my attention is drawn to this slice of German life:

Welcome to Berlin's squat scene, by Molly Gunn (Guardian/Observer).

Derelict buildings are reopening as 'living projects', offering everything from cheap food and parties to classical concerts.

Everytime I look at Bill Allen's building on Main Street ...