Adapting the phrase from the Roman poet Horace, Wilfred Owen during World War I turned "it is was sweet and seemly to die for one’s country" into an anti-war poem. He may have had a point when it came to that war, a war that destroyed the very best of Europe’s young men and, in my view, set it on a downward spiral. Today Western Europe, with all its glorious architecture, art, and music seems like a living Disneyland. Take, for example, the fire that gobbled up the roof and spire of one of Paris’ most enduring symbols, Notre Dame. The cathedral was built over a long period of time (almost two centuries) as a testament to faith and a binding treasure of a nation. The embers still glowed when architects floated notions of redoing it into, among others, the base of an amusement-meditation center with a swimming pool rooftop:  Stockholm-based firm Ulf Mejergren Architects this week unveiled its plan to turn the roof into a giant...(Read Full Article)