German Of The Day: Moschee

December 18, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: Berlin, German, Germans, Germany, ISIS, Islam, Islamist Terror, Language, Mosques, Raids, Salafists, Terror Leave a comment

That means mosque. You know, like the one in Berlin Wedding that got raided today for suspected terror financing?

Ask Thilo Sarrazin. He’ll tell you why this type of thing comes about.

Police raided a mosque and several other buildings in Berlin on Tuesday morning in an operation into suspected terrorism financing, prosecutors said…

State criminal police, intelligence officers as well as special police forces took part in the raids, which included the As-Sahaba mosque in the Berlin neighborhood of Wedding.

The As-Sahaba mosque is under surveillance by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency and is considered an important meeting point for members of Germany’s radical Salafist scene, according to the Berliner Morgenpost newspaper.

The mosque was founded in 2010 by the German-Egyptian Islamist Reda Seyam, who is accused of taking part in a terror attack in Bali, according to the paper. He later left Germany to travel to Syria to become the “education minister” for the militant “Islamic State” (IS) group.

Back To Nature

December 16, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Higher Education, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: Environmentalism, German, Germans, Germany, Myth, Nature, Reality, Wovles Leave a comment

Or don’t turn your back to it, I should say.

Ah, the wolf. What a romantic, wonderful, mythical creature. Until recently, that is, when things started getting real again. Wasn’t nature supposed to be warm and cuddly and friendly and nice? These new wolves are turning out to be real pricks, however. They must have been ruined through their contact with human civilization.

Wolves are making a big comeback in Germany, which is making some Germans uneasy.

Farmers and hunters drove the species out of the country over 150 years ago, but conditions for wolves became more welcoming in 1990, after Germany’s reunification extended European endangered species protections to the eastern part of the country.

… He says government officials are insensitive to the worries of people living in the countryside. He thinks urban Germans have come to romanticize the returning wolves. “They think, ‘Aww, it’s a nice wolf, and he needs to be in nature and be free.’ But people raised in the countryside, they don’t need the wolf anymore.”

Don’t We Already Have A Generation X?

December 14, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking Tags: Birth Register, Diverse, Gender, German, Germans, Germany, Sex 1 Comment

Or maybe I just don’t understand x-actly what that means anymore.

The German parliament was forced by the courts to make “diverse” an option on the birth register. Critics are split on whether the law goes too far, or not far enough.

I’ll go with too far. I would even be OK with x-tremely too far.

The “third gender” option places Germany in line with other countries that have introduced measures to recognize intersex people or a third gender, such as Austria, Australia, New Zealand, India, Canada and Portugal.

Right. So that’s when the next “logical” step follows…

The Lesbian and Gay Federation in Germany also hit out at the law, saying it was disappointing it only took into account physical characteristics when determining gender.

I really feel like an x-traterrestrial on this planet sometimes.

If It Wasn’t For No-Deal I Would’t Have No Deal At All

December 13, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: Brexit, EU, German, Germans, Germany, Theresa May Leave a comment

Germany Prepares for No-Deal Brexit to Avert Financial Turmoil

Tick-tock, tick-tock… Wake up and smell the tea, people.

“The only thing I can tell citizens in Germany is that we’re working hard on ensuring an orderly Brexit and that, in parallel, we’re preparing for the eventuality that it won’t be orderly.”

Mays bitterer Sieg – Brexit-Hardliner forderten Theresa May heraus – in einer Vertrauensabstimmung hat sich die Tory-Chefin durchgesetzt. Doch ein Befreiungsschlag gelingt ihr nicht.

Just A Normal German Wedding

December 12, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Habeas Corpus, Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hostility, Hurt Feelings Tags: Arab Clans, Asylum Seekers, Berlin, Clans, Funerals, German, Germans, Germany, Lebanese Clans, Migrants, Organized Crime, Refugees, Weddings Leave a comment

You know, Germans with their big families and all?

And their extended families? And those that extend from there? Like the Corleones? Only they’re actually Lebanese?

Criminal Arab clans are really big these days in Germany. Literally. So that’s why hundreds of German cops make sure to attend weddings and funerals with thousands of guests whenever “The Godfather of Berlin” or “El Presidente” and their crews get together for social events of this nature. Like yesterday in Mülheim. It helps keep the dialogue between the various Parallelgesellschaften (parallel societies) going or something.

Mahmoud Al-Zein ist kein Geringerer als der „Pate von Berlin“, eine der schillerndsten Figuren der arabischen Clans in Deutschland.

Eco-Death Zone Idylle

December 11, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Hideology, Higher Education, History Tags: Berlin, Berlin Wall, Cartoons, Ecosystems, Environment, Foraging, German, Germans, Germany, Nature Leave a comment

Put back up the Berlin Wall again already. For nature’s sake.

Bombweed. Yum! Wild Thyme, Burdock and Evening Primrose shimmy through concrete and broken stone…

As part of our new series The Illustrated City, Ali Fitzgerald reveals Berlin’s hidden spaces, where the flora and fauna are wild – if you know where to look.

No Subsidies, No Service

December 10, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology Tags: Energy, German, Germans, Germany, Renewable energy, Subsidies, Wind Energy Leave a comment

Twenty years of government subsidies apparently aren’t enough to make German wind parks profitable.

Once the subsidies run out in 2020 thousands of perfectly functioning wind turbines will have to be taken out of service. You can only make money with this technology if its subsidized by the tax payer? Maybe there’s something wrong with this business model.

Doch damit ist Ende 2020 Schluss – die Förderung gibt es nur für zwanzig Jahre. Was tun? Die Anlagen einfach abreißen, obwohl sie noch bestens in Schuss sind? Oder lässt sich mit ihnen auch ohne staatliche Unterstützung Geld verdienen?

A Day That Will Live In Infamy

December 7, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: AKK, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, CDU, German, Germans, Germany, Hamburg, Mini-Merkel Leave a comment

Meet Mini-Me. As in Mini-Merkel. Same as the old boss. Only mini-er.

That’s just what this country needs. More of the same. But if that’s what Dr. Evil wants, that’s what Dr. Evil gets. Whoopee or something.

Merkel, 64, later handed the baton to a successor at the party congress in Hamburg.

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who was widely seen as the chancellor’s favorite and has been branded a “mini-Merkel” by some media outlets, was elected as her replacement on Friday.

Kramp-Karrenbauer — who often goes by her initials AKK — got about 52 percent of the vote in in a run-off with Friedrich Merz, a former lawmaker who left politics to work as a corporate lawyer.

Mini-Me? Mini-Me? For God’s sake would someone put a fricken bell on her or something.

Warn?

December 6, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hypocrisy Tags: CDU, Energy, German, Germans, Germany, Nord Stream 2, Pipeline, Russia 1 Comment

Warn? Sure. But nothing will change.

German Conservatives Warn on Russian Pipeline Project – Contenders for Angela Merkel’s seat as head of the CDU question controversial project amid mounting Kremlin aggression.

An official close to Ms. Merkel said the German government wouldn’t have any legal means of stopping the pipeline as authorities have already issued permits and construction was under way.

How convenient.

“Many people inside Germany are coming to realize what most people outside of Germany already know: It is unwise to give Russia more influence over Europe’s energy security,”

The Wrath Of Khan

December 5, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helections, Home Cooking, Hostility, Hurt Feelings Tags: AKK, Angela Merkel, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, CDU, Friedrich Merz, German, Germans, Germany, Political Parties, Rivalries, Wolfgang Schäuble 2 Comments

Only this Khan’s name is Wolfgang.

Maybe this Friedrich Merz has a chance of becoming head of the Christian Democrats (CDU) this Friday after all. Wolfgang Schäuble, the seventy-six-year-old CDU Urgestein (bedrock) who should have/would have been chancellor, is supporting Merz wholeheartedly. He is doing this out of conviction, of course, but he also has an ax to grind with Empress Merkel Herself (who wants Mini-Merkel to take over for her – and can’t stand Merz). Like Helmut Kohl before her, her rise to power came with a major political setback for Schäuble. Now it’s payback time. Better late than never.

“Of course! We are one big, happy fleet! Ah, Kirk, my old friend, do you know the Klingon proverb that tells us revenge is a dish that is best served cold?”

Weil er Kanzler nicht werden konnte, will er jetzt, am Ende eines schier unglaublichen Berufslebens, wenigstens Kanzlermacher sein. Er nutzt, 76-jährig, seine wohl letzte Gelegenheit, auf die Geschichte der CDU und der Bundesrepublik entscheidenden Einfluss zu nehmen – und damit zugleich für die politische Zurücksetzung, die er erst von Kohl und dann von Merkel erfahren hat, Genugtuung zu finden.

Observing Hermann

“Was interessiert mich mein Geschwätz von gestern?”

Category Archives: Hard Facts