Category Archives: Helplessness

“Why The Name Mohammed Is So Popular”

May 8, 2019 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

In Germany. In Berlin, in particular. That’s the title of this article down here.

Name

I didn’t bother to read it. I’m pretty sure I know why that is and I don’t need a journalist explain to me why I’m wrong.

Mohammed is the most popular name for baby boys in Berlin… Bild, a German newspaper, reported data from the Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache (GfdS), or German Language Society.

Mohammed in all its variants was the most popular name in Berlin, and the second most popular in Bremen, ahead of Ben but behind Elias.

Dass Mohammed in Berlin erstmals auf Platz eins der Vornamen-Hitliste steht, sorgt für Aufregung. Aber warum eigentlich?

Germany’s Once Mighty Air Force?

May 6, 2019 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: , , , , , , 1 Comment

That must have been a long, long time ago.

All of the Reasons Germany’s Once Mighty Air Force Is Dying – The German magazine Spiegel recently revealed that most of the Luftwaffe’s—the modern German air force’s—128 Eurofighter Typhoons are not flightworthy.

In fact, only about ten of the aircraft are ready for operations, Spiegel said. This raises doubts about Germany’s ability to meet its NATO defense commitments.

“The problem is complicated.” Uh, no it’s not. This is nothing new. The Germans simply don’t care.

Well, We Certainly Don’t Want To Spark Controversy

May 3, 2019 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Do we? German conference on Islamic veil sparks controversy.

Veils

The Islamic veil – Symbol of dignity or oppression? I’m going to go out on the limb here, folks. I’m going with oppression. Just sayin’.

Islamic veils are a hot topic in Germany, particularly due to a growing Muslim population. Now, outcry over an academic conference on the issue has surprised even its organizer, who says freedom of speech is at stake…

Germany’s Muslim population, which has rapidly increased in recent years due to immigration from Muslim-majority countries, was estimated at between 4.4 and 4.7 million people or approximately 5.5% of the country’s total population in 2015, according to the Federal Statistical Office. The number is doubtless higher now, according to the agency, but updated official figures exist.

With these demographic changes come societal debates — one of which, that of the Islamic veil, has been a continual source of discussion. The latest veil controversy, which made headlines all across Germany, has occurred over a planned academic conference — something that even its organizer did not expect.

“Dissenting opinions must be respected and tolerated.” Must they? For how much longer?

I Want Whatever The New York Times Just Had

May 2, 2019 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Humor, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

While the New York times asks itself “Why Is Socialism Coming Back in Germany?” a young, supposedly up-and-coming SPD politician has just made himself a national laughing stock by suggesting the “collectivization” of BMW.

Kühnert

Not even Germany’s ex-communist partially Stalinist now socialist (or whatever they call themselves this week) Left party comes up with bat shit crazy ideas like that. Everyone is asking themselves what this guy has been smoking.

No, New York Times. Socialism might be alive in well down in Venezuela these days but it will continue to have a tough stand in Germany, flirtatious as the Germans may seem at times.

Die Empörung über die Sozialismus-Thesen des Juso-Vorsitzenden ist groß. Die SPD-Spitze spielt die Aussagen herunter.

Marginal Art Marginalized In Berlin

April 28, 2019 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, High Art, Hostility, Humor, Hurt Feelings, Hysteria Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Marginal art made by marginal artists, that is. Actually, the story’s about the marginal artists who are upset about being marginalized, for being marginal.

White

There is a difference here, of course, albeit a marginal one. I have an idea. Perhaps, just maybe I’m thinking, if they made their art better and not so marginally successful they could stop being so marginal and protest about something else a little less marginally interesting.

Earlier this week, stickers and posters started circulating in and around the city of Berlin that point to a disparaging fact: according to a group of arts activists, 75% of the artists being platformed at Berlin Gallery Weekend are white and male.

The stickers protesting the lack of diversity within the Berlin art scene feature a white sausage — known in German as Weisswurst — against the blue background of Berlin Gallery Weekend’s main logo and branding typography.

German Of The Day: Handelskrieg

April 26, 2019 By in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means trade war.

Handelskrieg

A trade war between the United States and Europe is coming and the fallout could tip Germany into recession, according to analysts at German lender Commerzbank…

Official German statistics supplemented by the bank’s own research show that in 2018, the United States was the top export destination for German cars, accounting for about 12% of the total with a value of 27 billion euros of parts or finished vehicles.

The bank estimated that a Trump-ordered tariff increase of 25 percentage points on EU auto imports would slash that figure for Germany down to around 14 billion euros per annum.

When factoring in how much of that export figure is actual German “added value,” the bank estimated that total economic output for the country could fall by around 0.25 percentage points.

“All the more dangerous in a situation where the German economy is only just managing to avoid a recession,” it read.

German Of The Day: Mangelhaft

April 25, 2019 By in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Higher Education, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means deficient. As in the deficient quality of the oil being imported to Europe via a Russian pipeline – this import having now been suspended by Poland?

Oil

That means Germany can’t get the oil, either. It’s not like Germany’s dependency on Russian gas and oil is deficient, however. That’s as high a quality dependency as you can get.

Germany and Poland have suspended imports of Russian oil amid contamination concerns, prompting a rare crisis over supply from the world’s second-largest exporter.

The sudden suspension of imports from the Soviet-built Druzhba pipeline, which runs from Russia via Belarus to central Europe, risks starving major European refineries of their major source of crude.

Händler großer Ölkonzerne, die Raffinerien in Deutschland betreiben, bestätigten dies: Die Versorgung über die noch von der Sowjetunion gebauten “Druschba”, auf Deutsch “Freundschaft”, sei gestoppt.

Germans Are Just Crazy About The EU

April 24, 2019 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Or at least that’s the impression you get consuming the media reports here.

Manfred

Manfred

In reality, however, nobody really knows what it is or how it works, much less who to vote for. Not even when a German is running for European Commission president in the upcoming election.

Only around one in four Germans (26 percent) knows who Manfred Weber is, just a month ahead of a European election he hopes will help propel him to being the next European Commission president.

But Weber, the lead candidate for the European People’s Party (EPP), is not alone in having a relatively low profile on the domestic political scene. According to a YouGov poll commissioned by dpa, 45 percent of Germans do not know any of the nine leading party candidates for the European Parliament election.

German Of The Day: Verfolgung

April 23, 2019 By in Habeas Corpus, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means persecution.

Christians

German politicians denounce growing violence against Christians. Wow. That took a lot of bravery. And it will be long forgotten tomorrow.

German politicians across the political spectrum said the persecution of Christians worldwide is growing. Their statements came after a spate of bomb attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday.

Not that anybody cares but Christianity remains the most persecuted religion in the world. In recent years, scores of Christians observing Easter and Christmas services have been killed by Islamist terrorists in churches in Egypt, Pakistan, Nigeria and now Sri Lanka.

Broke Weenie Bundeswehr Planes Now Endangering Commercial Traffic

April 16, 2019 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment

When not failing to get the Chancellor lady to important international meetings on time or leaving the Federal President stranded in Somalia, German government planes also like to bring commercial air traffic to a standstill.

Plane

A rough landing by a German government plane at one of Berlin’s airports brought flights to a standstill for more than two hours on Tuesday, adding to a long list of embarrassing mishaps for the military-operated fleet.

The German air force, which operates the aircraft, said both wings of the Bombardier Global 5000 jet touched the ground as it landed at Schoenefeld airport after turning back because of a malfunction. It said the crew was undergoing medical checks and the cause of the incident was being examined…

The city’s airport operator tweeted after the incident Tuesday morning that flights headed for Schoenefeld were being diverted because of an “inoperative aircraft on the runway” and check-in was suspended. Flight operations resumed around noon, though the airport warned that there could still be delays.

Piloten der Flugbereitschaft verhinderten wohl Schlimmeres.