Would you accept a free drink from a total stranger? Hell yeah, I would (it’s not like anybody is ever going to offer me one).
But Berlin police say this is not a good idea these days, as a man serving vodka-schnapps spiked with a date-rape drug is causing nausea and hurt Christmas feelings at that Berlin Christmas market nearest you.
So you better be good, you better not pout. Just say no. Ho, ho, ho.
Jüngst war der Täter als Weihnachtsmann verkleidet.
Why put off for tomorrow what you can put off for The Day After Tomorrow instead? Get it?
Oh boy, another climate change agreement. You know, an agreement about agreeing to agree on how governments will agree in the future on how to commit themselves to agree upon finally reaching a final agreement about… I forgot about what, but it has something to do with CO2 or something.
Have you noticed how die Luft ist raus (the air is out or the wheels are off) of the we’re-all-going-to-die-right-now climate change movement? You can only cry wolf for so long, I guess. The masses, in their inexplicable and infinite wisdom, seem to have lost all sense of urgency and are no longer cooperating – not even in Germany. And not even the do-gooders-what’s-in-charge leading them, trying so hard to get that sense of urgency back, seem to know “why Durban is different to climate change agreements of the past.” But they’re trying to understand and I wish them all the very best.
Und das ist gut so (and this is a good thing), these wheels coming off. Once everybody stops hollerin’ and things start calming down a bit maybe we can all get together and begin to approach this issue with a little bit of common sense. Opps, I mean intelligence.
Bis kurz vor Schluss sah es aus, als würde der Klimagipfel von Durban ohne Ergebnis enden. Heraus kommt ein nüchterner Zeitplan, mit dem viele Entscheidungen verschoben werden.
Or should I call it AAA?
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,801973,00.html
Being that Standard & Poor´s threatened downgrade of 15 out of 17 euro-zone countries (including Germany ITSELF) is “completely exaggerated,” “out of the clear blue sky” and an irresponsible threat that simply “can´t be a coincidence,” it must be another one of those sinister American conspiracies again (yawn).
Personally, I also believe that the Americans were the ones behind the US of A´s recent downgrade, too. But maybe that´s just me.
“Manchmal fällt es schwer, den Eindruck zu widerlegen, dass einige amerikanische Ratingagenturen und Fondsmanager gegen die Eurozone arbeiten.”
I´ll go with Merkozy. I mean just because he´s wearing the pants doesn´t mean that he´s wearing the pants, if you know what I´m saying (she always wears pants too).
“Read my lips,” she said: “No euro bonds. And stop fidgeting when I speak to you.” http://www.zeit.de/wirtschaft/2011-12/schuldenkrise-merkel-sarkozy
“Germany and France are not going to pay the debts of other nations without being able to control the debt issues of other nations,” Sarkozy said–backtracking on France’s earlier position on both euro bond and greater ECB intervention in the crisis—as Merkel looked attentively on. “And we restate our previous position of confidence in an independent ECB, without any comment on (its actions) either positively, or negatively.”
Us as in US, I mean.
German authorities are trying to limit what the American tech companies can do, but the Silicon Valley giants are fighting back (the key word is American here, folks).
Give the Germans what they want, I say. But what DO they want, anyway (this is one of my favorite German schizophrenia thangs).
It’s worth noting that Facebook and Google are actually quite popular in the country — the BBC reported in September that “a quarter of the German population are active Facebook users and Google has 95% of the country’s search market.”
Women and children first! No offense there, Nicolas.
It looks like Germany and France may have had enough of broke weeny Europeans (other than themselves) already and now appear to be planning a secret and very “exlusive stability pact” just for the crème de la crème of ze Europe. You know, for that handful of European countries that can still pay their debts, maybe. But don’t tell anybody yet. This is still a secret, like I said.
Deutschland und Frankreich sind nicht mehr gewillt, auf eine Einigung aller EU-Länder zu warten. Notfalls wären sie bereit, mit einigen Ländern voranzugehen und so innerhalb der Währungszone eine Art Klub der Super-Europäer zu gründen, deren Mitglieder sich strengen Sparauflagen unterwerfen.
Well it’s about freakin’ time somebody did something about the German illegal alien menace to the U s of A, I say.
Go Alabama. Run with it. That state’s tough new law targeting illegal immigrants seems to be working even better than expected. A German Mercedes-Benz manager thought he’d try and outsmart us (as in US) by driving around the countryside without a proper driver’s license. When an officer of the law stopped him and asked to see one, the German tried pulling a fast one by pulling out his namby-pamby German identification card. Needless to say he was immediately arrested and taken downtown for questioning (if there is such a thing as downtown in Alabama).
Dumm gelaufen (tough luck), pal. We ain’t the boy scouts here, mein Freund. We’re the Alabama State Police.
The 46-year-old executive was charged with violating the immigration law for not having proper identification, but he was released after an associate retrieved his passport, visa and German driver’s license from the hotel where he was staying.
It’s just that we don’t have the cables to bring the energy to shore (nor the money to lay them).
The network operator building those giant offshore wind farms planned to be a “supporting column” in Germany’s coming-one-day-but-not-in-any-way-near-there-yet energy turnaround, is no longer able to continue “work as usual.”
Like the Dutch government before them, having learned that offshore wind power is too expensive and that it cannot afford to subsidize the entire cost, the good folks at TenneT TSO GmbH are now about to throw in the towel, seemingly unable to find financing in the private sector that would allow them to continue their over cost and behind schedule project (it’s probably them damned durn banks doing this again, or that 1%).
The connection from Water World (Wind World?) back to Planet Earth has turned out to be more complicated and expensive than politically correct planners had originally thought, in other words, provided they had even thought about it at all.
But don’t worry, Green Shirt ideologues have already assured us that “If Tennent can’t swing the offshore development, somebody else can.” Money seems to be no object here, you see. When it’s not yours, I mean.
“Wenn Tennet den Offshore-Ausbau nicht schultern kann, müssen andere ran.”
So, is it time for the sweet poison or the silver bullet? Germany (or one German) is the last man standing and it’s time to pay up or shut up.
Can Germany (and Germany’s “independent” Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann) jump over its/his shadow and allow the European Central Bank to become the lender of last resort in Europe’s never-ending efforts to prop up the euro?
Pump up the volume already. Half a dozen bailout packages and half a trillion euros later, Greece is closer to leaving the euro zone than ever before and Italy now seems bound for bankruptcy, too. Who’s next? And where’s the money? It looks like Europe’s arsenal is down to one last taboo here: Let the ECB vouch for all of the outstanding debt of the debtor nations, “permanently, to an unlimited extent and in violation of all applicable laws.” Germany, for some strange (and wonderful) reason, is still against doing this.
You know the deal, my fellow Americans. It’s the easy way out: “Print money and drown the debt crisis in a sea of liquidity.” Look what its done for us – so far.
Hey look, I don’t know much about economics (nor do at least half of the world’s economists, for that matter), but I do know that if President Barack Obama, President Nicolas Sarkozy and European Commission President José Manuel Barroso are all urging the Germans to abandon their resistance to the ECB plan, it’s probably best for the rest of us out there if this Weidmann guy sticks to his guns. I wouldn’t bet money on him doing so, though. And I certainly wouldn’t bet using the euro.
He mechanically recited the traditional mantras of the Bundesbank: “independence,” “a culture of stability” and “credibility.”
Get it?
It’s paranoia time. All you need are three or four slobs with weapons (supposedly so well controlled by the state), lots of truly criminal energy and a huge government network of giant law enforcement and security agencies clearly incapable of even knowing that this group exists or what it has been doing for the past 13 years (more effective government control in action) and you’ve got all that you need to turn these killings into a massive, shadowy consipiracy of neo-Nazi sympathizers active throughout said law enforcement and security agencies bent on helping this group and those like them in overthrowing civilized democratic society as we know it.
And all of this has to take place in Germany too, of course. Oh, and I forgot. You also need a big honkin’ fear industry media machine that makes money by selling pre-packaged products like this.
No, “the government” isn’t conspiring with anybody here. It’s just being inefficient, as usual. And the more the government, the more the inefficiency, as usual. So what’s the answer? Why, more government, of course.
“Ging denn bei niemandem die rote Lampe an?”
