Germans Finally Manage To Bring Muslims And Jews Together

September 6, 2012 By Hermann Observer in Habeas Corpus, Habitudes, Health, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: Berlin, Circumcision, German, Germans, Germany, Humor, Jews, Muslims, Protest, Religion, Religious Freedom, Ritual, Satire 1 Comment

To protest against restrictions on circumcision, that is. They’ll be getting together in Berlin to holler and shout and raise hell this Sunday, for instance. Warms your heart, don’t it?

When it comes to “flagrant interference” in religion, Germans may indeed have a long and proven track record and all, but as expected, they have clearly bitten off more than they can chew this time with their latest perfectly pointless and completely unnecessary stab at this ancient Jewish and Muslim practice.

They’re backpeddling as fast as they can, of course, but it’s too little too late and now everybody has hurt feelings and, well, that’s what you get for fixing things that ain’t broken.

“Gut gemeint ist leider nicht unbedingt gut gemacht.”

German Teflon

September 5, 2012 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helections, Helplessness, High Art, Hurt Feelings, Hustle (Hoax), Hypocrisy Tags: Airports, BER, Berlin, Corruption, German, Germans, Germany, Government spending, Humor, Planning, Political Parties, Projects, Satire, SPD, Waste Leave a comment

Or Berlin Teflon, if you prefer. Whatever you want to call it, it’s way more teflony or teflonodelic than other kinds of Teflon out there.

Just ask Berlin’s mayor Klaus Wowereit (SPD) after the opening of the city’s new airport has been postponed yet again (no joke) and now won’t be ready nearly two full years later than planned. It’s his baby, you see.

“Not to mince words, Klaus Wowereit can pack his bags as Berlin mayor. Anyone who recklessly gambles with the future of a whole region, wasting hundreds of millions of euros (…) and covers up instead of looking into mistakes is not qualified to be managing a metropolis. Wowereit is not the only one who has failed in relation to the BER project, but he is the main culprit. People are not going to forget that. No matter what he does, his time is up.”

But what do you think will happen, meine Damen und Herren? Not a damned thing. This is Germany. And worse still, some politicians are just never held accountable for what they do, no matter what what they do, or don’t. But not just here. I know of this one guy from another country, for instance (the president of the something or the other) who could get caught robbing a 7-Eleven at gunpoint and nobody would care. It just ain’t right, I tell ya. But it’s da way of da woild.

German commentators are outraged over the postponement, with one (the key word here is one) calling on Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit to resign.

Egypt

September 3, 2012 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hi-tech, History, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: Berlin, Exports, German, Germans, Germany, Humor, Military Industrial Complex, Pacifism, Satire, Weapon Sales, Weapons, Weapons Exports 1 Comment

Beautiful German weapon sale of the week.

Because somebody has to admire them.

The Latest Radical New Concept

September 2, 2012 By Hermann Observer in Habeas Corpus, Habitudes, Heconomy, Helections, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: Berlin, German, Germans, Germany, Humor, Justice, Law, Satire, Tax Collectors, Tax evasion, Taxation Leave a comment

After years of deliberation, the German Justice Department has finally decided to take a bold leap into uncharted legal waters and official declare that theft should be punishible. OK, in this case it’s “data theft.”

Wow. Talk about a great leap forward for German Gerechtigkeit (justice) or something. The background: Like junkies in need of their next fix, German tax officials (usually from SPD led state governments) have been regularly purchasing stolen goods in recent months; data CDs containing lists of German tax evaders with Swiss bank accounts. Needless to say, the SPD & Co. are unhappy about this rather belated juristic revelation.

Is this the beginning of the end of the means justifying the end? Or was it vice versa?

“Datendiebstahl soll strafbar sein.”

Buy Our Debt, Please

August 31, 2012 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: Angela Merkel, Berlin, China, Debt, Debt Crisis, Euro Zone, German, Germans, Germany, Human Rights, Humor, Investiment, Satire Leave a comment

Angela Merkel just finished up another quick and dirty visit to China, this time to calm the Chinese down about the euro zone debt crisis and, well, to grovel for money. Neither aim was achieved just yet. But hey, you’ve got to be really patient with the Chinese, I’m told.

“The trip has a lot of ambitions: one, is to explain the euro zone debt crisis to the Chinese and two, convince the Chinese to keep supporting the euro zone and buying the bonds from some of the euro zone countries such as Italy and Spain and also Germany.”

And just in case you were wondering, no. She did not find the time to express German concern for human rights violations in China during this visit.

As Europe’s crisis persists, China increasingly sees Germany—its largest European trading partner—as a vital player in pulling the continent out of its slump, analysts say. Mr. Wen said his talks with Ms. Merkel Thursday have made him “more confident” in Europe’s ability to resolve the crisis.

Dreck am Stecken

August 22, 2012 By Hermann Observer in Habeas Corpus, Habitudes, Heconomy, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: Banking, Berlin, Corruption, Embargos, German, Germans, Germany, International Sanctions, Iran Leave a comment

That means having a skeleton in your closet. You know, like Germany’s Commerzbank seems to have.

Commerzbank has said it could be fined by the US authorities over its handling of transactions linked to Iran, Sudan, North Korea and other countries that are the subject of US sanctions.

Die Commerzbank soll gegen das Iran-Embargo verstoßen und Geldtransfers in das Land ermöglicht haben.

Size Matters

August 21, 2012 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hi-tech, High Art, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: Automobiles, Cars, Fuel Costs, German, Germans, Germany, Green Technology, Greens, Horsepower, Humor, Satire, The Environment 1 Comment

There appears to be only one thing that Germans love more than being greener than green and concerned about saving the environment (and having to pay soaring fuel prices all the damned time in the process).

And that’s buying big honking high-horsepower cars with ever bigger engines all the freakin’ time. Vroom! Vroom!

In the first seven months of 2012, the average horsepower of the engines of new cars sold in Germany stood at 138 hp, up from a previous record of 135 hp seen in 2011 and 130 hp in 2010.

Die Deutschen lieben immer stärkere Autos – im Schnitt hat jeder Wagen um drei PS zugelegt.

Decision Delayed On Delayed Airport’s Latest Delay

August 19, 2012 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Heconomy, Helections, Helplessness, High Art, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hustle (Hoax), Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: Airports, Berlin, Berlin-Brandenburg Airport, Corruption, German, Germans, Germany, Government Waste, Humor, Klaus Wowereit, Planning, Projects, Satire, SPD, Waste Leave a comment

Late for a delayed press conference, which was then delayed again, Berlin officials have now announced their decision to delay their decision to delay Berlin’s delayed Airport’s latest delay.

Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit, a Social Democrat who has made the Berlin-Brandenburg Airport his flagship project, wasted no time in delaying further comment for later, unless delayed.

“Wowereit is making the city look more and more ridiculous in international eyes.”

No One Can Explain German Power Grid Instability

August 17, 2012 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Hi-tech, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hustle (Hoax), Hypochondria, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: Berlin, Fukushima, German, Germans, Germany, Humor, Nuclear power, Renewable energy, Satire, Solar energy, The Energy Turnaround, The Green Shirts, Wind Energy Leave a comment

But as far as I can tell, it seems to have begun sometime shortly after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.

Sudden fluctuations in Germany’s power grid are causing major damage to a number of industrial companies. While many of them have responded by getting their own power generators and regulators to help minimize the risks, they warn that companies might be forced to leave if the government doesn’t deal with the issues fast…

The problem is that wind and solar farms just don’t deliver the same amount of continuous electricity compared with nuclear and gas-fired power plants. To match traditional energy sources, grid operators must be able to exactly predict how strong the wind will blow or the sun will shine.

“Every company — from small businesses to companies listed on the DAX — are buying one (APC emergency power generators) from us.”

World’s Largest Brown Coal Power Plant Inaugurated In Germany To Help Save Environment

August 16, 2012 By Hermann Observer in Helplessness, Hi-tech, Home Cooking, Hustle (Hoax), Hypochondria, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: Berlin, Brown Coal, Clean Energy, Coal, German, Germans, Germany, Green energy, Humor, Nuclear energy, Renewable energy, Satire, The Energy Turnaround, The Green Shirts Leave a comment

This German energy turnaround stuff can get really complicated, I find.

But as far as I can tell, dirty energy is clean energy here, too. As long as it’s German-made, that is.

“Dieser Neubau ist ein herausragender Beitrag zum Gelingen der Energiewende.”

Observing Hermann

“Was interessiert mich mein Geschwätz von gestern?”

Category Archives: Hypocrisy