Category Archives: Hypocrisy

Oh The Outrage Or Something

April 27, 2011 By in Hypocrisy Tags: , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Remember “evil Thilo” Sarrazin, the “Germany is doing away with itself” best-selling author and purveyor of unpopular popular ideas?

His SPD is certainly trying to forget him. What do you do with a Social Democrat politician (remember that they’re the politically correct ones here) who says things like “I don’t want the land of my grandchildren and great grandchildren to become predominantly Muslim” and won’t stop saying it and won’t resign when you ask him to even when you ask him to un-nicely?

Nothing much, I guess. Not when the vast majority of politically correct (and otherwise) Germans agree with him.

Critics say the SPD’s refusal to expel him was motivated by fears that a large number of grass roots members agree with his theories and that if Mr Sarrazin were ejected, the party would risk losing support.

PS: Remember The Case of the Missing Nuclear Balls? You know, the ones that were never missing in the first place? It turns out that the SPD science minister lady what’s in charge let folks think that the ball thingies were missing even though she knew that they weren’t. But the Fukushima hysteria level was dropping too fast at that moment so I can certainly see where she was coming from.

No good NIMBY-pamby protesters!

April 19, 2011 By in Helplessness, Hi-tech, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Are we having an energy revolution yet?

Although there is a long way to go before construction can begin on the high-voltage transmission lines, the “regional resistance” that the experts colored on their map has already begun to materialize.

There are obstacles everywhere. Either the landscape is so densely populated that it is poorly suited for big infrastructure projects, or it is so devoid of people that it should be preserved precisely for this reason.

The tactics of the power-line opponents are simple and perfectly understandable. The more arguments that can be presented against the project, the more likely it is that the future route will run further away from one’s own community and closer to the neighboring village instead.

Fortunately for the opponents, German law offers plenty of ways to keep the power masts at a good distance.

Saving birds and bats from the power lines, protecting gliders, a festival of bureaucracy. It’s all here, people.

“No Risk Please, We’re Germans”

April 17, 2011 By in Habitudes, Hypocrisy Tags: , , , , , 1 Comment

The German skeptics across the political spectrum who continue to describe the actions of the anti-Gadhafi alliance as being “insufficiently conceived” are completely right. The actions were not well conceived. They were born out of necessity, and the first sorties were chaotic because the nations that took action were convinced that they lacked the time to think things through.

They were not out to cleanly and permanently regulate the affairs of Libya through the use of force. They were intent on preventing a bloodbath within a few hours with an untidy, last-minute campaign. Given these circumstances, the idea that Westerwelle could have been the foreign minister of a permanent Security Council member — equipped with veto power — is extremely unsettling.

Germany seems determined to torpedo the international community’s newfound resolve. 

Good Bank Bad Bank

April 15, 2011 By in Heconomy, History, Hustle (Hoax), Hypocrisy Tags: , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Amerikanische Banken sind böse, deutsche sind gut.

Deutsche Bank AG, whose bets against subprime mortgages helped it weather the financial crisis, pressed to sell a $1.1 billion collateralized debt obligation to clients in 2007 as the co-head of its CDO team foresaw a market slump, a U.S. Senate panel found.

Lippmann (not the co-head but then-top CDO trader), whose bets against the housing market were also described in Michael Lewis’s “The Big Short,” had repeatedly tried to warn co-workers and clients in 2006 and 2007 about the poor quality of the mortgage securities underlying many CDOs, according to the report. The return on his bets against mortgages “was the largest profit obtained from a single position in Deutsche Bank history.”

“Keep your fingers crossed but I think we will price this just before the market falls off a cliff.”

So how do German financial experts react to the big short CDO scam and the crisis that followed? How else? American banks have to take the responsibility for what happened.

“Im Nachgang der Finanzkrise müssen sich amerikanische Banken verantworten.”

U-Turn, I-Turn, We All Turn

April 14, 2011 By in Habeas Corpus, Habitudes, Helections, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: , , , , , , , , 4 Comments

Turn, as in spinnen (to spin or, in this case, to be mental). This is another one of those only-in-Germany ones.

How long has it been since the latest greatest German Wende (turnaround)? Read some of these:

The U-turn on nuclear policy Chancellor Angela Merkel announced last month following the Fukushima accident will involve a massive expansion of renewable energies — as rapidly as possible. She is giving the public what it wants. But the shift will nevertheless provoke a major backlash. Germans may love their green energy, but they also have a growing proclivity towards not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY) lawsuits and referenda.

Many are now asking themselves if the transition to renewable energies will ruin the nation’s countryside.

Germany’s Federal Agency for Nature Conservation is already warning that in the rush to expand renewable energies, nature and wildlife conservation is being put on the back burner.

Germany’s opposition to wind power is well organized. The website windkraftgegner.de (wind power opponents), lists more than 70 protest campaigns.

Opposition is also mounting against the massive power masts that will be needed to transport clean energy across Germany and Europe.

And on and on and on. I don’t make this stuff up, people. Now they’re takin’ it to the streets to protest against renewable energy.

And the Green party’s grand energy strategy after their magnificent triumph down there in Baden-Wuerttemberg last month? Save power.

“We as Greens need to demonstrate our credibility,” national party co-chair Claudia Roth has said. At the same time, though, the Greens are very often active in the local NIMBY protests against the very kind of projects the party backs.

Humanitarian effort here? Nein Danke!

April 13, 2011 By in Habeas Corpus, Habitudes, Hypocrisy Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

In Libya, maybe. But only if you ask nicely.

Uh oh. Germany is lecturing about responsibility again (immigrants from North Africa are trying to make their way to Europe for some strange reason these days and the EU is showing EU solidarity again).

Germany criticized Italian officials for undermining the Schengen Agreement, which established passport-free zones, and said Italy should handle the immigrants on its own.

“Within this European solidarity, it is necessary for each individual country to first face its responsibility,” Germany’s interior minister, Hans-Peter Friedrich, said in a television interview.

Libya: Frankreich reagierte mit Spott auf Deutschlands Pläne: Die Bereitschaft Berlins zu einem humanitären Hilfseinsatz in Libyen sei wie eine “mündliche Nachprüfung”, sagte Verteidigungsminister Gérard Longuet am Dienstag vor der französischen Nationalversammlung.

Massive German Kiss-Up Offensive Underway

April 10, 2011 By in Helplessness, Hypocrisy Tags: , , , , , , , , 5 Comments

And we’re talking offensive, folks. In a too-little-too-late attempt to make amends for breaking ranks with its allies and refusing to support the United Nations Security Council resolution authorizing military action in Libya, Germany has now begun a surprise kiss-up campaign by actively publishing unflattering photos of Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi.

Degrading reports about botched plastic surgury operations performed on Gaddafi are also making the rounds.

But it doesn’t just stop there. Someone the Germans are referring to as Agent 008 has also been sent to Tripolis to see about establishing a ceasefire.

And as if that weren’t enough already, Germany also says that it is now prepared to let its troops take part in Libya “to help provide humanitarian aid to Libyan civilians” (if the United Nations asks the European Union please, pretty please). You know, that old we’re-the-good-soldiers-who-do-the-good-things trick of theirs?

The policy shift, announced by Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle on Thursday night, reflects disarray in Germany’s strategy but an awareness that its standing among its allies was damaged when Mr. Westerwelle told the country’s ambassador to the United Nations to abstain from the vote.

Funnel Payments Stopped Despite Iranian Pledge

April 7, 2011 By in Heconomy, Hi-tech, Hypocrisy Tags: , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

Despite Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s repeated pledge to Germany that Iran’s nuclear program is being used for energy only and that he would reveal any future secret Iranian nuclear site plans “as soon as he became aware of them,” a spokesman for the German government says that the deal to funnel oil payments from India to Iran through Germany’s central bank has been scrapped.

Enraged by this sudden change of heart, Mr. Ahmadinejad asked the Germans “But what about my promise to give 60-days notice before unleashing any surprise attacks on Israel using the missiles that we almost certainly do not have, to the best of my recollection? Doesn’t that mean anything?”

Washington has questioned Germany’s resolve to enforce sanctions given its strong trading links with Tehran.

Nein, Danke! We’ll import nuclear energy instead!

April 5, 2011 By in Habitudes, Hypocrisy Tags: , , , , , , , , 5 Comments

This is where the European unity part comes in, I guess (and the electricity still has to come out of the Dose/wall socket somehow, doesn’t it?).

Ever since the nuclear power plant moratorium has kicked in, Germany has begun importing more foreign energy than it exports, most of this having been generated at French nuclear power plants. This is where the ideological wheels hit the road, people. Are we having Realpolitik yet?

It’s typically German somehow: Loudly wash your hands of the matter while letting someone else do the dirty work for you.

And speaking of Realpolitik, I can’t wait until the “paying for all of this” part kicks in. There won’t be a moratorium on that one. It won’t be too long until the next wave of hysteria hits the fan again, in other words.

Davon profitieren vor allem französische AKW.

What’s the big deal?

April 3, 2011 By in Habitudes, Helplessness, Hypocrisy Tags: , , , , , , , , 3 Comments

The Germans always wheel and deal like this.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle not only personally brought back two German hostages to Berlin after personally meeting with El Presidente Iranian Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in February, he and other German government officials personally saw to it that the German central bank personally provide assistance to India in an oil deal with Iran as payoff for the hostage release. Nothing personal.

So deal with it already.

The sources say the German government approved the Bundesbank’s help in the Iranian-Indian transaction in exchange for the release of the two prisoners.