German Word Of The Day About The German Word Of The Year: Abschätzig

December 11, 2015 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Higher Education, Home Cooking Tags: , , , , , 5 Comments

That means pejorative. Disparaging?

Word of the Year

And the German word of the year? Like duh. Flüchtlinge. That means refugees.

But the German Society for the German Language warns us right off the bat that when we use this year’s winner we should do so very carefully because it is “tendentially pejorative” and that would be grammatically if not to say politically incorrect.

Wrestling with these German words is hard as hell sometimes, ain’t it? So I guess sometimes it’s best not to wrestle with them at all.

“GroKo”, “Rettungsroutine”, “Stresstest”, “Wutbürger”. In den vergangenen Jahren wurden Wörter zum Wort des Jahres gewählt, die nicht im Duden stehen. Wörter mit einer inneren Spannung, mit Originalität. Und mit einem Hauch von paradoxem Witz. 2015 ist das anders.

Dieselgate Actually US-Amerikanische Conspiracy Or Something

December 11, 2015 By in Habitudes, Health, Hi-tech, High Art, Home Cooking, Humor, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: , , , , , , , 3 Comments

But you knew that already, I hope.

Diesel

It was a few researchers from West Virginia (at least one German researcher working in the US was involved here, too, by the way) who brought down the might of the German automotive industry, exposing VW’s Dieselgate cheats. Do you think Germany is pleased about that?

Displeased might not be the right word, but the very healthy sense of irony in Germany came out strong as the industrial nation had to reckon with podunk yahoo America getting German tech on the global shitlist (see the FIFA scandal, “unfortunately” a similar situation). Let us not forget that VW is Germany’s biggest automaker, and making autos is Germany’s most proud export business.

This video comes from the publicly-funded ZDF TV network.

American cars. Non-manipulated. Out of love for the environment.

TIME Magazine To Shorten Its Name

December 10, 2015 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, History, Home Cooking, Hysteria Tags: , , , , , , , 4 Comments

To “A politically left-intellectual group of high earners in a country that receives virtually no refugees” Magazine. I mean lengthen it, of course.

Merkel

The American magazine’s decision to honour her (Angela Merkel) with the high-profile award went down less well in Germany itself, where there is deep unrest over the huge numbers of migrants streaming in every day from the Middle East.

Felix Steiner, an editor at state broadcaster Deutsche Welle, said writers in New York who were praising Mrs Merkel’s open door migration policy had no idea about the impact it has had on German communities.

“The haunted ones are the cities and municipalities that are being forced to take in ever more refugees and have no idea how they will ever be able to house and care for them.”

David Vance said (on Twitter): “Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was named runner-up to Merkel in Time “Person of the Year” Says it all, really.”

PS: Speaking of “a country that receives virtually no refugees,” somebody told me that Germany has taken in more “refugees” in 2015 than the United States of Amerika has in the past ten years. Should I believe that person or not?

“Tour Angela Merkel’s Germany”

December 9, 2015 By in Hard Facts, History, Home Cooking Tags: , , , , 4 Comments

Sound like Disneyland? It should. It is. Only different.

Merkel

And ask any migrant here these days: The lines are even longer.

Die Kanzlerin ist die erste Frau seit 29 Jahren, die den Titel “Person of the year” bekommen hat. Hinter Merkel landeten IS-Führer Al-Baghdadi und Donald Trump.

Meanwhile… A popular attraction at Disneyland-Deutschland these days is apparently a ride called Arson Attack: 817 crimes have been committed against refugee centers in Germany this year – that’s a number four times higher than it was in 2014.

Merkel’s Million Migrant March Marathon Making Masses Mad

December 7, 2015 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hysteria Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 3 Comments

Where on earth could all of this German nervousness possibly be coming from these days?

Refugees

The 1,000,000 refugee mark has almost been reached, the Paris Attacks are barely three weeks old, Saudi Arabia is openly financing religious radicals here, broke-weenie German aircraft are off to Syria and elsewhere (for repairs?), Germany’s AfD anti-immigration party’s numbers keep looking better and better, the Front National is getting fat and sassy in France… What, me worry?

There is one thing that really and truly gives me the creeps, however: Til Schweiger’s threat to make a migrant movie. That might just break this camel’s back.

While vast numbers of Germans have volunteered to help refugees, there has also been a rise in anti-foreigner sentiment that has buoyed the populist and anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

German Of The Day: Datenschutz

December 6, 2015 By in Habitudes, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking Tags: , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

That means data privacy and Germans are notoriously big on that, as you well know.

Tornado

Take Germany’s planned reconnaissance flights over Syria and Iraq, for instance. Germans are so concerned about data privacy that they are already planning not to share the intelligence they might gather there with their allies. Sicher ist sicher (better safe than sorry).

The aircraft are expected to operate from Incirlik airbase in southern Turkey, and as Nato allies, the two countries would normally expect to share intelligence. But German commanders are concerned Turkey may use surveillance information from the flights to direct attacks against Kurdish forces allied to the West.

Deutscher Anti-IS-Einsatz: Berlin will Aufklärungsdaten für Türkei zensieren

I’ll Be Home For Christmas

December 4, 2015 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , 5 Comments

Not.

Within the next 45 years, the nation’s population will decline by at least 10 percent — whereas most countries, including the United States, expect the opposite to happen. Some consider that dynamic to be the driving force behind Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to take in nearly 1 million refugees this year alone.

Then We’ll Send Our Better Half

December 3, 2015 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hi-tech, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Syria conflict: Half of German Tornado jets ‘not airworthy’

Tornado

Ain’t no big deal, as German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen has stressed, because Germany only needs to send six Tornado jets for the proposed mission against Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria. Six that maybe ought to be halfway operational, she means.

This German war machine, she is stll broken, señor (thank goodness weapons exports are still A-OK, though).

“Die Lage der fliegenden Systeme bleibt unbefriedigend.”