US, Western, it’s all the same to me

Die Welt says it was a United States intelligence service, Der Spiegel has to call it Western ones, of course.

Who cares, as long as it’s true. Drone attacks in Pakistan are thought to have thwarted a terror plot that is believed to have targeted multiple countries, including the UK, France, and Germany.

Those drones sure are yucky, aren’t they?

“The U.S. has shared intelligence with European allies in recent days and is working with our key partners in order to disrupt terrorist plotting, identify and take action against potential operatives, and strengthen our defenses against potential threats.”

Greenpeace stages atomic art happening

Approving stuff in Germany is always problematic. Disapproval is almost always vorprogrammiert (preprogrammed). That’s why when the German government made clear its intention to extend the country’s use of nuclear power, everybody adhering to the ideological requirements of korrekt German Green thinking disapproved–and that’s a whole lot of folks too.

But at least the Greens at Greenpeace got a little creative about it this time (or as usual?). Protesters projected images with the slogan “atomic power damages Germany” onto the side of several of the country’s nuclear reactors. As far as I can tell, their reason for doing this was to explain to everybody that atomic power damages Germany. Not that they didn’t already know this, the main thing was that this was an Aktion. You know, one of those “happening” thingies?

And I don’t do art so I had to look it up: “A happening is a performance, event or situation meant to be considered as an art, usually as performance art. Happenings take place anywhere (from basements to studio lofts and even street alleyways), are often multi-disciplinary, with a nonlinear narrative and the active participation of the audience.”

Multi-disciplinary? Does that mean they’re gonna get in trouble for doing dis? Nah.

Die Atomkraftwerke in Deutschland sollen im Schnitt 12 Jahre länger am Netz bleiben als nach dem bisherigen Atomkonsens.

Der Stein des Anstoßes

The stone (as in bone) of contention here actually is a stein this time. You know, those one-liter beer steins they use down there at the Oktoberfest? And the party must really be hopping this year. Attacks with beer steins are way up.

There have been 32 injuries so far, but it looks like the party just got started.

And it’s like sooo international. A Frenchman threw his stein into a group of Italians. The Italians then took their steins and charged the French and one of them ended up in the hospital with a fractured skull. In an unrelated incident, another Frenchmen took out an Austrian. A Serb tossed his beer stein behind him and conked his neighbor in the head. A Canadian got slammed in the head with a stein and the stein actually broke (the Canadian survived). And I guess they don’t even bother to report about all the German stein attack incidents.

Damn. This gives “getting mugged” a whole new meaning.

The large turnout at this year’s festival, brought on by warm weather and the commemoration of its 200th anniversary, could be responsible for the increase in beer stein attacks (of course the large turnout of beer might be responsible too).

For Siemens with love

The highly complex stuxnet worm–it’s complexity, some say, suggesting it could only have been created by a “nation state“–has targeted systems at Iran’s first nuclear power station, systems made by the German company Siemens.

Stuxnet is tailored to target weaknesses in Siemens systems used to manage water supplies, oil rigs, power plants and other utilities. But I can’t see why anyone would be interested in doing such a thing as Iran (with Siemen’s help) has repeatedly stated that it is only developing nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. 

Hmm. I guess you could say da ist der Wurm drin (the worm is inside) = there’s something very wrong with that. With making ridiculous statements like that, I mean.

Nun bestätigte ein Regierungsmitarbeiter, dass in Industrieanlagen 30.000 Rechner mit dem Virus infiziert wurden.

Anybody out there remember Clay Headquarters in Berlin?

I didn’t think so.

But in case you do, it’s up for sale now. I’m sure it’s a steal. They can’t tear it down (it’s basically an Adolf bunker), so make them an offer they can’t refuse.

PS: You may be familiar with it after all, whether you actually remember it or not. Parts of “Inglourious Basterds” and “Valkyrie” were shot there.

“Green Politician Survives Pie Attack Unscathed”

I don’t make this stuff up, people. This title was the real thing and wasn’t meant as a joke.

The attack had something to do with “professional revolutionary” anti-nuke protestors or something. They were apparently pissed off that the anti-nuke Greens aren’t anti-nuke enough. So Green boss Jürgen Trittin got nuked with an anti-pie (from somebody’s auntie?) during a podium discussion. You know, the kind of podium discussions Jerry Springer used to have?

This particular discussion was entitled “Ideals and Realpolitik” so now we have the rest of the story. Geez, how could pies not have been thrown there?

Trittin’s not going to press chages, though. I guess the incident was too pienlich (embarassing) for him.

„Das intellektuelle Niveau dieser Argumentation eines Menschen, der sich selbst als Berufsrevolutionärin bezeichnet, ist beleidigend für jeden intelligenten Revolutionär. Nebenbei bemerkt ist Poddig wahrscheinlich die erste Berufsrevolutionärin, die nichts dabei findet, auf einer Veranstaltung aufzutreten, die mit staatlichen Geldern finanziert wird.“

Erfurt, Winnenden, Lörrach…

It’s a German ritual, and it kind of goes like this: After every crazy shooting in Germany by German crazies the German Waffengesetz (gun control law) gets tightened up tighter, even though it was tighter than tight to begin with.

It will get tightened up this time too, I suppose. And then, when the next crazy goes berzerk, you guessed it. That there is no connection here between the Waffengesetz and psycho-criminal acts carried out by psycho-criminal people is never addressed, of course.

It’s never addressed because that would be in bad taste and disturb the ritual, aimed as it is at giving people the deceptive feeling of having some kind of control over a situation they have no control over. It’s magic, sort of. Only it doesn’t work. People who go berserk will always find the weapon they need, Waffengesetz or not.

Obwohl das deutsche Waffengesetz nach den Amokläufen von Erfurt und von Winnenden schon verschärft wurde, obwohl auch das verschärfte Waffengesetz die Tat von Lörrach nicht verhindern konnte; die Debatte um ein restriktiveres Waffenrecht wird ein weiteres Mal geführt.

German trade with Iran still wunderbar

“Reports indicate Germany’s exports to Iran have reached near the two-billion Euros mark in the first half of 2010.”

“The figure represents a 14 percent rise in Iranian imports from Europe’s largest economy, compared to the same period last year.”

Bei deutschen Behörden und der Industrie stoßen die Pläne der EU-Kommission auf Empörung. Dort werden die Sanktionen gegen Iran als zu massiv und unprofessionell gewertet.

How can Muslims speak this way about Islam?

And not get listened to, I mean. Forget Sarrazin. More Muslim eggheads like this guy, please.

“In a sense, Islam is like a drug, like alcohol. A small amount can have a healing and inspiring effect, but when the believer reaches for the bottle of dogmatic faith in every situation, it gets dangerous. This high-proof form of Islam is what I’m talking about. It harms the individual and damages society. It inhibits integration, because this Islam divides the world into friends and enemies, into the faithful and the infidels.”

“I don’t like that expression (Islamophobe). A person who has a phobia is someone who harbors fantasies. But the dangers posed by Islamists are real.”

“You accuse your fellow Muslims of continuing to search for scapegoats.” “Yes, instead of seeking faults within themselves. Perhaps the process I experienced is the process Islam needs as a whole, namely that everyone looks at themselves critically and stops constantly blaming others for their own misery and feeling like a victim.”

“There are 1.4 billion Muslims. So what? The important thing is that in almost all countries with a Muslim majority, we see the decline of civilization and a stagnation of all forms of life. Islam has no convincing answers to the challenges of the 21st century. It is in intellectual, moral and cultural decline — a doomed religion, without self-awareness and without any options to act.”

“whenever Muslims seek to introduce Islamic studies into European schools or try to obtain nonprofit status for an Islamic organization, there is always talk of one Islam. The minute someone attacks the faith, they resort to a trick to stifle the criticism and disingenuously ask: Which Islam are you talking about?”

“My dream, in fact, is an enlightened Islam, without Sharia law and without jihad, without gender apartheid, proselytizing and the mentality of entitlement. A religion that is open to criticism and questions.”

“Most so-called reformers of Islam remind me of the band on the Titanic, which kept on playing even as the ship was sinking, so as to give the passengers the illusion of normalcy. The underlying problems are not addressed.”

“You criticize Muslims as a group for taking offence quickly and even savoring it. You have accused European liberal leftists of pursuing a “policy of appeasement” toward Islam. Why do you, as an academic, sometimes enjoy being the provocateur in a similar fashion to Sarrazin?” “You have to state your opinions clearly if you want to be heard. There are plenty of apologists for Islam.”