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Nothing like WTF, but I like it: feed://podcast.wdr.de/dittsche.xml
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Dec 19, 2011 22:17
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Christian Wulff making a fool out of himself, Greece not wanting our precious money and S21 finally going through. How the hell is this thread dead?
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Feb 16, 2012 14:23
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Sereri posted:Christian Wulff making a fool out of himself, Greece not wanting our precious money and S21 finally going through. How the hell is this thread dead? I'm completely numb concerning anything Wullf-related, I get my Greece-fix from the Bunga Bunga in Brussels thread and S21...well...we've kinda chewed through everything remotely discussable about that, the only thing that is new now is that the thing is actually starting to happen.
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Feb 16, 2012 14:59
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Duzzy Funlop posted:I'm completely numb concerning anything Wullf-related, I get my Greece-fix from the Bunga Bunga in Brussels thread and S21...well...we've kinda chewed through everything remotely discussable about that, the only thing that is new now is that the thing is actually starting to happen. Yeah, Wulf is pretty much just a trainwreck now. There is nothing you can do to stop it, only watch in mute horror. Also no one wants to be had for insulting the head of state 
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Feb 16, 2012 22:44
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I really hope (and it is a well-founded hope) he never steps down voluntarily because the whole situation is just comedy gold. I kind of suspect it'll take days for him to even react to the immunity thing.
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Feb 16, 2012 22:49
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Well then, that certainly went from "he'll never resign" to "he'll announce his resgination in 90 minutes" rather timely.
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Feb 17, 2012 09:37
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There we are. He did it, much as he couched it in a cloud of spongy whining. I'm surprised. Didn't think he had it in him.
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Feb 17, 2012 11:06
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I actually expected a lot more whinging than he actually delivered, maybe mama merkel told him to not get on his soapbox
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Feb 17, 2012 11:17
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So - who's next? Do we have another mediocre middle-right county politician with a presentable wife? Because apparently everyone with any intellectual or moral weight doesn't want this job, is too old or is supported by the wrong people. Edit: By the way, the FAZ today headlining 'Was erlauben Schäuble?' about Papoulias' reaction to his cutting remarks about Greece was the first headline in a long time making me giggle with delight. raf fucked around with this message at 11:41 on Feb 17, 2012 |
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Feb 17, 2012 11:28
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raf posted:So - who's next? Do we have another mediocre middle-right county politician with a presentable wife? Guttenberg 
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Feb 17, 2012 11:37
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He is busy defending Internet freedom from - something or the other. Would be a brilliant comedy option, tho. How about Guido? I mean - what the hell *is* Guido doing at the moment? Playing Waldo? Because I can see everyone in Berlin making foreign policy except for him. Falls flat in the presentable wife section, tho. Martin Lindner looks young and corruptible enough, and seems to be out of jobs to screw up for the moment. Is he gay? I honestly don't know. raf fucked around with this message at 11:55 on Feb 17, 2012 |
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Feb 17, 2012 11:45
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Rösler seems to have the smugness and the lack of anything else that is required to follow Wulff.
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Feb 17, 2012 12:30
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Uh can someone give a quick history of what just happened?
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Feb 17, 2012 12:31
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This Jacket Is Me posted:Uh can someone give a quick history of what just happened? Turns out that handing out political favors in exchange for presents (cheap loans, free hotel stays etc.) is not a good idea if you want to become President. Basically there was evidence that Wulf engaged in some very shady dealings while he was still Prime Minister (Governor) of Lower Saxony. Eventually the evidence grew strong enough that the prosecution formally asked parliament to renounce Wulf's immunity. That was pretty much unprecedented in German history, and Wulf found the last remaining bit of integrity he had left (or was told by Angie to  ) and resigned.Seeing how they are looking to get a common candidate, I guess Gauck might get the nod after all.
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Feb 17, 2012 12:45
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Beaten but I typed this all up and it has some details so I'm posting it anyway. (Also, I dunno. Gauck has his own problems. Not of this sort, though.) German president Christian Wulff has been in trouble for a while over various allegations regarding his friendships with a number of wealthy businesspeople and the influence this may have had on his activities as Lower Saxony's premier. This really started to heat up when journalists started questioning how he financed his house and he proceeded to make the incomprehensible mistake of leaving an angry (and, allegedly, threatening) voicemail message for the editor in chief of the country's largest and shittiest tabloid newspaper demanding - depending on whom you believe, since this message was never made public on his request - either that they delay their reporting on the issue for a few days (he was out of the country at the time) or that they not report on it at all. Likewise several people further up the publishing chain. Yesterday, the Staatsanwaltschaft Hannover (Lower Saxony's state prosecutor's agency) formally requested a lifting of his immunity from prosecution while in office so that they could start building a case. He reacted to this by resigning. The specific potential violations they'll be investigating involve the use of state funds in supporting the Nord/Süd-Dialog (a privately organized business event; Wulff had told the state parliament that no state funds had been used, and the question is whether he was lying or genuinely did not know about it) and the film producer David Groenewold's habit of paying for Wulff's travel costs (Wulff claims he always paid him back in cash; while in office, he had also often worked in favour of the film industry, to the personal benefit of Groenewold). I hope they can make some of this stick legally; the ethical difficulties are pretty much beyond doubt now.
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Feb 17, 2012 13:03
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In my opinion the real question is: do we in this day and age still have someone who could fill in this post? It's a question of what Germany and the German people is as well as what they strife to be. Maybe it is time to just face the facts and admit that no single person can represent this country as a whole, diverse as it is. Maybe the time for merely representional offices has passed. Maybe the Federal Republic of Germany should finally become a Republic.
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Feb 17, 2012 13:30
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raf posted:Maybe the Federal Republic of Germany should finally become a Republic. Just drop the "de"?
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Feb 17, 2012 13:51
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raf posted:In my opinion the real question is: do we in this day and age still have someone who could fill in this post? It's a question of what Germany and the German people is as well as what they strife to be. Maybe it is time to just face the facts and admit that no single person can represent this country as a whole, diverse as it is. Maybe the time for merely representional offices has passed. Maybe the Federal Republic of Germany should finally become a Republic. So we should just lower the standards we have for our politicians? This wasn't a failure of the office or the man in that office, it was the failure of the man. It would have been a problem in any other political office he could have been in.
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Feb 17, 2012 14:51
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dreamin' posted:I actually expected a lot more whinging than he actually delivered, maybe mama merkel told him to not get on his soapbox Yeah, I was expecting more of that as well, but it's not like he apologized for anything, so at least there's something we saw coming. The Real Foogla posted:Just drop the "de"? 
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Feb 17, 2012 18:48
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I'm glad Wulff is dead and gone, politically. He was poo poo in Niedersachsen before and I always saw it coming that he had the aspiration for higher office. Luckily, Merkel managed to reroute him towards becoming President instead of trying for Chancellor.
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Feb 17, 2012 20:14
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Since this thread needs a new topic: ACTA What do you think of it? To be honest I am not really familiar with it. But from what I have heard, it is pretty harsh. Most people protest the way it was implememented. because it was basically decided by lobbyists. But to be frank, a fair sum of the protestors just want to keep pirating, or streaming content.
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Feb 18, 2012 18:21
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Air is lava! posted:Since this thread needs a new topic: Air is lava! posted:But to be frank, a fair sum of the protestors just want to keep pirating, or streaming content. Imagine the government trying to install cameras in every room in every home to make sure you don't consume illegal substances. Do you think a fair sum of people would protest that just because they can't consume these substances anymore/have to be really carefull about it or because there are loving cameras in their house? People don't want their every move on the internet minuted. That would be despicable enough without ATCA also trying to strongly criminalize the tiniest whiff of copyright infringement. Who doesn't want to go to jail for some image attached to a private e-mail to a close friend or for quoting an article on a forum? You'd have to be so carefull with everything you do, innovation would be dying out of fear - and not just on the web.
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Feb 19, 2012 14:32
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And the new guy - after nobody else wants the job apparently - is Joachim Gauck, who was already the favourite of the opposition in 2010. No idea why, and why the CDU was against him, since he is a very intelligent, but also very, very conservative guy with a strong neo-liberal bent, with views deeply rooted in the CDU/FDP-ideology, far removed from his big supporters on the left - very often directly opposed even. Pro-war in Afghanistan and Iraq, against OWS, at least agreeing with Sarazin on the non-biological (the "Turks are inherently more stupid than Germans"-thing seems to go too far for him) parts of his book, against social security on several occasions, very much for more liberal handling of the market, dimissive of opposition to the various bills and measures to control and monitor the Internet... German politics and the alliances are pretty odd at times - the Süddeutsche already (jokingly maybe) talks about a sly play by Merkel to get him supported by the opposition through opposing his selection so long. Decius fucked around with this message at 09:02 on Feb 20, 2012 |
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Feb 20, 2012 08:59
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I am sure you have extensive sources to back that up, since the wikipedia article you posted says nothing of that sort. That a Christian pastor in his seventies, who had deep insights into what state socialism looks like both from his personal experience in East Germany and from his work with the Stasi-Files isn't exactly the most left-wing should surprise no one.
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Feb 20, 2012 17:20
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ArchangeI posted:I am sure you have extensive sources to back that up, since the wikipedia article you posted says nothing of that sort. That a Christian pastor in his seventies, who had deep insights into what state socialism looks like both from his personal experience in East Germany and from his work with the Stasi-Files isn't exactly the most left-wing should surprise no one. Most of it is in the German version of the Wikipedia article though, under "Politische Standpunkte". It's very true that Gauck has a lot of positions that fit with those of CDU/FDP. That's why his nomination by the opposition in 2010 was such a genius move. It proved pretty clearly that Wulffs nomination was nothing more than an inner party power play of Merkel, 'cause she should have been all over Gauck. It'll be interesting to see how Gauck actually fares, and what he will chose as his central message. He has some views I don't agree with, and I DominoDancing fucked around with this message at 23:47 on Feb 20, 2012 |
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Feb 20, 2012 23:41
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As DominoDancing said most of it is in German, so it might take a few days until the more critical stuff is translated, if any blog or newspaper in the English speaking world cares enough. Meanwhile in German: about his neo-liberal (the European defintion) bent: http://www.freitag.de/community/blogs/achtermann/gauck---priester-des-neoliberalismus his rather dismissive attitude concerning various online monitoring systems: http://derstandard.at/1291454160226/Diskussion-im-Burgtheater-Der-Staat-darf-nicht-zum-Spitzel-werden about Sarrazin's book (though he didn't read it and disagrees with the absurd genetic theories of Sarrazin): http://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/interview-mit-joachim-gauck-warum-ueberlassen-wir-den-stolz-den-bekloppten-1.1006716 OWS is "unbelievably silly": http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/0,1518,792098,00.html Against stopping S21: http://www.stuttgarter-zeitung.de/inhalt.appell-an-die-politiker-joachim-gauck-gegen-baustopp.fdf2cdd3-1cc6-40b7-aea4-254e8522068c.html For surveillance of "Die Linken": http://www.finanznachrichten.de/nachrichten-2012-02/22748618-neues-deutschland-gauck-bleibt-fuer-die-linke-nicht-waehlbar-007.htm As said, he is a intelligent man, surely not a bad president (since he doesn't really have to do anything anyway), but his support by the left is rather puzzling if you consider his stances.
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Feb 21, 2012 06:59
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DominoDancing posted:That's why his nomination by the opposition in 2010 was such a genius move.
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Feb 21, 2012 15:03
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Decius posted:As DominoDancing said most of it is in German, so it might take a few days until the more critical stuff is translated, if any blog or newspaper in the English speaking world cares enough. Hilarious. Gauck gets a bunch of awards from small scale associations, some of which also gave awards to FDP Members. I mean, look at these hardcore neo liberal demagogues: Uschi Glas, Sabine Christiansen, Dagmar Berghoff (For non-Deutschgoons: An actress, a news anchor and a talkshow host). Seriously, that's it. He accepted awards that have been given to FDP-Members. Thats how that article constructs him as neo-liberal. quote:his rather dismissive attitude concerning various online monitoring systems: Where is he dismissive? He seems to be criticizing those parts of the left that blindly cheer blatant breaking of the law - in this case, releasing the stolen diplomatic cables. Some say it was justified, he obviously disagrees. Then he demands that the government openly declares what their anti-terror measures actually do, and that any new law is constitutional, carefully weighning security against civil rights. Clearly not something you want a person who is charged with upholding the constitution to do! Could have lived without his comment about nude scanners, though. Gauck on a nude beach is an image I could have done without, but whatever. quote:about Sarrazin's book (though he didn't read it and disagrees with the absurd genetic theories of Sarrazin): Does not seem to understand the ideas and goals of OWS or the international money markets. Guess that makes him ill-suited to run for finance minister. Claiming that "Banks were occupied" in the DDR is pretty  , yeah.quote:Against stopping S21: http://www.stuttgarter-zeitung.de/inhalt.appell-an-die-politiker-joachim-gauck-gegen-baustopp.fdf2cdd3-1cc6-40b7-aea4-254e8522068c.html Another instance of "Discussion is awesome, I just disagree with you". Basically, the entire process of planning and permission for S21 was already finished when the people of Stuttgart (and not even a majority, see the referendum) decided that no, they didn't want it after all. That is not a way of doing business - what if they had decided it a few months later, when the construction work was half way done? quote:For surveillance of "Die Linken": http://www.finanznachrichten.de/nachrichten-2012-02/22748618-neues-deutschland-gauck-bleibt-fuer-die-linke-nicht-waehlbar-007.htm Man oppressed and spied on by single party dictatorship wary of successors of said party. Stop the presses. Counter points (also in German): http://www.cicero.de/berliner-republik/wie-das-netz-den-boesen-gauck-erfand/48369?seite=1 Still waiting for the Pro-Iraq war statements. quote:As said, he is a intelligent man, surely not a bad president (since he doesn't really have to do anything anyway), but his support by the left is rather puzzling if you consider his stances. Yes, it is very puzzling that they would want somebody who wishes to harness an open debate about the problems facing the country instead of someone blindly following the party line. Nothing I have read about him - especially in the articles you posted - has painted him as anything but a man who wants to live in a country where the citizens give two halves of a gently caress about what happens in politics. And considering the vote turnouts in some areas, that is perhaps one of the biggest problems we face.
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Feb 21, 2012 15:58
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BabyFur Denny posted:A genius move that backfired this week. I'm not sure it has? I'm pretty conviced that despite some political disagreements (some of which have been blown out of proportion, some not so so much), large parts of both SPD and Greens do actually value Gauck, at least for his work on the Stasi archives. Remember, neither SPD nor Greens were under any obligation to nominate him a second time, and since Merkel didn't want him as a candidate at all, there would have been no danger of him getting nominated against the wishes of SPD/Greens. I admit that it will take some time to see what topics Gauck will actually be passionate about and what kind of stance he will take. Perhaps SPD/Greens will regret their decision in a couple of months. But even Wulff managed to shock me when he started to talk about immigration in a non-idiotic way. DominoDancing fucked around with this message at 18:01 on Feb 21, 2012 |
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Feb 21, 2012 17:55
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DominoDancing posted:I'm not sure it has? I'm pretty conviced that despite some political disagreements (some of which have been blown out of proportion, some not so so much), large parts of both SPD and Greens do actually value Gauck, at least for his work on the Stasi archives. Remember, neither SPD nor Greens were under any obligation to nominate him a second time, and since Merkel didn't want him as a candidate at all, there would have been no danger of him getting nominated against the wishes of SPD/Greens. Non-idiotic mean he finally acknowledged that all these dirty foreigners aren't gonna leave. A huge leap forward for a CDU politician, to be sure.
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Feb 21, 2012 18:47
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ArchangeI posted:Hilarious. Gauck gets a bunch of awards from small scale associations, some of which also gave awards to FDP Members. I mean, look at these hardcore neo liberal demagogues: Uschi Glas, Sabine Christiansen, Dagmar Berghoff (For non-Deutschgoons: An actress, a news anchor and a talkshow host). Seriously, that's it. He accepted awards that have been given to FDP-Members. Thats how that article constructs him as neo-liberal. You convenietly left out all the FDP and CDU politicians who are also mentioned in the article. Also I remember this at least about Uschi Glas' political views: As summarised here she participated in a talk show discussing the welfare state. During that programme she kept arguing that taxes on the rich shouldn't be raised, instead of social programs funded by taxes the poor should receive help from charities. That's pretty much a typical neo-liberal stance. I don't know if you could call her a demagogue but a famous actress like her repeating liberal talking points in public certainly isn't apolitical behaviour like you were implying. Also, regarding the soon to be president, 'freedom' and 'individual responsibility' is neo-liberal code for 'Abolish the welfare state!'(the 'freedom' to starve and the 'individual responsibility' of being born into poverty). StrangeRobot fucked around with this message at 21:53 on Feb 21, 2012 |
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Feb 21, 2012 21:41
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My mother used to be friends with Uschi and she is a dense and empty person that doesn't understand what life without unlimited money is like anymore.
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Feb 21, 2012 21:52
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She's also about 100 years old and seems to like getting her picture taken together with other grandmas in jersey shore poses, faces and dresses (I was waiting at the doctors office and the only thing to read was Gala and Bunte, sue me)
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Feb 21, 2012 22:15
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StrangeRobot posted:You convenietly left out all the FDP and CDU politicians who are also mentioned in the article. I did not. I just did not mention them by name. It was more of an example to what huge array of people those awards have been given to. And I fail to see how accepting an award from a small NGO that has also been given to FDP politicians makes you neo-liberal, anyway. quote:Also, regarding the soon to be president, 'freedom' and 'individual responsibility' is neo-liberal code for 'Abolish the welfare state!'(the 'freedom' to starve and the 'individual responsibility' of being born into poverty). I guess one could say Die Linke is against freedom, then. I knew it. Yes, yes, I know that "Free to be responsible" is one of Westerwelle's favorite sayings. That does not mean that anyone who uses the words freedom and responsibility is a neo-liberal hack who wants to see people starving in the streets. Gauck is a Lutheran pastor for gently caress's sake, you honestly believe he thinks helping the poor is a terrible idea?
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Feb 21, 2012 22:29
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StrangeRobot posted:Also, regarding the soon to be president, 'freedom' and 'individual responsibility' is neo-liberal code for 'Abolish the welfare state!'(the 'freedom' to starve and the 'individual responsibility' of being born into poverty).
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Feb 22, 2012 10:36
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'If you don't take a job as a prostitute, we can stop your benefits' http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/1482371/If-you-dont-take-a-job-as-a-prostitute-we-can-stop-your-benefits.html If this is true it's all kinds of hosed up. I mean leaglized prostitution is ok, but coercing someone to be a prostitute violates Art. 1 GG imo. Seems like either the legalization should be dropped or the threat of lowered benefits. Or an excemption on moral grounds or something idk. Also why the gently caress do I need to read this in an english paper, I have heard nothing about this here.
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Mar 1, 2012 12:19
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The Real Foogla posted:Also why the gently caress do I need to read this in an english paper, I have heard nothing about this here.
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Mar 1, 2012 12:32
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BabyFur Denny posted:I have heard about that here, about seven years ago, when that article was written. To be honest it fooled me too. I saw Jan 30th, read the article and thought what the flying gently caress. This seems to be what came out of it.
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Mar 1, 2012 12:39
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Where did you even find this old trash? http://www.snopes.com/media/notnews/brothel.asp
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Mar 1, 2012 12:55
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It's old, but appearantly not total trash: http://www.jurablogs.com/de/arge-aachen-vermittelt-prostituierte
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Mar 1, 2012 15:20
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