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Duzzy Funlop posted:If bavarian separatism is surprising to anyone, I wouldn't recommend looking into frankonian separatism to them. Isn't frankonian separatism more along the lines of wanting to become their own Bundesland? Also the parallels between Bavaria and Texas grow by the day...
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Aug 24, 2012 15:13
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az posted:From the perspectives of left leaning social dems and socialists, we really need a new charismatic and influential politician that drops some truthbombs and isn't afraid of going against the cuddle politics of today, while further eroding our social safety nets. Someone like Thilo Sarazin, then?  Oh, right, charismatic. drat. I don't think we are moving in the direction of the US political discourse. So far, neither of the big parties has accused the other of literally destroying the country. Frankly, I prefer a political system that makes decisions which I do not always agree with to a political system that gridlocks itself to death. The Republicans in the US have given up on trying to work with the other side and are in full fundamental opposition mode. ArchangeI fucked around with this message at 18:06 on Aug 24, 2012 |
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Aug 24, 2012 18:03
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Hamiltonian Bicycle posted:...did you seriously just imply that the only problem with Sarrazin is that he's not charming enough? No, I meant to imply that Az's post read almost 1:1 like some comments from Sarazin fans. Finally someone who speaks the truth about all those drat immigrants! Someone who is not cowed by the PC-thought police that controls all other parties in parliament! And he was (is?) in the SPD, so... quote:Libertarians in politics struggle for a night watchman state. And the FDP only appears less than libertarian to people used to American libertarians. Whatever the goal of the FDP is, it is drat near indistinguishable from libertarianism, even if they stop short from going all in in a single blow. Bit by bit, they want to dismantle the (welfare-)state.
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Aug 24, 2012 20:03
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az posted:No no that was really not what I meant. Looking over it, it wasn't expressed very well. I was referring to people that break the mold of hand wringing and softballing each other in political discourse like German politicians of these times seem to love. I'd love to see politicians that actually call each other on their lies and idiotic policy proposals instead of going "ehhhhhh". People like Sarazin that unload rhetorical garbage and try to score cheap demagogue points can gently caress right off. At some level I agree with you, but sharpening the contrast between the parties brings the possibility of a deadlock, especially when Bundestag and Bundesrat are controlled by different parties. Looking at Belgium and the US (and Hesse a few years ago, come to think of it), having a political system that does not gridlock itself because everyone involved is willing to work with one another (even the CDU cooperates with Die Linke on a local level, believe it or not) seems a major boon to me. And calling politicians on their lies is the media's job. At least we are not as bad off as the Americans, where one party tells outright and outrageous lies, with no one calling them on it except for a Jewish comedian.
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Aug 24, 2012 20:50
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Lucy Heartfilia posted:Germans are critical of everything though. And bitching is our favourite pastime. Seriously, listening to us you'd think not a single train in Germany is ever on time and we have rain all year round.
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Nov 9, 2012 12:41
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Riso posted:The constant reduction of German history to those loving 12 years annoys me to no end, as if there was nothing else to talk about. I have never heard anyone criticize the Autobahn just because Hitler build a few (the project, like pretty much everything the Nazis took credit for, was started under Weimar). While we are criticizing, the constant complains about being reduced to those 12 years are annoying as all hell. It was without a doubt the biggest event in German history (closely followed by 1870 and 1918) and has shaped pretty much all aspects of German culture ever since. You can say that Old Germany died on May 8th, 1945, and what followed was something only very loosely affiliated with what came before. Also a reminder that today is the day on which Germany is historically most likely to have a revolution (1918/1989) and/or a major progrom. I wonder if Angie is sleeping well...
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Nov 9, 2012 15:43
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Riso posted:Personally, I'd rate Martin Luther's 95 theses a lot more important. A fair point, but as far as the impact to modern Germany is concerned, I stand by my assertion. When people talk about "the war" they don't think about the thirty years war anymore.
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Nov 9, 2012 17:25
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Soap Bat Derby posted:
Funnily enough, many historians of the era also agree that the bombs were the best (meaning causing the least amount of suffering) way to end the war. It should be noted that the Allies followed a policy of unconditional surrender, that meaning that the defeated nation does not get to demand any conditions. This was specifically to prevent a repeat of WWI, where Germany could argue that it was unbeaten and that the peace imposed was unfair. Japan wanted out of the war as early as 1944, but they wanted a peace with honor, where they would prosecute their own war criminals (yeah right) and disarm themselves. Leaving the emperor in place was a term offered by the US, which is a major and important distinction. And even then there were people in the Japanese government who wanted to continue the fight. I have also looked around for that peace proposal you mentioned and have found nothing. I would be glad if you would show some sources, because the only things I have read say that japan tried to get the Soviet Union to negotiate on their behalf and that they otherwise decided to ignore the Declaration of Potsdam (which included a provision that the Japanese would be allowed to choose their own form of government, i.e. keep the Emperor).
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Nov 10, 2012 20:11
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Soap Bat Derby posted:This is exactly what I'm talking about. The Japanese terms in September 1944 may have been peace with honor, but by January 1945 was a different matter If I recall that right, the main problem with those overtures was that the Allies couldn't be sure that the people making them were in any position to actually enforce a peace. Up until the end it wasn't certain if Japanese units in China would actually obey the order of surrender. Thank you for the article, but it also acknowledges that the memo you quoted does not represent the opinion of the Japanese government at the time. It quotes a meeting between the Japanese foreign minister and the Swedish ambassador: quote:On April 7, acting Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu met with Swedish ambassador Widon Bagge in Tokyo, asking him "to ascertain what peace terms the United States and Britain had in mind." But he emphasized that unconditional surrender was unacceptable, and that "the Emperor must not be touched." There is no controversy whatsoever that the Allies could have had a conditional surrender of Japan by May 1945 at the very latest. But they pushed on for an unconditional surrender. That they retained the emperor after all is secondary. It was not an acknowledgment of Japanese terms. As for Eisenhower and Leahy, one was in Europe at the time, and the other wanted to starve Japan into submission by blockade, which would have caused a great deal more casualties among the Japanese civil population. That is the gist of the argument for the bomb: any other option would have either increased the number of casualties or meant going off the policy of unconditional surrender. Whether the later would have been a viable option is a matter of opinion, I guess. Anyway, I guess we should end this derail (or move it to the military history thread in A/T).
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Nov 11, 2012 00:13
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flavor posted:I'd say those aspects are about a thousand times more important than who fought what battle with what exact type of weapons. Note the "some" in the sentence you quoted. When you have people like Schleyer saying he was proud to have been in the SS it gets kinda hard to feel too much sympathy for him. You don't even have to get all "ra-ra complicit with war in Vietnam ra" on them. Doesn't excuse the way the RAF happily killed whoever happened to be in their line of fire, of course. Its just that some people are slightly less innocent than others.
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Nov 11, 2012 02:38
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flavor posted:No. Not feeling sympathy for him is not the same as cheering for his death. I also have my doubts that Schleyer was not at least complacent with war crimes when he was helping to organize the war industry in Czechoslovakia. He must have known about slave labor at least.
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Nov 11, 2012 05:40
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The sentence came from train conductors, though. Funnily enough the police is now sueing the victim for calling them Nazis. It'd be hilarious if the court went "Yeah well a statement of fact is not usually an insult, you have no case.", but they won't do that.
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Nov 29, 2012 14:27
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Duzzy Funlop posted:Am I the only one who "Homo-Ehe" has a very weird ring to? if I remember that right, back when civil unions were first implemented, it was called "Schwulen-Ehe".
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Dec 4, 2012 12:39
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az posted:I didn't really follow the issue and I actually thought we were further along. At least we have full civil unions including adoption rights. Anybody know what happened to the same sex marriage bill that the Hamburg senate wanted to introcude to the Bundesrat in '11? I thought the same, to be honest. I was really surprised that the Bundeswehr waited until 2004 to allow openly gay soldiers. On the other hand, at least no one is campaigning on denying homosexual rights. Perhaps the only really good thing Guido Westerwelle has forced the CDU to do.
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Dec 4, 2012 18:04
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Air is lava! posted:So... No one wants to say anything regarding that bomb at the train station in Bonn? Aparently the only reason it did not explode was a malfunction. We kind of dodged a bullet there. Must have been Muslims, Germans don't make engineering mistakes  I mean, apparently they used a lightbulb instead of a fuse? That is the second time we were spared a major attack because the terrorists didn't pay attention in bomb-making 101.
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Dec 14, 2012 22:23
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Noahdraron posted:I guess Al Qaeda doesn't hate us as much as other nations but they feel they have to make at least a token effort every now and then and send some rookie to do the job, what with resources being scarce and all. They couldn't even be bothered to find a good target. Seriously, who cares about loving Bonn? Maybe they had a thirty years old book that named Bonn as the German capital?
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Dec 15, 2012 00:02
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bronin posted:You mean this guy: I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that he was, to a certain point, correct.
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Dec 20, 2012 21:09
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Sereri posted:You mean the Telefonbuch ?  I'd also like a good, well reasoned explanation why in the flying gently caress the FDP managed to get 10% in Lower Saxony. They even loving gained 2% relative to 2009! I guess that means Rösler is out of the woods, never would have thought it.
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Jan 20, 2013 22:06
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To be entirely fair, the quotation styles differ significantly between the sciences. The committee that busted Shavan didn't have one from her field, which strikes me as fairly odd to be perfectly honest. Not saying that she didn't do anything wrong, but "you quoted that wrong" (as opposed to "you didn't say that it was a quote at all") is a bit problematic.
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Feb 7, 2013 12:36
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midnightclimax posted:According to an interview with a plagiarism hunter, the number of wrong quotations in Shavan's diss suggests deception ("Die Vielzahl der Plagiatsfragmente spricht für Täuschung"). Or for consistently using a style of quotation that he doesn't like.
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Feb 7, 2013 20:22
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Maybe we should just purchase them 
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Feb 9, 2013 08:34
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I wonder what the BILD makes of all this. Have We resigned now? Are We no longer Pope?
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Feb 11, 2013 16:05
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Deceitful Penguin posted:This will never stop being hilarious to me. This and the sunday thing. Thank the gods for Tankstellen I guess. You know how those crazy prepper guys always go "And what happens if you can't buy food one day, huh? Then society will break down and the black masses will come swarming into my house and then I need that assault rifle!" Well guess what country isn't going to break down, because we have that every weekend
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Feb 11, 2013 19:20
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Zwille posted:This. Also gently caress buying more than you can carry in one go if you gotta carry it up multiple flights of stairs. I'm guessing everyone going "Sheesh, can't you plan in advance" has a car, lives in the suburbs, works 9-5 and probably has a wife who does all the shopping anyway. Wow, we could complete the Energiewende if we could burn the strawman you created!
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Feb 13, 2013 00:17
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It should be noted that we have a Germany thread in A/T as well which would probably be better suited to your questions: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3205129 (Making sure everything ends up in the right place is the quintessential Germany experience. Once you see our recycling system, you will get the joke).
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Mar 12, 2013 09:36
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Duzzy Funlop posted:The things I chuck into my gelber Sack...I dare not say related: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_kNeHWxF_U (the height of German comedy)
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Mar 12, 2013 14:28
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Landsknecht posted:Nope, it was bild.de so lose all hope now, next stop 4. Reich (the 4th Reich will consist of annexing various Mediterranean islands in exchange for bailouts so that all the Uebermenschen are guaranteed a sunny holiday). The Volks-everything they put out didn't tip you off? They are German Foxnews, only less fair and balanced.
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May 3, 2013 22:47
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Lucy Heartfilia posted:The NSU trial is starting today. Besides the murders, the disturbing thing for me is that these guys got away with 15 bankrobberies. I used to think we had a competent police force.
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May 6, 2013 23:59
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Duzzy Funlop posted:Well, both trials annoyed (or are beginning to annoy) me because of the stage they're setting for the crazies to, uh...market themselves. Well the Norwegians shut that off right quick when Breivik wanted to address the victims and the judge cut off his mike. We can only hope the judges here will do equally well...and it's a desperate hope.
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May 7, 2013 09:36
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To be quite honest, there is nothing stupid about wondering why a secular state allows a crucifix in its court rooms. And it does raise the question if the court will be biased because the majority of the victims were Muslims. At the very least, it is no more stupid than the outrage about Zscherpe wearing  fitting clothes
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May 7, 2013 19:15
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Riso posted:You especially have no right to complain when your own country does in effect not grant religious freedom and practice. I guess Gitmo inmates have no right to complain either if they are from countries that practice torture?
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May 7, 2013 23:23
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Riso posted:A freudian? Yes, the Verfassungsschutz has been excellent in keeping an eye on right wing extremists. It only took them 10 years to not spot the NSU! At the same time, they keep watching Die Linke very carefully (not that Die Linke shouldn't be watched if they argue about ways towards communism). Seriously, what kind of world are you living in? I expect these kinds of reality-defying posts in the freep thread, not here. We are discussing one of the biggest failures of the Verfassungsschutz in recent memory, which occured specifically because they focused too much on islamists and the left, and you come here and tell us that they should focus more on islamists and the left? Are you...are you a V-Mann?
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May 8, 2013 17:00
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Smirr posted:When I heard they were going to hold the NSU trial in Munich, my immediate reaction was "oh gently caress", though I could not articulate why. München, Hauptstadt der Bewegung!
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May 9, 2013 05:01
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I don't get where you got Deutschland den Deutschen as an acceptable political statement from. It is used by the one party everyone recognizes as Nazis and, apparently, a few SA posters (which may or may not be sad that another organization with the same acronym no longer exists). You might as well claim that Stormfront dictates official US policy. That's not to say we are a multicultural wonderland, but there is at least the (grudging) acceptance that Germany needs immigrants because we're running below replacement level birthrate and have done so for decades.
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May 10, 2013 03:54
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Wait, there are semi-serious media companies that literally use the word "shitstorm"?
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Jul 16, 2013 16:49
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Lucy Heartfilia posted:It also has the 2d political spectrum map. Quite nice. I would assume absorbing the coalition of East German civil rights activists (the "Bündnis90") makes it hard to go together with the thrice-renamed SED. Plus die Linke is running on a negotiation base not unlike the Republican Party in the US, i.e. unconditional surrender as the bare minimum. I think Die Linke is a good example of what happens if you refuse to compromise on anything and stay true to your values: You remain genuine and people know what you stand for, but you also achieve jack poo poo.
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Aug 29, 2013 13:42
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Randler posted:It should, however, be noted that both the SPD and the Greens are fine cooperating with the Linke on the state level if it suits their interests. For what it's worth, the SPD/Greens in NRW even worked with the Linke under a non-coalition agreement that left the SPD/Greens as an administration without a majority in the state parliament. And I do not really buy that is has anything to do with former SED personnel, because the SPD absorbed large sways of SED remnants as well. If personnel is an issue, it's due to the WASG merger weakening the political position of the SPD and therefore the Greens back in 2007. Oh, absolutely. As long as Lafontaine has anything to say in Die Linke there won't be a coalition with the SPD, and that feeling is very much mutual.
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Aug 29, 2013 14:26
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Torrannor posted:Yeah, while I am not really happy with our conservative government, at least we have the FDP who can prevent the worst civil liberty violations by the CDU (plus Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger is a genuinely great person). Our government is certainly a center right government, but still firmly rooted in the center. Compared to the Republicans, who seem to sprint towards the far right at an amazing pace, with the Democrats for some reason slowly following behind them. That poo poo is scary. Never thought I'd read someone wirte "At least we have the FDP". I agree on Leutheuser-Schnarrenberger, though. As for the whole nuclear question, as someone pointed out, the problem is a bit more complicated. Our nuclear plants are loving old. The newest was put online in the early 80ies. Given that most companies expect a lifetime for NPPs of 30 years and plan the write off accordingly, they are all printing money by now. There is no doubt that a modern nuclear power plant is fairly safe, but German plants aren't modern by any stretch of imagination. And no one, anywhere, is even quietly suggesting that we should start building new plants. That would be a polarizing issue the size this country hasn't seen in a while.
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Aug 30, 2013 10:39
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Lucy Heartfilia posted:We can't build anything anywhere in Germany. Germany is full of NIMBYs. I like to joke that the best way to solve the nuclear waste problem would be to host a congress of all the Bürgerbewegungen against a waste disposal site in their area, then close the doors and let them work it out. Come back the next day and clean up the bodies.
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Aug 30, 2013 12:36
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And here I thought we didn't have any insane conservatives like the GOP. Turns out they are all in the liberal party! Seriously, how can that guy write that when the man who led the FDP to one of its best performances in the last twenty years is gay and married to his partner (his other abilities and successes, or lack thereof, notwithstanding)?
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Aug 30, 2013 14:48
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