Germans prepare for state-control

I have said it innumberable times in the past, Germany is drifting towards socialism, even if it is a soft kind of socialism. But this kind just substitutes the metal gun with the velvet gun. In the end, they are very similar in words and in action.
Of course, nobody wants to see it and nobody takes me seriously. They think it to be a bad habit that there is so much beaurocracy, but they are unwilling to change anything (politicians even less than everyday men and women, because they'd diminish their own position of power).

A good example has been brought up by "Der Spiegel", a famous German newsmag. Germans are security fanatics, even if it is not necessary, or it would drive many companies out of business. The newest gadget of the law-abiding politicians of the authoritarian-side is the life-boat rule. Inland-boat traffic on the river rhine was always a very safe thing, until the government decided otherwise.
Now, it is dangerous, and we have to protect against the new huge 20 cm waves and the long distance to reach help or the shore (20 m?!). To protect the poor citizens, who could die on the river rhine, the government invented a new law that made it necessary for the boat captains to buy expensive life-boats. Those life-boats are usually seen on high sea ships, where they are necessary for your survival. On those small tourist boats on the rhine, however, those boats are unnecessary. The life-boats are so expensive that the quantity needed for your boat and the care-taking could easily wipe the economic balance of those small tourist companies, who undertake rhine-tours by boat.

So, you tell me that the state does not interfere with business? That we have a truly free-market or even a social market? What is social in killing business out of fear of the improbable?

Damn you, Authoritarians!

Commentary: smg.max@gmx.net

Since my time online is going to be limited, because I have too much to do on campus, I will make post nothing new for the next weeks. This is also partly caused by my petty attempts to move out of my current domus :P

Let's see when I will find time again, perhaps I will post a short story the next few days :)

Commentary: smg.max@gmx.net

John Horvat has it right... partly

He writes in his column for telepolis.de:

Take, for example, America's proposed CAPPS II, a law which represents a
scary example of the extent to which a government seeks control. According to
this law, all airline passengers would be screened and their records would be checked against the FBI's NCIC (National Crime Information Center) database -- which, ironically, is exempt from requirements to ensure that its contents are accurate.

This means in short, that they can take all data or hold persons which may or may not be guilty, because there is no sort of verification necessary. This is a new high in government observation and an addition extension of the Big Brother state.
Most likely, you cannot even get the information about the criteria via the "Freedom of Information Act" (which is not nearly as free as you think), because those data would fall under national security. Incidentially, those are listed under a category which is exempt from this Act. Tragical and pure luck, isn't it....


Commentary: smg.max@gmx.net

Is Turkey ready for the EU?

The talks about the joining of turkey to the European Union has gone into the second round and they didn't lose momentum. In fact, they even built momentum in the last few days. Famous politicians, writers, artists and other stars have commented the attempt to include a partly-islamic country into the European Union.

I want to demonstrate the problem via the discussion in Germany. The socialist party hopes to get Turkey into the EU, because they believe that it would set an example to the rest of the world. What kind of example should that be, you ask?
Well, they want to demonstrate that there is no difference between an islamic-secular country and the western world and they want to show that we can live together peacefully. They hope to get access to the Middle East and disolve the resentments of the Mullahs and Theocracies.

Then there is the conservative party, the CDU, which doesn't want them to join. In the wake of the anti-Turkey voices of the conservatives swims the liberal party FDP. And once the liberals have made the choice out of the right reasons.
Turkey, they reason, is still not ready to join up, because they still violate human rights, aren't truly secular, because they still prevent the ancient rule of patriachic nations. The administration of Erdogan does nothing to prevent abuse of women by their husbands and they still torture their prisoners if necessary.
Those violations of human rights are no small things and should alone stop the integration until they are solved sufficiently.

So, my opinion is clearly towards more talks, but no integration until we have a truly democratic turkey with safe civil liberties.

Commentary: smg.max@gmx.net

Bush considers Europe to be a security problem
AND
German Bild endorses George W. Bush as President

The Spiegel reports of some truly stupidious and bad explained acts on behalf of the George Bush campaign team:

Wanna log on to George W. Bush's re-election website? No problem. If you happen
to be in the United States that is. For everyone else on the planet, the Web
site www.georgewbush.com is blocked. "Error message 403. Access denied." The
move by Bush campaign officials to block the site to visits from outside the US
comes following an attack on the domain last week that shut it down for two
days. The assault was a so-called "Denial of Service" attack, whereby a huge
number of computers are hijacked and used to simultaneously log-on to the same
site. The site's server crashes under the strain. The site was blacked out on
Monday. "We took this measure for security reasons," Bush spokesman Scott
Stanzel said on Wednesday following days of silence on the issue. (1:45 p.m.
CET)

Of course, security reasons is only the obvious part. Most likely, they don't want to have more anti-bush comments with proper reasoning and logic on their servers. And perhaps they don't want to terrify their European counter-parts with their theocratic agenda. Who knows?

When German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder pledged, in 2002, to oppose a US attack on Iraq, the image of Germans in the mind of most Americans went down the tubes. Now, however, a new poll offers hope that the transatlantic ice age may be ending. US pollster Magid, working with the German Information Center, asked Americans how they viewed German-American relations and found that 35 percent felt they were "excellent" or "good," up from only 17 percent in a poll taken a week after Baghdad fell in April 2003. After Britain, which got an 88 percent approval rating, 57 percent of Americans further said that Germany was the country's most-important European partner. Nevertheless, the Foreign Ministry in Berlin still has its work cut out for it: 45 percent of Americans still think Germany is a stray ship. Still, "the trend is going in the right direction," Germany's ambassador to Washington, Wolfgang Ischinger told reporters. (12:38 p.m. CET)

Is it? I don't believe it, just because a poll said that more people like Germans. I don't want to be liked by people who support someone I despice, because this only gives you goose-bumps. They might actually know something, you don't and it will surely be to your disadvantage. Another precious detail in this poll, when applied to our anti-war policy, is the short period of hatred against Germany, which has decreased (as the poll indicates) and I can only affirm it, because I have been to New York in Mid-August.
It shows that you can even succeed with an unpopular policy, if you stick to it and you think it was right. If it was right, the truth will win and so it did (or at least the memory of the American citizen is very short).

So, I think Schröder went in the right direction and the American people start to believe him. That's what the poll indicats in my opinion.

Lest you think that everyone in Europe is anti-Bush, the German tabloid
Bild comes through on Wednesday with "Ten Reasons George W. Bush is the Better
President:

1. Bush has clear priorities.
2. Bush has learned that military strength is the only answer to
fanatics.
3. Under Bush, the US will continue to bear the financial, military and
casualty burden in the fight against terrorism.
4. Bush will do everything he can to prevent nuclear proliferation.
5. Bush has learned that America can defeat every country in war, but needs
allies in peace. Thus, his second term will be characterized by cooperation with
international partners.
6. Bush knows Europe is militarily weak, so he won't ask them for
help.
7. Under Bush, America will remain a strong partner for Israel in its fight
for survival.
8. Republicans have always been stronger supporters of free trade than
Democrats.
9. Every new American administration makes mistakes. Bush has already made
his.
10. With Bush, we know what to expect. With Kerry, we don't. (Wednesday,
4:18 p.m. CET)

German's biggest newspaper, that's right, but still the most supid one. I don't know anyone who truly appreciates the opinion of the "BILD Zeitung". Instead they think it is flat and not very detailed, oftened too sensational to be taken seriously.

But, well, let's go to their reasons, why Bush is the better alternative.
Bush has clear priorities, yes, and these priorities are the reason why not to appeal to him, because he is in favor of a theocratic democracy, because he applies a new form of socialism by the Right-Wing and he has the worst record on civil liberties I can think of (Patriot ACT I / II).

Bush has learned that force is the only way to make war on terrorism! That's another lie in itself. He didn't learn it, he just applied it and irgnores any consequences or logical fallacies in it! Instead Iraq is a shattered nation, terrorism is on the rise in all other countries. He has brought Iran to proliferation and Syria will surely follow to be at peace. Bush has ignited the Middle East in a new Jihad also affecting Israel and Palestine. Bush has started to impose sanctions on free trade and research (stem-cell imports and research f.e.). He has stopped the trade of work-force via the anti-terror policies. The once proud nation of immigrants has become a isolated suspicious island!

On the last two issues:
Bush has made errors and mistakes, but instead of admitting them or even performing better by learning from them. He will do them again and again! I don't this is a solution or an argument in this case.
The last one is stupid, because it is no valid argument for Bush. Yes, we know Bush and perhaps this is the reason, why we would even go with an unkown?!

All in all, this evaluation of Bush is again short and stupid, even for BILD standards.

Some other interesting parts

Commentary: smg.max@gmx.net

On a side note

http://cordair.com

This is a site you should check out of you are interested in realistic and meaningful paintings/drawings and/or scultpures. Quent Cordair presents some beautiful images of aspiring and inspiring artists, especially the degree of realism is sometimes disturbing.

All those images are well crafted and show some of the virtues of Objectivism and more so Liberalism. The freedom of man to do what he needs to be happy, the liberty to free himself of his restrictions, the ascent of happiness.



This is one of those pictures I love. It is named "Mind over Matter" and was painted by Sylvia Bokor. She grandly captures the theme of Mind over Matter, while the blue sky represents the sky without limits and thus shows that we are not limited by Earth, because our destiny is up there. The blue represents freedom of mind and thereby freedom of the individual. It also gives the impression of a moved image with the clouds in the middle-lower picture.
Above the clouds you can see a plane crossing the sky, leaving a white line behind. The plane could also represent freedom, but most likely turns on man's achievement to dominate, control and understand nature. Ultimately, it shows how man used nature to conquer it in a peaceful and gentle way. Again you see the two dominating colors in it, blue and white. Those two colors are also meant to symbolise liberty and individualism, because they refer to the U.S. Independence War.

Of course, there are still more symbols, analogies and impressions in this picture, but I only wanted to demonstrate some of its qualities.
So, now, you are off to look for yourself and perhaps get yourself some of this wonderful works of art.

Commentary: smg.max@gmx.net

The Election in the United States comes closer and closer...

Yet, there are still so many lies and a deceiving administration that blocks any attempt to get an objective truth out of the dozen reports. Fakes, like Bush's hysterical terror warning, sheddered my truth in any good information policy in the current government of the USA.
Despite all the uncovered truthes, that Iraq was no direct threat, that there was no link to Al-Qaida before 9/11 and so forth, there are still people in the U.S. who stick to this lying example of a spine-less person.
Instead of facing the truth, he continues making up his dream-world (as seeing in the faked terror-alert). Can YOU trust someone, who does not trust this world, who doesn't believe in a real world?

The old hype of the Republicans, that most media-channels are in control of the Democratsm is history if you watched TV lately. Just take FOX News, which is clearly patriotically and right-winged, but the problematic thing is that it can reach millions of homes at once. And what leftist media stands against it? CNN? It's not that left-sided....

And where is a liberal channel by and for liberals? There is no such thing in the most liberal country on Earth (still).. Or at least, there is no country-wide channel and thus the liberal party will never claim what could be a middle path between the two extremes. But, meh, this is again very biased, isn't it?

But, well, it is still yours to decide what is true and what not...

Commentary: smg.max@gmx.net

Die Ehrung von Terroristen in Deutschland

Während der Iraq im Chaos versinkt und Afghanistan zu einem zweiten Somalia verkommt, werden in Deutschland Pax Christi Kirche in Essen Palestinensische Terroristen geehrt, wie der Spiegel-Online http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/gesellschaft/0,1518,318818,00.html berichtet.

Die Gemeinde ehrt alle Jahre wieder Menschen, die bei einem Gewaltakt ums Leben gekommen sind und alle 5 Jahre werden neue Opfer hinzugenommen. Dabei unterscheiden diese Christen jedoch nicht zwischen Täter und Opfer, sondern schmeißen alle Menschen in einen Topf.
Dabei werden eben neben dem Enthauptungsopfer-Nick-Berg auch noch Terroristenchefs der Hamas gewürdigt.

Dagegen haben jetzt Bürger aus Essen einen Unterlassungsbescheid eingereicht.
Pfarrer Steprath meint jedoch, dass es sich dabei nicht um eine Ehrung handele, sondern nur um einen Hinweis auf die Gewaltakte der Menschen. Da selbst diese Täter Menschen waren, so wäre es anti-menschlich sie auszunehmen. (Aber sind sie wirklich Menschen, oder eher Unmenschen?)
Steprath sagt, dass man damit das Böse nicht verhamlose, sondern eben das wahre Böse, die Gewalt anprangere.

Doch, das ist doch nur eine schwache Ausrede. Die Gewalt existiert ja nicht als eigene Entität, sondern wird erst durch einen Initiator ausgeführt, weshalb die Schuld nicht bei der abstrakten Gewalt, sondern beim ausführenden Element liegt.
Doch auch dort windet sich Steprath mit einem Satz, der die wirkliche Gefährlichkeit des absoluten Christentums und des unbeschränkten Altruismus erkennen lässt. Es ist eine neue Form des Appeasments, die oft unterschätzt wird.

"Letztlich steht ein Urteil allein dem zu, der am Ende gerecht richten
wird", sagt Steprath.

Damit gibt er die Verantwortung für moralische Entscheidungen an eine höhere Instanz ab, deren Existenz nur in seinem kleinen Kreis von Menschen ohne Hinterfragung existiert. Gleichzeitig liefert er sich selbst allem Bösen, als wehrloser Mensch ohne Selbsterhaltungstrieb aus.
Wie schlecht und unwahr diese Einstellung ist, lässt sich durch ein einfaches Beispiel erklären. Niemand würde sich, so er nicht ein Psychologisches Problem mit Depressionen hat (Suicide-Gefahr), von jemandem anderen einfach so töten lassen, ohne sich zu verteidigen. In diesem Moment, der Initiation der Verteidigung, hat das Individuum für sich beschlossen den Gegenüber als Gefahr einzuschätzen und somit ein moralisches Urteil zu fällen. Da jeder Mensch so handelt, aus reinem Instinkt, kann Herr Steprath nicht seine Behauptung aufrechterhalten, er würde anders handeln.
Es ist unmenschlich anders zu handeln und er besteht doch so sehr darauf ein Mensch zu sein.

Urteilen ist menschlich und es ist notwendig, sonst kann das "Unmenschliche" frei herrschen.

Es geht hier also nicht um eine blose Ehrung von Terroristen, sondern um die Abstinenz von Moral, der Egalisierung von Gut und Böse und dem Befürworten von gewissenlosem Handeln.
Commentary: smg.max@gmx.net

60-Jahre Zyklus in Deutschland

Wie schnell Menschen die Vergangenheit vergessen können und zu alten Irrtümern zurück finden, hat sich dieses Wochenende wieder einmal in Ost-Deutschland gezeigt.
Nach den Landtagswahlen in Sachsen und Brandenburg sind Links-, wie auch Rechts-Extreme Parteien im Parteitag vertreten.
Nicht in einem kleinen Kontingent sondern als 2. bzw. 3. stärkste Partei, also mit significantem Machtanteil.

Die PDS hat in Brandenburg und Sachsen jeweils 28 % bzw. 23 % der Stimmen erhalten, was sie jeweils auf den Platz der zweit-stärksten Partei katapultiert. Natürlich ist die PDS nichts weiteres als die Nachfolgepartei der kommunistischen SED und auch wenn sie öffentlich gemäßigt auftreten, so weis man doch nicht ob sie sich wirklich zu einem limitierten Rechtsstaat bekennen würden, hätten sie die Macht.

Noch schlimmer ist jedoch, dass die NSDAP-Nachfolgeparteien DVU/NPD jeweils 9 bzw. 6 % der Stimmen erhalten haben und damit in die Landesparlamente einziehen konnten. In dem Land, das vor 60 Jahren noch den Schrecken des Nationalsozialismus exportierte und versuchte sich selbst zu befreien, scheint nichts daraus gelernt zu haben.
Dies liegt nicht allein an Rache-Wählern, wie die schrecklich hohe Anzahl an Jungwählern, bei NPD und DVU zeigt. Wären die Städte Dresden oder Leipzig nicht gegeben, wäre die NPD sogar noch vor die SPD gerutscht.

Doch woraus resultiert dieser Rutsch zu den Extremen? Er ist wieder einmal ein typisch deutsches Produkt. In Zeiten der Globalisierung und des Engagements des Individuums, versuchen verlorene Seelen sich von starken Symbolen und Persönlichkeiten ( in diesem Falle eines autoritären Staates) leiten zu lassen. Solche Symbolen und einfachen Haltestrukturen versprechen eben NPD oder PDS. Sie stehen für das Sinnbild des autoritären Vaterstaates nach sozialistischem und (im Falle der NPD) national-deutschem Vorbild.

Es ist nicht der Ablehnung einer Regierung, welche versucht die Deutschen mit Steuern auszubeuten. Wäre es jene Reaktion, dann hätten doch die Bürger logischerweise eine Partei gewählt, die einen freiheitlichen und anti-autoritären Staat bevorzugt, also die Grünen oder die Liberalen.
Da dies jedoch nicht geschehen ist, oder nur im Kleinen, wollen die Deutschen entweder etwas anderes, oder sie haben nicht verstanden wofür jene Parteien stehen.

Ich hoffe die Deutschen sind einfach nur verwirrt, wenn nicht sehe ich schwarz für Deutschland, Schwarz-weiß-rot und nicht Bundesdeutsch...


Commentary: smg.max@gmx.net

Music for the aspiring Men

I didn't think I would post lyrics here. But I had run over this song by Hooverphonic and it is, the tunes aside, one hell of a song.

Inhale the joy
Inhale the fun
Now it’s time for me to get on top
Of the world

Inhale the music and the warmth
The crowd is ready to bring me to the top
Of the world

(chorus)

Cause the world is mine
I won’t stop this time
Cause the world is mine
And I’m feeling so divine

I’m part of this illusive show
Time for me to get on stage
Lights fade

Tomorrow you’ll be at my feet
Saturated senses set me free
It’s all I need

The world the world is mine
And I’m feeling so divine

Despite being sung from a musicians point of view, it has some major values in it.
The rhythm and melodie drive the whole track and give it the serene and hymnical ambiente. The text itself depicts an individuum free to persue its own interest to joy and happiness.
It shows in the first lines that the individum is in need of joy and fun. It wants to inhale it, because she/he missed something in his life.
"Now, it's time to get on top", shows that something has ended and the person is ready to take his own life in his hands and rise to live it. More so, it seems that she sees himself with what she got (a good show and a fullfilling career as musician) as divine. Therefore Hooverphonic describes humans that persue their own interest as Gods, as divine creatures.
It's the feeling you get as a reward for being independent and selfish.

All in all, this song has a positive vibe about mankind and more so about the individuum and its liberty to do what it wants.

There is only one thing to say: "The World is Mine and I don't stop this time!"

Commentary: smg.max@gmx.net