Geoff's Comments

Yes, very poor article that is. But good is that the comments are pretty positive. Very embarrassing for a newspaper when the comments make more sense than the article of the author.

Murdoch will like how low the NYT can go.

But I am not surprised. Because in the first months of VH is have seen an NYT article, where they bashed the pope because his name was on a list of Hitler-jouth members when he was 14 or so. From then on I knew that the NYT has a problem with German christians.

Holy moly.

It's so nice to see you here Geoff. We must catch up soon...I've discovered new prodigious cherubs, watched some great movies (no spoilers!)...stuff like that. :)

Yes, people who equate the GDR with the Third Reich are dead serious (at least in their minds). They could to that in order to
- trivialize the Third Reich
- get rid of EastGerman influence in the Unified Germany (EastGerman influence exists for example in form of the party "Die Linke/Left Party", which is a threat to all westgerman parties).

But that question actually needs an assessment of an experienced historician!

Oh well, unfortunately I don't like Biermann nor Donnersmarck very much. I have read a lot of movie reviews but this article was a bit to egocentrical and condescending for my taste.
From the "old" German writers my favorite is Martin Walser.

Concerning living in East Germany: I am always appalled when people are speaking about "the two dictatorships" in order to put the GDR on the same level with Nazi-Germany. I think an opportunist in the GDR can in no way be compared to an opportunist in WWII if we look at the atrocities in WWII. De facto GDR-followers have much more problems than Nazi's had after WWII. Mainly because WestGermany annexed EastGermany like a victor state.

Link is not working. Just search for "Stasi roman"

I think this are the Stasi-books:
http://www.weltbild.de/staatssicherheitsdienst-stasi-romane-erzaehlungen/index.html?com=Staatssicherheitsdienst+(Stasi)%2C+Romane%2FErz%C3%A4hlungen&cspr=9&f=search.getsearch&tracking_typ=search_keywords

But if I am not mistaken, none of it made any impact on Germany. Probably because Stasi is a serious topic for Germany and not accepted as topic for a whodunit. The only author on the list with a name in literature is Stefan Heym IMO.

Now that you put it that way, yes, I can see that... I looked but could not find any, this was the closest.

From the top of my head I don't know such a book. But the oscar-winning movie "The lives of others" is about the STASI.

The topic freedom of speech/contrarian Sarrazin is explained in this article. The rest of the article is also correct:
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/09/06/the-scandal-behind-the-sarrazin-scandal.html

Gosh, now I looked at his new blog about Sarrazin: I won't comment on his blogs because they are too nonsensical to comment on. He wants to depict Germany as a Nazi-State, no matter what is happening in the Sarrazin-debate. Quotes:
- THE WOLVES ARE CIRCLING
- liability to Germany's clean, cosmopolitan image
- deputies from the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party disrupted a speech by President Wulff => There are neo-nazis in the German Bundesversammlung, yes. But in reality they are 3 people out of 1244 deputees (0,24%).
- Germany’s own Neocons and “Global War on Terror” cheerleaders
- stunning resemblance to Oswald Spengler

Needless to say that his comparison with the Nazi-banker in the first blog was totally ludicrious.

Sarazzin is a provocateur and weirdo. He was famous for tactless remarks about jobless Germans. He was sent to the Bundesbank to get rid of him in politics. Before that he was politician in Berlin. He has no big reputation as politician nor as economist. He did not take part in economic debates at all as Bundesbanker.
The scientist he quotes in his book had been dissociating themselfes from him. His theory is nonsense, circa 100 years behind cometmporary science about intelligence.

He likes to provoke and tends to oversymplyfing conclusions. Of course some people like derogatory remarks about immigrants. But decisive IMO is the reaction of the political elite. He will lose his Bundesbank job, the SPD tries to dismiss him from his party, every newspaper disclosed his wrong pseudo-scientific conclusions.

Because the German public opinion is so strongly against racist remarks, there is a debate starting, if the elite is denying his freedom of speech.

It was interesting to read the blog about Sarrazin. From the summary of the recent events quite alright. I only sense some anti-german stereotypes/godwin's law in the blog ("Nazi-banker"). Anti-German stereotypes of an IT-guy sitting in California are somewhat unimportant, but stereotypes of an intellectual about the country in which he is working will probably become a problem for his career.
I think I will comment on that blog later if the registation is not too time-comsuming.

LOL at that video btw! =D

the opening of that video made me think of "the new novel"...

Watch more cool animation and creative cartoons at Aniboom

E.J.'s idea for a special effect - it worked!

Find more videos like this on VloggerHeads

The topic of the week in Germany: Thilo Sarrazin. It will probably incite a serious national discussion about immigration (and perhaps another discussion about freedom of speech):
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2015866,00.html

*chuckles*
My best friend saw an old man Tibetan man at a shrine in Nepal who came like this from a village who knows how far. She took a picture and it's the only time I've seen her cry.
Pics coming!