This is an interview that many of us have been looking forward to. The Editrix is a talented writer, with a razor sharp mind who requently disagrees with me. There are those who disagree with whom I have to respect because of their articulate answers. The Editrix lets you know her position on the issues and represents herself eloquently.
1 Does the local identity still exist among Germans? Do people still have regional pride as Bavarians, Prussians or is that concept a thing of the past? In the US, certain localities like Texas, New York have a certain type of strong local identity.
2 Has there been residual issues from the reinification of East and West Germany. What happened to all the State employees of East Germany? Did professionals such as teachers and doctors have update their skills?
3 Is the anti-American sentiment in Germany largely anti-capitalist ir origin or has it cut across the right and left spectrum?
4 What is the correct way to understand Martin Luther. He was a virulent anti-semite,
but he also paved the way for the Protestant reformation of Christianity.
5 On the subject of Art, there is a naive assumption that artistic gifts bestow political wisdom. Can we as people appreciate the works of Degas, Arthur Miller, Wagner despite their odious political views?
6 How is higher education funded in Germany? Does the state pay for higher education?
7 Does Germany have sales and income taxes?
8 What is your opinion of agricultural subsidies?
9 Should people be as outraged at those who deny or mitigate the Armenian genocide as the Holocaust?
10 What are your views on nuclear energy?
11 Are India and China new superpowers? Should they be included at the world summits?
12 What are your views on immigration in Germany? There is talk of a guest worker program in the USA based upon European models. The criticism is that workers seldom go home long after their jobs are finished.
13 How does Germany deal with homelessness? In the USA the issue of homelessness is often intertwined with drug abuse and mental illness. Is the situation similar in Germany?
14 Is violent crime increasing in Germany?
15 Should drug adiction be treated as a medical or criminal matter?
16 Who are the Greens? Are they mostly former Communists? Have they had any major impact on Germany?
17 Is smoking cigarettes in resturants banned in your city?
18 How do Germans view Bismark today?
19 Has the UN become useless in todays world?
20 What is your view on State subsidies for the Arts and Culture? Should the government subsidize Museums, Zoos and the Arts?
21 What American TV shows can be seen in Germany?
22 In the United States the sale of alcohol is restricted to people over the age of twenty one. Do similar laws exist in Germany?
23 What are your views on the current Pope?
24 Do you think the immigrant riots in France could happen in Germany?
25 Does a country like Germany have the right to insist that laws like polygamy and the age of marriage be kept to historic European norms?
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47 comments:
Looking forward to these answers!
I would like to see if I can coax Mark Alexander or Jams into a similar interview on the UK. Someday, I will talk Batya into one of these interviews.
I hear there'll be no nanc here?
Iben what's your point?
A day without Nanc is a day without.
Iben, you bring back Nanc this instant!
Good questions Beak. I can't wait to read the answers. I was over there in Kiel during reunification and was part of a security detail for the US Navy ships, lots of fun bubba! We were actually worried about East German terrorists who didn't want to give it all up. Some of them have gone on to help Arab terrorists and others among the Stasi have gone on to great fortune as entrepreneurs. I doubt many Germans thought the "burden" would be this great.
Morgan
I'm part German.....ok well and english.......and scottish.....and American Indian, so basically if i was a dog, i would be the one being kicked by a angry guy when the got home from work for being a worthless mutt!
Morgan
It is important to know the Editrix is a friend of our people.
I spent the afternoon readind Chapter 19 of the Black Bok of Communism. The Chapter deals with the extensive ties of the Communist world to mostly Pseudostinian terror.
The entire Pseudostinian identity is a Nasserite/Commie bait and switch game. Prior to the Six Day War one reads next to zero about Pseudostinians. The context of the war was Pan Arabism, drive dem Jooos into the sea. This message did not sell so in the late 60's
the argument became the rights of a bogus ethnicity.
Arabs have 22 states of their own and posses tons of stolen Real Estate. It is folly and arrogant for the left to demand yet more real estate from a people abused by Arab colonialism and Jim Crow for 1400 years. Shall we ask the Native Americans to give up yet more land? Leftists are devoid of genuine historical knowledge.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
sincerely,
nanc
:)
HELLO BEAKER
I WANTED TO SAY THAT I AM A GIFED ARTIST AND UNDSERSTAND POLITICS TOO.
AS MY MOTHER USED TO SAY-
A MIRACLE.
BATYA
While you gremins butcher the English language on this site for moron, weaz just has his first 1,000 hit day.
Toil away in obsurity, beaker moron.
And I've told you again and again you illiterate moron: it was the Dick Cheney.
The Editrix's answers are on the thread beneath this one.
Rarely an I stunned by an answer but Number 16 is disturbing. I had not thought of the domestic adgenda of the Greens beyond their Peter Pan environmentalism. However, I am now seriously annoyed at any party that would even consider playing around with the age of consent.
Weazie
I am not paid to cater to your delusions. This falls in the realm of a mental health professional. I could care less what numbers your site has.
You are irrelevant, moronic and can't even begin to buy a clue.
You still haven't told us who is behind your grand 9-11 conspiracy?
The Tinfoil hat brigade needs you
but only after you have your Tapioca and Haldol.
Batya : Someday I would like to do a similar interview with you in the future.
Beak, beak beak, that is not very nice, how are you suppose to get your second date with your "Page" if your being rude!
Rob
I have serious concerns about the assault on the age of consent issue. Fringe Psychiatrists have allready been monkeying with destigmatizing pedophelia. I will have to take a second look at the US Greens and see if this madness has hit the USA.
Many notable Commie clowns masquerade as Greens notable Joel "Deranged" Koevell and Norman " Human Garbage" Finkelstein.
Good questions, Beak. Okay, here it goes:
1 Does the local identity still exist among Germans? Do people still have regional pride as Bavarians, Prussians or is that concept a thing of the past? In the US, certain localities like Texas, New York have a certain type of strong local identity.
With ever increasing horizontal mobility, local identities (I think they are truly ethnic identities) are getting weaker.
Another deplorable aspect is that the Wessies against Ossies antagonism overrides some of the ethnic identification. But on the whole, Germans, even the young ones, still tend to identify with their local ethnicity, specifically outside the big cities, some of which are identity-forming as well.
2 Has there been residual issues from the reunification of East and West Germany. What happened to all the State employees of East Germany? Did professionals such as teachers and doctors have update their skills?
I think the state employees still are where they were pre-1989. Same like the post-1945 period. They kept the state employees where they were, only removed the most odious ones, to keep the everyday business running.
Of course, the moral aspect is a completely different question.
I doubt that doctors in the former East were significantly lesser qualified than those in the West. (I may be wrong.) The vets I met seem fairly competent to me.
Teachers NEVER update anything. I have a hunch that they just swapped their Communist schoolbooks in the East for the Western versions. Teachers are a pain in the arse (and yes, such a generalisation IS justified) and the main (not the only) reason for the pathetic state of the German education system.
3 Is the anti-American sentiment in Germany largely anti-capitalist in origin or has it cut across the right and left spectrum?
Antiamericanism is the staple between Left, Right and Centre, as far as such a spectrum exists at all. In a quasi-Socialist country like Germany, anti-Capitalism is, of course, part of that staple. There is, of course, another strong ideological component, namely the traditional German reactionary anti-modernism, for which America has been the ogre for centuries now. (The Romantic movement in the 19th century was already strongly anti-American.) Never forget, German Socialists are national Socialists, which is only a step away from Nationalsocialists.
4 What is the correct way to understand Martin Luther. He was a virulent anti-Semite, but he also paved the way for the Protestant reformation of Christianity.
I fail to see the theological and spiritual justification of Luther's Reformation, so even that redeeming quality doesn't come into it. The Reformation cost innumerable lives during the 30-year-war, split the nation in two and is still the cause of hatred and resentment between Germans.
Luther was the only Protestant reformer to identify narrowly with nationalism and welcomed princely authoritarianism. The Evangelical clergy as a group a was traditionally on the side of the secular power in Germany, however disgustingly oppressive.
5 On the subject of Art, there is a naive assumption that artistic gifts bestow political wisdom. Can we as people appreciate the works of Degas, Arthur Miller, Wagner despite their odious political views?
I think everybody has to decide that for himself. I wouldn't want to see an artist (ANY artist) banned because of his political views, but I don't want to have his oeuvre foisted on me as well.
6 How is higher education funded in Germany? Does the state pay for higher education?
Yes it does.
7 Does Germany have sales and income taxes?
Yes we have. And cripplingly high ones.
8 What is your opinion of agricultural subsidies?
Well, my farmer friends are telling me that they are left in the lurch by the EU, subsidies or not. I am not a Libertarian, although I support some of the Libertarian principles, but agricultural subsidies, specifically within a bureaucratic monster like the EU, are too complex a matter for me to comment knowledgeably on.
9 Should people be as outraged at those who deny or mitigate the Armenian genocide as the Holocaust?
I am not quite sure whether I understand that question. The denial of the Armenian genocide (holocaust, if you insist) throws a light on the Turkish people. It doesn't change a thing about the Holocaust of the European Jewry.
Germans tend to relativise their own guilt instrumentalising other peoples' crimes. The fact that the Turks don't come clear with their past makes the Germans feel somewhat noble and less guilty.
All hypocritical and very sad.
Does that answer your question?
10 What are your views on nuclear energy?
I think nuclear power plants face us with a terrible risk in a densely populated area like Western and Central Europe, but I don't see any other way to provide us with the energy we seem to need. Working on more secure nuclear technologies and keep looking for alternative energies may be the answers.
11 Are India and China new superpowers? Should they be included at the world summits?
I believe that the future belongs to the Asian race anyway, whether they are officially included at international organisations now or not. They are hard-working, intelligent no-nonsense people and not troubled with the guilt-complex and self-hatred of the White race.
They will be the answer, too, to the Islamic threat to other cultures, precisely for the above mentioned reasons.
12 What are your views on immigration in Germany? There is talk of a guest worker program in the USA based upon European models. The criticism is that workers seldom go home long after their jobs are finished.
"Guest working" doesn't work, as we are learning the hard way in Germany right now. I don't see why it should work in the United States.
13 How does Germany deal with homelessness? In the USA the issue of homelessness is often intertwined with drug abuse and mental illness. Is the situation similar in Germany?
Homelessness is an extremely complex problem and I think mental illness and drugs are only two of many problems and I doubt that they even are among the more significant ones. I know too little about it to comment knowledgeably and may be wrong here. What I see is that it is not a fashionable cause and the homeless are therefore among those at the bottom of the welfare chain, which makes me sad.
14 Is violent crime increasing in Germany?
Drug and violent offences are rising, property offences are stable or falling. The reunification and an increase in immigration are putting more and more pressure on the penal justice system.
15 Should drug addiction be treated as a medical or criminal matter?
It should be treated as what it is, a medical condition. I am totally with Milton Friedman here.
Having the moral and ethical satisfaction of seeing drug addicts punished is a doubtful price paid for the damage that is done to society by it.
16 Who are the Greens? Are they mostly former Communists? Have they had any major impact on Germany?
No they are NOT just former Communists. In fact, in the early stages of the movement there where quite a few from the Nazi "Blood and Soil" school who were soon ousted as embarrassments. But the fact remains that a lot of Green goals were already what Hitler had planned for after the Endsieg, which included the banning of smoking.
It is very little known that one of the first laws the Nazis passed post-1933 was the ban of hunting to hounds.
It shouldn't be forgotten, too, that one of the early goals of the Greens in the Eighties was TO LEGALISE SEX WITH CHILDREN. Only when they started to participate in governmental power they dropped it as too hot a topic.
The Greens have shaped the German society more than any other political power during the last 30 years far beyond ecological and environmental issues. Find a political correct, doomed, dangerous or wrong cause and the Greens are behind it.
17 Is smoking cigarettes in restaurants banned in your city?
I have recently moved to a small town in East Germany and I don't know whether there IS an official policy. People here have problems different from fashionable causes like the ban of smoking in restaurants. Innkeepers are so happy about every patron that it wouldn't occur to them to ask a guest to stop smoking. Here, one gets a square meal of German traditional cuisine with two half litres of (excellent) beer for less than 10 Euro and they throw in free food and water for the dog who is allowed to sit beside one on the bench, which was already banned because of hygienic reasons decades ago and nobody cares.
People here in Saxony are generally pretty laid back about everything.
18 How do Germans view Bismarck today?
I doubt that the average German under 40 knows who Bismarck was and if he does he will probably have a vague idea that he was an evil old reactionary.
19 Has the UN become useless in today's world?
Let me put it this way: The UN are a gang of criminals.
20 What is your view on State subsidies for the Arts and Culture? Should the government subsidize Museums, Zoos and the Arts?
No they shouldn't.
21 What American TV shows can be seen in Germany?
I haven't watched television for more than a decade now. I was told that Sex and the City used to be quite popular among the more intellectual types not too long ago.
I grew up with (I am not always sure whether the title of the show I know is the one you know, and some I have forgotten entirely) Bonanza (those guys from the Ponderosa), Gunsmoke, Mr. Ed and Fury (horses), Lassie and Rin Tin Tin (dogs).
Later came Mission Impossible, that wonderful show with Barbara Eden and Larry Hagman, Tammy who lived on a houseboat, and in the Eighties the great family sagas Dynasty, Denver and Falcon Crest.
22 In the United States the sale of alcohol is restricted to people over the age of twenty one. Do similar laws exist in Germany?
Yes, they do. People come of age at 18 and may then, of course, buy alcohol.
23 What are your views on the current Pope?
He explains and apologises too much.
What I like about him is the fact that he is one of the leading theologists in the history of the Catholic Church, and that he, different from his predecessor, doesn't strive for personal popularity (as he shouldn't).
As a German, I like to see his election as a sign that we are accepted back to the fold of civilised Western nations, which makes me glad.
And isn't it wonderful that the son of a piss-poor policeman from a little country town in deepest rural Bavaria could become what he has become?
24 Do you think the immigrant riots in France could happen in Germany?
No for various reasons, two of them are that the Turks realise that they are better off without rioting and that there are relatively few Arabs here.
25 Does a country like Germany have the right to insist that laws like polygamy and the age of marriage be kept to historic European norms?
I think they have the DUTY to insist that laws like polygamy and the age of marriage be kept to historic European norms.
Thanks for the great questions, Beak. I hope I haven't shunned any and I will gladly explain my views further to those interested.
The Editrix is the best.
I want to state my position on number 25. In the USA we have to deal with questions of this type.
Contrary to popular opinion Europe is not as evolved in some areas of social legislation as leftists presume. One of these areas is legitimation which establishes a fathers rights to his children. Most of the countries require marriage of the parents before 18 or some evidence of parental involvement.
Surprisingly France, the UK, the People's deranged republic of MA and NY state all have more conservative laws than NJ. VA and I think PA have laws that include recognition. What does one do with the children of a second or third wife? Are temporary marriages valid instruments?
These are serious issues facing our
immigratio officers. I would like to see a change of policy for military personel that waive this law entirely. If a serviceman fathers a child abroad, he should be allowed to sponsor his child.
The law dances around polygamy in its current state. Person A sponsors a child from his second or third marriage. That child then becomes a Citizen and gets an as ready visa for his mother. The mother lives with her husband in a quasi legal state.
The main stream media will present Mormons as the face of Polygamy and never ever show the situation I described. The reason is Mormons are white and Conservative and despised by the far left vermin that are employed as reporters.
The Editrix has stated my opinion that family law belongs to the whole nation. If you want to live under sharia there are places to do so. If you want to wed a 13 year
old, not in my country. I think the talk of allowing brides from Muslim countries a confidential meeting with an immigration officer
should be considered. Those who were coerced can be placed in a witness protection type of system.
weaz (aka 40 year old virgine) take a hint and go watch loose change before taking your medication
What exactly do you mean by family law? I think the government should stay as much as possible out of peoples lives.
Hello Editrix,
The television show names were the same.
In America the show with Barbara Eden and Larry Hagman, was called "I Dream of Jeannie". The "Tammy" show was named just that, Tammy.
I remember seeing "The Brady Bunch" in Germany, cira 1971. I believe the name for that show was slightly different in Germany.
I do not remember the Tammy show. However, it might be amusing to think of Germans having to endure Gomer Pyle. No Kojack or McCloud is another story.
Oh, the fact that I didn't mention a show doesn't mean that ist wasn't on German TV.
I remember some of the German titles now, "Tammy das Mädchen vom Hausboot", "Rauchende Colts" (Gunsmoke) and "Bezaubernde Jeannie" come to mind.
The best of all (I think) was a rather obscure show called "Die Abenteuer des Hiram Holliday".
Any fans here?
The fact that I didn't mention a show doesn't mean that it wasn't on German TV.
I remember some German titles now, "Tammy das Mädchen vom Hausboot", "Rauchende Colts" and "Bezaubernde Jeannie".
The best of all was a rather obscure show called "Die Abenteuer des Hiram Holliday". Hi-fucking-larious!
To people of my generation Wally Cox was known for his role on the TV show the Hollywood Squares. I think he sat on the bottom two away from Charlie Weaver. Paul Lynde was the center square.
Tammy das Mädchen vom Hausboot
I saw this at my bachelor party..that guy Madchen sure gets around...oh sorry mixed company and all....
Sorry for the multiple postings. I had installed IE 7.0, which fucked up my posting and my surfing to boot.
Shoot down B-17s? In 1943, he was drafted at age 16 into the German anti-aircraft corps. So there is a certain probability that he did.
Steve
I want to state emphatically there is zero evidence the future Pope commited any war crimes. Moreover, he has not shown anything close to any sympathy for Neo Nazis. Moreover, he was the driving force behind the purge of Liberation Theology out of the Catholic Church.Now if someone could coax the Pope to rid DePaul of Holocaust minimizer and genuine antisemite Norman Finkelstein we would be greatful.
Editrix,
Teachers NEVER update anything. I have a hunch that they just swapped their Communist schoolbooks in the East for the Western versions. Teachers are a pain in the arse (and yes, such a generalisation IS justified) and the main (not the only) reason for the pathetic state of the German education system.
Teachers hired and fired by the government are "locked in." Some here in the States claim not to be, but I don't find it so. Choosing teaching as a career limits one's ability to change anything, though most teachers often speak of "making a difference."
Are there viable choices for private education or for homeschooling in Germany?
Thank you Editrix for a VERY interesting interview. For a native German speaker your English is excellent!
Morgan
For Heaven's Sake, Ratzinger was SIXTEEN when he was drafted as a Luftwaffenhelfer, a position in which he was hardly able to commit war crimes anyway. In deeply Catholic families like Ratzinger's (both sons became priests, the daughter never married and kept her brother's household all her life) no love was lost on the anti-Christian Nazi movement.
The whole topic is a non-starter.
The Pope already reined in Father Rydzyk, a notorious Polish antisemite and notabene dear friend of his predecessor, the Polish Pope, and delivered countless signs of his good will.
To even mention neo-Nazis in connection with him is fatuous.
No homeschooling at all and very poor and scant choice of private schools.
Because of the general anti-Christian animus, very few among the few who go for private education in the first place choose Christian private schools and what is left are the odious "Waldorfschools", founded early in the 20th century by a philosopher called Rudolf Steiner. There are some in the States as well for some time now.
There is much subtle racism, superstitious mysticism and connections to the occult in their teachings. Because of their greenish, new-agey, anti-intellectual a-lot-of-music-and-painting public image they go down well with the current mood. They are, to all intents and purposes, sect schools.
I know because I attended one.
That such schools could become hugely popular bears witness to the fact that the entire system is rotten to the core.
Thanks for the compliment, Morgan.
It is my profession to speak English well.
Editrix
I agree that the current Pope's age
must be taken into account. He has spent a lifetime denouncing anti-semitism of all kinds. He has also never hid his service. There is a major difference between an anti-aircraft assignment and the SS.
People also forget that it was mandatory to enroll in the Hitler Youth.
Exactly, there was really no choice, punishment was swift and horrendous, after all it was a leftista socialistic movement that believed everything, including children, belonged to the "State"! Kind of like communism!
tmw
Editrix,
Thank you for your response.
I had to look up Rudolph Steiner as I was not familiar with his name or his educational movement.
Here in the States, we have all sorts of private schools for elementary and secondary education. Also, many parents now opt for homeschooling. Both private and homeschool education are subject to scrutiny by the local school board; the state department of education requires that all homeschool students take standardized tests, but some of the private schools are exempt therefrom. I've recently noticed that standardized tests have veered to the left, particularly in the social sciences.
Even parents who advocate public education are having reservations as to the leftism in those systems.
Addendum:
Some public-school systems are so busy promoting leftism that the required course of study has suffered.
Editrix,
I have read of German home-schoolers being jailed and their cases setteld by the world court. (not in their favor) They have also been threatened with their children being removed from their homes. This has caused some of them to move to places where homeschooling is allowed. How do you think the average German feels about this and is anything being done that you are aware of to prevent these things from happening in the future?
How do you think the average German feels about this [the banning of home-schooling] and is anything being done that you are aware of to prevent these things from happening in the future?
I think it's a no-starter-topic for the average German. The main criticism here when it comes to the education system can be reduced to the mantra: "The state doesn't put enough money into it, all funds go into the evil evil military."
You see, there are three recurrent themes in here: First, nobody seems to acknowledge personal responsibility, second, the state is expected to cater for everything and third, "the military" is the bogeyman for all the evil in the world.
However, even I, to whom the American system appeals, can't help whincing a bit at the thought of home-schooling. First because my own authoritarian German nature tells me that people shouldn't be allowed to do by themselves anything as important as educating their children without official supervision and second, on a more reasonable thought, I suspect that Germans wouldn't be able to handle it, precisely because they are used for centuries now to be governed by the state in every, even the tiniest, detail.
Another almost forgotten aspect is that home-schooling bears the odium of elitism. I remember that one of my teachers who would be nearing hundred now were she still alive, used to work as a "house teacher" at one of the big estates in the East (Silesia) schooling the children of a count after WWI, so there HAD BEEN homeschooling in the past, albeit limited to certain privileged circumstances.
Anything that reeks of elitism is a doomed cause here.
I have no children, mind you, and don't consider myself an expert in education matters.
It seems too authoritarian. Who would know best how to raise their children then the parents.
Well, it's difficult to shed centuries of a tradition that has shaped peoples' minds.
That said, there are cultures where the parents are considered the persons least fit to raise their own children. The English upper classes come to mind.
If I am looking at the wrong assessments people are making regarding their own children all the time, the wrong, too high or too low expectations, cruel (not intentionally but in effect) projections of their own desires and aspirations on the children, I tend to agree with that theory.
But a theory it remains. I don't know a way out either.
and people think the government would know better?
I am afraid that thinking would not apply here very well.
Are the English throwing parents in jail for homeschooling their children though?
"and people think the government would know better?
I am afraid that thinking would not apply here very well."
That is because America was founded to escape that sort of thinking. America was a civil society right from the start. In Old Europe, and specifically in Germany, the civil society is still watched with mistrust, even contempt.
"Are the English throwing parents in jail for homeschooling their children though?"
I would be amazed if they did. The England is the motherland of private education.
Its interesting that I have a new business associate from Germany who is deeply religious (although afraid to express that) and a former member of that evil military.
He lives in Mississippi and tells me that he is shocked at how disciplined southern society is.
Sometimes I find it difficult to work with him because he is by nature inflexible. However, he is a good guy and if I present a reasonable argument for cutting corners he happily obliges!!!!!!
Freedom Now
I would pay to see the cowardly Gert call the Editrix an apologist for the far right again. The Editrix loathes the German far right, but one would have to read her excellent writing to make an informed comment.
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