Ask the Germans

[Alrek]

It is only the second time, and the first time they actually accomplished more than during any other legislative period.

Hmmm; must have gotten it confused then. New question then; is there any buzz about the country's finances (i.e. gov't debt exceeding the Eurozone limits). Any insight into the general sentiment about jobs and the economy as a whole would be appreciated.

(I watch the business news too much. )

 

[monochrom]

Q: What's the deal with all the moustasches?

Q: Why are the Schnapps glasses so small (2cl)?

1. What are you talking about? Only about 25% of german males nowadays wear moustaches, it is practically dying out!

2. I remember vaguely from my Volkskunde studies that it has somnething to do with the prussian "Branntweinverordnung". At about 1850, it was still customary for the large land-owners in Prussia, the famous "Junker", to pay out a large part of the work-pay in schnapps. Then all sorts of reforms were done, at first they had to be paid in beer, then glasses in pubs were made smaller, and so on. Not quite sure on that one, might also just be tradition for the most part.

 

[monochrom]

Q: The same country produces Nekromantik and doesn't let Cannibal Corpse play songs from any of their first albums.... why?

The answer is Christa Jenal - a very annoying person from the green party of the Saarland, who is on a crusade against bad music. Samael, Rammstein and Impaled Nazarene are other bands she rants on about. Unluckily, she is very succesful - like so many other conservative feminist fucks in modern Europe.

 

[monochrom]

Why don't you like ice?
(I love ice, but it's always so hard to find in Germany when I want to buy some.)

Ah, concerning this point, we are just plain stupid.

 

[monochrom]

Hmmm; must have gotten it confused then. New question then; is there any buzz about the country's finances (i.e. gov't debt exceeding the Eurozone limits). Any insight into the general sentiment about jobs and the economy as a whole would be appreciated.

(I watch the business news too much. )

We know our economy is crap, and we do a lot of hoping and wishing to make it better.

 

[Huldran]

The answer is Christa Jenal - a very annoying person from the green party of the Saarland, who is on a crusade against bad music. Samael, Rammstein and Impaled Nazarene are other bands she rants on about. Unluckily, she is very succesful - like so many other conservative feminist fucks in modern Europe.

Damn, I was trying hard to recall the name of the bitch. Is she in any way related to BPjM, by the way?

...and we do a lot of hoping and wishing to make it better.

Awesome.

 

[monochrom]

Damn, I was trying hard to recall the name of the bitch. Is she in any way related to BPjM, by the way?

No, I don't think so - she is in the green party, and belongs to a club called "Verein für Friedenserziehung im Saarland". She is famous for writing thousands of letters to the BPjM, though.

 

[DaveIoC]

oops

 

[DaveIoC]

I read most of the thread on www.spiegel.de (ok, only about half, it was 36 pages long and most of it was arguing about the definition of 'football' and not actually about German culture or custom) and it was pretty interesting. It did answer a couple of observations I had made from going to Wacken for the last two years (although of course, it is not just German people who go) but I remember standing in a checkout queue in a small town and wondering why it took half an hour to get to the end, and why they had no carrier bags!

The Spar in Wacken doesn't count, when half of Wacken is in there trying to buy more beer you can only expect to wait for an hour...

 

[MetalCommando]

conservative feminist

one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard. Oxmorons, anyone??

 

[DaveIoC]

one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard. Oxmorons, anyone??

Yeah, I imagine she is somewhat like Tipper Gore? Wife of democrat Al Gore (who ran against Bush Jr) and founder/leader of the PMRC, the organisation responsible for this: http://hand.asparis7.com/parental_advisory.gif

I don't think Tipper Gore is a feminist or conservative, she just doesn't like swearing or violent lyrics in music, and would love to stop bands from producing it.

 

[monochrom]

one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard. Oxmorons, anyone??

Got it from Madame Badinter.

 

[monochrom]

Yeah, I imagine she is somewhat like Tipper Gore? Wife of democrat Al Gore (who ran against Bush Jr) and founder/leader of the PMRC, the organisation responsible for this: http://hand.asparis7.com/parental_advisory.gif

I don't think Tipper Gore is a feminist or conservative, she just doesn't like swearing or violent lyrics in music, and would love to stop bands from producing it.

Yeah, she is the Tipper Gore kind of woman. Also, the swedish women who pushed the stupid anti-prostitution laws through (Yes, the one MetalCommando adores so much) would qualify at least partly in my eyes.

 

[Huldran]

(...)http://hand.asparis7.com/parental_advisory.gif(...)

Believe me, that is just peanuts compared to what we got here.

Whilst PMRC would limit itself to this sticker (by the way, are there any age limits to buy stuff that bears said sticker?), the BPJM (which is basically an ugly sibling of the PMRC) would not bother - and ban the stuff altogether.
(they may recall the ban tho - but it is a rare happening).
(e.g., Samael's "Ceremony of the opposites" and Darkthrone's "A blaze...." were banned here for some time. I could never understand why ....and much more stuff is banned every month.

(German members will understand why I always grudge against the BPJM... oh well.)

 

[monochrom]

Believe me, that is just peanuts compared to what we got here.

Whilst PMRC would limit itself to this sticker (by the way, are there any age limits to buy stuff that bears said sticker?), the BPJM (which is basically an ugly sibling of the PMRC) would not bother - and ban the stuff altogether.
(they may recall the ban tho - but it is a rare happening).
(e.g., Samael's "Ceremony of the opposites" and Darkthrone's "A blaze...." were banned here for some time. I could never understand why ....and much more stuff is banned every month.

(German members will understand why I always grudge against the BPJM... oh well.)

It is completely ridiculous. Censorship in this country is a big problem, the best and biggest underground comics publisher we ever had (U-Comix) got destroyed by ridiculous censorship.