Bailout Of Greece Causes Shift In German Political Landscape

Recently Germany held elections for it's parliament also, which were overshadowed by the elections in England, but the voter sentiment there, as elsewhere, is showing signs of a cooling attitude towards those in power.

The biggest issue in Germany, whose economy is suffering right along with everybody else, decided it would be a good idea to give Greece £19 billion. As a result the party to which Chancellor Merkel belongs to, the Christian Democratic Union took a beating in the polls. A lot of the sentiment in Germany is not in favor of one party or the other. Like England they have three predominant parties, the other two being the Social Democrats and the Free Democrats. How about that? A country where everybody is a Democrat.

The CDU is considered a right leaning party according to European standards.

Chancellor Angela Merkel appeared to have been dealt a political body blow on tonight when her Christian Democratic party recorded its worst ever result in crucial region elections.

Exit polls in North Rhine Westphalia — Germany’s most populous region with 18 million inhabitants — suggested that the Christian Democrats won barely 34 per cent of the vote and were like to be toppled from the regional government. Plainly the party has had to pay for some of the popular discontent about Chancellor Merkel’s aid package for Greece.

The United States has pledged about $6 billion to aid Greece, which may be the first of many other countries to go into default. The most talked about others are Spain and Portugal. A heavy reliance on federal government handouts and being nursemaided by the central government is a large part of the reason these countries are in trouble. It simply did not take long for there to be more moochers then there were contributors to their economies and as a result they could not meet their obligations.

And as evidenced in Greece, the kiddies are not happy about having their allowance cut off.

It Was Twenty Years Ago Today

The man who opened the Berlin Wall
On November 9th 1989, Harald Jäger wanted his night shift at the East Berlin border crossing at Bornholmer Strasse to go quietly. Instead, Jäger opened the first crack in the Berlin Wall and helped make history.

“But then things happened, that I would have never imagined even in my worst dreams,” remembered the former state security officer in a conversation with the DPA new service. His border crossing was the first to open - without an order from above. The hours leading up to the opening were the most dramatic in his life.

“I’m happy that only thing that flowed was fear-induced sweat and not blood,” Jäger said.

In the canteen around 7 pm that evening, he had followed the press conference with the East German official Günter Schabowski, which outlined new travel rules for the country's citizens. Almost offhandedly, Schabowski announced the immediate opening of the border. The impact of the announcement was almost immediately visible, said Jäger.

“At first there were just a handful of East German citizens there, but by the minute there were more. It went from hundreds to thousands, who chanted, ‘Open the gate!,’” explained Jäger, who was in charge of 30 guards and three border posts that night.

“We stood just an arms-length away from the masses, who were separated from us by just a closed crossing gate,” he said, explaining how he was scared of a mass panic. “We no longer had the situation under control,” said Jäger, now 66 years old. He kept trying to phone his superiors for orders. “But higher up, chaos reigned just as it did for us.”

Around 9:40 pm, the order came to allow especially “provocative citizens” through the border, but not to let them back in. But this “ventilation” tactic didn’t help.

“At 11:20 pm, I then ordered the crossing gate to be opened and to allow everyone to leave without inspecting their papers,” said Jäger. About 25,000 people used their new freedom on that evening to cross into West Berlin.


“In the first moment, something was really empty inside me. I didn’t understand the world anymore,” said Jäger. Today, he’s “a bit proud” that he prevented the situation from escalating. He believes that because of his cool-headed handling of the situation, he made some amends for his 28 years of service with the East German border troops.

It was good that “the East Germans didn’t exclude us, instead they embraced us,” said Jäger. The reaction from his then-superiors was also mild. “My knees were shaking when I called up my colonel to report on what was happening. He said only, ‘it’s good, my boy.’”

After Germany reunited, Jäger had to “start from zero.” He was unemployed for two years and then trained to become a taxi driver. He also sold ice cream and newspapers and worked as a security guard. Coming to terms with his past took many years, Jäger said. A series of interviews with Gerhard Hasse-Hindenberg, who wrote a biography of Jäger that was published in 2007, helped considerably.

Today, Jäger lives in the town of Weneuchen in Brandenburg and spends a lot of time in his garden tending cacti. After 20 years, he wants to go back to his former border crossing on the 9th of November and mix with the others there.

But he can’t fully savour the freedom to travel that came with the fall of the Wall: he doesn’t have enough money for the dream trip to Mexico that he’d like to take.

Via The Local

Meanwhile, as Berliners and dignitaries celebrate the Fall of the Wall and remember those who died during their attempt to flee the communist paradise, BarryO won't be there.

In his first year in office, Barack Obama has visited more foreign countries than any other president. He's touched ground in 16 countries, easily outpacing Bill Clinton (three) and George W. Bush (eleven). It's an itinerary befitting a "citizen of the world."

But there's one stop Obama won't make. He has begged off going to Berlin next week to attend ceremonies commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall. His schedule is reportedly too crowded. John F. Kennedy famously told Berliners, "Ich bin ein Berliner." On the 20th anniversary of the last century's most stirring triumph of freedom, Obama is telling them, "Ich bin beschäftigt" - i.e., I'm busy.

It doesn't have quite the same ring, does it? Obama's failure to go to Berlin is the most telling nonevent of his presidency. It's hard to imagine any other American president eschewing the occasion. Only Obama - with his dismissive view of the Cold War as a relic distorting our thinking and his attenuated commitment to America's exceptional role in the world - would spurn German president Angela Merkel's invitation to attend.

Obama famously made a speech in Berlin during last year's campaign, but at an event devoted to celebrating himself as the apotheosis of world hopefulness. He said of 1989, "a wall came down, a continent came together, and history proved that there is no challenge too great for a world that stands as one."

The line was typical Obama verbal soufflé, soaring but vulnerable to collapse upon the slightest jostling from logic or historical fact. The wall came down only after the free world resolutely stood against the Communist bloc. Rather than a warm-and-fuzzy exercise in global understanding, the Cold War was another iteration of the 20th century's long war between totalitarianism and Western liberalism. The West prevailed on the back of American strength.

But Obama doesn't think in such antiquated, triumphalist terms. Given to apologizing for his nation abroad, he resolutely downplays American leadership. "President Obama is applying the same tools to international diplomacy that he used as a community organizer on Chicago's South Side," the Washington Post notes, approaching "the world as a community of nations, more alike than different in outlook and interest." To the extent that the Cold War doesn't fit this unbelievably naïve worldview, it's an intellectual inconvenience.

Wouldn't Obama at least want to take the occasion to celebrate freedom and human rights - those most cherished liberal values? Not necessarily. He has mostly jettisoned them as foreign-policy goals in favor of a misbegotten realism that soft-pedals the crimes of nasty regimes around the world. During the Cold War, we undermined our enemies by shining a bright light on their repression. In Berlin, JFK called out the Communists on their "offense against humanity." Obama would utter such a phrase only with the greatest trepidation, lest it undermine a future opportunity for dialogue.

Pres. Ronald Reagan realized we could meet with the Soviets without conceding the legitimacy of their system. He always spoke up for the dissidents - even when it irked his negotiating partner, Mikhail Gorbachev. Whatever the hardheaded imperatives of geopolitics, we'd remain a beacon of liberty in the world.

Obama has relegated this aspirational aspect of American power to the back seat. For him, we are less an exceptional power than one among many, seeking deals with our peers in Beijing and Moscow. Why would Obama want to celebrate the refuseniks of the Eastern Bloc, when he won't even meet with the Dalai Lama in advance of his trip to China?

So Obama huddles with Merkel during her visit to Washington and leaves it at that. An American president will skip events marking the end of a struggle to which we, as a nation - under presidents of both parties - devoted blood and treasure for 50 years. For Barack Obama, 1989 is just another far-away year - and the Democratic party of such men as Harry S. Truman and JFK has never seemed more distant.

Rich Lowry is the editor of National Review.

Via RCP

A Good Reason for Going Green: Bordello Discounts!

Personally, I find this "going green" drivel a bunch of PC nonsense. But finally we see one reason it may be worth it.

Part of Berlin's red-light scene is going green. One bordello, hoping to stave off falling demand in the economic crisis, has begun offering discounts to customers who pedal bicycles to the door.

"It's very difficult to find parking around here, and this option is better for our environment," said Thomas Goetz, who owns the brothel Maison d'Envie, or House of Desire.

Local residents in Prenzlauer Berg — a part of former East Berlin now home to scores of trendy boutiques, restaurants and clubs — had staunchly supported the Green party in recent elections and have welcomed the bordello's offer to emphasize the environment.

The bordellos in the capital of Germany, where prostitution is legal, have seen business suffer with the global financial crisis. Patrons have become more frugal, and there are fewer potential customers coming to the city for business trips and conferences.

But Maison d'Envie has seen its business begin to return since it began offering the euro5 ($7.50) discount in July, Goetz said.

To qualify, customers must show the receptionist either a bicycle padlock key or proof they used public transit to get to the neighborhood. That knocks the price for 45 minutes in a room, for example, to euro65 from euro70.

Every euro saved counts, I guess. Maybe they should consider frequent visitor discounts as well.

Jihad By Any Other Name ....

Oh those fun loving Germans, although I don't guess you can really fault them in this case since the name these adherents of the Religion of Peace™ chose to name their little bundle of exploding joy is an accepted name in the Arabic world. Of course it is. Why wouldn't it be?

A Berlin court has upheld rulings in favor of parents who sought to name their son Djehad, a variation on the Arabic "jihad," or holy war.

The superior court upheld two lower court rulings allowing the name on grounds that it is recognized for males in Arabic-speaking countries.

Cause Of Muslim Outrage #1,654,753

The latest item for Muslims to add to their list of things that piss us of, other then non believers breathing the same air as them is a song sung by German soccer fans.

The third verse contains the words: "Muhammad was a prophet who understood nothing about football".

Of course proving that once again threats and having a culture which revolves around violence is proving to be very effective at tamping down other peoples' fun, the team is of course consulting some Muslim "experts" to decide how to proceed. I think most of us are experts now on the cult of perpetual outrage.

The Gelsenkirchen club, which plays in Germany's top league, the Bundesliga, has asked an Islam expert to consider whether the song might be insulting.

Here A Nazi, There A Nazi

Tensions Mount in Neo-Nazi Hotel Case
Despite efforts to have them evicted, right-wing extremists in Germany continue to occupy a hotel building they plan to turn into a training center. And now police fear a violent clash between local left-wingers and their new neo-Nazi neighbors.

Bullets have been fired and weapons confiscated. But as tensions between left and right wing groups mount, a court has rejected an application to evict a group of neo-Nazis from a disused hotel in the village of Fassberg, in the northern German state of Lower Saxony.

The Hotel Gerhus went into receivership just one day before Jürgen Rieger, deputy leader of the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD), signed a 10-year lease on the property. That has sparked controversy about whether the neo-Nazis are there legally or whether they are squatting.

The receiver himself, Jens Wilhelm, had hoped to be granted a court order this week to force the neo-Nazis off the property. But he was unsuccessful and will now have to wait for a court hearing at the end of the month. Reacting to the decision, Wilhelm told Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper: "What could be more urgent than vacating an illegally occupied hotel?"

Guns Fired, Fears of Violence

And as Wilhelm's frustrations grow, so too do those of left-wing groups outraged by reported plans to convert the hotel into a neo-Nazi youth camp and training center. After shots were fired in the area over the weekend -- nobody was injured -- police seized pepper spray from two left-wingers and a baton from a group of right-wingers. Local police are also stepping up their presence because of fears of a violent clash between left and right. Local police spokesman Christian Riebandt said: "We have squad cars patrolling the area around the hotel around the clock."

The right of the neo-Nazis to remain in the 80-room hotel will be depend on whether a court deems their current lease -- signed off by the debt-ridden owners just one day before they went into receivership -- legal and valid.

Should the court rule that the lease is valid, it wouldn't be too surprising to hear that Anarchists have gone on a whoopass spree cleaned up the neighborhood.

Via Spiegel Online

'We Have To Be a Lot More Aggressive Now'

Another victim class of the economic downturn.

Just heartbreaking.

It's past midnight in downtown Berlin, and the prostitutes pace in front of the Hackescher Markt's stores. Signs of a slow economy are everywhere — a sportswear store offers 40 percent markdowns, and bars advertise discounted drinks.

Like so many other businesses, Europe's largest legalized prostitution industry is having to adapt to the economic downturn. Customers are fewer or more frugal, competition has increased, and more clubs and brothels are offering discounts to drum up business.

Since late 2008, the number of English and American tourists has dropped and the street dynamic has changed, according to one prostitute in her mid-20s who requested anonymity because she did not want her family to know her profession. She still gets customers, she said, but they no longer pay for the extras.

"We have to be a lot more aggressive now," said the woman, wearing pink jeans and a black corset, who has worked the area for three years. "The customers used to come straight to you. Now they don't ask you as much."

Nevertheless, she said, the prostitutes in the area have been sticking to a set minimum price — about euro80 ($110) for sex.

"If he doesn't pay our prices then he can't go home with me," she said, putting her hands on her hips. "That simple."

If money's tight, you can always go the smorgasbord route.

At the other end of the spectrum is Berlin's Pussy Club bordello, which has branches in Heidelberg and Wuppertal.

It opened in mid-2008 with a focus on the discount-minded customer, offering an "all you can sex" flat-rate. For between euro70 and euro100, depending upon the time of day, customers can enjoy any sexual services with an unlimited number of women. For their work, the women are also paid a flat-rate wage.

"All the girls get a daily wage of euro100 to euro250 ($140 to $347), so they don't have to worry about money, which is good in this working atmosphere," manager Patricia Floreiou said in an e-mailed reply to questions. She noted a steady increase in applications since the Pussy Club's opening, attributing this in part to the bordello's flat-rate salary. "Many women in other clubs aren't earning enough anymore, and we offer steady, secure money."

Six Degrees of Barack Obama: President With Muslim Roots Now Also Has German Roots

I'm getting the feeling if I dig deep enough into my Irish family tree I'm going to find out we're related. Well, I'm Black Irish, so it's a strong possibility.

As President Obama does Dresden with German Chancellor Angela Merkel today, a genealogical study in Utah reports that the first African American president in U.S. history is actually German.

Well, partly.

Provo-based Ancestry.com has found that Obama's lineage -- on his mother's side -- can be traced to Germany.

Using online sources and microfilm from the Family History Library owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, genealogists found a document that went back to Obama's eighth great-grandfather, Conrad Wolflin, who served as mayor of Orsingen, Germany for 30 years.

"One of the things that I love about this find is it really illustrates what you can find out about your family history," Anastasia Tyler, lead genealogist on the project, told the Salt Lake Tribune. "World history is our history."

Obama's sixth great-grandfather, Johann Conrad Wolflin, was born on Jan. 29, 1729 in Besigheim, Wuerttemberg, Germany and in 1750 resettled in Pennsylvania. changing his name to Wolfley. Told of the Obama connection, current officials in Besigheim, tourist dollars dancing in their heads, jumped for joy.

Besigheim Deputy Mayor Klaus Schremps, whose town is photographed above, told the Associated Press Television Network he tracked down a copy of the parish record himself, and located Wolflin's name.

"If this turns out really to be the case," he said, "we will extend an invitation to Mr. Obama and if he would come and visit at some stage, it would be a great joy for the city and for the people."

Barry O To Visit His Uncle's Concentration Camp

Remember back during the campaign when Barry O misremembered which concentration camp his great uncle helped liberate?

Barack Obama's campaign scrambled Tuesday to set the record straight after the Democratic presidential candidate said on Memorial Day that his uncle helped liberate the Auschwitz death camp at the end of World War II.

There were two obvious problems with the tale: Auschwitz was liberated by the Soviet Army, and Obama's American mother was an only child.

As the Republican National Committee seized on the discrepancies, Obama's campaign clarified that the Illinois senator was actually referring to his "great uncle," and that he had confused Auschwitz with another concentration camp. The campaign said he meant to refer to Ohrdruf, a sub-camp of the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany.

Simple mistake, right? All is forgiven because he is The One. Well, Barry is going to make things right with another PR stop and in the process continue his world-wide apology tour. Supposedly he has plans to visit Germany and while there he will visit Buchenwald.

President Obama is preparing to follow in the footsteps of his great uncle Charlie, with a visit to the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany when he returns to Europe this summer.

The site is laden with historic and personal significance for the President. More than 50,000 people died at the camp before its liberation in April, 1945 by American soldiers, including Charlie Payne, the uncle of Mr Obama’s mother.

However, like I said, though this is really just one more stop on his "I'm sorry we kicked your ass in the past" tour. They ought to print up t-shirts like the rock bands do when they go on world tours.

But he will be aware of the sensibilities of his German hosts before the D-Day commemoration and by traveling to Dresden — a city destroyed by ferocious Allied bombing in February 1945 — Mr Obama will also acknowledge how Germany suffered during the Second World War.

Nice message, huh? Sure, you killed millions of people in the most hideous ways imaginable, but hey, we weren't any better.

BTW, that picture came from that web site that ran all the pictures of the liberals apologizing after they lost the 2004 election. Ironic, huh?

Peaceful Leftists Celebrate May Day in Berlin, 273 Police Injured

Maybe they ought to take a cue from Tea Party protesters on how to get your message out without resorting to violence.

Then again, these are leftists we're talking about. They're not interested in peace.

More than 270 police officers were injured in this year's May Day riots in the German capital, prompting criticism Saturday of Berlin security officials and calls for more officers.

Though the majority of the 273 officers suffered only minor injuries Friday, 14 were badly enough hurt that they will need to take time off work, said Berlin police chief Dieter Glietsch. He did not have more specifics.

In all, 5,800 police officers were on hand to try to keep a lid on the violence that has become a yearly ritual in Berlin. They used tear gas, pepper spray and water cannon as some of the roughly 5,000 leftist demonstrators, marching under the motto "capitalism is war and crisis," threw stones and bottles.

Dozens of demonstrators were injured but there were no exact figures; 289 were arrested. A bank and a fire station had windows broken.

This year's demonstrations turned violent earlier than in previous years, leading to more injuries and arrests. Last year, 112 police officers were hurt and 150 demonstrators arrested.

Rainer Wendt, chairman of one of Germany's national police unions, criticized Berlin interior minister Erhart Koerting's handling of the operation, saying protesters were allowed too much time to get out of hand and urging that a "no tolerance" policy be adopted in the future.

"Whoever throws a stone or wears a mask must be immediately taken out of play," he told the Neuen Osnabruecker Zeitung newspaper.

Fire away.

Trial of Would-Be Ramstein AFB Bombers Begins Today

While Mr. Barry O is going around the world apologizing for being an American, there is a group of people who apologize for nothing.

Today in Germany the trial begins for a group of Muslims who were planning to plant bombs at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany and other places. Two of the men on trial are converts to Islam. One of them converted while a teenager. Sound familiar? Like Johnny Walker Lindh or Adam Gadahn, the Al Queda American propaganda chief.

Intelligence services say that it has links with al-Qaeda. Using detonators — supplied, the state prosecutor claims, by Attila Selek, 24, a German citizen of Turkish origin — the gang prepared bombs with the explosive force of 410kg (904lb) of TNT, to be set off in and around the US Ramstein air base and other targets.

The enemies of the non-Islamic world are not going to stop. They are not going to go away. And they damn sure are not going to apologize for anything they have done. Liberals seem to have this pie in the sky belief that if you just make nice everybody will sit around the camp fire and sing Kumbaya. Our only chance at this point is that the terrorists laugh themselves to death, which may open us up for further allegations of torture.

They seemed to be average German boys, the offspring of divorced parents, impatient to leave school, and interested in American football.

I am glad the German police were on top of things and prevented these attacks from occurring, but I am constantly reminded of something Donald Rumsfeld said, "we have to be right 100% of the time, they only have to be lucky once."

Slavish Obama Worship Photo of the Week

Feel free to caption the photo. This comes from Der Spiegel. I can't locate the English language version of the story and frankly I'd rather avoid it anyway.

Via LGF links.

Europeans Offer to Take Club Gitmo Animals Off Our Hands

As a means of sucking up to The Messiah, some idiotic Europeans are supposedly offering to take some of the subhumanoids at Club Gitmo off our hands.

They can have them. Maybe during the inaugural, we can have an announcement piped in to the adoring masses that the victims of imperialist American aggression have cleared our airspace en route to freedom, a sort of bizarro world reprise of the 1981 Reagan inaugural when it was announced the Americans hostages were freed by the Iranians.

Half dozen European countries are considering resettling detainees from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as a gesture to the incoming Obama administration, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

Citing senior European officials and U.S. diplomats, the newspaper said European officials have put out tentative feelers to President-elect Barack Obama's team. But Obama advisers said they could only discuss the issue after the January 20 inauguration.

Guantanamo has about 250 detainees including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, accused of masterminding the September 11 attacks. The prison has come to symbolize aggressive interrogation practices that opened the United States up to allegations of torture.

Obama has pledged to close Guantanamo.

Only Germany and Portugal have acknowledged publicly that they are considering resettling the detainees, the newspaper said.

I'm sure the sane people of Germany and Portugal will be thrilled to hear the news.

Cops Mistaken for Strippers

This is one of those side perks for the male officers, assuming they keep themselves fit.

Two German police officers responding to a complaint about loud party noise on Saturday night were met with cheers and applause from the guests who mistook them for male strippers.

"A young woman was giving a party and there seems to have been some confusion initially because the partygoers thought the two officers were a strip act," a spokesman for the police in the south-western town of Simmern told SPIEGEL ONLINE on Monday.

Male strippers often dress as policemen and the line "We've been called to investigate a disturbance" can serve as a cue for them to discard their uniforms and perform an erotic dance.

Not this time though. "The misunderstanding was swiftly resolved and calm was restored," the spokesman said. "And there was no theft of any parts of the uniforms."

I hope they were smart enough to return when their shift was finished.

We're On Obama Watch!

The Messiah Ticker
The editors at Spiegel International are in orgasmic glee over the visit by the new fuehrer messiah.

Some samples from their Obama ticker:

++ Visit to US Military Bases Cancelled ++

1:42 p.m.: SPIEGEL ONLINE has learned that Obama has cancelled a planned short visit to the Rammstein and Landstuhl US military bases in the southwest German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The visits were planned for Friday. "Barack Obama will not be coming to us," a spokesperson for the US military hospital in Landstuhl announced. "I don't know why." Shortly before the same spokeswoman had announced a planned visit by Obama.

++Over 200,000 Throng to Listen to Obama++

8:00 p.m.: Police estimate that at least 200,000 people turned up to listen to Obama's speech.

Undoubtedly more would have attended, BUT, the arrogant, hypocritical bastard goes to Germany and gives a speech before the German people - - - in English.

++ Obama Says He Loves America ++

7:47 p.m: Obama says that he loves America and that the US speaks to aspirations shared by all people -- "to live free from fear."

Yawn.

Just words . . . .

Via Spiegel International

'It Is a Problematic Symbol'

How clueless is Barack Obama? It's one thing to be so haughty and arrogant that he believed he deserved to speak at Brandenburg Gate, it's quite another to speak at a site dedicated by Adolf Hitler.

Originally, Barack Obama had hoped to speak in Berlin in front of the Brandenburg Gate. That idea, however, was torpedoed by Chancellor Angela Merkel's doubts about turning the place -- where both Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton spoke -- into a stage for a campaign rally. Instead, Obama will appear in front of the "Siegessäule" -- the Victory Column -- down the street from the Brandenburg Gate.

That site too has been criticized (more...). The Victory Column commemorates three Prussian war victories in the second half of the 19th century -- over Denmark, Austria and France. It was also moved to its present site by the Nazis to make way for the construction of the never realized über-capital "Germania."

Then again, all this guy has going for him is symbolism. That, and a shamelessly fawning press corps following him around, slobbering over every pre-packaged word he utters.

He's truly an embarrassment.

German Socialists Seeking Their Own Obama

I'll make them a deal. They can have the original.

Can Germany's Social Democrats find a Barack Obama of their own to revive their party?

At a recent rally in Nuremberg, Hubertus Heil, the deputy leader in the struggling SPD, tried to inject a bit of the charisma and can-do spirit of the Democratic presidential candidate by asking delegates to chant: "Yes, we can".

It didn't go down well.

After a moment of mumbled 'Yes, Vee Kahn", the English chants fizzled out. But since that rally in late May, German media and dispirited members of the centre-left SPD, which has slumped to post-war lows in opinion polls, have been asking: "Where's our Obama?"

Some on the left think Berlin's popular Mayor Klaus Wowereit might be the best hope to give the SPD a lift in the way Obama's historic candidacy has helped boost the U.S. Democrats.

I have to laugh when they call Marxists centre-left. Anyway, what does it tell you when a Communist party is seeking their own Obama?

Hey, Hans, Want to Pull My Finger?

I don't know, maybe it was too much time spent watching Beavis and Butthead, but I always had a different idea what finger pulling was all about.

Naturally, we have the Germans to help clarify things.

Finger Pulling Championships in the Alps

It may sound funny, but for some Bavarian and Austrian men finger wrestling is no joke. They take it very seriously: For them it's about prestige and honor.

In the old days, people say, it was used to settle disputes. Today it has the standing of a national sport in the Alpine region of southern Germany and neighboring Austria.

But anyone who thinks Fingerhakeln -- "finger wrestling" -- is some kind of amusing time-waster Bavarian men engage in after a few too many beers down at the village inn is very mistaken. The sport's practitioners take it very seriously.

So seriously, in fact, that before a major contest they subject the finger they intend to do battle with -- most chose their middle finger -- to a punishing training regime. Some of the wrestlers like to crush tennis balls with their hands; others will do pull-ups with only their middle fingers; and some have even been known to make their digits lift weights of up to 50 kilograms.

Yet, regardless of the training program, all the finger wrestlers share the same goal: to have a finger that is as strong as humanly possible.

The contest works as follows: Two contestants, usually men, sitting on opposite sides of a substantial table, thread their fingers into a strap. Once in position, they wait for the referee to give a signal, before pulling as hard as they possibly can. The winner is the person who manages to pull the other contestant across the table, using only his finger.

These guys really have to get out more.

Grandma's Got the Sweet Sticky Weed

The old gal is just showing some initiative.

Every day she would snack on a few bits of the hemp blossoms to help against the pain in her legs and arms. She sold the rest. In the city, the going price for a gram of marijuana is about €7.50 ($11.63). She told her only customers, three young men, not to ring her doorbell after 6 p.m., because she wanted her peace and quiet. Her life as a pot dealer remained relatively unchanged for about five years.

Her customers sold the marijuana to others and told stories about the cannabis grandmother. The stories got around, and smoking "Oma's" grass eventually came to be considered cool in Karlsruhe. The rumors also helped police track her down. After a two-week investigation, eight officers raided her apartment -- but deliberately on a day when "Oma" wasn't home.

It's not like she was selling in large quantities, so I imagine a slap on the wrist is in order.

Mein Fuhrer

The 20-page booklet is expected to sell for £150
Schoolboy's letter to Hitler to be auctioned

A chilling essay, written by a 10-year-old schoolboy praising the Nazis, is to be auctioned in Britain.

The rare essay was written by German pupil Gunther Himpfel as a gift for Adolf Hitler on his 50th birthday in 1939.

The 20-page booklet entitled 'Der 50 Gerburtsag des Fuhrers' which translates as 'The Fiftieth Birthday of the Fuhrer', was discovered at a flea market in Berlin and is now set to fetch £150 at auction in Shropshire.

The pupil received top marks for the essay in which he pays tribute to "greatest leader Germany have ever had" and says he hopes Hitler will live for many years to come.

Experts say the booklet serves as a chilling reminder of how the Nazi propaganda machine even extended to vulnerable schoolchildren.

Richard Westwood-Brookes, a historical documents expert at Mullocks auctioneers who will sell the booklet at Ludlow Racecourse next Wednesday, said: "You never cease to be amazed at depths the Nazi propaganda machine plunged in the years leading up to the outbreak of World War II.

"Here you have a ten-year-old schoolboy who should be involving himself with childhood things, instead being used as a political pawn in the Nazis' evil game."

"It is a very rare item as it's not something the average German family would want to keep - they would usually give these type of things away or destroy it."And if you can't get more than £150 for it, you're not much of an expert. Or auction house.

Dr Christoph Mick, from the department of history at the University of Warwick, said: "The essay tells how much the German people love Hitler and outlines how Germans now live all together in one state.

"It describes how the masses celebrated Hitler and that he is the greatest leader Germany ever had.

"The article also praises Hitler and his 'great friend' Benito Mussolini and expresses the hope that Hitler and Mussolini may be able to preserve peace.

"And the author hopes that Hitler may live for many years to lead the German people."

David Duke was unavailable for comment.

Via The Telegraph