„Barbara”

Christian Petzold’s film „Barbara” takes an unsentimental look at the DDR from the perspective of a Doctor who sought an exit visa.



Be warned, though. The place never looked that good.

Where's Waldo ? ! ?

No discussion of the nature of Socialism is complete without a rubber chicken.

A Love that Dare not Speak its' Name

Meira Pentermann on the
Stasi’s legacy in film:

We are blessed to have many poignant movies about the Nazis and the atrocities committed in concentration camps. As the years tick by and those who lived through those unimaginable experiences slip between the pages of history, I thank God that history has been preserved in books and film.

In contrast, I find the lack of movies about East Germany (or any country behind the Iron Curtain for that matter) rather telling. It is not for absence of living witnesses or data. It is merely a lack of will to even touch the subject. When the president of the United States snubs the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, maybe it is best to just not go there. Encouraging Americans to think about the mind-boggling amount of resources required to maintain the socialist utopia might cause them to question the entire concept of socialism.

Because it’s too close to the hearts of those in Hollywood.

Red October / Красный Октябрь

Sell everything. Sell the kids to science.

Europe's fate hinges on the willingness of the German population and it's government to pony up the dough. The next election, which could just as well go the way of the DDR-inspired "Die Linke" party of the Entitlement Libertarian "Piraten" are sure to dunk any participation in any affair that includes the word "austerity" or "Eurobond".

Basically the Piraten are as pure an expression of the politics of nanny state comfort as there could ever be. Their entire platform, guanrunteed income for all slackers, "free U-bahn for all", and "steal this book, I've sure he'll keep writing for free", are entirely bound up in an overaged adolescent's notion of amusement. The rest of it is just the usual perfunctory crap about human rights, as if they'll ever make a stand on the state of affairs in Bolivia or Equatorial Guinea.

As for "Die Linke", they are equally self-absorbed with the notion of selling themselves to society's couch-bound and unskilled by promising to appropriating stuff from their neighbors for them.

Buy canned goods and shotgun shells, because if you think the lot in charge now don't get it, get ready to greet the bunch that feel more comfortable with a paper bag over their heads.

These are the Bad Old Days

Between the Koreas, there is still a Radio War going down.

Dystopia Then, Dystopia Now

Just as now, the wasteland of popular culture promoted a sort of "unilateral disarmament" against the world's evils. Otherwise we were to still enjoy the misery we were deserving.

Achtung, Baby!

They’re coming for your vapid Hello Kitty memorabilia!

Fake Crisis Ill Suited to Address Political Crisis

Internal reform won't fix Labor's crisis

The Australian:

The most dramatic, so far, has been the disastrous roof insulation scheme. But the big cannons are lined up: the re-regulation of the labour market, the gamble on the government-owned National Broadband Network rollout and a vast defence procurement agenda based on Australian industry, a fiscal and defence crisis in the making. Each testifies to Labor's revived faith in regulation and de facto protectionism.

This Valentine's Day: show some love for older Australians, Prime Minister: fund quality aged care.(Aged care campaign)(Julia Gillard): An article from: Australian Nursing Journal

Counter-Counter-Counter Something or Other... Still With me?

Veeeeery Interestink!:

DFS 904 was a propaganda station from east germany in the cold war. These messages, sent during night, were absolutely nonsense and were intended to pretend it was an underground station operated by banned communists in western germany. On a website I found *exactly* this messages as an example mp3.

And You Though that they Just Bounced off of the Turnip Truck

Cucumber deaths provoke outbreak of EU bickering

It's a public health problem, not a summit, people!

Accusations and counter-accusations continue to be exchanged across Europe as the region struggles to tackle a lethal outbreak of enterohaemorrhagic E.coli linked to contaminated cucumbers, which has so far left 14 people dead in Germany.

The Golden age of Brit Flicks

Further to my weakness for UK mid-century fillums, from 1959, it's I'm Alright Jack

News Digest from the Fake-Crisis Management Center, no. 2011\2-A

Go Green, Jennifer Parrish: The buzz about bees

"A diet primarily of bread and gruel may be our future if we do not address the honey bee crisis"...

Pedantry and malthusian excess, all in one mouthful. What more could you ask for?

Doorbusting Geopolitical Events

Which is to say, the very opposite of the NorK condition, unless fascism becomes an Olympic sport.

Pyongyang, November 21 (KCNA) -- The Puebla State Branch of the Mexican National Preparatory Committee for Commemorating the Centenary of Birth of President Kim Il Sung was inaugurated on Nov. 13.

Arturo Mauricio Juarez Lopez, president of the Mexican Puebla State Association for Friendship with the Korean People, was elected chief of the branch.

The branch decided to briskly conduct colorful commemorations till 2012, centenary of birth of the President.

How very cosmopolitan. It’s almost like an Ice Capades of authoritarian leftism. They insist that a desperate world yearns for their wisdom! They will not disappoint!

Kulturschande 101

Syria: It isn't that way for a lack of skill, ambition, or resources. It's caused by their increasingly de-christianized culture, tempered by half a century of Ba'athist fascistic Socialism.

Homs: a 5 year old boy is married off to a 3 year old girl.

Berlin's B-Z:

For little Khaled (5) and his fiancé Hala, two years his junior, the ceremony in the Syrian city of Homs was probably just a game. But their parents are serious: If the kids are younger than 15 and 13 years old, they can be married according to the will of their parents.

Local and international human rights groups are up in arms against the engagement. In Syria, the marriage of minors is not unusual.

Let's see if those “international human rights” types will, after all of these decades demonstrate their usefulness and efficacy. Don't hold your breath.