February 2002

Unfriendly Veal

28 February 2002

The tone is a bit hard for my taste, but James Lilek’s Olive Garden piece is a classic piece how Europeans view Americans, and get it all wrong. My favorite bit, though, was about the unfriendly veal.

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Blame It On Haider

28 February 2002

Spiegel: Schröder sagt Prag-Reise ab (Schröder cancels Prague visit). It all started with Haider’s campaign in Austria to block Czech entry to the EU. In an interview in response, Czech Prime Minister Zeman said that the Sudetendeutschen (expelled from Czechoslovakia in 1945) were all traitors loyal to Hitler. In the end both he and Schröder [...]

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Who’s Boss In The EU?

28 February 2002

Heard on NDR4: The EU Commission is suing the EU Council of Ministers for overturning a Commission decision. The decision (involving pork subsidies in Portugal) was rather minor, but was overturned for purely politcal reasons. It’s interesting in light of the ministers overturning the budget warning for Germany, and recent comments by European politicians that [...]

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Blow Me Away

26 February 2002

I’m tired. It’s blowing cats and dogs outside. And Mama’s new office was delivered while we were at work, 14 heavy cartons to bring inside and upstairs. Christopher’s ‘word’ of the past few days is ‘ohta’ (or sometimes ‘ohda’). He’s saying it repeatedly. I keep asking, ‘Who is ohta?’ But he never answers.

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Schröder Woos The Union On Immigration

26 February 2002

Spiegel: Zuwanderung: Schröder umwirbt die Union (Immigration: Schröder woos the Union). The Chancellor offers a compromise on the immigration bill to be debated in the Bundestag this week. Today, the CDU said they wouldn’t take the bait. The real showdown will come in the Bundesrat in March. Update: FAZ Opposition Parties Reject Changes in Immigration [...]

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All Systems Go

25 February 2002

My folks have finalized their plans to meet us in Las Vegas the week of April 21. They’ll be able to have as much of Christopher as they can handle! I’m trying out BlogChat, which is not only a wonderful way to waste time chatting, but might actually have some practical use (chatting with my [...]

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Transrapid Money

25 February 2002

FAZ: Bavarian Politicians Miffed Over Transrapid Funds “The battle for federal funding for the Transrapid magnetic-levitation rail system intensified over the weekend after German Transportation Minister Kurt Bodewig announced that the lion’s share of the planned euro 2.3 billion ($2 billion) subsidy would go to the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with far less going to [...]

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Progress Report

24 February 2002

Milestone check for Christopher: We recognized his first sentence yesterday, “Nana essen” (Eat banana), which of course has to do with eating. Earlier in the week he said “Mama mehr” (Mama more), which was disqualified for not having a verb. This morning for the first time he seemed content to have his bath in the [...]

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Does This Stuff Come Off?

23 February 2002

No, this isn’t how I prepare for the televised Olympic coverage. We were invited to a ‘Fasching’ birthday party. I wasn’t aware that we would be dressing up until the last minute, and this is what I came up with on short notice. Moorbek had some intresting (albeit cynical) thoughts on the German Olympic success, [...]

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Jagoda To Go

22 February 2002

FAZ Riester Announces Jagoda Resignation, Promises Changes. Actually, the Labor Minister was pre-announcing what everyone has known for a couple weeks. If that makes any sense.

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Made It Through The Night

21 February 2002

Staying home yesterday seemed to be good for Christopher. He slept a lot, until 8:30 in the morning and in the afternoon for over 3 hours, much than he would have at daycare. Now he’s slept through the night for the first time in a week. And he woke up bright and healthy, so he [...]

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Right Turn On Red

20 February 2002

Via dangerousmeta In These Times Europe’s Right Turn gets it wrong on several counts, at least in regards to Germany. September 11 and the war on terrorism has had virtually no effect on German politics. The SPD lost Hamburg on local issues, and the Schill ‘Law and Order’ Party is not overtly anti-immigrant. The NPD [...]

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A Consortium of Committees

20 February 2002

Christopher’s still asleep, so I don’t know yet if he’s well enough for me to go to work. Update: He’s still got a fever, so we’re home watching Kinderkanal. Before the lights went out here (and many thanks to UserLand for letting us know what was going on; much better information than any pay provider [...]

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On The Road Again

19 February 2002

We were off the air for a while, a couple of people even missed us. Now we’re back. Thank you, Murphy! But now it’s bedtime, so good night until tomoow. Christopher’s fever is back… maybe tomorrow will be home alone with sick kid day.

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Stop It, But Don’t Blame Us

19 February 2002

Spiegel: Zuwanderung: Union sagt Gespräche mit Koalition ab (CDU/CSU call off immigration talks with coalition). The Union would like to block the bill without having to take any blame, so they can use immigration as a campaign issue. The government is counting on a couple of Union co-ruled Länder to defect in the Bundesrat. Update [...]

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Shoot Em Down

18 February 2002

Mama has decided that biathlon would be her sport. Chase your problems and shoot ‘em down. She didn’t think much of my suggestion of curling. Shout at the stones to make them go where you want, even though you know they aren’t listening.

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Schill Is Clean

18 February 2002

No English links yet, but Hamburg’s Interior Senator Schill has passed the hair test for cocaine that he requested. Later FAZ: Schill’s Hair Test Shows No Trace of Cocaine Use Meanwhile, the national headlines are rather quiet. Are all the politicians watching the Olympics?

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Cranky

17 February 2002

Christopher was really under the weather yesterday, 40°C fever and coughing, but somewhat better today. We’re staying inside, which is a shame with the fine sunny winter weather. It doesn’t sound like that anyone in the States is happy with the Olympic TV coverage, especially those on the West Coast where everything has been tape-delayed. [...]

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Car Bites Tree

16 February 2002

This is not how my encounter with the neighbor’s tree ended up yesterday, but it’s close. His tree was actually much taller, but the part that hit the road was about this size.

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Four More

15 February 2002

Just when we thought all the NPD informants were known, now Spiegel reports Und noch mehr V-Leute – and still more infomants. Four more. It’s now estimated that 10% of the NPD leadership were actually working for the government.

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A Place To Start

15 February 2002

Susan Kitchens pointed to the Guardian Unlimited Weblog, an excellent collection of world news links. They also have newsguide Germany page of news sources in English and German.

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Head Spins

15 February 2002

Christopher woke us up at 2am, thirsty and with fever. He’s been healthy for so long (except while we were in Minnesota; in Germany he hasn’t missed any daycare in over a year), we’ve almost forgotten what it’s like for him to be sick. For the first time, he wanted to come to our bed. [...]

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Powered by Obi and Bitburger

14 February 2002

We’re watching the Olympics this evening, Christopher and I. He likes high speed events, or spectatacular falls. I guess that means he likes ski-jumping.

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I Will Not Overspend, I Will Not Overspend…

12 February 2002

Guardian: EU compromise over German budget deficit. Like a schoolboy with bad grades, Eichel avoids a report card with an ‘F’, but has to stay after school and write sentences on the blackboard.

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Bavarian Solution

12 February 2002

No English link yet, but the HypoVereinsbank in Munich has agreed to buy Kirch’s share of the Axel Springer Verlag for €1BN, keeping the troubled media firm solvent for the moment. Rupert Murdoch has to wait for his takeover of Kirch until this fall, when Murdoch has option to sell back his share of Premiere [...]

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Fasching

12 February 2002

This morning, Mama’s in Munich, and I’m up early to dress Christopher as a pirate for the Fasching party at day care.

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Three Monkeys

11 February 2002

All three crises are still bubbling. The number of informants in the NPD scandal is up to 5, maybe 6, and there are more and more calls from FDP and CDU to drop the case. Meanwhile, in the job placement scandal, reports are that Arbeitsamt head Jagoda was informed of irregularites 4 years ago, and [...]

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Tweedle Dum & Tweedle Dee

11 February 2002

Thanks for all the birthday greetings (thanks to daypop, I know who you all are), and thanks especially to Andrea for the ogre picture. The nieces and nephews got a big kick out of it at our combined birthday party yesterday.

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Schill To Take Drug Test

9 February 2002

FAZ Interior Minister to Undergo Drug Test. Hamburg’s ‘Judge Merciless’ makes national headlines again, but now on the defensive. Celebrity parties where cocaine was seen, bodyguards with Mafia ties, and now a sworn statement that he rubbed ‘white powder’ on his gums. He calls the TV report a ‘pig magazine’ and swears to have his [...]

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40

9 February 2002

I woke up this morning and feel pretty good. I haven’t turned into a troll or an ogre, not yet. Update Hold on, I have turned into an ogre after all. Well, if I’m an ogre, that makes Christopher a donkey! We watched the replay of the Olympic Opening Ceremony at 9am this morning. The [...]

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