LaTeX
My new favourite latex comment:
Package: graphicx 1999/02/16 v1.0f Enhanced LaTeX Graphics (DPC,SPQR)
I wonder what it means:
enhanced graphics
Senatu
Populo
Que
Romano?
So, it's all plotted in a wax plate, or graved in stone?
I am a bit proud of this. On the other hand this six pages kept me busy for one year...
How much more does it need?
Sadly this year will be remembered as one that produced one milleniums catastrophe after the other. First the Tsunami, the Hurricanes Stan, Katrina, Rita and
now Wilma, the earthquake in Pakistan, the heavy floodings in Europe. All these catastrophes produced a lot of damages, as usual the developed countries do away with large financial losses, the 3. world countries pay in human lifes.
How long do we go on like this? We will never be able to proof that there is human induced climate change, but neither will we be able to show that there isn't. So why don't we do the experiment the other way round? We change our behaviour and look whether melting of glaciers, polar caps, the frequency of heavy tropical storms, etc slows down? We won't be able to proof that it was because we changed our behaviour but who cares.
Wouldn't it be worth a try?
Löcher
PKW Maut in Deutschland?
"Autofahrer sollen nicht noch weiter zum Stopfen von Finanzlöchern im Haushalt missbraucht werden."
meint der ADAC. Ich meine natürlich sollen sie das, denn
- Es ist doch komisch, dass die Leute immer so tun, als wären an der Finanzmisere nur die andern Schuld, die Politiker, aber gleichzeitig verlangen sie von den Politikern all die sozialen und infrastrukturellen Leistungen, die die Löcher fressen. Nur selten ist es ja so wie hier in Berlin, dass die Schulden durch zweifelhafte Geschäfte einiger weniger zustande kommen. (Wir sind ja trotzallem nicht in der 3. Welt).
- Und überhaupt die Autofahrer: machen Mensch und Natur krank durch ihre Abgase, das weiss jeder, gefährden Kinder und andere Menschen durch ihre Raserei, das weiss jeder, verschandeln die Landschaft mit ihren hässlichen Autobahnkreuzen, das sieht jeder, sind der Klimasünder Nummer 1, auch das weiss jeder. All das macht das Leben unangenehm und schafft eben ... Kosten, also sollen sie mal zahlen, viel zahlen. Ich schlage vor, wer immer ein neues Auto kauft und nicht nachweisen kann, dass er es zum Krankentransport braucht, muss sich verpflichten einem Arbeitslosen ohne Auto Hartz IV zu bezahlen, monatlich, von seinem Geld. Die Vignette schliesst das natürlich nicht aus.
So schlimm sind sie vielleicht doch nicht...
"Nach einer Umfrage unterstützen die Österreicher den EU Beitritt der Türkei zu 10 Prozent, die Ungarn zu über 50 Prozent - Wien wurde zweimal von den Türken belagert, Budapest aber stand 150 Jahre unter türkischer Herrschaft."
Aus dem NZZ
Leitartikel von heute.
Hast du Worte?
What about the South Americans launching some rockets on the US?
They should not make a difference between their past dictators and those who supported them. In any case
G. Double U talks very similar to the way
radical islamist preachers speak about the west. "The west will bring slavery on all of us... but we will never give up and go for the one and final victory, etc. etc. Allahu akbar"
And then on the other hand
he is against a law forbidding US soldier to torture. Give it a break! I can live without his kind of freedom.
Element of Crime
Man mag ja von den
neuen EoC Schnulzen denken, was man will. Dafür spricht ein Lied mit homerischer Anfangszeile, immerhin:
Dem Zaun deiner Zähne sind Worte entflohen, ...
Ob Sven Regener mit klassischer Bildung angeben will, oder diesen uralten Schmuh originell findet? Ich hoffe mal ersteres.
Is relativism a leftish position?
I mean relativism in the sense that you believe that reality, truth and the like is a matter of human conventions.
I think the answer is yes in the sense that I have the impression that there is a statistical correlation between people being relativists and having a leftish political opinion.
I don't understand though why this should be so, since I cannot see any political implications of relativism. Are there? Maybe my impression is wrong (Certainly this correlation is not scientifically established, it is merely an impression of mine.) Or is it just a second order effect, coming from the fact that relativism is widespread in social sciences and social scientists tend to be leftish?
Jamaica
I am a bit late. like allways. But of all possible coalitions that were discussed after the elections in Germany, my favourite was Jamaica. (My all favourite would be Green/Liberals only.) I really thought, it was a real possibiliy. Though now I must admit, I was mistaken. I think that all three parties involved, discussed it from the beginning only due to some tactical reasons. For the CDU it was to demonstrate that they did not depend on the SPD, the same for the Green. For the FDP most probabely
it was kind of, wanting to get to power, now that they are the 3 largest party, so Jamaica being the only possibility once the excluded a "Ampel". Also the exclusion of the Ampel, I think was pure personal antipathy.
Me, I did not believe, there really is such large a division between the Green and the CDU. That the Christian Democrats really believe that those Green are the final doom of civilisation (from a moral point of view). But apparently it seems that these two groups have never talked to each other before not even privately. They only heard the voices of the oponents in debates in the Bundestag and think whatever they say must be bad a priori. Politicians in this country really seem to stay with their party mates only.
Me I think there are a lot of topics that the Green and the FDP or even the Green and the CDU have in common, take the Liberals and the Green: Civil rights, minority rights, economics (I believe it's pure superstition that ecology is opposed to a prosperous economy. Ecology can boost new technologies, and it also favours local substructures. Of course, I also believe that Germans focus far too much on their classical big tycoons like Siemens, VW, for them ecology is a mean of being less able to exploit, whatever they want to exploit, nature, people, the state etc. But anyway I am convinced that it is the small companies who make an economy running, they do provide much more employments, if you sum them up, they have a relation to the place where they produce and to the people working for them. Their bosses have a much personal involvmement in their firm, far exceeding the wish to make as much money as possible, its their life they risk with it and large amount of heartblood they put in).
Also the Green and the Christian Democrats: The same economical reasons. Furthermore it's perfectly sound to be conservative, but still care about ecology, because you do want to preserve the nature you live in.
There are some things you do have to give up, Atomausstieg, Gay marriage, Blindly following the US.
But Atomausstieg, really it's not so important, as long as you control those power plants efficiently, you can take your time. Gay marriage, it's ridiculous anybody thinks that's a problem at all, but maybe even the CDU gets there in slow steps, blindly following the US, who wants this anyway?
Certainly due to my personal opinions a believe that the Green should not give in too much to the CDU. And I also think that Guido Westerwelle has not studied history and does not know what "liberal" means. So given the situation I am happy with there being no Jamaica coalition.
It's incredible how different German seems to be from Swiss politics. In Switzerland, at least traditionally, everybody speaks to everybody, there can be alliances crossing party lines. Whereas here in Germany loyalty to your party seems to be unconditional.In Switzerland you are allowed to have a different view than your party has and even allowed to say it. If not then there is a law forbidding it. (Like for instance the "Kollegialitaetsprinzip" thing that as a member of the government, you have to speak out in favour of the governments opinion even if it's opposed to your personal view.) If there are discussion going on within a German party, this has a negative influence on the party's credit, they have to behave as a monolithic block. If you don't your career will become very difficult. That's why there is effectively a "Fraktionszwang" in the Bundestag, even though it's illegal.
I sometimes very much think that this is one of the major reasons, why nothing ever happens here. Politicians are having fights against each other eternally. They think politics is all about bringing you party to power and staying in power and not about problems of the country you have to solve.
To make life "besser fuer die Menschen in Deutschland."
