A few more details

... about this comment on this post and the reality in Europe:

Hello! Wake up you obviously have no understanding of the urgency of the problem. Europe is being overrun by Muslim fanatics and the rate of demise of Europeans (particularly Germans, due to low birth rates and high death rates) has been noted by historians as bad as during the The Black Plague in the 1400s. While I recognize Eva Herman's praise for the Nazi era family building is distasteful, its helping provoke an important discussion about what needs to be done to save Europe.

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First of all, I can't really see the relation between Miss Herman and Muslim fundamentalists. About Muslim fundamentalists in Europe (especially those who have been caught doing or planning terrorist acts), I do have one thing to say, though: about all of them were converts. So it doesn't really matter how many children a German woman has, they might all become Muslim fundamentalists themselves once they're adults.

In addition, one European country does already have high rate of Muslims (Turkey) and one has a high rate of Muslim immigrants (France, because of all their former colonies in Northern Africa). Nevertheless, the Muslim fundamentalists are not exactly running things in Europe, nor are they holding parades or controlling the media.

There is such a thing as a difference between "Muslim" and "Muslim fundamentalist", after all.

And about those death rates: I'm living in Germany and I'm not aware of high death rates in my country - quite the opposite in fact, as politicians always go on about the populace living longer and longer. Hence the raise of the pension age...

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When it comes to Miss Herman and her theories, though, things are not that easy. The simple equation "less women working = higher birth rate" does not work, at least not in Europe on the whole. The two countries with the lowest rate of working women are also the countries with the lowest birth rate: Germany and Italy. Countries with a high rate of working women on the other hand also have high birth rates: the Scandinavian countries and France, for example. The Republic of Ireland, also a country with a high rate of working women, is even considered the 'youngest' country in Europe, seen from the average age of the populace.

In modern times - although there are still a lot of marriages that hold - marriage isn't a guaranty for a secure life afterwards. So a woman with a job is more likely to have children - provided the government gives her the means to combine both, in day care for younger children and full-time education for the older ones. In past decades (like the Fifties, which are obviously the time Miss Herman wants back), work places were almost guarantied. So, if the husband had work (the divorce rate was very low, mostly due to the divorce laws at that time which asked for one of the two to be 'guilty' and didn't accept unfaithfulness of the husband as 'guilt'), the wife could stay at home and care for children and household (and, quite often, her little collection of tasty spirits). But today, when even a married man with children can loose his job at a moment's notice, having a husband isn't a guaranty for having enough money to live off.

And real wages (not in figures, but in what I can buy with the money I earn) have not really gone up either, so the money one person brings home quite often isn't enough for the family to live off. Even in the middle class, a lot of women have to work.

Now, raising children surely isn't about money alone, so the last argument might not sound like an important one to you, but society in Germany isn't exactly children-friendly, either.

I think a lot of those people who are always calling for more children to be born can't really stand them. Why? Regularly playgrounds and kindergartens are closed, because the people living around them can't stand the noise of playing children. The school system - as I've written before - is outdated and doesn't really give German children the same chances children from other European countries have. What adults quite often want is a child that's already a taxes- and pensions-paying adult after five days or so - or so it seems. Children as a such are not popular in Germany.

And neither, unfortunately, are women with more than three children of their own. It's a difficult balance. Have no child or one child and you're not doing your best to keep the German populace up. Two children would be ideal and three are still acceptable, but have four and more of them and you're considered anti-social. Everyone will think you just had that many children so you didn't have to work and got more money from the government. That's the way it is.

The government does not provide real day care, either (and neither do the companies). Four hours a day is guarantied by the law. Even most part-time jobs require a mother to be absent for at least six hours (including the trip to work and back). Kindergartens are usually open between eight o'clock a.m. and five or six o'clock p.m. - and quite often children have to be picked up around noon, because the kindergarten does not serve lunch. Kindergartens are closed during all school breaks - and no working person in Germany has that many free days. And you can't take a child to kindergarten before the age of three, meaning a woman has to stay home for at least three years per child (although admittedly that doesn't mean nine years for three children, as most women get their children in smaller intervals than three years). And school later on only lasts until one o'clock p.m., too.

In France, for example, children can be taken to a nursery when they're six months of age. The kindergartens are open to heed to the needs of the women, so bringing in your child early or picking it up late is easy to manage. Schools last until well into the afternoon. Even the GDR had a better child-care-system than Western Germany had and still has - and I'm not even talking about the Scandinavian countries.

So Miss Herman isn't just talking nonsense about the Nazi who only wanted children so they would have a lot of soldiers later on and, by the way, didn't build the Autobahn either, that was mostly done before Hitler became ruler of Germany. She also ignores the realities about working women and birth rates in Europe. She was removed from her job because of the stupidity with which she talked about the past - and because of her inability to say the right thing when almost begged to simply state she 'had not meant it like that' but a little different. And she is not taken serious by most women, because she doesn't practice what she preaches (or at least, hasn't done so before she was fired).

Eva Herman is a woman regurgitating the ideas of the past and surely not the last warning voice to keep us from being overrun by Muslim fundamentalists.

Sorry for the delay

Whew, I really have to check the comments more often. Sorry for those of you who posted a critical comment and thought I wasn't caring (and curses to that advert for Russian brides - I deleted that).

A special apology to the reader who asked for the tip on Ravenhearst. I hope I remembered the right lock and I've written you an answer in the comments.

Oh, and I found out I had not posted some stuff correctly, so you might find a couple of posts you've never read before.

Sorry for the delay, once more!

British Parody

Admittedly, I've known it before: The British do extremely good dark comedies. But after watching both "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz", I'm more certain than before.

Take "Shaun of the Dead". Ever since "Night of the Living Dead", created by George Romero, zombie-movies have been part of horror mainstream - at least among the splatter movies. But, as I expected after seeing another movie by the same 'dream team', the British answer to Romero's horror stories is something special.

Shaun is an ordinary guy. He lives with two pals in a little house in the suburbs, has a girlfriend and works in the local electronic market. Shaun's life is always running along the same lines: Stand up, go to buy some coke in a little shop around the corner, drive to work, come back home, go to the local pub - the "Winchester" - and then home again. His best friend Ed is unemployed - or so it seems. As the story begins, Shaun is ditched by his girlfriend because he doesn't really make an effort in their relationship. His stepfather - whom he can't stand - goes on about his behaviour towards his mother and his other pal doesn't like the idea of Ed living with them (because he doesn't seem to pay any rent and doesn't work anywhere, not even at home).

And then strange things happen. Zombies turn up, the living dead who attack and kill people, bite and eat them. Shaun, Ed, Shaun's ex-girlfriend Liz, two of her friends and Shaun's mother find themselves hunted by the zombies (although the zombies hunt very, very, very, very slow). The group gets decimated. First it's Shaun's stepfather, then his mother - who's been bitten and turns into a zombie after dying -, then it's the two friends and finally Ed. Shaun and Liz make it, though, and some zombies 'survive' in a way, doing jobs nobody wants to do anyway.

There's a lot of references to other movies, naturally. The one I found most amusing (as Shaun is working as a vendor) is the remark that the boss and his second-in-command Ash are off sick - as Ash is also the main character of the "Evil Dead" movies and games (and he works in a supermarket). Well, he's off sick, so Shaun has to do his best alone.

"Hot Fuzz" on the other hand is a parody of all the cop-movies Hollywood has produced. A lot of the are actually named by one of the main characters. Director Edgar Wright - who also directed "Shaun of the Dead" - worked with the same dream-team as before: Simon Pegg (also played Shaun) and Nick Frost (who played Ed).

Nickolas Angel (Simon Pegg) is a perfect cop. His success-rate is four hundred percent higher than that of his colleagues in London. Therefore he has to go. He's promoted and sent off to the small town of Sandford - where there hasn't been a murder for more than twenty years. After he has arrested a couple of teenagers and a drunk even before his first day of work, he has to find out the next day that the drunk is his new partner, Danny Butterman (Nick Frost), son of the local chief of police. Danny has never as much as set a foot outside Sandford, but he has watched all the big action movies Hollywood has produced during the last couple of years.

Everything in the town seems to run smooth and perfectly. Most of the students of the local school are good kids. Everyone has work - or at least a source of income. There's a fund raise running for the local church's roof. There's nice, little shops and a supermarket that is a bit larger, but still doesn't look like the huge markets you could get somewhere else. There's an amateur drama club, of course. There's a local newspaper and so on. The town has won a price for being the perfect little town for years.

But just as Nickolas is about to give up and let go of his police instincts, it happens: an accident, two horrible amateur actors killed in a car crash - or so it seems. Both beheaded. Nickolas doesn't buy it, but everyone else does. Then the head of the local construction firm dies when his house (not exactly build in typical country style) explodes due to gas. While the other cops in town still do believe in accidents, Nick starts to investigates. The editor and chief reporter of the local newspaper wants to tell him something - and dies in front of his eyes, supposedly another accident. And on it goes. Nick meets the killer, a hooded figure with an axe. He thinks it must have been the boss of the local supermarket - but he's wrong. Most of the leading figures of the town are involved - including the head of police. And in the end it's Nick, Danny and the other cops against most of the towns 'better' citizens.

Both movies have a high gore-factor. But apart from litres of blood and a high body count, they also are extremely funny. That's partly due to the actors and partly to the stories.

While neither "Hot Fuzz" nor "Shaun of the Dead" are something for people with a weak stomach, you can have a lot of fun with those movies. And the more other movies of that type you've seen already, the better they get.

What I like about Discworld novels

I stumbled over the "Discworld" novels by Terry Pratchett (one of which I'm reading this weekend) by accident. Being a student and having to make a trip from my hometown to the next city with a university every workday, I was reading a lot and one day I found the German edition of "Witches Abroad" in the bookshop at the train station. It was but the beginning of a real obsession in some ways.

"Witches Abroad" deals with three witches that have featured in various novels by now (and did in one [two in the case of Esme Weatherwachs] before). But while I like Esme and her headology (psychology is not known on the Discworld, but judging from Esme's form of magic, she surely knows all about it), I've come to like other recurring characters more. There's Commander Vimes and the Night Watch (by now, he's a nobleman, both through marriage and promotion, somewhere along the way the Patrician ran out of noble ranks, and commands all watchmen), there's the wizards from the Unseen University, there's Death (and his granddaughter Susan). But among my favourite novels are also some featuring non-recurring characters.

Those are the novels I like most (not in any logical order, though):

• Night Watch
• Hogfather
• The Truth
• Going Postal
• Thief of Time
• Carpe Jugulum
• Maskerade

Why those? I can explain that.

In "Night Watch" Commander Vimes finds himself in the past after yet another magical accident at the Unseen University. Through strange coincidences he becomes the mentor of his younger self who has just become a watchman. All the time he tries to find the killer he was after before, while at the same time not trying to unsettle too much of the 'true' history. Of course, on the Discworld 'true' can have several given values.

"Hogfather" deals with an attempt of the Auditors (beings who control and measure the universe and can't stand life, because it always gets in the way) to wipe out belief and imagination. Death himself can't go up against them, as they have made use of a rather unsettled human to make children stop believing in the Hogfather (who is the "Discworld"-equivalent of Santa Claus). They are working from the only place Death can't go to: the Tooth Fairy's realm (strangely enough the Tooth Fairy of the Discworld is the first Bogeyman).

In "The Truth" both journalism and moving letters enter the Discworld at the same time a secret group tries to get rid of the Patrician by having him found guilty of a crime he didn't commit. Young nobleman (and chief editor of the new "Ankh-Morpork Times") William de Worde finds himself in the uncomfortable spot of telling the world the truth, even if it means having to deal with people who say "-ing" a lot and have no qualms about killing.

"Going Postal" features con-man Moist von Lipwig who gets given a second chance in his life (after being hanged, but not to death). As new postmaster of Ankh-Morpork he has to deal with really ancient postmen, dogs, huge green things with teeth and a fellow con-man who doesn't want the city to have a working post system which could take money from his own business. (Actually, Moist also is the main character of one of the books I'm reading this weekend, "Making Money"). Moist invents stamps and turns the once forgotten post office into a well-running business.

"Thief of Time" tells the story of two young men with extraordinary abilities, one a clockmaker, one a thief and later on apprentice of the most dangerous monk the Discworld has ever seen. They are one and the same person, actually, because they are the son of Time herself. Susan, Death's granddaughter, has to go up against the Auditors once again (and even they are not immune against the siren song of chocolate).

In "Carpe Jugulum" Esme and her fellow witches go up against vampires. While the vampires invade the small kingdom of Lancre, Esme invades their brains and the youngest of the resident witches learns to live with the second persona that has developed inside her - fooling the vampires who can't control two minds in one body. It's also the first novel presenting the large and long-living family of the Igors.

"Maskerade" also is a novel about Esme and her coven. With the formerly youngest witch Magrat married and pregnant, Esme and Nanny want to bring a new witch into the coven, but the girl in question has left for Ankh-Morpork to become an opera-singer. But there is a phantom in the opera house...

That's a whole host of different stories, isn't it? But I like them all - and the ones I haven't mentioned here, but like, too, just not as much.

Gilmore Girls

Okay, I admit it, I do have a very soft spot for the TV series "Gilmore girls". I started watching it at the beginning of the last year, while I was recovering from some serious surgery on my knee. (And even in Germany that means I watched a rerun.)

I couldn't do much at that time, as I couldn't sit correctly at my desk - so I couldn't do anything with my computer. (The horror! Oh, the mind-bending horror of it!). I couldn't walk around much either, so I spent most of my day sitting in a chair and watching TV. And reading, of course.

"Gilmore girls" was shown during noon and I started switching in regularly. Normally I'm not exactly a fan of such series, but I liked this one. The main characters are interesting - especially the 'role-switch' between Lorelai and Rory (as mother Lorelai is much more of a teenager and daughter Rory is quite sensible for a girl her age). But the whole cast of characters is interesting and I soon started to like them - like people I meet every day. I learned about their quirks, about the little secrets the series showed.

Turning into their world once a day became a comfortable habit. Then my knee healed and I went back to work - thus no longer able to watch it. I followed the new episodes for a while (as they were shown on Wednesday quarter past eight). But then other interesting series came and there was a break while the next season was dubbed for German and somehow I broke away from it.

So why am I writing and thinking about it now? There's two reasons for this. First of all, one of the online magazines I follow regularly had an article a couple of days ago, when the last season started in Germany. Second, I got the first two seasons really cheap today. That means something to watch for quite a while (21/22 episodes per season, 40 minutes runtime without ads per episode). I love getting TV series on DVD (the first I got was the first season of "Futurama", still on video cassette), so I can watch my favourite episodes whenever I have some time to spare. Currently I own "Firefly", "Smallville" Season 1 to 4, the first Season of the British series "Robin Hood" and the original 13 Episodes of the "Hellsing" TV series. Now I'll have to add "Gilmore girls" Season 1 and 2 to it. My parents also own all the seasons of "M.A.S.H.", so I can watch those as well, I just have to ask. (Actually, "Firefly" has never been shown on TV in Germany, the only German version that exists was published on DVD.)

So I return to Stars Hollow for a while and enjoy it - whenever it comes to pass during the next weeks.

Sweet Little Lies

Currently I'm reading a very interesting book about lies. Not just the lies of certain people (and yes, the word 'politician' automatically comes to mind), but lies in general.

In fact, just by looking at any society, it's obvious that society as a concept does not work without lies. That might be a hard hit for very religious people - and/or those who value honesty very high -, but it's the truth. Social intercourse only works when you're not always telling everything (and omitting something is a lie, too).

For example, if an acquaintance of mine asks me how I am, I'll answer "good", no matter if that really is true. I might feel good or mediocre or I might just have had a cold and still feel under the weather, but I'd never tell someone who's not really close to me something else than "good".

The same thing goes for many other things, like someone asking me if she looks good, like telling someone I knows wants to hear that he/she still looks young - even if they don't. Those are what people call white lies. They're not meant to harm people or said out of greed, they only exist to make sure people get along. The question "how are you", when not asked by a doctor or nurse, usually is asked out of politeness. And so answering "good", not matter how you really feel, is polite, too. I mean, would you really want an acquaintance whom you've just met once or twice to tell you at great length about the operation they just had or the terrible disease they've just gotten over? With minute detail?

But then, where's the line between a white lie and a normal lie - or even an outrageous one? That's more difficult. A lie that's meant to harm someone (by, for example, make him buy something that's not safe to own) definitely is a normal lie - it's more than that, but let's not venture into the realm of crime.

But how about a vendor telling a customer she looks good in a dress, although she doesn't? Is that still a white lie? The customer, looking for a fashionable outfit, will want to hear that fashionable dress suits her. The vendor, having to earn money for the shop, will want the customer to buy that expensive dress. But does that mean it's okay to tell the woman she looks good while she looks quite hideous because, for example, she doesn't have the right body shape to wear such a dress? Now, it will not bodily harm the customer to wear a dress that doesn't suit her. Neither will it harm her purse that much (let's assume she can afford to buy expensive clothes, okay?). But it might harm her if she, for example, goes to a job interview in that dress and is not chosen because she looked so hideous in the dress and people questioned her ability to assess a situation. ("How can she claim to be a rational thinking business woman, wearing a dress that doesn't really fit her at all?") Or if she wears it to a first date and the man doesn't want to see her ever again?

Tricky, isn't it? Fact is, a potentially harmless lie can become very harmful while a lie that supposedly should have harmed someone can be quite harmless in the end. We can only use the current situation to calculate a lie's outcome - but situations can change quickly.

Why do people lie? And is it possible to get through just one day without lying? Well, if you happen to be a hermit living in the dessert, that surely is possible. But if you have to interact with people every day, you'll be forced to lie sooner or later. Even "have a nice day" can be a lie - though it's a nice one. "Pleased to meet you" is a huge one, most of the time. And don't forget: omitting something is a lie, too. Now, could you get through a normal day without telling even the tiniest white lie?

We humans lie for various reasons, both consciously and unconsciously. Sometimes we lie because society expects us to. Even if you, for example, can't stand a colleague at work, you usually have to be polite towards him or her. That's not really honest.

Animals 'lie', too. They use camouflage or pretend to be more dangerous or poisonous than they really are. While that's no conscious lie, it nevertheless is dishonest.

Even plants, although they don't move much and can't speak, are able to lie, pretending their flower is something else than it is - like a fly - or by emitting smells that make insects think they're approaching a member of their species' fairer sex.

Nature lies, not just us humans. Nevertheless, being careful while lying is never wrong - especially when you're not completely sure what will become of your lie. Once released into the world, a lie is harder to catch then the truth.

Weekend update

And, just as for the last two weekends, the update on what I'll be reading and watching:

DVD to watch: "Shaun of the Dead" (after "Hot Fuzz" I just had to get it, seriously) and the first two seasons of "Gilmore girls" (though surely not complete this weekend).

Books to read: "Wicked" by Gregory Maguire and "Making Money" by Terry Pratchett.

Music to hear: "Wicked" Original Broadway Cast.

And as the weather is rather dreadful, I will cherish staying indoors and cuddling on my couch with two good books.