Things I’ve noticed over the last 8 days in Germany.
- Not many other people seem to be ordering Apfelschorle, but I love it.
- At the Komische Oper: Tall bald man in all yellow suit, with yellow bowler hat, a yellow watch and a pint-sized briefcase. but very friendly.
- Urinating on the street at 6:15, while sober, seems to be acceptable to some.
- Saturday night in Nuremberg city center: large groups of douchey guys in matching t-shirts. Some sort of social ritual I don’t understand–which should be stopped.
- People seem to be noticably rounder in Bavaria than in Berlin, so I fit in better. I guess I chose the wrong city.
- Despite my looking, I did not see Mike Munger visiting from Erlangen on the GBike.
So I come all the way to Berlin and I learn after the fact that Sacha Baron Cohen was in town yesterday. Dammit all to hell.
From the local paper:
“The Government of Saskatchewan recognizes and values diversity in our province,” said Saskatchewan Party MLA Bill Hutchinson, who handed over a proclamation noting the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered and two-spirited pride events in Saskatchewan.
Someone I follow on Twitter is hyping The 3/50 Project.
Do not follow this advice. It is bad advice. Here is what I would suggest: The Buy Anything from Anywhere for Any Reason Project. Just like protectionism in international trade is bad, so is protectionism in the local market. Now obviously this isn’t government enforced policy or anything, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s an unneccesary project. (Not to mention it’s crass consumerisim promoted by people who generally criticize consumerism.)
Not to mention that fact that one of the reasons they’re supporting this is because “taxes” are being returned to the community. I’m certainly not going to support something because I support giving more in taxes.
Likewise it’s incorrect to say that “nothing comes home” when people buy online. While it might not provide as much revenue as a mom and pop (ie. overpriced) store to the local economy, there are delivery persons who are local when you order online. Not to mention ordering online allows people to save money, which is better for everyone.
From Guy D, proprietor of Regina’s propaganda page, Regina in Pictures, comes this ridiculous statement:
They have to cross the t’s and dot their i’s, thats how govt’s work. [Link]
For a few years now I’ve been criticizing Regina’s Mosaic, a festival supposing to represent the cultures of Canada. I feel that Mosaic is both racist and ridiculous. Now I’ve found just the person to articulate just these feelings, Neil Bissoondath:
‘[C]ulture’ is a most complex creature; in its essence, it represents the very breath of a people. For the purposes of multiculturalism, the concept has been reduced to the simplest theatre. Canadians, neatly divided into ‘ethnic’ and otherwise, encounter each other’s mosaic tiles mainly at festivals. There’s traditional music, traditional dancing, traditional food at distinctly untraditional prices, all of which is diverting as far as it goes - but such encounters remain at the level of a folkloric Disneyland.
We take a great deal of self-satisfaction from such festivals; they are seen as proof of our open-mindedness, of our welcoming of difference. Yet how easily we forget that none of our ethnic cultures seems to have produced poetry or literature or philosophy worthy of our consideration. How seductive it is, how reassuring, that Greeks are always Zorbas, Ukrainians always Cossacks: we come away with stereotypes reinforced.
Not only are differences highlighted, but individuals are defined by those differences. There are those who find pleasure in playing to the theme, those whose ethnicity ripens with the years. Yet to play the ethnic, deracinated and costumed, is to play the stereotype. It is to abdicate one’s full humanity in favour of one of its exotic features. To accept the role of ethnic is also to accept a gentle marginalization. It is to accept that one will never be just a part of the landscape but always a little apart from it, not quite belonging. [Link]
I need to run out and grab his book Selling Illusions: The Cult of Multiculturalism in Canada.
A Johnson County man is expected to face charges today in Sunday’s slaying of Wichita physician George Tiller, one of a handful of doctors in the United States who performed late-term abortions. [Kansas City Star]
Christians are really terrible people.
