dg meets world

Ten years ago I really, really wanted to visit Britain at least once. Since 9/11 in 2001 till today this feeling kinda vanished gradually. Final piece in the puzzle was when I went back from Tokyo to Düsseldorf and I had to land in London (that was in March this year).

Anyway, what I wanted to say is that Britians are not only really, really bad at football (soccer)cooking. They also are pretty retarded when it comes to pub regulations.

If you want to buy a drink at a pub in Oldham, northern England, you must stand in an orderly “post-office-style” line. It must be a straight line, starting one meter from the bar, with barriers, signage, and a “supervisor.” There must be no drinking while standing in line, and no drinking within one meter of the bar. Customers cannot order more than two drinks at one time. And if a pub wants to advertise discounted drinks, it must give the police and local council at least seven days’ notice.

[...]

There is even a “spoken word licence.” One Cambridge pub had to cancel its monthly poetry readings because it lacked specific permission. When the landlord protested that they only wanted “a small number of people to talk quietly,” the council’s “environmental health officer” was firm: “Licences are there to be adhered to and we have them for all sorts of reasons—there need to be checks in place.”

via reason.com

You may not be familiar with Volker Pispers, but I’d like to introduce him to you. He is a German “comedian”.

But the word “comedian” doesn’t really fit the description. What he does is political satire and comedy, often in a very sarcastic and ironic way. In German we have the word “Kabaret” or better “politisches Kabaret” for this (so he is called a “Kabarettist”), but in English the word cabaret has a very different notion.

The English (or French) connotation of the word “cabaret” is more like this:

But what I mean is this:

His program about the USA is quite old (like 2004 or 2005 or something), but nevertheless it is still pretty good. And here are the remaining 5 parts:

June 7th 2009 is the official election day for the European Parliament election 2009 in Germany.

Today I got my personal documents for a postal vote.

I already announced that I will vote for the German Pirate party. It’s a quite young and new political party which origins in the Swedish Pirate Party founded in 2006. These parties (which are founded all around the world) have a common goal: to strengthen the privacy rights for all individuals, to prohibit censorship, to prevent Orwell-like totalitarian governments and states and so forth.

Here is the current TV campaign advertising for the German party:

Parteien zur Europawahl 2009: PIRATEN

I personally think this TV spot is not that good, but keep in mind it’s a young party and therefore they don’t have any public funding yet.

Nevertheless, I’ll support them. And if it’s just to protest against censorship and stupidity and the transition towards a surveillance society.

via pantoffelpunk.de

And of course it’s a protest vote against the old (maybe archaic and fossil, too) established parties. Their TV campaigns and political programs didn’t really convince me. At all.

So, if you live in the European Union, go and vote! Voice your opinion by your vote. Change the system. Or just grab a gun and go crazy monkey shit on your peers, you know, American style.

I just stumpled upon this nice video. It’s about the recent tendency in German politics to form the 4th Reicha new totalitarian police state.

Everybody is now a terrorist. Yeah. That includes YOU, too. Ätschibätsch.

You are a Terrorist! A Campaign against Terrorists.
United for a safer Germany. The Campaign „Du bist Deutschland“ (You are Germany) in 2005 was the beginning of a wave of positive spirit in the whole country. This combined energy has turned backwards in 2009, because now you are a potencial Terrorist and you have to be watched closely.

via dubistterrorist.de

Audio: German
Subtitles: English

Just ran across this enlightening article:

ENOUGH with the masks already! インフル予防効果のビミョーなマスク着用は不要 (by Adamu, May 15th, 2009).

DEAR JAPAN - YOU DO NOT NEED TO WEAR MASKS IF YOU ARE NOT SICK OR PARTICULARLY AT RISK FOR SWINE FLU!!
In Japanese for clarity:

日本の皆様へ：豚インフルエンザを予防するには、マスク着用の効果は低いのである。これはＷＨＯの発表でも明らかであり、日本の各メディアでマスクの推薦は、十分な裏づけがあるとは言えないだろう。

[...]

English translation:

People of Japan: Sanitary masks have little effect in preventing swine flu. This is clear from WHO reports and indicates that the Japanese media’s recommendations to wear masks do not have sufficient basis in fact. [...]

Like I said many times before: stop overreacting! It’s not helping the issue!

You are just being used!

Worst of all is the uncritical recommendation of masks by the Japanese media (as can be currently seen on the Asahi.com front page), flying in the face of WHO recommendations. Considering that the pharmaceutical companies (who make the masks) are ubiquitous advertisers in the media conglomerates (this blogger caught a documentary with one drug company executive laughing his ass off at how easy it is to sell masks), it is probably difficult to push back if it’s suggested that masks are the answer.

And here is another thing.

My girlfriend just wrote me about another stupid thing. Apparently the university where she is working just canceled their participation in the annual NAFSA (homepage) which is held in the USA. Of course, swine flu is the reason behind this idiotic decision.

I bet my life that right now, if they could, they would reestablish 鎖国 (sakoku, lit. locked country, or chained country), ie lock up the country, so no one can get in or out. And all those who trespass regardless will be shot. There, problem solved.

BTW: Here is a nice little list of things the Japanese paranoids have done so far. And it provides the prove that one can catch the flu even without going abroad.

Those unlucky enough to enter the country on a plane containing a flu carrying passenger will be forced to undergo 7 days of quarantine if they happen to be seated within a risky distance of the flu carrier.

Oh, and we have racism, too!

Josai International University had to cancel an academic conference because it was feared that its international guests would cause flu infections.

And I just have to comment on this one!

A panel of experts believes the virus may already be spreading throughout Japan. Those who may already be infected may not show symptoms for several days, and when they do, they will have likely spread it to other unsuspecting victims.

TOLD YOU!

But, the most perverted thing is that they started “to kill” everybody who does not follow mass hysteria!

Three high school students and a teacher from Osaka who were the first people in Japan confirmed to have the new flu have become the target of malicious phone calls and e-mails, local board of education and municipal officials said Friday.

[...]

“A few people called us to express their sympathy for the students, but the majority of the calls were spiteful,” said a spokesman in the city’s crisis-management division, adding that many were critical of the patients for not wearing protective masks during their stay in Canada.

[...]

“One of the schools has been receiving 20 to 30 calls of complaint a day,” the spokesman said, noting some of the comments were too horrible to repeat.

“Many people (who called the schools) criticized the students and teacher without really understanding their situation,” he said.

(via Japan Times)

QED: People are stupid.

PS: Here are some German information about the whole flu mess.

Update: A shopping area was not very crowded, and many of the people shopping were wearing masks.