The Boar Topic

From both the Local and various German news sources....there was a story over a wild boar attack in Germany, which injured four folks (even going to the hospital).

This kinda brings up this odd topic that most Americans might not face or think about if in Germany.....wild boar attacks.

Germany has done a great thing in pushing trails and paved walking roads out into fields and the wooded regions around towns and villages.  You can take a two-hour walk....lower your blood pressure, and feel like you are totally in nature.  The truth is....you aren't more than a mile or two from a significant road, a small village or a urban area.

They built these roads and trails around areas where wild boars like to hang out.  I would be the first to admit that in ten years....you might be lucky to see a deer once or twice, and maybe a fox on one occasion. Wild boars?  You might not see any.  Course, on the other hand....you might walk around the corner and be standing in front of a 200-lb wild boar.

If the boar hasn't noticed you....you might try to quietly back yourself out of the situation.  Plan B here is to assess which trees that you might be able to quickly climb.  The worst case scenario is the wild boar is a female with piglets around her, and she wants to protect them.

How many boar attacks are reported in Germany each year?  It's hard to say.  It usually might make the local paper but never the national news, and I'm guessing that the cops really don't care to collect statistics on this.

So I don't really want to frighten you because most Germans have walked for decades and never seen a single wild boar.  Most of these urban walking trails are close enough to society.....that you probably won't find any threatening boars.  On the other side of this....when you start to drive for an hour and do some walking way out in the boonies....don't be surprised about what you run into....in the German woods.

Pirate Party Ship Sinking?

This past week in Germany....things started to occur with the new German Pirate Party.  It's best to say that the party has taken on water, and sinking badly.  Six months ago....folks were talking about six to eight percent of the national vote in 2013 with the bold new German Pirate Party.  Now?  I doubt if they can clear two percent, which means they are a non-player in the 2013 Bundestag.

The truth to the matter?

It was an inflated balloon of youth voters....who just wanted to slam the major parties who had been around for decades and weren't talking over youth-issues.   The leadership in the Pirate Party?  That was a continuing issue for discussion. Most folks would say that they never had a true four-star person at the top.  For a brief time....the general opinion was that they could mount some marginally capable folks, and at least sneak by with no serious questions.

What happens now?  All of the major parties will reshuffle the deck and look at new polling numbers in December.  The Greens might benefit the most from the youth voters leaving the Pirate Party....but it's not huge numbers.

So we come to this sad tale.  The Pirate Party had potential and could have taken seven to ten percent of the national vote....just based on disenchanted voters and the youth vote....if they had simply one decent four-star candidate who could argue on the Sunday night political chat show.  It was a simple recipe for the party, and they just couldn't find that four-star character.  

My suggestion?  The Pirates need to go out and find some young business guy or gal...in their 30's.....who is angry over the direction of the government.  This person needs to talk about youth issues, and how a new direction for Germany is needed.  A seven-percent vote carves out a mess for either the SPD or CDU....with neither wanting to accept a Pirate partner.  But this won't happen now.  The ship has sunk.

The Beerfest Table

This is your typical-looking German beerfest table and seating.  The colors change, but the construction is always the same.

For an American, there are four basic observations that you will quickly make about the arrangement.

First, a truck can pull up and you can toss up a dozen tables in half-an-hour with just two people.  No buttons, no screws.....just physical labor.

Second, it looks weak....I admit that.  But you can typically seat three big heavy German guys on one bench, and it always holds.  Heck.....you could probably put six folks on a bench, and hit holds.

Third, they always look old....mostly because they are old.  No one retires their beerfest tables or seating until they are literally falling apart. Folks will brag that they've had their tables for twenty years.

Fourth and final.  Yes, they are a bit unstable....especially around folks who have been drinking substantially.  It doesn't take much for a guy to lean back a bit too far, and throw the balance of the seating off....tossing it backwards.

The worst thing about the seating?  My own personal view is that you can sit at a table like this for an hour or so....before your butt starts getting tired.  The idea of sitting for four hours?  I don't even want to imagine that.  I'd have to stand every forty minutes and move around....to survive a four-hour episode.

German Bomb Story

This week, the topic came up in German news of German states now wanting the German federal government to pay up and cover bomb disposal....which has typically been mostly a cost for each German state.

For an American, it's an odd topic....that you rarely if ever come across in the United States.

Over the years I spent in the Kaiserslatuern area, I can remember at least two episodes where WW II bombs were discovered while digging, and a massive episode unfolded.

Typically, Huns the back-hoe operator will come to a metallic like item in the ground.  There's three scenarios here.  First, he's hoping that it's just some old junk that got buried during WW II....from wreckage or garbage.  Second, he's hoping it's a water pipe that no one knows about but that's rarely the case because Germans are so particular about drawing their maps and knowing about all pipes in a town. The third scenario is that it's a leftover bomb from WW II.  Huns will usually back off upon this discover and call the fire department.

In an hour....a crew will respond and view the bomb from a distance.  They usually have one guy who has studied all the bombs and know the various types.  A plan will be devised at this point.  It's possible....a bit of digging by some dedicated men will occur and ensure the bomb is in full view.  A schedule is drawn up.....to detonate the bomb....which becomes a major news item in less than twenty-four hours.

The authorities will evacuate everything within the "zone", and blow the bomb up.  From most of these stories I've observed.....things tend to go as planned and rarely are buildings around the bomb damaged. The cost of an operation like this?  Well....it's hard to say.  I'm sure that the fire department charges for their services, and the bomb experts have a cost attached to them.  I would imagine each single episode costs a minimum of a million Euro by the end.

The argument over a state issue or a federal issue?  The truth is that the state gets it's revenue mostly by property tax and some money handed down from the federal government (via income taxes and the VAT).  State government spending generally have to stay within a certain limit, and if you had a sudden surge of twice as many bombs found as usual.....they'd have to cut state funds from someone to make up for the issue.  I could see the state government guys making a pretty clear argument on this.  The federal guys?  The problem is that you can't forecast very clearly each year how many bombs will be found, and that's something that bean-counters hate.

How many bombs are still sitting there in an active state?  Anyone can take a guess.  There could be ten thousand of them.  You just don't know.

Wiesbaden Bahnhof

I have an appreciation of German train stations.  They are an architectural bit of interest, and relate back to an era that we all have forgotten.

One of the finer ones to observe is the Wiesbaden Bahnhof....built in 1906.  If you happen stand out front of the building....there's some changes in the landscape, but it's basically the same structure as it was a hundred years ago.

Roughly 30k folks travel in and out of the station on a daily basis.  It's not huge....like the Frankfurt station....but there's around a dozen platforms in operation.

A hundred years ago....this was a major public works project and established a status symbol for the city.

For an American, there are few major train stations left today.  It's true....Union Station is still around....but most of the rest have been shut down and taken apart.

So if you happen to be around the central part of Wiesbaden.....stop in and check out the station.

A Deal

Occasionally, I hand out advice.  This time....it's chiefly aimed at Americans on a lengthy stay in Germany and want a new Euro-spec's car....for a cheaper price than the dealer can offer downtown.

There's this web site....Jutten-Koolen.de.....which you might want to know about.  Course, you'd have to accept some factors on this deal.

It's a internet company which deals direct with the car companies.  You agree with the deal via the internet.  Typically, you are saving around twenty percent of what any car company in Germany will offer on a deal.

Course, when you want to discuss matters with them...it's all in German.

A German typically goes over to the local dealer in his town...rides around in his choice of car....and negotiates with this guy.  It's a face-to-face situation.  The dealer is getting full-price.  He needs to pay the bills, the real estate he rents, and benefits of the employees.  He might cut 200 Euro here, and maybe 300 Euro there, but that's it.

The Jutten-Koolen guys tend to offer anywhere from ten percent to twenty percent off what any dealer can offer.  Yes, you can arrange to pick it up at the Jutten-Koolen shop, or go down to the actual VW or Audi factory.

The negative?  They sell only Euro-spec's cars, and for guys who want to feel good with a local dealer....there might be enough reasons to avoid an internet deal.

Ghost Driver

There's this term used by Germans, which basically means...."Ghost Driver".  For an American, it's an odd phrase, and needs some explanation.

To get onto a German autobahn....there's a entrance, and to get off....there is an exit.  Both have signs and it's more than obvious.

Well....there are Germans who typically drink a bit and aren't grasping the entrances.  So you have some guy who will enter an autobahn on the exit area, and then travel down the autobahn.  Sometimes....oncoming traffic will avoid the guy and things turn out ok.  Most of the time....someone crashes into the guy, and lives are lost.

As far as I know....there aren't statistics collected on this....or the cops just don't want to publish these.  If you asked me how often it occurs in Germany....I'd take a humble guess of six to ten times a year.

Are there people who commit suicide by ghost driving?  Yes.  This has occurred....once in fact by an American in the Kaiserslautern community.

So when you hear the odd phrase, and you've translated it over....to ghost driver....you know the general meaning.

This Thing About Soccer

Germans tend to have an obsession about soccer, and the Bundesliga (the national league).  For an American, you tend to notice this after a couple of months.

The truth here?  Out of eighty million Germans....there's probably twelve million (my humble number) that keenly watch the scores, the league, and the games.  

The current league was formed up in the early 1960s, and it basically runs an entire season with eighteen teams.  There's a second league below the big guys....which lesser teams survive, flourish, or get worse.  The thing is...at the end of the season for big league....if you were one of the three worst teams, then you get a ticket down to the second league, and in the second league....the three best teams get promoted up to the big-time.

All of this tracked....day by day.....and discussed by German men.  Out of a hundred German women....I doubt if more than two of them really watch or care about soccer.  So it's mostly a men's sport.

The survival of the whole thing today....is tied to the TV networks and what they will pay.  Naturally, you need the optimum package to watch every single game of the week....so you pay more.  During the week off free-TV?  You can probably catch three games a week.

Going to a game?  It's not a difficult thing.  You find the nearest team and schedule on the internet.  Stadiums are typically fixed up with public transportation so you get dropped off near the site.  Prices tend to run from forty Euro, on up to one-hundred-fifty Euro.  Prices for 2nd league are usually half that amount.

Problems?  Well....sometimes....Germans get to drinking at these games and start to challenge each other over various issues.  So fights break out.  You tend to see at least hundred cops around the stadiums as a minimum....but there could be 500 cops brought out for intense games....to protect the public.

It is a national topic, and folks do get into this.  Course, ladies tend not to be interested and it's best not to bring up the subject with them.

What an American should take home on this subject is that soccer is about as big as the NFL is in the US.  There's only one national sport in Germany....and this is it.  

That Anti-Nuke Feeling

There is an excellent article over at Forbes today....over Germans and the anti-nuclear energy situation.  In essence....whatever the cost of dumping nuke energy....will be borne by the working-class German.  The energy companies....as they get deeper into new technology energy....will pass the bill for this right along to the German consumer.  At the end of the day....there's to be less money in the pockets of a German.

For an American looking into the mindset of this "speed"....it relates back to the Japanese incident, where the nuclear power plants went down.  Journalists in Germany quickly went into turbo mode and laid out a scenario of similar proportions happening in Germany.  I would make a humble estimate that three out of five Germans quickly bought into the threat and agreed that nuke power had to be retired.

The curious thing to this mess....is that there was a growing trend in existence for new energy to come along and retire nuke energy.  It might have been thirty or forty years in the future....but it would have eventually come along.  This simply increased the process.

How much more will this cost Germans?  That's not a clear picture to the trend.

As Forbes says....Germans pay the higher amount of most Europeans....around 31 cents per kWhr, with the French paying around 17 cents per kWhr.  Almost double.  With the retirement plan in hand and looking ten years into the future.....a humble guy can only predict it getting closer to 50 cents per kWhr by 2022...maybe even 55 cents.

Where does this lead Germans?  If you check out the light bulb area of your local German shop....they all sell low wattage bulbs at a pretty high rate.  There are constant reminders on TV to retire your fifteen-year old refrigerator or freezer and buy a newer energy-saver refrigerator/freezer.  Every single device that you could possibly buy for your house.....has energy ratings on the side, and most Germans read them keenly.  If you look at the habits of a German within their own house.....every light is turned off when not required.  The habits flow over to business operations and industry as well.

I don't have much doubt that nuke energy will be retired now as quickly as possible in Germany.  I also have little doubt that Germans will whine a bit as the cost of energy gets up around 35 cents per kWhr, and they know they just can't cut consumption anymore (the max has almost been met).  Candles coming?  People trying to recharge their cell-phones at train-stations?  Freezers start to disappear from the German home?  Maybe.  A number of odd things will occur over the next decade as people realize the rising cost of going anti-nuke.  It won't be pleasant.

Ten Rules of Drinking in Germany

Americans typically arrive in Germany, and suddenly find this magical and mythical kingdom.... where consumption of alcohol reaches a level that we never dreamed of.  After a while....you have to have some understandings and rules about booze in Germany.

First, it's true....at age sixteen....you can consume beer and wine (no booze).  Don't ask the logic to this.  At age sixteen.....you can buy the beer and wine without standing around adults.  At age eighteen, you can consume anything your heart desires.  Now, all this said....are there issues?  Twenty years ago?  No.  Today, a majority of Germans think that the punks are abusing booze and there's a national problem with teenage drinking.  And yes, an American teenager visiting in Germany or a military-dependent kid.....gets the same privilege   You can imagine a 16-year old American kid arriving and finding this out.

Second, if you look kinda young....every single grocery will ID you at the counter.  Bars and pubs?  It might be a different story, and the majority will just smile as you order your brew and never ask for an ID.

Third, the authorities in Germany will rarely if ever....ban alcohol.  Now, that said....you might encounter a soccer match where the local cops have dictated all beer sales stop at the half-time point.  This is mostly done to prevent drunken brawls after the game.  If the beer tap stays open till the end of the game...it's usually the best time as an American to just stand back and watch drunk Germans battle each other over soccer scores.

Fourth, if the German cops pull you over and you fail the DWI exam....you are screwed.  Your insurance goes up....your license goes away for months....and the next six to twelve months will be absolutely miserable.  So if you want to drink excessively....drink around your house or apartment block....and walk home.  Don't take any risks because the cops don't have compassion about this stuff.

Fifth, beer can be served in 1-liter steins.  If you've never encountered a 1-liter stein....you might want to view it before ordering it.  A 160-pound adult can be reasonable drunk from just one stein in an hour.  If you move onto two steins in two hours....you are consuming a fair amount of beer.  My general advice is to stay at the half-liter stein level.

Sixth, wine consumption in Germany is a big deal, and you could sit and enjoy six to eight glasses of wine over an entire evening.  It's best not to consider driving, in a state like this.

Seventh, it actually gets hot in July and August in Germany.  You might stop at a outdoor situation, sipping down a ice-cold beer, and then go for a second in a hydration attempt.  My advice....order yourself a bottle of water to start, and then shift to the beer.  Beer is a poor choice for hydrating yourself.

Eighth, Germans tend to have a pretty low opinion of folks who drink excessively and throw up.  If you do something this stupid....try to immediately start speaking British phrases and acting English....make them think you are British (not American).  I admit, it builds up more anti-British sentiment, but it's not like they can ever deduct any negativity from the British image in Germany anyway.

Ninth, if you are in some downtown Frankfurt or Hamburg bar with buy-me-a-drink women around....be aware that they can choose a 60-Euro bottle of fancy bubble-wine, and your bar-tab could suddenly run up to two hundred Euro in just an hour.  Skip these bars.

Tenth, do not ever make the mistake of discussing American-brewed beer with a German, and trying to say that some American beers come close to the German taste.  They will feel insulted, and this brings on an hour-long argument about you being dead-wrong on this issue.  Course, you could sneak in a Pabst-Blue-Ribbon on the German during the argument, and they'd likely never notice.  Just be forewarned about this potential for an argument.

Quiet-Time

There is this odd German custom....which actually fits into most city and state laws of Germany....which dictates that you will be quiet between the hours of noon and 3PM.  Some areas have various differences on the quiet-time scheme....but it's basically two to three hours in the afternoon where you just can't make any real nose outside.

Examples?  Mowing grass.  Playing music. A party.  Construction work.

Some towns run this between 2PM and 4PM.....some between noon and 2PM....so it's a bit different where ever you go.

Enforcement?  This is the odd thing.  If you are in the midst of a construction project....you might ask your carpenters to take a lunch period for an hour out of this, and then go back to work....hoping that some old geezer in the neighborhood doesn't call the cops.  The cops reaction?  They usually don't want to screw with you, and would prefer to give you just a warning, and walk away.  You could violate the rule a hundred days out of the year, and the cops might never get sent out to ask questions.

My humble guess is that few if any tickets are ever given out in a normal year....for quiet-time violations.

Where'd this start?  The best answer folks can state is that the older generation folks came to demand this....so they could nap in the afternoon.  Political folks just kinda agreed, and it became a general law of sorts.

To be honest, there are a list of oddball laws like this: a ticketable offense if you run out of gas on the autobahn...for example.  Or there's the general law of offending some guy by calling them an "asshole" and having to pay 20 Euro for the insult (your wife could even take you into court if you uttered the phrase at her).  There's also that funny law about denying chimney-sweep guys access to your house, if he comes around asking for entry to check out your chimney (course, if you don't have a chimney, you can challenge the guy).

An American would be kinda curious over these odd situations and ask some stupid questions....mostly because we've never heard of such a rule.  After a while....we'd have a laugh, and try to avoid getting into trouble.  Note, I said we'd "try" to avoid getting into trouble.  It's just that we are usually magnets for trouble.

Converting to Metric

Years ago, if anyone had suggested to me that an American could assimilate themself, to the metric system....I would have had doubts.

I was introduced metric in high school, and it was generally a wasted exercise to get everyone into using various numbers to convert.  It had no real practical application.

After a two-year Germany tour in 1979 ended in my Air Force years....I would have suggested that it's complicated to fit into the metric system and you have to continually convert yourself from one system to another.

At some point in mid-1990s....after coming back to Germany....I suddenly started thinking at least in distance and liquids...in metric, with ease.  I could envision a .3-liter of beer, or a half-liter beer, or a complete one-liter stein of beer.  I could envision filling a gas tank up with forty liters and how far it'd carry the car.  I got to the point where I could look at distance and tell you this was 200 meters, or how long it'd take to drive 200 kilometers.  There was no more conversion for me....it was simply observing things and accepting them.

Issues?  Well....yeah....I've come to realize you do need a metric socket wrench set.  You can't make an English socket set work in every single case.

Yeah, I still have trouble with weight in the metric system....mostly because I rarely have to think over this topic.

So the truth here is that the only way you can fully appreciate the metric system....is if you live in it.  Otherwise, you will never get around to the system and accept it.

The world to eventually accept metric.....no.  It just isn't going to happen.  There's always going to be this split.  That's the simple truth.

The Doctor Strikes

To make some sense out of this German doctor strike business.....(for an American)....you have to understand how things work in Germany.

Everyone has health insurance, which the private citizen pays into and the company matches.  There are health insurance companies involved in the mess, which are dictated to provide "X" number of services as part of the overall program.  So these health insurance companies meet that goal, with the fee that is dictated by the government.  At that point, the companies can provide a few other services (like you have a semi-private room, which normally....you wouldn't have)....which makes each company slightly different and in some cases....better for certain people.

The other side of this....is that the fees are set in stone and doctors have to cooperate....as do clinics.  For years, they've been unhappy about the rates and this year....they threatened to strike.  A deal was worked out a couple of days ago, at the last minute, but doctors carried through their strike threat anyway (on Wednesday).  How many participated?  It might be a couple of days, but you can figure at least fifty thousand stayed home....to make their point.

The agreement?  Well....what happens in a year or so....will be increased costs that are passed onto the citizens in some fashion.  It might be a visit fee deal, or the monthly cost, or maybe even cutting some of the optional benefits that they provide currently.  Somehow, you have to lose in the end.

Germans will argue on both sides of this debate.  They know the doctors take in less than most American doctors, but they point out that this is a profession....not a business.  Course, the doctor will say that they pay taxes like every German, take vacations, and think they deserve a pay raise every couple of years (of substance).

The Channel One folks (ARD), have done a survey and shown that barely six percent of the population agrees with the doctors.  There's likely no support that makes further strikes of necessity.  Whatever the insurance companies agreed to....is likely the end of this story and the doctors are simply showing their power.  In four years, I would imagine that the doctors will come back to discuss the next round.

The bottom line?  There is no such thing as free health care, in Germany.  There's no such thing as cheap health care, in Germany.  There's no such thing as reasonable health care at a certain cost, in Germany.  The cost can only move upward, with speed being the only question mark.

German Butcher Shops

As an American, you tend to be a bit overwhelmed by German butcher shops as you enter the first dozen times.

You could probably buy a dozen fresh and different meats each week, and do it for six months before you've tried everything in the butcher display case.  Then you walk over across town to another butcher shop and discover that he's got another thirty-odd meats that you've yet to try out.

So, my tips.  Remember, everything is sold in grams.  A 100 grams tends to be enough for four or five sandwiches.  It's in bad taste to just ask for one or two slices....and you generally go for 100 grams or more when ordering.

All German butchers will offer up a slim sample of something if you just ask.  No, it's not part of the charge.

German butchers generally always slice everything, unless you ask them not to.

Some German butchers will offer a cheese selection although don't expect a giant selection like you'd see at the grocery store.

Your local German butcher will gladly build up a giant party order that you need for that night but don't walk in and do this with one hour to spare.

German butchers take pride in what they do and you will never get "bad" meat.  On the other hand....once sliced and taken home....don't expect that package to stay fresh more than three days.

You don't go to a German butcher for cheap deals.  If you want discounted selections, then go to a real grocery store and pick up the discounted package they have in the refrigerator area.  

Prices already include tax, and are fixed to the scheme of 100 kilograms.  Don't expect the guy to be that proficient in English, so you need to know the words "ein hundred", "zwei hundred", and "drei hundred".    If you are getting 300 (drei hundred), just remember that this is a fair amount of ham or salami....probably way more than you'd want for a week.

There are some German butcher shops which specialize in horse meat.  Pferdemetzgereien are shops that will be identified as such.  They are few of these in any German state.  If you ask a hundred Germans....there might be one out of the group which occasionally use horse meat in a dish.

Finally, after a while, you will feel that your local neighborhood butcher is the more preferred shop....although perhaps not the cheapest.  Most Germans would readily agree on this....wanting quality over cost.

A Taxing Discussion

There's a meeting going on over in Cottbus this week...of German transportation ministers.  Typically, there's not much that would come out of state transportation ministers, except road construction talk, speed limits, etc.  Well....this time, there's a discussion topic of a new tax.  A congestion tax.

The way this would work, if put into effect....you were a 'significant' city....we can only assume they mean a town of 100k or more, then if you want to get down into the center of this town....you'd pay a fee.  The topic fee right now....is 6.10 Euro.  A relationship to something?  Well....in most cities like Frankfurt and Berlin, this is the general cost of a all-day transportation pass on the subway and bus system.

The general ideas about how this would work....are debatable and probably would take at least a year to iron out various details....if these folks ever got serious about this.  You would assume that you'd declare an area as "city-centre", then have a zone, and then have a bar-code system (my humble opinion) which would detail you and charge your vehicle automatically.

Course, you'd pause over this and ask yourself several questions.  Wouldn't this trigger a bunch of folks into avoiding town-town areas?  Yes.  Wouldn't this trigger construction of parking facilities outside the zone where you'd just walk into the costly area?  Yes.  Wouldn't it trigger city and commercial operations to relocate eventually outside the zone?  Yes....maybe it'd take twenty years but a number of organizations would just give up.  Wouldn't new city halls (rothaus operations) eventually remove themselves from the down-town area?  Yes.

Who suggested this?  Bild says (that's where I gleaned the essentials of this story).....that the Green folks brought this idea up.  The odds of this getting serious attention at this meeting?  There will be some slides and brief talk before the group, and I would speculate it'd quietly be put down for more discussion in a year.  But no one really want to declare a forbidden area around city-centres in Germany.  It would drag up discussions over property tax situations.  It would be a huge fight between political factions over what cities would accept this and the ones which would openly decline it.

The odds of this ever happening.  From an American who has traveled around the country....I'd make a guess that it might be fairly acceptable in five years within Berlin and Hamburg.  I can't see it coming up as a discussion item in Frankfurt, and the Munich folks would just laugh about this discussion.

To be kinda honest, if you came to me and said I needed to work in Frankfurt, on a daily basis....the last thing on Earth I'd want to do....is drive into town, mess with traffic, and knock myself out at 5PM trying to go home.  An awful lot of folks utilize the subway system already, and at least get themselves five miles out of town where they walk to their car and head on home from there.  The massive traffic jams have educated Germans over the past decade.  Why fight it?

Live Debate Coverage

If you got up early in the morning there in Germany....turned over to channel two (ZDF)....you would have had this chance to watch the Romney-Obama debate.  The number of Germans eligible to vote in the US elections?  Zero.  It's a curious thing to sit and observe the German curiosity and intense interest in this election.

Based on various polls within Germany....it'd be safe to say that seventy percent of Germans would like to see President Obama win in the election.  The chief reason?  Well....it runs in various directions but you tend to get to the bottom line....they don't want the return of George Bush-mentality.  Beyond that, they grumble about the US economy, the lack of agreement between the two political parities in handling the national budget, and how Republicans allowed the housing market to collapse with a weird mortgage set-up (it's too confusing for Germans to grasp the fall of the housing market).

In the German mind....President Obama is the direction to continue the US government.  It comes across in media discussion, TV panel topics, and newspapers.

How many Germans got up at 3AM to watch the debate?  I'd sit and take a humble guess that roughly ten thousand Germans did get up and view the live debate on channel two.  They probably were a bit shocked after ninety minutes that it just didn't go the way they thought.  They probably felt the moderator didn't control things enough.  Maybe, in their mind....the President just wasn't having much luck in the debate.  You just don't know.

The remaining debates?  I believe channel two will carry them.  There might be a shift in German thoughts about Romney by early November, with a fifty-fifty split of German support at that point.  It's difficult to predict the outcome, and if Romney were to win in November....acceptance of an Obama loss might be more difficult than people think.

Bath Salts?

The Local carried the story, but only as an oddball story.

German gal down in Bavaria....near Coburg....gets into the car naked.....taking her daughter with her (kid was fully clothed).  Woman gets onto the opposite direction of the autobahn.....runs into another vehicle.....killing the naked woman, her kid, and the driver in the other car.  Cops act puzzled....mostly because they've never had a case like this before, where a naked mother drives a car down the opposite way of a autobahn.

I paused over the story.  If you had left all German details out of this....I'd say bath salts real quick.  If you look at almost every story you come across these days in America....anytime that an idiot comes out in public in a nude state....it's a 99-percent chance that bath salts is involved.

German cops would be quick to dismiss this....saying they don't have a bath salts problem.  I'd probably grin and say 'sure'....but the question of what triggered this will linger.  I suspect the autopsy will settle the problem in two to three weeks.

Bath salts is a fairly addictive way to go and do your high.  It's a high chance for hallucinations and paranoid behavior.  Clothing usually gets taken off....for whatever reasons you might dream up.  Folks will admit that bath salts have been around Germany for a couple of years.

East - West Day

I don't normally quote from a Bild article, but this item from today, has a twist to it.  Bild went out and discussed east versus west attitudes in Germany....since the wall came down.  Frankly, most Germans (especially from the western part of Germany), know that there is an attitude problem that has been brewing.  

Based on a survey, Bild says that one out of five folks in the western part of Germany admit they've never crossed the old DDR line....which split the country into two.  From the eastern side, it's one person out of ten who admit they've never crossed the old DDR line.  

So as an American, you'd first size up the country.  Germany is about as big as Montana.  You'd sit there and think over this size.....eventually thinking that most everyone would travel around the state of Montana and it's hard to believe that a significant portion of Germans haven't been to the "other side". 

Still a split country?  As an outsider, I'd humbly say that at least half of Germans in the western part of Germany have a fairly negative view of the old DDR or East Germany, and this united deal hasn't made them happy.  They see a vast government revenue bucket being used to take care of outdated bridges and roads in the east.  Folks in the east are mostly negative over a lack of jobs.  Companies didn't jump up and relocate into the eastern part of the country.  Most kids are smart to pack up and head to the western part of Germany....to get a stable job.  

Germany celebrates today....3 October....as a unity day.....when east and west parts of Germany united back up.  The truth is....the media hypes up the day and talks about the old days and how much things have changed.  The public?  It's simply a day off and folks might throw something on the grill or go visit relatives.  There's not much in their mind to celebrate.  Maybe in fifty years....this will make sense.  But right now....it's just a useless holiday that they accept and enjoy a day off from work.