tdaxp

Catholicgauze found a nifty site of old road maps -- including some nice German ones...

From the 1950s!

And 1970s!

A more serious point: one hears complaints about supposed Japanese "remilitarization," but Japan wasn't mapping her lost Empire a generation after she lost it.

View the rest of the travel maps

"Five million Germans out of work," BBC News, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4228739.stm, 2 February 2005.

I've writen before on Germany's immigration problems, Europe's growth deficit, and the Europe's political weaknesss when it comes to growth, but this still surprised me

Germany's unemployment figure rose above the psychologically important level of five million last month.

On Wednesday, the German Federal Labour Agency said the jobless total had reached 5.037 million in January, which takes the jobless rate to 12.1%.

"Yes, we have effectively more than five million people unemployed," a government minister said earlier on ZDF public television.

Unemployment has not been this high in Germany since the 1930s.

It gets worse, but at least the CDU isn't torified

The opposition also made political capital from the figures. It said there are a further 1.5 million-2 million people on subsidised employment schemes who are, in fact, looking for real jobs.

It added that government reforms, including unpopular benefit cuts, do not go far enough.

Germany's static economy managed to take a great economic boom and turn it into a spiraling nightmare. The absorption of the German Democratic Republic in the 1990s was a great gift to the Federal Republic. While America continuously imports workers from Mexico and other lands, Germany received an education population that spoke the language and shared a common history. What happened?

The worst unemployment since the Great Depression.

Germany's economy is unable to adapt to reality. High barriers to entry, an overly regulated market, and powerful unions prevent sensible economic policies. For example, while offshoring in the United States helps the American economy as a whole, in Germany it is a net detriment.

And the situation only gets worse. Germany's experiencing large immigration from Turkey, and if Turkey is admitted to the EU it will only get worse.

I have nothing against Turks, or immigration. I believe that the U.S. immigration policy is too fight, for example, and I have Turks in my family. But Germany's government and economy are too backward to handle it. Germany is not an economy geared for growth, and the more it is watered the more it drowns.

Germany was the workhorse of the European Economy. It has 12%+ unemployment. More info at Zen Pundit.

"Hitler's 'Amerikabomber'," by Dieter Wulf, The Atlantic Monthly, http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/prem/200405/wulf, May 2004 (from NWO).

"U.S. terror war 'over-reaction,' top judge says: Gives criminals special status," by Olivia Ward, Toonto Star, http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1105917010890&call_page=TS_World&call_pageid=968332188854&call_pagepath=News/World&pubid=968163964505&StarSource=email&DPL=IvsNDS%2f7ChAX&tacodalogin=yes, 17 January 2005 (from DU).

The American-led war on terrorism is a threat to international justice and a challenge to the rule of law in the 21st century, says one of the world's most eminent jurists.

"Sept. 11 led to a major overreaction by politicians in many countries," said Richard Goldstone, the first chief prosecutor at the war crimes tribunals for former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.

...

"Terrorism must be fought for what it is, that is, criminality. To use the analogy of a real war is to elevate the status of the terrorists, and hand them the advantage," says Goldstone. In a time of crisis, he added, "the role of the judiciary is always weakened, and that is exactly when you need it.

I'm not going to comment on the sophistry of the judge's comments, or how system perturbations require rule set resets, or any of that.

But when a declared enemy succeeds in creating an Amerikabomber



It's a pretty good indication that we are in a war.

Turkish Premier Slams German Opposition
Deutsche Welle
December 12, 2004
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1426240,00.html

At first, a pretty typical story

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan lashed out in a Sunday newspaper interview at Germany's conservative opposition for its drive to torpedo Turkey's EU membership bid, accusing it of populism.

"Unfortunately, the opposition in Germany seems to believe that it can make domestic politics out of our wish to join the European Union," Erdogan was quoted by the mass-market Bild am Sonntag newspaper as saying. "I consider that to be a fateful error."

EU leaders are widely expected to give the go ahead for the start of membership talks with Turkey at a crunch summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday, but under tough conditions.

While German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has strongly backed Turkish negotiations toward full membership in the EU, the opposition Christian Union parties reject this goal, calling for a "privileged partnership" with the predominantly Muslim country.

My first reaction? "Germany. Against the Liberation of Iraq. Against the Membership of Turkey. Against Muslims." Pretty juvenile stuff on both mine and the Fourth Reich's part, but then I read further:

The paper reported that the Christian Union parties would pass a motion in parliament Monday entitled "Do not close your eyes to the problems with Turkey."

The document lays out what the opposition views as the dangers posed by Turkey joining the EU including "rise in gangland crime, Islamist threat and terrorist danger" in Germany.

Ah, because immigration problems in Germany are indicative of problems in... Turkey? It's Germany that has the immigration problem. It's Germany that's invited thousands upon thousands of permanent "guest workers" into her borders, and gave them no way to integrate. Until very recently Germany even denied they were immigrants, or could ever be Germans.

As far as melting pots go, Germany is a nightmare version of the United States as it could-have-been. Desperate for workers, but unwilling to ever let the gaijan be "true" Germans. The problem is all on Germany's end.

Expect the best of the new Germans. Even if his name is Gurkan or Safak.