July 13, 2006

Hospitalité à l'Allemande

There is a revealing image gallery and an equally revealing article at SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL:


Just because I like the picture: Shortly after 9 p.m. on Wednesday, "Air Force One" can be seen from the tower at Rostock airport.


The President's wife is his greatest asset, at least so I think, but nobody will ever accuse her of dressing well. (For heaven's sake, Laura! Wasn't there a SKIRT to go together with that jacket?!)



This is the original SPIEGEL ONLINE caption: The protests have begun, too. At University Square in nearby Rostock, protesters tell Bush where he really belongs.


Other people masturbate, Germans draw up placards like that:

This is the original SPIEGEL ONLINE caption: "Starting a war remains a crime."

The face of the protester matches his sense of humour: SPIEGEL ONLINE omitted the last snippet of the placard, "merkeln wir's uns", which would mean something like "let's remember that" if it weren't for the pun "merkeln" instead of "merken".

"Merken" means "to remember" and with the added "l", "merkeln" becomes a hilarious allusion to the German Chancellor's, and Bush's accomplice in crime, name. Ha ha.

No doubt, the President understood and appreciated the sparkling wit behind it!



Again, the original SPIEGEL ONLINE caption: Claudia Roth, the chairwoman of Germany's Green Party: "Stop it now: No human deserves Guantanamo!"

Of course, that should read: "Nobody deserves Guantanamo!" but I guess SPIEGEL ONLINE are paying their hacks too much already for their bile to have much funds left for decent translators.

By the way, the photo gallery is named Bush in Germany: A €12 Million Security Operation and the rest of it is entirely about all the security fuss the Germans at the Baltic Sea have to endure because of the troublesome visitor. Another SPIEGEL ONLINE article covering the same topic is named The World's Most-Expensive BBQ.

Nobody can beat Germans at grace, charm and panache!

That are the same people, mind you, who found basically nothing wrong with Iran's Ahmadingbat's possible visit to Germany during the World Cup or with peaceful Iran generally or who, in the case of the SPIEGEL editors, were lead around like dumb oxen at their nose rings by Adolfdinejad during that famous interview.

All that, of course, has two aspects. One is simply a matter of style. One doesn't insult a guest in one's house. AND one doesn't tell him and all the world the price for that hospitality. That is bad manners. Full stop. But style has never been one of us German's notable strengths, or has it?

"But we didn't invite him", this argument of those placard bearers, doesn't hold much water either. But your democratically elected leader did, merkelt's euch! But democracy has never been one of Germany's major strengths either, or has it?

And talking about an even more expensive BBQ, how much did it cost America to free your parent generation from Hitlerism?

Believe me, my dear compatriots who happily followed a deranged little housepainter with charm, grace and panache into destruction and then complained it wasn't your fault, you, my dear compatriots, who are currently with equal grace following an equally deranged death cult into what can be safely assumed as worse, believe me, the followers of the "prophet" Mohammed will not treat you as kindly as the Americans did.

Come to think of it, not even as kindly as the Russians did...

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