bananenrepublik - 31.1.2008 - 17.7.2008

Bushido wins in court against three retirees - it would actually be quite nice if the courts could agree on something for once. Because this is just getting ridiculous. Quite apart from that: who actually wants this acoustic noise pollution?

"That's pressure tactics" - I've also had contact with the cold acquisition of Unity Media (or call centers commissioned by them - I don't care who spouts the nonsense, one pays the other for the "performance"). Particularly amusing: I never had a contract with them (but presumably my landlord - but he can't agree to advertising calls on my behalf), the caller claimed the opposite, of course, quite brazenly. And after my instruction that their action is illegal, as I never had a contract with them and therefore could never agree to telephone advertising, she simply hung up. They are, after all, extremely "serious" companies ...

SPD paves the way for sensitive data exchange with the USA - Special democratic data protection understanding: non-existent. Just casually sell data - and what is classified as serious crime is defined by the USA as they see fit (even here, terrorism has become a term that everyone can stretch to fit their needs).

Energy Social Tariffs: Federal Press Office admits mistake - well, when the prolethicians open their mouths, they lie. But it is embarrassing when they don't even know the problems they themselves have created. And of course, don't apologize for it, where would we end up if we considered citizens as equal.

Mobile carrier T-Mobile to ban VoIP program for iPhone - quaint, really quaint.

German Federal Cartel Office raids coffee producers nationwide - is this now a classic breakfast cartel, or was it rather a coffee-and-cake cartel?

Steinbrück: Harsh Words Against Child Benefit Increase - the contempt that politicians show for citizens with such statements is shocking.

"You can't handle nuclear waste like this" - but nuclear power is just so great and disposal is no problem at all, as is often mentioned in the CO2 debate. Will we humans ever learn to learn from our mistakes?

Ströbele leaves BND committee temporarily | tagesschau.de - "However, initially Ströbele followed Hanning's statements from the audience. The current Interior Secretary and former President of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) explained in detail that there was no reason to distrust the USA and its intelligence services." - örks. August can play chess, but otherwise I strongly doubt his competence. There are many reasons to distrust American intelligence services, which should have reached him by now.

Surveillance mania in Berlin - "I have nothing to hide" is what many of those who fell into the surveillance mania might have said ... (I can't get 1100 urgent suspects together in Berlin - we don't even have that many members of parliament ...)

Unemployment benefits from 2012 only with chip card - Bureaucracy reduction, everything clear. And we are supposed to believe that? The "advantages" are just so far-fetched ...

Retail theft - "The main reasons for this dilemma, according to retail, are the fact that with increasingly longer store opening hours and at the same time fewer and fewer staff, effective prevention is becoming increasingly difficult." - eh, hello? Turning retail stores into service deserts with (insufficiently trained) staff shortages was indeed the decision of the retail sector. Yes, if you lay off people, cut jobs and extend store opening hours, you don't exactly get something positive out of it. Welcome to reality ... (of course, the solution is already at hand with surveillance and store detectives - probably soon more store detectives than salespeople, which of course makes great sense ...)

Interview: "Öl-Spekulanten sind keine Preistreiber" - "The term 'speculator' is unfortunate. Financial investors enable us to see future expectations in today's prices. They show us that oil is becoming scarce. This way, we can already change our behavior today. Without such future expectations, we might only act from one day to the next." - sure, and burglars only show you weak points in your front door. And if you get shot, that only shows how toxic lead is. Because if we weren't regularly robbed, we might not even know that there are robbers out there. Or what? Who actually makes such talkers into "experts"? According to this windbag, should we now be grateful to the speculators who artificially inflate prices, or what?

Old Google Mail domain banned in Germany - click and laugh to death. Absurdistan, thy name is Germany ...

Anne against the political will - "Thus, the scandal surrounding Anne Will's show ultimately proves two political realities: The Left Party is continuing its successful course as a force of a bourgeois left. And the nerves of some representatives of former people's parties are on edge." - and beautifully shows the panic about the left in Germany.

Government wants to hand over personal citizen data to the USA - "The Bundestag was not involved in the negotiations and was not informed, complain the Liberals. The federal government had not taken a position on the inquiry of the FDP in the interior committee and even denied the incident." - it's nice how we can rely on our government to betray and sell us, and completely ignore the Bundestag in the process. Especially piquant when it's about data that the federal government and its executing authorities shouldn't even have ...

Cold plate by candlelight - "In the report of the Enquête Commission of the NRW state parliament on the effects of long-term sharply rising energy prices, the governing parties CDU and FDP recommend in their majority vote that low-income individuals should forgo heating in the winter: 'In the short term, tenants … can react by lowering the room temperature, by forgoing full heating of individual rooms, etc.' " - this is what our proletarians understand by social legislation.

RWE to offer customers a pure nuclear power tariff - the power tariff for mental off-road drivers? Or just one of the dumbest PR actions of the year?

Employers threaten lawsuit against wage supplements - I usually leave blogging for the weekend, but that stupid dog from the employers' association is really barking the last nonsense. Yeah, sure, let's best leave the support for Hartz IV recipients and blow all the money up the ass of the fat cats. I hope the nonsensical lawsuit happens and Karlsruhe shows the parasite its place in society ...

TP: Victims on the Altar of Uniformity - "By November 1, 2009, all member states were supposed to have fully implemented the 'Directive on Payment Services.' At this point, SEPA direct debits were supposed to become 'binding' across Europe. This transition is problematic, among other things, because banks in Germany have so far refused to set up debit limits. Thus, anyone can debit an arbitrary amount from a current account without presenting a direct debit authorization. Similarly, there is no right for the consumer to limit the amount of direct debits. And neither the EU nor the federal government is currently considering limiting potential SEPA damage by introducing such rights. The consumer can only counter this risk by keeping as little money as possible in the current account and having all overdraft options definitively blocked." - we will be mocked and robbed with this. And why do we still pay the banks money when they anyway shirk responsibility at every corner and end?

Final farewell to voting computers in the Netherlands - Golem.de - "The Dutch Ministry of the Interior announced the final farewell to voting computers on Friday. In the future, citizens in the country will once again cast their votes with pen and paper. The Dutch Council of Ministers was prompted to make this decision after massive security vulnerabilities in the voting computers were proven last year. The Chaos Computer Club (CCC) demonstrated in mid-2007 how the ROM memory of a Nedap computer can be replaced with a manipulated ROM within 60 seconds. Researchers and the civil rights initiative "Wij vertrouwen stemcomputers niet" ("We do not trust voting computers") had demonstrated further security vulnerabilities." - wouldn't it be great if our politicians would react similarly? However, this is less likely to be expected.

Panorama freedom in danger - great, now they're making photography completely impossible by requiring every little thing to be registered with permission in triplicate and checked with the big boss first. What nonsense? Public space is public space, even if there's some alleged art crap standing around. With the cultural understanding of our prolethicians (who are usually responsible for the "beautification" of public space), these things are mostly just disruptive to photography anyway... (yes, I saw the note about "commercial use" - but since commercial intent is often attributed to blogs, photo bloggers quickly find themselves in a gray area)

Wallraff exposes malpractices in bread factory - how to make a lot of noise with small bread rolls ...

Shamelessness - "First he fought for workers' rights, soon he will fight exactly these: The change of Transnet CEO Hansen to the railway management raises questions. His behavior during the privatization of the railway also now appears in a different light." - well, with such a workers' representation, you don't need a boss to screw you over anymore.

Was the scrap concrete used in the nuclear power plant? - "Several large buildings in Baden-Württemberg are said to partly consist of inferior concrete, including the interim storage facility of the Neckarwestheim reactor. The Ministry of the Environment sent experts to the interim storage facility last night to investigate the allegations." - uh, yes.

hacksector.cc as a model case for § 202 c? - this is where we see what this infamous "hacker paragraph" leads to. Pointless action against a forum. Where is the alleged technical competence of the investigating authorities and the appropriate assessment of the tools in question? All the stupid soothing talk of the prolethicians in Berlin turns out to be exactly that: stupid nonsense without any reference to reality. Yes, credit card data was probably pushed around - which is illegal, but which was already illegal before. But all the fuss about the alleged hackers, the great investigative work and the great success with the "breakup" is simply ridiculous.

Telekom-Chef sieht Managerbezüge als angemessen an - another one of those blowhards who talk about the responsibility of managers. Where is the responsibility of Ackermann? Where is that of Esser? Where is that of Sommer? What have their alleged responsibilities actually resulted in?

Posturing against Internet censorship - sorry, but you can't really take the prolethikers seriously in light of things like, for example, the blocking orders from Düsseldorf. Because if it were serious, they would first clean up their own dirty doorstep ...

Planned BKA Law The Lidlization of Law - "The seized computer data should not be reviewed by an independent judge to determine whether they constitute an 'interference with the core area of private life' (and therefore may not be used); instead, this review should be conducted by 'two employees of the Federal Criminal Police Office', 'one of whom has the qualification for judicial office'. Only if these two police officers have doubts should they submit the seized data to the judge for review." - I've been saying it all along, put the federal government under surveillance by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, because the biggest enemies of the constitution today are sitting in Berlin.

Hourly wages below five euros gross - that's how the upswing and the reduction of unemployment figures work. Next goal: undercutting India and China in hourly wages.

Church employers want no minimum wage - plain language: the business model of Caritas and Co. is also based on the uninhibited exploitation of employees. And instead of standing up for themselves, they demand state support, which ultimately means nothing more than subsidization. And this from stores that are already massively subsidized (e.g. through their non-profit status and the resulting tax advantages).

Court: Display of Thumbnails in Search Engines Illegal - classic "Hmm" ruling. Meta-tags have long not been so important in search engine optimization and robots.txt should be known to every website creator as basic knowledge. How this all fits into reality is not entirely clear to me. I mean, what about my pages here - they don't have meta-tags. Can I now sue Google?

ARD and ZDF: Back to the Middle Ages? - because it is slowly becoming apparent that the ridiculous business models of private broadcasters do not work, one draws the logical conclusion in Germany and destroys the added value created by fees. Because it is known to be much better when advertising junk and trash television is subsidized (because that's what it is - just banal indirect subsidization). One could of course also take a look at what the BBC does, for example, and orient oneself accordingly, and demand from public broadcasting (and exert pressure through the control bodies) to produce meaningful content from the fees, which might then be published under meaningful licenses (have you heard of CC?) and directly benefit the citizens (for whom the state is actually supposed to be there, not for the ridiculous scammers from the private broadcasting corner). But that would be a sensible approach. And presumably fewer bribes would be paid or something like that ...

Filesharing becomes more dangerous - or not - as usual, botched construction. Because the federal prolethicians just can't do anything really right. Except then go ahead and further erode the rights of citizens - that they can do really well.

Interview: "The banking supervision has failed and is superfluous" - ah yes, because banks neglect their duties of economic risk assessment, banking supervision should be abolished. Because that will make banks think more economically. Please what kind of herb is served to today's professors for morning coffee? With such experts, we should not be surprised about the stupid actions of the prolethicians ...

Cash patients have to wait longer for specialist appointments - because we have a two-tier healthcare system.

DIN says "Yes" to ISO standardization of OOXML - and if you read through it, that e.g. only "Yes" and "Abstention" were options in the vote, then it is clear who has greased and financed the whole thing. What a disgrace for an institution that thinks so highly of itself.

Transrapid-Flop: Stoiber surprised - Maget sarcastic - the blather of Stoiber and his ilk and how they complain about the poor industrial location of Germany. As if anything in Germany would depend on a nonsensical project like the magnetic levitation train - apart from the bribes for the politicians, of course.

How Hesse's state chief can continue to govern: Koch forever - the people of Hesse just can't vote. A few more votes against Koch and we would finally be rid of the guy. But no ...

BKA Chief completely off the rails - "Above all, there should be no further speculation in public about the possible technology of the so-called federal trojan, explained the top policeman to Spiegel Online." - what does this guy think he is, that he wants to forbid the population from thinking and discussing?

Karlsruhe leaves little room for covert online searches - "Moreover, the highest German court has established a new fundamental right to the 'guarantee of confidentiality and integrity' of information technology systems." - now it's a matter of waiting and seeing how our prolethicians will try to hollow this out again. Bavaria has already been making a lot of noise and wants to continue. NRW will surely try to fiddle with something and whether Schräuble will backtrack is more than questionable. Nevertheless, thanks to Karlsruhe.

Steuer-Razzien: Bisher fast hundert Geständnisse - "In the Liechtenstein tax affair, 72 self-disclosures have been received so far. This was stated by the Bochum public prosecutor Hans-Ulrich Krück. Speaking to journalists, Krück further explained that in the course of the investigations, confessions had been made in 91 cases. In some cases, taxes have already been paid to the state. So far, 27.8 million euros have been handed over, but the amount is increasing daily." - the data purchase has already paid off!

Comment: Stasi statement a super-GAU for Die Linke - why the demand of a Left Party deputy of what the Interior Minister is diligently implementing should now be a super-GAU ... (ok, ok, I understand, the Left should distinguish itself argumentatively from the CDU - and whoever believes that there are significant differences between parties, for whom I have a cheap bridge in Brooklyn). The way in which the press is now stirring up this - admittedly stupid - statement, while at the same time a federal minister sworn in on the constitution tramples this constitution underfoot, is already highly embarrassing.

Pisa losers are victims of their media consumption - no wonder. Just take a look at the current reporting in the media. A child can't learn anything decent from that. And the brutality in the business section. Or did I misunderstand something?

Steueraffäre: Mehr Fahnder und härtere Strafen gefordert - ah, right, it's election campaign. Only the stupid Westerwelle hasn't noticed again and quickly takes the side of the tax evaders. The real joke, however, is the appeal from the Union's mouthpiece Pofalla to the code of conduct and morality of the economy. I'm actually just waiting for an explicitly formulated "Tightening of tax law harms the economic location Germany" from some party blowhard. Preferably something from the allegedly left spectrum, for entertainment purposes.

Zumwinkel steps down as Post chief - and others may face similar publicity. It remains exciting. Thanks to the well-meaning sender of the data from the Liechtenstein royal bank ...

German government considers "Big Brother scenarios" with RFID to be far-fetched - and once again proves how clueless and technically inept they are. Or how bought. I have no idea which would worry me more ...

LG Hamburg will comprehensive forum liability when using pseudonyms - news from the Hamburg judge-zoo.

Billions are bubbling at Shell - will anyone ever notice that it's extremely strange when a corporation raises fuel prices "reluctantly due to rising oil prices" but ends up with higher profits from the game? They don't even bother to disguise the scam anymore. Sure, they make their money from oil production - but why do they have to raise gasoline prices along with all the others if not because of price agreements with the other gasoline corporations?

Post-Konkurrenten klagen gegen den Mindestlohn - even more companies whose only business model is the exploitation and ripping off of employees. Heartless scum that just wants to cash in and then presents itself as the great job creators - unfortunately, work that does not secure survival for a full week makes no sense. And indirectly, these companies are only ripping off the state and thus the taxpayer, but they themselves complain about having to pay taxes. Disgusting.