D-USA

It seems that over the last month I really haven't found the inspiration to post very much. I think I am just going through a somewhat creative slump. Hopefully I will be back soon.

Happiness and nerves galore!

I am participating in a small art-show next month at a local store here in Edmond. I will show a few of my photographs and hope that not to many people will point and laugh at them. I don't have a lot of information yet, but once I find out more I will be sure to share.

Take that you famous German Kesler!

Or OKISS if you must.

KISS is currently promoting a new tour. The twist is that the only deciding factor for picking the cities where the tour will stop is the demand of the fans. If enough people in a city demand that they stop there, then KISS will stop there.

So I say the Oklahoma Blog Community needs to get together and bring the face painted minions of metal madness to the OKC.



Oklahoma Bloggers Unite!!!

I have expanded on the original idea for Radio Free Germany and started a new blog for that purpose. More information can be found at the About page on the new blog, but in a nutshell it is a project to do what little I can to fight against the slow erosion of rights in Germany. At the moment it is mainly setup to be an aggregate of posts that were originally posted by others, but compiled on the site and stored on a server that is physically located in the USA. My main goal there was to have a backup of posts and information that are out of reach of the BKA (German FBI), and that makes it harder for them to shut down Blogs and servers that are critical of the BKA. I will post other news and resources on the new blog as well, and I am not sure what other directions the new website will go.

The other main purpose for starting a new site was to keep D-USA a little less saturated with the situation in Germany. While I do have the occasional post on politics or religion on here, I try to keep D-USA on a lighter note. D-USA is mainly a means for me to share what is going on in my and Mrs. D-USA personal life, and to provide some light entertainment. The new website will also be a mix of German and English posts. I will usually post in English, just because after living here for 13 years I have a better skill at typing in English. But guest posts, and re-post of other blogs will be in whatever language they were originally posted in. For all I know the whole project may not take off, but at least I feel like I am doing something about the problem.

I have been known to say that I wish i would have lived through the 60's and 70's. I always thought that it would have been interesting to live through the days of civil unrest and be a part of the people that are "fighting the man". Now it seems like I am going to miss out on fighting the German man.

In my last post I was talking about the problems going on in Germany right now. There have been a number of movements going on to stop the BKA (german FBI) from chipping away at the privacy of German citizens in the name of "Security" and "If they have nothing to hide, they should not be worried". I would love to be able to be in Germany right now and do what I can to stop this crap, but at this time that is pretty much out of the question.

But who knows, it could be the paranoia talking, but in the future we might need some people fighting the BKA from the outside. Once the BKA implements its censorship of websites that are "harmful to German interests", and starts taking down servers and ISP of the people in Germany that are fighting them, it could pay to be outside the sphere of influence of the BKA.

I am taking a lesson from Radio Free Europe and I am declaring D-USA to be known as Radio Free Germany!

The details are a bit sketchy at this time, but with use of this Blog, Potcasts, and informants and operatives on the inside (Kante?, Tom?) to distribute information I might even make a difference.

Is it paranioa if Wolfgang Schäuble really is out to get you?

German Minister of the Interior, Wolfgang Schäuble is establishing a pretty good track record of bringing the Gestapo and the Stasi into the new millenium.

Schäuble has been taking lessons from Dick Cheney over the last few years and has officially denounced the principle of "Innocent until prove Guilty" when authorizing counter-terrorism principles. He is a firm believer of shooting first, then asking questions later. He tried to push for the authorization to use "preventive assassinations" to deal with suspected (not convicted) terrorist, and to outlaw the use of Internet and Cell Phones for people who are suspected (not convicted) terrorist sympathizers. By virtue of this post in my Blog I am sure I am now also considered a terrorist sympathizer because I am talking bad about Mr.Schäuble.

Seven months ago there was a vote on a Bill introduced in the German Government that would have given the Bundeskriminalamt (the German version of the FBI), and Schäuble, more power. Multiple States abstained from casting a vote, effectively casting a silent veto against the bill. In response Mr. Schäuble attempted to change the way votes are cast in the German Senate and tried to say that people who vote "abstain" should not be counted towards the vote total.

Currently Mr. Schäuble is on a quest to censor the Internet. Under the disguise of "Child Pornography must be stopped" the Department of the Interior is attempting to establish a "Banned Internet Site List". Of course the Child Pornography Sites will be included, as well as any other website that the Department of the Interior feels is bad for Germans to read. Of course the Department of the Interior wants to be able to decide who gets to be on the list, nobody else (not the president/chancellor/legislators/or German supreme court) will be allowed to see the list. Visiting any site on the list, even if its a friends Blog who is suddenly an enemy of the state, will automatically get you thrown in jail. The Department of the Interior wants to continue to throw "Innocent until proven guilty" in the trash, and now it would be up to you to prove that you are NOT a terrorist. If you ask the Department of the Interior "Hey how come www.d-usa.info is on the banned list?" you are now also a terrorist or you wouldn't have know about my little Blog.

Well Mr.Schäuble has claimed its first Victim. The Department of the Interior has contacted the webhosting company of a German Blog that has been critical of the Department of the Interior and "suggested" that they remove the Blog from their servers. If they would not be so kind as to remove the Blog they might have to come and confiscate the server (and all other innocent websites that are stored on the server as collateral damage). In other words Mr.Schäuble went to the company and said "Delete the site from the Internet, or else......".

The German Constitution has the following Article:

Article 5
[Freedom of expression, arts and sciences]
(1) Every person shall have the right freely to express and disseminate his opinions in speech, writing and pictures, and to inform himself without hindrance from generally accessible sources. Freedom of the press and freedom of reporting by means of broadcasts and films shall be guaranteed. There shall be no censorship.
(2) These rights shall find their limits in the provisions of general laws, in provisions for the protection of young persons, and in the right to personal honour.
(3) Arts and sciences, research and teaching shall be free. The freedom of teaching shall not release any person from allegiance to the constitution.

The Department of the Interior is using "Child Pornography" to get around the provision of Freedom of Expression by insisting that they are protecting the young people that are victims. But what the heck does Child Pornography have to do with shutting down a site that is critical of the Department of the Interior? If the Department would have actually gone ahead and shut down a site that has actual Child Pornography on it, instead of disabling the Blog of someone who is critical of Mr.Schäuble, then there would not be such an uproar.

I think it is time that the German people make use of a provision that is included in the German Constitution, but is sadly missing from the Constitution of the United States of America:

Article 20
[Constitutional principles – Right of resistance]
(1) The Federal Republic of Germany is a democratic and social federal state.
(2) All state authority is derived from the people. It shall be exercised by the people through elections and other votes and through specific legislative, executive and judicial bodies.
(3) The legislature shall be bound by the constitutional order, the executive and the judiciary by law and justice.
(4) All Germans shall have the right to resist any person seeking to abolish this constitutional order, if no other remedy is available.

It is time for the German people to take to the street and stop this slow erosion of their rights before there is no turning back! There will be election soon in Germany, I hope that people use their votes to put an end to this madness.

We watched the new Star Trek movie yesterday, and I have to say that it was very well done. There is one instance of messing with some major Canon regarding the original series(s) and movie(s) that basically wipes the slate clean and leaves the possibility of plenty of sequels and new TV shows wide open, but other than that is was very close to the original.

The red shirt still dies, Spock is still rational, Kirk is still passionate, and Scotty is still giving us all she's got.

One of the TV shows that I was exposed to on our trip to Europe last year was "Dahoam is Dahoam" (Home is at home). It is a German, or more specifically Bavarian, daily Soap Opera that my grandparents watch religiously. The main thing that stands out about the show was that they speak with a pretty thick Bavarian accent, and even I had to concentrate to make sure I could understand it all.

Well, last night we had a slow night at work and I came across this little gem. Now I can watch the show every day online, and keep up with whats happening to the Lansiger.