Wedding night

Some news from Germany. Was this the honeymoon night the bride always envisioned?

A bride in Germany spent her wedding night passed out next to a crate of vodka in the back seat of a car and had to be rescued by police when the BMW began to overheat in the sun.

Police in the western city of Cologne said Monday the inebriated 30-year-old remained unconscious even after they smashed the car window to get her out.

“Only after being shaken several times did she eventually regain consciousness,” police said in a statement.

Still clad in her wedding dress, the dazed woman had to scramble through the broken window because she had no idea where the car keys or her husband were, police said.

Get out of jail

There is something seriously wrong with the German justice system. From AFP-

Christian Klar, an ex-member of the 1970s German guerrilla group the Red Army Faction (RAF), will be released in January after a quarter-century in prison, authorities decided on Monday.

Klar, 56, jailed in 1982 over multiple murders including the assassination of federal prosecutor Siegfried Buback in 1977, will be freed on January 3 on parole, a court in the southern city of Stuttgart ruled.

Buback became the first victim of a bloody period dubbed the "German Autumn" when he was shot in his Mercedes car by an RAF gunman on a motorcycle in the southwestern city of Karlsruhe.

The RAF, also known as the Baader-Meinhof Gang after its founders Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof, mounted a violent campaign from 1977 to 1982 against what it called the oppressive capitalist state of West Germany.

Other victims included industrialist Hans Martin Schleyer and banker Juergen Ponto.

It targeted the German elite and the US military based in Germany and is suspected of killing 34 people. The group officially disbanded in 1998.

Brigitte Mohnhaupt, who led the RAF with Klar after the group's original leaders committed suicide in jail, was released from prison in March 2007 after serving 24 years for her role in nine murders.

Klar has never repented for his crimes. In May 2007 German President Horst Koehler refused to pardon Klar or Birgit Hogefeld, the two remaining RAF members still in prison.

You terrorize a nation, murder or help to murder three dozen people, and you don't spend the rest of your life in jail after getting imprisoned? I thought the Broward County court system was the most screwed up, but that opinion is revised.

Racing to the airport

Some news from Germany. No mention is made if the taxi driver got Mr. Schumacher's autograph.

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BERLIN (Reuters) - Michael Schumacher can add the unofficial title of Germany's fastest taxi driver to his other achievements after taking over behind the wheel to get his family to the airport on time.

The retired Formula One champion drove the cab back to the airport himself after a trip out to the village of Gehuelz, near Coburg in southern Germany, left the family short of time to make their flight home, the Muenchner Abendzeitung newspaper reported.

"It was crazy having Schumi driving, with me in the passenger seat," the taxi driver was quoted as saying.

The seven-times world champion, who stopped racing last year but is still involved in the sport as an occasional tester for Ferrari, gave the driver a 100 euro ($146.6) tip on top of the 60 euro fare, the newspaper said.

From the Silly news desk

Some news from Germany. Maybe police should check with nearby florists to get a lead.

Linked to- Third World County, Woman Honor Thyself, The World According to Carl, Yankee Sailor,

BERLIN (Reuters) - A thief in Germany used a flower pot to steal a 150,000 euro ($221,000) Porsche.

Reversing out of his open garage, the car's owner heard a scraping noise and got out to investigate, police in the western city of Bonn said Tuesday.

As the 56-year-old was bending down to remove a flower pot jammed against a tire, a man pushed him aside, leaped behind the wheel and drove off in his grey Porsche 997 Turbo.

"All the shocked man could do was jump to one side to avoid being run over," police said.

All Knucklehead Day Award Four

Our fourth winner today is Rolf Eden. He gets the award for the following.

It's no secret that Germany has a problem with ageism. Workers here who lose their jobs after the age of 50 are virtually assured of spending the rest of their lives on the dole. A recent plan to up the retirement age to 67 was lampooned because most Germans of that age are no longer employed anyway.

But aging German playboy Rolf Eden seems to have developed a somewhat warped view of what age discrimination actually is. According to Bild Zeitung on Thursday, the 77-year-old Eden has filed suit against a 19-year-old Berlin woman for the following reason: Despite a night on the town with Eden, which ended back at his place, she refused to have sex with him, saying the he was too old for her.

"That was shattering. No woman has ever said that to me before," Eden told the tabloid. "I was crushed." He has filed charges with the prosecutors' office, he said. "After all, there are laws against discrimination."

Eden is well known to older Germans for having been the king of Berlin nightlife in the 1950s and '60s. Indeed, he is said to have opened up Germany's first-ever discotheque. He's also known for popularizing stripteases in post-war West Germany and for doing his best to emulate Playboy founder Hugh Hefner.

What an idiot. Eden is one of those guys who think he is God's gift to women. The 19-year-old gave him nothing, but I'll make up for it. Rolf Eden you are today's fourth Knucklehead of the Day.

Just in case

Some news from Germany. You would think the weight of the suitcase would have been a giveaway. Were prison guards all too busy eating doughnuts?

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BERLIN (Reuters) - A 19-year-old German woman has escaped from prison by hiding in a friend's suitcase.

The fugitive hid inside the large case when her 17-year-old fellow inmate was released from the youth prison in northwest Germany on Friday, Lower Saxony ministry spokesman Dennis Weilmann said on Monday.

The girl simply walked out of the building with her friend concealed in her luggage, Weilmann said.

"Our staff are going to make sure they inspect big suitcases more carefully in the future," Weilmann said.

Neither of the teenagers has since been caught. Both had been jailed for theft. The escaped prisoner had less than two weeks left to serve.

From the Silly news desk

Some news from Germany. Did she get ticketed for no turn signals?

Linked to- Morewhat, Pirate's Cove, Right Wing Nation, Third World County,

BERLIN (Reuters) - An 81-year-old German woman driving to a cemetery in her electric wheelchair decided to take a shortcut and drove the wrong way down a motorway.

The wheelchair had been travelling at 6 kph (3.7 mph). Vehicles on German motorways must clock at least 60 kph and there is no upper speed limit on some sections.

Motorists spotted the woman and notified authorities, who escorted her to safety.

"She told us she got lost and wanted to avoid taking a big detour," a police spokesman in the southern city of Nuremberg said.

From the Silly News Desk

Some news from Germany. If they ever make this tale into a movie or television show episode, I have the perfect title. 'Baby, you light my fire'.

Linked to- Adam, Cao, Dumb Ox, Yankee Sailor,

BERLIN (Reuters) - A teenage couple having sex for the first time were interrupted when candles set fire to the girl's attic bedroom and forced them to flee naked from her parents' house, German daily Bild reported on Friday.

The girl had wanted to create a romantic atmosphere for the occasion. But when the room suddenly became engulfed with flames, they had to make a hasty escape.

The couple, both 18, were pictured naked in the paper among the burned wreckage of the attic. A charred teddy had survived but the fire wrecked the entire top floor of the house causing around 100,000 euros (68,000 pounds) worth of damage.

Socially unjust

From the Times Online-

Pope Benedict XVI is working on a doctrinal pronouncement that will condemn tax evasion as “socially unjust”, according to Vatican sources.

In his second encyclical – the most authoritative statement a pope can issue – the pontiff will denounce the use of “tax havens” and offshore bank accounts by wealthy individuals, since this reduces tax revenues for the benefit of society as a whole.

It will focus on humanity’s social and economic problems in an era of globalisation. Pope Benedict intends to argue for a world trade and economic system “regulated in such a way as to avoid further injustice and discrimination”, Ignazio Ingrao, a Vatican watcher, said yesterday.

The encyclical, drafted during his recent holiday in the mountains of northern Italy, takes its cue from Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Populorum Progressio (On the Development of Peoples), issued 40 years ago. In it the pontiff focused on “those peoples who are striving to escape from hunger, misery, endemic diseases and ignorance and are looking for a wider share in the benefits of civilisation”. He called on the West to promote an equitable world economic system based on social justice rather than profit.

This week the Italian centre-left Government of Romano Prodi began a concerted crackdown on tax evaders, saying that it would target individuals with second homes and other signs of “conspicuous wealth”. If the black economy is included, unpaid taxes amount to 27 per cent of Italy’s gross domestic product.

I blogged a week ago about the Italian Prime Minister's request for the Catholic Church's help with those who evade taxes. Apparently Pope Benedict got the message.

Regretfully I have to say this. Pope Benedict has lost his marbles or gone senile. This is just the latest, and may I add sad, proof. First we'll address a world economic system based on social justice rather than profit.

It's already been tried. The name for it is communism. How free is a society and people that lives under the control of such a government. If he was still alive, Pope John Paul II could have given Benedict the answer.

Instead I call on Captain Ed to do it.

Benedict should take a lesson from his predecessor, who came from an economic system that theoretically based itself of "social justice". John Paul II understood what happens in systems where the state manages of economic systems for their idea of social justice -- and no other management can be possible without the profit motive. Once profit gets removed from economic systems as a regulator for investment and control -- i.e., the one who invests and profits makes the decisions controlling the investment and use of the profit -- it takes an autocracy to decide the goals of investment for the purposes of social justice.

It didn't work out well in Poland for John Paul, nor in Soviet Russia and China, where millions died in famines thanks to ridiculous central agricultural planning. State-run economies always claim to champion social justice and equitable distribution.

If anyone needs an example of how unjust a Communist regime can be today, all we need look at is the state of North Korea. The people of the Hermit Kingdom have no profits, they also have no food or freedom either.

Could I remind the Pope how just the country of East Germany was?

BERLIN - The agency that manages the records of former East Germany's dreaded secret police has uncovered an order for border guards to fire on escaping citizens that is far more explicit than others on record, an official said in remarks published Saturday.

Though the official East German border regulations said use of a firearm was to be considered an "extreme measure in the use of force," the Oct. 1, 1973 order to border guards from the Ministry for State Security, or Stasi, is much less reserved, Magdeburg's Volksstimme newspaper reported.

"Do not hesitate with the use of a firearm, including when the border breakouts involve women and children, which the traitors have already frequently taken advantage of," the order instructed.

Before the 1990 reunification of Germany, more than 1,000 people were killed on the eastern side of the highly fortified border as they tried to escape to the West, including more than 125 at the Berlin Wall, which was erected in 1961.

Over 1,000 people died seeking their freedom to profit in the West. How just was the East German government who murdered them. You'd think Pope Benedict would see that. He having grown up during the days of Nazi Germany.

Another recent example of how Pope Benedict is losing it, is this news.

ROME (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI met briefly this week with a Polish priest who has been accused of making anti-Jewish comments.

Photos showing the pope at his summer residence with the Rev. Tadeusz Rydzyk, along with two other Polish priests, were published in Polish newspapers Tuesday.

The Vatican has not commented on the meeting. But a Vatican official confirmed Tuesday that the three were brought to the pope, along with other pilgrims, after the pontiff's weekly public blessing Sunday in Castel Gandolfo, his summer home.

Rydzyk, who runs a conservative media empire that includes the Catholic station Radio Maryja, was allegedly caught on tape suggesting that Jews are greedy and Polish President Lech Kaczynski is subservient to Jewish lobbyists.

Rydzyk is a jerk. It isn't alleged what he said about Jews, but fact. As leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict shouldn't have anything to do with this priest, instead the pontiff meets with Rydzyk. Do you think that conveys a message that Rydzyk's anti-semitism is acceptable.

Don't forget Pope Benedict's remarks on Muhammad from 2006.

Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.

I've blogged before about how remote the church leaders are from their flock, but the Pope I feel isn't just out of touch. If we were just talking one example of poor judgment, we could say Pope Benedict had made a mistake,(I don't believe in the infallibility of the Pope. There was just one perfect one, and look what happened to him) or maybe the reporting by the Times is off in some way. Sadly, we have three examples of how 'lost' Pope Benedict is. The day for a new man to rule the Catholic Church can't come too soon.

Linked to- Adam, Church and State, Blue Star, Is it Just me?, Jo, Right Wing Nation, Woman Honor Thyself,

From the Silly News desk

Some news from Germany. Don't you just love turnabout?

Linked to- Adam, Amboy Times, Big Dog,

BERLIN (Reuters) - A would-be German thief went from predator to victim when he tried to mug a taxi driver but ended up having his own wallet snatched instead.

After the 20-year-old stole the driver's wallet, a scuffle broke out between the two, in which the cabbie not only recovered his property but also took his attacker's wallet, police in the western town of Aldenhoven said on Tuesday.

The driver then locked himself in his taxi and called the police, who were amazed to find the mugger waiting patiently for them on the kerb next to the vehicle when they arrived.

"He wanted his wallet back," a police spokesman said.

After taking the man in for questioning, police released him and returned his wallet. He faces charges for attempted robbery.

Heightened threat

From AP-

BERLIN - U.S. diplomatic facilities have increased their security due to a "heightened threat," the U.S. Embassy in Berlin said Friday.

Robert Wood, a U.S. embassy spokesman, noted that German authorities had said Germany faces an increased threat of terrorism because its military takes part in missions in
Afghanistan and elsewhere.

"U.S. diplomatic and consular facilities in Germany are increasing their security posture," the embassy said in a statement. "We are taking these steps in response to a heightened threat situation."

The embassy refused to say whether there were specific threats.

Earlier this month, the State Department issued a "Worldwide Caution" saying there had been no change from previous warnings about the possibility of al-Qaida attacks in Europe, Asia, Africa or the Middle East.

"These attacks may employ a wide variety of tactics to include assassinations, kidnappings, hijackings and bombings," the statement said.

I always felt terrorists will stick to the tactic of attacking US interests abroad. These men and women are cowards, they don't attack the strong, just the vulnerable aka soft Targets. 9-11 was an anomaly, for such dramatic attacks are not easy to execute. That doesn't mean the US can let its guard down. Complacency is never a strategy for success.

Linked to- Basil, Cao, Right Wing Nation,

A call to duty

Some news from Germany. Maybe Lucio could nap at attention.

Linked to- Perri Nelson, Right Wing Nation, Right Voices,

BERLIN (Reuters) - The German army sent a draft notice to a four-week-old baby named Lucio, ordering him to report for duty within the next 10 days, before realising it had blundered.

A spokesman for the army said the notice had been sent erroneously because a clerk typed in the wrong date of birth for the boy from Aubstadt, in southern Germany.

"It was an accident," an army spokesman told Reuters. "Somebody entered the wrong number into a computer. There was no harm done. We realised the error the same day and called up the family to tell them to throw the notice away when it arrived."

Chainsaw

Some news from Germany. Was this due to the some community propery laws over there?

Linked to- Leaning Straight Up, Pirate's Cove, Samantha Burns,

BERLIN (Reuters Life!) - A 43-year-old German decided to settle his imminent divorce by chainsawing a family home in two and making off with his half in a forklift truck.

Police in the eastern town of Sonneberg said on Friday the trained mason measured the single-storey summer house -- which was some 8 meters (26 feet) long and 6 meters wide -- before chainsawing through the wooden roof and walls.

"The man said he was just taking his due," said a police spokesman. "But I don't think his wife was too pleased."

After finishing the job, the man picked up his half with the forklift truck and drove to his brother's house where he has since been staying.

From the Silly News Desk

Some news from Germany. The headline says it all.

Linked to- Conservative Thoughts, Jo, Right Wing Nation, Third World County,

Teens accused of making ostrich impotent

BERLIN - Three teenagers may be on the hook for a hefty fine if a court decides that their festive firecrackers outside an eastern German farm scared the libido right out of an ostrich named Gustav.

Rico Gabel, a farmer in Lohsa, northeast of Dresden, is claiming $6,450 in damages for the alleged antics of the three youths, ages 17-18, between Dec. 27 and 29, 2005.

According to his lawsuit, the farmer claims that fireworks set off by the boys made the previously lustful Gustav both apathetic and depressed, and thus unable to perform for a half-a-year with his two female breeding partners.

Before Gustav regained his sex drive in the second half of the year, the farmer estimates he lost out on 14 ostrich offspring — worth $460 apiece.

The Knucklehead of the Day award

Today's winner is Germany's University of Freiburg. They get the award for the following.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Exam supervisors at a German university stuck to rules so rigidly that a man with a bladder dysfunction had to urinate in a bottle in front of 120 fellow students because they would not let him go to the toilet.

Overseers at the University of Freiburg in southwestern Germany told the 27-year-old, whose bladder control was impaired in an accident that left him on crutches, that he would be failed if he left the room during the exam.

None of the three supervisors would accompany the man to the toilet despite other students' protests.

Eventually one female student emptied her water bottle so the man could go to a corner of the room and relieve himself.

In a letter written on Wednesday and seen by Reuters, university deputy head Karl-Reinhard Volz apologized to the student, saying the supervisors' behavior was completely unjustified and "lacking in any normal human sensitivity."

Just teaches you that so called smart people can be very dumb. For lacking common sense at exam time, The University of Freiburg is today's Knucklehead of the Day.

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From the Silly News Desk

Some news from Germany. Maybe these women should be hired to do a German deoderant commercial. Aren't you glad you use Dial?

Linked to- Amboy Times, Dumb Ox, Outside the Beltway,

BERLIN (Reuters) - A group of young German women used so much spray deodorant in the bathroom of a North Sea youth hostel that it set off a fire alarm and brought the local fire brigade rushing to the rescue, police said on Monday.

"The fumes of the pleasant-smelling deodorant were so intense that they drifted up to the ceiling and set off a fire detector," said Volker Buttgereit of the Buesum police force.

Local authorities said they were also surprised the heavy use of deodorant could set off the alarm. "Hopefully the girls will get by with a little less spray next time," said Buttgereit.

The Knucklehead of the Day award

We'll ring in 2007 with what may be a slightly controversial Knucklehead.

Today's winner is Gabriele Meyer. She gets the award for the following.

BERLIN (Reuters) - An expectant German mother stands to lose at least 20,000 euros (17,770 pounds) in maternity pay because doctors say her unborn twins must be delivered three days before a new government benefits scheme for parents begins.


The German government, anxious about the country's falling birth rate and shrinking population, plans to introduce a scheme from January 1 under which parents will receive up to 1,800 euros a month per child to take time off work to care for newborns.

Doctors say one of 41-year-old Gabriele Meyer's twin foetuses is too small and have scheduled her for a Caesarean section on Friday. The twins were initially due on January 22.

"It means more than 20,000 euros to me," Meyer told Reuters TV from Munich's Grosshadern University hospital.

Meyer, who has taken magnesium and homeopathic medicine to delay the birth, said she has not ruled out taking legal action.

It is Meyer's threat of a lawsuit that earns her the award. The doctors have only the health of the babies in mind and this mother is upset? A dead boy or girl isn't going to be worth anything but guilt for the mother for not following doctor's orders. I've worked as a x-ray technician and with ultrasound machines(but not on pregnant women). They are excellent machines for dianostic work, and the child having stopped growing is a sign for concern.

TFM also lost his son Daniel almost four years ago. For that, I don't feel the risk is worth any amount of money. I don't want to see another baby angel in heaven.

The mother not seeing euros rather than her child being in distress has to leave you wondering what kind of mother she'll be after birth. I make Gabriele Meyer today's Knucklehead of the Day.

Linked to- Third World County, Bright and Early, Cao's Blog, Blue Star, Samantha Burns,

Worthy of a Lifetime movie of the week

From Reuters-

BERLIN (Dec. 29) - A 21-year-old German tourist who wanted to visit his girlfriend in the Australian metropolis Sydney landed 13,000 kilometres away near Sidney, Montana, after mistyping his destination on a flight booking Web site.

Dressed for the Australian summer in t-shirt and shorts, Tobi Gutt left Germany Saturday for a four-week holiday.

Instead of arriving "down under," Gutt found himself on a different continent and bound for the chilly state of Montana.

"I did wonder but I didn't want to say anything," Gutt told the Bild newspaper. "I thought to myself, you can fly to Australia via the United States."

Gutt's airline ticket routed him via the U.S. city of Portland, Oregon, to Billings, Montana. Only as he was about to board a commuter flight to Sidney -- an oil town of about 5,000 people -- did he realize his mistake.

LOL. Don Surber wonders about security and how Mr. Gutt got into the US. Did he have a Visa?

Mr. Gutt's adventure wasn't too bad. At least he didn't have to fight his way out of a Chinese brothel.

Linked to- Adam's Blog, Pirate's Cove,

From the Silly news desk

Some news from Germany. Wouldn't it have been simpler to just call a locksmith?

Linked to- Is it Just me?, Jo's Cafe, Bright& Early, Cao's Blog,

BERLIN (Reuters) - Berlin police said on Wednesday they had rescued a motorist who ended up wedged upside down in a drain after trying to retrieve car keys he had dropped.

The 48-year-old man was seen by a bystander falling into the street drain late on Tuesday after he removed the manhole cover. Police were at first unable to find the man but later discovered him wedged in a drainage pipe below ground.

Several police officers were needed to pull him out. He was at first unconscious and did not appear to be breathing. After police hit him on the back he began coughing up water and breathing again. Police said the car keys were not found.

A threat after sixty years

Some news from Norway. The consequences of a war live long past when the final shot is fired.

Linked to- Bright & Early, Cao,

OSLO, NORWAY - More than 60 years after being torpedoed by the British navy, a Nazi submarine built to threaten Allied ships continues to spread fear off the coast of Norway.

The rusting wreckage of the U-864, sunk in a desperate mission to supply Japan with advanced weapons technology, now poses a major environmental threat from its poisonous cargo: 70 tons of mercury.

Residents on the tiny island of Fedje, in the North Sea on roughly the same latitude as Scotland's Shetland Islands, want the sub removed. But authorities fear a salvage operation could result in a catastrophic spill, and suggest entombing the wreck in the seabed with rocks, cement and sand.

"Local people are very concerned," Fedje's Mayor Erling Walderhaug said. "They wanted it taken away so the danger would be gone for good."

The U-864 tried to skirt Allied navy patrols on a last-ditch secret mission, code-named "Caesar," to take jet engine parts, missile guidance systems and mercury for weapons production to Germany's ally, Japan. British experts discovered the mission by breaking a German code.

In a rare underwater duel, the British submarine HMS Venturer stalked the U-864 for three hours before the Venturer sank the U-864 on Feb. 9, 1945, about 2 1/2 miles off Fedje.

The German submarine was only 14 months old when it went down with a crew of 73 in 500 feet of water.

The wreck lay undisturbed for almost 60 years until Norway's Royal Navy discovered it in March 2003. Oslo's newspaper Dagbladet has called it "Hitler's secret poison bomb."

The mercury containers are rusting, and some are leaking. Studies showed elevated mercury levels in the silt around the wreck, but so far only fish that live inside have been contaminated, according to the Norwegian Food Protection Authority. Fishing is not allowed in the waters nearby.

After spending three years and about $6.5 million researching the problem, the Norwegian Coastal Administration recommended encasing the submarine with sand to prevent the spread of mercury. The method, it said in a report released Tuesday, had worked 30 times worldwide and was said to be less risky than attempting to lift the 2,400-ton sub.

"Encasing and covering are seen as permanent environmental measures," said Gunnar Gjellan, who leads the government's U-864 project. "The coastal administration recommends that the parts of the wreck be covered with a type of sand as an absorption material and an armoring layer on top to prevent corrosion."

The Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs said it will review the report before making a final decision.

For the people of Fedje, near Bergen, Norway's second-largest city, leaving the wreck where it lies means the sub's toxic cargo will continue to threaten their port - possibly for generations.

When released into the ocean, metallic mercury, the silver fluid once used in thermometers, can become more dangerous organic mercury. Through fish, organic mercury can be passed on to humans in food. Mercury poisoning can be fatal.

Even small amounts can damage the nervous system, as well as cause heart and kidney problems.

The Norwegian environmental group Bellona has asked that the sub be removed, but Bellona's Marius Dalen, who has followed the project from the start, said the group would review the report.

"We wanted to see it raised to be sure that it does not become an environmental risk over time," Dalen said.

There is concern, he said, that the torpedoes aboard might explode if an attempt is made to raise the vessel. Experts also are worried about the condition of the U-864's keel, where the mercury bottles were stored.

"We would not want to have something happen halfway through the lifting operation that would spread mercury," Dalen said.

Adolf Hitler sent the U-864 to Japan with then-revolutionary jet engine technology. By strengthening the Japanese, the Germans hoped to divert Allied troops and materiel away from Europe.