@txgermanbre Du wirkest nicht, alles bleibt so stumpf.
Sei guter Dinge!
Der Stein im Sumpf
Macht keine Ringe.
(Goethe)
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Rene Wiermer
1.4K posts
German is awkward because I’m trying to say my struggle is real but it’s translating to that whack as fuck nazi book as the first two words
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@hf_222222 @Thomasmarkelly That's not correct - most is funded by the normal secular social security system (elderly care, schools, hospitals,...). Only 2% of church taxes goes to things like hospital chaplains, and 9% to international donations (like disaster help).
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@Thomasmarkelly Via the Church Tax they have mostly, but it does mean they operate basically as a quasi-government agency.
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Just playing around with some figures on the German Church, and realising if reported numbers are correct, their payroll is 60% of their total Mass attendance (800k employees, 1.3m Mass attendees).
That is ... illustrative of the sickness which is killing it.
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@BachmannRudi @greg_price11 Catechism: Male pronous and "Father", but "We ought therefore to recall that God transcends the human distinction between the sexes. He is neither man nor woman: he is God."
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@greg_price11 So - what gender does God have according to the Bible, according to Church teaching?
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The Democrat nominee for Senate in Texas believes that "God is nonbinary."
Dave Wasserman@Redistrict
I've seen enough: James Talarico (D) wins the #TXSEN Dem primary.
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@rinalu_ Soviet food standards: great on paper, bad in practice. Stale bread, because of low grain quality and sub-standard industrial baking. Poor cooling chain for dairy. "Sausage trains" because of favoritism for the nomenklatura. Grain imports from the West despite excellent ground.
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Soviet food had expiration dates measured in days, not years. Western food lasts forever on the shelf. Which one sounds more like actual food?
Food quality in the USSR was strictly regulated. Products spoiled quickly because they contained no preservatives, no synthetic additives, nothing designed to survive a nuclear winter in your pantry.
There was no culture of disposable tableware. In fact, it practically did not exist. Everything was reused, and in that sense the system was environmentally friendly.
The wave of plastic waste came later, together with the disruptive changes that accompanied the arrival of so called "democracy."
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@txgermanbre Depending on your city life attraction/tolerance, you might also have a look at Wiesbaden, Bad Homburg, Mainz ... all within <30min from FRA. Frankfurt has a lot to offer, but city center is not without problems.
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Question, would it be wise to stay in Frankfurt if I need to be traveling all over Europe probably constantly for business? I’m thinking Frankfurt because it’s central and I can get to multiple countries and do business meetings in the deadset of Europe, no Netherlands. Sorry
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@PaulinusOfTrier One main driver for the Synodal Way are lay organisations, and their members are regular church goers and more reform oriented at the same time. I doubt there is significant interest from non-church goers who keep their label for job or cultural reasons on inner church details
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Very few people outside Germany understand the pivotal role played by the Church Tax in Germany.
In Germany if you are a registered Catholic (basically meaning baptised as such) you are obliged by law to pay a tax surcharge to the Church. This is calculated as about 8 percent of whatever tax you pay to the government.
Now, this has nothing to do with whether you go to church or accept its teachings. 94 percent of those affected are not regular churchgoers, and a high proportion are non religious or even sometimes against religion. The only reason why they remain on the list is that it’s an annoying procedure and they can’t be bothered.
The consequence is that the bishops do whatever it takes not to antagonise these paying non believers in case they de-list themselves in retaliation.
He who pays the piper calls the tune: in this case the piper is the German bishops, the tune is the German Synodal Way and the payers are the 94 percent of Catholics with no interest in doctrine but strong views on worldly concerns.
Dr Taylor Marshall™️@TaylorRMarshall
German Catholic bishops only get away with this nonsense because of money. Follow the money.
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@txgermanbre Merz is part of the more traditional wing, a counter-movement to this.
Supporter base: mostly South and rural, where single-earner households are still common.
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@txgermanbre Ehegattensplitting and resistance against full-time child care are part of core identity questions for the CDU. Feeling of loss of conservative identity: gay marriage, end of mandatory military service, end of nuclear energy - all done under former CDU governments....
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Does the CDU just like ignore the data and go on populist messaging because the benefits from the SPD proposal are genuinely so massive that I have to assume the CDU is just incredibly stupid, no offense.
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@Porkchop_EXP You might also get a "soul plumber" (Seelenklempner), which is a colloquial term for a psychotherapist.
"Seelsorge" usually means church-based services open for everyone, but there are a couple of hospitals which have Islamic and Jewish services as well.
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Last time I was in the hospital in Germany an elderly man showed up in my room and said he was a “soul caretaker” to check in on me.
I was just staring at him unsure what his function was and what I was expected to talk to him about.
I really had no idea that “soul caretaker” is German for “pastor” (it’s also “pastor” in Dutch).
Altweltaffe@altweltaffe
No, if you'd talk to Germans who actually have a functioning vocabulary, you'd know that there really are German compound words that express a term very precisely but have no homologue in English, despite the compounding being possible in both languages
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@txgermanbre I hope you find some ground again and give yourself the time to breathe. (Suggestion: Rilke: Sonets to Orpheus II, 29)
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Interesting tidbit in Epstein files. Unsure who DSK would be, this is the hypothetical scenario of what could’ve happened to prevent Greece from defaulting (and the eurozone crisis) jmail.world/thread/EFTA025…
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@txgermanbre hambacherschloss-pfalz.de/hochzeit/
Hambacher Schloss - place of the 1832 Hambacher Fest, a mass demonstration for German unity, civil and politcal rights.
Popular song: "Fürsten zum Land Hinaus!"
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While I have you all here…give me German wedding venue ideas and Denmark ones. For Denmark. Copenhagen.
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@txgermanbre Maybe something like "Grand Budapest Hotel" - which in turn was filmed for a large part in Görlitz ("Central-Europe" in lots of movies). Regensburg also has strong Bohemian influence.
There are also lots of Bavarian-Bohemian traditional brass ensembles that could play.
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I need help for my wedding. I want the theme to be like how Prague and Czechia looks like, and parts of Hungary. How do I do that? I can’t figure out how to describe it
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@heresyfinancial Economic freedom is not automatically less government. It is the right level of regulations and cooperation that allows for everybody to participate in functioning markets and economic development.
A vassal state, a low-tax oligopoly or a state-directed economy - not free.
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More freedom, more income
More government, more poverty
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@mepassistants From the lighter side of EU news (2023)
bbc.com/news/world-eur…
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Let me tell you about my latest EU "Today I Learned".
In the European Parliament, there's an iconic bar called the Mickey Mouse. It's where you go relax and gossip over coffee, meet lobbyists/journalists, etc.
But WHY is it called Mickey Mouse ?
At the entrance, there's a painting depicting Mickey Mouse in a forest. I always assumed that the name was practical reference to that painting and the bar's cartoonish chairs. But it's actually much better.
It's called like that in reference (and mockery) to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who once called the European Parliament a "Mickey Mouse Parliament" due to its lack of power back then.
13 years in the EU Bubble and I still learn new random trivia.
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@proverbs_14_23 @eugyppius1 CH: highest Michelin density per capita, top-ranked hospitality education, very high food standards, top group of number of home cooked meals, lower obesity than OECD average, world-renowned chocolate+cheese ... and access to all European cuisines around.
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@eugyppius1 This must be why the entire world is plastered with Swiss restaurants and every person can name a dozen Swiss dishes, while Italian food is relegated to obscurity, if people even know it exists.
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at some point the bizarre eurobashing becomes so divorced from reality it’s just amusing. swiss have some of best restaurants in europe, excellent places to eat all around Davos.
Chief Nerd@TheChiefNerd
BESSENT: “A few years ago when it was, you're not going to own anything, you're going to eat insects — it was just the inmates running the asylum at that point.” BURNS: “You're not into the bugs?” BESSENT: “After a few days of Swiss-German food, I may switch to bugs.” 🤣
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@majavonwestphal Es gibt noch einen Zwischenweg mit starkem Arbeitnehmerschutz + Berufsethos; es gibt doch funktionierende Bildungssysteme ohne Beamtentum ? Und vielleicht hilft die Möglichkeit zur Selbstreinigung an bestimmten Stellen auch für einen Stärkung der eigenen Rolle.
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Vergleich USA: Lehrer wird zum Direktor zitiert, um die 'schlechte' Leistung einiger SuS zu erklären (schlecht=schlechter in einem standardisierten high-stakes Assessment als ein Algorithmus vorhergesagt hat). Direktor hält Erklärung für nachvollziehbar: okay, aber "Hinweis". /1
Marcel@BewareMacduff
Sollten Lehrer Beamte sein? – Ein Erfahrungsbericht (und ein Beispiel unter vielen) Als ich nach dem Referendariat meine Planstelle angetreten habe, sollte ich ein W-Seminar (Geschichte) in der Oberstufe übernehmen. Dabei verfassen die Schüler über eineinhalb Jahre hinweg eine wissenschaftliche Arbeit und präsentieren am Ende ihre Ergebnisse. Ein Schüler gab eine Arbeit ab, die in jeder Hinsicht unterirdisch war: Die Fragestellung wurde eigenmächtig und ohne Rücksprache geändert, sodass das Thema inhaltlich am Kern vorbeiging und letztlich nur unhistorisch bearbeitet werden konnte. Einleitung und Schluss fehlten, ebenso wie Fußnoten und ein annähernd nachvollziehbarer wissenschaftlicher Apparat. Es wurde kein einziges wissenschaftliches Werk herangezogen, stattdessen wurde aus unseriösen Internetseiten plagiiert – teilweise so fehlerhaft, dass historische Fakten schlichtweg verdreht wurden. Auch sprachlich war die Arbeit kaum verständlich. Unterm Strich ein Desaster. Ich habe daher mit 0 Punkten bewertet. Alles andere wäre nicht ansatzweise zu rechtfertigen gewesen. Zur Absicherung habe ich Rücksprache mit dem Fachbetreuer gehalten, der meine Einschätzung teilte. 0 Punkte in der Seminararbeit führen zur Nichtzulassung zum Abitur. Das ist den Schülern bekannt, sie werden seit Beginn der Oberstufe dafür sensibilisiert. Der Vater des Schülers drohte umgehend mit juristischen Konsequenzen – letztlich natürlich erfolglos –, und die zahlreichen Gespräche waren alles andere als angenehm. Die Bewertung einer Seminararbeit, die zur Nichtzulassung führt, greift unmittelbar in die Bildungsbiographie eines jungen Menschen ein. Sie ist ein hoheitlicher Akt und genau an dieser Stelle wird die Beamtenfrage konkret. Der Beamtenstatus ermöglicht es, eine solch weitreichende Entscheidung im Sinne des Dienstherrn und nach fachlichen Maßstäben zu treffen, ohne berufliche Konsequenzen befürchten zu müssen – sofern man korrekt handelt. Einschüchterungsversuche und Druck über Dritte laufen ins Leere, sodass das die Entscheidung sachlich und unbeeinflusst bleiben kann.
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@dvassallo Average price German health insurance pays to hospitals for a birth: 2.500 - 3.000 Euro ( might go higher for complex cases). That is including room+board
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$9K is really not that much considering 2-3 days of private hospital room and board, and all the medical staff assigned to you with zero notice.
BladeoftheSun@BladeoftheS
$9,114.99 in the USA to give birth, with full insurance. No wonder no one is having children.
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@RubenWizard88 Feit: 14,3% van het personell bij defensie met buitenlandse herkommst, 10% van buiten Europa. Toeganseis is voor veel rollen de Nederlandse nationaliteit, maar niet afkomst.
Nederlands
@LoftusSteve @riversorare Practically: all major Danish parties agree, that if independence would happen, it needs to include security agreements with "more NATO".
All Greenlandish indie movements want a security framework of US/Denmark/NATO.
No independence without binding security agreement.
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@riversorare It's difficult to say if an independant Greenland would still be obliged to host US bases. I would think not. As a newly sovereign nation they could do what they like.
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First, let me be clear that Trump is a moron.
But the Greenland issue has been brought on Denmark by their own actions. Denmark has spent decades loosening its control of Greenland. It's now at the point where independence for Greenland is imminent.
This would mean Greenland would be a huge resource rich country on the USA's doorstep with a population of just 56,000, no military and outside NATO. China or Russia could take it in a minute. Or more likely gain influence via other means.
So, while Trump's rhetoric is the usual mix of heavy handed and tone deaf. There is a genuine issue of Denmark's making.
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