The Hall of Fire

I wonder why there is no reference (and positive reference) to other powerful women, mainly Angela Merkel. She is neither pretty, nor warm-hearted in her public personae, nor aggressive, in fact she seems often rather dull. Angela Merkel is definately not the classic, likable, charismatic politician...

Yes, that is a complete misunderstanding of the principle. Totally, utterly. You are working in a job which suits your abilities. If every human being would do so- better or a worse world? You love whom you choose to. If every human would do so: better or worse for others? It is not so much about th...

Why not: act in a way that ensures that, if every man acted this way, it would be for the best of all.

Kant's categorical imperative (in one formulation): So act that your will can regard itself at the same time as making universal law through its maxims.

I would be curious, Lali: what prevented you from getting caught up completely? What can help people to change their worldview and to open up to others? I mean this for both "sides" by the way. The arrogance of "liberal" elites (at least in the US, they would be liberal) does exp...

The other day there was a very interesting short reportage on German television about being a policeman in the US. It asked the question what it means to be in a place where virtually everybody could be armed and every person is a potential threat and how it changes the mind set towards use of arms ...

I’m sorry it took me so long after returning from holidays, but today is the first day with bad/mixed weather, so before that I spent my days outdoors… Last week, we spent three days in Dresden and while of course this is by far not enough to capture the feeling of a city, it gave me a lot to think ...

She's a supermodel from a developing country. There is NO way she actually understands what plagiarism is, and how folks in the US/West are crazy about it. It's just words (so the reasoning goes). She is from Slovenia, which is in NO way a developing country, but a member state of the European Unio...

During my holidays, I have read a very compelling novel in German, but a translation exists. It is a partly science-fiction novel (with a lot of maritime science which I cannot evaluate, but which sounds true and logic) about the oceans attacking humanity... It down sound weird, but it was a great r...

If a student of my school did what has been done in the speech of Melania Trump his work would be counted as fraud and if it happened during graduation exams the whole session would count as failed. It's not the same idea, which is a broad general idea but it is the same wording and, especially cons...

I am in Dresden now for a few days and will try to tell more about experiencing this city and its various reactions to the political changes it has seen in the 20th century. In front of our hotel is the place where thousands of victims were burned the night after the bombing and to the right of our ...

I do believe in solidarity rather than sovereignty, in interdependance rather than independence and a functioning bureaucracy is a protection against curroption, maybe the best we have. But none of this is popular or easy. Yes, many people may have believed that a Brexit vote is against traditional ...

From what I see, the US election system is flawed. I have always lived in countries where governments were composed of more than one party - coalitions. And from the coalition you choose a leader - like Angela Merkel, who is the head of government but has to compose (and always had to) with at least...

In Switzerland things are different. You don't elect the president and political parties are of little importance. The seven federal counsellors are not elected by the people and have to apply the politics decided by the parliament or the people, regardless of their own party was for or against that...

Túrin, could you please check the 26.000 words on cabbage? This may seem trivial to you, but it's part of those myths about the EU which rise people against it. From all researches I have done, it is a hoax. http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35962999 The chaos around Jeremy Corbyn is IMHO just the st...

Túrin, living in a non EU country, some strong contradictions: Switzerland has known several years of recession after the rejection vote of the EEE (maybe in English it would be EES a European Economic Space) in 1992 and it only became notably better after having the bilateral agreement which means ...

Putain de bordel de merde.

(I cannot type the English equivalent, but well, I'm devastated)

The battle of bastards.... Need I say more?

Sansa was my favourite character before she was cool!

psst: don't tell anybody: I'm not huge fan of operas... (have never been, but have become even less fan, partly because the first Mrs. Marschall was a trained opera singer and sang quite a lot. Listening to opera music Means a lot of tension for Matthias)

I would look for a book which is interesting, so that I am compelled to continue reading. I don't know anything about living Russian authors and I'd actually prefer a living/modern author and eventually not too difficult. Eventually a good children's book - they tend to be less complicated but can h...