March 16, 2006
New Additions to the Blogroll
I'm pleased to add the following blogs to my blogroll:
Iowa Voice: A group blog based in the Midwest discussing American politics and social issues. One of their bloggers is originally from London and he has traveled a great deal, and so is able to provide discussion on U.S. policy from an international point of view.
My most recent perusal of Davids Medienkritik (which I try to read at least once or twice a week) led me to discover Pursuit of Serenity, a blog by a German written in English. (Thank goodness; I didn't keep up with my study of German and can only make out a few words of the language now.) Blogger Marian Tobias Wirth is pro-American, a rarity in Europe these days, and I look forward to his views on America and the world in general. Being of German descent (five out of eight great-grandparents hailed from Deutschland), I'm always glad to discover that not everyone there despises us...
Be sure to check out both of these fine blogs!
Show Comments
Du kannst ein bisschen Deutsch Pam? Hab ich nie gewusst das du bist ein teil Deutsche.
Ich hab insgesamt 16 jahren in D-Land verbracht.
Und war verheiratet mit eine Deutsche.
Bet ya didn't know an old NASCAR redneck like me spoke German lol.
Posted by: Chris at March 17, 2006 05:02 AMPam,
Thanks for the kind words. Monday is Iowa Voice's one year anniversary.
Being of German ancestry myself, I am embarassed that my family didn't pass down the Deutsch to the children. My father's family comes from Prussia and the German occupied area of Poland. Grandma's family was invited hy Catherine the Great to settle in the Polish area. My mother's family comes from Hesse. So, yes, I am part Hessian, but I don't goosestep, drink Bier or like sauerkraut. I tell my Korean daughter that is German Kimchi. Which is ok with her as she hates Kimchi in all its forms.
Posted by: PCD at March 17, 2006 08:20 AMChris, I'm jealous. Let's see...no I don't understand German, and you didn't guess I was of German descent? You lived for 16 years in Germany...and something else about your German. How's that for a guess?
PCD, I'm pleased to add Iowa Voice...I should have done so sooner.
Kimchee is nastier than sauerkraut. My husband doesn't like it, and he'll eat almost anything! Your daughter is right to avoid it. I don't like sauerkraut myself, nor do I like beer...but there's a great German restaurant in the town next door, and we love to eat there when our wallets permit.
Germans as a group were eager to assimilate into American culture, and I think many did not pass on the language to their children. It was different back then too, because the "melting pot" model prevailed, not the "multicultural" model of today. Most people wanted to be American -- not people from another country living in America to make more money.
Oh, and I have some French ancestry as well...but I don't brag about it!
Posted by: Pam at March 17, 2006 09:02 AMNot bad Pam.
Last part was that I was married to a German. What's weird is my current wife is part German with a maiden name of Hess.
I guess I have a thing for the frauleins.
Posted by: Chris at March 17, 2006 01:08 PMsauerkraut = german kimchi ROFL
I love kimchi. I even put it on hamburgers.
Posted by: Chris at March 17, 2006 01:09 PMChris,
Is your wife's family from Northern Wisconsin? Did she get flak for that family name? I know my relatives with that name did.
Posted by: PCD at March 17, 2006 02:35 PMNope, wife is from New Mexico. She never got flak for the Hess name.
New Mexico has a lot of German speaking Mennonites in the south. They wear the weird clothing and are really strange. When I worked at Verizon, I had one bring me a cordless home phone to activate as a cell phone LOL. They always glared at me when they found out I knew what they were talking about.
Posted by: Chris at March 17, 2006 03:31 PMRemembering Rachel Corrie - A Supporter of Terrorism
Three years ago Thursday, Rachel Corrie was accidentally killed by an Israeli bulldozer after she entered a closed Israeli military zone to protect Palestinian homes that were sitting on top of tunnels used by Palestinian terrorists to smuggle illegal weapons to be used against Israeli civilians. Rachel Corrie was a member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISD), a firm supporter of Palestinian terrorism (what the ISD calls “resistance”), “by any means necessary.”
There has been a lot of heated debated about the New York Theater Workshop’s recentpostponement of the play, My Name Is Rachel Corrie.Some folks have suggested that the theatre caved intoIsrael supporters. Other, more paranoid types, have suggested that the infamous “Israel Lobby” had something to do with the postponement.
The photogrpahs on the right show Rachel Corrie burning an American flag to show her support of Palestinians and choosing to lay in front of an Israeli Bulldozer in the hopes of protecting tunnels used by Palestinian terrorists to smuggle illegal weapons.
One of the reasons that the Israeli army closed the area that was being bulldozed was because Palestinian snipers often shoot at bulldozer crews. This endagers not only Israelis, but "peace activists" as well. Palestinian terrorism insures that Israeli bulldozers have very litlte visibility because of the need to protect the driver with metal shielding. Ms. Corrie chose to lay down in front of a bulldozer. Her act was not one of peace, but of suicide. Clearly Ms. Corrie spent too much time in the company of suicide killers and their supporters.
Perhaps the New York Theater Workshop simply realized that they did not want to be associated with Rachel Corrie because Ms. Corrie supported terrorism and allowed herself, either knowingly or unknowingly, to protect Palestinian terrorists. Perhaps the theatre company did not want to be associated with Ms. Corrie because she was eager to publicly burn American flags. Or perhaps the theater simply did not want to be associated with the left’s obsession with supporting anti-Semitism.
http://whypalestiniansgetitwrong.blogspot.com/
palestiniansgetitwrong@yahoo.com
Posted by: Remembering Rachel Corrie - A Supporter of Terrorism at March 18, 2006 07:47 PMHi, Pam,
thank you for adding me to your blogroll. Maybe that's a little premature though, since I seem to launch postings only once in a while ;-).
Well, let's see how my loony leftie viewpoint and your conservative take can match.
Talking about conservatism, it makes me always smile, when I see that FOX NEWS or any other U.S. media outlet labels my chancellor, Mrs. Merkel, "a conservative". Compared to U.S. conservatives like, say, judge Alito, WSJ columnist Peggy Noonan, Michelle Malkin or Ann Coulter...well compared to them, Mrs. Merkel is a liberal. That's only one example of German-American misconceptions.
Btw, I like both kimchi and Sauerkraut, but I prefer kimchi...
Posted by: Marian Wirth at March 18, 2006 10:27 PMChris,
I'll have to visit Southern New Mexico some time. My visits have been confined to the I-40 corridor.
I have a problem when I am with German first speakers for any length of time. My English gets heavily accented with German and I start saying things the way my grandfather did like, "Make out the light" for turn off the light. I'll says Shasskopf (I never learned to spell in German.) instead of Sheep's Head for that card game. I start swapping V's for W's.
I did find out the German dialect we speak in Wisconsin is not compatible with Schweizer Deutch. In Zurich I felt like a Cajun in France in that people there had a problem with understanding me outside of English.
Posted by: PCD at March 20, 2006 11:40 AM
