Guitar Blues

Price tag ... for the Christian Democratic Union ( CDU ) - 690000.- Euro. ... for one week of Ronaldo´s football service - 288000.- $. ... for a square foot of a Park Avenue appartment in NYC - 270000.- $. ... for playing the blues - priceless.

Outlook For 2014

Mon Dieu, Air France preponed my flight to Paris en route to Lima and as things stand i will spend New Year's Eve sitting on Charles de Gaulles airport, a place not short with one star ratings. However i will get over it, since there is hardly a better way to start the new year with a lenghty timeout from the daily grind with another trip probably to Vietnam later on the cards. 2014 features two major events, the football World Cup and the EU parliament elections. The World Cup is something, more and more people get crazy about, proving a national identity is deeply engrained and thus a project like the EU has to do with geopolitics, the striving for power of a finance elite and is nothing the population will benefit from in the long run. The former Soviet Union flew apart as well as Yugoslavia, because people don't accept any longer to be under the thumb from another ethnic group. And now we Europeans want to do it the other way around, perhaps even worth want to be governed by those folks occupying the top floors of this terrifying building, the new European Central Bank headquarters in Frankfurt ? To my delight the number of EU sceptics is growing and i hope the elections reflect that.  Although i sometimes think i should ignore all these absurdities for a more jaunty life , looking away is of course not an option, especially not during the World Cup, when politicians like to pass laws behind our backs intending to get ahold of our hard earned. So i keep trying to get on terms with all that razmatazz, attempt to filter out what is true and what is manipulation and write my point of view here once in a while, hoping to give something to think about. As always cheers for visiting my blog and a great 2014.

Christmas Sports

As ever i stayed clear of the Christmas shopping frenzy and rather thought about , how to take ol' Fred Done of Betfred to the cleaners with his Goals Galore, where both teams have to score. After some number crunching i came up with the following games : Gillingham v Leyton Orient / Huddersfield v Derby / Middlesbrough v Burnley / Bradford v Rotherham and Port Vale v Notts County @ odds of 17*** Only 8 of 10 teams scored, so Fred got away unscathed. Now over to the sport of Kings. Also on December, 26th the King George VI Chase takes place in Kempton. You could make a case for every runner in this top class field, why he could win the race, however my preference is for the striking grey Al Ferof (FR). He missed last season due an injury, but ran excellent in an recent race and seems to be back at his best. He definitely has, what it takes to win the chase and i am pretty happy with the early odds of 5 i got at Ladbrokes.*** 3rd

Putin

Like him or loathe him - i for my part have some sympathy for the Russian president and not only for granting asylum to Edward Snowden. To me democracy becomes more and more a mockery, when elected toothless and wishy-washy politicians of debt stricken countries or Barack Obama, who let us know he is good in killing people, then behaves like a silly teenager and is good friends with Wall Street , have nothing to oppose the financial power of global corporations. Here in Germany i can observe their influence day in, day out and in this scenario i certainly prefer Putin with his "controlled" democracy, than some CEO, who only cares about profits and is not squeamish with his methods. This anecdote shows Wladimir Putin has also a good sense of humor : He once invited Angela Merkel """over to the Kreml and knowing of her fear of dogs he let his puppy in to greet the flinching guest too.

""" Angela Merkel was just confirmed as the German chancellor for four more years and she swore to do her best to keep any damage away from the German people. Maybe this video shows her true attitude towards Germany and that Alexander Dibelius, a high ranked Goldmann Sachs associate, is her advisor speaks volumes as well.

Rwanda

Intriguing news from Rwanda, a country infamous for the Tutsi genocide in 1994. For quite a while now plastic bags are banned there and upon arrival at Kigali airport, luggage is searched and they are taken away, when found. That is a far cry from the weatern throwaway society, where micoscopical small plastic pieces can even be detected in toothpaste or cosmetics. These pieces eventually show up in waterbodies, where they are a menace to the flora and fauna and it is about time Rwanda is taken as an role model in this subject.

Art

That nightmare in orange to the left is called " balloon dog " and was auctioned at Christie's in New York for ... 2,50 $ or perhaps a tenner ? Nope, some unknown bidder dished out 55 million US $ to purchase it and i would assume he is a member of the champagne society, earned his fortune effortless and never experienced the joy of dollars earned with own hands. Creator of that botch is Jeff Koons, who came to prominence with a relationship to Cicciolina. He also once tried to erect a work of art of unparalleled ugliness here in Hamburg, however the plan could be thwarted. Anyway, let's hope Champagne Charlie has a big enough basement to stash that thing away for good.

The Grand Coalition

Once again our fellow politicians from the CDU and SPD parties were busy with themselves for several weeks now, but eventually came to grips to form a coalition by sorting out disagreements and without a noteworthy opposition. The contract comprises 185 pages and this higly recommended video explains , what's it all about. The other video below has a speech by Edmund Stoiber ( CSU ) set to music, unfortunately without subtitles. And if you haven't cried "enough" yet here is a double featuring chancellora Angela Merkel. At least as laughing stock she is useful.

" Those, who were elected do not decide and those, who decide were not elected " - H. Seehofer (CSU) -

Fashion

Last week Germany played a friendly football match versus Italy and while the Italians were dressed as usual in blue, the Germans displayed the outfit pictured on the left instead of white shirts with black shorts. So while the Italians take some pride in tradition ( blue is the color of their former kingdom ) and call their team the " Squadra Azzurra " the German team rather looked like the "Squadra Spaghetti Pomodoro". My only explanation is, that the very affluent German Football Association ( DFB ) along with Adidas expect the simple minded, flag waving football fan to rush to the store and cough up a lot of money for it, hence for the DFB tradition means next to nothing, while commerce is the name of the game - as usual.

Punting For The Philippines

After having watched the aftermath of typhoon " Haiyan ", who struck the Philippine islands with enormous force i organised a fundraiser to collect a little bit of money. I have two bets for the weekend and should they be successful i will donate the profits entirely to an aid organisation and hope others with some change sitting in their Paypal account will chip in as well. 1.) TAP NIGHT to win the Paddy Power Gold Cup Chase on Saturday, Nov.16. Trained by Lucinda Russell and ridden by champ A. P. McCoy i expect a bold show in this wide open contest. Betfair offers odds @ 13 2.) World Cup Qualifier UKRAINE - FRANCE on Friday,Nov. 15. Both teams under immense pressure and will focus on defense, so i believe in a 0:0 correct halftime score @ 2.40 *** Tap Night ran okay, just wasn't good enough. However the second bet was successful and left me with a profit i will donate to an aid organisation.

Chemtrails

The other day i went on my backporch with a beer and a smoke, when i saw it again: A criss-cross pattern of white stripes on a otherwise clear blue sky. In this sphere condenser trails caused by aircrafts usually disappear within a minute, but these trails stayed up there for a couple of hours, eventually fanned out and turned the sky milky, hence they were spraying again. I have sent e-mails to the environment protection organisation BUND and the Green Party and asked, whether they can shed some light on the issue. Only the BUND answered by writing, that they spoke with authorities and there isn't any evidence of chemtrails. Well , there are many videos proving otherwise and most stunning is perhaps this one. There were suspicious nozzles discovered on engines from no-frills airliner Ryanair, who flies for 15 quid from Dublin to Barcelona and one could think, that passenger transport is only a supplement and there main income stems from spraying chemicals as aluminiumoxide among others causing raging wildfires, morgellons and mental problems. Now i know people get older and kids are exposed to a multitude of stimulus satiations, though not too long the Alzheimer disease was hardly known and children were not spoonfed Ritalin to keep them quiet - those chemicals could provide an explanation. I signed up with a clean sky organisation and hope lots will follow.

Life's Seductions And The Church

While many churchmen cannot leave their hands off children, this shepherd with the name Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst went on a spending spree by remodeling his residence in Limburg for 30 million Euros and flying first-class to India. When he lied about it his earthly boss was not amused and called him in to pull his ears and for telling him to leave Limburg, though i suppose he wasn'nt stripped off his monthly 8500 Euro salary. And here is, where it gets crazy : Because Napoleon Bonaparte evicted the Evangelic and Catholic churches from their properties 200 years ago Germany pays them 460 million Euros state subsidies every year until today for compensation. So not only the churches receive imposed taxes from their members, but a lot of money from people, who have nothing to do with religion ( like myself) or belong to a different Confessing as well - unbelievable ! The current status of Germany is as follows - Big corporations as Apple, Amazon or Starbucks make many millions of profits, but hardly pay any taxes / The church receives a big load of money for nothing / The upper class rakes in more and more wealth / A growing number of kids grow up in poverty and an increasing number of elderly people become shoplifters, because of insufficient pensions. Don't expect chancellora Merkel to do something about it.

Lynyrd Skynyrd ...

... was my starting point, when i got interested in music and also a great inspiration to play the guitar. Some 36 years ago on the 20th of Octobre 1977 their chartered airplane crashed in a swamp near Gillsburg, Mississippi and killed six passengers with lead singer Ronnie Van Zant among them. Despite further tragedies and feuds between the survivors the band exists until today with one remaining original member, guitarist Gary Rossington, and Ronnie's brother Johnny doing the vocal work. Kudos to You Tube for providing the platform and to everyone, who uploaded all these videos - watching them is a tremendous joy and something i never thought would be possible.

Evo and the Bolivian way ...

Here is what happened in Bolivia in the year 2000 : The Bolivians solicited a credit from the International Money Foundation and received one under the prerequisite, that they would privatize their drinking water. U.S. construction giant Bechtel 's bid was accepted and they wasted no time to triplicate prices much to the disgust of the Bolivians, who forced Bechtel to pack up and leave after a fierce battle. Under Evo Morales the same fate overtook McDonalds and Coca Cola, when they received marching orders as well last December. This shows the Bolivians have cojones while we Europeans hand over our souls to big corporations, bankster and politicians, less trustworthy than sleazy used car dealers. In this context i want to mention, that here in Germany the CDU just obtained a big cheque from the automobile industry and  that meanwhile 1691 companies are exempted now from participating in the energy transformation, what means a steep rise for the electicity bill of us citizens - some are literally sitting in the dark already, because they cannot cope with it. If we want to know, what Europe is up to a view over the great pond could give some clues as they seem to be one step ahead. Many Americans are enslaved by banks due to huge debts acquired with low rate loans or by income taxes. In the U.S income taxes are against the constitution, but the government imposes them to get funds for feeding the " Creature from Jekyll Island ", how G. Edward Griffin aptly named the Federal Reserve Bank, with interest. These days the Americans once again reached the fiscal cliff, though by now the finance acrobats can still hold the whole thing together with their Monopoly money, however a hike of the interest rate with the shortage of liquidity could mean game over. There are many videos predicting an imminent collapse of the financial system perhaps accompanied with a monetary reform where the Dollar is replaced with the Amero. What fuels these fears are rumors, that the Department Of Homeland Security ordered 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition and that allegedly 15000 Russian troops were hired to restore order in case of riots. Whether all this is unjustified fearmongering or not is open for debate. What i know is, that it has nothing to do with common sense.

Rebel With A Cause - The Ed Snowden Shirt

6.10.13 PRIX DE L´ARC DE TRIOMPHE (Group 1) in Longchamp

I know, nothing can make a man more look like a fool than women and racehorses, however NOVELLIST is entered in this race and he means business. After his scintillating performance in the King George & Queen Elizabeth Stakes he won a recent prep run in Baden-Baden a bit workmanlike, but i am convinced trainer Andreas Wöhler will have him back at his best for this contest, where he takes on strong opposition from France and Japan. Crack Irishman Johnny Murtagh is back on board and i can't wait to watch the race and cheer him home. Novellist to win @ 5.5.***Non runner Racing is full with hard luck stories. This video shows Japanese aficionados in agony, when their hot fav Ofevre was beaten on the line in this race last year.