Christian Churches In Germany

Catholic Scandal

A German bishop (i.e. Tebartz-van Elst) ends up in the news in 2013 for the cost of his lavish, new residence plus revelations of other extravagant activities etc.. The costs of the residence are reported to have grown from initially Euro 2 million to Euro 31 million. People on Twitter were saying he who is without sin cast the first precious stone.

Charitable donations to the catholic church in Germany are reported to have significantly dropped thereafter.

In the wake of this scandal, Germans abandoned the church in large numbers.

Protestants Affected

Out of fear for loss of charitable donations in the wake of the above mentioned scandal the protestant church of Germany finally decides to become much more transparent about its finances and budgets (see e.g. here).

If I am not mistaken, the churches in Germany were rather secretive about their finances in the past.

Tax Revenues

Unlike the many churches in the U.S., the German churches are largely dependent on the so called church tax collected by the government on behalf of the two major churches, i.e. catholic and protestant.

Now we learn, e.g. that the protestant church expects total revenues in 2014 of Euro 556 million of which a whopping Euro 445 million are from the church tax. Charitable contributions are only a meager Euro 514,000.

Message To German Clergy

Martin Luther castigated the catholic church for its practice of indulgences.

It is about time that the christian churches of Germany voluntarily abolish the church tax and live primarily from charitable contributions.

German Finance Minister Is A Terrible Populist

Wolfgang Schäuble

I don’t know why this man has not already voluntarily chosen to retire or why chancellor Angela Merkel is still holding on to this man. Someone, who does not retire in grace long after the zenith has passed is a sorry person.

He is mildly said an embarrassment!

Profits Of 25% Are Not Acceptable!

The German finance minister is quoted as saying “Die Zeiten, in denen im Bankgewerbe eine Rendite vor Steuern von weniger als 25 Prozent als nicht erträglich angesehen wurde, sind vorbei” (source). Roughly translated: The times, when profits before taxes of of 25% or less were not acceptable, are over.

Where is this fool getting this notion from? How many banks were making anywhere near this kind of profit? For how long or when?

If any bank made any such profits over extended periods of time, then competition was lacking. Mr. Schäueble is totally inept to recognize.

Minimum Wage In Germany

Germans Can Be Fools

Not only has the influence of labor unions on wages in Germany been extremely outsized since 1945.

For several years or so Germany’s government and parliament introduced minimum wages first only for specific professions or industries.

Now, minimum wages of Euro 8.50 are to be introduced nationwide at the same level.

Once this Gini is out of the bottle (in this case minimum wages), it can only get worse from here on!

Expected Consequences

One of the most powerful labor union in Germany, i.e. Verdi, is already announcing they want to raise the current minimum wage as fast as they can to Euro 10.00. See e.g. here.

Previous, Related Blogs

See here.

Alchemists After Synthetic New Life

Well Known Alchemists’s Goals

Many people are aware that alchemists tried find the stone of philosophers or to make gold from other, lesser substances.

Takwin

It appears that famous alchemists like Jabir ibn Hayyan (721-821 AD) tried among other things to create life in the laboratory.

The Bible On This Subject

There is the story of Golem. In the Talmud (Tractate Sanhedrin 38b), Adam was initially created as a golem.

Relevance

Now, in the 21st century humans have reached a point were creating new life has become a possibility within reach.

Snow Dragon To The Rescue

Trigger

I just read “Eisbrecher erreicht eingeschlossenes Schiff” (German language).

Chinese Rescue Russian Research Ship In The Antarctica

Wow, this is highly unusual news! Is this just happenstance or ...

The world is changing so fast it is mind boggling! :-) To the moon and Antarctica in the span of almost one week. Is the West ready for the Chinese?

What will be India’s next move?

Gender Quotas For Men

Prologue

Please do not get me wrong! I am an opponent of any government interventions like imposing gender quotas of any kind.

I am not advocating a tit for tat here!

Trigger

I just read an article “«Männerquoten für Hebammen?!»” (German language) in the leading Swiss newspaper. It is actually an article about opinion polls, but the title of this article intrigued me. The opinion poll came to the conclusion that gender equality at any price is not so desirable.

I take from this article that is perhaps helpful to see what happens if typical female professions would be selected by government to apply gender quotas to promote more men in those professions.

You Got To Love The Swiss

The Swiss are sometimes so right on to something in their pragmatic ways. Often we learn so much from such small, peculiar populations and cultures like the Swiss.

Male Midwives?

How about a 30% quota of male midwives anyone?

Male Nurses?

How about a 45% quota for male nurses in every hospital, nursing home, or hospice etc.?

Male Singers On Female Choirs?

How about a gender quota for males singing with female choirs? I certainly would like that. :-)

A New Study On Immaculate Conception

Trigger

I just read an article titled “Wissenschaftliche Studie\Die Legende der jungfräulichen Geburt\Beruht Weihnachten nicht auf einem Wunder, sondern auch simpler Biologie? Einer Studie zufolge wird jedes 200. Kind in den Vereinigten Staaten von einer Jungfrau geboren – schreibt das British Medical Journal.” (German language).

Pregnancy Without Intercourse Or Reproductive Technology

This article refers to an article (public access, hurrah) published in the British Medical Journal. To quote from the abstract of this study:

“Objective To estimate the incidence of self report of pregnancy without sexual intercourse (virgin pregnancy) and factors related to such reporting, in a population representative group of US adolescents and young adults. ...

Conclusions Around 0.5% of women consistently affirmed their status as virgins and did not use assisted reproductive technology, yet reported virgin births.”

0.5% or every 200th woman reported an immaculate conception. About 21,000 respondents were included in this study. Were all these women just lying or making up or covering up or saying this for other reasons (e.g. religious)? Is this study bogus?

Is Parthenogenesis Possible In Humans?

From what little I understand, natural asexual reproduction such as Parthenogenesis is only possible in some plants and animals (mostly invertebrates), but not in humans until we find the Black Swan.

One thing seems to be certain, a pregnancy without sexual intercourse or use of reproductive technology is difficult to prove for at least as long no one can provide a verifiable prove that such a thing is not possible at all.

President's Science Advisers Recommend Government Not To Meddle

Trigger

I just read “Go Easy on MOOCs”. The official blog post is here titled “PCAST Considers Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and Related Technologies in Higher Education”.

Irony Of History

President Obama, who is one of the worst business enemies since President Franklin D. Roosevelt, has apparently a President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology who his Administration to back off and not to meddle with new technologies sure to disrupt higher education as we know it since Aristotle.

Or are there some wise men and women on this council who needed to tell President Obama? :-)

Welcome Recommendations

“PCAST recommends three key steps the Federal Government can take to derive maximum benefits from new education technologies:  

• Let market forces decide which innovations in online teaching and learning are best.  PCAST discourages the premature imposition of standards and regulations that could impede the power of competitive market forces to spur innovation in the educational technology sector, and recommends that the Federal Government encourage innovation by letting the market for these technologies work.
• Encourage accrediting bodies to be flexible in response to educational innovation. PCAST recommends that the Federal Government urge regional accrediting entities to be flexible in setting standards for online degrees to accommodate new pedagogical approaches and to avoid stunting the growth of a burgeoning industry.
• Support research and the sharing of results on effective teaching and learning. PCAST advocates for more research into how technology can best foster learning for the broadest possible range of students, taking advantage of the data-collection features of new high-tech tools. PCAST also calls for the development of a national exchange mechanism for these data to accelerate research and enable adaptation of teaching to suit the various types of learners.”

I have quoted the recommendations verbatim from the above referenced blog.

Hope The President Gets The Message

However, there is little hope since President Obama started over five years ago he has learnt little if anything. His obstinance has rather increased over time.

Mr. President would you mind leaving this to free markets and The People to decide and choose which way higher education is to develop in the future.

The Future Of Labor Markets Is Here

Trigger

I just read “Your next job, next year, may be self-employment

Tech industry sees a shift to independent workers -- and different kinds of opportunities for IT pros”.

Labor Markets Are A Thing Of The Past

I have observed for many years now that IT business is upsetting traditional conventions about labor markets. Disclaimer: I myself work in the IT business for well over a decade.

Obsolete or outdated are, e.g.:

• Marxist distinction between capitalists and laborer
• Labor unions
• Traditional Hierarchies at the workplace
• Traditional dependent employment with one employer versus contractual, project related work with anyone
• Daily commute to a brick and mortar employer

The Future Belongs To Entrepreneurs

Today’s and more so tomorrow’s technologies will offer many more opportunities for anyone to start their own business.

Where Does ObamaCare Fit In?

Aka Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act (ACA, PPCA).

We can already say with confidence ObamaCare is a socialist dinosaur. Doomed to extinction before it was even passed by the U.S. Congress.

We Are Witnessing An Exciting Time

Ready For Liftoff!

The exponential, rapid advance in science and technology is breathtaking!

Previous technological revolutions like steam engine, electricity, cars absolutely pale compared to the introduction of the computer.

The Next 25 Years

Our lives will be so different in the next 25 years.

Best of all, our life spans in good health may well exceed 100 years.

Our food will not anymore be based predominantly on conventional agriculture and livestock.

Repetitive

I am probably repeating myself in this blog post, but it is so exciting!

See e.g. here and here.

New Data Compression Technology

Details here.

This technology does not depend on prior knowledge of data before compression. It employs a new imaging technology (Time stretch dispersive Fourier transform). Unfortunately, no info about compression ratio given.

When Arabs Kill Arabs

Trigger

On 12/24/2013 (Christmas Eve), a sniper killed a young man at the Israeli-Gaza border.

Reported e.g. here and here.

Too Bad

The young man, who is reported to have worked for the Israeli defense ministry, was likely killed by a another Arab (also referred to as Palestinian) sniper was an Israeli of Arab background.

Arabs In Israel

In general, it is perhaps little known that a lot of Arabs live in Israel and that they have a much better life than Arabs in Arab countries.

Arabs As Pawns

Unfortunately, too many people in the West do not realize that the Arabs called Palestinians are used as pawns in the Arab-Israeli war.

Prosperity In Gaza And The West Bank

Would the Arabs in these two areas finally come to their senses and give up their violence against Israel and their vicious Antisemitism this could be one of the most prosperous regions in the whole Middle East.

Finally A Light At The End Of The Tunnel - Mental Health Overhaul

Trigger

Two recent articles report about recent efforts in the U.S. Congress to reform mental health care in the U.S. This is long overdue! Finally, someone in the U.S. Congress

“A Mental-Health Overhaul/A Congressman produces a set of good ideas for a difficult problem.” (Subscription required, but if you use Google Chrome it appears to be free access) published in the Wall Street Journal on 12/25/2013.

“A law to fix mental health care” by Sally Satel published by the American Enterprise Institute on 12/22/2013.

Kudos And Thanks!

Please be grateful for U.S. Representatives like Timothy F. Murphy (R) from Pennsylvania who is reported to be a driving force behind this reasonable reform effort.

Salient Features

I will focus here on the WSJ article as it may not be as accessible.

Emphasis added:

1. “The feds spend a stunning $125 billion a year on "mental health" via programs ranging from Medicaid to the Social Security Administration. Yet the Murphy committee discovered that most of this cash goes to vague and ineffective services rarely focused on treating the most serious illnesses—schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or severe depression. There is little interagency coordination, little government data collection on treatment outcomes, and no central effort to drive evidence-based care.” [As you would expect if Big Government runs health care!]
2. “The Murphy bill would reorient all of this and create a new HHS assistant secretary for mental health and substance-abuse disorders who would lead federal mental-illness efforts. … An example: One NIMH project showed that identifying the first sign of psychosis in an individual, and immediately treating it with lower-dose medication, could prevent a patient from developing full-blown schizophrenia and allow a functioning life. These are the treatments that federal dollars need to be supporting. The new assistant secretary would take over the grant process; ...”
3. “The Murphy bill also uses grant money to push states to modernize their mental-illness laws. Some 23 states still allow for involuntary commitment only if a mentally ill person is an imminent danger to himself or others. This standard is nearly impossible to meet, and even psychotics are often able to present a brief façade of normality. Many are unaware they're even ill and won't voluntarily get help.”
4. “Community mental-health centers would only receive grants if their state's commitment laws include a "need for treatment" standard, which gives families and physicians greater ability to get help for the mentally ill. Grants would also flow only to centers in the 44 states that have assisted-outpatient treatment laws, in which courts can require the mentally ill, as a condition of remaining in a community, to receive treatment.”
5. “... removing the federal bias against hospital psychiatric care. Medicaid currently won't reimburse for psychiatric care in any hospital that has more than 16 psychiatric beds. … Seventy years ago the U.S. had 600,000 inpatient psychiatric beds for a country half its current population. Today it has 40,000.” “A similar shortage of psychiatric professionals—especially for children—has meant the average time between a first episode of psychosis and initial treatment can be 110 weeks. The Murphy bill addresses this by advancing tools like tele-psychiatry, which links primary physicians in underserved areas to psychiatric professionals. Speaking of children, the law finally fixes the federal privacy law known as HIPAA, once again allowing mental-health professional and families to share information about loved ones.”
6. “The Murphy legislation also addresses one of the more destructive forces in the mental-health system: the legal lobby. Many Americans may be shocked to know their tax dollars are funding a small army of self-anointed "advocates" who encourage the mentally ill to avoid treatment, and who fight parental and court attempts to get them care. The Murphy bill stops this funding. It also gives physicians legal safe harbor to volunteer at understaffed mental-health centers, something many currently won't do for fear of malpractice suits.”

Can you believe this all this sheer insanity that has been going on for decades! This is what Big Government run healthcare looks is like!

Gun Control Red Herring

It is a shame how many of our legislators and the current U.S. President Obama have engaged in numerous new gun control proposals etc. These are terrible populists exploiting tragic events committed by underserved mentally ill perpetrators.

A Cry For Help!

I do not want to justify or excuse or condone any of these horrible events where a mentally ill person killed or maims a number of innocent people. However, some of these mentally ill people are smart.

Perhaps, these horrible events were kind of cries of help or a sort of brutal reminder in a society who still treats mental illness as a great taboo and stigmatizes the sufferers.

Previous, Related Blogs

See here, which has references to other blog posts.