Germans Respond to 'Katrina' Controversy

Spiegel Online ^ | September 1, 2005 | German Readers

[Mon]

Remarks by German Minister of the Environment Jürgen Tritten were not well received by many Americans who wrote in to let us know. Now, we give our German readers the chance to respond. We've posted a selection here.

http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,372584,00.html These Letters were in response to letters from American readers you can see at http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1475176/posts

[SpinyNorman]

"Those HDI and SDI deisels are kinda cool, but until 2 years ago, they were outlawed here. Why were they outlawed? ---because they couldn't pass US emissions standards!!!!"

Well, not to defend the Eurosocialists, but you are partly right. Yes, they couldn't pass 2004 CALIFORNIA emission standards (enforced in CA and the Northeast), but that is because European Diesel fuel is of much higher quality than ours, both in cetane rating and low sulfur. The rest of the country can still get Diesels (lucky bastards!). We will have ultra low sulfur Diesel by the end of 2006, but it will still probably be low cetane.

At any rate, the current crop of European Diesels should be available in the American socialist states when this occurs.

I can hardly wait! There is a Jeep Liberty CDI with my name on it somewhere!

[TexanToTheCore]

Texas 269,000 square miles. and yes most all of Europe fits in it.

Europe is tiny.

[landman7]

Sorry, Texas not 700 sq km. Try 419,062.4 sq km. Bigger than Germany, France and a few others combined.

[ozarkgirl]

"I saw something on TV once where they put all of Europe in Texas (grabbed the map and pulled it over). It's way more tiny than we are (fits in one of 50 states!)." You might want to do your own research on that.

Perhaps I should. That world map gets way smaller at the poles than in the middle where the US is stretched out.

Thank goodness not all of us just watch TV. Some of us are "truth seekers". :^) I believe it's Spiff's tagline that says "Never believe what you think".

[wolicy_ponk]

[ozarkgirl]

Dumbkopf?

Finally, a word I can understand. I took two years of German in high school. I think Noumenon said a bad word.

[RedMonqey]

"Instead of wasting the last oil, causing deaths all over the world by increased hurricanes and flooding,"


D. Mueller says they prefer to do it the old fashioned way.

Piling millions into GAS chambers.

Much more "environmentally friendly"

Nazis preferred "green" when they didn't wear "brown-shirts"

[vigilante2]

don't the SUV's have an internal combustion engine like all other cars and trucks on the roads

[minus_273]

"german: some 40 letter long word:"

gazuneflaggenhageanvist!

[muffaletaman]

France + Netherlands + Denmark + Belgium...

is about 13,900 square miles SMALLER than Texas...

[Jeff Chandler]

hahaha, this one's a democrat (what's that word in German?)

Arschloch.

[airedale]

You mean those roads built by the Nazi's probably with slave labor?

[Dustbunny]

Someone should explain to the German's that 'people who live in glass houses should not throw stones'. A natural disaster can happen anywhere on this earth.

[stefan10]

Trittin was is and will always be an idiot and a fundamentalist. He only believes what fits into his small and very short minded picture of the world.

But i also support some of his views and laws he established.

Germany is now the leading nation for renewable energy forms with very high export growth numbers. This development will continue in the future with fast growing markets especially in developing countries. A good friend of mine works for solarworld look at their stocks and you wil see what i mean.
The policy of Schwarzenegger in California is nearly a 100% copy of geman laws established by Trittin.
But the problem with this guy is that he is a fundamentalist and even if things are good in general like this example the implementation was wrong and costs too much money. We could have the same result for our economy and technology a little bit cheaper in my view.

[Schweinhund]

i as a german can personally assure you this will have been the last time a politician behaves idiotic. eschenlohe, bavaria, 23.8.2005: germany is often hit by floods. but compared to what happened to NO and to what is still happening there, our momentarily problems look rather small. my thoughts are with the victims of and their fellow americans helping them to survive and rebuild. but the money i can spare will go to bavaria.

[truth_seeker]

"France + Netherlands + Denmark + Belgium...

is about 13,900 square miles SMALLER than Texas..."

Texas is huge. France is just sorta big.

I have driven across France, Belgium and Holland.

We might could us some Dutch dikebuilders in New Orleans.