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The Anti-Doomer
“A blog that shits all over doomer thoughts, ideas, and way of life.”

very right-on and very funny.

The highlight of today was watching Kate trying to convince Mo to loosen up and drink a little paint.

I was reading this somewhat interesting discussion on a “doomer” forum (for the uninitiated, doomer is someone who thinks about the Coming Global Shitstorm all the time. I like to call them Eeyores, but that seems to annoy them.) To my surprise, someone mentioned the WinterHilfe (Winter Help) charity as proof that the Nazis cared more about their elderly than we do. I have to object. Though similar organizations existed before the Nazis, The WinterHilfe established a private, Nazi-run alternative to the existing charity. Created by Martin Bormann in 1939, the WinterHilfe quickly amassed a fortune in donations. Bormann had personal control over it and used at least some of it as a slush fund for Nazi party activities. As the holder of the purse strings, had a certain amount of power over other leading Nazis. As Germany’s war fortunes waned, it became famously corrupt. Nazi officials extorted money from citizens, issuing pins for donors and putting pressure on those not wearing the pins. They apparently used the funds to support their lifestyles as the rest of the population suffered. When a Nazi staff car went by in the later days of the war, citizens would mutter, “there goes the WinterHilfe”.

There was a joke going around Germany concerning two Nazi “Bonzen” who were taking a stroll through a park when one of them noticed a 50 RM note which someone had dropped in the gutter. Said one, picking up the banknote:”I’ll donate that to the Winter Help campaign.” Said the other: “Why do it the long way around?”

One of the fascinating tactics of the Nazis was to create parallel governmental structures to both make up for the deficiencies of the existing government and also to challenge the power of the existing government. Iran funded similar enterprises all over the middle east. The Black Panthers also attempted this, with programs ranging from school breakfasts to a militia. The WinterHilfe was a great example of the scary side of parallel governments. That is, they operate with no oversight as the WinterHilfe apparently did.

References:
Scholarly paper on Nazi privatization:
http://www.ub.edu/irea/working_papers/2006/200607.pdf
Piece about Martin Bormann:
http://www.animalfarm.org/mb/2.shtml

an alternative point of view from the axis history forum:
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=59609&start=0#p536617

I notice there is no wikipedia article about the WinterHilfe.

I have a nice, short bike route that takes me through some woods in Lauderdale, the U of M experimental fields and the fairgrounds. The ice and snow make everything into a technical challenge. The fat studded tires make one mile seem like two. The balaclava sometimes limits the available oxygen and makes me see stars. A pair of tire tracks across an unplowed parking lot provide a route as long as you can stay on a six inch wide track. A packed and frozen snow drift that supports me and my bike really clears the mind. A snow drift that supports my bike but not me can cause what we used to call a “raunch” when I stop and put my feet down. Ski goggles prevent one eyeball from getting frozen up inside my head.

We’ve been through many fundraising efforts. We’ve collected cans, magazines, pop tops, even cars, but the German school is collecting quarters today. Genius! Each day is a different coin. The children have scoured our couch, dressers and car for coins all week. This week is cultural week, or kulturwoch, focusing on Africa. Among the activities are visiting the nearby Somali charter school, Dugsi Academy, for lunch and having the Somali students over for lunch. The cash is for the Heifer Project. They are buying cows for a village in Tanzania.

I’ve been watching a lot of movies starring Naomi Watts lately. Most recently, 21 Grams with Sean Penn and Benicio Del Torro. Though it isn’t exactly a joyous experience, Watts is great in this movie and shows her range. She just about burns off Sean Penn’s eyebrows in one intense scene. I’m always amazed by her new facial contortions. The movie is challenging for two reasons. One, forces you to look at death, and two, it scrambles around the time sequence, causing the viewer to get very concerned with figuring out how the current scene at fits in with the rest of the movie. I’m afraid such effort is wasted.

I also watched Eastern Promises, which was a simple and violent movie. Viggo, as usual, kills a bunch of folks, except this time he does it in the nude. For comic relief, he speaks in a clipped Russian accent. Naomi Watts wasn’t particularly expressive. Miss Piggy could have filled out that role just as well.

I also watched Persons Unknown and Stay recently. I didn’t like Stay all that much, though it had creepy reality problems. Now that I think of it, they were the exact same reality problems as in Jacob’s ladder. Persons Unknown was a nifty little drama about broken people. She plays a vulnerable and suspicious girl who immediately stands out as the one person in a field of creeps worth saving. She helps perpetrate a half-assed scam. She is kind of expressionless through most of the movie but has a good scene at the end. For me, this movie was the start of her career.

In the past, I’ve blogged about the role of her face in I Heart Huckabees and of course, she is fantastic in Mulholland Drive. I get the idea that her acting method is to pretend her face is a Mazarati.

On the way from Netflix is Ned Kelly and The Painted Veil.

I see INFLATION. I think it is likely that China and others will be less willing and able to loan us money in the coming year as their economy sours and our fiscal policy worries them.

If this happens, the U.S. will start having a hard time financing our debt load, our bailout and stimulus packages, our military, and whatever else might come up. When governments find themselves in this position, they start printing money. So, during and after 2010, we will start to see some real inflation. Once inflation gets a foothold, it forms a feedback loop that is hard to break without raising interest rates and slowing the economy further.
Inflation will be palatable to the majority, I would guess, because our people, in general, owe. They owe on their college, on their homes, on consumer debt. States will owe money to the Feds and businesses will owe money to their investors. The US will owe money to the rest of the world. Those in debt love inflation. Those with savings will get hurt. Inflation is a big tax on people who have been prudent with their money. Inflation is the meanest, sneakiest and most efficient way to redistribute wealth and I predict 2010 will be the year of inflation. First, though, 2009 will fool everyone by being the year of deflation. The deflation will be enough to make everyone stop worrying about inflation.

Facercise from Future Schlock on Vimeo.

This was surreal to me:

Part II

found on Cynical-C blog

If you want to make a memorable impression or provide a unique punctuation to a statement, it is a good idea to swing a heavy gob of keys out on the end of one of those zippy retractable key chains. I remember every detail of every conversation I’ve ever had with someone swinging one of those things. For a really important point, you can swing the thing around in TWO great circles and then zip it up. They’re like yo-yos, except you can have them almost anywhere.

I set off before sunrise for another ride with Hiawatha Cyclery. Once again I busted my bum getting over there on time and once again I arrived with plenty of time to spare. For future reference, I need 30 minutes to get there, not one hour, even on my single speed mountain bike. There were 10 guys and we rode to Maria’s over on Franklin ave. I had a couple of corn pancakes that I want to try and reproduce some time. Hint: It is better to order one of these and want more than to order two and feel too full of them. Trust me on that. I did something permanent to my appetite there. The side streets were not so much slushy as oatmealy with dangerous humps of black ice hiding under the oatmeal on some streets. One of our number wiped out on this.

After the restaurant, Jim took us on a windy route near Mt. Curve drive and Lake of the Isles followed by a grim ride against the wind on the Greenway. After I peeled of from the rest of the lads, I crossed the lake street bridge and rode the east river road to the railroad overpass. I was tired of pedaling, so I climbed up the hill there, pretty much using my bike as an ice pick and struggled, grabbing branches and roots, to the rail bed, where I rode along a road next to the rails, where melt water had pooled and then froze. This was better than humps and oatmeal. My legs are still thawing. Even after a hot shower, there are still cold spots on my thighs.

I rode over to Hiawatha Cyclery yesterday to go on their annual new years day ride. I really knocked myself out the first few miles, trying to get there on time, but once I rested up in the store, I was feeling pretty good. All 14 of us stopped at the Hard Times Cafe. I looked around the cafe at the books people were reading. Very light fare. There was a guy in the corner, looking like he was suffering, trying to read Marcuse or something, but he was reading World According to Garp. Another goth chick was in the other corner reading an Asimov book. The woman with a chain string from her ear lobe to a hole in her lip and wearing a button that said, “What the fuck are you looking at, dick nose?” was reading Bridges of Madison County of all things. If you are going to sit in a cafe like that, dressed like that, you should at least try and read something more threatening or ponderous. The last time I was in that shop it was called The Urban Peasant. I looked at some punk the wrong way and he smacked some small bag containing a stone attached to a rope into the wall above my head. I said, “are you trying to communicate with me?” and he hissed at me. I’m feeling all violent now just thinking about it. My company on this trip was much more enjoyable and there was much laughter. The city was warming up yesterday, at least to the point where all those ice melting chemicals we’ve been pouring on the roads for the last month can start working. The main streets were very slushy. It wasn’t until I broke off from the group and headed home via a railroad access road, with its rutted ice and protection from sun and salt, that I was on some solid ice that tested my Nokians. That was exhilarating.

some pics of the ride at the Hiawatha Cyclery site.