Okt 2009
Amok im Kopf
12/10/09 17:16 Abgelegt unter:
Psychologie | Pädagogik
Der
Schulspiegel hat am 9.10. ein Interview mit dem amerikanischen Psychologen Peter
Langman veröffentlicht.
In seiner aktuellen Publikation "Amok im Kopf" untersucht er zehn
"school shootings in den USA, u.a. die Fälle Kip Kinkel und Eric
Harris.
Seine Ergebnisse klingen spektakulär...dass die Jugendlichen, die diese Taten begehen, "psychotisch" oder "psychopathisch" sind, wäre mir jetzt so gar nicht in den Sinn gekommen...
Allerdings sagt er auch Wahres: Er stellt fest, dass sowohl Wachleute wie Überwachungskameras gegen Amokläufer absolut sinnlos sind und antwortet auf die Frage, ob Killerspiele zu verbieten seien nur, dass zukünftige Täter dann eben auf andere Medien ausweichen würden...das würde ich voll unterschreiben..
cd
Seine Ergebnisse klingen spektakulär...dass die Jugendlichen, die diese Taten begehen, "psychotisch" oder "psychopathisch" sind, wäre mir jetzt so gar nicht in den Sinn gekommen...
Allerdings sagt er auch Wahres: Er stellt fest, dass sowohl Wachleute wie Überwachungskameras gegen Amokläufer absolut sinnlos sind und antwortet auf die Frage, ob Killerspiele zu verbieten seien nur, dass zukünftige Täter dann eben auf andere Medien ausweichen würden...das würde ich voll unterschreiben..
cd
Germany's apology for Westerwelle's behaviour
06/10/09 22:17 Abgelegt unter:
Posted in
English
This
post goes out to the whole United Kingdom:
Yes, the most unfortunate thing about Guido Westerwelle is that he does not enjoy skydiving like his predecessor, but we do have the ultimate apology...three words: Mercedes Brabus SL
Jeremy Clarkson will confirm we're not that bad after all...
cd
Yes, the most unfortunate thing about Guido Westerwelle is that he does not enjoy skydiving like his predecessor, but we do have the ultimate apology...three words: Mercedes Brabus SL
Jeremy Clarkson will confirm we're not that bad after all...
cd
The reasons why Germany wants Westerwelle to be their foreign minister
06/10/09 15:28 Abgelegt unter:
Posted in
English
Alright,
time for another semi-political rant in English.
Many may have noticed we held some elections recently...not necessarily to make things any better, but rather because Germany got tired of complaining about the old coalition running our government, so we wanted a new coalition to complain about for a change...
The first new reason to complain about them is of course a man named Guido Westerwelle. Considering the fact he is the designated foreign minister for the new coalition composed of the Christian Democratic Uselessness and the Fully Democratic Pandemonium he already showed he knows how to handle international business by annoying the BBC. If you'd like to see what happened, check youtube for the video. And you might also want to watch a splendid display of foreign language skill.
Many people seem to wonder why on earth the new coalition chose him to be the new foreign minister if his language skills are obviously insufficient...there is a simple explanation:
I have already written about how the German government works and this case is no exception.
Guido Westerwelle is a fine example to prove my "shit floats" argument. Yes, he's arrogant...yes, he's a megalomaniac and yes, his English would not even get him a job at McDonald's...that's why he became a politician instead.
So why are we going to make him the foreign minister?
1. The foreign minister's main job is traveling the world and negotiating things....bottom line is: Westerwelle will be AWAY most of the time, hence he can't screw up internal matters as bad as he could if he was around all day
2. He has a doctorate in law...seriously...if you had the chance to get at least one lawyer out of the country for the next four years, you would take it, wouldn't you?
3. He's gay...not only will that repel the charms of Berlusconi and Sarkozy...we also figured that with Merkel at the helm and Westerwelle at her side, we have to half men running the show which might just be as good as one real man...
4. If Merkel cannot have the better hairdo, she at least wants to be the one looking more competent...
5. His English is substandard and while the parties keep selling Germany's long history of language deficiencies (Hans Dietrich Genscher is rumored not to have been able to speak any English when he became foreign minister and you sure do painfully remember Helmut Kohl's and Gerhard Schroeder's foreign language skills...) as a sign of "cultural identity", I'm not too worried about that problem...since Schroeder has long joined Gasprom, we do not really need a foreign minister who speaks English as long as we have a chancellor who speaks Russian...
My message to Mr. Westerwelle: If you want to get away with crappy English in a position for which this particular language is key, you'd have to have the personality and political skill of Helmut Schmidt, Willy Brandt or Konrad Adenauer...
As I already said about the German idea of a "Beamter"...incompetence is not a reason to get fired...
But I must add that I am equally disappointed by the BBC...I personally would also have found it quite irritating to be asked to reply to a question in English, but still I would at least have replied IN English to make it clear that the language spoken during a press conference is usually the hosting country's rather than showing such a nasty lack of diplomatic skill during one of my first public appearances after the elections...yet I would have expected the BBC to send a person more appropriate for the job abroad...what is he going to report about from a German press conference if he doesn't speak the language? Had it been CNN, I would not have been surprised by poorly skilled reporters...but the BBC...that's just sad...
I'll just send him a letter and offer him free lessons, just to spice up my cv...might actually work...
All cynicism aside, I do see a brighter future for Germany...I will love to go to the UK again and again within the next years...just as I noticed people in England stopped asking me about Hitler after George W. Bush had been elected, with Westerwelle I'm sure I will no longer hear any more jokes about Angela Merkel...
As I said..."poets and thinkers"...
cd
Many may have noticed we held some elections recently...not necessarily to make things any better, but rather because Germany got tired of complaining about the old coalition running our government, so we wanted a new coalition to complain about for a change...
The first new reason to complain about them is of course a man named Guido Westerwelle. Considering the fact he is the designated foreign minister for the new coalition composed of the Christian Democratic Uselessness and the Fully Democratic Pandemonium he already showed he knows how to handle international business by annoying the BBC. If you'd like to see what happened, check youtube for the video. And you might also want to watch a splendid display of foreign language skill.
Many people seem to wonder why on earth the new coalition chose him to be the new foreign minister if his language skills are obviously insufficient...there is a simple explanation:
I have already written about how the German government works and this case is no exception.
Guido Westerwelle is a fine example to prove my "shit floats" argument. Yes, he's arrogant...yes, he's a megalomaniac and yes, his English would not even get him a job at McDonald's...that's why he became a politician instead.
So why are we going to make him the foreign minister?
1. The foreign minister's main job is traveling the world and negotiating things....bottom line is: Westerwelle will be AWAY most of the time, hence he can't screw up internal matters as bad as he could if he was around all day
2. He has a doctorate in law...seriously...if you had the chance to get at least one lawyer out of the country for the next four years, you would take it, wouldn't you?
3. He's gay...not only will that repel the charms of Berlusconi and Sarkozy...we also figured that with Merkel at the helm and Westerwelle at her side, we have to half men running the show which might just be as good as one real man...
4. If Merkel cannot have the better hairdo, she at least wants to be the one looking more competent...
5. His English is substandard and while the parties keep selling Germany's long history of language deficiencies (Hans Dietrich Genscher is rumored not to have been able to speak any English when he became foreign minister and you sure do painfully remember Helmut Kohl's and Gerhard Schroeder's foreign language skills...) as a sign of "cultural identity", I'm not too worried about that problem...since Schroeder has long joined Gasprom, we do not really need a foreign minister who speaks English as long as we have a chancellor who speaks Russian...
My message to Mr. Westerwelle: If you want to get away with crappy English in a position for which this particular language is key, you'd have to have the personality and political skill of Helmut Schmidt, Willy Brandt or Konrad Adenauer...
As I already said about the German idea of a "Beamter"...incompetence is not a reason to get fired...
But I must add that I am equally disappointed by the BBC...I personally would also have found it quite irritating to be asked to reply to a question in English, but still I would at least have replied IN English to make it clear that the language spoken during a press conference is usually the hosting country's rather than showing such a nasty lack of diplomatic skill during one of my first public appearances after the elections...yet I would have expected the BBC to send a person more appropriate for the job abroad...what is he going to report about from a German press conference if he doesn't speak the language? Had it been CNN, I would not have been surprised by poorly skilled reporters...but the BBC...that's just sad...
I'll just send him a letter and offer him free lessons, just to spice up my cv...might actually work...
All cynicism aside, I do see a brighter future for Germany...I will love to go to the UK again and again within the next years...just as I noticed people in England stopped asking me about Hitler after George W. Bush had been elected, with Westerwelle I'm sure I will no longer hear any more jokes about Angela Merkel...
As I said..."poets and thinkers"...
cd
Neues Theme, neues Glück
06/10/09 03:10 Abgelegt unter:
Allgemeines
So,
das Blog sieht nun komplett anders aus...ich habe es endlich
hinbekommen, die Breite dynamisch zu machen...weniger bunt,
vielleicht etwas düster...aber das vorherige war doch irgendwie
nix...
cd
cd
Expertenkreis Amok fordert im Abschlussbericht Verbot von Killerspielen und Paintball
02/10/09 14:19 Abgelegt unter:
Pädagogik | Psychologie
Am
25. September hat der Expertenkreis Amok des Landes Baden
Württemberg seine Ergebnisse veröffentlicht. Der Rat wurde nach der
Tat von Winnenden einberufen.
Ich habe nur kurz reingeschaut, wirklich spektakulär sind die Erkenntnisse aber nicht...der Rat empfiehlt in diesem Dokument neben schärferer Regulierung der Medienberichterstattung über weitere Taten auch (natürlich) das vielzitierte Killerspielverbot, die 55. Empfehlung (Seite 55) lautet:
"Strafbarkeit von Gewaltspielen gemäß § 131 StGB ausdehnen"
aber nicht nur das, das Verbot soll auf Gotcha bzw. Paintball und ähnliche Spiele im echten Leben ausgedehnt werden. Empfehlung Nr. 56 lautet "Realistische, tötungsähnliche Spiele verbieten".
Ich bin noch nicht ganz durch, aber größtenteils enttäuscht...war vorher alles schon klar, die übliche Hexenjad eben...und dafür hat man nun wieder ordentlich Steuergelder rausgehauen...
Der Bericht ist in voller Länge im Downloadbereich oder direkt von der Seite des Landes Baden Württemberg zu bekommen.
Die Presseerklärung des Landes zur Veröffentlichung ist hier zu finden.
cd
Ich habe nur kurz reingeschaut, wirklich spektakulär sind die Erkenntnisse aber nicht...der Rat empfiehlt in diesem Dokument neben schärferer Regulierung der Medienberichterstattung über weitere Taten auch (natürlich) das vielzitierte Killerspielverbot, die 55. Empfehlung (Seite 55) lautet:
"Strafbarkeit von Gewaltspielen gemäß § 131 StGB ausdehnen"
aber nicht nur das, das Verbot soll auf Gotcha bzw. Paintball und ähnliche Spiele im echten Leben ausgedehnt werden. Empfehlung Nr. 56 lautet "Realistische, tötungsähnliche Spiele verbieten".
Ich bin noch nicht ganz durch, aber größtenteils enttäuscht...war vorher alles schon klar, die übliche Hexenjad eben...und dafür hat man nun wieder ordentlich Steuergelder rausgehauen...
Der Bericht ist in voller Länge im Downloadbereich oder direkt von der Seite des Landes Baden Württemberg zu bekommen.
Die Presseerklärung des Landes zur Veröffentlichung ist hier zu finden.
cd
German School Shootings: 1 - Robert Steinhaeuser (Erfurt 2002) in a nutshell
01/10/09 00:29 Abgelegt unter:
Posted in
English
Alright,
since killing sprees have become all the rage (literally...) here
in Germany and since this is a major research field for me and also
because most of the available material is in German, I decided to
drop the "Dude, you bent my tower" series for a while and start a
"Brief history of the killing spree" instead.
While the cases of Tim Kretschmer and Georg R. are far more recent, the Steinhaeuser case is still widely considered "the original school shooting" here. That's why I start with him.
The following information is taken from the final report of the official investigation conducted by the state of Thuringia. The unabridged report in German language is available for download here.
On the 26th of April 2002 the former pupil Robert Steinhaeuser (original spelling: Robert Steinhäuser) armed himself with a Glock 17 9mm semiautomatic pistol and a Mossberg 590 pump-action shotgun and entered the Johannes Gutenberg Gymnasium in Erfurt, Eastern Germany to take revenge for having been expelled.
He had faked a doctor's certificate to circumvent an examination but was caught and kicked from the shool by the headmistress (US English: principal).
He shot twelve teachers, a secretary, two pupils and a policeman before killing himself in room 111 with a contact-shot to the temple using the Glock after one of the teachers had locked the door behind him. He did not fire a single shot with the shotgun.
As a sports marksman he was licensed to buy and own both weapons and ammunition of the above type.
On his killing spree he carried a total of roughly 110 rounds of 9mm Luger in five clips and 19 twelve-gauge shotgun shells made by Baschieri&Bellagri (9 in the gun, 10 more in his pocket) with him. Furthermore he had a Cordura-holster for the Glock strapped to his thigh, was dressed all in black and wore a black ski mask and hearing protection.
In one of the restrooms on the first floor the police found a stash of 142 12-gauge shells, 338 rounds of 9mm Luger, a large clip filled with 31 rounds, a small clip filled with 17 rounds of 9mm Luger, a machete and a diver's knife.
72 bullet casings were found in the building, they had all been fired from Steinhaeuser's Glock 17 except for one which had been fired by one of the policemen after Steinhaeuser had opened fire on them in the schoolyard.
While a lot of information circulating the internet is correct, I'd like to clarify some things here:
1. NOT A SINGLE SHOT was fired from the Mossberg.
2. The dead policeman was not shot inside the building when he "stuck his head through the door"!
He and his parter arrived second on the scene and observed their colleague firing a shot towards the schoolyard. The victim Go. and his partner waited a short while ("...a while...how long I cannot tell at all...", p. 112) before proceeding towards the building. On the way Go. was still busy putting on his body armor when he was struck in the neck by a bullet fired from a "window almost directly above him" (p. 112). When he fell, he lost the body armor (it was the type one closes at the side, at least the back part "flipped to the side again", p. 112) and was hit by three more shots. The fatal one went straight through his chest, from the fact that the fatal bullet was found in his clothing, the investigators assumed the bullet "hit him lying down".
3. Due to a book which was published by Ines Geipel after the killing spree ("Fuer heute reicht's", = "That's enough for today", Steinhaeusers last words to the teacher who then locked him into room 111. When Steinhaeuser walked up to him and pointed the gun in his face, the teacher, Mr. Heise said: "You can shoot me now..." ) a lot of rumours spread in the German media that Steinhauser had taken the infamous "Tilidin", an opioid-based painkiller (a prescription drug in Germany and Switzerland, but illegal in the USA) which is said to be used by various gangs before acts of gang violence. The drug causes rage when overdosed while at the same time it makes the aggressors "almost immune to pain". Well...it's a PAINkiller after all...
Whether the attributed effects are true in general is a different story, but regarding Steinhaeuser the post-mortem toxscreen was clean. No alcohol, no drugs in his blood (p. 60). They found some weed in his jacket, though...
So the Tilidin-story is clearly a hoax. In the quoted interviews, friends of Steinhaeuser's admitted, they had "experimented" with various drugs, including Tilidin, LSD etc. The rumour hence is obviously "creative interpretation" which was then picked up by almost every German tabloid paper.
4. The reason for Steinhaeusers killing spree may not be as simple as it may appear to people unfamiliar with the German school system.
I. He was UNLAWFULLY expelled from the school! While faking a doctor's certificate to circumvent an examination is forgery, this alone would not have been enough to kick him out for good. The headmistress had commited an ultra vires action by expelling a first-time offender rather than just suspending him for a certain time.
II. After expulsion he was left with absolutely nothing in his hands. In 2002 the law in Thuringia required pupils who wanted an intermediate graduation certificate before moving on to higher education (see also: Fun Facts about Education in Germany) to take the necessary examinations at a school of the respective type.
While here in North-Rhine-Westfalia for example one only needs to have a certain average at the end of the tenth grade to be awarded the "Hauptschulabschluss" or "Realschulabschluss" regardless of whether they want to stay in school and go for the "Abitur" or leave, in Thuringia this was not the case at that time.
Steinhauser had attempted the "Realschulabschluss"-exam, but had failed. His only hope now was going on and passing the "Abitur". Not being a particularly good pupil, Steinhaeuser had had his doubts about whether he would make it.
The expulsion meant, he would not have had either of the possible certificates. Neither the "Realschulabschluss" nor the "Abitur". Basically a future employer would have treated him as if he had never been to school at all...
I think with this background in mind, the desperation in Steinhauser and the anger towards the school and the teachers who he blamed for his failure becomes a lot more understandable and imaginable.
That's enough for today....
cd
While the cases of Tim Kretschmer and Georg R. are far more recent, the Steinhaeuser case is still widely considered "the original school shooting" here. That's why I start with him.
The following information is taken from the final report of the official investigation conducted by the state of Thuringia. The unabridged report in German language is available for download here.
On the 26th of April 2002 the former pupil Robert Steinhaeuser (original spelling: Robert Steinhäuser) armed himself with a Glock 17 9mm semiautomatic pistol and a Mossberg 590 pump-action shotgun and entered the Johannes Gutenberg Gymnasium in Erfurt, Eastern Germany to take revenge for having been expelled.
He had faked a doctor's certificate to circumvent an examination but was caught and kicked from the shool by the headmistress (US English: principal).
He shot twelve teachers, a secretary, two pupils and a policeman before killing himself in room 111 with a contact-shot to the temple using the Glock after one of the teachers had locked the door behind him. He did not fire a single shot with the shotgun.
As a sports marksman he was licensed to buy and own both weapons and ammunition of the above type.
On his killing spree he carried a total of roughly 110 rounds of 9mm Luger in five clips and 19 twelve-gauge shotgun shells made by Baschieri&Bellagri (9 in the gun, 10 more in his pocket) with him. Furthermore he had a Cordura-holster for the Glock strapped to his thigh, was dressed all in black and wore a black ski mask and hearing protection.
In one of the restrooms on the first floor the police found a stash of 142 12-gauge shells, 338 rounds of 9mm Luger, a large clip filled with 31 rounds, a small clip filled with 17 rounds of 9mm Luger, a machete and a diver's knife.
72 bullet casings were found in the building, they had all been fired from Steinhaeuser's Glock 17 except for one which had been fired by one of the policemen after Steinhaeuser had opened fire on them in the schoolyard.
While a lot of information circulating the internet is correct, I'd like to clarify some things here:
1. NOT A SINGLE SHOT was fired from the Mossberg.
2. The dead policeman was not shot inside the building when he "stuck his head through the door"!
He and his parter arrived second on the scene and observed their colleague firing a shot towards the schoolyard. The victim Go. and his partner waited a short while ("...a while...how long I cannot tell at all...", p. 112) before proceeding towards the building. On the way Go. was still busy putting on his body armor when he was struck in the neck by a bullet fired from a "window almost directly above him" (p. 112). When he fell, he lost the body armor (it was the type one closes at the side, at least the back part "flipped to the side again", p. 112) and was hit by three more shots. The fatal one went straight through his chest, from the fact that the fatal bullet was found in his clothing, the investigators assumed the bullet "hit him lying down".
3. Due to a book which was published by Ines Geipel after the killing spree ("Fuer heute reicht's", = "That's enough for today", Steinhaeusers last words to the teacher who then locked him into room 111. When Steinhaeuser walked up to him and pointed the gun in his face, the teacher, Mr. Heise said: "You can shoot me now..." ) a lot of rumours spread in the German media that Steinhauser had taken the infamous "Tilidin", an opioid-based painkiller (a prescription drug in Germany and Switzerland, but illegal in the USA) which is said to be used by various gangs before acts of gang violence. The drug causes rage when overdosed while at the same time it makes the aggressors "almost immune to pain". Well...it's a PAINkiller after all...
Whether the attributed effects are true in general is a different story, but regarding Steinhaeuser the post-mortem toxscreen was clean. No alcohol, no drugs in his blood (p. 60). They found some weed in his jacket, though...
So the Tilidin-story is clearly a hoax. In the quoted interviews, friends of Steinhaeuser's admitted, they had "experimented" with various drugs, including Tilidin, LSD etc. The rumour hence is obviously "creative interpretation" which was then picked up by almost every German tabloid paper.
4. The reason for Steinhaeusers killing spree may not be as simple as it may appear to people unfamiliar with the German school system.
I. He was UNLAWFULLY expelled from the school! While faking a doctor's certificate to circumvent an examination is forgery, this alone would not have been enough to kick him out for good. The headmistress had commited an ultra vires action by expelling a first-time offender rather than just suspending him for a certain time.
II. After expulsion he was left with absolutely nothing in his hands. In 2002 the law in Thuringia required pupils who wanted an intermediate graduation certificate before moving on to higher education (see also: Fun Facts about Education in Germany) to take the necessary examinations at a school of the respective type.
While here in North-Rhine-Westfalia for example one only needs to have a certain average at the end of the tenth grade to be awarded the "Hauptschulabschluss" or "Realschulabschluss" regardless of whether they want to stay in school and go for the "Abitur" or leave, in Thuringia this was not the case at that time.
Steinhauser had attempted the "Realschulabschluss"-exam, but had failed. His only hope now was going on and passing the "Abitur". Not being a particularly good pupil, Steinhaeuser had had his doubts about whether he would make it.
The expulsion meant, he would not have had either of the possible certificates. Neither the "Realschulabschluss" nor the "Abitur". Basically a future employer would have treated him as if he had never been to school at all...
I think with this background in mind, the desperation in Steinhauser and the anger towards the school and the teachers who he blamed for his failure becomes a lot more understandable and imaginable.
That's enough for today....
cd