And on we go....

You know this one.

A CDU-convened panel in Germany has "called for an end to nostalgia about East Germany." Well, good luck.

I'd like to call for an end to self-satisfied parliamentary panels. But I think we'd both end up having about the same level of success.

There's a kind of tiring inevitability about this kind of thing. You know: young CDU members have started an anti-ostalgie brigade. "She agreed with social scientist Schroeder that unemployment and economic deprivation should not be an excuse to paint a glossy picture of life in East Germany." "We have to honor their achievements in adapting to a completely different environment."

Etc. Etc.

Social scientists should not be an excuse to trundle out the same old garbage, I say. The report pulls off the familiar move of pointing toward "economic deprivation" and "unemployment," then wandering off in another direction entirely as if these idiots from the chancellor's party weren't fundamental to that problem.

(Pic via Flickr)