La Posada was a fine place to stay and the dinners in the Turquoise Room were transcendental. Thank heavens I'm not so rich as to eat like that all the time, because I'd be suffering gout and have to purchase an entire new, larger-sized, wardrobe. Winslow itself has a few hopeful businesspeople with some very nice establishments along the main drag, but the town is frankly desolate and rather depressing. It's too bad, really, because walking around it's possible to imagine it as a vibrant, high desert escape for Phoenicians and as an interesting historical destination for people headed cross-country. Sadly, an atmosphere of loss and desperation hangs over it.
My money's still on Berlin.
Meanwhile, Bob Gates has become the new Secretary of Defense, echoing Russia's penchant for shifting former KGB officers into policy positions in the executive branch. In strategic and operational terms, I have to applaud this move for two reasons. One, the obvious one, is that it finally jettisons the dessicated carcass of Donald Rumsfeld along with his atrophied brain which managed to direct US Special Forces to thwart not Al Qaeda operations but rather those of our very own CIA. I would assume that Mr. Gates will be able to straighten out or fire the remaining incompetents at the Defense Department responsible for such idiocies. If nothing else, he will be able to establish contacts within the CIA so they can be warned in advance of potential Rumsfeld-legacy disasters-in-waiting.
The big question, of course, is if Gates is the real hitman for the Baker Commission, aka Iraq Study Group, since he was a member and is now in a position close enough to Chimpie to put the knife in, figuratively speaking. Is the plan to have him spike Chimpie's bedtime hot chocolate with something that will unhinge him even further so we will all witness the on-air meltdown that will trigger a popularly supported coup against Chimpie and Cheney?
Farfetched? Perhaps. But with Bush's continuing refusal to even give lip service to his father's handpicked intervention squad, I imagine that they are to the point of reaching for some kind of final option, and a CIA man at DoD is positioned perfectly to supervise the takedown.
If I'm right, you all owe me beers--Pilsner Urquells, please.
8 comments:
"Sadly, an atmosphere of loss and desperation hangs over it."
you could have been describing Berlin as well...but it is probably a sexier loss and desperation...certainly a moister one...
Sexier than Winslow, AZ? Come on!
Olaf, I'm always ready for a good conspiracy theory, but this is a tough sell... I'm in. If you win, I'll buy a whole round of fancy beers at the wine loft.
To turn Berlin into a scene as desolate as Winslow would take nuclear weapons...and Berlin would still be sexier...and moister.
But it's nice to see people trying anyway. Who knows--if a town like Madrid, New Mexico, can be turned into an artists' colony, Winslow might not be such a long shot. Get your real estate speculation going before the market heats up. At least in this country, there are ALWAYS greater fools in the land spec market.
MB, you know I'll be drinkin' them big bottles of Belgian beer. Two of those and you can make me do anything.
William Thirteen--Jeez! I just saw on Squirm that property taxes in Berlin are going to 22.7%!!! Is that based on assessments, or selling price, or what? Who the hell can afford to own property?
Cripes--considering the asking prices for most of these places, I can see no reason not to rent.
interestingly enough, most people do rent over here. buying property just isn't as popular here as it is in the US. i think that is partially due to the fact that in the US you always want a big asset you can sell in your last years so as to beat the slow death of poverty. i was speaking to an american expat friend here that pointed out that his rent (for his large centrally located apartment housing his family of four) is actually less than the interest would be on a new apartment! so which is the better bargain... a couple of other points - here the banks expect you to have at least 20% cash to put down, and if you sell before ten years there are high capital gains taxes...of course the taxes rose to 22.7% but I have no idea what that actually means. the percentages are based on assessments that were done in 1964 (in the west) and 1935 (in the east) so you can see that it would be misguided to compare it to the US where the locals authorities try to reassess properties every twenty minutes.... if you are serious about buying i would check with a local real estate type...
William Thirteen--thanks. Given that Germany has universal health care and a real pension system, I guess retirees don't have fear a descent into homelessness once the medical, long-term care, and death industries bleed their savings and assets for the stockholders in said industries. Here we get brainwashed into thinking that the only barrier to misery in old age is to accumulate as much wealth as possible, which in turn means living a life of terrible stress about never accumulating enough, which in turn poisons one's outlook on life. We live in terror of politicians destroying Social Security, a loss of health care, our company pensions (if any) getting plundered by corporate raiders, and a predatory economy that jettisons anyone who can't be exploited any longer.
And I'm one of the lucky ones! (I officially am semi-retired now--whatever that means).
Social democracy as practiced in most of Europe works quite nicely, I think, but the average American is more frighted of the word "social" than the harsh future that awaits anyone not wealthy enough to die before the money runs out.
I'll rent when we move to Berlin (if I ever convince the spousal unit it's time). Owning sounds like a real puzzle and burden.
Again, thanks for your info. Although I'm partial to Wilmersdorf, my wife's cousin lived in Pankow in a very cozy place, although that location seemed pretty pricey compared to Friedrichshain or Wedding. I assume Mitte and Prenzlauerberg are now too hip to be affordable.
that depends on what you compare the prices to. i moved here from DC which had gone the way of many cities during the real estate bubble and turned the affordable apartments in the inner city into pricey loft living spaces for repugnantcans and demoncraps. so my apartment in mitte seems quite affordable to me. 50+ qm for 500 warm (that means with heating, water, trash service etc) on the top floor of a completely renovated building (with a balcony!). quiet street a block away from a strip so hip it hurts. it seems to me that the neighborhoods here continue to stay quite mixed even as they are renovated. it definitely isn't the hothouse of speculation and renovation that has ravaged the US. Speculators here are almost always disappointed! check out http://www.immobilienscout24.de/ for comparisons.
Here in Europe there are big problems with the welfare states - the same problems social security sees really - a demographic shortfall - the system doesn't have enough income to pay for the outgo - but just the idea that they are committed to the idea the it is in society's interest to ensure that all citizens have their minimal needs met changes the equation drastically. the people here seem less afraid at a deep level - in the US there is always the threat of falling behind, of falling through the cracks - and this has deep psychological implications. We americans have to run fast, hopefully faster than our neighbors, got to get ahead, make sure we get there first because we secretly know that there isn't enough to go round, that our wellbeing depends on getting ours at the expense of someone else. The long term side effects of this cultural stratagem are manifest in our broken bodies and battered souls. They definitely have problems over here as well - but they are different problems than those i was raised with and somehow don't offend my sensibilities in the same way....
William, thanks for all the intel.
I don't mean to romanticize Europe, and Berlin in particular, as some utopian reality, but you put your finger on the one thing that is so apparent when I'm there--the absence of fundamental fear. In particular, the last six years in this country have had no theme but fear beaten by the administration and media. Consequently, there is almost a national exhaustion and a national fatalism that is unlike anything I've ever seen.
Moving back over to Berlin, or somewhere in Europe may not be "practical" but I know that I sure feel a hell of a lot better when I'm there.
Thanks again. Sounds like you have a terrific place there.
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