patrick.net

Patrick says

Another good German naming rule:

When it comes to surnames, German law states that a child must take on their father’s last name unless there is a legal reason why this cannot be done.

Living this now. I think it's an awful idea depending on the countries laws with regards to kids. It's been an absolute nightmare with my nephew. This mainly is for out of wedlock kids. If the biological dad is a deadbeat I have no issue with the mom taking the last name on the kids birth certificate. You got 9 months to think about it. My sister in law did not listen to our advice and messed up hugely.

We now have to get notarized letters from a baby daddy in prison to get things done because he's on the birth certificate. SIL can't drive. Getting this all done can take 10 hours and a bunch of driving. Passport was the worst and we have renewal coming up in the next year.

My situation is rare, but we can't even go to a restaurant in most places without getting stared at because he's black with 4 white people. Last name wouldn't make a difference there, but with travel that 10 hours goes down to 1 and we don't get accused of trafficking. My SIL could have just signed off on it without baby daddy.

If married I do think the kid(s) should take the fathers last name. If not married, the mom's should always use their last name in my opinion and keep baby daddy off the BC. It's significantly easier to change the last name once you're married for the child. You'll know after month 3-5 if you can put a ring on it. You'll see the real chick you screwed.

https://www.eugyppius.com/p/the-european-union-is-paying-ngos

On our supersecret terminal is a truly insane contract concluded in 2022 between the EU Commission and a non-governmental organisation known as ClientEarth. In this instrument, the Commission agreed to pay ClientEarth €350,000 in exchange for specific activism in Germany. This included the things you’d expect; for example, the NGO pledged to cooperate with the environmentaloid scene and to help stage civic protests and climate camps. But ClientEarth also sold the more nefarious service of waging lawfare against coal-fired German power-plants, and this in the immediate aftermath of the German energy crisis. The Commission specifically wanted ClientEarth to “increase the financial and legal risk of the ownership and operation of [coal-fired] power plants,” by targeting their emissions and water use permits in court. They were to carry out their work without the knowledge of the German government, effectively weaponising our own courts against us.

The ClientEarth agreement was but one of many such contracts concluded between the EU Commission and various NGOs for similar purposes. Altogether, the Commission dispensed over €15 million in taxpayer funds in 2022, all of it for activist and lobbying activities in 2023. That may not sound like a lot, but we must remember, first, that NGOs are by and large an extremely cheap way to influence public discourse; and, second, that Welt am Sonntag has had access only to contracts concluded in this one year. These general tactics are thought to go back to 2017 at least and they are presumed to be ongoing.

https://www.eugyppius.com/p/stefan-niehoff-the-german-pensioner

Niehoff became famous in late 2024, when police raided his house because he’d retweeted a very dangerous meme suggesting that then-Economics Minister Robert Habeck of the Greens might be a moron.

https://x.com/IchBinsGarNet

There's a German shampoo called Schwartzkopf (black head) I think. So this is a pun on that logo, with "weak head", meaning stupid.