Clever Marketing or Chauvinistic Mayor

Gallus and Black Forest have a completely different meaning in Scotland when the words are strung together than when they refer to the Mayor of a German town.


However, in the real world, Triberg is a town in the Black Forest area of Germany and their Mayor is called Gallus Strobel. He is in the news cause he has set out separate parking areas for men and women.....

When you open a can of worms, you can't close the tin immediately, you have to let some wriggle away first.

His idea is wider parking spaces for women in areas that are better lit. Spaces for men are closer to concrete pillars and can only be reversed into. Now, depending on how this was marketed, this could be a great idea. However, he followed it up by saying that men were better at parking than women.

"In the new car park we found that two place were not rectangular, at an angle to the road and placed between walls and pillars; that makes parking difficult so we decided to allocate them to men," the 58 year-old mayor told Germany's Spiegel magazine.

Here's the bit where Mayor Strobel has tried to put the lid back on the worm can by adding, "there were great women drivers, and all women were welcome to try and park in the men-only spaces."


As a marketing ploy, this has worked brilliantly as now I know that Triberg is a town in the Black Forest and Gallus Strobel is the Mayor. I also know that being of the weaker sex, I can park my huge Audi A6 Quattro in a nice well lit area and not concern myself about my lack of driving skill.

What I will concern myself with though is that while nice Mayor Strobel has catered for women who lack driving skill he has completely ignored the requirements of the guys who can't even drive a hot nail into a snowball. But who am I to argue? If someone wants to give me a nice big parking spot while some dude wants to show off his hand/eye coordination in an area half the size, I'll happily watch the entertainment.

Oh well! You can't keep everyone happy I suppose.








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1% OF THE AMERICAN DREAM

Though the phrase ‘The American Dream’ died out quite some time ago, the mindset it instilled remains woven into the fabric of American society.  The American dream, that once made this country great, is fast becoming just another page in a history book, slowly slipping from our memories it’s now an opaque belief that is in peril of crossing over the line, from legendary into the realm of myth.

The American Opportunity

The American Dream was the idea that all men were created equally, and that everyone, regardless of color, sex, age, or social class, should be afforded the chance to live a prosperous life.  It was a revolutionary principle in civilization, as it effectively cast off the shackles of the social class system.  No longer was a person bound to a certain quality of life by their bloodline or skin tone, but only by their personal abilities, and their abilities to define themselves and work toward achieving a richer fuller life.

Regardless of what either political party says, the disappearance of this mindset isn’t an issue of Americans becoming freeloaders with a sense of entitlement, or jealously toward the successful; it has and always will be about the keyword in The American Dream…opportunity.

The 99% vs. The 1%

The deep seeded unrest on the streets of America has been smoldering for decades, and the embers of injustice are beginning to re-ignite that American spirit.  The 99% have finally been stripped of the only thing they wanted in the first place…opportunity.

The 1%, the obscenely wealthy business owners and corporations, have been entrusted by both Republican and Democratic polices, containing copious tax breaks and subsidies exclusive to the 1%, to provide that opportunity for their fellow Americans to realize their potential and strive for a prosperous life…the 1% have abused this privilege…they have failed us.

Financial Slavery

Instead of reinvesting in the communities that enriched their lives, instead of giving the benefit of the doubt, instead of encouraging others to reach for the stars, the 1% has systematically depleted this nation of opportunity in order to keep the prosperity for themselves.  Piece by piece the 1% has dismantled the American Dream through financial slavery by controlling the flow of money and controlling the price and existence of labor.

Left and right, come together as Americans

This isn’t an issue for Rightwing or Leftwing preconceptions or stubborn viewpoints, this is an issue for ALL Americans, to come together and stop the descending spiral into social and economical madness, to restore the virtuous revelation upon which this nation was founded…that everyone is treated as equals, and that they all deserve a chance to achieve a full and prosperous life.  

Whether it be the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ movement, or the ‘Tea Party,’ the American people are beginning to wake up and are starting to exercise their democratic right to make a change.

There has come a point in every great civilizations history when the line is drawn between what is, and what is not an acceptable state of affairs.  The civilized nation is America, the affair is the death of opportunity, and the line has been crossed.

The battle to reclaim the ‘Land of Opportunity’ has begun.

Article by: Phil McCarron