Black Forest Power

Proposal to come out of the deadlock: 1. Make your Brexit with or without deal. 2. Get promise from EU that Mr. John Bercow will become President of the European Commission if you return. 3. Hold a referendum about a Breturn.

The discussion going on here made me remember of an article I read in a leading Swiss newspaper lately. Therefore, I translated it into English and I think it might be interesting within two active topics, that’s why I will post it twice. Comment by Roman Bucheli in Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) 19.12.2018 What the hell is going on with the men? Is the man a discontinued model? Or has he simply not yet made the leap into the modern age? His attachment to outdated self-images is a symptom of a prolonged crisis. Where is David Cameron? Where did he go? No former British Prime Minister has made himself as invisible as the one who left the British with the Brexit mess. He believed in a brilliant political move, gambled and resigned, happy as it seemed. After me the deluge. Since then he is bored, it is said, and he writes, for a considerable sum, his memoirs. Maybe Cameron also squats in the souffle box at the pitiful spectacle of the “braggarts” that the British just have to watch and endure for quite a while to their own grief. Because on and behind the stage are his old buddies and opponents, now united in the choir of squallers, from Boris Johnson to Jeremy Corbyn, who currently know only one script: Theresa May roar and deride. It cannot be a coincidence that in the summer of 2016, when Cameron resigned after his blatant defeat (not having to pay for the pickle he got the country into), two women were ready for election to the party’s presidency. Theresa May finally prevailed without a ballot among the party members. Previously, one men after the other did not gear up to start (George Osborne) or prematurely out of the race (Boris Johnson). They have guessed that the Brexit negotiations with the EU would not make them win a potted plant. Theresa May did not shrink from that. To the brutal screenplay of this tragedy (which one would like to call tragicomic, if it would not be that much severe for the Brits) now belongs that the woman who pulled the hot chestnuts out of the fire in Brussels, must let her tell under contempt and laughter that unfortunately these are the wrong chestnuts. For sure, you could bet that the men who are shouting loudest today would not have made a better deal. One would like to say: Theresa May fought like a man, if the stereotype was not that much wrong in a double sense. She fought like a lioness and above all: like no man would have done. Namely in a hopeless situation. Every man, from Boris Johnson to Nigel Farage, would have referred to Ernest Hemingway: "But man is not made for defeat." No, men are not made for defeat, they can only be destroyed, according to Hemingway. So much heroism has been getting ridiculous at Hemingway's times already. He has always been anachronistic. So much more unworthy is therefore the British drama (not only because it is performed at the expense of the people). It's also, in the days of #MeToo and Trump's ridiculously long ties, a striking example of a manhood that never gets tired from celebrating itself vigorously, but does not realize that thereby it reaches its level of shrinkage: the man is in crisis. He is threatened by becoming a phase-out model. Just over ten years ago, the American state theorist Harvey C. Mansfield made a brilliant debacle with his book "Manliness" (Yale University Press, 2006). In there one could read the memorable sentence: "Although it is obvious that women can be masculine, it is evident likewise that they cannot be that much masculine or not as often as men." The sentence manifests downright the crisis of a frozen thinking in contrast to what Mansfield pretended to write in his book. Half a century earlier, Mansfield's Harvard colleague, the historian Arthur Schlesinger, had stated soberly that maleness is perceived less and less as a fact, but rather as a problem. This would have resulted in two developments: on the one hand a widespread uncertainty of the male identity, on the other hand an increase in aggressively reproduced self-images. Of course, these symptoms did not occur just since the 20th century. They have always accompanied the imaginations of masculinity, where they were based on presumption and pre-emptive exercise of power. Since such self-images are unstable and always endangered. Therefore, they have to be defended all the more aggressively. Literature has also developed a special sensorium in this respect, unmasking virtuously the alleged strength of men as their true weakness. One of the finest examples of this is perhaps Fontane's novel "Effi Briest". This is the deconstruction of the male concept of honor, which must confirm itself in a self-defeating duel, along with the portrait of a woman who matures into a tragic personality at the moment she gets cast out. Fontane's novel shows drastically right there how masculinity is put up for negotiation and reaches a point of crisis without rescue when the man is better destroyed than defeated, according to Hemingway's motto. In turn, the British Parliament is currently offering the most bizarre visual instruction. If Jeremy Corbyn were the man he claims to be, and if he had the sense of responsibility that he claims to act on, he would have had to work with Theresa May or overthrow her, to do it better than she does. He did and does not, because he is afraid of nothing more than to fall on his face like May. Because the braggart is a moral coward. He puts the raison d'etat behind the party doctrine, the welfare of the people behind his own. He cannot get out of his own skin, say: he, like many men, does not come out of his Hemingwayness. He must fulfill the cliché under whose premise he has begun. Women too have been forced all the time to come to stay with their femininity in society. Because they had to break the role imposed on them. Early on, they realized that there would be no other way than to re-form this femininity over and over again and to manifold it in ever new images of femininity. What was man doing in the meantime? He kept on dreaming of Hemingway. That’s why by today a Scotsman looks ridiculous wearing a kilt. Men seem to have little reason and even less phantasy to rethink and transform their role model, rather than constantly re-creating the old stereotypes. The man gradually reduces himself to folklore. And where the stereotypes of masculinity are then opposed by alternative role models, it is significant that it is parody and travesty: but the shrill drag queens rather mock the masculinity than seriously broadening their spectrum. And even the so-called softies have to carry a dubious label, which hints at contempt and makes imitation not really advisable. So do we need less masculinity? Certainly not. But urgently required would be different ideas of masculinity, beyond cliché and caricature. But for that, the images of masculinity would have to be manifold. Less Hemingway, less James Dean, less John Wayne. The macho in all its forms - and I'm not talking about the bear hunter Putin or the tie wearing Trump - is, however, and unfortunately still the dominant reincarnation of masculinity, even in its tempered or camouflaged form towards gallantry. That has to change, and that will unfortunately take time. Although the man may be an obsolete model in his frozen role model, not are the attributes habitually associated with him. Courage, strength, determination - whatever has been said about men’s special abilities - they are not his genuine or exclusive domain. And the world will continue to depend on people, no matter if women or men, who act courageously, powerfully and decisively. But all these beautiful virtues will be of no use if they are not in the service of a reason greater than the ego of their representative. That, in turn, would mean: taking responsibility spiritedly and with moral courage irrespective of the risks involved, and regardless of the dangers that are coming along with. Masculinity, once understood this way, would simply mean: humanity. So maybe the masculinity would have to be re-thought from this side. And looking at the British House of Commons, where would you find these virtues? Not on the opposition bench, not on the backbenches of the Tories. But at the very front, where Theresa May is standing pretty lonely. Whatever one may think of her, one thing cannot be denied: that she fights for the affair of her country, even if she fights a losing battle. The honorable gentlemen must copy this first of all.

The discussion going on here made me remember of an article I read in a leading Swiss newspaper lately. Therefore, I translated it into English and I think it might be interesting within two active topics, that’s why I will post it twice. Comment by Roman Bucheli in Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) 19.12.2018 What the hell is going on with the men? Is the man a discontinued model? Or has he simply not yet made the leap into the modern age? His attachment to outdated self-images is a symptom of a prolonged crisis. Where is David Cameron? Where did he go? No former British Prime Minister has made himself as invisible as the one who left the British with the Brexit mess. He believed in a brilliant political move, gambled and resigned, happy as it seemed. After me the deluge. Since then he is bored, it is said, and he writes, for a considerable sum, his memoirs. Maybe Cameron also squats in the souffle box at the pitiful spectacle of the “braggarts” that the British just have to watch and endure for quite a while to their own grief. Because on and behind the stage are his old buddies and opponents, now united in the choir of squallers, from Boris Johnson to Jeremy Corbyn, who currently know only one script: Theresa May roar and deride. It cannot be a coincidence that in the summer of 2016, when Cameron resigned after his blatant defeat (not having to pay for the pickle he got the country into), two women were ready for election to the party’s presidency. Theresa May finally prevailed without a ballot among the party members. Previously, one men after the other did not gear up to start (George Osborne) or prematurely out of the race (Boris Johnson). They have guessed that the Brexit negotiations with the EU would not make them win a potted plant. Theresa May did not shrink from that. To the brutal screenplay of this tragedy (which one would like to call tragicomic, if it would not be that much severe for the Brits) now belongs that the woman who pulled the hot chestnuts out of the fire in Brussels, must let her tell under contempt and laughter that unfortunately these are the wrong chestnuts. For sure, you could bet that the men who are shouting loudest today would not have made a better deal. One would like to say: Theresa May fought like a man, if the stereotype was not that much wrong in a double sense. She fought like a lioness and above all: like no man would have done. Namely in a hopeless situation. Every man, from Boris Johnson to Nigel Farage, would have referred to Ernest Hemingway: "But man is not made for defeat." No, men are not made for defeat, they can only be destroyed, according to Hemingway. So much heroism has been getting ridiculous at Hemingway's times already. He has always been anachronistic. So much more unworthy is therefore the British drama (not only because it is performed at the expense of the people). It's also, in the days of #MeToo and Trump's ridiculously long ties, a striking example of a manhood that never gets tired from celebrating itself vigorously, but does not realize that thereby it reaches its level of shrinkage: the man is in crisis. He is threatened by becoming a phase-out model. Just over ten years ago, the American state theorist Harvey C. Mansfield made a brilliant debacle with his book "Manliness" (Yale University Press, 2006). In there one could read the memorable sentence: "Although it is obvious that women can be masculine, it is evident likewise that they cannot be that much masculine or not as often as men." The sentence manifests downright the crisis of a frozen thinking in contrast to what Mansfield pretended to write in his book. Half a century earlier, Mansfield's Harvard colleague, the historian Arthur Schlesinger, had stated soberly that maleness is perceived less and less as a fact, but rather as a problem. This would have resulted in two developments: on the one hand a widespread uncertainty of the male identity, on the other hand an increase in aggressively reproduced self-images. Of course, these symptoms did not occur just since the 20th century. They have always accompanied the imaginations of masculinity, where they were based on presumption and pre-emptive exercise of power. Since such self-images are unstable and always endangered. Therefore, they have to be defended all the more aggressively. Literature has also developed a special sensorium in this respect, unmasking virtuously the alleged strength of men as their true weakness. One of the finest examples of this is perhaps Fontane's novel "Effi Briest". This is the deconstruction of the male concept of honor, which must confirm itself in a self-defeating duel, along with the portrait of a woman who matures into a tragic personality at the moment she gets cast out. Fontane's novel shows drastically right there how masculinity is put up for negotiation and reaches a point of crisis without rescue when the man is better destroyed than defeated, according to Hemingway's motto. In turn, the British Parliament is currently offering the most bizarre visual instruction. If Jeremy Corbyn were the man he claims to be, and if he had the sense of responsibility that he claims to act on, he would have had to work with Theresa May or overthrow her, to do it better than she does. He did and does not, because he is afraid of nothing more than to fall on his face like May. Because the braggart is a moral coward. He puts the raison d'etat behind the party doctrine, the welfare of the people behind his own. He cannot get out of his own skin, say: he, like many men, does not come out of his Hemingwayness. He must fulfill the cliché under whose premise he has begun. Women too have been forced all the time to come to stay with their femininity in society. Because they had to break the role imposed on them. Early on, they realized that there would be no other way than to re-form this femininity over and over again and to manifold it in ever new images of femininity. What was man doing in the meantime? He kept on dreaming of Hemingway. That’s why by today a Scotsman looks ridiculous wearing a kilt. Men seem to have little reason and even less phantasy to rethink and transform their role model, rather than constantly re-creating the old stereotypes. The man gradually reduces himself to folklore. And where the stereotypes of masculinity are then opposed by alternative role models, it is significant that it is parody and travesty: but the shrill drag queens rather mock the masculinity than seriously broadening their spectrum. And even the so-called softies have to carry a dubious label, which hints at contempt and makes imitation not really advisable. So do we need less masculinity? Certainly not. But urgently required would be different ideas of masculinity, beyond cliché and caricature. But for that, the images of masculinity would have to be manifold. Less Hemingway, less James Dean, less John Wayne. The macho in all its forms - and I'm not talking about the bear hunter Putin or the tie wearing Trump - is, however, and unfortunately still the dominant reincarnation of masculinity, even in its tempered or camouflaged form towards gallantry. That has to change, and that will unfortunately take time. Although the man may be an obsolete model in his frozen role model, not are the attributes habitually associated with him. Courage, strength, determination - whatever has been said about men’s special abilities - they are not his genuine or exclusive domain. And the world will continue to depend on people, no matter if women or men, who act courageously, powerfully and decisively. But all these beautiful virtues will be of no use if they are not in the service of a reason greater than the ego of their representative. That, in turn, would mean: taking responsibility spiritedly and with moral courage irrespective of the risks involved, and regardless of the dangers that are coming along with. Masculinity, once understood this way, would simply mean: humanity. So maybe the masculinity would have to be re-thought from this side. And looking at the British House of Commons, where would you find these virtues? Not on the opposition bench, not on the backbenches of the Tories. But at the very front, where Theresa May is standing pretty lonely. Whatever one may think of her, one thing cannot be denied: that she fights for the affair of her country, even if she fights a losing battle. The honorable gentlemen must copy this first of all.

Monty Python is alive!

Well, it is like getting asked by your wife: Do you want to remain being married with me or do you want to leave? Sure, you can walk just out of the house but there were some treaties signed by both parties before. Usually both, at least one party, and for sure legislation wants to dissolve and terminate the marriage mostly in conjunction with a deal.

Completely I agree with you @C8RKH , our consumer preferences and criticism about modern cars are 100% congruent. However, I see the problem with old farts like you and me (sorry for taking you into kin liability) since not only the car models, we as a market are aging. If I were boss with Porsche twenty years ago I would have fired that guy and sent him to psychological treatment coming up with the idea to build that Cayenne SUV – see, I am the one who may need such a treatment. I think the up-to-date way is not ours but paved well with all your above mentioned ‘goodies’ we dislike. McLaren is a good example of successful niche development in quite a short while to be contemporary and desired. Last year during a track day there was a father with his twenty years old son, both driving around in an Elise and an Evora. The young chap likes Lotus a lot and knows what they are about but when I asked him what he would like to have differently he mentioned all this contemporary electric, touchy, comfort orchestra – not mine but well, I guess it’s time.

I still do demand EU, especially Mrs. Merkel, to provide you with an appropriate parachute which you must not leave behind, no matter what the outcome will be next week!

Sure, the 17 others must be vehicles not properly registered under their precise model description. Therefore, most of them must belong to the three main models. Really strange is the fact that in the official KBA-statistics of 2018 for Lotus you can find one car registered under Diesel and two cars as four-wheel drive – or is all this a hint from secret new vehicle design and developments under Geely test driven already? Going to our state registration agencies in Germany with a new Lotus it is always more or sometimes less funny how they try to “press” the data of the COC on a form until you receive your ‘Zulassungsbescheinigung’.

My sincere condolences Lee. Alex will live forever in your hearts and memories. Take your time for your grief and I wish you all the necessary strength for the time being.

Sales in Germany: 2018 199 (83 Exige V6 / 75 Elise / 24 Evora / 17 others) 2017 199 2016 151 2015 142 2014 115 2013 72 2012 56 2011 84 2010 160 2009 107 2008 102 Source: www.kba.de

I have sound insulation in my GT430 Sport (manual) and whilst easy going on B-roads or on the Autobahn at ‘normal speed’ it is marvellous, especially between 100–150 km/h you realise that aerodynamic is pushed to the extreme with the GT430. Wind noise is less than in a Mercedes coupé. Even on long distance trips across Europe with 800 km across the Alps in one day it is enjoyable easygoing and you will arrive very relaxed. Of course, you can have pleasing outbursts beyond 4.500 rpm with best sounding I have ever heard from a V6. Compared with an Exige 380 or Exige 430, I had driven, it is a lot less roaring and a much smoother glider if you so wish. With sound insulation definitely it is livable very well. After one year of ownership for me it is the most appealing, involving, and entertaining ‘long range weapen’. One day I had direct driving comparison with Ferrari 488, McLaren 720S, and Corvette Z06, all great cars in their own rights but without that very special analog lightweight engineering feeling I like. Get a GT430 - such a package will never come again in our livetime.

Dear Lee, I am touched reading your posts. My wife and I, we are thinking of you and your family a lot and we are talking about what you might go through now. We like to share our personnel experience that might be of some orientation for you. My wife’s father died of lung cancer when he was around your age leaving the family behind with four children. Still decades after her father’s death my wife is not happy with the behaviour of her mother who kept the children away from their suffering and decaying father during the final stage. Of course, there were very unpleasant occurrences to sustain. However, it is so important that you can make your personal farewell with a beloved person and we think the beloved person wants the same even when he or she cannot tell you anymore – all this things belong to our lives. Fortunately, never I was kept apart from someone passing away and for me it is easier to cope with the loss and I feel better being able to accompany and pay my respect until the very end and say good-bye. In this sphere of life just let you guide by your heart – there is no right or wrong.

May small glowing candles on our Christmas tree send some light to you during this dark season. We will be thinking of you these days.

With this post I may risk getting tarred, bounced and banned from TLF because you might think it is impertinent when a German gives his comment about this very internal British topic. But we are all Europeans still together in EU and I think this matter is so important, much more important than our common interest in Lotus, that I like to let you know my personal deep concernment and a point of view from outside UK. Reading all your comments, your anger, fear and frustration I can assure you I do share a lot of this points of view with you. However, in your posts I can identify quite some historic wounds with deep scars being chronic with the danger to reopen old sores. Unfortunately this tendency can be observed in many countries nowadays not just within the EU. But we must know, either we try to be all great again or we will be all losers together in the long run driven by resentments. Cooperation was, is, and will be the only way for all of us to be great. I do not like at all that EU is not flexible, not ready to reform itself and not willing to compromise with you. In any case, your concerns about Germany conquering Europe I can take away easily your fear by arguing that Germany without your vote any more in EU will get taken over by the southern states e.g. Italy, France, Spain etc. Only together with you and some other Benelux EU-members Germany is and was able to build a necessary majority against this kleptomania, habitual debtors, and minority dictatorship you and I we are against it. Without UK in EU Germany will weaken and suffer a lot, and let down by the remaining members. Therefor still I refuse to give up hope that we will find a way together with you, of course with EU to be forced to become refurbished by this incident. You / UK are very very important and relevant for our common European future – please, DO NOT LEAVE US ALONE!

I like to give you my personal 20 years lasting, long-term experience as first owner of 2 Elises and 1 Evora, all still in my garage: The winner definitely is Lotus in comparison with some other new “premium cars” from other manufacturers I had my hands on over the years. During all this years I had only one recall with Lotus (R/2014-066 oil cooler hose) for which I had to see my dealer for fixing the problem outside regular servicing. On the opposite my recent experience during the last 3.5 years is 5 recalls with extra dealer visits with 2 new cars of a so called “premium manufacturer”. Coming to your consideration about an Evora I can report that my Evora 2018 with now about 4.000 km is running without any extraordinary garage visits, just some little flaws I could handle on my own. Preferring to do your own maintenance it will be easy for you to cope with such minor issues the way I do. While testing an Evora or any other Lotus just think about if this is what you want! With a Lotus you can get what driving is meant to be!