The Reader

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The Nazis Have Returned to Europe

And once again, most Europeans are saying nothing:



This man must be incredibly proud:

Personal Reflections

Because of my family history, with my father born in Germany in 1931, I cannot help but make comparisons between 1944-45 Europe and 2008 Gaza. Different times, different wars, different people but striking resemblances indeed there are.

Every time I hear a condemnation of Israel, I think about whether it would have also been applied to the Allied Forces. Every time I hear a moral equivalency argument made about Israel and the Palestinians, I think about whether it would have been made about the Allied Forces and Nazi Germany. Every time I hear about innocent civilians being hurt or killed - I am naturally saddened and feel grief for the Palestinian families - but then I also wonder if calls were made to stop the advance of the Allied Armies toward Berlin.

To think that some people making such ludicrous arguments back then didn't exist would be naive. To think that so many today have learned NOTHING from history both saddens and appalls me. Just like the people of my father's homeland made a terrible mistake, which had to be stopped in its tracks, so must Hamas & Iran as well. For the leaders of these two tyrannies I will shed no tears.

A Little Family History

I came across this web page from the Czech Radio Service discussing General George S. Patton. Some people are not aware that he and his 3rd Army penetrated into the Czech Republic, a few hundred kilometres east of the German border.

A few months ago I learned from my Uncle Horst, the younger brother of my dad, that Patton is the reason for my very existence!

My dad and his family are ethnically German but he grew up in a region called Silesia, most of which was ceded to Poland after World War 2. In 1945 he was just a young teenager. When the Russian Army was advancing towards Germany, all German civilians were moved further west, toward the center of Germany.

My uncle told me how they were moved by train from town to town. They eventually made it to a town called Haid, in the Czech Republic (it is now called Bor). There, one of my uncles, Gunter, was killed. He was just eight years old.

Eventually the family - my grandmother and her 2 remaining sons and 3 daughters - were brought to a town called Mies (since renamed to Stříbro), also in the Czech Republic.

Uncle Horst explained how they kept looking towards one road coming into Mies from the east, expecting the Russians to arrive at any moment. But suddenly a string of military vehicles entered from the west. It was Patton's Third Army! If this had not occurred, their fate would have been much worse and I would have never been born.

My dad's family were able to catch one of the the last few trucks out and were taken right to downtown München. Six years later, he saw little future for his homeland so he boarded a freighter and came to Canada as a refugee.

Here's a famous speech of Patton's, though spoken by actor George C. Scott:
He was tough and probably unfair at times, but he sure got things done!

Knut vs. Frank Albrecht

Dennis Miller's reference to Knut the Polar Bear got me curious. I vaguely remember this bear so I read up more about him. He was born on December 5, 2006 to a Canadian mother and German father. He was soon rejected by his mother so the zookeepers there raised him.

An international controversy erupted when a Radical Leftist and Animal Rights Activist (I realize those terms are redundant!) named Frank Albrecht stated that the cub should be killed rather than raised by humans.

Responses to Albrecht's comment were interesting. Here's one example and here's another. Here are some interesting quotes:

I think we should kill douchebag animals rights activists. Why are so many people who claim to care for animals such utterly miserable, horrible human beings? You know, the Nazis outlawed animal vivsection. I'm just sayin'. And no, I don't think they "have a point". IT'S A FUCKING BEAR. His handler already has several hefty bruises; once he's put into the habitat with other polar bears, I have no doubt that he'll butch up.

Some asshole Kraut says a zoo was wrong to save this abandoned polar bear. Wow, dude, ruthless. I'm not a biologist, and I may not not be a registered sex offender, but I would like to offer a counter argument: LOOK AT THAT FUCKING BEAR! Jesus Christ, the thing might as well be wearing a mini tuxedo and baking muffins.

Their words, not mine, but I do confess that they made me smile. This is yet another example of how members of the Radical Left wouldn't understand the world "pragmatic" if it bit them in the ass. For them, it's all about their narrow minded ideology, which trumps all other concerns. That's why when I meet someone who emphasizes a little too strongly how open-minded they are or how much they love animals or what a "humanist" they are or that they "will do anything to save the environment", I am extremely cautious until I get to know them better. Unfortunately in the past I haven't been cautious enough!

A Few Questions for Moderate Jewish Democrats (and Everyone on the Radical Left)

Note: This is the second version of this posting. I have updated it with more information to provide clarity but clearly I will not succumb to the censorship demands of some fellow bloggers. Please carefully read what I've written before accusing me of saying things which I've not said or even intended. For starters, please note that nowhere do I talk about any Democrat Party leaders, for that's not what this post is at all about.

Secondly, my own views on abortion are not the same as those of Fundamentalist Christians, but a big part of me admires their moral certainty of the sanctity of life. I'm just more open to giving pregnant women more flexibility to choose; with that said though, none of us should have any illusions that every abortion is ending a life.

Finally, you might be interested to know that while researching this article I removed this filth from the Wikipedia entry on Nazi concentration camps: "985,000 Jews died, shocking isn't it, just think how lucky we are!" So please be very careful about throwing charges of racial or religious prejudice against me.

As a primer, I invite you to watch this and this, eloquently spoken by the brilliant Jewish American talkshow host, Dennis Prager, who I deeply respect.

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In the years leading up to Nazi Germany's mass murder of millions of Jewish people throughout Europe, their propaganda ministry paved the way by dehumanizing Jews through countless articles and cartoons. This continued throughout the war. Here are a few examples:

The Mobilization of the People: The cartoon shows a photograph of a Jew captioned "Satan". Streicher regularly used the old religious argument that the Jews were in league with the Devil. This issue appeared as the last German troops in Stalingrad surrendered.

The Decent Jew: The cartoon shows a Jew politely asking for room on the bench, after which he shoves the previous inhabitant off. The poem notes that Jews behave the same way in other situations.

The Polyp: A Jew has his tentacles around England, Russia, the United States, and China.

Behind the Curtains: A Jewish puppeteer is looking nervously at his remaining puppets: Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin. On the floor are broken former puppets, including Neville Chamberlain.


More examples can be found here and here and here. The psychology behind this campaign is simple to understand. If you want to do harm to someone or want others to do harm to them then if you can first get people thinking that these others are less than human and/or less deserving of respect then it becomes a lot easier.

In the language of tribes, it's always easier to disrespect "them" than "us".

For those not familiar with what happened to an estimated 6 Million Jews in World War 2 please click here and here. It was an absolutely appalling chapter in human history. Perhaps I take it more personally because half of my ancestry comes from Germany. For example, just the other day I immediately and vociferously chastised an acquaintance of mine, to his face, for even suggesting that what occurred back then was overblown by "Jewish Propaganda Groups". When I then asked him about 9/11 victims, he admitted that he wondered about the rumor that no Jews were killed that day. I sent him this link and this one, suggesting with the latter that for starters he look for last names beginning with "Gol" and "Ros".

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In modern day American culture three popular comedians receiving constant adulation from the Left are Jon Stewart, Sarah Silverman, and Bill Maher. Stewart, whose real last name is "Leibowitz", grew up in a Jewish family, as did Silverman. Maher grew up in a mixed Christian-Jewish household. Here are some examples of their work:

Note: Because of copyright restrictions, videos of Jon Stewart are difficult to come by. If you happen to find one that is applicable, please do let me know.







On a regular basis all of these comedians comedically attack Fundamentalist Christians in general and more recently, Sarah Palin in particular. In fact, Marr has based a large part of his career on mocking and condemning Christians. Given the great popularity of their careers, one can only conclude that many on the Left think such humor is extremely funny.

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Here are a few questions for Jewish Democrats:

1. What about the religious oriented humor of Stewart, Silverman, and Maher do you find the most funny?
   
   
2. What precisely about Fundamentalist Christians do you think many on the Left dislike or even loathe? Is it their literal belief in the Old Testament or their staunch belief that any abortion is a mortal sin?
   
   
3. Among other types of fetuses, Fundamentalist Christians believe that terminating the life of a Jewish fetus is a sin. If a comedian were to use Stewart, Silverman, and Maher as role models but instead just focus on belittling those who want to stop Jewish abortions, would you find this equally as funny?
   
   
4. Though no one is directly connecting these comedians to the German Nazi regime, clearly there is a similarity in the voracity of the humor back then and now; different times, different subjects, but a similar end effect. Understanding clearly how the German Nazis belittled and dehumanized your ancestors, how do you reconcile your appreciation for humor that mocks and belittles Fundamentalist Christians?

The Rape of Europa

I just watched a fascinating documentary entitled The Rape of Europa. It focuses on how the Nazis during World War 2 plundered art work from all the countries they conquered throughout Europe. There was a particular focus on Jewish families, from whom much was stolen.

From the film I learned several things which I had previously not known:

• During his teen years Adolf Hitler was an aspiring artist in Austria. He was rejected from entering the prestigious Vienna Academy of Fine Arts and some say that this inflamed his hatred toward Jews, as many artists of the time admitted into this school were Jewish.
  
  
• The American military had a special group of 200 Monument Men, whose sole purpose was to rescue and preserve paintings, sculptures, and architecture.
  
  
• I have been to Pisa, Italy but had no idea that the main attraction used to be the Camposanto, a monumental cemetery, and not the leaning tower. But the Camposanto was so badly damaged during WW2 that it lost all of its world renowned frescoes.
  
  
• Hitler had long planned to build an enormous museum in his honour in Linz, Austria, the town that he referred to as his hometown, even though it really wasn't. This museum was slated to be by far the largest in the world.
  

If you get a chance, do watch this film. It's fascinating.

Same Event, Different Truths

I came across this absolutely fascinating film footage of the D-Day Invasion on June 6, 1944. What's different about it though is that it's from the German perspective!
So here we have an event that (most?) everyone in North America would consider to be a righteous one, whose goal was to give freedom back to hundreds of millions of Western Europeans. But the perspective of German citizens watching this in 1944 must have been quite different!

Disclaimer: In no way, shape, or form am I making any assertion or implication that either of the two U.S. political parties in 2008 represents the Germans 64 years ago!

Happy Birthday, America!

232 Years ago you declared independence for your nation. 60 years ago some of your finest citizens used ingenuity and determination to preserve the freedom of 2.5 Million citizens of Berlin, Germany.

Here's the fascinating story, called The Candy Bombers:

The NY Times says Forget the People of Iraq

It has long been said that today's views of the New York Times become tomorrow's talking points of the American Democrat party. They're almost always indistinguishable. This recent editorial is no exception. In it they feign concern for the Iraqi people but clearly they're just trying to invent a wedge issue to help their kids, Clinton and Obama.

Let's take a look at where things now stand in Iraq. Nothing is perfect but the very fact that there's so little news out of there these days is a testament to how well things are going. 30,000,000 Muslims have been freed from the clutches of a horrific, murderous tyrant. Democracy now exists in another place in the Middle East besides Israel. This is something we should end?!

I realize that many reading the words above will think I'm off my meds and am some kind of right-wing war monger. If so, they'd be wrong.

Can we all agree that each person's views of the world are shaped by the experiences they've had to that point in their life? Mine involve being born into a family where my father & his siblings were little kids on the German side during WW2. He was vehemently against Hitler but was powerless to do anything about it. After the war he lived in refugee camps and then at a young age had to move far away from the family, picking potatoes 14 hours a day in order to send a little money back to them.

But what emerged from the tragedy that was Nazi Germany was a vibrant country, a true democracy, and big positive to Europe and the world.

So shall the same emerge in Iraq, given enough time and commitment. If many of you get your wish and the Americans pull out, Iran's tentacles will surely reach into Iraq and turn it into a bloodbath for a time and then a satellite state. In case you're not aware, the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas is directly funded by Iran. They're the ones who send suicide bombers into Israel to kill innocent civilians.

War is messy. The aftermath of war is often worse. But patience is the only course of action if you want a people to have the same liberty and democracy that you've enjoyed since birth; that you were given for doing absolutely nothing in return. And things that we're given with no expectations in return are almost always taken for granted, aren't they?!

Traveling in My Mind

I've only been to Europe once, in 1992. While there a German cousin of mine took me to the small town of Nesselwang:

The map doesn't come close to showing how extremely gorgeous this place is. Imagine sitting on an open air patio on an exquisite summer day, drinking a glorious cup of coffee and eating the best Black Forest cake you've ever had. In front of your eyes is a great expanse of rolling fields and behind that are the German Alps.

My cousin called me today via Skype and I was reminded that I need to visit her again someday soon!