Monday, February 20, 2006
Irony Can Be Pretty Ironic Sometimes
So get this, a British historian has been sentenced to prison- in Austria- for denying the Holocaust.
OK, a few things. First of all, this is pretty overblown to say the least. This is not one of these pinhead, right-winged, zealots (Mel Gibson’s father for example) who actually believe the Holocaust NEVER existed, he’s just saying that most of the victims didn’t die in the gas chambers, but rather from diseases.
So the guy just might be a really bad historian, where’s the crime in that? Come to think of it, where’s the crime in saying the Holocaust didn’t exist?
Hey Austria, if you’re that spooked of raising another fascist, hard core, dictator (like, say- Hitler) then STOP CREATING LAWS LIKE ONE.
Really, against the law huh?
Stupid, yes- but illegal?
You know, every day (usually on NPR) I hear some moron with a pseudo-intellectual world view ramble on about how most of America’s culture is so drastically underdeveloped against most of the European countries. Well, for the most part they’re right. However, just when I’m feeling like shouting angrily in the general direction of FoxNews, along comes some European law as stupid and hypocritical as this one, and it puts the good ol’ U.S of A right back on top, sitting smugly with our constitution and fattening up on cheeseburgers.
VIENNA, Austria - Right-wing British historian David Irving pleaded guilty Monday to denying the Holocaust and was sentenced to three years in prison, even after conceding he wrongly said there were no Nazi gas chambers at the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Irving, handcuffed and wearing a navy blue suit, arrived in court carrying a copy of one of his most controversial books — "Hitler's War," which challenges the extent of the Holocaust.
OK, a few things. First of all, this is pretty overblown to say the least. This is not one of these pinhead, right-winged, zealots (Mel Gibson’s father for example) who actually believe the Holocaust NEVER existed, he’s just saying that most of the victims didn’t die in the gas chambers, but rather from diseases.
Irving, 67, has been in custody since his November arrest on charges stemming from two speeches he gave in Austria in 1989 in which he was accused of denying the Nazis' extermination of 6 million Jews. He has contended that most of those who died at concentration camps such as Auschwitz succumbed to diseases such as typhus rather than execution.
So the guy just might be a really bad historian, where’s the crime in that? Come to think of it, where’s the crime in saying the Holocaust didn’t exist?
Hey Austria, if you’re that spooked of raising another fascist, hard core, dictator (like, say- Hitler) then STOP CREATING LAWS LIKE ONE.
Really, against the law huh?
Stupid, yes- but illegal?
You know, every day (usually on NPR) I hear some moron with a pseudo-intellectual world view ramble on about how most of America’s culture is so drastically underdeveloped against most of the European countries. Well, for the most part they’re right. However, just when I’m feeling like shouting angrily in the general direction of FoxNews, along comes some European law as stupid and hypocritical as this one, and it puts the good ol’ U.S of A right back on top, sitting smugly with our constitution and fattening up on cheeseburgers.
