Defending the liberal tradition in history, science, and philosophy.

“Hilmar points to events surrounding the election of Barack Hussein Obama as reminiscent of the way the Nazi regime came to power.”

Tom Horn, CEO of Anomalos Publishing, recently sent out the mailing “Former Hitler Youth to Appear on The Savage Nation with Michael Savage to Discuss Similarities Between President-Elect Obama and the Rise of Totalitarianism Under Hitler.” It reads:

“Hilmar points to events surrounding the election of Barack Hussein Obama as reminiscent of the way the Nazi regime came to power.” Oh, really? Tell me, are Jews or other minorities being attacked and beaten in the streets by Obama’s jackbooted thugs? Are their business and homes being vandalized or attacked? Are workers who support labor unions being terrorized? Does Obama have an army of hundreds of thousands of stormtroopers in the streets beating, attacking, and threatening all who disagree with him?

To even compare the two is to paper over and dismiss what happened to the Jews of Germany. I’m a pretty mediocre Jew and I’m not normally sensitive to anti-Semitism, but this is too much.

I would also add that I’m damn glad the U.S. has the Second Amendment, and I regret that the Jews of Germany didn’t have in their homes what I have in mine–a loaded .38.

Hitler’s S.A. and particularly the S.S. almost exclusively attacked unarmed civilians, and were perhaps the two greatest groups of cowards in all of human history. They were good at gunning down unarmed people–as they did to half my family in Bialystok, Poland in the summer of 1941–but many wouldn’t have had the courage to fight armed Jews.

The biggest slaughter occurred in Poland and in German-occupied USSR. The SS “men” carrying it out greatly preferred fighting an “enemy” who couldn’t shoot back, as opposed to fighting the Soviet Red Army, which inflicted the overwhelming majority of the Wehrmacht’s causalities and was largely responsible for Germany’s defeat in World War II. (In the photo above, Soviet troops who helped capture Berlin are holding 200 captive German military banners and standards.) (Yes, I know about the Waffen SS.)

To draw a line connecting Hitler and Obama is beyond ludicrous, and nationally-syndicated talk show host Michael Savage and Christian Newswire should be embarassed for colluding in it.

As a minor aside, Hitler was no socialist, and the Nazis backed up the traditional power of the German industrialists against the working class, who supported the German Communists and Social Democrats. Hitler’s main political enemy in Germany was the German Communist Party (KPD), and they were the first ones he destroyed upon seizing power.

It’s a common tactic of the right to pretend that the Nazis were on the left, as a way of discrediting the left. The Nazis were on the extreme right, analogous to the Ku Klux Klan in the U.S.

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Here is one of the most beautiful love songs I have ever heard:

I remember some 10 or 15 years ago having a conversation with a “feminist” (I always put that word in quotes, because it seems to have no fixed meaning) who was offended by it, saying that its central message was “if you have no woman you will not cry.” I was so very upset; the central message of the song had been lost on her. This is a love song from a man to his wife, telling her please not to cry no matter how hard life is.

It’s interesting how language sometimes gets in the way, isn’t it?

(More Bob Marley right here.)

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After a long absence from paying attention to our “Best Of’ categories, I have placed Important Issue into our “Best Discussions” archive.

Because some things are far more important than the real world.

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Resolved: Condoleezza Rice was democratically elected as United States Secretary of State.

Please defend this proposition.

Aziz, CTL, I’m looking at you. And anyone else who’d care to join battle.

(This apropos of this discussion. I really want to see you guys defend the proposition that Secretary Rice was democratically elected. Go!)

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It’s a lot more complex - and a lot less foreign - than you might expect. I excerpt a piece from the Oxford Islamic Studies Online site that is really worth reading.

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It looks like the makers of Motrin got themselves in trouble this weekend.

To be honest, it looks like an overraction to me. But it also points to the fact that a lot of companies that market to consumers still don’t really “get” the internet. They probably could have defused this anger response by mad mommies a lot quicker but they’re still working on a Monday-Friday 9-to-5 schedule.

Still, is it just me or were these folks just a little too mad at a silly ad?

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Well it’s not like they’re super clear, but, we have actual photos of planets around other stars now.

I’ll bet it’s a further drive than Kentucky from here.

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Resolved: James Bond is actually a super hero.

Discuss.

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Awhile back I posted about coming down to Austin to find work.  Well, I start my new job Monday.  It’s doing pretty much what I did at my last job and that was kinda fun so it’s not a bad deal.  It’s a 3-month contract-to-hire gig.  I’ll be working for contracting house X for on-site contract support house Y.  Sometime after three months, assuming they like me, house Y will bring be on directly as an actual employee with a $3 raise and a nice benefits package.

But first I have to get my A+ certification within a month of starting.  Shouldn’t be a problem.  After that house Y wants me to get Lenovo certified.  Hopefully they’re paying…

I’m liking my time here in Austin.  I find it funny that I move to Texas and went directly to the only patch of blue in a red state.  My roommate is, of course, a liberal.  All the friends I’ve made here are liberals.  In fact, my friends always seem to be liberal.  My roommate and I try to avoid talking politics because, well, he gets angry.  And he’s wizened up and purchased a set of headphones for his PC for when he watches The Daily Show.  Because when he doesn’t I can’t help but note, “I don’t remember Jon Stewart being that nice about Dubya when he was elected…” or something similar.

My roommate seems to think The Daily Show is fair.

Just got back from seeing Quantum of Solace.  It wasn’t as good as Casino Royale but still good.  I think the next Bond film will pick up the story from this one like Solace does with Royale.  In Solace we learn more about the international cabal Mr. White (dude Bond shot at the end of Royale) is a part of and that they’re working on some project called “Quantum.”  We never find out what exactly “Quantum” is.  Or, at least, I never noticed if we did.  Either way, the cabal is still out there and it would seem strange to leave it intact and start doing stand-alone films again.

Oh, and the people in Texas don’t know how to drive.  Seriously.  Fellow Texans acknowledge this fact.

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From Bloomberg News, via Instapundit.

The essence of tax reform is that you get rid of deductions, but apply a lower overall tax rate in order to collect necessary revenue in a less painful, less distortionary way. The article is short on details, but it sounds like Rangel’s proposal is intended to be revenue neutral or a slight net tax increase. Naturally, I’d prefer revenue neutral, if not a slight tax cut, but this kind of tax reform should be good for the economy, and much better tax policy than I expected from a Democratic congress with Obama as President-Elect.

There’s a whole list of issues I disagree with Rangel on, starting with his idiotic proposal to bring back the draft, but I have to give him credit when he gets something right. If only Rangel would apply the same tax reform logic to personal income taxes, where he’s instead calling for higher marginal tax rates (even higher than Obama has proposed), and where there’s a laundry list of new proposed deductions and credits.

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I’m on my way for an unexpected trip to Kentucky on an errand of mercy. Wish me luck.

What are you up to?

*Update:* Bumped for Saturday!

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For the past couple of weeks I’ve been puttering about on a new website. Entitled The Book of a Thousand Joys, it’s my response to all the negativity and worry floating around of late.

It’s more Web 2.0 than anything I’ve done before. It’s way more than a static website – there’s a blog, newsfeed, photo feed, YouTube – all kinds of stuff about joy, which updates itself all the time. I had a lot of fun putting it all together!

Because it is new, there are likely some blips and burps I’m not aware of yet, but as far as I can tell right now it’s ready for prime time. Take a look and tell your friends!

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Justin Gardner notes some recent insanity by a Republican Congressman.

As I’ve mentioned other places, while I think it’s pure stupidity and selfishness to call President-elect Obama a closet fascist and communist, I do wish more people would point out how astoundingly silly it is to say that Hitler was elected in a democratic Germany. No such event ever happened. Whether you could call Weimar Germany a functioning democracy or not is debateable (I’d say it wasn’t), the more important fact is that Hitler usurped power. The German people never elected him to a damned thing; his party won just enough seats to win a minority government, then used assassination, brutality, and flagrant disregard of the law, locking out all but token opposition, seizing 100% power and handing it to one man to be dictator for life. Hitler wasn’t on any ballot that any member of the public got to see that entire time.

No one elected Hitler to that agenda–NO ONE.

Furthermore, for such a universally-beloved character, it’s amazing how opposition to Hitler in Germany never stopped until his death–this despite the continual Nazi program of assassination or imprisonment of anyone whose criticism they didn’t like.

It’s sad that people have so little respect for democracy that the claim that Hitler was elected democratically passes with no objection. This fascist usurper was NEVER elected democratically.

He also faced strong opposition among democratic (and non-democratic) forces in Germany, who he simply ruthlessly imprisoned, murdered in cold blood, or terrorized into silence. It’s a sick degradation of everything we call “democracy” to equate any democratic system of government, let alone one of our own democratically elected leaders, to this murderous tyrant.

It is also an example of unpatriotic anti-American garbage from the Right under the guise of thoughtful criticism. Not the first I’ve seen, and undoubtedly not the last, but deplorable before the new President has even been sworn in. Shame on you, Paul Broun.

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O my brothers! I have sad news to report - our Islamist conspiracy to indoctrinate the toddlers of America has been exposed. Ah well. Next time we’ll embed secret Islamic messages in iPods or something; this doll business was just too obvious in retrospect.

(incidentally Dean, nice call on having a “religious paranoia” category.)

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Cute.

It’s interesting how doing something like this is now an easy way to get revenge and cause a stir without feeling like you’ve done anything wrong. Call it penny-ante terrorism if you wish, but in truth this sort of thing scares far more than the intended victims, costs all sorts of public money and time that law enforcement could be putting to more productive use doing things like fighting criminals rather than attacking non-violent religious groups you disagree with.

It also probably doesn’t do much more than satisfy the rage impulses of whoever does it, while hurting whatever cause they’re supposedly fighting for.

The only problem here is that we have no idea if this was someone wanting revenge on Mormons, or some Mormon wanting attention for his Church. Which is not in any way a smack at Mormons in general or the ones victimized here in particular, but just a reality: the way this kind of sick behavior works, it COULD be that the sick perpetrators actually hate Mormons, or it COULD be that the perpetrators are sick Mormons. Or sick Mormon-sympathizers. Or sick nutjobs who just like scaring people generally. Or…

Really, it sullies damn near everyone, directly or indirectly. Sickening.

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Last night I got a letter from a very deal old friend from Sweden, an old love who actually meant what that word says and stuck with me, and I with him, through the years– the kind of friendship that Marina Tsvetaeva compared to a mountain. Between friendship and passion, she said give me friendship any day. I walk in a cemetary of unmarked graves every single day. And let’s quote Neil Young: “How I lost my friends, I still don’t understand.”

Or Townshend:

How many Friends Have I really got? (You can count em all on one hand)

How many friends have I really got?

How many friends have I really got?

That love me, that want me, that will take me as I am?

My old friend Ake (’awke’) Larsson was in St. Petersberg when he received my letter this week, as usual tinged with news about the curious desperation and isolation of Life in America.

He wrote about the boozy St. Petersberg tables where they were celebrating some colleague’s PhD, and it sounded like something out of Milan Kundera–just that, the idea of people at a table, the same table, for a long night in which an event is consecrated and celebrated, between people, friends, who went out of their way, in this case traveled from Sweden to Russia, to celebrate.

How often do any of us have that anymore?

These damn machines.

I fear the erosion and extinction of corporeal time, corporeal friendship, bodies together in time and space, more than I fear any other loss including the first amendment or polar ice caps. I sit at miserable piece of white plastic each night and I type forth, trying to connect and be less alone. The Internet. Soundless, it starves us very slowly. It is like a very tiny straw through which we are permitted survival breath. My father’s voice–I rarely hear it anymore. Friends voices, I never hear them. We email each other about getting together and then we cancel and send more email. Like ash flakes falling on a dying world, these emails.

I have a box of old cassette tapes from the days of audio tape answering machines and on them are all the messages I received for a period of about ten years. Some nights I listen to them. It took me seven years before I could listen to my mother’s voice on those tapes, after she died. And so many friends who are somehow ghosts now, literally or figuratively. I even have one from Hunter S. Thompson, who was still enough of a relic before he died to think that if you wanted to communicate with somebody you called them. Luckily I wasn’t home, and now I will always have his funny rambling message, which itself has a long story behind it. But I could only tell you if you were in the same place at the same time, maybe at a table, maybe in St. Petersberg. This way we could remember it.

The gadget men invented all the right crypto-demonic technology to make sure we were always in their domain, and never in our own. The medium is the message. Have you any idea how perfect a formula that is? It’s as good a E=Mc2, assuming one has no quarrel with Einstein. If I kiss you. If I email you. If I write you a letter. If I ignore you completely. If I sing to you.

What has become of the human traditions that use voice and body, dance and laughter, conversation, sound, fury and folly,to remind us where our bodies’ contours run, where we are, and are not? How can I remember you if I never see you and never hear you? How will we form memories? How will we know we were here?

How are we to know that we won’t die like those 15th century Austrian peasant’s babies who were taken from their mothers to an aristocrat’s tower, fed and clothed, but not touched? They died.

The most sensitive medium in the world is human skin.

I am thrown back to a reverie from adolescence, in Orebro, Sweden, circa 1978, before the age of computers, when even telephone calls were rarified. We were a gang–it was before we knew about isolation, adulthood. We congregated in our abandoned shoe factory/anarchist collective/rock club/vegan restaurant in the manner of a wolf pack. When we saw each other we jumped on top of each other, melded together, moshed, danced, like kids do, never realizing that adulthood would ask of them the end of all this bodily communion–all friends as one organism. Tribe.

I went home in November of 2001 and we were all ‘home,’ in town, and the rock club, center where it all happened was now a parking lot, which was a hard thing to lay eyes on, but what did we expect? We met at a pizza joint, drank and reminisced and laughed. When we walked out, I noticed that we were all walking as we did back then–in close pack formation, holding on to each other. That’s how close we were, but we got that way through our bodies, was my thought. Why the obsessive focus on “sex” when the human body is feeding itself all the time, from the handshake to the bear-hug. I don’t ever let anybody air-kiss me.

My father sometimes stretches out his hand, palms up, to my son, when he has said something funny, and says: ‘Touch me.’ It’s so basic. I wish I could do it.

My friend Ake seemed to be feeling like I was. He wrote to me… Celia, what we need to do is choose a city and choose a pub and sit there together for a long night, and the next day. It’s going to be either Istanbul, St. Petersberg, Stockholm, or Tommelilla. We’re going to meet and we’re going to talk.

I am going to book the ticket as a strike against this vast conspiracy of solitude. I know how I lost my friends. It was made so easy by the medium of email, the rash things I wrote, or didn’t write, though this spidery vein system that was carrying us away from all that we love, against our conscious will, as time itself conspired too. We forgot how much we love each other because we forgot to use our senses. Tomas Transtromer foresaw it in the lines from a late 70s poem about the welfare state: ‘We look almost happy in the sun, bleeding to death from wounds we know nothing about.”

Call your friends. See them. Hug them. Don’t email them. We reach the awareness, weirdly and gradually, that email is a subversion of time and space. If it doesn’t happen to you through your God given senses of touch, sound, smell, sight–it does