Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Iran's Holocaust Denial Conference Starts...

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has started Iran's Holocaust denial conference.

Their reason for this is clear, if you listen to the foreign minister of Iran:
"If the official version of the Holocaust is thrown into doubt, then the identity and nature of Israel will be thrown into doubt," said Mottaki, whose ministry put together the conference.
Translation: They are looking for an excuse to sponsor additional terrorism by groups with a goal that amounts to nothing less than genocide.

Among the attendees is David Duke, who calls it a triumph for free speech. It isn't. It is a gross misuse of free speech.

You know, one JDAM properly targeted could make the world a much nicer place. Holocaust denial is something that is a strong indicator that a person is a waste of oxygen. Other countries have made it a crime to deny the Holocaust. The United States should follow suit.

3 comments:

Ken Prescott said...

I do not support criminalizing Holocaust denial. Some European countries may feel that it is necessary in order to prevent a resurgence of fascism; that isn't really the case here. And it sets an unfortunate precedent, suggesting that the First Amendment doesn't mean what it says. Three scary words that you have commented on: "Global Warming Denial."

However, whacking one of these dirtbags should be chargeable only as "discharging a firearm within city limits," "disturbing the peace," or "creating a public disturbance." (Maybe "littering" if the corpse lies around rotting for a while. Cleanliness, after all, is next to Godliness.)

As for David Duke: one of these years, that boy's mouth is going to write a check that his Biblical Beast of Burden can't cash. With any luck at all, it will be on TV. (c8

Harold said...

You raise a good point. That said, I do see a major difference here. In terms of Holocaust denial, we do have various unsavory elements that have engaged in this. David Duke being one of the most notorious.

Holocaust deniers here are providing support to folks like Ahmadinejad - and that is not something we can readily ignore, especially in the case of a state sponsor of terrorism.

There is also another major difference between Holocaust denial and "global warming denial". The former has a ton of proof - people can see places like Dachau and Auschwitz. There are also the accounts of those who liberated those camps.

That sort of consensus - and level of proof - does not exist with regards to global warming.

Holocaust denial is very close to flag-burning in my opinion - and criminalizing one or both is a borderline call right on the limits of freedom of speech.

I agree with your suggestion of how to characterize whacking one of the dirtbags, though.

MLEH said...

I have to side with Ken on this one, Son. The global warming true believers have already, to a great extent, marginalized dissenters in the scientific community, and proposed making 'global warming denial' a crime. (As you well know, I don't support the Flag Burning Amendment, either.)

Ahmadinejad could be dismissed as a comical caricature were he not so dangerously real. His little holocaust revival meeting actually may be a good thing if it illuminates the futility of the ISG's call for us to all sit down and reason together. I'm for anything that exposes him for the irrational and unreasonable creature he is.

Love, Mother