or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
•
"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
•
"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
March 26, 2006
How I Keep Winning
I like to be skeptical of claims that reinforce my worldview. That way, if they turn out to be true, my worldview feels doubly validated...which is always pleasurable. But if they're false, I congratulate myself for having such a commitment to the truth that I'm skeptical of things that reinforce my worldview. And that's also part of my worldview. I win either way!
For instance, a while back Diane at Lawrence of Cyberia dug up this quote from Jyllands-Posten, the Danish newspaper that published the Mohammed cartoons. It's from 1938, and they're commenting on Kristallnacht:
You have to admit Germany its clear right to rid itself of its Jews. But one must insist that it happens in a decent manner.
This seemed suspiciously pat to me. It makes a certain point so perfectly I thought it couldn't be real.
To Diane's credit, however, to confirm it she went right to the source: Jyllands-Posten. And to their credit, they admitted they really wrote that.
And what does this mean for my worldview? I'll tell you what it means:
Victory! Victory! Victory!
In order to keep my decades-long winning streak alive, however, I have to be skeptical of these purported Hitler quotes. I welcome any information on their accuracy, because any outcome will be a part of my ongoing triumph.
Posted at March 26, 2006 10:02 AM | TrackBackThat's Kristallnacht, but who's counting? The worldview's the important thing.
Posted by: Nell at March 26, 2006 12:30 PMNell, thanks for the correction; now made.
Also: Victory! Victory! Victory!
Posted by: Jonathan Schwarz at March 26, 2006 12:44 PMExcerpt from an interview of Chomsky during the height of the "humanitarian intervention" moral panic:
"...virtually every use of military force is described as humanitarian intervention. The major recent academic study of humanitarian intervention is by Sean Murphy, Humanitarian Intervention: The UN in an Evolving World Order. He's now an editor of the American Journal of International Law. He points out, correctly, that before the Second World War, there was the Kellogg-Briand Pact in 1928 that outlawed war. Between the Kellogg-Briand Pact and the UN Charter in 1945, there were three major examples of humanitarian intervention. One was the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and north China. Another was Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia, and a third was Hitler's takeover of the Sudetenland. They were accompanied by exalted and impressive humanitarian rhetoric, which as usual was not entirely false. Even the most vulgar propaganda has elements of truth."
Rest of interview here:
http://www.zmag.org/zmag/may01barsamian.htm
Even the most vulgar propaganda has elements of truth.
Man, the things I learn here. ATR needs its own del.icio.us tag. What a great link, sk.
I just try to be as self-deprecating as possible. Then if someone catches me screwing up, they can't make me eat the humble pie I've already nibbled away. Victory might not be mine, but it's not theirs either, and I can save my self some gastric trauma. That's the plan anyway.
Posted by: Saheli at March 26, 2006 01:16 PMI can find sources for two of them.
Goebbels gave the March 12,1938 broadcast. It Can be found here. Supposedly it was authored by Hitler.
http://www.adolfhitler.ws/lib/speeches/text/speeches.htm
There are some similarities...it is a translation but it is Goebbels.
http://www.adolfhitler.ws/lib/proc/proclamtion.htmLetter to Daladier Justifying Poland there are similarities here also.
Dear Tiny Revolutionists
I was searching the internet unter the words FreeMason, and I hit on to you website, which is a very good forum.
In your interest of the formation of world policy, I will ask:
Did you know that George Bush Jr and John Kerry are cousins ?
Did you know they joined the same secret organisation at Yale, and swore the same oath ?
Did you know the George Bush Jr's grandfather
Prescott Bush was caught red handed donating millions to Hitler during the 1930s ?
Did you know that George Bush Jr is involved
in the occult, and attends an occult ceremony
at the Grove in California every year with
other world and business leaders ?
If you want to know more evidence-backed
information, the then you will get it
at http://www.infowars.com
Don't be in the dark. Bypass the media. Get
the facts.
Very best regards
Mark
Totally unrelated, but the Jyllands-Posten quote from 1938 summarizes the point of view of the "soft" Nazis depicted in "Conspiracy," the outstanding HBO/Kenneth Branagh film recreating the 1942 Wannsee Conference at which the "final solution" was put into bureaucratic motion. Colin Firth was particularly convincing as the rep from the Ministry of Justice, intensely anti-semitic but unwilling to countenance shooting or gassing the Jews.
But it's interesting that the quote comes from a Danish newspaper, given the lengths to which the Danes went to protect their relatively small number of Jews.
Posted by: Ralph at March 29, 2006 02:13 PM
