David Irving . . .

. . . just keeps getting more and more confusing. In 1989 he gave an interview on Austrian television claiming that the Holocaust never happened. At his recent trial, he pled guilty but insisted "I have changed," and acknowledged that Hitler murdered millions of Jews.

Then this comes along. Along with his odd suggestion that Auschwitz-Birkenau has been inappropriately (and, I suppose, inexplicably) identified as the core of the Nazi extermination program, he seems to continue to contend that Hitler knew nothing about the "final solution." I can't tell if he thinks that the Dolf was a colossal moron, or not as powerful as anyone thought, or what. All I can say for sure is that the man has a genius for deducing impossible conclusions from relatively clear evidence.*

This one is a hoot.

* The man in this case being Irving, not Hitler. The two do seem to share that quality to some extent, but at least some of the blame in Hitler's case may be directed toward his native culture.**

** A professor of mine has suggested that only the Austrians could have convinced the world to believe in a Viennese Beethoven and a German Hitler.

Toontown

I haven't yet said anything about the Muhammad cartoon controversy because everything that's occurred to me has been stated clearly and effectively by someone else. Something has been festering in the back of my mind (eew) for a few weeks now, but I've only recently figured out what it is.

When much of the Muslim world began to protest the Danish cartoons, newspapers all over Europe republished them, usually claiming that their actions were taken in defense of freedom of expression.* This is nonsense. If they had published the cartoons despite their own governments' protests, that would be a move for freedom of expression. When a newspaper prints something in defiance of someone else's government, it's just an attempt to be inflamatory. And really, how hard is it to enrage a radical fundamentalist?

Shooting fish in a barrel unsportsmanlike, unchallenging and, when you think about it, kind of stupid.

* This is ironic by itself, as many European countries do not have such a legally protected right. David Irving's status as a criminal is contingent entirely on the fact that publicly stating an opinion can get you sent to jail in Austria, and made somewhat more shocking by the fact that he was tried and sentenced after publicly retracting and renouncing his own denial of the Holocaust.

And here I thought I'd lost my readership . . .

A little while ago I enabled comment moderation to keep the spammers at bay. Due to an error in the setup (my fault), I never received any e-mail notifications of comments awaiting approval. Now, all is healed. All is health. All is whole.

(Seven brownie points [and possibly a brownie] to whoever gets the reference.)

And relatedly . . .

There is no such thing as metzitzah bepeh. There is, however, a controversial circumcision practice called metzitzah befeh. Remember, use these powers only for good.

Another linguistic PSA

As we approach ט"ו בשבט, the New Year for Trees, one thing must be made clear: It is properly vocalized as Tu Bishvat. Not Tu B'shvat, not Tu B'shevat, and certainly not Cheshvan (rim shot). Tu Bishvat. Three syllables. Love it, live it, say it.