Europe Doesn't Have Our First Amendment And Eventually We Won't Either

Elaine Meinel Supkis

When America's revolutionaries wrote a Constitution they were most anxious to enshrine two major things: separation of Church and State and Freedom of Speech. They wisely recognized these two things would make America not only strong but a bastion of Liberty. Europe never has had either concept and today they struggle to prevent freedom of speech or separation of Church and State.

Famous writer, Orianna, is threatened with prison for writing about religion.

Barbara McMahon in Rome
Tuesday June 13, 2006
The Guardian

The trial of Oriana Fallaci, a journalist and author accused of defaming Islam in a book, was opened and adjourned yesterday in an Italian court.
The charge stems from a recent book, The Strength of Reason, one of a trilogy she has published since the September 11 attacks on the US. In the book, Fallaci, 77, is alleged to have made 18 blasphemous statements, including referring to Islam as "a pool that never purifies".

Here is America, rich people pay Anne Coulter to say some of the most hateful, nasty, scandalous lies and there is only one way we can stop her: mockery and ignoring her. Her attempts at egging on mad bombers to attack the New York Times should have landed her in an insane asylum, of course. She certainly looks and sounds totally unhinged! Certainly, threatening to murder people should be grounds for incarceration in order to protect potential victims. If someone stands in front of my house screaming for people to kill or bomb me I would want them examined. Certainly, we can't say, 'Bomb Bush' because that is a threat.

But we can say, 'Arrest Bush, arrest Rove.' Except Rove has slipped through the noose by testifying against Libby, nice friends, eh?

Back to free speech. Hitler called Judiasm 'a gutter religion' and he said other things, indeed, he sounded a lot like Anne Coulter except not so belligerent. In America, he would have total freedom to call any religion a gutter or a snipe. No religion can muzzle even very rude, even quite violent commentary. If this were not so, virtually the entire right wing would be filling our prisons rather than drug offenders.

When Austria imprisoned a misguided historian for his attempts at 'debunking' the Holocaust, this was a terrible moement for all historians as well as anyone who wants to have any debate about anything. All historical events should be allowed to be examined even in a very hostile way. Irving tried to stop debate by suing anyone who disputed him which is wrong, too. He couldn't do it here in America because of our Constitution. So he chose to fight in Europe which is a nasty place, so far as basic civil rights are concerned.

Europeans are scared of the many immigrants pouring in on top of the European women and men refusing to have any more children because it is fun not having children. This whole business should be debated, openly and heartily. This includes talking about religions. Europe thought they could avoid religious wars by muzzling any talk about religious wars.

So French cities burn, assassinations flourish in Holland, Germany lurches from neo-nazi rallies battling leftist coalitions just like Weimar, all these things are outlawed and persecuted and silenced only the web defeats all attempts at controlling political debate.

If the web didn't exist, the Pope, for example, could have gotten away with his pretense he was never a Nazi, for example. The debate about the connection between Naziism, the Catholic Church and the Zionist movement has been suppressed by both American and European media because they are scared of history and the fairy tales told by historians might be questioned.

Well, the debate is just beginning! Not ending.

Here is yet another example, a man using the net to spread his own interpetation of history through a neo-nazi lens.

By Chris Womak

How could anyone admire a man that publicly admits admiration for Adolf Hitler, that openly acknowledges himself to be a "Holocaust skeptic," and who never apologizes for his political incorrectness and nonconformist views? Who could possibly approve of a man who has put his personal freedom and indeed life on the line countless times in order to do nothing more than bring the world’s attention to what he believes to be an honest, albeit alternative view of history? Who could appreciate anyone bold enough to literally carry a cross on his own back, on behalf of all the world’s German population for no other reason than to at least partially exonerate them of the collective guilt forced upon them after the Second World War, and who to this very day, denounce Mr. Zundel for his self imposed role as their defender? Who could possibly hold in high esteem a man who rejects twenty-first century materialism as the answer to life and all its mysteries and instead seeks satisfaction in more personal pursuits like developing friendships with those that cannot possibly advance the "intolerant and violent" racist agenda attributed to the alleged "patriarch" of the "hate movement?"

Who could possibly admire a man that has sustained nothing but persecution from society at large, who has been the victim of ongoing smear campaigns launched more than three decades ago, who has suffered from every conceivable attack on his character, finances, family and even on his life. Who could think highly of man who despite all these things, and despite the fact that he is in prison at this very moment, not for a crime, no…no…. but because the Canadian government has determined that this pacifist is somehow a danger to Canada’s National Security, maintains a positive attitude and believes without any less certainty, that his cause is just, and that society will someday judge him, not on what the mainstream media says about him today, but upon his selfless and altruistic actions over a lifetime.

I plow through a lot of neo-nazi chat to see what is going on there. They are gaining ground thanks to the Israeli push to ape Hitler's Final Solution. Just as I have always feared, they are successfully showing that dual citizen Jews are a menace to America. Bush put just such a man in charge of Homeland Security and there are howls of rage to get rid of him after he maliciously opened the doors to DC and NYC, inviting more terrorist attacks. His contention there were no monuments to protect in both places prove he was installed to do a dual task: shove Americans into a war in the Middle East that benefits only Israel and of course, the deeper, darker plan of the Skull and Bones to use Jews as tools so when the workers get mad at the real rulers, the Jews can be shoved into the mob to be torn apart a la Nazi Germany.

This developing process is subterranean because America's media, a large slice of which is run or owned by Jewish men, don't want anyone to know this is going on. They really believe that if they massage information by suppressing contrary news like 99% of what goes on in the Holy Land, they will keep power and gain great victories, paid for by the unwitting American voters, all on our tab.

And this process is exactly that which fuels neo-naziism! As the average American uses the internet more and more, information that was hidden previously is now easily found via search engines, emails and various news services. This growing freedom of speech is troublesome to our rulers. It is probably one of the key reasons there are so many budding insurrections across the planet. China, for example, struggles hard to control information and content. Ditto Europe. America's feeble Congress is yielding to temptation there, too, using the Trojan Horse of 'child porn' as an excuse to curb freedom of speech.

Here is another example this year of web censorship.

The same imperialist regimes are using the controversy to push for censorship and attacks on workers’ rights at home. According to the BBC, the government of Sweden has just shut down the website of SD-Kuriren, the newspaper of the Swedish Democrats, a right-wing group, after it posted a cartoon of Muhammad that authorities claimed Muslims would find offensive.

While posing as defenders of free speech and freedom of the press, governments in Europe are doing the opposite under the banner of “banning fascists.” German author Ernst Zuendel was deported from Canada to Germany in November for writing a book denying the Holocaust. The same month, British author David Irving was arrested and thrown in jail in Austria for the same offense, on charges stemming from speeches he gave in 1989. If convicted, Irving could face up to 20 years in jail. Saying the Holocaust didn’t happen is a crime in Austria, France, Germany, and other European Union member states.

British foreign secretary Jack Straw praised the British press for not reprinting the disputed cartoons, adding that freedom of speech does not allow “open season” on religion, said the BBC.

British members of parliament reintroduced last June a “Religious Hatred Bill” that had previously failed, which would make forms of blasphemy against Islam a crime, a move backed by the Muslim Council of Britain. Similar laws regarding Judaism and Christianity are already in the books.

“The British government is using the protests over the Danish cartoons as a pretext to encroach on democratic rights in a dual way,” Tony Hunt, a leader of the Communist League in the United Kingdom, told the Militant. “They are using it to curtail freedom of speech. The police in London recently told the organizers of a rally against the cartoons, the Muslim Association of Britain, they will remove placards if they deem them inflammatory. They also push for laws restricting ‘religious hatred’ to win support among bourgeois Muslim groups for the British rulers’ ‘war on terrorism.’”

I think all religions are cults. Anyone can believe in anything they wish but they better not expect the rest of us to be very impressed. When I watched classmates in kindergarden talk about Santa Claus, I thought they were naive or stupid. Still do. If people want to do these things, fine. If people make fun of them, so what?

Everyone wants to muscle anyone making fun of religions. This is called power. And the Constitution set limits on this power because it causes wars, dissention and worst of all, the death of humanism, science and intelligence.

Willful dumbness is allowed but it can censor thinking minds.

Groups calling for the annihilation of other groups can't be stopped unless they take measures to act out their sick fantasies. This is why right wing fascist talk doesn't bother me but if they buy guns and then conspire to kill judges or Presidents then they should be arrested for conspiracy to commit crimes not for talking stupidly about politics.

Within the American right wing, they are going insane. While governments try to prevent any mockery of religion and as even America moves increasingly into a toxic mix of Church and State, religious believers mock their own religions in psychotic ways.The most recent example of this are those heretical talking vegetables.

Whoever cooked these cartoons up is a serious contender for the antichrist.

Rev. Paul McCain, over at Cyberbrethren brought the product pictured above to our attention recently.

I have two points I'd like to make. The first one having to do with the Veggie Tales Nativity scene here. And the second point regards Veggie Tales in general.

First, this nativity scene is very cute, I admit. I'm sure they'll sell a bunch of them. And sometimes I really get tired of being a curmudgeon. But this is just too goofy folks. We are talking about turning the Almighty Son of God, the eternal Creator of all things, into a carrot. Would you think it disrespectful of God if we made a cartoon of the life of Jesus and represented our Lord as a radish? Or maybe the cartoons would use animals instead. Would you think it appropriate to have a nativity scene with a puppy in the manger? Or maybe Jesus as a frog nailed to the cross. What's next? A Mr. Potatoehead Holy Ghost?

Why is it that we equate cute with harmless? This Veggie Tales scene is cute, but not harmless. I have no doubt that the real baby Jesus was adorable. Aren't all babies? Well, almost, right? But the shepherds came to worship him. The scene of Christ's birth should be more than just sweet and cute. It should inspire awe and reverance and holy fear. Thanks Veggie Tales for undermining the birth of the Savior.

And secondly, on Veggie Tales in general. I have a son who is now 10 years old. When he was little, we bought and played Veggie Tales videos for him. And some of my orthodox confreres might want to poison my beer after I say this, but in a way I kinda like them. I have absolutely nothing against moralizing to children. We should moralize to our children. Only negligent irresponsible parents fail to moralize to their children.

When I first say the cross-eyed, deliberately dumb looking vegetables commenting on God smiting the worshippers of the Golden Calf or David cutting the foreskins off of his enemies (actually, these were skipped, of course!) I thought this is exactly what someone who hates Christians would make. These stupid vegetables are a wicked commentary on what the artists really think Christians who watch them are: brain dead.

If I were the antichrist, I would pay for these cartoons and sell them to Christians along with video games of Christians murdering New Yorkers who eat lox an bagels. Which also exists.

Just like America dealt with the guilt of killing and corralling the native American Indians by making 'cowboy and Indian' movies putting the victims of this imperial push into the bad guys, justifying a terrible crime, so America deals with the contridictions of religious conviction by making cartoons. On the anti-religious side, shows like Family Guy or South Park and on the pro-religious side we have these crossed-eyed, idiotic sounding, droolingly stupid vegetables.

Let freedom ring.

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Comments

[Passive Europe]

It is not so bad in Europe. To us, it seems that we are much more free than in the US. We talk about abortion, homo's, sex and drugs in a different way than in the US (which seems so delicate to discuss over there, but has the biggest porn industry in the world).

Of course my observations are probably flawed, but I think our problem is more being passive and running after big daddy US without questions than lack of freedom (although there are exceptions, such as the hysteric approach of WWII-history and discussions in Germany).

In general, we have the same problem with stupid or uninterested people, mainstream media that definitely proves that the job title of journalist should now be 'whorenalist' (excluding the good onces of course) and politicians run by people in the dark, just discussing unimportant issues while never changing the major policies (such as relentless support of Israel).

I compare it with what I see and read about the US (mainstream and internet/blogs). Europe ain't that bad, its just a bit softer than the US. We'll keep running after the US for nuke-umbrella protection untill Russia finally cuts our power. Too bad that politicians don't openly admit that this is wat is being done.

Soon, the Dutch will start their mission in Uruzgan. I predict that it will take 10 Dutch deaths for an outcry of the media about this mission. If not, I will know that Europe has slid a bit further to the cliff the US is already almost falling in.

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

Here we can't do the sex but we can have talking veggies discussing the Bible while cross-eyed! Heh.

I lived in Europe for a while. Es war sehr schoen! I miss some of the things we did while there.

Europe is trying to piggy back on the American Empire. A fatal choice.

[Ouish]

Not long ago France jailed a couple of bloggers for publishing pro-marijuana websites. I've noticed that Europe is less free than the U.S. in some ways even while being much more free in others.

The current marijuana hubbub involves the Dutch, their coffeeshops, and party-hearty Belgians crossing the border and trashing the place. The Dutch have responded by moving some coffeehouses out of vulnerable towns and next to the border, so these Belgians can party away uninpeded without making trouble for anyone else. Sensible, right? But Belgium is in an uproar because they see this as a plot to undermine their "zero tolerance" policies. "Zero tolerance"! Hard to believe that particular bit of stupidity crossed over into Europe, but it did. Hey Belgium, why don't you build a fucking wall.

[JSmith]

"When America's revolutionaries wrote a Constitution they were most anxious to enshrine two major things: separation of Church and State and Freedom of Speech."

They weren't all THAT anxious to enshrine those things, considering they needed to amend the Constitution in order to enshrine them.

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

Ah, but it was in the very first Constitution! And of course it made slave owners somewhat nevous, nervous to the point of repudiating it totally in 1860.

[Chris Womak]

Gee, I read your post and truth be told, I really couldn't find anything that you and I disagree on. I'm just a bit more blunt and unapologetic.