Who was on the Nazi’s naughty list?

Since the pope has declared that the source of the Nazi evil was their atheism, we ought to be able to see that in their laws. Here are the guidelines for banned books in Nazi Germany. A few of them stand out.

Recall that many creationists claim that the horrors of the Holocaust were inspired by Charles Darwin? I don’t quite understand, then, why ol’ Chuck was on their list of banned authors, along with Ernst Haeckel.

6. Schriften weltanschaulichen und lebenskundlichen Charakters, deren Inhalt die falsche naturwissenschaftliche Aufklärung eines primitiven Darwinismus und Monismus ist (Häckel).

6. Writings of a philosophical and social nature whose content deals with the false scientific enlightenment of primitive Darwinism and Monism (Häckel).

They must have banned religious books, then. But no…it banned books that ridiculed religion.

c) Alle Schriften, welche die christliche Religion und ihre Einrichtungen, den Gottesglauben und andere einem gesunden Volksempfinden heiligen Dinge verhöhnen, verumglimpfen oder verächtlich machen.

c) All writings that ridicule, belittle or besmirch the Christian religion and its institution, faith in God, or other things that are holy to the healthy sentiments of the Volk.

Richard Dawkins can be proud that The God Delusion would have been banned by Hitler, while all the fleas that follow him would have been heroes of the Reich.

The Iranian Official Perspective

A reader, who apparently did some work for Iran some years ago, now regularly gets missives from the Iranian embassy, and he forwarded this one to me. It’s about Iran’s official response to the proposed Koran burning in Florida.

I’ve checked out the email headers and can verify that at least it came from the purported source and there is an Iranian embassy at that address, but I can’t vouch for the full legitimacy of the email.

Subject: Supreme Leader’s Message

Dear Sir/Madam

Please find attached the text of the message of the Supreme Leader of the
Islamic Republic of Iran on the desecration of the Holy Quran in the United
States.

Regards

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

“It is we who sent down the Koran, and we watch over it,” says God

the Mighty, the Wise [Holy Quran, 15:9]

Great Iranian nation, great Islamic Ummah!

The insane, revolting insult to the Holy Quran in America, an incident
occurring under the security provided by the US police, is a major tragic
event that cannot be considered merely as the foolish act of a few worthless
mercenaries. This is a preplanned act by those who since years ago have put
Islamophobic and anti-Muslim policies on their agenda and have tried to
combat Islam and the Quran in numerous ways resorting to a myriad of
propaganda means and campaigns. This is another link in a chain of shameless
measures launched with the blasphemy of Salman Rushdi, the apostate,
followed by the insult of the base Danish caricaturist, tens of anti-Islamic
movies produced in Hollywood and now crowned by this disgusting show. Who
and what is behind such evil acts?

Looking into this trend of evil, as manifested in recent years in atrocious
operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon and Pakistan, leaves no
doubt that it is designed and masterminded by heads of world imperialism and
Zionist think tanks which have the highest degree of influence in the
government, the military and security agencies of the United States as well
as Britain and some other European countries. These are those at whom the
finger of suspicion of independent truth-finding groups and individuals is
pointed in the case of the attack on the Twin Towers on September the 11th.
The then-president of the US, a criminal, was provided with the pretext to
invade Iraq and Afghanistan; he declared a Crusade and, reportedly, has said
yesterday that with the Church entering the stage the Crusade has truly
begun.

What is aimed at through the recent repulsive incident is, on the one hand,
to take the confrontation with Islam and Muslims to the populace in the
Christian community, to give it a religious coloring and entrenching it with
religious zeal and sentiment by involving the church and, on the other, to
divert the attention of the Muslim nations, enraged and hurt by this hideous
effrontery, away from the issues and developments in the Muslim world and
the Middle East.

This vengeful act is not the beginning of a trend but another stage in the
long history of antagonizing Islam headed by Zionism and the US government.
Now all the heads of world hegemony and impiety are ranked against Islam.
Islam is the religion of human liberation and spirituality, and the Quran is
the book of compassion, wisdom and justice. It is incumbent upon all
free-spirited people of the world and all the followers of the Abrahamic
religions to side with the Muslims in countering these heinous anti-Islamic
policies and acts. Empty, deceitful words cannot exonerate the heads of the
American government from the charge of involvement in this ugly phenomenon.
For years those things held sacred by millions of oppressed Muslims in
Afghanistan and Pakistan, in Iraq, in Lebanon and Palestine have been
desecrated, all their rights and their dignity trampled on. Hundreds of
thousands killed, tens of thousands of men and women captured and tortured,
thousands of children and women kidnapped, and millions injured and made
homeless – all victimized for what? And with these wrongs, why does the
Western media represent Muslims as violence incarnate and Islam, and the
Quran, as a menace to humanity? How can one believe that this vast
conspiracy could be made possible without the support and involvement of the
Zionist circles in the US government?!
O Muslim brethren and sisters in Iran and all over the world!
It is necessary to draw the attention of all to the following points:
First, this incident and similar ones show that what is now being targeted
by the global hegemony and world Imperialism are the very foundations of the
dear Islam, and the Holy Quran. The manifest enmity of the arrogant world
powers towards the Islamic Republic of Iran is because of the manifest
resistance of Iran against them; the claim of these powers in not being the
enemies of other Muslims, and of Islam, is a big lie, a satanic deception.
They are the enemies of Islam, whoever believes in it, and whatever
signifies it.

Second, these spiteful acts against Islam and Muslims stem from the fact
that since a few decades ago the light of Islam has been shining brighter
than ever, its grip on the hearts and souls in the Muslim world and even in
the West has been stronger than ever before. It stems from the fact that the
Islamic Ummah is now more awake than ever and is determined to free itself
of the shackles of two centuries of colonialism and interference. The
incident of insulting the Quran and the Great Prophet of Islam despite all
its bitterness bears great tidings. The bright sun of the Quran will shine
brighter than ever.

Third, we should all know that this incident has nothing to do with
Christianity and the Church; we should not regard the puppet-like acts of a
few idiotic and mercenary priests as those of Christians and church men. We
Muslims will never commit similar acts against what are held sacred in other
religions. Conflict between Muslims and Christians, on a popular scale, is
what our enemies and the stagers of this insane show are after. What the
Quran teaches us is diametrically opposed to this.
Fourth, today the protests of all Muslims are directed at the US government
and American politicians. If they are honest in their claim of not being
involved in this, they must duly punish the main planners and operators of
this heinous crime who have hurt the feelings of one and a half billion
Muslims the world over.

And peace is on him who follows piety.

Sayyed Ali Khamenei

September 13, 2010

I found two things very funny.

They say they’ll never commit similar acts, i.e., desecrate holy books, as if that makes them better people. But instead, they issue fatwahs demanding the death of people like Salman Rushdie, and riot with signs advocating violent acts against other people! I’m not exactly dazzled by their standards of morality. I’d piss on a thousand holy books before I even consider advocating beheading someone.

That last line slays me. One and half billion people are “upset”! It sounds to me like one and a half billion children need to get a life.

Gagging the Mississippi

The Mississippi is a mess. I live in the agricultural, rural upper midwest, and one of the nasty surprises lurking beneath the rich green fields is that the rivers are ugly stews of fertilizers and herbicides and pesticides from agricultural runoff. We have data that it hurts people, too: premature births and birth defects show seasonal fluctuations that peak for children conceived in the spring and summer, when the chemicals are being sprayed into the air and are dribbling into the streams. The villains are agribusiness and overproduction and the corn ethanol boondoggle and horrors like the fecal lakes associated with swine farms. Louisiana’s environmental problems are partly the product of Minnesota’s toxic largesse.

It needs to be known. The Bell Museum at the University of Minnesota has been producing a documentary called Troubled Waters: A Mississippi River Story for the past several years, and it was supposed to have its premiere in October.

The documentary has been indefinitely postponed. Somebody doesn’t want you to see it.

Who, you might wonder, could have shut down the UM’s movie? It was the university itself. They claim it was for further scientific review, but by all accounts, this movie has been rigorously vetted throughout, and that explanation just doesn’t hold up. The other disturbing fact is that the source of the pressure seems to have been University Relations, a department not known for its attention to scientific rigor, but with a mission of responding to community interests. We’re a land-grant university, by the way, in an agricultural state.

Karen Himle is Vice President of University Relations, which is the office that determined the film needed “scientific review.” She is married to John Himle, president of Himle Horner, a public relations firm that represents the Minnesota Agri-Growth Council. The Council is a strong proponent of ethanol and industrial farming, both of which are critiqued in the film. John Himle was also president of the Minnesota Agri-Growth Council from 1978 to 1982 and his organization currently serves as a “member” of the Council.

The University’s “conflict of interest” policy was called into question last year by the Minnesota Daily, which also cited Karen Himle’s summary of her outside sources of income as including Himle Horner and Nebraska farmland crops.
While Himle Horner’s client records are not public (something that has drawn the ire of some in the community as former co-owner Tom Horner is running for governor), Himle Horner was still representing the Minnesota Agri-Growth Council as recently as this summer.

So who is calling the shots at the University of Minnesota? Academics and scientists with some intellectual integrity, or lackeys of big business who care most about short-term profit, no matter the cost to the environment and public health?

Don’t bother answering, I know what the answer will be.