The Bakery

The Humor of Hitler

German Tour Guide: You vill find more on Germany's contributions to ze arts in ze pamphlets ve have provided.
Brian Griffin: Yeah, about your pamphlet... uh, I'm not seeing anything about German history between 1939 and 1945. There's just a big gap.
Tour guide: Everyone vas on vacation. On your left is Munich's first city hall, erected in 15...
Brian Griffin: Wait, what are you talking about? Germany invaded Poland in 1939 and...
Tour Guide: We were invited. Punch vas served. Check vit Poland.
Brian Griffin: You can't just ignore those years. Thomas Mann fled to America because of Nazism's stranglehold on Germany.
Tour guide: Nope, nope. He left to manage a Dairy Queen.
Brian Griffin: A Dairy Queen? That's preposterous.
Tour guide: I vill hear no more insinuations about the German people. Nothing bad happened. Sie werden sich hinsetzen. Sie werden ruhig sein. Sie werden nicht beleidigen Deutschland. (You will sit down. You will shut up. You will not insult Germany.)
[throws his hand up in a Hitler salute]

- The Family Guy (via the Internet Movie Data Base)

I love Social Studies class. History is quickly becoming my very favorite subject, and I'm lucky enough to have a thoughtful and engaging teacher. At the moment we're covering the period of global facist/communist empowerment leading up to the outbreak of WWII.

In class today, my teacher made this observation: "I know you guys love TV shows like The Family Guy that make jokes [about Hitler, etc.], but it's really not a joking matter. To joke about Hitler..."

My classmates and I were quick to make the point that the cariacatures of Hitler and other evil leaders in today's comedy are not making light of World War II. We aren't trivializing the memories of any Holocaust victims or any brave pioneers of Freedom and Liberty who gave their lives in Allied uniforms.

We are, however, trivializing the German point of view and the German leadership during World War II. With damned good reason.

Hitler was a powerful leader, yes. He was also completely insane, ridiculous, and a major idiot. He was wrong about facism, Jews, his Aryan race... about everything.

I realize that our generation is, of course, further removed from the war than our predecessors. It may seem like we treat it with nonchalance, and yes, to an extent, we probably don't understand the horrors that encompass a World War.

But when we make fun of Hitler, we're making fun of Hitler and the WWII German ideals.

Not things that really deserve respect.

The Bull Moose (And Others) Note the Passing of Conservatism

BullMooseBlog.com takes a long, hard look at what the campaign for Terri Schiavo intervention says about what the American Right has become.

All pretenses of limited government conservatism have been cast aside with congressional intervention in the Schiavo case. The era of big government conservatism is in full swing. That is, if it can be called conservatism, at all.

At its heart, conservatism had reverence for process and order. But what we are witnessing now is the triumph of ends over means. That is exactly what the right loathed about the left. In the eye of conservatives, the left would stretch the Constitution and the law to serve its so-called noble ends. Liberals would turn to the federal courts to nullify the judgments of localities. In the end, according to the right, the law of unintended consequences would prevail and the rule of law would be obliterated.

Process no longer matters to the right - after all they are on the side of the angels. Whether it is pork barrel spending , the Senate filibuster or federal intervention in a family dispute, modern conservatism knows no boundaries. The right is now intoxicated with power - process is for wimps.

When it comes to federal intervention on behalf of the disadvantaged, the conservative response is to leave it to the states and the "mediating institutions" of community and locality. However, when it involves pandering to the religious right, federal power in the pursuit of righteous aims is no vice.

A few brave souls such as George Will and Andrew Sullivan attempt to hold the right to its principles. But the right is now aping all that it loathed in liberalism - the arrogance of power.

Look in the mirror conservatives - you have become your own worst enemy.

Many thanks to Random Fate for the link.

UPDATE: Jeff Jarvis weighs in with equal eloquence.

As Congress and the President rushed into their exploitation of Terri Schiavo, they set off a bomb that will have considerable fallout....

Without incredibly explicit instructions directly from the patient — and even with explicit instructions from the spouse or guardian — I can see doctors and hospitals refusing to take people off life-support for fear that some family member can come forward and start suing....

The Republicans set some odd precedents in matters of state's rights and government interference in individuals' lives that may come back to haunt them. You can bet there will be attempts to extend what happened last night as a principle of life into the debate over abortion. You can bet you will not see attempts to extend this principle into the debate over the death penalty, however.

You will see Terri Schiavo continue to be used as a political hostage as any Democrat who dared question the wisdom and legality of this action will be accused by opponents in the next election as being against life.

This is not the result of deliberative government and the rule of law. This is the result of the fog of media and cynical politics.

Without question, read his post in its entirety.

Via a link from that same Jarvis post: In the Agora takes a more technical look at the potential unconstitutionality of the new bill.

"When is that bitch gonna die?"

I'm seriously questioning Michael Schiavo's authority with which he's making decisions concerning his wife's life.

According to RN Carla Iyer, one of the nurses who attended Terri Schiavo through the years: Throughout my time at Palm Gardens [one of Ms. Schiavo’s nursing homes], Michael Schiavo was focused on Terri’s death. Michael would say “When is she going to die?,” “Has she died yet?” and “When is that bitch gonna die?”

Any pro-putting Terri "at peace" needs to really look at this.

Sexual Isolation in Education

From the haziest corner of The Smoking Room, Greg Piper notes this recent story regarding public funding of single-sex education programs. He goes on to opine about the gender separation issue as a whole:

I'm not sure I'm that put off by the rules of this program. Conservatives (and some liberals) have fought for public funding of single-sex education for years, hoping to keep boys from showing off for girls and ignoring teachers, and for girls to feel like they can speak up in class.

This principle doesn't work on several levels. In the last part of the passage, Piper writes that segregation allows "girls to feel like they can speak up in class." This sets up a vicious cycle - if you tell a thirteen-year old girl that separation is necessary so she can voice her opinion, you are giving her the message that boys are more dominant. You'd be raising girls on the mantra that boys are stronger, and they need to be kept away for their own emotional protection. Can you imagine anything more damaging, mentally, to the young lady?

Another problem with the gender segregation is simply its unpracticality. Unless all the young men and women join up with Opus Dei straight out of school, they will be interacting, throughout their lives, with people of the opposite gender. While the going might be rough at that relatively young age (boys paying more attention to girls and less to instructors or girls spending too much time primping and preening), being able to function in a room with attractive females is a skill these young men will need later on. If these youngsters are really this distracted, dare we imagine the outcome if this "learning period" occured in a workplace rather than in school? It's just putting off this inevitable "testing of the waters" until a point where it could cause even more harm.

Yes, I do see Greg's point. It is a shame that many young men (I disagree with the extent to which he applies the stereotype, however) are that, err, distractible. But the only way they'll learn is by, well, learning! Isn't that what school is for?

By the end of his post, though, Mr. Piper strikes through to the heart of the matter:

The core issue of this little program is the double standard in education: girls get more attention, although they need it much less now, while boys receive little help and encouragement to perform well and politically correct teachers try to feminize the little boy out of them.

I agree wholeheartedly - and this is coming from a 14-year old current male student!

Why Protest in 2004?

Today, on the anniversary of the first Coalition strikes on Hussein-controlled Iraq, protesters all over the U.S. and the world took to the streets to express their distaste with the mission. I have one question to ask them: Why?

We understand that you didn't agree with the war. If everything falls apart, we'll readily admit that you were all right - don't worry, you're on the record. So why do you insist on continuously marching and hoisting angry signs and shouting about how Bush is a murderer and how the whole mission is really Blood for oil and that Bush is Hitler. It's disturbing enough that you could believe that about an American President, but that's another matter. I simply cannot fathom what good could come from these continuing protests.

Right before and at the outset of the strike, yes, I understand. Without debating Iraqi Intervention vs. Isolationism, I think we can all agree that at least the protests were somewhat relevant at that point. Decisions were still being made, and it was fine for those individuals to alert the world to our internal dissent. Yes, I disagree strongly with some comparisons and accusations that were being thrown around, but I saw their reason to protest.

Let's look at our current situation, shall we? It's 2004. The Iraqi War began, and is still being fought. Iraq held free and democratic elections, and, yes, American troops are being murdered by terrorists (not "insurgents," terrorists) at an alarming rate. What is there left to protest?

We know you that a large part of America did not agree with the war. We get it! I doubt, however, that anyone can make a really coherent argument that immediate and total withdrawal of Coalition troops would accomplish anything apart from violent destabilization of the region. So what are the protestors trying to accomplish? Believe me, nobody's forgotten that they dissent.

The fact that protests are stil being held today does nothing but demoralize the brave soldiers that are fighting on behalf of the freedom for all people to attain Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Okay, you didn't want the war to happen. Well, it did. Now shut the hell up and start supporting the troops.