Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

I am such a workaholic and loner that the Christmas holidays are always hard on me, while the rest of the world, it always seems to me, goes wild with shallow merriment. I like to dig in and stay put. Now, with another duty done and my beloved morning coffee tucked away, I am picking out things at random that caught my attention during this Christmas season as being worthy of a ZGram. In no particular order of priority, here are a few:

• I have been smarting from the rebuff on the part of the Censorship Busters - the group professing to defend ALL Freedom of Speech on the Net. They want to keep their porn. They rushed to the side of an anarchic website in the Netherlands that published how to dynamite a train. They are now giving legal as well as moral counsel to a teenager who took on Cybersitter, apparently a software program that blocks smutty words such as - well, never mind!
• This group had helped us back in January to put up Zundel-mirrors across prestigious universities. Thus, I felt fairly sure of their commitment regarding free speech principles, even though they might not like our message much - that message being, naturally, that there was something murky about the "Holocaust".
• In the wake of the Canadian Human Rights Commission fingering the Zundelsite, I had put out a call to them to do unto Canada as they had done unto the USA by fending off the CDA (Community Decency Act) - that is, to help the Zundel legal team tell the powers-that-be that they have no business sticking their noses into Freedom of Speech on the Net by labeling the Zundelsite a "telephone" - which is the newest "legal" wrinkle, yours courtesy of the B'nai Brith and other self-appointed censors.
• Immediately, word was put out among this group that Ernst Zundel was a marginal kook just looking for attention, and the reaction was a generic liberal prostrating before the temporal religion called the "Holocaust" - and never mind that you could tell by their responses that few had read a single document of so-called "Holocaust Denial", and never mind that it will be a MAJOR blow to freedom on the Net if yet another Jewish power grab succeeds in signaling to other countries that a dissident website can be disposed of, willy-nilly, as yet another "telephone".
• One or two cyber liberals, moreover, reacted with sharp vitriol, and one or two came cautiously to Ernst's defense. Here is one illustration:
• Poison Pen: "I hope your movement dies like the millions of Jews and other minorities you slaughtered. In fact, it is movements like yours that open the door to limitations on free speech, much to the world's loss."
• Antidote: "I don't think anyone's ever accused Ernst of murder. If I think that Oswald didn't kill JFK, that the holocaust never happened, or that the Normandy accidentally shot down TWA800, I may be right, wrong, or nuts but I haven't even been guilty of impoliteness much less murder. It is not preaching hatred either. Certainly the Canadian government has preached more hatred against Ernst than Ernst has against anyone . . . "
• Moving on. From the IDG News Service (Dec. 18, 1996) came word that
• ". . . Parolees convicted of certain violent crimes will face tight restrictions on Internet use following a decision handed down yesterday by the U.S. Department of Justice Parole Commission.
• Under the terms of the new rule (which takes effect immediately), persons on parole for violations such as child molestation, hate crimes, or the illegal use of explosives, will not be able to use the Internet without written consent from their parole officers . . . "
• Please note that "hate crimes" is tucked in between "child molestation" and "the illegal use of explosives." This is, again, the pairing of concepts I talked about before - to fix in the minds of the unwary public that "hate crimes" (as defined by special interests) are both dangerous and smutty - as distasteful and criminal, in fact, as are using children for sex and bomb making. Once that is done, it is easy to pass laws against "hate crimes" - which, I predict as well, will be primarily the ghastly "crime" of "Holocaust Denial" with a few secondary "hate crimes" (like being proud of your white skin) thrown in.
• Then there's the matter of the teacher who hauls his ninth graders into the Holocaust Museum in Washington, then posts their essays on the net to reinforce PC. ( http://www.fred.net/nhhs/html/holoreac.htm ) I only skimmed those essays, but I have a few observations:
• 1) As a rule here in America, ninth graders are not that facile with their pens and not that much at ease with fanciful vocabulary, much less appropriate punctuation. Either this is an exceptional class, or your guess is as good as my guess.
• 2) There is an amazing congruence about the politically correct ". . . we must never forget, so it will never happen again . . ." chorus.
• 3) Several of the essays chide the wicked Holocaust Deniers - a theme which, if these essays are indeed productions out of ninth graders' pens, is a telling commentary on just how deep our message has already penetrated the general awareness of the populace. Five years ago, the concept of "Holocaust Denial" would have been virtually non-existent in the awareness of ninth-graders.
• Finally, here is a bit of post-Christmas cheer out of the Zundelsite "In" box:
• "I have only recently been connected to the internet and am very impressed with the clear and thoughtful arguments put forward on the Zundelsite.
• As a law graduate I am particularly interested in the 'hate' laws in Germany and elsewhere which has criminalised 'Holocaust denial.' As you are no doubt aware, here in the United Kingdom the opposition Labour party recently announced at their annual conference that they intend to introduce similar legislation, should they win the next general election planned in early 1997.
• Any hope that this announcement was mere electioneering 'puff' was dispelled by Michael Gapes, the Labour MP for Ilford South, when he announced, whilst appearing on Jewish Spectrum Radio on Tuesday 17 December, that he will put forward a 10 minute-rule Bill on 29 January 1997 "to make it a criminal offence to claim, whether in writing or orally, that the policy of genocide against the Jewish people committed by Nazi Germany did not occur." Although this Bill will have little chance of success because of the lack of parliamentary time it indicates the intentions of such parliamentarians.
• To aid research into this 'offence' I was wondering whether you or any other individual/group maintains a list of all those dissidents that have been convicted, or are currently being prosecuted for this 'offence,' whether in Germany or elsewhere. If so, could you please provide me with the details of how to obtain such information. Any suggestions would be gratefully received. . . "

Anyone out there? Write to me, and I will forward your information. In German we say: "Frohen Rutsch ins Neue Jahr!" Happy slide into the New Year! Ingrid

Thought for the Day: "They can make dung smell like roses, and vice versa." (Gordon Ginn, Ph.D. in "Strong Delusion")

Back to Table of Contents of the Dec. 1996 ZGrams