World War II
oracknows | September 26, 2006Via History News Network:
(Translation below the fold.)
Apparently, the above cartoon, Der Bonker, in which a disconsolate (and rappin'!) Hitler is portrayed sitting on the toilet complaining about Churchill, is causing an uproar in Germany:
A satirical cartoon about Hitler, where he sits on the toilet complaining about Churchill, is causing controversy in Germany.
Illustrator Walter Moers is famous for his comic books depicting the dictator as a frustrated little man who throws fits every time the Jews are mentioned. But with the release of the short film "Der Bonker", Germans seem to feel…
oracknows | August 10, 2006Deep within Yankee Stadium, a timeless evil had arrived (well, an evil around 61 years old, anyway--well, 117 years old if you count its entire existence) shambling through the dark service corridors and halls, on a never-ending quest to satisfy its unquenchable hunger. Why it had come to this place, it did not know. Perhaps it was drawn by the eminations of pure baseball evil that routinely flowed from the so-called House That Ruth Built. Maybe it was because this place was a an icon of its hated enemy from a previous life, representing the national pastime favored by that enemy and…
oracknows | July 15, 2006After last week's reemergence of the Hitler Zombie from his underground crypt to snack on the brains of a couple of political consultants in my home city of Detroit, my sister kindly sent me this link, which explains a bit more of the background.
It turns out that the HItler Zombie may be cleverer than even I thought. The use of Hitler imagery, besides being inspired by a chomp on the brain by the Hitler Zombie, appears to have a definite purpose beyond simply being over the top and offensive:
What is really going on here?
Here's a pretty well-informed guess. Everyone in Detroit politics…
oracknows | July 11, 2006Sitting in a corner office, Adolph Mongo perused daily reports. It was early evening and nearly everyone in the office had gone home, leaving only a few die-hards left to finish up. A crack political operative who runs a political and media consulting firm active in Michigan and Detroit politics, Mongo never hesitated to play the race card when he thought it might help his client.
He heard a crash outside his door.
"Jonella?" he said. "Is that you?"
No answer.
Mongo went back to his reading, but he was tired. That's enough attacking Governor Grahnolm and defending Detroit Mayor Kwame…
oracknows | June 24, 2006About two weeks ago, I did a brief post about a Lithuanian guy whose blood alcohol level was beyond what would kill most mortal men but who was fully conscious and nominally able to drive. I facetiously referred to it as "one quarter of my heritage at its finest," given that I'm one quarter Lithuanian. Well, I'm also one-half Polish on my father's side, and a little more than a week ago, I came across this example of that part of my heritage at its finest Not surprisingly, this item involves drinking too. It also involves the World Cup, in this case, a semi-friendly rivalry between Polish and…
oracknows | June 23, 2006While we're on the topic of Holocaust deniers again, here's something on the lighter side...
I thought I'd seen everything. Then, via Improbable Research, I found something truly strange.
Are you ready for....Hitler Cats? It's a blog dedicated to cats that look like Hitler. I have to tell you, though, that some of them to me look like the "mustache" was painted on (although this one, at least, was photgraphed with a fine young Aryan child), and this particular cat doesn't look much like Hitler at all.
What can one say but: Heil Kitty!
oracknows | June 23, 2006Holocaust deniers sometimes refer to the Holocaust as the "Holohoax," as if the whole thing were one huge hoax perpetrated on the world by Jews. Indeed, if you have the stomach to dive into the deepest, darkest, most disgusting parts of the Internet, where Holocaust deniers freely spew their lies, you will even find explicit assertions that the Holocaust is nothing but a hoax that the Jews used to justify the formation of the State of Israel and to collect reparation money. Indeed, do a Google search for the term "Holohoax" and you will find well over 43,000 entries. That the Holocaust was a…
oracknows | June 16, 2006Yesterday, I wrote a bit about Michael Savage's attack on George Soros, in which he stated that "people like you give Jews a bad name, Soros. It's people like you who brought about the Holocaust, Soros. I stand by those words."
Admittedly, at the time I wrote my little rant, I didn't know that Michael Savage is, in fact, Jewish himself. My bad. I should have checked and was a bit embarrassed to have to have it pointed out to me by a reader. In actuality, after it was pointed out to me I did remember that I had heard somewhere that Savage's real name is Michael Alan Weiner. Sadly, the fact…
oracknows | June 6, 2006Today is another anniversary besides my wedding anniversary and a silly day that happens, if you twist numbers enough, to coincide with the Number of the Beast (6/6/06).
It's also the 62nd anniversary of D-Day, the invasion of Normandy, the beginning of the end for the tyrrany of the Third Reich. It was a day when against terrible odds and despite many setbacks, the Allies finally opened a Western front against the Nazis at a great cost in blood. For all the jokes and frivolity about going to hell today, the men hitting the Normandy beaches 62 years ago experienced real hell.
John Cole has a…
oracknows | June 2, 2006Back in October, Jamie McCarthy and I castigated Bill O'Reilly for implying that at Malmedy in December 1944 during the Battle of the Bulge U.S. Airborne troops had massacred Nazis soldiers who had surrendered when in fact the Malmedy massacre was perpetrated by SS troops to whom U.S. soldiers had surrendered. Naturally, after ragging on him a bit, we wrote it off as yet another example of Bill O'Reilly's self-confident ignorance. I figured O'Reilly had simply mixed up historical facts in his eagerness to defend the abuses at Abu Ghraib by pointing to supposed atrocities committed by U.S.…
oracknows | May 29, 2006In the U.S., today is Memorial Day.
Although we often forget about it in our rush to head out to the beach or relax over the course of a three day weekend, it is the day set aside to remember those who have died fighting for our nation in its wars. I was debating about what to post today, when I remembered that, last year, I happened to be in Bethesda for a conference sponsored by the NIH. Because of my interest in World War II history and because I had a few hours and hadn't seen the new World War II Memorial before (which had been dedicated on Memorial Day weekend 2004), I decided to take…
oracknows | May 16, 2006NOTE (7/27/2016): People have been telling me, based on this post written over ten years ago, how Donald Trump sounds just like Vox Day. It's true. He does. It's also true that the thought of exporting 11-12 million people in 4-8 years is just as ridiculous now as it was ten years ago. I weep that so many in the Republican Party not only take this nonsense seriously but voted for Donald Trump based on a promise very much like what Vox Day described, so many that Donald Trump is now the Republican Party nominee for President. So I added this note. I also note that some of the links are dead…
oracknows | April 30, 2006Today is Führerstodestag or "Death of the Führer Day," I join my friend Andrew in wishing Holocaust deniers out there a very happy Führerstodestag! If there is indeed a hell, Adolf Hitler must surely be rotting in it.
In commemoration of Führerstodestag, I'm resurrecting a blast from the past, my post about this topic from my old blog published one year ago today. It's my way of wishing Holocaust deniers and Hitler-admiring Nazis everywhere a happy Führerstodestag!
60 years ago today: The end of the Führer
Sixty years ago today, the capital of the thousand year Reich, Berlin, was in…
oracknows | April 20, 2006A Japanese soldier not seen since World War II has been found alive in the Ukraine:
TOKYO (AP) - A former Japanese soldier last seen by his family when he went off to fight in the Second World War has surfaced in Ukraine and is returning to Japan to see his relatives after 60 years, the government said Monday.
Ishinosuke Uwano, now 83, had been declared among Japan's war dead in 2000.
Suminori Arima, a health ministry official in charge of locating war veterans lost overseas, declined to say where Uwano had been for the past six decades or why he had not been in touch with his family in Japan…
oracknows | April 17, 2006In 1907, Adolf Hitler's mother Klara died of breast cancer at age 47, when Hitler was only 18. The young Hitler was devastated by her death. Indeed, in Mein Kampf, Hitler described her death thusly:
These were the happiest days of my life and seemed to me almost a dream; and a mere dream it was to remain. Two years later, the death of my mother put a sudden end to all my highflown plans.
It was the conclusion of a long and painful illness which from the beginning left little hope of recovery. Yet it was a dreadful blow, particularly for me. I had honored my father, but my mother I had loved.…
oracknows | April 13, 2006For the first time ever, a head of state of Austria has admitted that a large proportion of Austrian citizens openly welcomed the Nazis when Hitler annexed Austria:
The president of Austria has become the country's first head of state to admit that a large number of its citizens welcomed Adolf Hitler with open arms when the dictator annexed the country.
Heinz Fischer said that a "not inconsiderable portion of the population" greeted the Anschluss or annexation in 1938 with "euphoria", despite knowing that "Hitler meant war".
In addition many had celebrated Hitler's initial military successes…