utemia

Reply to Review: One Second After in Books Stardock Forums

Robert B Goldmann: Antisemitism in America (translated from german) In the beginning of June, a security guard was killed in an attack on the Holocaust museum in DC. The perpetrator, James von Brunnen, is 88 years old and a known antisemite and holocaust negator, even though he fought for the US in WW2. The media discribed von Brunnen as a "white extremist". Afroamerican commentator Bob Herbert managed to write a column in the New York Times that was only about white racism and the bla

Reply to Review: One Second After in Books Stardock Forums

Interview with Robert B Goldmann

Reply to Review: One Second After in Books Stardock Forums

[quote]Are you saying that we can't say that if the German people had a law similar to the 2nd amendment, then the Holocaust wouldn't have happened? Or are you saying that American's can't use the Second World War, and the Holocaust as validation of their fears that the government might become too powerful?[/quote] The was no law like the 2nd amendmend ever in any constitution. I was thinking why that was the case and well, the US was a colony and Europe wasn't. Here you had establish

Reply to Can you be an environmentalist but be a global warming skeptic? in Politics Stardock Forums

Gotta be careful not to mix everything together. Using technology and worrying or being fearful of the effects it can have on the environment is not the same as being worried about personas like Kim Jong Il. For one, we simply need the environment to survive, so being worried that pollution could actually endanger our own survival is sensible. What the people in the middle ages lacked is knowledge, they believed the black plague in the 14th century was sent by god as a punishment

Reply to Review: One Second After in Books Stardock Forums

Huh, I watched that little feature. It is quite educational. I never implied that having stricter gun laws would automatically lead to less violent crimes. I don't think I actually said anything about altering any laws at all. Questioning parts of the constitution, which is from the 18th century after all, to find out wether it still aplies for the modern society or not does not automatically mean advocating a change. The right to bear arms is so deeply embedded in american culture that it wo

Reply to Review: One Second After in Books Stardock Forums

Thank you for clarifying.

Reply to Can you be an environmentalist but be a global warming skeptic? in Politics Stardock Forums

[quote]And it certainly doesn't justify eco-friendly DVD cases.[/quote] yeah, you know how it is though, right? Eco-friendly is used as trademark, it does not really mean that the DVD is what it claims to be. You're lucky you are not in the EU.. the mysterious comissions in Brussels love to come up with exact definitions for those kind of things and then it would be illegal to claim to be ecofriendly if you don't fit the profile made by the EU. People are tricked. I constantly see orga

Reply to Review: One Second After in Books Stardock Forums

[quote]I think I've made the case why the 2nd amendment is a good thing[/quote] Yes, you have. That ability seems to be a rare commodity though. And that's exactly what I find so annoying, because most americans I asked reacted way too forcefully and emotionally when talking about politics, especially the 2nd amendment though. And the war on terror, I won't touch that one with a 10 ft pole lol. That one is even worse, though it might have changed during the last few years. I ha

Reply to What would happen after an EMP attack? in Everything Else JoeUser Forums

Wow, it is scarier than I thought. Thanks for play by play

Reply to Can you be an environmentalist but be a global warming skeptic? in Politics Stardock Forums

[quote]When I say pay, I mean pass those costs onto you, the consumer. What a great scam to force a hidden tax on something nobody has a clue about it's effects. Way to go Obama...change you can believe in.[/quote] ouch. I hate those hidden taxes. We have one of our own in Germany, on gas. Officially, it is called ecotax, but it is used to fill the pension fund because the stupid demographic pyramid has more and more people that need money and less and less people that pay into it. Yeah, luck

Reply to Review: One Second After in Books Stardock Forums

[quote]As an objective outsider, I can tell you that they are right and you are wrong. The second amendment IS a very sensible thing today. It was a very sensible thing in the past, it will be very sensible in the future. You make up condenscending explanations why "they cannot objectively and reasonably see why it is wrong", where you are in the wrong.[/quote] Dear taltamir, if you believe that the 2nd amendmend is a very sensible thing today, has been in the past and will

Reply to Review: One Second After in Books Stardock Forums

My remarks about slavery and civil rights in the US were not intended to rationalize the holocaust by comparing it to other histories. Just you said "Had those 12 million Jews and Gypsies been armed, then history could have been difrerent" and I tried to apply that principle to US history - but it is really not very productive, even if it is fun to think about what could have been and what should have been.

Reply to Review: One Second After in Books Stardock Forums

[quote]If Germans had had access to weapons, I don't think there would have been a holacaust. I'd love to understand how you think that the Germans would have been able to round up 12 million armed civilians.[/quote] Being generally armed has never been a principle as far as I know. Except for switzerland maybe - there everybody has a gun in the closet. It is not as if the Nazis disarmed the populace that they wanted to kill and then rounded them up. In that sense, it is sort of a moot

Reply to Review: One Second After in Books Stardock Forums

[quote]Well, like you said, Germans don't really have guns and tend to just do what the government says. That, however, didn't work out so well for the Jews and others that the government had decided to exterminate right?[/quote] Access to weapons had nothing to do with the Holocaust or WW2, I already said that. It is also not possible to fully discuss the reasons that lead to what happened via commentary. But I can tell you this, it is not as simple as "Germans trust author

Reply to Review: One Second After in Books Stardock Forums

Are you really sure that all civilized social behaviour will go out the window as soon as your own survival is threatened? Humans are a social animal and can adapt, and I have not only faith in the ability of my german authorities lol but also in that which makes human civilization possible to begin with. If everybody for themselves would be the main driving force in human behaviour, humanity would not have developed as it has. So - im no sociologist or anthropologist or cultural expert, but

Reply to Can you be an environmentalist but be a global warming skeptic? in Politics Stardock Forums

yes - technology is advancing at a fast pace No - did not mention anything specific about what technology can do in regard to climate change yes - technology can have unknown sideeffects The example with the crops was just one randomly picked by me for the sole purpose that genetic engineering as it were has nothing to do with the atmosphere yes - making crops resistant is all that I mentioned, did I say anything about changing them completely? I mentioned the poss

Reply to Review: One Second After in Books JoeUser Forums

addendum to 44: I said earlier that we as a people try to stop genocide from occuring ever again, but that is a very idealistic and sadly an unrealistic goal. Politics and geopolitical entanglements, history and globalization seem to supersede human rights all too often. The US is a prime example that war is good business, and I could phrase a conspiracy theory about how some western industrialized countries do not really wanting certain civil wars in Africa (ie kongo) to stop b

Reply to Review: One Second After in Books Stardock Forums

[quote]All human rights stem from peoples ability to defend themselves with force against would be opressors. In other words, weapons.[/quote] That is a warped view, and isn't it telling that those who lobby for human rights like amnesty international, the red cross etc are for peaceful ways of dealing with each other? I find it difficult to reconcile what I know about human rights movements with your claim about the importance of weapons.

Reply to Review: One Second After in Books Stardock Forums

[quote]Forever is a very long time. look how europe has been appeasing any would be dictator. look how the world stood idly by as genocides occur everywhere in the world. I was a little over 10 when I first saw a genocide, and after years of being drilled about how the holocaust changed the world (I was in israel at the time), I waited and wait and never did the "world" do anything to help. I have since seen several other genocides... Rowanda being a prime example. Where were your

Reply to Review: One Second After in Books Stardock Forums

The experience of world war 2 changed the way authority percieves itself in Germany as well. It is complicated, or maybe not, because the knowledge of what the generation of my grandfather did is always present. You can well believe that that knowledge prevents too much abuse, even though some will be around in any government. And "never again" is a political mantra here, it is cultivated that we as a people were responsible for unspeakable horrors and that THAT makes us responsible to work t

Reply to Can you be an environmentalist but be a global warming skeptic? in Politics JoeUser Forums

Thank you so much for finally agreeing

Reply to Can you be an environmentalist but be a global warming skeptic? in Politics JoeUser Forums

You dont make any sense, lol. That does not disqualify my statement about the connection between hightech bio engineering and its possible effect, if anything you underline it when basic biology is enough to grasp that principle.

Reply to Review: One Second After in Books Stardock Forums

That was not meant for you, Silver, but for taltamir and his poster. I should have specified that, sorry.

Reply to Review: One Second After in Books Stardock Forums

lol Silver and Jade. It is all connected. Trusting the authorities in contemporary Germany will not lead to another dictatorship though, rest assured.