David Irving wishes Hitler a happy 120th birthday

4/20 is known for many things:  Hitlers birthday, the day annoying hippies come out and if they don’t see their shadows, start smoking up, the anniversary of the Columbine tragedy–a trifecta of evil.

Well one man has taken today to publicly announce that Hitler’s birthday is in actuality a cause for celebration:

“Just briefly remember: today is the 120th anniversary of the birth of the man whose mighty armies ultimately saved Western Europe – and the world – from Bolshevism. Let us never forget.”

Who would have the cajones to make such a statement? Why that would be none other than Holocaust Denie–err, I mean “Holocaust Revisionist” David Irving, a man who has been imprisoned in Germany for “revisionist” views of the Holocaust and who has flat-out denied accusations that he admired Hitler.

Now I’ve blogged about Irving before here and here, when I discussed how I actually supported Christopher Hitchens’ criticisms of the publishers who backed out after initially agreeing to publish Irving’s nonsense. Just because I defend the man’s right to spout out his utter nonsense, it doesn’t mean he’s not a repulsive embarrassment to the entire human race.

Random House’s self-censorship punished & playing devil’s advocate for free speech

A few weeks ago I reported about Salman Rushdie blasting Random House for refusing to publish Sherry Jones’s debut novel, The Jewel of Medina, about Muhammad and his child bride, Aisha. My conclusion was that:

“While publishers have every right to not publish material they deem unprofitable or just plain bad, to not publish because of fear of controversial material provoking violence is disgraceful and cowardice. Death threats over controversial material is part of the job. To cave to the demands of terrorists is to be corrupt. Either everything’s okay to publish or nothing is.” [note: I had several words misspelled and have altered this excerpt only to spell the words correctly and have otherwise not altered the content]

And in the few weeks since I posted that I haven’t changed my opinion. Apparently I’m not alone in finding Random House’s behavior objectionable as an American book prize has refused to consider Random House books because of their actions concerning Sherry Jones’ book. In fact, David Langum, founder of the Langum Charitable Trust also used the word “cowardice” to describe Random House’s actions:

“That form of cowardice will only lead to more and more of this form of self-censorship and is an attack on the integrity of literary publication,” Langum continued. “We must stand up to it, in whatever ways are available to us. The form that was available to our small foundation was to put Random House out of the running for our prizes.”

I for one applaud Langum for sticking up for free speech and showing publishers that such behavior will not be tolerated and will mean negative consequences for them in the future.

I’m reminded of when Christopher Hitchens similarly attacked the publishers who bailed before publishing the repulsive book by Holocaust denier David Irving. Hitchens took a lot of heat for defending Irving and was for all intents and purposes called a Holocaust denier himself. Hitchens even had to write an article disavowing any friendship between the two. It just goes to prove that it’s not always easy protecting dangerous speech and that sometimes defending free speech means advocating even for the devil.

News From Around The Blogosphere 7.29.08

TV watching possibly linked to autism –  “Cornell University researchers are reporting what appears to be a statistically significant relationship between autism rates and television watching by children under the age of 3.” This is the kind of thing you get when you confuse correlation with causation. You could make the same claim about the rise of the internet correlation with the rise of autism except for the fact that there is no proven rise in autism at all. We’ve broadened the definition of autism and made it more visible, but there still is no proof that autism is on the rise or that it is “an epidemic.”

NASA turns 50 Today! – On this day in 1958, President Dwight Eisenhower signed into law legislation creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. This is another example of why it’s important for a president to have an understanding of science. Just like presidential administrations have foreign policies, they have science policies. Presidents often make major decisions that have lasting effects on the direction of science.

City Workers in Birmingham are not reading this right now -The Birmingham City Council has installed blocking software on their computers that block out atheist websites. And atheist content isn’t alone on the blocked list. The following subjects are blocked: “witchcraft or Satanism” and “occult practices, atheistic views, voodoo rituals or any other form of mysticism”.

How YOU can put evolution back into museums -Colin Purrington provides a list of helpful ideas on how the average person can help promote further emphasis on evolution in museums. Remember: only you can prevent creationist nonsense! (Note: This is less likely to work in art museums)

Evolve-Eyes on History Channel Tonight -Okay, I’m a bit late in reporting it but I’m sure they’re rerun it. And I’ve already seen creationists slam it before seeing it, so it’s gotta be good! Biologist PZ Myers’ running commentary of the program.

NY Times op-ed calling for closer monitoring of UFOs -Oh yeah, we’ll get right on that. [rolls poorly evolved eyes]

An English Holocaust Denier In New York -Infamous Holocaust David Irving after being released from Austrian jail for the crime of “trivializing the Holocaust” (that for the record, is something I don’t think should be a crime), is touring the U.S. to spread his unique brand of nonsense and Anti-Semitism. Along for the ride is his friend and partner in crime, Michael Santamauro (owner of the New York-based roommate service roommatefinders.com), who specifically aided Irving in tricking a church’s priest into hosting the lecture by claiming the speaker was the leader of an anodyne “book club.” This news even managed to get The Huffington Post to take time away from their busy anti-vaccine propaganda, usually provided by David Kirby to publish an article by Max Blumenthal about David Irving’s recent visit.

Another important part that’s necessary to comment on is the role Christopher Hitchens plays in the story. Hitchens had in the past published what some have called a favorable article on Irving and Irving has himself claimed that he and Hitchens are friends. Apparently though, nobody told Hitchens this, as he’s written an essay where he rips Irving apart.

And now a moment of science:

Amazon Insect Diversity Due To Ice Age? -“Ice age climate change and ancient flooding–but not barriers created by rivers–may have promoted the evolution of new insect species in the Amazon region of South America, a new study suggests.”