Reader Mail: 29 November 2005

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Subject: holographic storage (vs DVD)

Holographic Challenge for DVDs

While Blu-ray and HD-DVD fight over next-generation DVDs, holographic storage is catching up.

November 28, 2005

If you thought Blu-ray and HD-DVD were the only new disc formats coming out this decade, think again. The emergence of holographic data storage technology may hamper growth for the two rival high-definition formats in the years to come.

Holographic data storage has existed for 40 years, but is just coming to the commercial market and may reach the consumer market by 2007. The new DVD formats promoted by Sony (Blu-ray) and Toshiba (HD-DVD) are expected to go on sale in early 2006.

As opposed to the blue laser technology used both in Blu-ray and HD-DVD, holographic storage goes beyond recording the surface of the disc and records through the full depth of the medium.

Longmont, Colorado-based InPhase Technologies has formed an alliance with Hitachi Maxell to sell discs the size of a DVD that can store 300 GB of data. By comparison, Blu-ray discs will be able to hold 50 GB and HD-DVD discs will store about 30 GB. InPhase's Tapestry holographic system can store more than 26 hours of broadcast-quality high-definition video.

While other technologies record one data bit at a time, holography allows a million bits of data to be written and read in parallel with a single flash of light. So transfer rates are significantly higher than current optical storage devices.

As a result, the holographic discs also can read and write data at 10 times the speed of the DVDs currently in the market, or six times that of blue laser discs.

Commercial holographic discs will go on sale by the end of 2006. The initial product, called Tapestry Media, will come in the form of 130mm discs made from a photopolymer material.

InPhase is currently marketing the product to enterprises that can afford the high cost of the discs and readers. Currently, the reader costs a lofty $15,000 each, while one single disc costs $120—clearly unaffordable for the consumer market, Liz Murphy, vice president of marketing at InPhase, said Monday.

The hopes to fill the archival needs in the commercial markets for specific applications such as security, geospatial imagery, entertainment and broadcast, medical, and scientific applications, Ms. Murphy said.

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Subject: no nigger, no cry

Protest planned for possible 1,000th execution

By Kristen Gelineau, Associated Press Writer | November 28, 2005

RICHMOND, Va. --Death penalty opponents are planning to stage one of Virginia's largest execution night protests Wednesday night if the landmark execution of Robin Lovitt goes forward as scheduled. Unless Gov. Mark R. Warner intervenes, Lovitt will likely become the 1,000th person executed in the United States since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976.

Amnesty International USA has chartered two buses to bring protesters from the District of Columbia and other parts of Virginia to Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, about 60 miles south of Richmond. Around 200 Amnesty members are hoping to attend, making this one of the group's largest execution protests in recent years, said Sue Gunawardena-Vaughn, director of Amnesty's program to abolish the death penalty.

Lovitt, 42, was convicted in 1999 of fatally stabbing Clayton Dicks with a pair of scissors during a robbery of a pool hall in Arlington, a Washington, D.C. suburb. Prosecutors said Dicks caught Lovitt prying open a cash register with the scissors, which police found in the woods between the pool hall and the home of Lovitt's cousin. Lovitt admitted grabbing the cash box, but insisted he saw someone else kill Dicks. Initial DNA tests of the scissors were inconclusive.

Lovitt's lawyers and death penalty opponents say his life should be spared because a court clerk prematurely and illegally destroyed the bloody scissors and other evidence, precluding post-conviction DNA testing that they claim could exonerate him. "Mr. Lovitt's case demonstrates all the problems that we have been trying to highlight over the years about how a fallible system that's administered by fallible human beings can result in the death of someone who might be potentially innocent," Gunawardena-Vaughn said.

Lovitt's lawyers said there were other problems with his conviction: shaky eyewitness testimony, childhood abuse that was never presented to the jury and the prosecution's reliance on a jailhouse snitch with a history of feeding information to authorities in hopes of getting a reduced sentence or better prison conditions.

Jack Payden-Travers, executive director of Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said he is also expecting a larger-than-normal group of protesters Wednesday. The group usually draws between six and 100 protesters outside the death chamber during executions, he said.

While it's impossible to predict exactly how many will join him Wednesday, Payden-Travers said the intense interest in the case, and the strong number expected from Amnesty, leads him to believe this will be one of the state's largest execution night protests. He said he has received an unprecedented 500 letters from Virginians upset over Lovitt's planned execution, and for the first time has heard from death penalty opponents in other states who plan to fly in for the demonstration.

"We've seen concern in other death cases, but this was -- is -- so egregious," Payden-Travers said. "There are so many issues that this case raises: prosecutorial misconduct, misrepresentation of the evidence, faulty eyewitness identification -- not to mention the jailhouse snitch."

Candlelight vigils and protests are planned across the country on Wednesday and Thursday if Lovitt's execution goes forward. Churches in several states plan to toll their bells to mark the event.

In Connecticut, between 300 and 500 churches will toll their bells at 6 p.m. EST Wednesday, three hours before Lovitt is scheduled to die by injection, said Robert Nave, executive director of the Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty. "We have become complacent in the fact that on at least a weekly basis now, we are exterminating a citizen," Nave said. "We figured the nation should take notice." The governor on Monday was considering Lovitt's clemency petition, said Warner's spokesman, Kevin Hall. "Gov. Warner continues to give this case the serious and prayerful consideration that it deserves," Hall said.

Those who support Lovitt's death sentence say protesters of the execution have their priorities wrong. "He's a killer, simply put," said Michael Paranzino, president of Throw Away the Key, a group that supports the death penalty. "He's unrepentant, he killed a man in cold blood. And just because Clayton Dicks is not a household name or a prominent figure ... he's no less deserving of the state's compassion. It's his family and him for whom we should be mourning."

Here.

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Subject: NSM at CMU?

Nazi RSO chances slim

Official: Group would have many hurdles to clear

By Ben LaMothe Staff Reporter and Danielle Portteus Senior Reporter

November 18, 2005

It seems for now that the posters, bull horns and protests to keep the National Socialist Movement off of campus either worked or were unnecessary. Representatives from the neo-Nazi group and the university said no contact between the two organizations took place to discuss becoming a Registered Student Organization. "No one has talked to us," said Dan Carlson, an active NSM member. "Officially, we have no representative on campus."

Director of Student Life Tony Voisin confirmed that NSM -- a group whose basis is rooted in white supremacy -- has not contacted the university. "As of right now, this moment, we have not had anyone come into the office or call up to tell us they would like to form this organization," Voisin said. "I've heard the rumors and there is no group." Still, Carlson said the chance of a group coming to campus is not completely dead. If the organization does move ahead, students will be needed. "The ones who have expressed interest -- it's on them whether or not they want to form an organization," he said. To that end many students have pledged to do whatever it takes to keep the group from forming on campus.

A group of 50 students, faculty and Mount Pleasant residents gathered Thursday afternoon to nonviolently protest NSM and other hate groups from forming on CMU's campus. "We are committed to stop their action," Detroit sophomore Jerell Erves said. "We are here to say 'no' to the National Socialists." Many of the same people who gathered last week to protest the group were again present. However, the group included some new faces.

"It's a type of belief that's fundamentally racist," John Dinse, associate political science professor, said about NSM. "They are truly against democracy, human rights and think of women as second class citizens." Dinse said he had no idea why people would want to be a part of the organization. "We don't want any Nazis or National Socialists on the campus of Central Michigan University," he said.

Erves led the protesters gathered in a prayer and a moment of silence for those people who have lost their lives because of hate. Students read poems both published and original to preach peace and freedom in America and promote a safe place for all who live in the country.

Monday, the Student Government Association House and Senate debated a proposed bill called "Condemning Hate Groups at Central Michigan University." "We put this forth because we feel there is an interest from the student body for a resolution to be passed to publicly condemn hate groups on this campus," said Senate Leader John Kaczynski, Auburn graduate student. The General Assembly will vote on the proposal at 7 p.m. Monday in Dow 102. Kaczynski said the legislation was drafted only in part because of NSM's interest in CMU, but also because of racial tensions on campus, which could turn into something much worse. "The riots that started in Toledo are exactly what it came to," he said. "The riots were aggravated by (hate-based) groups."

Carlson said if the university -- including SGA -- believes in freedom of speech, they should let NSM start a chapter at CMU. "I think it's funny that some people are so greatly offended and want to stop us, yet your mascot is a racist symbol," Carlson said. "I just think it's ironic."

Voisin cited a general misunderstanding among students, staff and faculty about how NSM could possibly gain membership as an RSO for the rumors and speculation. "If (NSM does) not meet the university's requirements, they will not be recognized and everyone misses that point," Voisin said. "This group does discriminate -- that's what the group is founded on." However, if NSM is able to comply with all of the requirements, they could obtain RSO status. "But there are some real hurdles to overcome," Voisin said.

Of those hurdles, most prominent are finding a way to conform to the anti-discrimination clause, finding a staff adviser and cultivating student interest. "I don't know how a group who discriminates on the bases of race and religion and other things could complete a non-discrimination clause," Voisin said.

Recent speculation has centered on whether or not NSM has acquired an on-campus adviser, something Voisin also dispelled. Carlson said CMU students and others have a general misunderstanding about the aspects of the group. "People like to throw around the phrase 'hate group' and this and that," Carlson said. "But we're a registered political party -- we're registered in Washington."

Although Carlson said some CMU students expressed interest, NSM did not get a single member when it was on campus in late September recruiting members for its chapter. Despite this lack of immediate support for the group, NSM is staying the course. "You can't make anyone (join)," Carlson said. "If there is someone willing to step up and set up an organization, that's really what we're looking for."

Nazi RSO chances slim

Post your feedback on this topic here
Date Subject Posted by:
11/18/2005 While I am happy that no group thus... Kirk

Here.

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Subject: jew-in-Europe on jew-crit on Internet

Norwegian anti-Semitism on Internet

Many pupils in Norway use a neo-Nazi website when they look for answers for questions regarding Second World War, writes the Norwegian daily Dagbladet.

The website belongs to a small extreme-right group, Vigdis. Tore W. Twedt, the group's chairman, openly declares his sympathy to Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, denies the Holocaust and notoriously attacks anything that has to do with Jews or Israel.

In a recent interview with Dagbladet, Twedt said his group had stepped up its activities among schoolchildren and students "to supply them with answers they won't get in school".

He said the website receives an average of four to five questions a week, most of them about the Holocaust.

Legality questioned

"We tell youngsters not to believe the vicious propaganda about the six million Jewish victims, who supposedly lost their lives during the war. These are all lies and fabrications by international Jewry, who rule the world by controlling world finance and media," he said.

We tell youngsters not to believe the vicious propaganda about the six million Jewish victims, who supposedly lost their lives during the war

Tore W. Twedt

When asked if such information would not be dangerous to be used by pupils in their schoolwork, he answered that he warns pupils to use this kind of information "in a subtle way". Norwegian police have opened an inquiry into the legality of the Vigdis website, but Norwegian human rights' organisations doubt whether this stream of propaganda can be stopped. Two years ago the Norwegian Supreme Court gave permission for similar propaganda to be disseminated, "as long as it is a general point of view, and does not personally point at a certain individual".

Website must be banned

Ole Melboye Petterson, the head of SOS Racism, a Norwegian watchdog against racism, said he was worried about the Vigdis' activities, but added that there was little hope of stopping the organisation through legal means. "I am shocked and terrified about the damage such false information can do to young people. It must be stopped. The problem is that in Norway we have little experience of how to [stop such activities]," Petterson said.

The problem is that in Norway we have little experience of how to [stop such activities]

Ole Melboye Petterson

Halvard Holleland, the chairman national pupil's organisation, also hopes that the website which he says "spreads ideas which are totally foreign to the values of most Norwegians", will be banned. Academic authorities at the University of Oslo on Wednesday refused to approve a doctoral thesis about the Second World War. The paper, "Race war", written by Olav Bergram, 66, failed on the grounds that it provided insufficient documentation to prove its premise that the WWII was justified. It argued that Nazi Germany had had no other choice but to react against Communist Soviet aggression and that the Norwegian Nazi dictator Vidkun Kvisling was "the most brilliant and visionary politician of his time".

http://www.ejpress.org/article/4281

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Subject: David Irving

Right-wing British historian David Irving arrested in Austria for denying the Holocaust

Published on 20 November 2005 | Author MORRIS, Nick.

Disgraced British historian David Irving was arrested in Austria last week, according to a statement on his Web site. Although he has not yet been charged, he is suspected of the crime of Holocaust denial. Irving, 67, was detained Nov. 11 in the southern province of Styria on a warrant issued in 1989 under Austrian laws making denying the Holocaust a crime, police Maj. Rudolf Gollia, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said Thursday. Government officials told the news agency that Mr. Irving had been wanted since 1989, when a warrant was issued for his arrest in connection with speeches he had made in Vienna and in Leoben, in southern Austria. But they said they had not decided whether it was appropriate to charge him so many years after the fact. If he is tried and found guilty, he could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison, officials told Reuters.

Mr. Irving has had other trouble with the law for similar reasons. In 1992 a German judge fined him $6,000 after he publicly asserted that no gas chambers had been used in Auschwitz, a claim he has often made. In the past he has been refused entry to Germany, Australia, Canada, Austria and Italy.

Mr. Irving was once known as a rigorous historian; some of his early works on Hitler and Germany were highly praised. But his views have became more extreme and he has become a hero of neo-fascist and neo-Nazi groups across Europe. Mr. Irving says he does not deny that the Nazis killed some Jews, but contends that the death toll among Jews in World War II was far lower than generally accepted. He also questions whether the Nazis used gas chambers in their concentration camps.

Mr Irving once described himself as a "moderate fascist." He is perhaps best known for his failure, in 2000, to win a libel case he brought in Britain against the historian Deborah Lipstadt and her British publisher, Penguin.

In her book "Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory," Ms. Lipstadt characterized Mr. Irving as "one of the most dangerous spokespersons for Holocaust denial" and said "he is at his most facile at taking accurate information and shaping it to conform to his conclusions."

In a stinging decision that criticized Mr. Irving's scholarship, methods and conclusions, the judge in the case, Charles Gray of the British High Court, called him "an active Holocaust denier" and said he was a racist anti-Semite who had deliberately distorted the historical record to portray Hitler in a flattering light.

In a statement posted on his Web site, Irving's supporters said he was arrested while on a one-day visit to Vienna, where they said he had been invited "by courageous students to address an ancient university association" continuing "the Austrian political police are believed to have learned of the visit by wiretaps or intercepting e-mails."

Irving is well known for his lectures, many of which have been at conventions for organisations with a revisonist, and far-right leanings, such as "The Institute for Historical Review". Austrian officials are expected to decide in the next day or two whether to charge Mr. Irving.

This is not usually done on the TNC news desk, but on a personal note, I have spent the last 14 months researching historical revisionism and holocaust denial for a major upcoming project, and as a result have seen the destructive results denying the Holocaust can do.

The rabid anti-Semitism and manipulation of evidence used by these "historians" to prove their ludicrous beliefs is an affront to all people with even a basic grip on reality. The idea that the Holocaust was an invention of "a worldwide Jewish conspiracy" is not only laughable, but also sickening.

Revisonists claim that these laws are a threat to their freedom of speech. They are not. They are stopping the spread of hysterical hate propaganda. Would these same people think it would be justified to allow an open debate encouraging pro-extremist opinions, such as those shared by al-Qaeda, to impressionable students?

http://www.newcriminologist.co.uk/news.asp?id=-1756280799

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Subject: Bung Roma hated by all they encounter

Shoot to kill: Racist reply to Roma rights

Father of eleven children John Ward shot at the door of a farmer's house, beaten with a stick as he lay bleeding in a patch of nettles; shot again in the back while staggering away in desperate flight, and his body dumped over a wall. Horrific descriptions like this tend be expunged from official reports of anti-Gypsy violence. Complete statistics remain lacking, even in the latest OSCE survey, and racist murders of Irish Travellers such as that of John Ward last year in Ireland have yet to impact on European records. A new report by the Council of Europe's Human Rights Commissioner contains only one figure for racist assaults: 109 attacks recorded in Slovakia in 2002.

Roma and pirutne or Travellers, including the Pavees of Ireland, are dying in racially-motivated attacks at the rate of 230 a year - that's more than two a week - according to figures released by Rudko Kawczynski, chair of the European Roma and Travellers Forum, which is due to meet in Strasbourg next month.

Statistics compiled by the Roma National Congress show that 1,756 Roma were killed and more than 3,500 injured in over 10,000 registered racial assaults between l990 and l998 in the countries of eastern and western Europe.

However, as no systematic monitoring or reporting yet exists, says Kawczynski, the RNC study contains only those cases revealed through media items and NGO-generated data. Bad as the figures are, they may be well below the true total.

Such words as ethnic-cleansing, even genocide, have been used to describe militia-led operations against Roma in former Yugoslavia, especially Kosovo and Bosnia. Neo-nazi killings in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Serbia and Bulgaria, pogroms in Romania and police-sweeps in the Russian Federation, all colour the dismal picture of increasing suppression and persecution, painted on a background of mounting intolerance and open racism.

Writing of the situation in the UK and Ireland, where thousands have been evicted from their own land and driven from traditional stopping places, I have been chided for likening Travellers to the victims of terrorist bombings. But as in Zimbabwe, the state and local authorities show no compunction in pursuing enforcement policies that include the bulldozing of homes and the concomitant wrecking of our children's lives.

Lip service is paid at the highest level to the right of Roma and Travellers to their own culture and way of life. But the practices really pursued in Britain can be judged from the fact that since the passing of the anti-Gypsy Criminal Justice Act in l994, Travellers have been merciless hounded and newly-arrived Roma ruthlessly detained and deported.

In the past ten years, at a conservative estimate, local authorities have spent a hundred million euro on anti-Gypsy measures, including move-on operations and blocking of potential stopping-places. The "clearance" of the Romani-owned Woodside caravan park alone cost 1.6 million euro, while five million euro has been set aside for the intended destruction of Dale Farm, the largest settlement of its kind in Britain.

Prime Minister Tony Blair on Roma Nation Day this year signed the book of condolence for Roma victims of Nazi genocide and present-day racism. Yet the UK's anti-Gypsy budget is running higher than that of the entire EU funding for the Framework Programme for the equal integration of Europe's Romani and Traveller communities.

Ignoring the recommendations of his own planning inspector, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has in recent weeks refused families in Bromley and Sevenoaks permission to live, even temporarily, in their own private yards. This means eviction and the end of regular schooling for another twenty children, and places an adult in need of dialysis in peril of their life.

With the death of Charles Smith, chair of the Gypsy Council, we have lost the first Romani commissioner on the UK Commission for Racial Equality. But under the legacy of Smith's influence, CRE chairman Trevor Phillips has declared the decision by Basildon council leader Malcolm Buckley racially motivated.

Phillips will apply in the High Court next week to join Dale Farm residents in their bid to obtain a judicial review of Basildon's blue-print for the demolition of 85 homes and expulsion of 600 people, including l50 school-age children and a score of severely ill adults, from land they purchased and developed, on government advice, at a cost over a million euro.

Dale Farm has become a vital test case and a symbol of resistance to the misuse of planning regulations by anti-Gypsy politicians like Buckley. It follows from the stance taken by CRE that should Prescott again withhold permanent planning consent for Dale Farm he would, for his endorsement of Buckley's malevolent plan, share the ignominy of a racist tag.

"Our hopes are pinned on the next planning appeal." said Dale Farm yard-owner John Sheridan. "It will be the height of betrayal should Prescott turns us down this time."

Meanwhile, UK delegate Cliff Codona, who was himself evicted from Woodside, and primary delegate Kay Beard, of the UK Association of Gypsy Women, intend to put a resolution forward at the ERTF session in Strasbourg calling for a moratorium on evictions and other forms of legalised ethnic-cleaning currently common not only in Britain but in many parts of Europe.

A second proposed resolution from the UK representatives to the expected assembly of elected delegates from some 40 countries urges the ERTF to "encourage and promote" the celebration of 8 April as Roma Nation Day by hundreds of Romani and Traveller organisations in Council of Europe member states.

This call to take the lead in the further mobilization Europe's ten million Roma, on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of Roma Nation Day, is likely to find wide support among those delegates who are already bent on extending the role of the Forum beyond that of a mere consultative body.

Here.

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Subject: how much damage did niggers do? how much did it cost?

[the costs of exercise of legal rights are totalled up and made basis of news stories; the costs of crimes committed by colored/jews are passed over]

Canceled Nazi march costly to Toledo

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Associated Press

Toledo- Rioting last month associated with a planned neo-Nazi march cost the city an estimated $336,000 in overtime, vehicle damage and related expenses. The costs do not include the tens of thousands of dollars in damage to homes and looted businesses. One bar that was looted and burned had $60,000 in damage, according to a fire report. The biggest cost, about $177,000, was for city police and fire response. Most of the expense was for overtime, Safety Director Joe Walter said.

According to City Council, 13 safety vehicles were damaged during the rioting, with an estimated repair cost of $16,500.

The Oct. 15 march by the neo-Nazi group was canceled before it began but led to several hours of rioting. More than 120 people were arrested. The group plans to return to the city Dec. 10 for a demonstration.

Here.

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Subject: Canada, where fliers are investigated by police

Moncton RCMP investigating anti-immigrant posters

Moncton RCMP are following up on a complaint after numerous anti-immigration flyers were seen posted around downtown Moncton over the weekend. The investigation came after a Moncton man told CBC News he'd ripped down at least 20 posters that blamed immigrants for a host of diseases and various other social ills. "I thought they were sickening," said Eric Daigle. "I don't know why someone would spend the time to make those posters up, what they thought they would accomplish. Especially in a city like Moncton, when we're not that ethnically diverse here in the first place."

Daigle was concerned the posters could have an impact on "gullible" people who are uninformed about Canadian immigrants. "(The posters) talked about how if it wasn't for immigration that there wouldn't be hepatitis and malaria and SARS and AIDS. Like, you know, it's retarded," he said. [Now THAT is funny.]

The posters were put up by the Canada First Immigration Reform Committee, an anti-immigrant group based in Etobicoke, just outside of Toronto. The group alleges immigrants steal jobs, threaten Canada's health care system and increase the crime rate.

Paul Fromm, the director of the association, has been a far-right political figure in Canada since the 1980s. He's spoken at Neo-nazi gatherings but denies being a Neo-nazi himself. Fromm said it was unfortunate someone would tear down his posters instead of letting people read his material and judge for themselves. "I think it's too bad, you know. It's somebody substituting his feelings and judgment for others," said Fromm.

"Others, I'd hope, should have the right to take a look at these, think about it, make up their own minds. But who ever this individual is, he's taken it upon himself to shut down the debate as much as he can. And that's sad," he said.

http://www.cbc.ca/nb/story/nb-racistposters22112005.html

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Subject:

Stormfront.org

Nov 18, 2005, 07:59 AM

It's a web site with everything from dating advice and homemaking threads, to discussion boards that focus on news that white activists want to know. Stormfront.org is a web site founded on the belief that the white race is a dying race. One member says, "we really are just white folks that deeply care about preserving a future for our progeny."

There are more than 65,000 members, and since Stormfront started in 1995 there have been more than 2,000,000 posts. Members live in all parts of the world, with close to 3,000 in and around South Carolina.

Bob Whitaker is a former Reagan administration cabinet member and an active member of Stormfront. He believes diversity and equal rights are at the center of a conspiracy against the white race. Whitaker says, "I'm worried about the disappearance of the white race." Whitaker says too much is being done to diversify America and not enough is being done to protect people like him. "I'm worried about 2 things. I'm worried about the disappearance of the white race and I'm worried about the fact that no one is allowed to talk about the disappearance of the white race, which is even worse."

But all Americans are provided equal protection under the law, which means equal treatment regardless of race, sex, religion or national origin.

Jamie Kelso is one of Stormfront's senior moderators. He uses the screen name Charles A. Lindbergh, a well-known aviator who believed in the preservation of the white race. Kelso says, "I admire Charles Lindbergh as someone who throughout his life took pride in the white race and was very concerned about preserving it."

Even though Stormfront was created by former Ku Klux Klansman Don Black, Kelso says their message isn't one of hate. "We're called anti-Semitic, we're called neo-Nazi, we're called racist [but] we're none of that." Instead, Stormfront members say their message is much more simple. "We don't hate anybody. The only thing we're concerned with is that 100 years from now, 500 years from now that there will actually be the kind of white neighborhoods and white nations that our parents and ancestors gave to us."

Kelso says Stormfront simply provides a safe forum for people to use without fear of retaliation. "Really the political correctness today, you could even call it vicious. On the Internet you can anonymously talk to other people and open up and say what you want to say. This has really opened up a new chance for people to have free speech."

http://whns.com/Global/story.asp?s=4096439

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Subject: "The Producers"

Movie Candy : The Producers

The Producers Cast: Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, Uma Thurman and Will Ferrell

Synopsis: The movie classic that became a Broadway sensation now becomes a movie musical event.

Mel Brooks is bringing The Producers, one of the most honored musicals in the history of the American theater, to the motion picture screen as a sparkling, feature-length musical comedy. The record-breaking Tony Award-winning hit (based on Mel Brooks' seminal 1968 motion picture comedy) received 15 nominations and won a record-breaking 12 awards, including Best Musical, Best Director and Choreographer, and Best Actor.

Two-time Tony Award winners Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick return to their celebrated roles as Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom, a scheming theatrical producer and his mousy CPA who hit upon the perfect plan to embezzle a fortune: raise far more money than you need to produce a sure-fire Broadway flop and then (since no one will expect anything back), Max and Leo can pocket the difference. To do this, they need the ultimate bad play, which they find in the musical Springtime for Hitler. Their plans come to naught and the duo are taken completely by surprise when their new production is hailed as a toast-of-the-town hit. Will Ferrell also brings his spot-on comic talents to the role of Franz Liebkind, the neo-Nazi playwright (and pigeon fancier) responsible for penning the "worst play ever written."

The Producers is directed by Susan Stroman, Tony Award-winning director and choreographer of the original Broadway production of The Producers; it is written by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan (based on their original stage play), with music and lyrics by Brooks. Brooks also produces, with Jonathan Sanger.

The Producers will open in exclusive (single theater) engagements on Friday, December 16, 2005 in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and Toronto. The film will expand wider on December 25th across North America and will further expand on January 13th.

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Subject: bye-bye, Timur

In Memoriam: Timur Kacharava of Sandinista! (1985-2005)

Contributed by sentrosi, Posted by aubin on Sunday, November 20, 2005 at 11:22:11 AM (EST) None

Timur Kacharava of St. Petersburg, Russia's Sandinista! was tragically murdered by a group of Nazis on November 13th.

The vocalist and activist was involved with Food Not Bombs and was killed after leaving an action in Vladimirskaya Square. His friend Max "Zgibov" Zgibai was also attacked and has been hospitalized with serious injuries.

Both were active anarchist organizers who volunteered at the Epicenter Infoshop and were members of St. Petersburg Food Not Bombs. Violent neo-Nazi skinheads are common throughout Western Europe, and frequently target immigrants, homosexuals, anarchists, and radical leftists.

Timur was a founding member of the St. Petersburg political hardcore punk band Sandinista! which formed in 2003. He was the musical leader, writing most of the music and playing lead guitar. In the Summer of 2005 Timur also joined the local d-beat hardcore band Distress. He returned to St. Petersburg from a Scandinavian tour with Distress just a few days before being murdered.

Our deepest condolences go out to Timur's family, bandmates and friends.

Murder of anarchist in Russia by neonazis

by Friends of Timur Thursday, Nov 24 2005, 2:49am

Timur, we will always remember you!

Timur Kacharava was murdered by neo-nazis on Ligovsky prospekt in St. Petersburg

At around 6.30 p.m. on Sunday the 13th of November 2005, anti-fascist activist, anarchist, musician and dear friend Timur Kacharava was murdered by neo-nazis on Ligovsky prospekt in St. Petersburg city centre, Russia.

Following a FOOD NOT BOMBS action outside Vladimirskaya metro station, Timur, Maxim Zgibai, and a few others walked around the city, ending up at a bookshop on Ligovsky prospekt. Timur and Max stayed outside to finish a beer while the others went inside. Shortly thereafter Timur and Max were suddenly and brutally attacked by a group of around 8-10 neo-nazis, screaming "anti-antifa". Timur was stabbed repeatedly in the body and neck, severing the carotid artery. Max was stabbed 5 times in the chest and back, and had his head cracked open. Following the vicious attack, which lasted about a minute, Max managed to call out for an ambulance to the security guard inside the bookshop. When Max came to the aid of Timur, he couldn't feel his pulse. Timur was white and lying in a pool of his own blood. He was already dead. His friends could do nothing to save him.

Max is currently in hospital in a serious but stable condition. He is conscious but in deep shock. Amazingly the knife wounds missed all organs, and he has suffered no brain damage. He is unbelievably lucky to have survived.

An ambulance and police came only some 10 minutes after the attack. A supposed "emergency" response. Keep in mind that this attack occurred across the road from the main train station in the city centre of St. Petersburg. The group of neo-nazis escaped and have not yet been apprehended by police.

There is evidence to suggest that Timur, Max and friends were followed after the FOOD NOT BOMBS action, as neo-nazi "scouts" (people on the lookout) were spotted at the time of the serving. Timur had already been attacked on the 9th October 2005, and thus they knew him by face and name. Similar beatings by neo-nazis have been common place all over Russia for some time.

There is a strong underground fascist movement in Russia, which is associated with the Partiya Svobody (Freedom Party), RNE (Russian National Unity) and DPNI (Movement Against Illegal Immigration) political parties. Street parades by these parties have taken place in St Petersburg, with the participation of neo-nazis chanting racist and nationalistic dogma. We believe that on Sunday the 13th of November, the neo-nazi group followed our group of friends with the intention to kill. The swiftness of the attack, the readiness of knives, the fact that they all wore low black caps and indistinguishable clothing, and the speed of their escape all attest to this.

Timur was only 20 years old and the only child in his family. He was also the co-founder, guitarist and main songwriter of local St Petersburg political hardcore bands. He was an active participant of the anti-fascist and anarchist community in St.Petersburg. He was involved with St.Petersburg's first FOOD NOT BOMBS collective since it's inception in January this year. He was also involved with the EPICENTRE infoshop, CRITICAL MASS bike protests, and with anti-fascist and anarchist demonstrations in St.Petersburg. Timur was a 4th year philosophy student at the St.Petersburg State University.

We remember Timur as a passionate, fun, intelligent and idealistic friend and talented musician. As a beloved only son and as a boyfriend. His sudden and violent death has devastated the local community in St Petersburg and broken the hearts of friends and comrades all over the world -- in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Italy, Germany, UK, Spain, France, Portugal, South America, Scandinavia, the USA and Australia.

They didn't just kill Timur, they've killed a part of each of us.

A police investigation of murder and attempted murder is underway. However, previous experience has shown us that the Russian police are in no hurry to solve politically motivated crime. Various political and racial attacks by fascist groups on Russians and foreigners have gone unpunished in the past. The city governor of St Petersburg and some mainstream media has claimed that Timur's murder was by random "hooligans", and not politically motivated. It is inconvenient for the authorities to face up to the rise of fascism in Russia -- and often these groups are supporting those in power.

This is not something that we are willing to accept.

It is a disgrace to Timur's memory to claim that his death was for anything other than political reasons. Timur was murdered for his beliefs in equality and freedom - we cannot forget that.

Because we cannot accept murder on the streets, because we believe in freedom, and because we loved our friend Timur dearly, we are organising a series of benefit gigs worldwide. Money raised will go directly towards paying the medical expenses for Maxim Zgibai and other victims of recent neo-nazi attacks, towards finding the murderers and towards putting a stop to the rise of fascism in Russia.

If a concert is being organised in your area please come and honour Timur's memory, and support your friends and allies in their struggle against fascism in Russia. If you would like to organise a benefit gig, please contact Timur's friends on the email address below (or at addresses you already have) for further info. Timur, we will always remember you! Every time we eat cheese fries!

A website, with some info in English, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish and Lithuanian has been established by friends to keep a record of this tragedy (includes updated information about memorial events, benefit gigs, media coverage and reports on the investigation): www.stop-it.narod.ru/eng stop-it (at) yandex.ru

Newspaper articles (in English) about the attacks on Timur and Max, and about the rise of fascism in Russia can be seen at: www.sptimes.ru/story/16136, www.sptimes.ru/story/16155 and www.sptimes.ru/story/16097

add your comments

In november we remember...
by Ignatious - Capital Terminus Collective Thursday, Nov 24 2005, 3:48am

...all those that have been killed in the struggle for freedom and resisting tyranny. from the hanging of the Haymarket Martyrs, from those killed in Centralia, To Frank Little whom was brutally murdered for fighting for his fellow workers to form a union, etc... now we add Timur Kacharava to the list of fallen comrades. and i extend my deepest sympathies to Timur's friends, family, and comrades.

the struggle continues..

in solidarity,
iggy - in personal capacity

add your comments

Condemnation of the murder of Russian Anti-Fascist
by RSYM AC - RSYM Friday, Nov 25 2005, 5:42pm sp@rsym.org

http://www.rsym.org/antifa.html

add your comments

http://www.anarkismo.net/newswire.php?story_id=1839

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Subject: American Nazi Party

Marion County fires the neo-Nazi litter patrol

For starters, the hate group never picked up a lick of litter

Saturday, November 26, 2005

The American Nazi Party has discovered something else to put on the noxious list of things it hates: cleaning up roadside litter. That, at least, is a fair way of interpreting the white supremacist group's job performance in the Salem area. Nearly one year after Marion County officials allowed the neo-Nazis to "adopt" a stretch of Sunnyview Road Northeast, the group has been booted from the volunteer litter-cleanup program. The problem? The outfit may be pretty good at spewing trash, but it's no good at cleaning it up. Litter has been piling up for months along the rural road outside Salem.

Now the road will be adopted by a 55-year-old computer programmer who has grown weary of seeing the neglect of his neighborhood road. His name, Jerry Miller, will appear on a pair of green "Adopt-a-Road" signs to be erected by the county. They'll replace two signs put up last January at $500 in public expense, crediting the American Nazi Party with adopting the road. Those signs were quickly vandalized, and county officials refused to replace them unless the controversial applicants agreed to pay for it.

They didn't, and that was one thing the county did right. The other was coming up with some new rules for the road program. Now applicants must commit to the chore for at least a year and rack up 75 volunteer hours of roadside cleanup before the county will spend all that money on signs.

Applicants will also have to be local, a restriction that may rule out the American Nazi Party folks, whose application listed a Web site for the Tualatin Valley Skins. That's a Portland-area white supremacist group known for dumping thousands of leaflets in suburban Willamette Valley and Southwest Washington communities spouting racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic ideology.

Marion County officials have learned some lessons and made some good choices since their initial unsteady handling of the American Nazi Party application. Groups like that should clean up their own garbage before making any more offers to clean up after the rest of us.

Here.

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Subject: mosque attacks

My son the little race hate foot-soldier

27 November 2005

Time Hume explains how Jason Molloy and Ross Baumgarten, responsible for the attacks on Auckland mosques, used the internet to promote their views. It eventually proved their undoing. 'A boy that's really bad to the core of his being doesn't say "I love you mum" every time he speaks to you from jail.'

The mother of a teenager responsible for race hate attacks on Auckland mosques says her loner son was brainwashed by the National Front in online chatrooms. North Shore mum Bonnie Baumgarten says she is still coming to terms with the fact her son Ross - whom she describes as a sensitive engineering whiz who loves science fiction - carried out the attacks. The former National Front youth leader is on remand in Mt Eden prison and his mother fears reprisals for her son's actions.

His partner in crime, former National Front webmaster Jason Molloy, is on bail in Gore, where he continues to post racist messages on the internet and uses photographs of the graffiti-daubed mosque as his "online signature" in internet discussions. He and his family declined to speak to the Sunday Star-Times.

Baumgarten, 18, and Molloy, 19, will be sentenced on Tuesday for their attacks on seven mosques in the wake of July's London terror attacks, and for shooting an air rifle at strangers days later. The pair drove around Auckland's North Shore shooting at pedestrians, before Molloy - dressed in black and wearing a full balaclava - hid in bushes and shot at a woman's car.

Bonnie Baumgarten is at a loss to describe where her electronics salesman son's political views originated, describing her middle-class family as a liberal household where the exchange of ideas was encouraged. "Ross was very much a loner who was at home at weekends, we would spend the weekends together, I would read, he would be online," she said, adding that he was not a "Columbine-type" person. He was drawn to racist discussion boards on the internet, where he found acceptance and was influenced by their ideas. "These are impressionable young minds they're moulding into their way of thinking, their little foot-soldiers," she said of the Front. "These are old men running this, and these young ones are like sponges, soaking it all up."

Her son's involvement in the National Front escalated after the death of his father of cancer in February last year, while Baumgarten was a seventh-former at Rangitoto College. He would have heated arguments with his mother about his political beliefs. "Don't think we didn't try to talk him out of it - we worked so hard to do that," she said.

She knew he had a National Front T-shirt but did not realise the extent of his involvement. When he travelled to Wellington for a violent National Front rally last year, she thought he was attending a rock concert. She later saw him in television coverage at a Destiny Church rally in Auckland. "That sort of blew me away... the conflicting trains of thought," she said.

Baumgarten and Molloy were heavy internet users, frequenting white nationalist forums and anti-racist websites like the Australasian website Fight Dem Back, where they would debate and trade insults with anti-racist activists. The activists would bait them and engage them in conversations, in the hope of converting the younger ones.

Molloy in particular was well-known as a fantasist, a "loose unit" known for his wild boasts of physical, intellectual and martial prowess. When news broke that the mosques had been attacked, activists believed Molloy and Baumgarten were responsible. One of those activists was 19-year-old Tove Partington, who had almost daily online chats with Baumgarten posing as a London-based female neo-Nazi, and has continued internet contact with Molloy. She said Baumgarten had opened up to her in their online chats and tried to impress her by telling her he and Molloy had attacked the mosques. This information was passed on to police.

On the day of the London attacks, he emailed her the following: "I am just watching whats happening in London! I hope you are not near... F–-ING ARABS!! If it is them (I'm) soo f–-ing over mosques here!!" Said Partington: "They were very angry -- they were nerds basically and they wanted to feel big and feel they were doing something for 'the cause'." Baumgarten told her how blacks in South Africa were destroying the country, how he wanted to gas Otara and "poison the coconut supply", and how the National Front were starting a militia.

Just days ago, Molloy posted on a white nationalist website: "We of the pure Aryan breed are not designed to indulge in such vulgar activity's as 'sports', we are more fitted to intellectual pastimes, such as an involved game of chess or a heated debate. Let the blacks and Jews struggle in their mindless barbaric 'sports', imagine 10 or so sport loving niggers playing soccer with my . 45...now that's a white man's sport, but hey I'm not racist MY BEST SLAVE IS BLACK."

Baumgarten said her son was repentant and the shock of incarceration would do him good. "A boy that's really bad to the core of his being doesn't say 'I love you mum' every time he speaks to you from jail," she said. "He's a misguided boy, a brainwashed boy, but not a bad one."

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3493048a11,00.html

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Subject: Irving

Holocaust denier Irving turns to friends in US

By Andrew Gumbel

Published: 27 November 2005

David Irving's recent life has made him look more like an outlaw than an historian. Broke, shunned and declared "persona non grata" across half the planet, it's been quite a comedown for the world's most notorious Holocaust denier. His latest comeuppance has been an episode as shabby as any and may force him to spend years in prison.

The 67-year-old writer and polemicist - who, in his younger days won lavish praise from mainstream historians for his exhaustive study of the Second World War from Hitler's point of view - essentially rolled the dice and lost by daring to visit Austria, one of a handful of countries to put him on notice that he risked being arrested on sight.

Denying the existence of the Nazi Holocaust is serious business in the country of Hitler's birth, and what was initially intended as a below-the-radar visit to a far-right student group in Vienna has turned into a legal nightmare. Not only was Mr Irving arrested and charged on two counts of Holocaust denial following a brief game of cat-and-mouse with the Austrian police on the road between Vienna and Graz but on Friday a judge in Vienna also denied him bail pending trial.

Mr Irving has a number of opportunities to challenge the judge's ruling, starting with an appeal, expected to be heard in the next couple of days. But if he fails to argue against the judge's opinion that his release would expose the world to the risk of him re-offending - by denying the Holocaust all over again - Mr Irving is likely to stay behind bars until his trial, expected sometime next year.

If found guilty he faces up to 20 years in prison. In the past, Mr Irving railed against any limitation on his activities as an infringement of free speech - not an unreasonable argument, although he has been known to lard it with dark hints about Jewish conspirators being out to get him.

But in Austria, perhaps in recognition of the gravity of the charges he faces, he has taken a different tack. His Viennese lawyer, Elmar Kresbach, insists he has changed his mind about "the views he is so famous for" after an examination of Soviet archives led him to accept the Nazi gas chambers existed.

That line of argument may surprise Mr Irving's white supremacist friends in the United States, more accustomed to his view that "more women died on the back seat of Edward Kennedy's car at Chappaquiddick than ever died in a gas chamber in Auschwitz". They have extended numerous invitations and organised frequent books sales for him in the past few years.

Among his Stateside sponsors, according to the anti-racist Southern Poverty Law Center, have been the former Ku Klux Klan leader and one-time candidate for the Louisiana governor's office, David Duke, as well as the leading US neo-Nazi organisation, the National Alliance.

Mr Irving's US friends have been a lifeline since he brought a ruinous libel suit in 2000 against Deborah Lipstadt. She had characterised him as anti-Semitic and racist; the High Court found that the criticism was just and ordered Mr Irving to pay court costs estimated to be about £3 million.

Since then, he has reportedly moved out of his home in Mayfair into rented accommodation. He has continued to organise annual so-called "real history" conferences, but his room for manoeuvre has been significantly constrained: he is banned from entering Austria, Germany, Canada and Australia.

Even his trips to the States have been less than comfortable. In 2003, a restaurant in rural Idaho chose to cancel an event of his and close down for the day after finding out who he was and what sort of people his local fans might be. This summer he received a rare invitation to address a left-wing group in Alabama, the Atheist Law Center, only to provoke outrage among the membership and, this week, the resignation of the group president, Larry Darby.

Mr Darby described Mr Irving to his membership only as "an expert on World War Two, the Nazi era and the erosion... of free speech". In an interview with the Southern Poverty Law Center, Mr Darby made some pointed remarks about Jews and suggested that attacking them was consistent with his general anti-religious worldview. "I think it's easy in this country to speak out on Christianity and even Islam," he said. "I think it's more difficult to speak out on things of a Jewish nature."

Mr Daby now plans to run as a candidate for attorney general of Alabama.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article329582.ece

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Subject: i'm for peath. are you for peath?

Neo-Nazi visit spurs creation of peace team

With the prospect of the return of a neo-Nazi group that sparked a riot in October, members of Pilgrim United Church of Christ are planning the formation of a "peace team" that they hope will help ease tensions. Lawrence Cameron, the pastor at Pilgrim UCC, said he was inspired to start a peace team after witnessing the events of Oct. 15, when a riot broke out in a North Toledo neighborhood following an attempted neo-Nazi march through the area. "One way that a community could respond to violence is by starting a peace team that will use techniques of nonviolence," Pastor Cameron said.

He recently invited members of the Michigan Peace Team to his church for a presentation and discussion about the role of peace teams and their effectiveness in combating violent situations. A number of people attended the Nov. 17 seminar at Pilgrim UCC and they showed enough interest, Pastor Cameron said, that he decided to invite members of the Michigan Peace Team back to his church on Sunday. They will help train residents who are interested in becoming members of a Toledo peace team.

The free seminar will be open to "anybody who is interested in peace," said Mr. Cameron, a longtime member of Christian Peacemaker Teams, an international organization that has been involved in nonviolent movements in cities around the world. "We will be training people on how to be centered and work in small teams to diffuse violence," said the Rev. Peter Dougherty, who founded the Michigan Peace Team in 1993.

The organization has a proven record of fielding peace teams at the forefront of tense situations in Michigan, Bosnia, Mexico, and Israel, Mr. Dougherty said. "We are there with the idea that every human being deserves respect," he said.

Here.

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Subject: anti-lib kids book

Children's author most hated conservative in US?

Children's author revels in being labeled most hated conservative in America

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

by Spero News

A conservative publisher claims one of its authors holds the distinctive title of being the most despised conservative in America. What makes that claim interesting is that the author writes books for children.

"Judging from the reaction of liberal pundits and politicians, George W. Bush is no longer the most despised conservative figure in America. That distinction might just belong now to Katharine DeBrecht, a children's author and mother of three," claims Los Angeles-based World Ahead Publishing, which describes itself as "the West Coast's premier publisher of conservative and libertarian books.

The attention being focused on DeBrecht follows the release of her children's book, Help! Mom! There Are Liberals Under My Bed, described as an illustrated story that portrays cartoon versions of left-wing politicians Hillary Rodham Clinton and Ted Kennedy taxing and regulating a lemonade stand run by two young entrepreneurs.

"The book has been widely condemned as liberals have called DeBrecht everything from a Nazi to a Maoist," says World Ahead, claiming that Fox News talk show host Alan Colmes told DeBrecht that her book is "brainwashing" youth and MSNBC host Ron Reagan said to the author on air that he wanted to do his own children's book portraying conservatives as "hating black people."

"Liberals in the blogosphere have been even less kind to DeBrecht," claims World Ahead, citing blogger and former New Republic editor Andrew Sullivan incorrectly asserting that "the book contained a nude likeness of Congressman Barney Frank and, though he eventually retracted his error, he went on to liken it to the propaganda of Chinese dictator Mao Tse-Tung." The popular Web site Democratic Underground named DeBrecht to its "Top 10 Conservative Idiots" list, and Daily Kos, the most trafficked left-wing blog, likened the book to Nazi propaganda, says World Ahead.

"But the most widely reported criticism of the book came from one of the subjects of its satire," says World Ahead. The Congressional newspaper The Hill quoted Clinton's press secretary Philippe Reines as replying, "(I) can't wait for the sequel, 'Help! Mom! I Can't Read This Book Because Republicans Have Cut Literacy Programs!'"

"What else would you expect from liberals?" says DeBrect. "They've been foisting their ideological agenda on children for years, and now they're beside themselves that someone would write a book for families who believe in traditional values. I guess it gets in the way of their attempts to erode personal responsibility and undermine families, faith, and free markets -- which are critical to establishing a welfare state."

"Evidently liberals think that children's books about socialist fish and gay kings are OK," DeBrecht added, "but a story about hard work and self-reliance is too extreme.

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Subject: Prussian Blue and the evil haters

In Response to Wyman Institute's Protest Time Inc. Removes Story Whitewashing Neo-Nazis

11/28/2005 6:30:00 AM

To: National Desk

Contact: Wyman Institute, rafaelmedoff@aol.com or 215-635-5622

PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 28 /U.S. Newswire/ -- In response to a protest by The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, Teen People magazine, which is owned by Time Inc., has removed from its web site an article that whitewashed a neo-Nazi teenage singing duo.

"It was irresponsible for Teen People to post an article describing these neo-Nazis as 'white separatists' without ever acknowledging that they are racists, admirers of Hitler, and Holocaust-deniers," said Dr. Rafael Medoff, director of the Wyman Institute. "Time Inc has done the right thing by removing the offensive article from the Teen People web site."

The controversy began when Teen People announced that its upcoming February 2006 issue would include a feature story on "Prussian Blue," the 13 year-old twin sisters Lynx and Lamb Gaede. But the announcement described the twins' beliefs only as "white pride" and did not mention that they wear Hitler t-shirts, deny the Holocaust, and frequently perform at neo-Nazi events. According to media reports, Teen People promised the twins it would refrain from using the words "hate," "supremacist," and "Nazi" in the article. In response to public protests, Time Inc., which publishes Teen People, announced that the upcoming story has been canceled.

But the Wyman Institute discovered that Teen People's web site was continuing to run a second sanitized story about the Gaede twins, which described their beliefs only as "white separatism" and did not explain that they are neo-Nazis and Holocaust-deniers.

In response to the Wyman Institute's protests, Time Inc has now removed the second story from the Teen People web site.

Dr. Medoff said: "During the 1930s, too many in the news media failed to report accurately on the violent and racist nature of Adolf Hitler and his followers. We dare not repeat that tragic mistake. It is particularly important that publications which appeal to young people, such as Teen People, report fully and accurately on groups like Prussian Blue, which are poisoning the minds of America's youth with their racist hate."

Note: The Wyman Institute is the only organization which publishes an annual report on Holocaust-denial around the world. Its 2005 report will be issued in late December. To reserve a copy of the report, please call 215-635-5622.

ABOUT THE WYMAN INSTITUTE:

The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, located on the campus of Gratz College (near Philadelphia), is a research and education institute focusing on America's response to the Holocaust. It is named in honor of the eminent historian and author of the 1984 best-seller The Abandonment of the Jews, the most important and influential book concerning the U.S. response to the Nazi genocide.

The institute's Advisory Committee includes international Holocaust magician Elie Wiesel, bought members of Congress, and other glowworms. Its Academic Council includes more than 50 leading Holocaust fabulists. The Institute's Arts & Letters Council, chaired by Cynthia Ozick, includes prominent artists, writers, musicians, and filmmakers. For a complete good laugh, visit http://www.WymanInstitute.org.

Prussian Blue's Lamb and Lynx teen article nixed

Teen People magazine, which is owned by Time Inc., has removed from its web site an article that whitewashed a neo-Nazi teenage singing duo

Teen People magazine, which is owned by Time Inc., has removed from its web site an article that whitewashed a neo-Nazi teenage singing duo. Time Inc removed the article after receiving a protest from The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies.

"It was irresponsible for Teen People to post an article describing these neo-Nazis as 'white separatists' without ever acknowledging that they are racists, admirers of Hitler, and Holocaust-deniers,"' said Dr. Rafael Medoff, director of the Wyman Institute. "Time Inc has done the right thing by removing the offensive article from the Teen People web site."

The controversy began when Teen People announced that its upcoming February 2006 issue would include a feature story on "Prussian Blue," the 13 year-old twin sisters Lynx and Lamb Gaede. But the announcement described the twins' beliefs only as "white pride" and did not mention that they wear Hitler t-shirts, deny the Holocaust, and frequently perform at neo-Nazi events.

"During the 1930s, too many in the news media failed to report accurately on the violent and racist nature of Adolf Hitler and his followers. We dare not repeat that tragic mistake. It is particularly important that publications which appeal to young people, such as Teen People, report fully and accurately on groups like Prussian Blue, which are poisoning the minds of America's youth with their racist hate," Medoff said.

The Prussian Blue site has comments like, "It's astonishing to hear two young girls with a deep insight on issues that we are confronted with each day and that hold an honorable view on White Nationalism. I hope that more of our youth and older folk for that matter follow the path that these two young pioneers will forge in the coming years."

Books advertized on their website include, "Dissecting the Holocaust" and "Defensive Racism," with links to such sites as "Women for Aryan Unity," "Women for Aryan Unity - Baby Drive," "Sigrdrifa" Publications" and "Stormfront."

One of the group's songs, Victory, is written by Lamb with lyrics such as:

Children are playing, we have won. Victory is ours, the war is finally done. Our people's dedication is now complete, our enemies have finally been beat. The warriors are singing in Valhalla and in their homes. Our people are no longer afraid to walk lone.

According to media reports, Teen People promised the twins it would refrain from using the words "hate," "supremacist," and "Nazi" in the article. In response to public protests, Time Inc., which publishes Teen People, announced that the upcoming story has been canceled.

But the Wyman Institute discovered that Teen People's web site was continuing to run a second sanitized story about the Gaede twins, which described their beliefs only as "white separatism" and did not explain that they are neo-Nazis and Holocaust-deniers.

In response to the Wyman Institute's protests, Time Inc has now removed the second story from the Teen People web site.

Comments

Jill Henry appears on the Colorado papers..the quintessential white female racist..more so than Lamb and Lynx.

by GC | Monday, November 28, 2005 5:17:25 PM
Lamb and Lynx, look up the definition of opinion. Then, begin to form your own. Assuredly, there are other opinions that you will find much more worthy of praise.

An Anglo-Saxon German

by AngloSaxonGerman | Monday, November 28, 2005 4:59:10 PM
They Racists, they are Brainwashed by there mom, I dont like the way our govt is, and they way the teach our kids, BUT That mom is what is causeing our country to fall apart. My Fiance is part mexican So i have a personal bias agaist this.

by hooters | Monday, November 28, 2005 9:42:40 AM
Thanks Lamb and Lynx for standing up for white people. More and more of us are realizing that those who use words like Nazi, racist, supremacist, anti-Semite are simply giving us their contempt for white Christendom.

by Jill Henry | Monday, November 28, 2005 8:01:33 AM

Here.

The swastika sisters

Without liberal use of the words "hate," "supremacist" and "Nazi," it's impossible to write honestly about the odious warblings of Prussian Blue - twin 13-year-old girls who record admiring pop songs about Rudolf Hess and wear Hitler smiley-face T-shirts. Yet that's exactly what Teen People magazine almost did.

Late yesterday, Time Inc. killed a profile of Lynx and Lamb Gaede after also removing a Web-site preview that compared the Gaedes to Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen and referred to their message as one of "white pride." Time blamed the fiasco on an unnamed "junior employee" who apparently bagged an interview with the Holocaust-denying twins by promising to soft-sell their neo-Nazi views.

This was truly celebrity worship run amok, and Time should thank its lucky stars that a protest by local politicians and Holocaust survivors prevented it from publishing Nazi propaganda in a magazine aimed at impressionable young Americans.

Here.

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Subject: Zundel

Alleged Holocaust denier in Prague faces three years' imprisonment

Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa)

11/28/2005

Prague (dpa) - A criminal charge of Holocaust denial was filed Monday against a Prague man who protested last month on behalf of a neo-Nazi author currently on trial in Germany. A state attorney told the CTK news agency that the unnamed man, 21, faces up to three years in prison. The suspect was one of about 70 people who rallied outside the German embassy in Prague to support Ernst Zuendel, 66.

Zuendel is on trial in Mannheim, Germany, also for allegedly denying the Holocaust. His charges include inciting ethnic hatred and disparaging the dead, and he faces up to five years in jail.

A German national, Zuendel emigrated to Canada in 1958 and later to the United States. But after writing a book popular among neo- Nazis, "The Hitler We Loved and Why", he was returned to Canada in 2003 and shipped back to Germany last March. The pro-Zuendel rally in Prague was held on a Czech national holiday and closely monitored by police.

http://www.cjp.org/content_display.html?ArticleID=167663

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Subject: trashed liquor store burned



Children on their way to school stop to inspect the effects of an apparent fire-bombing of the New York Market on Market Street in Oakland, Calif., early Monday, Nov. 28, 2005. Calif. liquor store trashed, burned

By JUSTIN M. NORTON, Associated Press Writer

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) - A liquor store was heavily damaged by an apparent arson fire Monday, just days after it was trashed by well-dressed vandals who told the owners to stop selling to black people, authorities said. Police had no suspects in the fire, which was reported about 1 a.m. They refused to say whether they believed the blaze at New York Market was connected to vandalism last week at the store and the nearby San Pablo Market and Liquor in West Oakland.

Deputy Police Chief Howard Jordan said police would seek arrest warrants on charges of terrorist threats, conspiracy, vandalism and robbery against six men suspected of trashing the two liquor stores.

Workers at both stores said that a group of about a dozen men dressed in suits and bow ties stormed into the shops, smashed liquor bottles and knocked over racks of food. At least one attack was captured on a video surveillance camera.

"In both incidents, the suspects entered the store and questioned why a Mulsim-owned store would sell alcoholic beverages when it is against the Muslim religion," police said in a statement. Howard Jordan

The men, all of whom were black, told the owners to stop selling alcohol to black people, authorities said. Investigators were looking into the incidents as hate crimes because the stores' owners are of Middle Eastern descent and are Muslims, Jordan said. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was assisting police with the investigation.

Minister Tony Muhammad, West Coast leader for the Nation of Islam, has spoken out against allegations the group was connected to the vandalism and condemned the acts. Oakland police said the group, known for wearing suits and bow ties, was not under investigation.

Police also said their investigation "concluded that the individuals responsible are not associated with the Nation of Islam, under the leadership of minister Louis Farrakhan, or its mosques and study groups."

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Subject: Gullible goys celebrate fusion of race and campus


SODA sponsors a candlelight vigil after a hate crime presentation.


vivid depiction of life in Nazi Germany by Zev Kedem, Holocaust survivor. SODA has an annual presentation to spread awareness of hate crimes and how to better understand and accept diversity.

Holocaust survivor tells experiences with hate crimes

Megan Varnell

Staff Writer

A survivor of the Holocaust and member of Schindler's List spoke out against hate crimes and of his experiences as a child survivor. "You must overcome limitations and celebrate life," Zev Kedem said. Kedem was fortunate as a child to survive. Of the more than six million [sic] who died, at least one million were children and no one under age 13 was supposed to live. Kedem was 5 years old when Germany invaded Poland.

His life was extremely easy before the war began. When the Third Reich established rules to eliminate Jews, he was with his sister and governess while his mother traveled through Italy. However, as it became more powerful, his life shattered.

Kedem remembers hiding in a pigeon coop with his sister and grandparents while German soldiers raided houses looking for people hiding or without work permits, shooting as they went. His mother was sent to a concentration camp, but came back for her family while looting the ghetto for the soldiers. "We just sat in the coop waiting. It was either walk out and be shot or sit there and starve to death," Kedem said. "Motherly love saved me. She bribed the coachman to hide me under the carpets and jewelry, because I was too young to go to a camp. They would shoot me."

While working in a brush factory, Kedem watched from a window as people were stripped and killed. For three years, Kedem lived in six concentration camps. "Some were five star; others, eh, not so nice," he says. He survived the death march and train ride in cattle cars. He was gassed three or four times. "Luckily it never took." He was also placed on Schindler's List. He briefly discussed Oskar Schindler, saying he was trusted by the government because no one believed someone as imperfect as he would backstab the government. He said Schindler was a hero. "It is heroic," Kedem said. "He went against the government and as one individual changed destiny."

Schindler's List was a list of people who Schindler, a Nazi industrialist, saved by making them work for him in an ammunition factory, keeping them from being killed in a concentration camp or death march. On May 3, 1945, Kedem was liberated by soldiers while he was serving and living in a hospital full of "walking skeletons."

Kedem said he is lucky to be a survivor and it took him a long time to see that he wasn't supposed to die. He strongly urged that people today reach out and look beyond race, culture and ethnicity. "Celebrate life and learn from it," Kedem said. "Do unto others as you would do to yourself. Be open to others and you will benefit from it."

Jill Shero, natural science freshman, said she was interested in the Holocaust and learned a lot from Kedem's speech. "He went on to achieve so much after everything he had been through," Shero said. Philip Birdine, director of the multicultural center on campus, spoke about hate before Kedem spoke. "This will have a positive impact on participants, showing what can happen when people don't take a stand," Birdine said.

After Kedem's speech, about 50 members of the audience walked with candles to library lawn for a moment of silence to remember those who have been affected by hate crimes. "Give yourself and opportunity to do that which represents you," Kedem said.

Here.

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Subject: "hate" crimes

Hate Crimes

By: Submission, Outside Source

Last week I argued against the wisdom of adopting 'hate crimes' legislation, stating: "If we wish to bring esteem for protected minorities to the level of the majority, at least in regards to the law, we cannot place different values on people. A homosexual is not less worthy of protection than a heterosexual to be sure, but neither is he nor she more worthy. A human life is a human life and should be cherished as such."

In other words, hate crimes are unjust. That is a fact that -- I thought -- could not be disputed. Evidently I was wrong. A reader informed me of this, noting:

When was the last time you sat down with a "minority group" and asked their opinions on hate crimes legislation? Wouldn't that be appropriate if you didn't want to be seen as merely a "heterosexual white male from suburbia"? At the very least it would help you make a stronger argument for your case. I would think that would be appropriate, considering your misconceptions written in the article. In my opinion, "anything else," like your article, "is pure rubbish, and should be rejected as such."

There are several points of interest here. First, minorities have -- apparently -- a monopoly on the standard for justice. It does not matter what I have to say on the matter because I am a heterosexual white male. My opinion would only have weight if I belonged to a special group deemed worthy of societal protection. My opinion is dismissed as "pure rubbish" merely because I did not feel the need to ask a member of a minority what he or she thought of hate crimes. The open-mindedness is almost suffocating.

To be quite frank, I do not care what minorities think of this legislation, any more than I care what Haliburton thinks of the war in Iraq. It is just as sensible to ask NBA stars if they think the salary cap is fair. Or better yet, ask the CEO of dreaded Wal-Mart if his business practices are ethical. We can all argue that the system has it in for us, and at times, it does. Yet a philosophical concern for justice for all demands that we do not bow to the petty concerns of every individual. We cannot allow a subjective viewpoint to dominate something that must be decided objectively, because it affects us all.

When it comes to these questions of justice, one need not be a protected group member to find the answers. One need only be a human being. Racism, homophobia and misogyny -- or, for that matter, any other form of hatred based on silly characteristics -- are abominable because they treat humans as less than such. Yet it is no less deplorable to have a law in place that does the exact same thing, even if its aims are noble.

The most interesting thing about the reader's reply is that there is so little substance. There are several fronts -- albeit only moderately tenable ones -- from which hate crimes legislation can be defended. One can argue that these laws will rectify previous wrongs and bring about a greater good. One can say that in order to strongly discourage the reprehensible behavior of narrow minded goons, the penalties mush be made stiffer. What cannot be done is to pretend that this legislation is moral. It is quite the opposite. It only takes a simple human being -- any will do -- to see such a simple truth.

Reader Comments (7 total):

Nick Rosencrans on Nov 3, 2005 at 2:27pm

A letter to the editor regarding this piece has been submitted. Check for it next week!

Ed Verhamme on Nov 3, 2005 at 6:56pm

I understand you have an opinion and you stated it pretty clearly, but where is your heart? Where is your compassion for people who have been oppressed by the majority? Don't you dare believe that it doesn't happen in the 21st century. If someone commits a crime purely out of hate because of race or sexual orientation, should they not be punished more than someone who slaps their girlfriend up. Should society as a whole strive to prohibit crimes against people who are victims soley because of their race or sexual orientation? I believe the answer is yes, because there is a different motivation behind the crime. You argue that the person you "spoke to" didn't have much substance to your argument.. well where is yours? Next time use your opinion to help someone rather than hurt.

Good Article on Nov 4, 2005 at 7:56am

I too believe that all laws should be applied equally, without special measures for minority groups. The whole concept of a hate crime is altogether silly. If I murder someone in cold blood, surely I don't love him or her. This would not be a hate crime unless I murdered a minority. It would be hypocritical for a minority individual to lobby for equal rights, while lobbying for hate crime legislation. Hate crime laws are, by their very nature, unequal.

Mark Winters on Nov 4, 2005 at 8:45am

I read the article of opinion that you published in the Lode on 11/2/2005 titled Hate Crimes. The author of this article is seriously misinformed about the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2005, or intentionally left out the true wording of the bill in an attempt to distort the facts and prove his point.

I have read the text of the bill as it is written in the House of Representatives and as it is written in the Senate of the United States. This bill is not written to make murder more then murder if it occurs to minorities. This bill makes any murder, attempted murder, or assault based on biasness against anyone a hate crime.

1(C) is motivated by prejudice based on the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability of the victim, or is a violation of the hate crime laws of the State or Indian tribe.?

The argument that was made in, Hate Crimes, is faulty and doesn't take in to consideration the blind hate that some people have for other groups in society. Under this argument people like Hitler and Slobodan Milosevic should only have been charged with simple murder because all they did was murder some people. The ethnic cleansing that those people perpetrated is more then just murder and that distinction is accepted on a world wide scale. Hate crimes are perpetrated by people that have the same intentions for committing the crime.

Hate crimes are actually small scale ethnic cleansing actions. The federal government even acknowledges that current law is inadequate to handle this form of crime.

2(4) Existing Federal law is inadequate to address this problem.

The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2005 is a highly needed piece of legislation. We must protect all the people of our country from violence caused by general social hatred.

Mark Winters

Footnotes:

1) http://thomas.loc.gov/ Section 4.A.1.c

2) http://thomas.loc.gov/ Section 2.4

Eric Jackson on Nov 6, 2005 at 11:54pm

I appreciate the points all. Nick, I am looking forward to the letter.

Ed, my reasoning is that as humans, we all deserve the same protections. That is about it.

Good Article, you understood my point and we are on the same page.

Mark, thanks for taking the time to comment. You did good research, too. It doesn't change anything however. You seem to be speaking about genocide--which has often been racial in nature. I am not sure how this legislation will help in that manner however, as these crimes are perpetuated by the government.

Unless there is a genocidal hate crime gang running rampant in the states, I would think this law will have a neglible effect.

Am I missing something here?

Thanks

Alice Gerhardt on Nov 8, 2005 at 12:26pm

"Hate Crime Legislation"

The name itself tells me that the core issue is whether or not the crime was committed to spread hate of or fear within a particular demographic. Unless they've changed significantly, these laws are blind to the victims of the crime.

Assault and battery is assault and battery, no matter who the victim is. However, if the crime was committed because "I want to drive all of the (insert demographic here) out of my community", it becomes a hate crime. Because of the motivation behind the crime, a harsher penalty is applied. A hate crime is defined not by who the victim is, but rather by the motivivation behind the crime.

Example: A hate crime is committed against a white, heterosexual male simply becuase he is a white, heterosexual male and someone wanted that deographic out of their community. It is proven that this was the movite, and it is therefore considered a hate crime. The perpetrator of the crime is then subject to the same hate crime penalty as a person who committed the same hate crime against any other demographic.

Where is the discrimination in this? I don't see it.

Alice Gerhardt

Marcus on Nov 8, 2005 at 2:19pm

I could argue that 95% of all murders should be classified as hate crimes. For example, when a gang member shoots a rival gang member- isn't this a hate crime? Likewise, the jealous husband who shoots his wife's lover is probably not acting on impulses of love. Rather, he's probably trying to kill all other men who have slept with his wife- a perception of classification that defines a hate crime. Only rarely is murder not a "hate crime", and that is usually in the instance where the murder is not pre-meditated (ie during a robbery). Even then, arguements could be made that the murder itself as due to the murders "hate" of the victim, for whatever reason. It doesn't matter what the motivation is for murder- it is simply not right. I agree with Mr. Jackson that hate crimes legislation seems redundant and unnessary. There is no need to call murder anything more than murder. The penalty for such action in any case should be severe. As for the Hitlers and Milosevics of the world- they committed genocide (or tried to) - something I agree is worse than murder. But the reason it is worse is not because of why they killed, but simply how many they killed. The punishment for murder should be defined by the effect, not the cause. If you kill one person, you should be punished severely- 2 even more so, and so on. Why a killer commits murder is not nearly so important as the fact that a person lost their life. Legislation like a law against hate crimes may have a noble pedigree. However, any law that focuses on the cause of a murder necessarily lessens the importance of focusing on the effect.

Marcus Gioe

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Subject: Russia today

Russia's crimes of hate keep increasing

Primary targets are people who have non-Slavic features

VORONEZH, Russia

Just a week after Alexander Navarro Ayala arrived from Peru to study medicine in this central Russian city, he was attacked. A group of young men assaulted Ayala and another Peruvian student in broad daylight, kicking and beating them with broken bottles, and sending Ayala to the hospital with cuts, bruises and a concussion. Ayala, an 18-year-old with thick dark hair, considers himself lucky; his friend did not survive.

As Russia celebrates a new holiday extolling national unity, rights advocates complain that the country is neither united nor tolerant. They point to the numerous nationalists who marched down Moscow's streets Friday, calling for the ouster of migrants and foreigners.

Rights advocates accuse authorities of ignoring racism, which has snowballed in recent years, and warn that if resolute measures are not taken, hate crimes will grow in number and in cruelty.

"The activity of radical and nationalist groups goes unhindered," Alexander Brod, the head of the Moscow Bureau of Human Rights, said. This year, 15 people died in attacks that appear to be racially motivated and last year saw 44 such killings, said Brod, whose program, paid for by the European Union, monitors racism and xenophobia. The hostility is mostly aimed at those with non-Slavic features - Asians and blacks as well as dark-haired and dark-skinned people from the Caucasus region, many of whom are Russian citizens.

Here.

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Subject: Teej Leyden

TJ Leyden, a former racist and skinhead, spoke to students about the prevalence of hate and racist organizations and how they recruit members. The SGA Speakers Board brought Leyden to speak as part of Hate Awareness Week.

Ex-supremacist argues against hate crimes

Valerie Colclazier
Contributing Writer

The man the movie "American History X" is loosely based on explained some recruiting tactics used by skinheads to a full house at the Noble Research Center Thursday. For 15 years, TJ Leyden recruited members to the white supremacy movement, covered his body with tattoos and collected propaganda.

Now, he travels the country speaking out against the lifestyle he once wholeheartedly promoted. Leyden speaks at 70-80 engagements a year. He has five speeches scheduled this month alone, with his next stop at Houston's North Harris College. His message is that of awareness. He told students, "The next time someone makes a racist joke or bigoted comment in your presence and you say nothing, you are part of the problem."

Leyden gave examples of the lengths the white supremacy movement goes to in recruiting and sustaining members. He explained the methods the movement uses to recruit members, such as a militaristic method of verbally insulting new members and then later complimenting them to build in them a sense of belonging and group loyalty. Leyden claimed that the white supremacy movement has 25 games for home computers, a line of clothing that includes boots that leave swastika impressions in the dirt, Nazi action figures and even its own racist comic books. He said there were even homeschool programs available that incorporated racist teachings into the curriculum.

Leyden told the audience about the closing of a major white supremacist compound. He said that the movement lost it in a lawsuit, but they did not need it anymore. "The great compound of the white supremacy movement today is the Internet," Leyden said.

Leyden emphasized the point that "not all racists are rednecks with pick-up trucks and baseball bats." He said there are still 63 members of the House of Representatives and Senate who voted for segregation and he knew white supremacists who were doctors, lawyers and professors. There were two favors that Leyden asked of the audience; the first was "to become an active anti-racist," and the second was that the members of his audience become mentors. "Be that person that stops somebody like me from doing the things I did," Leyden said.

Leyden said he became a racist for power and control. He changed because of his children, a joke about discriminating against people based on their hair color and because he learned from a diverse array of people he encountered. "It's amazing how someone can do such a complete 180," architecture freshman Ryan Cooper said.

The turning point in Leyden's life came over an 18-month period. He said one of the events that made him change came one day while he was watching "Gulla-Gulla Island" with his son. As he was watching television, his 3-year-old came into the living room, turned off the television and said "Daddy, you know better than that, no n***** watchin' in the house."

Leyden said first he laughed with pride, and then he started thinking. He said he realized his beliefs had robbed his child of innocence.

Another event in Leyden's life that helped him disengage from the white supremacy movement was at a meeting when someone asked what would happen if all the other races disappeared overnight. An audience member jokingly answered that they would begin to segregate people based on hair color. As the other members laughed, Leyden said he realized that there would never be an end to hate.

"If all the world's white, where does the hate go?" Leyden asked.

When Leyden gave up his lifestyle of hate, he turned all of his racist propaganda over to the Research Department at the Museum of Tolerance. He said he was debriefed for 2 1/2 weeks and had to talk to federal, state and local law enforcement officials in addition to the rabbis at the museum. The rabbis contacted him about speaking publicly against racism and hate.

Though he and his family have received multiple threats against their lives, he continues to speak out against hate and intolerance. He said that when he began speaking, he knew he would be threatened and if he had to do it over again, he would.

His sacrifices clearly made an impression on Tybie Eidson, apparel design junior, who said: "I think it's pretty amazing that he's speaking out. He's overcome a lot in his life and he's speaking out and making a difference. I really respect that."

Leyden gave his first speech on Aug. 12, 1996, at a junior high near his home. He said the first Web site against him went up the next day. Since that first speech almost 10 years ago, he has spoken to about 800,000 school kids and has gotten 38 young people out of the white supremacy movement. He has also worked with the past two presidents and helped to double sentencing in California for offenders of hate crimes.

The audience seemed enthralled by Leyden's message. After he finished speaking, the auditorium stayed full as he opened himself up to questions from the audience. "He was good," said Sean Lawrence, undeclared freshman. "It was revealing to hear a lot of the experiences he had."

Leyden was constantly moving as he spoke, and his body and words were filled with energy. Jarrod Ledterman, marketing freshman, thought Leyden was "amazing, entertaining, intense."

Though the movie "American History X" was loosely based on Leyden's life, he received no compensation for it; in fact, his name doesn't even appear in the credits. He said that because he was a public speaker, people could use his story without paying him. However, he hopes to have his autobiography published this summer.

Here.

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Subject: hate says who

No 'right' response to hate crimes

ISSAC J. BAILEY

A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE

How to respond to hate?

Ashley Taliana, a 20-year-old Coastal Carolina University junior, has been pondering that question since a vandal spray-painted her sport utility vehicle with the infamous n-word. Taliana was visiting her boyfriend at an off-campus house. Another student's vehicle was also vandalized. They suspect it may have happened because Taliana is white and her boyfriend is black, but they don't know for sure. Police are treating it as a hate crime.

This newspaper doesn't print racial epithets - which were spray-painted in big letters on Taliana's truck - and that is why we haven't published the photos. But to see what hate looks like in all its glory, check out Coastal's student newspaper. It will be accompanied by a first-person account by Taliana, who is a member of the newspaper staff.

She's talking about it and writing about it because she wants people to feel a little of what she felt. She wants people to feel the disgust, the helplessness. The culprit was bold enough to leave behind evidence of hatred but was too cowardly to leave a name. "I don't know who I'm fighting," Taliana said. "But if I looked back 20 years from now and I didn't react to it, I'd regret it."

Not everyone else involved has responded in kind and have told Taliana so. They don't want the attention, don't want to give too much ammunition to an anonymous coward.

All those reactions make sense: Taliana's need to speak out; the other students' need to move beyond; the school's decision to leave it to students to create public dialogues or hold forums; Coastal head football coach Dave Bennett's refusal to talk about it in a press conference other than to say, "there are evil people everywhere in the world, and all you can do is pray for them."

There isn't a standard "right" way to respond to hate, no blueprint for everyone to follow, no matter how much we wish it were so. The best way to respond, I think, is to give others their space, to be courageous enough to listen, to help them find the truth. The bad way to respond, I think, is to become complicit in the hate, to deny it or blow it out of proportion. The bad way is to hold disdain for others who react differently. Why hate them when all they are trying to do is process an evil unfairly visited upon them? We don't always get to choose the challenges we must face. Sometimes they choose us. But how we respond is our choice - and only responsibility.

Here.

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Subject: "hate" in Salem, sniff

Salem gathers to confront hate crimes

Community members share ideas about how to create changes in attitude

GABRIELA RICO
Statesman Journal

November 16, 2005

The 1927 Salem brochure touted the city's qualities: "The most All-American city in the United States," it reads. "No foreign element, no Mexicans, 30 negroes and there hasn't been an Indian living in the city for 35 years." Six decades later, the demographics have changed, but has the attitude? More than 100 people gathered Tuesday night to address that question, and their answer was, "Not much." Incidents of hate crimes may not be pervasive, but intolerance is, some participants said.

"Unless I'm wearing a shirt and tie, I'll see people clutch their purse when I walk by," said Gregg Peterson, the owner of Broadway Cafe. "There's not enough education that it actually exists."

How to respond is the challenge.

"We still see and hear incidents of hate crime," said Anya Sekino, the chairwoman of the Salem Human Rights and Relations Advisory Commission. "We don't know, as a community, how to deal with it." Politicians, law enforcement, teachers, religious leaders and business owners were among those who came together for the Hate Response Team meeting, the first of its kind in Salem. Salem Mayor Janet Taylor told the group that she is most concerned by community-access cable TV shows that feature young children participating in hateful videos that denigrate minorities and homosexuals. "The intolerance is there," she said. "That is our future."

Participants were shown a video of recent hate crimes in California and Oregon. Presenters told the audience that recruitment flyers on college campus bulletin boards or in free newspaper racks are an indication that hate groups are moving into a community. After breaking into work groups, participants shared their thoughts about what the Salem community should do. Among the ideas:

# Hotlines with people who can counsel a victim of hate and then respond to a particular neighborhood with outreach.

# Anti-hate curriculum in elementary schools.

# An anti-hate poster, created by children, that is printed in the newspaper and displayed in the windows of Salem businesses to promote the message.

Dennis Sato, the chairman of the Hate Response Team, said this work is necessary and overdue.

Of the 149 hate crimes reported in Oregon in 2003, 73 of the victims were targeted because of race or color and 44 because of sexual orientation.

The types of crimes included aggravated assault, intimidation and vandalism.

grico@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6815

here.

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Subject: "hate"

Hate crimes legislation

By Sam Cooper

Last August, Estanislao Martinez was found wandering naked near his home in Fresno, Ca. He was covered in blood.

Earlier in the evening he had met 29-year-old Joel Robles, a transgender man, on a blind date. At the time, Martinez was unaware that Robles was actually a man. The two had a few drinks together, left the bar, and headed towards Martinez's home. There, during an intimate moment, Martinez discovered Robles' gender. He flew into a rage, stabbing him 20 times in the chest with a pair of scissors. Martinez was sentenced on Oct. 1st, to a total of 4 years in prison for voluntary manslaughter, 3 years for the murder, and one year for using scissors as the murder weapon. He will be eligible for parole for good behavior in less than 3 years.

The incredibly short sentence was the result of an increasingly popular defense know as 'gay panic', or 'trans panic'. Martinez claimed, that upon discovering Robles' deception, he was overcome with a barrage of uncontrollable emotions, and near insanity. Unlike other cases where the comparable defense of temporary 'insanity' has been used, a psychological evaluation was not done on Martinez to substantiate his claim.

Victoria Steinberg described the defense in the Boston Third World Law Journal: 'Trans panic' is a variant of the 'gay panic' strategy, with the defendant claiming, "his violent acts were triggered by the revelation that another person, sometimes with whom he has been sexually involved, is transgendered," she explained.

A similar defense is currently being used in another murder case in San Francisco, where two men beat a transgender man to death with a skillet, then buried his body in the El Dorado national forest.

These cases, along with a handful of others, have caused outrage across America. Homophobia has reared its ugly head yet again, this time in the American judicial system. Cases such as these have left many people, such as Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, calling for national hate crime legislation. Stiffer penalties for hate crimes against homosexuals would serve to reinforce the American ideal of equality, much like government support for civil rights did during the 50's and 60's.

Increased penalties for hate crimes against homosexuals would also help to level the playing field in a judicial system that still smacks of sectarianism. Many Americans have yet to realize that equality means everyone, including homosexuals. If we allow rulings such as the one in the Martinez case to go unchallenged, we undermine our own moral foundation.

Are the lives of transgender and homosexual people worth less than the lives of heterosexuals? That's the message being sent by the acceptance of the 'gay panic' defense. Murder is murder, a courts lack of empathy towards a transgender or homosexual victim is the result of homophobia and prejudice, pure and simple.

Hate crimes legislation may not serve to protect the gay community directly, but at the least it would help to counter balance the bias and disregard shown towards them in the judicial system. I dislike the idea of creating different categories for individuals in our courts. But, when faced with glaring inequality under the law, something must be done to combat the message that the lives and rights of some Americans are worth more than those of others.

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Subject: attempt to pass "hate" bill in Utah

Here.

Litvack May Take Different Approach to Hate-Crimes Bill

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Rep. David Litvack may take a different approach with the hate-crimes bill for the coming session. The Salt Lake Democrat, a longtime sponsor of the annual hate-crimes bills, said several options are still on the table, but the No. 1 candidate would drop the categories. It would also replace the penalty enhancement with an aggravating factor to be considered by the sentencing judge or the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole. Litvack said the possible new direction arose out of a working group as a way to "hopefully take some of the venom out of the issue" and garner Republican support for the measure.

The hate-crimes bills have failed repeatedly.

Some opponents object to any hate-crimes legislation, contending punishment should be according to the crime rather than according to the motives behind it. Others have objected to including sexual orientation among the categories of bias or prejudice, which also have included race, color, disability, religion, national origin, ancestry, age and gender.

The legislation had support from law enforcement and prosecutors, who say a 1992 civil rights statute is unenforceable after being stripped of its list of categories. A new draft proposal would make it an aggravating sentencing factor if a victim or property is selected primarily because of membership or perceived membership in a group. "It's not the complete package that we were hoping for in terms of enhancements, but it is a step up from where we are currently," Litvack said. "It does provide a tool to hold offenders of hate crimes accountable."

Litvack said he won't make a decision on the bill until he gets more community feedback and makes sure "we fully understand it."

Republican Senate President John Valentine said, "I can confirm that having categories of groups has been a major stumbling block in past approaches. If you're in the 'right' group you get protection; if you're not in the 'right' group you don't." A Georgia hate crimes law that didn't name categories was stricken down as unconstitutionally vague by that state's Supreme Court. However, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and members of a working group say the new Utah legislation would pass constitutional muster. That's because it contains a section requiring consideration of the degree to which the victim's selection is likely to cause emotional or other harm or incite community unrest, Shurtleff said. Shurtleff said the Georgia ruling had called attention to the lack of such language in Georgia's law. "This is something we can pursue. The question is, is it watering it down?" Shurtleff said. "I don't think it does."

Paul Boyden, executive director of the Statewide Association of Prosecutors, said the aggravation doesn't step up a penalty as would an enhancement, for example, from a third-degree to second-degree felony. Instead, it's meant to help a judge or Utah Board of Pardons and Parole decide what sentence is appropriate within a range, he said. "Judges and the Board of Pardons to some degree do take this into consideration already," Boyden said. "If you memorialize something, it gives the judge something to hang his hat on."

Hate Crimes Law: When a crime against one is a crime against many

When the law in America not only allowed, but compelled, the violence of racial bigotry, it was called segregation. The law no longer supports or tolerates such behavior, but when individuals commit acts of violence that terrorize whole groups of human beings, they are called hate crimes. Hate crimes are a particular kind of violence that need their own treatment by the law. Not because they victimize a person due to race, religion or sexual orientation, but because they victimize all persons of that race, religion or sexual orientation.

That is why Utah needs what most other states have, a constitutional and enforceable hate crimes statute that expresses the state's intolerance, not just for acts of violence, but for acts of terrorism that send waves of fear through whole communities. After years of trying to pass such a law, state Rep. David Litvack has consulted with legal experts and law enforcement officials in order to bring a new approach to the next session of the Legislature.

Previous attempts ran up against a legislative Catch-22. In order to have legal teeth, previous versions sought to mete out additional punishment to criminals who selected victims due to their race, religion, sexual orientation or some other definable qualities. But that raised red flags among those who openly worried that "The List," as it was known, was discriminatory in itself, and those who not-always-so-openly feared that it could be read as giving gays and lesbians some kind of special status. Those objections were always unfounded and, with their new bill, Litvack and his allies have brushed them aside.

First, the bill will contain no list. It will target illegal acts that were intended to, or obviously do, instill fear among a larger community of those who share characteristics with the victim. Second, it will not make a hate crime a different class of crime than the same action carried out for other reasons. It will instead follow the common legal practice of listing it as an aggravating factor that could justify a harsher sentence if, in the opinion of the judge or the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole, it was an act that caused fear and conflict throughout a wider community.

Acts that victimize many have always deserved harsher punishments than acts that victimize one. That's the wisdom of Litvack's bill. That's why it should become law.

http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_3220972

New hate crime bill is eyed dubiously

By Deborah Bulkeley

Deseret Morning News

Opponents of efforts to pass enforceable hate crimes legislation are wary of a new approach that longtime sponsor Rep. David Litvack hopes will be an "olive branch" in the controversial debate. Litvack, D-Salt Lake, told the Deseret Morning News editorial board that he hopes the new approach he's considering will be palatable to conservatives who have voted it down in the past. In 1999, the late Sen. Pete Suazo, D-Salt Lake, sponsored a bill that would enhance by one step penalties for crimes committed against groups categorized by race, color, disability, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, age and gender. That bill has repeatedly failed amid criticism that victims who aren't in a protected category wouldn't get equal protection. A new draft version eliminates protected categories and replaces the enhancement of a charge with an aggravating factor. "Maybe we don't get to where we wanted to . . . but we do take a step in the right direction," Litvack said.

Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee Chairman Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, who voted against the bill last session, said, "without the categories, I'd be seriously looking at it." However, he added that "if this is giving special protection to the gay community, I'm going to oppose it." Rep. Curt Oda, R-Clearfield, who voted against the bill in a House committee, said he'd "have to really look at it and think about what the ramifications would be."

Oda said he opposed last year's version because he said it would provide unequal protection to crime victims who belong to a protected class. "An assault is an assault," Oda said. "The penalties shouldn't be any less for a group that's not included. Maybe (Litvack's) come upon an answer. Until I've studied it, I can't give an answer." Gayle Ruzicka, president of the Utah Eagle Forum, which has long opposed the legislation, said "it's just more of the same thing -- enhanced penalties because of who the crime is committed against."

Instead of a compromise, Ruzicka said it looks like a desperate attempt to pass a hate crimes bill just for the sake of passing it. "It's still a hate crimes bill that doesn't treat all people equally under the law," Ruzicka said. "If we need to enhance penalties, it needs to be across the board for all people for the crime that's committed, not for who it's committed against."

Litvack said he hopes that Buttars, and other lawmakers, are willing to talk to him before deciding to vote against the bill. "Obviously it's going to still be a challenge and we have our work cut out for us," Litvack said. "It wouldn't be the Utah Legislature any other way."

Republican Attorney General Mark Shurtleff is a member of a discussion group that came up with the new approach, and at least some high-profile Republicans are keeping an open mind. Litvack said he wants to meet with Senate President John Valentine and House Speaker Greg Curtis. Valentine, R-Orem, hasn't speculated on whether he'd support the bill but has said he'd like to see the details. And Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. has met with Litvack and "is reviewing it with great interest," according to Huntsman's spokeswoman Tammy Kikuchi.

Litvack is also still working with longtime supporters of the bill. Forrest Crawford, Weber State University education professor who was part of the discussion group, said the new approach is not the ideal, but it provides "more of an opportunity to penalize perpetrators." "I feel very optimistic about trying to bring together a wide array of voices and coalitions to really take a hard look at this," Crawford said. Jeanetta Williams, president of the Salt Lake Branch NAACP, has looked at a ballot initiative, which she says she'll pursue if no hate crimes legislation passes this year. On the new approach, she said she hasn't had time to examine it but is concerned about its enforceability. She also expressed concerns about training law enforcement officers and attorneys on how to use the bill. "I would just like to see a good hate crimes bill pass," Williams said. "Utah has had a very good hate crimes bill. Unfortunately it has to come to making a compromise."

E-mail: dbulkeley@desnews.com

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,635161148,00.html

Motivation matters

You can't punish someone because of his prejudices, only his actions. This seems to be the crux of the debate on hate crimes legislation which will be introduced in the 2006 Utah Legislature for the 12th consecutive year.

Let's consider two simple scenarios; same crime, all white people, different motivations:

1) In a minor road-rage encounter, Mr. White gives someone his middle finger. The guy follows him home, comes back at night, and busts out his headlights. White knows he could avoid this problem by not engaging in road rage.

2) A young man, angry about having been excluded from skateboarding with a group of Mormon kids, smashes out the headlights of a young LDS couple merely because they are Mormon. In this case, there is nothing the young LDS couple can do to avoid being targeted.

The difference in the second scenario is, in addition to having their headlights busted, the LDS couple is also the victim of prejudice.

Should the perpetrators be treated the same under the law? The perpetrator in the second scenario has a broader negative impact on the surrounding Mormon community. Have people's rights been taken away because they feel compelled out of fear to park their cars in their garages? Even minor crimes, when motivated by hate, can have a very chilling effect on a community and leave scars of distrust for decades. Any Mormon who's "been there" will tell you.

Clifford Lyon
Holladay

======================================

Subject: "hate"

For the Madison Police, preventing hate crimes is as easy as carrying a card.

As of Oct. 18th, Madison Police Officers teamed up with the Anti-Defamation League to distribute laminated Hate Crimes Response card to all officers on the force. The purpose of the card is to raise awareness of hate crimes and to ensure a quick response to stop any hate crimes that may occur in the area.

"The Madison Police Department and its officers are committed to a tough and quick response to hate crimes that may occur in our town," said Chief Paul Jakubson. "In our commitment to making our community safer we pledge 100 percent participation in the future as we have in the past."

Anti-Defamation League, which developed and provided the cards, is an 88-year old civil rights organization, dedicated to ensure fair treatment of American citizens. The card includes the ADL definition of a hate crime, which is a criminal act against a person or property in which the perpetrator chooses the victim because of the victim's real or perceived race, religion, national origin, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, or gender. The card also includes questions responding officers should ask and tips for recognizing the signs of organized hate groups.

"When hate crimes happen, they hurt whole communities," said ADL's Connecticut Regional Director, David Waren. "It is exciting to see so many police departments preparing their officers to respond effectively." The Connecticut State Police has distributed 1600 Hate Crime Response Cards to police officers since October 18.

Here.

======================================

Subject: race, "hate" in Norway and Sweden

Giant mobilization against racism

Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched through Oslo Thursday February 1 to protest racism and violence in the wake of what was seen as Norway's first racial killing [if you don't count whites as victims].

An African-Norwegian 15-year-old, Benjamin Hermansen, was stabbed to death a week earlier near his home at Holmlia, Oslo. Six neo-Nazis have been charged in the case.

"The killer's knife took a life, but it also did something else: It cut into our basic values," Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg told the crowd. "We're not gathered here to shout "no", but to call out "yes" to a society free of violence and racism." The Prime Minister was joined by the bishop of Oslo, the Princess, the Crown Prince and his fiancée.

Norway's Crown Prince Haakon says to Norwegian media that he is frustrated and deeply shocked by the apparent racist murder. The Price has on several occasions spoken out against racism. The torchlight procession and rally, backed by about 150 government and private groups, was among the largest ever in the nation's capital of 500,000 people. An estimated 20,000 to 30,000 people attended the demonstration.

Ellen Horn, Norway's Minister of Culture, wants neo-Nazi groups to be forbidden. She will propose that her ruling Labor Party's government consider such a ban as a means of fighting racism.

http://www.norway.org/News/200005razism.htm

Norwegian Government Minister Calls for Homosexual Hate Crimes Legislation

By Terry Vanderheyden

OSLO, November 23, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- After a Salvation Army employee was allegedly fired over homosexuality, in violation of Army Christian moral principles, a Norwegian Cabinet Minister is calling for a change in the law to prevent discrimination against homosexuals.

Minister of Children and Family Affairs Karita Bekkemellem commented on the firing: "We need a legal code that can catch problems like this; this has long been my attitude. But of course this matter must be taken up with cabinet colleagues," as reported by aftenposten English news.

Socialist Left Party (SV) member Karin Andersen, also the parliament's social and labor committee leader, called for a change to the Work Environment Act. As of January 1, a new government commission will begin to examine cases of discrimination.

Next door to Norway, Sweden's Supreme Court is expected to pass judgement on Pastor Ake Green, who faces a charge of hate speech against homosexuals for a sermon he preached citing Biblical references to homosexuality.

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Catholic League Notes Results of Homosexual Hate Crime Law in Other Countries as Warning to Canada

http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/apr/04043006.html

Contact information for Minister Bekkemellem:

Ministry of Children and Family Affairs
Postal Address: P.O.Box 8036 Dep
N-0030 OSLO
Norway

Location: Akersgt. 59

Telephone: +47 22 24 90 90
E-mail: postmottak@bfd.dep.no
Internet: http://www.bfd.dep.no

http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/nov/05112304.html

Increase in Homophobic Hate Crimes

The Swedish police say hate crimes are on the increase here, especially those aimed at homosexuals.

According to the latest annual report on criminality linked to national security, the number of complaints of homophobic crimes increased last year by 117 percent. This continues a trend going back 5 years. The police say the increase in anti-homosexual crimes is greater than those with anti-Semitic or anti-immigrant motives.

Here.

Christian pastor who compared gays to paedophiles acquitted of homophobic hate crimes

Mr Green told the court that homosexuality is "abnormal, just like paedophilia"



Sweden's highest court has acquitted a Pentecostal pastor of hate crimes after he compared homosexuality to paedophilia and bestiality. He was convicted in 2004 under Sweden's hate crimes law but today, the country's Supreme Court upheld an appeals court verdict that found that the comments made by Ake Green, 64, were protected by the country's commitment to freedom of speech and religion.

Mr Green delivered a fiery anti-gay sermon two years ago that triggered a legal battle testing the limits of Sweden's freedom of speech. Green told the Supreme Court that his sermon was meant to warn gays that their lifestyle will result in an "eternal divorce" from God. "If two men sleep with each other, or if two women do so, it is abnormal, just like paedophilia," Green said in his testimony.

Green became the first clergyman convicted under Sweden's new hate crime legislation, which was modified in 2003 to include attacks against homosexuals. An appeals court overturned the ruling earlier this year, but Sweden's chief prosecutor appealed the acquittal to the Supreme Court. The case has attracted widespread international attention, with some religious groups saying a conviction would be a threat to freedom of religion and speech. Others say an acquittal would open the door to fiercer attacks against Jews, Muslims and gays by right-wing extremists.

In 2003, Green told his congregation on the small island of Oland that homosexuality was "a deep cancerous tumours on all of society," warning that Sweden risked a natural disaster because of leniency toward gays. He also said gays were more likely than others to rape children and animals.

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-221.html

Swedish anti-gay pastor acquitted

Pastor Ake Green

Pastor Ake Green: Tested Sweden's tough hate crimes legislation

Sweden's Supreme Court has acquitted a Pentecostal pastor accused of inciting hatred against homosexuals. In a sermon two years ago, Pastor Ake Green told his congregation that homosexuality was a "deep cancer tumour" on society. He was convicted in 2004 under Sweden's hate crimes law. But on Tuesday the court upheld an appeals court verdict that Pastor Green's remarks did not constitute incitement to hatred. In a 16-page ruling, the Supreme Court said his sermon was protected by freedom of speech and religion. Mr Green was the first cleric convicted under Sweden's new hate crimes law, which was amended two years ago to include homosexuals.

Anti-gay sermon

He has shown little regret for his comments when addressing the media. He has also said his comments referred to a homosexual lifestyle, rather than individuals. But after his acquittal, he said that everyone now knew what he thought about homosexuals and he would keep his mouth shut in future. In the sermon, Mr Green told a congregation on the small south-eastern island of Oland that homosexuals were "a deep cancer tumour on all of society" and that gays were more likely than other people to rape children and animals. He was sentenced to one month in prison in 2004, but was released on appeal.

Pastor Green told Swedish media he was relieved over the supreme court ruling and that he now would be free to preach the word of God. His case has fuelled a heated debate in Sweden, a country where both freedom of speech and tolerance are highly prized virtues, the BBC's Lars Bevanger reports. The case has also attracted widespread international attention.

Some religious groups have argued that a conviction would be a threat to freedom of religion and speech. Others said an acquittal would open the door to fiercer attacks against Jews, Muslims and gays by right-wing extremists.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4477502.stm

Sweden Can Be Instructive in America's Consideration of Hate Crimes Legislation

by Bill Wilson

Hate crimes laws in Sweden are aimed at preachers reading from the Bible. An amendment to the Children's Safety Act adds sexual orientation, gender and disability to protections covered by federal hate crime law. A conference committee will determine if it remains before being sent to the president. If Sweden is an example, the legislation would have devastating consequences here in the US. Steve Adams is a reporter with Citizen Magazine.

"As things move farther in that direction, it will become less inconceivable that we could have, say an Ake Greene situation. That's the pastor in Sweden who goes before the Supreme Court on November 9th and he's facing jail time for having preached against homosexuality." It's the incremental acceptance of the gay lifestyle that worries many, including Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council.

"Its not the specific provisions of this bill, but the slippery slope that it sets us on, because its quite clear from their rhetoric that pro-homosexual activists do not want homosexuals just to be protected from violence but to be protected from criticism altogether." While what's happening in Sweden causes concern, Kansas Senator Sam Brownback thinks the country's extremism will help us here. "I don't think you are going to see hate crimes legislation pass here in the United States because of the type of situation that's evolved in Sweden."

Even Sweden is backing away from the law's radicalism. The country's appeals courts have determined that while Bible verses dealing with homosexuality may be offensive to some, they are not criminal.

http://www.family.org/cforum/fnif/news/a0038473.cfm

Åke Green cleared over gay sermon

Åke Green, the Swedish pentecostalist pastor sentenced to one month prison for a sermon in which he condemned homosexuality has been acquitted by the Supreme Court in Stockholm. Green, from Borgholm on the Baltic Sea island of Öland, said he felt "relieved" by the verdict, in which he was cleared of the crime of 'agitation against minority groups.' "I was prepared for the fact that I could be acquitted, but also that I could be convicted," he told news agency TT from his church.

Gay right groups have condemned the verdict, saying that it makes a nonsense of the law. "It is extremely serious when the church is turned into a free zone for agitation," said Sören Andersson, chairman of gay rights group RFSL. "We are now going to face increased religious agitation from extreme right-wing Christian groups that use the church as a forum to spread their message of hatred."

The Christian Democratic Party's leader Göran Hägglund welcomed the verdict, saying that it is not the role of the courts to decide how the Bible should be interpreted. But Liberal MP Birgitta Rydberg, a Christian, said that Åke Green would probably go to hell when he dies. "That's where you go if you call yourself a Christian and defy the Christian message of love."

Green said the judgment was important for him and for his fellow preachers. "We can now feel more free to preach the word of God," he proclaimed, but said there would be no more sermons from him about homosexuality. "Everyone knows where I stand on that question," he said.

In a written judgment, the Supreme Court noted that Green's comments went beyond what could be considered an objective and sound discussion about gay people. Åke Green deliberately spread the comments in his sermon in the knowledge that they would be seen as offensive. But the court decided that a conviction would not be upheld by the European Court. Several comparable cases have resulted in acquittals in the European Court, Supreme Court chairman Johan Munck told TT. "Another reason for the verdict is that the sermon was held in front of his own congregation. Still, I don't believe that this gives the green light for similar sermons," Munck said.

When all the circumstances surrounding Green's comments were taken into account, it is clear that they did not consitute hate speech, the judgment said. This included the most radical parts of his sermon, in which "sexual abnormalities" were described as a tumour. Seen in the context of the rest of his sermon, they could not be seen to incite or condone hatred towards gay people, the court decided.

Green had said, among other things, that "sexually twisted people will even rape animals." Green and his lawyer Percy Bratt argued that these comments were simply a literal interpretation of the Bible. Prosecutor Stefan Johansson argued that Green had gone much further than the Bible, and had expressed his own views. Kalmar District Court originally sentenced Green to one month in prison, but the Göta Appeals Court overturned that judgment. Amina Ek, director of anti-discrimination organisation Centrum mot Rasism, warned that Green's acquittal could lead to increaded racism and homophobia.

"Hate crimes are increasing, especially those targeted against LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual) people," she said, arguing that it is often the same groups that spread hate propaganda on the internet against Jews, Roma, Muslims and gay people.

RFSL's Sören Andersson said that the judgment showed the need for the law to be strengthened. He dismissed those who argued that instead of convicting Åke Green, homophobic opinions should be confronted in debate. "What you're forgetting is that RFSL, among others, have been doing this for a long time." "Agitation and threats, such as those uttered by Åke Green, limit LGBT people's rights and opportunities to participate in debate."

http://www.thelocal.se/article.php?ID=2590&date=20051129

Opinion: The right verdict

To parody the newly acquitted Pentecostal pastor, we could say that religious fundamentalism is a cancerous tumour on the body of society; distorted interpretations of the ancient manuscripts may even violate love itself.

And even so, the Supreme Court's ruling was right. No matter how repellent and dotty Åke Green's words may have been, they do not qualify as incitement to hatred against minorities, spoken as they were in church with reference to the Bible and before a congregation of 50 people.

The Bible like the Koran is filled with passages that conflict with the way people are regarded in democratic and enlightened societies. Sending interpreters and misinterpreters of these religions to prison is, however, not the proper way of carrying on the process of enlightenment. Traces of all such repression are horrifying. We see it for example in many Muslim countries where modernity is represented by repressive secular regimes which make fundamentalists martyrs, thus compromising democracy and pluralism.

More often than not, this ends in a vicious circle. The vicious circle culminated in Iran, which has been living in a religious dictatorship for a quarter of a century. It can be seen in Iraq, where political oppression has been replaced by a heightened religious fervour that is impeding normalization.

An open society has to have room to manoeuvre. This is the only way of dealing with meetings between different cultures and religions in the age of globalization, and of defending free speech, even blasphemy in all of its forms.

Åke Green is a case for debate rather than the courts, even if his cancer simile was truly close to the edge. We know that homosexuals are still a vulnerable group in Swedish society. They are discriminated against and are often victims of violence.

For the time being it may seem as if intolerance has won a victory, but in actual fact it is just the opposite. It is always darkest before the dawn. It is when openness and freedom are close at hand that resistance intensifies in word and deed.

Seen from this perspective, the Åke Green case can be a turning point. A society that acknowledges exceptional views also acknowledges exceptional lifestyles. It is high time that the persecution of homosexuals was stopped. The hate crimes law is still a part of the protection that is necessary, even though Åke Green did not manage to qualify himself for conviction.

Niklas Ekdal

Here.

======================================

Subject: the hate crime scam

Race Motivates Most Hate Crimes, FBI Says

By Mark Sherman, AP Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Racial prejudice lay behind more than half the 7,649 hate crimes reported to the FBI in 2004, the bureau said Monday. Hate crimes against black Americans were most prevalent. The number of race-based incidents rose by 5 percent last year to 4,042 from 3,844. Authorities identified prejudice against blacks in 2,731 of those crimes, the FBI said. Overall, the number of hate crimes grew by just 2 percent compared with the 7,489 in 2003, and there were slight declines in crimes motivated by bias based on sexual orientation and ethnicity, the FBI said.

The data also showed that crimes against Muslims have leveled off since a spike following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. "We tend to see the number of bias incidents go in cycles in large part tied to international events," said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "It has leveled off since 9/11, but unfortunately at a higher level than prior to 9/11."

In 2001, there were 481 anti-Islamic incidents. There have been around 150 in the three years since, the FBI said. Among anti-religious hate crimes, anti-Jewish incidents have long been the most common. Of the 1,374 incidents of religious bias, 954 were directed at Jews, the FBI said. The information was supplied by 12,711 local law enforcement agencies nationwide covering nearly 87 percent of the U.S. population.

Because the number of police agencies reporting varies each year under the voluntary system established by the Hate Crimes Statistics Act of 1990, officials caution against drawing conclusions about trends in hate crime volumes between years. They say the figures provide a rough picture of the general nature of hate crimes.

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Subject: Neal Pollack on jew Foer

He's what the middle-aged reading public thinks a young writer should behave like. And it's almost like his media consultants - which he does have - have told him to behave that way. And it's... it's upsetting. That he's that contrived a figure. A writer shouldn't be that contrived. I mean, say what you want about Jonathan Franzen, but his contrivances are all his own. (laughs) He can't control the fact that he's an asshole. I'm not into his persona, but he's genuine. He can't be anything but.

I know enough about the business to know that Safran Foer is a corporate contrivance, no matter how he portrays himself. And it's like that's the model, that's the baseline for young writers, and it shouldn't be that way. I'm not saying I'm the model - God knows, I'm not the perfect model, either. But at least I do it myself.

http://www.bookslut.com/features/2002_12_000428.php

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Subject: writing

Some writers research in order to write. I write in order to research topics that interest me. Especially if I can meet with other people, in forums from illness support groups to phone-sex hotlines, and learn what other people know best. Every character (really, person) sees the world through a framework of education and experience that they're proud experts about. To write a character, find out what they know best, and THEN you'll know how they'll describe a "hot day." Or a "pretty girl." Plus, when you're talking to someone about their field of expertise (really, just listening) whether it's physics or mythology or finding risky sex, you'll notice how people really SHINE when they talk about what they know well. Being around that shine is reward enough.

http://www.bookslut.com/features/2004_06_002656.php

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Subject: Holodomor

Ukraine demands 'genocide' marked

Ukrainian peasants

A quarter of Ukraine's population was wiped out in just two years Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has called on the international community to recognise the 1930s Great Famine as Soviet-enforced genocide. "The world must know about this tragedy," he said, at the opening of an exhibition dedicated to famine victims. Millions of Ukrainians starved to death in 1932-33 as USSR leader Joseph Stalin stripped them of their produce in a forced farm collectivisation campaign. A small number of nations have already recognised the famine as genocide. Ukraine has designated 26 November as an official day of remembrance for victims of "Holodomor" - meaning murder by hunger - and other political crackdowns.

GREAT FAMINE

Called Holodomor in Ukrainian - meaning murder by hunger
About a quarter of Ukraine's population wiped out
Seven to 10 million people thought to have died
Children disappeared; cannibalism became widespread

There are plans to mark the anniversary this Saturday by lighting 33,000 candles - representing the number of people thought to have been dying every day at the height of the famine. The true scale of the disaster was concealed by the Soviet Union, and only came to light after Ukrainian independence in 1991. Cannibalism is reported to have become rife as a whole nation starved.

The tragedy should "become a lesson for our nation as well as for the whole world", Mr Yushchenko said on Friday. In 2003, marking the 70th anniversary of the famine, the UN said the famine "ranks with the worst atrocities of our time" and a national tragedy - but left out any reference to genocide.

Russia opposed

Roman Serbyn, professor of history and a Ukrainian expert at the University of Quebec in Montreal, says: "Ukraine did not make a technically clear case."

Carts with wheat
Farmers' produce was forcefully collected by the state

He believes the "genocide" designation has proved elusive because the famine is often considered to have been aimed at a social group (peasants) rather than a national or ethnic group. However, a strong case can be put showing that by closing the borders so Ukrainians could not escape to Russia, Stalin was targeting Ukrainian nationals, he says.

Russia opposes designation as genocide, he says, and "the biggest reason is national pride. But also the political and economic consequences... if you recognise a crime you might have to pay compensation". In 2003 Russia's ambassador to Ukraine, Viktor Chernomyrdin, was quoted by Interfax news agency dismissing talk of an apology or compensation, saying: "We're not going to apologise... there is nobody to apologise to."

======================================

Subject: jew replacing jew at LAT

It was bad enough when the Los Angeles Times hired CFR staffer Max Boot as a pro-war columnist. But now the paper has fired Robert Scheer, an important public intellectual who questioned the warfare state, and replaced him with minicon warmonger Jonah Goldberg.

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Subject: jews are liars, haters, murderers who accuse others of what they're most guilty themselves

The Katyn Massacre

by Dr. William Pierce

A background noise that seems never to go away is the constant whining and yammering of the Jews about how the world owes them a living because of their losses during the so-called "Holocaust." They do it, of course, because they make such a big profit on it. The latest flare-up of this Jewish play for a handout came more than a year ago when they began demanding that the Swiss pay them $7 billion, which "Holocaust" victims allegedly had stashed in numbered Swiss accounts before being hauled off to gas chambers during the Second World War.

With a few "bought" Gentile politicians fronting for them, the foremost among these being New York's Senator Alphonse D'Amato, the Jews threatened Switzerland with a boycott by the U.S. government if their demands were not met. Instead of laughing in their faces, telling the Jews to go to hell, and gearing up for countermeasures against Israel and other Jewish interests if the Jews tried to proceed with a boycott, the Swiss politicians tried to placate the Jews by offering to buy them off. The Jews took the Swiss response as a sign of weakness and escalated their demands.

The average Swiss citizen seems to have a little more pride than Switzerland's elected officials, however, and resentment against the Jews' extortion efforts is building in Switzerland now to the point that some of that country's richest Jews are wearing bulletproof vests whenever they must go out in public.

In general, however, this "Holocaust"-based extortion racket works quite well for the Jews, and they have expanded their demands for World War Two reparations to include a number of other countries besides Switzerland. They are even whining that the Vatican owes them because Pope Pius XII didn't do enough to save them from the Germans during the war. The Jews' brazenness in this whole business is quite breathtaking.

http://www.natvan.com/free-speech/fs985b.html

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Subject: hush crimes daily: shitskin murders pregnant human

EL PASO, TX. - Nearly a week after the shooting death of a west side mother, the case takes a shocking turn. According to our media partner, the El Paso Times, 25 year-old Tonya Marie West was pregnant at the time of her death. Ms. West was fatally shot several times in the parking lot of the Crest Apartments, as she loaded her two year old daughter in a car seat.

After an extensive manhunt, police arrested 29 year-old Quinn Cruz, Jr. and charged him with murder. In Thursday morning's edition of the Times reports that Mr. Quinn's charges have been upgraded to Capital Murder. Ms. West was married, however not to Mr. Cruz, Jr. Also according to the Times, it is not known who was the father of the unborn child.

http://www.kvia.com/Global/story.asp?S=4163141

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