That's a real headline. There is a Pirate Party in Germany. The head of its Berlin branch — the delightfully named Bruno Kramm — was in fact arrested. "Citing" is a bit confusing. Kramm was caught talking about and quoting some of the poem by the German comedian Jan Boehmermann that mocked the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and he was doing that in front of the Turkish embassy in Berlin as part of a rally. Like Boehmermann, Kramm was arrested under the provision of the German criminal code that prohibits insulting "organs and representatives of foreign states."
As one activist put it, the police had warned them against "performing critical dialectical analysis of the Boehmermann’s poem."
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Not too different than DOJ investigating Exxon and State AG's suing think tanks for not believing the CAGW scam.
It's good to remember every time some clown (usually, but not always on the Left) talks about wanting the USA to be "more like Europe" that many European countries have, by American standards, extremely circumscribed notions of free speech.
Their abortion laws are also muuuuuuuuuuch more restrictive, & that, especially, never gets mentioned.
Germany has gone overboard with Merkel on Muslims. Erdogan is an Islamist who is dismantling the Turkey of Ataturk.
I wonder what has happened to the Turks I met there ten years ago.
"the German criminal code that prohibits insulting "organs and representatives of foreign states."
No dick jokes?
Arghhhh!
First they came for Kramm . . .
I wondere if they are going to arrest any of the inevitable protesters at Obama's visit?
Reaction from civil libertarians and the BLM crowd in the U.S.?
YoungHegelian said...
"It's good to remember every time some clown (usually, but not always on the Left) talks about wanting the USA to be "more like Europe" that many European countries have, by American standards, extremely circumscribed notions of free speech."
I was just thinking the same thing. Freedom of Speech is an American Ideal.
Michael K, yes, the dismantling of Ataturk's legacy is a shame. That it's been relatively easy is...just sad. That it's supported by the west is disgusting.
Bob Boyd:
If Germans are allowed to make "no dick jokes" about Erdogan, can they make no-dick jokes instead? Careful placement of a hyphen could make all the difference. Whether the wordplay would work in German, I do not know. Probably not.
Thank God we're not like Europe. Yet.
“Der Fuehrer’s Face,” a.k.a. “Donald Duck in Nutzi Land”
Ven der Führer says, "Ve iss der master race"
Ve HEIL!{honk} HEIL!{honk} Right in Der Führer's face
Not to luff Der Führer iss a great disgrace
So ve HEIL!{honk} HEIL!{honk} Right in Der Führer's face
Ven Herr Göbbels says,"Ve own der vorld und space,"
Ve HEIL!{honk} HEIL!{honk} Right in Herr Goebbel's face
Ven Herr Göring says,"Dey'll never bomb dis place
Ve HEIL!{honk} HEIL!{honk} Right in Herr Goering's face
Iss (Are) ve not der Supermen?
Aryan-pure(a) Supermen?
Ja! Ve iss der Supermen!
Super-duper Supermen!
Iss der Nutzi Land so goot?
Vould you leave it if you could?
Ja! Dis Nutzi Land iss goot!
Ve vould-a leave it-a if-a ve could!
Ve bring der world new order!
Heil Hitler's new world order!
Evry'one of foreign race
Vill luff der Führer's face
Ven ve bring to der world disorder!
Ven der Führer says, "Ve never vill be slaves!"
Ve HEIL!{honk} HEIL!{honk}, but still ve verk like slaves.
Vile der Führer brags, and lies and rants and raves,
Ve HEIL!{honk} HEIL!{honk}, and verk into our graves.
Ven der Führer yells, "I gotta have more shells!"
Ve HEIL!{honk} HEIL!{honk}, and for him ve make more shells.
Iff vun little shell, should blow him right to [hell],
Ve HEIL!{honk} HEIL!{honk}, and vouldn't that be swell?
@Roughcoat Ironically, the Disney Studio was such a demanding workplace that the animators referred to it as Mousewitz and Duckau.
Another video moment. The pressure is building.
"the German criminal code that prohibits insulting 'organs and representatives of foreign states.' "
So, about those giant obscene papier mache George Bush puppets that we kept seeing in the news: the Germans who built and displayed them in parades were charged and convicted? /sarcasm
If you outlaw critical dialectical analysis of poems, only pirates will perform critical dialectical analysis of poems.
pst314:
I've read that the German law only applies if the foreign leader complains, which Bush has of course declined to do. I wonder if the law has a statute of limitations. If not, it seems to me that Bush and every other free-world leader who's been insulted in Germany (that would include every Israeli leader, most American leaders, and lots more) should simultaneously file complaints against every German who ever insulted them: that might convince the Germans to repeal their stupid law. In fact, I could argue that Bush and the rest have a moral duty to sue and kill the law: it's so obviously the right thing to do.
College kids want those laws here.
Another reason to Defund colleges.
My contempt for Germans continues to grow (I did not used to feel this way). If this happened here at least you would see thousands of people (even weenie liberals) lining up to read and/or broadcast and/or reprint the same poem aloud in support of this guy (who I take it is somewhat equivalent to our Jon Stewart). I apologize if this is happening and I have just not read about it (maybe Merkel won't less the German report such active resistance to her stupid decision).
What would they do, arrest and charge thousands of people for failing to adhere to the party line?
The hard part about being a German pirate is the uvular arrr.
Germans be Germans.
I thought Donald Trump was the head of the Pirate Party.
"I was just thinking the same thing. Freedom of Speech is an American Ideal."
I'm pretty sure you mean; "WAS an American Ideal.
Freedom of Speech is now a felony
long live Big Brother!
Virgil Hilts said...
If this happened here at least you would see thousands of people (even weenie liberals) lining up to read and/or broadcast and/or reprint the same poem aloud in support of this guy
Not anymore. Progressives have progressed past freedom of speech. Look at Charlie Hebdo. A few conservatives came to their defense. Liberals think they got what they deserved. Same with the conservative woman whose Texas Draw Muhammad Contest was attacked by islamic terrorists. Harvard Press refused to print the Muhammad cartoon in a book about the cartoon!
Why would Germany or any country outlaw criticism of foreign states? Isn't that a big part of what politicians do every day? It's called foreign policy.
>>Freedom of Speech is an American Ideal.
Don't start with your American Exceptionalism shit again...
I have it on good authority that we are no more special than the Greeks or the Brits.
Yet another reason Brits are thinking of quitting a project that is namely a German horse ridden by a French jockey hauling a wagon fully loaded with Greeks, Spaniards, Italians and Portuguese with Turks and Arabs jumping on it.
Hey Angela! What do you think of these quotes?
"The peoples of Islam will always be closer to us than, for example, France".
"The Mohammedan religion too would have been much more compatible to us than Christianity. Why did it have to be Christianity with its meekness and flabbiness?"
"Had Charles Martel not been victorious at Poitiers [...] then we should in all probability have been converted to Mohammedanism, that cult which glorifies the heroism and which opens up the seventh Heaven to the bold warrior alone. Then the Germanic races would have conquered the world."
You feel like jailing me yet, Old Lady?
I'm somewhat surprised that the post-Hitler nation of Germany would pass a law forbidding criticism of any heads of state anywhere. Tried to read the article to see when that law was passed, but the link brings you back to Althouse.
The explanation of this censorship is a convenient cowardice. Only a few cranks are gratified by free expression.
It was Yale University Press
To quote the eminent Jewish philosopher, Walter Sobchak: "Fucking Germans. Nothing changes. Fucking Nazis."
I see the Germans are going back to their Nazi roots. Even the Muslim refugees there are praising Hitler. Maybe that is why they are letting them in.
Roughcoat,
The thing that really amazes me about der fuehrers face is jones and the boys giving the National Socialist salute one each sieg heil.
They do it with only the middle finger extended. It's facing backward but it is definitely the bird.
Amazing to think they could get away with that in 1943 movie theaters.
John henry
I meant in the Spike Jones soundie that ran as a movie, not the Disney version
Michael f,
The law is 130+ years old. Originally from 1882 iirc
Your link doesn't work: it redirects to Althouse blog.
But when I Googled the quote, I ended up on RT.com, and Googling the details of the story provides a few other weblinks, but the ones I checked all sourced RT.com.
I don't believe anything I read on RT.com
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