First degree douche-baggery

I recently blogged about the hypocrisy of the American public in its reaction to the port management issue. Well, now it's time to point out yet another example, this time aimed squarely at Europe.

David Irving is, in the parlance of my old neighborhood, a douche bag. The so-called historian was recently sentenced to three years in an Austrian prison for his douchebaggery - namely, saying that The Holocaust was a myth.

As you can tell, I have no interest in defending Irving. He's a bastard, and he deserves all of the unhappiness that Karma has in store for him. But should he be jailed for writing a book? Not in any country that espouses freedom of speech.

There are 14 countries with laws that forbid denying The Holocaust - including France, Germany, and Israel. Some of those countries did nothing when inflammatory images of The Prophet Muhammad were printed in newspapers.

So the West (Europe in this case) is happy to insult Muslims, but will throw a guy (admittedly an asshole) in prison using laws that protect Jews.

The bottom line is that in an open society, it's not against the law to be a douche-bag.
tagged: Muslim, Jew, religion, culture war, Holocaust, David Irving, douche, Muhammad