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Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Demonstrating for Denmark

Posted by on February 21 at 19:42 PM

Hitchens on Slate:

The incredible thing about the ongoing Kristallnacht against Denmark (and in some places, against the embassies and citizens of any Scandinavian or even European Union nation) is that it has resulted in, not opprobrium for the religion that perpetrates and excuses it, but increased respectability! A small democratic country with an open society, a system of confessional pluralism, and a free press has been subjected to a fantastic, incredible, organized campaign of lies and hatred and violence, extending to one of the gravest imaginable breaches of international law and civility: the violation of diplomatic immunity. And nobody in authority can be found to state the obvious and the necessary—that we stand with the Danes against this defamation and blackmail and sabotage. Instead, all compassion and concern is apparently to be expended upon those who lit the powder trail, and who yell and scream for joy as the embassies of democracies are put to the torch in the capital cities of miserable, fly-blown dictatorships. Let’s be sure we haven’t hurt the vandals’ feelings.

You wish to say that it was instead a small newspaper in Copenhagen that lit the trail? What abject masochism and nonsense. It was the arrogant Danish mullahs who patiently hawked those cartoons around the world (yes, don’t worry, they are allowed to exhibit them as much as they like) until they finally provoked a vicious response against the economy and society of their host country.

Read the whole piece. At the end, Hitchens makes this suggestion:

And there remains the question of Denmark: a small democracy, which resisted Hitler bravely and protected its Jews as well as itself. Denmark is a fellow member of NATO and a country that sends its soldiers to help in the defense and reconstruction of Iraq and Afghanistan. And what is its reward from Washington? Not a word of solidarity, but instead some creepy words of apology to those who have attacked its freedom, its trade, its citizens, and its embassies. For shame…. I feel terrible that I have taken so long to get around to this, but I wonder if anyone might feel like joining me in gathering outside the Danish Embassy in Washington, in a quiet and composed manner, to affirm some elementary friendship. Those who like the idea might contact me at christopher.hitchens@yahoo.com, and those who live in other cities with Danish consulates might wish to initiate a stand for decency on their own account.

Does Seattle have a Danish consulate? If so, shall we demonstrate?

UPDATE: We do have a Danish consulate—but it’s on Mercer Island, for some inexplicable reason, and not in Seattle. It would be nice to demonstrate but, Christ, how would we get there? Couldn’t the Danes put their consulate in a more convenient location?


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Cool! That a priggish windbag like Hitchens would shill for this propaganda reaffirms the veracity of my dissent. Thanks for passing that along.

I was going to be a smart-ass and give you directions on the bus, but when I went to the Metro trip-planner page here: http://tripplanner.metrokc.gov/cgi-bin/itin_page.pl?resptype=U and entered the Strangers address and the Danish Consulates address, I got error code #20007--Trip not possible.

Sunday night (February 19) "60 Minutes" did a segment on the situation in Denmark and interviewed the head mullah (or the most influential). He admitted having not only produced a booklet with the cartoons to circulate and inflame peoples' passions, but adding illustrations that were not even part of what any of the papers printed; to ensure that people got worked up enough to riot. This is a man of God?
If you get enough people to go demonstrate for solidarity with the Danes via their Mercer Island consulate, be sure to alert the television "news" people. It is the type of thing they love - if enough people show up to ensure a good photo opportunity. But getting to Mercer Island is a royal pain. Finding anything over there is even more so. It's pretty odd for a place so small. But there it is.

Oh, boo-frickin-hoo! You folks believe passionately in some cause until you have to figure out a way to drive (or walk or ride a bike or what have you) a few miles to an island and find the consulate to make your solidarity known?!!?

Geez, so much for the passion behind the "cause". So much for showing your solidarity outside of buying some damn cheese, beer, and crackers from a food store.

I work on Mercer Island, I'll drive by and give them the thumbs-up.

A factor for the location of the consulate could be that it's only a Honorary Consul - a private person performing certain consolary functions. This could also make finding the consulate a little difficult, since one one can not expect a large building with a big Danish flag.

The honorary Danish consluate on Mercer Island is a little old lady who works out of her parlor with a six inch Swedish flag on her desk (it was a close as they could get to a Danish one).

Given recent events, if she saw a crowd coming she'd die of a stroke before she knew if it was pro or con.

The csm has a great article on the actual motivation for the majority of the rioting. Sorry, I don't know html, but here it is:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0217/p01s02-wosc.html

Oh, it made it a link for me. cool.

Hitchens is an idiot. Has been for a few years now. I thought everyone knew better than to take him seriously.

This is the first time I heard anyone else (except me) refer to this as "Kristallnacht". Ever notice that when Muslims mence,riot,loot,murder-then complain that they are "treated like the Nazi's treated the Jews". Uh, reality check, someone, anyone?

Jane: In much of Europe they are. Maybe it's not as obvious. It's not soldiers forcing them to live in ghettos removed from the rest of the community, it's economics. The biggest fallacy in holocaust analogy is the idea that a general feeling of islamophobia or antisemitism could alone lead to a holocaust-like situation. You would also need a unitary executive branch and a war to mobilize the hatred into something worth acting on.

"Hitchens is an idiot. Has been for a few years now. I thought everyone knew better than to take him seriously."

It's not like I always agree with Hitchens, but I love sentiments like the above, which basically mean: Hitchens has been an idiot for as long as he hasn't agreed with me.

Keep not taking seriously anyone who dares step out of the line. That will get us far in our conversations.

John, I don't want to hold a conversation with an idiot.

Hitchens is no idiot, but he is a master of the straw man argument, and is too fond of alternate reality reasoning. Unfortunately the eloquence with which he expresses his moral certainty holds its own alongside the best propagandists of the last century. Hitchens rarely makes a case for his own P.O.V. without insulting all others. He has taken punditry to amazing new lows. I wish him ill.

I agree, David. His stridency can be off-putting. But having arrived in NYC in 2000, when many of my friends were fans of his and he was no less strident (he was just aiming at left-friendly targets, like Kissinger), I'm just wondering how much of the enmity now launched against him is simple partisanship. (Of course, I'm not really wondering, as you can probably tell.)

I'm just wondering how much of the enmity now launched against him is simple partisanship

That's a fair question, John, and one I cannot answer on my own behalf. I don't doubt I would appreciate his sharp-witted stridence somewhat if I agreed with him more often. But I don't. And I do think he lowers the bar for political discourse despite his impressive command of English.

Dan, I'll provide you with transportation to Mercer Island--is that in Washington--if you'll consider speaking at our march for marriage equality (Saturday, March 11).

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