Posted 2/19/2006 05:49:00 PM by Douglas

In some parts of the world, massive riots and bloodshed erupts when the freedoms of free speech isn't appreciated. In other parts, they just lock up people with differing opinions.

A right-wing British historian goes on trial Monday on charges of denying the Holocaust occurred — a crime punishable by up to 10 years' imprisonment in this country once run by the Nazis.

The trial of David Irving opens amid fresh — and fierce — debate over freedom of expression in Europe, where the printing and reprinting of unflattering cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad has triggered violent protests worldwide.

Irving was arrested Nov. 11 in the southern Austrian province of Styria on a warrant issued in 1989 and charged under a federal law that makes it a crime to publicly diminish, deny or justify the Holocaust.

Sooo. . . amid all the backlash from "the cartoon", Europeans themselves only enjoy "freedom of speech" when it doesn't cut too closely to the state's accepted status quo, and that is that the Holocaust of European Jews in the mid 20th century is the greatest tragedy in the history of the Earth. I wish there was a way to disagree with that statement without sounding anti-Semitic, but sadly, we get back to that status quo thing.

Look, Stalin alone killed more of his only people than Hitler did, and if you add Mao in those number, the figures go through the roof. But if you want to go by pure percentages, Pol Pot has 'em all beat, even though his total number was still down in the single digit millions of people.

I have no idea about this Irving guy. He may be the most evil and racist person on the planet. But if there's one thing the cartoon debacle has taught us, it's that popular speech doesn't need to be protected, and if this guy is a total crackpot, the way to deal with him is to prove him wrong. Throwing him in the clink with the rest of the mullahs doesn't prove a damn thing.