From: Tim Boyer 

I've got real problems with this one.

The problem with Irving is that he _isn't_ mentally challenged.  He has -
or had - the respect of some pretty reputable historians, for some of the
work he's done.  He's just completely whacko on this subject.

He put Deborah Lipstadt through hell.  Her book about it is fascinating.

But putting him in jail because of what he writes bothers the hell out of
me. I wish they'd have jailed him for entering Austria when he'd been
banned from the country - which is what happened - rather than for his
unpopular political views.

To quote Lipstadt:

"I am not happy when censorship wins, and I don't believe in winning
battles via censorship… The way of fighting Holocaust deniers is with
history and with truth."

-- tim --

On Tue, 21 Feb 2006 20:08:14 -0500, "Rich Gauszka"
 wrote:

>So in your society you choose to jail those that are mentally challenged?
>That seems a bit more fascist than the cure/jail
>
>"Phil Payne" 
wrote in message
>news:43fba4c7{at}w3....
>>> FWIW I agree with you. While his denial of the holocaust was ridiculous,
>> to
>>> jail him for it is just as reprehensible. One doesn't always like what
>>> one
>>> hears in a free society
>>
>> I've had real fun chasing some of this sh1t up.
>>
>> He claims to be "one of only three people in the world who can read
>> Himmler's handwriting".
>>
>> Hey.  There's four.  It's not hard if you've spent seven years reading the
>> scribbles that Deep South german engineers write on their expense forms.
>> A
>> "1" that looks like a "7" on speed, etc.
>>
>> I damn well wish I'd been around when he's supposed to have issued his
>> challenge.  The first page took less than twenty minutes, and by page 10
>> I
>> was down to under a minute.
>>
>> His conclusions from the Eichmann papers are contradictory - at one point
>> he
>> makes capital out of Eichmann having witnessed a machine-gunning and
>> having
>> a Jewish baby's brains cleaned from his uniform by his chauffeur, and
>> deduces from this honesty that Eichmann was right when he said there were
>> no
>> gas chambers.  And then we have the invoices that the East Germans so
>> carefully preserved with Eichmann's signature on them.
>>
>> One of the most common remarks is that Hitler knew nothing of the whole
>> affair.  But there's a problem with that.  The Reichskanzler was
>> notoriously
>> careful about money, and there's no way the gas chambers could have been
>> built without his signature on the requisitions.  As always - follow the
>> money.
>>
>> Anyway - Mr Irving, although he defended himself in "fluent
German" -
>> seems
>> to have been ignorant of Austrian Federal Law.  The prosecution may not
>> appeal against the leniency of the sentence unless the defendant appeals
>> against its severity.  The the floodgates are opened.  Sentencing will now
>> be repeated.  The rules are different - second time around the jury has
>> little influence.  My money is on it being harsher.
>>
>>
>
--
tim boyer
tim{at}denmantire.com

--- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-5