The Last Nerve: Sullivan Says You're All Nazis

Bumped for Update.

Quothing Hitler, now, Andy?:

Why babble about brutality and get indignant about tortures? The masses want them. They need something that will give them a thrill of horror. - Adolf Hitler.

Let me cite the useful and justifiably-famous Godwin's Law of Online Debate:

Andrew Sullivan is a hissy-fit hack of a drama-queen douchebag.

Well, that's not the law so much as a related axiom.

Let me quote someone else:

My training is now complete. When I left you, I was but a learner. But now I am the master. -- Darth Vader

Only a master of evil, Andy.

Thanks to Allah.

Torture Works: You can be against torturing -- or, as we're actually doing, physically coercing -- terrorists who intend to kill dozens if not hundreds of innocent people, and whose silence does in fact equal death.

But you cannot enter the debate with eyes closed. Torture works, and if you're not willing to lay one unwelcome finger upon people who would maim and murder scores of civilians, you are required to justify your opposition in more nuanced terms than "hurting people is bad."

Is it more immoral to twist an arm or subject someone to stress positions or to allow innocent civilians to be butchered? Excitable Andy never seems to even consider the balance of harms.

Because preening self-righteousness is his stock in trade.

How can he offer such high-quality moral peacockery at such low prices? Three words: Volume, volume, volume.

A Perfect Day For Silly Nazi Name-Calling: It's the 64th anniversary of the massacre of Babi Yar.

On the morning of September 29, tens of thousands of Jews arrived at the appointed location. Some arrived extra early in order to ensure themselves a seat on the train [believing they were merely to be deported]. A large crowd formed. Each person held onto their family members and belongings. Children were crying. They couldn't see what was happening up ahead.

Most waited hours in this crowd - only slowly moving toward what they thought was a train.

The Germans were counting out only a few people at a time and then letting them move farther on. Machine-gun fire could be heard nearby. For those that realized what was happening and wanted to leave, it was too late. There was a barricade staffed by Germans who were checking identification papers of those wanting out. If the person was Jewish, they were forced to remain.

Taken from the front of the line in groups of ten, they were led to a corridor, about four or five feet wide, formed by rows of soldiers on each side. The soldiers were holding sticks and would hit the Jews as they went by.

...

In small groups of ten, the Jews were taken along the edge of the ravine. One of the very few survivors remembers she "looked down and her head swam, she seemed to be so high up. Beneath her was a sea of bodies covered in blood."

Once the Jews were lined up, the Nazis used a machine-gun to shoot them. When shot, they fell into the ravine. Then the next then were brought along the edge and shot.

According to the Einsatzgruppe Operational Situation Report No. 101, 33,771 Jews were killed at Babi Yar on September 29 and 30. But this was not the end of the killing at Babi Yar.

The Nazis next rounded up Gypsies and killed them at Babi Yar. Patients of the Pavlov Psychiatric Hospital were gassed and then dumped into the ravine. Soviet prisoners of war were brought to the ravine and shot. Thousands of other civilians were killed at Babi Yar for trivial reasons, such as a mass shooting in retaliation for just one or two people breaking a Nazi order. The killing continued for months at Babi Yar. It is estimated that 100,000 people were murdered there.

Mark in Mexico has more on the massacre.

Thanks to Allah for pointing out Sully's serendipity in accusing his myriad persecutors of being Nazis on this dread anniversary.

posted by Ace at 05:39 PM

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