Rudyard Kipling"
“When you're left wounded on Afganistan's plains and
the women come out to cut up what remains, Just roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains,
And go to your God like a soldier”
General Douglas MacArthur"
“We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.”
“It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.” “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.
“The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
“May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .” “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
“Nobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
The Soldier stood and faced God
Which must always come to pass
He hoped his shoes were shining
Just as bright as his brass
"Step forward you Soldier,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?"
"No, Lord, I guess I ain't
Because those of us who carry guns
Can't always be a saint."
I've had to work on Sundays
And at times my talk was tough,
And sometimes I've been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.
But, I never took a penny
That wasn't mine to keep.
Though I worked a lot of overtime
When the bills got just too steep,
The Soldier squared his shoulders and said
And I never passed a cry for help
Though at times I shook with fear,
And sometimes, God forgive me,
I've wept unmanly tears.
I know I don't deserve a place
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around
Except to calm their fears.
If you've a place for me here,
Lord, It needn't be so grand,
I never expected or had too much,
But if you don't, I'll understand."
There was silence all around the throne
Where the saints had often trod
As the Soldier waited quietly,
For the judgment of his God.
"Step forward now, you Soldier,
You've borne your burden well.
Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,
You've done your time in Hell."
Germany: Full Censorship Now Official Courts Rewrite History
Sunday, October 22, 2017
A new German law introducing state censorship on social media platforms came into effect
on October 1, 2017. The new law requires social media platforms, such
as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, to censor their users on behalf of
the German state. Social media companies are obliged
to delete or block any online "criminal offenses" such as libel,
slander, defamation or incitement, within 24 hours of receipt of a user
complaint -- regardless of whether or the content is accurate or not.
Social media companies receive seven days for more complicated cases.
If
they fail to do so, the German government can fine them up to 50
million euros for failing to comply with the law.
This state censorship makes free speech subject to the arbitrary
decisions of corporate entities that are likely to censor more than
absolutely necessary, rather than risk a crushing fine. When employees
of social media companies are appointed as the state's private thought
police and given the power to shape the form of current political and
cultural discourse by deciding who shall be allowed to speak and what to
say, and who shall be shut down, free speech becomes nothing more than a
fairy tale. Or is that perhaps the point?
Meanwhile, the district court in Munich recently sentenced
a German journalist, Michael Stürzenberger, to six months in jail for
posting on his Facebook page a historical photo of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, shaking the hand of a senior Nazi official in Berlin in 1941. The prosecution accused Stürzenberger of
"inciting hatred towards Islam" and "denigrating Islam" by publishing
the photograph. The court found Stürzenberger guilty of "disseminating
the propaganda of anti-constitutional organizations". While the mutual
admiration that once existed between al-Husseini and German Nazis is an
undisputed historical fact, now evidently history is being rewritten by
German courts. Stürzenberger has appealed the verdict.