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Jens 'n' Frens
Idle thoughts of a relatively libertarian Republican in Cambridge, MA, and whomever he invites. Mostly political.
"A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures." -- Daniel Webster
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Thursday, February 09, 2006 :::
Germans are preparing to host the World Cup:England football fans should be aware that the Nazi salute and provocative behaviour like goose-stepping in public will be punished. We will offer the warmest welcome to true football fans. But anyone glorifying extremism here risks arrest.
We are prepared to use our police powers to hold fans for up to two weeks without charge if we feel they are a threat to public safety and order.
[Nuremberg] used to be the city of the Nazi rallies but is now famous as the city of human rights. As exemplified by arresting people for walking in an insulting manner.
This is hardly the biggest threat to free speech in history (or even the last couple of weeks), but it has some ironic humor to it — certainly more than enough to outweigh any lame humor that might be lost by prohibiting references to the National Socialists. On the other hand, it seems just wrong that, as the Sun points out, there could be an England-Germany match without chants of "two world wars and one world cup."
Incidentally, Tradesports has Brazil as 3-1 favorites to win, followed by England just slightly favored over Germany. I think the Czechs are undervalued, and if there is a match between England and Germany, I'd pick the home team.
::: posted by Steven at 10:14 PM
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