Orac is the nom de blog of a humble surgeon/scientist who has an ego just big enough to delude himself that someone, somewhere might actually give a rodent's posterior about his copious verbal meanderings, but just barely small enough to admit to himself that few probably will. That surgeon is otherwise known as David Gorski.
That this particular surgeon has chosen his nom de blog based on a rather cranky and arrogant computer shaped like a clear box of blinking lights that he originally encountered when he became a fan of a 35 year old British SF television show whose special effects were renowned for their BBC/Doctor Who-style low budget look, but whose stories nonetheless resulted in some of the best, most innovative science fiction ever televised, should tell you nearly all that you need to know about Orac. (That, and the length of the preceding sentence.)
DISCLAIMER:: The various written meanderings here are the opinions of Orac and Orac alone, written on his own time. They should never be construed as representing the opinions of any other person or entity, especially Orac's cancer center, department of surgery, medical school, or university. Also note that Orac is nonpartisan; he is more than willing to criticize the statements of anyone, regardless of of political leanings, if that anyone advocates pseudoscience or quackery. Finally, medical commentary is not to be construed in any way as medical advice.
To contact Orac: [email protected]
View Archive →
22 replies on “Happy Führerstodestag”
A couple of jears ago I dropped into a bar (here in Germany) – where this special birthday was celebrated, quite stylish in the wellknown brown outfit. About 2 seconds after my first muttered comments I decided to leave this scenario, with significantly increased speed 😉
Happy Hitler Runs Away Day. 🙂
Hmm… was that in the ehemalige Ostdeutschland, I wonder? One often hears the opinion expressed that the nostalgia for totalitarianism still runs strong in the former East Germany. Mainly because, having lived under totalitarianism for the 57 years from 1933 until 1990 – 12 years of the Nazis, 4 yrs of Soviet rule and 41 yrs of the GDR/DDR – a lot of the people have had problems kicking the habit.
While Hitlertod observances are not to be discouraged, I’ve always preferred to recognize April 30 as the birthday of Carl Friedrich Gauss, prince of mathematicians.
Oh, what a beautiful morning,
Oh, what a beautiful day….
I’m going to feel better all day because of this.
Crap, missed the first post, it’s bad enough being another year older without sharing a birthday with hitler…
Ding Dong, der Fuehrer‘s dead! And Lo! Unto you a Gauss is born!!! …And a Ramel, too? What a day! 😀
Oh and to make things worse, my little bothers birthday is June 6…
Speaking of Hitler and death…
http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi4236378905/
@Dr Aust: No, deep west, the beginning eighties. The right wing likes to surf the waves of disappointment and misery – and takes each chance. Worldwide.
Aha. I have been more to “deep South Germany”… but have certainly tended, when in tiefsten Bayern, to avoid the subject of politics. Or religion. Or social policy. Usually we just talk about football (“soccer” to give it the US translation).
I remember finding it quite eerie, on my first visit to Munich, to stand in the nice square in front of the Feldherrnhalle… and remind myself that the square was the site of the denouement of the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch. And I seem to recall that the beer hall where the first ever Nazi party meeting took place is still standing just around the corner.
Anyway, seeing the buildings still there made it all seem like a lot less distant bit of the past. The line that springs to mind for me as a kind of shorthand for this sort of feeling is William Faulkner’s:
Anyway, it is a truism that economic turmoil amd misery, plus a good seedstock of ignorance and prejudice, always seems to be a kind of springtime for extremists.
Does that make this Hitler Zombie’s birthday?
ROFLOL!!!! Chancelikely may have won the internet for the day– the Hitler Zombie’s BIRTHDAY, that is!!! 😀
It is not altogether clear that Hitler shot himself to death. There are some historians who believe that he swallowed cyanide, after feeding some to his dog.
Wouldn’t it have been more poetic for Schikelgruber to have offed himself on the next day in the calendar ?
I’m sure the communists would have liked it that way.
Oh, Orac, Even as one with an MA in Nazi German history I fear you’re a little obsessed with commemorating the departed Adolf. Is it rationally worth the trouble of a blog post?
Incidentally, I couldn’t care less about who might play the repellant and history-falsifying David Irving. More amusing is who might play the equally unpleasant Deborah Lipstadt – given that her best contribution to the libel trial was her total absence from the witness box! Not much of a role for any actress, therefore!
If you applied the same rigour to history as you do to science you’d realise that the Holocaust is subject to a number of significant half-truths, at best. A good place to start would be the books, interviews and court testimony of the peerless Raul Hilberg, who died a couple of years ago.
Oh, goody. A Holocaust denier wants to play!
And, yes, I do consider the death of a mass murdering dictator who plunged Europe into the largest war in history and almost succeeded at genocide an event worthy of yearly commemoration and celebration. Deal with it.
Oh, well, I suppose I should be surprised, yet somehow I’m not. The only weapon you have is the full-on mendacious smear, by means of which you expose yourself.
The war is rightly commemorated, the Holocaust is rightly commemorated; but Hitler’s death? It seems a bit odd to me. Others may disagree, of course.
I don’t suppose you’ve wondered why Lipstadt didn’t give evidence, or what the view of the defence team was on that subject? Prejudice alone does not provide the answer.
Raul Hilberg was considered the world’s leading Holocaust scholar and a man of enormous integrity. His work was central to my thesis. If I’m a Holocaust denier then so was he. He considered that any false claims made about the Holocaust only gave succour to deniers. And so do I. Cheap smears from you won’t change that in the smallest degree. So you deal with it.
You come charging in here using denier language that I’ve seen time and time again complaining about “false claims” and “half-truths” about the Holocaust, being unhappy that I celebrate Hitler’s death, attacking Deborah Lipstadt for her conduct during the trial, and characterizing her as “equally unpleasant” as David Irving, and you’ll forgive me if I get the impression that you’re a denier. If you’re not a Holocaust denier and in the future you want to avoid giving such an impression, I suggest that you stop using the sort of language that deniers use.
Deal with that.
So what “false claims” about the Holocaust are you referring to vis-a-vis Deborah Lipstadt and David Irving? Do tell, and be specific. In particular, explain the relevance.
Haha Hitler, you lost. America, land of immigrants, Jews, blacks kicked your butt.
Honestly, you’re sounding almost hysterical. For a start you’ve put in a phrase I simply didn’t write (‘false claims’). You’ve conflated Irving/Lipstadt/Holocaust to imply something I just didn’t say. Lipstadt had nothing to do with my remarks about the Holocast. Rather, my clear implication was that she is as unpleasant in her way as Irving is in his. That is my opinion. Your nasty little ‘denier’ slur diminishes you, and the attempted justification suggests you’re merely distorting words to make them mean what you want them to mean. Are you taking lessons from homeopaths?
Historical scholarship requires the assessment of avalable evidence, as in any other discipline. SOME Holocaust material is dubious (‘…half-truths, at best’). Sorry if that’s not palatable to you but it’s a given among historians. You want chapter and verse? In a couple of lines?! Sadly, you’re immune to rational discussion, as you’ve demonstrated, which would make the exercise futile. It’s like speaking to Jim Carrey in disguise. I’m also tired and very bored. But for starters I earnestly suggest to you Hilberg’s magisterial three-volume edition of ‘The Destruction of the European Jews’. Goodnight and goodbye.
Dude, how do you know I haven’t read Hilberg’s The Destruction of the European Jews. I have. I’ve also come to conclude that you’re nothing but a troll not worth my attention, given your love of straw men, borderline denier language, and Jim Carrey references.
In other words, you are no longer worth my attention.