Blog shutting down for a while

I got a severe hit to the head and passed out and stopped breathing for 5 minutes. I had a siezure and afterward said that the fives table went 1,5,7. I was in the hospital for a day and have to stay home for a week. I will continue on my site when I'm better. By then it should hopefully have moved to amboss.i.ph (shorter address) and have a cool new layout. Till then, tschuess!

BAH!

A mistake people constantly make when talking about things such as genocide is an assignment of guilt from past sins to a contemperary national identity. I hear it constantly in every facet of arguements: "well you think the nazis are horrible, just look at what we did to the Japanese in World War 2!" or "When some people attack Islam for inciting struggle in the name of justice, they forget the Boston Tea Party and the American Revolution" or "you think that what happened in darfur is bad, just look at what we did to the indians!" The thing is, WE didn't do any of those things, our ancestors did, and our ancestors are (for the most part) dead. The moral character of a country is defined by those currently alive, not by those who are dead. Although we think of a country as a person, it is not, and we cannot allow our psyche to be burdoned down with the sins of the dead. If we do this with conviction, then we as a country need have no guilt for slavery, or lesse fair capitalism, or any of the labor conflicts. Germany should (in about 20 years) have no guilt for what it did to the jews. WE, who are alive and breathing today, did none of those things. And while we must remember, we must leave useless guilt behind.

How did Hitler really sound?

Did you know that Hitler's voice was an oratory act made up to intimidate people and make him sound powerful and compelling? That the demagogue didn't really sound like a foghorn with throat cancer? According to www.spiegel.de, (the German equivalent of Time magazine), our least favorite dictator actually had a very deep, full voice. It was secretly recorded by a Finnish clerk who was listening to Hitler explain battle plans. It is the only one in existence, and I have translated the article from the German below. To my knowledge, this is the only translation of the article to date. Unfortunately, I searched everywhere, but the sound file itself is, as the Germans say, nicht zu finden.

How Hitler's voice really sounded

In 1942, a Finnish radio technician secretly recorded a conversation between Hitler and a General in which Hitler explained the current course of his world conquest. It is the only known recording in which one can hear the "Fuhrer" talk in a everyday voice. Here is SPIEGEL TV's take on an out-of-the-ordinary sound recording.

For generations to come, Hitler will be remembered for the fanatic way he spoke. Early on, he honed his excellent talent for demagoguery through acting instruction, and as the years went by he perfected his rhetorical skills. His speeches were so effective that it he was successful in turning his listeners en masse into one of the most evil regimes of all time.

But there was another side to Hitler beyond the demonstrations and the triumphant Nazi propaganda events that celebrated the German spirit. The normal conversation tone of the dictator is hardly known to posterity. In a recording from 1942, he can be heard talking in an unpressured atmosphere. With the help of this document, the star of "Die Untergang" [The Downfall] Bruno created his persona in representing the dictator.

A Finnish radio technician recorded the conversation secretly. In it, Hitler speaks, dauntingly harmless, in a deep, full voice that one could hardly associate with the "Dictator-voice." Hitler explains to Carl Gustav Mannerheim his view of the progress of the war. He remarks among other things, that the German Panzers aren't properly outfitted for the winter. Surprisingly, he expresses himself rather jerkily. [I have translated the following word for word]

"Our entire weaponry is naturally tailored for the west. And we were all convinced, that is, until now, that was our opinion, since forever. You can’t fight a war in winter. And we also have the German Panzers, that haven't been tested out for the purpose of furbishing a war in winter. Instead we did trial runs in order to prove that one can't fight a war in winter." How right that evaluation was. Seven months later, Hitler suffered a major winter defeat at Stalingrad.

The original is at http://www.spiegel.de/sptv/magazin/0,1518,319655,00.html.