Please share the following Tweet from The Washington Times: "Sanctions against Cuba work"

 "History demonstrates that sanctions work to constrain Havana’s ambitions and protect U.S. taxpayers." - John Suarez in The Washington Times, August 28, 2025 OpEd "Sanctions against Cuba work."

  

Sanctions against Cuba work @WashTimesOpEd https://t.co/HVfsdYAAwd

— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) August 28, 2025

Hate speech laws, not free speech, facilitated the rise of the Nazis in Germany. Fact checking Face the Nation.

Let me begin by making an admission of bias. I am a free speech absolutist, and was recently interviewed on the topic, and it is available online. Earlier today on Face the Nation, CBS news correspondent Margaret Brennan made a disturbing claim, that although correctly challenged and rebutted by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, needs closer examination. Below is the transcript that begins at 12 minutes and 12 seconds into the interview.

 

 

 

CBS News senior foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Brennan: "Well, he [ Vice President J.D. Vance ] was standing in a country where free speech was weaponized to conduct a genocide, and he met with the head of a political party that has far-right views and some historic ties to extreme groups. The context of that was changing the tone of it. And you know that, that the censorship was specifically about the right."

Secretary of State Marco Rubio: "Well, I have to disagree with you. No, no, I have to disagree with you. Free speech was not used to conduct a genocide. The genocide was conducted by an authoritarian Nazi regime that happened to also be genocidal, because they hated Jews and they hated minorities and they hated those that they – they had a list of people they hated, but primarily the Jews. There was no free speech in Nazi Germany. There was none. There was also no opposition in Nazi Germany. They were a sole and only party that governed that country. So that’s not an accurate reflection of history.

I also think it’s wrong – again, I go back to the point of his speech. The point of his speech was basically that there is an erosion in free speech and in tolerance for opposing points of view within Europe, and that’s of concern because that is eroding – it’s not an erosion of your military capabilities. That’s not an erosion of your economic standing. That’s an erosion of the actual values that bind us together in this transatlantic union that everybody talks about. And I think allies and friends and partners that have worked together now for 80 years should be able to speak frankly to one another in open forums without being offended, insulted, or upset. And I spoke to foreign ministers from multiple countries throughout Europe. Many of them probably didn’t like the speech or didn’t agree with it, but they were continuing to engage with us on all sorts of issues that unite us.

So again, at the end of the day, I think that people give all – that is a forum in which you’re supposed to be inviting people to give speeches, not basically a chorus where everyone is saying the exact same thing. That’s not always going to be the case when it’s a collection of democracies where leaders have the right and the privilege to speak their minds in forums such as these."

First, Weimar Germany had modern-like hate speech laws and vigorously enforced them but it did not have the desired effect. Making the Nazis hate speech illegal and outlawing their publications raised their profile and helped them gather more support. The New Yorker on February 14, 2015 in the article "Copenhagen, Speech and Violence" interviewed Flemming Rose, the foreign editor of the Danish daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten who set the record straight:

"Weimar Germany did have hate-speech laws, and they were applied quite frequently. The assertion that Nazi propaganda played a significant role in mobilizing anti-Jewish sentiment is, of course, irrefutable. But to claim that the Holocaust could have been prevented if only anti-Semitic speech and Nazi propaganda had been banned has little basis in reality. Leading Nazis such as Joseph Goebbels, Theodor Fritsch, and Julius Streicher were all prosecuted for anti-Semitic speech. Streicher served two prison sentences."

The outcome of silencing hate speech is not what those who advocate for it would expect as Rose continued to explain:

"Rather than deterring the Nazis and countering anti-Semitism, the many court cases served as effective public-relations machinery, affording Streicher the kind of attention he would never have found in a climate of a free and open debate. In the years from 1923 to 1933, Der Stürmer [Streicher's newspaper] was either confiscated or editors taken to court on no fewer than thirty-six occasions. The more charges Streicher faced, the greater became the admiration of his supporters. The courts became an important platform for Streicher's campaign against the Jews. In the words of a present-day civil-rights campaigner, pre-Hitler Germany had laws very much like the anti-hate laws of today, and they were enforced with some vigor."

When violence erupts in a society where the rule of law exists, it must not be tolerated, but dealt with an expeditious manner through the judicial system. However, where the poisonous tropes of anti-Semitism, and hatred against the Jewish people arise, it must not be censored by the government, but challenged by people of good will in the battle of ideas to expose both its intellectual and moral bankruptcy. 

Hate speech has Marxist origins that are in opposition to free expression. Perversely, it claims that language can be violence to censor speech while at the same time defending physical violence as justified. When you outlaw speech and drive it underground you imbue it with power and credibility it does not deserve. 

This approach in Wiemar Germany weaponized hate speech laws against the Nazis that created a backlash that helped them take power, and once in power free speech was completely eliminated in Germany.  

Ms. Brennan's claim on Face the Nation was not just wrong, but diametrically opposed to what actually happened, and a disservice to her audience.

Learn the lessons from those who brought prosperity and peace. Study the case of Konrad Adeneur

"We all live under the same sky, but we don't all have the same horizon. In an instant age, perhaps we must relearn the ancient truth that patience, too, has its victories."  - Konrad Adeneur

Konrad Adenuer, statesman

Today visited Cologne, Germany the birthplace of Konrad Adeneur, Germany's greatest statesman who presided over the German economic miracle following the destruction of the country in World War 2.  He was Time's Man of the Year in 1954. The roots of Western civilization have a long history in Cologne, Germany and no doubt shaped his formative years along with his Catholic faith.

Stain glass from the Cologne Cathedral

 Cologne was a fortress outpost of the Roman Empire beginning in 38 B.C with the first urban settlement of Oppidum Ubiorum in what is today modern day Germany, the dividing line between civilization and barbarism. This first urban settlement was established on the Rine by Roman General Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. The website of the Romano Germanic Museum in Cologne described its evolution. "The military outpost continued to grow and was eventually elevated to a colony status under Emperor Claudius in A.D. 50. He re-named the area, Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium (“Colony of Claudius and the Altar of Agrippina”) after his wife Agrippina the Younger who was born there. From the colony’s shortened name Colonia Agrippina, thus came the modern name Cologne. Due to its strategic location on the Rhine, the colony grew both militaristically and economically, and was eventually made the capital of the Roman province Germania Inferior."

According to the Cologne Cathedral website, says that "the first mention of a bishop of Cologne, St Maternus, was in the year 313 AD. Although there is no architectural evidence to prove it, it is possible that in Maternus's lifetime, the cathedral (the seat of the bishop) in Cologne, which was a Roman city at the time, stood in the same area as the cathedral we see today. The site of the Early Christian cathedral was in the north-eastern corner of the city, directly alongside the city wall and close to the northern gate. The area was predominantly residential. It is possible that the first church was situated inside a Roman house, which has been proven to have been the case in other Roman cities." The Western Roman Empire collapsed in in the west, when the last Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus, was deposed by the Germanic King Odoacer in 476 AD. In the east, it continued until 1453 AD.

Roman ruins excavated in Cologne, Germany

Eighty five years after construction began on the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, the construction of the Cologne Cathedral began on 1248 A.D.  1,210 years after Christianity arrived in Cologne this magnificent Cathedral was built.

European civilization would reach a breaking point in the 20th Century with World War One and World War Two. Adeneur's political career as a Christian Democrat was paused in 1933 by the Nazis, who understood that he was a threat to their designs. He would suffer political repression during the Nazi dictatorship and be arrested several times. In the aftermath of WWII he emerged as a leader, and the first chancellor of post-Hitler Germany. He presided over the economic recovery in Germany and that countries integration into what would become known as the European Union. He was a fierce and brilliant anti-communist. In large part it is thanks to him that Germany where it is today. His legacy of intelligent democracy promotion is carried out today by the foundation that bears his name.

Popular culture focuses on the destroyers: Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Mao, Castro, Pol Pot and their defenders and critics debate their merits, despite the societies they led being destroyed on every level: moral, material, spiritual and the rest. This is a stupidity of the first order. Soviet Foreign Minister Anatoliĭ Andreevich Gromyko in his book Through Russian Eyes : President Kennedy's 1036 Days (1973) quotes Adenuer, "In view of the fact that God limited the intelligence of man, it seems unfair that he did not also limit his stupidity." 

This is a mistake one should focus on those who preserved the peace and made things better such as Adeneur, De Gasperi, Churchill and others who founded a Europeaan order that prevented the outbreak of a major war for over seventy years as Metterneich and another generation did from 1815 to 1914. Listen to the words of one of the men who helped give Europe seven decades and counting without a major war.

The Case for Belsat: Media Censorship in Belarus, Europe's last dictatorship

#белсатжыві #LiveBelsat!

Belarus is Europe's last dictatorship and the situation in that Eastern European country is not improving. A clear example of this is found in efforts to shut down the few remaining sources of independent news. One of these last media outposts is Belsat, and its web site provides a brief history of the channel: 

Belsat TV is the only Belarusian language independent television channel. It was formed in 2007 by a group of Belarusian and Polish journalists as part of Telewizja Polska S.A. ... The launching was done in cooperation with members of the Association of Belarusian Journalists – recipient of the prestigious Andrei Sakharov Human Rights Award of the European Parliament. Belsat TV broadcasts nearly 20 hours a day all year round. Its original content is prepared by more than 100 associates from all over Belarus supported by around 80 editors, managers and technicians in Warsaw.

The regime in Belarus is seeking to remove satellite dishes en masse that will coincidentally curtail viewing of Belsat TV in the country. However they may be wasting their time because international solidarity is ebbing for democrats resisting tyranny around the world, Europe is not immune from the trend, and Belsat TV may lose support from neighboring Poland that has helped to keep the channel broadcasting into Belarus. 



However there are efforts underway to campaign for keeping Belsat TV on the air through social media campaigns. This blog entry is my own small contribution to that effort. Long live Belsat TV! 

Aung San Suu Kyi visits Europe for first time in over two decades

"It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it." - Aung San Suu Kyi, Freedom from Fear
 

Aung San Suu Kyi will be celebrating her 67th birthday outside of Burma on June 19, 2012. Her last birthday was her first in freedom in over seven years. Before that she had celebrated her birthdays under house arrest or in prison. Now she is an opposition member of parliament traveling and giving thanks to those who have demonstrated their solidarity and asking for additional assistance for the people of Burma to achieve their freedom.

Beginning her visit to Geneva, Switzerland in 30 years at the start of a visit to European capitals to discuss the situation in Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi addressed a plenary session of the International Labour Organization on June 14, 2012.



A day later she arrived in Oslo, Norway and met with the Prime Minister and on the following day gave her Nobel Lecture, 21 years after having been awarded the prize. She also gave thanks to the Norwegian people at an open venue in downtown Oslo on June 16.

 

 On her final day in Norway she shared the stage with U2's Bono at a Peace Forum.
 
 On June 18 she visited Dublin and gave thanks to the Irish people for their solidarity and support. In the evening a special concert was held in her honor titled Electric Burma where Bono presented her with Amnesty International's Ambassador of Conscience award which she had won in 2009.



The Ambassador of Conscience is Amnesty International's highest honor. The Secretary General of Amnesty International was in Ireland to present the award. Suu Kyi addressed the audience in attendance.

Pope's Condolence Message for Otto von Habsburg

"A Witness to the Changing Face of Europe"

Pope Benedict XVI and HIRH Otto von Habsburg

VATICAN CITY, JULY 11, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Here is the text of the telegram sent Saturday by Benedict XVI on the occasion of the death of 98-year-old Otto von Habsburg, who was the eldest son of Charles I, the last Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary.

Archduke Otto of Austria died July 4 in Pöcking, Germany, and his funeral is scheduled for July 16 in Vienna, Austria. The telegram was sent to his son, Karl von Habsburg, also known as Archduke Karl of Austria.

Condolences can be expressed to the family at the following link.

* * *

To His Royal Highness, Archduke Karl of Austria:

With deepest sympathy have I learned about the passing of your father, His Royal Highness Archduke Otto of Austria. In this hour of sadness at your painful loss, I am united with you and all the royal family in prayer for the dead.

During his long and full life, Archduke Otto has been a witness to the changing face of Europe. Trusting in God and aware of a significant heritage, he has been a committed European tirelessly working for freedom, for the unity of peoples and for a just order in this continent.

May the Lord reward him for his diverse acts for the good of mankind and give him the fullness of life in his heavenly kingdom. Through the intercession of Mary, the mother of God, I offer an Apostolic Blessing to all family members and to all who mourn Archduke Otto, and who pray for his eternal salvation.

Benedictus PP. XVI

Dr. Otto von Habsburg on the meaning of Europe