ole, ole, ole, ole... bring on the World Cup!

[thisficklemob]

The World Cup begins in less than 4 days and 21 hours. The FIFA World Cup site addresses the question of whether Americans care. Answer? Results are mixed.

Almost half of the respondents indicated that they could not name a single player from the American squad, and others who could name some players were somewhat unconvincing in their

Comments

[xiaomi]

My understanding of the de-Nazification laws, which are somewhat enshrined in the Basic Law (Constitution) and some of the first laws passed by the Bundestag, is that the German Federation (or perhaps the Länder, I'm not too sure) have the authority to legislate hate speech. They can prohibit it under the Basic Law, but it's balanced by Article 5 of the 1949 Basic Law, which provides:

(1) Everyone has the right freely to express and to disseminate his opinion by speech, writing and pictures and freely to inform himself from generally accessible sources. Freedom of the press and freedom of reporting by radio and motion pictures are guaranteed. There shall be no censorship.

This is a pretty good article on the subject. There are days that i really find myself longing for Germany's ability to prohibit hate speech, but other days (perhaps my better ones) when I do see the wisdom in the 1st Amendment. But when I see the KKK trying to put up "decorations" in the two towns I lived near in Ohio, I really want to be able to start banning the shit ;p.

[thisficklemob]

Thanks for the info. I admit to knowing very little about German law - although I knew that Scientology is outlawed there on account of the law against cults. *g*

I wasn't so much criticizing their laws against hate speech as being amused at this particular instance of the salute being classed that way, even briefly. I suppose no one does the salute during Rocky Horror Picture Showings (a Dr. Strangelove reference, of course) in Germany. Which is ok. Even as a joke, it made me a little uneasy.