Go to this website to learn to swear in German: http://www.ebaumsworld.com/blogs/german-slang-and-swearing-with-english-translations/922039/
When you are swearing in Germany, it is O.K. to have some spit coming out of your mouth that lands on the face of your enemy.
What is wrong with this recent newspaper headline:
Who allegedly sexually harassed whom? Did Brad Pitt allegedly sexually harass Gyneth Paltrow? After he threatened to kill Harvey Weinstein?
The title of my blog post is an old expression that was formerly used to teach students how to write and to speak properly. The title is incorrect. It should read “Throw a kiss to Mama from the train.”
I have just finished listening to a video about the Buchenwald camp. In the video, the narrator pronounces some of the words incorrectly, particularly German words, that have an e at the end of the word.
Years ago, someone wrote a poem about me which contained the line “What further glory awaits for thee — you pronounced the final e.”
I took the name “further glory” for my name on the internet — and the rest is history.
The following quote is from a news article which you can read at https://www.npr.org/2018/04/23/604398292/as-american-awareness-fades-holocaust-museum-refreshes-the-story
Begin quote
A new exhibit that opens Monday at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum [in Washington, DC] aims to honor a founding mission.
Five years in the making, “Americans and the Holocaust” contextualizes attitudes in the U.S. during 1930s and ’40s persecution and mass murder of Jews in Europe.
Twenty-five years ago, when the building opened, noted Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel introduced the museum not as an answer to the horrors of genocide but to pose a glaring question: How could this happen?
End quote
How would Elie Wiesel know how this happened? He was hiding out in his home town, and few people knew where he was.
The article continues with this quote:
Begin quote
In gauging these attitudes, visitors can wade through chronological checkpoints of public opinion polling during the era. For example, results consistently show that at least two-thirds of Americans disapproved of Nazi treatment of Jews but simultaneously were not willing to let in more exiles. The lone fact that Gallup was polling these kinds of questions suggests the vein of the American consciousness.
An interactive map archiving crowd-sourced newspaper coverage shows that if Americans were reading news at the time, much of it was from a wire service with headlines varying state by state. “You didn’t have to be a New Yorker or in D.C. to be reading stories about Nazis’ persecution of Jews,” Greene says.
End quote
I was a child when all of this was going on, and I was reading the daily morning newspaper from St. Louis. So I knew about the “Nazi persecution of Jews”. I was only a child, but I believed that the Jews deserved this persecution because the Jews were bad people. That is what most people believed back then.
The American responses “must and will be explored thoroughly and honestly,” Wiesel said in a 1979 address before President Jimmy Carter, who had tasked a commission, chaired by Wiesel, with recommending an appropriate memorial for the 6 million lives lost.
The historical evidence in the museum collection in Washington, D.C., detailing what America knew and when, dispels myths that its actors didn’t have enough information about the magnitude of Nazi Germany’s campaign to intervene, says Daniel Greene, a historian and the curator of the exhibit.
Remember the expression “throw Mama from the train a kiss”?
This expression was used for years to teach children in America how to speak English correctly. The above expression should be “throw a kiss from the train to Mama”.
Now read this recent news article: http://michiganradio.org/post/world-war-ii-generation-wanes-holocaust-education-grows-importance
The following quote is from the article:
He’s hopeful, though, that the next generation in Michigan will demonstrate a better understanding. In 2016, Governor Rick Snyder signed a bill at the Holocaust Museum that requires genocide education including the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide during grades 8-12.”
The above quote should read “Rick Snyder signed a bill that requires genocide education, including education about the Armenian genocide, for students during grades 8 to 12.”
This website explains the difference between it’s and its:
Begin quote from website
A common mistake, and one that drives teachers of all levels crazy, is the mix-up between the words “its” and “it’s.” While the difference may not seem significant to the average writer, using the words correctly can help you appear more intelligent and educated. Many people form first impressions simply by reading someone’s writing, so you want your writing to be as accurate as possible.
“Its” is a possessive adjective — sometimes also considered a possessive pronoun — meaning “belonging to it.” The confusion arises because if you don’t substitute the pronoun “it” for the noun, an apostrophe is used. For example, the bone belonging to the dog is “the dog’s bone.” The eraser on the pencil is “the pencil’s eraser.” Both examples use an apostrophe plus an “s” in order to attribute ownership.
When “it” is used in place of the noun, however, an apostrophe is no longer used. Instead of “a rabbit’s cage,” you might say “its cage.” Instead of “the house’s window,” you would say “its window.” This tends to confuse people who are used to apostrophes denoting possessives. Other examples of the possessive “its” could include the dog burying its bone in its backyard and the table which has its leg broken off and its tablecloth in need of ironing.
End quote
https://www.snopes.com/twitter-germany-nazis/
I was reading an interesting article today about how twitter accounts are blocked in Germany. You can read the article in full and also watch an interesting video by clicking on the link above.
The line of thinking in the article is that you might want to set your location as Germany to block these annoying tweets.
Begin quote from Snopes
Changing your Twitter profile’s country setting to Germany will cause Nazi-related accounts to be blocked from view.
MOSTLY TRUECertain national socialist, white nationalist and Nazi Twitter profiles are “withheld” from view when viewed by a Twitter user whose country is set to Germany.
The change in settings is not entirely effective, and some Nazi-related accounts and content will persist.
End quote from Snopes.
A sample screen shot from twitter which appears in the article.
The interesting article concludes with the following,
Begin quote from Snopes
Against this background, Germany implemented a new law in October 2017 which specifically targets hate speech and incitement to hatred published on social media platforms, and allows the state to fine technology companies up to €50 million ($59 million) if they fail to quickly remove violating content.
Twitter describes its policy on “country withheld content” in this way:
Many countries, including the United States, have laws that may apply to Tweets and/or Twitter account content. In our continuing effort to make our services available to users everywhere, if we receive a valid and properly scoped request from an authorized entity, it may be necessary to reactively withhold access to certain content in a particular country from time to time.
It’s not clear whether an “authorized entity” means a state entity (i.e. law enforcement or prosecutors), or a private group or individual could also prompt Twitter to withhold content in a given country.
It’s also unclear whether accounts are withheld on the basis of certain keywords in a profile description or handle, or only on the basis of tweets, and whether an official entity must alert Twitter to content that might constitute a criminal offense, or the company itself proactively withholds accounts and tweets.
End quote from Snopes.
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