Juerd while I can see your angle, and while I agree that Alex The Serbs homepage is distateful I wold have to say that censorship is not the way to go. Now there are many Monastery related reasons for this listed in the many excellent replies to your node, but my justification has nothing to do with them. My justification is from the symbols and the principles that those symbols stand for (or ideally should stand for, I can see how some people might question those principles, although generally would disagree with them.) Now to Alex The Serb these symbols may have a different meaning than they do to me but I think most westerners would (generally) agree with the following

Nato

The hundreds of thousands of people, from all over the world, who died (often in countries they had never heard of let alone had any personal allegance to) in World War II, defending unversal concepts such as freedom, justice, and equality. Personally I include freedom of speech, and the right to protest. (Yes this does imply that I believe Nato is merely an exension of the "Allies" of WWII)

US

At one time the united states was the symbol of people overcoming harsh and remote government and replacing it with governemnt of the people by the people. (I say one time because it is debateable as to whether or not these anti-imperialist credentials are still valid.)

Since the very symbols that Alex The Serb has chosen to denigrate are at least in part about freedom of speech then I can't see how we could justify such an action.

Furthermore, I wonder if this debate in of itself teaches Alex The Serb a little bit about real western morals and culture. I wonder if he has reflected whether in former regimes equivelent anti-serb or anti-yugoslavian symbols would have been tolerated, and I wonder if this entire situation had been reversed how many people like Alex The Serb would have spoken up in defence of the individuals right to ridicule whomever and whatever they choose.

Lastly, ive often thought the best way to respond to hate is through ridicule not repression. Hate is a very serious matter and hateful people are usually better undermined by honest laughter than any form of repression.

So my last words would be :hahahahahahah

Yves / DeMerphq
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Writing a good benchmark isnt as easy as it might look.

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