# If you own a Kindle, then you're just like a Nazi...



## The Atomic Bookworm (Jul 20, 2009)

.... because you're in cohorts with Amazon and Google to get rid of books, just like the Nazis did... that is, according to this guy.

Edit: Now with a working link (preview is my friend)


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## Anju  (Nov 8, 2008)

wouldn't link - but I can just imagine!


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## RavenclawPrefect (May 4, 2009)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alan-kaufman/google-books-and-kindles_b_380536.html

Correct link

Very bad analogy that he chose to use


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

My favorite thing to do with folks like this is to request their book on Kindle. If you want to do so, here's the link 
http://www.amazon.com/gp/digital/fiona/detail/request-kindle-edition/ref=dtp_dp_su_1841193437?ie=UTF8&a=1841193437
(clicking the link requests that the book be on Kindle, you'll end up at the "thank you" page.)

Betsy


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## Rasputina (May 6, 2009)

it's probably the same review we were talking about a few weeks ago in  K forum.


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## intinst (Dec 23, 2008)

Wish the link had stayed bad, that was a waste of time. I do find it ironic that is posted electronically one the web, and we all know what Tennessee did with electrons in September , the last execution with an electric chair.


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## MichelleR (Feb 21, 2009)

In response to someone saying that a broken Kindle is an expensive paperweight and -- of course -- to the author of the piece. My, er, political leanings might be on display.  (Pending approval.)

Yes, and if you drop a print book into the tub, it can't even serve the purpose of paperweight.

Don't we spend a lot of time telling the Republicans that the only thing like the Holocaust is the actual Holocaust and to be tossing the term around for everything they don't like is really sort of morally bankrupt? When did this change?

I don't recall the Nazi agenda including giving people access to every book ever, which Bezos has repeatedly stated as his plan. How about current access to hundreds of thousands of book and a couple dozen newspapers and news magazines without getting out of bed? In the time I typed this, I could have downloaded the testimonies of actual Holocaust survivors or a book by elie Wiesel. One of the blogs you can have delivered? HuffPo. How about the contents of several bookshelves in the palm of your hand? The ability for indie authors to get their work out there? Yeah, it's just like the Nazis trying to restrict information -- only the opposite thing.


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## 911jason (Aug 17, 2009)

Did you really need to lump us Republicans in with him?


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## MichelleR (Feb 21, 2009)

911jason said:


> Did you really need to lump us Republicans in with him?


Only Republicans without Kindles.


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## Anju  (Nov 8, 2008)

Michelle - very well stated - thank you!  I don't have a way with words, but my heart sings and yells at instigators


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## 4Katie (Jun 27, 2009)

This ridiculous story reminds me of what one of our County supervisors said when the state wanted to delay the opening of a new highway interchange. He actually said it was "...a Pearl Harbor-style attack on the residents of Sterling."

People really need to get a grip.

Really.


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## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

Note to self: do not read Alan Kaufman's books, poetry or essays. Ever.

L


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## pidgeon92 (Oct 27, 2008)

I find it absolutely abhorrent that people continue to use the Nazis and the Holocaust as a comparison to whatever irritates them that day. Drawing little Hitler mustaches on people is not amusing. Comparing the Kindle to Nazism is absurd.


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

When people can't prove their points by rational discourse, they frequently resort to personal attacks. Just look at just about any political or religious discussion after a while.  

Mike


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

When I saw this, I was hoping and praying someone had posted the following segment on Youtube, and my prayers were answered! This is from an old movie called Stalag 17, a lighthearted moment in a grimly serious movie about American prisoners of war in a German prison camp during World War II. With great seriousness, the prisoners were all given copies of "Mein Kampf" (Hitler's manifesto) "to prepare them for life in the US after the coming German victory" and this was the result:






Stalag 17 is worth watching if you get the chance. Despite the above bit, a very serious movie.

Now if only I could video dub this to have all the prisoners holding Kindles!


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Love Stalag 17....it is a great movie! William Holden won Best Actor for his performance, and it is a great one.










Betsy


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

While "preaching to the choir" here about how wrong we think this guy is may feel good, I suspect that neither he nor any other like-minded people will read this thread, so I'm not going to bother to try to convince any of you how I feel about that post, since I know you already understand better than Mr. Kaufman ever will.

Instead, I'll just enjoy the irony that there are probably some number of Kindle owners who have read that article via their Kindle subscription to the Huffington Post who otherwise would never have seen it.

PS: I second the motion to watch "Stalag 17" if you've not yet had the pleasure.


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## telracs (Jul 12, 2009)

I couldn't even make it through the 2nd paragraph without gagging.


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## Carld (Dec 2, 2009)

I'm really appalled. This is ... gah .... I have no words, and I say that as a fan of HuffPo. What a terrible piece of tripe.



Leslie said:


> Note to self: do not read Alan Kaufman's books, poetry or essays. Ever.
> 
> L


I think this might be the best course of action.


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## Rasputina (May 6, 2009)

MichelleR said:


> In response to someone saying that a broken Kindle is an expensive paperweight and -- of course -- to the author of the piece. My, er, political leanings might be on display. (Pending approval.)
> 
> Yes, and if you drop a print book into the tub, it can't even serve the purpose of paperweight.
> 
> ...


why do you assume the guy is a republican?


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

If you want to gag some more, see this related post of his in which he compares the technological revolution that is supplanting paper books with e-books to the the revolution that had the New Testament supplant the Old Testament. It appears that his _modus operandi_ is to make his point via allusion to emotionally charged subjects rather than by reasoned arguments. Who knows: maybe some of his arguments are well reasoned, but his free-wheeling use of such sensationalism buries any possibility of me wanting to pay attention to him -- for me it completely backfires as a rhetorical device.


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## KBoards Admin (Nov 27, 2007)

Yellow flag - - let's not make this a political discussion. 

I do agree with the general comments made above, that the author kills his credibility by trying to make his point through an analogy to the holocaust. That's weak, and lazy.


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## MichelleR (Feb 21, 2009)

Rasputina said:


> why do you assume the guy is a republican?


I don't assume the guy's a Republican -- actually, being a HuffPo blogger, I'd assume he's not one. 

I wasn't trying to make this political, but sharing what I posted there, on a liberal blog, as someone who posts there regularly. I was responding as someone who'd seen on Huffington Post countless reprimands of tea baggers and politicians for comparing anything they don't like to the Holocaust. So, the comment wasn't for the people here, but the people there, and calling out a possible hypocrisy.

I knew my post had the line in it, which is appropriate in that venue, and I obliquely acknowledged that I knew this was a different type of board and that I wasn't trying to engage in that aspect of the discussion here. And I'm still not -- my apologies to Harvey.


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## R. M. Reed (Nov 11, 2009)

He seems to against all technology. He'd be happier if books were carved into rocks with a chisel.


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## kevindorsey (Mar 4, 2009)

Whatever....Nazi Party it is


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## mlewis78 (Apr 19, 2009)

I couldn't get past the first paragraph, but his logic makes as much sense as that of the "Birthers".  The little bio about him as a poet and author doesn't hint at his politics.

OK.  That's all I'll say concerning politics!


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## marianneg (Nov 4, 2008)

MichelleR said:


> I don't assume the guy's a Republican -- actually, being a HuffPo blogger, I'd assume he's not one.


Michelle, for what it's worth, I frequently vote R (although I don't like being labeled as such), and I totally understood what you were saying. Sometimes it's easy to just skim through the posts and make assumptions.


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## Susan in VA (Apr 3, 2009)

I'm appalled at this guy's line of (non-)reasoning.



Leslie said:


> Note to self: do not read Alan Kaufman's books, poetry or essays. Ever.


He's probably lost quite a few potential readers with this one, me included.


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