Puzzle Description:

#1: JoDeen Mozena (ozymoe) on Apr 23, 2013 [SPOILER]

...and why is Heineken forbidden?

Good image for so small.

I wondered the same thing as JoDeen. Nice Heinie logo, though. :)

It's a not-pc law. When a government tries to forbid using publication of red star, they have to forbid Heineken beers too. :)

Which country is that?

For example: my country :) ... and a few of others. Some leader has got strange ideas about democracy. :(

Various ex-iron-curtain countries have banned the red star as a symbol, much like germany and the swastika. This has raised questions of free speech even more than the swastika debate.

There are those who see this as political correctness gone mad. There are many uses of red stars that have nothing to do with politics at all - Heineken's logo, for instance.

What is ironic is that many of those who see this as craziness see nothing wrong in banning the swastika, even though that symbol is far older and actually carries (positive) religious meaning to many people.

Interesting discussion, but it's going to take some doing to convince me that the swastika is "far older" than the star. In any case, a creditable shot at the impossible task of drawing a good star in a pbn puzzle.

I don't think Joe meant to imply that the swastika is older than the star symbol; rather, that it is much older than the 1920s/1930s Nazi appropriation.

I guess what I was aiming at was that the swastika as a symbol is far older than the (specifically) red star as a symbol.

My main point, though, was contrasting the depth of feeling for banning as compared to their other symbolic values:

Red star - Communism, purges and totalitarianism on a vast scale vs. *commercial interests* - outcome: "PC gone wild!!"

Swastika - Fascism, racism and the Holocaust vs. *religious meanings for Hindus, Buddhists and Jains (not to mention thousands of years of specific, non-violent meanings for cultures all around the globe* - outcome: "Ban the @#$%^ out of it and never let anyone see it ever again!!!"

It's a very hot summer day. I went to the corner shop and asked for a very-very cold beer with red star on the bottle. There wasn't a bottled only canned. But there was the most important, a non-pc Red Star on it!!!! :)

Goto next topic

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