I think few Americans would have agreed with Vice President Vance this weekend, when he chided German prosecutors for hunting down people for “hate speech.” Every town’s got a Bourbon Street: What happens there, stays there–unless it’s an STD, or a guy driving a truck flying an Isis banner. Every town’s also got a few skeletons in its closet. The Germans are no different.

Pushing 50 years ago, I lived in a small apartment above a neighborhood pub in a tiny little farming village in Bavaria. The place was packed most nights after a day at work, with up to a dozen graying old German farm lads huddled around tables quaffing beer by the stein and singing nostalgic service tunes.

Could there be a dry eye in the house when the lads rocked slowly and sang “Alte Kameraden”? Or perhaps they’d sing a few rounds of the “Horst Woessel Lied”–go ahead, lads…the American won’t report us!

Back then in Bavaria, World War II was only 30 years distant, and a lot of these guys were from the local German branch of the VFW. The song they were singing was forbidden by German law (and for good reason)–it was the theme song of the Nazi party, and any singing, quoting, commemorating or celebrating the “Glorious Cause” could land you in jail. Germans did not, in 1975 or today, have “free speech.” It was decided, after the 40-year-kefluffle that was the German world-wars adventure, Germans needed a long-lasting time out.

This led to the news this weekend, when Vice President Vance took German to task for a shocking government crackdown on online speech. The description of rule of German prosecutors sending people to jail and levying heavy fines for common insults–as opposed to American-style free speech–was, well…shocking.

To be honest, it’s no more shocking than a lot of what the hostile political correction nannies have been putting us through for years. But at least the law is on our side.

No knock on righteous Germans, most of whom have NO allegiance to the Nazi cause, but that is their cross to bear. I’m from South Texas, deep in “Glorious Cause” territory, and we have our own history and skeletons. My ancestors included slave owners, as well as slaves. And American Indians. I understand the “Glorious Cause,” because I was raised at Ground Zero of that belief system. I personally refuse to display a Confederate battle flag, because I recognize the hurt it causes other people; and I do not want to be associated with that.

In the light of biblical apocalyptic prophecy, we see an End Times regime and government that has the most powerful, all-watching surveillance state and legal persecution of all time. The Antichrist, when he is in power, will have no goals as important as wiping out–especially the Christians and Jews. This will be so severe that the Holocaust will dim in comparison.