An interesting article on "craniometry" and Jews found at: http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=852&letter=C Bruce Carpenter

Bruce E. Carpenter, In my last posting regarding your reference to "brachycephalic" shapes of the head, I tried to mute it with humor and a source of information. This time, I will join those that may be offended because of the dark side you are flirting with. Your recent postings of head shapes, cranial measurements, and Jews bespeaks of pseudoscience and the belief that one is more superior than another based on certain physical measurements. Whether or not this is your intent, it has caused a problem. This is not the first time you have made comments about religion and Carpenters. I think, what ever your intent, that continuing mentioning size, shapes and religion, it would have been far better to state the conclusion of the article on "Craniometry" you referenced after your "brachycephalic" messages to the list. "The opinion that the Sephardim are dolichocephalic, while the Ashkenazim are brachycephalic, is not supported by craniometrical research on European Jews." http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=852&letter=C http://skepdic.com/cranial.html "Craniometry is the measurement of cranial features in order to classify people according to race, criminal temperament, intelligence, etc. The underlying assumption of craniometry is that skull size and shape determine brain size which determines such things as intelligence and capacity for moral behavior." Craniometry has been used by racist groups to try to prove superiority over other groups in society. This includes Adolph Hitler's NAZI party who murdered millions, mostly Jews, between 1933 and 1945. This destruction or slaughter of humans on such a massive scale was known as The Holocaust. Some of our European ancestors, over the centuries, may have been involved in such horrendous, but smaller, acts of outrage in the past. My father was a US Army soldier at the end of World War II. He saw some of the death camps. He helped bury the dead. He was a guard at Nuremburg for the trials of Concentration Camp guards. He brought in bales of human hair and wheel barrows full of gold rings and gold teeth taken from the victims as evidence. He handled the human skin lampshades and watched some of the bastards hang by the neck until they were dead. My mother was a German national that grew up in Bamberg in Bavaria. She participated in the required Hitler Youth programs for young women. Her family bought a genealogist to prove their racial purity and to hide their gypsy heritage. Many in her family fought for the German state and died during the war. My two older sisters were born in Bamberg. I was born in Frankfurt am Main, Hessen, West Germany. Before we left Germany as a family for the last time, my father took us to the cleaned up version of the Concentration Camp called Dachau. He showed us the gas chambers and the burial grounds. He told us of seeing boxcars with human bodies stacked inside like cordwood on a railway siding. He told us of how he watched human stick figures walk like ghosts. He told us of an American Jewish soldier who survived Dachau but died the night he was liberated. Before that American soldier died, he provided a few of the names of other American Jewish soldiers who died at Dachau. My father told us how the local Germans were forced to tour and help bury the dead at that horrible place. He told us it was but one place of many, in which millions of people died because they were different. I'll never forget what he said the day we toured Dachau, "More inhumanity to man has been done in the name of religion that any other cause." My father saw Nazism as a twisted sick religious cult that should have died with its mad fuehrer. Let us never forget! See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dachau_concentration_camp and: http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005214 See also: A more documented case of American Jewish POWs being put in Concentration Camps at: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3723/is_200605/ai_n16350911 and: http://www.warfoto.com/concentr.htm As many have posted, one can be a "Carpenter" regardless of head shape or body size, intelligence or religion. There is enough diversity in those that carry the surname "Carpenter" to cover every one. In the USA, we should believe that all are created equal. Indeed, a similar phrase is carried in the beginning of the Constitution of the United States of America. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness." It has taken us, as a people, many years to believe, practice and try to live that concept. That concept is for everyone living in the USA, regardless of sex, race, creed or color. Those with the surname Carpenter, and similar surnames, have fought for the freedom of this country and have served in every war and conflict. Many men and women strive today to keep all of us free. The freedom of expression is a right. However, there is a cost in society when one comes close to or preaching/condoning hate speech. I suggest you drop your current line of measuring Carpenters and their religions. You are flirting with the dark side and many, including me, may take offense. John R. Carpenter La Mesa, CA ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bruce E. Carpenter" <carp@tezukayama-u.ac.jp> To: <Carpenter-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, September 09, 2007 12:31 PM Subject: [CARPENTER] craniometry > An interesting article on "craniometry" and Jews found at: > > http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=852&letter=C > > Bruce Carpenter