A rather odd and confusing situation has come to light, quite completely described by the excellent Mr. O’Toole in the following location: HERE.
It seems that the Caledonian attitude to our charitable war has throughly offended our foe to the point they feel the need to list names of those who they feel injured their feelings and pixelated persons.
Understand please that at the moment I am controlling the partially amused scorn which fills my soul but would like to expound on my thoughts in a civilized fashion.
It seems that either our foes have no sense of humor to speak of, take themselves too seriously to be tolerated or simply don’t get it. They say that somehow the role play has vanished, yet repudiate the terms that are being used in said role play to “vilify” our foes.
It seems the term “kraut” has especially offended our awfully touchy burgomeister. Admitedly, most American who grew up on Hogan’s Heroes and such things would not view the term as terribly offensive, or use it as such…but it seems that even in the context of a “fun” war they do. This somewhat amuses me as I could give the gentleman a list of more then two dozens terms to replace “kraut” that ANYONE would find nationally offensive, but that is no matter as it would cross the barrier between the harsh real world and its history…and our blessed Caledon (and which I would never use for fear of offending my friends and neighbors of Teutonic extraction).
I long ago passed the age of wasting my time playing a game that the other side does not wish to play, or attempting to joke with the humorless…or indeed much caring if they understand my mirth or no.
That leaves me with a choice. Do I continue playing our little war regardless of our foes objections, since to be honest, most of my enjoyment is reading of the witty salleys and clandestine missions of my Caledonian brethren…or do I chuck the little conceit, make my donations to a good cause and let Neualtenberg go hang?
I have not decided yet, but I do know that the opinion of said Jaegermeister means little or nothing to me. I enter Second Life to a great degree to get away from such staid, self-righteous individuals, so I see no reason to give them great credence.
Either way, our foes have won a battle at least, as they have taken a good part of the fun out of it all for me…and it they had feared real animosity behind our jibes, they were mistaken then, but are correct now.
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The News from BardHaven 
The irony of the whole situation is that, according to the transcript at least, the word Kraut was never uttered.
This makes the second time Herr Edelweiss has taken offense at something that wasn’t actually said.
There often seems to be a very, very thin wire that we often walk here in Second Life, which ruins the play for me as well. There is enough drama in the real world, I would prefer not to have it here. And speaking as someone who has certainly had fun in playing the intrigue of the war, it is a shame that it has come to this.
The other side of this coin is that I wish to do nothing in SL or RL that causes *real* hurt to anyone . I am conflicted.
I thank Mr O’Toole for his efforts to right this perceived wrong, and to get the focus back on the REASON we were all in this in the first place. Cancer research and treatment development.
Lord BardHaven – your well-stated thoughts speak volumes and I could not agree more. Thank you for taking the time to put pen to paper as it were.
Mr. Otoole’s post is helpful, imo, in that it stops rumour by stating the facts/transcript. I left most of my comments on his blog. I enjoy the banter, it’s much nicer than real war!