I Do Nazi The Point

I'll admit to being a longtime history nerd, and was always fascinated by military history in particular. It's easy to understand why--gather a bunch of 8 year olds and give them toy guns, and they'll be plotting out intricate battlefield scenarios in short order, but if you ask them instead to re-enact the signing of the Magna Carta they will beat you over the head with your own powdered wig. (Yes, I know that powdered wigs were long out of style by the time of the Magna Carta).

My own mother, a Jesse Jackson Democrat who believed there are no winners in war--except for the half of the armies that come out on the winning side--tried to discourage playing war by not buying us toy guns. This was easily remedied by finding sticks in the woods that were shaped like rifles. Yes, the instinct to shoot and kill is inborn!

As an adult, I don't play war anymore. But apparently a number of adults do! A candidate for Congress in Ohio (state motto--"It's Not Kentucky But it Might as Well Be") has had some photos of his war re-enactments surface, and while this might earn some minor sniggers in other circumstances, it turns out that this guy was dressed as--and playing at--a Waffen SS officer. Oops! So much for the Jewish vote!

Of course, he could have mitigated the problem by saying that he had to play the bad guys, because in re-enactments someone has to (after all, we can't all be George Patton), and that dressing a part for a re-enactment is really no different than acting (except without really an audience). I can't help but wonder if they could have eliminated the whole controversy by just asking someone to videotape the whole thing and say you're putting it together for a movie. Like a documentary on grown men with too much time on their hands.