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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
secretwoid
Published Letters: 28 Editor's Choice: 2
"Lemme jes look under these cushions here... No, I still haven't found what I'm lookin for."
My guess for the first person Bush is planning to fire: Patrick Fitzgerald.
...They were drinking in the SUVs.
Why does everyone from The New York Times to Salon keep referring to "The airline terror plot foiled in London," to quote the opening of this article?
In this case, as in all others where there's been no trial and conviction, it's only right to put the word "alleged" first.
I'm not saying that the plot isn't real, but after the apparently exaggerated stories about Jose Padilla, those guys in Florida who were supposedly going to take down the Sears Tower, and the others who were said to be planning to knock down the Brooklyn Bridge with blowtorches, surely some caution is called for.
The Bushies are always eager to take us into that Lewis Carroll world of "verdict first, trial afterwards." But we don't have to follow them there. To Salon's editors, and ALL editors, please: alleged.
Glenn,
I haven't read the other comments -- I'm guessing that many others have said this, but nevertheless:
Not to give any credit to Hugh Hewitt and his idiot associates, but the "V" image that they use is clearly based on the WWII version, including the retro look of the design.
Compare some of the graphics at https://secure.mm-interactive.com/ecommerce/images/174/products/32260.jpg for instance, and at innumerable other places on the web.
I love your work... But to rant about something like this, without googling first, is to lay yourself open to attacks from the noise machine.
Actually, my name's Glenn too, so I could have said "Glenn responding to Glenn's response to Glenn," but that's a little too recursive.
I'm a bit surprised that you (and this post's commenters) aren't more familiar with the World War II "V for Victory" meme. I was born somewhat later, but here's what I know.
I don't know the origin of "V for Victory" in that war -- or whether it's even older -- but it was ubiquitous. The two-finger "V" sign was a trademark of Churchill's, and became common among the public, decades before it became the "peace" sign of the sixties. (THAT, I remember.)
By amazing coincidence, it happens that the morse code symbol for the letter V, ...- (dot-dot-dot-dash), is also easy shorthand for the opening four note theme of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, the famous dah-dah-dah-dummmm that everybody knows. Symphony 5 = Symphony V. So as a result, the Beethoven theme also became a symbol for "V" and for Victory, heard often in that association in many movies.
As for the visuals you asked for... I found a bunch of them doing a Google image search. But the best place to look is here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1575100894/ref=sib_dp_pt/105-2833579-2458868
That's the Amazon "Search inside" page for the book of "V for Victory" collectibles that I linked to in my first comment. Click on the "Surprise me" link a couple of times, and you'll be taken to random pages in that book with images that closely resemble the logo of that new right-wing web site.
Again, none of this is in defense of Hewitt and his fellow fascisti. They are, as you so eloquently describe day after day, despicable. It's also entirely possible that the resemblence to the WWII image is a coincidence, unknown to the people running the site, and to whichever graphic artist made their logo for them. And without a doubt, their politics are way closer to the totalitarians of "V for Vendetta" and "1984" than they are to their beloved Churchill, who must be turning in his grave (as is Lincoln this week).
Keep up the great work!
[flashes "V" sign]
If you're still following this thread, I'm wondering if you ever followed the link I put up at 6:10 pm, to examples of the WWII "V for Victory" graphics that you requested.
Wish I could just post graphics here, but here's that link again:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1575100894/ref=sib_dp_pt/105-2833579-2458868
Click "Surprise me" for random pages, many showing images similar to the logo on the hideous Hewitt's blog. There's not a single iconic poster that I know of, but many images (on posters, pins, and so on) that share the same bold sans-serif "V" emblazoned with the word "Victory," often with military images of planes in V-formation, diverging searchlight beams, etc.
This is pretty tangential to the substantive conversation that's been going on here, but I think interesting in itself. We've come a long way from the idealistic emotions of that war, to the cynical manipulation of the "Victory" meme by today's right-wingers.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
