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• Sunday, February 18, 2007 03:10 PM

  Woid responding to Glenn's response to Woid

  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]

  —secretwoid Read secretwoid's other letters
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