I’ve certainly heard of Civil War reenactors, and I can kind of understand it. I mean, as a kid, I was always interested in the Civil War, for some reason. I even memorized the Gettysburg Address (it’s pretty short, so I’m not patting myself on the back or anything – and I don’t remember it any more, of course, though I can get as far as “…can long endure”). I even saw some woman one time (a psychic or a past-life regressionator or whatever) who worked with people – wrote a book, I think – about people (pretty much guys, I think; women have better things to do with their time) who were driven to reenact Civil War battles because, in a past life, they’d fought there. So, anyway, that I’ve heard of.

What I hadn’t heard of (perhaps I’ve just led a sheltered life) is “Nazi Reenactors.” I mean, don’t get me wrong, Lugers are neat looking (though not terribly reliable, from what I understand, though I know nothing about guns), and the Nazi’s – especially the Gestapo – had the coolest cars (I always liked the one Major Hochstetter had in Hogan’s Heroes), but dressing up like a Nazi on weekends never really occurred to me as a hobby.

But if somebody was gonna be a 21st Century Nazi wannabe, it certainly doesn’t surprise me that it’d be a teabagger from Ohio. And, in fact, that’s exactly what Tea Party (and Republican) candidate (and millionaire, worthy of having his Bush tax cuts extended) for Ohio’s 9th District – Rich Iott – apparently likes to do on the weekends.

Aside from the rather obvious, um, drawbacks of a hobby like that, doesn’t it seem kind of, oh, I dunno, un-American? I mean, I know it was that godless Roosevelt that got us into that war and all (over the objections of brave American heroes like Charles Lindbergh, Henry Ford, and Prescott Bush), but, still. They were the enemy, after all. And – unlike in Iraq – we actually did find some pretty nasty shit when we invaded Germany.

But, to each his own, I guess.