Lighten the F*ck up people !!! It was a halloween costume . Did he do the smart thing ? No. Did he know full well that if he wore that to school that the administrators wouldn't have allowed him into the building ? Yes. Which is why he didn't wear it to school instead waited till he got into the building and changed into it . He knew this wouldn't sit well with his teachers and that's why he did it . It's called rebelling against authority , We've all done it at one point in our lives so stop with all the moaning, and bitching .

That Thunderbird's a mean wine.

I hate Illinois Nazis

Just like the Fred Phelps sign-wavers, the KKK marches and those damn Illinois Nazis on parade, the best reaction to this kid would have been complete indifference. Then maybe a simple good old fashioned ass-kicking after school. Blip. Next.

"Mussolini has not made the impact that Hitler has, so that costume is not the same."

Not according to the Italians here in the U.S. that I know."

That would go for Italian Jews as well I am

sure. However, the living hell was not

in Italy. The metodical plotting of murder

and systematic extermination was designed by

Germans under Hitler's leadership.

Although horror

stories exist for Italy's Mussolini.

Sorry ethos, it still is not the same impact.

Although Mussolini, hooked into

Hitler's evil plan, he would not

have been a co-leader or Vice President to Adolf.

Adolf Hitler and the Germans had their own agenda.

Other Europeans were doing the bidding of

Germany. The Germans could not

concur the world alone, they needed foot soldiers,

generally speaking.

mh, you had written earlier:

"Meredith: you are correct. Freedom is the idealistic concept that goes with democracy. But, you still can't yell fire in a crowded theatre. Everyone is not free to do as they please. That would be anarchy. There are consequences for using poor judgement. He is facing them."

the fire in a crowded theatre exception where one's actions lead to direct harm or incite direct violence. i.e. i can stand on a soapbox and yell "kill the republicans" but i can't go stand on a soapbox next to a bunch of republicans and point at them and yell "kill the republicans" to a crowd of people. (the difference between father mclaughlin in the 1930s and radio stations in rwanda broadcasting the locations of people to be killed, to use a heavy-handed example)

I said it before and I'll say it again, the concept that this costume was a parody is just ridiculous.

What's the joke? Hey look I'm Charlie Chaplin! Wait! Look! Now I'm Hitler!

I do believe that he thought that it was a parody. But it just doesn't translate into anything.

He would have been hilarious if he wore a hand-written sign around his neck saying "Will Work For a Better Costume".

Oh, welcome. We all love the Jew-hating Walt Disney, but if a Jew dresses up as Hitler on Halloween we all go apeshit and kick him.

Was there a war on, or something? I could have sworn we were supposed to do something useful today? No?

I go to the same school as Walter and he's actually a real smart kid, so I wasn't exactly surprised to see him making a statement. Sure, its a pretty strong statement, but its not as big a deal as everyone is making it. Quite a considerable amount of students at our school don't care being that it was only a costume, while the other half is over-reacting.

Funny how nobody was offended or said much of anything when someone dressed up as the Ku Klux Klan last year ... and that kid was black, just how this kid is Jewish ....

*Breathes in sigh of relief* Thank goodness he didn't dress up as a black man . That would be totally going over the line as far as taste was concerned ! Thank god he didn't . Oh well on to real issues. Why did Kellogg's discontinue making the Apple poptarts ? Can anybody here tell me why ?

"I did not use the term insite. Check ethos or Tom."

FWIW, I have no idea what mh is talking about. MH, if you need clarification with anything I said (and it seems as though you do), please have the nerve/decency to address me directly. Otherwise, stop putting words in my (virtual) mouth.

Damn, This is like a high school mock trial. this is a pretty interesting article for once. Good going Gothamist. Finally something a blog is good for. Progressive debate.

dhex: it would be easier if you would point out the ways that you agree with brandenberg.

I did not use the term insite. Check ethos or Tom.

However, I will read up on it. Going to the evening blogs. This is the daytime blog for me. Will check you thread on the 3rd.

i believe we were speaking of the furor over this furher, as it were.

i was trying to find a way to nicely point out that your argument had a big hole in it.

did you read up on brandenberg and tinker yet?

"just because you think it is bullshit doesn't make it so."

conversely, etc etc and so forth.

[64] Posted by: dhex | November 2, 2006 3:51 PM

___________

That's right.. and don't forget it...

If it is bullshit why would you read the blog and wait time with a comment.

"just because you think it is bullshit doesn't make it so."

conversely, etc etc and so forth.

mg:

"This is a non-story, one more hyped-up distraction concocted by the tabloid press to keep the proles agitated about nonsense while their standard of living and their constitutional rights are being destroyed. Don't take the bait, kids, this is just bullsh*t! "

[35] Posted by: mg | November 2, 2006 12:05 PM

________________________

maybe the reason the standard of living and the constitutional rights are being destroyed is because to you everything is a distraction. Therefore, you sit around and complain about the wrong issues. just because you think it is bullshit doesn't make it so.

#60, black expert: you're certainly not an English/grammar expert. That's fo sho.

#56 mh,

Oh! o.k., I got it after re-reading both your posts & mine. But I think you misunderstood what I was trying to say about the rebel flags... I wasn't trying to say it was "ok" to display them where they'd have "the least effect," I was trying to say that people who proudly display these flags, like this Walter Pryk w/ his Hiltler costume, are chickenshit, and only parade their symbols of hate and hurt where they think it's safe to do so... in the Confederate case, in the places where there are not enough blacks/people of color to do something about it (or so they think), and in Pryk's case, in a school in a "progressive" city hiding behind the "I was only joking/First Amendment rights" defense. (Again, I say this b/c I notice he didn't have the guts to wear his Hitler costume on the subway.)

Also, I'm not saying that the Klansman & the Sikh are getting beaten up by the same people, I was just using the Sikh example to show how that mentality is in everybody -- right or wrong, most people's first response (myself included) is, "react first, ask questions later." In other words, a guy could be walking around in a white sheet with every intention of lampooning the Klan, but within a few minutes he'd probably be explaining his sense of humor through a mouthful of blood.

Maybe I missed something in the translation or when I read your thread. Yes I did read your thread.

Al Jolson is white and Jewish. The young kid with the costume is white and supposedly Jewish in a school of Jewish kids.

My point is this: black people would not have the same reaction from another black person wearing blackface. Blackface means nothing to to most blacks. Except Montel Wiliiams and his former wife. That is because he was with a white women. Look at the clown on Amateur night at the Appollo. It is very close to blackface. Because of what blackface represents to a black person. A young person today would not insite anything but a big laugh form their peirs. They would wear it to make fun of it and to get a laugh for the present problems still here. Not the past.