As for my being perceived to be a religious person, it was linked to clothing common of – but not limited to – religious circles whereas the inscription on that hoodie is rather telling.

It’s not even creepy in a Marylin-I-collect-Nazi-stuff-to-cash-in-on-my-pseudo-creepy-image-which-covers-for-the-shitty-music-I-make-wait-I-broke-up-with-Dita-Von-Teese?-Wtf-did-I-do?-Manson.

It’s just sad and weird.

They may been under the impression that you were in a religious group, but the fact that you dressed in long skirts and wore your hear back did not make you a defacto part of that group. Same thing with this shmuck here.

He’s no Nazi. What he is is a two-bit, hypocritical and incompetant former Pentagon analyst who has no moral standing to have criticized Israel, and should not have been affiliated in he least with ANY human rights group due to his past involvement in botched US targeted killing operations…but not a Nazi.

And HRW are stupid for not vetting someone thoroughly before sending them into the spotlight

When I used to always wear skirts at work and kept my hair braided back, several students asked whether I belonged to any particular religious group. I don’t, but I certainly couldn’t blame them for being under that impression from my choice of outfit.

There’s a whole subculture of weirdos who collect WW2 crap, Nazi and Ally, and even re-enact battles with little pellet guns. They are what they are: creepy losers.

That Iron Cross hoodie (from the picture showing how “cool” and “badass” the guy is by chugging a beer)? You can buy the same thing from any chopper shop for 40 bucks. Das Eiserne Kreuz means Iron Cross in German, it has a long history in Germany as was previously stated.

Flak88? He’s referring to the 8.8 cm anti-aircraft/anti-tank gun of WW2. Flak cannon. 8.8 cm. “88s” in military history lingo. It was a big thing in the war because it was used so often.

Look, is the guy completely clueless? Of course. Is he a creepy idiot? Most definately. Does he spend weekends in his moms basement eating microwave burritos and discussing Operation Barbarossa with a guy dressed like one of the Knights of Ni from Monty Python? Could be.

But is he a white-power proclaiming, pillow-case wearing, tiny mustached, Goebbels grubber? No.

And Rabbi Yonah, if you want to deprive him of a podium of righteousness, take a look at his wikipedia entry (yes he has one!), and if you take a look you’ll see just how full of it he is. Podium of righteousness? The guy couldn’t righteous himself out of a paper bag.

Here’s a selection.

“In 2003, Garlasco was responsible for dropping two, laser-guided, 500-kilogram bombs on a house in the Tuwaisi, neighborhood of Basra, Iraq, that he believed to contain Saddam Hussein’s cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as Chemical Ali, the man responsible for launching poison gas attacks on Kurds in Iraq beginning in 1988. Watching the attack via satellite form a room in the Pentagon, Garlasco threw his arms in the air and shouted: “I just blew up Chemical Ali!” However, Chemical Ali was not in the house; 17 other people were killed instead”

“Garlasco explained the calculus of civilian deaths in high value targeting to the television news program 60 Minutes this way, “Our number was 30. So, for example, Saddam Hussein. If you’re gonna kill up to 29 people in a strike against Saddam Hussein, that’s not a problem. But once you hit that number 30, we actually had to go to either President Bush, or Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld.” Garlasco told the interviewer that prior to the invasion of Iraq, he personally recommended 50 high-value targets -Iraqi officials for air strikes, but, according to Garlasco, none of the targets on his list was actually killed. Rather, ‘a couple of hundred civilians at least’ were killed in strikes he recommended.”

My favorite part. And remember this guy is the military analyst for the human rights organization criticizing Israel for killing civilians even though terrorists were using them as human shields.

“He responded to the question “If so much care is being taken why are so many civilians getting killed?” by stating “Because the Taliban are violating international law, and because the U.S. just doesn’t have enough troops on the ground. You have the Taliban shielding in people’s homes. And you have this small number of troops on the ground. And sometimes the only thing they can do is drop bombs.”

Basically it’s the same defense that the IDF has used, you know, but worded a bit differently. About what you’d get as a quote if our chief spokesman had been hit on the head with a hammer and lost all compassion and subtlety through deep neurological trauma.

Depriving him of his podium of righteousness is a great step towards raising the bar on truth.

The man is simply full of it.

You know I’m born to lose, and gambling’s for fools,
But that’s the way I like it baby,
I don’t wanna live forever,
And don’t forget the joker!

I wonder about the 88 too, but i don’t know if it’s impossible he could not have known. either way, i don’t see it precludes him from using “flak88″ as his moniker. He is a gun nut, & that’s his grandpa’s gun. As far as it being unfortunate given his line of work — he is a military man, he worked for the Pentagon. He chose targets in Iraq for us to bomb.

btw, I looked thru a 17-page PDF from his book on his website. There’s not much annotation, but on a certain medal, he took special note of the medal’s connection to one of the plotters against Hitler.

But yeah, what muffti said. I remember when I was a kid, I used to draw Nazis and swastikas ALL the time! All that Nazi imagery, it’s so kitsch, so perfectly evil and bad ass looking! Hitler was a failed artist but the Nazis were geniuses at imagery. Look at Leni Riefenstahl’s work. The Nazis were made to be filmed, it was all so dramatic and so detail oriented, from the color schemes, to the Hugo Boss designed uniforms, the shiny jackboots, even the helmets! Even the lowliest grunt looked bad ass. And as a society we all kind of fetishize the Nazis don’t we? Inglorious Basterds and the 8 zillion Nazi themed movies that preceded it, you know what I mean.

Still, I take no pleasure in the news that Garlasco was suspended from his job at HRW because of a stupid hobby. This does not advance the cause of truth by one iota.

Muffti — your Pantera proclivity suggests you must at least be familiar with the oeuvre of Lemmy Kilmeister of Motorhead. Are you aware of his fetish for Nazi memorabilia — what do you think of it?

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