Since I still have a British Residency permit pasted into my passport, I suppose I should comment on the Harry-in-a-Nazi-uniform scandal. Since the British were far more active than the Americans in freeing the Jews and bringing down the Nazis (no reflection on the Americans - they has shit going on in the Pacific they needed to worry about), I can see why the British would be outraged at Harry's behavior.

But let's put it in perspective, shall we? Hitler was a bad, bad man. That point is not up for debate anywhere, anytime. But so is Osama bin Laden, and somw wank of a comedian crashed the gates at Prince William's 21st birthday party dressed as OBL. The scandal surrounding that? People were angry that palace security was so easily breached. No one was up in arms that someone thought it was funny to dress as a terrorist. I'm not saying OBL and Hitler are in the same league, either - Hitler killed over 6 million Jews - but then again, if bin Laden had his way, they probably would be.

This is from The American Spectator:

A line of cobblestones in the street marks where the Wall once ran through the middle of town. Just on the East German side of Friedrichstrasse, in an empty lot, is a field of crosses honoring those who died trying to escape the totalitarian rule of East Germany.

A few yards from this memorial was Checkpoint Charlie, the entry point from the Soviet sector of East Berlin to the American sector. ... Just yards from Joachim's cross and the place where Fechter bled to death, tourists can buy kitschy Communist Party paraphernalia, mock uniforms, and Soviet hats, just like the ones worn by the guards on the East German side of Checkpoint Charlie.

You could probably guess that they don't sell kid-sized Nazi uniforms at Auschwitz.

We know that Nazis are not funny. When are we going to learn this about Soviet Communism?

Josef Stalin was responsible for the deaths of an estimated eight to 20 million people during his rule. You can buy a Stalin poster or tee-shirt at Checkpoint Charlie today -- and people do. Tourists from the U.S., Canada, and Europe can be seen on the streets of Berlin sporting their Stalin clothes.

I imagine most of this is ironic humor, mock-celebrating the idols of a failed system. The German reverence (or display of reverence at least) for Adolf Hitler also reached absurd levels, but little German kids don't sport their Führer gear around the city.

Humor is a necessary outlet of fear and anger. Sometimes the only way to deal with terrible things is to joke about it. We joke about Osama bin Laden even though the thought of September 11 makes me clench my jaw. Mel Brooks' The Producers is full of Hitler humor.

Dictators and terrorists have a funny aspect: they are ridiculously self-important in a way that deserves mockery. But we also know that joking about mass-murders shows disrespect to the murdered.

You can drink in a trendy bar in West Berlin where exotically dressed attractive women sip $10 martinis that young men in $800 suits bought them, and a mural of Mao Tse-tung covers the back wall. Mao's "cultural revolution" resulted, too, in countless deaths.

I, personally, have had dinner in a trendy Glasgow restaurant called Café Mao. So you can see that people around the world decide which dictators are cool, and which ones are not. But for the British themselves, who are paying a huge amount of tax every year to support the Royals, I agree that it is an outrage. There are still people living in the UK today who were present on VE-Day, who stormed the beaches, and who took Hitler down. And to have the family of the most expensive council estate in England snub their noses at them is a crying shame.