Who is Reppie Irma Grese?

We hate to bring up this depressing question, but....

is Octopuppet back? For some time I Hate Canton, and others, have held that Octopuppet is back. In fact, he/she/it never left, just settled into a handful of names and behaved reasonably well. We won't mention those names today. (Why encourage it?) The latest incarnation, though, is so blatant, that we feel we need to post it: Irma Grese.

Irma reared her ugly head on June 6 to dispute Charita Goshay's "inflammatory" Story of Juneteeth to be Retold her June 19.

We say "inflammatory" since anything the uppity Charita writes is construed by our local Yahoos as "racist." How dare a Rep writer--especially a black woman--mention black folks, in the context of... being black folks. (Apropos of New York Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm's "Of my two handicaps, being female put many more obstacles in my path than being black," we've often wondered if Charita were a Charles, how much venom would be spewed her way.)

According to Reppies like Bill Hardie, doncha know we are all just one big family under God. It's just those white liberals and their colored dupes who don't know their own history that keep bringing up race in post-racial America.

Miss Charita's expository Juneteenth column was ripped apart quickly by the usual suspects: agentorange, Just S tom, Will Robinson, and the afore mentioned Bill Hardie.

But in the midst of the ho-hum snipes, first time poster Irma Grese dove in:

It's about time that Juneteenth gets the legitimacy that it deserves - just like Festivus (December 23rd) and national Corn on the Cob Day (June 11th)

and later:

Juneteenth, NBHM, Kwanza, Freaknik - those are the real dog-and-pony shows, Charita. An attractive woman with a true passion for patriotism, self-preservation, and national pride threatens you and your ideology along with the rest of this countrys liberal. Embrace freedom. Embrace self-worth. Embrace your ability to be whatever you'd like to in life. Everyone born in the United States (and in most cases, our unwelcomed, illegal guests, as well) are afforded a basic, free public education. It's up to the individual to live up to their potential. Using excuses like racism, gender, social upbringing, economic conditions, are simply invaild. Throw down the crutch, pick up a book, get an education, and succeed in life on your own merits.

It was not the comments themselves, which are standard Reppie fare, reminiscent of sourdough sal, that bothered us. It was the name attached to them, Irma Grese. We knew that name, and it wasn't from the Rep, at least not any recent Rep.

Mr. Google is IHC's best friend. We dropped by and as usual, he jogged our memory. Irma Grese, or should we say the late Irma Grese, "the beautiful beast," at the age of 22 years, 67 days, was the youngest Nazi war criminal executed by the British at the end of World War 2. Without having the time to read a book or scholarly papers on Grese to get her grisly details, we found these two (of many) Intro to Irma Grese online sites.

Military History @Suite 101 (NOTE: Some of this description may be exaggeration. The allegation of lampshades made from the skins of murdered Jews is a highly controversial topic. Though there are reports of them, there is no material evidence that they ever existed, and historians remain highly skeptical. The romantic relationship with Mengele, who knows? If true, we can only imagine what they did for kinks. We do know, however, from her own testimony, that Grese worked with Mengele, and numerous witnesses testified at her trial that she assisted him in selecting prisoners to be gassed (taken from he Belsen trial transcript.)

A member of the female Hitler youth organization, Grese left school in 1938 by the age of 15, and in 1942, at age 18, volunteered for SS-Helferinnen (Female Helpers') training at the Ravensbrück concentration camp. She was later transferred to Auschwitz, as a Senior Supervisor and the second highest ranking woman at the camp, in charge of up to 30,000 Jewish female prisoners at any given time. She was in charge of Krema Three briefly, a large crematorium that burned thousands of executed camp residents. In her time there she was considered the cruelest of the guards. She carried a sidearm as did most guards but also a cellophane whip which she used often on exhausted prisoners. The inmates dubbed Grese, the youngest guard at the camp and a striking blue-eyed blonde, the "Beautiful Beast." At her trial it was testified that she set dogs loose on bound prisoners, chose who would go to the gas chamber, beat prisoners with every tool she had including a whip, and ordered the skinning of three inmates. Found in her barracks hut were the skins that she had had made into lamp shades. She and also became something of a sexual fanatic, taking several brief lovers including the camp commandant and the infamous physician Josef Mengele. At her trial it was implied that she seemed to derive sexual pleasure from acts of sadism.

and from Wiki:

She was tried over the first period of the trials (September 17 to November 17, 1945) and was represented by Major L. Cranfield.

The trials were conducted under British military law in Lüneburg, and the charges derived from the Geneva Convention of 1929 regarding the treatment of prisoners. The accusations against her centred on her ill-treatment and murder of those imprisoned at the camps, including setting dogs on inmates, shootings and sadistic beatings with a whip.

Survivors provided detailed testimony of murders, tortures, and other cruelties, especially towards women, in which Grese engaged during her years at Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. They testified to acts of sadism, beatings and arbitrary shootings of prisoners, savaging of prisoners by her trained and allegedly half-starved dogs, and to her selecting prisoners for the gas chambers. After a fifty-three day trial, Grese was sentenced to hang.

Grese was reported to have habitually worn heavy boots and carried a whip and a pistol. Witnesses testified that she used both physical and emotional methods to torture the camp's inmates and enjoyed shooting prisoners in cold blood. They also claimed that she beat some women to death and whipped others using a plaited whip.

Now, the question is, what kind of a Reppie, even the most whacked, chooses the name of a now-obscure sadistic concentration camp supervisor and Nazi female war criminal to use as a nom de plume? Well, we have a long history of Octopup taking on names of obscure entertainers and movie and TV characters to spread its filth and to demean other commenters. (see right sidebar "characters" for our Octo entries; also the Octo sidebar). What regular can forget her pornographic posts about Mary Parker and her family? (see June 11 and June 12, 2009 IHC, but there are more). Octo was also quite famous for racist and anti-semetic remarks. If it walks like a duck...

We're done with Octopup for now, but no matter who Irma Grese is in RepLand, this post wouldn't be complete without documenting Irma's Number 1 Groupie, Just S tom. Our resident $7.8 millionaire cheered Irma on and accomplished the impossible: making her sound intelligent:

Just S tom
Slavery was 150 years ago....tired of race.. Racists live in the democratic party and blacks who condone it.

Irma .....YOU SPEAK THE TRUTH....and its a beautiful thing.

Just S tom
WE HAVE a inept President and democrat controlled Senate.....

2006.....DEMOCRATS WIN both house and senate......2008...DEMOCRATS WIN...ALL DOWN HILL from there...

$1.89 a gallon and 4.3% unemployment.....meanie Bush and Cheney were the mantra.

Just S tom
Sarah Palin rides a bus tour and libs go crazy.......they are the joke

Sarah Palin is terrific to bring that out....

What Sara Palin and the cost of gas has to do with Juneteenth is one of the great mysteries hiding in Tom's pea brain, and he's not about to explain it.

While while Tom is trying on his new brownshirt collection, the rest of us may want to attend Juneteenth. Here's some information:

Stark County Urban Minority Alcoholism and Drug Addiction Outreach Project will host its fourth annual Juneteenth Celebration from noon to 7 p.m. Saturday at Nimisilla Park, in the 1200 block of O’Jays Parkway NE.

There will be live music and dance performances, story-telling, games, pony rides and a fundraiser for the Greater Stark County Urban League.

For information call (330) 588-8110, or e-mail to scumadop@sbcglobal.net

BTW, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati plans a real knock-out of a celebration. Here's the schedule.

Getty Lee Pompous Ass Rock Star Hyperbole Award: Bill Hardie

While we're on the subject of celebrity, I Hate Canton was quite surprised the other day to see Bill Hardie's cut and paste of Rush's The Trees under Greed in US Corporate Circles Pales in Comparison with that in Government.

Now there's no more oak oppression
For they passed a noble law
And the trees are all kept equal
By hatchet, axe and saw.

Who knew that Bill is a Getty Lee connoisseur! I Hate Canton had Bill pegged as a Michael W. Smith groupie, or on an occasional wild and crazee night, Skillet. This confession gives us a new and favorable aspect to Bill's otherwise stick-up-the-(naughty word bot) online persona.

I Hate Canton admits that we have a certain fondness for Rush as well. In our misspent youth we hung out with WMMS DJ Donna Halper who is credited with discovering the band and later went to work as their A&R gal. If you're feeling aggrieved and looking for a good self-righteous lecture to boost your self esteem, nobody does it like Getty Lee! Admit it You've done it!

So in honor of this major breakthrough, at least in public, I Hate Canton (who has been known to quote pompous rock stars ourselves) institutes the Getty Lee Pompous Ass Rock Star Hyperbole Award. Our first recepient is, of course, Bill Hardie.

Rock on!

Village Idiot of the Day: April 20, 2009: The Canton Repository

Did the Rep get punked?

Yesterday the Rep published the funniest letter to the editor in I Hate Canton memory: "Tea Parties" allow us to dream of end to socialism written by one Jesse Ward of Brewster.

Mr. Ward starts with the usual anti FDR diatribe dearly loved by readers (particularly Bill Hardie who is under the impression this is still 1932.) Grabbing the reader's attention Ward subtlety moves into territory no Reppie has gone before:

Imagine a work force with every man master of his own destiny, free to barter his labor for whatever wage his skills will command. Employers, freed from forced contributions to the socialist entitlements of pensions and health benefits, would expand business and hire even more workers.

NOTE to Mr Ward: You do Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, owners of the Triangle Shirt Waist factory, proud!

Mr. Ward reveals his Christian commitment to the personal fulfillment of teenagers by calling for their liberation from the material world through labor:

Dream with me now, America. With the demise of labor unions, we might even be able to — dare we hope? — overturn the intrusive child labor laws, freeing our youth from the tyranny of idleness exemplified by skateboards, iPods, cell phones and video games, and delivering them to the salvation of honest toil.

Mr. Ward then closes with a crescendo of hope for the downtrodden of "Obama-nation" and a return to a balance of nature:

From the ashes of this ruined “Obama-nation” will arise a utopian capitalist society not seen in America for generations.

Unfortunately some of our Dear Readers aren't in on the joke. Here are two responses:

Twinson42:
Geoff,

The biggest sin ever put over on the American people is that 40 hours constitutes an entire work week.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with 6 or 7 day work weeks.

IF you want something, work for it. End of story.

and our beloved Mr. Hardie expended three paragraphs of his life on pension envy:

How then is the wealth amassed to afford retirement so early in life? Many public workers, who often speak out against your freedom of choice to do the same, are able to circumvent paying into Social Security, freeing up money that is invested in a far more lucrative private system..

We'd like to think that the Rep was in on the joke, too, but the way things are going lately with Octopuppet...probably not. We are tempted to award Twinson42 and Bill Hardie with runners up commendations, but the Rep must stand by itself on this one.

It it with great pleasure, therefore, that I Hate Canton awards The Canton Repository the Daily Village Idiot Award, April 20, 2009.


NOTE: I Hate Canton is still involved in some pressing business. Not pants, but business kinds of business. We will be out of town for a few days, and will try to post on-the road. Whatever happens we to our regularly scheduled blog next week.