Thursday, November 02, 2006

Il Duce - Fascism on the March Again?


Liberals love to throw the word 'fascism' about. Of course it's not as though we don't have plenty of excuses these days. But what about the guy who brought back this grand vestige of ancient Rome, Benito Mussolini himself?

Benito is back in the news. His family is feuding over whether to leave Musso in his hometown crypt in Predappio or find more opulent digs for him in Rome.

I thought this guy was long dead and forgotten. Long dead, of course. Forgotten? Hardly. It turns out the old dictator lives on in the hearts of some residents of his hometown and a lot of those who come to visit. In fact there are tourist shops that openly flog souvenirs like these:




They love the old guy so much they even have him on their wine bottles:




The family is said to be at odds with a local merchant who is the biggest purveyor of Mussolini souvenirs. Presumably they're not getting a decent cut of the action.

Some 6,000 fans in black shirts showed up in town last week to celebrate the 84th anniversary of Musso's "March on Rome" and to stock up on stuff that is banned in most of Europe including flags, lighters, wine and beer mugs emblazoned with Fascist, Nazi and SS symbols. Of course they all managed to hit the "must see", Benito's tomb:


Wait a second, here's an idea. Remember when they moved London Bridge to Lake Tahoe? Maybe Mussolini's tomb would be just the thing for someplace like - oh, I don't know - Crawford?

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