[katana]

Yes, and Hillary Clinton's idol in so many ways, politically and otherwise. Eleanor was as much the homely carpet muncher and husband's coattails exerciser of unelected authority as Ms. Rodham. Mme. Obama pales (is that racist?) in comparison with either of those two ambitious harridans.

And I know some of the history of the salute. Mussolini revived it as it was how Romans saluted, and his Fascist movement was based on restoring Italy to its old Roman imperial days. Hitler admired Mussolini and adopted it for the National Socialist German Workers Party.

Roman republican and imperial symbolism is an interesting subject, bringing in everything from fasces (the bundle of sticks surrounding an axe) that used to appear on American dimes to the neo-classical architecture of Washington, D.C. and most State capitals. Using the Roman republican salute during the pledge was replaced with hand over the heart gesture all but the very oldest among us grew up with.

[laplata]

Agreed.

Some of the Nazi marching songs were derived from American college fight songs.