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Numerology at the DMV

I could have spent the rest of my life parked behind this vehicle and never gotten the “meaning” of a license plate bearing the characters ‘14CV88′:

A few hours later, the DMV agreed that the plate contains a coded message: The number 88 stands for the eighth letter of the alphabet, H, doubled to signify “Heil Hitler,” said CAIR’s Ibrahim Hooper. “CV” stands for “Confederate veteran” — the plate was a special model embossed with a Confederate flag, which Virginia makes available for a $10 fee to card-carrying members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. And 14 is code for imprisoned white supremacist David Lane’s 14-word motto: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”

Wow. Now I’m wondering if there’s something jinky in my own plate. Does that ‘669′ bit connote some weird Satanist thing, or some kind of creative sexual liaison?

But apparently there was something a bit less subtle about the vehicle.

(via Boing Boing)

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 27th, 2010 at 10:21 pm and is filed under Etc.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

12 Responses to “Numerology at the DMV”

  1. Hanan Cohen Says:
    April 27th, 2010 at 11:20 pm

    Hate On Display: A Visual Database of Extremist Symbols, Logos and Tattoos

    http://www.adl.org/hate_symbols/default.asp

  2. Clarence Says:
    April 27th, 2010 at 11:39 pm

    Egads! That’s is messed up.

  3. ToddBS Says:
    April 28th, 2010 at 4:18 am

    Hmm… I recognized the 1488 part from previous runins with some neo Nazis. I had always assumed the 88 represented the year that the 14 words was made. Guess I didn’t know mine enemy well enough.

  4. Joseph Doughty Says:
    April 28th, 2010 at 12:43 pm

    Only in the south, LOL

    Is there a secret numerological decoder ring to interpret the facial expressions, grunts and gestures of the typical DMV employee who is so graciously processing my drivers license renewal?

  5. Opus the Poet Says:
    April 28th, 2010 at 2:29 pm

    OK so the guy has a secret anti-Jew, anti-black message coded on the license plate and a great big painted mural that says he’s anti-Islam, and the CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) complains about the anti-Jew message? Would that be because under the 1st Amendment they can’t do diddly about the mural, but because the plates belong to the state of VA they can do something about that?

    Not that I agree with the bozo in the pickup truck, I just find the Islamic society complaining about an anti-Jew message hidden in the license hysterical.

  6. Tony Toews Says:
    April 28th, 2010 at 11:06 pm

    CV and one or two digits can mean the ship number of a US Navy aircraft carrier. For example USS Enterprise is CV-6 and the USS Princeton is CV-37. However according to Wikipedia there is no similar number close to 88. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_carriers_of_the_United_States_Navy

    Thus this explanation is rather unlikely in this case.

  7. Theophylact Says:
    April 29th, 2010 at 7:29 am

    The guy now claims that the “14″ and “88″ refer to the numbers of his favorite NASCAR drivers, Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr., respectively.

    He says he doesn’t know who took the photo of his truck, in a handicapped parking spot, that became a viral sensation on the Web. “Probably someone who obviously has a soft spot for Islam,” he said, pronouncing the word “I-slam,” “because if you pronounce it ‘Ih-slahm,’ it’s not disparaging enough.” He said he has a permit that allows him to park in handicapped spaces because of injuries he suffered in a 1985 motorcycle accident.

  8. Robert Says:
    April 29th, 2010 at 8:49 am

    The guy is disputing it. He claims 14 and 88 are the numbers for his favorite Nascar drivers (Earnhardt and Stewart).

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/28/AR2010042805335.html?hpid=moreheadlines

    Why would people care that he has such a cryptic message on his license plate? If you go to the trouble of figuring out a potential secret code on a license plate to see if it happens to be racists, then you’re looking to be offended.

  9. Tom Vanderbilt Says:
    April 29th, 2010 at 9:59 am

    It would be more interesting if he said the numbers were in honor of, say, Allen Iverson and Nicolas Batum.

  10. stacey2545 Says:
    April 29th, 2010 at 3:16 pm

    My favorite part of the Post’s article was where his employer told him he can’t park at work unless he removes the mural. I’m sure it’s been there a few years, but no one noticed until it made the news? Or no one thought it was offensive?

    Coupled with the other displays on his truck and the fact he’s not appealing the DMV’s ruling, I’m not sure I buy his nascar defense, even if he has Jewish relatives. The Confederate flag already proves his racial insensitivity.

  11. Thomas Kent Says:
    April 30th, 2010 at 6:17 am

    According to Jalopnik, it turns out that he really is racist:

    http://jalopnik.com/5527225/update-non+racist-nascar+loving-truck-owner-actually-racist

    His favorite book is “The Awakening” by David Duke and he has links to white supremacy sites on his Facebook page (since taken down, but Jalopnik has screen captures of it).

  12. stacey2545 Says:
    April 30th, 2010 at 3:55 pm

    Thank you, Thomas, for the jalonik link! My father and I actually got into a two-hour “heated discussion” after the first Post article and he tried to revive it last night after the follow-up article. Glad to have proof my instincts weren’t wrong. ^_^

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Traffic Tom Vanderbilt

How We Drive is the companion blog to Tom Vanderbilt’s New York Times bestselling book, Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us), published by Alfred A. Knopf in the U.S. and Canada, Penguin in the U.K, and in languages other than English by a number of other fine publishers worldwide.

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