Schwarzenegger = Shower Nazi?

In a version of the acorn not falling far from the tree, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s totalitarian genes are starting to shine through.

In a New York Times article last weekend, Schwarzenegger admitted that he hounds his children about the length of their showers:

In remarks to the Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco, where he was commemorating the third anniversary of the state’s ground-breaking law to reduce gases that contribute to global warming, the governor described growing up in Europe after World War II, when efforts at conservation were pervasive, and complained about his four children’s lack of similar discipline.

“We were taught to always switch off the light when you go and leave the room, and that you can only use water sparingly or to drink,” Mr. Schwarzenegger said. “That’s it. Not to waste any water, period. So it’s a totally different atmosphere.”

But his children are prone to taking 15-minute showers, he said.

“So I finally had to implement rules at home,” the governor said, “and tell them that if they take showers that are longer than five minutes that there will be consequences, like they will not be able to go out, where they will not be able to bring friends over, and on and on and on.”

And that is not all.

“I will sometimes spy on them when it comes to the showers and time them,” Mr. Schwarzenegger told his tittering audience. “And I told them if I catch them, there will be something built in that I have from Europe, which only allows you to take a shower for five minutes and then it turns off automatically, which they have in Europe in gymnasiums so you don’t take a shower for too long.”

Hey Arnold, you don’t have to get “something built in” from Europe. We have them here — and the seller is (or, at least, used to be) proud that the device is called the “Shower Nazi.”

When you’re the child of a Sturmabteilung (SA or “brownshirt”) volunteer, you ought to bend over backwards to suppress totalitarian tendencies.