http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/023809.html

I have just returned from our grocery store where, upon exiting, I was greeted by a young man desirous of telling me of the political virtues of Lyndon LaRouche. I was wearing a button reading “Vote No for President,” in which he took interest. When I suggested to him that politics always diminishes individual liberty, he asked for examples. I responded that wars and depressions have been used by the state to expand its controls over people. I gave, as examples, the “great depression” of the 1930s and World War II. He praised FDR for ending the depression which, I told him, did not end until after World War II came to an end, a war into which Roosevelt had manipulated American involvement. This young man then told me that it was FDR’s policies during the 1930s - of which this man approved - that made it possible for the U.S. to enter that war. “Have you thought of the implications of what you just said?,” I asked. He failed to get my point, so I asked him: “if it was the government’s expanded powers, during the New Deal, that allowed FDR to enter and conduct World War II, do you understand what I meant when I said that crises always lead to an expansion of government authority?” He asked if I thought it was wrong for the U.S. to have participated in World War II. I told him that I thought all wars are wrong. In what he must have thought was a clincher argument, he responded: “but if Roosevelt hadn’t gotten us into World War II, we would be living under a fascist government, run by big corporations.”

You can’t make up this stuff!

::sigh::

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/…

Japan’s Defence Minister dismissed his air force chief yesterday for writing an essay that claims the country was not an aggressor in the Second World War and was trapped into getting involved by the United States.

Toshio Tamogami’s essay will likely upset relations with China and South Korea, which remain bitter about Japan’s wartime occupation and say Tokyo has failed to properly atone for its invasion of the Korean Peninsula, Taiwan and China.

The claims drew a swift rebuke from politicians, and Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada said he would dismiss the general. “I think it is improper of the air force chief of staff to publicly state a view that clearly differs from the that of the government,” he told reporters after the essay was made public yesterday.

Is this guy full of it when he claims Japan was not an aggressor? Absolutely. Is there some truth in the claim the United States goaded the Japanese government? Absolutely. It’ll never be known how much was known and how much was deliberate but there are some interesting facts concerning the event. A quick Google search also reveals a History Channel special on the topic.

The topic is interesting but the reason for posting this story was what I highlighted above. The idea that a person, regardless of his association, should be dismissed due to his opinion “that clearly differs from that of the government.” Perhaps it’s a translation issue but apparently to say so succinctly that the issue was not that there was just a disagreement or that what he said was wrong but that if differs from that of the government line. Very nationalistic. Very “Country First.” Very unsurprising.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/…

The Most Idiotic Governor in America?

Posted by Thomas DiLorenzo at September 23, 2008 06:33 PM

I know I’ll receive many emails from people claiming that the governor of their state deserves the title of “Most Idiotic Governor,” but for now I’d like to nominate Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley. In a desperate attempt to appear relevant to the presidential race (he was a Hillary supporter) he announced over the local airwaves today that the Bush administration, which has spent more domestically than LBJ did, and which initiated an unnecessary, non-defensive war that has lasted longer than World War II, should be condemned as a bunch of “no government, or minimal government, ideologues.”

Case closed.

Politicians say the darnedest things.