Chris Muir of Day by Day really nailed it today.
I had to look up lebensraum, though. I guess I’m not as up on my WWII history as I thought. I blame public schools:
Lebensraum – (German for “habitat” or literally “living room”) was an important component of Nazi ideology in Germany. The Nazis supported territorial expansionism to gain Lebensraum (“living space”) as being a law of nature for all healthy and vigorous peoples of superior races to displace people of inferior races
Metaphorically, it’s how liberals view the American cultural landscape – where something exists that is good and decent and beautiful and just, it must be invaded, conquered, and forced to “tolerate” deviancy, indecency, and mediocrity as “equally valid”. Most conservative pundits describe it as “a coarsening of the culture”.
No. It’s an act of war by a ideological Master Race with an overdeveloped sense of entitlement.
In Chris’s cartoon, though, he uses the term in its original sense, and I fear not inappropriately.
Normally I’d post it here, but IMAO has a narrow main column, and this cartoon is best enjoyed full-size. Go check it out
Thanks,Harvey! We’ll get them Krauts yet.
I’d like to add a few thoughts, but someone is knocking at the door…loudly…
Boom! Boom! Boom! Open za door Gungq your posts on IMAO have been noted und vee have zum questions for you!
As much as I enjoy Mr. Muir’s work (I particularly enjoyed the last panel in today’s strip), and I think he has a point with the concept of liberal liebensraum, the facts mentioned in the comic simply aren’t true.
The government hasn’t bought 1.6 billion rounds of hollowpoint ammunition. They’ve procured contracts to purchase about 500 million rounds over the next 5 years.
DHS doesn’t have 2700 tanks. For one thing, an MRAP isn’t a tank. It isn’t even an APC. It is a bullet (and mine) proof truck. The USMC is resetting (basically stripping the vehicle down to the frame and rebuilding it) 2717 MRAPs from overseas. Some of these (DHS says 16) are being surplused to DHS.
The government hasn’t bought 7000 assault rifles, they’ve requested a contract to buy up to 7000 rifles over the next 5 year, with 4 one year options (I don’t know enough about government contracts to be able to say if the 7000 limit applies to the options).
If anything, the big controversy over these contracts is that the government seems to be hedging itself against inflation, without mentioning the perceived danger they are acting on to the general public.
@4 agree.
another number i have seen in the reporting (twice) is that the 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition is enough to fight a 20 year war. that works out to 80 million rounds a year. 1 million men under arms gives about 80 rounds/yr/man. i don’t know what, if anything, is going on, but good reporting is sporadic at best.
I’m with you all the way, and I would add a further synonym: Manifest Destiny.
Citizens,
Rest assured that your government is not buying up armaments in advance of anticipated acts of sedition, treason, riots, and other assorted incidences of domestic terrorism.
Neither is the DHS, with assistance from the NSA, monitoring all electronic communications or financial transactions within the United States.
We are not preparing to electronically confiscate assets held in private deposit, saving, checking, or retirement accounts.
You can believe us. We are the Government. We are more transparent than the last administration.
Janet Napolitano
Secretary-Director, Department of Homeland Security