moron hypocrisy

"more on" hypocrisy (but you knew that)

From today's Doonesbury:


As with pinko tax-dodgers, it's important not to get so caught up in the obvious hypocrisy of the chickenhawks that we fail to identify which part of the hypocritical combination is the evil part. The hedge-fund patriot in the comic strip is absolutely right: he can better serve his country working at a hedge fund. Voluntary exchange benefits people. The military does not serve the country; it serves the political class while hurting everyone else in the country. Yes, I realize that we were raised to say the opposite, but we were raised to say a lot of dumb things.

Meanwhile, as so many in the left wing of the anti-war movement celebrate the return of the Democrats, incoming chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee Charles Rangel is advocating a return to selective slavery ("as a way to deter politicians from launching wars" of course):

Congressman Calls for Military Draft
11/20/2006
"A senior House Democrat said yesterday that he will introduce legislation to reinstate the military draft, asserting that current troop levels are insufficient to cover possible future missions in Iran, North Korea, and Iraq." (Boston Globe, Monday)

"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." --Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

FEE Timely Classic
"Neither Slavery Nor Involuntary Servitude" by Aeon J. Skoble

And from Tom DiLorenzo at Lew Rockwell's blog:

Black Congressman Advocates a Return to Slavery

Posted by Thomas DiLorenzo at November 19, 2006 07:34 PM

Congressman Charles Rangel of New York has introduced a bill that would re-institute military conscription and create an army of slaves for the empire. His political pals at the liberal Brookings Institute and elsewhere are calling for making this form of slavery more "universal" by calling it "universal service." Congressman Rahm Emanuel is championing this odious venture, which would conscript every 18-year-old to perform several years of (non-military)"service" to the state. So far, no objections from the neocons.

Slavery was outlawed a long time ago, but it's apparently A-OK today as long as it "serves" the gang of crooks, conmen and clowns who run the central government. It is perfectly acceptable to the Charles Rangels of the world as long as it is done by a "democracy." Say that magic word, and the Average I.Q. of the American electorate zooms in the direction of zero. If the public goes along with this, we have truly become Borat Nation.

Finally, one of the reasons I'm grateful to the late Milton Friedman is that he spoke Truth to Power on the question of conscription:

Gen. William Westmoreland, testifying before President Nixon's Commission on an All-Volunteer [Military] Force, denounced the idea of phasing out the draft and putting only volunteers in uniform, saying that he did not want to command "an army of mercenaries."

Friedman, a member of the 15-person commission, interrupted him. "General," Friedman asked, "would you rather command an army of slaves?"

Westmoreland got angry: "I don't like to hear our patriotic draftees referred to as slaves."

And Friedman got rolling: "I don't like to hear our patriotic volunteers referred to as mercenaries." And he did not stop: "If they are mercenaries, then I, sir, am a mercenary professor, and you, sir, are a mercenary general. We are served by mercenary physicians, we use a mercenary lawyer, and we get our meat from a mercenary butcher."

[source, formatting and emphasis added]