While taking a look at the pros, cons, and possible long-term consequences of news and information censorship during times of war, Liam Callanan presents this fascinating historical tidbit:
Improbable though it may sound, from late 1944 through the spring of 1945, the Japanese launched more than 9,000 balloons from their nation’s eastern shores. Filled not with mild-mannered hot air but extremely flammable hydrogen and armed with incendiary and antipersonnel bombs, the balloons rode the jet stream across the Pacific Ocean for several days before landing throughout North America.
No, really. Throughout North America. From Alaska to Mexico and as far east as suburban Detroit. Perhaps even more incredible, the balloons themselves were not made of any high-tech, weather-hardened fabric but simple paper panels held together with potato glue.
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p>The entire article is worth reading, both for the historical information and the look at the potential ramifications news censorship can bring about.
(via Danelope)
iTunes: “Macho Man” by Transmutator from the album Saturday Night Fetish (1997, 5:00).
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The incendiaries were intended to let the Japanese know where the balloons came down, so balloons carrying biological weapons could be used. The internment and atomic bombs prevented bio-weapon use against America.
Like all ruling classes, our current ruling class demonizes the previous ruling class, in part by giving an anti-American version of wartime actions. This means important lessons are being forgotten.
The Moslems may be just as willing as the Japanese once were to use biological weapons against us, a danger we ignore at our peril.
There’s a great interview with Ayn Rand’s intellectual heir Leonard Peikoff about how America is now pandering to and thus divided in its opposition to radical religionism, at aynrand.org. The speeches/interviews are available in two slightly different forms under the headings to the left of the homepage:
—-from the news section of ARI: http://forum.wgbh.org/wgbh/forum.php?lecture_id=1150
—-from the lefmost media liks: http://www.aynrand.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5360&news_iv_ctrl=1225
The answer is not censorship, but open exchange of information. This allows Americans to determine the level of threat against them, and take personal responsibility for maintining adequate self-defense.
Something interesting to point out is that the US has chosen to strike half-heartedly at a few radical islamists without attacking radical islam or religion itself (the genesis of the terrorism). Then, even as he panders to the PC Islam and socialist crowds, Bush is re-elected because he’s tough on terrorism, and halfway capitalist. This happens even though Michael Badnarik, a constitutionalist libertarian, is on the ballot.
Could America be bothered to note that the Comission on Presidential Debates took their tax money (2.5 million dollars) without putting all of the choices in front of them? Nope.
This is because most “Americans” are less rational than sleeping sheep.
They think they can keep their freedom by going into a secret voting booth every four years and secretively voting to steal money from their neighbors for the one of two candidates who will pour money on the military without worrying a lick about how its spent.
America is in for a rude awakening. (This awakening will by definition come in the form of a collapsing dollar and a skyrocketing gold bar.) You heard it here first (maybe).
Continuing the Discussion