{"id":3191,"date":"2011-11-15T11:46:40","date_gmt":"2011-11-15T16:46:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=3191"},"modified":"2011-11-15T11:46:40","modified_gmt":"2011-11-15T16:46:40","slug":"memorial-day-reflections-and-revisionism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2011\/11\/15\/memorial-day-reflections-and-revisionism\/","title":{"rendered":"Memorial Day Reflections and Revisionism"},"content":{"rendered":"

from the August issue of Freedom Daily <\/strong><\/a>(posted online last week)<\/p>\n

Memorial Day Reflections and Revisionism<\/strong>
\nby James Bovard, <\/p>\n

On Memorial Day, the media do their usual sacralizing of war. Instead, it should be a day for the ritualized scourging of politicians. During the last 60 years, their lies have resulted in the unnecessary deaths of almost 100,000 thousand American soldiers and millions of foreigners. And yet, people still get teary-eyed when politicians take the stage to talk about their devotion to the troops. <\/p>\n

For Memorial Day 2011, the Washington Post included numerous touching photographs of graves, recent widows or fatherless kids by the graves, and stories of the troops\u2019 sacrifices. The Post buried a short article in the middle of the A-Section (squeezed onto a nearly full-page ad for Mattress Discounters) about the U.S. military\u2019s having killed dozens of Afghan civilians and police in a wayward bombing in some irrelevant Afghan province. The story\u2019s length and placement reflected the usual tacit assumption that any foreigner killed by the U.S. military doesn\u2019t, by definition, deserve to be treated as fully human. <\/p>\n

The Washington Post celebrations of Memorial Day never include any reference to that paper\u2019s culpability in helping the Bush administration deceive America into going to war against Iraq. When Post reporters dug up the facts that exposed the Bush administration\u2019s false claims on the Iraqi peril, editors sometimes ignored or buried their revelations. Washington Post Pentagon correspondent Thomas Ricks complained that in the lead-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, \u201cThere was an attitude among editors: \u2018Look, we\u2019re going to war, why do we even worry about all this contrary stuff?\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

The Post continued aiding the war party by minimizing its sordidness. When the Bush administration\u2019s claims on Iraq\u2019s nuclear-weapons program had collapsed, the Washington Post article on the brazen deceits was headlined, \u201cDepiction of Threat Outgrew Supporting Evidence.\u201d According to Post media columnist Howard Kurtz, the media are obliged to portray politicians as if they are honest. He commented in 2007, \u201cFrom August 2002 until the war was launched in March of 2003 there were about 140 front-page pieces in the Washington Post making the administration\u2019s case for war. It was, \u2018The President said yesterday.\u2019 \u2018The Vice President said yesterday.\u2019 \u2018The Pentagon said yesterday.\u2019 Well, that\u2019s part of our job. Those people want to speak. We have to provide them a platform. I don\u2019t have [sic] anything wrong with that.\u201d Washington Post reporter Karen DeYoung declared in 2004, \u201cWe are inevitably the mouthpiece for whatever administration is in power.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Post was not alone in its groveling to war. Major television networks behaved like government-owned subsidiaries for much of the period before and during the Iraq War. CNN chief news executive Eason Jordan explained a month after the United States attacked Iraq, \u201cI went to the Pentagon myself several times before the war started and met with important people there and said, for instance, at CNN, \u2018Here are the generals we\u2019re thinking of retaining to advise us on the air and off about the war,\u2019 and we got a big thumbs-up on all of them. That was important.\u201d Jessica Yellin, a CNN correspondent who formerly worked for MSNBC, commented in 2008, \u201cWhen the lead-up to the war began, the press corps was under enormous pressure from corporate executives, frankly, to make sure that this was a war that was presented in a way that was consistent with the patriotic fever in the nation and the president\u2019s high approval ratings.\u201d NBC news anchor Katie Couric stated that there was pressure from \u201cthe corporations who own where we work and from the government itself to really squash any kind of dissent or any kind of questioning of it.\u201d <\/p>\n

Before the war, almost all the broadcast news stories on Iraq originated with the federal government. PBS\u2019s Bill Moyers noted that \u201cof the 414 Iraq stories broadcast on NBC, ABC, and CBS nightly news, from September 2002 until February 2003, almost all the stories could be traced back to sources from the White House, the Pentagon, and the State Department.\u201d <\/p>\n

But this record of servility and deceit has not slackened the media\u2019s enthusiasm to drench Memorial Day with sanctimony. <\/p>\n

How to observe Memorial Day<\/strong><\/p>\n

Memorial Day should be a time to remember the government\u2019s crimes against the people. Politicians have perennially sent young Americans to die for false causes or on wild-goose chases. <\/p>\n

Over the past century, war memorials have become increasingly popular. However, most of the memorials do little or nothing to inform people of the chicaneries or deceits that paved the way to or perpetuated the war. It would be a vast improvement if each war memorial also had an adjacent monument of major lies \u2014such as an engraved plaque listing the major deceits by which the American public were swayed to support sending American boys off to die for some grand cause. <\/p>\n

The Vietnam War memorial in Washington, for instance, lists the names of each American killed in that conflict. If that memorial could be complemented by excerpts from the Pentagon Papers \u2014 or from some of the major admissions of deceit by some of that war\u2019s policymakers \u2014 the effect on the public would be far more uplifting. <\/p>\n

Sheldon Richman<\/strong>, the editor of The Freeman and senior fellow at The Future of Freedom Foundation, proposes renaming Memorial Day Revisionist History Day. In a post on his personal blog on Memorial Day 2008, he declared, <\/p>\n

The state inculcates an unquestioning faith in its war-making by associating it with patriotism, heroism, and the defense of \u201cour freedoms.\u201d This strategy builds in its own defense against any criticism of the government\u2019s policies. Anyone who questions the morality of a war is automatically suspected of being unpatriotic, unappreciative of the bravery that has \u201ckept us free,\u201d and disrespectful of \u201cour troops,\u201d in a word, un-American. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But in fact the forces aren\u2019t \u201cserving their country\u201d or \u201ckeeping us free.\u201d They are doing the bidding of hack politicians, well-connected economic interests, and court intellectuals who are striving to satisfy personal ambition, attain wealth, or create historical legacies. <\/p>\n

To counter this common outlook, in which people are indoctrinated from birth, we should do what we can to teach others that the government\u2019s version of its wars is always self-serving and threatening to life, liberty, and decency. <\/p>\n

General Patton said that an ounce of sweat can save a pint of blood. Similarly, a little reading and thinking this time of year can save a heap of gravedigging in the future. Richman recommended the following works as a start: <\/p>\n

Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War, by Paul Fussell. <\/p>\n

Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men: A History of the American Civil War, by Jeffrey Rogers Hummel. <\/p>\n

The Tragedy of American Diplomacy, by William Appleman Williams. <\/p>\n

The Civilian and the Military: A History of the American Antimilitarist Tradition, by Arthur Ekirch. <\/p>\n

The Politics of War: The Story of Two Wars Which Altered Forever the Political Life of the American Republic, 1890\u20131920, by Walter Karp. <\/p>\n

The Costs of War, edited by John Denson. <\/p>\n

I would add to the list the following works: <\/p>\n

The Illusion of Victory: America in World War I, by Thomas Fleming. <\/p>\n

The New Dealers\u2019 War: F.D.R. and the War within World War II, by Thomas Fleming. <\/p>\n

Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers, by Daniel Ellsberg, <\/p>\n

Liberty, Security, and the War on Terror, edited by Richard M. Ebeling and Jacob G. Hornberger <\/p>\n

The Failure of America\u2019s Foreign Wars, edited by Richard M. Ebeling and Jacob G. Hornberger. <\/p>\n

Memorial Day can benefit from the creativity of free spirits across the board. Tom Blanton<\/strong>, the mastermind of the website Project for a New American Revolution, proposed in an exchange on my website (www.jimbovard. com) changing Memorial Day to make it far more realistic: <\/p>\n

\nIt used to be that Memorial Day was to honor dead soldiers. In recent years, we are asked to also honor veterans (who already have a day) and active duty members of the armed services. This may be an indication that the politicians feel there aren\u2019t enough dead soldiers…. <\/p>\n

I think Memorial Day should simply be renamed Tombstone Day and people should decorate their yards with styrofoam tombstones like they do for Halloween. True-believers might even consider a few flag-draped coffins made of cardboard and maybe hanging dismembered arms and legs made of rubber from their trees. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Blanton\u2019s proposal would provide a shot in the arm for party stores during the slow period between Valentine\u2019s Day and Halloween. And it would be a spark for conversations that were far more substantive than the usual flag waving. <\/p>\n

I would favor celebrating Memorial Day the way the British used to celebrate Guy Fawkes Day. Fawkes was the leader of a conspiracy in 1604 to blow up the Parliament building in London. Until recently, the British celebrated the anniversary of that day by burning Guy Fawkes in effigy. (Government officials have recently banned such burnings on the grounds that something bad might happen because of the fires. The movie V for Vendetta probably made some bureaucrats nervous.) <\/p>\n

It would be appropriate to celebrate Memorial Day by burning in effigy the politicians whose lies led to the deaths of so many Americans (and innocent foreigners). Those whose images deserve to be torched run the gamut from Lyndon Johnson to Defense Secretary Robert McNamara to Richard Nixon to Bill Clinton (Kosovo) to George W. Bush (Iraq, et cetera), to Barack Obama (Afghanistan, Libya, et cetera). The burnings could be accompanied by recitations of the major offenses against the truth and liberty that each politician committed. <\/p>\n

James Bovard is the author of Attention Deficit Democracy [2006] as well as The Bush Betrayal [2004], Lost Rights [1994] and Terrorism and Tyranny: Trampling Freedom, Justice and Peace to Rid the World of Evil (Palgrave-Macmillan, September 2003) and serves as a policy advisor for The Future of Freedom Foundation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from the August issue of Freedom Daily (posted online last week) Memorial Day Reflections and Revisionism by James Bovard, On Memorial Day, the media do their usual sacralizing of war. Instead, it should be a day for the ritualized scourging of politicians. During the last 60 years, their lies have resulted in the unnecessary deaths […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[22,659,662,74,75,41],"class_list":{"0":"post-3191","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"tag-attention-deficit-democracy","8":"tag-lying","9":"tag-memorial-day","10":"tag-war","11":"tag-war-crimes"},"yoast_head":"\nMemorial Day Reflections and Revisionism - James Bovard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2011\/11\/15\/memorial-day-reflections-and-revisionism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Memorial Day Reflections and Revisionism - James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"from the August issue of Freedom Daily (posted online last week) Memorial Day Reflections and Revisionism by James Bovard, On Memorial Day, the media do their usual sacralizing of war. Instead, it should be a day for the ritualized scourging of politicians. During the last 60 years, their lies have resulted in the unnecessary deaths […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2011\/11\/15\/memorial-day-reflections-and-revisionism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-11-15T16:46:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@jimbovard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2011\\\/11\\\/15\\\/memorial-day-reflections-and-revisionism\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2011\\\/11\\\/15\\\/memorial-day-reflections-and-revisionism\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jim\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\"},\"headline\":\"Memorial Day Reflections and Revisionism\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-11-15T16:46:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2011\\\/11\\\/15\\\/memorial-day-reflections-and-revisionism\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1662,\"commentCount\":2,\"keywords\":[\"Attention Deficit Democracy\",\"Attention Deficit Democracy\",\"Lying\",\"memorial day\",\"war\",\"War crimes\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2011\\\/11\\\/15\\\/memorial-day-reflections-and-revisionism\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2011\\\/11\\\/15\\\/memorial-day-reflections-and-revisionism\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2011\\\/11\\\/15\\\/memorial-day-reflections-and-revisionism\\\/\",\"name\":\"Memorial Day Reflections and Revisionism - James Bovard\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-11-15T16:46:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2011\\\/11\\\/15\\\/memorial-day-reflections-and-revisionism\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2011\\\/11\\\/15\\\/memorial-day-reflections-and-revisionism\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2011\\\/11\\\/15\\\/memorial-day-reflections-and-revisionism\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Memorial Day Reflections and Revisionism\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"James Bovard\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\",\"name\":\"Jim\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"caption\":\"Jim\"},\"description\":\"Bovard's homepage is at http:\\\/\\\/www.jimbovard.com He can be contacted at jim@jimbovard.com James Bovard is the author of ten books. The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \\\"the roving inspector general of the modern state\\\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \\\"one-man truth squad.\\\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \\\"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\\\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. Bovard\u2019s writings have been publicly denounced by FBI director Louis Freeh, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as by many congressmen and other malcontents.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.jimbovard.com\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/jim.bovard\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/jimbovard\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/admin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Memorial Day Reflections and Revisionism - James Bovard","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2011\/11\/15\/memorial-day-reflections-and-revisionism\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Memorial Day Reflections and Revisionism - James Bovard","og_description":"from the August issue of Freedom Daily (posted online last week) Memorial Day Reflections and Revisionism by James Bovard, On Memorial Day, the media do their usual sacralizing of war. Instead, it should be a day for the ritualized scourging of politicians. During the last 60 years, their lies have resulted in the unnecessary deaths […]","og_url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2011\/11\/15\/memorial-day-reflections-and-revisionism\/","og_site_name":"James Bovard","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","article_published_time":"2011-11-15T16:46:40+00:00","author":"Jim","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@jimbovard","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jim","Est. reading time":"8 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2011\/11\/15\/memorial-day-reflections-and-revisionism\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2011\/11\/15\/memorial-day-reflections-and-revisionism\/"},"author":{"name":"Jim","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f"},"headline":"Memorial Day Reflections and Revisionism","datePublished":"2011-11-15T16:46:40+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2011\/11\/15\/memorial-day-reflections-and-revisionism\/"},"wordCount":1662,"commentCount":2,"keywords":["Attention Deficit Democracy","Attention Deficit Democracy","Lying","memorial day","war","War crimes"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2011\/11\/15\/memorial-day-reflections-and-revisionism\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2011\/11\/15\/memorial-day-reflections-and-revisionism\/","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2011\/11\/15\/memorial-day-reflections-and-revisionism\/","name":"Memorial Day Reflections and Revisionism - James Bovard","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-11-15T16:46:40+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2011\/11\/15\/memorial-day-reflections-and-revisionism\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2011\/11\/15\/memorial-day-reflections-and-revisionism\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2011\/11\/15\/memorial-day-reflections-and-revisionism\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Memorial Day Reflections and Revisionism"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/","name":"James Bovard","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f","name":"Jim","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","caption":"Jim"},"description":"Bovard's homepage is at http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com He can be contacted at jim@jimbovard.com James Bovard is the author of ten books. The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \"the roving inspector general of the modern state\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \"one-man truth squad.\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. Bovard\u2019s writings have been publicly denounced by FBI director Louis Freeh, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as by many congressmen and other malcontents.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","https:\/\/x.com\/jimbovard"],"url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3191"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3192,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3191\/revisions\/3192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}