Monday, November 22, 2004
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From Johann Hari's interview with Nixon's hatchet man G. Gordon Liddy:

The Fuhrer was G Gordon Liddy's first political hero. Liddy was a sickly, asthmatic child when he grew up in Hoboken, New Jersey, in the 1930s. The town was full of ethnic Germans who idolized Hitler. Liddy was made to salute the Stars and Stripes Nazi-style by the nuns at his school; even now, he admits, "at assemblies where the national anthem is played, I must suppress the urge to snap out my right arm." His beloved German nanny taught him that Hitler had - through sheer will-power - "dragged Germany from weakness to strength."

This gave Liddy hope "for the first time in my life" that he too could overcome weakness. When he listened to Hitler on the radio, it "made me feel a strength inside I had never known before," he explains. "Hitler's sheer animal confidence and power of will [entranced me]. He sent an electric current through my body."

... how about your fanatical Nietzschean emphasis on Will-power? He has written, "If any one component of man ought to be exercised, cultivated and strengthened above all others, it is the will; and that must have one objective - to win." He used to take his kids to see Leni Reifenstahl's Nazi propaganda movie 'The Triumph of the Will.' When he was a kid himself, he went to insane ends to test his will-power. He stood in front of approaching trains, telling himself he would not die because "I am a machine too." During lightning storms, in order to demonstrate to himself to power of his will, he would climb onto tall trees and yell, "Kill me! Kill me!"

This guy is on the radio every day in the U.S.  Every day.

RW
Tuesday, November 23, 2004 2:45:56 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Let us not forget him eating the rat.
GH
Tuesday, November 23, 2004 3:41:54 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
I can only take so much Liddy at one time. Reminds me of Dave Thomas' great impersonation of Liddy on SCTV. Every problem had the same answer "I say we string them up with piano wire!"
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