A former erstwhile Governor of the Great State of New Hampshire, Meldrim Thomson, once advocated for tactical nuclear weapons for the NH National Guard. What could possibly go wrong?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meldrim_Thomson_Jr.
Controversies
During his governorship, and thereafter, Thomson was criticized for a number of controversial actions:
- having an aide examine his political opponents' tax records, a move later invalidated by the New Hampshire Supreme Court
- suggesting nuclear weapons for the state National Guard.[10]
- during the 1977 anti-nuclear demonstrations in Seabrook, he dressed in military fatigues and was brought in by helicopter to order in person the arrest of 1,400 protesters.[11]
- personally arresting speeders from his official car.[12]
- visiting South Africa in 1978 and then praising the government and its apartheid policy.[13]
- threatening to veto all funding for the University of New Hampshire in 1974 after the Gay Students Organization held a dance and performed a play on campus.[14]
- sending out a press release in 1977 saying that he wanted journalists to keep the "Christ" in Christmas and not call it Xmas, which, he asserted, was a pagan spelling of Christmas, despite being a representation by the Greek letter chi.[15]
- petitioning unsuccessfully, in 1990, that candidate Dick Swett (for New Hampshire's 2nd congressional district) be listed on the ballot as Lantos-Swett, the name he had used in the telephone book, voter registration, buying real estate, and business.[16]
Of course, he was in a dispute with MA over state troopers arresting people who shopped in NH and returned to MA without paying MA state sales tax. So that is a good reason I guess.
Young people today have no idea how truly colorful life used to be. They think everything was sunshine and roses and we should go back to the past. Not.
