Elbow Raum

The discussions at Marmot's Hole on the specter of xenophobia in Korea (more on that in another post) and another on last century's German and Japanese expansionism into the Pacific (namely, Saipan) prompted one commenter to mention Lebensraum, the concept Adolf Hitler outlined in Mein Kampf about expanding Germany to the east (in a quite vicious way).

Lebensraum translates as "living space," but I wonder if it could just as easily be translated as "elbow room":

Government-sanctioned cartoons taught me that our country took over the West "without a fuss." No mention of the Indians, except Sacajawea, who helped out those nice Haole folk from back east. I guess extermination of the Indians doesn't make for good filler between Josie & the Pussycats and He-Man.