9/11: ten years
Ten years ago today. That’s a long time. So long ago that there are now teenagers who were so young back then that they don’t remember it. To them, 9/11 is just a piece of history, not part of their … Continue reading →
Category Archives: History
The 9/11 memorial opens
Well, the 9/11 Memorial was a long time coming, but it will be opening tomorrow on the 10th anniversary of that fateful day. Take a look, and perhaps you’ll agree with me that it’s a fitting tribute, classic and moving … Continue reading →
Rating the decades
Ronald Brownstein thinks that the recent ten-year stretch—the one that’s been going on since 9/11—is the worst America’s been through since the Civil War and then the Great Depression. I disagree. I think that the decade beginning some time in … Continue reading →
Nothing new under the sun: Propaganda by the Deed
Ever hear of Propaganda by the Deed? At the beginning of the 20th Century, anarchists were in the middle of what was known as the ”˜Propaganda by the Deed’ period. The idea was that by killing members of the ruling … Continue reading →
Kennedy assassination conspirators again: how they operate
There are two topics almost guaranteed to draw a lot of heated commentary and trolls. No, I’m not speaking of tits and ass (hey, I just threw that in to see if some traffic would come). I’m speaking of (a) … Continue reading →
The Kennedy conspiracists’ conspiracy
I’ve been reading a book by Vincent Bugliosi entitled Reclaiming History, which purports to definitively prove that Oswald killed JFK by himself and was not part of any conspiracy. Bugliosi amasses a mountain of evidence (almost literally; the book is … Continue reading →
When NPR fact-checks Palin on Revere…
…and says she was essentially correct, I guess we can finally believe it. The stupidhead.
Continue reading →Historians: well, Palin was right but it was only an accident
The right side of the blogosphere has been busy digging up evidence that Sarah Palin’s remarks on Paul Revere, for which her opponents had derided her in their usual manner, were actually correct (I did my little part here). Now … Continue reading →
Palin: history and Paul Revere’s ride
Palin commits an Obamaism and mispeaks on history: [Paul Revere] who warned, uh, the British that they weren’t going to be taking away our arms uh by ringing those bells and making sure as he’s riding his horse through town … Continue reading →
Obama and history: it depends on what the meaning of “always” is
A lot of attention was paid recently to Obama’s display of pique at interviewer Brad Watson, who had the temerity to ask the president a couple of slightly challenging questions on Monday. But far more interesting to me was another … Continue reading →
The Newsweek quiz: who was buried in Grant’s tomb?
Lincoln? Princess Diana? Elvis? It’s a joke of a question, so easy almost no one could miss the answer. And yet some of the sample questions on Newsweek’s citizen quiz were just about as easy, and an astounding number of … Continue reading →
The effect of the Japan disaster
This AP article just may be the stupidest article on the Japanese earthquake and tsunami that I’ve read so far. Anyone who never realized that industrialized, organized, complex nations are most vulnerable of all to such threats simply does not … Continue reading →