This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream
media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously
biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in
each source note. Quotation marks are not used.
Source: Boyd Tonkin in the Independent (UK)
March 26, 2008
Outbreaks of revisionist history are currently questioning the deepest beliefs about the past of countless citizens in France, Britain and the US.
In France, a compendium of essays entitled The Black Book of the French Revolution has triggered a media avalanche of dismay and disgust with its indictment, not only of the violence of the Terror and the ruinous wars that wracked Europe from 1792 to 1815, but of the revolutionary ideal itself.France, of course, does maintain a state fait
Source: AP
March 23, 2008
BARRE, Vt. - In a noisy stone shed, far from the perfect rows of gravestones at Arlington National Cemetery, a dozen people carve the monuments to a nation's war dead.
Here, huge blocks of marble — some extracted from a Danby mine, some brought from the state of Georgia — are sliced into rectangular blocks by giant circular saws, the tops curved and then etched with the names of the fallen.
Most of the 2,000 to 3,000 stones carved each month at Granite Industries of Ver
Source: http://www.wiscnews.com
March 26, 2008
There won't be a sign telling motorists that they're about to traverse the newly named Veterans of the American Revolution Memorial Bridge across the Wisconsin River on Interstate 39/90/94 just south of Portage.
However, travelers who stop at the rest areas just south of the bridge soon will see plaques acknowledging the bridge's designation and detailing the ways in which veterans of the American Revolution (1775-1783) touched Wisconsin.
On Monday, Gov. Jim Doyle signe
Source: AP
March 26, 2008
JACKSON, Miss. -- The $73 million National Civil Rights Museum will be located on a 9-acre site at Tougaloo College in north Jackson, but not everyone is happy about it.
A commission set up by Gov. Haley Barbour voted 22-9 in favor of the location on March 11.
Opponents argued that downtown Jackson would be a more viable site for the museum, which is expected to draw 125,000 visitors a year. Along with several other museums and tourist attractions, proponents say downto
Source: AP
March 26, 2008
Ohio's Division of Tourism has joined the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in promoting Underground Railroad sites around the state.
The Web site http://www.passagetofreedomohio.com and a series of kiosks to be placed around Ohio will help people plan tours of Underground Railroad locations.
"Passage to Freedom is the first step in what we eventually hope will be a nationwide tourism promotion effort for
Source: AP
March 25, 2008
Abraham Lincoln isn't the only Civil War-era historical figure receiving a tribute in Kentucky.
Lincoln's rival and fellow Kentuckian Jefferson Davis will be recognized in Hardin County on his 200th birthday in June, according to The News-Enterprise.
Davis, who as president of the Confederacy opposed Lincoln in the Civil War, was born June 3 near Hopkinsville in western Kentucky. Lincoln was born 199 years ago in what was then Hardin County in a small cabin near what la
Source: Salon
March 26, 2008
Oh, look -- is feminism dead? Again? That's what two British papers would have you think. "Farewell to 'predictable, tiresome and dreary' women's studies," read the U.K. Independent’s headline, while the London Times posed a false dichotomy: "Women's studies is about to disappear as an undergraduate degree in the UK. But is it because it is no longer relevant or because it has done its job by putting the issues in the mainstream?"
Or maybe it's that, in fact, wom
Source: Chronicle of Higher Ed
March 26, 2008
A federal judge ruled this month that a commercial plagiarism-detection tool popular among professors does not violate the copyright of students, even though it stores digital copies of their essays in the database that the company uses to check works for academic dishonesty. The decision also has wider implications for other digital services, such as Google's effort to scan books in major libraries and add them to its index for search purposes.
The lawyer for the students who sued
Source: AP
March 24, 2008
A treasure hunter wants permission to dig in a state forest in northern Pennsylvania for a cache of gold he says was lost by a Union convoy transporting it to the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia during the Civil War.
The legend has circulated for decades about the half-ton of lost gold - worth about $20 million at today's prices.
Dennis Parada says he believes he has found the site of the missing treasure in an Elk County state forest and is fighting to get state permission to dig
Source: http://news.postbulletin.com
March 25, 2008
Although an opinion piece details factual errors at the Soldiers Field Veterans Memorial, much work was done to ensure the memorial contains accurate information, says Wayne Stillman of Rochester, the memorial's chairman.
On Tuesday, the Star Tribune of Minneapolis published an opinion piece written by Mark W. Powell of Arlington, Va. Powell saw the monument while visiting a friend in the area last December and said the memorial "fails outrageously" in surveying America's
Source: AP
March 25, 2008
Oakland Cemetery is a quiet place where people gather for memorials one day and weddings the next, where workers picnic among gravestones and neighbors turn wandering brick paths into jogging trails.
But this resting place of governors, Confederate generals, "Gone with the Wind" author Margaret Mitchell and golf legend Bobby Jones looks anything but peaceful now.
The March 14 tornado that swept through Atlanta blazed a path right through the cemetery, uprooting towe
Source: WaPo
March 23, 2008
CUMBERLAND, Md. — This city nestled in the gray hills of Western Maryland was once a key railroad hub for the Union army, beset by Confederate raiders. Today, the rebel flag is again stirring trouble.
A high school principal's recent decision to ban the wearing or displaying of the Confederate flag, adopted by some white residents as a symbol of their history, has inflamed an already tense debate over racial sensitivity and freedom of speech.
Deana Bryant allowed her 16
Source: Times of India
March 26, 2008
A British newspaper editorial comparing the Beijing Olympics to the 1936 Games in Nazi Germany is an ``insult to the Chinese people,'' China's Foreign Ministry said.
In a statement issued late Tuesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang lashed out at The Sunday Times, which published an editorial by ex-British Cabinet minister Michael Portillo linking the two events.
``It is an insult to the Chinese People, and an insult to the people of every nation of the world,'' Q
Source: http://www.cphpost.dk
March 25, 2008
The raccoon population in Denmark is widely believed to have originated from two pairs of raccoons let loose in the wild by a leading Nazi officer in 1934
The growing population of raccoons is threatening the nation's wildlife. And what most people don't know is that this invasive species originates from Germany with a murky past linked to a prominent Nazi officer, reported Berlingske Tidende newspaper.
Source: AP
March 25, 2008
The names of some 3.5 million people displaced after World War II have been provided to Holocaust memorial groups and museums in the United States, Israel and Poland by a recently opened archive of Nazi-era documents.
The International Tracing Service of the International Committee of the Red Cross said Tuesday that it had handed over a third round of digitally copied documents to the Yad Vashem Memorial in Jerusalem, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington and the Warsaw-b
Source: Telegraph (UK)
March 26, 2008
Twenty-seven Bevin Boys who worked in Britain's coal mines during the Second World War have received commemorative badges from Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
The importance of the contribution by the Boys, who helped ease the UK's severe shortage of coal, has never before been formally recognised.
Mr Brown told them in the ceremony at Downing Street: "I'm sorry, in a way, it's taken until now to recognise your service, but it's right that we do so and it's right that
Source: Scotsman
March 26, 2008
THE government is to consider abolishing the 300-year-old Act of Settlement that prevents Catholics ascending to the throne.
The move was revealed by Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, after he unveiled his sweeping draft Constitutional Reform Bill yesterday.
While the bill did not include any move to abolish what Catholics say is legalised discrimination, the matter was raised in the Commons by the Livingston Labour MP, Jim Devine, a Catholic.
Describing the act
Source: Telegraph (UK)
March 19, 2008
Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Communist leader of the Soviet Union, has acknowledged his Christian faith for the first time, paying a surprise visit to pray at the tomb of St Francis of Assisi.
Accompanied by his daughter Irina, Mr Gorbachev spent half an hour on his knees in silent prayer at the tomb.
His arrival in Assisi was described as "spiritual perestroika" by La Stampa, the Italian newspaper.
"St Francis is, for me, the alter Christus,
Source: Christian Post
March 21, 2008
Amid a technology-driven culture where latest means better, it may not surprise many to find out that historical Jesus has also received a makeover.
He used to be known as Messiah, Son of God, Redeemer and Christ. Now, he's spiritual guru, philosopher, political pundit, hippie, and rock star.
Will the real Jesus please stand up?
Ben Witherington, author of "What Have They Done to Jesus?," observes that today's image of Jesus has ranged from histor
Source: http://www.christianpost.com
March 24, 2008
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev made clear this past weekend that he is an atheist after European news agencies last week claimed that he had confirmed his Christian faith during a visit to the tomb of St. Francis of Assisi in Italy.
Gorbachev, the last communist leader of the Soviet Union, confronted speculations that he had been a closeted Christian during an interview with the Russian news agency Interfax.
"Over the last few days some media have been diss
