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: Boston Globe
Apr 21, 2009
When the mysterious first shot rang out around dawn yesterday, it was just like that fateful day 234 years before on the Lexington Green, except the gray-haired men squaring off looked a lot older than their ancestral combatants. There was also no blood and a lot of fake groaning, as well as sleep-deprived neighbors, history buffs, and members of the news media with cameras to chronicle every drumbeat. The annual reenactment of the Battle of Lexington has spawned its own traditions and veterans,
Source: Washington Independent
Apr 21, 2009
The release last week of Bush-era legal memoranda justifying the Central Intelligence Agency’s use of extreme interrogation methods has opened a window on what former Vice President Dick Cheney famously called “the dark side” of the war on terrorism. But despite President Obama’s declaration that releasing the four Justice Department memos disclosed Friday would end “a dark and painful chapter in our history,” at least one other memorandum on CIA interrogations remains undisclosed: a 2007 opinio
Source: Doyle McManus in the LAT
Apr 21, 2009
Since [FDR] journalists and political analysts have embraced the 100-day report card for new presidents. But for most leaders since FDR, the first three months have been an unreliable guide to the years that followed.
In 1993, Bill Clinton's 100 days were a chaotic period of trial and error, beginning with a stymied attempt to allow gays to serve openly in the military and ending with the defeat in Congress of a $16-billion stimulus bill (an amount that seemed high at the time). At
Source: AP
Apr 21, 2009
OSWIECIM, Poland – Thousands of young Jews and elderly Holocaust survivors marched Tuesday at the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz to honor those who perished in the Holocaust, while an Israeli official condemned the Iranian president's recent anti-Israel comments.
A shofar, or ram's horn, sounded the march's start. Around 7,000 people from more than 40 countries, many carrying the blue-and-white flag of Israel, then streamed through the infamous wrought-iron gate — crowned with
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Apr 21, 2009
A love letter that Henry VIII wrote to Anne Boleyn proclaiming his intention to marry her is to go on display in Britain for the first time in its five century history.
The handwritten letter – described by the historian Dr David Starkey as marking "the moment at which British history changes" – has been reunited with the writing desk on which it was almost certainly written.
They are being displayed together at a British Library exhibition, starting on Thur
Source: AP
Apr 21, 2009
The former Khmer Rouge prison commander accused of overseeing the torture and execution of thousands of men, women and children said Tuesday that his underlings were taught class hatred that allowed them to kill their enemies.
Witnesses have alleged that Duch personally took part in torture and executions _ an accusation he denies. But on Tuesday, he explained how he compelled his guards to carry out such acts.
"We educated people to have a firm class stand and the
Source: AP
Apr 21, 2009
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dropped language describing the Holocaust as "ambiguous and dubious" from a speech attacking Israel at a United Nations racism conference, the U.N. said Tuesday.
The U.N. and the Iranian Mission in Geneva did not comment on why the change was made, but U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday that he had met with Ahmadinejad before his speech and reminded him that the U.N. had adopted resolutions "to revoke the equation of Z
Source: CNN
Apr 21, 2009
For 65 years, Elisabeth Mann has carried with her the pain only a Holocaust survivor can know.
Branded in her mind are the images of, for example, a pile of babies set ablaze, snarling dogs and the laughter of an SS officer pointing to the black smoke of incinerated bodies that filled the sky. And on her heavy heart is the anguish, including the blame she feels for her brother Laci's death.
Given the horrors she's lived and witnessed, one might think Mann, now in her 80
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Apr 21, 2009
It had been reported that The Pope would give Charles a copy of the 1530 appeal by English peers for the annulment of Henry's marriage.
But the pope's official spokesman described reports as "completely false and without any basis of truth" and asked for an "immediate and unambiguous retraction".
It had been claimed that The Pontiff was planning to present to the Prince of Wales a high quality facsimile of the appeal to Pope Clement VII.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Apr 21, 2009
Aurochs were last seen in Britain in Roman times but they became extinct in mainland Europe in 1627.
However, before the Second World War, Nazi leaders recruited zoologist brothers Heinz and Lutz Heck to bring the hardy breed "back into existence."
The breed features in Teutonic folklore and Heck cattle were seen as a symbol of German oppression and efforts to build a master Aryan race.
The Heck brothers traced the species' descendants to domestic
Source: History Today
Apr 21, 2009
The soaring sales of Mein Kampf in India are somewhat worrying. The claims in the article on the website of The Telegraph that India and Nazi Germany influenced one another and that Gandhi corresponded with Hitler himself are also disturbing and shatter the image of Gandhi in popular imagination as a representative and fervent defender of justice and equality.
Yesterday's article does not, however, provide any details as to what the exchange of letters between Gandhi and the Fuhrer
Source: BBC
Apr 21, 2009
Unesco says the World Digital Library will help to promote curiosity and understanding across cultures.
Among the artefacts are a 1,000-year-old Japanese novel and the earliest known map to mention America by name.
About a tenth of the 1,200 exhibits are from Africa - the oldest an 8,000-year-old painting of bleeding antelopes.
But this is an ongoing project in its early stages, and the collection is expected to grow substantially.
Source: BBC
Apr 21, 2009
The rebels are cornered in a small stretch of territory in the north-east of the country.
There are two conflicting theories - which observers agree are equally plausible - as to how the last battle will finish.
"One school of thought is that the Tamil Tiger leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, will go down fighting with his troops like General Custer in his famous last stand," says Amal Jayasinghe, Colombo bureau chief of the AFP news agency.
"
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Apr 20, 2009
Barack Obama has praised Winston Churchill's refusal to torture German spies during World War II as an example of why the United States was right to abandon waterboarding and other methods of torture.
The president said he recently read an article where he learned for the first time that the British wartime prime minister had stoutly refused to use violent interrogation of hundreds of detainees even as "London was being bombed to smithereens".
"Churchill
Source: Deutsche Welle
Apr 20, 2009
Gerd Honsik, 68, had already been sentenced to 18 months in prison in 1992 for propagating Holocaust denial in his book "Acquittal for Hitler?" However, he fled to Spain during his appeal and spent 15 years there before being extradited to Austria in 2007.
He now faces new charges for articles he allegedly wrote and circulated on the Internet.
The opening of his trial coincided with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's 120th birthday - a fact that was not lost on the pr
Source: USA Today
Apr 20, 2009
Outside experts say Obama's Cabinet is among the latest to be filled since Inauguration Day was moved up six weeks, to Jan. 20, in 1937. The delays were caused by ethics problems that forced his first nominees for the Commerce and Health and Human Services departments to withdraw, and the more extensive vetting process that followed.
If she is confirmed by the Senate, Sebelius will complete a Cabinet that experts say is the most diverse in history. It will have seven women and nine
Source: Fox News
Apr 20, 2009
Now that the memos showing the rulings of interrogation techniques have been released, the Obama administration should release additional documents that show what the interrogations yielded, former Vice President Dick Cheney told FOX News on Monday.
In an interview with FOX News' Sean Hannity...Cheney questioned the point of releasing the legal decisions behind the interrogations but not the outcome of them.
"One of the things that I find a little bit disturbing a
Source: AP
Apr 20, 2009
JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged Monday not to allow Holocaust deniers the chance to carry out a second Holocaust against the Jewish people.
He spoke at the ceremony marking Israel's annual memorial day for the 6 million Jews killed by Nazis and their collaborators during World War II, but the event fell under the shadow of a U.N. anti-racisim conference in Geneva perceived in Israel as anti-Semitic.
Source: Larry Sabato as quoted by Politico (Mike Allen)
Apr 20, 2009
'The big idea of this book is that 2008 looks to be a realigning election-a very rare event in American history. The previous three were 1896, 1932, and 1980. Translation: The Democratic majority is going to last for a while. There have been 38 presidential elections since 1860, and Obama received the 6th highest share of the vote for a Democrat. Only FDR (four times) and LBJ (once) exceeded Obama's percentage. There were three giant demographic shifts that powered this:
'--The you
Source: WaPo
Apr 20, 2009
The Civil War began 148 years ago this month with the assault on Fort Sumter and ended when rebel forces surrendered in 1865, but the battle over how to teach the conflict to new generations of Americans has never stopped.
Ask Northerners the cause of the war, and the answer often is a single word: slavery. In many places in the South, the answers can vary: states' rights, freedom, political and economic power.
As students across the region begin springtime Civil War le
