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: Chosunilbo
Oct 10, 2005
Ever-vigilant over what it sees as Japan’s distortions of history, China is pushing ahead with some rewriting of its own to suppress mention of a separate Korean identity in its textbooks. The Chinese Foreign Ministry in August last year erased reference to some pre-1948 Korean history on its website, and now all accounts of pre-modern Korean history, including the Koguryo kingdom, are gone from a world history textbook for ethnic Korean- students in Yanbian, Jilin Province.
Source: Associated Press
Oct 9, 2005
A German bishop known as the "Lion of Muenster" for his courageous anti-Nazi sermons during World War II took a step on the road to sainthood when he was beatified Sunday in St. Peter's Basilica.
Pope Benedict XVI hailed the "heroic courage" of Clemens August von Galen and described the churchman, who condemned anti-Semitism, as a model for those in public roles today. Von Galen died in 1946, at age 68, a few weeks after Pope Pius XII raised him to the rank of c
Source: Sunday Herald Sun (Melbourne, Australia)
Oct 9, 2005
He might be the bravest man to go to war. But he has always been denied the greatest prize owed to the brave, a national disgrace no government since World War I has had the guts to fix.On the edge of the Royal Botanic Gardens, in the shadow of the Shrine of Remembrance, John Simpson and his donkey run the gauntlet of machineguns and bombs in perpetuity.
They are frozen in bronze and time on a plinth reading: "In commemoration of the valour and compassion o
Source: Wa Po
Oct 9, 2005
Andrew Jackson may be the most important American not yet exhumed in the rush to learn from the leading lights of our early history. If so, it makes sense that H.W. Brands is leading the charge toward his rediscovery. For one thing, Brands teaches at the University of Texas at Austin, in a state that might well be an independent republic if not for Jackson. For another, over the past decade Brands has proven himself a bloodhound with a nose for tracking down subjects ahead of the pack. There hav
Source: NYT
Oct 9, 2005
The latest chapter involved a funeral with full military honors inside the sacred Donskoi Monastery here on Monday, attended by the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Aleksy II, and some of the country's leading politicians. The body of Gen. Anton Denikin, a czarist commander of the losing side in the Russian Civil War, was laid to rest again, this time in his motherland, 58 years after he died in the United States.
He was not the first. Several other outcasts of the
Source: Wa Po
Oct 9, 2005
They were Puerto Rican nationalists, animated by the dream of a free and independent island nation. They were also radical operatives, assassins on the hunt, and, in their own view, sacred warriors facing sure death. After an hour examining and interpreting the centerpiece of the American legislative system, they hailed a taxi and headed to the White House, where the president lived. It was the cabdriver who said to them, No, no, he don't live there. See, they're rebuilding the White House.
Source: Robert Essner, CEO of Wyeth, in the NYT
Oct 9, 2005
"When I was in high school, I got involved in Latin, and I set out on an academic plan to become a history professor. I went to undergraduate school and graduate school with the aim of teaching history, and taught some classes at Ohio State in my early 20's, during the Vietnam War. I was studying history at Ohio State when I realized that there was no future in history. I came from classical Greek and Roman history training, and there were no jobs available along those lines in the U.S.
Source: NYT
Oct 9, 2005
It turns out that George Washington was one good-looking guy. The image of Washington as a young man is slowly becoming clearer, and it is not what first comes to mind when people think of the "father of our country." Instead of a white-haired old man, think of a rangy hunk who looks like a quarterback.
Researchers working to change perceptions of Washington by re-creating his image at earlier times in his life have produced three-dimensional computer images of what he mus
Source: NYT
Oct 8, 2005
Harriet Miers's defenders have said she does not have to be a constitutional scholar to sit on the court, a sentiment that Dan Coats, the former Republican senator who has been asked by the White House to shepherd Ms. Miers through the Senate confirmation process, reiterated Friday, his first full day on the job.
"If great intellectual powerhouse is a qualification to be a member of the court and represent the American people and the wishes of the American people and to interp
Source: Yahoo News
Oct 8, 2005
Officials gave initial approval Thursday to a memorial for victims of communist regimes that would be located within sight of one of the icons of democracy the Capitol.
The 90-square-foot monument would be built on National Park Service land one block west of the Capitol. A central feature will be a bronze Goddess of Democracy statue similar to the papier-mache and Styrofoam statue erected by pro-democracy students in Beijing's Tiananmen Square during 1989 demonstrations.
Source: Wa Po
Oct 8, 2005
They had waited 37 years for this moment, but family members of 12 U.S. servicemen honored yesterday at Arlington National Cemetery approached the grave site cautiously, under a shield of umbrellas. Behind them, 12 soldiers stood in the rain, each holding a flag folded just so, the blue stars just visible.
For years, relatives never knew exactly what happened that day in 1968 at Ngok Tavak, a remote hill in Vietnam, after the North Vietnamese closed in. Some got out, led by a wild A
Source: Siege of Yorktown
Oct 8, 2005
The Brigade of the American Revolution, Colonial National Historical Park and Endview Plantation will commemorate the 225th anniversary of the surrender of over eight thousand British, German, and loyal American troops to George Washington’s Continental Army and French allies on October 19, 1781 in Yorktown, Virginia.
Source: LA Times
Oct 8, 2005
Exit one political heavyweight: former California Gov. Jerry Brown.
Enter another: longtime Bay Area congressman and civil rights crusader Ron Dellums.Exit one political heavyweight: former California Gov. Jerry Brown.
Enter another: longtime Bay Area congressman and civil rights crusader Ron Dellums.
For a city plagued with failing schools, high crime and nagging poverty, Oakland has managed to attract two consecutive political icons w
Source: St. Petersburg Times
Oct 7, 2005
Beginning Monday, the Ybor City Museum Society will showcase 90 of these Spanish and Italian language publications for the first time in "Otras
Voces: The Radical and Alternative Press in Ybor City," an exhibit highlighting the "Other Voices" in the city's 100-year history.They rolled cigars for a living - all day, every day. But Ybor City and West Tampa cigar factory workers looked forward to something new and different each morn
Source: The Australian
Oct 7, 2005
The memory of the illustrious British admiral Horatio Nelson stirred bidders to pay $2million for just three items of his memorabilia yesterday.The memory of the illustrious British admiral Horatio Nelson stirred bidders to pay $2million for just three items of his memorabilia yesterday.
The gold pocket-watch carried by Nelson when he died on his ship during the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 fetched pound stg. 400,000 ($964,400) at auction in London.
Source: The Australian
Oct 7, 2005
Logging will go ahead at a stunning bay in Tasmania that was once home to early French explorers despite a decision to include the site on Australia's National Heritage List.Logging will go ahead at a stunning bay in Tasmania that was once home to early French explorers despite a decision to include the site on Australia's National Heritage List.
The northeast peninsula of Recherche Bay, near the very southern tip of Australia, was yesterday granted heritage lis
Source: Wa Po
Oct 7, 2005
Former FBI director Louis J. Freeh has denounced Bill Clinton over the scandals that marred his presidency and for his record on terrorism, saying the level of distrust was so great that he stayed in his post so Clinton could not appoint his successor.
In a forthcoming book and "60 Minutes" interview, Freeh, whose strained relations with Clinton were no secret, says he was so determined to distance himself from Clinton that he sent back a White House pass so that all his v
Source: Japan Today
Oct 7, 2005
U.S. President George W Bush said Thursday that al-Qaida was bent on building a "totalitarian empire" grounded in radical Islam, and put its leader Osama bin Laden on a par with Adolf Hitler, Pol Pot and Joseph Stalin.
In a speech on terrorism, Bush said it was a "dangerous illusion" that the United States would be better off pulling troops out of a conflict which has cost nearly 2,000 U.S. lives and hammered his personal opinion poll ratings.
Source: NYT
Oct 7, 2005
While "Slavery in New York" is marred by its tendency to slight the broader context and by its earnest attempts to pull in all age groups, its virtues are so considerable, and the information and objects on display so potent, that they are bound to transform the way any visitor thinks about slavery in New York City's past.
The $5 million exhibition inspired some concern from the start because of its aim to demonstrate the importance of slavery in New York City, from the D
Source: NYT
Oct 7, 2005
In a region that prizes showy monuments to wealth, the lone monument to the man who made it all possible has languished in isolation for decades. A soaring concrete obelisk dedicated to Henry Flagler, the oil tycoon who hastened South Florida's development by building a railroad all the way to Key West, it sits on a tiny man-made island in Biscayne Bay, reachable only by boat or, more typically, Jet Ski. It's neglected. Some want to improve it. "Flagler," says a p
