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: Yahoo News
December 3, 2009
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The Gospel of Luke records that, as he was dying on the cross, Jesus showed his boundless mercy by praying for his killers this way: "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."
Not so fast, say contributors to the Conservative Bible Project.
The project, an online effort to create a Bible suitable for contemporary conservative sensibilities, claims Jesus' quote is a disputed addition abetted by liberal biblical scholars, even if
Source: Azcentral
December 2, 2009
When Ira Hayes was alive, his image was captured in one of the most famous battle photographs ever taken - the World War II picture of U.S. Marines raising the flag over Iwo Jima.
Now, more than a half-century later, it turns out that Hayes' image also was captured in death - secretly cast in plaster while he lay in a Phoenix mortuary awaiting burial.
The heroic and tragic story of Hayes, a Pima Indian from Bapchule, was depicted in books, Hollywood films and popular m
Source: Pew Research Center
December 3, 2009
As President Obama seeks to expand America’s global role on issues ranging from Afghanistan to climate change, the U.S. public is turning decidedly inward. For the first time in more than 40 years of polling, a plurality (49%) says the United States should “mind its own business internationally” and let other countries get along the best they can on their own.
The quadrennial survey finds both the general public and members of the Council on Foreign Relations apprehensive and uncer
Source: Bloomberg
February 12, 2009
Dec. 2 (Bloomberg) -- The tunnel stank, yet I could scarcely keep from leaping into it after my guide said, “You are now standing on the ruins of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.”
We were in ancient Mesopotamia’s greatest city, on the grounds of one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The gardens are long gone, and I was looking at a reconstruction of their foundation. Animals, and possibly their caretakers, had moved in, one example of the chaos visited upon Iraq’s archaeolo
Source: BBC News
March 12, 2009
A strike by French museum workers has shut the Louvre and the Palace of Versailles - two of the most popular attractions for visitors to Paris.
The Musee d'Orsay, housing world-famous Impressionist paintings, is also shut.
The protest is over French government plans to trim the civil service by replacing only one in two retiring staff.
The Pompidou Centre, housing a rich collection of modern art, has been closed by the action since 23 November.
Source: CNN
February 12, 2009
London, England (CNN) -- It is a truth universally acknowledged -- or nearly so -- that Jane Austen, the author of "Pride and Prejudice," died of a rare illness called Addison's disease, which robs the body of the ability to make critical hormones.
Katherine White doesn't believe it.
White, herself a sufferer of Addison's disease, has studied Austen's own letters and those of her family and friends, and concluded that key symptoms just don't match what's known
Source: Rasmussen Reports
December 1, 2009
The number of Americans identifying themselves as Democrats fell by nearly two percentage points in November. Added to declines earlier in the year, the number of Democrats in the nation has fallen by five percentage points during 2009.
In November, 36.0% of American adults said they were Democrats. That’s down from 37.8% a
Source: American Revolution Center
December 3, 2009
Who cares about the American Revolution and why should something that happened more than 200 years ago matter today?
These are among the questions raised by a recent national survey, sponsored by The American Revolution Center, which revealed an alarming lack of knowledge of our nation's founding history, despite near universal agreement on the importance of this knowledge.
The study, conducted in the summer of 2009 among a demographically representative random sampl
Source: Yahoo News
December 2, 2009
Two stolen ancient artifacts are being returned to Italy from New York City.
An Italian government representative is taking possession of them at a ceremony Wednesday. The artifacts are a Pompeii plaster wall painting and a Corinthian vase for mixing water and wine.
Source: Press of Atlantic City
December 1, 2009
VINELAND — Esther Raab says she remembers John Demjanjuk.
She remembers him as a Ukrainian soldier, working in a Nazi death camp in Poland when she was a captive there in 1943. He would bring ammunition into the armory, where it would be fed into chains for machine guns. He would then leave with the ammo, and she’d hear the firing squads execute camp prisoners. Demjanjuk would return with the spent ammo.
“He wasn’t the tops,” Raab said. “He helped with transport. He put
Source: NYT
November 29, 2009
If they crave comfort, Democratic candidates can grab onto this: political science research finds little historical connection between unemployment and midterm Congressional elections....
In the 15 midterm elections since Harry S. Truman won the White House in 1948, the sitting president’s party lost House seats 13 times. The exceptions were in 1998, when Democrats benefited from a robust economy and a backlash against the Republican drive to impeach President Bill Clinton over the
Source: Courier-Journal (Kentucky, Indiana)
December 1, 2000
The Frazier International History Museum will be the new home of the Bloedner Monument, the nation’s oldest surviving Civil War memorial.
Left behind after the 1861 Battle of Rowlett’s Station near Munfordville, Ky., the monument was recently rescued and restored following decades of exposure that nearly destroyed it at Cave Hill Cemetery, where it has rested since 1867.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Cemetery Administration selected the Frazie
Source: WSJ
December 2, 2009
PUSEY, England—From a stately manor home in the Oxfordshire countryside, a descendent of John Cadbury, founder of the British chocolate maker that bears his name, is fighting to prevent the company's attempted takeover by Kraft Foods Inc. of the U.S.
Yet despite this country's well-known love of Cadbury PLC chocolate—sometimes called the taste of British childhood—Felicity Loudon's battle to preserve the company's independence is more of a Quixotic fight rather than a populist cause
Source: Rasmussen Reports
December 2, 2009
President Obama detailed his plan for winning – and ending – the war in Afghanistan in a long-awaited speech last night at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Eighty-nine percent (89%) of U.S. voters have been following recent news about Afghanistan, including 51% who say they’ve been following the news Very Closely...
... Before the president’s speech, voters were essentially evenly divided over whether the United States could still win the war in Afghanistan and whether all t
Source: Talking Point Memo
December 1, 2009
In an interview with the Politico, former Vice President Dick Cheney attacked President Obama over Afghanistan -- and also insisted that the Bush administration is not responsible for the situation in that country:
But Cheney rejected any suggestion that Obama had to decide on a new strategy for Afghanistan because the one employed by the previous administration failed.
Cheney was asked if he thinks the Bush administration bears any responsibility for the disint
Source: Salon
December 1, 2009
From the moment it was announced, it was clear that Sarah Palin's memoir "Going Rogue" would be a bestseller. But the size of the book's success is still pretty amazing: According to Greg Sargent, more than one million copies have now been sold. That's after a first week in which 700,000 were bought.
Source: Time
December 2, 2009
Is Italy capable of delivering a thermonuclear strike? Could the Belgians and the Dutch drop hydrogen bombs on enemy targets? And what about Germany — a country where fear of atomkraft is so great that the last government opposed all civilian nuclear power? Germany's air force couldn't possibly be training to deliver bombs 13 times more powerful than the one that destroyed Hiroshima, could it?
It is Europe's dirty secret that the list of nuclear-capable countries extends beyond thos
Source: The Press (UK)
January 12, 2009
HISTORIANS and metal detector enthusiasts believe they have found York’s first metal recycling centre – dating back to 1066.
A ten-year project aimed at discovering the site of the battle of Fulford, which preceded the better known battles of Stamford Bridge and Hastings, has uncovered more than 1,000 pieces of iron.
Historian Chas Jones, who led the research, said the items included arrowheads and axe heads, but there was also strong evidence of metal working indicatin
Source: CNN
December 2, 2009
A former commander of Soviet forces in Afghanistan has warned history is being repeated in the war-ravaged country as the United States and its allies become increasingly mired in an "unwinnable war."
Gen. Victor Yermakov commanded the Soviet Union's 40th army in Afghanistan from May 1982 to November 1983, one of six commanders to preside over the Soviet task force after its 1979 invasion.
The Kremlin's bloody nine-year campaign to support the Marxist governm
Source: Britannica Blog
December 1, 2009
Steve Horwitz at the Austrian Economists blog had a good post based on Census Bureau data that were recently released on “Living Conditions in the United States, 2005.” The chart below shows the percentage of all U.S. households owning various household appliances in 1971 and 2005, and the percentage of poor households (below the official poverty line) owning those appliances in 2005. The data show a significant improvement in living standards between 1971 and 2005, as the percentage of househol
