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: David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies
January 2, 2005
A magazine that published an anti-Jewish "dual loyalty" slur has now backtracked, as a result of protests by The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies.
The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, a glossy pro-Arab monthly magazine, had published an article in its November 2005 issue alleging that Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, Sr. was disloyal to America and helped prolong World War One in order to show his "loyalty to Zionism."
Source: Times (UK)
January 2, 2005
An Italian judge has ordered a priest to appear in court this month to prove that Jesus Christ existed.
The case against Father Enrico Righi has been brought in the town of Viterbo, north of Rome, by Luigi Cascioli, a retired agronomist who once studied for the priesthood but later became a militant atheist. Signor Cascioli, author of a book called The Fable of Christ, began legal proceedings against Father Righi three years ago after the priest denounced Signor
Source: Washington Times
January 2, 2005
JERUSALEM -- Israeli archaeologists, screening tons of rubble scooped out of this ancient city's sacred Temple Mount, have discovered hundreds of artifacts and coins, as well as jewelry, some with biblical links dating back more than three millennia. Most of the stones and earth originally were taken to an organic garbage dump in nearby Bethany, the New Testament town known in Arabic as Al-Azariya, and could not be retrieved. But a substantial portion was diverted t
Source: BBC News
January 2, 2005
Tens of thousands of pounds worth of art and antiquarian books have been lost in a New Year house fire.
The blaze at the Edinburgh home of former Scotsman editor Magnus Linklater destroyed works by artists including Samuel Peploe and William MacTaggart.
The fire, in a drawing room, was thought to have started in Christmas tree lights as Mr Linklater and his wife Veronica hosted a party.
Source: BBC News
January 2, 2005
Austria is celebrating the 250th birthday of one of its most famous sons - the composer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Salzburg, the city of his birth, is hoping to cash in with a mixture of kitsch and high culture and its Mozart industry is going into overdrive this month. An enterprising local dairy has developed a new Mozart yogurt and a Mozart dessert drink - flavoured with chocolate, hazelnut and marzipan.
The yogurt is one of hundreds
Source: BBC News
January 1, 2006
Winston Churchill favoured letting Gandhi die if he went on hunger strike, newly published Cabinet papers show. The UK's WWII prime minister thought India's spiritual leader should be treated like anyone else if he stopped eating while being held by the British. But his ministers persuaded him against the tactic, fearing Gandhi would become a martyr if he died in British hands. Gandhi was detained in 1942 after he condemned India's involvement in the war but neve
Source: Telegraph (UK)
January 2, 2006
Stonehenge has been short-listed in a seven-year poll to identify the seven wonders of the modern world.The ancient stone circle in Wiltshire is the only British landmark in the top 21 short-list after tens of millions of public votes worldwide.
The Tower of London, Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, St Paul's Cathedral, the London Eye and Greenwich Observatory were the other British contenders among the 77 nominated sites.
But all these
Source: NYT
January 1, 2006
At noon on Jan. 1, 1898, Robert A. Van Wyck was unceremoniously inaugurated as the first mayor of the consolidated city of Greater New York. He did not deliver an inaugural address.
Instead, after inspecting several floral displays in the mayor's private office, Mr. Van Wyck accepted the congratulations of the departing mayor, William L. Strong - who observed that the voters had decided that Mr. Van Wyck should "descend from your position as judge and assume the position of ma
Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
January 1, 2006
Ben Franklin: inventor, philosopher, author, scientist, diplomat, Founding Father.
Although he was born in Boston on Jan. 17, 1706, Franklin's adopted hometown of Philadelphia will throw him the biggest birthday bash any 300-year-old guy's ever had. Actually, Philly has been celebrating the American Big Ben's tercentenary since last year with tours, events, hotel packages, restaurant specials and more.The Tercentenary Consortium made up of the American Phi
Source: Independent (London)
January 1, 2006
A side of Winston Churchill's character rarely glimpsed " that of the vengeful, rather than magnanimous, war leader " has emerged in hitherto secret government documents. They reveal that he wanted to take the unprecedented step of sending Adolf Hitler to the electric chair, had he been captured, and was also content to see Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi starve to death during a hunger strike in 1943.
The Prime Minister, talking in a War Cabinet meeting in July
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
January 1, 2006
Presidential historian George Edwards of Texas A&M University, now temporarily at Oxford University in England, says Bush has suffered the same fifth-year fate as other presidents, misinterpreting the meaning of re-election and failing to recognize the downside of a second term: becoming a lame duck.
"Look at what happened to George W. Bush," Edwards said. "The first time he doesn't get a plurality. Then he gets 50.8 percent. He seemed to be very relieved.
Source: Wa Po
January 1, 2006
IMBER, England, Dec. 31 -- For the first 17 years of his life, before this tiny village died for England, Ken Mitchell spent every Sunday in St. Giles Church. Now 79, Mitchell looked up at the moss-covered steeple, secured behind a 10-foot British army fence and barbed wire, and struggled to remember life in the village that he and 150 other residents were forced to leave in December 1943.
"It's so confusing," Mitchell said as he rambled through the village, among the mudd
Source: NYT
December 31, 2005
Martin Luther King III, and his sister Bernice King are vowing to fight the sale of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta to the National Park Service. The two are in disagreement with their brother Dexter King and their sister Yolanda King, who voted in favor of pursuing the sale this month. Outside the center, Martin and Bernice King said their priority was preserving their father's legacy and their mother's dream. Their mother, Coretta Scott King, is recov
Source: Gazette (Montreal)
December 31, 2005
It's not surprising that outsiders and, indeed, many Quebecers, believe that Quebec City is solidly French. As Louisa Blair points out in the second volume of her aptly titled The Anglos: The Hidden Face of Quebec City, the English-speaking population began to lose its visibility long, long ago. "The interest of historians in anglophone Quebecers was deflected at Confederation, and by the 1940s had almost vanished completely."
Blair, whose own family has deep roots in Queb
Source: Sunday Telegraph (UK)
January 1, 2006
IRELAND's president during World War II offered condolences to Nazi Germany's representative in Dublin over the death of Adolf Hitler, newly declassified government records show.Until now, historians had believed that Ireland's prime minister at the time, Eamon de Valera, was the only government leader to convey official condolences to Eduard Hempel, director of the German diplomatic corps in Ireland. De Valera's gesture -- unique among leaders of neutral nations
Source: Wa Po
December 30, 2005
Invading Canada won't be like invading Iraq: When we invade Canada, nobody will be able to grumble that we didn't have a plan.
The United States government does have a plan to invade Canada. It's a 94-page document called "Joint Army and Navy Basic War Plan -- Red," with the word SECRET stamped on the cover. It's a bold plan, a bodacious plan, a step-by-step plan to invade, seize and annex our neighbor to the north. It goes like this:First,
Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch
December 24, 2005
The U.S. National Slavery Museum this week provided Fredericksburg officials with more information about studies funded with a $1 million city payment.
Vonita W. Foster, the museum's executive director, also indicated some documentation already has been filed with the city.
Meanwhile, a Fredericksburg City Council member seeking more details about how the museum spent the $1 million signaled yesterday that the council might hold a closed-door discussion of matters by c
Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch
December 23, 2005
WILLIAMSBURG Surrounded by a dozen TV screens and five assistants in a darkened control room, producer Linda Randulfe keeps up a steady patter of commands.
"This goes to Jay. Coming up on four minutes," she says. And later, "Prompter's going to be next. Standby to roll tape."
In a neighboring studio, three actors in 18th-century garb field a stream of questions from students who have tuned in. They're helped by a Colonial Williamsburg historian, Jay
Source: nationaltrust.org
December 16, 2005
After a protracted battle, a monument to one of America's oldest fraternal organizations may soon be demolished to restore an even older, more sacred resource: a tribal burial ground.
In August, a state commission decreed that the 1928 Masonic Temple in Norwich, Conn.,—a massive neoclassical building with fluted columns and elaborate details—could come down so that the Mohegan Nation can reclaim land it has long considered desecrated. The tribe's 17th-century leader, Uncas, and oth
Source: Daily Ireland
December 31, 2005
State papers released yesterday under the 30-year rule revealed that there was escalating tension between the Irish and British governments during 1975. Then on ceasefire, IRA negotiations with the British were viewed with concern by the Irish coalition government of the day led by Liam Cosgrave. The organisation’s ceasefire endured for most of 1975. Government ministers were suspicious about what the British Government was discussing and with whom. The papers revealed that suspicions increased
