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: NYT
December 24, 2008
WASHINGTON -- It was April 1972, and American B-52 bombers were pummeling North Vietnam. President Richard M. Nixon got on the phone with his national security adviser, Henry A. Kissinger, for an update on the air assault on the port city of Haiphong. The men struggled to persuade each other that the war might still be won.
“They dropped a million pounds of bombs,” Mr. Kissinger said.
Nixon was pleased. “Goddamn, that must have been a good strike!” he said.
Source: AP
December 23, 2008
VATICAN CITY — Galileo Galilei is going from heretic to hero.
The Vatican is recasting the most famous victim of its Inquisition as a man of faith, just in time for the 400th anniversary of Galileo's telescope and the U.N.-designated International Year of Astronomy next year.
Pope Benedict XVI paid tribute to the Italian astronomer and physicist Sunday, saying he and other scientists had helped the faithful better understand and "contemplate with gratitude the Lord
Source: FoxNews.com
December 23, 2008
The similarities between President-elect Barack Obama and Abraham Lincoln will be on full display on Inauguration Day when Obama takes the oath of office using the same Bible used to swear in Lincoln.
Obama will be the first president sworn in using the Lincoln Bible since its initial use in 1861. The Bible is part of the collections of the Library of Congress.
"President-elect Obama is deeply honored that the Library of Congress has made the Lincoln Bible availabl
Source: BBC
December 23, 2008
An amateur British archaeologist has discovered almost 300 gold coins dating from the 7th Century at a dig just outside Jerusalem's Old City.
Birmingham woman Nadine Ross, 34, found the solid 24-carat coins under a large rock in a car park.
The coins date back to the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, before the Persians conquered Jerusalem.
Ms Ross is being feted for finding one of the largest and most impressive coin hoards ever discovered in Je
Source: NYT
December 22, 2008
FRANKFURT AN DER ODER, Germany — During the last days of World War II, this drab city in eastern Germany was almost completely destroyed as Soviet troops advanced toward Berlin.
It has been rebuilt, of course, and this year it boasts spectacular medieval stained-glass windows that have been returned after more than 60 years in exile in Russia.
Yet the 66-foot-tall windows — which date from the 14th century and depict scenes from the Old Testament in powerful images and
Source: Vatican News
December 20, 2008
This morning in the Vatican the Holy Father received the members of the Pontifical Institute of Christian Archaeology along with their grand chancellor, Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski.
In his address the Pope praised the "precious and fruitful cultural, literary, and academic work that the Institute carries out in the service of the Church and of culture in general", affirming that "in the traditional sphere of archaeology, the ordinary and specialized courses your Insti
Source: FoxNews.com
December 21, 2008
In one of his last interviews before leaving Washington, D.C., Vice President Cheney, a 40-year veteran of Washington politics, tried to straighten out a few misconceptions about his tenure and the way the executive and legislative branches are supposed to work.
Vice President Cheney mocked Vice President-elect Joe Biden's grasp of the Constitution, defended former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and said President Bush "doesn't have to check with anybody" before launchi
Source: Telegraph (UK)
December 21, 2008
A growing chorus of voices is calling for the centuries-old link between Church and state to be broken after the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, ignited the issue last week by saying that it was “by no means the end of the world if the Establishment disappears”.
Three former ministers openly backed the idea of a separation, with one claiming that the majority of backbenchers would vote to end the special position the Church has enjoyed since the Reformation.
Source: Independent (UK)
December 21, 2008
A British woman who sacrificed her life by refusing to leave Jewish orphans in her care is being hailed as one of the forgotten heroes of the Holocaust.
Jane Haining's story of personal sacrifice and bravery is emerging only now, nearly 65 years after her death. She is among a list of British people whose selfless heroism during the Second World War should be recognised posthumously in the honours list, campaigners say.
A Presbyterian missionary, Miss Haining is one of
Source: NYT
December 20, 2008
HYDE PARK, N.Y. — As winds howl through the empty rooms of failed financial institutions and foreclosed homes, as unemployment statistics spike and stocks plunge, as an era of high hopes stutters with fear, and seeming shelters shake on fraudulent foundations, who would not hope that new leadership might stave off further catastrophe?
And a new leader, coming to power with his “brain trust” of advisers and his “new deal” for the nation, has but a short time to make his case before i
Source: McClatchy
December 19, 2008
There are Democrats and Republicans, liberals and moderates, Hispanics and Asians, whites and blacks, Northerners and Westerners.
But one group arguably was missing when President-elect Barack Obama rounded out his 15-member Cabinet Friday — Southerners.
The only Southern appointment came when he named former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk U.S. trade representative, a lower-level post. Nobody else from below the Mason-Dixon Line made the cut, not even from the newly blue states
Source: Boston Globe
December 19, 2008
Protestants still constitute a majority of the Congress of the United States, but in terms of religious beliefs, the House and Senate, just like the constituencies they represent, are more diverse than they were nearly a half-century ago, according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
Today's Pew study, called "Faith on the Hill" among members of the incoming 111th Congress, found that Catholics, Jews, and Mormons are among religious groups better represented in C
Source: Independent
December 23, 2008
The last of the tea and toast has been taken, the waiters, caterers and cloakroom attendants have all gone home, and a part of the capital city's social history has closed. The Café Royal, where Winston Churchill waited anxiously to know his political future, and Oscar Wilde began the quarrel that ruined him, has served its final cream tea.
The last private party was held in a cellar on Saturday night...
Exceptionally, the closure of the Café Royal is not a story of the
Source: BBC
December 22, 2008
In 1965 Japan asked the US to be ready to launch a nuclear attack on China
if war broke out between the Asian rivals, documents from the time
indicate.
The documents, declassified by Japan's foreign ministry, summarise talks
held during a visit to Washington by Japan's then prime minister, Eisaku
Sato.
Mr Sato won the Nobel peace prize in 1974 for his rejection of nuclear
weapons.
Japan is committed to pacifism under the terms of its post-war constitution.
It is
Source: http://www.times-standard.com
December 22, 2008
The discerning eye of a federal Bureau of Land Management employee and the
investigative skills of Patrick's Point State Park Ranger Greg Hall led to
the arrest of a Eureka man this week on suspicion of looting
archaeological items from an ancient tribal village site.
At the center of the investigation was a video the suspect created and
subsequently posted on YouTube showing him digging at the village site
within Patrick's Point State Park.
”It was a bragging video,” Hall sai
Source: Reuters
December 22, 2008
Egyptian archaeologists have found the tombs of two court officials, in charge of music and pyramid building, in a 4,000 year old cemetery from the reign of Pharaoh Unas. The tombs were found buried in the sands south of Cairo and could shed light on the fifth and the sixth dynasties of the Old Kingdom ....
Related Links
Egyptian archaeologists unveil pair of 4 mill
Source: Canada.com
December 20, 2008
A Canadian-led research team probing the dirt floor of a hillside cavern
in South Africa has discovered proof that the site was occupied by a
hominid species two million years ago, making it the earliest known home
of our cave-dwelling human ancestors.
Small tools believed to have been used by homo habilis--one of several
species of advanced primates that lived in south-ern Africa at that
time--were unearthed by University of Toronto archeologist Michael Chazan
and colleagues from t
Source: CNN
December 22, 2008
Forty years ago this week, three men in a tiny spacecraft slipped their
earthly bonds and traveled where no one else had before, circling the moon
10 times and beaming back an iconic image of a blue-and-white Earth in the
distance, solitary but bound as one against the black vastness beyond.
The voyage of Apollo 8 from December 21-27, 1968, marked humans' first
venture to another heavenly body."We were flying to the moon for the first time," said Jim Lovell, one of
the three astro
Source: International Herald Tribune
December 22, 2008
The Supreme Court's decision in Bush v. Gore, issued eight years ago this
month, was widely understood to work like that tape recorder in"Mission:
Impossible." It was meant to produce a president and then self-destruct."Our consideration is limited to the present circumstances," the majority
famously said,"for the problem of equal protection in election processes
generally presents many complexities."
That sentence, translated from high legal jargon into English, was
generally tak
Source: Times (UK)
December 22, 2008
Sir Bernard Crick belonged to an endangered species. He was a public intellectual in the mould of the great socialist sages of the first half of the last century — Graham Wallas, G. D. H. Cole, R. H. Tawney and Harold Laski. He was a distinguished political theorist, with three important scholarly works to his credit, as well as one great one.
He also intervened incessantly in public debate, on matters ranging from parliamentary reform to the politics of divided societies. But his
