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Cliopatria

  • Aug 8, 2005

    The Age of Hillary?

    by Cliopatria

    At a recent luncheon, an engineer asked me what history would likely say about the period we live in and what it would be called. He had read about the Cold War and post-Cold War eras and wondered what label the Clinton-Bush years would wear. When I replied, “The Age of Hillary,” several around the table laughed, and several groaned. And I left it at that, thinking that a serious reply would be out of place in the light-hearted banter that floated above the delicious cooking. Bu

  • Aug 8, 2005

    We're Holocaust Deniers, Not Nazis

    by Cliopatria

    From the Sacramento Bee (April 15, 2004):

    The weekend of April 24-25, is billed as the first publicly held International Revisionist Conference to be held in Sacramento at the Turn Verein Hall, a German cultural center in the 3300 block of J Street that rents out its facilities for seminars, wedding and other events.

    Walter F. Mueller, chairman of the European American Cu

  • Aug 8, 2005

    Comics Are a Mirror of American Society

    by Cliopatria

    Steve Barnes, in the Houston Chronicle (April 15, 2004):

    Like jazz and the banjo, comic strips are an American art form, one born and perfected in halls far from the academies of high art. In the comics' case, those hallways were newspapers'.

    The battling giants of 1890s New York City newspapering, William Randolph Hearst (founder of the Hearst Corporation, which owns the Houston Chronicle) and Joseph Pulitzer, used comics in their fierce circulation

  • Aug 8, 2005

    Who Was the Queen of Sheba?

    by Cliopatria

    Olivia Ward, in the Toronto Star (April 3, 2004):

    The Queen of Sheba, legendary lover and ally of Israel's King Solomon, has sparked the curiosity of historians, religious scholars, archeologists and writers for centuries. But 3,000 years after her supposed lifetime, debate still rages over her existence.

    At a time of ongoing hatred in the Middle East, the story of Sheba stands as one of religious harmony and co-operation between two prosperous civi

  • Aug 8, 2005

    Jonathan Dresner: Tom Friedman's Illogical Logic

    by Cliopatria

    To the Editor:

    Thomas Friedman's "big picture" analysis of the Spanish vote is awfully convenient: he expands the frame just far enough in the direction that he wants it to go. Ignoring the "little pictures" in favor of a convenient single cause is bad logic.

    Sure, terrorists can claim that the Spanish vote was a victory. That doesn't make them, or Friedman, right. The terrorists were

  • Aug 8, 2005

    The Fact the Media Missed: Overall Debt in the United States Grew at the Fastest Rate Ever Last Year

    by Cliopatria

    Economist Dean Baker, in his weekly newsletter (March 8, 2004):

    Nation's Debt Grew at Rapid Pace in 2003 Eduardo Porter
    New York Times, March 5, 2004, Page C4
    http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/05/business/05fed.html

    This article reports on new data from the Federal Reserve Board on debt and financial flows in 2003. It notes that overall debt, and especially consumer debt, grew at their fastest pace since the mid-eighties. It is worth notin

  • Aug 8, 2005

    The Scientist Who Stole (Allegedly) the Toe from the Corpse of Robert the Bruce

    by Cliopatria

    Yakub Qureshi, in scotsman.com (March 7, 2004):

    HE STOLE into the abbey in the dead of night, intent on stealing a personal memento of Scotland's greatest king.

    Not a thief nor a grave robber but a respected town dignitary and"man of science", Joseph Paton found himself irresistibly drawn to the body of this icon of Scotland's 14th-century fight for independence.

    Reaching forward, he