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: Salon
9-23-12
[CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO]...To fully appreciate the journey that produced today’s polarized electoral map and the trends that will shape the future, Salon’s art director, Benjamin Wheelock, pored over a century’s worth of presidential, congressional and gubernatorial election results from every state, assigning each a shade of blue or red for each election year. Watch as the map travels backward from the divide we know today, through the long, slow post-civil rights evolution, through a sea of red when Dwight Eisenhower takes power, to coast-to-coast blue during the FDR years, and finally all the way to 1912, just a few decades after the end of Reconstruction, when “Republican” was still a curse-word in the South and the GOP reigned in states we now think of as Democratic bastions....
Source: AP
9-21-12
A Harvard University journal says it hasn't fully verified research that purportedly shows some early Christians believed Jesus had a wife, even though Harvard's divinity school touted the research during a publicity blitz this week.The research centers on a fourth-century papyrus fragment containing Coptic text in which Jesus uses the words "my wife." On Tuesday, Harvard Divinity School professor Karen King announced at an international conference that the fragment was the only existing ancient text in which Jesus explicitly talks of having a wife.Harvard also said King's research was scheduled to be published in the Harvard Theological Review in January and noted the journal was peer-reviewed, which implied the research had been fully vetted...
Source: Daily Mail (UK)
9-23-12
Art experts will this week claim that Leonardo da Vinci completed a version of the Mona Lisa some ten years before the famous painting which now hangs in the Louvre in Paris.Known as the Isleworth Mona Lisa, the painting is a slightly larger size than the famous portrait and has long been the subject of debate over its authenticity.However, the not-for-profit Mona Lisa Foundation, which was set up to conduct research into the work, is planning to put forward 'historical, comparative and scientific evidence' that will prove once and for all that the painting is by the Italian renaissance artist....
Source: NYT
9-22-12
EARLIER this month, we asked you to tell us which objects represented New York City to you. We had made our own list, “A History of New York in 50 Objects,” and wanted to hear what we had missed. Well, you told us. More than 600 of you responded on NYTimes.com, offering everything from a bright red apple to Bella Abzug’s hat.No subject engaged you more than food. We included a hearty helping in our list, but you wanted seconds. You lobbied passionately for pizza slices (triangular and square); egg creams (made with Fox’s U-bet chocolate syrup); pastrami sandwiches; Mello-Rolls and other ice cream treats, especially from Mister Softee and Bungalow Bar; seltzer bottles; Ebinger’s blackout cake; the cream-cheese sandwiches at Chock full o’Nuts; bialys; plantains; cheesecake from Junior’s and Lindy’s; Charlotte russes; a pickle barrel; and hot dogs from Nathan’s and from carts under the ubiquitous blue-and-yellow Sabrett umbrellas.
Source: NYT
9-22-12
BERLIN — The hunt for Aribert Ferdinand Heim, a Nazi fugitive and concentration camp doctor, has officially come to a close, the German authorities said Friday, after they determined that the man known as Dr. Death for his unnecessary operations had died in Egypt in 1992.A regional court in Baden-Baden, Dr. Heim’s last known residence in Germany, said it had suspended the criminal investigation because “no doubts remained” that the fugitive who eluded the authorities for decades had died of cancer in Cairo in 1992.
Source: NYT
9-21-12
PARIS — President François Hollande inaugurated a new Holocaust memorial center on Friday with an address that underscored the direct approach he has taken to France’s collaborationist past, a grim and still uncomfortable chapter that French leaders and politicians have often preferred to skirt.The reality of French collaboration with the Nazis has been demonstrated and accepted, Mr. Hollande said in his address at the memorial, in Drancy, a city north of Paris that was the site of a major transit camp for Jews being deported to death camps in the east. He urged that the nation now turn to the “transmission,” or passing on, of that difficult history.
Source: NYT
9-23-12
LEICESTER, England — For more than 500 years, King Richard III has been the most widely reviled of English monarchs. But a stunning archaeological find this month here in the English Midlands — a skeleton that medieval scholars believe is very likely to be Richard’s — could lead to a reassessment of his brief but violent reign.If 12 weeks of DNA and isotope testing confirm that the remains found amid the ruins of an ancient priory are the 15th century king’s, those who believe that Richard has been the victim of a campaign of denigration — begun by the Tudor monarchs who succeeded him and deeply entrenched over the centuries in British popular consciousness — hope the renewed attention will spur scholarship that will correct the injustice they say has been done to his reputation.It is a debate that has raged with varying intensity since at least the late 18th century. And at its heart is this: Was Richard the villain his detractors expediently made him out to be, or was he, as supporters contend, a goodly king, harsh in ways that were a function of an unforgiving time, but the author of groundbreaking measures to help the poor, extend protections to suspected felons and ease bans on the printing and selling of books?...
Source: Fox News
9-22-12
BERLIN – Germany has launched a war crimes investigation against an 87-year-old Philadelphia man it accuses of serving as an SS guard at the Auschwitz death camp, The Associated Press has learned, following years of failed U.S. Justice Department efforts to have the man stripped of his American citizenship and deported.Johann "Hans" Breyer, a retired toolmaker, admits he was a guard at Auschwitz during World War II, but told the AP he was stationed outside the facility and had nothing to do with the wholesale slaughter of some 1.5 million Jews and others behind the gates.The special German office that investigates Nazi war crimes has recommended that prosecutors charge him with accessory to murder and extradite him to Germany for trial on suspicion of involvement in the killing of at least 344,000 Jews at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in occupied Poland....
Source: BBC magazine
9-23-12
Though his American critics often accuse the US President of being a socialist or Marxist, some observers have recently come to another conclusion: Barack Obama is a Tory.Though President Obama is a Democrat, and thus more likely to embrace left-leaning political positions than the American Right, he's drawn repeated comparisons to members of England's Conservative party.For some expatriates, the president's centrist response to an increasingly activist Republican opposition makes him a conservative in the mould of the Tory party."The fit isn't always going to be perfect, but it's more of a guide to a certain aspect of a politician's temperament and character," says Alex Massie, who writes for the Spectator in London....
Source: NYT
9-22-12
Though even some of his closest aides did not know at the time, Kennedy recorded more than 260 hours of Oval Office conversations, telephone calls and dictation into his Dictaphone. The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation has culled the highlights into a new book of annotated transcripts and two audio CDs. Some of the audio portions will be available online. The book, “Listening In: The Secret White House Recordings of John F. Kennedy,” with a foreword by his daughter, Caroline Kennedy, and an introduction by Ted Widmer, a presidential historian at Brown University, offers “the raw material of history,” said Thomas Putnam, the director of the Kennedy Library.
Source: Chicago Tribune
9-23-12
In the wake of the bloodiest day of the Civil War or any American war, President Abraham Lincoln issued on Sept. 22, 1862, a preliminary proclamation freeing all slaves in the Confederate states. In the wake of the Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest day of the Civil War or any American war, President Abraham Lincoln issued on Sept. 22, 1862, a preliminary proclamation freeing all slaves in the Confederate states.
Source: Lee White for the National Coalition for History
9-21-12
September 21, 2012The Honorable Nathan Deal Governor of the State of Georgia 206 Washington Street Suite 203, State Capitol Atlanta, GA 30334Dear Governor Deal:On behalf of the National Coalition for History (NCH) and other organizations listed below, I am writing to express our serious concerns regarding the continued uncertainty about the fate of the Georgia Archives, which as you know is currently slated to close on November 1 absent any resolution of funding issues. We appreciate your public commitment to keep the Archives open and accessible to the public.The National Coalition for History is a consortium of more than 60 organizations that represent tens of thousands of historians, archivists, political scientists, educators, students and researchers, both in the United States and abroad, including many in Georgia. As historians and conservators of American history and culture, we care deeply about the services, programs, and activities provided by the Georgia Archives.
Source: NYT
9-22-12
JOSEPH GOEBBELS, in a pinstripe suit, his hair slicked back, gave a simple but philosophical speech about the importance of music. Then, smiling, he handed over the violin to a young woman.The passing was captured on film: the violin’s elegant outline, the figure on its flamed-maple back, the wear pattern of its varnish.Japan’s ambassador to Germany, Hiroshi Oshima, was on hand to witness the transfer. Nejiko Suwa, 23, played her new gift on the spot....
Source: NYT
9-21-12
When Karen L. King, a historian of early Christianity, announced this week that she had identified a fragment of ancient Coptic text in which Jesus utters the words “my wife,” she said she was making the finding public — despite many unresolved questions — so that her academic colleagues could weigh in.And weigh in, they have. A few said that the papyrus must be a forgery. Others have questioned Dr. King’s interpretation of its meaning. Some have faulted her for publishing a paper on an item of unknown provenance. And many have criticized her decision to give the scrap of papyrus the attention-getting title “The Gospel of Jesus’s Wife,” as if it had equal weight to other, lengthier texts that are known as Gospels.But even some of those casting doubt are also applauding her work. Many scholars said in interviews that they were excited by the discovery, because if it is genuine, it suggests at least one community of early adherents to Christianity believed that Jesus was married....
Source: Fox News
9-21-12
WARSAW, Poland – Capitalizing on low water levels in Warsaw's Vistula River, police are teaming up with archaeologists to recover gigantic marble and alabaster treasures that apparently were stolen from royals in Poland by Swedish invaders in the mid-17th century.A police Mi-8 helicopter hovered over a riverbed on Thursday, lifting ornaments such as the centerpiece of a fountain with water outlets decorated with Satyr-like faces.For police, it was gratifying to provide the chopper and assist Warsaw University archeologists in "this very important mission of retrieving priceless national treasures," said Mariusz Mrozek, a spokesman for Warsaw police....
Source: Telegraph (UK)
9-21-12
The discovery was made following the work of a team of German historians. Volunteers spent hours digging a muddy field looking for the RAF crew after the witness guided them to the site near Frankfurt.A Rolls Royce engine and landing gear of the Lancaster bomber was found followed by 'hundreds' of fragments of human bones in what would have been the cockpit.The dig was questioned by some locals who could not understand why the team were searching for British airmen who bombed their cities.Uwe Benkel, who led the search, said they felt obliged to find the missing men and bring comfort to their families who knew nothing of how or where they died....
Source: WaPo
9-19-12
Some people find certain numbers to be of great significance. For example, the Chinese find the number 8 to be very lucky. Americans find 13 to be very unlucky.The big number this week is 47, as in the 47 percent of irresponsible, freeloading voters that Mitt Romney decided months ago he can’t and won’t try to win over.Turns out 47 percent has a historical place in presidential campaign history. President Richard M. Nixon may have been the first to employ it, using it to great effect 40 years ago in his 1972 reelection campaign against Sen. George McGovern....
Source: WaPo
9-20-12
CHICAGO — Ask Chicago guitar legend Buddy Guy about the future of the blues and he’ll give a depressing — but direct —answer.“It’s scary,” Guy said during an interview upstairs at his club, Buddy Guy’s Legends, in Chicago’s South Loop. “I’m still going to play my music because I love what I’m doing, but we need all the support we can to keep the blues alive.”After five decades in the business, Guy is doing what he can to make sure the genre — and his late contemporaries like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and Junior Wells — lives on. Earlier this year Guy wrote his autobiography, “When I Left Home,” and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member is mentoring Massachusetts eighth-grader and blues guitarist Quinn Sullivan....
Source: WaPo
9-20-12
PARIS — In its boldest development in a generation, the Louvre Museum has a new wing dedicated to Islamic art, a nearly €100 million ($130 million) project that comes at a tense time between the West and the Muslim world.Louvre curators tout their new Islamic Art department, which took 11 years to build and opens to the public on Saturday, as a way to help bridge cultural divides. They say it offers a highbrow and respectful counterpart to the recent unflattering depictions of the Prophet Muhammad in Western media that have sparked protests by many Muslims.Still, one of the Louvre’s own consultants acknowledged that some Muslims could be “shocked” by three images of Muhammad with his face exposed in the new wing. Many Muslims believe the prophet should not be depicted at all — even in a flattering way — because it might encourage idolatry....
Source: WaPo
9-20-12
KINGSTON, Jamaica — Struggling with a chronically stagnant economy and one of the highest crime rates in the world, Jamaica is turning for help to a black nationalist leader who died more than 70 years ago.Marcus Garvey, who inspired millions of followers worldwide with messages of black pride and self-reliance, is being resurrected in a new mandatory civics program in schools across this predominantly black country of 2.8 million people....
