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Israel Risks New Turkish Ire with Recognition of Armenian Genocide

The Israeli Parliament on Monday held its first public debate on whether to commemorate the Turkish genocide of Armenians nearly a century ago, an emotionally resonant and politically fraught topic for Israel, founded on the ashes of the Holocaust and trying to salvage frayed ties with Turkey. The session resulted from a rare confluence of political forces — an effort under way for decades by some on the left to get Israel to take a leading role in bringing attention to mass murder, combined with those on the right angry at how Turkey has criticized Israel over its policies toward the Palestinians.

Judges: Not okay to say "boy" when referring to an adult black man

Last year, the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled that there were no racial overtones when a white manager at a Tyson chicken plant in Gadsden, Ala., called adult black men working there “boy.” “The usages were conversational” and “nonracial in context,” the majority wrote in a 2-to-1 decision that overturned a jury verdict of about $1.4 million in an employment discrimination case brought by a black Tyson employee, John Hithon... On Dec. 16, more than a year after the initial decision, the appeals court reversed course.

Ancient Seal Found in Jerusalem

 

In his debut in Washington's power struggles, Gingrich threw a bomb

 On the evening of Oct. 4, 1990, Newt Gingrich and his then-wife, Marianne, were enjoying a VIP reception at a Republican fundraiser when they were suddenly hustled over to have their picture taken with President George H.W. Bush.“I thought it was a bad idea,” Gingrich said in a series of interviews in 1992 that have not been previously published.

Turkey accuses France of genocide in colonial Algeria

The Turkish prime minister has accused France of committing genocide during its colonial occupation of Algeria.Recep Tayyip Erdogan was speaking after French MPs passed a bill making it a criminal act to deny that Ottoman Turks committed genocide in 1915-16 Armenia.He accused President Nicolas Sarkozy of using the bill to fan hatred of Muslims and Turks for electoral gain.He said Mr Sarkozy should "ask his father, who served in the French Legion there" about the Algerian "massacre"....

Washington Monument has extensive cracks from quake

 The earthquake-damaged Washington Monument has extensive cracking and chipped stones near its peak that make it highly vulnerable to rainfall, and inspectors found cracks and loose stones along the entire length of the 555-foot structure, according to a report released Thursday by the National Park Service.The report was prepared by the engineering firm whose employees rappelled down the sides of the monument in September to inspect the damage. It offers the most detailed portrait yet of damage to the 127-year-old monument, which has been closed to visitors since a 5.8-magnitude earthquake shook the nation's capital Aug. 23.

French bid to outlaw genocide denial outrages Turkey

PARIS — French lawmakers easily passed a measure Thursday to make it a crime to deny the mass killings of Armenians in 1915 by Ottoman Turks amounted to genocide. Turkey swiftly retaliated, ordering its ambassador home and halting official contacts, including some military cooperation.Within hours of the lower house vote on the bill, which would penalize those who deny the Armenian genocide, Turkey meted out a severe punishment of its own.Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a series of retaliatory measures, recalling the country's ambassador to France and suspending joint military maneuvers and restricting French military flights....

Strange But True: Ron Paul Thinks The American Civil War Was 'Unnecessary'

Texas Rep. Ron Paul, the anti-government GOP presidential candidate who is now surging in Iowa, is not a fan of Abraham Lincoln. He believes the Civil War was a "senseless" bloodbath that was the result of Lincoln's desire to "enhance and get rid of the original intent of the republic."...

For Gingrich in Power, Pragmatism, Not Purity

WASHINGTON — Newt Gingrich arrived in Washington in January 1979 as a brash congressman dreaming of a Republican revival. Not quite four years later, frustrated at the pace of change, he quietly sought counsel from a man he had once worked to defeat: Richard M. Nixon.Mr. Gingrich entered national politics in his party’s liberal wing; as a young graduate student in 1968, he campaigned for Nixon’s opponent, Nelson A. Rockefeller. Now, over a dinner in New York, the disgraced former president instructed the impatient lawmaker to build a coalition — the noisier the better.“He said, ‘You cannot change the country unless you are interesting and attract attention,’ ” Mr. Gingrich recalled in a speech years later. “And to do that, you have to have a group.”Mr. Gingrich promptly founded the Conservative Opportunity Society, a band of activist lawmakers who helped usher in the 1994 Republican revolution that made him his party’s first House speaker in 40 years.But many of the conservatives who rode to power with Mr. Gingrich ultimately deserted him, while he denounced them as “petty dictators” and “the perfectionist caucus” in the waning days of his tumultuous four-year speakership.

Digging up the oldest church in the nation in St. Augustine

Raphael Cosme reported to Historic City News that Archaeologist Kathleen Deagan and her team are excavating a section of grounds at the Mission of Nombre De Dios that could be the exact location where the oldest church in the nation once stood.“This is an important find,” Deagan said. “Last summer, some of the church’s stones showed up near the surface, and then we rescued a 17th century kaolin pipe fragment at the site.”Throughout the last four decades, in collaboration with the Florida Museum of Natural History, Deagan has followed her instincts. If she is right this time, she has found the first stone church in the United States; certainly, the largest church in Florida during the 17th century.“We went deep, with a pit three by three meters, and found a section of the church foundation,” Degan said. “The team is opening it up, where the dividing interior walls meet the outer foundation, to try and better understand how it was constructed and when it was built.”...

Kim Jong-Il's Natural Death Typical for Dictators

The death by natural causes of Kim Jong-Il highlights a possibly unpleasant truth about repressive dictators: Many, if not most, end up living long lives and dying peacefully.Those who live by the sword don't necessarily die by it, according to "The Great Big Book of Horrible Things: The Definitive Chronicle of History's 100 Worst Atrocities" (W. W. Norton & Company, 2011). In it, Matthew White tracked the fates of the leaders most responsible for the 100-deadliest human events. A majority, he found, lived out their natural life spans in peace."About 60 percent of the individual oppressors and warmongers who were most responsible for each of these multicides lived happily ever after," White wrote....

What We Learned About Our Human Ancestors in 2011

Genetic hints of extinct human lineages — and the benefits we might have received from having sex with them — were among the discoveries this year regarding the evolution of our species.Other key findings include evidence strengthening the case that fossils in South Africa might be those of the ancestor of the human lineage. Research also suggests humans crossed what is now the desolate Arabian Desert to expand out of Africa across the world.Sex with extinct human lineages

Medieval historian claims knights may have had PTSD

In movies, medieval knights are portrayed as courageous and loyal heroes who will fight to the death without fear or regret.In reality, the lives of knights were filled with a litany of stresses much like those that modern soldiers deal with.They were often sleep-deprived, exhausted and malnourished. They slept outside on hard ground, fully exposed to whatever weather befell them. And their lives were full of horror and carnage as they regularly killed other men and watched their friends die.Faced with the trauma inherent in a life of combat, according to a new look at ancient texts, medieval knights sometimes struggled with despair, fear, powerlessness and delusions. Some may have even suffered from post-traumatic stress or related disorders, argues a Danish researcher, just as their modern-day counterparts do...."As a medievalist, it's a bit irritating to hear people say that the Middle Ages were just populated by brutal and mindless thugs who just wallowed in warfare," said Thomas Heebøll-Holm, a medieval historian at the University of Copenhagen. "I'm going for a nuanced picture of humans that lived in the past. They were people just like you and me, as far as we can tell."...

End of World in 2012? Maya "Doomsday" Calendar Explained

It's remotely possible the world will end in December 2012. But don't credit the ancient Maya calendar for predicting it, say experts on the Mesoamerican culture.It's true that the so-called long-count calendar—which spans roughly 5,125 years starting in 3114 B.C.—reaches the end of a cycle on December 21, 2012.That day brings to a close the 13th Bak'tun, an almost 400-year period in the Maya long-count calendar.But rather than moving to the next Bak'tun, the calendar will reset at the end of the 13th cycle, akin to the way a 1960s automobile would click over at mile 99,999.9 and reset to zero....

Ohio judge denies Nazi war convict US citizenship

CLEVELAND (AP) — Convicted Nazi war criminal John Demjanjuk's bid to regain his U.S. citizenship was denied Tuesday by a judge who said he had lied about where he was during World War II.U.S. District Judge Dan Aaron Polster rejected the retired autoworker's citizenship claim, which was based on newly discovered documents, including one suggesting an incriminating document was a Soviet fraud."John Demjanjuk has admitted that he willfully lied about his whereabouts during the war on his visa and immigration applications to gain entry to the United States," the judge wrote. "Despite numerous opportunities, Demjanjuk has never provided a single, consistent accounting of his whereabouts during the war years 1942 to 1945."...

Street art attached to Civil War monuments

Overnight several Richmond monuments had street art posted on them. No one seems to know yet who did it, and no one was quite sure earlier who would remove it, either.A political artist—identity unknown at this point—was trying to hammer home a message. Their canvas?The monuments of three prominent figures associated with the Civil War: J.E.B Stuart, Stonewall Jackson, and Jefferson Davis.Sometime yesterday—at least that’s when anyone first noticed—three different plaques were installed at each monument. Each plaque details the story of individuals involved with the Civil Rights movement....

Dalton Trumbo’s Screenwriting Credit Restored to ‘Roman Holiday’

The whimsical secret of Audrey Hepburn’s royal status may be the heart of William Wyler‘s “Roman Holiday,” but for years the romantic comedy concealed another more troubling truth: the film was missing the screenwriting credit of Dalton Trumbo, the blacklisted writer and its original author, and instead attributed his work to Ian McLellan Hunter. Now, nearly 60 years after the 1953 release of “Roman Holiday,” the Writers Guild of America, West said it had restored Trumbo’s credit following the efforts of Trumbo’s and Hunter’s sons.

Error-plagued history books’ publisher to bypass Va review by marketing directly to districts

RICHMOND, Va. — A year after Virginia overhauled its review process to improve the quality of textbooks used in public schools, the publisher whose error-plagued history books helped spur the change now plans to bypass state Department of Education scrutiny.The Washington Post (http://wapo.st/sn7tBU) says Connecticut-based Five Ponds Press plans to introduce a series of elementary-level science books that it will market directly to school systems, and is refusing to submit them for state review.The publisher says on its website that its new “All Around Us” science series is “the first textbook series created to meet the needs of Virginia students using Virginia’s 2010 science standards.”“Five Ponds Press has indicated to the department that it does not intend to submit science books for review,” Department of Education spokesman Charles Pyle said. The publisher’s marketing campaign “should not be interpreted to mean it has the imprimatur of the state,” Pyle said....

Clashes in Egypt Leave Historical Archive in Ruins

An invaluable historical archive has been destroyed in clashes between protesters and the Egyptian army, reports the Associated Press. The Institute of Egypt, a research center established by Napoleon Bonaparte during France’s invasion of Egypt in the 18th century, went up in flames over the weekend. The building was on the front line of a street battle in downtown Cairo that left 14 dead and hundreds wounded....

Boston College Must Release Oral-History Records, but Court Will Review Them First

A federal court has denied Boston College's motion to thwart a government request for sensitive oral-history records. But the court will review those records confidentially on Wednesday before it decides what, if anything, must be handed over to federal authorities.A spokesman for the college said it was happy with the decision because the court acknowledged the need to protect confidential research.Friday's ruling, by the U.S. District Court in Boston, rejected the college's request to quash the subpoenas for material from what's known as the Belfast Project. In the project, from 2001 to 2006, researchers and journalists conducted interviews with paramilitary fighters and others who lived through the decades-long sectarian conflict Northern Ireland, always with the promise that the talks would be confidential until they died.