Another great book review for Lori Eshleman’s Pachacuti. If you love history or historical fiction you’ll love this novel. “It is an engaging read solidly grounded in historical authenticity and animated by expert storytelling.”
Month: December 2015
A Victory for the Far Right: “Front National wins opening round in France’s regional elections” | World news | The Guardian
“Marine Le Pen’s party capitalises on Paris attacks to win 27-30% of national vote, the highest the party has ever scored in a local election.”
I hate being right sometimes! This was totally predictable. Why do we never learn from history? Do we really need to repeat the twentieth century? Haven’t we learned that radical political leaders peddling hate will only lead us down the path of death and destruction? These supposed “strong” leaders are nothing but bullies!
At this point, I don’t think they (and I include Donald Trump in this) can win. However, if the economy takes a turn for the worse or some other tragic event occurs before the election it is possible.
Source: Front National wins opening round in France’s regional elections | World news | The Guardian
“Pearl Harbor ceremony unites former U.S. and Japanese pilots” – Yahoo News
This is a wonderful story on the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor: “By Karin Stanton HONOLULU (Reuters) – Former U.S. airman Jack DeTour, 92, and Japanese fighter pilot Shiro Wakita, 88, sworn enemies during World War Two, together poured whiskey from a battered canteen into Pearl Harbor on Sunday to commemorate the 1941 attack on the U.S. naval base. As the sun rose over the USS Arizona Memorial, the two former enemy pilots joined the “Blackened Canteen” service on the eve of the 74th anniversary of the Dec. 7 attack, which took 2,403 lives and drew the United States into World War Two. Standing side by side after meeting for the first time ever, retired Air Force Colonel DeTour and former Imperial Japanese Navy Zero Pilot Wakita together gripped the war-torn U.S. military-issue metal canteen and poured whiskey into the watery grave of the U.S. Navy ship sunk by Japanese bombers.”
Source: Pearl Harbor ceremony unites former U.S. and Japanese pilots – Yahoo News
“Sticking to Our Guns” by Charles Simic | NYR Daily | The New York Review of Books
Simic sums up the sad state of our current situation nicely: “The coverage of our elections has a fairy tale feel to it. Our national press pretends that they are dealing with men and women of principle, offering carefully thought-out solutions to our nation’s problems, rather than groveling servants of billionaires who finance their campaigns; and that the voters these candidates try to persuade in the primaries are well-informed and well-meaning Americans and not people who by and large get their information from Fox TV and hate radio.”
Source: Sticking to Our Guns by Charles Simic | NYR Daily | The New York Review of Books
“Should the U.S. “Reoccupy” Iraq and Invade Syria?” | History News Network
Definitely not! Brian Glyn Williams sums up the problem nicely: “The dangers of giving into ISIS’s baiting of our emotions are real and could lead to another Operation Iraqi Freedom-style quagmire in two countries this time, instead of just one. Should the U.S. once again repeat the ill-conceived adventurism of Bush Jr. (which got us into the bloody slog that created ISIS out of the secular Socialist Baathist regime that ruled Iraq up until the US invasion) and invade Syria and Iraq, it will play directly into the hands of the ISIS fanatics. They are deeply entrenched and have dug into the towns they dominate with tens of thousands of fanatical fighters. They control an area today that is much larger than their lands in Iraq where they were defeated back in 2007 only with 168,000 U.S surge-reinforced troops and with the crucial help of 103,000 Sunni Anbar Awakening fighters (who it should be stated are no longer with us, they are now primarily with ISIS).”
Read Williams’s well-reasoned case against sending in troops against ISIS: History News Network | Should the U.S. “Reoccupy” Iraq and Invade Syria?
A Historian’s Revealing Research on Race and Gun Laws – The Trace
“Saul Cornell is a leading authority on the history of U.S. gun regulations. Here’s how he views conservatives’ claims that gun control is racist.”
Very interesting: A Historian’s Revealing Research on Race and Gun Laws – The Trace
History Chick in AZ 