If you haven’t seen the contentious exchange between the two conservative titans O’Reilly and George Will, it’s a must see!
Here’s a review of O’Reilly’s latest book in his “Killing” series: http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/160980
“Stonehenge Begins to Yield Its Secrets” – The New York Times
“The Frightening Return of Religious Wars” | History News Network
“This horrible discord, which has lasted for so many centuries, is a very striking lesson that we should pardon each other’s errors; discord is the great ill of mankind; and tolerance is the only remedy for it.” (Voltaire speaking on the long history of intolerance within the Christian world, Philosophical Dictionary)
As someone who has spent years studying religious and ethnic conflict, I have watched the current ascendance of violence and intolerance with much sadness. Every week I have a new story from around the globe (Syria, Israel, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, even Europe along with many other examples) to share with my students. By now they’re probably tired of the depressing news, but these stories are relevant to the twentieth-century horrors that we are reviewing in class. Will we ever learn?
The idea that toleration was a virtue was a hard-won lesson of the wars of religion that engulfed Europe in the aftermath of the Protestant Reformation. Unfortunately, it is not a lesson that has taken hold completely even in the West. Despite the many factors that have contributed to the rise of violence, it is the spirit of intolerance that is fueling the violence and hatred. This is why Mustafa Akyol has called for “A Letter Concerning Muslim Toleration” (in honor of John Locke’s famous Letter Concerning Toleration. Unfortunately, it is a value that takes years (as the Western example shows) to cultivate.
Read the entire article here: History News Network | The Frightening Return of Religious Wars
“The War Washington Hasn’t Seen Fit to Commemorate (Though It Cost 116,000 Lives)” | History News Network
I think some of you will find this interesting: History News Network | The War Washington Hasn’t Seen Fit to Commemorate (Though It Cost 116,000 Lives)
The Reformers’ War on Language and on Democracy
Diane Ravitch exposes the double think of the education “reform” movement!
Maybe it is just me, but I find myself outraged by the “reformers'” incessant manipulation of language.
“Reform” seldom refers to reform.
“Reform” means privatization.
“Reform” means assaults on the teaching profession.
“Reform” means eliminating teachers’ unions, which fight for better salaries and working conditions.
“Reform” means boasting about test scores by schools that have carefully excluded the students who might get low scores.
“Reform” means using test scores to evaluate teachers even though this practice has negative effects on teacher morale and fails to identify better or worse teachers.
“Reform” means stripping teachers of due process rights or any other job security.
“Reform” means that schools should operate for-profit and that private corporations should be encouraged to profit from school spending.
“Reform” means acceptance of privately managed schools that operate without accountability or transparency.
“Reform” means the incremental destruction of public education.
I am reminded of George Orwell’s lines…
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“The Price of Denialism” – The New York Times
Climate denialists (as well as other science deniers) present themselves as reasonable skeptics, when in fact they are anything but. Lee McIntyre, author of Respecting Truth, explains why they cannot honestly present themselves as skeptics: “True skepticism must be more than an ideological reflex; skepticism must be earned by a prudent and consistent disposition to be convinced only by evidence. When we cynically pretend to withhold belief long past the point at which ample evidence should have convinced us that something is true, we have stumbled past skepticism and landed in the realm of willful ignorance. This is not the realm of science, but of ideological crackpots. And we don’t need a poll to tell us that this is the doorstep to denialism.”
Read McIntyre’s trenchant critique of the proponents of denial: The Price of Denialism – The New York Times
“Egypt scanning for Nefertiti’s tomb encouraging: minister” – Yahoo News
“Infra-red scanning of King Tutankhamun’s tomb could support a British archeologist’s theory that Queen Nefertiti — or another ancient Egyptian royal — is also buried there, Egypt’s antiquities minister said Thursday. Archaeologists have never discovered the mummy of the legendary beauty, but renowned British archaeologist Nicholas Reeves said in a recent study that her tomb could be in a secret chamber adjoining Tutankhamun’s tomb in the Valley of Kings at Luxor, southern Egypt. Egypt in October launched a study known as “Scan Pyramids” bringing together Egyptian, French, Canadian and Japanese experts to unravel the “secrets” of the Giza pyramids outside Cairo.” Awesome!
Source: Egypt scanning for Nefertiti’s tomb encouraging: minister – Yahoo News
“Ben Carson States, Wrongly, That Founding Fathers ‘Had No Elected Office Experience’” – Washington Wire – WSJ
How can anyone take this guy seriously?! I don’t understand how he passed med school (or any school for that matter). He also believes that the pyramids were built to store grain. Wow! I guess evidence doesn’t matter when your followers live in the same fact free world as you!!
“A New Look at Japan’s Wartime Atrocities and a U.S. Cover-Up” – The New York Times
“After the war, the United States covered up Japan’s biological warfare research on humans, allowing the perpetrators to escape punishment and to prosper.” Why? It “enabled the United States to gather information that was of great use for its own biological warfare program, early in the Cold War.” I don’t think that any potential benefit from these horrific experiments can justify covering up these crimes. And in the long run, it is against our own interests by undermining our moral standing in the world. How we conduct ourselves around the world does have implications for our national security.
Read the entire article here: A New Look at Japan’s Wartime Atrocities and a U.S. Cover-Up – The New York Times
An exhibit at the Unit 731 museum depicts a frostbite experiment on prisoners.Credit Gilles Sabrie for The New York Times
“Democratic Socialism Has Deep Roots in American Life” | History News Network
Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign has prompted a heated debate over the meaning and viability of “democratic socialism.” In response to claims that it is un-American, Lawrence Wittner demonstrates that democratic socialism has long been part of American life: History News Network | Democratic Socialism Has Deep Roots in American Life
History Chick in AZ 