Two Bronze Horses and Other Nazi Art Recovered

May 23, 2015 / Debbie / Leave a comment

Read story here: Dutch art sleuth helps German police track down Nazi art – Yahoo News.

Two bronze horse statues by artist Josef Thorak are transported on a flatbed trailer in Bad Duerkheim, southwestern Germany, Thursday, May 21, 2015. A German investigation into black market art had recovered the two statues that once stood in front of Adolf Hitler’s grand chancellery building in Berlin as well as other Nazi-era pieces that had been lost for decades. Police in five states conducted coordinated raids during more than a yearlong investigation into illegal art trafficking. (Fredrik von Erichsen/dpa via AP)

Was Austerity Responsible for the American Revolution?

May 23, 2015 / Debbie / Leave a comment

In The New York Review of Books, Steve Pincus argues that George III’s austerity policies were responsible for the Revolution. He writes,

“Today, we tend to regard the practice of using government spending to stimulate economic growth as an invention of John Maynard Keynes in the 1930s. But already in the eighteenth century, self-styled Patriots, followers of Pitt on both sides of the Atlantic, argued that what the British Empire needed if it was to recover from the fiscal crisis was not austerity but an economic stimulus. In the midst of the crisis one journalist wrote that Pitt and the Patriots believed that the burgeoning debt could be reduced by increasing ‘the national stock,’ or Gross National Product, whereas Prime Minister Grenville believed ‘that an hundred and forty millions of debt is to be paid by saving of pence and farthings.’” To read the entire article go here:

1776: The Revolt Against Austerity by Steve Pincus | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books.

Lewis Walpole Library, Farmington, Connecticut
“Detail from The Great Financier, or British Economy for the Years 1763, 1764, 1765, showing British Prime Minister George Grenville holding a balance in which debt outweighs savings, 1765”

“50 photos de la Libération de Paris”

May 22, 2015 / Debbie / Leave a comment

Here’s the link to all of the creative photos merging the past with the present:

50 photos de la Libération de Paris se fondent dans le présent : golem13.

“The Secret History of American Religion: Christian Fundamentalism Started As a Capitalist Ad Campaign” | Alternet

May 22, 2015 / Debbie / Leave a comment

Timothy Gloege in Guaranteed Pure: The Moody Bible Institute, Business, and the Making of Modern Evangelicalism tells the story of Henry Parsons Crowell, the founder of Quaker Oats, and his role in the creation of modern fundamentalism. Gloege is not the first to point out that religion was enlisted in the service in capitalism beginning with the Gilded Age, but in telling a little known part of this story he enriches our understanding of this alliance. Daniel Silliman describes Gleoge’s book as a “fascinating narrative of the origins of modern evangelicalism.” Read Silliman’s interview with Gloge here:

The Secret History of American Religion: Christian Fundamentalism Started As a Capitalist Ad Campaign | Alternet.

Quaker Oats and Henry Parsons Crowell

“Haunting World War II Photos of Paris, Then and Now” – Yahoo

May 21, 2015 / Debbie / Leave a comment

This is a really creative way to view these WWII pics! The enormity of what happened there comes to life. See the pictures at:

Haunting World War II Photos of Paris, Then and Now – Yahoo.

“Oldest known stone tools found in Kenya; makers not known” – Yahoo News

May 21, 2015 / Debbie / Leave a comment

Check this out! Scientists have found stone tools far older than any known stone tool. ” At 3.3 million years old, they push back the record of stone tools by about 700,000 years. More significantly, they are half-a-million years older than any known trace of our own branch of the evolutionary tree.” Read the entire article here:

Oldest known stone tools found in Kenya; makers not known – Yahoo News.

“In this undated photo made available in May 2015 by the Mission Prehistorique au Kenya – West Turkana Archaeological Project, Sonia Harmand and Jason Lewis hold stone tools found in the West Turkana area of Kenya. The artifacts, dated at 3.3 million years old, are much older than the earliest known trace of our own branch of the evolutionary family tree. So its a new challenge to the traditional idea that only members of our branch made stone tools. The discovery was reported in the journal Nature on Wednesday, May 20, 2015. (MPK-WTAP via AP)”

Are the Supreme Court Justices Roberts, Scalia, Alito, and Thomas Qualified to be Justices?

May 21, 2015 / Debbie / Leave a comment

Alan J. Singer says “no.” In an interview at Education News, Singer told Michael F. Shaughnessy that these four should never have been elected Supreme Court Justices “because Justices swear an oath to defend the United States Constitution as the first law of the land…In decision after decision they placed ideology and personal values above the Constitution and the law. They decided corporations have the same rights as people and then defended the rights of the world’s wealthiest companies over the rights of ordinary people, are still considering undermining a national health insurance plan, and denounce crime and violence while ensuring the maximum distribution of deadly weapons. However they eventually decide on the same-sex marriage issue, I do not trust them.” Neither do I! Read the entire interview here:

Alan J. Singer: Comments about the Supreme Court Justices Comments | Education News.

Alito, Thomas, Roberts, Kennedy, and Scalia

“A New Image of William Shakespeare Has Been Discovered, Historian Says” | TIME

May 20, 2015 / Debbie / Leave a comment

This is interesting:

A New Image of William Shakespeare Has Been Discovered, Historian Says | TIME.

“ISIS is threatening Palmyra, the Venice of Syria” | History News Network

May 20, 2015 / Debbie / Leave a comment

Another ancient treasure is under threat from ISIS. Once these treasures are gone, they are gone forever! This is sickening!!

History News Network | ISIS is threatening Palmyra, the Venice of Syria.

Palmyra

History Wars: “Fight over AP U.S. History framework lands in N.J.” | The Auditor | NJ.com

May 20, 2015 / Debbie / Leave a comment

Republican state Sen. Joe Kyrillos proposed a resolution (SR128) that would encourage the College Board to alter the AP U.S. history framework, because “the framework the College Board adopted in 2012 ‘reflects a seemingly biased view of American history, overemphasizing the negative aspects of our nation’s history while omitting and minimizing many of the positive aspects,'” and that “the new test’s framework ‘does not adequately discuss America’s Founding Fathers, the principles of the Declaration of independents the religious influences on our nation’s history.'” Even though this non-binding resolution is unlikely to pass, the efforts to teach our students a distorted patriotic version of history is troubling. We should be educating and challenging our students, not indoctrinating them. Progress requires an educated and thoughtful citizenry. And it is only by confronting the past honestly that we can actually live up to our ideals.

Fight over AP U.S. History framework lands in N.J. | The Auditor | NJ.com.