The last few days I have seen articles about the German government commemorating those who were involved in the 20th July 1944 assassination plot. In a way I can understand it why they are doing this, but having that said I don’t agree with it. Yes it is true these men planned to kill Hitler […]
Although Albert Speer designed some of Nazi Germany’s most prominent buildings and served as its Minister of Armaments and War Production during World War II, he later claimed to have had no knowledge of the Holocaust. For decades after the fall of the Third Reich, Albert Speer stood as a historical anomaly. While Adolf Hitler’s […]
Political slogans compress complicated ideas into a few memorable words. Their strength lies in their emotional force, but so does their danger. A slogan can encourage solidarity and peaceful reform, or it can glorify hatred and violence while allowing those who use it to deny responsibility for its consequences. “Globalise the Intifada” belongs firmly in […]
The war in Gaza has produced terrible suffering. Many thousands of civilians have been killed, families have been displaced, neighbourhoods have been destroyed, and ordinary life has become almost impossible. None of this should be minimised. But neither should it be assumed that every exceptionally destructive war is therefore a genocide. Words matter, especially words […]
Jack Roosevelt Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was an American professional baseball second baseman who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era.Robinson broke the baseball color line when the Brooklyn Dodgers started him at first base on April 15, 1947. The Dodgers, by signing Robinson, heralded the end of racial segregation in professional baseball that had relegated black players to […]
(Churchill and Eisenhower) Jonathan W. Jordan has written a superbly blended dual biography of Dwight D. Eisenhower and Winston S. Churchill entitled IKE AND WINSTON:WORLD WAR, COLD WAR, AN EXTRAORDINARY FRIENDSHIP. He focuses on their relationship from the time they met in 1941 carrying through World War II and the Cold War. It is carefully […]
++++++++++++++CAUTION: CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES++++++++++++++++ When Dwight D. Eisenhower entered Ohrdruf Concentration Camp after it was liberated, he had the foresight to document the horrors he saw with his own eyes. Ohrdruf was liberated on 4 April 1945, by the 4th Armored Division, led by Brigadier General Joseph F. H. Cutrona, and the 89th Infantry Division. […]
‘None of the Irish leaders understood the northern situation or the northern mind.’ (Cahir Healy, Irish nationalist born in Ulster, quoted on this book’s last page)) This ought to be a great book – a long, scholarly, up-to-date and immensely detailed description of the social, economic and cultural reasons why Ireland was partitioned. All the […]
For those of you who don’t speak English as a first language, you may not be familiar with the term ‘Hubris’ the definition is : excessive pride or self-confidence. On the dawn of June 22, 1941, the largest invasion force in human history surged across a 1,800-mile frontier. Over three million German and Axis soldiers, […]
There is a sort of peace deal between Iran and the US. If it holds, the fuel crisis is over. I’ll do a separate post on the merits of the peace deal, but for now want to focus on the response in NZ. The Government’s response was cool, calm and measured. They did not panic.…
When during the meetings the Americans offered that at most they could convert 15 percent of U.S. auto plants to military production, Beaverbrook replies that 100 percent of British automobile factories had been converted, and encouraged Roosevelt to aim higher. He did, and on January 1 he ordered U.S. auto production halted by late Februrary. …
Weather prediction was a primitive, subjective affair at that time. There were no numerical weather prediction models, little understanding of jet streams and upper-level weather features, and an acute lack of observations, particularly over the ocean. The post The Real Story of the D-Day Weather Forecast appeared first on Watts Up With That?.
The one thing that always puzzled me is why did the Nazi’s insist in having such a thorough administration? If you are planning to eradicate millions, why document it? I just don’t understand the psyche of it. Of course the Nazi’s didn’t see “the final solution” as a crime but only a method of getting […]
I always find Sam Harris’s writings absorbing, but in today’s piece he’s really hit his stride, telling us why, despite his own criticisms of Israel, he won’t debate those people—he calls them “scholars, grifters, and moral lunatics”—who demonize Israel as not only morally worse than its enemies, but the worst country in the world. In…
A new political party “Palestine Free from the River to the Sea” are explicitly saying that “Our purpose in creating a party is not to seek power, but to raise awareness. If we can reach 500 members quickly we will qualify for government funding to be used in campaign advertising. Every cent will go towards…
Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
In Hume’s spirit, I will attempt to serve as an ambassador from my world of economics, and help in “finding topics of conversation fit for the entertainment of rational creatures.”
“We do not believe any group of men adequate enough or wise enough to operate without scrutiny or without criticism. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it, that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. We know that in secrecy error undetected will flourish and subvert”. - J Robert Oppenheimer.
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