Little Kids Reenact the American Revolution

In celebration of Independence Day I thought I would share this unique recreation of the American Revolution.

Thanks To Keith at BagOfNothing

British Petroleum: No Stranger to Disaster

I HIGHLY recommend that you read this article. It is a perspective of the history of middle eastern oil that few of my generation know.

The problem with how the average American sees our role in the world is that we tend to get hung up on catchphrases -- "My country, right or wrong," or the more infamous "America, love it or leave it." These phrases are problematical, simply because each ends all logical reassessment of how we are seen in the world.

Both ignore the fact that we are led by elected officials, all of which, at least so far, are humans; and, as we know, humans are capable of failure. Therefore a far better slogan for America might be, "America - we don't make many mistakes, but we correct the ones we do."

The twin problems with that statement are that it's not always true and that it's too long for a bumper sticker.

Meanwhile, the rest of the world bases our country's image on their history with us. But, because we have such a mythic view of our own history, we are continuously stunned and shocked when other countries fall out of our orbit or attack us directly. And nowhere is our misunderstanding of past events greater than in the Middle East.

Click the logo above to read the rest of the article.

Big Picture: Vietnam, 35 years later

Last Friday, April 30th, was the 35th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War, and last Tuesday, May 4th, was the 40th anniversary of the shooting of protesting students at Kent State University. The Vietnam War and America's involvement in it affected the lives of millions for well over a decade, exacting a massive human cost with millions of deaths and countless injuries - both physical and mental - that plague many of those involved to this day. United States military involvement and troop strength grew rapidly after 1964 - at its highest level in 1968, with over 500,000 troops on the ground. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. now bears the engraved names of 58,267 of those troops. It's nearly impossible to encapsulate an event of such scale in a handful of photographs, but here, 35 years after the end of the conflict, is my attempt. (47 photos total)

Click the image to see the full collection. Warning: Some images are graphic.

Looking Into The Past

Some very cool pictures. A photographer(s) has taken antique photos back to their original location and 're-shot' them, inserting the antique photo into the picture.

The State of the Union is . . .

My favorite blogger did some research on the State of the Union speech that I thought I would pass along.

One thing I keep hearing about this week is whether or not President Obama will say, “The state of our Union is strong.” And that got me to thinking, how often has that phrase been said either at a State of the Union address or an Address of the President to the Joint Session of Congress (you know, that first speech the president gives at the beginning of his term that’s just like the State of the Union but it’s not since he’s new to the job and doesn’t really have anything to report).

So I decided to look over all of these speeches (minus special addresses like the one right after 9/11 and the conclusion of Desert Storm) since 1986, the beginning of Reagan’s second term. I could have went back further, but hey, I’m a one man research crew.

Click on the image above to read his findings.

Thanks To Keith at BagOfNothing

It Happened in Italy: Goodness in a Time of Evil

I am a WWII history buff and I had never heard that there were concentration camps in Italy.

In 2005, the United Nations designated January 27 as an annual day of commemoration for the victims of the Nazi regime. They chose the 27th because on this day in 1945, the Soviet army liberated Auschwitz. Most know the grim tales of what happened in Nazi death camps only too well—six million Jews killed, the gas chambers, the crematoriums, forced labor.

But while the horrors of concentration camps in Nazi Germany may be familiar, what happened to Jews in concentration camps at the same time in Mussolini’s Italy is not.

Click the image above to read the blog post.

Lincoln's Letter to Boy Goes on Sale

In March of 1861, a new president had just been sworn in and the nation was on the brink of civil war. Yet Abraham Lincoln still found a moment to come to the defense of a kid whose schoolmates were picking on him.

Click the image to read the article.

Thanks To Keith at BagOfNothing

Going Into Battle Armed With A Trumpet

"I thought to myself, that German sniper is as lonely and scared as I am. How can I stop him from firing? So I played that German's love song, 'Lilly Marlene,' made famous in the late '30s by Marlene Dietrich, the famous German actress. And I wailed that trumpet over those apple orchards of Normandy, and he didn't fire."

The next morning, the military police came up to Tueller and told him they had a German prisoner on the beach who kept asking, "Who played that trumpet last night?"

"I grabbed my trumpet and went down to the beach. There was a 19-year-old German, scared and lonesome. He was dressed like a French peasant to cloak his role as a sniper. And, crying, he said, 'I couldn't fire because I thought of my fiancé. I thought of my mother and father,' and he says, 'My role is finished.'

"He stuck out his hand, and I shook the hand of the enemy," Tueller said. "[But] he was no enemy, because music had soothed the savage beast."

Click the image to read the article.

New Navy Ship Honors 9/11 Victims

Click the image to read the article.

7th-Grader: Obama, Most US Presidents Related

A seventh-grader and her 80-year-old grandfather are allegedly the first people to discover that President Barack Obama is related to all other U.S. presidents except one.

BridgeAnne d'Avignon, who attends Monte Vista Christian School in Watsonville, traced that Obama, and all other U.S. presidents except Martin Van Buren, are related to John "Lackland" Plantagenet, a king of England and signer of the Magna Carta.

Click the image to read the article.

Thanks To Keith at BagOfNothing

Arlington Unveils A New Unknown Soldier

For the first time in a generation, Arlington National Cemetery has marked the burial of an unknown on its storied grounds. Only this time, 25 years since the last interment at the Tomb of the Unknowns, the identity of the body remains a mystery not because the ravages of war made identification impossible, but because in a bureaucratic error the cemetery lost the paperwork showing the identity of the remains.

Click the picture to read the full article.

Thanks To Keith at BagOfNothing

Church History In 4 Minutes

In case you don't have time to go to seminary.



Thanks To Keith at BagOfNothing

he Gave Five Sons to the Navy

The family that inspired the movie "Saving Private Ryan".

November, 1942: Five brothers, all serving on the same vessel during World War II, are killed in action as a result of said warship sinking at the Battle of the Solomons. Two months later, after hearing no word from the Navy regarding her sons’ well-being, Alleta Sullivan writes the following, deeply moving letter to the Bureau of Naval Personnel. Alleta promptly received a reply from President Roosevelt. That letter can also be read below.

As a result of the Sullivans’ plight, the U.S. military introduced the Sole Survivor Policy. The policy attempts to ensure that, should a family member be lost during military service, any remaining siblings be exempt from service.

Click on the image above to read the letters exchanged between the mother and President Roosevelt.

Thanks To Keith at BagOfNothing