“Traumatic grief, with its unanswered questions, its numbing shock, its horror, its ability to sear disturbing images into our souls that cannot be erased by sleep or by time–this process follows the same general path both for persons and groups.”
When 12:30 struck, none of us fourth graders knew that our young president was being […]

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They met in Warsaw, almost by accident; quickly fell in love, and were married.  Klimek Mielczarek was raised in poverty and learned at an early age how to survive using his good looks, charm, and ready wit.  Teresa Zbijewska was an intelligent and beautiful young woman born into an aristocratic family, and raised on a […]

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My husband as a young teenager joined his older brother’s guerilla group to help rid Luzon of the Japanese in 1945. Alas, the story of the terrible fight, first in the city of Manila, and later against the fleeing Japanese hiding in the jungles and mountains of Luzon, is too often forgotten, overshadowed by those […]

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Well, this year’s Rolling Thunder motorcycle rally got some publicity today when Sarah Palin and family accompanied them as private citizens. As the mother of an Iraqi veteran, she is entitled to this.
Most of the half million attending the rally seemed pleased.
So of course most of the press coverage was about Andrea Mitchell finding the […]

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An excerpt from Teacher of the Year: The Mystery & Legacy of Edwin Barlow
Edwin and rest of troop B were called before Captain Berlin. It took longer to muster than usual because Patton himself had ordered each man to wear their neck-down. The absurdity of wearing a tie in the heat of combat was not […]

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Teacher of the Year: The Mystery & Legacy of Edwin Barlow is unlike any memoir you will ever read, because unlike every other memoir, Edwin Barlow’s life was an impenetrable secret that took years to uncover.

When Mr. Barlow died, there were no libraries to reveal his taste in literature, neither wife nor relatives to mourn […]

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There is a minor kerfuffle in the right wing blogs about Michael Bellesiles being caught publishing fiction as truth.
The right wing has it in for Bellesiles, since he once faked data on gun ownership in early America, trying to prove no one owned guns then (and ergo the second amendment was meant to refer to […]

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Pacifism
–noun
1. Opposition to war or violence of any kind.
2. Refusal to engage in military activity because of one’s principles or beliefs.
3. The principle or policy that all differences among nations should be adjusted without recourse to war.
In my post yesterday I mentioned that a so-called conservative friend on my facebook page had posted a video […]

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The Associated Press has released a photo of Marine Lance Corporal Joshua Bernard, which graphically portrays the Marine shortly after being hit by a Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) during a firefight in the Helmland Province of Southern Afghanistan.  LCpl Bernard later died from the injuries suffered in the attack.
The parents of LCpl Bernard were shown […]

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I started working on an article earlier this morning about Representative Charles Rangel and his attempt to throw the race card into the healthcare reform debate.  In researching past quotes of Charles Rangel, I came across a quote of his which makes me want to immediately fly to New York or Washington DC, wherever this uneducated […]

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The rhetoric on the US Health Care debate needs to calm down a bit on both sides. There is enough fear in the grassroots about the bill that plans to ram through a bill at this point will only result in a Republican sweep in 2010.
Let’s cut through the rhetoric and check a few facts.
One: […]

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Michael Jackson was a pop star icon who earned the title, ‘King of Pop.’  He was a talented singer and dancer who broke down barriers for the African-American community.  Unfortunately, he was also a tortured soul who suffered through two marriages and divorces, along with medical and substance abuse problems.  His lifestyle and behavior often […]

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There is a big rush to pass a “Health Care Bill” in Congress.
Why the big rush to pass one in the midst of an economic recession I’m not sure. The New York Times points out that it is a thoroughly partisan bill.
And I’ve read that there has been a lot of discussion with hospitals and […]

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Who’s Your Daddy?
People say you can’t judge a book by its cover.   Maybe so; but the minute I laid eyes on the cover of Hell Hawks: The Untold Story of the American Fliers Who Savaged Hitler’s Wehrmacht, I had to read the book.  Why?  Because I wanted to find out if these guys really did […]

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Imagine the scandal.
A well known war leader’s body was taken from a cemetery on Federal land, and his skull used as an object of ridicule by the enemy. The family is requesting their return, but the bones are owned by a group that includes some of the most influential people in the land, so their […]

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You may be thinking that I am talking about the female servicemember, but I am actually talking about her counterpart, the military spouse (of which approximately 93 percent are still women).   According to the Rand Corporation, the research organization often used to conduct studies for the Department of Defense, although military spouses often have more […]

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Back in World War I, according to historian Margaret Anderson, many of the so called “German atrocities” in Belgium was in response to snipers. The German soldiers responded to what they assumed was an uprising by civilians; but some episodes were friendly fire incidents, and others were from the rag tag Belgian Army, whose […]

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I rarely enjoy Clint Eastwood’s films (too violent and nihilistic for me). But my husband Lolo is a fan, and so I got a VCD of Eastwood’s latest film, Gran Torino, for him to watch.
I had read that it was “What Dirty Harry Would Be Like As an Old Man”.
But as we watched it, I […]

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