By 1428, what remained of free France seemed doomed to become another vassal province of England. All French lands north of the Loire River had been lost with Burgundian and Parisian soldiers now fighting on the side of the English. That year a 17-year-old farm girl who had been receiving visions of the archangel, Michael, [...]
For the entire week, the front page of my hometown newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, has been devoted to two major stories: Gov. Arnold Schwarzennegger’s special election initiatives and the opening of the European front in the war between the West and militant Islam. The Chronicle reporters haven’t yet referred to the growing insurrection in [...]
It’s weeks like these that make one wonder if Arnold Schwarzenegger wished he stuck to movie stardom and real estate barony rather than trying to save California from itself, wishing instead that he were perhaps lounging on the French Riviera with fellow Europhiles like Johnny Depp and Gweneth Paltrow in salons where the conversations inevitably [...]
Country Joe Mac Donald penned that 1960s memorable musical refrain—So it’s one, two, three, what’re we fightin’ for?/Don’t give a damn, next stop is Viet Nam. He was also one of the warm up acts for the Welcome Home Cindy Sheehan event held last week at the Grand Lake Theater here in Oakland. Not one [...]
Part One: Break the Gerrymander or Bust In the 1830s, Alexis de Toqueville, coined an immortal phrase, the tyranny of the majority. While touring our young country, the French journalist and aristocrat became an enthusiast for the American experiment, yet he presciently warned that, like republics of antiquity, universal suffrage leads to the ‘public treasury [...]
Book Review: Countdown to Crisis by Ken Timmerman Throughout the 1930s, although he been a popular war hero, author, Lord of the Admiralty and had held numerous cabinet ministries, Winston Churchill, remained a “back bencher” barely holding on to his seat in the House of Commons. He was scorned by the media and virtually the [...]
With the bombings in London providing a backdrop, it’s important to note that just last year, the U.S. State Department named Iran as the most active sponsor of terrorism. And with the sham election and elevation of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (Moe the Assassin) to the Presidency of Iran, one can easily view [...]
On a September morning in 490 B.C., 9,000 free citizen soldiers from Athens watched the 26,000 Persians, disembarking their ships that were beached beside the plain of Marathon. On the bluffs above, the Athenian general, Militiades, saw that the Persians were not fully prepared. Their archers, who could flood the sky with arrows, were not [...]
“We have found no credible evidence that Iraq and al Qaeda cooperated on attacks against the United States.” Statement No. 15 , 9/11 Commission Staff Report Iraq continue(d) to be a safe haven a transit point, and operational node for groups and individuals who direct violence against the U.S., Israel, and our allies. Senate Intelligence Report, [...]
Can there be anything more sacred or more defining for a Kerry-voting liberal than the certain knowledge that our war in Viet Nam was evil? Yet in a remarkable twist of fate, the Kerry campaign continues to compel us to revisit the Viet Nam era. Therefore, Bruce Herschensohn’s Passport, the definitive novel of the Cold [...]
