On second thought, while he appears to be twisted, dangerous, and manipulative, he doesn’t seem to have the intelligence of a mastermind.
from the Guardian Nigeria -
IRANIAN President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has questioned the accepted narrative of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, saying it was still not clear who was behind them.
“Something happened in New York and still nobody knows who the main perpetrators of that act were,” Agence France Presse (AFP) quoted Ahmadinejad as telling diplomats and newspaper editors late on Sunday while on a brief visit to Qatar.
“No independent people were allowed to try and identify the perpetrators,” he charged.
[...]
Ahmadinejad has on several occasions questioned the accepted version of the 2001 attacks by Al-Qaeda militants, which killed nearly 3,000 people in the United States.
In March, he referred to the attacks as “a big lie,” Iranian state media reported.
(CNN) — Is the record-shattering heatwave that has been blamed for the death of thousands in Russia somehow related to the devastating flooding in Pakistan?
Are these disasters happening more frequently — and are they a result of global warming?
President Ronald Reagan - athought provoking diary entry…
from the Atlantic -
“I swear I believe Armageddon is near,” Ronald Reagan confided to his diary on June 7, 1981. He had just learned that the Israelis had bombed an Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak.
President John F. Kennedy took his family on vacations to many different places during his short presidency…the Kennedy compound on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, Middleburg, Virgina, Newport, Rhode Island, and Palm Beach, Florida, among them.
The President swimming and playing with John jr., Caroline and the dogs in the swimming pool.
We know President Obama’s favorite vacation spot is Hawaii, but he’s traveled out west, and made many stops up the east coast, too.
What were the favorite vacation destinations of some of our other presidents?
The Christian Science Monitor tells us through pictures -
I still get shivers up my spine when I think back to this time in in history…Charles Manson and “his women.” How nice Leslie Van Houten is a “mentor” to other women in prison. How nice…
from CNN -
California’s parole board Tuesday refused to release onetime Manson family acolyte Leslie Van Houten, finding the 60-year-old remains dangerous more than four decades after the group’s Southern California murder spree.
The board found that Van Houten “still poses a risk to society,” spokesman Luis Patino said. The decision marks the 19th time that she has been denied parole, and she won’t be eligible again until 2013, Patino said.
In his book “Apples: History, Folklore, Horticulture, and Gastronomy,” Peter Wynne noted that while the American taste for apples may have come from the British, many of the new recipes, such as “slumps,” were the products of “American invention.”
That spirit of cooking innovation was given voice in the expression “as American as apple pie” as John Lehndorff, of the American Pie Council, wrote in his book “As American as Apple Pie.”
“When you say that something is ‘as American as apple pie,’ what you’re really saying is that the item came to this country from elsewhere and was transformed into a distinctly American experience.”
“As American as apple pie” is a phrase that traces its ancestry back to the early American settlers. Apples were brought from Europe to America and apples dishes became a staple of the colonial dinner table. One of the many reasons apple pie was favored among early American settlers is that it used little precious flour and required only a brick oven to make. Apples were fare for the common man.
Brought to you from the Dept. of Defense, their festive and unique pages of “Symbols of America” include the above excerpt. They’re truly worth a visit…you’ll find out:
If Betsy Ross really did sew the first flag…
The story behind the Great Seal…
The real name of the Statue of Liberty…
Who was Uncle Sam’s inspiration?
What is the home of both houses since 1800?
What was first printed in 1777?
What is the origin of the national flower?
All-American cowboy…a tough life…
Why was the bald eagle a tough choice for the founding fathers?
In June 1776, brave Betsy was a widow struggling to run her own upholstery business. Upholsterers in colonial America not only worked on furniture but did all manner of sewing work, which for some included making flags. According to Betsy, General Washington showed her a rough design of the flag that included a six-pointed star. Betsy, a standout with the scissors, demonstrated how to cut a five-pointed star in a single snip. Impressed, the committee entrusted Betsy with making our first flag.
I’ve always found the photos from the Great Depression haunting. Those eyes…..so far away. Was that hunger? Lack of hope? Pain? Anger? Fear? We can only guess.
Farm Security Administration: Destitute pea pickers in California. Mother of seven children. (Circa February 1936)
Picture from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, National Archives and Records Administration.
Today I came across an article regarding a collector’s finding of a photo of slave children…a young child named John and another boy. It’s a rare photo. The children have those haunting eyes. Hunger? Lack of hope? Pain? Anger? Fear? Much more? We can only guess. The photo moved me.
from CBS News -
A haunting 150-year-old photo found in a North Carolina attic shows a young black child named John, barefoot and wearing ragged clothes, perched on a barrel next to another unidentified young boy.
[...]
“It’s a very difficult and poignant piece of American history,” he said. “What you are looking at when you look at this photo are two boys who were victims of that history.”
I’ve known of Jacques-Yves Cousteaufor as long as I can remember. He always appeared old and weathered, yet I had no clue he would have been 100 today had he still been alive.
I’ve always admired him. Happy birthday Jacque Cousteau! You are missed but your legacy lives on.
Jacques Cousteau signs in as Mr. X on
the 16 September 1956 episode of What’s My Line.
