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Like thousands before and after me, I first met William F. Buckley because of Yale. ©Steve Schapiro/Corbisbuckley A group of us from the Yale Political Union had invited the conservative magazine editor R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. to come talk to us. Tyrrell generously accepted -- and asked if he could bring his friend Bill Buckley along with him. We students were thrilled, of course, and on the appointed date Tyrrell and Buckley rocketed up from Sharon together. "Rocket" is really the word. Driving was one unique activity where Bill made up in speed for what he lacked in exactness and...

The war in Iraq is in its sixth year—and we, the public, are in our sixth year of reading warring accounts about it. The most recent is Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez’s “Wiser in Battle: A Soldier’s Story.” Sanchez, a senior ground commander in Iraq from June 2003 to June 2004, faults L. Paul Bremmer, the top civilian in Iraq from mid-2003-4, and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld for the errors and mishaps of the occupation. The new Sanchez book follows Douglas Feith’s new book “War and Decision.” The former undersecretary of defense, who oversaw many of the original plans for...

Comparatively few people, if asked to list some of the most important defense contractors of World War 2 would mention the Crosley Corporation. The Crosley who? But this relatively obscure company produced the first batches of what became known as the proximity fuze without whose aid the US Navy would probably have been annihilated by the Kamikazes off Okinawa. Vannevar Bush, head of the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) during this war, credited it with three significant effects. It was important in defense from Japanese Kamikaze attacks in the Pacific. It was an important part of the...

NEW ORLEANS (May 14) - A steamship that sank off the Louisiana coast during an 1846 storm has produced a trove of rare gold coins, including some produced at two largely forgotten U.S. Mints in the South, coin experts say. Last year, four Louisiana residents salvaged hundreds of gold coins and thousands of silver coins from the wreckage of the SS New York in about 60 feet of water in the Gulf of Mexico, said David Bowers, co-chairman of New York-based Stack's Rare Coins. "Some of these are in uncirculated or mint condition," Bowers said, predicting the best could bring...

WASHINGTON, May 14, 2008 – Through three military conflicts, beginning with the Civil War, a group of women contributed to the war effort by making bandages for the troops. While they no longer make bandages, the Virginia-based United Daughters of the Confederacy strives to support the country’s servicemembers through historical, educational, benevolent, memorial and patriotic means. “Since we are a country at war against terrorism, the patriotic objective is the one being focused upon at the present time,” said Sherry Davis, chairman of patriotic activities for the general, or national, organization. The organization meets its goals of patriotic outreach...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE FALCON, Iraq, May 14, 2008 – Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team are safeguarding a piece of Iraqi religious history while operating from a combat outpost next to a Christian-based seminary in southern Baghdad’s Rashid district. Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers provide security outside the main chapel of the St. Peter Seminary of Chaldean Patriarchate in the predominantly Muslim community of Abu Tshir, Iraq. The chapel represents a piece of Iraq’s cultural history in southern Baghdad’s Rashid district. U.S. Army photo by Lt. Col. Steve Stover, Multinational Division Baghdad   (Click...

The time has come for America to make a choice. The arch enemy of Socialism is Individual Rights. The 08 election has become a referendum that will determine which path America will take. As the primary issues are presented IE immigration, economy or the wars that are currently taking place, everyone wants to discuss the stance each candidate will take. The media will parse the words and regurgitate them in light of “how” the candidate has either voted or expressed himself on related issues. They might draw a line indicating that on “XYZ” issue the candidate is conservative or liberal...

“In his victory speech after the North Carolina primary, Sen. Barack Obama...[defended] his stated intent to meet with America’s enemies without preconditions...: ‘I trust the American people to understand that it is not weakness, but wisdom to talk not just to our friends, but to our enemies, like Roosevelt did, and Kennedy did, and Truman did.’ That he made this statement, and that it passed without comment by the journalists covering his speech indicates either breathtaking ignorance of history on the part of both, or deceit. I assume the Roosevelt to whom Sen. Obama referred is Franklin D. Roosevelt. Our...

SETH J. FRANTZMAN On a pleasant Thursday in December 1948, Emilio Traubner, a correspondent for The Palestine Post, found himself near Abu Kabir, not far from Jaffa. Trenches and expended cartridges were strewn about, reminders of the fighting between units of the Irgun and local Arab forces that had taken place there seven months previously. There was a large Arab villa from where Traubner recovered a diary. It turned out to be the daily record of Yusuf Begovic of Pale, a town near Sarajevo in modern-day Bosnia-Herzegovina. In it Begovic had described his activities as a cook for the “Arab...

TALLAHASSEE -- For a sign of Florida Republicans' all-out effort to attract black voters, look no farther than the glossy full-colored The Black Republican magazine that launches broadsides like these: The KKK was the ''terrorist arm of the Democratic Party.'' Democrats, in addition to waging ''war on God,'' are still mired in sex and financial scandals. That's all tucked in the back of the Sarasota-based National Black Republican Association's 60-page mag, the first half of which touts Republican Gov. Charlie Crist's civil rights record and the Republican Party of Florida's minority outreach efforts that the association has helped coordinate. The...

Empire building isn't for sissies. Just ask the Spanish conquistadors of the 16th century. Before attacking Indian settlements, they were required to read a summons called the Requerimiento, which spelled out the consequences of resistance: "I assure you that, with the help of God, I will attack you mightily. I will make war against you everywhere and in every way ... I will take your wives and children, and I will make them slaves ... I will take their property. I will do all the harm and damage to you that I can ... I declare that the deaths and...

In his victory speech after the North Carolina primary, Sen. Barack Obama said something that is all the more remarkable for how little it has been remarked upon. In defending his stated intent to meet with America's enemies without preconditions, Sen. Obama said: "I trust the American people to understand that it is not weakness, but wisdom to talk not just to our friends, but to our enemies, like Roosevelt did, and Kennedy did, and Truman did." That he made this statement, and that it passed without comment by the journalists covering his speech indicates either breathtaking ignorance of history...

Leo McKinstry says the current craze for genealogy reflects an unhealthy combination of snobbery and inverse snobbery, and is a poor replacement for national history When I visited the National Archives at Kew last week the place was full of them, scurrying about with their plastic wallets in hand, a look of eager concentration on their faces. It was impossible to escape their busy presence as they whispered noisily to relatives or whooped over the discovery of some new piece of information. These were the followers of one of Britain’s fastest-growing craze, the mania for researching family history. Studying bloodlines...

Digging through some old papers a few years ago, my mother-in-law came across the hospital bill for when her second son was born in 1958. They had no insurance. Few did in those days, and the bill totaled $75. That included a week's stay in the hospital. In 1993 we were expecting our second child, and also had no insurance. We managed to save up some money and contacted the hospital regarding paying the bill ourselves. They said prepaying meant we could spend only $2,000, only if there were no complications and it included only 3 days in the hospital....

The lowest form of solidarity, I remember reading somewhere, is generational. What do you have to do, after all, to qualify as a “baby boomer”? Membership in that vast sodality means that you were in your late teens or early twenties during the sixties: an underwhelming achievement that required no more than being able to say “present.” As someone born in 1949, I prefer to consider myself not a mere sixties person but a soixante-huitard. If there didn’t happen to be French argot for this, I would still want to answer to the name “sixty-eighter.” For me, this date-stamped association...

Arab women had more rights at the time of the Romans than they have today. At that time, in fact, their capacity to conduct their own economic affairs was recognised, which is not true in Saudi Arabia today. This is maintained by a female Saudi scholar, Hatoon al-Fassi, in a book entitled "Women In Pre-Islamic Arabia", Barred from teaching at King Saud University in 2001, the scholar has examined the situation of Nabataea, a kingdom that at the beginning of the Christian era included parts of modern-day Jordan, Syria, and Saudi Arabia, and had its capital in Petra. "We now...

WATERBURY -- The first thing that Hill Street brings to mind probably isn't farming, but in a small way, Sue Pronovost is hoping to change that image, one vacant lot at a time. "This is our crown jewel," said Pronovost, director of Brass City Harvest, a newly organized agency focusing on growing food in the inner city. Pronovost, whose specialty is grant writing, became a convert to urban agriculture several years ago and is now trying to bring the city up to speed on a movement that has been having a big impact in tough urban areas. With the Crownbrook...

Five years into the war in Iraq, military history seems to be experiencing a golden age. Hollywood has been cranking out war movies. Publishers have been lining bookstore shelves with new battle tomes, which consumers are eagerly lapping up. Even the critics have been enjoying themselves. Two of the last five Pulitzer Prizes in history were awarded to books about the American military. Four of the five Oscar nominees for best documentary this year were about warfare. Business, for military historians, is good.

[Some color pics from Der Spiegel Online. Click the URL below] http://www.spiegel.de/flash/0,5532,10269,00.html

Grand Old Partisan salutes Ulysses Grant, the second Republican to serve as President of the United States. He was born in Point Pleasant, OH on April 27, 1822. Sometimes overlooked are President Grant's exemplary efforts to protect African-Americans from their Democrat oppressors.In 1870 and 1871, President Grant signed into law three laws known as the Enforcement Acts, one of which banned the Ku Klux Klan and other Democrat terrorist organizations. Grant then...[see http://grandpartisan.typepad.com/blog/2008/04/ulysses-grant-r.html]Each day, Grand Old Partisan celebrates 154 years of Republican heroes and heroics.

It was April of 1976; Rick Monday hadn’t played his first inning yet as an LA Dodger. At the time, he was a Center Fielder for the visiting Chicago Cubs and was in town to do as much damage to the opposing team as possible. He wasn’t planning on being serenaded by the fans in sunny Southern California. However, two rowdy fans had brought a US flag to the ballpark, and were planning on celebrating the bicentennial in as obnoxious a manner as possible. Monday describes what happened next. When these two guys ran on the field, something wasn't right....

On April 25, 1945, during World War II, U.S. and Soviet forces linked up on the Elbe River, a meeting that dramatized the collapse of Nazi Germany's defenses. [Snip] In 1507, German cartographer Martin Waldseemueller used the term "America" on a world map to refer to the huge land mass in the Western Hemisphere, in honor of Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci. [Snip]In 1859, ground was broken for the Suez Canal. In 1898, the United States formally declared war on Spain. [Snip] In 1915, during World War I, Allied soldiers invaded the Gallipoli Peninsula in an unsuccessful attempt to take the...

'Waziristan is a thoroughly dangerous area' In 1919, a young British army officer, Francis Stockdale, was deployed to the Waziristan area of British India.The title of his book, "Walk Warily in Waziristan" seems no less appropriate now than it did 90 years ago, because today the autonomous Pakistani tribal region of North and South Waziristan is the centre of militancy orchestrated by pro-Taleban and al-Qaeda militants. It is also an area where many believe the al-Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden, may be hiding after the September 2001 World Trade Centre attacks. It wasn't until the 1980s that Capt Stockdale's...

George Washington (David Morse) so quickly tired of the infighting among his Cabinet and vagaries of public opinion that he stepped down from the presidency after a single term. "I know now what it is like to be disliked," he says to Adams, his perpetually disliked vice president.

Highland bagpipe is a recent invention for nostalgic Scotish émigrés, expert claims By Patrick Sawer Last Updated: 9:34am BST 19/04/2008 Whisper it if you dare, but the age-old Highland bagpipe - beloved of sentimental Scots and American tourists in search of their Highland roots - is in fact a recent invention. Queen Victoria appointed a 'personal piper to the sovereign' A controversial new study has claimed that far from being the time-honoured instrument which led the clans into battle against the Auld Enemy, the bagpipe as we know it was developed in the early 1800s. It now seems that, like...

"Listen my children and you shall hear Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five; Hardly a man is now alive Who remembers that famous day and year."

Ex-President Jimmy Carter organized a Tea Time with Terrorists when he met with Hamas officials last Tuesday at a reception in Ramallah. Carter also announced his intentions to meet with exiled Hamas political chief, Khaled Mashaal, in Damascus, Syria on Friday. We decided to put together a short list of Carter’s accomplishments as President: signing away the Panama Canal, signing a treaty with Soviet Russia shortly before they invaded Afghanistan, and the colossal inept bumbling of the Iran Hostage Crisis.

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. ...................................................................................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel...

Titanic, left, and Olympic sat next to one another in a double gantry in the last photo of the two together, weeks before Olympic set sail Researchers have discovered that the builder of the Titanic struggled for years to obtain enough good rivets and riveters and ultimately settled on faulty materials that doomed the ship, which sank 96 years ago Tuesday. The builder’s own archives, two scientists say, harbor evidence of a deadly mix of low quality rivets and lofty ambition as the builder labored to construct the three biggest ships in the world at once — the Titanic...

ROME -- Italian police have recovered a rare statue of a Roman emperor who co-ruled alongside Marcus Aurelius and was known for his reluctance to sit for portraits. Police said Friday that the marble head of Lucius Verus was the most spectacular find among more than a dozen looted ancient artifacts hidden in a boat garage near Rome. The bearded visage of Lucius Verus is believed to have been secretly unearthed at a site in the Naples area and was probably destined for the international market, said Capt. Massimo Rossi of a special police unit that hunts down archaeological thieves....

...In an informal survey of 109 professional historians conducted over a three-week period through the History News Network, 98.2 percent assessed the presidency of Mr. Bush to be a failure while 1.8 percent classified it as a success. Asked to rank the presidency of George W. Bush in comparison to those of the other 41 American presidents, more than 61 percent of the historians concluded that the current presidency is the worst in the nation's history. Another 35 percent of the historians surveyed rated the Bush presidency in the 31st to 41st category, while only four of the 109 respondents...

I haven't seen any threads to commemorate the fall of Bataan on 9 April 1942. So, in honor of those who served I submit.... "We're the Battling Bastards of Bataan, No mama, no papa, no Uncle Sam, No aunts, no uncles, no cousins, no nieces, No pills, no planes, no artillery pieces, And nobody gives a damn!" by Frank Hewlett, 1942.

"At Appomattox, Virginia, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrenders his 28,000 troops to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, effectively ending the American Civil War."

Artefacts reveal rich history of craftsmanship Emran HossainPublished On: 2008-04-07Wari-Bateshwar Site A few semi-precious stone beads with motifs found at the Wari-Bateshwar archaeological site recently. The findings indicate the spot was a rich trade centre. Photo: STAR Archaeological studies on semi-precious stone beads and other artefacts found in Wari-Bateshwar indicate people of this land have a rich history of craftsmanship as old as around 2,500 years. Plenty of semi-precious stone beads are found and unearthed from Wari-Bateshwar and some of those are even identical to the artefacts found in Southeast Asia and other parts in the Indian subcontinent. This suggests...

Do you miss this guy? I know I sure as hell do… ‘Here’s my strategy on the Cold War: We win, they lose.’ “The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”

While politicians draw up plans to divide Israel’s capital city, archaeologists are busily digging up Jerusalem’s celebrated past. Given the media exposure Jerusalem archaeology is beginning to receive, it is possible that this city’s past could spark more than just archaeological fervor. In the Arab village of Silwan, archaeologists are hard at work excavating the original Jerusalem—the City of David. An Associated Press story on February 10 outlined how Silwan is “hard-wired into the politics of modern-day Arab-Israeli strife” and that new digs are cutting to the heart of who owns the Holy City today. “Palestinians and Israelis are trying...

I. In the early 1990s, optimism was understandable. The collapse of the communist empire and the apparent embrace of democracy by Russia seemed to augur a new era of global convergence. The great adversaries of the Cold War suddenly shared many common goals, including a desire for economic and political integration. Even after the political crackdown that began in Tiananmen Square in 1989 and the disturbing signs of instability that appeared in Russia after 1993, most Americans and Europeans believed that China and Russia were on a path toward liberalism. Boris Yeltsin's Russia seemed committed to the liberal model of...

At 12:01 a.m. on April 7, 1933, sirens, fire alarms and train whistles shrieked. In Chicago, harried bartenders scrambled to serve crowds that stood 12 deep. At Pabst Brewing Co. in Milwaukee, thousands of onlookers cheered as company employees hoisted barrels and crates onto trucks. About 800 people stood in the rain outside the White House, watching as a man hopped out of his vehicle and unloaded two cases of beer. Secret Service agents accepted the goods, a gift for the chief executive from one of the nation's brewers. "President Roosevelt," read a sign on the side of the truck,...

The relationship between Muslims and Christians received added attention this past Easter when Pope Benedict XVI publicly baptized Magdi Allam, the most prominent Muslim journalist in Italy.  Allam knew that publicly renouncing his Islamic faith would bring attempts on his life from angered Muslims, but expressed conviction that his newfound faith would sustain him through any difficulties. "You asked me whether I fear for my life, in the awareness that conversion to Christianity will certainly procure for me yet another and much more grave death sentence for apostasy. You are perfectly right. I know what I am headed for but...

4/2/2008 - BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- Airmen from the 332nd Expeditionary Medical Group and the 332nd Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron here worked together to preserve a piece of Balad Air Base, Logistics Support Area Anaconda and Operation Iraqi Freedom history. The emergency room from the old Balad AB Air Force Theater Hospital, which was a temporary tent structure, was recently dismantled and packaged up. It was shipped April 1 to the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, where it is slated for exhibition because it is known, by the medical community, as the place where the...

Racism and Historical Truth: Jewish Refugees from Arab Lands UN Watch (press release), Switzerland - Mar 19, 2008 We thank the Special Rapporteur for his work against racism, and address two areas of his report... http://www.unwatch.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=bdKKISNqEmG&b=1313923&ct=5118137

Archaeologists Find Evidence of Origin of Pacific Islanders By Heidi Chang Honolulu, Hawaii 31 March 2008 The origin of Pacific Islanders has been a mystery for years. Now archaeologists believe they have the answer. As Heidi Chang reports, they found it in China. The excavation of the Zishan site (Zhejiang Province) in 1996, where many artifacts from the Hemudu culture have been found China had a sea-faring civilization as long as 7000 years ago. Archaeologist Tianlong Jiao says, one day, these mariners sailed their canoes into the vastness of the Pacific Ocean, and stayed. He points out, "Most scientists, archaeologists,...

The pages are mottled and a little yellow. Some look almost burnt around the edges. A letter from Abraham Lincoln is said to be the auction's centrepiece Enlarge Image The ink is blotchy in places, but the signatures are unmistakable, and magical. You need a good imagination, but stare for long enough and you can picture the writers. Abraham Lincoln for instance, perhaps stroking his beard as he writes from the "Executive Mansion, Washington, April 5, 1864." George Washington, sitting at his desk at Mount Vernon ("in Virginia" he usefully adds on the top right-hand corner) on 2 June 1784....

CAMP TAJI, Iraq, March 31, 2008 – As some 19-year-olds are going to college, hanging out with friends and beginning their adult life, one Multinational Division Baghdad soldier is beginning his adulthood in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Army Pvt. Derk Hayes, a Peru, Ind., native, who serves in Multinational Division Baghdad with Company C, 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, receives a commander’s coin for excellence March 9, 2008, from Army Lt. Col. Richard “Flip” Wilson, commander of 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, at Camp Taji, Iraq. Photo by Sgt. Brad...

Silver cross reveals a piece of Acadian history Jill St. Marseille, Canwest News Service Published: Saturday, March 29, 2008 Experts hope a small piece of Acadian history that offers a rare glimpse into pre-deportation Canada may open a wider window on that sore point in the country's past. The three-centimetre silver cross was discovered in Grand Pre, N.S., during an archeological dig by Saint Mary's University in 2006. Its physical properties and 250-year-old grave mark it as part of an important historical era - the deportation of thousands of Acadians in 1755. The tiny cross may even have links to...

German Luftwaffe pilot returns to Bath to apologise for wartime bombing Last updated at 18:02pm on 27th March 2008 A decorated German Luftwaffe pilot is to return to the city he bombed during World War Two to make a public apology. Bomber pilot Willi Schludecker demolished dozens of Georgian buildings in Bath, Somerset, in April 1942 in his Dornier 217E-4. Now 87 years-old and in failing health, his dying wish is to make amends with the city which lost 400 residents in the raid. Scroll down for more... Return: Willi Schludecker will make amends with Bath in a service next...

In this series, exclusive to FreeRepublic, we will examine the military resume of Senator Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton. She did much more than dodge sniper fire in Bosnia with her daughter because Bill was too afraid to go, and the voters are entitled to know about her exploits before they decide whom they want for commander in chief. =================================================================================== HILLARY IN MILITARY HISTORY: No. 1 - Her Mission on the Enola Gay (the name of the plane has nothing to do with the rumors about her sexual orientation) At approximately 2:00 on the morning of August 6th, the Enola...

In the '40s and '50s, Aragon was known as the 'Golden Boy.' He entered the ring wearing gold robes and trunks, flattened opponents with his sharp left hook -- and then dated starlets. Art Aragon, the charismatic "Golden Boy" boxer who steadily drew standing-room-only crowds at Los Angeles and Hollywood venues in the 1940s and '50s, died today at Northridge Hospital Medical Center after his family removed him from life support apparatus. He was 80...