Free Republic

Edward M. Kennedy was romantically described as the last lion, but it might be more accurate to think of him as a river. Especially earlier in his long career, he could be tumultuous and overflow his banks, both politically and in his personal life. But mostly he was steady, forceful, and above all persistent. Particularly in the three decades after his failed 1980 presidential bid

Racial prejudice is as old as mankind. It is one of the dark sides of man that we tend to decrease the value of others in order to raise ourselves. And at some point in history, prejudice found a faithful servant in science. Scientific theories and arguments were used to support the inferiority of other races, thereby legitimising crimes committed throughout history and all over the world. They were used in the United States to justify slavery and the Indian wars, as well as later for the sterlisation of disabled people. The emergence of eugenics as an ‘applied science’ culminated...

Research has suggested that modern music really isn’t as good as the old classics. A study has found that golden oldies stick in millennials’ minds far more than the relatively bland, homogenous pop of today. A golden age of popular music lasted from the 1960s to the 1990s, academics claimed. Songs from this era proved to be much more memorable than tunes released in the 21st century. Music from the vinyl era is still very popular among young people Scientists tested a group of millennials on their ability to recognise hit records from different decades. The 643 participants, typically aged...

MACY'S THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE – 1945 Friends and family- This home movie is of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1945 in New York City. World War II had just ended several months earlier. The parade had been suspended the prior 3 years due to the need for rubber and helium in the war effort. The movie was filmed by my grandfather, William Whitman, Sr. on 16mm film, and the music is by my daughter, Anna Haas. I hope you enjoy... David

How incoming enemy aircraft were detected before the invention of radar Strange acoustic "ears" before radar; old time pictures of listening posts ...

Newt: FDR Was The ‘Greatest President’ Of The 20th Centuryhttp://www.breitbart.tv/newt-fdr-was-the-greatest-president-of-the-20th-century/

Glenn Beck has now supplanted Rush Limbaugh as the most influential broadcaster in America. He's the one the tea-party movement looks to. Beck wowed the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) crowd Feb 20 with his attack on progressivism, which he said must be "eradicated." "Progressivism is the cancer in America and it's eating our Constitution," Beck told the crowd. Now that Beck has given his marching orders, expect to hear all the Fox Puppets echoing him. The goal is to discredit "progressivism" as they did "liberalism." Beck fancies himself a historian; his patter is full of historical references that seem...

Meet the Big Apple's 111-year-old wonder. Jane Gilsenan has touched three centuries, lived under 19 US presidents and witnessed some of the greatest moments in history. She is New York City's oldest living resident, according to experts, and one of the oldest people in the world. "I'm lucky to live as long as I have so far," the super-centenarian said last week at her home in a Staten Island convent. "I had nothing to do with it. It was wished on me." Gilsenan was born at Amsterdam Avenue and 98th Street in Manhattan on May 8, 1898, at the same...

Regular Guy Paul linked to an Ann Coulter column suggesting that if we took the vote away from women, we'd never have another Democratic president.  I'm almost tempted to sidetrack this post because I caught a hilarious comment in the comments section that rebutted the notion that fascism is a leftist ideology - it most definitely is - but that's for another day. I'm not even interested in Coulter's comments per se, considering they were mostly tongue-in-cheek, but something that Paul said caught my attention. Generally speaking, I would support repealing all the Constitutional amendments of the 20th century. So...

See for example this thread first. Ex-news anchor Walter Cronkite Had a memory lapse (what a fright!) Couldn't recall Saddam Then went on, with aplomb "Obama's in his twenties." Riiiight!

AUSTRALIA... ENGLAND.. NOW USA... NEWSCORP Lord Rupert Murdoch can now claim the top spots in the media industry. The 20th Century Fox, Murdoch, 74, has become 21st Century Daddy. On Wednesday night the TV season ends with an IDOL bang and FOX finishing #1 -- for the first time -- in the ad demo, 18-49, and #1 in teens. At the box-office Murdoch takes #1 by distributing REVENGE OF THE SITH. In the heated cable news race, FOXNEWS [despite faulty Internet rumors] continues to dominate all dayparts, all demos, all ratings, and has all but caught CNN in ad revenues....

There has been much discussion recently about how to "manage the rise of China." The phrase itself is soothing, implying gradualism, predictability and time. Time enough to think and prepare, to take measurements of China's trajectory and adjust as necessary. If China eventually emerges as a clear threat, there will be time to react. But meanwhile there is time enough not to overreact, to be watchful but patient and not to create self-fulfilling prophecies. If we prematurely treat China as an enemy, it is said, it will become an enemy. The idea that we can manage China's rise is comforting...

It is often said that the Twentieth Century actually began in 1914, the year in which the Great War, the most awful war in many ways in human history, began. As an example of how ghastly this era has been, consider this: given the unspeakable agony and carnage of the Western Front, the Italian Front and the Russian Front in the Great War, and given the unspeakable agony and viciousness of the Holocaust, which should moral and reasonable men have chosen over the other? Reflexively, we assume that the Great War was the lesser evil, but that is primarily because...

In 1915, Armenia was under the Ottoman Turk empire. The Turks under the Young Turks decided to kill Armenians and up to 1.5 million of them died. The Turks were Muslims, while Armenians were Christians. Many died while being deported and others were being outright murdered. Turkey to this day has not apologized or said anything about this heinous act.  Armenian Genocide

Yesterday in history, was the 100th anniversary of the Iranian Consitutitional Revolution in 1904. The war for freedom lasted 5 years. Iranians were the first Asian nation that uprised against the dictatorship of the rulers. They protested againt the Qajari Kings and the rule of Radical Islam. And they successfully made the first Asian Parliament and make the king respect the Parliamentary system. Good to know that an American Teacher died in clashes with Kings forces while helping Iranian constitutionalist forces in city of Tabriz. Iranians still pay tribute to his grave in that city and are thankful for his...

When Evelyn Waugh died, only a bold man would have bet on his reputation. 1966 was the apotheosis of "Swinging London," but Waugh, while a Londoner born and bred, was the antithesis of swinging. Waugh was, in modern parlance, a snob, a racist, and a sexist. He was a self-styled "craftsman" who loathed proletarian culture. He was a political reactionary, and a lonely and anguished opponent of the Second Vatican Council that was soon to render unrecognizable his beloved Catholic Church. He was a man of the past. Of course anyone who had bet on Waugh then could easily retire...

  20th Century U.S. History Final: 1) The Dixiecrat party was made up of Southern a) Democrats b) Republicans 2) Jim Crow laws were passed by legislatures controlled by: a) Democrats b) Republicans 3) When the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. led the civil rights efforts in the South, the governing powers that opposed him were of which party? a) Democrat b) Republican 4) In Arkansas, the governor who stood in the door of a schoolhouse to block integration was a: a) Democrat b) Republican 5) The president who ordered in the National Guard to dislodge the above-mentioned governor from...

Top 100 American Speeches of the 20th centuryWe hope to soon feature all the speeches by women listed below. Compiled by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Texas A & M University, this list reflects the opinions of 137 leading scholars of American public address. (Full text of news release.) Rank Title Speaker Date Place 1 "I Have a Dream" Martin Luther King, Jr. 28 Aug 1963 Washington, DC 2 Inaugural Address John F. Kennedy 20 Jan 1961 Washington, DC 3 First Inaugural Address Franklin D. Roosevelt 4 Mar 1933 Washington, DC 4 War Message ("A Date which...