Tropical Storm Wilma is the 21st named storm of this season, making this the busiest hurricane season ever. Considering that this season included one of the worst natural disasters on the US mainland (Katrina) and one of the 30 deadliest hurricanes (Stan), as well as one of the easternmost hurricanes ever (Vince), this is a [...]

During the years I lived in Stuttgart, I remember several occasions when construction workers found unexploded bombs from WWII. But this recent discovery of a piece of Nazi-era legacy is uniquely horrifying, and within an easy bike-ride from where I lived: Remains believed to be from some 30 Jews forced into labour by the Nazis [...]

Remembering a tireless fighter for justice and human dignity: Simon Wiesenthal, the famous Nazi Hunter has died in Vienna at the age of 96, the Simon Wiesenthal Center announced today (September 20th). “Simon Wiesenthal was the conscience of the Holocaust,” said Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the International Human Rights NGO named in [...]

Lots of talk today. Silence and reflection would be better …

A toast to the efforts of Sean Wilson and Julie Bradford and all supporters of the Pop the Cap effort here in North Carolina. This weekend the NC Governor Mike Easley signed House Bill 392 into law. It is now on the books as S.L. 2005-277 and it raises the cap on alcohol content for [...]

Early in the morning on August 13, 1961, workers began tearing up the cobblestone and asphalt along the sector boundaries across Berlin. They began erecting concrete pillars and barbed-wire barricades, while units of the the Volkspolizei – the People’s Police – kept the angry people in the eastern sector in check with machine guns. The [...]

“I saw that everybody looked so terrible, just like they came from hell,” she said. “No one was talking. No one was screaming.” Hiroshima Survivor Recalls Devastation The Washington Post, July 16, 2005 (quoting Hiroshima survivor Shigeko Sasamori, 73) 60 years ago today, the first nuclear explosion began the age of the atom bomb. On [...]

It’s about time. Germany is finally ready to dedicate a major memorial to the victims of the Nazi regime: the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe today joins Yad Vashem and the United States Holocaust Museum and many other places of remembrance. In plain view of the Reichstag building, where the German parliament deliberates [...]

When I left Germany 11 years ago I spent the last night at my Grandfather’s. He lived near Frankfurt and my flight left early in the morning, so he was going to drive me to the airport. My grandfather was of old Prussian stock, stubborn, proud and very conservative. I had never heard him talk [...]

As painful as it is … remember! The hollow wail of the traditional Jewish shofar cut through the air of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp in southern Poland on Thursday, signaling the start of a huge march in memory of the Holocaust. Some 20,000 people from around the world, Jews and non-Jews, set off under [...]

So the Catholic Church selected Joseph Ratzinger as Pope today. Oh well, that’ll ensure one more world power broker will remain stuck in the dark ages. Congratulations!

The Battle of Seelow Heights at the end of WWII is remembered as one of the bloodiest battles of a horrible war. Today, people from Russia, Poland and Germany joined in a solemn ceremony in Seelow, Brandenburg State. The speakers at the ceremony admonished their contemporaries to make every effort to instill in today’s youth [...]

The Kingdom of Bhutan posted a PDF of its draft constitution on the web. The constitutional commission solemnly enshrined in Article 9, section 2, promoting “those circumstances that will enable the successful pursuit of Gross National Happiness” as a principle of State Policy. In fact, the draft mentions “happiness” four times, including once in the [...]

With pomp and circumstance Togo held the funeral for Gnassingbe Eyadema on Sunday. A giant portrait of Eyadema, with the words “I will always be with you”, overlooked Lome’s marbled Palais des Congres building where dignitaries had gathered to receive the coffin. Yes, he’ll remain with us as an example of the bad old times [...]

In Salina, Kansas, at 2:49 pm ET Steve Fossett made aviation history when he touched down in his Global Flyer after a 25,000-mile (40,234 kilometer) around-the-globe voyage that took 67 hours and two minutes.

At least for Hunter S. Thompson it is. I just finished watching the movie for the 56243th time. God … Johnny did good! Goodbye to the crazy old man, the original blogger, gonzo journalist, whatever …. Peace be with you on your final trip. And, Jesus!, this country needs another Malcolm X! [UPDATE] HST’s May [...]

With regional powerhouse Nigeria in the lead, West African nations are increasing the pressure on Togo’s leadership, while an opposition rally in Lome is violently broken up by Togolese police. OCHA IRIN and the BBC report that officials from ECOWAS and the African Union are denouncing the recent coup in Togo sharply. The tensions increased, [...]

President Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo died yesterday at age 69. He was one of the original African dictators of the post-colonial era. This is his legacy in a nutshell: Born to a peasant family in northern Togo, the young Sergeant Eyadema seized power in 1967 after staging one of Africa’s first coups soon after Togo [...]