The Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, is the oldest synagogue in North America. Dating to colonial times, it was visited by George Washington in 1781. It is now being restored as part of a $10 million project designed to palce the building in a historical context.

The oldest existing Jewish house of worship in North America, the Touro Synagogue in Newport, R.I., holds more than two centuries of history within its brick walls. George Washington visited, and throngs of tourists still include it on their itineraries.

But age has crept up on the building, dedicated in 1763. The walls are deteriorating with mold, white paint chips litter the ground, a brass chandelier is slowly corroding, and a poor ventilation system can make the sanctuary uncomfortable.

Now, an extensive restoration is under way, the first in decades, as part of a $10 million campaign that includes money to build visitor facilities. The synagogue has been temporarily closed and sheathed in a white covering. The restoration is expected to conclude in December.

"Two hundred and fifty years is great for the building to have lasted," said Michael Balaban, a former Hebrew school teacher and leader of the Touro Synagogue Foundation. "But if we don't start to act now, we certainly won't get another 250 years out of the building, let alone another 50."

The history of the synagogue starts with a group of Sephardic Jews who arrived in 1658 in Rhode Island -- a colony founded by Roger Williams and his followers on the principle of religious tolerance. They established a congregation, and the synagogue was built a century later -- designed by Newport architect Peter Harrison, whose other notable buildings include King's Chapel in Boston.

George Washington visited in 1781 and later delivered a written proclamation guaranteeing that bigotry would not be tolerated in the new nation.

Touro stands as one of the great symbols of religious liberty in this country, and also as a symbol of our nation's Judeo-Christian heritage. May it continue to serve as a reminder of the people of faith who built this country and made it great.

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No, it doesn't. In fact, it cannot even support its own weight. But it survives, over 190 years later, and is soon to emerge following a seven year, $18.6 million conservation project. That's right -- THE flag that flew over Fort McHenry in 1814, that inspired the composition of our national anthem by Francis Scott Key, will soon be back on display in the Smithsonian.

Even then, Sept. 14, 1814, the huge garrison flag was frayed at the ends and faded from a year's daily use. Over the next 190 years, it deteriorated to the point that it has become one the country's most fragile cultural treasures.

"The first time I saw it, my stomach just dropped," said Marilyn Zoidis, the Smithsonian's senior curator for the flag. "It was so fragile that it couldn't even support its own weight. I really wondered whether we would ever be able to save it."

Since the project began, a cadre of chemists, conservators and textile experts have labored over the red, white and blue rectangle of wool bunting with cotton stars.

Because of the flag's size and fragility, technicians have to work while lying prone on a gantry that lets them "hover" 4 inches above it. Exhaust ducts dangle like elephant trunks to remove chemical vapors. Increased air pressure keeps dust out. The temperature is maintained at 68 degrees, and the lights are kept low to prevent further deterioration.

Congress has authorized $3 million. The rest of the money, including $10 million from Polo Ralph Lauren and $5 million from the Pew Charitable Trusts, is from private sources.

I remember, as a kid living in the Washington area, seeing that flag every time we visited the museum. While I may have wanted to see the dinosaurs, mummys amd aircraft that fill the various buildings, I always found it a special moment when we went to see the flag. And we did go to see the flag every single time. even then, thirty years ago, the flag was in sorry shape. So I was pleased sevral years ago to hear that this important cultural icon would be safeguarded for future generations.

A small gallery with a 50-foot-long window looking onto the flag conservation lab has become the museum's largest attraction, with 10 million visitors since it opened in 1998.

Most visitors are struck by the sheer size of the banner, so frayed in spots it is almost transparent. Designed to fly from a 90-foot pole, the flag measured 30 by 42 feet. Now it is 30 by 34 feet, reduced by wear and tear at Fort McHenry and by uncounted bits and pieces snipped off as mementos.

The conservation team's inch-by-inch survey found 165 previous repairs, 37 patches, and a spectrum of soiling that included sulfur and nitrogen residue left by exploding British shells and contemporary grime, auto exhaust and mold.

Some parts were strong enough to be gently vacuumed, but most had to be patted clean with dry cosmetic sponges and gently bathed with diluted solvents. Uneven aging has produced at least five shades of red, six kinds of white, and three hues of blue.

Because the flag can't support its own weight, technicians have been attaching it to a synthetic backing.

Like I said, it was in pretty sorry shape, though I would never have imagined it had become that fragile. I wish the last few years would have enabled me to see the conservation effort, but such is life. In the next few years, we will need to make a trip out east to see the results of this effort.

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Those who have watched or read Field of Dreams may remember the character “Moonlight” Graham.

On June 29, 1905, Moonlight Graham -- so nicknamed, some say, because of his insomnia -- made his single major-league appearance.

The North Carolina native played right field for the New York Giants for one or two innings and never got a chance to bat. Seeing his baseball career going nowhere, he quit to become a physician. In 1909 he took a train to Chisholm to answer an ad placed by Rood Hospital.

Moonlight Graham became Doc Graham -- married a local girl who taught at the school, and took care of the town's children for the next four decades or so. No kid who needed medicine, glasses, or a ticket to the ballgame ever went without. The story is beautiful -- and is one of those that makes America great.

As is said by Moonlight Graham in the book -- "Son, if I'd only got to be a doctor for five minutes, now that would have been a tragedy."

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Those who have watched or read Field of Dreams may remember the character “Moonlight” Graham.

On June 29, 1905, Moonlight Graham -- so nicknamed, some say, because of his insomnia -- made his single major-league appearance.

The North Carolina native played right field for the New York Giants for one or two innings and never got a chance to bat. Seeing his baseball career going nowhere, he quit to become a physician. In 1909 he took a train to Chisholm to answer an ad placed by Rood Hospital.

Moonlight Graham became Doc Graham -- married a local girl who taught at the school, and took care of the town's children for the next four decades or so. No kid who needed medicine, glasses, or a ticket to the ballgame ever went without. The story is beautiful -- and is one of those that makes America great.

As is said by Moonlight Graham in the book -- "Son, if I'd only got to be a doctor for five minutes, now that would have been a tragedy."

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I've been fascinated with the ancient Greeks and the age of Pericles ever since the first book about them was stuck in my hands somewhere arouhnd the age of eight-years old. As the son of a naval officer, I was particularly interested inthe battle at Salamis, which saved the Athenians (and the rest of the Greeks) from defeat at the hands of the Persians.

Marine archaeologists are now searching for evidence about the battle which made the development of classical civilization (as we know it) possible.

In the world of underwater archaeology the hunt for the legendary armadas is the expedition that might, just, scoop all others.

Topping the international team's wish list is the remains of a trireme, the pre-eminent warship of the classical age.

"This is high-risk archaeology," says the team's co-leader, Dr Shelly Wachsmann, of Texas A&M University. "Discovering a trireme is one of the holy grails. Not one has ever been found."

The Persians' defeat at Salamis is seen as one of the first victories of democracy over tyranny, a crucial moment in Western history. Without it, say scholars, there would have been no golden age and the world would have been a very different place.

All of which makes this week-long mission more poignant as experts try to discover how the Greeks managed to defeat a much bigger and better-equipped enemy.

If this Aggie gets his trireme, I might even be persuaded to offer a hearty "Gig 'Em" on their behalf.

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Having recently finished O'Brian's epic Aubrey/Maturin novels (I did Hornblower a couple of years ago), I've developed a fascination with Lord Nelson. And given that we are near to the anniversary of the glorious Battle of Trafalgar, it seems right tthat I note the presence of this document on the auction list at Bobnham's in London.

A description of the horrors of the Battle of Trafalgar written by a barely literate below-decks seaman is to be auctioned next month as enthusiasm for memorabilia peaks on the 200th anniversary of the battle in which Admiral Horatio Nelson crushed a French and Spanish fleet.

The document describes the action of Britain's greatest naval victory from the point of view of Robert Sands, a 17-year-old "powder monkey" on the Temeraire, and includes an account of how he almost suffocated in the smoke from the ship's 98 guns and how he narrowly escaped death from a fire.

His story opens with a description of the famous signal to the fleet sent by Nelson: "He said he oped that Everey man would doo his Duty this day for old Englands sake for it would be a gloureus day for them that lived to see the end of it."

Later Sands writes: "We had to leave our Quarters 2 get breth. The smoke sofecated us."

As I loke to remind my students, history is not just the lives of the great men and women of an age, but those of the humblest as well.

I wish I had an extra $7000 lying around to make this purchase.

It is expected to go for about $7000 (3000 pounds). I certainly wish I had that sort of cash to spare.

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The US Senate is about to pass a resolution apologizing for its failure to pass a law against lynching -- as first proposed by President McKinley over a century ago. Why the delay? Senate filibusters, part of that proud tradition of democracy that Senator Robert Byrd (KKK-- Dogpatch) and the rest of the Senate Democrats have talked about in recent weeks.

The U.S. House of Representatives, responding to pleas from presidents and civil rights groups, three times agreed to make the crime a federal offense. Each time, though, the measure died in the Senate at the hands of powerful southern lawmakers using the filibuster.

The Senate is set to correct that wrong Monday, when its members will vote on a resolution to apologize for the failure to enact an anti-lynching law first proposed 105 years ago.

"The apology is long overdue," said Sen. George Allen (R-Va.), who is sponsoring the resolution with Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.). "Our history does include times when we failed to protect individual freedom and rights."

Uh, does anyone notice something missing in the first paragraph I quoted -- and the rest of the article? The obstructionists who wanted to make sure that no white man was ever prosecuted for the murder of a black man were DEMOCRATS. The folks who shut down the Senate for SIX WEEKS in 1936-37 with a filibuster against a federal lynching law were DEMOCRATS (including Senator Hugo Black, who would be appointed to the Supreme Court by FDR in the midst of the filibuster, despite his known membership in the KKK).

The reporters and the editors of the Washington Post, of course, would never include that detail in an article. It would require reminding folks which party was the party of emancipation, which party lent its overwhelming support to every Civil Rights Act , and which party has always rejected racism and favored the best interests of African -Americans. It would also require mentioning which party supported slavery, disenfranchisement of blacks, Jim Crow, the appointment of segregationist judges, and, yes, lynchings of uppity black men.

And it would require reminding folks that the filibuster, trumpetted by Senate Democrats as the key to preserving minority rights, has long been used by them to obstruct the interests of blacks, Jews, Catholics, women, and others who stood in the way of the interests of Ol' Massa the leaders of the Democrat Plantation Party.

UPDATE: Seems that Captain Ed has stirred quite a controversy by commenting on this same article.
more...

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As we approach the bicentenial of the British naval victory over Napoleon's forces at Trafalgar, someone in the British bureaucracy has seen fit to dishonor Lord Nelson and his men at the official commemoration.

Instead of the British taking on a French/Spanish fleet at next month's event to mark the battle's bicentenary a "red" force will take on a "blue".

Navy organisers fear visiting officials may be embarrassed at seeing their side beaten, The Sunday Times reported.

Portsmouth MP Mike Hancock said an event which did not acknowledge who the enemy was is "absolute twaddle".

The Lib Dem MP said: "If we are going to re-enact it we should do it properly. I am sure the French do not pull any punches when they celebrate Napoleon's victories.

"The French will be there - let's not rub it in but at least be accurate. I see no reason why we should not be out there proud as punch proclaiming it."

He said it was unlikely the decision was made by a serving naval officer and concluded it must have been "a faceless bureaucrat somewhere who thinks their next posting might be in Paris."

One event sponsor said: "Surely 200 years on we can afford to gloat a bit."

"Not even the French can try and get snooty about this."

Official literature for the event refers to "an early 19th-century sea battle" instead of the Battle of Trafalgar, The Sunday Times said.

You must be freakin' joking. Not offend the French? Why commemorate the battle at all, if you don't want to note its name and the respective sides that took part in it. That would have been like commemorating the end of WWII without noting who won, who lost, and who committed a genocide second only to that perpetrated in the name of Communism.

What next? Signs by the roadside that say "On this site, on thus and such a date, something really interesting happened, but we don't dare tell you what it was for fear of offending someone."

Nelson's exploits, including this last battle, made him the model for generations of British naval officers. If you cannot accurately commemorate one of his greatest victories -- the one in which he gave his life for his country -- then why bother with the commemoration at all.

Besides -- the French have been getting their asses kicked regularly since at least the Battle of Agincourt. I'm sure they are used to being reminded of it by now.

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When Charles Bieger, a St. Louis trunk salesman, died in 1930, he was buried beneatha family headstone that bore only his last name. Nothing more indicated that this man was decorated for heroism during the Civil War.

There is now a new tombstone on his grave.

I encourage folks to read the article, as it talks about some fine people who work to make sure that every Medal of Honor winner has his heroism commemorated. It also provides a really interesting bit of history about the award.

But the most interesting part of the article is this.

Descendants of Bieger don't know why his grave wasn't marked. The Post-Dispatch obituary on Bieger mentions the medal in its headline and says he was buried with military honors.

Surviving evidence also suggests that Bieger was modest about his bravery. An article on his exploits that was published in 1927, when he was 83, notes that the reporter had to keep directing the interview back to the fateful battle. Bieger wanted to talk about how he helped police crack open an old trunk that was used to hide a body in a notorious murder downtown.

"It required about 27 direct questions to worm this interesting information out of the veteran," reporter Robertus Love noted in his article in the old St. Louis Globe-Democrat.

Bieger, a native of Wiesbaden, Germany, immigrated to St. Louis with his family in 1857 and joined the Union cavalry in 1862. He was 19 when he accompanied an unsuccessful thrust from Memphis, Tenn., into Mississippi in February 1864.

The column was supposed to meet Gen. William T. Sherman's infantry at the rail junction of Meridian, Miss. But halfway there, the cavalry ran into a force led by the wily Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest.

On Feb. 22, 1864, the two sides fought a series of galloping clashes near Okolona, Miss. At Ivey's Hill, nine miles northwest of town, Capt. Frederick Hunsen was unhorsed and surrounded.

Bieger rode through gunfire, offered his horse to Hunsen and steadied the captain's wounded mount. Together they fled to safety.

The fight was a Confederate victory. The cavalry limped back to Memphis, forcing Sherman to withdraw from Meridian.

"Forrest licked us that day. Licked us good and plenty," Bieger said in 1927.

He returned to St. Louis after the war ended and eventually opened a trunk shop at Broadway and Market Street. (Forrest returned to Tennessee, where he briefly served as the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.)

In 1895, Hunsen wrote a letter detailing Bieger's exploits. Congress awarded him the Medal of Honor in 1897.

T learn more about the Congressional Medal of honor and the heroes whose actions are honored with the nation's highest military honor, visit the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.

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They've sent the USS America to the bottom.

The Navy sent the retired USS America aircraft carrier to its final resting place at the bottom of the sea Saturday, in a closely guarded series of explosions that the Navy didn't announce until days later.

The 84,000-ton, 1,048-foot warship, which served the Navy for 32 years, thus became the first U.S. carrier to be sunk since 1951, and the largest warship ever sunk.

"Explosions were internal to the ship and allowed a controlled flooding," said Pat Dolan, a spokeswoman with the Naval Sea Systems Command. She declined to say where the ship now sits, except that it was 50 nautical miles - or about 58 miles - off the coast, and more than 6,000 feet below the surface.

The Navy previously said the final explosions would be off North Carolina.

Before it sank, it also served as a target for a series of explosions over 25 days designed to help in the making of the of the Navy's next generation carrier, the CVN-21, now being designed at the Northrop Grumman Newport News shipyard.

It is always a sad thing to see such vessels go into the great beyond. Not every ship can be saved as a museum, though there was hope for USS America. I have to say I agree fully with this former member of the ship's crew.

"Very depressing," said Lee McNulty, a New Jersey resident and president of the USS America Foundation, which wanted to turn the ship into a museum. "Not a day goes by that I don't think about it. I just can't believe that she sunk. She's gone. Of all the carriers, that one should have been saved, just for the name of the America."

Before she the last explosions were detonated, the ship was given an appropriate farewell.

"A solemn moment of silence was held as the aircraft carrier ex-America slipped quietly beneath the waves," Dolan told the USS America Carrier Veterans Association on Monday. "We thank and honor all the veterans of the USS America who lived and fought for freedom and democracy aboard this majestic vessel."

Farewell, USS America. We honor you, and those who served aboard you.

USS America Museum Foundation

USS America Carrier Veterans Foundation

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I can just make her out in the distance, a gray hulk in the mist, as I drive to and from school each day. She is a presence – a reminder of what once was.

I would certainly hate to lose this beautiful old lady.

This old warship was at the surrender of the German fleet during World War I and withstood torpedoes at Omaha Beach in France on D-Day. Long moored in a berth at the Houston Ship Channel, the Battleship Texas is now a floating tourist attraction, and a badly leaking one at that.

Time and corrosive saltwater are slowly destroying the vessel once called the world's most powerful weapon, and cash-strapped conservators are scrambling to secure funding for an overhaul before it's too late.
"It's been rusting for 90 years," ship curator Barry Ward said. "It isn't going to fall apart tomorrow, but the longer you avoid a major repair, the harder it will be to repair the damage that's already been done."

A proposal to use $16 million in federal highway funds for ship repairs passed through a conference committee of the state Legislature this month. If lawmakers vote to approve the funds, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, which maintains the vessel, will start work on a dry dock that could feature a cradle capable of lifting the 34,000-ton ship out of the water permanently.

"However [the dock] is designed, this ship is part of our cultural history and it deserves to be saved," said Steve Whiston, director of the parks department's infrastructure division. "There's not another one like it left."

The Texas, commissioned in 1914, is the last surviving dreadnought battleship — a ship design that features large weapons of the same caliber, allowing for more concentrated blasts of fire. It is the only remaining U.S. battleship to survive two world wars, and is a microcosm of the technology of the era, Ward said.

"Her career spans the earliest days of flight through the nuclear age," he said.

Decommissioned in 1948, the ship was brought here by "Texans who couldn't stand the thought of a warship with the name 'Texas' on it being sunk as fodder during nuclear testing," Ward said.

It was docked south of Houston at the San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site, the location of an 1836 battle that led to Texas' independence from Mexico.

As a result, numbers of confused children have asked whether Sam Houston fought Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna from the bow of a battleship. "We inherited the location," Ward said. "We don't do public monuments that way anymore. It's up to educators to teach students that the ship wasn't at the battle of San Jacinto. Otherwise it's just a jungle gym to them."

It's unlikely the Texas will be moved elsewhere, in part because conservators are unsure whether the fragile ship can withstand a sea voyage. "It's risky because of the stress of the tow, the cross currents and the waves," Ward said.

The ship was last towed to a dry dock in 1988 for a $12-million renovation of the hull — the first in 40 years. State lawmakers later approved an additional $12 million in bonds for ship maintenance but did not provide the money to issue the bonds. Ward hopes the federal highway money tentatively approved this month will lead to badly needed repairs.

The hull should be repaired every 10 or so years for damage caused by water, Ward said. "It's like changing the oil in your car — it's something that should be done regularly. But I would advocate getting her out of the water permanently so the state of Texas would never have to pay for that kind of cyclical repair again. We're going for a cure, not a Band-Aid."

Floating next to refineries and oil storage tanks, the 573-foot dark blue battleship looks startlingly out of place, but it is a popular field trip destination. Last week, a busload of seventh-graders climbed aboard and quickly scattered into nooks and crannies.

"I love ships," said Ariel Barron, 13. "You can read about them in a book, but it's better to see with your own eyes how things used to be."

Cheyenne Dutton said he was on his third field trip to the battleship. Each time he visits, he said, "something else is closed off. I wish they'd fix everything so we can see all of it."

Cheyenne nimbly climbed a ladder and stopped in front of a locked door. "See, we can't go in there," he said. "I think it stinks."

IÂ’m with you, Cheyenne. We need to save this grand old ship, the last of her breed.

You can help.

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I’ve taken heat in a number of forums for agreeing with President Bush that the agreement to permit/accept (you pick the word – it’s a difference that makes no difference) Soviet domination of Eastern Europe that was wrong.

Setting aside those who call me a blind right-wing ideologue (usually blind left-wing Alger Hiss-wannabes who would have supported Stalin), IÂ’ve been accused of not accepting the fact that Eastern Europe was already in Soviet hands at the time, or wanting to fight another war that would have been long, drawn out, and possibly nuclear.

Those who say that are wrong.

Jonah Goldberg quite clearly sums up my attitude in todayÂ’s column.

It's ironic: Liberals celebrated Bill Clinton's numerous apologies for America's Realpolitik "mistakes" during the Cold War as a sign of great statesmanship. But when an apology reflects poorly on the mistake that basically launched the Cold War, they bang their spoons on their highchairs about any attempt to tarnish FDR's godhood.

This raises the larger moral point. After a war to end one evil empire, we signed a piece of paper accepting the expansion of another evil empire. And it happened at Yalta.

When all is said and done, we can debate forever the practicality of Roosevelt and ChurchillÂ’s decision to ally with Stalin, HitlerÂ’s former ally, after he was betrayed in the summer of 1941. We can debate whether it was proper to allow Stalin to achieve every bit of what he was promised in his treaty with Hitler and more. But what cannot be debated by anyone with a love for freedom is that the result of these decisions was half a century of oppression by Stalin and his heirs. IsnÂ’t that alone worth a few words of regret?

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More proof that Putin's Russia is continuing the descent back towards the sort of oppressive government that marked the Communist era. One of history's most bloody dictators is being honored with a new statue.

AN enthusiastic crowd gathered for the unveiling of a new statue of the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in the Siberian district of Mirny ahead of massive Russian commemorations of the defeat of Nazi Germany 60 years ago.

Dignitaries and thousands of local residents gathered for the ceremony in the eastern Siberian republic of Yakutia-Sakha, laying flowers beneath the monument to the wartime leader credited with helping vanquish Nazi Germany in World War II but reviled by critics for his bloody treatment of his own people.

"We have erected a monument to a great son of Russia who gave everything he had to his nation, his love and his dedication, without receiving anything in return," Mirny's mayor Anatoly Popov was quoted by Ria-Novosti news agency as saying.

"He died without a ruble in his pocket, without a bank account, without good furniture or buildings."

The new statue is the latest sign of Stalin's resurgent popularity among some Russians.

Utterly disgusting! What next-- statues of Hitler in Germany, honoring the dedication of the Fuhrer to the Fatherland?

I'd like to paraphrase the greatest American leader of the 20th Century.

Mr. Putin -- tear down this statue!

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There are some matters that are so clearly established inhistory that their denial is patently absurd. One of those is the historical fact that the Soviet Union illegally occupied and annexed the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in 1940, and then again following World War II.

Russia has denied it illegally annexed the Baltic republics of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia in 1940.

It has also rejected demands to admit illegally occupying the three countries at the end of World War II.

A Kremlin spokesman said Soviet troops were deployed with the agreement of the Baltic governments of the time.

Correspondents say the annexation issue has provoked a major diplomatic row as Russia prepares to host celebrations to mark the end of World War II in Europe.

Soviet authority was established in the Baltics in 1940.

German forces then held the states from 1941 until the Soviet army returned in 1945.

Russia has made defiant remarks on the issue of the occupation.

"There was no occupation. There were agreements at the time with the legitimately elected authorities in the Baltic countries," the Kremlin's European affairs chief Sergei Yastrzhembsky said on Thursday.

I guess i shouldn't be surprised by this stubborn refusal of the Putin government to concede the error of Russia's ways at the time of the Second World War. After all, Putin is a former KGB official and an admirer of Stalin, who has been undergoing something of a rehabilitation recently.

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IsnÂ’t Egyptology fun. It seems like there is always something new and interesting to find when you deal with a civilization that spanned three millennia! Even though this is from a relatively late period of Egyptian history (I'm not sure if it is Ptolemaic or if it is slightly earlier, given the date in question) , it is still fascinating.

SAQQARA, Egypt (AP) - A superbly maintained 2,300-year-old mummy bearing a golden mask and covered in brightly colored images of gods and goddesses was unveiled Tuesday at Egypt's Saqqara Pyramids complex south of Cairo.

The unidentified mummy, from the 30th pharaonic dynasty, had been closed in a wooden sarcophagus and buried in sand at the bottom of a 20-foot shaft before being discovered recently by an Egyptian-led archaeological team.

"We have revealed what may be the most beautiful mummy ever found in Egypt," Zahi Hawass, chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, said as he helped excavators remove the sarcophagus' lid to show off the find.

Hawass said experts will use CT scanning technology within the next week to reveal more details about the ancient Egyptian's identity and he had lived and died.

Afterward, the mummy will be displayed at Saqqara's museum of Imhotep, the famed architect who designed the Stepped Pyramid - Egypt's oldest.

The mummy, found two months ago, was covered from head to toe in brightly colored cartonage burial material depicting a range of graphic scenes, including the Goddess Maat of balance and truth who was shown with outstretched arms that took the shape of feathered wings.

Also shown were the four children of the falcon-headed god, Horus, and the rituals and processes to mummify the person, who Hawass believed must have been wealthy considering his burial location and fine gold used for the mummy's mask.

"The artists who made this mummy more than 2,000 years ago demonstrated the brilliance of the ancient Egyptians by using stunning colors and depicting his face so graphically," Hawass said.

The mummy had been buried within the necropolis of King Teti, a funerary area containing scores of burial chambers, false doors that ancient Egyptians said the souls of the dead would use to leave their tombs, and temples.

The necropolis is built alongside the collapsed pyramid of Teti, who ruled during ancient Egypt's 6th dynasty, more than 4,300 years ago. Hawass said a "lost" pyramid had been located in the Saqqara area and would be uncovered after two months.

Saqqara, located about 12 miles south of Cairo, is one of Egypt's most popular tourist sites and hosts a collection of temples, tombs and funerary complexes.

It is stuff like this that makes me long for a summer on a dig in Egypt.

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Here is a little something for my fellow history geeks!

Egyptian archaeologists have discovered a number of rare Pharaonic seals of soldiers sent out on desert missions in search of red paint to decorate the pyramids, Egypt's culture minister said Thursday.

The 26 matchbox-sized seals belonged to Cheops, who ruled from 2551 to 2528 BC, in whose honour the greatest of the great pyramids of Giza southwest of Cairo was built, and show Pharaonic soldiers' ranks, the MENA news agency quoted Faruq Hosni as saying.

"These seals were used by a mission sent by Cheops to collect ferric oxide, which is necessary to make red paint," said Zahi Hawwas, secretary general of the Higher Council of Antiquities.

Over 50 pottery fragments bearing imprints from the clay and stone seals were found nearby in the region of the Giza pyramids.

"Artisans at the time needed ferric oxide to decorate the pyramids as well as (other) material and funerary installations of the IVth dynasty," to which Cheops belonged, said Hawwas.

"The seals proved the official nature of the missions sent to desert regions," he added.

"The mission was made up of 400 men and a group of people whose job it was to cook during the journey," according to inscriptions on the pottery pieces.

"Archaeologists also found a number of leather bags containing ferric oxide brought back by the mission," he said.

I will never cease to be amazed that, four and a half millenia after the fact,we are still finding the discarded refuse of the ancients and using it to learn about their lives and activities.

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It has been 90 years since the Muslim Turks began their genocide of 1.5 million Christian Armenians, but the Turkish government still will not admit to that crime.

VARAZDAT was six when his family were driven from their home by Turkish troops in 1915. But even 90 years after Ottoman troops began the slaughter of up to 1.5 million Armenians, fear still flickers in his eyes.

As the family and 200,000 other Armenians fled east from their homes in Van, near modern Turkey’s eastern border, Turk and Kurdish forces opened fire from both sides. “They killed so many. Mothers threw their children in the lake. They said it was better to drown them than let the Turks have them,” Varadzat Harutyuniyan told The Times.

Turkey still denies responsibility, minimizes the number of Armenian dead, and paints the Turkish people as the greater victim. It is illegal in Turkey for anyone to claim that this genocide happened. It refuses to have diplomatic relations with Armenia and refuses to allow traffic across the border the two countries share. This unacknowledged genocide is one of many factors that stands in the way of Turkey’s admission to the EU – no less that 15 countries have demanded that Turkey do so before the EU allow Turkey to become a member.

How deep is this denial and refusal to acknowledge TurkeyÂ’s crime against the Armenians? Look at the high level denial of the genocide by a high level Turkish official.

On Wednesday the head of the Turkish Armed Forces, General Hilmi Ozkok, called on Armenia to drop the genocide allegations. The 1923 Lausanne Treaty, which established modern Turkey, “put an end to the baseless genocide claims politically and legally,” he said.

Yet in the end, this political claim cannot hide the historical truth of the murder of over 1 million people by the Turks. A treaty cannot deny the reality of photographs of Turkish soldiers posing with severed Armenian heads held (or stacked) as trophies. Until Turkey is willing to admit its historical guilt in the matter, there can be no allowing it into the EU.

Former Polish President Lech Walesa makes the case clearly.

“The truth must come out,” said Lech Walesa, the former Polish President, at this week’s conference. “It is a just claim of the Armenians that Turkey’s entrance into the European Union should come after admitting genocide.”

When will our president label what happened as genocide? When will he join other world leaders in making it clear that Turkey cannot be considered a member of the civilized world until it acknowledges the crime of its jihad against the Christian Armenians?

Posted by: Greg at 10:33 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Wouldn’t this be neat to see? A 5000-year-old tomb, the largest pre-dynastic funerary structure ever discovered, containing 7 bodies – including four who appear to have been human sacrifices.

The necropolis was discovered by a joint US and Egyptian team in the Kom al-Ahmar region, around 600 km (370 miles) south of the capital, Cairo.
Inside the tombs, the archaeologists found a cow's head carved from flint and the remains of seven people.

They believe four of them were buried alive as human sacrifices.

The remains survived despite the fact that the tombs were plundered in ancient times.

Egypt's chief archaeologist, Zahi Hawass, said the discovery would add greatly to knowledge of the elusive pre-dynastic period, when Egypt was first becoming a nation.

The complex is thought to belong to a ruler of the ancient city of Hierakonpolis in around 3600 BC, when it was the largest urban centre on the Nile river.

Egyptologists say the city probably extended its influence northwards defeating rival entities. The unification of Upper and Lower Egypt eventually led to the establishment of rule by the Pharaohs.

Excavations at the site started in 2000 under the leadership of Egyptologist Barbara Adams, who died in 2002.

The site contains some of the earliest examples of mummification found in Egypt.

Call me a geek, but I find this stuff really cool.

Posted by: Greg at 10:30 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The New York Times – the former “paper of record” for important news in the United States – has long accused Pope Pius XII of being silent in the face of the Holocaust, and of being “Hitler’s Pope”. The fact that it contradicts the evidence contained in its own pages – in one instance the paper called Pius “a lonely voice in the silence and darkness enveloping Europe”, and in another “a lonely voice crying out of the silence of a continent.” Yet recent scholarship has examined the New York Times response to the Holocaust. The results are damning – a paper published by a German-Jew buried the most important (and horrific) news of the twentieth century in the bowels of the paper rather than make it front-page news. At least that is the claim of one recently published book, Buried by the Times.

The author, Laurel Leff, a professor of journalism and a former reporter for TheWall Street Journal, has done a fine job of research in the archives of the paper of record. Others could have done that, but nobody has. More important, she has brilliantly analyzed the reasons Arthur Hays Sulzberger, the German-Jewish publisher of The Times, brought Jewish self-hatred to a head long before the rubric gained popularity.

In 1939, when the Nazis began to destroy the Jews of Poland, what bothered Sulzberger was Franklin Roosevelt's casual remark that Jews were a "race." He got FDR to call them a "faith," which settled the issue of the Warsaw Ghetto for him.

On the eve of Thanksgiving 1942, the State Department confirmed that 2 million Jews were dead in Europe, and it allowed Rabbi Stephen Wise, the leader of American Jewry, to announce the news. The Times didn't send a reporter to the press conference in Washington. Instead, it ran a short from The Associated Press - on page 10, surrounded by turkey ads.

What if FDR had announced the news? Then, even a scared Jew like Sulzberger would have been afraid to keep it off the front page. And if that happened, millions of Jews could have been saved.

What if Sulzberger and the Times had spoken out? What if they had actively covered the story of the extermination of Europe’s Jews? They might well have forced Roosevelt to speak out. Instead, over the course of 6 years they buried over 1100 stories in the heart of the paper, somewhere between the police blotter and the grocery ads.

One can always argue that Pius XII didn’t say enough, but it is estimated that the Catholic Church saved between 750,000 and 1,000,000 Jews during the war, much of it with the active encouragement and support of the pope. The charge that Pius was “Hitler’s Pope” is a blood libel.

On the other hand, it seems clear that Sulzberger and the Times were certainly in the pocket of the Roosevelt Administration – and that the muting of the Times at the behest of an anti-Semitic president most likely resulted in the deaths of millions because it allowed the malignant neglect of the Jews at a time when they most needed help. As such, would it not be fair to say, using the standard the New York Times has applied in recent years to Pius XII, that Sulzberger was “Hitler’s Publisher”, and the New York Times was “Hitler’s Paper”?

Posted by: Greg at 01:01 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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1 When I heard the the newly elected Pope was of German descendent and had his day with the Nazi, I wouldn't be surprised to see Liberals call the new Pope as "Nazi Pope." So far, I haven't seen anyone mention that yet. But when I first saw the new Pope, I swear he looks like he'll die within the next few years from now. And he's quite old, too (7 while Pope John Paul was 84 when he died. I wonder if the Vatican's trying to buy time for the right ("younger") Pope when "Papa Ratzi" (ha ha) may die at anytime due to him looking a bit on the frail side.

Posted by: mcconnell at Thu Apr 21 17:18:56 2005 (xXUn0)

2 No, the comments have been made --certain liberals hwve gone crazy over the issue.

But you have the one part exactly right -- Benedict XVI is supposed to be a short-timer, one who will give the cardinals 3-5 years to determine who the next pope will be. He no doubt has an agenda to deal with matters he knows were not done in the last few years of JPII, and one or two of his own projects besides -- but even he predicted a short reign. After all, this is a man who had a stroke 14 year ago.

Posted by: RhymesWithRight at Thu Apr 21 23:03:05 2005 (Mwu2f)

3 Peruse the lefty blogs a while. You'll see "Pope Nazi" references aplenty.

TPC (or should I say RWR?): Nice transition to MT. Make sure you get MT Blacklist soon or the comment spam will drive you bonkers. Also, an upgrade to a newer version of MT will allow you to zap more comment and trackback spam at one time.

Posted by: Hube at Fri Apr 22 05:38:52 2005 (/7tyq)

4 I don't control the software used here -- it's whatever Pixy wants/can afford to run. He's been kind enough to bring a number of us into Mu.Nu, and so I defer to his choices in the matter. As it is, I think that Blacklist is installed.

And while I'm commenting as RWR (just to indicate it is an "official" comment -- and to spread the name elsewhere), Greg is a more than sufficient form of address.

Posted by: RhymesWithRight at Fri Apr 22 06:44:27 2005 (4nXaP)

5 Yep, just did. Seems to be their favorite pet word: "Pope Nazi."

Ok. Clinton's whore.

Hmmm...net cancellation effect?

Posted by: mcconnell at Fri Apr 22 07:25:08 2005 (LmcbS)

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The New York Times – the former “paper of record” for important news in the United States – has long accused Pope Pius XII of being silent in the face of the Holocaust, and of being “Hitler’s Pope”. The fact that it contradicts the evidence contained in its own pages – in one instance the paper called Pius “a lonely voice in the silence and darkness enveloping Europe”, and in another “a lonely voice crying out of the silence of a continent.” Yet recent scholarship has examined the New York Times response to the Holocaust. The results are damning – a paper published by a German-Jew buried the most important (and horrific) news of the twentieth century in the bowels of the paper rather than make it front-page news. At least that is the claim of one recently published book, Buried by the Times.

The author, Laurel Leff, a professor of journalism and a former reporter for TheWall Street Journal, has done a fine job of research in the archives of the paper of record. Others could have done that, but nobody has. More important, she has brilliantly analyzed the reasons Arthur Hays Sulzberger, the German-Jewish publisher of The Times, brought Jewish self-hatred to a head long before the rubric gained popularity.

In 1939, when the Nazis began to destroy the Jews of Poland, what bothered Sulzberger was Franklin Roosevelt's casual remark that Jews were a "race." He got FDR to call them a "faith," which settled the issue of the Warsaw Ghetto for him.

On the eve of Thanksgiving 1942, the State Department confirmed that 2 million Jews were dead in Europe, and it allowed Rabbi Stephen Wise, the leader of American Jewry, to announce the news. The Times didn't send a reporter to the press conference in Washington. Instead, it ran a short from The Associated Press - on page 10, surrounded by turkey ads.

What if FDR had announced the news? Then, even a scared Jew like Sulzberger would have been afraid to keep it off the front page. And if that happened, millions of Jews could have been saved.

What if Sulzberger and the Times had spoken out? What if they had actively covered the story of the extermination of EuropeÂ’s Jews? They might well have forced Roosevelt to speak out. Instead, over the course of 6 years they buried over 1100 stories in the heart of the paper, somewhere between the police blotter and the grocery ads.

One can always argue that Pius XII didn’t say enough, but it is estimated that the Catholic Church saved between 750,000 and 1,000,000 Jews during the war, much of it with the active encouragement and support of the pope. The charge that Pius was “Hitler’s Pope” is a blood libel.

On the other hand, it seems clear that Sulzberger and the Times were certainly in the pocket of the Roosevelt Administration – and that the muting of the Times at the behest of an anti-Semitic president most likely resulted in the deaths of millions because it allowed the malignant neglect of the Jews at a time when they most needed help. As such, would it not be fair to say, using the standard the New York Times has applied in recent years to Pius XII, that Sulzberger was “Hitler’s Publisher”, and the New York Times was “Hitler’s Paper”?

Posted by: Greg at 01:01 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 574 words, total size 4 kb.

1 When I heard the the newly elected Pope was of German descendent and had his day with the Nazi, I wouldn't be surprised to see Liberals call the new Pope as "Nazi Pope." So far, I haven't seen anyone mention that yet. But when I first saw the new Pope, I swear he looks like he'll die within the next few years from now. And he's quite old, too (7 while Pope John Paul was 84 when he died. I wonder if the Vatican's trying to buy time for the right ("younger") Pope when "Papa Ratzi" (ha ha) may die at anytime due to him looking a bit on the frail side.

Posted by: mcconnell at Thu Apr 21 17:18:56 2005 (xXUn0)

2 No, the comments have been made --certain liberals hwve gone crazy over the issue. But you have the one part exactly right -- Benedict XVI is supposed to be a short-timer, one who will give the cardinals 3-5 years to determine who the next pope will be. He no doubt has an agenda to deal with matters he knows were not done in the last few years of JPII, and one or two of his own projects besides -- but even he predicted a short reign. After all, this is a man who had a stroke 14 year ago.

Posted by: RhymesWithRight at Thu Apr 21 23:03:05 2005 (Mwu2f)

3 Peruse the lefty blogs a while. You'll see "Pope Nazi" references aplenty. TPC (or should I say RWR?): Nice transition to MT. Make sure you get MT Blacklist soon or the comment spam will drive you bonkers. Also, an upgrade to a newer version of MT will allow you to zap more comment and trackback spam at one time.

Posted by: Hube at Fri Apr 22 05:38:52 2005 (/7tyq)

4 I don't control the software used here -- it's whatever Pixy wants/can afford to run. He's been kind enough to bring a number of us into Mu.Nu, and so I defer to his choices in the matter. As it is, I think that Blacklist is installed. And while I'm commenting as RWR (just to indicate it is an "official" comment -- and to spread the name elsewhere), Greg is a more than sufficient form of address.

Posted by: RhymesWithRight at Fri Apr 22 06:44:27 2005 (4nXaP)

5 Yep, just did. Seems to be their favorite pet word: "Pope Nazi." Ok. Clinton's whore. Hmmm...net cancellation effect?

Posted by: mcconnell at Fri Apr 22 07:25:08 2005 (LmcbS)

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One of the more egregious acts of antiquities theft was the removal of an obelisk dating back to the Axumite kingdom from the ancient city of Axum by Mussolini. It is in the process of being returned, seven decades later.

A teenage Abebe Alenayehu watched Italian soldiers haul away Axum's revered obelisk nearly seven decades ago and never thought he would live to see its return.

But if the weather cooperates, he will see the dream he shares with his nation come true Tuesday when a giant cargo plane returns the 82-foot monument's top section to this wind-swept town that was the seat of the ancient Axumite Kingdom.

"The memory still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth," Abebe said about the loss of a monument that Ethiopians consider the symbol of their nation. "Every day for the last 67 years I have thought about the obelisk."

The Italian Foreign Ministry said Monday that the two other pieces of the 176-ton obelisk should be back by the end of April. Lattanzi, the Italian company organizing the return, says no one has attempted to fly such a massive monument before.

Abebe, 81, vividly recalls the day the masterpiece of the Axum civilization was taken away and shipped to Rome.

"All the adults in the town were under curfew," he said. "But we played with the soldiers who gave us sweets and sugar. We didn't realize what was happening, but our parents were hiding their faces and crying."

The restoration of this ancient monument is a fitting end to the evils committed by Mussolini and his forces against the Ethiopian people during the occupation of their nation from 1936-1941. And it sounds like it will be even more of an engineering nightmare than its removal was in 1937.

Posted by: Greg at 12:01 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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