April 17, 1905 – The U.S. Supreme Court Decided Lochner v. New York

Is it the function of the Judiciary to second-guess the elected representatives of the people? Or can it be assumed the majority knows best? Should economic power confer political power? These are some of the questions posed by one of the most famous cases in U.S. Supreme Court history, Lochner v. New York. In New [...]

Review of “The Turnaround” by George Pelecanos

George Pelecanos’s books are populated by denizens of slum housing, drug dens, and inner city street corners. Their stories can seem harsh and jarring, but they can also be ironically moving. The Turnaround is a departure from the author’s previous formula involving police or private detectives. But it is similar in its strong local flavor [...]

April 15, 1865 – Death of President Lincoln

At around twelve minutes after ten p.m. on April 14, John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln in the back of the head at Ford’s Theater. The President did not die immediately. He was taken across the street to the Petersen boardinghouse, where he had to be placed diagonally across a bed to accommodate his tall [...]

Who The Real Pirates Are, from The Arizona Daily Star

April 14, 1865 – Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

On Tuesday, April 11, 1865, Lincoln related a recent dream to Mary and a few friends. In his dream, he heard a number of people weeping, and he wandered through the White House to find out what was going on. He got to the East Room and there met with a sobering surprise. Before him [...]

Blogs By Animals

You all know animals can write. Look at all the books out lately by dogs, for Heaven’s sake! And some of these pets of letters have their own blogs. (Some have their humans help out, but those really don’t count as an Animal Blog!) This one even twitters! Here’s a few more you might enjoy: [...]

Best Easter Find

The Reester Bunny! One whole bunny has NO trans fat! And lots of calcium! And okay, 798 calories. Find out ALL the nutritional information you don’t want to know at Calorie King website. This website has nutritional information for over 50,000 American generic and brand name foods (including over 260 fast-food chains). (It is perhaps [...]

April 13, 1873 – The Colfax Massacre

As DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University Eric Foner, writing in The Washington Post (3/28/08) points out, “Scholars estimate that during Reconstruction, the turbulent period that followed the Civil War, upwards of 3,000 persons were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan and kindred groups. That’s roughly the same number of Americans who have [...]

April 12, 1861 – The Civil War Began With the Attack on Fort Sumter, South Carolina

In 1860, South Carolina became the first state to secede from the United States. As more states followed suit and the Confederate States of America took shape, many federal installations in the South were taken over by state governments. Fort Sumter, in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, continued to fly the U.S. flag, even [...]

Sunday Salon – Review of “Armageddon” by Max Hastings

Quick Summary: The title Max Hastings chose for his history of the final year of World War II in Europe conveys something of the gripping drama he manages to create in this well-researched and fascinating work. In parallel to his later book Retribution about the last year of World War II against the Japanese, Armageddon [...]