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150 years Ago Today
George McClellan had been waging an argument by telegraph with General-in-Chief Halleck to try to keep his Army of the Potomac where it was in the Virginia Peninsula. (McClellan was being ordered to join John Pope's Army of Virginia in the northern part of the state, where McClellan would be a subordinate.) On this date, the debate having been lost ( Read more... ) -
In Defense of Copying
Columnist and professional opinionator Fareed Zakaria has been suspended from Time magazine and CNN for plagiarizing Jill Lepore's New Yorker article on guns. But I have to wonder if this isn't just an excuse. Zakaria is not accused of copying it word-for-word. He read her article and then recited some of the contents, but with the wording slightly ( Read more... ) -
150 Years Ago Today
At the White House, having gathered the Cabinet in his office, President Lincoln took two sheets of paper from his pocket, adjusted his glasses, and read aloud his draft proclamation. It set New Year's Day 1863 as a deadline, after which all slaves in states still in rebellion would be declared free, "thenceforward, and forever". Lincoln proposed ( Read more... ) -
150 Years Ago Today
In Washington, messengers were sent out to summon a special meeting of Lincoln's Cabinet. Everyone assembled at the White House except for Postmaster Montgomery Blair, who was in Maryland. (Yes, back then it was a Cabinet-level position.) Lincoln announced that he was "profoundly concerned at the present state of affairs, and had determined to take ( Read more... ) -
150 Years Ago Today
On July 17, 1862 the Second Confiscation Act was authorized by the U.S. Congress. (For those interested in the legalese, the full text is available at http://www.history.umd.edu/Freedmen/conact2.htmRead more... ) -
Genesis of Emancipation
July 13, 1862 ( Read more... ) -
Immigration
It looks very much as if immigration is going to be one of the biggest topics in the Presidential election. And so we will again hear numerous sound bites about "our broken immigration system". But -- is it really ( Read more... ) -
Fooling Ourselves
A company called The Great Courses is now offering a series of lectures on DVD or CD titled "Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills". The author,(Yale Professor Steven Novella), probably would have done better to leave out the word "scientific", because that will discourage a lot of people who think of scientists as ( Read more... ) -
Assault on Planned Parenthood
I saw the "Women Hold Up Half The Sky" exhibit at the Skirball Museum yesterday, a collection of pictures and charts along with native-produced art showing the status of women in various parts of the world. A third of the exhibit is devoted to the problem of maternal mortality: women who die in childbirth. In a number of places in the world, ( Read more... ) -
Oklahoma Personhood
Yay -- Oklahoma's "personhood" bill has failed to get out of committee. This is a measure which would have legally defined a human being from the moment of conception. Which, its authors hoped, would mean that abortion would become murder, and overturn the right to abortion in Roe Vs. Wade ( Read more... )