No Civil War in Iraq
Good news, people. Official word from The White House is that the American Civil War never really occurred, there was just some "significant factional infighting" for a time.
Next up: World War II will be reclassified as a "lover's spat" and the Holocaust will heretofore be listed as merely a "domestic dispute".
Can we quit lying to save face? The Administration spokespeople (I feel sorry for Tony Snow, I really do...his credibility has been shredded by taking the Press Secretary job) just somehow think that if they refuse to admit the truth (isn't that fundamentally the same as a lie?) then the unplesant facts will go away and people will still love them.
Tell that to the brave men and women of our Armed Forces who are spilling spilling blood and giving lives on foreign soil for a war that never should have been, an act of arrogance and violence more to prove the masculinity of a single pathetic figure than to achieve any true political, humanitarian or even economic purpose.
3 comments:
Historiography
No one asked me, but maybe you or some of your readers would be interested in extending your topic today. Hope I'm not overstepping.
Info offered in the spirit of learning and knowlege.
For further info on the reshaping or idealisation of history, check out Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen. Saw the book yesterday at work and put it on my reserve list. Your topic today, was very topical for me. Thanks.
Here's an annotation:
Based on careful research at the Smithsonian Institution, here is a bold, direct challenge to the errors, misrepresentations, and ommissions of the leading American history textbooks. In fascinating detail, James W. Loewen offers a wonderful retelling of American history as Loewen believes it should--and could--be taught to American students.
If you copy down this ISBN # any library or bookstore should be able to find or order this book for you. ISBN 156584100X
Author- Loewen, James W.
Title- Lies my teacher told me : everything your American history textbook got wrong / James W. Loewen.
Publisher -New York : New Press, 1995.
Description- x, 372 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.
Notes- Includes bibliographical references (p. 313-365) and index.
Subject(s)- United States History Textbooks.
United States Historiography.
~A. Reader
Oh, and another thing. You do realise that in parts of the South this "skirmish" is still sometimes referred to as "The War Between the States?" And that in one state MLK day was not honored on its own merit, but combined into Lee-Jackson-King Day? I think someone fixed that abnormality after I left.
Personally, I had a hard time keeping my mouth shut about that one.
-A Tongue Biter.
Kisses For Karma-Lovely, but too short, the pleasure cut short by harmonica and horn.
Beasts of Legend-A feast, a celebration, an immersion in silken waters and fiery airy streams of passion... and long enough, strong enough to endure the (really too long) bridge to more delights. Great incentive really to go on and listen more, read more, I want more!
Was there another selection? Oh yes, the one where you are shouting through a megaphone like Rudee Vallee. No, my dear, please no.
Courtesy of Pam, or Rondalaire to you!
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