A Brief History On February 21, 1973, the Israeli Defense Force sent American-built F-4 Phantoms to shoot down a Boeing 727 operated by Libyan Arab Airlines. Flight 114 had taken off from Tripoli and was headed to Cairo when it got lost over Egypt due to weather and equipment malfunction. Digging Deeper The two Phantoms intercepted the jet liner over the Sinai desert after it had strayed there from the Suez Canal. The Sinai had been occupied by Israel since the 1967 Six-Day War. The failure of Egypt to shoot missiles at the plane, and the seeming approach toward a secret Israeli nuclear (possibly bomb making?) facility exacerbated the situation, especially since…
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A Brief History On February 14, we celebrate St. Valentine’s Day, a day on which we show our appreciation for our special loved one or significant other. Uncharacteristically, however, this date has also been a black day of death and murder! Digging Deeper Now considered a “Hallmark Holiday,” it was named after the unfortunate St. Valentine, a Christian, said to be a bishop, who was executed by the Romans in 269 A.D. for preaching the Gospel. He was not just executed but beaten with clubs and beheaded. Somehow, this guy whom we know almost nothing about came to symbolize romantic love (especially ironic…
A Brief History On January 22, 1987, Pennsylvania State Treasurer R. Budd Dwyer called a news conference to read a statement in front of the gathered journalists and television cameras. Digging Deeper Dwyer had been convicted of accepting bribes in connection with giving a contract to an accounting firm hired to determine what refunds were owed to Pennsylvania government workers who had been overtaxed. Throughout the entire process, Dwyer adamantly insisted upon his complete innocence and said he was being framed. Scheduled to be sentenced the next day by a judge who was known for stiff sentences and who had gloated over the guilty verdict, after Dwyer…
A Brief History On January 20, 2014, one year ago today, a headline in Israel screamed out the news that “revenge porn” had been outlawed there. Israel is now joined by Germany and at least 12 of the 50 United States of America in making revenge porn illegal. France and other countries have broader privacy laws that could be interpreted as to include revenge porn. Digging Deeper So what is revenge porn? It is the posting on the internet or any other publicly viewed forum of sexually explicit video or photos of a person or persons without their consent for the purpose of embarrassing…
A Brief History On January 16, 2014, one year ago today, The Guardian, a British newspaper, reported that the American National Security Agency (NSA) had been recording billions of global telephone messages, texts, emails, and financial transactions in the name of national security. To put this information into perspective, at the time of the British article’s publication, 200 million text messages were being collected daily! Digging Deeper This mountain of data is not just being collected from foreigners but also from American citizens! Supposedly done as part of an anti-terrorism program and with the oversight of Congress, many Congressmen and Senators were…