Browsing: Society

A Brief History On January 18, 2018, we are one day away from the national release of the new heist movie, Den of Thieves, starring Gerard Butler as the unconventional detective matching wits with the diabolically sophisticated gang of thieves out to pull off the heist of the century. Digging Deeper In the finest tradition of classic heist films such as The Italian Job, Ocean’s 11, Heat, Heist, The Score, Inside Man and Tower Heist, Den of Thieves earns a place amongst all these great heist movies with all the main ingredients: twists and turns, characters dripping with personality, plenty…

A Brief History On January 17, 1941, French colonial naval forces engaged the naval forces of Siam (Thailand after 1948) during the Franco-Thai War, a smaller war within the larger conflagration that was World War II.  The French soundly defeated the Thai force, leading to negotiations and an end to the War via a Japanese brokered ceasefire on January 31, 1941. Digging Deeper Prior to World War II, the French colony of French Indochina (mainly what is now Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos) included land claimed by Thailand.  (The Thai people always called their country the English equivalent of “Thailand,” while…

A Brief History On January 16, 2001, President Bill Clinton, in one of his final remaining acts as President of the United States, posthumously awarded former President Theodore Roosevelt the Medal of Honor, the highest military honor in the United States.  Roosevelt was given the award for leading a charge up San Juan Hill in Cuba during the Spanish-American War in 1898.  Roosevelt thus became the only US president to have earned a Medal of Honor, although given the century plus between the action and the award, one must wonder if the award was given for political and publicity reasons. …

A Brief History On January 13, 1953, an article appeared in the Soviet newspaper, Pravda (which means “truth” in Russian, obviously some kind of joke…) that accused a large number of Jewish doctors in the USSR of plotting to poison top Soviet communist officials.  The government immediately cracked down on these alleged conspirators, with hundreds of doctors losing their jobs, many being arrested and jailed.  Other people of Jewish origin or bearing a Jewish sounding name were also ostracized.  This travesty of justice was known as “The Doctors’ Plot.” Digging Deeper The anti-Semitic nature of the Soviet Union is puzzling,…

A Brief History On January 12, 1971, a group of conspirators dubbed by the press as “The Harrisburg Seven” were indicted on charges that they planned to blow up the steam heating tunnels to Federal buildings in the Nation’s capital, as well as to kidnap National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger.  Shockingly, this group of alleged terrorists was led by radical Roman Catholic priest, Father Phillip Berrigan! Digging Deeper Berrigan was already in jail at the time of the alleged plot, serving a sentence of 3 years for entering a military draft office and burning draft cards with home made napalm. …