Heavy-duty media coverage of world premiere of the “On the Road” film premiere tomorrow in France at Cannes Film Festival. There will be more reporting after people see the film. Maybe they will like it.
May 22nd, 2012
Massachusetts Senator Charles H. Sumner Attacked
The attack on Charles Sumner by Preston Brooks (1856)
MassMoments reminds us that on this day May 22, 1856, Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts was viciously attacked on the floor of the United States Senate – beaten with a cane by Preston Brooks, a Congressman from South Carolina. The issue – the language used by Sumner in a passionate anti-slavery speech including his trirade against South Carolina Senator Andrew Butler accusing him of having “a mistress . . . who, though ugly to others, is always lovely to him; though polluted in the sight of the world, is chaste in his sight. I mean the harlot, Slavery.” This episode has been described by some as “one of the most dramatic and deeply ominous moments in the Senate’s entire history.” It certain embodied the vast divide between North and South.
…in 1856, Preston Brooks, a congressman from South Carolina, viciously attacked Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner on the floor of the United States Senate. Three days earlier, in a passionate anti-slavery speech, Sumner had used language southerners found deeply offensive. Rather than challenge Sumner to a duel, as he would have a gentleman, Brooks beat him with a cane. It was three-and-a-half years before Charles Sumner was well enough to return to the Senate. Although he never fully recovered from the assault, he served another 15 years. An abolitionist who not only opposed slavery but advocated equal rights for African Americans, Charles Sumner was remembered as a man who marched “ahead of his followers when they were afraid to follow.”
To learn more about Senator Charles Sumner – one of the most influential politicians that Massachusetts ever sent to the U. S. Senate – and the fall-out from that heinous act by Preston Brooks – read the full article here.
U.S. Senator Charles H. Sumner (1811 - 1874) of Massachusetts
Senate Years of Service: 1851-1874 Party: Free Soil; Opposition; Republican; Liberal Republican
Learn even more about Charles Sumner here: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USASsumner.htm or here: http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=S001068
May 22nd, 2012
Black Hawk Lands in Lowell Cemetery
A Military Black Hawk Helicopter landed in Lowell Cemetery this past weekend.
This video was originally posted by videoviv
May 22nd, 2012
U.S. and allies should stand strong in this week’s Bagdhad meeting by Marjorie Arons-Barron
The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. You can find Marjorie’s blog at http://marjoriearonsbarron.com/
Six nations are heading to Baghdad this week to meet with Iran about its relentless drive for nuclear weapons. This was teed up by their meeting this spring in Istanbul. The idea is to get Iran, at a minimum, to stop enriching uranium to a level necessary for bombs, four times more potent than what is needed for peaceful purposes. Also on the agenda is getting Iran to let inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency inspect a plant that may be involved in testing. Economic sanctions to aid in the persuasion have been in place for a while and are due to increase in intensity this fall.
What’s most puzzling are the different interpretations of where the perilous relationship with Iran is and what outcome can realistically be expected of this week’s talks. Many Western observers are optimistic that the sanctions are really working and that Iran may be conciliatory this time around. But the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), a valuable resource that translates documents and public statments from the region into English, reports that Iran has already claimed bragging rights from dragging out the time for negotiations and even having the meeting in Baghdad.
Iranian officials writing in The Washington Post have called the negotiations “a process, not an event,” suggesting that we’ll not be treated to any immediate success. Indeed, quotes from Iranian officials seem to indicate that Iran is looking for a lifting sanctions first as a way of building trust among nations. Iran is crowing that the United States, Germany, France, Great Britain, China and Russia have showed a willingness to allow Iran to enrich to a low (5 percent purity) level rather than eliminate all enrichment, as resolved by the United Nations.
MEMRI debunks the notion, claimed by certain Iranian officials, that Islam forbids weapons of mass destruction. One hopes that Obama Administration officials weren’t snookered by that one. MEMRI also reminds us of taqiyya by (Shi’ite) Muslims towards non-Muslims, justifying the telling of lies if doing so serves to defend Muslim interests.
We also shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that, in the context of the Ayatollah Khameini, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as loathesome as he is, is more moderate than the Ayatollah.
We should hope for the best to come out of this week’s meeting but not be buoyed by unrealistic expectations. We should verifiy before trusting. Sanctions, which have started to bite the Iranian economy, should not be diluted without enforceable, measurable change.
For the most part, Republicans and Democrats alike agree that a policy of containment of Iran’s nuclear ambitions after it has gotten its way with uranium enrichment is no policy at all. There’s also substantial agreement that “all options are on the table,” by implication including military options. Ending enrichment programs, verified by visits from the IAEA, is the best way to avoid the situation’s ever coming to that.
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