Mass suicide at Pilenai: Lithuanian Defenders Choose Death over Enslavement The Crusades are best known as a series of military campaigns launched by Western European states, and sanctioned by the Roman Catholic Church, aimed at reclaiming the Holy Land from the Muslims. Less well-known, perhaps, are the other wars sanctioned by the papacy, such as the Spanish Reconquista, the Albigensian Crusade and the Northern Crusades. It was during the Northern Crusades that a rather horrific episode in Lithuanian history occurred – the mass suicide at Pilenai, which is the largest known mass suicide in history. The hill fort bearing Margiris name in Punia, one of the many suggested locations of Pilėnai. The Northern Crusades (also known as the Baltic Crusades) were carried out between the 11th to the 15th centuries. By the 13th century, the crusaders in the Holy Land were losing ground to the Muslims, and the German Teutonic Order decided to bring the crusades back to their homes in Northern Europe, where there was still a significant pagan population. References By Ḏḥwty
Comrade Locke - By Anne Henochowicz China doesn’t know what to make of Gary Locke. The first Chinese-American ambassador to Beijing, the friendly, self-effacing Locke has become an online celebrity for acting like the opposite of a typical Chinese government official. His fans think he’s selfless and heroic; his detractors call him deceitful and traitorous for representing the United States instead of China. The Locke debate began last August with a photo taken of the incoming ambassador at the Seattle airport on his way to China to take up his post. The photographer, a tech entrepreneur named Tang Chaohui, watched in disbelief as Locke bought his own coffee. "The funny thing is Ambassador Locke pulled out some kind of coupon and gave it to the cashier," Tang wrote. Even with this heady beginning, some saw Locke walking a fine line between his American and Chinese identities. Here’s Ambassador Locke as Lei Feng, the epitome of selfless devotion in Chinese Communist Party lore. Cartoonist Dashix also riffs on Lei Feng.
The Holy Roman Empire was a complex adaptive system So a few weeks ago my son and I were watching the Crash Course World History series. In it John Green mentioned Voltaire's famous statement that the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire. A few days later, I found that the phrase "Holy Roman Empire" was still bouncing around in my mind. It seemed like it was trying to tell me something. The pattern of the name, its rhythm, felt similar to something I was familiar with. After a while I realized that "Holy Roman Empire" sounds a lot like "complex adaptive system." I wondered if there might be some connection between these things, so I began to explore. Magic words of power First I read about why Voltaire said what he said. I'm no historian, but my guess is that the name makes use of what I like to call "magic words of power." So, I thought, the three words of the Holy Roman Empire might act as a sort of incantation, a way to draw power from deep sources. What we want to know Is this person dominant or submissive?
Obama's Gay Marriage Position Mobilizes Latino Supporters Not surprisingly, President Obama’s announcement last week in support of same-sex marriage appeared to mobilize his gay supporters. But, contrary to what some might expect, it also appeared to mobilize his Latino supporters, regardless of their sexual orientation. Latinos, who are predominately Roman Catholic and who are more often associated with immigrant rights than gay issues, happen to support gay rights in larger numbers than the rest of the American populace. Shirl Mora James is lead co-president of the non-partisan National Tequila Party Movement, which encourages Hispanic voter registration, promotes the DREAM act, and supports children regardless of their sexual orientation.
La verità sul genocidio degli armeni - Gwynne Dyer È con grande riluttanza che mi occupo del genocidio armeno, poiché so per esperienza che ciò che scrivo farà infuriare entrambi le parti. Ma questo mese ricorre il centesimo anniversario della tragedia e papa Francesco ha dichiarato che lo sterminio degli armeni commesso dall’impero ottomano nel 1915 fu in effetti un genocidio. La Turchia, come era prevedibile, ha risposto richiamando il proprio ambasciatore dal Vaticano. Sono ormai diverse generazioni che assistiamo a questa diatriba, che di solito si limita a scambi del tipo “Sì, lo hai fatto” – “No, non l’ho fatto”. In seguito ho esaminato i documenti britannici e russi relativi ai piani di azione congiunta con i rivoluzionari armeni nella primavera del 1915, e posso quindi dire di conoscere anche il contesto nel quale turchi e armeni si muovevano. C’è stato un genocidio armeno. Enver e il governo turco andarono nel panico. Altri armeni morirono a causa del clima torrido e delle malattie nei campi in cui furono ammassati in Siria.
At Trial, Serb Gen. Mladic Taunts Survivors With Throat-Cutting Gesture : The Two-Way hide captionFormer Bosnian Serb Gen. Ratko Mladic at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague earlier today. Toussaint Kluiters /AFP/Getty Images Former Bosnian Serb Gen. "Bosnian Serb Gen. The wire service says Mladic "made eye contact with one of the Muslim women in the audience, running a hand across his throat, in a gesture that led Presiding judge Alphons Orie to hold a brief recess and order an end to 'inappropriate interactions According to The Telegraph, "Mladic made throat-cutting gestures to Munira Subasic, a woman who lost 22 relatives to Bosnian Serb military forces when the enclave of Srebrenica was overrun in July 1995, as she watched the trial from the glassed off public gallery." As The Associated Press recounts: "Twenty years after his troops began brutally ethnically cleansing Bosnian towns and villages of non-Serbs, Gen. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports
The French Revolution Network | Revolutionary transitions from the eighteenth century to the present D Magazine : Barrett Brown is Anonymous Comment The night before Michael Isikoff came to Dallas, I got an e-mail from Barrett Brown. “Apparently Isikoff is freaked out about having another journalist here,” it said. “But I’ll secretly record the proceedings and provide to you.” A little context: Michael Isikoff is a former investigative reporter for Newsweek. Me, I first encountered Brown in 1998, when he was a 16-year-old intern at the Met, a now-defunct alternative weekly where I worked. I had been to Brown’s Uptown bachelor pad before. On the morning of Isikoff’s visit, though, I see that much has changed. Isikoff’s cameraman and producer are the first through the door. Ever the congenial host, Brown introduces us. Having mumbled the introduction, Brown steps out onto the tiny second-floor patio to smoke a cigarette, leaving me with Loehr, Isikoff, and his two-man crew. “What did he just say?” “Barrett said that I’m a friend of his and that he’s on day four of withdrawals from opiates.” I think. It’s a weekday, early.
Perchè gli ebrei sono cosi’ potenti e i musulmani cosi’ impotenti? | My Amazighen......Last Exit Marrakech! Concordo con l’interessante e lucida l’analisi (non di parte essendo l’autore musulmano) proposta dal direttore pakistano del Centro per la Ricerca e gli Studi sulla Sicurezza, creato nel 2007. L’autore è il Dr Farrukh Saleem, giornalista indipendente a Islamabad. Ci sono solamente 14 milioni di ebrei nel mondo, di cui sette milioni negli Stati Uniti d’America, cinque milioni in Asia, due milioni in Europa e 100.000 in Africa. Per ogni ebreo nel mondo ci sono 100 musulmani. Ma gli ebrei sono cento volte più potenti che tutti i musulmani riuniti. Mi piace: Mi piace Caricamento... Articoli collegati Simon Levy, una vita per il progresso in Marocco. L’annuncio del suo decesso è arrivato martedì mattina dall’ospedale di Rabat dove Simon Levy era ricoverato a causa di una lunga malattia; muore a 77 anni una figura storica del Marocco, un militante per l’Indipendenza nazionale sin dal 1953. In "Agenda" Il Ramadan nella Storia Il Ramadan nella Storia.
When Obama Endorsed Same-Sex Marriage … after all the ORANGE MOCHA FRAPUCCINOS, after Twitter & Tumblr dropped it like it’s hot, after Michelle Obama gave us a thumbs up, after NPH & Elmo danced it up, after wedding planners freaked the eff out, after Barackness Monster danced all over the White House, after we did the Carlton at work… … all I had left to say was: Thank you to everyone who stopped by, followed, reblogged, tweeted, Facebooked, etc. You are all awesome. This has been an absolute blast. Now, we have some work to do: - Stand with President Obama here - Learn what else President Obama has done to support full equality for LGBT Americans here - The White House LGBT page - Donate here - Learn about different states’ LGBT policies here - Find your local representatives and find out if they support LGBT rights Forward! - Ben