Abraham Lincoln, “Proclamation of Thanksgiving”
By the President of the United States of America. A Proclamation. The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved wi

Yes, I support President Obama on Afghanistan, and you should too
If this story is indeed true – that President Obama is sending 34,000 troops to Afghanistan – then for what it’s worth, he has my thanks. To support him more fully on this issue: If you think the Taliban are nice people who are only acting mean because of evil corporations or evil Western values (like many at MoveOn), consider this: Taliban: the Movie If you t

Links, 11/24/09
A few articles that are important, not just of interest: Jeffrey Herf, “Hate Radio: Nazi Propaganda in the Arab World” (h/t Josh) – from the article: In his essay from the early 1950s, “Our Struggle With the Jews,” which became central in the canon of radical Islamist texts—the essay was republished in 1970 and distributed throughout the world by the monarchy in Saudi Arabia—Qutb argued that Jews are implacable enemies of Islam. As such, Qutb wrote, Jews merited “the worst kind of punishment.” Qutb claimed that Allah had sent Hitle

How to Get the Digg Short URL (for Twitter users)
A few people are amazingly kind and Digg my posts, and I of course want to help them promote my work by sharing the Digg URL on Twitter. Trouble is, Digg URLs tend to be rather long for use on Twitter. For example, a recent post submitted: http://digg.com/arts_culture/Emily_Dickinson_Away_from_Home_are_some_and_I So I typically have wanted to find the Digg short URL, which I can see in sitemeter when referral traffic comes from there. Or I just stick the longer Digg URL in bit.ly, which is my usual URL shortening device. I was playing around with the Digg page for

Links Foreign and Domestic, 11/23/09
“Not at Home in Germany: Almost Half of Turkish Migrants Want to Leave” (h/t Ario) – from the article: …more younger Turks want to return to Turkey than their elders. This is despite the fact that almost two thirds of respondents to the study (61 percent altogether)– one of the first polls to compare the world views of around a thousand individuals from Turkey, Germany and the Turkish population living in Germany — had been born in Germany or had been living in the country for ov