thegoodfellas/blogset-br huggingface dataset:
From 11/22/63 to 9/11: Celebrating the Legacy of John F. Kennedy's StruggleThis year marks the 50th anniversary ofNovember 22, 1963 when President John F Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, TX.I was born in 1962 so I have no personal memory of this event but I have grownup beneath its ever-lengthening shadow. The controversy just will not subside.Despite efforts from both sides, the lone gunman camp and the conspiracy camp,the public at large has been unable to understand fully why Kennedy was shot, bywhom he was shot nor even how he was shot and give closure to this colossalevent. President Kennedy was murdered at a time when theUnited States of America was asserting its political, military and economicmight over the post-World War Two world. The Vietnam War was to be the greatestflexing of US muscle since the world war. But it was also a time when analternative vision of the world was born personified on the one hand by thehippie and free love movement of the 1960s and the flowering of KennedysCamelot on the other. While the mostpowerful families in the country were planning a global economic empire proppedup by an invincible military machine other Americans, less powerful ones ofcourse, were nurturing the country in another direction away from militarymight and economic hegemony and towards something more peaceful, humane andsocial-minded. The conflict between these two forces, of war andpeace, or aggression and pacifism, has continued right up to the present day.We still struggle between what some term the forces of the right and the leftand seem unable to find compromise and peace amongst us, or amidst the largerworld around us that we so often belittle and ignore at our own expense. Theterrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 represent not so much a maniacalassault on innocent victims but a violent global backlash against the doctrinesmost of our leaders have espoused since Kennedys era and which to thesimple-minded perpetrators was concentrated on New York Citys twin towers as asymbol of American economic and cultural domination of the world. The forces of peace and humanity have not prevailedover the last 50 years. War, famine and climate change have. The less powerfuland less affluent amongst us continue to clamor for a more just society and amore just world. The more powerful nations on earth bore ahead with plans ofeconomic might despite the collateral damage suffered by those who are castaside or who are unable to participate. Oil might be replaced by biofuel forthe mighty while biofuel replaces food for the rest. Around the world, asillustrated in the events of the so-called Arab Spring, for example, we arebeing reminded (or warned) that the American model will never sweep the worldany more than our leaders at home should take their citizens for granted andassume they can control them. Within and without the United States people yearnfor positive change, and for social and economic justice in particular. Ourcountry and our world cannot continue to develop in a way that favors only therichest and most affluent, while degrading and ostracizing the rest. Twice in the last decade the American people havevoted
for positive change. What needs to be promoted is the dialogue amongstourselves born of these elections, specifically the need to consider and weighthe opinions of those who would at first seem different from us, but who arenot at all deep down. Without dialogue we will continue to see strangers aroundus, and not brothers and sisters. Without dialogue we will be unable to planfor a better world. Without dialogue there will be no bright future to sharewith our sons and daughters. The turbulent 60s were highlighted by great strugglesand sacrifices. But we are still a long way from the peace and security we alldesire. Dark forces continue to plot and manipulate us from below. Darkerforces have chosen other ways to combat our insolence and arrogance. Ifanything the human situation is more complicated today than it was 50 years ago.Now it is more difficult to separate the good from the bad as opposing campsuse the same arguments against each other, each convinced of his agenda overthe other. If nothing else the year 2013 should serve as an opportunity for usto look back to a simpler age and attempt to acquaint ourselves once more withthe values and needs that make us truly human. The year 2013 should also serveas a year for us to celebrate the struggles of John F Kennedy and assist us infinding our way back upon the path to truth, justice and what truly should be theAmerican way!
and gave scientific backingto the Loch Ness Monster. Roald Amundsen was also involved inthe race for the North Pole, though only for a short time. On his way to theNorth Pole he learned another explorer had already been there. Thats when hedecided to change the direction of his ship and sail for Antarctica, catchingScott by surprise there.The North Pole was discovered on April 6, 1909 by one of Americasgreatest explorers, Robert Peary,and his partner Matthew Henson. Pearyhad also attempted to reach the North Pole many times before finallysucceeding. And like Amundsen he also learned from the local people of the Arctichow to dress, travel and survive in the polar regions. As well he too almosthad the triumph of victory taken from them by a rival explorer who said he hadreached the pole first. To this day there is still some controversy whether ornot Peary truly reached the geographical North Pole. Travel to the poles isaffected by something called the magnetic north and south poles. These arepoints on the earth that compasses naturally point too but are not the truegeographic poles of the earth. Now the North Pole is quite different from the South Pole. Firstly it isnot a continent. It is a frozen sea which can only be approached in summer whenchannels for ship passage open up and allow access to the region. As well theArctic is inhabited by people, the Inuit and other cultures. No one lives orhas ever lived on Antarctica. In the Arcticthere is a great amount of wildlifeincluding Polar Bears, Seals, Whales and Fox. On Antarctica there are only Penguins, birds and some seal species.Think of it this way...the Arctic is a frozen sea surrounded by land; Antarcticais a frozen continent surrounded by sea. Youmay be interested to know that you can visit the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum at Bowdoin College inBrunswick, ME. Robert Pearys summer home in Casco, ME is a tourist attraction called the Eagle Island Historic Site.And MacMIllan Wharf in Provincetown, Massachusetts is named after one of Pearys fellow arctic explorers, Donald MacMillan, who had a home on Cape Cod for many years.Next week I will have a blog for you called Cold Cases...stories about explorers that in most casesdisappeared while on expedition. Well talk about the race to reach the highestmountain in the world, Mount Everest, sometimes referred to as the 3rdpole. And well talk about such famous explorers as George Mallory, JohnFranklin, Percy Fawcett and Amelia Earhart
Cold CasesMysteries are nothing without people. After all you cant have a mysteryunless someone is mystified. And people themselves can also be mysteries. Hesa mystery to me, we sometimes say, dont we? Today I want to talk to you specificallyabout people whose disappearances are considered mysteries.Last week we talked about Antarctica and the Arctic, and the explorerswho raced to reach the North and South Poles. Long before the United States wascreated European explorers sought out a way to travel by ship around the North American continent. Once againled by the British, they wished to find a shorter trade route around NorthAmerica without having to sail south around the dangerous and distant Cape Hornat the bottom of South America. Long before the Panama Canal was constructed tocross quickly and safely from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans navigatorswere searching for a passage above North America through the Arctic Sea fromthe Atlantic to the Pacific. After all, global trade circulated between themore developed nations of the north... between Europe, North America and Asia. Sowhy did travel always have to be around the south then, below South America,Africa and India? There had to be a better way. John Franklin Long before the geographic and political races for the Poles explorerswere seeking what was called TheNorthwest Passage, a route from the northwest Atlantic Ocean, aroundGreenland and through the usually frozen Arctic Sea to the Bering Sea and Asia.Countless expeditions were mounted over the centuries before, guess who, Roald Amundsen finally found a way in1906 between the oceans through the maze of ice and islands of the Arctic,albeit in a boat barely 70 feet in length called the Gjoa. But it was Amundsenwho did it before anyone else. Amundsenwas first to find the Northwest passage and first to the South Pole. He laterdied in a balloon accident trying to be first to cross over the Arctic by air.What a life, huh?In 1845 a great expedition was mounted by the British and led by Captain SirJohn Franklin, a popular Britishnaval commander and experienced arctic explorer. As on three previousexpeditions to the Arctic Franklin expected his ship to get stuck in the icepack at some point and his crew to pass at least one winter locked in theArctic as they explored channel after channel in search of the ones that wouldadd up to the Northwest Passage.Unfortunately Franklins two ships, theTerror and Erubus, once frozenin that first winter, could not withstand the incredible force of theever-shifting icepack and was eventually crushed. Franklin had no choice but toabandon ship and seek an overland(or over-ice) escape southwards to populated whaling stations and Inuit Indian villageshe knew off. He never made it. And neither did any of his men. Franklin and hiscrew of 128 disappeared. Only years later was it determined they had died oneby one on the frozen arctic sea. They died of starvation, cold and most oddlyof all, perhaps of food poisoning from the canned food they had brought withthem to eat.Numerous rescue expeditions were mounted to find Franklin and his men.Some of these expeditions disappeared as well. Finally several graves
were found and some informationabout Franklins fate was revealed. Autopsies performed in the 1980s on thebodies of three sailors who died early on and were given a Christian burialrevealed unusually high levels of lead in the bodies. The source was the leadused to seal the thousands of cans of preserved food they had prepared for themin England before departing. A bad job of soldering, or closing the tin canswith a lead bead, had resulted in lead leaking into and spoiling the food. Inan effort to survive Franklin and his men had only killed themselves. Perhapsthe cold and starvation killed some; perhaps it would have killed them alleventually, so far from safety were they after all. But there is certainly astrong argument to say the majority were weakened considerably by lead poisoningand this contributed more than anything else to their premature deaths in thearctic cold. Mallory & IrvineMount Everest is often called the third pole, theother two being of course the North and South Poles. It is the highest mountainin the world. Located in the Himalayan Mountains north of India on the Chineseborder this colossal mountain has obsessed and horrified climbers and explorerssince it was first sighted and mapped in the early 19th century. Itswestern name is taken from Sir George Everest, British Surveyor-General of theIndia, charged with mapping the bordersbetween India and China between 1829 and 1843. Its local name is Chomolungma, Goddess, Mother of theEarth, and it is the sacred mountain of the Tibetan and Nepalese people wholive in the valleys surrounding her. We have already spoken about the legend ofthe Yeti, or Abominable Snowman, a mystical man-monster said to dwell in cavesamongst the nearby mountains and who protects the mountains against those whowould defile them. To this day ascetics,or holy men, from local monasteries are also said to live and pray amongst thefrozen mountain peaks. Foreign visitors and climbing parties are encouraged toseek blessings from the local monksbefore venturing up toward the heavens, a place the locals evade, a place supposedlyfor the Gods only.The first serious expeditions to explore and perhaps climb Mount Everesttook place in the years following the First World War. Britain in particularsaw the conquest of the mountain as part of the healing process after thesenseless slaughter of a generation of young men in the trenches and fields ofWestern Europe between 1914 and 1918.George Mallory was the finest climber of hisgeneration and had honed his skills amongst the hills and crags of Wales andthe Alps Mountains of Switzerland. When asked why he wished to climb Everest,his famous answer was, because it isthere. In 1924 he was in his early 40s. It was his third expedition toEverest and likely to be his last chance at the mountain before middle agecaught up with him. At least thats what he told his young wife, Ruth, and theirchildren back home in England. On this last expedition his climbing teamincluded a young Cambridge College athlete named Andrew Irvine, nicknamed Sandy. After weeks trekking,scouting, climbing and camping the day finally arrived when these two men werefinally high on the mountain and ready to
make their final push for the summitthrough what is called the Death Zone, the level of altitude where the oxygenis so thin a human can only last a short period of time before succumbing toaltitude sickness and certain death.Through a telescope Mallory and Irvine were last seen at about 1pm onJune 8, 1924 going strong for thesummit before a cloud enveloped them and they disappeared forever. Malloryand Irvine were never seen again, and to this day the question remains, werethese two men the first to summit Everest 30 years before Edmund Hillary and TenzingNorgay in 1953? The question may never be answered for certain but there isevidence to support both sides of the claim.The climbers were seen above the final hump before the summit peak, fellowclimber Noel Odell claimed. If that were true the final walk to the summit isfairly level and straightforward. They would not have failed then. On the otherhand if they were actually below this final hump (now called the Hillary Step)it has been shown by the modern climber Conrad Anker that this little bit ofclimbing is the most difficult bit on the mountain to overcome. Anker hasclaimed that it took his supreme effort to overcome this particular pitchunaided by ladders or rope, as would have been the case with Mallory andIrvine. Anker judges that Mallory and Irvine would simply not have had thetechnical, or physical, strength to complete this part of the climb and wouldhave been turned back there if not earlier by altitude, sickness or injury. Incredibly in the early 1990s the bodyof George Mallory was found by Ankar hundreds of feet below the probablepoint where he apparently fell from below the summit and died. But was heheading up to or down from the summit when he fell? His broken body remains tothis day on the mountain. And somewhere else nearby is the body of Sandy Irvine,his partner. Curiously the pocket cameraMallory is reported to have carried with him to photograph the summit was notfound on his body. Nor was a letter to his wife he promised to leave at thesummit if he made it. This is one mystery that may never be solvedconclusively. Amelia EarhartOne of the most enduring missing personscases ever is the mystery of female aviator, Amelia Earhart. Born on July 24,1898 in Atchison, Kansas she was inspired to fly by the exploits of CharlesLindberg who was the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean in May1927. Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly solo across the United Statesin August 1928, and then first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic in May1932 Her red Lockheed Vega planehangs at the National Air and Space Museum, part of the Smithsonian Museums, inWashington. The character of Amelia Earhart has a prominent role in the 2009 film,Nightin a Museum II, alongside Ben Stiller. Besides her flying records was also anactivist in support of womens rights and health care. She was teacher, socialworker and best-selling author. But she is best known for her flying andsupport of flying. She was spokesperson alongside Lindberg for the commercialairline
altogether because of her speed. The iceberg struck the ship on her side andtragically ripped a 300 foot hole across no less than six of her forwardairtight compartments that served to float the ship. Andrews, never imaginingsuch a scenario, had designed the Titanic to withstand the flooding of onlyfive compartments. Once the sixth was ruptured there was no stopping her from floodingand sinking. The only thing that could be done was attempt to save her passengers.The closest ship that received herdistress signals that night was the USS Carpathia which only managed to reachthe lost ship an hour and a half later at 4am on April 15. Only 705 survivors were found alive in lifeboats. The rest had diedquickly- tragically though mercifully- in the 28 degree water because there hadnot been enough lifeboats for them.
decided to invade Iraq because they had simply grown tired of one oftheir dictators no longer content to play the role of puppet and follow ordersfrom his handlers. Saddam had simply outgrown his usefulness and had become aliability. It is also possible the US decided to take advantage of theirpresence in Afghanistan to flex a little more muscle in the region andre-establish their political presence in a region with vast oil reserves. Tosay the US-led invasion of Iraq was ultimately a failure is an understatement.The modern, if problematic, nation of Iraq was destroyed. Removing Saddam (andhis repressive Baathist party government) did not result in the beginnings of anew, freer and more democratic Iraq (if that ever was part of the plan). Afteralmost 15 years of conflict without result the US finally decided to withdrawits military and abandon Iraq. What arose from the chaotic vacuum of power wasISIS. Ina very short time ISIS has morphed from a regional to global threat. Having nowcarved out their Caliphate nation from the wasteland of war torn Iraq andterritory unclaimed by civil war in neighbouring Syria, home of anotherwestern-sponsored dictator, Bashar al Assad, ISIS has decided to pick up thebaton of western hatred left behind by Bin Ladens Al Queda and strike acrossadditional international borders. Soonce again we are back at the start, and on the brink of world war. The Westcontinues to misunderstand the Middle East and vilify, rather than, empathizewith the people of the Middle East. The Wests response continues to involvelittle more than military thinking. Without forethought and an understanding ofhow to win the inevitable peace that will come a military response will achievelittle beyond containing a simmering pot from boiling over again next time. Andunless we learn from the past and apply lessons learned from the past to thepresent situation there will be a next time, who knows where, who knows whenfanatical, militant Islamists attack soft western targets. We would do wellto listen to the cries of an angry and bereaved people. If we dont we risklosing the support of the local population in favour of their determinedleadership and that will make the war to come that longer, bloodier and moredifficult to win. Howare we ever going to win over the hearts and minds of the people if our onlyresponse is always violence and war? As we deal militarily with the threatviolent Jihad against the West we must not lose track of our ultimate goal whichis to re-establish peace between the West and Middle East and not allow anothersenseless Crusade to come between us. The End Afterward One: One important reasonwhy the present conflict should not in any way be seen as some sort of thirdworld war is that the population of the ISIS caliphate do not play a role onthe administration of their so-called leaders, willingly or unwillingly.Whoever is able to flee the horrors of the Syrian Civil War and the atrocitiesof nation-building ISIS forces has done so. ISIS has no popular support amongstmoderate Muslims in the region. And this is something that can be used againstthem. Without the support of the
local population for food, forces and revenue,and even as human shields, the military forces of ISIS should be easy totarget, attack and eliminate. So why doesnt the West just piece together itsoverwhelming military and intelligence forces and destroy ISIS on the field.Arguably without its military force the ideological force of ISIS would soonwither and die. Then, and only then, can the long overdue work of peace-makingbetween the West and Middle East begin again. Afterward Two: The mass shooting December 15in San Bernardino, California is an example of home grown terrorism here in theUSA. The shooters were of Middle-eastern decent but the husband involved was US-born,US-raised, US-educated and US-employed. (And arent the terrorists in Belgiumall of Middle-eastern decent but Belge-born, Belge-raised, Belge-educated,Belge-employed or unemployed?) His mail-order bride may have been a plantor she may have radicalized her husband. They, like their Europeancounterparts claim they were inspired by ISIS to attack their target. This incidentof course exposes our vulnerability to a spontaneous attack on the public atany time and in any place by otherwise normal looking citizens who suddenlystrike without apparent warning or reasonable cause. This violence can only be counteredby the vigilance and preparedness of normal citizens working together withlocal police authorities to insure the safety of our communities. Theseincidents might also be prevented by addressing more seriously the causes ofdiverse mental health problems affecting so many of our citizens and residents.Not only must we do more to make our society fairer and more democratic- so noone is excluded from the prosperity of our nation- but we also need tounderstand that we have a responsibility to help others lest their problemsbecome our own. We must unite in an effort to make the purchase anddistribution of fire arms as regulated a process as possible without infringingupon the right of our citizens to bear these same arms for sport and to defendthemselves. Its not that guns are the problem or people are the problem...whatneeds to be prevented are guns in the hands of people with problems. Afterward Three: On March 22, 4 daysafter the last suspect in the November Paris bombings was captured,ISIS-inspired terrorists struck again in Europe, this time in the countrythe Paris bombers called home. In two separate, but apparently coordinated, attacks suicide bombers in Belgiumkilled more than 20 persons and wounded hundreds after detonating bombs at themain Brussels airport and in the city center. Whether these bombers were partof the same terrorist cell as the Paris group- or if this is another, secondary cell following its own agenda- remains to be seen. But these attacks will keepcertainly Europe on high alert for a long time to come. These attacks also beg thequestion, how could the best security forces in Europe allow another series ofterrorist attacks to occur with their resources in full use since the CharlieHebdo attacks last January and especially since the attacks in Paris lastNovember?