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elwood posted:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadaver_Synod While on the case of weird papal stuff, the Banquet of Chestnuts is really pretty cool in the old Roman time orgy kind of way. Wikipedia posted:
Bolding mine for effect.
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Jan 18, 2011 22:38
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One interesting thing that I found about World War II is the role that the African people played during the war, especially in regards to France. A lot of African's joined Gaul's Free France infantry and fought along side the French counterparts to liberate Paris. When it came time to actually do a march through Paris after its liberation the powers that be decided that it would look bad to have a bunch of African soldiers march through the city. They were put aside while soldiers who weren't even French but were white were selected to march through the newly liberated city. quote:In France after the war, French soldiers were welcomed as heroes, but African soldiers were pushed into the background. In fact, France repatriated African soldiers to Africa, thus giving the impression that they wanted to weed them out of the army to keep it white. Some Africans believed that De Gaulle did not want French colonies to see Africans as liberators of France, as this would have serious implications for France's relations with its colonies. France did make an exception for Africans in France who were French citizens, as these soldiers were allowed to stay. Nevertheless, repatriation exposed the assimilation policy as a sham, because Africans were treated differently despite their efforts in the service of the French motherland. There is more about it here
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Jan 19, 2011 04:03
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So Oskar Schindler is very well known (and rightfully so) for saving Jews during World War II. He even had a movie made about him. But know he really deserves a movie made about him and his life. Chiune Sugihara. He was a Japanese diplomat who worked in Lithuania during the war. The mad was responsible for providing passports and visas to lots of Jews to get the hell out of there before they could get rounded up and sent to the chambers. He did this dispite being told not to by his superiors. It is estimated that he saved (ie provided visas for) over 6,000 Jews. Even when he finally was ordered to leave Lithuania, on his final day there he tried to hand out as many visas as possible. Wikipedia posted:Sugihara continued to hand-write visas, reportedly spending 18 – 20 hours a day on them, producing a normal month's worth of visas each day, until September 4, when he had to leave his post before the consulate was closed. By that time he had granted thousands of visas to Jews, many of whom were heads of household and thus permitted to take their families with them. On the night before their scheduled departure, Sugihara and his wife stayed awake writing out visa approvals. According to witnesses, he was still writing visas while in transit from his hotel and after boarding the train at the Kaunas Railway Station, throwing visas into the crowd of desperate refugees out the train's window even as the train pulled out. In final desperation, blank sheets of paper with only the consulate seal and his signature (that could be later written over into a visa) were hurriedly prepared and flung out from the train. Sugihara himself wondered about official reaction to the thousands of visas he issued. Many years later, he recalled, "No one ever said anything about it. I remember thinking that they probably didn't realize how many I actually issued."[4]
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Jan 19, 2011 23:47
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Hogo Fogo posted:Since the "Japanese Schindler" was mentioned I now need to include another one: While we are on that, what about Janusz Korczak. He was a famous Polish pediatrician. He was offered freedom but instead decided to stay with his orphans as they were rounded up and sent to the Death Camps. Wiki posted:
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Jan 20, 2011 02:03
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Know what's awesome. Hostage rescue missions. Just take for example Operation Entebbe. A group hijacks a plane that flew out of Tel Aviv and was heading to Paris. Instead they get rerouted and land in Entebbe, Uganda. Non-Jewish passangers are ordered off the plane. What happened next, well here you go: Wiki posted:
Furthere details are in the link of course.
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Jan 21, 2011 02:50
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Cjones posted:Jesus Christ, that just sounds like war. Disagree with their foreign policy all you want, but the Jews kick rear end and take names. Also don't forget that at that time Uganda was under the rule of Idi Amin who did some numerous bad poo poo including -expelling the countries Indian population -Ethic cleansing (somewhere between 80,000 and 100,000) -killing politcal enemies, judges, journalists, people who looked at him wrong. -complimenting Hitler
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Jan 21, 2011 03:09
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Nckdictator posted:
This is the best thing I have ever read. Between "gently caress thy mother" and "the crick in our dick" I think these are some of the best insults in history. Shakespeare be damned.
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Jan 21, 2011 23:21
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muscles like this? posted:^^^ A lot of people don't know about the bomb balloons because the government hushed it up anytime one of them showed up because they didn't want the Japanese to know that any were actually reaching America and step up the program. I remember reading in a book that there was some place in Japan that still sees him as a great man who tried to help people.
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Jan 26, 2011 01:25
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I have been powering my way through a very good comic book series called Unknown Soldier. It is excellent. The comic takes place in Uganda in 2002 and somewhat deals with the war there as well as the Lords Resistance Army. The LRA is basically a rebel force made up of membes from the Acholli tribe from Northern Uganda. Their leader is a guy named Joseph Kony who is basically batshit insane. The guy lead a milatia against the Ugandan army while spreading the message of it being God's Work and him being a messiah or some such bullshit. What makes the LRA and Kony particularly evil is their use of child soldiers. They would raid villages, kidnap children, have the children kill their own parents and basically give them a gun and tell them to kill. The female children were given to the men/boys in the milatia as "brides". The war itself was particularly bloody with gently caress ups everywhere. Kony went in stages between extreme paranioa and stages of wanting to work out a truce with the government. The government went through stages of wanting to gently caress over the Acholli and generally not giving a gently caress about the North. The UN wanted Kony to be put on trials for war crimes. Kony fled Uganda and has being gathering up troops (ie children) in Central African Republic, DRC and Sudan. The wiki articles are a lot more detailed and worth a read to see just how hosed up the region is and really how hosed up the LRA is. I find the idea of children soldiers to be the epitome of evil. Here are innocent kids kidnapped from their village, given a gun and told to kill or be killed. They sometimes even have to kill their own family. Just try to imagine that.
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Jan 27, 2011 00:33
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Nckdictator posted:Related to the discussion going on earlier on this page I had a question. From what I remember hearing a lot of Jews who fought in the first World War were not given any preferential treatment. Some would try use their credentials and such but it didn't matter.
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Feb 3, 2011 02:13
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Barebones posted:William Lyon Mackenzie King I have some major issues with King. One of his greatest sayings (if it was by him, there is some debate) is "None is too many". He was referring to Jewish refugees fleeing Europe and Nazi rule, and seeking shelter in Canada. In 1939 Jews seeking to flee Germany managed to get on a boat called the MS St Louis. The boat went to the Cuba, US and Canada were the refugees were not allowed in. The quote came from here from Canada about how many Jews would be allowed into the country. The ship went back to Europe and we all know how well that went over for the passengers of the ship.
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Feb 3, 2011 22:01
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T-1000 posted:"History will be kind to me for I intend to write it." - Winston Churchill British racism was pretty much par for the course back in the day (and much much further back). Britain had many colonies and saw themselves as the enlightened people bringing civilization to a bunch of savages. They usually looked down on other cultures (even cultures of the European brethren) so to hear someone like Churchil was racist shouldn't really be surprising. Heck even someone like Ghandi had some "enlightened" things to say about Africans.
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Feb 3, 2011 23:19
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Speaking of early British attitudes and whatnot, let me introduce you to Cecil John Rhodes. Know the Rhodes Scholarships? That was set up by him. Nice guy. Not really. Rhodes was a Brit and proud of it. He firmly believed that the Empire could bring civilization to the entire world, starting with Africa. He had dreams of Africa being under British rule, from the Cape to Cairo. He made his fortunes in the diamond mines of South Africa. Know of de Beers (aka the biggest diamond cartel in the world)? That was set up by Rhodes. When he gained political power in the Cape he decided to try overthrow the Boer state of Traansvaal. This lead to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jameson_Raid]Jameson Raid[/url]. The raid itself was an utter failure. Lots of miscommunication. Rhodes sent lies to England about how the Boers were mistreating the English in the Traansvaal and an intervention was needed. This was not the case but England approved the raid at first, however backed out and refused to aid Jameson. The whole thing led to Rhodes being forced to resign his position as the Prime Minister of the Cape. As for his thoughts about empire: quote:Wiki
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Feb 3, 2011 23:33
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Good afternoon fellow goons. Today I want to talk to you about one of the greatest threats to America. A threat so great and important that back in the 1950's special committees were formed to discuss how to deal with this threat that was leading our children to ruin. I am, of course, talking about the threat of of Comic books. Yes, comic books. You see, unlike today, comic books back then were mostly read by kids. Parents fearing for their kids safety feared for their children's safety and the influence that comic books would have over their kids, and a book titled Seduction of the Innocent told them that they should be scared. The book was used by some opportunistic politicians to brandish comics as an evil force. Some missed up teens were put on the stand to testify how comics excited them and made them do messed up stuff to one another. Proof that comics were evil. The main scapegoat of all of this was EC who published horror/fantasy stories, usually filled with gore and irony. The moral outrage was thick. School and churches held comic book burnings where children were encouraged to bring all their comics to the bonfire and toss them in. Shops that carried comics were put under heavy scrutiny and could be raided for distrubiting offensive materials to minors, people who worked in comic books were ashamed to admit openly what they did for a living, and....well.....at least someone was thinking of the children. At the end of all the hupla the Comic Code Authority was created (to be monitered by the publishers) and a list of rules were put in place on what could and could not be published in comic books. Most of these rules were arbitary (No mention of Wolfman may be on cover for one) and pretty much banned anything EC Comics were doing. This was the death of EC comics, but luckily the birth of Mad Magazine which was in magazine format so it could bypass the rules laid down by the code. So basically in 1950's people were burning comics, politicians were having committees about the evils of comics and it nearly lead to the death of the comicbook industry. Also, censorship became a law. For an excellent book on this (really check it out) there is The Ten Cent Plague which follows the origins of the American comic book, the rising popularity of the comic book and the moral outrage and outcome of that outrage against the comic. Also, here is a timeline of The Seduction of the Innocent.
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Feb 8, 2011 23:25
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T-1000 posted:You missed the best part. The guy who wrote The Seduction of the Innocent, Dr Fredric Wertham, eventually decided that comics weren't all bad, and that fanzines were actually a good thing and wrote another book on it in 1974. This was used as a pretext to invite him to the New York Comic Art Convention as a guest speaker. The whole thing was a setup and it was just an excuse to get him in the room while everyone heckled him for ruining comics twenty years earlier. He never wrote about comics again. Another fascinating thing about Wertham is that he testified at the trial of deranged serial killer Albert Fish.
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Feb 9, 2011 01:07
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Kemper Boyd posted:Regarding the Comics Code, the first one to intentionally breach it was Stan Lee. The Department of Health asked him to do an anti-drug story, which Lee agreed on. However, this was not allowed under the Comics Code, so Lee figured out that the personal request he had received from President Nixon was more important than the Comics Code Authority. One of the more amusing things to come out of the Comic Code was the Wolfman credit incident: Wiki posted:
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Feb 10, 2011 08:34
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You want something that isn't military themed? How about the time Elvis Presley met Richard Nixon. For the full bizaareness of this incident I will refer you to the wiki Wiki posted:
A full set of documentation and photos from this meeting can be found here.
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Feb 11, 2011 02:32
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There is also the legendary tale of Pope Joan, a woman who dressed as a man and became the pope. Sadly it is more legend than truth.
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Feb 15, 2011 20:31
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How can we talk about witchcraft without talking about the Malleus Maleficarum, which describes who is a witch and how they should be dealt with. My fave part: Wiki posted:
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Feb 17, 2011 03:25
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The Kennedy dynasty seems so hosed up in that daddy did stuff because he hoped that it would make his son become president.
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Feb 22, 2011 23:19
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benito posted:Shaka is a complex figure. Building his empire was a tremendous accomplishment, but some consider it to be more of a genocidal rampage. Entire tribes were either wiped out, beaten and incorporated into the Zulu, or forced to flee the region. Some fled as far away as Kenya. I think there's a tendency in the West to see him as a powerful African ruler to be admired for his strength, while the oral histories of his victims paint a much different picture. I found this book titled Diamonds, Gold and War to be pretty informative about the 19th century South Africa, especially in regards to the relationships between Boers, the English, the Xhosa, and the Zulus. As for some some crazy war stuff involving the Zulus just look at The Battle of Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift. In the Battle of Isandlwana the Brits had the far superior and advanced weapons, and the Zulu's had the numbers. By the end of the bloody war, the Brits suffered heavy casualties and lost the war. In Rorkes drift (really read the Wiki article I posted, 150 Brits protected a garrison from thousands of invading Zulus.
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Mar 1, 2011 00:22
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In regards to the Concentration Camps used during the Boer War, a big thanks needs to be given to Emily Hobhouse who brought attention to the appalling conditions in the camps to the those in England.
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Mar 3, 2011 02:20
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Crocs are awesome. Whenever I read about them I feel I need to talk about Gustave who is probably the biggest, and meanest crocodile ever seen by man. A pretty neat article about Gustave. Read it and enjoy. As for other animals that can get quite a kill on in Africa, here is a site to look at. Sorry if this isn't really historical but I find the whole thing kind of fascinating. To give this a bit more of a historical context I will post the wiki for the Tsavo Maneaters, a bunch of man-eating lions killing railway workers. Wiki posted:In March 1898 the British started building a railway bridge over the Tsavo River in Kenya. The project was led by Lt. Col. John Henry Patterson. During the next nine months of construction, two maneless male Tsavo lions stalked the campsite, dragging Indian workers from their tents at night and devouring them. Crews tried to scare off the lions and built campfires and bomas of thorn fences around their camp for protection to keep the maneaters out, to no avail. The lions crawled through the thorn fences. After the new attacks, hundreds of workers fled from Tsavo, halting construction on the bridge. Patterson set traps and tried several times to ambush the lions at night from a tree. After repeated unsuccessful endeavors, he shot the first lion on December 9, 1898. Three weeks later, the second lion was found and killed. The first lion killed measured nine feet, eight inches (3 m) from nose to tip of tail. It took eight men to carry the carcass back to camp. The construction crew returned and completed the bridge in February 1899. The exact number of people killed by the lions is unclear. Over the course of his life, Patterson gave several figures, once claiming that there were 135 victims.[1][2]
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Mar 7, 2011 23:54
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dreadspork posted:I came here to post this, glad someone got to it first because you remembered more details than I did. Has Japan apologised for anything they did during the Second World War?
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Mar 11, 2011 02:17
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Benagain posted:Even the Greeks pulled this trick a few times. In Greek theater you had three actors play all the parts and a chorus who provided commentary and narration. The term "spear-carrier" refers to all the extras who hung around as mobile scenery without any lines. In Agamemnon, which is a fantastic play that everyone should read, Agamemnon brings home the captured priestress Cassandra, who could accurately foretell the future but was cursed to have no one believe her. She's treated as a spear carrier for the first bits of the play, with characters addressing her without expecting a response. Then she's left alone and suddenly bursts into a funeral wail and begins describing how everything's going to poo poo. When I did drama in high school it was split into two parts. Practical (ie acting and whatnot) and theory (ie studying the history of drama and whatnot). We saw a production of Agamemnon and it was awesome. We studied ancient theatre (Roman/Greek) but sadly I don't really remember much about it. There was something about the plays being put on for the god Dionysus that turned into big orgies. These were done mostly by women for women, but then the men started getting into the act and put on productions and plays started sprouting off from there. The stuff that I do remember from the theory stuff is stuff about Bertolt Brecht and Samuel Becket. Brecht was interesting as he was a bit of a jerk. Had numerous lovers of both sexes, some of whom wrote quite a bit of his plays. He created a new style of theatre/acting called epic theatre. Basically the idea was that the audience must always be aware that what they are witnessing on stage is a play. Actors would often break the fourth wall, talk directly to the audience, sing songs off key. Beckett is a really interesting chap also. A pioneer of the Theatre of the Absurd Beckett's plays were mostly about man's existential crisis. His most famous play is most likely Waiting for Godot, a play about two tramps waiting for someone named Godot to show up so they can carry on for the rest of their lives. They are too scared to do anything in the fear that if they do, they might miss Godot. Some interesting facts about Beckett is that he fought with the French underground during the second World War. He was fluent in French and when he wrote his plays he would first write them in French and then translate them into English. The reason he did this was because he believed that if he wrote them in a language that wasn't his native language he would get rid of all unneccessary dialog and words (ie any slang etc) and the translation would be at its barest.
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Mar 15, 2011 22:25
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I am currently reading up about the history of the Congo (especially in relation to King Leopold II's rule) and the book goes into a bit of back history as well. One of the interesting things I have read in the book so far (only 50 odd pages into it) is about Henry Morton Stanley. Now there are two versions of Stanley's life. The official version, and Stanley's version. You see, Stanley was born a bastard and had the name of John Rowlands. It even mentions it on his birth certificate. He lived in a workhouse for the poor, never really knew his siblings and mother, and, well, had a lovely upbringing. At the age of 18 he goes to the states, meets a man who decided to take him under his wing. There are a few inconsistancies about what happened during this time period. In Stanley's writings he talks about the close relationship and how devestated he was when his fatherfigure died after two years of meeting him. In reality the man died nearly 18 years after meeting Stanley. When the American Civil War broke out, Stanley joined the Confederates. After being captured by the Union he switched side and fought on the side of the Union. After the war Stanley made a name for himself as an adventurer and journalist. Perhaps his most famous feat was finding Livingstone, who had gone missing in Africa. The whole thing was quite the [url-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Morton_Stanley#Finding_Livingstone]adventurers story[/url] and was a really big deal at the time. Stanley also spent a lot of time exploring Africa and one of the most impressive explorations that he did was the Trans-Afrca Exploration. If you find this kind of thing interesting you can find his auto-biography here. That is the whole thing and it is very long. The preface talks about the incosistencies that you will find in the autobiography (there were a lot but I can only recall the fatherfigure in the States).
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Mar 21, 2011 22:12
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I was going through some old pics I took when I was in New Zealand and I came across a picture I took of a statue. The statue was of Robert Scott. Who was Robert Scott? Well he was a bloke he lead expeditions into the Antarctic. His most famous, and tragic, expedition was the [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_Nova_Expedition]Terra Nova Expedition. I recommend reading the link posted as it will go into more detail than I will here. Basically Scott and his group set up to be the first people to find the geographical south pole. Scott and four others got to the pole but they weren't the first, as they were beaten there by a Norwegian team. On the way back Scott and and the four other men died. The following bit is from wiki Wiki posted:
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Mar 24, 2011 20:58
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Cosmik Debris posted:Good idea! This reminded me of the Lion Momument in Lucern, Switzerland.  It was scultptered to be a memorial to the Swiss guards who died protecting Louis XVI. About 600 were killed. The wiki article goes into a bit more detail.
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Mar 29, 2011 22:08
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BlueDiablo posted:Except not, the bulk of the killing, you know, the parts after Drogheda and Wexford, were actually carried out by his second in command, Henry Ireton, who was in charge after Cromwell left for England. The counter-insurgency campaign in Ireland, which included massacring of villages, systematic destruction of crops, stuff which can legitimately be considered genocide, were carried out under his watch. Can someone give a brief history of Cromwell please. I remember hearing about him once in an English lit class, and something to do with overthrowing the monarch and such, but never got much details out of it.
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Apr 1, 2011 02:54
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Patter Song posted:
Thanks for this. I look forward to part 2!
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Apr 1, 2011 17:33
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Sorry to harp on something that was mentioned about 5 or so pages ago but here is a chronology of the Nazi murder machine. It's a very basic timeline and might not give you all the details. If you don't want to go to the link here is a quick breakdown. 1941: Einsatzgruppen. Basically groups would go into small towns and round up all the Jews and shoot them (after making them dig their own graves). There were reports that this form of murder was hard on the men tasked with the shooting as well as a waste of bullets. Because of this the "Gas-vans" were developed Wiki posted:After a time, it was found that the killing methods used by the Einsatzgruppen were inefficient: they were costly, demoralizing for the troops, and sometimes did not kill the victims quickly enough.[45] During a visit to Russia in August 1941, where he witnessed the Einsatzgruppen killings first-hand, Himmler concluded that shooting Jews was too much of a "psychological burden" for his men.[45] As a result of his "care and concern" for the Einsatzgruppen, Himmler concluded there was a need for a "humane" way of killing (for the killers, not the victims) and ordered the development of the gas vans.[45] Starting in 1942, the Einsatzgruppen began mass killings with gans vans.[104] At the Wannsee Conference, the SS and various state officials met to find a more efficient way of killing their victims. This ultimately led to the establishment of Vernichtungslagern or extermination camps containing gas-chambers. Under this and other plans, an estimated six million Jews and five million non-Jews would ultimately lose their lives.[105] July 1941: Final Solution This is pretty much it. The discussion on how to get rid of the "Jewish problem" permanently. January 1942: Mass gassing of Jews begins at Auschwitz. (Zyklon-B was decided to be the quickest and most cost-effective way to kill. The gas was developed 2 years earlier and was experimented on Gypsies). January 1945: March of the Dead. With the Russians quickly approaching the Nazis decided to disassemble the camps and march all the inmates away from the Soviet Army. Many Jews starving and weak died on this march. Some were shot and some died from exhaustion. Another detail (and was shown in Band of Brothers) was that when the camps were liberated the soldiers first impulse was to feed the inmates. This was a bad idea, as the survivors bodies were so exhausted and their stomaches could not handle the rush of food. A more details timeline can be found here.
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Apr 12, 2011 00:23
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When it comes to missionaries in Africa I have a contradictory view of them. On the one hand they came to Africa with the assumption that everyone there was an uncivilized savage that just needed to accept Jesus. Cultures were wiped out and people were forced to abondon rituals and practices that they have been doing for generations. This was a product of the time and could be understood as such, but looking at it now it is really a tragedy. On the other hand missionaries were often responsible for given many an eduction (ie reading and writing) while the empires in Europe were just interested in exploiting Africans for cheap labour (ie slavery). In regards to the Congo missionaries like George Washington Williams and William Sheppard were instrumental for making sure the world knew about the atrocities that happened in the Congo under Leopold's rule.
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Apr 13, 2011 17:25
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gradenko_2000 posted:Is this thread taking history lesson requests, please? In regards to Ethiopia, Italy wanted to get in on the scramble for Africa (albeit a bit late in the game). Ethiopia was all "gently caress that poo poo". At the time Ethiopia was ruled by Haile Selassie, who Rastafarians see as the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. Selassie, seeing what was going on pleaded to the League of Nations (think of an even more ineffectual but totally more vindictive United Nations) to not let Italy take his land away. the League held many meetings to see what to do about this. The thing was there was a pact signed by Italy and Ethiopia a few years earler. However Italy decided to be a giant dick and start building bases and encroach on Ethiopia in a kind of sneaky land grab kind of way. Meetings were held with Ethiopia noticably absent. Sensing no help from the League Ethiopia armed itself and prepared for war. The League decided to start looking like they gave a gently caress by imposing sanctions on Italy but these sanctions did very little to influence Italy's decision to just flat out invade Ethiopia. Feeling rather useless Britain and France (the two major powers behind the League of Nations) went in to form a deal with Italy. The deal would give Italy land in Ethiopia (which just so happened to be the best land with great access to the sea and whatnot). The plan was leaked and people were understandably upset by it. It was dropped shortly after. Italy continued its aggression and captured the capital city. Soon after Ethiopia was considered an Italian colony.
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Apr 19, 2011 00:02
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Who here has ever heard of [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_and_loeb]Leopold and Loeb[/rul]? Seeing as you are quite an eductated group who like their history I would imagine quite a few of you, but those who don't know them, well here is the story. Back in the 1920's, two precocious teens by the name of Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold decided to commit the perfect crime. Believing themselves to be Ubermensch (and above morals and ideas such as good and evil) they sought to prove their superiority by taking the life of another. They spent several months planning their crime in intricate detail, with attention to kidnapping, the murder, and dumping the body. Their victim was Robert Franks, a 14 year old boy who was a son of a local millionaire. The two boys lured Franks into a car where they killed him with a chisel. They then drove around looking for a dumpsite. They used hydroclauric acid on Franks and dumped the body. They then returned home where they called Franks parents to tell them that their son had been kidnapped. Unfortunately their plan of gaining money through ransom fell apart when the body of Franks was discovered. An investigation began and one tiny thing led to the arrents of the boys. At the crime scene a detective found some glasses next to the body. The glasses seemed custom made and more specifically, it was custom made for Leopold. The police questioned both Leopold and Loeb about their whereabouts during the Franks murder. At first both boys provided alibis for each other, but soon their alibis began to fall apart due to inconsistancies. Soon they both confessed to the crime. When the trial began, their attorney, Clarence Darrow had both both plead guilty to the crime. Darrow argued that they committed the crimes because they were inherently "broken on the inside". He gave a long speech about how they did what they did because of their upbringing and their own warped ideals that mixed with it. The judge gave both boys a life sentence.
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May 9, 2011 20:46
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It amazes me when you see the amount of people who dies under Stalin, under Mao, during the Holocaust, during World War I and II that there are still big populations in certain areas in the world. You talk about = 40 million people were wiped out under Mao. That is more than the population of Canada. To get a sense of how hosed up that all is, look at this site which shows death tolls during the twentieth century. I am using Canada as an example because I live in Canada. There is roughly 34.5 million people living in Canada now. Take that number and compare it to that site to see how many times Canada would have been wiped out.
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May 11, 2011 22:32
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The thing that pisses me off about the history channel is that there is so much history in the world. Seriously there is an endless source of historical events to cover. So what do they do? Bloody reality shows about truckers and pickers and pawn shops (which is just an exaggerated Antiques Roadshow, which has more historical value but whatever). I remember reading an article a few years back that was questioning the History Channel's programs. The article was wondering why the History channel was showing reruns of CSI: NY. They got a reply that CSI: NY was showing the change of environment in regards to a post 9/11 New York or some such bullshit. I finally gave up on History Channel when they showed Mad Max as a movie feature (yea, a movie that takes place in a post-apocolyptic world on the History Channel). Every time I look to see what's on it's either reality shows, or stuff about end of the world prophecies and what the world would be like if a meteor hit (again on the HISTORY Channel). And speaking of World War II, the last thing I saw about Hitler on the channel before I gave up on it was something about Hitler trying to make contact with bloody aliens and look for mystical artifacts.
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May 12, 2011 18:16
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I saw a movie the other day called Stander which was based on the life of Andre Stander. Stander was a police captain in South Africa who decided to protest the Apartheid government in a rather unique way. After being involved in the conflict during the Soweto Riots, Stander became angry with the way things were being run in the country. He believed that because so many of the resources (such as police and army) was being used to stop blacks from protesting a white person could commit any crime he wanted and not have to worry about being caught. To prove this point he robbed a bank in broad daylight. He didn't even bother to disguise himself. He just walked in, went to a cashier, showed his gun and demanded money, and afterwards walked out. Stander found that he quite liked robbing banks so he decided to continue with it, although he would get a bit more creative and actually work on disguises. The police set up a task force to catch this new bank robber. Stander was one of the officers on the task force, purposely leading police to follow false leads. Eventually he was caught, sentenced and put in jail. However he wouldn't let a little thing like prison stop him from his new found best-ever hobby. He made a daring escape from prison with another prisoner, and then eventually busted out a third inmate. The three of them would become known as the Stander gang. The were meticulous and resourcefull. At one point they robbed a bank and while in their getaway car they heard the bank manager proudly announce that even though some money was stolen, there was a lot more that wasn't taken because it was in a hidden safe. Stander turned the car around so they could go get the rest of the money. Yep, they robbed the same bank twice in one day. Eventually the high-living had to end. One of the robbers was killed in a shootout, the other captured. Stander made his way to the States under a fake identity. He was killed there by a police officer after an incident with a stolen car.
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May 24, 2011 19:41
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GO FISTING OFTEN posted:Do you have any more of these stories? Any information would be nice about I guess the farcical (?) aspects of Apartheid. There are two people in the "WTF Family Recipes" thread that have stories about living with several servants, feeding them separate food, etc. I am trying to encourage them to make an Ask/Tell on this subject. Historical and their experiences (and continuing experiences) in South Africa as affluent people. Not too sure about more "farcical" stories but there are quite a few of the more absurd stories out there. Stuff like what happened to Sandra Laing. Under Apartheid rule all people living in South Africa were put into racial categories. White, Black, Coloured etc. Depending which category you were put determined basically how well you lived and which laws applied to you (being a racist law and such White meant you were better off than black). Sandra Liang was born to two white parents. The strange thing was that her skin was black. This would seem strange to a white couple who were members of the ruling National Party and supporters of Apartheid. Due to her parents connections she was exempt from some rules applied to other black citizens in South Africa. She was allowed to go to a whites only school. Her parents fought with the government to have her classified as white but to little avail. She became estranged from her family as she grew older, eloping and running away to Swaziland.
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May 25, 2011 23:14
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kanonvandekempen posted:I have a friend whose family is fully chinese but emigrated to South africa. According to him, during apartheid chinese people were classified as 'black' (or with similar status or something), but Japan, being one of the last nations friendly towards the apartheid regime was classified as white. So people were never sure how to react to his family, because they couldn't tell from sight which ethnic group he was part of. Oh the special classes. White South Africans love their rugby. It is the most popular sport among the Afrikaaners in South Africa. There is a proud legacy with Rugby ingrained with the history of the country. They loved playing other countries too. However there came a problem with playing countries like New Zealand. New Zealands rugby team had Maoris playing for them. In 1970 New Zealand was to play South Africa in South Africa but the government had issues with the Maoris on the team. They didn't want no people of colour loving up their beloved sport in South Africa. A stand off was met with New Zealand basically saying "if you don't want our players to play in your country we won't play at all". The South African government reached a comprimise. The Maoris were given the title of "honourary whites" and would be allowed to play in South Africa.
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May 26, 2011 17:37
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SeanBeansShako posted:Somebody should really mention how awesome Jan Christian Smuts was. Perhaps the best Boer the world has ever known really. I thought I mentioned Smuts a few pages back. Honestly can't remember now but Smuts was awesome in his own way. Fought against the Brits in the Boer War, where he was a brilliant general. Invited to join the war council during World War I, where he played a rather big part. Was important to the formation of the League of Nations (which might have been his idea). Managed to convince the Afrikaaners to get behind the Brits on both world wars (a hard thing to do seeing that quite a few Boers in power were full out Nazi sympathizers), was big into botany (specifically grass), and all round really interesting guy. Here is the wiki in case I haven't posted it before.
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Jun 8, 2011 21:48
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