en.WN

Just this goy...

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Similarly, the revisionists have been working over the History of Panama.

[[History of Panama]]
>U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt convinced U.S. Congress to take on the abandoned works in 1902, while Colombia was in the midst of the Thousand Days War. During the war there were at least three attempts by Panamanian Liberals to seize control of Panama and potentially achieve independence, including one led by Liberal guerrillas like Belisario Porras and Victoriano Lorenzo, each of which was suppressed by a collaboration of Conservative Colombian and U.S. forces. By the middle of 1903, the Colombian government in Bogotá had balked at the prospect of a U.S. controlled canal under the terms that Roosevelt's administration was offering. The U.S. was unwilling to alter its terms and quickly changed tactics, encouraging a handful of Conservative Panamanian landholding families to demand a Panama independent from Colombia. The USS Nashville was dispatched to local waters around the city of Colón to deter any resistance from Bogotà and so, on November 3, 1903, with United States' encouragement and French financial support, Panama proclaimed its independence. Less than three weeks later, the Hay-Bunau Varilla Treaty was signed between the French and the United States, without a Panamanian in the room. The treaty allowed for the construction of a canal and US sovereignty over a strip of land 10 miles wide and 50 miles long, (16 kilometers by 80 kilometers) on either side of the Panama Canal Zone. In that zone, the U.S. would build a canal, then administer, fortify, and defend it "in perpetuity." The Panama Canal was built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers between 1904 and 1914; the existing 83-kilometer (50-mi.) lock canal is considered one of the world's greatest engineering triumphs. On January 5, 1909 the government of Rafael Reyes in Colombia signed and presented to its Congress a treaty that would officially recognize the loss of its former province, but the matter was dropped due to popular and legislative opposition, without any ratification being achieved. Different negotiations continued intermittently until a new treaty was signed on December 21, 1921 which finally and formally accepted the independence of Panama.


What this paragraph, which is reasonably accurate in its particulars, fails to point out is that Philippe-Jean Bunau-Varilla was a Frenchman who had drafted the Panamanian constitution, financed the revolution of Panama from Colombia, and was the Panamanian Ambassador to the United States. He was the "Panamanian in the room."

Putting the U.S.A.'s position in this manner is also extremely misleading. Another way to view events is: "During the 3 years of the Thousand Days War, the United States supported the Columbian government's suppression of at least three uprisings within Panama despite the Columbian Senate's unwillingness to negotiate acceptable terms for the United States' desire to acquire the interests of the New Panama Canal Company. Being assured of favourable terms in exchange for support of the fledgling Republic, the U.S.A. sent a single ship to Colón to deter Columbian retaliations against the nascent merchant oligarchy, assuring its success."

This does not change the fact the USA gained an unfairly favourable arrangement with Panama in exchange for their freedom from Columbia, or that it was morally suspect behaviour (and clearly the USA knew this, as it had not done so for the previous 3 uprisings.) But it does not imply the USA acted against the Panamanians of the time, which it did not do.
Does anyone understand the term "apologist"?

[[Draža Mihailović]]
The Chetniks were forced to move to eastern Bosnia where they engaged in heavy combat with the Ustaše, resulting in several incidents of war crimes against people who supported the other faction. It is unclear however how much say Mihailović himself had in these incidents. The Chetnik movement was highly decentralized, and in that way was more like a collective of many small regional guerrillas which shared the same name, rather than a unified army under complete control of Mihailović and his staff.

By the middle of 1943, the partisan movement had survived an intense period of Axis pressure. At the Tehran Conference in November 1943, a decision was made by the Allies to cease their support of the Chetniks, and switch support to Tito's Partisans. Several sources (especially Michael Lees 1991 and David Martin 1990) attribute the switch to falsefied reports processed by British Communists or Communist sympathizers in Cairo whose doctored reports of Chetnik "inactivity" or "collaboration" were believed by Churchill.


This biased section of the article attempts to remove culpability and minimize the harm done. It does not matter whether the subject engaged in the purported activity; Wikipedia reports the views held by legitimate parties regarding the subject. It does not accuse, apologize, dismiss, or condemn.

Saturday, April 21, 2007

As long as we're being annoyed and grumpy, let me extol upon the great writing and appropriate level of detail to be found in [[Benzion Freshwater]]. For a BLP it does not have the minimum level of information necessary, and is surprisingly filled with bias and opinion for so short a stub.
<rant>

I keep getting invites to these blogger conferences.

I've been to a couple of blogger conferences. These schmoes are used car salesmen. Okay, no, I don't mean that, but seriously. Everything is about how to make money. Listening to the conversations, they don't care about the political/religious/moral/environmental/whatever viewpoint they are espousing, they laugh at their loyal fans and fervent followers.

They're cutting edge; brilliant marketing and technical skills. You would not believe the number of hours, and dollars, they put into their bleading edge blogwares and websites. They're constantly working on new and innovative concepts to show they're more informed, cooler, attractive. There is no doubt in my mind that the blogging industry represents some of the highest developments of IT.

There's this extreme cachet to being able to say one is a "pro blogger," I just don't get it. The ability to be cynical, often rude, and an obsession with what others are saying about you and your intellectual "turf"... well, I probably have the pre-requisites, but I usually prefer to not be rude. I guess what I really lack is the absolute drive to make money from a blog.

I'd rather focus on communicating than making money off my audience, thank you very much.

</rant>

Friday, April 13, 2007

[[Mount Scopus]]
, Mount Scopus was held by Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and existed as an exclave of Israel inside Jordanian territory. Israeli sovereignty over Mt. Scopus is internationally recognized. Today, Mount Scopus lies inside Israel's official borders for the city of Jerusalem.


The mountain is an element of the disputed territories captured by Israel, outside the UN described sovereignty of Israel. This is clearly biased.

Thursday, April 05, 2007

[[7 April]]
1985 - Kathryn Virginia Harmon, Beloved Sister and Daughter. Soul Mate, Confidant. Night Swimmer and Adventurer. Artist, Volunteer, Stargazer and Musician. Connoisseur of fine wines...and Wendy's Super Value Menu. Role Model and Philosopher, Lover and Friend.

Woowoo.

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

[[History of Surfing]]
China originated surfing in 2007. hn Ledyard, an American serving under explorer Captain Cook, was the first American to witness surfing in Hawaii in the late 1700s.


methinks, perhaps, a touch o' vandalism.

Monday, April 02, 2007

How odd, that a reference's title might be mis-spelt.

[[Samuel F. B. Morse#Further reading]]
Paul J. Staiti, Samuel E. B. Morse (Cambridge 1989).

About Me

Owned by Njørđson, a Cape Dory 25D.