Thursday 13 May 2010

by: Greg Grandin | TomDispatch.com

Americans, it's been said, learn geography when they go to war. Now, it seems, many get their history when they go to a Tea Party rally or tune in to Glenn Beck.

History is a "battlefield of ideas," as Beck recently put it, while…

There has been a lot of writing about the “Global Atheist Convention – The Rise Of Atheism” since its completion on Sunday afternoon, so most things that can be said have already been said. There were some good reports in the…

Notes on Nationalism is a 1945 essay by George Orwell.



Despite it's name Orwell is addressing a more general concept which can apply not only to nationalities but to any groups of people - whether it be an ethnicity, a religion, a social class, a political ideology or as a purely negative notion such as antisemitism or anti-homosexual ideologies. While the examples Orwell gives are of a post-war flavour it's easy to see how they directly transfer to today's world.



Why…

St. Patrick is considered as the Patron Saint of Ireland. There are many, though, in Ireland that hold him in disdain. These people will never celebrate his legacy or life. It has been stated that St. Patrick rid Ireland of all of its snakes. Scientists have found that Ireland had not had snakes since icebergs surrounded the island. What could then be meant by the old legend?

Before Christianity began to spread into Ireland, the Druids were the leading…