History
19th Century -
A Look Back:
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The
Mexican- American War
1846-1848
The
Mexican-American War enabled the US to fill out the
present borders of its fair land; maybe today Mexico is
winning. The battles in the Mexican-American war were
evenly matched affairs, the Mexicans fought well;
daresay the Americans won with pluck and sheer will.
Lots of soldiers pre-schooled for the Civil War 12 years
later. |
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The
Aztecs
Always wondered
how and why the Spanish kidnapped the Aztec king with
like 150 guys against 7000, held the fucker for a huge
ransom, got it, then sent his head back to the Aztecs
anyway. Then in a single day slaughtered the remaining
7000.
--Rich
Sheppard
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Subduing
Islam and Opening the Seas
The
Christians of Europe and the Mongols of the vast Asian eastlands had
an unrealized opportunity to permanently subdue Islam throughout the
late 1100's and into the 1200's. Mongol influence was at it's peak,
threatening the Muslims from the east. The Christian Crusades also
battered at Islam, and the religion of Mohammed was caught between
two powerful empires.
Mongolian
military influence opened the land route from Europe, through the
quiescent Islam states of the Near East.. [more]
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The
Legendary ShepEXPress Newsletter Flies Again |
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After
a number of years lying dormant, the ShepEXPress
newsletter is back in action here on the pages of
PaperbackNovel.com. Renowned for its gripping
commentary on the New Jersey political scene and
lifestyle in the 1990's, ShepEXPress is back in a
virtual, electronic form.
Stay
tuned for updated blog postings from Rich Sheppard
and a host of guest writers. |
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The
Year 2006 |
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Commentary
on selected stories from the year 2006 |
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Drunken
Kennedy's
May
5, 2006 -- News that the Capitol Police covered up a drunken and
staggering Patrick Kennedy after he smashed his Mustang must be so
dismaying to the many law enforcement and public safety officers
who serve honorably. The Capitol Police should be vigorously
investigated for ignoring what is at the very least a serious
misdemeanor. What is going to happen when Patrick Kennedy, like
his drunken father Ted Kennedy ends up killing someone? That
victim should be able to hold the Capitol Police either criminally
or civilly responsible for letting that disgraceful drunk off
because he's "a Kennedy." Drunken, drugged-up Kennedys
being stupid are as inevitable as the sun coming up. If they want
to act stupid and kill only themselves, as they have, so what.
It's when they wind up killing others like Mary Jo Kopechne when
all of a sudden, they're not responsible and get special
treatment. There should be a special wing in the SuperMax prison
for drunken Kennedys, call it the "Kennedy Wing," and be
sure it will be full all the time.
Dick
Laresch
Jersey City, New Jersey
TIME's
Omission
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May,
2006 -- Time magazine's list of 100 "Most
Influential" is pointless because Time's definition
of "influential" appears mostly to mean
"celebrity."
While the list includes worthy
recipients, it also includes the mindless (Katie Couric),
the talentless (Steve Colbert), and the plain puzzling
(Michele Wie?). Many make the list purely to serve Time's
desire for [more] |
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Life's Event of the Millenium
Life
magazine considers Johan Gutenberg's first press printing of the
Bible to be the top event in it's "100 Events of the Millenium"
list. Good God, that's darn high! Obviously, printers take a certain
pride in this recognition, and as a "valued" member of the
"Brusco Printing Dynasty" all I can say is,
"huh?" I showed one of the old timers here at APT a copy
of the article, which included a picture of that first press, and he
exclaimed, "I ran that press!
Dick
Acorn's Event of the Millenium
"Trumpets,
please: My top event of the Millenium is the first time I trapped
the wily beaver, December 1975. She lived across the street from
Detective Boobs. [more]
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Our
Pal Jupiter
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Read
a convincing article in the WSJ yesterday about the many, many,
many reasons why it is so difficult for life to have formed on
Earth, just so many constraints, that it's extremely
consequential that it happened at all. Heck, having a moon
exerting tidal forces and a gas-giant planet like Jupiter
regulating comet intrusions played an infinitismal but essential
role in the creation of life on Momma Earth. Our pal Jupiter.
--
Dick Acorn
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Oops..
Nucular
Exchange
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The
"Bulletin of Atomic Scientists" is one of the
most rabidly anti-nucular journals around. |
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I was
looking at a website called 50
Facts about US Nuclear Weapons .. and emailed this
guy without knowing he is a honcho at the Bulletin. Here is our
exchange. [more]
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The Adventures
of..
Dick the Missile Man
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...
So around 7pm each evening I would go to the 2nd floor at 110
Washington Street in Lower Manhattan, and
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pick up a huge dolly full of
mail trays containing the envelopes containing annual reports that had
been stuffed all day by temps. While the work sucked, one of the side
advantages was that I had access to all kinds of annual reports,
including the annual reports of all the major defense companies... [more]
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The
Middle East |
The
White House |
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Syria
= Laos, Iran = Cambodia, and Saudi Arabia = China/Soviet
Union Cliff May is a fellow at the Defense of Democracy Think-tank.
Rich Sheppard had this little exchange with him on June 14, 2006. [more]
The
Silence of the Wheelchair
On
Blowing a Murderous “Cleric” Straight to Hell
April
14, 2004 -- A few weeks ago, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), at
the direction Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the consensus of
Israel’s democratically-elected government, blew terrorist Sheik
Yassin into his well-deserved eternity as Satan’s homeboy. [more]
The
Camel Responds
Point-counterpoint
between Tarik Allagany of Saudi Embassy to US, and Richard Sheppard,
on Saudi Arabia's relationship to US. [more]
Reply
to Richard Perle 7/13/00
NY Times Op-Ed Article
July 13, 2000:
And no one likes to admit it,
but one can only hope that in a national security emergency, America's
National Command Authorities will forego using 'bullet-on-bullet"
kill scenarios, and instead arm any extant interceptors - even Aegis-based
- with nuclear warheads...[more]
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Dear
President
April
14, 2004 -- A letter to the President. [more]
2000
US Presidential Election Coverage
Coverage
of the 2000 US Presidential Election... [more]
Hillary
Rodham-Clinton Flap: Slip of Tongue?
July
18, 2000:
Why does Hillary Clinton love speaking out on so many issues? Because it
is the only exercise she gets for her tongue. If Hillary said what some
people say she said, if she called her husband's first campaign manager
back in 1974 a "fucking Jew bastard" maybe it's because once
again, Hillary was demonstrating that the only "tongue
exercises" she enjoys is talking... [more]
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Science
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Pluto
= Planet = Forever
Dick
Laresch defends Pluto, attacking the International
Astronomical Union. [more] |
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Scientists
Discover Astonishing New Bird [more] |
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Victoria Gotti Speaks
Out
On Lizzie Grubman
[more] |
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Philadelphia
Billy Club Beating [more] |
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