Eyes on Egypt -- the modern martyrs

Earlier this month, a demonstration by Coptic Christians in Egypt was broken up with deadly force by the army, who among other things ran over the demonstrators with tanks. This sent a shock through Egyptian politics, throwing  a shadow over hopes that the recent revolution...

A taste of Bollywood

I think I've posted this here before, but it is worth repeating.  You may want to turn on the captio...

Will Mclean reports on Libya

Moamar Khaddafy is Dead In related news, so is Gadhafi, Gaddafi, Qadhafi, Qaddafi, and el-Qadda...

Diversity

I think the next time I hear "Canada is becoming more diverse," I may scream.Has there been a single week since 1763 when that was not true?Image:  Here they come -- whoever they are. ...

Two optimistic views of the fall of Qaddafi

From Juan Cole:The last stand at Sirte was very like Jim Jones’s last stand in the jungles of Guyana. Jones was an American religious leader who gradually went mad, demanding more and more sacrifice and obedience from the members of his People’s Temple congregation, which then...

Polo in Kashmir

From the Big Picture.  Click to see it bigg...

The taking of Jerusalem, 1099

People often wonder how medieval Christians could have taken part in holy war, given Jesus's well-known pacifistic pronouncements.  Here are excerpts from a lecture I gave yesterday on the taking of Jerusalem, which ended in a massacre, which touches on the issue:Here’s what...

Big trouble in Egypt

In the aftermath of an army attack on a Coptic Christian demonstration...and an explanation of how this may fit into the revolutionary/counter-revolutionary situati...

From a Facebook commentary

"the pop culture of the past is the arcana of the future?" "It's cutting edge when it starts, pop culture when it's going strong, and arcana ten years later. Fascinating ephemera for historians comes a century or so later." Thanks to the originators (kept anonymous)!...

The sad historian thinks...

...That there are whole cultures that will never enjoy maple syrup. But then he realizes that Ethiopian monks once said that about coffee...

Passed a million page views...

Sometime in the last two or three days this blog passed 1,000,000 page views. And that's just since I changed the name and hosting arrangements about three (?) years ago! Huzz...

Hope he's right

...

The threat of sectarian violence in Syria

From Foreign Policy, via Brian's Coffeehouse:From the start of the Syrian revolution, the Assad regime's media have portrayed the overwhelmingly peaceful grassroots protest movement as a foreign-backed military assault. Its preferred catchall term to describe the tens of thousands of patriots it has kidnapped and tortured, as well as the thousands it has murdered, is "armed gangs."...

Ontario election trivia--UFO and NOHP

Early in the 20th century, Ontario was governed by the UFO -- United Farmers of Ontario.  Such a party would be a non-starter today.Another probable non-starter is the Northern Ontario Heritage Party, which wants provincial status for the North.  NOHP can't field candidates for more than 2 of the 11 northern ridings -- but somehow has a candidate in downtown Toronto. ...