Stalinism is on the rise again in Russia, which should give our State Department pause. This week Vlad Putin in Poland, dodged a question about the Stalin-ordered Katyn Massacre , in which roughly 22,000 Polish Army officers were slaughtered by the the NKVD [predecessor to the KGB that Putin used to direct] and buried in secret mass graves at the outset of World War Two. Instead, Putin and his surrogates think the world should concentrate on [I'm not kidding] the guilt of the Polish government for starting a war in which Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin dismembered the country and executed six million of its citizens: "The destruction of Poland as a sovereign nation by the Nazis was payback for the short-sightedness of some Polish politicians," said Lev Sotskov, a major-general of the SVR, Russia's elite foreign intelligence agency. "Without a doubt, some of the guilt for the start of the Second World War lies with Poland, which is why they are now trying to falsif...

Celebrating the past is one thing. Rewriting history is another. I first watched Kenneth Clark's then universally acclaimed BBC documentary Civilisation in high school in 1974. [It had been released in 1969.] In many ways, Civilisation was to documentary television in the 1970s-1980s as Ken Burns' Civil War was in the 1990s: groundbreaking television more important for how it did what it did than for how accurately it portrayed its topic . Both Kenneth Clark and Ken Burns came in for a lot of criticism [more, I feel, in both cases than was merited] on narrow technical academic grounds. Clark, for example, was pilloried in some circles for the universal-sounding name Civilisation in a series that clearly focused only on Western Europe. Few people realized that Clark didn't choose the name for the series and didn't actually like it. None of which is precisely germane to this post. What interests me is that the entire series is now reappearing on You-Tube, ...

This from KidsPreferCheese about the 2008 Libertarian gubernatorial candidate in North Carolina: I do have some small part in this movie. Have achieved minor cult status, as the review of a showing at the Kennedy Center reveals: The left-wing “academics” portrayed in "Indoctrinate U" have an almost comic-book-like rigidity, and yet they take themselves with the utmost seriousness. The absurdity of campus life was summed up by conservative professor Michael Munger in a line that had the entire Kennedy Center audience hooting and cheering. After describing how most university classes — whether it be English, science, or government — tend to begin with a long political harangue by the teachers to condemn the war in Iraq or ridicule George W. Bush, he concluded, “What most faculty want is for students to validate their pathetic life experiences.” Michael, Delaware blogger Hube would point out that you should never apply for a position at the University of Delaware. Guess you...

Dana calls it the return of red-baiting : USA politics is rediscovering what has occurred on the Delaware conservative blogosphere for years: viz., if you want to nuke progressives instead of dealing with their arguments, then red-bait them.... Given that the USA requires New Deal like solutions to its quasi-Great Depression like problems, it's not particularly surprising to see the use of the S-word [socialism] by contemporary Hooverites.... In short, it's an old ploy used by a party and political ideology that has even run out of new material for attacking its opponents. It's a cliché used by hackneyed thinkers. The ad hominem is what is being conserved by conservatism. Let them have at it if that is the best they can do. From long blogosphere acquaintance, I take Dana at his word that he does not equate differing on arguments and policies in and of itself as red-baiting . But, part of the problem, I think, is that (a) some thoughtful people are asking whether current p...

I am up here in the Bay State giving historic tours to Social Studies teachers from New Mexico this week, and I have learned several things that might interest our readers. In Massachusetts it is illegal to idle your car for more than five minutes. There is an office of the State Environmental Police to enforce rules like this. At Plimouth Plantation there is an English village and a Wampanoag village As you enter the recreated Indian town from any direction, you are greeted by a sign that says Avoid Harmful Stereotypes , which provides point-by-point instructions for interacting with the character interpreters. Don't call them Indians, they're Native Peoples . Do not allow your ill-bred children to issue war whoops [that's a quote, folks]. The Native People lady sitting under the lean-to informed us that she makes a point to explain to Hispanics that they are called High-Spanics because they are the product of European rapes of the Indian population. "Don't ...