Latest news with #CharlesLindbergh
Epoch Times
a day ago
- Epoch Times
When the Lone Eagle Became a Phoenix
On any average day this year, approximately A hundred years ago, that sky was empty of everything but clouds and birds. Though a few other aviators had flown across that ocean between Europe and North America—some had died in the attempt—Charles Lindbergh (1902–1974) boarded the Spirit of St. Louis in New York City on May 20, 1927 and landed less than 34 hours later in Paris. He completed the first solo, nonstop flight across the Atlantic. That
BreakingNews.ie
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- BreakingNews.ie
Taoiseach told poking fun at himself in interview with Ryan Tubridy might go down well
Taoiseach Micheál Martin was told he should only talk about things he was 'comfortable with' but that poking fun at himself might go down well ahead of an interview with Ryan Tubridy. Mr Martin was sent a two-page document on what to expect when he appeared on the Bookshelf podcast, where the Fianna Fáil leader talked about his love of the Biggles adventure books, author Colum McCann, and a history book on aviator Charles Lindbergh. Advertisement In preparation for the interview, the Taoiseach was told the final question would be 'the name of the autobiography' he was yet to write. A briefing document said: 'If you have never written an autobiography, you can talk about that at face value. [Or] you can go down a completely different road of the autobiography you would love to write but would get into too much trouble if you did. '[Or] a light-hearted observation on your life that would be [a] little tongue-in-cheek, poking fun at yourself. It's completely open to what you're comfortable with.' Mr Tubridy's team said they were looking for the Taoiseach to bring actual copies of the books he wanted to speak about but that copies of them could be sourced if needed. Advertisement They planned to start with books Mr Martin read as a child, which Tubridy said would lead into a conversation on 'childhood in general.' The former RTÉ star said he would ask about the book that 'brought you joy or made you laugh.' The briefing document said: 'This creates a space for happy stories to be shared. We are offering scope for two trains of thought here.' The document said it could lead into a discussion on either 'joy' or 'laughter'. It said: 'What was it about this book that made you laugh? What type of humour resonates with you?' The podcast would then move on to the book that changed the Taoiseach's life. Mr Tubridy's briefing document said: 'Again, this one can go absolutely ANYWHERE! 'Previous guests that are authors have gone with their own book as a career turning point and talked about that. 'Other guests have leaned towards spiritual and self help or healing books that had huge impact. We have also delved into books that sparked a passion or an idea in them.'
Yahoo
6 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Contributor: In an era that celebrates cruelty, embrace subversive kindness
In 1925, 25,000 members of the Ku Klux Klan marched down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington. Never before had so many men in white sheets descended on the nation's capital, their 'invisible empire' becoming visible. The Klan's far-flung ranks are estimated to have numbered 4 million. Fourteen years later, a pro-Nazi rally at New York's Madison Square Garden drew 20,000. The hosting organization, the German American Bund, actively supported Hitler and his 'leader principle,' or Führerprinzip, by which a single leader has absolute power. Though not explicitly pro-Hitler, the isolationist America First Committee was also surging. In 1941, America First found a spokesperson in the famed aviator Charles Lindbergh, who accused Jews of conspiring to lead the U.S. into World War II. Fascism almost 'happened here,' to riff on the title of Sinclair Lewis' 1935 novel 'It Can't Happen Here,' about the anti-democratic forces threatening America in the lead-up to the Second World War. Why didn't it? Well, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, and Germany declared war on the United States. These events spurred the public to support the war effort. Then, when American troops went overseas, they witnessed firsthand what fascist regimes were doing to civilians on the streets and in concentration camps, and Americans wrote home about the atrocities. The press and film industry also exposed the brutality. Americans generally didn't like what they saw, and protofascist movements in the U.S. were forced underground. Now murmurs from the sewer can be heard again. Not just on social media but in public discourse. It looks as if the decades of relatively stable democracy following the war were not a change in our history but a temporary interlude. And I fear that a critical guardrail is gone. If Americans were once revolted by the aesthetics of fascism, in today's era of mass content consumption, many now appear to be entertained. How else to explain the 94,000 likes of a video, posted by the White House's official X account, of migrants being chained without due process and put on an airplane? The post included a caption bearing the hashtag '#ASMR,' referring to the pleasurable response to auditory or visual stimuli — implying that some in the audience would be soothed by seeing such cruelty. It would be more apt to caption the video '#TorturePorn.' And how to explain the 32,000 likes of a posed photo of Rep. Riley Moore ( in which the congressman is giving thumbs up outside a cell at the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador, where individuals are being held indefinitely after being detained in the U.S. without due process? If I had any doubts about my compatriots' appetite for human suffering, these were put to rest with the news that the Department of Homeland Security is considering a reality show in which immigrants compete for U.S. citizenship. While Secretary Kristi Noem has not yet approved the program, the fact that a producer would even float such a dehumanizing premise speaks to the public's appetite for exploitation. The American people apparently do not merely rely on migrants to pick our crops and build our homes; we also expect to be entertained by their struggles. What is there to do when swaths of the public are no longer horrified, but rather titillated, by the imagery of the far right? What hope is there when the prospect of ICE agents storming workplaces and neighborhoods makes so many people giddy? I believe the answer is to promote images of hospitality — that is, images of people embracing prisoners and welcoming those who hail from foreign lands. The antidote to an aesthetics of exploitation is an aesthetics of encounter. The late Pope Francis emblematized the latter. Only two days after the congressman went viral for his thumbs up against a cell block, the pontiff marked Holy Thursday by visiting the Regina Coeli prison in Rome. There he spoke with inmates, prayed with them and blew kisses. If not for his ailing health, he said, he'd have washed inmates' feet, as he's done in the past in accordance with tradition. An American priest, Father James Martin, noted the stark contrast between the West Virginia lawmaker and the pontiff, two Catholics making very different uses of photo opportunities with prisoners. Martin asked in a post on X: 'Which way would Jesus, who was imprisoned, prefer?' Of course, many of us outside the church have our own images and memories of fraternity bridging divides. Having long served in the United State Foreign Service, I was privileged to meet countless people from around the world. Even when we did not share a language, we shared meals. Even when we had no common past, we were able to find common goals. I find myself returning to these experiences and musing about their quiet radicality. There is something powerful about people of different tribes coming together to share a laugh, break bread or simply recognize their shared humanity. Understanding this, I've tried, as a novelist, to write scenes of communion to combat those of violence. As a thriller about infiltrating a white supremacist militia, my next book does not shy away from exposing neo-Nazis' dark libido. But nor does it skimp on expressing hope for peace, celebrating characters who cross racial and cultural lines to become friends and even lovers. At a time when simply by bearing witness to the news each day, Americans mass-consume what amounts to torture porn, we all have a duty to capture and recreate small moments of encounter. Because encounters transform us from the inside out. Francis put it poetically when he wrote that we must resist 'the temptation to build a culture of walls,' whether in our hearts or on our lands. For those 'who raise walls will end up as slaves within the very walls they have built,' he said, and will be 'left without horizons.' Otho Eskin, a playwright and retired diplomat, is the author of the forthcoming novel 'Black Sun Rising.' If it's in the news right now, the L.A. Times' Opinion section covers it. Sign up for our weekly opinion newsletter. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
6 days ago
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
In an era that celebrates cruelty, embrace subversive kindness
In 1925, 25,000 members of the Ku Klux Klan marched down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington. Never before had so many men in white sheets descended on the nation's capital, their 'invisible empire' becoming visible. The Klan's far-flung ranks are estimated to have numbered 4 million. Fourteen years later, a pro-Nazi rally at New York's Madison Square Garden drew 20,000. The hosting organization, the German American Bund, actively supported Hitler and his 'leader principle,' or Führerprinzip, by which a single leader has absolute power. Though not explicitly pro-Hitler, the isolationist America First Committee was also surging. In 1941, America First found a spokesperson in the famed aviator Charles Lindbergh, who accused Jews of conspiring to lead the U.S. into World War II. Fascism almost 'happened here,' to riff on the title of Sinclair Lewis' 1935 novel 'It Can't Happen Here,' about the anti-democratic forces threatening America in the lead-up to the Second World War. Why didn't it? Well, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, and Germany declared war on the United States. These events spurred the public to support the war effort. Then, when American troops went overseas, they witnessed firsthand what fascist regimes were doing to civilians on the streets and in concentration camps, and Americans wrote home about the atrocities. The press and film industry also exposed the brutality. Americans generally didn't like what they saw, and protofascist movements in the U.S. were forced underground. Now murmurs from the sewer can be heard again. Not just on social media but in public discourse. It looks as if the decades of relatively stable democracy following the war were not a change in our history but a temporary interlude. And I fear that a critical guardrail is gone. If Americans were once revolted by the aesthetics of fascism, in today's era of mass content consumption, many now appear to be entertained. How else to explain the 94,000 likes of a video, posted by the White House's official X account, of migrants being chained without due process and put on an airplane? The post included a caption bearing the hashtag '#ASMR,' referring to the pleasurable response to auditory or visual stimuli — implying that some in the audience would be soothed by seeing such cruelty. It would be more apt to caption the video '#TorturePorn.' And how to explain the 32,000 likes of a posed photo of Rep. Riley Moore ( in which the congressman is giving thumbs up outside a cell at the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador, where individuals are being held indefinitely after being detained in the U.S. without due process? If I had any doubts about my compatriots' appetite for human suffering, these were put to rest with the news that the Department of Homeland Security is considering a reality show in which immigrants compete for U.S. citizenship. While Secretary Kristi Noem has not yet approved the program, the fact that a producer would even float such a dehumanizing premise speaks to the public's appetite for exploitation. The American people apparently do not merely rely on migrants to pick our crops and build our homes; we also expect to be entertained by their struggles. What is there to do when swaths of the public are no longer horrified, but rather titillated, by the imagery of the far right? What hope is there when the prospect of ICE agents storming workplaces and neighborhoods makes so many people giddy? I believe the answer is to promote images of hospitality — that is, images of people embracing prisoners and welcoming those who hail from foreign lands. The antidote to an aesthetics of exploitation is an aesthetics of encounter. The late Pope Francis emblematized the latter. Only two days after the congressman went viral for his thumbs up against a cell block, the pontiff marked Holy Thursday by visiting the Regina Coeli prison in Rome. There he spoke with inmates, prayed with them and blew kisses. If not for his ailing health, he said, he'd have washed inmates' feet, as he's done in the past in accordance with tradition. An American priest, Father James Martin, noted the stark contrast between the West Virginia lawmaker and the pontiff, two Catholics making very different uses of photo opportunities with prisoners. Martin asked in a post on X: 'Which way would Jesus, who was imprisoned, prefer?' Of course, many of us outside the church have our own images and memories of fraternity bridging divides. Having long served in the United State Foreign Service, I was privileged to meet countless people from around the world. Even when we did not share a language, we shared meals. Even when we had no common past, we were able to find common goals. I find myself returning to these experiences and musing about their quiet radicality. There is something powerful about people of different tribes coming together to share a laugh, break bread or simply recognize their shared humanity. Understanding this, I've tried, as a novelist, to write scenes of communion to combat those of violence. As a thriller about infiltrating a white supremacist militia, my next book does not shy away from exposing neo-Nazis' dark libido. But nor does it skimp on expressing hope for peace, celebrating characters who cross racial and cultural lines to become friends and even lovers. At a time when simply by bearing witness to the news each day, Americans mass-consume what amounts to torture porn, we all have a duty to capture and recreate small moments of encounter. Because encounters transform us from the inside out. Francis put it poetically when he wrote that we must resist 'the temptation to build a culture of walls,' whether in our hearts or on our lands. For those 'who raise walls will end up as slaves within the very walls they have built,' he said, and will be 'left without horizons.' Otho Eskin, a playwright and retired diplomat, is the author of the forthcoming novel 'Black Sun Rising.'
Chicago Tribune
20-05-2025
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Today in History: President Abraham Lincoln signs the Homestead Act
Today is Tuesday, May 20, the 140th day of 2025. There are 225 days left in the year. Today in history: On May 20, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act, which was intended to encourage settlements west of the Mississippi River by making federal land available for private ownership and farming. About 10% of the land area of the United States (270 million acres) would be privatized by 1934. Also on this date: In 1927, Charles Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt Field on Long Island, New York, aboard the Spirit of St. Louis on his historic solo flight to France. In 1932, Amelia Earhart departed from Newfoundland in an attempt to become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. (Because of weather and equipment problems, Earhart landed the following day in Northern Ireland instead of her intended destination, France.) In 1948, Chiang Kai-shek was elected as the first president of the Republic of China (Taiwan). In 1956, the United States exploded the first airborne hydrogen bomb over Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. In 1961, a white mob attacked a busload of Freedom Riders in Montgomery, Alabama, prompting the federal government to send in U.S. marshals to restore order. In 1969, U.S. and South Vietnamese forces captured Ap Bia Mountain, referred to as 'Hamburger Hill' by the Americans, following one of the bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War. In 1985, Radio Marti, operated by the U.S. government, began broadcasting. Cuba responded by attempting to jam its signal. In 2015, four of the world's biggest banks — JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup's banking unit Citicorp, Barclays and the Royal Bank of Scotland — agreed to pay more than $5 billion in penalties and plead guilty to rigging the currency markets. Today's Birthdays: Japanese baseball star Sadaharu Oh is 85. Singer-actor Cher is 79. Actor-comedian Dave Thomas is 76. Sen. Mike Crapo, a Republican from Idaho, is 74. Political commentator Ron Reagan is 67. Musician Jane Wiedlin (The Go-Go's) is 67. Actor Bronson Pinchot is 66. TV personality Ted Allen is 60. Actor Mindy Cohn is 59. Actor Timothy Olyphant is 57. Former racing driver Tony Stewart is 54. Rapper Busta Rhymes is 53. Actor Matt Czuchry is 48. Actor-singer Naturi Naughton is 41. Cyclist Chris Froome is 40. Country musician Jon Pardi is 40.
