Opposing Israeli Policy Does Not Make One a “Self-Hating Jew”
A huge anti-war protest is being held tonight by Jews in Tel Aviv:
(Jews and Palestinians have been holding anti-war protests throughout Israel, but the mainstream media has refused to cover them.)
Jews also protested the Gaza war in New York City yesterday:
Anti-war protests have also been held in other cities throughout the world.
Indeed, many Jews oppose Israeli treatment of the Palestinians:
"Bombed in Their Homes and in the Streets, Where Can Gazans Flee?" July 24, 2014
"Gaza health ministry says bombardment killed at least 16 people
and injured 150 in UN-run school in Beit Hanoun." July 25, 2014
"Israeli shells hit second UN school, bringing more death to Gazan refugees" July 29, 2014
"Busy Gaza market also attacked, reportedly killing at least 15 shoppers and
wounding scores of others" July 29, 2014
"They Thought They'd Be Safe. They Were Wrong:
20 Gazans Killed in Israeli Bombing of U.N. Shelter" July 30, 2014
"Dozens Killed in Israel's Worst Bombardment of Gaza So Far" July 30, 2014
"Gaza death toll rises as Israeli strikes continue" July 30, 2014
Rabbi Henry Siegman, Leading Voice of U.S. Jewry, on Gaza: "A Slaughter of Innocents" July 30, 2014
More than 1,250 Palestinians killed in 23 days.
EMERGENCY
ACTION
IN 18 HOURS
In the name of decency we must act.
As
artists and activists we will join together to create an arresting,
visual presence on the streets of NYC; We will create a representation
of the carnage from the war crimes perpetrated by the State of Israel on
the civilian population of Palestinians in Gaza.
The city is requiring dealers that sell vehicles that have been recalled for safety defects to handle the repairs.
General Motors has become engulfed in a crisis over its long failure to
fix faulty ignition switches in older cars, a defect that G.M. has
linked to at least 13 deaths. Already, automakers have recalled a record
37.5 million vehicles this year in the United States, including about
25.5 million from General Motors, city officials said.
The Opinion Pages High Time: An Editorial Series on Marijuana Legalization
The Federal Marijuana Ban Is Rooted in Myth and Xenophobia
Photo
An ad for the 1930s film "Marihuana."Credit
National Library of Medicine
The
federal law that makes possession of marijuana a crime has its origins
in legislation that was passed in an atmosphere of hysteria during the
1930s and that was firmly rooted in prejudices against Mexican
immigrants and African-Americans, who were associated with marijuana use
at the time. This racially freighted history lives on in current federal policy, which is so driven by myth and propaganda that is it almost impervious to reason.
The
cannabis plant, also known as hemp, was widely grown in the United
States for use in fabric during the mid-19th century. The practice of
smoking it appeared in Texas border towns around 1900, brought by
Mexican immigrants who cultivated cannabis as an intoxicant and for
medicinal purposes as they had done at home.
Within
15 years or so, it was plentiful along the Texas border and was
advertised openly at grocery markets and drugstores, some of which
shipped small packets by mail to customers in other states.
The
law enforcement view of marijuana was indelibly shaped by the fact that
it was initially connected to brown people from Mexico and subsequently
with black and poor communities in this country. Police in Texas border
towns demonized the plant in racial terms as the drug of “immoral”
populations who were promptly labeled “fiends.”
As
the legal scholars Richard Bonnie and Charles Whitebread explain in
their authoritative history, “The Marihuana Conviction,” the drug’s
popularity among minorities and other groups practically ensured that it
would be classified as a “narcotic,” attributed with addictive
qualities it did not have, and set alongside far more dangerous drugs
like heroin and morphine.
By
the early 1930s, more than 30 states had prohibited the use of
marijuana for nonmedical purposes. The federal push was yet to come.
The
stage for federal suppression of marijuana was set in New Orleans,
where a prominent doctor blamed “muggle-heads” — as pot smokers were
called — for an outbreak of robberies. The city was awash in
sensationalistic newspaper articles that depicted pushers hovering by
the schoolhouse door turning children into “addicts.” These stories
popularized spurious notions about the drug that lingered for decades.
Law enforcement officials, too, trafficked in the “assassin” theory,
under in which killers were said to have smoked cannabis to ready themselves for murder and mayhem.
In
1930, Congress consolidated the drug control effort in the Federal
Bureau of Narcotics, led by the endlessly resourceful commissioner,
Harry Jacob Anslinger, who became the architect of national prohibition.
His case rested on two fantastical assertions: that the drug caused
insanity; that it pushed people toward horrendous acts of criminality.
Others at the time argued that it was fiercely addictive.
He
may not have actually believed his propaganda, but he fed it by giving
lurid stories to the press as a way of making a case for federal
intervention. This narrative had a great effect at Congressional
hearings that led to the enactment of The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, which tried to eradicate the use and sale of the drug through heavy taxation.
Mr.
Bonnie and Mr. Whitebread report that the witness list for those
hearings contained not a single person who had done significant research
into the effects of cannabis. Mr. Anslinger testified that even a
single marijuana cigarette could induce a “homicidal mania,” prompting
people to want to kill those they loved. The bill passed handily;
President Franklin Roosevelt signed it into law.
Photo
Cannabis Fluid Extract, 1933Credit
National Museum of American History
An ad for the 1930s film "Marihuana."Credit
National Library of Medicine The federal law that makes possession of marijuana a crime has its
origins in legislation that was passed in an atmosphere of hysteria
during the 1930s and that was firmly rooted in prejudices against
Mexican immigrants and African-Americans, who were associated with
marijuana use at the time. This racially freighted history lives on in current federal policy, which is so driven by myth and propaganda that is it almost impervious to reason.
The mayor took pains in Italy to preserve the fine line between Park Slope Dad and V.I.P.
Still,
it was sometimes odd to observe Mr. de Blasio inside the bubble of high
power. An obscure politician at this time last year, the mayor arrived
at Sant’Agata de’ Goti with a huge security contingent; the town had
shipped in officers from at least four Italian forces. Paparazzi
swarmed; after the ceremony, the mayor was mobbed by television crews,
his aides struggling to hold back the scrum.
Like
it or not, Mr. de Blasio is quickly becoming a member of the global
elite. His challenge now is to find a comfortable way to play the part.
While waiting for Congress to evolve, President Obama, once a regular recreational marijuana smoker,
could practice some evolution of his own. He could order the attorney
general to conduct the study necessary to support removal of marijuana
from Schedule I. Earlier this year, he told The New Yorker
that he considered marijuana less dangerous than alcohol in its impact
on individuals, and made it clear that he was troubled by the
disproportionate number of arrests of African-Americans and Latinos on
charges of possession. For that reason, he said, he supported the
Colorado and Washington experiments.
A development received approval from the city for separate
entrances — one for wealthy residents and one for those earning far less
who would occupy the project’s affordable units.
The “Upstairs, Downstairs” effect was permissible under a change to
zoning codes made during the Bloomberg era that gave developers who
provided affordable housing in market-rate projects discretion over
these particulars, in addition to the considerable tax breaks they
receive. Although the building’s configuration is anathema to the values
embraced by the de Blasio administration, forcing the developer to
abandon it would involve costly, not entirely tenable litigation, which
would slow the progress of the city’s affordable-housing plans, the
administration said. The focus now is to reverse the zoning change,
Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen told me, a process that should take about a
year.
Forget that potato salad Kickstarter campaign. Jon Stewart has something much more fun you can do with any money you're willing to throw away.
Stewart wants to buy CNN, and on Tuesday night's "Daily Show," he asked for your help.
Rupert
Murdoch is angling to purchase Time Warner. But since he already owns
Fox News, he'd likely be forced to sell CNN, which experts say could
fetch $10 billion -- or exactly the amount Stewart is hoping to raise.
"This
$10 billion all-cash bid for CNN would secure control of a massive
television network reaching over 100 million homes in the US alone,
which we could then use to rebuild a news organization befitting this
proud land," a statement on Stewart's "Let's Buy CNN" page reads. "Or
more likely we'd use it to make a lot more poop jokes."
Like any good Kickstarter campaign, Stewart is offering up some enticing rewards.
Watch the clip above to find out what they are.
The article below is satire. Andy Borowitz is an
American comedian and New York Times-bestselling author who satirizes
the news for his column, "The Borowitz Report."
In his boldest move yet to address the immigration crisis, on
Thursday Texas Governor Rick Perry dispatched the Dallas Cowboys to the
United States’ border with Mexico.
In a photo opportunity with the Cowboys and several of
the team’s cheerleaders, Perry explained the rationale behind his
latest decision. “Those who would cross our borders illegally will have
to contend with the power and fury of America’s Team,” he said.
Critics of the move dismissed it as political theatre,
noting that once the Cowboys arrived at the border it was unclear what
they would do there.
Additionally, there were questions about how effective
the Cowboys would be in stopping illegal immigrants, since the team has
the worst-ranked defense in the N.F.L.
Thursday, July 24, 2014
Gianni Cipriano for The New York Times
Mayor Bill de Blasio watched on Thursday as his wife, Chirlane McCray, danced to folk music in Grassano, Italy.
By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM and GAIA PIANIGIANI 48 minutes ago
A second ancestral visit for New York City mayor whose grandmother left Italy 111 years ago.
Carmine
Donnola, a longtime Grassano resident, said Mr. de Blasio’s return was a
significant moment for a town seeking some hope. In Piazza Purgatorio
on Thursday morning, Mr. Donnola handed a poem to a visitor; he planned
to present it to the mayor later that day.
The poem was written in Italian. But its title was, simply,
The de Blasios spent two days in the low-key village of Anacapri. On Tuesday, tourists admired the view from Villa San Michele.
The mayor’s Italian vacation continued with a quiet day on the island of
Capri, with no official appearances. Despite the island’s glittering
reputation, Mr. de Blasio and his family kept a modest profile.
Some quality-of-life crimes just aren’t worth enforcing
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, July 21, 2014, 8:00 PM
New York Daily NewsA needless death
"I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe.”
Watching the brutal video
of the police bringing down Eric Garner, never to get up again, I
though about Mo and his cousins at the Ditmas Park bodega I bought my
loosies from for years. They’re part of the neighborhood, keeping an eye
on the street and watching out for their neighbors. They don’t sell to
strangers, to avoid fines or losing their license to sell smokes, but
they don’t worry about getting arrested, let alone killed.
It’s a permanent tension, that in rightly focusing their efforts where
crime is highest, police can easily make criminals of the people they’re
charged with protecting, and upping the opportunities for the sort of
ugly encounters that leave scars, or worse.
Garner, who had a lengthy record for selling loosies and other petty
things, was someone who the cops and EMTs Thursday plainly saw as a
skell — even as the people from his neighborhood now mourning him
describe someone very different, a good-natured father of six who, like
Mo, helped break up fights and keep an eye on his street.
When Mayor de Blasio brought Bill Bratton back to serve a second stint
as police commissioner, he gave a double mandate: keep crime down to its
current record low, and give a peace dividend to the people in
high-crime neighborhoods after a decade in which over-reliance on stops
and frisks left too many decent citizens in dangerous neighborhoods
resentful of the police.
It remains to be seen if those are compatible goals. With the number of
stops having plummeted, Bratton has relied, as he did in his first
stint as commissioner under Rudy Giuliani, on broken windows policing —
the idea that going after small crimes or signs of disorder helps stop
larger ones.
When Bratton first took the job, in 1994, there had been 2,420 murders
the previous year. Last year, there were 333. Some things that couldn’t
be overlooked back then perhaps should be now.
But so far Bratton, as Kelly did before him, has pressed cops to keep
the pressure up and the numbers down. With less serious crime, that
means a lot of interactions between police officers and people who’ve
done nothing much, or nothing at all, wrong.
To enforce the law on our behalf, we empower the police to use force
and, no matter how well trained they are, every encounter has a chance
of going wrong.
It’s crucial police are focused on laws that matter, and enforcing them fairly.
But right now, there’s a “common sense” standard about who and what
warrants police attention, with all the potential for violence, arrests
and more that brings.
Open-air drinking isn’t allowed, but no one thinks twice about
uncorking wine at Bryant Park movie nights. As I wrote about pot last
week, the same thing can’t be a crime in East Flatbush, but okay in
Ditmas Park, or for a black kid but not his white pal.
If Bratton really wants to bring the temperature down, he may need to
simply have police make fewer arrests for small things, and find other
ways to ensure his officers remain active in dealing with real crimes.
That is, treat people in every park like they’re in Bryant Park.
And the truth is that if that happens, crime is likely to go up some —
and this newspaper and many New Yorkers will bitterly protest any upward
tick, as will the victims of those crimes.
But I don’t want New York to be Singapore, where people get caned for
spitting gum on the sidewalk, any more than I want it to go back to the
murder peak of the late 1980s. That it must be one or the other is,
obviously, a false choice.
Yes, many of the advocates now calling for Bratton’s head are reflexive
critics of all policing. But the commissioner and mayor need to decide
how much enforcement they want, for how much crime.
There’s a point at which aggressive policing makes criminals of people
for committing harmless acts — drinking in a park, say, or smoking a
joint on their stoop or even just jaywalking.
Cops and civilians engage in millions of encounters a year, each with a
small chance of going wrong. How many don’t may be underappreciated.
But every needless one risks another Garner. And with every phone a
camera now, there’s no hiding the violence when it happens.
As George Kelling, the co-author of the original broken windows article
and a consultant to Bratton, told me last week, the point of
quality-of-life enforcement was never to criminalize people, but to keep
order and shift behavior: “We were never interested in a mounting
number of arrests.” That’s right.
“Many people that own stores sell illegal cigarettes,” said Ellisha
Flagg , Garner’s sister. “They lose their license, not their lives.” hsiegel@nydailynews.com
Officeholders, like Mayor Bill de Blasio, are in the difficult position
of having to showcase family devotion, only to face scrutiny when they
honor the obligations of parenthoo
Michael Grynbaum/The New York Times
Mayor Bill de Blasio arrived at the Fiumicino Airport in Rome on Sunday with his family at the start of their vacation.
An unshaven Bill de Blasio, along with his family, emerged from the
airport in Rome on Sunday to face reporters and gawking Italians eager
for a selfie with the New York City mayor.
The article below is satire. Andy Borowitz is an
American comedian and New York Times-bestselling author who satirizes
the news for his column, "The Borowitz Report."
he
Church of England, an institution whose origins date back to the sixth
century A.D., has far more modern views about the rights of women than
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, experts said today.
“In recognizing that women are the equals of men, the
Church of England has embraced a position that is centuries ahead of
Scalia’s,” Davis Logsdon, a professor of religion at the University of
Minnesota, said. “This is a remarkable achievement, given that Scalia
was born in 1936 and the Church began in the late five hundreds.”
But Dr. Carol Foyler, a history professor at the
University of Sussex, took issue with that assessment. “I date the
beginning of the Church of England to 1534, when it was officially
established under Henry VIII,” she said. “But regardless of whether the
Church is fourteen centuries old or five centuries old, it’s
unquestionably more modern than Scalia.”
As for Justice Scalia, he seemed to dismiss the
controversy, issuing a terse official statement Monday afternoon. “I do
not keep up with the goings on of every newfangled institution,” he
said.
When asked by federal regulators to explain
deadly crashes, General Motors repeatedly said it had no answers —
despite having reached internal conclusions on the causes.
Rick Perry and Sean Hannity in a boat. (photo: The New Yorker)
By Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker
14 July 14
The article below is satire. Andy Borowitz is an
American comedian and New York Times-bestselling author who satirizes
the news for his column, "The Borowitz Report."
recent tour of the United States-Mexico border by Texas Governor Rick
Perry has had the unintended consequence of convincing thousands of
immigrants that anyone can succeed in America.
After Gov. Perry and the Fox News host Sean Hannity
toured the Rio Grande on Thursday, news quickly spread that the two men
were actually among the most powerful in America, fueling the
immigrants’ impression that the U.S. is a place where anyone can make
it.
“When we learned that these two men were the governor
of a large state and a top broadcaster from a major news network, it
seemed too incredible to be true,” said an immigrant from Honduras,
speaking on the condition of anonymity. “We all said to ourselves, if
those two can succeed in America, imagine the wondrous things we might
achieve.”
According to a border official, immigration at the
border shot up eighty per cent since the appearance by the two men, and
the situation could get even worse. “There’s a rumor that Rand Paul
plans to visit,” the official said.
A freshman said she was sexually assaulted by
football players at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. The school’s
investigation, which swiftly cleared the men, left her wishing she had
remained silent.
The
woman at Hobart and William Smith is no exception. With no advocate to
speak up for her at the disciplinary hearing, panelists interrupted her
answers, at times misrepresented evidence and asked about a
campus-police report she had not seen. The hearing proceeded before her
rape-kit results were known, and the medical records indicating trauma
were not shown to two of the three panel members.
One
panelist did not appear to know what a rape exam entails or why it
might be unpleasant. Another asked whether the football player’s penis
had been “inside of you” or had he been “having sex with you.”
(A note from the Editor of The Freepress.blogspot.com: as a Hobart graduated Class of1970, I am ashamed of the way the Hobart & William Smith colleges handled this case. My heart is with Anna).
The mayor and his family will take a nearly 10-day tour of Italy this
month, the longest out-of-town trip by a New York City mayor in more
than 25 years.
The
last mayor to routinely take extended trips to Europe was Edward I.
Koch, who in the 1980s journeyed to Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Spain and
other destinations during his second and third terms.
Mr. Giuliani rarely took a day off
in his first years in office, although he indulged in some weekend
jaunts to the Hamptons, trips that became more frequent as his final
term neared its end.
The
trip — the longest vacation by any Big Apple mayor in recent memory —
will include stops in Rome, Naples and Venice, sources said. The mayor,
his wife, Chirlane McCray, and their kids Chiara, 19, and Dante, 16, are
scheduled to depart on July 18 sources told the Daily News.
The
mayor, his wife, Chirlane McCray, and their kids Chiara, 19, and Dante,
16, are scheduled to depart on July 18 for a 10-day vacation to Italy,
sources tell the Daily News.
Arrivederci, New York!
After seven months on the job, Mayor de Blasio is taking a break from
City Hall and hitting his ancestral homeland of Italy for a 10-day
vacation.
The mayor, his wife, Chirlane McCray, and their kids Chiara, 19, and
Dante, 16, are scheduled to depart on July 18 sources told the Daily
News.
The trip — the longest vacation by any Big Apple mayor in recent memory
— will include stops in Rome, Naples and Venice, sources said.
The First Family also will visit Grassano and Sant’Agata dei Goti,
towns where the mayor’s maternal grandmother and grandfather,
respectively, were born.
Francesco Sanseverino, the Grassano mayor, is throwing a bash to mark
the occasion, according to an account in the Italian newspaper Il
Mattino.
The
trip — the longest vacation by any Big Apple mayor in recent memory —
will include stops in Rome, Naples and Venice, sources said.
The trip “fills us with joy and pride, with the hope that the visit
will strengthen relations . . . (with) a big city like New York,”
Sanseverino told the paper.
James Keivom/New York Daily NewsFrancesco
Sanseverino, the Grassano mayor, is throwing a bash to mark the
occasion, according to an account in the Italian newspaper Il Mattino.
He’ll also squeeze in some work, including a possible sit-down with
Rome Mayor Ignazio Marino. And he’ll hold briefings every day with his
staff and cabinet in New York, sources said.
SETH WENIG/AFP/Getty ImagesDe
Blasio is footing the bill for himself and his family, but he will be
accompanied by his NYPD security detail, his press secretary and two
other city aides who will oversee his visits with local officials.
De Blasio is footing the bill for himself and his family, but he will
be accompanied by his NYPD security detail, his press secretary and two
other city aides who will oversee his visits with local officials.
First Deputy Anthony Shorris will run the city while de Blasio is overseas.
Billionaire former Mayor Michael Bloomberg frequently jetted out of the
country on his private plane, but typically just for weekends. When
they were mayor, Ed Koch and Rudy Giuliani also preferred weekend
getaways. Koch often went to his sister’s Hamptons house; Giuliani liked
to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
Sarah Palin speaking in Toledo, Ohio, 10/29/08. (photo: McCain-Palin 2008)
By Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker
10 July 14
The article below is satire. Andy Borowitz is an
American comedian and New York Times-bestselling author who satirizes
the news for his column, "The Borowitz Report."
new poll released Thursday reveals that a broad majority of Americans
describe themselves as “deeply unhappy” to have been reminded that the
former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin exists.
Palin’s call for the impeachment of President Obama, a
ploy to remind people that she still roams the earth, appears to have
backfired, the poll shows.
With seventy-two per cent of respondents saying that
they were “upset” or “very upset” to be reminded of her existence, Palin
is one of three non-officeholders whose recent utterances have
traumatized Americans.
According to the poll, eighty-one per cent were upset
to be reminded that Ann Coulter exists, while a hundred per cent felt
that way about the existence of the former Vice-President Dick Cheney.
An initiative modeled after a Police Department program to reduce crime
will analyze claims data to identify potential problems across various
city agencies.
The article below is satire. Andy Borowitz is an
American comedian and New York Times-bestselling author who satirizes
the news for his column, "The Borowitz Report."
.B.A.
superstar LeBron James said Tuesday morning that he would announce the
name of the team that he is signing with on Thursday at a special
session of the United Nations General Assembly to be convened especially
for that purpose.
“This decision affects everyone on the planet,” James said. “I want to let all the nations on Earth know at the same time.”
An emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on
Tuesday was deadlocked on the issue, with seven members wanting James to
remain in Miami, seven others hoping for a return to Cleveland, and
Lithuania abstaining.
The Miami Heat president, Pat Riley, and the Cleveland
Cavaliers owner, Dan Gilbert, both confirmed that they would be in the
audience at the United Nations to hear James announce his decision. “I’m
not going to lie: I wish he’d tell me in advance,” Riley said. “But I
guess I’ll have to wait to hear along with Russia, China, Ecuador, and
everybody else. That’s the way LeBron wants it.”
To help him with his decision, the N.B.A. star has
assembled an esteemed circle of advisers, including Archbishop Desmond
Tutu, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and the scientist
Stephen Hawking, all of whom are expected to be in attendance for the
United Nations announcement.
The U.N. General Secretary, Ban Ki-moon, acknowledged
on Tuesday that the world body had many other issues on its plate,
including conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, but added, “It’s
really hard to focus on anything until we know where LeBron is going.”
Michelle Arvelo, who teaches at Cypress Hills
Childcare Center in Brooklyn, has applied to the city in the hope of
getting a job at a public school.
Most independent centers cannot match the salary and benefits given by
New York City's Education Department, causing an unintended result of a
mayoral initiative.
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s delay in expanding the law, which he had promised
to do by the end of February, is more perplexing considering his
determination to improve the lives of struggling New Yorkers.
As we look forward to celebrating the bicentennial of the
“Star-Spangled Banner” by Francis Scott Key, I have to admit, with deep
shame and embarrassment, that until I left England and went to college
in the U.S., I assumed the words referred to the War of Independence. In
my defense, I suspect I’m not the only one to make this mistake.
For people like me, who have got their flags and wars mixed up, I
think it should be pointed out that there may have been only one War of
1812, but there are four distinct versions of it—the American, the
British, the Canadian and the Native American. Moreover, among
Americans, the chief actors in the drama, there are multiple variations
of the versions, leading to widespread disagreement about the causes,
the meaning and even the outcome of the war.
In the immediate aftermath of the war, American commentators
painted the battles of 1812-15 as part of a glorious “second war for
independence.” As the 19th century progressed, this view changed into a
more general story about the “birth of American freedom” and the
founding of the Union. But even this note could not be sustained, and by
the end of the century, the historian Henry Adams was depicting the war
as an aimless exercise in blunder, arrogance and human folly. During
the 20th century, historians recast the war in national terms: as a
precondition for the entrenchment of Southern slavery, the jumping-off
point for the goal of Manifest Destiny and the opening salvos in the
race for industrial-capitalist supremacy. The tragic consequences of
1812 for the native nations also began to receive proper attention.
Whatever triumphs could be parsed from the war, it was now accepted that
none reached the Indian Confederation under Tecumseh. In this
postmodern narrative about American selfhood, the “enemy” in the
war—Britain—almost disappeared entirely.
Not surprisingly, the Canadian history of the war began with a
completely different set of heroes and villains. If the U.S. has its
Paul Revere, Canada has Shawnee chief Tecumseh, who lost his life
defending Upper Canada against the Americans, and Laura Secord, who
struggled through almost 20 miles of swampland in 1813 to warn British
and Canadian troops of an imminent attack. For Canadians, the war was,
and remains, the cornerstone of nationhood, brought about by unbridled
U.S. aggression. Although they acknowledge there were two theaters of
war—at sea and on land—it is the successful repulse of the ten U.S.
incursions between 1812 and 1814 that have received the most attention.
The first six months of the war produced a mixed bag of successes
and failures for both sides. The larger U.S. warships easily trounced
the inferior British frigates sent to the region, and in six single-ship
encounters emerged victorious in every one. American privateers had an
even better year, capturing over 150 British merchant ships worth $2
million. But the British took heart from the land war, which seemed to
be going their way with very little effort expended. With the help of
Shawnee war chief Tecumseh and the Indian Confederation he built up, the
Michigan Territory actually fell back into British possession. In late
November an American attempt to invade Upper Canada ended in fiasco. The
holding pattern was enough to allow Henry, 3rd Earl of Bathurst,
Secretary for War and the Colonies, to feel justified in having
concentrated on Napoleon. “After the strong representations which I had
received of the inadequacy of the force in those American settlements,”
he wrote to the Duke of Wellington in Spain, “I know not how I should
have withstood the attack against me for having sent reinforcements to
Spain instead of sending them for the defense of British possessions.”
Yet the early signs in 1813 suggested that Earl Bathurst might
still come to regret starving Canada of reinforcements. York (the future
Toronto), the provincial capital of Upper Canada, was captured and
burned by U.S. forces on April 27, 1813. Fortunately, in Europe, it was
Napoleon who was on the defensive—bled dry by his abortive Russian
campaign and proven vulnerable in Spain and Germany. What few Americans
properly grasped was that in British eyes the real war was going to take
place at sea. Although the death of Tecumseh in October 1813 was a
severe blow to its Canadian defense strategy, Britain had already felt
sufficiently confident to separate nine more ships from the
Mediterranean Fleet and send them across the Atlantic. Admiral Warren
was informed, “We do not intend this as a mere paper blockade, but as a
complete stop to all Trade & intercourse by sea with those Ports, as
far as the wind & weather, & the continual presence of a
sufficing armed Force, will permit and ensure.”
New York City and Philadelphia were blockaded. The Royal Navy
also bottled up the Chesapeake and the Delaware. To the British, these
successes were considered payback for America’s unfair behavior.
“However, we seem to be leading the Yankees a sad life upon their
coasts,” wrote the British philanthropist William Ward, 1st Earl of
Dudley, in July 1813. “I am glad of it with all my heart. When they
declared war they thought it was pretty near over with us, and that
their weight cast into the scale would decide our ruin. Luckily they
were mistaken, and are likely to pay dear for their error.”
Dudley’s prediction came true. Despite the best efforts of
American privateers to harass British shipping, it was the U.S. merchant
marine that suffered most. In 1813 only a third of American merchant
ships got out to sea. The following year the figure would drop to
one-twelfth. Nantucket became so desperate that it offered itself up to
the Royal Navy as a neutral trading post. America’s oceanic trade went
from $40 million in 1811 to $2.6 million in 1814. Custom revenues—which
made up 90 percent of federal income—fell by 80 percent, leaving the
administration virtually bankrupt. By 1814 it could neither raise money
at home nor borrow from abroad.
When Napoleon abdicated in April 1814, Britain expected that
America would soon lose heart and surrender too. From then on, London’s
chief aims were to bring a swift conclusion to the war, and capture as
much territory as possible in order to gain the best advantage in the
inevitable peace talks.
On July 25, 1814, the two foes fought their bloodiest-ever land
engagement at the Battle of Lundy’s Lane, a mile west of Niagara Falls
near the New York-Canada border. There were over 1,700 casualties, among
them America’s dream of annexing Canada. A month later, on August 24,
the British burned down the White House and several other government
buildings. To Prime Minister Liverpool, the war had been won, bar the
skirmishing to be done by the diplomatic negotiators taking place in
Ghent, Belgium.
London was quite put out to discover that the administration in
Washington failed to share its view. President Madison did not regard
America as having been defeated. Only two weeks later, on September 11,
1814, U.S. troops soundly beat back a British attack on Lake Champlain
near the New York-Canada border. The poet Francis Scott Key didn’t
believe his country was defeated, either, after he saw “by the dawn’s
early light” the American flag still flying above Fort McHenry outside
Baltimore Harbor on September 14. Nor did Gen. Andrew Jackson,
particularly after his resounding victory against British forces outside
New Orleans on January 8, 1815—two weeks after the peace negotiations
between the two countries had been concluded.
The late flurry of U.S. successes dashed British hopes of
squeezing concessions at the Ghent talks. This led the negotiators to
abandon the plan to insist on a buffer state for the defeated Native
American tribes that had helped British troops. Prime Minister Liverpool
gave up trying to teach the Americans a lesson: “We might certainly
land in different parts of their coast, and destroy some of their towns,
or put them under contribution; but in the present state of the public
mind in America it would be in vain to expect any permanent good effects
from operations of this nature.”
The British realized that simply getting the Americans to the
negotiating table in Ghent was the best they were going to achieve. They
also knew that Canada was too large and too sparsely populated to be
properly defended. There was also the matter of general war-weariness.
British families wanted their menfolk home. Lord Liverpool feared that
time was going against them. After the negotiations were concluded on
Christmas Eve 1814, he wrote: “I do not believe it would have been
possible to have continued [wartime taxes] for the purpose of carrying
on an American war....The question there was whether, under all these
circumstances, it was not better to conclude the peace at the present
moment, before the impatience of the country on the subject had been
manifested at public meetings, or by motions in Parliament.”
Although nobody gained from the Treaty of Ghent, it is important
to note that (with the exception of the later betrayals suffered by the
Native American tribes) nothing was lost either. Moreover, both
countries had new victories to savor. The U.S. found glory at the Battle
of New Orleans, while six months later the British found theirs when
the Duke of Wellington inflicted a crushing defeat over Napoleon at the
Battle of Waterloo. Both victories overshadowed everything that had
taken place during the previous two years. For America, 1812 became the
war in which it had finally gained its independence. For Britain, 1812
became the skirmish it had contained, while winning the real war against
its greatest nemesis, Napoleon.
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he
Church of England, an institution whose origins date back to the sixth
century A.D., has far more modern views about the rights of women than
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, experts said today.
recent tour of the United States-Mexico border by Texas Governor Rick
Perry has had the unintended consequence of convincing thousands of
immigrants that anyone can succeed in America.
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superstar LeBron James said Tuesday morning that he would announce the
name of the team that he is signing with on Thursday at a special
session of the United Nations General Assembly to be convened especially
for that purpose.
