"... It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings."....I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
Eight California Papa John’s restaurants in the Sacramento area suddenly closed on Friday, to the surprise of both customers and employees.
“We are sorry to advise you that due to circumstances beyond our control we have been forced to cease operations effective immediately,” read a sign posted on the door of the popular pizzerias Friday, later uploaded to the online-messaging board Reddit.
Afghan troops are in the midst of their deadliest fighting season since the war here began 12 years ago.
That is because, as U.S.-led forces withdraw, the Afghans are fighting a different war.
The Taliban are growing more aggressive. Coalition forces, taking with them their superior training and equipment, are leaving Afghan troops less able to fight and less able to save the lives of their critically wounded.
The Afghan forces—including the army, national police and village self-defense police—have been losing well over 100 men a week to insurgent attacks, with close to 300 injured, through much of the summer, according to numbers provided by coalition officials.
By contrast, coalition fatalities, which are reported precisely, have fluctuated between 13 and 27 troops a month since heavier fighting resumed in the spring.
To put it in perspective: The Afghan forces' death toll is as much as three times the combined coalition and Afghan fatalities in 2010 and 2011, when the U.S. took its heaviest casualties in the war.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/09/21/afghan-troop-deaths-hit-record-amid-us-exit/#ixzz2fXygparY
Today, the sheer sadism witnessed on American plantations in the middle of the 19th century seems almost unbelievable.
However, it was all too real, and all too common. The scene described above took place in Louisiana in about 1850, and was recounted by none other than Platt himself, whose real name was Solomon Northup (he’d been given the name Platt by his owner).
Northup wrote about his terrible experiences in a book published in 1853 called 12 Years A Slave, which shocked the American public, and, according to some historians, helped to bring about the American Civil War, in which President Abraham Lincoln led the Yankee North to victory against the South, partly because he was determined to end slavery.
Northup’s story was rediscovered in the late Sixties thanks to a white academic and journalist called Susan Eakin, who had long campaigned for black rights in her native Louisiana.
Many years earlier, a Cross had been burned on her front lawn and a fire started at her back door because she had invited black students to sing at a local auditorium.
However, she was undeterred from her civil rights work, which included republishing an annotated version of Northup’s book, having spent almost her entire life unearthing the original court documents and bills of transfer — essentially ‘receipts’ for a slave — that supported his tale.
‘I did what I thought was right,’ she said. ‘I was not trying to win some popularity contest.’
And now, 160 years after the book’s publication, Northup’s story has been filmed by the award-winning British director Steve McQueen.
BlackBerry said Friday that it will lay off 4,500 employees, or 40 per cent of its global workforce, as it reports a nearly $1 billion second-quarter loss a week earlier than expected.
The stock dropped 23 per cent to $8.11 after reopening for trading. Shares had been halted earlier pending the news announced the same day rival Apple's latest iPhone models went on sale.
BlackBerry had been scheduled to release earnings next week. But the Canadian company said late Friday afternoon that it expects to post a staggering loss of $950 million to $995 million for the quarter, including a massive write down of the value of its inventory due to increasing competition.
