Piece Of Art

Is there a .45 Caliber politically-motivated, anti-Jewish, anti-African  killer loose in France? Toulouse is one of the bases of the European aerospace industry, with the headquarters of Airbus, Galileo positioning system, the SPOT satellite system, and CNES's Toulouse Space Centre (CST), the largest space centre in Europe. Thales Alenia Space, and Astrium Satellites, EADS's satellite system subsidiary, also have a significant presence in Toulouse. Its world renowned university is one of the oldest in Europe (founded in 1229) and, with more than 97,000 students, is with Lille the third-largest university campus of France after Paris and Lyon. Montauban is a commune in the Tarn-et-Garonne department in the Midi-Pyrénées region in southern France. It is the capital of the department and lies 50 kilometres (31 mi) north of Toulouse. The town, built mainly of a reddish brick, stands on the right bank of the Tarn River at its confluence with the Tescou. A gunman opened fi...

"I'm just a patsy," uttered by Lee Harvey Oswald, at 7:55 PM Central Time, Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963, per reporter Seth Kantor's notes; located at Warren Commission Hearings, Volume XX, page 366 ( 20H366 ). Associated Press writers Michael Hill and Jim Fitzgerald begin to unravel the story behind the "Temple Plot" headlines of the day, when they write: The four men accused of plotting to bomb New York City synagogues and shoot down military airplanes with missiles are down-and-out ex-convicts living on the margins in a faded industrial city. One is a petty criminal who spent a day in 2002 snatching purses and shooting at people with a BB gun from an SUV. His lawyer calls him "intellectually challenged." Three have histories of drug convictions, one of them for selling narcotics in a school zone. The man prosecutors portrayed as the instigator of the scheme said he smoked pot the day he planned to blow up the temples. They went to Wal-Mar...

Police investigating the shooting death of a Wesleyan University student found a copy of an infamous anti-Semitic book ( Protocols of the Elders of Zion ) in her suspected killer's hotel room, according to newly released court records. Stephen Morgan, 29, appeared in court Tuesday at a brief hearing attended by several of his relatives, including his parents. Morgan smiled at them and tried to wave, despite shackles that kept his hands behind his back. [Twilight language footnote: William Morgan (1774–1826?) - a York Rite Royal Arch degree Freemason - was a resident of Batavia, New York whose disappearance ignited a powerful anti-Freemason movement in the United States in the early 19th century. After stating his intention to write a book exposing Freemasonry's "secrets," Morgan was arrested and kidnapped on September 11, 1826. Then Morgan was apparently killed. His disappearance sparked a public outcry and launched the formation of a new Anti-Masonic Party.] Stephen...

May 8, 2009 Update A man who Connecticut police say sparked two fearful days at a university by killing a student and threatening a campus shooting spree surrendered Thursday night, May 7, 2009, after seeing his photo in a newspaper. Stephen P. Morgan, 29, was taken into custody about 9:15 p.m. after stopping at a Cumberland Farms convenience store in Meriden, about 10 miles from the Wesleyan University campus. Clerk Sonia Rodriguez told The Associated Press that she didn't recognize Morgan when he came in and scanned the newspapers. He asked to use the phone but had trouble dialing, so he asked Rodriguez to dial the police department for him. After he finished his call, Morgan walked outside to wait for police, Rodriguez said. She didn't realize there was anything wrong until several officers arrived and threw Morgan to the ground to arrest him. When police told Rodriguez that Morgan was wanted for Wednesday's fatal shooting of 21-year-old Johanna Justin-Jinich in Middleto...

Events out of context often float adrift in time. April 14, 1865 has become important as the day that John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln. For Americans of the Jewish faith, it was also Passover. I share the following snippet to revisit how it felt during these under-discussed moments of the War Between the States. Chapters in American Jewish History Of Civil Seders in the Civil War For American Jewry during the Civil War, the Passover story was especially powerful. Northern soldiers saw clear parallels between the Union freeing the South's slaves and Moses leading the ancient Hebrews out of Egypt. However, creating a seder during in a war zone requires flexibility and creativity. In 1862, the Jewish Messenger published an account by J. A. Joel of the 23rd Ohio Volunteer Regiment of a seder celebrated by Union soldiers in Fayette, West Virginia. Joel and 20 other Jewish soldiers were granted leave to observe Passover. A soldier home on leave in Cincinnati shipped matzot and ha...