The World's Oldest Underwater City Recently my daughter, whose birthday is today!, went to Greece with a girl friend, for a week's vacation. With her unbridled wit, she observed that since the period between 776 BC (the first Olympic Games) and 323 BC (the death of Alexander), the... ( added 34 days 10 hours ago.)

Strands of Frogs' Eggs: Nobel Voices from GA, MS, NC, DC, Iran and Kenya Playing among the arrowroot leaves I tried in vain to pick up the strands of frogs' eggs, believing they were beads. -- Wagari Muta Maathi, 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Winner The Nobel Prizes have a long history, having been awarded for more than a... ( added 37 days 7 hours ago.)

Death Row Capital Crimes and Punishment Last month (September), the State of Ohio failed to execute an innate who spent 25 years on death row for the murder and rape of a 14 year old girl. The state's failure was not due to any legal action, new... ( added 41 days 7 hours ago.)

Pants on fire! Think carefully for a minute: those who call others liars are usually deceivers themselves. Do you think I am talking about the recent flap with SCCongress member, Joe Wilson? My fault, I forgot to say who or what was the object or cause of my... ( added 67 days 3 hours ago.)

Because It Offers Choice and Reduces Costs, Consider Sen. Wyden's Bi-partisan Healthy Americans Act Like the massive invisible government health care that threatens grandma's health more than the imaginary panels dreamed up by Sarah Palin when she mis-read the basic legislative language of the bill, fear haunts health care reform. (The bill... ( added 79 days 12 hours ago.)

The Invisible Government Health Care System Health Care Reform is confusing and scary. Will the proposed changes make costs go up or come down? How will the quality of service be effected? Will treatment improve or get worse? And who will make the decisions that determine how cases and... ( added 84 days 13 hours ago.)

A Memory of the Kennedy Journey The one time I was in the room with Edward Kennedy was almost 26 years ago, for an afternoon announcement of the Senate's passage of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday bill. Senator Kennedy, and others, including Coretta Scott King, stood to the... ( added 85 days 9 hours ago.)

The Runway Muse: Pat Cleveland Perlo's sense of history and culture is rooted in the prism of the 20 th century. The success of men and women from the small villages of the world, youngsters who climbed off dirt roads and gritty sidewalks into celebrated roles in the world's... ( added 107 days 4 hours ago.)

Confederate gold For those who love history, dream of adventure, riches, and fame; for those really believe they'll hit the jackpot on the lottery scratch-off, for those still look up at night to see the stars and passing clouds. and for those who love to touch... ( added 118 days 12 hours ago.)

Jim DeMint's Waterloo Jim DeMint leads the resistance to Obama's call for health reform. But at home, in SC, how well has DeMint's politics worked? Jim DeMint is mad, but not without method. That combination makes him dangerous. His madness is not being... ( added 120 days 4 hours ago.)

The Afghan War on facebook Afghanistan is a facebook war. You can, with the click of the mouse, survey pictures of American troops in-country, in camp, and on the enemy's trail. You can read the prayers and best wishes of their families a 1000 miles away from the... ( added 124 days 9 hours ago.)

Two Models of Foreign Policy A couple of weeks ago, a Des Moines reader left this comment after a post about the rise of the movement for democracy in Iran after the national election: "Well nobody [ Obama ] spoke out and they still got their butts kicked arou ( added 125 days 8 hours ago.)

Hillary Is In Charge! Tina Brown, the tired and flamed-out gossip columnist, New Yorker editor who was once thrown out of 3 English boarding schools, branched out last week into foreign territory. Publisher of The Daily Beast, a website that combines soft journalism... ( added 126 days 8 hours ago.)

Honoring Confederate Veterans Lonnie Randolph, state president of South Carolina's NAACP chapters, is just flat wrong when he touted that paying tribute to Confederate soldiers is the same as honoring Hitler. The comparison made great fodder for headlines, and the South's... ( added 142 days 11 hours ago.)

Because of Krugman's Ire, He Missed a Second Count of Treason Logic and fallacies used to be introduced in 9 th grade, but based on a review of recent congressional debates, reader's comments, and a New York times column, many folk need a refresher course. In his Sunday's New York Times column, Paul Krugman... ( added 142 days 12 hours ago.)

Inside Iran: the Principles of a New Movement A movement knitted from political principles that hold the political process as sovereign connects an international flock of people in countries scattered widely around the world. This flock has declared bold and earnest objections to the policies... ( added 153 days 8 hours ago.)

"If it flies, it dies:" Tour the USS Truxtun, the Navy's Newest Ship The USS Truxtun steamed into the port of Charleston near the end of April, and when the ship opened its gangplank for public tours, I couldn't resist stepping aboard. The Truxtun is the US Navy's newest ship. B uilt in a Pascagoula, Mississippi... ( added 193 days 11 hours ago.)

The Defense Department Monitors the New Flu Strain As the number of flu cases increase and the locations for the infection expand, the uniformed services must defend against the virus weakening its ranks. How exactly does the military prepare for a flu outbreak? What risk is the potential... ( added 205 days 4 hours ago.)

The Symbols and Substance of Barack's bow Rich Lowry and the hundreds of others who becry Obama's breach of the unstated rules of Presidential conduct fail to realize that these very rules, originally initiated for outdated purposes, have to be challenged and broken in order to bring... ( added 206 days 4 hours ago.)

Tea Leaves and Smiling Handshakes: How Newt Gingrich Missed the Message I am often called "old school," and I agree. I keep alive a tradition in my writing that writers must be committed to the truth as they know it. That writers, use reason and experience, take words, and craft ideas to evaluate the acts and... ( added 212 days 7 hours ago.)

Swinging for the Green: US Golf Links Built on Landfills Columbus, Ohio has a golf course built on a formerly closed land fill. The course represents one of the nation's more ambitious attempts to reclaim non-productive environmental space for recreational use. Used for decades as a landfill, it was... ( added 216 days 12 hours ago.)

"Water the Whole Surface:" The Mission for Safe Water (Part 2) On Saturday, March 21, I joined 800 others in the Walk for Water organized by Water Missions International, a Christian non-profit organization that engineers, builds and installs waters systems that have provided safe water for over one... ( added 230 days 9 hours ago.)

Master Works: The Mississippi Photographs of Dorothea Lange, 1937 4th of July, 1937;Hillhouse,Mississippi Two photographs taken in Mississippi in 1937 by one of America's photography masters lay in the Library of Congress archives for half a century. Today, I am proud to present ( added 233 days 13 hours ago.)

"Water the Whole Surface:" The Mission for Safe Water (Southern Perlo note: This is two part special feature, a documentaryphoto essay tobe posted on consecutive Saturdays.This Perlo series explores how a community and a Christian non-profitsupport the most vital element for life, one we take for... ( added 236 days 12 hours ago.)

Notes for the History Teller: On the Passing of John Hope Franklin I never met John Hope Franklin. But I came to know his warm, affable, slow-moving baritone voice that rippled with life as I read his books and essays, saw him in C-SPAN appearances and interviews, or listened to others describe his ideas and his... ( added 238 days 14 hours ago.)