History Forum / General / What If / June 2004

For the purposes of this speculation, let's say that the advancing Red
Army gets extremely lucky and manages to capture several high-ranking
Nazi leaders at the end of the Second World War. To make it
interesting, we'll include two who got away in our timeline. The first

On Soc.Culture.Jewish.Moderated, one of the more frequent flamewars is
about the status of Reconstructionist, Reform, and Conservative
Judaism in Europe. In OTL, David Ben-Gurion more or less unofficially
enshrined Orthodox Judaism by granting Orthodox Rabbis a monopoly on

"Miss Dunne clicked on the keyboard:
-- 16 June 1904." (_Ulysses_, James Joyce, pub. 1922)
Happy Bloomsday all! Today is the 100th anniversary
of Leopold Bloom's peregrinations across the city of

Hey, ain't America real land of opportunity? You can be anything -even
a Jewish Nazi !
http://www.counterpunch.com/whitney06092004.html
June 9, 2004

"The hero who knows well to ride
The sea-horse o'er the foamingtide, -
He who in boyhood wild rode o'er
The seaman's horse to England's shore.

Any ideas on how the world of the book would look today?

About 15 years ago author Michael Hart wrote a book listing the 100 most
influential people in history. Most people on his list were, in my opinion,
quite important while others did not belong.
One significant person who failed to make Hart's list was Abraham Lincoln.

Tender readers,
I have recently been reading a piece by Yoel Marcus in _Haaretz_ where
he canvasses interesting but off-topic issues.  One line, however,
stands out: "This country cannot afford another assassinated prime

The First Hurrah XV: Solutions from Hell
"I protest with all my heart and mind and soul against having the slur of being
a conscript placed upon the men of Missouri."
-Champ Clark, April 18, 1917

1. Instead of trying to kidnap Lincoln during a trip to Campbell Hospital in
October of 1864, Booth stays home in the National Hotel with a bad head cold
and gets one hell of a surprise when he finds Lincoln giving a speech in the
lobby. He goes upstairs for his derringer and ...

I say, Hell, No!
Let's consider his background.  Jack Ryan is the very embodiment of
Compassionate Conservatism.  After making millions at Goldman, Sachs, he
quit in 1996 to teach at an inner-city Catholic school.  In 1998 he won

Apologies are offered for this off topic post, but it is desirable in
this type of research to solicit respondents from widely divergent groups
which have no particular interest in the subject being investigated.
If you, as a boy, had a willing relationship with a male who was at ...

Given the state of metallurgy and chemistry it seems to me that the
Haber-Bosch process for producing Ammonia and all its daughter products
could have been invented as early as 1872.  So What If  George Washington
Carver invents the Haber-Bosch process for his Master Degree Thesis ...

Yes, indeed, the reports of my death were greatly exagerated. Its been
forever since I posted here, so I thought I would come back for a few
posts. Enough of that then. As some of you may remember, last year I
posted a WI on the greatest alt addreses given. Just so its clearer

There's been a lot of discussion on how to make an English victory
in the Hundred Year's War. But WI the Hundred Years War was only
ten years or so, ending in a quick French victory?
In retrospect, it seems the French _should_ have won quickly.