German police arrest 93-year-old 'Auschwitz guard' →

Hans Lipschis claims he was an SS cook not a death camp guard

Famed World War II aviators hold final reunion →

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Hitler’s Nazi party is well known for its heavy use of symbolism in campaigns. Today, that use of massive banners and massive eagles and massive crowds all lined up at attention has left a deservedly sinister impression, and has been effectively copied in just about every brutal totalitarian state in fiction. Yet while many of us know how powerful Hitler’s propaganda and imagery machine was, seeing it in on the ground in full color in this stunning Life photo series is like a punch in the gut. (via These Color Photos of the Third Reich Are Absolutely Chilling)

Real heroes: four died so others might live →

Great perspective on Super Bowl Sunday:

By the end of the Super Bowl on Sunday night, one or more professional football players will be hailed for their valor, for their guts, for their devotion to their teammates. They will be called heroes. And more than 100 million people will be watching. But because, predictably, those laudatory words will be thrown around so casually on Sunday, perhaps we can take a few minutes here to address an act of genuine valor that happened exactly 70 years ago today. It wasn’t televised. There were no sponsors. On February 3, 1943, an Army transport ship called the Dorchester, carrying American soldiers through the icy North Atlantic on their way to serve in World War II, was about 100 miles off the coast of Greenland in rough sea. More than 900 people were on board.

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With the recent fiscal cliff deal in Washington, Americans will most certainly see their taxes rise in 2013. Sequestration (defense and non-defense program cuts) and debt discussions look as if they will continue through March.

This leads us to remind everyone of the creative ways used by the U.S. government to pay for World War II, including multiple war bond drives. Citizens gave their cash - on top of taxes - to the government who in turn promised to repay citizens with interest at a later date while using the cash flow to buy war material and pay military salaries, factory workers, transportation costs, mining operations, research and development, and war-related health care.

Newspapers were fond of retelling stories of American children sending in their $0.25 allowances to help out their brothers, fathers, and neighbors beat the Axis on both fronts.

Find out more about the cost of American wars throughout history in a report published by the Congressional Research Service in 2010. We discovered that at its peak, America spent as much as 37.5% of its GDP and a combined total of just over $4 trillion dollars prosecuting the war effort.