Rare Disorder May Have Afflicted Lincoln

Lincoln assassin even held a little gun

(NEWSER) - The gift shop at the Gettysburg Museum has had second thoughts about selling a novelty item some thought was a little tasteless: a bobblehead doll of John Wilkes Booth, complete with miniature gun. Museum officials pulled the dolls after the local Evening Sun wrote about them. The museum isn't saying much, but doll-maker BobbleHead is unapologetic. "We've made probably over a million bobbleheads and this is the first time it ever happened," says an exec. "So why change course? We've done Osama bin Laden." See the Sun link for an image of the doll. More»

Jackie Hogan gives 4 reasons today's GOP would write off Abe

(NEWSER) - Sure, the GOP calls itself the "Party of Lincoln," but would today's Republicans actually nominate him for president? Writing in the Christian Science Monitor , Jackie Hogan gives four reasons why they wouldn't:

1. He was the first president to make income tax law—and it was a progressive income tax that required the richest to pay a higher rate. What's more, he taxed earned income and capital gains at the same rate.

Says his enemies are 'full of rage at our success'

(NEWSER) - Bill O’Reilly vigorously defended his book, Killing Lincoln, yesterday, after the National Park Service lambasted it for historical inaccuracies . “Our enemies are full of rage at our success,” he said on his show. He said the book contained "four minor misstatements, all of which have been corrected" along with "two typeset errors," which he deemed "a pretty good record." He said the Washington Post’s report that the book wouldn’t be sold at the Fort Theater bookstore is inaccurate. "The media lies at will these days," he said. More»

Police suspect statue's sword ended up as scrap metal

(NEWSER) - Police in Illinois are looking for a thief who emancipated a 3-foot copper sword from a statue of a Civil War artilleryman at Abraham Lincoln's final resting place. Investigators believe the sword—which replaced a bronze one stolen from the same statue at Lincoln's tomb in the 1890s—was stolen some time in the last few weeks, probably by somebody seeking to make quick cash by selling it for scrap metal. More»

Ford's Theatre superintendent writes scathing 4-page letter

(NEWSER) - Bill O'Reilly's book, Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever, has sold nearly a million copies and currently sits at #2 on the New York Times bestseller list . Only problem is, it's riddled with errors, according to a scathing review from the National Park Service bookstore at Ford’s Theatre, Salon reports. Here are a few alleged historical missteps:

• Killing Lincoln refers several times to the Oval Office. Little problem: The Oval Office wasn't built until 1909.