For anyone who's concerned, here's a quick video from a group of people seeking to protect native Australian rainforest from logging in the Gippsland region of Victoria.

O płaceniu cudzych rachunków - Romuald Szeremietiew

Natrafiłem na wiadomość opatrzoną tytułem: „USA ostro krytykują Polskę: wypłaćcie rekompensaty”. Czytam w niej, że „Amerykański Kongres wydał opinię w której piętnuję polski rząd za opóźnienie z wypłacaniem rekompensat za mienie zagrabione w latach wojny i PRL”. Tygodnik "Newsweek" na swojej stronie internetowej zauważa, że to najostrzejsza krytyka Polski po roku 1989. Wyjaśnia: „To skutek wieloletniego mobbingu Światowej Organizacji Żydowskich Restytucji czego efektem jest powstanie w czerwcu w obu izbach amerykańskiego parlamentu projektu rezolucji wzywające Polskę do wypłaty rekompensat za zagrabione majątki.” Przy czym Kongres USA oczekuje, że Polska zaspokoi roszczenie wszystkich, nie tylko tych osób pochodzenia żydowskiego. A to: „Według ekspertów, oznacza to, że obecny, a zwłaszcza przyszły lokator Białego Domu będzie wywierał presję na Polskę w celu uregulowania spraw roszczeń. Mówiąc wprost, może być tak, że USA w niczym nam nie pomogą, póki nie załatwimy sprawy roszczeń - prezydent USA będzie mógł wtedy mówić, że nic nie może zrobić, bo obliguje go rezolucja Kongresu.”

Nie ulega wątpliwości, że zawsze cudzą własność trzeba oddać prawowitemu właścicielowi. Powstaje jednak wątpliwość, czy w przypadku „opinii” Kongresu USA jedynym odpowiedzialnym powinno być państwo polskie. Trudno przecież uznać, aby za działania okupantów (w czasie II wojny światowej byli nimi Niemcy i Sowieci oraz ich kolaboranci) dziś odpowiadało państwo polskie, czyli jego obywatele płacący podatki.

Druga RP została w czasie II wojny światowej napadnięta, a jej obywatele ograbieni. Wydawałoby się więc słusznym, aby zadośćuczynili za to prawni spadkobiercy państw agresorów; w przypadku hitlerowskiej III Rzeszy - Republika Federalna Niemiec, a Związku Sowieckiego - Federacja Rosyjska.

Jednak strona niemiecka, coraz bardziej zapominająca o tym, co działo się przed 1945 r., domaga się dziś od Polski zwrotu majątków (związki przesiedlonych) znajdujących się na jej ziemiach zachodnich i północnych.

Nie ulega wątpliwości, że gdyby Niemcy wygrały II wojnę światową, to Polaków by wymordowali, a Polski i nie byłoby na mapie świata. Ten zamiar nie udał się.

A Niemcy w następstwie przegranej utraciły część swego terytorium na rzecz Polski, a także na rzecz Rosji (Królewiec). Obecnie zdają się mówić Polakom – dodajcie nam dobra, które były niemiecką własnością przed wojną. Innymi słowy agresor nie poczuwa się do żądnej odpowiedzialności za swoje czyny. Warto przy tym zauważyć, że Niemcy swoje pretensje kierują tylko pod adresem Polski. Nie widać, aby domagali się zwrotu majątków w Kaliningradzie.

A co Polacy mają powiedzieć odnosząc się do skutków działań drugiego okupanta, tego na wschodzie? Kongres amerykański nie domaga się od państw zajmujących dawne ziemie wschodnie RP, aby zwracały one majątki obywateli polskich.  Co więcej nawet na terenie Litwy, dodajmy członka NATO i UE, mieszkający tam Polacy do dziś mają ogromne trudności z odzyskaniem ziemi zagrabionej im jeszcze przez władze sowieckie. A np. w Wilnie ambasada USA mieści się  w budynku, który przed 1939 r. został zbudowany za pieniądze polskich harcerzy. Nigdzie nie spotkamy informacji, aby ambasador USA na Litwie starał się przekazać "harcówkę" prawowitemu właścicielowi, czyli Związkowi Harcerstwa Polskiego. Amerykańscy kongresmani nie oczekują też, że Federacja Rosyjska zwróci Polsce chociażby dzieła sztuki, księgozbiory i archiwa zagrabione przez Sowietów. Dodajmy, że w Polsce, inaczej niż to ma miejsce w Niemczech,  nikomu nie przychodzi do głowy, aby żądać zwrotu własności znajdującej się na byłych ziemiach kresowych II RP.

Wreszcie sprawa majątków zagrabionych w czasach PRL przez komunistów. Kongres USA uważa, że odpowiedzialność w tej mierze także ponosi obecne państwo polskie. Tak jakby po zakończeniu wojny Polacy wybrali sobie komunizm i aprobowali komunistyczne rządy. Politycy z Waszyngtonu zapominają, że prezydent USA, współdziałając z premierem Wielkiej Brytanii i działając za plecami polskiego rządu, zdradzając polskiego sojusznika, oddał Polaków w komunistyczną niewolę. Agentura sowiecka mogła rządzić Polską przez kilkadziesiąt lat w rezultacie zgody USA wyrażonej w Teheranie i Jałcie. W następstwie tych porozumień Polska utraciła niepodległość, ponad połowę swego terytorium państwowego, a komunistyczny aparat terroru wymordował tysiące polskich patriotów. Wszystko więc co się stało na ziemiach polskich pod rządami komunistów było w poważnym stopniu następstwem zmowy prezydenta Franklina Roosevelta i premiera Winstona Churchilla  z dyktatorem Josifem Stalinem.

Druga wojna światowa wybuchła dlatego, że kanclerz Niemiec Adolf Hitler wcześniej planując jej wybuch zyskał cennego sojusznika, Stalina, dzieląc się z nim Polską. W 1944 r. Stalin znalazł na Zachodzie kontrahentów, którzy za pomoc w pokonaniu Niemiec ofiarowali mu całą Polskę. Czy dziś państwo polskie ma płacić "rachunki" za pakt Ribbentrop-Mołotow oraz za porozumienia z Teheranu i Jałty?

Romualda Szeremietiewa

Am 16. August 1945 hielt Winston Churchill seine erste große Rede als "Führer seiner Majestät treu ergebenen Opposition" und teilte dem Unterhaus folgendes mit:

Es gibt Stimmen, die behaupten, die Bombe hätte niemals verwendet werden dürfen. Ich kann mir diese Gedankengänge nicht zu eigen machen. Sechs Jahre totaler Krieg haben viele Menschen davon überzeugt, dass die Deutschen und Japaner diese Waffe, wenn sie sie erfunden hätten, mit größter Bereitwilligkeit zu unserer vollkommenen Vernichtung gebraucht haben würden. Ich bin verwundert, dass sehr ehrenwerte Menschen, allerdings Menschen, die in den meisten Fällen wohl nicht die Absicht gehabt haben dürften, selbst an die japanische Front abzugehen, sich die Behauptung zu eigen machen, wir hätten lieber eine Million Amerikaner und eine Viertelmillion Briten in den verzweifelten Kämpfen und Blutbädern, die eine Invasion Japans gefordert hätte, opfern sollen, statt die Bombe abzuwerfen. Kommende Geschlechter werden ihr Urteil über diese schrecklichen Entscheidungen fällen, und ich glaube, sie werden, wenn sie selbst in einer glücklicheren Welt leben, aus der der Krieg verbannt wurde und in der Freiheit herrscht, diejenigen nicht verdammen, die inmitten der Schrecken und des Elendes dieser grausam wilden Zeit für ihr Wohl kämpften.

Leider hatte Winston die Rechnung ohne die Friedensbewegung gemacht, deren Mitglieder für die für sie erkämpfte Freiheit heute nur noch Hohn und Spott übrig haben.

A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to pull his pants up.

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965)

So lies travel too fast to handle AND you have a lot more fun with the truth.

Update 17/07/08: Using the same quote, eConsultancy blogger Drama 2.0 extends the analogy

Success in life is determined by your ability to go from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. - Winston Churchill

Well, he certainly had a number of failures in his life, so he should be qualified to make that statement, though his page on the quotationspage.com has it stated slightly differently.

Be that as it may, the advice on the 7 Habits of a Winner page is good. It shares a number of euphemisms and old saws, but they don't diminish the quality of the advice. And once you are practicing these, they will become a habit, and the rest will follow.

The last item, to keep learning, is one of my favorites. And the quote I best like for this was written by Louis L'Amour in The Lonesome Gods: "He who ceases to learn is already a half-dead man." Those who are learning still retain that spark of curiosity, an interest, are looking beyond themselves at the larger picture and how they fit into it. Those who cease to learn have lost that spark, that curiosity, and have given up trying to improve themselves, given up on life, and are now simply waiting to die.

Wer wollte den Krieg? (1 von 16)
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1939 - Der Krieg, der viele Väter hatte
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1939 - Der Krieg, der viele Väter hatte.
Der lange Anlauf zum Zweiten Weltkrieg (Gebundene Ausgabe)

von Gerd Schultze-Rhonhof (Autor)

 

 

Leggi l'articolo:
090 - Alcuni giudizi sul Fascismo

by Stephen McGinty (Pan MacMillan) 978-0-330-46121-4

The Greatest, or perhaps only Great, Briton of the last century was said to have smoked 200 000 Cigars in his life.

Many of these in a time when a less courageous soul would have been chewing on his nail instead. From a coal mine in Johannesburg; on a train fleeing to Maputo; in the nude on Cuban Beaches to his underground War Rooms in London, he smoked his cigars. So great a part of his self was the Cigar, he refused to be seen without one. His Cigars were valued so highly that the stubs started fights in the streets of London, and have sold for sums as high as £ 2000.

Find out how these rolled leaves may have changed the course of History in the most enjoyable history I have ever read. The story of a man seen through a smoky haze of blue smoke is perhaps a true telling of his character, rather than his importance.

He was so respected that Cubans, red or otherwise, have chosen to honour him with not only the gift of the finest Cigars, but they have even named a class of them in his name. These cigars are the largest and most difficult to make. They bully all of the others into insignificance, rather like the man himself.

Christopher Dean
5/5

U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
www.archives.gov July 3, 2008

The Declaration of Independence: A Transcription

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

My Grandfather's Son, A Memoir by Justice Clarence Thomas. It has taken me about a year to get around to this. But I read it through quickly like one would see a movie. Beneath the public life of a man there is always a story. And behind Clarence Thomas there is a good story, an American story that took him from Pinpoint to the Supreme Court of the United States. The story involves our own story as Americans, and the story of faith in Jesus Christ through family strife, poverty, injustice, a grandfather's eccentricities that would at length mold the man we see, prejudice and pain, love and regret, hope and new life. I commend it highly.

Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. For the odd few among us who really care what "Adoro Te Devote" means ("a simple, heartfelt, Eucharistic hymn, the most famous of which would be J.R. Woodford's (1880, Bishop of Ely) "Thee we adore, O hidden Saviour", or who seriously would inquire about the Zillerthal Evangelicals were (a body of Protestants, living in Zillerthal, Austria, who left the Roman Catholic Church in 1829 and the following years, were ordered to leave by a decree from the provincial estates of the region, and were resettled at Erdmannsdorft in the Prussian territory), this volume is a treasure. A thank you to Oxford University Press is in order. I am proud of my 1958 edition, though there are, of course, newer ones, newer heresies, more recent innovations, other people who have come on the scene, and so forth. But I am quite content with my edition. It does all that I need it to do.

Romans by John Murray. I like Murray on Romans more than any other. Read Barth on Romans and this. Murray is an interpreter of St. Paul to the Romans. Barth is a preacher of Barth in front of Romans. There is a considerable difference. For excitement you migh want to try one. And for accuracy on the text you will most certainly need to read the other.

Murray on Romans 7 and Romans 11 is worth having the book and reading it from time to time. His conception of what Paul is saying in Romans 11 remains, to me, unassailable. Paul is saying that a large mass of Israel, even as they were hardened and turned away, will be revived and engrafted in to the one true Church. He awaits nothing short of a tremendous revival. I read this and grow excited. For as the Church now encircles the globe, and moves Eastward, I expect that we shall begin to hear of the conversions of souls in the Middle East. And how glorious that will be! When the glorious Gospel of peace quiets the spirits of the children of Ishmael, the world will have to pause. The age-old war will, no doubt, continue, but the preachers of grace will be the very men who today go about so violently. Then they shall be subdued, not by the might of men, but by the power of God's love in Jesus Christ. And that shall be the final wall to be destroyed. Then, the floodgates of the revival that swept in Europe in the Reformation, and pushed on to the New World as Columbus arrived, and the pilgrims settled this new country in North America and George Whitefield preached the Gospel up and down the colonial coast bringing in masses of people, and as the Methodists and others brought it further west in the United States and throughout Canada, as the Gospel went, through the 19^th century missionary movement to the far reaches of the East and into the Pacific islands, and in the Twentieth Century the flood of cleansing revival has baptized South America, and awakened the great peoples of Africa (and I think of men such as my friend Henry Luke Orombi, the Anglican Archbishop of Uganda), has moved upon China and India, will finally break through to the ancient Hebrew peoples and "all Israel shall be saved." I praise Jesus Christ and look in wonder at what He is doing and want to be part, as I am allowed, to urge this Gospel upon the hearts and minds of others! What more glorious labors could there possibly be?

And all of this from a few lines in Murray's Romans. He is dry. He is barebones. This is not prose for prose's sake. This is interpretation for the Church. And it is marvelous in my eyes. I commend him to you.

History of the English Speaking People, "The Birth of Britain" by Sir Winston Churchill. I enjoy reading Sir Winston because no one seemed to see the American century arising quite like him. And it was no assault on his British prejudice, for he saw America as an extension of the British Empire and thus applauded her ascendancy. This first volume in the series, of course, is more about the founding of the British nation and much is said about the place of Rome and the Danes and the Normans. But the way that Sir Winston writes makes one think that he is always going somewhere, and of course he is. He is always concerned with how this English speaking people arose and how they went to the ends of the earth, taking with them their religion (Christianity), their system of government (amalgamated as a supreme democratic rule through the governments of Rome and other invaders), and of course their customs.

If you were to stay with Sir Winston to his conclusion in 1900, then you should read the book that I read last year, The History of the English Speaking People Since 1900 by Andrew Roberts. He opens with this moving scene:

"As the first rays of sunlight broke over the Chatham Island, 360 miles east of New Zealand in the South Pacific, a little before 6:00am on Tuesday, January 1, 1901, the world entered a century that for all its warfare and perils would nonetheless mark the triumph of the English-speaking peoples. Few could have suspected it at the time, but the British Empire would wane to extinction during that period, while the American Republic would wax to such hegemony that it would become the sole global hyper-power. Assault after assault would be made upon the English-speaking peoples' primacy, each of which would be beaten off successfully, albeit sometimes at huge and tragic cost. Even as the twenty-first century dawned, they would be doughtily defending themselves still."

But without Churchill's insights, we would miss the sweeping epic that led us to that moment.

The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944. I have not read a better author on World War Two. An Army at Dawn, which won the Pulitzer Prize, was one of my favorite books two years ago. I devoured it in a few readings. I must say that I taking more time here. But the result is the same. Beyond all others, Rick Atkinson the reporter is helping us to re think the War through his "lower" history of how it felt to the men with boots on the ground.

Berlin Embassy by William Russell. Reflections on a great capitol city being transformed and disfigured by Hitler and his monster regime from an eyewitness account make for a great read.

W.H. Auden, Longer Poems. I love reading Auden as I enjoy reading Donne. Both were men who followed a road to Jesus Christ through a road of self-destructive sins. But their intellect was sharpened by what they saw along the way. I like this book as much for his longer poem called, "For the Time Being" as I do for anything else. This reflection through the Church Year, dedicated to his mother, reveals the faith of Auden, but through a glass darkly, and through moods murky. Auden is not a precise theologian, of course, nor does he convey the sense of God's grace like Donne does. Indeed, Auden can be as obscure as his personality. But his words provoke a sense of Advent, which has its place, I think. He begins, as one should begin a work on the church year, with Advent:

"Darkness and snow descend;

The clock on the mantelpiece

Has nothing to recommend,

Nor does the face in the glass

Appear nobler than our own

As darkness and snow descend

On all personality.

Huge crowds mumble - "Alas,

Our angers do not increase,

Love in not what she used to be;'

Portly Caesar yawns - ‘I know;'

He falls asleep on his throne,

They shuffle off through the snow;

Darkness and snow descend."

Auden closes out the church year with these words, a summary of all of his experiences and reflections:

"He is the Way.

Follow Him through the Land of Unlikeness;

You will see rare beasts, and have unique adventures.

He is the Truth.

Seek Him in the Kingdom of Anxiety;

You will come to a great city that has expected your return for

            years.

He is the life.

Love Him in the world of Flesh;

And at your marriage all is occasions shall dance for joy."

That line sums up, not only the Christian life, but also the life of a minister of the Gospel. And all of this "For the Time Being."

A Jonathan Edwards Reader By Jonathan Edwards, John E. Smith, Harry S. Stout, Kenneth P. Minkema. This Yale University Press anthology is outstanding. If you are wanting a one-volume reader look no further.

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. I read this book in one sitting. I thought about it for days on end. The characters are so real, the situation so possible, and the writing of John Steinbeck so powerful and beautiful, that I could not forget it. It is grotesque, in a way, and pitiful. But I think I have known these two men, George and Lenny. And as an oil field worker in South Louisiana, not a ranch hand in the Salinas Valley, I have seen them. Their tragic story reminds me of Louisiana. But having lived in Monterey, California, and hiked through the mountains that protect the rich, dark earth of that valley, I read Steinbeck and think of him as an eccentric, brilliant neighbor. Talk this one out after you read it.

I continue the adventure. And I speak to students of the Word, ministers of God's Gospel, and pastors-in-training: read widely, but wisely. Read carefully. Read to gain insight into Creation, Fall and Redemption. Read to diagnose and treat the human soul with the balm of God's grace in Christ. You will sharpen your skill to do so by reading the great novels as well as history and biography. Learn to read poetry, and even fantasy. Consider the greatest theologians, and follow the faithful ones. But in all things, read to the glory of God.

And that which I proscribe, I do pray to do myself, and ask forgiveness for my failing to read what I should read, and for reading what is unnecessary as well as well is unprofitable.

Please visit The Call with Mike Milton for more entries and resources for Gospel ministry.

Keep visiting: www.lifechums.com/ more Celebrities featuring Shortly .............

Here is an excerpt:

The historian J. Rufus Fears noted that great leaders – from Pericles to Lincoln to Churchill – share four characteristics. They are anchored in principles, guided by a moral compass, posses a vision, and have the ability to build consensus to achieve their vision. These are the qualities that differentiate them as statesmen as opposed to mere politicians.

Unfortunately, the current leadership in Israel is the epitome of mere politicians. Prime-Minister Olmert, for example, is a drunken captain at the helm of a ship headed for an iceberg. An uninspiring power-hungry man mired in corruption and lacking vision, he is leading his country into disaster.

The truth is that people matter. For good or ill, individuals can change the course of history. Recently, the United States has seen what remarkable change the right person can achieve. A tall African-American man did what most thought impossible. No, I am not talking about Barack Obama, but Boston Celtics forward Kevin Garnett.

To read more, click here. As always, if the spirit moves you, please leave a comment at the end of the article.

Whereas the Governments of the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland declare that they are engaged in a cooperative undertaking, together with every other nation or people of like mind, to the end of laying the bases of a just and enduring world peace securing order under law to themselves and all nations:

And whereas the President of the United States of America has determined, pursuant to the Act of Congress of March 11, 1941, that the defense of the United Kingdom against aggression is vital to the defense of the United States of America;

And whereas the United States of America has extended and is continuing to extend to the United Kingdom aid in resisting aggression;

And whereas it is expedient that the final determination of the terms and conditions upon which the Government of the United Kingdom receives such aid and of the benefits to be received by the United States of America in return therefore should be deferred until the extent of the defense aid is known and until the progress of events makes clearer and final terms and conditions and benefits which will be in the mutual interests of the United States of America and the United Kingdom and will promote the establishment and maintenance of world peace;

And whereas the Governments of the United States of America and the United Kingdom are mutually desirous of concluding now a preliminary agreement in regard to the provision of defense aid and in regard to certain considerations which shall be taken into account in determining such terms and conditions and the making of such an agreement has been in all respects duly authorized, and all acts, conditions and formalities which it may have been necessary to perform, fulfill or execute prior to the making of such an agreement in conformity with the laws either of the United States of America or of the United Kingdom have been performed, fulfilled or executed as required;

The undersigned, being duly authorized by their respective Governments for that purpose, have agreed as follows:

ARTICLE I

The Government of the United States of America will continue to supply the Government of the United Kingdom with such defense articles, defense services and defense information as the President shall authorize to be transferred or provided.

ARTICLE II

The Government of the United Kingdom will continue to contribute to the defense of the United States of America and the strengthening thereof and will provide such articles, services facilities or information as it may be in a position to supply.

ARTICLE III

The Government of the United Kingdom will not without the consent of the President of the United States of America transfer title to, or possession of, any defense article or defense information transferred to it under the act or permit the use thereof by any one not an officer, employee, or agent of the Government of the United Kingdom.

ARTICLE IV

If, as a result of the transfer to the Government of the United Kingdom of any defense article or defense information, it becomes necessary for that government to take any action or make any payment in order fully to protect any of the rights of a citizen of the United States of America who has patent rights in and to any such defense article or information, the Government of the United Kingdom will take such action or make such payment when requested to do so by the President of the United States of America.

ARTICLE V

The Government of the United Kingdom will return to the United States of America at the end of the present emergency, as determined by the President, such defense articles transferred under this agreement as shall not have been destroyed, lost or consumed and as shall be determined by the President to be useful in the defense of the United States of America or of the Western Hemisphere or to be otherwise of use to the United States of America.

ARTICLE VI

In the final determination of the benefits to be provided to the United States of America by the Government of the United Kingdom full cognizance shall be taken of all property, services, information, facilities, or other benefits or considerations provided by the Government of the United Kingdom subsequent to March 11, 1941, and accepted or acknowledged by the President on behalf of the United States of America.

ARTICLE VII

In the final determination of the benefits to be provided to the United States of America by the Government of the United Kingdom in return for aid furnished under the Act of Congress of March 11, 1941, the terms and conditions thereof shall be such as not to burden commerce between the two countries, but to promote mutually advantageous economic relations between them and the betterment of world-wide economic relations. To that end, they shall include provision for agreed action by the United States of America and the United Kingdom, open to participation by all other countries of like mind, directed to the expansion, by appropriate international and domestic measures, of production, employment, and the exchange and consumption of goods, which are the material foundations of the liberty and welfare of all peoples; to the elimination of all forms of discriminatory treatment in international commerce, and to the reduction of tariffs and other trade barriers; and in general, to the attainment of all the economic objectives set forth in the Joint Declaration made on Aug. 12, 1941, by the President of the United States of America and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

At an early convenient date, conversations shall be begun between the two governments with a view to determining, in the light of governing economic conditions, the best means of attaining the above-stated objectives by their own agreed action and of seeking the agreed action of other like-minded governments.

ARTICLE VIII

This agreement shall take effect as from this day's date. It shall continue in force until a date to be agreed upon by the two governments.

Signed and sealed at Washington in duplicate this 23 day of February, 1942.

See also: http://historicalresources.wordpress.com/2008/07/17/the-atlantic-conference-joint-statement-by-president-roosevelt-and-prime-minister-churchill-august-14-1941/

1898 bemüht sich der junge Winston Churchill um einen Offiziersposten, um an der Rückeroberung des Sudan teilzunehmen. Vom Oberkommandierenden Sir Horatio Herbert Kitchener zunächst abgelehnt, gelingt es Churchill, durch die weitreichenden Beziehungen seiner Familie eine Schwadron der 21st Lancers, einer Kavallerieeinheit, als Offizier zu führen. Die Reisekosten muss der junge Churchill selbst tragen. Obwohl nicht unvermögend, deckt er seine Unkosten mit Beiträgen für die Morning Post. Aus den überarbeiteten Beiträgen und zahlreichen Ergänzungen entsteht 1899 der Bericht, der im Juni als Band 282 unter dem Titel „Kreuzzug gegen das Reich des Mahdi“ in der Anderen Bibliothek erschien.

Mehr bei Glanz&Elend.

]]> http://intersticks.wordpress.com/?p=15 Sat, 12 Jul 2008 06:00:38 +0000 Ted http://intersticks.wordpress.com/?p=15

Kegagalan dan kesuksesan kita lebih sering didasarkan pada harapan kita terhadap diri sendiri. Apa yang digerakkan oleh pikiran, tubuh akan bereaksi terhadapnya.(Denis Waitley)

Kau tidak memiliki jiwa. Kaulah sang jiwa. Kau memiliki tubuh.(C.S.Lewis)

Sebuah kritik mungkin tak bisa diterima, tapi ia penting. Fungsinya sama dengan rasa sakit di dalam tubuh. Itu menunjukkan ada yang tak sehat di dalamnya.(Winston Churchill)

Menjaga kesehatan tubuh merupakan suatu kewajiban. Tanpa itu kita tidak bisa menjaga pikiran yang kuat dan jernih.(Sang Buddha)

Good news!  The old crew chickens appear to be accepting the new chicks I introduced into the coop last week.  The latter have been able to negotiate the coop largely unmolested, though the larger birds tend to become aggressive whenever I enter to feed them.  (The get in such a fowl mood!)  I would love to post pictures (the Ameraucanas are absolutely beautiful) but the wife's camera is behaving badly.  Stay tuned.

"I'll meet you at the outdoor cafe.  (I'll be wearing orange.)"  

• By way of demonstrating how the biblical translation you employ can have a significant impact on your exegesis: Do you realise that the King James Version mentions unicorns?

• ‘South Korea currently ranks 12th in the world militarily, whereas North Korea is 18th. South Korea has twice as many men available to the military (24 million to 11 million) and roughly twice as many under arms (657,000 to 382,000). Economically the South ranks 13th in the world with a GDP of $982b (just above Australia), the North ranks 156th with $2b (just above Greenland). North Korea's gross national income was valued at $26.7 billion last year, with its per capita gross national income at $1,152, according to the Bank of Korea. By contrast, South Korea's $971 billion economy grew 5 percent last year, giving it a per capita income at $20,045.’  (So, remind me, why are we still in South Korea?)

• What do Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Pachelbel, and Fleetwood Mac have in common?

• As someone who would have lost my land to this New World Order boondoggle, I am very relieved to know that, in this instance anyway, the Powers That Be heeded the concerns of the little man.

• Sedacca wrote that current financial-market conditions remind him of "someone standing on a lonely beach, armed with only a small bucket, trying to stop a rare tsunami that hits the shores. It is how I feel about our markets and the tools being utilized by the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and other regulatory bodies. They are overmatched for what they are facing and, worse yet, they helped create the mess in the first place by being far too easy with money and debt creation.''

• ‘By [current standards of] morality and logic, Germans at Nuremberg might have asserted a right to kill women and children because that is what the British were doing to [German] women and children.’

• Knock, knock. Who’s there? Hermann Goering’s underwear…

• Maybe those folks in Taxachusetts aren’t so bad after all. A local school committee recently added Ron Paul’s book, ‘The Revolution: A Manifesto’ to its summer reading list.

To-day's 1980's Moment is brought to you by: Billy Joel 

Winston Churchill

Churchill has always been one of my favorite historical figures. He was a man of character and wisdom, and led a nation through it's darkest hour and into it's finest hour.

And then I read this quote last night.

Now, he is my absolute favorite!

This project has been my first serious attempt at a commercial piece of writing. I think about what the nine of us have gone through over the past three months...the late nights, the callouses on our fingers from constant posting to our private threads, the mental anguish of turning in our individual chapters, awaiting the criticism of the other eight.

It has been brutal.

But, on the other hand, we wrote a book in three months!

The last chapter is in, and we are in the process of final polishing, approving cover art, and deciding on the most important piece of this puzzle...what do we use as a pen name?

Churchill was right. This thing has become larger than life, in such a short period of time. It has consumed us, and now, we are almost ready to fling it to the public.

Watch out!

-Whig