Friday, November 11, 2011

11-11-11

Armistice Day later called Veterans' Day

In the USA we started to commemorate this day as Armistice Day in 1918 when the guns fell silent to end the Great War, which we now call either the First World War or else World War One. The reason was that the guns were scheduled to stop all across the fronts at 11:11 that day, the 11th day of the eleventh month.

Now today we even have an eleventh year to add to the numerology of it.

Meanwhile the ten million dead of that war, which they rightly thought was bad, have been outnumbered by the dead of many more wars since then. That one was hyped over here as the War to End All Wars, but it hardly worked out that way after all.

Here in the USA, the name of the day eventually was changed to Veterans' Day, but the date will always hearken us back to the Armistice of World War I.

World War One Scenes Today, in Pics

So I have here a set of about twenty-two pictures, on another site, that show the landscapes in France and Belgium, Gallipoli on the European Turkish coast, and places like that from significant events of World War I and showing them as they look now.

You can still see the earth churned badly at places like Verdun. A whole village disappeared. A wall of a chapel where the British Guards fought in 1914. Take a look, it only takes a few minutes and it's well worth remembering these things. Just scroll down a couple inches from the ad on there.

We have so many war dead that we were compelled to have two days in the year for them, so at the end of May we also have Memorial Day, more specifically aimed to commemorate the dead, whereas this day also encompasses honoring the veterans still living, so I have seen several restaurants, a furniture store and the like, offering free meals or just deals for veterans alive but hungry.  In some cases it can be really crass commercialism, but not always entirely.

WARNING
Ordinary People Stop Reading Here, the Hard-Core Read a Little More

The November 9 Washington Post had an article about mistreatment of the bodies of the returning veterans from 2003 to 2008, but unfortunately I cannot link to the article itself because they are already returning an error message, that it has been hidden away in the past two days apparently. They have hauled parts to landfills, this is specifically at Dover AFB in Delaware, and came out as the result of aa federal investigation. Sorry the link I intended comes up short only two days after the story appeared.

Because of that, the best I can do is show you a blog talking about it, with quotes from the article, but the article itself at the Washington Post is not coming up. You can try it yourself and search for further information if interested. Disgusting though it is, it is better to know than to cover up and pretend it isn't there.

No, go ahead and try that, this link above did work for me, the story is by Whitlock and Jaffe. The one that says 'article itself at the Washington Post.

Then here's the blog, he was talking about the Marine Corps Birthday Nov 9 and reacting to the story referenced.

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7 comments:

  1. The photos on the other site were amazing, the ariel shots of the scarred landscape showing the trenches, and especially the the helmet of that poor Frenchman is still on his grave, amazing!!

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  2. There is a lady with a Blog all about pics like that as she is a PHD History type, into the battlefield archaeology side of things. She has a lot more such and even better, but although I think it actuially is already linked here I can't remember the path now that I think about it.

    It may have been through a Comment earlier in the year, so someone else may recognize the one.

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  3. Hi Onion, I still always think AwnYawn when I see that due to one of my old friends from Ecuador who always said it that way.

    Nobody can follow, as it is, because the follower widget/gadget is not enabled, and also you better go to Design-Settings and see about the Adult Content warning filter, near the bottom of the page above Global Settings, to be TOS compliant, so you can carry on behind it, without a problem; it works more like a curtain than a wall, and does not lose qualified readers for the content, like you might think at first. The other place to go for an informed opinion on that is the TOS itself to see how they word it, there is definitely ten times darker allowed with the filter. Interesting blog by the way, nice pics and stuff there.

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  4. thank you so much for all the info. i really appreciate it. do you know what or where i go to enable followers, i cant figure that part out but i did fix the adult content. thank you again :) have a great wkend!

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  5. Okay here's How To, with additional comments while I am thinking about it.

    Find Design tab, off the Navbar at the top for instance--this takes you to the Back Room

    Page Elements tab--shows outline of page layout but is also interactive so it also does, not just shows

    Look for Add a Gadget in various page locations, header, top, sidebar, bottom, etc

    Suggestion, a good spot might be pretty high up the Right Sidebar, top or next to top of the sidebar, like mine is; that choice is up to your strategy though, I vote above the fold--if your theme has a sidebar that is, I'd use left but my theme only has a right sidebar, and main text to the left--it depends on the theme you see--left is a little better on the eye heat chart, but I don't have a left

    Click on Add a Gadget, a window opens

    In that window select Basics, a list of 24, there are other lists too to look through for items like My Blog List, where you could add me ;) even if irrelevant to corset people

    Scroll down 5 or 6 entries to Followers gadget

    Click the plus sign, it should be added and enabled upon reload of page--done, then hopefully some folks actually interested and willing to add value with meaningful comments will click it, as opposed to near-worthless self-promoting Spammers

    Where I said Widget is an inaccuracy because I learned it on Wordpress.org on other blogs where these are widgets with a w for wordpress, whereas here in Blooger they are gadgets with a G for goggle

    So now, your first comment did look at first glance like a self-serving link all take but no give, adding no value here with no reference nor relevance to the post about Veteran's Day, which is being treated quite reverently in other blogs near here, but now it has added great value of education after all for many possible readers, win-win-and they win

    Such Spammer krap-comments are routinely deleted at wp.org, but utterly stink up wp.com because the poor souls there do not know any better--but now this one's golden

    ReplyDelete
  6. As I live in Belgium, I visited those old battlefields several times. Very impressive!
    They even found trenches under a church. When I visited those I couldn't believe my eyes. How could they live there? They found these by accident, breaking up the floor for renovation. I think it was in Zonnebeke.
    Very nice article and thanks for sharing this information.

    Greetings
    Peter
    http://peterscave.blogspot.com/

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  7. That's one of those countries where because of its location very place you go there was a known battle, from the hisstory that was recorded.
    I remember walking around Braine l'Alleud when I was there, but how many more even I did not know about specifically, and I do pay attention to those things.

    ReplyDelete