Remembrance/Armistice Day (11 November)

[tab1]

OOOps sorry! I know you people aren't allowed to look at naughty young ladies showing their tooties even in print.

 

 

No no please don't be sorry American, that may imply humility, now if you have a naughty Daughter or a young lady in your family that you want any Muslim to inspect a tootsie of, then I can promiss to persuade a Muslim to have a look at her for you, Hey it's the least I can do. Are your lot that desperate to display their tootsies that you're actually complaining of Muslims not looking at them? That is a new one:hihi: You're not as stupid as I thought you were, you're even worse!

[callippo]

List of the world's top 500 Universities

http://www.arwu.org/rank/2005/ARWU2005_Top100.htm

 

The list is dominated by the USA and Canada. Two institutions, one in Istanbul, the other in Cairo, both in the 4-500 list, figure in the top 500. There's nothing from any of the wealthy Gulf states. Whatever they've invested they're trillions of dollars of oil wealth in, in certainly hasn't been in education.

[Agent Orange]

I decided to create this fitting tribute to all that have fallen, not only in the great war, but those who have fallen in other conflicts and other theatres of war (Iraq and Afghanistan to name the most recent). I would be grateful if you could join me by changing your avatar to that of a poppy until 11/11/08, the 90th anniversary of Armistice Day.

 

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,

England mourns for her dead across the sea.

Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of spirit,

Fallen in the cause of the free.

 

Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal

Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.

There is music in the midst of desolation

And a glory that shines upon our tears.

 

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,

Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.

They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,

They fell with their faces to the foe.

 

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

 

They mingle not with laughing comrades again;

They sit no more at familiar tables of home;

They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;

They sleep beyond England's foam.

 

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,

Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,

To the innermost heart of their own land they are known

As the stars are known to the Night;

 

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,

Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,

As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,

To the end, to the end, they remain.

 

Thank you.

 

AO

[steelhead31]

A worthy cause.. done and done!.. We may not agree with the numpties that send our troops out to fight, but the troops deserve our wholehearted support.

[Agent Orange]

Indeed. I will remember those who have fallen in the most recent conflicts equally as those who made the ultimate sacrifice in the great war and world war 2.

[bigwind]

count me in, i'll be at the cenetaph in barkers pool on rememberance sunday to honour the memory of my grandad who was killed in wwII during the dunkirk evacuation, also to honour my great uncle who died at the age of 19 from wounds he recieved whilst fighting on the somme in ww1,

 

but as a former serviceman myself i will also be honouring our war dead from all the subsequent conflicts our forces have been involved in during the last 60 years of 'peace' since the end of wwII

[Sweatshopboy]

Two Minutes Of Silence To Our Glorious Dead

 

Out to France one day some tourists went, the battlefields to see

There they saw the wreck and ruin, of the fight for liberty

One old soldier digging graves there, stopped his work and with his spade

Proudly he stood to attention, o'er a grave he had newly made

All the tourists stood and watched him, why stand so? one of them said

Solemnly the soldier answered, my two minutes to the dead.

 

Chorus

 

Two minutes of silence, two minutes of prayer

Bow your head to the glorious dead, Who lie in the graves out there

A world stood by in silence, in reverence we see

To hero's so brave, who's lives freely gave, just to keep old Britain free

 

I have seen them in the trenches, in the cruel frost and snow

Standing there with bayonets ready, in two minutes o'er the top they go

No complaints, a simple handshake, they were there to prove their worth

Best of luck was all they murmured, perhaps their last words on this earth

And each wooden cross that I am fixing, says to all who passes by

Side by side they fought together, side by side in death they lie.

 

Recitation

 

 

Yes only two minutes of silence

Not much as the years speed by

But enough at a time when needed

To prove how a Britain can die

 

Enough for the heartbroken mother

Who opens a message to learn

That the lad who for years she had worshipped

Never more to her side will return

 

Enough for the wife now a widow

To gaze at her children and say

God help us my darlings to bear it

Your Daddy was killed in the fray

 

Enough for the gray haired old father

To learn of the death of his son

And to say though his heart may be breaking

Twas Gods will and Gods will shall be done

 

And I'm out here digging graves now

So that all who have suffered a loss

May stand by a grave where he's buried

For two minutes prayer at his cross

 

So thats why I stand to attention

Though to me it seems only too small

To give two minutes to the departed

Who for England and Honour gave all

 

Repeat Chorus

 

Written, Composed and Sung by

Reuben Price

7th Battalion York and Lancaster Regiment

Member of the 17th (Northern) Division concert party The DUDS

 

Written at Serre France. November 1919

[Dozy]

Sorry, but in my opinion there is bugger all "glorious" about the poor sods who died in the First World War, or since then.

 

They weren't all heroes - they weren't all there from choice - they were cannon fodder, sacrified by incompetent Generals in order to achieve very little, most of the time.

 

Much as we owe the men and women who have died for their country, I think the following is a far more accurate reflection of the "glory" of war.

 

Wilfred Owen

Dulce et Decorum est

 

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,

Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,

Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,

And towards our distant rest began to trudge.

Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,

But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame, all blind;

Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots

Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.

 

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! — An ecstasy of fumbling

Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,

But someone still was yelling out and stumbling

And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime. —

Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,

As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

 

In all my dreams before my helpless sight

He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

 

If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace

Behind the wagon that we flung him in,

And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,

His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin,

If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood

Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs

Bitter as the cud

Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, —

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest

To children ardent for some desperate glory,

The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est

Pro patria mori.

[Alastair]

Forget that one...

[CHAIRBOY]

Feature on living centenarian Harry Patch.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/last_tommy_gallery_03.shtml