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Omar al Hashim View Drop Down
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  Quote Omar al Hashim Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Post of the Month Competition
    Posted: 28-Mar-2007 at 03:53
For March, I nominate Dawn http://allempires.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=18839&PID=349526#349526
More humouros than academic, but I loved it so much
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  Quote Gargoyle Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30-Mar-2007 at 21:15

Gargoyles Nomination for March goes to the following post by Northman... Bravo Northman.

Originally posted by Northman

Just a couple of comments that I think needs to be made.


In many cultures, including my own, its not considered polite to hide your face when talking to someone. I dont know if I would call it rude in this particular case, as I dont see a face hidden behind a veil as a result of a free choice of that person - more of that later in the post.


As far as education and schools concerns, a teacher must be able to have eyecontact and to see the facial expression of students to perform the best teaching. What good is any teaching, if the teacher cannot observe the impact of his words or explanations. He might as well be addressing a wall - and the students might as well be listening to a tape recorder.

Not the best conditions for a successful education.


I strongly suppport individual freedom - to say, do or wear anything anyone chose to. Freedom of specch and expression - also in clothing.


BUT - the sad thing is, the facial veil is NOT an expression of personal freedom, nor is it (as mentioned numerous times here) religious related.

Its pre-Islam, founded in the tribal societies in the middle east 2- or 3.000 years ago, to protect a mans (father or husband) property, hiding the beauty of his women, that no other man should be aroused by her beauty or tempted to want her in one way or the other.

It has become a tradition like many other things many people (including muslims) think is related to religion - ie. the division of men/women in the mosques, honour killings, genitial mutilation etc. etc. All these traditions have only one purpose - to serve the interest of men, to keep and protect their property, the women.

The facial veil was never meant to serve the freedom of women - it still isnt.

The hijab - although I find it beautiful in many cases - is a similar tradition.


In conclusion, as I see it - men who are supporting these traditions can only be seen as protecting their OWN interests - by constantly surpressing the freedom of their women - under the cover of ancient traditions.


~ Northman





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  Quote Justinian Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24-Sep-2007 at 01:13

Originally posted by Konstantinius

Hm, it's not as simple as that.

1941, later in the Summer. It should be mentioned that at this point in the war OKW was still running the eastern campaign with Hitler maintaining control of OKH through Jodl and Keitel. It is very important to stress that at this point in the war it is the generals and OKW (Halder and von Brauchitsch) that are  responsible for the  orders of the day under Hitler's direction of course. There's also considerable discourse and disagreement between OKH and OKW the consequences of which would prove disastrous for the German cause.
Conference (of the generals) at Novy Borisov July 27th 1941: All commanders of Army Group Center attend. There a memo compiled by Brauchitsch (head of OKW) was read that shows the extent of operational confusion that plagued the German command since the beginning of the campaign. Contrary to the desires of Bock (CinC of AG Centre), Guderian (CinC of 2nd Pz Army--nominally under control of von Kluge, commander of 4th Army, one of the 3 main formations that comprised AG Centre) were told that "any immediate advance on Moscow or even Bryansk was ruled out". The first task would be the reduction of the Soviet 5th Army (Maj. Gen. of the tank troops M.I. Potapov) which pivoted on Gomel and bulged out to the south with its westerly flank securely anchored on the Pripet marshes. This in effect meant that the 2nd Pz (Guderian) would swing around more than 90 degrees in a soutwesterly--homebound--direction. Guderian was rabid. Him and Bock definitely favored a direct advance on Moscow. At the same conference Guderian gets compensated by having his formation renamed into Armeegruppe Guderian in effect becomind independent and severing the strings to Kluge: " The Pz group is no longer subordinate to 4th Army". This must have come to Guderian's great satisfaction since him and Kluge never got along and were often at odds with each other since the days of France (aah, those were the times!). IMMEDIATELY and at direct OPPOSITION to orders Guderian, with Bock's eulogies, sets to implementing his own plans: an attack on Roslav. His attack culminated in a series of brilliant encirclement battles at Yelnya and Roslav in which a total of a further 100,000 Soviet troops were annihilated. This is a classic example of the many acts of insubordination committed by the generals when they were able to still run the show before Hitler stepped fully in and took direct personal command, yet it created a brilliant tactical situation: for almost seventy miles, between Yelnya and the Bryansk bend, there was NO POSSIBILITY OF SOVIET RESISTANCE WORTH SPEAKING OF. Moscow laid a mere 150 miles to the east. Obviously Guderian had tried to force OKH's hand by imposing a tactical situation (brilliant, albeit against orders) in which an advance on Moscow would become the obvious alternative to all other plans. Here Hitler himself steps in.
Hitler's conference at Novy Borisov, end of August 1941. HIlter declares that Leningrad was the primary objective at that time. After that had been achieved the choice would lie between Moscow and the Ukraine, and his inclination was to favor the latter on economic and strategic grounds. The capture of Leningrad would shut out the Soviets from the Baltic as well as impose a huge moral blow (Leningrad was the seat of the October Revolution) while the capture of the Ukraine would provide Germany with necessary agricultural products and open up the road to the Caspian oil fields. Why didn't Hitler jump on the opportunity created by Guderian's insubordination? here comes Alan Clark with his explanation: " Hitler...it is most likely that he was seriously taken aback by the ferocity and strength of Russian resistance. The ghost of Napoleon stood at his elbow, as it did at some moment for every German officer in the East, and he was determined to resist the temptation of a march on Moscow until he had laid (as he believed) a secure strategic foundation." OK, lets accept this explanation. So, at the end of August, LENINGRAD BECOMES THE OBJECTIVE. AG Centre is ordered to redirect a bunch of their units north to reinforce  Leeb's AG North. What happened? Here comes Alan Clark again: "Now followed an agonising period, two and a  half weeks long, of interregnum. AG Centre, its leadership hamstrung, floundered on the brink of a tremendous opportunity, while opposite them,  for nineteen perfect campaigning days, the Russians worked unmolested to build their shattered front." And he continues in what I consider a brilliant assesment: "It remains to be said that had the generals accepted Hitler's orders and put themselves wholeheartedly into the preparation of an immediate drive on Leningrad, that city would probably have fallen by the end of August. But instead, as will be seen, AG Centre procrastinated. The Panzers were not taken off the line, yet they did not move forward; some divisions were sent north to Leeb, others were released with great reluctance by bock for a southward move; but neither was done in the strength required. And while these hesitations and delays dragged on, the days--the priceless summer meridian of dry going and soft temperatures--slipped past." More on the disputes: "Not unnaturally, OKH was becoming increasingly restless at the continuing disobedience form its commanders. On 11th August, AG Centre was formally notified that the plan of Col. Gen. Guderian (for an advance along the Moscow highway) was rejected as being completely unsatisfactory. Bock thought it prudent not to demur and agreed to the cancellation. Guderian, however, was furious." When Guderian was ordered by OKH to release one division for the drive to Gomel he proceeded to order von Geyr's ENTIRE  24th Corps (comprising of the crack  3rd and 4th Pz and the 10th Motorized) hoping that Bock would never ascend to such drastic reduction of AG Centre's armored punch; Bock however gave the OK and the result was that these formations were recalled back too late  and in a sad state from the fighting around Leningrad when the advance on Moscow was finally agreed upon.
What about Leningrad? Here again "the German direction of operations suffered from overlap and contradictions with personal and political factors." Mannerheim's decision to not invade SU and directly attack Leningrad made a complete encirclement impossible. This is starting to change Hitler's mind AGAIN: "On 6th September he issued Directive No. 35 which provided for a return of the Panzergruppen to AG Centre and the preparation for a final attack on the Russian capital." As a result, the whole of Hoepner's Gruppe (4th Pz Army comprising of 41 Pz K-Reinhardt--,56th Pz K--von Manstein--, Pz A Reserve--SS Totenkopf), moved south in addition to those of von Geyr's (reaattaching himself to Guderian) and Hoth (3rd Pz Army consisting of 39th Pz K--Gen. Schmidt-- and 57th Pz K--Gen. Kuntzen) who was to reattach to AG Centre under Bock.
What does Leeb do? He decides to go on a FULL SCALE ATTACK on Leningrad AFTER he was ordered to return the formations South!!! Another insubordination in a drive for personal glory on the battlefield. On 12th September it is embarrassingly clear to OKH that a full-bloodied combat is taking place at Leningrad and Halder teleprints Leeb to remind him that the city 'was not to be taken but merely encircled. The attack should no go beyond the Petergof-Pushkin road ( a line that Leeb had already passed in his attack)." In the process, the elite formations of 6th Pz and 1st Pz will get caught in vicious street fighting, incur high casualties and loose many of their vehicles. As a result not only they are back (south) late but in a truly sorry state of mobility.


Certain things are clear to me:
a) the German High Command and Hitler personally DID NOT HAVE A CLEAR STRATEGIC GOAL at the beginning of Barbarossa. They functioned on the premise that large enemy formations should be encircled and put out of action which worked brilliantly for them time and again ( Kessels at Minsk; Zhitomir; Yelnya; Bryansk; biggest encirclement battle in History, 1st battle of Kiev, annihilation of Budenny's Southern front, 700,000 soviet troops dead/taken prisoner) other than that, commanders seem to have had their own appreciation of the situation with Hitler changing his overall approach MONTHLY.
b) they could have taken Moscow EASILY (as in 1942 Hoth could have advanced to STALINGRAD UNOPPOSED after the failure of the Soviet offensive in the South--2nd Battle of Kharkov--but instead he was REDIRECTED south to boost Kleist's advance in the Crimea) after Guderian's coup de grace at Yelnya/Bryansk
c) in essence the Germans had PLENTY OF TIME with or without the "Greek affair" in the south or the whole Balkan expedition.
Was it the winter? Or the inability to handle an apparently defeated and crushed enemy? Or their personal overlaps and ambitions?

Ahh, they came so close...

I would nominate this one by Konstantinius from this thread:
 
 
Really, I could pick any of his posts from that thread.
"War is a cowardly escape from the problems of peace."--Thomas Mann

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  Quote pekau Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01-Oct-2007 at 19:17
Originally posted by Omar al Hashim

Originally posted by Ponce

is it just me, or does erkut's avatar make him look smarter?

http://www.allempires.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=15553

Yes I do realise I'm nominating Ponce for best post, however I think its a very astute observation on how people are influenced by the 'apperance' of another in judging their argument.


 
The avatar contrast between Paul and erkut...
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I think it's trying to tell us something...Big%20smile 
     
   
Join us.
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  Quote Justinian Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26-Oct-2007 at 22:10
No idea if we are still doing this or not...
 
Originally posted by Seko

That is what I would like to know too. "What, who are you?" I have admiration for someone who can explain this without resorting to a fruitless imagination. Let's eliminate Proto-Bulgars from this picture for the sake of this arguement. Eliminate asian genes too, which one of you is more than gladly willing to do. Eliminate Slavic ancestry. Eliminate Greek relations. Eliminate Avar relations.
 
Instead let's focus on the Thracians. Not only Dacians, the heirs of the land, or the Romans mind you. Let's go further back in time and include the Cimmerians in this too. Then let's conclude that you have more ancient Thracian genes in modern Bulgaria than all of the latter day peoples put together.
 
You see how hard it is too believe. Shouldn't ancient graves relate only to those ancients? The rest is theory or wishful thinking. I will play ignorant fo a while and assume that Thracians are the predominant ancestors of modern Bulgars. Happy so far? I don't know why other than they 'llived on this land'. Centuries before todays Bulgars! Being somewhat rational, I wonder, whatever happened to those other peoples, after the Thracians, that lived in Bulgaria? Slavs, Avars, Bulgars, Greeks, Turks, are they not part of today's Bulgar composition?
 
But I'm not finished. I want to be just as proud of my heritage too. So I will absurdly say that I am Akkadian, Hittite, Lydian, Greek, Persian, Turk, and anything else that gloriously passed my ancestors way. Most importantly I will fixate on one of the most distant and assume I have 70% Hittite genes. Then I would dig up all kinds of ad hoc articles to prove my point. In fact, I will mentally eliminate anyone, after the ancients, so I could sleep well at night!
 
Who am I really?
 
Who are you?
Just brilliant.Clap
"War is a cowardly escape from the problems of peace."--Thomas Mann

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  Quote Justinian Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01-Nov-2007 at 21:21

Found another post worthy of recognition, this one by elenos from the tigers in africa thread:

Originally posted by elenos

New problems demand new understandings. Nature has many meanings including environment, climate change, global warming, and ecology and so on. To simplify we could put all terms of reference under the heading of Nature to address the multitude of divisions. Many terms are needed to separate the issues, but too many terms lead to confusion. Having a central concept can clarify the issues, our understanding never stands still. For all we know there is always more to know. We overcome negative emotions that cause inaction or inappropriate behavior. Too many opinions exist among people and nations to build a true global effort.

The problem is finding ways that can inspire action. Yet are we being gripped by a knee jerk reaction - or doing something we love? At the end of the day we need to be assured of becoming the person we want to be surrounded by the kind of society we want to live in. Perhaps the environment urges us to change in ways from within and in ways admired by other people.

The concern is for cooperation within our limits, we know rapid changes take place in air, water, and weather patterns. Use the word of Nature covers many complex relationships. Perhaps surroundings we have now may seem like paradise in future times and as such is precious.  Our human nature needs to be in contact the better nature of others otherwise we get nowhere. If we only had better ways of loving the world what a wonderful world this would be. Public education so far has been a band aid solution; learning about the problems does not necessarily make us care more about them.

We need to understand more about the natural world but why should anyone celebrate a declining situation? As Shakespeare put it, One touch of Nature makes the whole world kin. Having a love of Nature could unite yet has any unity been found in self-seeking Green groups? The ancient Greeks talked of Heiros Gamos, our marriage to Nature taken for better or for worse. They said we had the need to remain partners with our surroundings. Was this an ancient superstition or a valid expression of survival for all times? Sometimes the old approaches come back to haunt us and say I told you so!

If we dont care for the environment then it rises up to kick us in the ass and every time. The human nature within is understood as the cause of all our relations with the world. Environmentalists have grasped some of this in their efforts to preserve the natural world for future generations but simply dont go far enough. Those of the future will need to think and feel in better ways than we do. When we get too arrogant and disrupt too much then external forces rise up to bring us down.

Nature, as a term, goes across nearly fifty different languages with similar spellings for thousands of years. Perhaps this tells of a lost way of unity. We could use a capitol letter for Nature. Can the natural workings around us be so misunderstood that none dare respect the place of Nature in our affairs? This active term expresses many entirely different situations and is used in the sense of understanding the environment around us. To build respect for natural forces gives respect for the ties that bind us to the land. Our living by self invention for ourselves alone cannot put us outside the realms of Nature.

Nature could be called a ragbag, a collection of unrelated happenings, yet a balance and order takes place among the elements in the forming of life. Everything about growth can be seen to come under heading of Nature and the one term simplifies what is difficult to explain otherwise. Like in the similar term of love (from the same language group) a whole group of meanings becomes compressed into one term to show what goes on inside and around us.

To live in better ways is to put aside games that trick us into wanting more than what we can give back to the welfare of the world as a whole. Nature, as an entity, does not ask us to give away our successes only our excesses. We must never approach Nature as something to be ruled over and mastered. Here is a living partner that needs consultation (as in environmental impact statements.)

Three things are asked for in our deal with the world. To make better use of what we have, are less wasteful in our ways, and only take what we can use. Having less of Nature in our lives becomes ways found to have more. Our thinking needs to be reborn into the age of space, the age of science and above all the age of future environment where our senses and emotions respond to our natural surroundings in real time ways.

"War is a cowardly escape from the problems of peace."--Thomas Mann

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  Quote Justinian Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09-Nov-2007 at 06:19
One need only take a look at the last page or two in that thread (tigers in africa) to find multiple posts worthy of recognition.  I thought edgewaters comment in the thread, "hellenistic history: why viewed as obscure?" was also worth mentioning.
 
Hard to select just a few to mention here, so many are deserving of praise.
 


Edited by Justinian - 09-Nov-2007 at 06:20
"War is a cowardly escape from the problems of peace."--Thomas Mann

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  Quote Justinian Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24-Feb-2008 at 22:14
Another thread I let get away from me.Clown
 
Amongst a list of quality posts was this one by Mughaal:
 
Originally posted by Mughaal

 One thing I realized and Alan Greenspan confirmed on the Today Show with Jon Stewart: No matter how educated humans get, how intelligent they become, how much technology they have access to, humans will be humans.
 
Humans will get scared, get angry, humans will subjugate and then be subjugated, humans will kill and ask for mercy when they are in turn to be killed. Humans have brains, but they also have emotions. They have ideas but also worries and fears.
 
Once I realized how fragile humans were, I just gave up my agnosticism and embraced religion. Allahu Alim.
 
I took a spin with the whole "we are here to enjoy life" but found it such a dreary and futile concept. For one, many people in the world are unable to enjoy life. They live through times of war and mayhem, and its not fair their life sucks and others have less sucky lives. Anyhow, happiness, like sadness, are fleeting feelings that you "deal" with until new conditions arrive (granted happiness is *easiest* to deal with). Its a state of being, and to say the purpose of life is to be "happy" consistently is to say you want to achieve some sort of Buddhist enlightenment or want to be in a state of high until death.
And even with being drugged (chemical changes in body making you feel elated) the body will get used to the current high, and you need more drugs to reach an even higher state of high, until your drugged out body is ditched 6 ft under.
 
Secondly, I noticed money doesnt buy happiness, but goods. In fact money is a currency for exchanging goods, not emotions and feelings. You may be emotive after purchasing a new toy or game, but its not exactly a feeling that stays.
 
Lastly, I didnt want to die. Because that meant end of feeling, and I wouldnt truly know how things turned out. 
 
from the purpose of life thread here:


Edited by Justinian - 24-Feb-2008 at 22:16
"War is a cowardly escape from the problems of peace."--Thomas Mann

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  Quote Knights Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16-Dec-2008 at 00:55
*bump*

The post-of-the-month will be published in the monthly newsletter, so feel free to start nominating again!
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  Quote Knights Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17-Dec-2008 at 00:13
Well, I have a nomination. It goes to Parnell, for what some might see as a lame and obvious remark, but I laughed - so I am nominating it Smile

http://www.allempires.net/forum_posts.asp?TID=26156&PID=492935#492935
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  Quote Knights Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10-Feb-2009 at 03:10
If anyone has any post of the month nominations, please put them in now, ready for the release of the February Newsletter in the next few days. You can nominate you own or another member's post.

Cheers.
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  Quote TheAlaniDragonRising Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17-May-2011 at 07:03
Does this post of the month competition still exist?
What a handsome figure of a dragon. No wonder I fall madly in love with the Alani Dragon now, the avatar, it's a gorgeous dragon picture.
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  Quote red clay Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17-May-2011 at 10:11
Originally posted by TheAlaniDragonRising

Does this post of the month competition still exist?
 
 
Get out of our heads!Big smile The post of the month doesn't exist right now.  But CV wants to reactivate it. As do several others.  What I think will come out of this is a Member of the month as well as the post of the month.
We've just started working on it. Set up will be soon.
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