If you long for the life of the past, slower and historic then visit or move to Giethoorn, a Dutch village north of Amsterdam but close. Cars are parked on the outside of the village because there are no roads in the town. No, not one! There are only canals, 4 miles of them, and paths across the wooden bridges. The farmhouses were built in the 18 C and still have the typical thatched roofs. It was founded in 1230 by fugitives from the Mediterranean,
Tourists take canal tours and enjoy cycling and sailing just as the residents do. Check out the video to see for yourself why Giethoorn is known as the Green Venice or the Venice of Netherlands!
Text from the BBC, images from Google Public Domain
Have any of you gone to a canal city? What do you think?
Please watch the video about an unselfish hero in the horror of yesterday. A fund was set up to help Chris with his medical bills and the goal was $10,000. In just five hours, the total is over $160,000!
More tragic news about a school shooting in Oregon State yesterday. The shooter was described as a loner, living with his mother, uncomfortable with people, and seen wearying the same army clothes day in and day out. He shall remain nameless on my site. He was 26 years old.
A commentator said that all, the too recent shooters, had one thing in common besides the guns, not personality or family situation, not mental illness, but all were in their late teens to early to mid 20s.
The shooter in Oregon is being investigated and his computer use is under scrutiny as I type, so enough about him. My thoughts and prayers are for the survivors and families of the victims.
This situation made me think about two young men in the same age group with very different stories. One is my brother George Tullidge whom some may remember. If not , I am including my post on the brother who jumped into France the night before D-Day. He died 3 days later on a ship returning to England.
Recently, as I have been making contacts to ensure that my brother’s memory is preserved in the Airborne Museum in Normandy and the American Cemetery in Cambridge where he is buried, I have met Tracy. Here is her son’s story from the BBC:
Image captionCpl Martin Windmill, 24, is to be honoured for bravery during service in Afghanistan
A Cambridgeshire soldier described as “the bravest of the brave” is to receive the Military Cross.
Cpl Martin Windmill, of 2nd Battalion The Parachute Regiment, was honoured for maintaining command and taking enemy positions despite being injured.
He was second in command of a unit operating in Nahr-e Saraj in Afghanistan in December, when his team came under fire from insurgents.
Cpl Windmill suffered shrapnel wounds, but continued fighting for four hours.
He said: “It felt like somebody had stabbed me with a nail in random places in my leg.”
‘Demonstrated courage’
However, he made the decision not to risk the safety of others by calling in a rescue helicopter.
“In those situations it’s hard to call in a helicopter,” Cpl Windmill said.
“There were still Taliban in the area so rather than risk a helicopter for me, who could limp, it just made more sense to keep going until we reached a safer area.”
He added: “Those sorts of things are done every day out there.
“I don’t like the term ‘bravest of the brave’ to be used, really. Obviously lots of other guys have got some really serious injuries and others have been killed.
“They’re the brave ones.”
Cpl Windmill’s citation reads: “To assault the enemy under fire, post a grenade directly into an enemy position and simultaneously maintain clear command of his subordinates again demonstrated Windmill’s courage.”
It adds: “Throughout the Battlegroup, Windmill is now simply regarded as the bravest of the brave.”
Cpl Windmill, who comes from Cambridgeshire, is one of 16 soldiers to receive the Military Cross in recognition of service during operations carried out between October 2010 and March 2011.
Three young men all around the same age, all had guns or weapons which they used. For me, Martin and George were serving their countries and fighting against fascism and terror. The shooter in Oregon caused terror.
I value your opinions, blogger friends!
Addition: I just heard of a hero yesterday in Oregon, ironically a veteran who is home now and was attending the college. He protected others by blocking a door and in the action , he was shot 5 times. Thankfully, this young man is recovering and will go home to his 6 year old son as a hero!
Sunday night was the first episode and my only complaint was that it was on later than I wished. See where the English went to escape the heat and sun of The Indian Summers. The accents make it a tad challenging to understand but Downton Abbey is in its last season, so this is a great addition! If you like history, great writing and acting, breathtaking scenery , filmed at the foot of the Himalayas and tucked into the tea plantations, intrigue , complicated love stories. . . .take a look. I love history, BBC miniseries with stellar writing and acting, handsome Indians, beautiful Indian women . . . . .and of course Incredible India!
Storyline
Set against the sweeping grandeur of the Himalayas and tea plantations of Northern India, the drama tells the rich and explosive story of the decline of the British Empire and the birth of modern India, from both sides of the experience. But at the heart of the story lie the implications and ramifications of the tangled web of passions, rivalries and clashes that define the lives of those brought together in this summer which will change everything. It’s the summer of 1932. India dreams of Independence, but the British are clinging to power. In the foothills of the Himalayas stands Simla; a little England where every summer the British power-brokers of this nation are posted to govern during the summer months.Written by Channel4
Image copyrightAFPImage captionMohammad Akhlaq was a farm worker
A 50-year-old man in northern India has been killed in a mob lynching allegedly over rumours that his family had been storing and consuming beef at home.
Mohammad Akhlaq was kicked and beaten with stones by a group of men in Dadri in Uttar Pradesh state on Monday night.
Mr Akhlaq’s 22-year-old son was also seriously injured in the attack, and has been admitted to a hospital.
Six people have been arrested in connection with the incident. Police are probing who spread the rumour.
Slaughter of cows is a sensitive issue in India as the animal is considered sacred by Hindus, who comprise 80% of the country’s 1.2bn people.
Uttar Pradesh is among a number of Indian states who have tightened laws banning cow slaughter and the sale and consumption of beef.
The beef ban has also provoked outrage with many questioning how the government decides what is on their plate.
Mr Akhlaq’s family said the family had stored mutton, and not beef in their fridge. The police have taken the meat and sent it for testing, reports said.
“Some locals spread rumours that Akhlaq had cow meat at his home and engaged in cow slaughter. Following the rumours, they attacked his home,” senior local official NP Singh told The Indian Express newspaper.
Senior police official Kiran S told the AFP news agency that the “announcement about the family consuming beef was made at a [local] temple”.
The incident happened in a village, barely 50km (31 miles) away from the Indian capital, Delhi, where Mr Akhlaq, a farm worker, lived with his family.
Image copyrightAFPImage captionRelatives mourn the death of Mohammad Akhlaq in the villageImage copyrightHindustan TimesImage captionLocal villagers protested against the arrests and clashed with the policeImage captionMr Akhlaq’s family says a temple made an announcement that they had consumed beefImage captionThere is tight security outside Mr Akhlaq’s house
His 18-year-old daughter Sajida told the newspaper that a “group of more than 100 people from the village” reached the house on Monday night.
“They accused us of keeping cow meat, broke down our doors and started beating my father and brother. My father was dragged outside the house and beaten with bricks,” she said.
“We had come to know later that an announcement had been made from the temple about us eating beef…There was some mutton in the fridge…The police have taken it for examination.”
Reports said local villagers, protesting against the arrests, had clashed with the police, and damaged a number of vehicles.
Eleven states – including Uttar Pradesh – and two union territories (federally-administered regions) in India ban slaughter of cows, calves, bulls and bullocks.
On our south trip, this was the last stop before returning to Ahmadabad after 13 days of travelling. We had not gone there in 2013. It is an breathtaking site of temple after temple carved from the hillside. We started at the Buddhist temples as they were the oldest, next came the Hindu temples of which Kailasa Temple is the crown jewel! We could enter and climb in all the temples. . . As we poked around in the first sites, David kept saying that there is more to come and he was right of course. Kailasa Temple in all her glory. Lastly, were the Jain Temples.
I am disclaiming David Wolfe’s idea of aliens. For me this is just an amazing example of architecture that was formed by the creative genius of ancient incredible Indian people!
This Is Incredible India!
I would love to hear your thoughts. . aliens or ancient talented excavators?
Canada pulls away from Iroquois to win World Indoor Lacrosse Championship
Daniel Dawson of Canada gets in between Iroquois players Miles and Lyle Thompson during the gold-medal game in the World Indoor Lacrosse Championships on Sunday, Sept. 27, 2015, at the Carrier Dome. (Michael Greenlar | mgreenlar@syracuse.com)
on September 27, 2015 at 6:04 PM, updated September 27, 2015 at 9:29 PM
Syracuse, N.Y. — Canada continues to rule the international box.
It was a sell-out crowd for the games yesterday. The Dome has 50,000 seats,but obviously there are less people. I guess the tickets available for watching lacrosse were sold out!
Team Canada defeated the Iroquois 12-8 Sunday afternoon in the Carrier Dome in the tournament title game to extend its domination in the World Indoor Lacrosse Championship. Canada has won every gold medal in the history of the event and has never lost a game during that period.
Curtis Dickson scored four goals to pace Canada, which led for most of Sunday’s game.
The Iroquois closed the gap to 8-7 and produced a rise out of the Carrier Dome crowd of 10,421 when Lyle Thompson drove to the cage, leapt high and threw the ball into the right corner.
But two straight goals from Canada — an easy breakaway from Steve Priolo and a nice feed from Mark Matthews to Stephan Leblanc in an unsettled situation propped Canada’s lead back to 10-7 with 9:57 left in the game.
Canada led the Iroquois 6-5 at halftime on the strength of two Curtis Dickson goals. The game was as evenly played as the score suggested. Each team scored twice on power-play chances.
Iroquois coach Rich Kilgour said Friday night that his team was undersized compared to Canada, which surrounds its goalies with big, strong bodies. Going inside on Team Canada requires guts and the understanding that punishment awaits from body and stick checks. Getting anything close to the crease for the Iroquois was a game-long challenge.
Syracuse, N.Y. — Canada continues to rule the international box.
Canada scores on Iroquois goalie Angus Goodleaf, at right, at left is teammate Brandon Goodwin, in first quarter action. Iroquois vs Canada in World Indoor Lacrosse Championship gold medal game in Carrier Dome, Sunday September 27, 2015. Michael Greenlar | mgreenlar@syracuse.com
It’s easy to criticize the crimes and tragedies of the world. They are there for all to see. But where do they begin? Each one started with an interior decision, a moment in which the person decided to look at reality differently.
What’s the worst thing you can do to life? Put it in a jar. Reduce it to a spectacle for diversion. Suffocate it with cameras Aspirational, tags, and screens. Trap it, control it, and impose your boundaries and rules on it. Although it may survive for a time, although you say it caused no harm, in the end, only death can follow. It all starts with a gaze, with a way of looking at reality. Harmless enough, correct?
We can be completely blind to the reality dealing with life. It is almost as if the reality of life is completely foreign to us , a wavelength that we are unable to perceive, an algorithm that was unable to be decoded. Is this not the reality that we so often face when dealing with the attacks on human dignity today?
The cruelty of euthanasia is nothing more than a blurred vision of reality, when looking upon the body, we lose sight of the person. We could say the same of pornography, which is probably the most convincing proof in favor of the deadly habits that start with an impure gaze The Case of Ted Bundy.
Still, the interesting part is that this attack on dignity does not start with a knife, with a pro-abortion campaign, or a piece of legislature promoting euthanasia, etc. It starts with ignorance that stems from irreverence. It starts with a supposedly “harmless” gaze that allows itself to be blinded to the dignity of life in all of its forms. It starts when the human heart is replaced with a mechanical one, and the look of love becomes one of egoistic curiosity.
Such a gaze occurs in all sorts of situations: any time we allow our own egoistic interests to blind us from mystery and dignity of life. Often, we justify ourselves claiming that nothing comes from a harmless gaze…
Therein lies its eloquence: the subtle progression. It’s the progression of a gaze that becomes a way of looking at reality, a mentality that turns into a hobby, that turns into a vice, that turns into an obsession, that turns into a series of acts, that finally turns into a culture, a culture of death. Only in being aware of the progression can we nip it at the beginning.
That said, if such a gaze can generate such death, what about a gaze that knows to recognize and celebrate life in its freedom and dignity? What kind of culture can we generate, what kind of world can we build? With a gaze of love, could we not begin to build that so desired dream that Pope Paul VI once called the “Civilization of Love?”
About Garrett Johnson
Garrett Johnson has written 364 post in this blog.
Born in Texas, I fell in love with evangelization when I was 18. A former NET member and a Franciscan University of Steubenville Alumni, I am now living in Rome and studying for the priesthood.
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TalesAlongTheWay 