The Only Victoria Cross of 6th June 1944

By Rob Atherton

The 6th June 1944 witnessed the greatest invasion force ever land on the beaches at Normandy just a few hours after a large number of paratroopers had landed in German occupied France. D-Day was now underway.

A huge number of Allied soldiers landed on the five beaches of Normandy; Gold, Sword, Juno, Omaha and Utah. There were countless acts of bravery yet there was only one single Victoria Cross granted on D-Day. It was given to CSM Stan Hollis who ended up on Gold Beach.

Hollis was a seasoned veteran who had previously seen action at Dunkirk, El Alamein and Sciliy. He had previously been captured by the Afrika Korps but managed to get away to rejoin the war.

Discipline wise, Hollis was never a model soldier yet on D-Day, there was no doubting his expertise as a soldier. He had also been recommended for a Distinguished Conduct Medal while in action in Italy and it was as part of the offensive on the Mont Fleury Battery that Hollis earned his Victoria Cross in action with the Green Howards regiment.

While his company, advanced off the landing beach, he observed two pillboxes had been missed. As Hollis went along to look into, the Nazis inside commenced shooting. Hollis attacked them and eliminated both pillboxes acquiring quite a few pows in the act. This made it possible for the primary exit from the beach front to stay open.

Later on that day near the village of Crepon, Hollis engaged the Germans with a Bren gun to free 2 British troopers who had been cornered in a building. He successfully freed both soldiers. The bravery exhibited by Hollis in Normandy on D-Day preserved many British lives and he was given the Victoria Cross. Holllis was wounded in Sept of that year and the next month was given his medal by King George VI. Today, his Victoria Cross is on show at the Green Howards Museum in Yorkshire alongside a number of other Victoria Cross accorded in battle to other soldiers of the regiment.

About the Author:

The D-Day landings in Normandy saw the start of the Allied fightback in the Second World War. Today, the beaches are frequently visited by groups wanting to see the historic battlefields for themselves.

Celtic Weddings

By Owen Jones

Celtic wedding are an perfect way of showing your being a Celt. It is also a way of incorporating traditional values, symbols, themes and customs into major events in your life. However, Celtic wedding are hugely popular not only among people with a Celtic tradition, but among other couples who are taken by the ancient Celtic culture.

Celtic wedding have traditional symbolic motifs, often based on the Celtic knot. Welsh, Irish and Scottish families will sometimes marry in ancient buildings like castles or old manors, but that is not the standard. A traditional Celtic wedding is not greatly different from a normal British wedding in a lot of ways.

However, the number of similarities between Celtic wedding ceremony traditions and normal British-style weddings goes a lot further than that. If you want a traditional British style wedding, you will be going unwittingly for a Celtic wedding. But you can beef up the Celtic element of the wedding ritual even further without sinking into silly theatrics.

This is a traditional Celtic poem about when to marry:

Marry when the year is new, Always loving, kind and true.

When February birds do mate, You may wed, nor dread your fate.

If you wed when March winds blow, Joy and sorrow both you'll know.

Marry in April when you can, Joy for maiden and for man.

Marry in the month of May, You will surely rue the day.

Marry when June roses blow, Over land and sea you'll go.

They who in July do wed, Must labour always for their bread.

Whoever wed in August be, Many a change are sure to see.

Marry in September's shine, Your living will be rich and fine.

If in October you do marry, Love will come but riches tarry.

If you wed in bleak November, Only joy will come, remember.

When December's showers fall fast, Marry and true love will last.

Here are a few other traditions:

Loving Cup: The traditional cup is a two-handled bowl with Celtic designs etched onto it. The idea of the Loving Cup ceremony is for the bride and groom to share their first drink together as husband and wife and to demonstrate the coming together of their two families.

The Bell of Truce: A bell is blessed and then given to the bride and groom. The couple is required to ring the bell, while thinking loving thoughts of each other. The bell is then kept at home as a token of the wedding day. If an argument begins, the bell can be rung by either the husband or wife to call a truce. The tinkling sound is intended to remind the couple of their wedding vows and to help them relive happy memories from their wedding day.

Handfasting: Early Celts used to ?tie the knot?. It dates back to a pre-Christian custom of literally tying a couple's wrists together in a form of probationary marriage lasting a year and a day, at the end of which a new agreement was made or the couple parted ways.

Bride's Bouquet: In Celtic wedding traditions brides carried herbs beneath their veils to symbolize fidelity, and spices to ward off evil spirits.

Ring finger: Ancient Celts thought that there was a vein in the third finger of the left hand that ran directly to the heart, so ring placed on that finger denoted a strong love and vow to the other.

Wedding cake: A thin loaf was broken over the bride's head at the end of the ceremony to indicate fertility. The wheat from which it was made symbolized fertility and the guests readily picked up the pieces for good luck charms.

It was also common for the Celtic groom to throw a handful of coins into the crowd after the wedding, in the hope that this would bring them good fortune in the years ahead.

About the Author:

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with theCeltic Knot wedding ring. If you have an interest in wedding rings too, please go to our website now at White Gold Claddagh Ring

Choose Your Wedding Ring Wisely

By Owen Jones

There is a huge number of wedding rings available in the shops these days. In fact, you have the world of wedding rings to pick from. The high street shops in a large town have a very good assortment, but the Internet lays the best jewellers and the best styles out for your inspection.

So, it is very important that you take your time when choosing one. Maybe the enormous range of wedding rings makes that more difficult not easier. Diamond wedding rings have been the most popular since ordinary working people could afford them, before that a plain band of gold had to be enough, for people who could afford that much.

Nowadays, Western people have become more adventurous and they are choosing other stones like the stunningly beautiful blue sapphire. Some even choosing not to have a stone at all, going back to tradition, so to speak. However, there are plenty of examples of not so plain bands of gold too.

There is the Irish Claddagh ring with its distinctive two hands holding a crowned heart symbolizing love, friendship and loyalty; and there is the Celtic Knot with its intricately interwoven strands twisting and turning without end, standing for eternity and eternal love despite the twists and turns and difficulties of daily life.

So, choosing a wedding ring is not just a question of picking a beautiful wedding ring, you should be choosing one that says what you want it to say. You could look up on the Internet what the different metals and various stones symbolize traditionally. If you cannot find a ring that says what you want, consider having one made. It is not as expensive as you might think.

Tradition is a good thing when it comes to wedding rings. After all, you want your ring to express your everlasting love and devotion for the person you are giving it to and your marriage could last fifty or sixty years, especially with people living longer these days. With a bit of luck, you will wear this ring for the rest of your life, so pick a style that seems timeless to you.

Picking a wedding ring is not as straightforward as it looks, because you are going to be wearing your ring every day for the rest of your life, so it should be something that you will not get tired of in a couple years. You should look at and try on many rings in order to get one that feels comfortable. You will want a ring that does not look out of date in ten years time. The simplest method of doing that is to go for a traditional style, because those styles have already stood the test of time.

One last piece of advice is to ask the jeweller to verify the total carat weight of the stones in the ring and the weight of each individual stone and the quality and weight of the metal (although it should be hallmarked) on paper, then if it gets lost or stolen you have something to show the insurance company.

About the Author:

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with the Celtic knot wedding ring. If you have an interest in gold rings, please go to our website now at White Gold Claddagh Ring

How We can Solve the Economic Crisis

By Sandy Kokal

One location President Obama, Speaker-To-Be John Boehner, Congressman Paul Ryan, or Sarah Palin could turn to for wisdom on the current dollar crisis is the editorials of the Ny Instances. Not the editorials of right now, but those that were issued in the course of the mid-1940s, in the event the nations about to become victorious in Planet Struggle II have been meeting at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, to lay the groundwork for a post-war financial system. The Times issued editorial after editorial vital with the Bretton Woods negotiations and their architect, John Maynard Keynes. It turns out that the editorials had been the work of a solitary, prophetic editorial writer, Henry Hazlitt.

Hazlitt cautioned that what was becoming set up at Bretton Woods was an inflation trap. He turned out to become right, as well as the system unraveled in 1971, when President Nixon closed the gold window. Bretton Woods unraveled around what, in retrospect, seems a modest drop inside the value of the dollar - one thing like 10% - to a 38th of an oz of gold from the 35th that obtained below Bretton Woods. This ushered financial arrangements that, below the leadership of President Reagan as well as the Fed chairman at the time, Paul Volcker, proved serviceable to get a although but is turning out to get inadequate in an era of lesser leaders.

No doubt Hazlitt, had he lived, would have mentioned the failure was inevitable. His warnings in the The big apple Instances stand as one with the excellent scoops in all of newspapering. The oeuvre is anthologized in a very book that Hazlitt himself put together known as "From Bretton Woods To World Inflation." Issued in 1984, it consists of a lot more than twenty of his editorials from the Times, most of them in the 1940s, but starting with 1 in the 1934, called "The Return to Gold," which contains a warning that could not be more relevant to today's debate when the G20 is feuding around the prospect of competitive devaluations:

"There is no more a 'natural value' for an irredeemable forex than there is for any promissory note of a individual of uncertain intentions to pay for an undisclosed sum at an unspecified date. Finally, it's been discovered that ambitious depreciation, unlike aggressive armaments, can be a game that no Government is just too poor or too weak to play, and that it can cause nothing but general demoralization." Later, he cautioned, by way of an editorial within the Times: "The Greatest solitary contribution the United States could make to planet forex stability right after the war would be to announce its determination to stabilize its own currency."

An additional memorable 1 of Hazlitt's editorials of the Instances, from February 1945, is referred to as "Supply Creates Demand." It cautioned against the fallacy that we could be "saved from disaster following the struggle only by a continuation of huge Government spending and deficit financing." The fallacy was based on the notion that "purchasing power" should be kept above "production." Hazlitt warned that would result in the "crude inflationary theory that we can keep gong right after the struggle only through the process of continually growing money payments regardless of production." Does this sound familiar?

The Hazlitt compendium also contains a celebrated editorial called "Gold vs. Nationalism," which was issued in the Instances on March 17, 1945. It sketched a single from the renowned paradoxes, which is that agreements like Bretton Woods, which appear, to the face of it, to get archetypes of multi-nationalism are actually the reverse. The genuine trans-national concept of the single regular to which all international locations could, or could not, repair is gold. The reverse, the recipe for strife, was a "system beneath which every single nation individually could be totally free to permit whatever unsound policies it wished, although the nations collectively would have to bail it out with the difficulties into which it fell as a consequence." Greece couldn't have put it better.

* * *

Years later, Hazlitt himself was asked, in an interview by the Austrian Economics Newsletter, why he thought the editorials didn't have more effect. Quoth he:

"As you may remember the guiding spirit at that conference was John Maynard Keynes. The delegates had been generating inflationary selections every day. I was tirelessly pointing out that these choices had been inflationary. No one else seemed to be pointing this out and no person paid any interest to what I was saying. Actually, I believe an awful lot of individuals have been astonished that the new York Instances was taking this strange eccentric position. Once the 43 nations represented all signed the agreement adopting the Bretton Woods program, Arthur Sulzberger, then publisher from the Times, known as me into his workplace and said, 'Look, Henry, I've been letting you create these issues, although I had misgivings about them, but now that 43 nations have agreed to accept the settlement, I do not see how the Times can carry on to oppose it.' I replied, 'Mr. Sulzberger, if you really feel that way, I can't continue to publish any much more editorials within the Ny Instances around the settlement; I believe it is too harmful.'"

The Times has stuck with the Keynesian errors all the way up by means of Professor Krugman, and it has been by no indicates alone in its willingness to swing behind Bretton Woods. However it has left, inside the oeuvre of Hazlitt's editorials, a record that will repay a visit by the politicians of these days, once the dollar - which beneath Bretton Woods was really worth a 35th of an oz. of gold - is really worth less than a 1,400th of an oz. of gold and in the event the 20 leading countries of the globe are in disarray and when a new generation of politicians is rising inside a new Congress which will be searching for a way forward.

About the Author:

This write-up and the writer faithfully believe in the Campaign For Liberty. You are able to support Campaign For Liberty by buying a Hank Rearden Bracelet

Now Is The Time To Buy An Apartment In Rio De Janeiro Brazil.

By Cibele Matos

Carnival, the enchanting gyrations of Samba, the astounding exotic beaches as well as the generally outgoing Brazilian lifestyle aren't the sole purposes why most people would like to pay a visit to or perhaps live in Brazil, the real-estate sector, particularly in Rio de Janeiro, Copacabana, Ipanema, Leblon, Botafogo and Barra de Tijuca is booming in a major way. Property prices for both homes and apartments inside the Marvelous City are increasing.

The Brazil economy is growing at a robust velocity thanks to its large quantity of commodities such as Oil, precious metals, coffee as well as some other emerging business markets. The Bovespa has been energetically increasing ever since the problems within the Untied States. As a result, the middle class segment has been widening and those individuals are in the market and capable to afford property. In the past, the interest rates were very high and lending products were not as easy to come by but because the selic rate has been brought back to an appealing level for borrowing money, this has added to the boom.



Lenders are approving mortgage loans at an unprecedented rate and even though the real estate markets inside nations like the United states and England have been in a major record level slump, the growing market of Brazil is seeing robust economic times. And because Brazil is the 8th biggest economy in the world and is displaying no indications of letting up, buying a home or apartment there is a dependable and steady investment.

Market trends for rental property has been a terrific reason to buy property in Brazil. Their tourism has never been stronger, especially in Rio de Janeiro and with the nation geared up to host the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016, the infrastructure will encounter enormous improvements and tourism is only going to get better. Which signifies if you are renting apartamento to business travelers or families on vacation, vacancies will likely be rare and you will be fetching top dollar rental rates.

You can't ignore the data in terms of considering the purchase of a house or apartment in Rio de Janeiro or South america overall. During the past eight years, over twenty million Brazilians have improved upon their position and have been elevated out of poverty. Mix that with high demand and low supply (Brazil has about five million fewer housing units than it needs), you will have a formula for prolonged progress and expansion. Even with brand new high rise complexes being constructed at a record level, demand is still outpacing supply. The Brazilian banking institution Caixa Economica said this current year it expects mortgage loan lending to jump to $42 billion in 2010, up from $28 billion last year.

Individuals are stating that Brazil is very comparable to what the United states was at the 1950's and 60's. Right now there is a massive volume of expansion happening and with an abundance of space still available for continued development, the real estate marketplace is essentially untapped.

About the Author:

Rio Exclusive has some of the most luxurios apartments for rent and sale such as a penthouse in rio de janeiro that is a must see. Vist the website now to view pictures of their available copacabana, ipanema and rio de janeiro apartments.

What Freedom Really Means

By Marc J. Victor P.C., Attorney At Law

I Recognize you say you enjoy freedom. Almost everybody states they enjoy and valuate freedom. Even such homicidal scoundrels as Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein laid claim to support or preach freedom.

"The German people are not a warlike nation. It is a soldierly one, which means it does not want a war, but does not fear it. It loves peace but also loves its honor and freedom." Adolf Hitler to Reichstag in Berlin February 1936

"[Saudi Arabian and Kuwaiti] blood will light torches, grow aromatic plants, and water the tree of freedom, resistance and victory." Saddam Hussein, Iraqi Radio, January 26, 1999

It is comfortable to merely lay claim to back up freedom, but it is often more arduous to assume the occasionally alarming implications of such a call.

Did you ever wonder what it really means to say, "I'm for freedom?" It is difficult for me to express how unimpressed I am by the enthusiasm of a person to strongly support the rights of another person to use their freedoms in exactly the same way they themselves exercise their own freedoms. For example, alcohol users who support the rights of others to use alcohol or marijuana users who support the rights of others to use marijuana does not seem such a principled stance to me.

On the other side of that coin, citizenry who unwaveringly and enthusiastically affirm the rights of additional adults to use their freedoms1 in methods they themselves would never personally employ in is sincerely exalting. A true freedom posture is about living with the autonomous rights of additional adults to peacefully employ their bodies and their material possession in manners you personally take issue with, virtuously oppose, find disgracing, ill proposed, disadvantageous or completely absurd.2 Indeed, this is the test to ascertain whether a person candidly supports the conception of freedom.

The adult users of the awfully damaging and frequently addicting drug named "alcohol" who contradict the legalization of marijuana since they personally prefer not to partake of marijuana are, in freedom terms, congruent to the adult users of marijuana3 who counterbalance the legalization of methamphetamine since they personally opt not to use methamphetamine.4

An interchangeable instance can be discovered in the domain of free speech. Americans justly take pridefulness in their right to free speech. So long as the speech is "unobjectionable" there is no argument. However, when less-traveled radicals like the Ku Klux Klan or the Neo-Nazis prefer to peacefully march, numerous self announced free speech admirers look to use the legal philosophy to censor them.5 6

These are the alarming significances one must bear and adopt to genuinely be an individual who urges freedom. To hold differently indicates your freedoms really broaden no farther than some other person's individualized predilection considering their own freedom. This conception is what I name, "The dark side of freedom."

I question when most citizens congratulate themselves on adoring freedom, they have in mind forceless concepts like the rights of other people to adjudicate for themselves where to go on vacation or what model of car to purchase. This forceless concept of freedom doesn't render much contention because a majority of people personally harmonize with any determination a different person attains in these expanses.

Plainly recognising that other adults bear a right to carry their own lexistances as they prefer does not imply we are compelled to concur with or corroborate whatever they allege or execute. If we decide, we may search to peacefully carry them to behave as we consider they had better act. Further, admitting the rights of others doesn't mean we are broadcasting a message of commendation respecting their alternatives. Indeed, we are free to peacefully post subject matter* of disfavor if we prefer and they are free to ignore our messages entirely if they choose.

In one of my additional articles titled, "Legalize Methamphetamine!" I argue that the war on drugs should be ceased. I have been asked several times to change the title of my article to something similar to, "End the Drug War" or to some other tiresome but uncontroversial title.7 In fair-mindedness, the title is somewhat unfinished. I am deliberating changing it to, "Legalize Methamphetamine and Crack Cocaine!" or to, "Legalize Methamphetamine and All Other Horribly Addictive Drugs!" My aim here is to stress that urging for freedom is occasionally not as comfortable and fashionable as it initially may seem to the casual self announced freedom admirer. Still, it is imperative if we are to sustain freedom.

In conclusion, forceless freedom preachers are not freedom proponents at all. If we are to once more be the land of the free, we urgently necessitate folks to powerfully urge for freedom; in all its luster and in all its tastelessness.

1 By using their "freedoms" I mean being in control of your own body, time, money and other property. This does not include using another's body, time, money, or property without their consent. Freedom includes the notion that all voluntary conduct between consenting adults, whether others approve or not, is absolutely legal.

2 Don't be confused by the concept that a person could morally oppose an activity yet strongly support its legality. A moral question and a legal question should be two entirely different questions. Some of my friends morally oppose prostitution while supporting its legalization. There is no contradiction. Questions about "right" and "wrong" are also different questions than questions about what should be "legal."

3 Or any other substance.

4 Yes, I know and agree with you about the awful consequences of methamphetamine use. Yes, I know it will rot the teeth out of your mouth and destroy your skin and possibly your life if you use it. I would strongly discourage anyone from ever trying or using it.

5 I agree with nothing said by either group, but I absolutely support their right to peacefully say whatever they want. It is important to note that nobody is required to listen to them. People have a right to peacefully protest against them and even to ridicule them for their deranged views.

6 When a Christian pastor in Florida recently threatened to publicly burn a Koran, Fox News presented legal "scholars" who generated creative ideas to use the law in an attempt to stop this constitutionally protected expression. The pastor ultimately backed down.

7 I have even been asked to delete the exclamation point in favor of a question mark. I like the exclamation point.

About the Author:

Committed To Excellence is not just our slogan. It's our Philosophy. Contact us for any law related matters at www.attorneyforfreedom.com.

Factors That Boost A Coin's Worth

By Vic Thompson

Old gold coins have rare historical memories that everyone wants to hold dear. They have become part of the most sought after collector items in the world. Those keeping them are holding gems that are of immense value today, but maybe you were not aware of this. Just to learn more about these precious rare coins.

At first the coins were minted to commemorate important historical events in those countries but later they became very rare. Most of them can date many thousand years of historical happenings that took place and have evolved for many centuries.

The coins have historical importance and were once issued to commemorate particular events that happened in those countries many years ago which explains their value. You might find special designs on them that are easily identifiable.

The coins are dearly cherished because they were minted for general use but the main aim was as celebrations of unique achievements and events in those countries. The people who really hold great pride in owning these precious historical coins are called Numismatists. To them, the coins are historical collectibles just like valuable souvenirs.

Very old historical memories are to be found in these coins related to the countries that minted them to celebrate important occasions of old. New rulers also had the habit of ordering for new coins to commemorate their rising to the throne.

The coins have even more value since they are often found to have been made of pure gold or silver.

Why are they a very rare type? Well, after the World War II, the world economy suffered a big blow. No countries could afford to mint anymore of such coins. That is why most of the coins after the period were made of base metal.

The coins are now priceless and it is due to their very rare nature. The collectors treasure them because of their history but also because they are mainly of pure gold or silver. The engravings on them tend to tell a history long forgotten but now of great importance to historians.

About the Author:

Aside from collector items, the writer additionally frequently shares writing regarding mens white sneakers and sneakers shoes.