Sweethearts Candy Blog's

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Causes Of The Second World War

World War II causes are fivefold. From these five causes we can differentiate four immediate ones from one deep root cause. The four immediate or direct causes which are commonly attributed to as the triggering historical agents of World War II are 1) the Treaty of Versailles, which was signed in 1919 just after World War I; 2) the bad economic situation (depression plus hyperinflation) the German lower classes suffered in the 1920’s and early 1930’s as a result of the Treaty of Versailles (the Germans had been forced to pay a huge war indemnity to the Allies); 3) the unsolved territorial disputes; 4) the rise to power of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, whose high rank members were World War I veterans.

The fifth cause is the root cause of Word War II. It is Romanticism. Romanticism was an intellectual and artistic movement which started in Germany at the beginning of the 19th century and spread throughout Europe. One facet of Romanticism was nationalism. And nationalism in Germany took on a racial hue. And the nationalistic feelings in Germany had two underlying causes, for history is a chain of cause-and-effect events. The Thirty Years War, and the Napoleonic Invasion of Germany.

The Thirty Years War was a 17th Century war that began in 1618 as a religious conflict in Germany between Protestants and Catholics but the fighting eventually involved almost every European power, who, like vultures allied to one or other German prince, made forays into German territory to see what they could get. This long cruel fratricidal war finally ended in 1648 with the signing of treaties in the Westphalian towns of Osnabrück and Münster. France came away from the negotiations with major territorial gains, including the German territories of Alsace and Lorraine, and the authority to garrison the right bank of the Rhine. The German states came out weaker and more disunited. The long struggle had ravaged their lands and, by some estimates, wiped out as much as two-thirds of the population.

The German writer Hans von Grimmelshausen articulated the sentiments of many survivors through the voice of the main character in The Adventure Life of Simplicius Simplicissimus, a novel based on his own childhood experiences. After Simplicius’ farm was sacked, and his wife and daughters raped by French soldiers, he joined a band of German soldiers. He sustained himself with a dream, that one day a German hero would establish a glorious Reich. This great leader would generously let the kings of England, Sweden, and Denmark, who are of German descent, keep their lands as German fiefdoms, but he would wreak havoc upon every other European nation. The capital of this fanciful Reich was to be a glorious new city, Germania. During the next century, a measure of this dream came true, through the efforts of the House of Hohenzollern, the royal family that united and transformed the minor states of Brandenburg and Prussia into a major European Power; the kingdom of Prussia, who later became the Prussian Empire.

In 1805, Napoleon defeated the Austrian Army at the Battle of Austerlitz and, a year later, the Prussians at Jena. All Germany lay at the French emperor’s feet. The French Army swept across German territory, defeating both the Prussian Hohenzollerns and the Austrian Habsburgs. As they went more than five hundred thousand French soldiers lived off the land, plundering, raping, and murdering as they marched across Germany. Napoleon shattered the old order. He did away with the moribund Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation and, to consolidate his holdings, reduced the number of German states from more than 300 to about 30, yoking most of them to France.

Although many Germans grudgingly admired the modernizing reforms brought by Napoleonic rule, they resented their powerlessness. Soon German intellectuals began preaching and spreading the new movement known as Romanticism. In other countries Romanticism remained largely a literary and artistic movement, but in Germany it took a political twist.

One of the progenitors of these new ideas was the philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte, rector of the University of Berlin. His addresses to the German Nation fired the imagination of his youthful audiences. The German people, Fichte argued, was a chosen race with unique genius and a special right to fulfill their destiny. He infused his followers with a determination to drive out the French and forge a united nation out of the separate states. Like Grimmelshausen’s fictional character, he called for a great leader to create a Reich by uniting all the German states, including Prussia and Austria. Another avid francophobe and anti-Semite was the German poet Ernst Moritz Arndt; in an address delivered in 1810, he called for a man of action; he stated that what Germany needed was a great military leader capable of giving back to Germany what had been stolen from her.

Christian Friedrich Rühs, a history profesor at the University of Berlin, called the French a “villainous race” and demanded that French be banned from schools and courts of law. Rühs especially resented the imposition of the Code Napoleon, for it made Jews and ethnic Germans equal before the law. He wanted to force all German Jews to wear a yellow patch so that ethnic Germans could recognize the “Hebrew enemy.”

Montana Fishburne S2xtape Leaked

0 comments Posted by org at 12:30 AM

We kind of think this is less “having a sex tape” and more “being a porn star”: Laurence Fishburne’s 19-year-old daughter Montana "Chippy D" has signed up to make a hardcore sex tape with Vivid Entertainment. "I've watched how successful Kim Kardashian became and I think a lot of it was due to the release of her sex tape,” she says. Kardashian claims that her sex tape was obtained illegally. TMZ says the film will come out in August.

Friday, July 30, 2010

Nut-Free Bakery in Chicago! Cafe Twist Is Delish!

0 comments Posted by org at 9:26 AM

We've been planning to visit Cafe Twist--Kim & Scott's Gourmet Pretzel Cafe since it opened this past May and are we glad we did! Even our overheated and subsequently towed car couldn't stand in our way--the car chose to break down just one block from Cafe Twist, so while my wonderful husband waited with the car, my sister and I brought my two girls to Cafe Twist, a nut-free bakery and resto in Chicago. (And of course we brought back some goodies for Dad.)

The reason for our trek to Lincoln Park? Cafe Twist is a nut-free gourmet pretzel cafe that offers sandwiches and cookies made in a nut-free environment. This kid-friendly cafe serves NO peanut butter, but uses Sunbutter instead for one sandwich choice. They are also very allergy aware and allergy-friendly--in fact, a mural on the wall states "allergy aware."

What's especially delicious about the sandwiches at Cafe Twist is that each sammy is made using a warm gourmet soft pretzel. My kids are soft pretzel fanatics so this is a big treat for them!

My oldest daughter got a ham and cheese pretzel sandwich and my youngest opted for the pretzel dog--essentially a hot pretzel wrapped around a hot dog. Pretty ingenious and delicious!

I asked for clarification on some of the items and while they do offer granola for a breakfast item, it is nut-free (though made in a facility with nuts.) The cookies are also safe and nut-free.

Cafe Twist also offers scooped ice cream and while I didn't notice any nut flavors, we don't do scooped ice cream as a rule so that wasn't an issue for us that day.

I know that some of us deal with allergies other than peanuts and tree nuts, but a nut-free cafe is definitely a step in the right direction. It was a great feeling for my nut-allergic daughter to know that she was in an environment that was safe for her and that she could have the baked goods she wanted. As we know, baked goods are a no-no for people with nut allergies as a rule. To wrap up their massive meal, my oldest asked for a chocolate stuffed pretzel and the youngest wanted the cinnamon stuffed pretzel.

My youngest daughter was amazed by the cafe because "I didn't know you could do so many things with pretzels!" Turns out you can. They even have pretzels that kids can twist themselves and then have baked.

So if you've got kids with nut allergies, please visit the fabulous Cafe Twist and tell your friends and relatives! I love to support these places because in this economy, especially, we've got to show them that nut-free is loved, appreciated and NEEDED.

Thanks to Kim & Scott's Cafe Twist for a great meal that put smiles on all of our faces that day, even my husband, despite the car breakdown.

The Images Tell A Story: Korean War

0 comments Posted by org at 6:23 AM

In this in September 1950 file photo, United Nations (Read American) troops fire from a barricade in Seoul, South Korea. The building at left carries portraits of Soviet leader Josef Stalin and North Korean leader Kim Il Sung.

VIDEO: PART 1

An American soldier consoles acomrade who lost a friend in action.. The man sitting beside is preparing tags for the bodies.

VIDEO: PART 2

1950. American soldiers take cover from North Korean snipers (left behind by withdrawing North Koreans to hamper American advance into Seoul)

VIDEO

September, 1950. An US soldier clambers over a barrier in war torn Seoul. The North Koreans had held it for three months.

VIDEO

Same time. Moving through Seoul.

October 1950. American paratroopers jump into North Korean territory to trap withdrawing North Korean troops.

October 1950. North Korean POW in Seoul.

Bodies of some 400 Korean civilians lie in and around trenches in Taejon's prison yard during the Korean War in Sept. 1950. The victims were bound and slain by retreating Communist forces before the 24th U.S. Division troops recaptured the city Sept. 28. Witnesses said that the prisoners were forced to dig their own trench graves before the slaughter.

July 1950. US troops alight at Pohang, on the eastern coast in Korea

July 5, 1950. American soldiers leave the railroad station at Taejon, South Korea, en route to the battlefront.

In this Dec. 4, 1950 photo, residents from Pyongyang, North Korea, and refugees from other areas crawl perilously over the shattered girders of the city's bridge as they flee south across the Taedong River to escape the advance of Chinese Communist troops. The Chinese entered the Korean War as allies of North Korea. U.S. troops battled on the side of South Korea. Begun in June 25, 1950, the war ended on July 27, 1953, with a military demarcation line set near the 38th parallel where it started.

In this photograph taken by the U.S. Army in April 1951, provided by the U.S. National Archives, South Korean troops shoot political prisoners near Daegu, South Korea.

July 1950. An American 155 mm gun booms

Chinese POW in the northern mountains in Korea. December 1950

April 1951. More Chinese POW

Seoul 1950. A scene of strife and destruction.

An American soldier takes an injured N. Korean soldier for medical help

Koreans fleeing the advancing Chinese troops are perched perilously between coaches of a freight train

General Douglas McArthur, chief of the UN forces, sitting on the bridge of the warship U.S. McKinley "during his arrival at Inchon Harbor in September 1950 Behind him, left to right: Commander U.S. Seventh Fleet, Vice Admiral Arthur D. Strabbl; brigadier general Wright and General Edward M. Almond