Coin Collecting Club

The first white population settled in Maine in around 1607, thus gaining the area a reputation as the first to be settled by Europeans in North America.

The first very settlers were from Britain and its enemy at that time, France backed the local Indians who kept attacking the settlers to try and drive them out.

Maine suffered very badly during the later revolutionary war, and almost all of its cities were completely destroyed. Maine was declared the 23rd state of the USA in the early 1800’s.

After getting a separate identity, Maine saw a massive economic boom with lots of mining, shipbuilding and other industries arising. Saw mills and water powered factories developed up in its various rivers.

Fishing and farming were of course very important, but due to economic fluctuations these didn’t change much of the state’s economic picture.

Industrial revolution and Civil War further ambushed the economic growth in the late 19th century.

Maine’s industrial growth continued to blossom with electricity production, paper and textile manufacturing units amongst a few.
Potato growing by the Irish immigrants, dairy and large poultry farms took hold.

In the second half of the 20th century, tourism grew and it has made a major contribution into the economic growth of the area.

The largest fort in Maine is of course Fort Knox, which funnily enough never saw any combat.

However it was the HQ of the American forces during the civil war. Its architecture and granite carvings are definitely worth seeing and guided tours are available in summer.

Fort McClary saw wars in the 19th Century and it was reconstructed after every war. Nowadays it is a picnicking retreat.

A thriving Katahdin Iron Works was built in 1843 with a blast furnace that produced raw iron at the rate of 20,000 tons per year and it still exists today as an historic site.

Situated at the mouth of river Pemaquid in Bristol, colonial Pemaquid has artifacts and coins of the 17th and 18th century. The fort has been reconstructed with lots of museum exhibits.

Fort Kent, which exhibits a wooden block house was constructed in 1839. Fishing is popular in the local river adjacent to it and it offers picnic areas and campsites also.

At the Kittery Outlets there are 120 designer stores offering you lots of discounts on your shopping for first class merchandise.

Maine Wildlife Park offers you educational and knowledgeable information about wildlife. Exhibitions and displays are often organized to make the public aware of preservation for the local animals.

L. L. Bean is also surrounded by many designer outlets and is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

The extremely popular Lighthouses attract thousands of visitors each year. They are all over the coastline offering multi-purpose attractions.

Acadia National Park attracts millions of visitors each year. It has over 41,000 acres of rock bound coast line around Mount Desert Island. It offers numerous hiking unspoilt trails and camping facilities are also provided. Inland Fisheries and Wildlife department is responsible for all the interesting programs set up here.

 
A controversial figure during her reign as Prime Minster, thanks to the Cold War and Miner’s Strike, it is Lady Thatcher’s leather handbags that became a icon of her government. While she once described her handbag as the only safe place in Downing Street, her colleagues came to see them as symbolic of her philosophy.

 

Julian Critchley, one of Baroness Thatcher’s biggest Tory backbench critics remarked:

 

“Margaret Thatcher and her handbag is the same as Winston Churchill and his cigar.”

 

Critchley also coined the verb “to handbag” when he said:

 

“She cannot see an institution without hitting it with her handbag”,

 

While a closer ally, Nicholas Ridley once remarked in her absence at a cabinet committee meeting:

 

“Why don’t we start? The handbag is here.”

 

Lady Thatcher’s quality leather handbags are associated with a timeless style and an individualism which led them to being dubbed as ‘cool’. They even inspired handbag designers such as Marc Jacobs and one of her black leather handbags sold at auction for over $100,000 to a Scottish business man, after receiving 63 bids! In it was a signed note from Baroness Thatcher. The proceeds went to a ****** cancer charity called ****** Cancer Care. After the auction Mrs. Thatcher remarked how pleased she was that her leather handbags had not only done her a good service in the Cabinet but also that they had such an influence and had raised so much money for a good cause.

 

Inspired by Baroness Thatcher’s luxury leather handbags, www.SexyHandbags.co.uk sells a wide range of fine quality leather handbags with the timeless style and individualism that this great lady would be proud of, at reasonable prices to suit all tastes and budgets.

Anzac Day is a significant day, a significant cultural day for all Australians.It happens on the 25th of April every year, and it is marked by some memorial services, marches, some celebrations and some fairly unusual games of chance as well.

So brief story of Anzac Day and the Anzacs. The word itself Anzac A-N-Z-A-C stands for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corp. This is a name that was given to the combined forces of Australia and New Zealand in the First World War. Anzac Day itself is a commemoration of a very famous battle for the Australian and New Zealanders. It is a commemoration of the battle at Gallipoli that occurred on the Gallipoli Peninsula.

The battle itself was not particularly significant in the context of the entire World War I campaign. However for those forces involved, it was definitely a significant and quite a horrific battle and campaign that occurred. The campaign itself was a matter of the allied troops planning to land and take Istanbul. So on the 25th of April in 1915, the Australian-New Zealand forces part of the allied contingent landed at Gallipoli.

It was intended to be a very bold aggressive move as part of the campaign to capture Istanbul, however the Turks fiercely defended the land and it pretty quickly became a pretty huge stalemate. And that stalemate endured for around 8 months. At the end of 8 months over eight thousand Australians had been killed in that campaign and two-and-a-half thousand New Zealanders had also been killed.

It was not a successful campaign or attack by any stretch of the imagination, in fact it was something of a disaster. Which is yet another reason why Anzac Day itself is not about glorifying war, it is about celebrating the Anzac’s spirits, the spirits that was showed by those soldiers.

Today on average over ten thousand Australian & New Zealanders actually make something of a pilgrimage back to the Gallipoli Peninsula to celebrate the dawn service on the grounds at Suvla Bay, on that battleground where the Australian forces actually landed.

There are 3 main events that really characterize Anzac Day.

The first one is the dawn service. The Anzac’s landed at Gallipoli at dawn and for that reason, a dawn service is conducted commemorating Anzac Day on 25th of April each year. There is a very large one that occurs in Martin Place in the city, many thousands of people attend it. There are lots of defense members supporting it, a Cataflaque Party providing an escort, there’s speeches and the last post.

As well as this large dawn service in Martin Place in the city, also all through Sydney and all through New South Wales and Australia there are many, many smaller dawn services. These are usually conducted at RSLs and RSLs sub-branches, a Return Serviceman’s League club established by return servicemen.

Usually in the vicinity of most suburban RSLs, there will be a dawn service where as similar as they are in the city, but in a small scale. They are all equally solemn, all equally significant cultural activities.

An Anzac Day march occurs in the city each year. It starts from a variety of locations, usually Hyde Park, a number of other spots in the city and finishes in Martin Place.

Unfortunately, there is not too many of the World War I veterans, but there are World War II veterans still around, it is a fact that we’re getting more and more younger veterans coming through the ranks and being involved in the march. The march itself is huge, there are many thousands of people in there recognizing the contribution of all these veterans and it’s very humbling to witness.

Celebrations generally follow straight after the march. There are a lot of celebrations, lots of people will have plenty of drinks and food, and play some games. Particularly in Sydney city itself there is always marching bands that always been involved in the march, supporting that march. They will often then continue to just march around the city, in and out of hotels and bars and pubs, with playing their bagpipes or their drums, providing some entertainment to the people celebrating there.

Australians also play some interesting games on Anzac Day. The primary one that you will see, which can be a little bit bewildering, is Two-Up. Now this is a pretty unusual game. This is a game of chance, a gambling game. In New South Wales Two-Up is illegal except for on Anzac Day when it is legal to conduct Two-Up.

It can be quite difficult to describe Two-Up. Essentially, “The Spinner”, the person with a piece of stick something like a ruler, places 2 coins on it. The coins are flipped it up and people bet on whether the coins will land with 2 heads, 2 tails or 1 of each. That is about as simple as it gets. People get very passionate about it.

Two-Up was played by diggers all through World War I, when the soldiers had some down time, they would often play Two-Up. The game has just flown on through the years, and now it is something that is enormous in and around the pubs and bars around Sydney and Australia on Anzac Day.

The Editor-in-Chief of SOJOURNERS Magazine, the Evangelical Jim Wallis has released a new book, The Great Awakening, written with hope to wake up American institutionalized Christians to be a part of the rebirth and renewal to heal, mend and transform “the biblical scandal of poverty around the globe and here at home, the crisis of environmental degradation and climate change that pose a threat to God’s creation, and to the multiple assaults on human life and dignity that shame our world.” [Page 12, Feb. 2008, SOJOURNERS]

Jim’s seeking revival, but this non-institutional Christian of The Beatitudes, is calling for a revolution and it begins with common sense and goes retro; back to the voices of wisdom that founded this nation.

“Soon after I had published the pamphlet “Common Sense” [on Feb. 14, 1776] in America, I saw the exceeding probability that a revolution in the system of government would be followed by a revolution in the system of religion… The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.”-Tom Paine

Wallis proposes Seven Principals and Rules of Engagement for Christian political involvement in the world:

1. God hates injustice.

2. The kingdom of God is a new order.

3. The church is an alternative community

4. The kingdom of God transforms the world by addressing the specifics of injustice.

5. The church is the conscience of the state, holding it accountable for upholding justice and restraining its violence.

6. Take a global perspective.

7. Seek the common good.

All seven points are well and good and I wish Jim luck and pray he does indeed arouse the sleeping Christians for the western institutions have failed at its commission. Too many churches in the USA have become places to socialize and be entertained and to be patted on the back just for doing the minimum of what is required if one claims to be a Christian; and churches have become business’s that maintain the status quo and not so much about the social gospel.

The gospel-which means good news, that Jesus preached, was very political and a direct challenge to the politically powerful and the arrogant, self-satisfied, self-righteous teachers of the law.

Two thousand years ago the Cross had NO symbolic religious meaning and was not a piece of jewelry. When Jesus said: “Pick up your cross and follow me,” everyone back then understood he was issuing a POLITICAL statement, for the main roads in Jerusalem were lined with crucified agitators, rebels, dissidents and any others who disturbed the status quo of the Roman Occupying Forces.

In the latter days of Nero’s reign [54-68 A.S.] through the domination of Domitian [ 81-96] Christians were persecuted for following the nonviolent, loving and forgiving Jesus. That Jesus was first left behind when Augustine penned the Just War Theory.

Before Emperor Constantine brought Christianity into the mainstream, all the early Church Fathers taught that Christians should not serve in the army but instead willingly suffer rather than inflict harm on any other. St. Augustine was the first Church Father to consider the concept of a Just War and within 100 years after Constantine, the Empire required that all soldiers in the army must be baptized Christians and thus, the decline of Christianity began in earnest.

With the justification of war and violence supplied by Augustine’s Just War Theory, wrong became right. Nothing much has changed in two millennia, for in today’s Orwellian world politicians claim the way to peace is through war and that nuclear weapons provide protection. American money claims ‘In God we Trust’ but the truth is America’s faith is in an out of control Military Industrial Complex that seeks domination, power and control over any who would defy and challenge the American status quo. Eisenhower warned America not to bind our economy to the Industrial Military Complex and like most prophets, he was ignored.

In 313 AD, Emperor Constantine legitimized Christianity and thus, those who had been considered rebels and outlaws began to enjoy political power and prestige. Jesus’ other name is The Prince of Peace, and with the marriage of church and state, his true teachings were reinterpreted. The justification of warfare and the use of state sponsored violence corrupted what Christ modeled and taught. Jesus was always on about WAKE UP! The Divine already indwells you and all others. Christ taught that to follow him requires that one must love ones enemies; one must forgive those who hate, curse and revile them, without even a thought of payback.

Christ lived a life that proved evil can be opposed without being mirrored, and that the cycle of a “tooth for a tooth, an eye for an eye”, will never bring peace and justice. Before Emperor Constantine brought Christianity into the mainstream, all the early Church Fathers taught –and all Christians never served in the army but instead willingly suffered rather than inflict harm on any other.

The term Christianity was not coined until three decades after Christ walked the earth. Until the day of Paul, followers of Christ were called members of The Way; the way being what he taught!

Christ was never a Christian, but he was a social justice, radical revolutionary Palestinian devout Jewish road warrior who rose up [intifada in Arabic] for he challenged the job security of the Temple authorities by teaching the people they did NOT need to pay the priests for ritual baths or sacrificing livestock to be OK with God; for God already LOVED them just as they were: sinners, poor, diseased, outcasts, widows, orphans, refugees and prisoners all living under Roman Military Occupation.

What got Jesus crucified was disturbing the status quo of the Roman Occupying Forces of his time, by teaching the subversive concept that Caesar only had power because God allowed it and that God preferred the humble sinner, the poor, diseased, outcasts, widows, orphans, refugees and prisoners all living under Roman Occupation above the elite and arrogant!

Clement, Tertillian, Polycarp and every other early Church Father taught that violence was a contradiction of what Christ was all about. There have always been those Christians who spoke out against this corruption of scripture and they have been ignored, reviled, rejected, mocked, persecuted and maligned throughout time. There have always been Christians who have never abandoned the true teachings, such as the Quakers, Mennonites, some Catholics and Protestants who have been faithful witnesses to Christ by denouncing violence and caring for the poor. There have also always been Jews, Muslims, atheists, anarchists, secularists, rebels and revolutionaries have lived lives that embody the message of Christ; have in fact done what he actually said, which was most revolutionary.

Christ, you know it ain’t easy

You know how hard it can be

The way things are going

They’re gonna crucify me-John Lennon

The institutionalized Christians may crucify me for claiming that many who attend 21st century American churches have re-crucified and maligned Jesus, for they worship an institution and pages in the Bible. All institutions are man made and the Bible was not FAXED in from heaven, it was written down after centuries of the oral history being passed down. When ever stories are retold, they change, and we all know this if we ever played the childhood game of telephone. Scribes were imperfect human who made many mistakes as they recopied texts; many also added their own point of view and some even left out what they chose to.

The most decisive event in the history of Christendom occurred when Emperor Constantine accepted the Christian faith, for those who had once been persecuted were now protected by an earthly king. Both a patriarchal monarchical state and church were formed at the same time. Power struggles and debates were common among the early Christians. Individual churches determined which texts were read, and they all had their favorites. Constantine sought to unite his empire, and uniting the church was a savvy political move. He announced he would pay for fifty illuminated copies of scripture to be bound, and thus the biblical canon was established and sealed. There was fierce debate among the bishops about what should be included and what left out.

The proto-orthodox, who had now become the dominant voice, determined what was heretical for everyone. The proto-orthodox demanded much-loved scripture to be burned, usually because it did not fit their understanding of God. We know more today about how diverse Christianity had once been with the discovery of the Nag´ Hammâdi Library. [Refer to Part One is this series for more information]

I may get crucified for this, but I contend that there is a cult within The Body of Christ in the USA that worships the institution and pages in the Bible, and it is a cult of the dead. Just because the canon was sealed, does not mean that God stopped talking to his creation and we can all hear Him/She/? in the voice of our own conscience, as well as in the voices of open vessels such as poets, musicians, critics, dissidents and rebels throughout history.

Just because I no longer do church, I am still connected to the mystical Body of Christ and the most rigid of fundamentalists are my sisters and brothers. St. Paul, who never failed to express his freedom of speech, warned the followers of Christ, NOT to judge the unbeliever but to provoke the believer onto good works. My hope and prayer is to mend, heal and repair the flabby Body of Christ in the west by reconnecting it to its very roots in the land where Jesus walked and taught that it is the peacemakers who are the children of God; not those that starve, bomb, torture or occupy others.

The Christian EXODUS from the Holy land-which is in pieces; Bantustans, has rendered their numbers from 20% of the total to less than 1.3% since 1948, and it is NOT because of Islam, but because of a brutal, inhumane military occupation which denies them human rights and ignores international law aided and abetted by the American government and its citizens hard earned tax dollars.

Every individual Christian is but one cell in the cosmic Body of Christ. “So in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” -Romans 12:4

“Its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part [of The Body] suffers, every part suffers with it.”-1 Corinthians 12:25-26

The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him and all the prophets said, “You will recognize the believers in their having Mercy for one another, and in their Love for one another, and in their Kindness towards one another; like the body, when one member of it hurts, the entire body hurts.”

John Lennon penned The Wedding Ballad Of John & Yoko a few weeks after their 1969 marriage and then held a bed-in for peace to awaken the world via a media event to the abomination of the war in Vietnam. Using the global stage John said, “Yoko and I are quite willing to be the world’s clowns; if by doing it we do some good…And I’m saying peace…The struggle is in the mind. We must bury our own monsters and stop condemning people. We are all Christ and ******. We want Christ to win. We’re trying to make Christ’s message contemporary. What would he have done if he had advertisements, records, films, TV and newspapers! Christ made miracles to tell his message. Well, the miracle today is communications, so let’s use it.”

That battle rages on to make Christ contemporary and in this ongoing series I will be utilizing the World Wide Web.

The above was Part Four in the Series: “We have it in our power to begin the world again”-Tom Paine

Part 1 in this series: “We have it in our power to begin the world again”-Tom Paine

http://wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=759&Itemid=184

Part 2 in this series: The Stages of the Soul and How Religiosity/Fundamentalism is holding up Evolution

http://www.wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=775&Itemid=184

Part 3 in this series: Prophets, Doors, Walls: MLK, X, Lennon, Gaza and Thee

http://www.wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=778&Itemid=184

Free slots are a simple way to enjoy playing slots without paying any money. Sometimes we all want to have fun and gamble for a little. While some go to land casinos and spend their money there, others choose playing free slots online. It is a much more comfortable way of putting your luck to the test, when you can play for as much as you like right at your home. All you need to play free slots online is a computer and Internet connection. No credit cards, or other payment methods are required. Unless, you wish to play slots for money, of course. There are two basic ways you can play free slots online. One way is by downloading a stand-alone program from an online casino website. There are numerous online casinos that offer such free slots programs. They don’t require any payments for downloading the game. The other way is to play free slots directly on the casino website, by using Flash, Shockwave or Java plug-ins in your browser. Make sure you have one of these installed on your computer, or you can download them directly from the site — usually free slots site post links for installing these plug-ins. No matter what type of free slots you choose, you can be sure that you’ll find the right slot machine for you. Just like real slot machines, there are numerous variations and themes on which the slot games are based. You are a big fan of Star Wars? There are hundreds of free slots based on the movie. Looking for the classic «one armed bandit» slot machines? You will definitely find plenty of those. The possibilities are endless, but what’s really important is that you have fun while playing free slots online. Free slots are one of the most popular online casino games because they are very easy to play. First thing you have to do is place your bet, which usually ranges from one to five coins (some slot machines accept up to ten coins). Different slot machines have different coin values, ranging from 5 cents to 5 dollars. There are also special slots for high rollers with much larger coin values. OK, so you’ve placed your bet. The next thing you should do is simply click the spin button and see what combination is displayed in the payline. Your win depends on the combination and is different from one slot machine to another. All free slots have individual pay tables, where all the winning combinations are outlined. Read the instruction before playing the game, because what may be a jackpot with one slot machine could worth nothing with another. The payline may also be different, requiring a diagonal combination of the symbols to win, or five matching symbols instead of three. So make sure you’ve read the rules of this particular free slots machine. One of the most popular types of free slots games are progressive slot machines. These machines are linked into a network that has a common jackpot, which is affected by all the players in the network. Simply put, it’s a multiplayer version of ordinary slot machines. And many find it much more exciting to play progressive slots, because the jackpot is usually much higher if compared to straight slots.