Caller to Hannity has it right! ... SamKat

A caller to Hannity on his radio proghram last evening said something like this:

If God with His infinite power, does not force us to believe in Him; why should any supposed religious people threaten us to believe in their religion?

That is profound to me.  

Is beheading Christians right or weong?  Is Sharia right or wrong.  I have my opinions, but, under the coming Sharia, I won't be able to express them.

Wake up, America!  Find a way to Fire this incompetent PUSA.  A report in this morning news inbdicates that 78 % of Americans want to go to war against ISIS.  This prez is not a true Commander in Chief of our military!

Two Boxes ... Thx Judi C! Wonderful message from our God ... Hope without end ...

God's Boxes

  

I have in my hands two boxes, Which God gave me to hold. He said, "Put all your sorrows in the black box, And all your joys in the gold."

I heeded His words, and in the two boxes, Both my joys and sorrows I stored, But though the gold became heavier each day, The black was as light as before.                                  

With curiosity, I opened the black,I wanted to find out why, And I saw, in the base of the box, a hole, Which my sorrows had fallen out by.                                  

I showed the hole to God, and mused, "I wonder where my sorrows could be!" He smiled a gentle smile and said, "My child, they're all here with me.."                                  

I asked God, why He gave me the boxes, Why the gold and the black with the hole? "My child, the gold is for you to count your blessings, the black is for you to let go."  

                               

We should consider all of our friends a blessing.                                

Send this to your friends today just to let them know you are thinking of them and  that they are a joy in your life.   

A ball is a circle, no beginning, no end. It keeps us together like our Circle of Friends.                                

The treasure inside for you to see, Is the treasure of friendship you've granted to me. I pass the friendship ball to you. Pass it on to someone who is a friend to you... goes,

When you receive this letter, you should  send it to all friends to brighten their day, including the person who sent it to you.                

Ephesians 4:32  Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ, God forgave you.

The Ottoman Empire

Turkey Turkey Facts Geography Climate & Weather Flora & Fauna Economy Population Education Arts Religion Language Nightlife History Greetings Introduction to Anatolia Prehistoric Times Paleolithic Age Neolithic Age Chalcholithic Age Bronze Age The Byzantium A Great Empire The Dark Ages Byzantium means Istanbul Hagia Sophia Chora Monastery Palaces, Aqueducts, Water Cisterns The Byzantines in Anatolia Aphrodisias & Hierapolis Santa Claus The Land & the people of the Byzantines The Influence of the Church The Ottomans Before 1300 1300 - 1453 1453 - 1600 1600 - 1923 Present Times Ataturk   Tips for travellers Tips for Travelers Visa requirements (Fees - Form) Travel Agencies Embassies in Turkey Turkish Tourism Offices Post & Communications Time Electricity Weights & Measures Health Food & Drink Shopping The Turkish Bath Transportation Camping City Traffic Codes Country Codes THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE 1600-1923 Ottoman history from 1566 -1792 has been described as ”The Decline of Faith and State.” To Ottomans, " decline ” meant dislocation of the traditional order; hence, ” reforms " to check or reverse " decline " meant restoring the old order which had produced the Golden Age of Suleyman the Magnificent.” At times decline was checked but only temporarily. Decline was not only slow, gradual, interrupted, lasting rnore than three centuries, but also it was relative only to its own Golden Age and to the remarkable progress of its Christian European neighbors. It is easier to describe decline than to explain it. Some developments which the Ottoman Empire did not take part in gave Europe its relative superiority. [ 1 ] Its 16th-10th c. commercial expansion overseas enriched Western Europe to the detriment of the Ottomans. [ 2 ] The West improved agricultural methods while technology and industry advanced rapidly, all tied to the new scientific experimentation and rationalist attitudes stemming from the Renaissance and Reformation and culminating in the Enlightenment; only weak echoes of these events reached the East before 1800. [ 3 ] Strong, centralized, national monarchies or bureaucratic empires appeared not only in Western Europe but also along the Ottoman frontiers in Central and Eastern Europe just when centrifugal forces were weakening the previously centralized Ottoman bureaucratic empire. [ 4 ] A prosperous,enterprising bourgeoisie on the Western model failed to appear in the Ottoman Empire to back up the ruler; the wealthy bourgeoisie which did exist was small and composed largely of either non-Muslim merchants and bankers, who were not acceptable as the sultan’s allies, or bureaucrats, who were a part of the "establishment ” anxious to protect their own interests and often resisting change. The Ottomans were more conscious of the dislocations in their own traditional system: [ 1 ] Leadership : 17 sultans after Suleyman ( from1566 to 1789) were, with few exceptions, men of little ability, training, or experience, and some were incompetent, even mentally defective; their average rule of 13 years was less than half that of the first 10 sultans. This was no accident! Mehmed III died in 1605 leaving two minor sons as the only direct male survivors. The elder, Ahmet I, spared the life of his brother, Mustafa, but kept him secluded in a special apartment in the harem of Topkapi Palace. The Sitva Torok treaty with Austria (1606) should have been a wake-up call for the Ottomans. It was a negotiated compromise rather than a grant of peace dictated by the sultan; in it, the Hapsburg monarch finally was recognized as the sultan’s peer, as " Emperor” (Padishah rather than simply King of Vienna.” Mustafa I’s accession in 1617 marked the end of ”succession by military contest and the practice of royal ” fratricide,” replaced by confinement of princes in the palace and succession by the eldest male of the imperial family. Not only were most inexperienced and incompetent, many were minors under the influence of the Queen Mother (Valide Sultan) and harem favorites, giving rise to palace cliques and intrigue. For several decades in the first half of the17.th century, women of the palace exercised such influence that the period is called " The Sultanate of the Women " [ 2 ] Bribery, purchase of office, favoritism, nepotism : Promotion by merit, long the hallmark of Ottoman administration, became less common. Corruption spread to the provinces where an official would buy his office, then squeeze more taxes from the populace to reimburse himself. There were frequent shifts in judicial as well as civil officials, with justice also sometimes for sale. In the mid-to-late 17th c., the great Koprulu family of viziers attempted to root out corruption and improve administrative and military efficiency. They were temporarily successful in arresting " decline " through traditional reforms, and in 1663 Ottoman forces besieged Vienna for the second time. But in the 17th c., the Ottomans were confronted by an extended arc of opponents, Venice, Austria, Poland, Russia, and Iran, often obliged to confront several at once. In 1699, after defeat by a coalition of all Central and East European powers, the Ottomans accepted mediation, negotiated peace, and, by the Treaty of Karlowitz, for the first time gave up territories in the Balkans. The shrinking of Ottoman frontiers had begun. [ 3 ] Military  : The devshirme was abandoned ( just when is uncertain ); sons of janissaries were admitted to the corps, then other Muslims; and imperial slavery became a legal fiction.” Provincial janissaries sometimes acted as semi-autonomous local rulers, while in Istanbul they become a disruptive force, often in collaboration  with artisans / craftsmen and students. The provincial cavalry army was made obsolete by musket-armed European troops, requiring the Ottomans to increase their standing infantry and equip them with firearms. This required money. The military fief system was all but abandoned and replaced by tax-farming. The heavy tax burden was responsible in part for revolts in Anatolia, abandonment of farm lands, and depopulation of villages; thus the empire experienced a decline in tax revenues despite higher taxes. [ 4 ] Economics  : The Ottoman Empire suffered from severe inflation, as did all of Europe, as New World silver flooded in. This, together with debased coinage, fueled corruption. By the 17th c., Europeans and consolidated their control of new sea trade routes, by-passing the Middle East and diminishing the transit trade through Ottoman lands. Asian spices were shipped directly to Europe, and wars with Iran interrupted the silk trade. European manufactured goods flowed in, undercutting local handicraft products and enriching Levantine merchants. The Ottoman Empire’s unfavorable trade balance resulted in an outflow of gold, while European states demanded more favorable trade treaties ( ”Capitulations" ) and were guilty of blatantly abusing them. [ 5 ] Intellectual decline--Selim and Suleyman’s 16th c. victory over Safavid Shi’ism so consolidated Sunni orthodoxy that Muslims in the Empire were not forced to engage in intellectually challenging and stimulating conflict as Catholics and Protestants were in Europe. Muslim scholars became intellectually conservative and resistant to new ideas; convinced of the superiority of Muslim / Ottoman civilization, they were seemingly oblivious to the advances being made in the infidel West. Meanwhile, the Ottoman religious establishment gradually became infiltrated by the Sufi orders, producing a new sort of symbiosis which gave greater strength to conservative religious” elements. In the18th c. more wars and losses resulted in another attempt at reforms. The Tulip Period  ( 1718-30 )   marks the first conscious borrowing of European culture and art. During the mid-century interlude of peace on the European frontiers, Ottoman political authority was further diffused. Provincial notables and governors barely heeded orders from Istanbul. Levantines and Phanariot Greeks enjoyed enormous prosperity and influence. The Muslim religious elite reached the apex of their power. In the last quarter of the century, Catherine the Great resumed Russian expansion southward; her ” Greek Scheme " aimed to put her grandson, Constantine, on the throne of a neo-Byzantine Empire with its capital at Constantinople. Her first war ended in the Treaty of Kuchuk Kaynarca (1774) by which the Ottomans gave up the Crimea, the first time they had lost territory inhabited primarily by Muslims. In 1789, during the second war with Catherine, Selim lll became sultan and initiated a reform program called the New Order, (Nizam-i Cedid) with emphasis on military and fiscal reform. But Selim’s failure to prevent Napoleon’s invasion of the rich Ottoman province of Egypt in 1798 revealed to Europeans as never before that the balance of power had now shifted decidedly in their favor. The Imperial reforms begun by Selim III were taken up again in the early decades of the 19th.c. by Sultan Mahmud II. They aimed at curbing provincial autonomy and achieving political centralization and modernization through Western-style military, administrative, and fiscal reforms. But European intervention in the Greek struggle for independence signaled the beginning of the modern " Eastern Question ” (Simply put : Who would divide the spoils when the Ottoman Empire collapsed ? ). To counter this, the Tanzimat period (1839-76) saw reforms center around a new concept of justice (adalet): equality before the law for all Ottoman subjects, Muslim and non- Muslim alike. This concept was fundamental to the prevalent ideology of the Tanzimat, Ottomanism ( patriotism but not yet nationalism). In the 1850s-60s, intellectuals known as the New Ottomans” engaged in a liberal critique of Tanzimat policies with emphasis on fatherland (vatan), freedom (hurriget), and constitutionalism. The Tanzimat reforms culminated in the constitution and parliament of 1876, but the 1877-78 war with Russia and the Treaty of Berlin, by which most of the Ottoman lands in Europe were lost and the European powers laid claim to spheres of influence in the Middle East, allowed Sultan Abdulhamid II to bring an end to " liberalism” and proceed with reforms under an autocratic- regime. By the 1880s Germany under Kaiser Wilhelrn had replaced France and Great Britain as friend and military advisor of the Ottoman Empire, and new ideologies were challenging Ottomanism. Abdulhamid embraced Pan-Islamism; his opponents, known collectively as Young Turks, were drawn to a secular Ottoman pseudo-nationalism and some to Pan-Turkism. The Hamidian despotism was ended by the Young Turk Revolution(1908-09) and replaced by constitutional, parliamentary government under the Young Turk Committee of Union and Progress. Their policies reflected a growing sense of Turkish nationalism. But in the five years preceding World War I, two Balkan wars and a war with Italy, which had invaded Libya, brought the military element of the Young Turk movement to the fore and resulted in the domination of the Istanbul political scene by the Young Turk Triumverate ( Enver, Talat, and Jemal Pashas) . Under their leadership, the Ottomans entered World War I on the side of Germany. The victors dictated the peace to end all peace at Paris in 1919. With even the heartlands of the Empire partitioned and Istanbul occupied by the victorious allies, the Turks of Anatolia under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) rejected the terms of the dictated Treaty of Sevres. Again they took up arms, fought successfully for their independence, and --- bringing to an end the 600 + year-old Ottoman Empire –- negotiated the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 which granted international recognition to the boundaries of the new Republic of Turkey Assembled by Richard L. Chambers, The University of Chicago

Posters libs won't like ... tjhx Ramey H!

Posters to piss off the libs...GREAT!!!!                                                             No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2015.0.5645 / Virus Database: 4281/9056 - Release Date: 02/04/15

4 times Married 4 husbands ... Thx Clay V uh ,,, maybe

4 Times Married
   4  Husbands
The  local news station was interviewing  an 80-year-old  lady because she
had just  gotten married  for the fourth time.
The  interviewer asked her  questions about her life,  about what it  felt
like to be marrying again at  80, and then  about her new husband's
occupation.

"He's a  funeral director," she  answered. "Interesting,"  the newsman
thought.

He then  asked her if she wouldn't mind  telling him a  little about her
first three husbands  and what they  did for a living. She paused for a  few
moments,  needing time to reflect on all  those years.  After a short time,
a smile came to her face and  she answered proudly, explaining  that she had
first married
a banker when she was in her 20's,
then a circus ringmaster when in  her 40's, and
  a preacher when in her 60's, and  now
- in her  80's - a funeral  director.
The  interviewer looked at her, quite  astonished, and asked  why she had
married four men  with such  diverse  careers.





(Wait  for it)





She  smiled and explained,  "I married ONE  for
the money,  TWO for the show, THREE to get  ready,
and FOUR  to go!!!!"



(Oh, just  hush-up and send this one on to somebody
who needs a laugh.)

Cartoons and racism ... Thx Judi CV!

I think the Clint Eastwood cartoon is brilliant

Thw 20 richest Quarterbacks of all time ... SamKat

The 20 Richest NFL Quarterbacks of All-Time

By Tiffany Raiford on Oct 14, 2014 Posted in: Football Players

8.8K 6.6K

image: http://toobnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/ad.png

image: http://engine.adzerk.net/i.gif?e=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&s=Lu9_hx0df4juyE4RRXPPniluc3Y

image: http://worthly.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2014/10/170524679.jpg

image: http://toobnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/ad.png

It should come as no surprise to anyone that quarterbacks are the heart and soul of any football team, and the NFL is perfectly aware of this fact. It’s part of the reason they are some of the highest paid players in sports, and why they are often the most famous players on a team. Of course, not all of them are able to take their success and their earnings and make it through life comfortably. Many professional athletes squander their fortunes and end up living paycheck to paycheck for the rest of their lives while others make it big in business when they’re done with their playing days. Quarterbacks are paid far more today than they were in the past, but doesn’t mean that some old school QBs aren’t a bit wealthier than some of the current hotshot QBs. Read on to find out which NFL Quarterbacks make the list according to net worth.
Photo by D Dipasupil/Getty Images

Related: Lists

Pages:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

Next

Next Posts: A Dollar That's Actually Worth $2 Million»