Religious Bigots (07/08/14
I have no idea how many people were killed at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, but I'm sure it was a lot less than the 100,000 or so Scots who lost their lives in World War I.
One hundred years later the various Europeans countries who lost so many of their citizens during that terrible conflict came together to remember the fallen on both sides of the conflict and pay tribute to the war dead.
As listened to the coverage of thee events on TV and read the often moving reports in the newspapers, I found myself thing about the Orange Order parades in Glasgow which celebrate a great 'victory' of one side over the other, in a tribal atmosphere of triumphalism as opposed to peace and reconciliation.
I wonder what the reaction would be if Israel celebrated its military 'victory' over Gaza with a public parade through the streets to which only Zionist Jews were invited?
Yet that's exactly what the Orange Order parades in Scotland and Northern Ireland are all about - exclusive events which are organised by and for bigoted elements within the Protestant community, and which are anti-Catholic by their very nature.
The whole nasty business makes about as much sense as the northern states celebrating their victory over the southern states during the American Civil War, by publicly rubbing the losers' noses in their historic defeat once a year.
So if you ask me it's time to start challenging these religious bigots because their behaviour is an embarrassment in 21st century Scotland.
French and German presidents mark 100 years since start of first world war
François Hollande and Joachim Gauck embrace at monument in Alsace where remains of 12,000 soldiers are interred
By Anne Penketh - The Guardian
Joachim Gauck and François Hollande embrace at Hartmannswillerkopf, which saw heavy first world war fighting. Photograph: Christian Hartmann/Reuters
On a high ridge in the Vosges mountains, where 30,000 German and French soldiers died in the first world war trenches, the presidents of France and Germany stood side by side in a silence, then turned to each other for a long hug.
The image of reconciliation, in the crypt where the unidentified remains of 12,000 of both countries' soldiers are interred, came at the start of carefully choreographed ceremonies on Sunday commemorating the 100th anniversary of Germany's declaration of war on France.
François Hollande and his German counterpart, Joachim Gauck, went on to place a wreath at a monument to the fallen at Hartmannswillerkopf, now known as Le Vieil Armand, before laying the first stone of a future Franco-German exhibition centre.
It was the first time that a German president had visited the cemetery, where 1,256 French soldiers are buried. The summit, used to control communications in the valleys of Alsace, changed hands eight times in the twelve months following December 1914.
In their speeches paying tribute to the dead, both presidents sought to present France and Germany as an example to the world of peace and reconciliation, and to revive the European dream. Hollande used much of his 20-minute address to plead the case of a reformed EU, stressing that Europe"doesn't dilute nationhood". Recognising that the EU had been unprepared for crisis and that it had failed to bring prosperity to all its peoples, he called for "growth, jobs and solidarity".
France and Germany had made their voices heard in the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, he said, urging a ceasefire in Gaza "to end the suffering of the civilian population".
On a more personal note, Hollande mentioned that both his grandfathers had fought in the first world war, although they had rarely discussed their wartime experiences. Gauck picked up the reference, noting that "our grandparents were fighting each other".
