GameNight Net HUB

The links section to your upper right has been changed a little. I have included just a few blogs for now. I am also working on a better name for the "HUB" But that will have to do for now. I have refrained from adding any of the invite only blogs I am currently associated with. So give a shout if you still wish for one of those sites to be listed. They might show up anyway depending on how I feel  ┐(￣ー￣)┌
I will continue to link blogs as I go. By doing this I hope to create a "HUB" section to expose further all of your and this blogs sister and brother blogs *If that's what they can be called*

Keep your Friends Close,but Your Enemies Closer

“Treachery does never prosper.What’s the reason?
For if it prosper,none will ever call it treason.”

I can not agree with the moral application of this statement,but in the case of Alexander Nevsky it seems true.This Grand Prince of Russia has been both reviled and praised by different factions for his role in the Mongol invasion of Europe.But regardless of his later decisions,The Grand Prince’s earlier acts were very noteworthy.

Born in 1220,Alexander was born fourth in line for the throne of the Principality of Vladimir,and was trained as a soldier because of that fact. His military ability caused the vital Russian city of Novgorod to ask him to be their Prince;the timing of Alexander’s accession to Novgorod's throne could not have been better as the Swedes and Teutonic Knights decided to commence hostilities.
The Northern European area was in quite a bit of turmoil at that time.The Teutonic Knights were carving their way through the Lithuanian countryside with the approval of the Pope;the Swedish kingdom was in the throes of a civil war,and their army was filled with ambitious generals who wanted nothing more than to add Russia to their territory. These factors, combined with the fact that Russia was growing as well, created a three way slug-fest with control of Northern Europe the prize.
Alexander first shows us his strategic savvy with his first act as Prince of Novgorod. Alexander realized that any invasion of Russia would first come from the Swedes,as the Teutonic Knights were still in the process of subjugating the Lithuanians and would take their time,hoping that the Swedes would drain their resources during an invasion,and the Russian’s as well,leaving behind two easily-conquerable,shattered,states. Alexander realized that the Russian state could ill-afford a prolonged conflict, not with the elite order of Teutonic Knights waiting to devour the victor. The 20 year-old Prince of Russia then decided to commit his troops to a gamble that,if it failed,could have doomed the Russian Bear.
The Swedish needed to control the river of Neva, which was the main trade route between Novgorod and the Black Sea,in order to have any hope of bringing Russia to it’s knees. Alexander, realizing the significance of the River Neva,decided to attack the Swedish expeditionary force at the mouth of the river instead of down stream,where the Swedes would have been more vulnerable. The attack of the entirety of Alexander’s army(a few hundred Russians) was a complete surprise to the numerically superior Swedish,who were thrown into complete disarray. The surprise attack went off without a hitch, and it left the Swedes with little they could do in terms of securing a viable beachhead in Russia. After the Battle of the Neva,Alexander was given the surname of “Nevsky”.
Although the Swedish Kingdom’s invasion was stemmed, the Teutonic Order did not take the results of the Battle of Neva seriously. Regardless of any recent victories against the disorganized Swedes, the Teuton Grandmaster reasoned, the Russians would not be able to defeat the battle-hardened knights of the Teutons. The Knights took cue from the withdrawal of the Swedes,and sent their Livonian Knights to swarm the Russians. Alexander quickly drafted up as many troops as possible from among the populace and nobility, resulting in the creation of an army that ,although numerically superior, was outclassed in armaments,training, and mobility. In order to overcome the slanted odds, the Russians chose as the battlefield a frozen lake.The Iced over lake negated the Teuton’s speed as the horses were unable to operate efficiently on the lake,and also had the effect of causing the heavily armored knights to lose all-most all their movement on foot as well. These factors,along with efficient use of Russian archers and Druzhina(Nobility that utilized tactics akin to that of the medieval Viking), allowed the Russians to rout the Order.The rout ended any further attempt by the Popes to conquer the Russian kingdom via crusades,in fact,later circumstances would put Russia out of the reach of all of the Pope’s influence.
At this time in the reign of Alexander Nevsky rumors began to move that the invincible,terrifying Golden Horde was pushing towards Russia with conquest in their blood.Unfortunately for Russia these rumors proved all too true.Upon reaching the borders of the Russian Kingdom,the leader of the Golden Horde issued an ultimatum to the indigenous rulers:Come and pay homage to your new Lords and live,or prepare to die! The first and only ruler to come was Alexander Nevsky; after becoming a vassal to the Genghis Khan,Alexander assisted his new lords in occupying their new dominion.Going so far as destroying a rebel army under his older brother’s command that was attempting to revolt against the Mongols.
This phase of Alexander’s life is where he receives his most virulent criticism.Was he a traitor to his people,and Europe as a whole?Why did he do what he did?Greed?Ambition?Fear?What was going through the head of this warrior that had been beating the odds since his childhood as he worked to solidify his country under a foreign conquer?
My gut reaction is to condemn his as a gutless traitor who sold out his countries Independence for a position of power,but after studying his circumstances one can understand his situation better. Russia was surrounded by hostile countries:Poland,Teutonic Prussia,Sweden.These countries waited for any sign of weakness to pounce,and although the latter two had been stopped at the time,the threats they posed were still very strong;the Roman Catholic Church had even attempted to agitate a religious revolt in Orthodox Russia. Alexander would have despaired when he heard that yet another enemy appeared,this time from his back door of the Ural mountains,and the Golden Horde was not just “another enemy” they were an implacable foe that had never been defeated in battle.It would easily imagined that Alexander was eager for any solution that would result in a Russia at all. I would think that when Alexander was offered to stay in control of Russia by the Mongols,he leaped at any chance not only to stay in power but to preserve his country. In fact the occupation of Russia was much more lenient due to Alexander Nevsky’s strict program of loyalty to the Khanate.
Whether you agree or disagree with Alexander’s choice no one can say that his choice was easy.In fact,after a long term as the Mongol’s administrator of Russia Alexander took monastic vows and not long after died.

Potential Presidents

The Difference between them

The difference between the Democrats and Republicans:  The Democrats find out that some special interest groups are paying big bucks for pieces of the capital building they so they purpose that we tear it down (because of its affect on the environment ) and give the parts to some "Charities" when the Republicans hear this they blow the trumpet and start massive nationwide campaigns to raise money to stop those “Liberals form tacking away our rites and destroying our heritage!!” after they raise hundreds of millions of dollars they "force" a compromise the capitol will be torn down but over 4.5 years and they can't stat until after the next election. So then the Democrats sell fake copies of pieces of the capitol to the interest groups and sell the real stuff to corporate executives in Eastern counters. 

In the next campaign for office both sides point out the others hypocritical practices and beg the voters to put them in to office so they can stop it. ........................................... So who are you going to vote for ? :)

An Army With A Nation

"Not a nation with an army,but an army with a nation."

The European state of Prussia exemplified this phrase.Created from the states of the Teutonic Order,Prussia became the archetypical German people.Hard working,solid,obedient, nationalistic,these were the virtues of the people of the Prussian state. This country would rise to be the premier military of Europe,and the unifier of modern Germany.

In 1308 A.D. Old Prussia was the target of a crusading order,The Teutonic Knights.The Teutons invaded the backward tribes that made up Old Prussia and were able to conquer them.
The Order then proceeded to exterminate remnants of any but their own culture;they did this using two means:(1)the Order destroyed all temples and all remaining old seats of power,(2)the Order opened their border for a massive migration of German settlers.Through these methods the Old Prussia faded into extermination,and Prussia was born.
Due to loss of Papal support and Polish attack,Teutonic Prussia was forced to secularize their remaining lands and shift the seat of power to the Hohenzollern dynasty.Although the Prussian state was no longer the religious Order of the Teutons,the Teutons values of strict governance, stoicism,martial supremacy,and their lust for the Lands of Eastern Europe would be handed down through all of Germany.
Prussia was silent among the nations for the years of 1525-1618,silent but not non-active.The Kingdom of Prussia was annexing and solidifying it's territory,organizing it's government,and creating an immense army.In 1619,when the Thirty Years War broke out,Prussia was eager to flex it's muscle as a nation,but defeats at the hands of the Swedish forced the Prussians to take stock and reorganize all their efforts.The new king not only reorganized the military and defended his nation from the Swedes,but created a virtual stranglehold of power for himself and his line.The successive rulers of this nation continued to expand both their powers(internal,and external)and the powers of the military;the striving of these kings was fully realized in Fredrick the Great.
Prussia,for the years of 1714-1784,can be summed up in the character of Frederick the Great,and although you would not tell it from his childhood,which consisted of an effeminate demeanor,a love of music,and a dislike of authority ,young Frederick II was destined to be the ultimate Prussian. After an ill-planned attempt to run away from his country,his disciplinarian father lost patience with his heir.The King first ordered that the young Frederick watch his co-conspirator and best friend,Hans Hermann Von Katte,executed,then Frederick was rigorously forced to work, learn, and be profitable in almost every position of the civil and military administrative duties for two years.When the time came for him to take control of Prussia Frederick was,as one of his deputies described,"Obsessed with the smallest detail of every administration,infinitely knowledgeable in every study,and relentless in pursuing efficiency in every endeavor".
Frederick led Prussia into economic, military, and political dominance of central Europe. Prussia, under Frederick, transformed from the backwater of Europe into a country with an organized bureaucracy, an economy nearly independent from other countries, a Military that was larger than the population and perhaps the only force capable of unifying the disparage parts of Germany.
Unfortunately, for a unified Germany, Prussia's rulers after Frederick the Great were but a shadow of his prowess. It was just 29 years from when Frederick had brought Prussia into dominance that it was brought down in bitter defeat by Napoleon.The Prussian nation once again was forced to reform and reorganize, but was a crucial assist in defeating Napoleon at Waterloo.
It was not until 1860s,when King Wilhelm I appointed Bismarck as the Prime Minister of Prussia,that the furor for reunification of Germany set in again.Bismarck was a pragmatist,and he had an insatiable vision for a united Germany under the Prussian king.Through a masterful manipulations of neighboring countries he was able to wage wars,gain territory,and create a sense of foreign predation that caused the German states to unite with Prussia in a state.
The unified German country in reality was a Prussian Protectorate in which the Kingship was a hereditary position for the Prussian Hohenzollern dynasty,the Imperial military was an enlarged Prussian army(even though the other states could manage their own militia),and the civil administration was completely dominated by the Prussian Prime Minister.The accomplishment of a unified Germany had sated Bismarck's lust for territory;he realized that his newly created Germany was in a most tenuous situation of being surrounded by hostile countries and still in the process of unifying the other German nations closer together.Bismarck sought to buy time by creating entangling alliances and building up the military machine.But Bismarck was a German patriot above all,and he had always maintained that he was serving Germany(and by extension the Kaiser of Germany),this policy back-fired when the stubborn prince,Wilhelm II, became the new Kaiser,and demanded more control over the government,and when Bismarck balked Wilhelm dismissed the Chancellor.
Without Bismarck to guide him,Wilhelm II committed many rash decisions,the largest of which would be World War 1.The World War's results were the defeat of Germany,but even more it was the demise of the Prussian state.Due to the treaty of Versailles,Prussia lost it's continuity,it's place of preeminance among the other German states,and it's Kaiser.The kingdom of Prussia died,but it imprinted itself on the national psyche and created the common perception of Germany.


(That is it.Sorry if I bored you all to death,but I wanted to write something "historical for the blog:)

Ok If you HAD to choose

If you HAD to choose bettwen the game night people who would you pick to be president and if we had a supreme dictatorship who would you choose ?