Guests could feed the giraffes from their breakfast table, photograph them and interact with this graceful animal through the open window, at the front door and even at the second floor bedroom window. This is the only place in the world where one can share breakfast with the world’s tallest animal.

The Giraffe Manor was built in 1932 by Sir David Duncan, in 150 acres of land running down to the Mbagathi River, the southern boundary of the
city of Nairobi. In the 1960s the Manor was purchased by a local investor who leased it to a succession of people, including the late Dennis Lakin, before it fell into disrepair, unoccupied.

When Jock died, Betty decided to open her house, now called The Giraffe Manor, to visitors. Today, many tourist make the Giraffe Manor part of their East African Safari. Some spend a week here and The Giraffe Manor is reported to have many repeat guests, who have become old friends with the hotel owners.

The Giraffe Manor is surrounded by 140 acres of indigenous forest just outside Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. As well as the giraffe, the  property is also home to many species of birds, large families of warthogs and the elusive Bush Buck .

The Pentagon has released a statement confirming that soldiers could be prosecuted for promoting their faith: “Religious proselytization is not permitted within the Department of Defence…Court martials and non-judicial punishments are decided on a case-by-case basis…”.

The statement, released to Fox News, follows a Breitbart News report on Obama administration Pentagon appointees meeting with anti-Christian extremist Mikey Weinstein to develop court-martial procedures to punish Christians in the military who express or share their faith.

(From our earlier report: Weinstein is the head of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, and says Christians–including chaplains–sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ in the military are guilty of “treason,” and of committing an act of “spiritual rape” as serious a crime as “sexual assault.” He also asserted that Christians sharing their faith in the military are “enemies of the Constitution.”)

Being convicted in a court martial means that a soldier has committed a crime under federal military law. Punishment for a court martial can include imprisonment and being dishonourably discharged from the military.

So President Barack Obama’s civilian appointees who lead the Pentagon are confirming that the military will make it a crime–possibly resulting in imprisonment–for those in uniform to share their faith. This would include chaplains—military officers who are ordained clergymen of their faith (mostly Christian pastors or priests, or Jewish rabbis)–whose duty since the founding of the U.S. military under George Washington is to teach their faith and minister to the spiritual needs of troops who come to them for counsel, instruction, or comfort.

This regulation would severely limit expressions of faith in the military, even on a one-to-one basis between close friends. It could also effectively abolish the position of chaplain in the military, as it would not allow chaplains (or any service members, for that matter), to say anything about their faith that others say led them to think they were being encouraged to make faith part of their life. It’s difficult to imagine how a member of the clergy could give spiritual counselling without saying anything that might be perceived in that fashion.

In response to the Pentagon’s plans, retired Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin, who is now executive vice president of the Family Research Council (FRC), said on Fox & Friends Wednesday morning:

It’s a matter of what do they mean by “proselytizing.” …I think they’ve got their definitions a little confused. If you’re talking about coercion that’s one thing, but if you’re talking about the free exercise of our faith as individual soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines, especially for the chaplains, they I think the worst thing we can do is stop the ability for a soldier to be able to exercise his faith.”

FRC has launched a petition here which has already collected over 60,000 signatures, calling on Secretary Hagel is stop working with Weinstein and his anti-Christian organization to develop military policy regarding religious faith.

**UPDATE**

The FRC petition has now exceeded more than 40,000 signatures at the time of this update.

Breitbart News legal columnist Ken Klukowski is senior fellow for religious liberty with the Family Research Council and on faculty at Liberty University School of Law.  

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2013/05/01/Breaking-Pentagon-Confirms-Will-Court-Martial-Soldiers-Who-Share-Christian-Faith

English: Silent violin (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This doesn’t take long to watch, but you will be filled with admiration!!! A feel good video. With all the bad stuff going on here and abroad we need some uplifting. We send them garbage.  They send back music.   A must-see video about the power of music. This upcoming documentary tells the story of music, hope, children, and the power of recycling. It’s the old saying isn’t it? One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

Three Nazi bunkers on a beach have been uncovered by violent storms off the

The bunkers were three of 7,000 built by the Germans as part of Hitler‘s ‘Atlantic Wall‘ from Norway to the south of France.
But while the vast majority were almost immediately looted or destroyed, these three were entombed under the sand dunes of a remote beach near the town of Houvig since 1945.

They were uncovered only because recent storms sent giant waves cascading over them, sweeping away the sand and exposing glimpses of the cement and iron structures. Kim Clausen, curator of the Ringkoebing-Skjern museum views a heater retrieved from the bunker.

Stamps of the German Eagle of Adolf Hitler and the Swastika were also retrieved.

They were located by two nine-year-old boys on holiday with their parents, who then informed the authorities. Archaeologists were able to carefully force a way in, and were astounded at what they found. “What’s so fantastic is that we found
them completely furnished with beds, chairs, tables, communication systems and the personal effects of the soldiers who lived inside,” says Jens Andersen, the curator of the Hanstholm museum.

The discovery of the fully-furnished bunkers was ‘unique in Europe,’ said Bent Anthonisen, a Danish expert on European bunkers.And a third expert, Tommy Cassoe, enthused: “It was like entering the heart of a pyramid with mummies all around. What I saw blew me away: it was as if the German soldiers had left only yesterday.”
The team working with Cassoe emptied the structures within a few days of boots, undergarments, socks, military stripes, mustard and aquavit bottles, books, inkpots, stamps featuring Hitler, medicines, soda bottles, keys, hammers and other objects. All of the objects from the shelters have been taken to the conservation centre at Oelgod museum, some 20 miles from the beach to be examined.

The centre’s German curator, Gert Nebrich, judged the find “very interesting because it is so rare. We don’t expect contemporary objects like these to be so well preserved. Maybe it’s because they were kept for 60 years in the cold and dark
like in a big vacuum,” he said, carefully showing four stamps featuring Hitler’s image and the German eagle, found in one bunker. The Germans left the bunkers in May 1945 after the Nazi surrender.

Historical records show that Gerhard Saalfed was a 17-year-old soldier with the German army when he arrived at the bunker in January 1945.Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945, but it wasn’t until two days later that he and his
fellow soldiers left their remote station. They shut the steel doors of the bunker behind them on their remote beach and went to the nearest town ten miles away to surrender. “The remote location of the bunkers and the drifting sands that covered them saved them from being ransacked,” said Cassoe

Bridge over the river Kwai, September 2009. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This is such an interesting piece written by one of the last survivors of that horror. Well worth a read.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2323172/The-Brit-River-Kwai-Reg-Twigg-remaining-survivors-Death-Railway-died-wee

Dog sunny Day Afternoon (Photo credit: allert)

The sentiments expressed in this video are so true. What wonderful friends and companions dogs are? We are so lucky to have them.

God Made a Dog

Batuh en Lou (Photo credit: daan f.)

This is such a lovely video of animals and how they relate to each other. It’s a pleasure to watch :)

http://www.flixxy.com/friendship-has-no-boundaries.htm#.UU-qJ69Ol30.aolmail