Conservapedia - User contributions [en]

Welfare

2008-09-15T15:17:24Z

BMoore:

[[Image:Bank of America Victor Gruen.jpg|right|300px]]
'''Welfare''' is a government program paid for by the taxpayers that gives money to the poor through [[socialism|wealth redistribution]]. It is strongly opposed by most conservatives.

==Welfare in the United States==
Welfare in the [[United States]] has been growing for many years. The welfare system was established by President [[Franklin Roosevelt]], and extended by [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] and the [[Great Society]]. Opponents say that, since 50% of Americans pay over 96% of the taxes, <ref>Jackson, 2007</ref><ref>[http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/250.html]</ref> welfare is a [[socialist]] policy. Supporters may cite the effectiveness of Roosevelt's policies to help end the Great Depression.<ref>http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/depression/overview.htm</ref> Welfare also comes in the forms of [[food stamp]]s, free school lunches, and [[Medicaid]]. There is no evidence that anyone has ever been helped by welfare; in fact, some conservatives believe that welfare hurts the disadvantaged.

==Corporate Welfare==
This is a pejorative term used to describe business subsidies, bailouts, and tax breaks, especially for large [[corporation]]s.

== Welfare Reform ==
Highly successful and [[conservative]] legislation was the [[Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996]], which ended welfare for millions of people. They improved their lives by finding jobs instead.

<center>
"The only real cure for poverty is production". [[Henry Hazlitt]], from Man vs. the Welfare State.
</center>
 

== See also ==
*[[Essay:Greatest Conservative Legislation]]
*[[Capitalism]]
*[[Social democracy]]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}
[[Category: Politics]]
[[Category:Economics terms]]
[[Category:Government Programs]]

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

2008-09-15T15:11:37Z

BMoore:

[[Image:OWH.jpg|right|thumb|Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.]]

'''Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.''' (1841-1935) served on the United States [[Supreme Court]] for over 30 years and is an icon in American law schools. He is known for his elegant writing style and for dissenting from key decisions decades before the entire Court moved to his side of those issues. For example, Holmes dissented from [[Lochner doctrine]] as established ''Lochner v. New York'' (1905), in which the Supreme Court invalidated an economic regulation by the state of New York. Decades later the Supreme Court rightly came to agree with Holmes' side of the case.

But critics of Justice Holmes observe that although he was highly moral in his youth, fighting against [[slavery]] in the Civil War, he became increasingly amoral and utilitarian as a justice. They criticize Justice Holmes when he upheld the forced sterilization of a young woman on the grounds that she had a low IQ. "Three generations of imbeciles are enough," Justice Holmes' bellowed in his harshly utilitarian style in ''[[Buck v. Bell]]'', 274 U.S. 200 (1927). Holmes was a believer in Darwinism and sought to apply it to the law and to life, as urged by [[social Darwinism]].

After editing the ''American Law Review'' early in his career, he wrote ''The Common-Law'' in 1881. The following year he became a professor of law at Harvard, and two decades later he was appointed to the Massachusetts Supreme Court in 1899. In 1902 President [[Theodore Roosevelt]] appointed him to the [[United States Supreme Court]] in 1902, where he served until the age of 90, when his colleagues suggested his resign. He died a few years later.

Holmes's utilitarian judicial philosophy is best summed by his famous quote that "The life of the law has not been logic, but experience." His own migration away from the uninformed Christianity of his youth can be seen in his advice as an old man to the younger generation: "Young man, the secret of my success is that at an early age I discovered that I was not God." However such a statement may merely have been made to clarify a long running rumor of Holmes's omnipotence.

Although Justice Holmes retains an almost saint-like reverence in American law schools, there are actually few judges or law professors who follow his legal philosophy today. An example of a utilitarian judge today would be Judge Richard Posner of the [[Seventh Circuit|Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals]], who wrote a book in tribute of Justice Holmes.

== Specific Views ==

Justice Holmes was fond of saying that insofar as government is the prerequisite for the fruits of civilization for which we pay taxes. ''See, e.g.'', ''Compania de Tabacos v. Collector'', 275 U.S. 87, 100 (1927) (Holmes, J., dissenting).

Justice Holmes wrote the 5-4 decision upholding [[rent control]] and denying a claim for repossession by a property owner. ''[[Block v. Hirsh]]'', 256 U.S. 135 (1921). Justice Holmes made no mention of the [[Fifth Amendment]] protection of private property in his opinion.

{{DEFAULTSORT: Holmes, Oliver Wendell Jr.}}

[[category:United States Supreme Court Justices]]

Reform Party

2008-09-15T15:05:34Z

BMoore:

The '''Reform Party''' is a [[political party]] in the United States founded in 1995 by [[Ross Perot]].

==Background==
Perot had run for President as an independent candidate in 1992 and got 19% of the popular vote. Perot's main issues were a [[balanced budget]], paying down the [[national debt]], enacting [[term limits]] and campaign finance reform, and opposition to [[free trade]] agreements such as [[NAFTA]]. Following his 1992 run, he founded the organization United We Stand America to continue lobbying on these issues. In 1995 he founded the Reform Party in preparation for another run for the Presidency in 1996.

==1996 Presidential race==
Perot at first didn't announce he was running and instead called for other contenders to seek the Reform Party nomination, but when former [[Colorado]] governor Richard Lamm actually did so, Perot opposed him. There was some bad blood during the primary process for the party's nomination when Lamm supporters claimed they didn't receive ballots. Perot won the primary and went on to win 8% of the popular vote in the 2006 Presidential vote, significantly less than his 1992 showing. Following the 1996 elections, a small group of Lamm supporters left to form the [[American Reform Party]], believing Perot had too much control over the Reform Party.

==1998 midterm election==
Former professional wrestler [[Jesse Ventura]] won an upset victory for governor of [[Minnesota]] in 1998 running on the Reform Party ticket, the only victory by the Reform Party in a three way contest, garnering a plurality of 34%. The Reform Party held no seats in either legislative chamber, or any other state-wide elected cabinet office. In the stalemate, people from both major parties, Republican and Democrat, filled appointed positions by the governor requiring legislative approval because of a lack of qualified personal from the Reform Party moreso than partisan opposition.

==2000 Presidential race==
The 2000 primary season was marked by splits in the party. Two-time Republican primary hopeful [[Patrick Buchanan]] announced he was leaving the [[Republican Party]] to seek the Presidential nomination of the Reform Party. Ross Perot did not seek the 2000 nomination. Buchanan's main opponent in the 2000 Reform primaries was [[John Hagelin]], who had twice run for President on the [[Natural Law Party]] ticket, which advocated transcendental meditation (TM). Despite Hagelin's background in TM, opponents of Buchanan rallied around him as their best hope to stop Buchanan from winning the nomination. An unrelated split in the party occurred when a faction, including Jesse Ventura and term limits activist Jack Gargan, believed Perot had too much say over the party. Ventura's Minnesota chapter of the Reform Party left the party to become the Independence Party of Minnesota. Buchanan would go on to win the nomination at which point Hagelin's supporters walked out of the convention, held their own rump convention and named Hagelin the Reform Party nominee. The states recognized Buchanan as the legitimate nominee. Buchanan would win about 1/4 of 1% of the popular vote in the 2000 general election. Perot himself washed his hands of the Reform Party in 2000 and refused to endorse Buchanan.

==After 2000==
With the withdrawal of Ross Perot's leadership and financial support, the Reform Party fell on hard times. Many of Buchanan's supporters also left the Reform Party immediately after the 2000 election to form the short-lived [[America First Party]]. By 2004 what was left of the Reform Party chose to endorse the independent campaign of [[Ralph Nader]] rather than nominate their own candidate. An additional split occurred in 2006 with two separate conventions each claiming to be the official Reform Party convention.

==2008 Presidential race==
In the 2008 Presidential campaign, the Reform Party of [[Ohio]] endorsed Republican candidate [[Ron Paul]].

The national party nominated Ted Weill at their convention in [[Dallas]] July 18-20, 2008. Ted Weill is the founder and longtime chairman of the [[Mississippi]] chapter of the Reform Party, and is also a frequent donor to the [[Lyndon LaRouche]] organization.

==Presidential Nominees==
*1996- [[Ross Perot]]
*2000- [[Pat Buchanan]]
*2004- [[Ralph Nader]]
*2008 - Ted Weill

==External links==
* [http://www.reformpartyusa.org/ Reform Party USA] - official website
* [http://www.americanreform.org/ American Reform Party] - small party which broke away from RPUSA in 1997
* [http://www.mnip.org/ Independence Party of Minnesota] - formerly the MN affiliate of the Reform Party
* [http://americafirstparty.org/ America First Party] - small breakaway party founded in 2002
* [http://www.uwsa.com/ United We Stand America] - unofficial website

[[Category:United States Political Parties]]

Socrates

2008-09-15T14:57:37Z

BMoore:

[[Image:Socrates.jpg|thumb|right|200px|The Greek philosopher Socrates]]

'''Socrates''' was an ancient [[Greek]] philosopher, who lived between approximately 470 and 399 BC. He is best known for his method of argument (Maieutics), which poses questions that may expose logical errors underlying an opponent's argument, though he usually stated that his purpose was not to argue but to pursue the truth in alliance with his opponent. Socrates had served in the army in his youth, like all Greek men of his time. To modern readers he is most familiar as a character in many books by his disciple [[Plato]] or his contemporary [[Xenophon]]. If Socrates wrote any books himself they are lost. Eventually the courts of [[Athens]] found him guilty on charges of [[impiety]] and corrupting the youth, and sentenced him to drink hemlock, a poison that took his life. Socrates had an opportunity to escape from prison, but declined to do so. <ref>http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/socrates/socratesbio.html</ref>

==The question of the historical Socrates==

The major problem in studying the thought of Socrates is that we have to rely on the writings and reports of others since Socrates himself wrote nothing.

[[Aristotle]] examines Socrates in his ''Metaphysics'', and [[Xenophon]] provides some additional information. But [[Plato]], who was Socrates' pupil, is our principal source of information. He (Plato) wrote numerous dialogues in which Socrates figures as the main speaker. The problem is separating out from these dialogues what is Socrates and what is Plato. And the chief question is the origin of Plato's "Forms Theory".

[[Frederick Copleston|Coopleston]], in his ''History of Philosophy'', takes the traditional view, largely accepting Aristotle who stated that Socrates did not "separate" the Forms. On this view, although the historical Socrates is presented, especially in the early dialogues, the fully developed theory of Plato's is an elaboration or development of Socrates' views and, especially in his later writings, Plato has used the character of Socrates to expound these views.

==Some famous Socrates quotes<ref>http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Socrates</ref>==
*The unexamined life is not worth living.
*Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.
*Do not do to others what angers you if done to you by others.
*Having the fewest wants, I am nearest to the gods.
*I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance.

== See also ==
*[[Xantippe]]
*[[Euthyphro]]
*[[Apology of Socrates]]
*[[Phaedo]]

== References ==
<references/>

Plato, Christopher Gill, ''The Symposium''. London: Penguin Books, 1999

[[Category:Ancient Greek Philosophers]]

Home School Legal Defense Association

2008-09-15T14:55:13Z

BMoore:

The '''Homeschool Legal Defense Association''' (HSLDA) is organization essablished to "defend and advance the constitutional rights of parents to direct the education of their children and protect family freedom."<ref>http://www.hslda.org/about/staff/attorneys/Smith.asp</ref> They are designed to aid homeschooling families with legal actions. HSLDA now represents over 80,000 member families in the [[United States]]<ref>http://www.hslda.org/about/staff/attorneys/Smith.asp</ref>. The organization employers over 50 staff members in both full-time and part-time positions and is located in Purcellville, [[Virginia]]<ref>http://www.hslda.org/about/history/perspective.asp</ref>.

==History==
HSLDA was started in 1983 by [[Michael Farris]] and Michael Smith to provide legal protection for homeschooling families. The organisation has grown in the past few years and even gone into Canada. They have also helped out homeschoolers in South Africa.

==See Also==
*[[Homeschooling]]

==External Links==
*[http://www.hslda.org Official Website]

==References==
<references/>
[[category:law]]
[[category:education]]

Tribes of the Arctic region

2008-09-15T14:49:20Z

BMoore:

The '''Inuit''' are a [[Native American]] people of northernmost [[North America]], [[Europe]] and [[Asia]] which are still commonly known in the United States as '''Eskimos'''. Their traditional range of inhabitation spans around the [[Arctic Circle]] from eastern [[Siberia]] across [[Alaska]] in the United States, the [[Northwest Territory]], [[Yukon Territory]], [[Nunavut]], [[Quebec]] and [[Newfoundland]] in [[Canada]], all the way to [[Greenland]] and the [[Faroe Islands]]. Anthropologically, they were a much studied people for their physical and social adaptations to severe cold.

==Name==

In their own language, ''Inuit'' means ''the people''. The traditional name for them, ''Eskimo'', is now not [[politically correct]] since only foreigners had used it. Furthermore, in Inuit it means ''eaters of raw meat'', neglecting their large diet of raw fish.

==Language==

'''Inuit''' also refers to the language of the Inuit people. It has numerous consonants in tight clusters. Similar to [[Hawaii]]an, it has very short words, in part due to the expediation necessary to prevent the heat loss from opening their mouths. Also to prevent heat loss, Inuits would greet each other and perform other common exchanges only by rubbing their noses together ("Eskimo kiss"), since the nose was usually the only strip of skin exposed to the elements. The Inuit language is remarkable for having over 100 words to describe "snow".<ref>http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E04EFDB153BF93AA35751C0A962948260 "There's Snow Synonym", New York Times, February 9, 1984</ref>

==Diet==

Since the Inuit live in a region of [[permafrost]], they do not consume many plants. Their diet primarily consists of fish caught through iceholes and [[seal]]s, [[walrus]]es, or auks caught by [[spear]]hunting. Occasionally they would kill a [[polar bear]] to eat, but as with any bear, the meat is often not worth the danger of the hunt. In the [[whale]] spawning season, the Inuit would venture onto the thawed waters and hunt the great animals for their meat and [[blubber]], a natural insulator for their homes and a wax substitute for [[candle]]s.

The Inuit developed a specialized [[metabolism]] for [[protein]], [[fat]], and [[carbohydrate]]s in a virtually [[fiber]]-free diet. However, they often suffered from conditions resulting in a lack of [[Vitamin C]], [[riboflavin]] and [[thiamine]]. Their different metabolism has led to serious health issues as they try to convert to a modern diet.

==Society==

The Inuit developed heat-efficient housing made of thick blocks of ice, called [[igloo]]s. They would live in small villages through the long winter and then switch to a [[nomadic]] lifestyle in the short summer.

Their clothing was also heat-efficient: polar bear fur and sealskin would be used for the highly insulated parkas, anoraks, papooses and mukluks that comprised the Inuit wardrobe.

Inuits primarily bartered blubber and seal oil for special goods, though wampum currency was a possible alternative payment for commerce.

The Intuit traditionally practiced [[polyandry]], the polygamous endowment of several husbands to one wife<ref>http://www.snowwowl.com/peopleinuit5.html</ref>. In the harsh climate it was difficult for one man to feed a pregnant woman, thus several men would put aside their natural competitive instincts to care for one woman and continue the preservation of the race.

The funerary ceremony of the Inuit involved the family and close friends of the deceased placing the corpse on a small ice flow or canoe and casting it out to sea.

==Religion==

Christianity was brought to these [[pagan]] people by missionaries in the early 19th century and while pagan cultural rites have persisted, Christianity is the sole theistic religion practiced.

==History==

Until the great northern explorations of [[Henry Hudson]], the Inuit were unknown to Europeans other than the [[Viking]]s, who had already conquered the coastline of Greenland from them. Arctic explorers such as [[Admiral Byrd]] and [[Commodore Perry]] wrote about encounters with the Inuit in their journals, which were later popularized in the fiction novels of authors such as [[Jack London]].

The first Inuit recorded on film was [[Nanook of the North]], whose eponymous [[documentary]] by Robert J. Flaherty from 1922, showed all the modern world the curious arctic life of the Esquimoux (as they were then called). Some initial reactions to the film claimed it to be a hoax, but these objections quickly subsided.<ref>http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0013427/</ref>

==References==

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Ethnicities]][[Category:Languages]]
[[Category:Christianity]]

Panic of 1837

2008-09-15T14:44:46Z

BMoore:

The '''Panic of 1837''' was a financial crisis that struck the United States [[economy]] in the May of 1837, during the presidency of [[Martin van Buren]]. Several causes have been blamed for the crisis, but perhaps the most common is excessive land speculation, which followed reckless lending policies from state banks. State banks had more power when then-president [[Andrew Jackson]] did everything in his power to cripple the Second Bank of the United States, including switching money from this bank into state banks [http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/aa/presidents/buren/panic_2].

[[Category:United States History]]

Fauvism

2008-09-15T14:42:42Z

BMoore:

''Disambiguation: [[favaism]]''

[[Image:Matisse The Lying Nude.jpg|200px|right|The Lying Nude]]
'''Fauvism''' was an art movement which lasted from 1904 to 1908. It used vivid colors and distorted forms to convey emotion and was largely influenced by [[Africa]]n tribal arts. Prominent artist were [[Henri Matisse]], Vlamink, Derain, Dufy, and Rouault.

== See also ==

*[[Painting Schools]]
*[[Painting Masterpieces]]

[[Category:Artistic Movements]]

Ice (novel)

2008-09-15T14:36:26Z

BMoore:

[[Image:IceNovelShaneJohnson.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Cover painting by [[Astronaut]] [[Alan Bean]]]]
'''''Ice''''' is a [[Christian]] [[alternate history]] [[novel]].

== Description ==
* By Shane Johnson
* [[Colorado Springs]], [[Colorado]]: Waterbrook Press, 2002
* ISBN 1578565480
* 395 pages, paperback
* Cover illustration: ''The American'', original painting by [[Astronaut]] [[Alan Bean]]
* Foreword by [[Apollo 16]] Lunar Module Pilot [[Charles Duke]]
* Afterword by the author

== Plot summary ==
The [[astronaut]]s in a fictitious 1975 [[Project Apollo]] mission find themselves stranded on the [[Moon]]. They then strike out on their own and make a discovery that could, if widely reported, change the way that [[human]]s view their world and its history and pre-history.

=== Explanation of the Novel's Title ===
The astronauts, in their desperate travels, discover a vast quantity of [[water]] in the form of ice that, quite simply, shouldn't be there.

== Plot ==
{{spoiler}}
=== Stranded ===
[[Astronaut]]s Gary Lucas and Charlie Shepherd are completing their Apollo 19 mission to the Aitken Basin (which, in the novel, has a fictitious name) near the south lunar pole. But when the time comes for them to lift off from the moon, their Lunar Module ascent engine fails to fire. Mission Control suggests several increasingly desperate measures to try to get that engine to fire, but all these measures are futile. Finally, Lucas and Shepherd decide to abandon their LM, climb into their next-generation [[lunar rover]], and strike out on their own.

=== External exploration ===
They enter the basin and thus fall out of communications range with [[earth]]. As they keep driving, they find themselves driving on an impossibly flat and level surface. They soon determine that they are driving on a solid lake of [[water]] ice--but how such a vast quantity of water came to be on the Moon, or why it did not [[sublimation|sublimate]] away, they cannot possibly explain.

Eventually the rover's batteries give out--but not before Lucas notices a stray glint of metal against the rover's headlights. First Lucas, and then Shepherd leave the rover to investigate--just in time, as the lake melts and nearly drowns Shepherd as he is walking. In time, each astronaut discovers the pressure-suited remains of another astronaut, who in life looked human, except that he stood eight [[foot (length)|feet]] tall. This astronaut has committed suicide by taking off his glove. His footprints remain, and the astronauts, following them, discover the most incredible out-of-place artifact ever found: a vast, and still functioning, base on the moon.

=== Internal exploration ===
They barely manage to enter and trigger the base' [[airlock]] before they run out of oxygen. After resting, they doff their heavy backpacks and enter the base. They discover evidence that the base' crew were as giant-sized as was the suicide they found outside, and that they commanded a technology that ought to have enabled them to conquer the earth with ridiculous ease. They further determine, from the condition of some of the base' luxurious furnishings, that the base must be centuries old.

All these puzzling facts create a crisis of interpretation. Lucas is by now convinced that the base' crew were [[Extraterrestrial life|extraterrestrial]] in origin, a proposition that Shepherd, a committed [[Christian]], cannot accept (because the [[Bible]] has no warrant for such a thing). The alternative, this being during the [[Cold War]], is not much more acceptable: that the [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics]] managed to build a base of such tremendous size with no one at [[National Aeronautics and Space Administration|NASA]] or the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] being any the wiser.

The astronauts explore further and find even more wondrous technology. They then make two gruesome finds. In a storeroom, several members of the base' crew lie dead, apparently of mutual murder, and the room itself is wrecked. And in a [[dormitory]] room, they find another suicide, and a collection of room [[art]]--including multiple scenes of [[torture]]--that suggest that the base' crew came from a culture that has no humanitarian values to speak of.

=== Separation ===
The next day, the astronauts are separated. Shepherd misses his friend after he stops to shave himself in one of the empty dorm rooms. In his initial search for Lucas, Shepherd walks into a horrifying site: a sacrificial [[temple]], with the body of a dead crewwoman lying on its [[altar]]. Shepherd searches the complex only long enough to verify that Lucas ''is not'' lying dead or injured in the altar pit or the holding pen for the sacrificial animals.

Eventually Shepherd finds the base' mess hall--served by a still-functioning semi-automatic combination food dispenser and waste-bussing station. With his food and water supplies assured, Shepherd turns to his primary concern: finding his friend. But all he finds is an athletic court that, when last used, had been the venue of a very violent and bloody game. Shepherd returns to the base' central control room, or "war room," and activates another console--which presents him with the base layout, and one room he hasn't explored: the [[hangar]]. Shepherd goes there--and finds no stored craft and no sign of his friend.

In frustration, Shepherd visits the war room a third time and activates all of the consoles. Unknown to him, one of those consoles is the main console of the base' central computer. It in turn evaluates him as an intruder and sends an urgent repeated call for help. A call directed toward earth.

That message will prove the astronauts' salvation, for NASA hears it. Though no one at NASA can read the message, they trace it--directly to the Aitken Basin. This prompts the launch of Apollo 20, with orders to recover what everyone assumes will be Lucas' and Shepherd's frozen corpses.

=== Lucas' Wild Adventure ===
For his part, Lucas, as far as he is concerned, is no longer on the base. He is on the home world of the base' builders--a world wracked with worsening civil disorder, and whose people are sacrificing one another to their [[pagan]] gods. Lucas saves a woman from a violent attack and falls into the hands of the sacrificial priests--but then two men, disguised as fellow priests, bribe his guards and "buy" him for themselves. But they are not acquiring him for sacrifice; they are rescuing him. These two men are in fact the husband and brother-in-law of the woman he himself had rescued earlier, and all three are part of an eight-member household presided over by a very old but very wise-looking man. Though he cannot understand a word of their language, he understands enough from their gestures to know that they are very grateful to him.

To return their generosity, Lucas offers to join the workforce now completing work on a vast rectilinear [[barn]] in which his hosts are storing the vast quantities of grain that they are currently harvesting. His job is to apply a pitch-like resin to the walls of the barn, which are made of an advanced-looking [[wood]] composite. A few days after he begins work, the ninth member of the owner's household, whom Lucas did not know about, dies. What relationship the dead man is to the owner, Lucas cannot determine because of the language barrier--but he still attends the man's last awake moments.

That done, it's back to work. Then Lucas accidentally falls from the scaffold and is now incapacitated. The family take him inside--and then begin a debate that leads Lucas to believe that the family is about to expel him for some reason.

The next morning, Lucas awakes to find nothing wrong with him beyond some sore muscles--but he is also alone on the [[farm]], with nothing but the barn to keep him company. Then a vast wall of water rushes toward the barn. Lucas hastily climbs a nearby tower and watches as this water spills over the barn, and then lifts it off its foundations. Lucas barely has time to realize that what he thought was a barn is actually a [[barge]], when the barge strikes the tower he has climbed and throws him into the water, which is scalding hot.

=== Self-destruct ===
Shepherd, meanwhile, strives to activate one console that has earlier resisted his efforts to activate it. The console speaks to him in a language that he can't understand, but in a very insistent and ultimately ominous tone. Shepherd soon realizes that he has triggered a self-destruct sequence, when system after system on the base begins to shut itself down, beginning with the artificial gravity and ending with his food and water.

=== Lucas Re-lives the Mutiny ===
Lucas goes from nearly drowning to finding himself, as he supposes, back in his room aboard the moon base. This time, however, the base' crew are present. To begin with, the crew are watching the apparent destruction of their home world--whereupon dissension in the ranks grows and leads to utter panic. One crewman steals one of two levitating spacecraft from the base' [[hangar]]. The others fight over places in the remaining craft--and when Lucas discovers their dead bodies, he realizes that he has just happened on the mutual murder scene that he and Shepherd found earlier--except that this time the flesh and blood are still fresh. Lucas now concludes that he has traveled back in time. Lucas searches desperately for his friend--and then watches as the remaining base crew sacrifice one of their own to their pagan god in a vain attempt to halt the destruction. Upon seeing that, Lucas shuts himself in his room.

He comes out only long enough to start a systematic search of the entire base--and he does not find Shepherd. He now concludes that ''he'' is in the past and Shepherd is not--but at least Shepherd is safe, away from the deadly drama of mutiny, mayhem, and murder that Lucas finds himself in the middle of.

Finally the violence is past--because almost everyone on the base is dead or fled. As the moon suffers an intense [[meteor]]ic bombardment--that Lucas knows will produce the multiple craters and "seas" that are present on the Moon today--Lucas discovers the base commandant, but can only watch as the commandant dons a pressure suit and goes outside--to commit suicide.

=== Rescue, Reunion, and Realization ===
Lucas now suffers an attack of vertigo, and wakes up on a [[Skylab]] rescue vehicle. Shepherd is also present, as are the three-man crew who have rescued them. Shortly after they complete their trans-Earth injection burn, a [[thermonuclear]] detonation takes place in the Aitken Basin. The self-destruct sequence has run its course, and the base has blown itself off the face of the moon.

Upon their return to earth--and reunion with their grateful wives--each man must independently resolves a personal crisis. Shepherd's faith has suffered a challenging test, because he cannot explain the base in light of the Bible's implications that humans are the only intelligent people in the [[universe]]. But Lucas surprises Shepherd by announcing that he has become a Christian himself--and has realized that, by whatever mechanism (not time travel, but an incredibly realistic holographic simulation), Lucas has witnessed the [[Great Flood]] of [[Noah]]. He has even eaten at Noah's table, helped him finish his [[Noah's Ark|Ark]], and attended the death of none other than [[Methuselah]], Noah's grandfather. The base they found was built by human--and specifically [[Antediluvian civilization|antediluvian]]--hands.

== Characters ==
* [[Astronaut]] Gary Lucas, Mission Commander, Apollo 19
* [[Astronaut]] Charlie Shepherd, Lunar Module Pilot, Apollo 19
* [[Astronaut]] Victor Kendall, Command Module Pilot (Apollo 19) and Capsule Communicator (Apollo 20)
* [[Astronaut]] Bruce Cortney, Capsule Communicator (Apollo 19) and Mission Commander (Apollo 20)
* [[Astronaut]] [[James Irwin]], Lunar Module Pilot, Apollo 20
* [[Astronaut]] [[Donald K. Slayton]], Command Module Pilot, Apollo 20

* Diane Lucas, Gary's wife
* Jeff Lucas, Gary's son
* Carol Shepherd, Charlie's wife
* Joey Shepherd, Charlie's son
* Kay Kendall, Victor's wife

* [[Astronaut]] [[Jim Lovell]]
* Marilyn Lovell, Jim Lovell's wife

* [[Gene Kranz]], Flight Director, White Team, [[Project Apollo]]

* [[Walter Cronkite]], anchorman and managing editor, ''The [[Columbia Broadcasting System|CBS]] Evening News''
* [[Richard Nixon]], [[President of the United States of America]]

* [[Noah]]
* [[Shem]], [[Ham]], and [[Japheth]] (though their specific identities are not made clear)

* The commandant and crew of the antediluvian base

{{Endspoiler}}

== Allusions to other works ==
''Ice'' makes allusions to the [[television]] series ''[[Star Trek]]'' and to the [[motion picture]] ''[[Doctor Strangelove, Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb]]''. The two astronauts make the allusions as they try to make sense of the advanced technology they find.

Shane Johnson had originally intended to write another novel, titled ''Fire'', as a sequel to this novel. ''Ice'' ends with the manned space program now fully funded, Astronauts Lucas and Shepherd submitting to a debriefing by a secret committee concerning their experiences aboard the lunar base, and the description of the open doorway to a base of similar construction on [[Mars]]. But Mr. Johnson was never able to sell that project, and has since had to change publishers.<ref>Shane Johnson, [http://www.shanejohnsonbooks.com/ Official Website]</ref> This might in part be due to an extreme reluctance, on the part of the Christian Booksellers' Association, to support [[science fiction]] projects, even faith-based ones.<ref>Personal interviews taken at the Greater Philadelphia Christian Writers' Conference, August 9-12, 2006, by [[User:TerryH]]. The persons so interviewed have not granted permission for the mention of their names. They include an acquisitions editor for an active Christian publishing house, and a literary agent widely recognized in the publishing industry.</ref>

== Allusions from other works ==
No other work of fiction or [[theater]] has made any allusions to this work.

== Allusions to actual history ==
This novel recounts a modified J-class mission profile from [[Project Apollo]]. It also makes references to certain launch vehicles that were planned for later lunar exploration projects, but never used.

Furthermore, the novel makes allusions to the institution known originally as the Manned Spaceflight Center and today as the [[Johnson Space Center]] in [[Houston]], [[Texas]]. Multiple historical figures, most notably [[Gene Kranz]], the famous [[Project Apollo]] flight director, appear in their historical roles. Perhaps the most poignant allusion of all is to Mr. Kranz' habit of wearing a white vest while on watch for the duration of an Apollo mission, the notion being that the vest was a mystic talisman that protected the astronauts while in flight. When only one man returns from Apollo 19, Kranz tears his vest down the middle and throws it to the floor of the Mission Operations Control Room. The author might or might not have intended, in addition to alluding to Gene Kranz' vest, to allude as well to the ancient [[Hebrew]] custom of ''clothes rending'' as an expression of mourning or other deep sorrow.

The water ice on the Moon is an actual finding suggested by the NASA unmanned probes ''Clementina'' and ''Lunar Prospector''.

The allusion to the [[Great Flood]] is obvious. Less obvious is the suggestion that [[antediluvian civilization]] commanded an advanced technology that might seem extraterrestrial in origin.

== Adaptations of this work to other media ==
None to date (2007)

== Reception ==
Critical reception was limited to a few critics specializing in [[Christian]] works. Sales were mediocre.

== Awards and Nominations ==
This novel was nominated for the Christy Award for best futuristic Christian novel for 2002.

== References ==
<references/>

[[Category:Literature]]

Sothic cycle

2008-09-15T14:31:27Z

BMoore:

The '''Sothic cycle''' is the extended [[calendar]] that the [[Egypt]]ologist Eduard Meyer invented in 1904 in an attempt to standardize the dates given on Egyptian documents (carved in stone or written on [[papyrus]]) and produce a unified [[chronology]] of ancient Egypt.<ref name=Mackey>Mackey, Damien F. "[http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/1682 Fall of the Sothic theory: Egyptian chronology revisited]." ''TJ'' 17(3):70-73, December 2003. Retrieved June 27, 2007, from [http://www.creationontheweb.com/ Creation Ministries International] (US).</ref><ref name=Mackey2>Mackey, Damien F. ''The Sothic Star Theory of the Egyptian Calendar: A Critical Evaluation'', abr. ed. [[Sydney]], [[New South Wales]], [[Australia]]: University of Sydney, October, 1995. Retrieved June 27, 2007.</ref>

== Basis of the cycle ==
The star called [[Sirius]], or the "Dog Star," is the brightest [[star]] in the southern or [[tropic]]al [[sky]] at night. [[Manetho]], in the third century BC, caught multiple mentions of the phrase ''peret Sopdet'', or literally, "rising of Sirius," in the documents that he examined. ''Sopdet'' is the Egyptian word for "Sirius." The [[Greek]] word is ''Sothis''.

Richard Lepsius, in 1858,<ref>Lepsius, Richard. ''In Königsbuch der Alten Ägypter''. Berlin:Besser, 1858. Cited in Mackey, ''op. cit.''</ref> first suggested that the phrase ''peret Sopdet'' referred to a regular [[Astronomical dating|astronomical event]].<ref name=Mackey/>Meyer, in 1904,<ref name=Meyer>Meyer, Eduard. ''Ägyptische Chronologie''. Berlin: Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1904. Cited in Mackey, ''op. cit.''</ref> constructed a long-range calendar based on the following observations:

# The Egyptians observed a civil year exactly 365 days long, with no leap years. Thus it would gain a day every four years, as [[Julius Caesar]] would later reckon.
# This year made no attempt to synchronize with the [[moon]] and, by gaining a day every four years, maintained no synchrony with the [[sun]], either.

Meyer calculated that Sirius would make a heliacal rising (that is, first be visible shortly before dawn during any given year) on the Egyptian [[New Year's Day]] every 1,460 years--that is to say, four times 365 years, at which time the calendar would realign with the seasons. Meyer then assumed that the Egyptians used this extended calendar as their actual civil calendar. Finally, he fixed the most recent "rising of Sothis" as having occurred in AD 140. He based this fixation entirely on a writing by Censorinus, who allegedly had written that a heliacal rising of Sirius did fall on the Egyptian New Year in that year.

Projecting backward (and assuming that Censorinus was correct ''and'' that Meyer understood him correctly), Meyer calculated prior Sothic years as having occurred in 1320 BC, 2780 BC, and 4240 BC.<ref name=Mackey/> Meyer then supposed that 2780 BC occurred in Manetho's Fourth Dynasty, and that the Sothic calendar was already in use at the time. On that basis, he concluded that the year 4240 BC saw the invention of the Sothic calendar and was also the oldest fixed date in recorded human history.<ref name=Mackey/>

== Early Criticism and Ultimate Acceptance ==
Meyer's system won instant acclaim, because it promised to bring order out of the chaos that prevailed among Egyptologists prior to the publication of his thesis.<ref name=Mackey2/> Some Egyptologists who were contemporary with Meyer rejected his thesis because they found it violative of a number of synchronies, and also based upon too many ''ad hoc'' assumptions. Nevertheless, the Sothic cycle theory withstood its critics and remains today the basis for all conventional dating of the various Egyptian monarchs.<ref name=Mackey/><ref name=Mackey2/>

== Modern Criticism ==
Today, the Sothic cycle has come under renewed criticism, on a number of grounds:

# Extremely problematic synchrony between early Egypt and other nations with which Egypt is said to have had contact, been at [[war]], etc. Some critics even assert that such synchrony is utterly lacking in definite, incontrovertible markers of time.<ref name=Mackey2/>

# Lack of mention of the Sothic cycle or any calendar based thereon in Egyptian literature. Mackey<ref name=Mackey/> and others assert that Meyer based his theory entirely on non-Egyptian classical sources.

# The arbitrary assumption that the Egyptians would never have changed their civil calendar in several millennial. Were this the case, the Egyptians would be virtually the only great power ever so to act.<ref name=Mackey2/>

# The assumption that the Egyptians would somehow have known about the 1460-year period of Sirius as far back in time as 4240 BC, more than a thousand years before [[Pharaoh]] [[Menes]] is said to have brought about a unification of Egypt in--according to conventional dating--3100 BC.<ref name=Mackey2/>

# Lack of precision in the original astronomical dates used.<ref name=Mackey2/> This is by far the most important criticism of all. Astronomical dating is the most reliable way to date past events--so long as the astronomical records are precise, unambiguous, and incontrovertible. Critics of Sothic dating point out that:

:# That "Sothis" means "Sirius" is only an assumption, based on the interpretation of a work (Manetho's History of Egypt) of which only fragments survive today.

:# The first year of a "Sothic Great Year" has ''three possible beginnings'', because the new year would not actually fall out of synchrony with Sirius (if Sirius is the star in view) until ''four years had passed''.

In addition to the above, critics have pointed out that:

# Most Sothic cycle proponents still adhere to Manetho's original assumption that his thirty "dynasties" (Dynasty Thirty-one refers to the Ptolemies and the Cleopatras after the death of [[Alexander the Great]]). Yet the monumental evidence--that is, evidence derived from the monuments of the various Pharaohs--clearly and convincingly shows that many dynasties ruled in parallel, perhaps in different parts of Egypt at the same time, rather than in a strict series.<ref name=Mackey2/>

# The Sothic cycle allows only a hundred years for the Second Intermediate Period, also known as the [[Hyksos]] Era. [[Josephus]] gives a figure of 511 years.<ref name=Josephus1>Flavius Josephus. ''Against Apion,'' Book I, pgh. 84. Quoted in ''The Works of Josephus'', William Whiston, trans. Peabody, [[Massachusetts|MA]]: Hendrickson Publishers, 1984, pp. 778-779.</ref> The available monumental evidence supports the larger of these two figures--and in fact, Josephus cites Manetho himself for that figure.

Finally, [[Young earth creationism|young earth creationists]] reject any scheme that would suggest or imply that the Egyptian state began any earlier than the [[Great Flood]]--which occurred [[Biblical chronology dispute#A Synoptic Table|no later than 2243 BC and possibly as early in time as 2563 BC.]]

== Current Status ==
The academic community appears confused as to whether to accept the Sothic cycle or not. One of the most authoritative conventional sources seems at once to condemn and yet to rely on the Sothic cycle as a foundation for Egyptian chronology.<ref name=Cambridge>Edwards, I. E. S., Gadd, C. J., and Hammond, N. G. L., eds. ''The Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. 1, Part 1: Prolegomena and Prehistory.'' Cambridge University Press, January 29, 1971 (ISBN 0521070511). Cited and quoted in: Sanders, Michael S. "[http://www.biblemysteries.com/lectures/egypt.htm Egypt -- The Chronology]." ''[http://www.biblemysteries.com/ Mysteries of the Bible],'' 2007. Retrieved June 27, 2007.</ref> Specifically:{{Cquote|The most significant advance made in the study of ancient Egyptian chronology in recent years is the repudiation by Neugebauer and others of an astronomical origin for the Egyptian civil calendar and , as a corollary, the elimination of the so-called Sothic Cycle as a factor in dating the earliest periods of Egyptian History.}}
And yet:{{Cquote|For the fixing in time of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom and the periods preceding it, the key date is the seventh year of the reign of King Sesostris III of the Twelfth Dynasty. In this year, a helical rising of the star Sothis (our Sirius) was recorded on 16. VIII of the 365-day civil calendar, a fact which, thanks to the regular displacement of this calendar, in relation to the true astronomical year, allows the year in question to be placed between 1876 and 1864 BC, with every probability favoring 1872 BC.}}
The two paragraphs are clearly contradictory--for as Michael Sanders points out, how can a source condemn the Sothic cycle as unreliable and yet in the same volume use it to fix an [[epoch]]?<ref name=Cambridge/>

Despite the criticism, conventional Egyptologists still use the Sothic cycle to compute their dates--primarily because they recognize that, without the Sothic cycle, Egyptian chronology becomes exactly what Heinrich Otten called it in 1973: "a rubber chronology."<ref name=Mackey/><ref name=Otten>Otten, Heinrich. ''Festschrift Heinrich Otten.'' [[Germany]]: Harrassowitz, 1973. ISBN 3447015365.</ref>

== References ==
<references/>

== See Also ==
* [[Egypt]]
* [[Egyptian chronology]]
* [[Biblical chronology dispute]]

* [[Category:Ancient History]]
* [[Category:Egypt]]

Head

2008-09-15T14:27:23Z

BMoore:

The head is the top of the human body containing the [[brain]], [[mouth]], [[eye]]s, and other sensory organs. It is connected to the rest of the body by the [[neck]]. The human head contains 22 bones, consisting the cranium and the facial bones. The cranium is formed by 8 bones: the frontal bone, two parietal bones, two temporal bones, the occipital bone in the back, the ethmoid bone behind the nose, and the sphenoid bone. The face consists of 14 bones including the maxilla (upper jaw) and mandible (lower jaw).

The [[scientific]] study of the influence of head shape on intelligence is known as [[phrenology]].
{{expand}}
[[Category:Anatomy]]

Collinwood School fire

2008-05-16T17:23:06Z

BMoore:

[[image:CWhist1.jpg|thumb |right| Aftermath of the Collinwood School Fire]]
On [[Ash Wednesday]], March 4th 1908, 172 students, teachers and a rescuer we killed in Collinwood, [[Ohio]], now part of [[Cleveland]]. Started by a steam pipe overheating a wooden joist, it quickly spread because of a long, main staircase which lead to the third floor.
The building contained a brick exterior. Its interior was made almost entirely of combustible wooden materials -- stairs, walls, floors, doors, and roof. Moreover, the floors had been coated many times with flammable oils.

It was originally thought that the students were unable to escape because the doors of the school opened inward. [[Panic]] was the cause of so many dying in the stairwell. Some children burned or jumped as parents watched, helpless to save them.

Nineteen students could not be identified and the City of Collinwood purchased a grave in Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland for these children.

This tragedy caused the improvement of [[fire code]]s across the nation according to the website ''Dead Ohio''.[http://www.deadohio.com/collinwood.htm]
[[category:United States History]]
[[Category:Ohio]]

Abraham Lincoln

2008-05-16T17:21:38Z

BMoore:

{{President
|image=Ncoln2.jpg
|seq=16
|term_start=March 4, 1861
|term_end=April 15, 1865
|party=Republican
|vp=Hannibal Hamlin
|vp_dates=1861-1865
|2vp=Andrew Johnson
|2vp_dates=1865
|previous=James Buchanan
|next=Andrew Johnson
|birth_date=February 12, 1809
|birth_place=Hardin County, Kentucky
|death_date=April 15, 1865 (aged 56)
|death_place=Washington, D.C.
|spouse=Mary Todd
|spouse2=
|religion=
}}

'''Abraham Lincoln''' was the 16th [[President of the United States of America]] serving from 1861 to 1865. He led his country through its darkest chapter, the [[American Civil War | Civil War]]. His humble origins, from his birth in a [[Kentucky]] log cabin, his early life of poverty, through his struggle with life in a frontier society gave him an all-too human, and humane, personality, which he used to great effect in his law practice, his politics, and ultimately the presidency. And despite a severe lack of a formal education, Lincoln is the author of some of the most profound and eloquent writings ever to have come from the pen of an American.

==Early life==
''“I was born Feb. 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families-- second families, perhaps I should say. My mother, who died in my tenth year, was of a family of the name of Hanks, some of whom now reside in Adams, and others in Macon Counties, Illinois.”'' [http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/autobiog.htm]

Abraham Lincoln was born in a backwoods cabin some three miles south of Hodgenville, Kentucky. His father was Thomas Lincoln, who himself was a descendant of a weaver’s apprentice who had migrated to Massachusetts from England some years after the Mayflower landed. Thomas was a sturdy man, committed to pioneering in the new lands of Kentucky and Indiana, despite his lack of prosperity. He married Nancy Hanks on June 12, 1806, and together they had three children: Sarah, Abraham, and Thomas, who did not survive infancy. Young Abraham’s earliest memories of his days in Kentucky were his helping his father plant some seeds of corn and sunflower, and of a flood that washed them away.
[[Image:Young abraham lincoln.jpg|thumb|200px|left|The oldest-known photograph of Lincoln, about 1847.]]
In December 1816 Thomas had to pack up his family and leave for southwestern Indiana to avoid a lawsuit which had threatened him with a takeover of his property. There he built what was a “half-faced” camp, just a crude log structure with one side open to the elements, and there the family stayed as squatters on public land until Thomas had finished a permanent cabin, and later would buy the land outright on which it stood. Helping Thomas clear the land and plowing the fields was Abraham, who would also take care of the crops but developed a dislike for tasks which put additional food on the table, hunting and fishing. The poverty, Lincoln recalled, was “pretty pinching” at times, and by the age of nine he was a tall, lanky boy dressed rather ragged and unkempt.

Then the fall of 1818 brought the hardest blow: Nancy had died of the “milk sickness”, leaving Abraham without the mother whom he deeply loved. Some time later, Thomas had taken the buckboard and the mule, and left Abraham and Sarah on their own for two weeks; when he returned, he was with a new wife, Sarah Bush Johnson; she immediately made up for the absence of Nancy by replacing Abraham’s corn husk mattress with one of down, winning him over the first day. The new step-mother treated both children with an even hand (she herself was a widow with three children, whom she had brought), but she became very fond of Abraham, and he in turn was fond of her, referring to her as his “angel mother” for the rest of his life.

===Education===
Both of Abraham’s parents were nearly completely illiterate, and he himself had not much more than one year of formal education. When he did go to school, it was by “littles” – a little here, a little there – and he would call it “blab” school, which meant that they had to recite their lessons constantly due to lack of paper, pencils, and chalk. “Of course, when I came of age I did not know much. Still, somehow, I could read, write, and cipher to the rule of three; but that was all.”

His step-mother encouraged his reading as much as possible, and although Abraham did not have access to a large number of books, he would read as much of what was there, and read voraciously. He read John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, ''Aesop’s Fables'', Daniel DeFoe’s ''Robinson Crusoe'', Parson Weems's ''Life and Memorable Actions of George Washington'', Edward Gibbon’s ''Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', and undoubtedly he read many times the only book his family actually owned, the Bible. He would walk for miles to borrow a book he heard about, and after his chores he would collapse into a heap in front of the fire and read for hours. He would say years later that his best friend was the man who let him borrow a book he hadn’t read yet.

===The Rail-Splitter===
[[Image:Railsplitter.jpg|thumb|200px|right|An artist's impression of a young Abe Lincoln, the ''Rail-Splitter''.]]
The Lincolns moved to Illinois in March, 1830, with Abraham driving the team of oxen himself, a young man of 21, rawboned and lanky at six feet four inches tall. But the years working on the Indiana farm have also made him physically powerful, and on his arrival in Illinois he was soon to demonstrate the skill with which he could wield an axe, putting it to good use by clearing the trees and laying the fence on his father’s new farm; the speed with which he could take tree trunks and split them into the rails needed for the fencing just by using his axe earned him the nickname “rail-splitter.” He could make an axe flash and bite deep; one neighbor saying “He could sink an axe deeper into wood than any man I ever saw.” And after a good deal of chopping, he could take the axe by its handle and hold it straight out away from his body, without a single quiver. (Sandburg, pg. 14) Good-natured as well, he would make friends easily, despite his awkward-looking stride and backwoods language.
[[Image:Lincoln hair.jpg|thumb|200px|left|Fearing that his friends wouldn't recognize him "without a bad tousle", Lincoln messed his hair up in this picture before the photographer closed the shutter.]]
Soon, he signed on as a deckhand on a flatboat, and made a voyage down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. When he returned he settled in a small town on the Sangamon River called New Salem, working as a store keeper, surveyor, or a postmaster, the later of which allowed him to be the first to read the arriving newspapers. Then talk went about town of Lincoln’s utter honesty, how he would walk six miles to return a few cents to a customer he had accidentally overcharged, or the woman that had bought some tea, and having used the wrong weight for the purchase, Lincoln made the correction and walked the many miles to her house to ensure she got the right order (Sandburg, pp 24-25).

In 1832 he enlisted in the Black Hawk War, and was elected captain of his company, but the only fighting he admitted seeing action in was the “many bloody struggles with the mosquitoes.” After he was mustered out of his company, he aspired for the state legislature, losing the contest the first time he ran, then getting elected and re-elected several times afterward. He had briefly thought about practicing the trade of blacksmithing, but his craving of reading led him to law books, which caused some serious studying. Lincoln passed the bar in 1836, and began a new career practicing law.

==Springfield==
The following year he moved to the new state capital of Illinois, Springfield, becoming law partners with John T. Stuart, Stephan T. Logan, and finally William H. Herndon in 1844, who, although junior in age to Lincoln by a decade, made a good, balanced partner. Few records exist of their law business, and when they got paid for their services they split the cash, no matter who was paid. Lincoln would earn $1,200 - $1,500 annually within just a few years; by comparison circuit judges earned $750. But to earn it he kept busy and worked hard; often he would climb into his buggy and travel the circuit of neighboring counties and practice before the courts there. And often the cases he would be involved in were petty

Years before he had tried, and failed, to push legislation through the state assembly to have the Sangamon River made navigable to New Salem; by 1850 the railroads were bringing business and prosperity to Illinois, and Lincoln, by virtue of the ease the railroad made in traveling to his courts, profited more. He had served as a lobbyist for the Illinois Central Railroad, enabling it to get a state charter; he would defend the company against McClean County’s unsuccessful efforts to tax it. He handles cases for other railroads, banks, manufacturing, and other large companies in the state; he handled some patent suits and a few criminal trials. And he also saved the first bridge to cross the Mississippi River from demolition, when river interests demanded the bridge be taken down.

===The moonlight murder===
In Lincoln’s New Salem days he was introduced to the Clary’s Grove Boys, a group of rowdy men from that nearby town would come into New Salem to bully some of the male townsfolk. The leader of the group was Jack Armstrong, who’s challenge to wrestle the Salem men usually resulted in Armstrong throwing the unfortunate man to the ground in a very short time; when he saw Lincoln, Armstrong would dismiss the lanky young man as a pushover. It was when they fought that Armstrong discovered just how hard it was to throw Lincoln – in fact, it was impossible. The battle ended in a draw, and the good-natured Lincoln made a new friend. Armstrong would later be one of the men to elect Lincoln to lead the company of volunteers in the Black Hawk War.

In 1856, Jack Armstrong’s son, William (or “Duff”), was charged with murder. A witness had claimed that he had seen Duff and another kill a New Salem man late at night by the light of full moon. Lincoln pulled out an almanac and proved that the witness could not have seen anything at all, as the moon was at its quarter and had actually set over an hour before. Duff was acquitted, and Lincoln won the case.

==Politics==
Andrew Jackson, the hero of New Orleans in the War of 1812 and a Democrat from Tennessee, was in the White House when Lincoln first entered politics. He shared with Jackson the sympathies for the common man, but differed in the role of government as related to it; Jackson stated the government should be separated from the economic enterprise, while Lincoln was of the view that “the legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, but cannot do at all, or cannot do so well, for themselves, in their separate and individual capacities.” Lincoln most associated himself with the Whig Party, as among their members Henry Clay and Daniel Webster both advocated a government should be encouraging business, and the development of the country to that end. It was an easy choice for Lincoln: he saw Illinois as needing such aid to improve the development of its own economy.

In the Illinois State Legislature Lincoln found that politics could be detrimental and harsh, as well as rewarding. An example of the former occurred in 1836, just as he gave a speech in support of his re-election. Democrat John Forquer, also seeking election, used his response and acid tounge to denounce him. "This young man needs to be taken down" he said, pointing to Lincoln, "and I'm afraid the task devolves upon me." The success of Forquer's speech convinced some of Lincoln's own allies that his career was over.

But when Lincoln rose to make his rebuttal, he thought of Forquer, and what he had done recently in conniving with President Jackson to change parties; in reward for doing so he was made Government Land Register with a $3,000 annual salary. Forquer was then able to construct a fine new house in Springfield, complete with a curiosity residents had heard about from science but had never seen before: a lightning rod. Before he entered the state house building that day, Lincoln spent a few minutes at Forquer's house staring at the thing, and having heard Forquer's speech later on, he thought of what he saw. Lincoln's reply was blistering, and sealed Forquer's fate.

:''"Among other things he said, the gentleman commenced his speech by saying that 'this young man,' alluding to me, 'must be taken down.' I am not so young in years as I am in the tricks and the trades of a politician, but, live long or die young, I would rather die now than, like the gentleman, change my politics, and with the change receive an office worth $3,000 a year, and then feel obliged to erect a lightning-rod over my house to protect a guilty conscience from an offended God!"'' (Sandburg, pg.49)

Lincoln also proposed state funding to construct a network of roads, railroads, and canals. Both Whigs and Democrats would join in for the passing of this omnibus bill, but a business depression was created by the [[panic of 1837]], and as a result most of the provisions in the bill were abandoned. 1837 was also marked by the murder of Elijah Lovejoy, a newspaperman from Alton who was killed by a mob due to his anti-slavery views. The legislature introduced resolutions defending Southern slavery while condemning abolitionist societies, as per the U.S. Constitution. In protest of the resolutions Lincoln, with a fellow legislator, drew up a declaration [http://www.nps.gov/archive/liho/slavery/al02.htm] which stated that slavery was “founded on both injustice and bad policy,” while also declaring that “the promulgation of abolition doctrines tends rather to increase than to abate its evils.”
[[Image:Lawyer Lincoln.jpg|thumb|200px|left|Lincoln in the late 1850's, about to debate his rival Stephen A. Douglas.]]
He only served one term in the United States Congress, 1847 to 1849, during which time he did little on legislative matters. He did introduce a bill calling for a gradual emancipation of slaves within the District of Columbia, but since it hinged on the approval of the white citizens there, it only caused mild anger from abolitionists as well as slave holders, and was quietly dropped. His one main issue was over the Mexican War, in which he condemned the American entry into it on false pretenses, particularly blaming current president James K. Polk. He worked toward the nomination of Zachary Taylor for the presidency, and when Taylor had won, Lincoln expected to be rewarded with the job of land commissioner, but failed. He was voted out of office by his constituents, as they felt he was too critical of the war. Disillusioned, he left politics and reentered his law practice.

==Return to politics==
He stayed out for five years, winning several cases before the courts, then in 1854 he had read in the papers that Stephan A. Douglas, his political rival and Democratic senator from Illinois, had placed before Congress a bill which would reopen the territory of the Louisiana Purchase to slavery, as well as allow settlers in the Kansas and Nebraska territories to vote for themselves whether or not they wanted it, a concept which was called “popular sovereignty” by Douglas. The resulting Kansas-Nebraska Act would do nothing more than provoke violent opposition; a border war would result between Kansas and Missouri as both pro and anti-slavery forces would cause much bloodshed; and voters in the Old Northwest, Illinois among them, would react vehemently against it, resulting in the destruction of the Whigs as a political party, and the birth of the Republicans, of which Lincoln quickly became a member. The [[Dred Scott]] decision of 1856, in which a black man who sued for his freedom only to be told that he was never a citizen and had to remain a slave, only added more fuel to the fire, as the states were aligning slave versus free, North versus South.

As the leading member of the Republican Party in Illinois, Lincoln was nominated for the Senate seat held by Douglas at the Republican State Convention in Springfield on June 16, 1858. The acceptance speech he gave has been called the [[Lincoln's "House Divided" Speech|House Divided]] speech, after the opening lines, which were based upon Matthew 12:25:

:''If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do, and how to do it. We are now far into the fifth year since a policy was initiated with the avowed object, and confident promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only not ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. "A house divided against itself cannot stand."  I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved -- I do not expect the house to fall -- but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new -- North as well as South.'' [http://www.historyplace.com/lincoln/divided.htm]

August through October, 1858 saw seven Illinois towns witnessing the [[Lincoln-Douglas debates]]; Douglas the national figure defending the choice of voters whether to accept slavery or not, and the little-known Lincoln taking a stand against slavery on political, social, and moral grounds. Douglas never wavered from defending popular sovereignty, and he also played on the voters' fears of [[black integration]]. Stating blacks were inferior to whites, he appealed to racists by declaring that the government was "established upon the white basis. It was made by white men, for the benefit of white men." (TL 1, pg 106). Lincoln on the other hand knew Douglas was in a war of his own with President [[Franklin Buchanan]]'s administration over acceptance of the Kansas constitution which barred slavery from the state, further alienating Southern Democratic support; the fear was that Douglas would be more appealing to moderate Republicans in the east. Lincoln's strategy therefore was to point out and use the vast difference between the moral indifference to slavery as embodied by Douglas's popular sovereignty, and the moral wrong that slavery actually was as embodied by Republican opposition to it. Douglas was, Lincoln insisted, a man who did not care whether slavery was "voted up or voted down." By his last debate, Lincoln would narrow the differences between himself and Douglas as the basic principle of right and wrong.

:''"That is the real issue. That is the issue that will continue in this country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas and myself shall be silent. It is the eternal struggle between these two principles -- right and wrong -- throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time; and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity and the other the divine right of kings. It is the same principle in whatever shape it develops itself. It is the same spirit that says, "You work and toil and earn bread, and I'll eat it." No matter in what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the people of his own nation and live by the fruit of their labor, or from one race of men as an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same tyrannical principle."'' [http://www.nps.gov/archive/liho/slavery/al11.htm]

Douglas for his part knew how formidable his foe was, and declared that if he won, “it would be a hollow victory.” He did win, retaining his Senate seat, but by a narrow margin.

==The presidency==
[[Image:Lincoln and beard.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Soon after his election, a little girl named Grace Bedell wrote to Lincoln, telling him his face would be softened by the addition of a beard; here he just started on her advice.]]
:''My friends, no one, not in my situation, can appreciate my feeling of sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a century, and have passed from a young to an old man. Here my children have been born, and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of the Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain with you, and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell.'' Lincoln's Farewell Speech to the citizens of Springfield, February 11, 1861.

On May 18, 1860 at the Republican National Convention held in Chicago, Lincoln was nominated on the third ballot. He then set aside his law practice and gave full time to the direction of his campaign, with the object of first uniting the Republicans from anything with which the party could disagree over. The Democrats were already divided, having nominated Douglas in Baltimore on the Northern platform of popular sovereignty, and John C. Breckenridge who was elected on a platform of states’ rights and slavery by Southern Democrats. Lincoln won the [[United States presidential election of 1860]], winning a clear majority in popular votes as well as electoral votes, despite winning no votes in the South.

The state of South Carolina proclaimed its secession from the Union in December, 1860, soon after Lincoln’s victory. To try to prevent other states from following, compromises were hurriedly pushed through Congress, one of which, the [[Crittenden Amendment]], guaranteed the existence of slavery in perpetuity where it already existed, and dividing the territories between slave and free; Lincoln, however, was opposed to it, as he believed that despite this slavery would still expand south of the U.S. border. Six more states seceded, joining with South Carolina to form the Confederate States of America.

A crisis was thus forced upon Lincoln before he even entered the White House. Fort Sumter, in South Carolina’s Charleston Harbor, was claimed by the Confederacy and ordered to be turned over; the commander, Major Robert Anderson, refused. Lincoln, still in Springfield, asked Winfield Scott, general in chief of the U.S. Army, to be prepared “to either hold, or retake, the forts, as the case may require, at, and after the inauguration.”

On the 4th of March, 1861, a few weeks after Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as president of the Confederacy, Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated as the nation's 16th president. In his address he reiterated his stance, and what he believed the stance of the nation should be, namely non-interference with slavery where it existed, and preventing slavery to spread in the territories, and above all was his stand to preserve the Union. The substance of what he said was conciliatory, but it also mentioned the obvious

:''"In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect, and defend it."'' [http://www.pbs.org/civilwar/war/lincoln_address1.html]

However, communications between the fort and Charleston broke down, and General P.G.T. Beauregard, believing Fort Sumter had a supply ship on the way, ordered the fort shelled on April 14, 1865. The Civil War had begun.

==Civil War==
[[Image:Mary Todd Lincoln.jpg|thumb|200px|left|Mary Todd Lincoln]]
Lincoln’s goal was to preserve the Union; he would have been happy to preserve the peace as well, but he was willing to engage in a war to preserve it as well, a war he thought would be short. After Fort Sumter he proclaimed a blockade of Southern ports and called for thousands of volunteers to enlist for ninety days. He also believed that an overland war was inevitable, and he ordered forces on a march on the Virginia front, resulting in the first great defeat for the Union at Bull Run (July 21, 1861). Shortly afterward, Lincoln issued a set of memorandums for the military, of which his basic thought was that armies in the field must advance concurrently and on several fronts.

Finding himself as the leader of a country now at war, Lincoln used a description of himself in which he let events control him, and then react to the problem. It was something of himself that was used with success as a politician. In this sense he was being practical, ready to employ an action or decision which would help the cause, and ready to abandon it and use another if the first failed. But his first insight with which he held fast to, that of taking the fight to the enemy’s army, failed many times when successive generals tried to take the fight to the enemy’s capitol and failed, or failed in following up on a rare victory. He had George McClellan on the Peninsula, but was beaten back during the Seven Days battles. His replacement, John Pope, lost in a repeat of Bull Run. McClellan was back again, winning a victory at Antietam, but failed to follow through in capturing the enemy’s army afterwards. Then Ambrose Burnside, followed by Joseph Hooker, led the Army of the Potomac to massive defeats at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, respectively. Then George Gordon Meade was put in, just in time for the Battle of Gettysburg; Meade would not finish off the enemy either. Robert E. Lee, the commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, commented on the frequent changes in generals. “I’m afraid they’re going to find a general I cannot understand.”

Having seen what he done at Donelson, Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga, Lincoln found the fighting general he was looking for in Ulysses S. Grant. In March 1864 he promoted Grant to lieutenant general and gave him command of all Federal armies. Grant would have his headquarters in the field with Meade’s Army of the Potomac, and his subordinates William T. Sherman, Philip Sheridan, and George H. Thomas would each lead an army to take the fight to the enemy. Halleck would be given a new title, chief of staff, and remain in Washington as the presidential liaison. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton would be responsible for the procurement of men and supplies. By this reorganization Lincoln created the structure of the high command in which all the energies of and resources of the country were mobilized into a grand strategy for the completion of the war. It was all the more remarkable as prior to 1861, he had no knowledge of military theory or affairs; he threw himself into studying the subject that by 1864, he was considered to be something of a military genius.

==Personal life==
Ann Rutledge played a part in stories as being the first woman Lincoln may have fallen in love with. However, evidence is scant, and what surviving letters and documents there are indicate they were close friends. She died in 1835 at the age of 22, and the entire community grieved with Lincoln.
[[Image:Lincoln and tad.jpg|thumb|200px|left|The irrepressible Tad Lincoln, striking a typical pose next to his father, who could barely restrain a smile.]]
The one true love of Lincoln’s life was a well-educated woman with a quick wit, [[Mary Todd]], from a well-to-do family in Springfield. Lincoln endured a courtship that lasted two years (and was broken once), before they were married on November 4, 1842. Together they would have four boys: Robert Todd, Edward Baker (“Eddie”, who died at age 4), William Wallace (“Willie”), and Thomas (“Tad”). Willie and Tad were the first children in the White House, and the halls and gardens were filled with childish romps, especially from the rambunctious, uncontrollable Tad, who once took a group of office seekers there to see the president on a trip through a confusing maze of hanging laundry; drove a herd of goats inside; got into the attic and rang the servants’ bells for hours; and succeeded in getting his doll executed for sleeping on watch.

The Lincolns also had their share of quarrels, and stories passed through the years tended to exaggerate them, but existing letters between the two indicate they were like any other married couple. They were devoted to each other’s company, and when apart they missed each other. "I have fallen in love with her," Lincoln would write to a friend about Mary, "and have never fallen out." Mary did have fits of temper and a sense of insecurity; while in the White House she had spells of simple jealousy which she staged in front of guests; sometimes the scene would be quite embarrassing. She also rang up large bills for her personal wardrobe and redecorating the White House; Lincoln, when he found out one such bill which totaled near $20,000 and coupled with a request for Congress to appropriate the money needed to pay for it, displayed a rare occurrence of pure anger:

:''"It would stink in the nostrils of the American people to have it said the President of the United States had approved a bill overrunning an appropriation of $20,000 for flub dubs, for this damned old house, when the soldiers cannot have blankets!"'' [http://www.historyswomen.com/1stWomen/marytoddlincoln.htm]

The early deaths of Eddie in 1850 and Willie in 1863 may have played a role in Mary’s eccentricity. Lincoln did what he could to support her, even pointing out the presence of a nearby building which housed a sanitarium, hinting that Mary could be placed there if she didn't control herself over Willie's death.

==On slavery==
In 1841, Lincoln had a flatboat trip down the Mississippi, and he saw sitting on board another boat a group of slaves chained together. He described the sight in a letter to Joshua Speed in 1855: “You may remember, as I well do, that from Louisville to the mouth of the Ohio there were, on board, ten or a dozen slaves, shackled together with irons. That sight was a continual torment to me; and I see something like it every time I touch the Ohio, or any other slave-border.”

Lincoln hated slavery. “I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself,” he declared. “I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world; enables the enemies of free institutions with plausibility to taunt us as hypocrites.” [http://www.nps.gov/archive/liho/slavery/al05.htm] In 1855, writing to his friend Joshua Speed, he recalled a steamboat trip the two had taken on the Ohio River14 years earlier. “You may remember, as I well do,” he said, “that from Louisville [Kentucky] to the mouth of the Ohio there were, on board, ten or a dozen slaves, shackled together with irons. That sight was a continual torment to me; and I see something like it every time I touch the Ohio, or any other slave-border.” [http://www.nps.gov/archive/liho/slavery/al03.htm]

Lincoln often penned fragments on slavery. He would begin it by starting a hypothetical vested interest in slavery, and end it with the only logical conclusion, that is was a great moral wrong.

:''If A. can prove, however conclusively, that he may, of right, enslave B.—why may not B. snatch the same argument, and prove equally, that he may enslave A?''

:''You say A. is white, and B. is black. It is color, then; the lighter, having the right to enslave the darker? Take care. By this rule, you are to be slave to the first man you meet, with a fairer skin than your own.''

:''You do not mean color exactly? You mean the whites are intellectually the superiors of the blacks, and, therefore have the right to enslave them? Take care again. By this rule, you are to be slave to the first man you meet, with an intellect superior to your own.''

:''But, say you, it is a question of interest; and, if you can make it your interest; you have the right to enslave another. Very well. And if he can make it his interest, he has the right to enslave you.'' (Fragment on Slavery, April, 1854)

Lincoln was elected on a platform which pledged no interference with slavery where it had already existed, and he was hesitant to adopt an abolitionist policy. He was concerned about the reaction of the border states should such a policy be enacted. He was concerned about four million newly-freed blacks being incorporated into the country’s social, economic, and political life. Some individuals, such as General John C. Freemont, made it a point to proclaim freedom in districts which they had conquered; Lincoln revoked those proclamations. In a letter to Horace Greely, Lincoln plainly stated
:''"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that."''

Lincoln was willing to play a major part in removing slavery altogether during the war. He first proposed an idea in which slaves were to be freed gradually by the actions of the states, with the federal government sharing the cost of compensation. None of the border states were willing to implement it, and no prominent African-American leader was willing to see newly-freed blacks sent to Africa, as part of the idea called for.

But with the victory at Antietam in September 1862, Lincoln brought out an idea which he read before his cabinet, that slaves held in the Confederate States were declared to be free. He would declare it formally with his Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. Although it did not include those areas under Union control, and officially it was a war measure, it had a great deal of significance as a symbol, and European countries who had toyed with the idea of recognizing the Confederacy abandoned it and supported the Union.

Lincoln also felt that the freed slaves would be put back in chains at war's end, as the Proclamation itself was not constitutional. But Lincoln was prepared for something else: he drafted the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which stated slavery was illegal except for crimes committed. He also urged the Republican Party to add the proposed amendment as a plank to the 1864 presidential campaign, stating slavery was the cause of the war, and that the Proclamation had aimed “a death blow at this gigantic evil;” only by a constitutional amendment could slavery be rendered extinct. After the election, Lincoln did not wait for the new Congress. He got the two-thirds needed for ratification before the year was over, and rejoiced when his state of Illinois led the way.

:''"In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free - honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just - a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless."'' Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862.

==Religion==
Abraham Lincoln, like many other people of his day, believed, at least initially, that "Religion is a private affair between a man and his God." Doubts about Lincoln's faith have arisen mainly because he never officially joined a church, which his political opponents used sometimes to accuse him. He had a love of the Bible and memorized parts of the Bible, and used biblical allusions later on in political speech. Lincoln said once that:
''"I doubt the possibility or propriety of settling the religion of Jesus Christ in the models of man-made creeds and dogmas. I cannot without mental reservations assent to long and complicated creeds and catechisms."''

He also said on another occasion:
:''"That I am not a member of any Christian church is true, but I have never denied the truth of the Scriptures, and I have never spoken with intentional disrespect of religion in general or of any denomination of Christians in particular."''

He also made statements that suggest a strong faith, such as when his father was ill:
:''"Tell father to remember to call upon and confide in our great, and good, and merciful Maker who will not turn away from him in any extremity. He notes the fall of a sparrow and numbers the hairs of our heads; and he will not forget the dying man who puts his trust in him. If it is to be his lot to go now, he will soon have a joyous meeting with many loved ones gone before; and where the rest of us, through the help of God, hope ere long to join them."''

Regardless of Lincoln's views on faith as a youth, it seemed to grow as President. Lincoln penciled in "under God" after "one nation" for his [[Gettysburg Address]] delivered on November 19, 1863. The phrase "under God" was not in the early drafts. Mrs. Lincoln recalled her husband's last words just prior to his assassination in Ford's Theater: "He said he wanted to visit the Holy Land and see those places hallowed by the footprints of the [[Savior]]. He was saying there was no city he so much desired to see as Jerusalem."<ref>http://www.amerisearch.net/index.php?date=2004-09-08&view=View</ref>

In 1864, a close friend of Lincoln's, Joshua Speed, confided in Lincoln that he did not accept the Bible as true. Lincoln famously replied, "Take all this book upon reason that you can, and the balance on faith, and you will live and die a happier and better man".

After Lincoln was shot at Ford's theater two clergy claimed that he had made a secret trip from Washington to be baptized. Also a Roman Catholic Priest claimed that Lincoln received the sacrament of baptism in secret. Neither of these claims have any proof in White House records or his personal diary.<ref> [[God and the Oval Office]], by John C. McCollister, W Publishing, 2005. </ref>

==Lincoln's style of writing==
[[Image:Lincoln seated.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Lincoln in November, 1863, about to leave for Pennsylvania. The reason for his confident look may have been within the envelope lying on the table, believed to contain his draft of the Gettysburg Address]]
A White House visitor, Orville Browning, told Lincoln's personal secretary John Nicolay one day that he had spoke to Lincoln sometime in 1861 on the subject of slavery; that if the right thing about slavery wasn't done, God just couldn't be on the side of the Union. Browning remembered Lincoln's reply: "What if the Almighty takes a different view of slavery than we do?", and right then and there Browning realized that Lincoln had thought very deep on the subject, much deeper than Browning did. [http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/books/wilson.htm]

Lincoln was known to think long and deep on various topics, and often he would take notes, write them on little scraps of paper, and stuff them into his tall stovepipe hat for later use. When it was time for use, such as his "House Divided" speech, he pulled them out, laid them on a table, and would commence to writing. He would sift through the subject, adding this, removing that, and sometimes he would stand in his empty room and deliver it out loud to an imaginary audience, testing the effects of what he spoke, and altering it as needed. According to author Garry Wills, Lincoln brought to bear the rhetorical tone of the Greek Revival and Transcendental movements, in which spoken oratory was practiced in government and on the stage. The leading speakers of this time, and whom Lincoln looked upon, were Danial Webster and Henry Clay, both of the Senate, and Edward Everett, a speaker much in demand.

The training he had given himself also enabled him to write a simple letter or a speech on the spot. Words would flow clear when Lincoln wrote in his later years, and he didn't have to do twice one of his finest personal letters, one of consolation to Mrs. Bixby of Boston, who had lost five sons in the war.

:''Executive Mansion,''
:''Washington, Nov. 21, 1864.''

:''Dear Madam,''

:''I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle.''
:''I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.''
:''I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.''

:''Yours, very sincerely and respectfully,''

:''A. Lincoln''

What many consider his masterpiece is the [[Gettysburg Address]]. Here Lincoln, going through perhaps a dozen writes and re-writes of what he had thought on the subject, entirely changed the meaning of the war itself in a mere 272 words, and in so doing, according to Wills, remaking America.

==Politics in war==
That there had to be a certain degree of support to win the war was a given, and Lincoln strove to have unity for that effort in the North. Politics was required, and Lincoln had a special knack for appealing to his fellows and talking to them at their own level and language. He would smooth over lingering differences, and held the loyalty of those who were antagonistic to one another.

But the Democrats remained strong, and frequently clashed. Its member included both war and peace Democrats; the peace side was called “Copperheads”, after the snake which strikes without warning while hidden. Lincoln tried conciliating with both, but with the latter he had to resort to arrest at times, most famously to an Ohio Congressman, Clement L. Valandigham, who was arrested after he had repeatedly exhorted soldiers to desert. He justified his actions on the grounds that the suspension of ''habeas corpus'' was necessary only in times of rebellion, insurrection, or when the public safety may require it, as stated in the Constitution; certainly the Civil War had met those specific conditions. Many would dissent, and openly criticize Lincoln for arbitrarily violating the Constitution that he had sworn to preserve. In response to the criticism in general, and the case of Valandigham in particular, Lincoln wrote:
:''"Must I shoot a simple-minded soldier boy who deserts, while I must not touch a hair of a wiley agitator who induces him to desert? This is none the less injurious when effected by getting a father, or brother, or friend, into a public meeting, and there working upon his feeling, till he is persuaded to write the soldier boy, that he is fighting in a bad cause, for a wicked administration of a contemptable government, too weak to arrest and punish him if he shall desert. I think that in such a case, to silence the agitator, and save the boy, is not only constitutional, but, withal, a great mercy."'' [http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=lincoln;cc=lincoln;type=boolean;rgn=div1;q1=soldier;op2=and;q2=deserts;op3=and;q3=agitator;singlegenre=All;view=text;subview=detail;sort=occur;idno=lincoln6;node=lincoln6%3A569]
Lincoln faced reelection against Democrat George McClellan in 1864, who promised a restoration of the Union, but waffled on many of its points, even abandoning the Democratic platform of armistice and peaceful separation. Lincoln was able to beat him in the election, assisted by the timely victories of Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, and Sherman in Georgia. Overtures of peace from Confederates were not wholly rejected. On February 3, 1865, Lincoln met with Confederate commissioners, among them Vice President Alexander Stephens, on a steamship in Hampton Roads, Virginia. There would be peace, he insisted, if the South would quit the war, abandon slavery, and accept re-unification, and once these conditions were met he would gracious with pardons. But his terms satisfied neither the Confederacy nor the Radical Republicans in Congress.
His postwar policy was one of compassion. As he explained to his top leaders on board a riverboat, the City Queen, he wanted peace above all else. His Second Inaugural Address expressed his point of healing the wounds caused by the war.
:''With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."''

When asked specifically, he related the following, according to General Sherman, one of those present:
:''Mr. Lincoln was full and frank in his conversation, assuring me that in his mind he was all ready for the civil reorganization of affairs at the South as soon as the war was over; and he distinctly authorized me to assure Governor Vance and the people of North Carolina that, as soon as the rebel armies laid down their arms, and resumed their civil pursuits, they would at once be guaranteed all their rights as citizens of a common country; and that to avoid anarchy the State governments then in existence, with their civil functionaries, would be recognized by him as the government de facto till Congress could provide others.''
:''I know, when I left him, that I was more than ever impressed by his kindly nature, his deep and earnest sympathy with the afflictions of the whole people, resulting from the war, and by the march of hostile armies through the South; and that his earnest desire seemed to be to end the war speedily, without more bloodshed or devastation, and to restore all the men of both sections to their homes. In the language of his second inaugural address, he seemed to have "charity for all, malice toward none," and, above all, an absolute faith in the courage, manliness, and integrity of the armies in the field.'' [http://www.sonshi.com/sherman24.html]

==Final curtain==
Lincoln received the news of Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, Virginia, on April 9, and he was called out to the balcony of the White House that night by a large crowd gathered in celebration. When asked to make a speech, Lincoln noticed a band among them, and made an unusual request.
:''"I have always thought ‘Dixie’ one of the best tunes I have ever heard. Our adversaries over the way attempted to appropriate it, but I insisted that we fairly captured it. I presented it to the Attorney General, and he gave it as his legal opinion that it is our lawful prize. I now request the band to favor me with its performance."''
He entered Richmond the following day, to the joyous delight of free blacks, who welcomed the arrival of "Father Abraham" as they called him, and he paid a visit to the Confederate White House, and sat at the desk of Jefferson Davis. The only thing he asked for was a glass of water.

Just four days later on April 14 he attended a play at Ford's Theater. It was called ''Our American Cousin'', with well-known stage actress Laura Keane and comedian Harry Hawke in the title role. Unseen to the audience was another actor making his way quietly up the stairs to the president's private box, [[John Wilkes Booth]], a Southern sympathizer who had hatched a conspiracy with a few others to kill the president and other leading officials. Booth entered the box, shot Lincoln in the head, stabbed a guest, and dropped to the stage, escaping behind the curtains. Taken across the street to a boarding house, the mortally-wounded Lincoln was laid across a small bed in humble surroundings, similar it seemed, to where he was born. He died at sunrise a few hours later.

"Now he belongs to the ages" Edwin Stanton was heard to say.

==References==
*McCollister, John C. ''God and the Oval Office'', W Publishing Group, Nashville, Tennessee(2005)
*Sandburg, Carl. ''Abraham Lincoln'', Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York (1954)
*Walsh, John E. ''Moonlight'', St. Martin's Press, New York (2000)
*Goodwin, Doris Kearns. ''Team of Rivals: the Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln'', Simon and Schuster, New York (2005)
*Hanchett, William. ''The Lincoln Murder Conspiracies'', University of Illinois (1983)
*Donald, David Herbert. ''Lincoln'', Jonathan Cafe (Random House), London (1995)
*Wills, Gary. ''Lincoln at Gettysburg: the Words that Remade America'', Simon and Schuster, New York (1992)
*White, Ronald C. Jr. ''The Eloquent President: A [[portraits|Portrait]] of Lincoln Through His Words'', Random House, New York (2005)
*Carwardine, Richard. ''Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power'', Alfred A. Knopf, New York (2003)
*Time-Life Books ''The Civil War'', vol. 1 (''Brother Against Brother''), Time Inc, New York (1983)

==Links==
*[http://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/ Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln]
*[http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln.html Abraham Lincoln Online]
*[http://www.abrahamlincolnarchive.com/Home.aspx Lincoln Archive of original newspaper articles]
*[http://www.historyplace.com/lincoln/ History Place: Lincoln timeline]
*[http://www.nps.gov/liho/index.htm Lincoln's Home National Historic Site]
*[http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/al16.html White House site; short bio on Lincoln]
*[http://www.mrlincolnandfriends.org/inside.asp?pageID=112&subjectID=1 Mr. Lincoln and Friends]
*[http://www.nps.gov/archive/liho/slavery/al02.htm Declaration against slavery, Illinois State Legislature, March 3, 1837]
*[http://www.nps.gov/archive/liho/slavery/al03.htm Lincoln's letter to Joshua Speed, August 24, 1855]
*[http://www.nps.gov/archive/liho/slavery/al05.htm Speech in Peoria, Illinois, October 16, 1854]
*[http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=lincoln;cc=lincoln;q1=erastus;q2=corning;op2=and;op3=and;rgn=works;idno=ACK7441.0001.001;didno=ACK7441.0001.001;view=image;seq=00000227 Letter to Erastus Corning and Others, June 13, 1863, in which Lincoln explains his suspention of ''habeas corpus'']
*[http://www.sonshi.com/sherman.html Memoirs of William T. Sherman ]

[[Image:DcLincMor.JPG|right|thumb]]

== See also ==

*[[Democracy]]
*[[John F. Kennedy]]
*[[Andrew Jackson]]

{{USPresidents}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lincoln, Abraham}}

[[Category:Presidents of the United States]]
[[Category:People who were Educated at Home]]

Godspeed

2008-05-16T17:19:49Z

BMoore: Removing all content from page

Atheistic Logic

2008-05-16T16:39:03Z

BMoore:

Here is a growing list of logical contradictions in [[atheism]]:

* [[Atheists]] say they do not believe that any [[God]] or equivalent deity exists, but then are often hostile to [[Christians]], as in censoring classroom prayer even when everyone wants to participate.

*Atheists often feel that they are well qualified to comment on school curricula, in effect advising others how to raise their children, while refusing to admit that others are more qualified with respect to education of their own children than atheists are.

(add more)

==See also==
*[[Liberal logic]]

{{Nb Atheism}}
[[Category:Atheism]]

Skeptics Annotated Bible

2008-05-16T16:38:22Z

BMoore:

The '''Skeptics Annotated Bible''' is an online text of the [[Bible]] containing annotations intended for for skeptics and [[atheism|atheists]]. It is edited by Steve Wells, and also contains an annotated [[Quran]] and [[Book of Mormon]].

== Contents ==
The ''Skeptics Annotated Bible'' contains the text of the Bible (King James version), with comments alongside many of the Bible verses. Most of these comments are designed to draw attention to alleged absurdities and inconsistencies in the text, according to the viewpoint of the authors. The areas of perceived difficulties are broken down into various 'tags'. There is also an index by topic that only shows selected verses also designed to be inflammatory.

==Refutation==
The founder of [[Christian apologetics]] site [[Tektonics]] has described the quality of argument of the Skeptics Annotated Bible (SAB) as follows:
{{QuoteBox|Editorial commentary in the form of pictures and one-sentence comments are not arguments. SAB is the internet equivalent to a brick wall scribbled with graffiti, or arguing by saying, "nanny nanny boo boo." It performs no analysis of the social background, the literary data, or context. It is merely "instant reaction" from angry Skeptics, and that sort of arguing isn't arguing at all. ... By estimate perhaps 40-50% of SAB's comments are either "argument by outrage" or places where SAB takes moral offense, usually against a cultural norm. ... SAB also demonstrates the sort of provincialism we would expect of the impenetrably ignorant, as for example, they will insert a "laughing head" icon next to verses which describe some Bible social custom with which they are unfamiliar. Imagine what kind of credibility someone would deserve if they read a history of feudal Japan and put a "laughing head" next to descriptions of people taking their shoes off before they enter a home. That is the level of ignorance to which SAB regularly stoops."<ref>James Patrick Holding [http://www.tektonics.org/sab/sab.html ''Commentary on the Skeptics' Annotated Bible'']</ref>}}
==See also==
*[[Atheism]]

== External Links ==
*[http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/ Skeptics Annotated Bible]
*[http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/christian.html Christian responses to Skeptic's Annotated Bible]

==References==
{{reflist|small}}

[[category:Atheism]]
{{Nb Atheism}}

Skeptics Annotated Bible

2008-05-16T16:38:00Z

BMoore:

Manchester United F.C.

2008-05-16T16:00:32Z

BMoore:

{{merge|Soccer teams in England}}
'''Manchester United Football Club''' are an [[England|English]] [[soccer]] ([[Football]] in the [[UK]]) team.

They play in red shirts, white shorts and black socks. They were the first English club to win the European Championship. Their current manager is Sir Alexander Ferguson.

The club joined the Football League in 1892 under the name Newton Heath. Their official nickname is the "Red Devils" and the club badge features a small black devil holding a trident. They are known to their fans either as Man U, Man United or just United.

In 2005 the club was taken over by the [[America|American]] billionaire, Malcolm Glazer. After two seasons with little success by their standards they won the Barclays Premier League again in 2007 and 2008.

== Current Squad <ref>http://www.manutd.com/default.sps?pagegid={91EA3BE2-963A-4BAB-802C-F46A0EF3FCA3}&page=1</ref> ==

'''Goalkeepers:'''
# Edwin van der Sar
# Ben Foster
# Tomasz Kuszczak
# Tom Heaton

'''Defenders:'''
# Gary Neville (Captain)
# Patrice Evra
# Rio Ferdinand
# Wes Brown
# Nemanja Vidić
# Gerard Piqué
# John O'Shea
# Mikaël Silvestre

'''Midfielders:'''
# Owen Hargreaves
# Cristiano Ronaldo
# Anderson
# Ryan Giggs (Vice Captain)
# Park Ji-Sung
# Michael Carrick
# Nani
# Paul Scholes
# Darren Fletcher
# Chris Eagles

'''Strikers:'''
# Louis Saha
# Wayne Rooney
# Dong Fangzhuo
# Carlos Tévez
# Danny Welbeck

{{Nb sl english premier}}

Manchester United F.C.

2008-05-16T15:39:17Z

BMoore: I'll add in the squad numbers and such now

Talk:Manchester United F.C.

2008-05-16T15:30:46Z

BMoore: New page: I think that rather than merging the articles, it would make more sense to expand this article to include their history, etc. I don't know much about the history of the English Premier Lea...

I think that rather than merging the articles, it would make more sense to expand this article to include their history, etc. I don't know much about the history of the English Premier League and such, but if somebody could write up something more, it would be helpful. For now, I'll try to find out some basic info on the present team. --[[User:BMoore|BMoore]] 11:30, 16 May 2008 (EDT)

Soccer teams in England

2008-05-16T15:27:28Z

BMoore:

==Premier League teams==

*'''Arsenal Football Club''' is a [[soccer]] team (called [[football]] in [[England]]) based in [[London]], England. The team is managed by [[Arsene Wenger]]. Finishing fourth in the [[English Premier League]] in the 2006/7 season, the team features major international stars of football. Former star [[Thierry Henry]] has recently left the team after eight years of huge success, departing to [[Real Madrid]] in the summer of 2007. In 2006 the team moved from their old stadium, ''Arsenal Stadium'', located in, and more commonly known as ''Highbury''. The team's new stadium is named after the Dubai airline and sponsor, [[Emirates Airlines|Emirates]].

*'''Aston Villa Football Club''' is based in [[Aston]], [[Birmingham]], in the English [[Midlands]]. Currently coached by Martin O'Neill, a former player for [[Northern Ireland]], [[Nottingham Forest]], [[Norwich City]] and [[Manchester City F.C.|Manchester City]].They finished the 2006/7 season in 11th position in the [[English Premier League]].

*'''Blackburn Rovers Football Club''' are an [[England|English]] [[football]] team that play in the [[English Premier League|Premiership]] . The club hails from the town of [[Blackburn]] in [[Lancashire]]. Their home stadium is Ewood Park.

*'''Chelsea Football Club''' play at Stamford Bridge, in west [[London]]. The club is owned by [[Russia]]n billionaire [[Roman Abramovich]] and managed by [[Avram Grant]]. In 2007-08 the side was second in the Premier League.

*[[Everton_F.C.|'''Everton Football Club''']] is based in [[Liverpool]]. Founded in 1878 as a church sports side they were became of the sixteen founder members of the [[Football League]] in 1888. However, owing to a rent dispute in 1892 they left their home ground of [[Anfield]] and moved to a new site at [[Goodison Park]], where they have played ever since. There are plans under discussion to move outside the city of Liverpool and establish a new ground over a Tesco supermarket in nearby Knowsley. The club's nickname is ''The Toffees'', although there are several hypotheses about how the name arose it is likely that it derives from the black and white striped candy known as an ''Everton Mint''. Everton's most deadly rivals are [[Liverpool F.C.|Liverpool]] who were formed in 1892 to utilise the abandoned Anfield ground. Despite Everton's successes over the years they have been overshadowed by their illustrious neighbours who hold the records for the most top flight championships as well as European trophies won in the English game.

*'''Fulham F.C.''' is based in the [[London]] Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. Their nickname is The Cottagers, after their home ground of Craven Cottage alongside the [[River Thames]], which can usually be seen during the Oxford and Cambridge boat-race. The club was founded in 1879 and are the oldest professional soccer team in London. The club strip comprises white shirts and socks with black shorts. Despite their long history they have never won any major honors. The club is currently owned by the Egyptian millionaire and owner of Harrods, Mohamed Al-Fayed who took control in 1997.
*[http://www.fulhamfc.com Official site]
*[http://www.premierleague.com/page/fulham Premier League - Fulham]

*'''Liverpool Football Club''' was founded in 1892. The club has become the most successful club in English league history winning eighteen domestic championships as well as five European championships. The current manager is Rafael Benitez.

*'''Manchester United Football Club''' Manchester United play in red shirts, white shorts and black socks. They were the first English club to win the European Championship. The club joined the Football League in 1892 under the name Newton Heath. Their official nickname is the "Red Devils" and the club badge features a small black devil holding a trident. They are known to their fans either as Man U, Man United or just United. In 2005 the club was taken over by the [[America|American]] billionaire, Malcolm Glazer. After two seasons with little success by their standards they won the Barclays Premier League again in 2007 and 2008.

==Championship teams==
*'''Birmingham City Football Club''' was founded in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, they became Small Heath in 1888 and later Birmingham F.C. in 1905. They finally adopted the moniker Birmingham City F.C. in 1943. The club's home ground has been St. Andrew's since 1906. Although being the second largest city in England (after [[London]]) Birmingham City Football Club have known little success in the major competitions and have lived in the shadow of their neighbours and fierce rivals [[Aston Villa F.C.|Aston Villa]]. The club's nickname is "The Blues" on account of the color of their team strip. Birmingham City was relegated from the Premier League to the Championship mat the end of the 2007-08 season.

*'''Derby County F.C.''' Their nickname is ''The Rams'', after the symbol for the county of [[Derbyshire]] and also the club. Their current home ground is Pride Park, but they previously played at the Baseball Ground. Derby County was relegated from the Premier League at the end of the 2007-08 season.
*[http://www.dcfc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/Home/ Official site]

[[Category:UK Soccer]]

Last wordism

2008-05-15T10:33:31Z

BMoore: Jesus did not practice last wordism

'''Last wordism''' is the belief that victory can be obtained in a [[debate]] or discussion by having the "last word."
Some argue that '''last wordism''' is often a characteristic of "less intellectually robust presentations."<ref>http://www.cslewisinstitute.org/pages/resources/books/reviews/CaseforChrist.pdf</ref>

'''Last wordism''' reflects a lack of restraint, a characteristic of wrongdoing or [[sin]].

== References ==
<references/>

[[Category:Debate]]

Andrew Jackson

2008-05-10T04:37:48Z

BMoore:

{{President
|image=Andrew Jackson.jpg
|seq=7
|term_start=March 4, 1829
|term_end=March 4, 1837
|party=Democratic
|vp=John C. Calhoun
|vp_dates=1829-1832
|2vp=None
|2vp_dates=1832-1833
|3vp=Martin Van Buren
|3vp_dates=1833-1837
|previous=John Quincy Adams
|next=Martin van Buren
|birth_date=March 15, 1767
|birth_place=Lancaster County, South Carolina
|death_date=June 8, 1845
|death_place=Nashville, Tennessee
|spouse=Rachel Donelson Robards Jackson
|religion=[[Presbyterian]]
}}

'''Andrew Jackson''' was the 7th [[President of the United States of America]], elected as the "Hero of New Orleans" famous for crushing the British army in battle there. His nickname was "Old Hickory." Born in South Carolina but raised in Tennessee, Jackson was the first President ever elected who was not born in [[Virginia]] or [[Massachusetts]]. He fought at an early age in the battle of Stone Ferry during the [[American Revolution]] in 1780. He later fought against the Indians, and against the [[British]] during the [[War of 1812]].

As a teenager during the American Revolution, Jackson refused an order by a British officer to polish his boots, and the officer angrily drew his sword and slashed Jackson across his hand and head with it, and imprisoned him. For the rest of his life Jackson loathed the British.

Jackson led a contingent of Tennessee and Kentucky sharpshooters who routed over 2,000 British troops in the [[Battle of New Orleans]]. This occurred shortly after a peace treaty had been signed by both America and Great Britain but before the news of peace had reached them. It was a great victory for Jackson and became source of enormous pride to the American public.

His military success gave him tremendous popularity with the common man, and he ran for President in the [[United States presidential election, 1824|1824 Presidential Election]]. He won a plurality of the votes but no one got a majority and the election went into the House of Representatives, where they chose [[John Quincy Adams]] instead. At the next [[United States presidential election, 1828|Presidntial Election in 1828]] Jackson defeated John Quincy Adams, and then Jackson won reelection in the [[United States presidential election, 1832|1832 Presidential Election]]. Jackson survived an assassination attempt in January 1835 when a deranged man fired two pistols at him at point blank range in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol.<ref>[http://www.amerisearch.net/index.php?date=2004-03-25&view=View American Minute for March 25th]</ref> <ref>[http://www.americanheritage.com/people/articles/web/20070130-richard-lawrence-andrew-jackson-assassination-warren-r-davis.shtml Trying to Assassinate President Jackson]</ref>

Jackson was firmly opposed to a national bank, and fought to dismantle the Second Bank of the United States. He vetoed Congress's
bill to renew its charter, and began withdrawing money from it. He also created the Specie Circular, which required land bought from the government to be paid for in [[specie]]. Most historians link this to the [[Panic of 1837]], which did not occur until after Jackson had left office.

After honoring the precedent of [[George Washington]] to resign after serving two terms as President, Jackson then supported and advised many future candidates, most notably [[James K. Polk]].

Jackson died on June 8, 1845.<ref>Encyclopedia of Presidents Andrew Jackson, Alice Osinski, Children's Press </ref><ref> Encyclopedia of Presidents James K. Polk, Dee Lillegard, Children's Press</ref>

Since 1928, Jackson's picture has appeared on the United States $20 bill - somewhat ironic given that Jackson opposed paper money, wanting the country to use [[specie]] (gold and silver) instead.<ref>{{cite web|work=MSN Encarta|title=Andrew Jackson|url=http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761569591_7/Andrew_Jackson.html|format=HTML|accessdate=2007-11-22}}</ref>

== References ==

<references/>

{{USPresidents}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jackson, Andrew}}
[[Category:Presidents of the United States]]
[[Category:War of 1812]]

Media bias

2008-05-10T04:31:51Z

BMoore:

Media bias is distortion of news, commentary, non-fiction articles, textbooks, documentaries, speech codes and the like to favor one side's ideas and over another's (see [[partisan]]ship). Dictatorships which suppress [[freedom of the press]] are notorious for their media bias, particularly when all media are controlled directly by a one-party government.

Most journalism schools in free countries address the issue of eliminating bias, although efforts are rarely successful. The U.S. media have a strong [[liberal bias]].<ref>''Professor's Study Shows Liberal Bias in News Media'' [http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=/Culture/archive/200209/CUL20020917b.html CNSNews.com]</ref>

==Sources of bias==

#Deliberate [[propaganda]]: Presenting bias with the intention of benefiting the media establishment.
#Institutional bias: The reporters and editors of a media organisation may hold political views, which influence their reporting.
#[[Sensationalism]]: Media depends on viewers for financial support. Thus 'irrelevant' stories may receive attention disproportionate to their impact.
#Omission: The inverse of sensationalism, media may overlook important but boring stories.
#Simplification: Highly complicated subjects may be omitted or greatly simplified, to avoid alienating viewers or making them feel uneducated.
#[[Political correctness]] or sensitivity: Fearful of appearing racist or discriminatory, media may avoid any stories which reflect negatively on a ethnic, social or religious group, especially if the group is a minority.
#Audience bias: Readers or viewers tend to read news sources with which they agree. Thus, media must reinforce the existing views of their audience, or risk losing them. This source of bias can also reinforce the effect of a [[moral]] [[panic]]. In this case, the public may receive a distorted perspective that is a result of their own preferences, because the news media will deliberately deliver news not only suitable and desirable to the general public, but may also incorporate bias that would similarly suit the viewer.

==Academic Studies and theories of media bias==

''The Media Elite,'' co-authored in 1986 by political scientists Robert Lichter, Stanley Rothman, and Linda Lichter is among the most cited academic study of political bias in news reporting. These researchers surveyed journalists at national media outlets such as the [[New York Times]], [[Washington Post]], and the broadcast networks. They found that most of the responding journalists were Democratic voters whose attitudes were far to the left of the general public on a variety of topics: homosexual rights, abortion, affirmative action, and so on. The study argued that the way in which journalists wrote about controversial issues was directly related to their personal political positions.

Independently corroborating the findings above, is the 2002 book length study by political communication researcher Jim A. Kuypers: Press Bias and Politics: How the Media Frame Controversial Issues. In this study of 116 mainstream US papers (including The New York Times, the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle), Kuypers found that the mainstream print press in America operate within a narrow range of liberal beliefs. Those who expressed points of view further to the left were generally ignored, whereas those who expressed moderate or conservative points of view were often actively denigrated or labeled as holding a minority point of view. In short, if a political leader, regardless of party, spoke within the press-supported range of acceptable discourse, he or she would receive positive press coverage. If a politician, again regardless of party, were to speak outside of this range, he or she would receive negative press or be ignored. Kuypers also found that the liberal points of view expressed in editorial and opinion pages were found in hard news coverage of the same issues. Although focusing primarily on the issues of [[race]] and [[homosexuality]], Kuypers found that the press injected opinion into its news coverage of other issues such as [[welfare reform]], [[environmental protection]], and [[gun control]]; in all cases favoring a liberal point of view.

==Notes==

* Christian groups accuse BBC drama of inciting anti-Christian bias <ref>http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/013849.php</ref>

* Canadian Jewish Authors Castigate Anti-Christian Media Bias <ref>http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/may/05053005.html </ref>

* European Media and Anti-Israel Bias, A British journalist in Israel, Fatah leader caught by an Israeli army camera saying, "Don't start the stoning yet" <ref>http://www.aish.com/jewishissues/mediaobjectivity/European_Media_and_Anti-Israel_Bias.asp</ref>

* Recognizing Bias in Middle East Reporting: Rules for Reporters. What is media bias and why is it practiced against Israel? The Media's Anti-Israel Bias <ref>http://www.tampabayprimer.org/index.cfm?action=leftNav&drill=antiIsrael</ref>

* Anti-Israel Bias – An Endless Battle, trying to counter the anti-Israel bias in the media is an increasingly challenging proposition. <ref>http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/israel/060904a.aspx</ref>

* Does the Media's anti-Israel bias matter? <ref>http://web.israelinsider.com/Views/5294.htm</ref>

* Fighting hate & bias <ref>http://geocities.com/fightinghate</ref>

* Addressing Anti Israel Media Bias · European Media and Anti-Israel Bias <ref>http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_1991to_now_media_anti_israel_bias.php</ref>

* The day when the media will not be anti-Israel biased <ref>http://haveitclearly.blogspot.com/2007/03/when-media-is-not-anti-israel-biased.html</ref>

* Tom Gross on New York Times & Israel on National Review Online <ref>http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-gross031403.asp</ref>

* French Media Bias Against Israel Blamed for Anti-Semitic Violence <ref>http://www.crosswalk.com/1313954/</ref>

* WorldNetDaily: Liberal bias against Christians? Not a chance! <ref>http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=34045</ref>

==External links==

*[[Accuracy in Media]] (AIM) non-profit, grassroots citizens watchdog <ref>http://www.aim.org/index</ref>
*[[CAMERA]] Dedicated for accuracy in reporting on the middle east <ref>http://camera.org</ref>
*[[ChronWatch]] A noted media watchdog and conservative news organization, with a mission to provide honest, alternative views to the increasing liberal-bias <ref>http://www.chronwatch-america.com/</ref>.
*[[Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting]] (FAIR) A media watchdog organization.<ref>http://www.fair.org/index.php</ref>
*[[HonestReporting]] A fast-action website that monitors Mideast media bias, <ref>http://www.honestreporting.com/</ref>
*[[MediaResearch]] (MRC) A leading media watchdog<ref>http://www.mediaresearch.org/welcome.asp</ref>
*[[NewsBusters]] A blog dedicated to "Exposing & Combating Liberal Media Bias" <ref>http://newsbusters.org/</ref>
*[[Take a pen]] Encourages fighting it <ref>http://take-a-pen.org</ref>.
* [http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/resources/educational/handouts/broadcast_news/bw_bias_in_the_news.cfm How to detect bias in the news]
*[[Politmus]] a crowdsourced site that allows members to rate and comment on examples of media bias they encounter<ref>http://www.politmus.com</ref>

== References ==

<references />

[[category:media]]

Oxygen (novel)

2008-05-08T15:04:46Z

BMoore:

[[Image:OxygenNovel.jpeg|thumb|200px|right|Cover art by Lookout Design Group]]

'''''Oxygen''''' is a [[science fiction|futuristic]] [[Christian]] [[novel]].

== Description ==
* By [[John B. Olson]] and [[Randall S. Ingermanson]]
* Grand Rapids, [[Michigan]]: [[Bethany House]], 2001.
* ISBN 0764224425
* 365 pages, paperback
* Cover illustration by Lookout Design Group, Inc.

==Plot introduction==
The first crewed ship to fly to [[Mars]] suffers damage from an in-space explosion, which severely limits the crew's oxygen supply. This force them to make some hard, lifeboat-like choices to stay alive.

===Explanation of the novel's title===
[[Oxygen]] is a vital element for life--and one that the accident to the characters places in perilously short supply.

==Plot summary==
{{spoiler}}
===Beginning===
As the novel begins, Dr. Valerie ("Valkerie") Jansen is on a field trip on the slope of [[Mount Trident]] on the [[Alaska Peninsula]]. In real life, this volcano has not erupted for many years--but in the novel, Mount Trident vents sulfur dioxide into the air, and this gas settles into the valley where Valkerie is encamped. She barely survives the experience, at one point taking the air from the tires of her Jeep, which is the only air available for her to breathe.

The next morning, the Chief Administrator of [[NASA]], together with one of NASA's senior physicians, lands on the slope of Mount Trident in a helicopter. They are looking for Valkerie, because they wish to interview her for a position as an [[Astronaut]] Candidate. The conversation that follows is very confusing to both sides, chiefly because Valkerie is convinced that Mount Trident is about to erupt and all three must evacuate at once. Eventually, however, Valkerie climbs aboard the helicopter with the two NASA officials.

Eventually she is summoned to Houston, Texas, and reports for training at NASA's headquarters complex. A hot dispute between the NASA Administrator and Nate Harrington, the Mars Mission Director, results in her beginning a training regimen that is more grueling than usual, leading her to believe that Harrington wants her dropped from the program on any pretext he can invent. But in fact the NASA brass are very much impressed with her academic record and her seemingly unique ability to cope with "five-sigma" days—days remarkable for a series of dire, often life-threatening crises. (Her breathing the air in her Jeep tires to survive the fumarolic venting incident is a case in point.) As for Mr. Harrington, he has never wanted anything more than to have the NASA administrator respect his prerogatives as Mars Mission Director—and furthermore, he is distracted by a series of events that have nothing to do with Valkerie or her candidacy.

Nate's distractions include: a serious budget problem that has forced NASA to sell exclusive broadcast rights to a major television network, a clear threat from a prominent [[United States Senate|US Senator]] that he "has the votes" to terminate NASA's flagship program, a compromise of project security that darkly suggests a terrorist plot against NASA (and requires him to have an FBI agent as a semi-regular on the NASA campus)--and a controversy involving the crew selection for Ares 10, which is to be the first crewed mission to Mars. NASA's psychiatrists have abruptly demanded interviews with all members of the Ares 10 crew—Josh Bennett, Kennedy Hampton, Alexis "Lex" Ohta, and Bob "Kaggo" Kaganovski. Bob in particular fears that the psychiatrists want to remove him from the crew—because he has never felt entirely secure in his position, mainly because he does not have the devil-may-care abandon that is part of the "astronaut stereotype" and which Kennedy displays in overabundance. So when the psychiatrists call him in for an interview, he tells them that he would gladly obey any order given him by Josh, the assigned mission commander—not mentioning that he always reserves the right to act as he sees fit if he thinks that Josh, or any other commander, has issued a wrong order.

But the psychiatrists are not suspicious of Bob at all, but rather of Josh. Specifically, their protocols inform them that having one man, even the mission commander, dominate the crew is a recipe for disaster. Bob's interview, added to an earlier interview given by Kennedy, only add to their disquiet. During their deliberations, they then run a computer-based decision-analytic model on two possible crew complements—one including Josh, and the other removing Josh as mission commander and assigning Valkerie Jansen to the flight. To everyone's surprise, a crew complement that includes Valkerie scores very high on their decision-analytic indices.

Thus the psychiatrists issue their final "recommendation," which carries the force of an order: Josh Bennett is to be dropped from the crew, Kennedy Hampton is to be promoted to mission commander, and the crew will gain a new mission specialist: Valkerie Jansen.

Valkerie feels doubly guilty about accepting the assignment. First, she sees herself as usurping the place of another, more experienced astronaut (Josh). Second, she is afraid that a prior association will return to haunt her—specifically, her relationship with a fellow student at [[Yale University]] who killed himself in a laboratory explosion he had caused because of his notion of [[Christian]] duty. (This bombing incident took place during the heyday of [[Operation Rescue]]—and furthermore, the presence of a religious-motivated picket line at NASA's main gate only adds to her apprehensions about having her Christian associations revealed.)

Josh is ignorant of her fears concerning her Christian associations, but recognizes that she might feel guilty over supplanting him. So he takes her on a training flight to the [[Kennedy Space Center]] and there tells her that her primary duty is to Project Ares, which will shut down completely if she does not accept the assignment. He gallantly offers to take personal responsibility for her remaining training. With this assurance, she returns to Houston and tells Nate Harrington that she will accept the assignment.

===Launch—and Disaster===

In January of 2014, Ares 10 launches into space. The launch is very violent, because the mission controllers decide to launch in the face of a crosswind that exceeds NASA's stated limits. This causes damage to multiple habitat systems, including the telemetry bus, the Ku-band antenna, and a solar panel. Valkerie develops serious doubts about continuing the mission, especially when she catches Kennedy in a lie about a chemical fluid spill (he says that he spilled juice from a snack container, but Valkerie knows better) and then appears to threaten her with the non-regulation acetylene blowtorch he has brought aboard. Bob is actually no more eager to continue than Valkerie. But Kennedy insists on continuing the mission and browbeats his crew into telling Houston that they are all agreed. Subsequently, they perform trans-Martian injection, thus committing themselves.

Three months later, they have (finally!) repaired their data telemetry bus, and Kennedy and Bob perform an EVA to repair the Ku-band antenna, a repair that would have been pointless before. After completing the repair, they proceed to inspect the dual solar panels to see whether they can repair the damaged panel. Bob discovers some stray exposed wires that do not appear on anyone's schematics of the habitat. He proceeds to test them with a [[Multimeter|multimeter]]—and by a fateful error, sets the multimeter to measure resistance rather than electromotive potential ("voltage"). As a result, he inadvertently bridges a circuit between the wires—and thus causes an explosion. Someone has, quite simply, planted a bomb on board, and Bob has triggered it.

The explosion blows away the otherwise intact solar panel, compromises the hull, and dazes Bob and fills his arm with what turns out to be stainless-steel shrapnel—a detail whose full significance the astronauts will realize only much later. Valkerie, standing by in the EVA suit room, immediately (a) suits up, (b) places the unconscious Lex Ohta into a rescue bubble, (c) hastily repairs the hull breach, and (d) releases the remaining oxygen from the fuel-cell tanks. Only then can she open the airlock to admit Kennedy, who at first insists that Bob is dead. Valkerie, believing that Kennedy acted carelessly, goes outside to fetch him in.

Presently Bob recovers enough to discover that Valkerie's repair was incomplete, and simply asks her to help him make a more complete repair. But as a result of the original hull breach and Valkerie's incomplete repair efforts, the crew no longer has enough oxygen on board to survive the transit to Mars. Neither will they have sufficient power for all ship's systems from the remaining solar panel when they reach Mars. When NASA (represented by a very shaken Josh Bennett as CapCom) fails to inform them of this fact in a timely fashion, the astronauts bleakly conclude that they can no longer trust NASA.

===A life-or-death choice===

Josh Bennett refuses to give up on the crew. He remembers that an [[Earth Return Vehicle]] is on its way to Mars at the same time, and proposes to accelerate it to intercept Ares 10, so that the crew can use it as a lifeboat. Engineer Cathe Willison computes a solution for the intercept—but then points out that the oxygen will only last if two of the crew sacrifice themselves. Valkerie, however, proposes another solution: observing that Lex, who is still in a coma, is consuming less oxygen, she proposes that two other astronauts go into drug-induced comas, with one astronaut remaining awake to accomplish the rendezvous and then reawaken the rest of the crew. NASA's doctors conclude that Valkerie could in fact synthesize enough [[sodium pentathol]] to accomplish this plan. But this begs the question of which astronaut will remain awake.

That question is more than academic—because a review of surveillance tapes made inside the habitat prior to launch identifies six people only who could have planted the bomb. They are the four members of the crew, Josh Bennett, and Nate Harrington. No one suspects Nate or Josh (not yet), and so the astronauts suspect one another. Furthermore, Kennedy is deliberately manipulating his crewmates' emotions, even to the point of crudely demanding sexual favors from Valkerie (which she refuses to grant).

Two further items of evidence eventually decide the issue in Valkerie's favor. One, Josh Bennett discovers that Kennedy in fact manipulated NASA's psychiatric brass in order to have Josh removed from the crew. Two, a computer simulation predicts that if Bob is the one to stay awake, he'll only use up all the oxygen.

Bob, ever reserving his right to act at discretion, secretly prepares a dose of sodium pentathol to use on Valkerie after she has sedated Kennedy. But at the last minute, Valkerie tells him that she forgives him for not trusting her. He cannot bring himself to rebel against Valkerie, and so allows her to sedate him.

===Another disaster—and eventual landing===

Valkerie now faces a problem with which she almost cannot cope: total isolation, with no one to converse with—not even Houston, because she must power down the radio to conserve energy. She spends most of the time in prayer, but mostly crying out to God to "send her an e-mail" and give her a reason to believe.

As the ERV continues its approach, Valkerie asks for and receives permission to revive Bob so that he can help her pilot the habitat to a rendezvous with the ERV. Unhappily, the ERV is approaching far too fast. Valkerie's attempt to match velocity with it ends in failure, and worse—she uses up more fuel than they can spare.

With the ERV speeding past the habitat, Bob and Valkerie suddenly remember that the ERV carries a crew re-entry vehicle with its own engine. They issue orders to detach it from the ERV and bring it to a slow rendezvous. Valkerie makes another spacewalk to cut loose its oxygen tank and bring it aboard. Bob, in turn, receives instructions to build a Sabatier scrubber—an ultra-low-power device for removing carbon dioxide from the ship's air.

They then reawaken Kennedy, who must regain his strength to perform the landing—and then decide that the only way they can land is to abandon the original mission profile calling for a Martian orbital capture, and instead dive straight down to the Martian surface. This is an incredibly risky maneuver, one which they almost do not complete because they are about to use an aerobrake deployment system that is non-functional. (Another failure of trust is responsible for this predicament, which they avoid only by some last-minute deduction of NASA's true intentions.) They intend to land in a camp that previous missions have already established—but they end up landing too far away. However, they manage to pool their remaining oxygen to give to Bob and Kennedy, so that they can retrieve a pressurized powered rover to rescue Valkerie and Lex. When the men return, they find the women unconscious and seemingly dead. But they are not dead, because Valkerie has found Bob's hidden dose of sodium pentathol and uses that to put her and Lex into a coma once again. They survive, but Valkerie suffers multiple rib fractures when Bob attempts [[cardiopulmonary resuscitation]].

Finally, the astronauts realize the significance of the stainless-steel shrapnel with which Bob had been wounded in the initial explosion. None of the ship's systems was made of stainless steel--in fact, the lack of any material but plastic was a source of great frustration to Valkerie when she first attempted to seal the hull breach. Valkerie and Lex realize that the stainless steel must have come from a bacterial culture vial that Josh Bennett had received from a former girlfriend in [[Antarctica]]—and that the vial contained a radiation-resistant bacterium, the same one that in fact had contaminated some of the ship's systems after the explosion. Now the astronauts realize what has happened to them: Josh Bennett, fearing cancellation of Project Ares and the disbanding of NASA, sought to "seed" a radio-resistant bacterium on Mars for the astronauts to "discover." To accomplish this, he did plant a bomb on board, designed to detonate with the deployment of the aerobrakes. But the damage to the habitat on the rocky launch ultimately caused the bomb to detonate in transit. This also explains Josh's brittle emotional state: he realizes that his attempt to give the astronauts something to discover very nearly killed them instead. Bob ultimately tells Josh that Valkerie has figured it out, and that they all forgive him for what he did, knowing as they do that he never meant them any harm.

The last scene is a set-up for the sequel: Bob, who is now enamored of Valkerie, proposes marriage to her before a world-wide six-billion-strong television audience that has tuned into watch "the first two astronauts to walk on Mars."

{{endspoiler}}

==Characters in ''Oxygen'' ==
*[[Astronaut]] Joshua "Josh" Bennett, original Mission Commander, afterwards CapCom.
*Astronaut Kennedy "The Hampster" Hampton, original Pilot Officer, afterwards Mission Commander.
*Astronaut Alexis "Lex" Ohta, original Mission Specialist (Geology), afterwards Pilot Officer.
*Astronaut Robert "Kaggo" Kaganovski, Mission Specialist (Engineering)
*Astronaut Candidate Valerie "Valkerie" Jansen, eventual Mission Specialist (Life Sciences and Crew Medicine)
*Nathan "Nate" Harrington, Mars Mission Director
*Steven Perez, Chief Administrator, [[NASA]]
*Robert Abrams, MD, senior psychiatrist, [[NASA]]
*Special Agent Crystal Yamaguchi, [[FBI]]
*Cathe Willison, engineer

==Major themes==
Space exploration, the importance of friendship, the power of prayer and faith, the Providential nature of God, and how sometimes humans fail to hear the voice of God because "He won't send an e-mail."

==Allusions/references to other works==
'''''Oxygen''''' contains scattered allusions to ''[[Star Trek]]'', and more specifically to which characters in that 1960's television series are most analogous to various positions on a Mars crew.

'''''Oxygen''''' also contains an allusion to ''[[The Right Stuff]]'', by describing Astronaut Kennedy Hampton as being an astronaut in the "fighter jock" mold--addicted to flying as a physical sport, given to moderately heavy social drinking, sometimes given to driving while intoxicated, and accepting questionable attentions from female hangers-on, also known as [[Groupie|groupies]]. (Note: this novel is devoid of any sexual content beyond Astronaut Hampton crudely soliciting a sexual bribe from Astronaut Jansen, who indignantly refuses.)

==Allusions/references to actual history, current science, and popular culture==
'''''Oxygen''''' makes repeated and obvious references to the near-disastrous ''[[Apollo 13]]'' mission.

The [[Mars Habitat Unit|crew habitat]], the [[Earth Return Vehicle]], the Ares [[Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle]], and various other pieces of equipment are all products of the active research program of [http://www.marssociety.org/ The Mars Society] under the directorship of [[Robert Zubrin|Doctor Robert Zubrin]]. The mission profile is an adaptation of NASA's own Mars Design Reference Mission profile, which itself derives from the Mars Society's own Mars Semi-direct Mission profile.

The following real-life institutions and events bear direct reference in '''''Oxygen''''': the [[United States Senate]], [[NBC]], and the [[National Football League]] (and its premier event, the [[Super Bowl]]). Specifically:

* A US Senator threatens to terminate Project Ares and even NASA itself.

* NASA commits with NBC to launch Ares 10 the day before the Super Bowl, on a transit timed to have it land on Mars on [[Fourth of July|Independence Day]]. This is ''not'' an optimal launch profile, and as such it is a source of tremendous frustration and consternation on the part of everyone involved, not least the crew.

==Literary significance & criticism==
'''''Oxygen''''' is one of few novels to propose that astronauts might not be the unblemished heroes of the popular legend that has grown about them. This legend dates back to Projects Apollo, Gemini, and especially Mercury. Though the author [[Tom Wolfe]] (''[[The Right Stuff]]'') has definitively revealed that the Mercury astronauts were ''not'' unblemished heroes (with the possible exception of [[John Glenn]]), the notion of an astronaut deliberately manipulating his administrative superiors to influence a flight assignment, and another astronaut resorting to planting a "discoverable scientific find" in order to ensure continuance of his country's space program, might have proved difficult for readers to accept.

For all its award-winning history, '''''Oxygen''''' is out-of-print today, and its author, Randy Ingermanson, has announced his intention to submit his future work to a different publisher. The jarring portrait of NASA's finest might serve as one possible explanation for the lack of continued interest in this title. However, Christian critics have consistently praised the work, perhaps ''because'' it unabashedly demonstrates that no human beings deserve placement on any sort of pedestal, and that all human beings are quite capable of making mistakes, often disastrous ones, even with the best of intentions.

By far, however, the greatest significance of works like this is that they seek to bridge the gap between faith on one side, and pure and applied science on the other. '''''Oxygen''''' forthrightly addresses certain areas of science that might appear to test the Christian faith quite sorely. These include the very possibility of finding [[Extraterrestrial life|living organisms]] on a world other than [[earth]]. Regrettably, '''''Oxygen''''' does ''not'' offer any explanation that might reconcile the disparate concepts of life on worlds beyond earth, and [[God]] having [[creation|created]] life on earth and only on earth. One possible explanation might be that Mars harbors living organisms carried to it in the event that caused the [[Great Flood]]. But neither this novel nor its sequel discuss that possibility at all, possibly because the theory remains controversial even in [[creationism|creationist]] circles. Instead, they offer an assurance that the Christian faith is strong enough to stand any test, including a scientific finding that might on the surface appear to contradict Scripture. (In fact, Scripture is silent on the nature of the planets, and indeed on all celestial bodies, except the sun, moon, and stars.)
===Awards and nominations===
'''''Oxygen''''' won the 2002 [[Christy Award]] for the best futuristic Christian novel in its year of release.

==Allusions/references from other works==
'''''Oxygen''''' is a prequel to '''''[[The Fifth Man]]''''', in which most of the above-listed characters reappear.

==Film adaptations==
The motion-picture rights to '''''Oxygen''''' are not known to have been sold to any motion-picture producer.

==Sources, references, external links, quotations==
[http://www.rsingermanson.com/index.html Randy Ingermanson's home page]

[http://www.rsingermanson.com/html/oxygen.html Official page for '''''Oxygen''''']

[http://www.marssociety.org/ The Mars Society Home]

[[Category:Novels]]

Oxygen (novel)

2008-05-08T15:00:54Z

BMoore:

[[Image:OxygenNovel.jpeg|thumb|200px|right|Cover art by Lookout Design Group]]
{{delete}}

'''''Oxygen''''' is a [[science fiction|futuristic]] [[Christian]] [[novel]].

== Description ==
* By [[John B. Olson]] and [[Randall S. Ingermanson]]
* Grand Rapids, [[Michigan]]: [[Bethany House]], 2001.
* ISBN 0764224425
* 365 pages, paperback
* Cover illustration by Lookout Design Group, Inc.

==Plot introduction==
The first crewed ship to fly to [[Mars]] suffers damage from an in-space explosion, which severely limits the crew's oxygen supply. This force them to make some hard, lifeboat-like choices to stay alive.

===Explanation of the novel's title===
[[Oxygen]] is a vital element for life--and one that the accident to the characters places in perilously short supply.

==Plot summary==
{{spoiler}}
===Beginning===
As the novel begins, Dr. Valerie ("Valkerie") Jansen is on a field trip on the slope of [[Mount Trident]] on the [[Alaska Peninsula]]. In real life, this volcano has not erupted for many years--but in the novel, Mount Trident vents sulfur dioxide into the air, and this gas settles into the valley where Valkerie is encamped. She barely survives the experience, at one point taking the air from the tires of her Jeep, which is the only air available for her to breathe.

The next morning, the Chief Administrator of [[NASA]], together with one of NASA's senior physicians, lands on the slope of Mount Trident in a helicopter. They are looking for Valkerie, because they wish to interview her for a position as an [[Astronaut]] Candidate. The conversation that follows is very confusing to both sides, chiefly because Valkerie is convinced that Mount Trident is about to erupt and all three must evacuate at once. Eventually, however, Valkerie climbs aboard the helicopter with the two NASA officials.

Eventually she is summoned to Houston, Texas, and reports for training at NASA's headquarters complex. A hot dispute between the NASA Administrator and Nate Harrington, the Mars Mission Director, results in her beginning a training regimen that is more grueling than usual, leading her to believe that Harrington wants her dropped from the program on any pretext he can invent. But in fact the NASA brass are very much impressed with her academic record and her seemingly unique ability to cope with "five-sigma" days—days remarkable for a series of dire, often life-threatening crises. (Her breathing the air in her Jeep tires to survive the fumarolic venting incident is a case in point.) As for Mr. Harrington, he has never wanted anything more than to have the NASA administrator respect his prerogatives as Mars Mission Director—and furthermore, he is distracted by a series of events that have nothing to do with Valkerie or her candidacy.

Nate's distractions include: a serious budget problem that has forced NASA to sell exclusive broadcast rights to a major television network, a clear threat from a prominent [[United States Senate|US Senator]] that he "has the votes" to terminate NASA's flagship program, a compromise of project security that darkly suggests a terrorist plot against NASA (and requires him to have an FBI agent as a semi-regular on the NASA campus)--and a controversy involving the crew selection for Ares 10, which is to be the first crewed mission to Mars. NASA's psychiatrists have abruptly demanded interviews with all members of the Ares 10 crew—Josh Bennett, Kennedy Hampton, Alexis "Lex" Ohta, and Bob "Kaggo" Kaganovski. Bob in particular fears that the psychiatrists want to remove him from the crew—because he has never felt entirely secure in his position, mainly because he does not have the devil-may-care abandon that is part of the "astronaut stereotype" and which Kennedy displays in overabundance. So when the psychiatrists call him in for an interview, he tells them that he would gladly obey any order given him by Josh, the assigned mission commander—not mentioning that he always reserves the right to act as he sees fit if he thinks that Josh, or any other commander, has issued a wrong order.

But the psychiatrists are not suspicious of Bob at all, but rather of Josh. Specifically, their protocols inform them that having one man, even the mission commander, dominate the crew is a recipe for disaster. Bob's interview, added to an earlier interview given by Kennedy, only add to their disquiet. During their deliberations, they then run a computer-based decision-analytic model on two possible crew complements—one including Josh, and the other removing Josh as mission commander and assigning Valkerie Jansen to the flight. To everyone's surprise, a crew complement that includes Valkerie scores very high on their decision-analytic indices.

Thus the psychiatrists issue their final "recommendation," which carries the force of an order: Josh Bennett is to be dropped from the crew, Kennedy Hampton is to be promoted to mission commander, and the crew will gain a new mission specialist: Valkerie Jansen.

Valkerie feels doubly guilty about accepting the assignment. First, she sees herself as usurping the place of another, more experienced astronaut (Josh). Second, she is afraid that a prior association will return to haunt her—specifically, her relationship with a fellow student at [[Yale University]] who killed himself in a laboratory explosion he had caused because of his notion of [[Christian]] duty. (This bombing incident took place during the heyday of [[Operation Rescue]]—and furthermore, the presence of a religious-motivated picket line at NASA's main gate only adds to her apprehensions about having her Christian associations revealed.)

Josh is ignorant of her fears concerning her Christian associations, but recognizes that she might feel guilty over supplanting him. So he takes her on a training flight to the [[Kennedy Space Center]] and there tells her that her primary duty is to Project Ares, which will shut down completely if she does not accept the assignment. He gallantly offers to take personal responsibility for her remaining training. With this assurance, she returns to Houston and tells Nate Harrington that she will accept the assignment.

===Launch—and Disaster===

In January of 2014, Ares 10 launches into space. The launch is very violent, because the mission controllers decide to launch in the face of a crosswind that exceeds NASA's stated limits. This causes damage to multiple habitat systems, including the telemetry bus, the Ku-band antenna, and a solar panel. Valkerie develops serious doubts about continuing the mission, especially when she catches Kennedy in a lie about a chemical fluid spill (he says that he spilled juice from a snack container, but Valkerie knows better) and then appears to threaten her with the non-regulation acetylene blowtorch he has brought aboard. Bob is actually no more eager to continue than Valkerie. But Kennedy insists on continuing the mission and browbeats his crew into telling Houston that they are all agreed. Subsequently, they perform trans-Martian injection, thus committing themselves.

Three months later, they have (finally!) repaired their data telemetry bus, and Kennedy and Bob perform an EVA to repair the Ku-band antenna, a repair that would have been pointless before. After completing the repair, they proceed to inspect the dual solar panels to see whether they can repair the damaged panel. Bob discovers some stray exposed wires that do not appear on anyone's schematics of the habitat. He proceeds to test them with a [[Multimeter|multimeter]]—and by a fateful error, sets the multimeter to measure resistance rather than electromotive potential ("voltage"). As a result, he inadvertently bridges a circuit between the wires—and thus causes an explosion. Someone has, quite simply, planted a bomb on board, and Bob has triggered it.

The explosion blows away the otherwise intact solar panel, compromises the hull, and dazes Bob and fills his arm with what turns out to be stainless-steel shrapnel—a detail whose full significance the astronauts will realize only much later. Valkerie, standing by in the EVA suit room, immediately (a) suits up, (b) places the unconscious Lex Ohta into a rescue bubble, (c) hastily repairs the hull breach, and (d) releases the remaining oxygen from the fuel-cell tanks. Only then can she open the airlock to admit Kennedy, who at first insists that Bob is dead. Valkerie, believing that Kennedy acted carelessly, goes outside to fetch him in.

Presently Bob recovers enough to discover that Valkerie's repair was incomplete, and simply asks her to help him make a more complete repair. But as a result of the original hull breach and Valkerie's incomplete repair efforts, the crew no longer has enough oxygen on board to survive the transit to Mars. Neither will they have sufficient power for all ship's systems from the remaining solar panel when they reach Mars. When NASA (represented by a very shaken Josh Bennett as CapCom) fails to inform them of this fact in a timely fashion, the astronauts bleakly conclude that they can no longer trust NASA.

===A life-or-death choice===

Josh Bennett refuses to give up on the crew. He remembers that an [[Earth Return Vehicle]] is on its way to Mars at the same time, and proposes to accelerate it to intercept Ares 10, so that the crew can use it as a lifeboat. Engineer Cathe Willison computes a solution for the intercept—but then points out that the oxygen will only last if two of the crew sacrifice themselves. Valkerie, however, proposes another solution: observing that Lex, who is still in a coma, is consuming less oxygen, she proposes that two other astronauts go into drug-induced comas, with one astronaut remaining awake to accomplish the rendezvous and then reawaken the rest of the crew. NASA's doctors conclude that Valkerie could in fact synthesize enough [[sodium pentathol]] to accomplish this plan. But this begs the question of which astronaut will remain awake.

That question is more than academic—because a review of surveillance tapes made inside the habitat prior to launch identifies six people only who could have planted the bomb. They are the four members of the crew, Josh Bennett, and Nate Harrington. No one suspects Nate or Josh (not yet), and so the astronauts suspect one another. Furthermore, Kennedy is deliberately manipulating his crewmates' emotions, even to the point of crudely demanding sexual favors from Valkerie (which she refuses to grant).

Two further items of evidence eventually decide the issue in Valkerie's favor. One, Josh Bennett discovers that Kennedy in fact manipulated NASA's psychiatric brass in order to have Josh removed from the crew. Two, a computer simulation predicts that if Bob is the one to stay awake, he'll only use up all the oxygen.

Bob, ever reserving his right to act at discretion, secretly prepares a dose of sodium pentathol to use on Valkerie after she has sedated Kennedy. But at the last minute, Valkerie tells him that she forgives him for not trusting her. He cannot bring himself to rebel against Valkerie, and so allows her to sedate him.

===Another disaster—and eventual landing===

Valkerie now faces a problem with which she almost cannot cope: total isolation, with no one to converse with—not even Houston, because she must power down the radio to conserve energy. She spends most of the time in prayer, but mostly crying out to God to "send her an e-mail" and give her a reason to believe.

As the ERV continues its approach, Valkerie asks for and receives permission to revive Bob so that he can help her pilot the habitat to a rendezvous with the ERV. Unhappily, the ERV is approaching far too fast. Valkerie's attempt to match velocity with it ends in failure, and worse—she uses up more fuel than they can spare.

With the ERV speeding past the habitat, Bob and Valkerie suddenly remember that the ERV carries a crew re-entry vehicle with its own engine. They issue orders to detach it from the ERV and bring it to a slow rendezvous. Valkerie makes another spacewalk to cut loose its oxygen tank and bring it aboard. Bob, in turn, receives instructions to build a Sabatier scrubber—an ultra-low-power device for removing carbon dioxide from the ship's air.

They then reawaken Kennedy, who must regain his strength to perform the landing—and then decide that the only way they can land is to abandon the original mission profile calling for a Martian orbital capture, and instead dive straight down to the Martian surface. This is an incredibly risky maneuver, one which they almost do not complete because they are about to use an aerobrake deployment system that is non-functional. (Another failure of trust is responsible for this predicament, which they avoid only by some last-minute deduction of NASA's true intentions.) They intend to land in a camp that previous missions have already established—but they end up landing too far away. However, they manage to pool their remaining oxygen to give to Bob and Kennedy, so that they can retrieve a pressurized powered rover to rescue Valkerie and Lex. When the men return, they find the women unconscious and seemingly dead. But they are not dead, because Valkerie has found Bob's hidden dose of sodium pentathol and uses that to put her and Lex into a coma once again. They survive, but Valkerie suffers multiple rib fractures when Bob attempts [[cardiopulmonary resuscitation]].

Finally, the astronauts realize the significance of the stainless-steel shrapnel with which Bob had been wounded in the initial explosion. None of the ship's systems was made of stainless steel--in fact, the lack of any material but plastic was a source of great frustration to Valkerie when she first attempted to seal the hull breach. Valkerie and Lex realize that the stainless steel must have come from a bacterial culture vial that Josh Bennett had received from a former girlfriend in [[Antarctica]]—and that the vial contained a radiation-resistant bacterium, the same one that in fact had contaminated some of the ship's systems after the explosion. Now the astronauts realize what has happened to them: Josh Bennett, fearing cancellation of Project Ares and the disbanding of NASA, sought to "seed" a radio-resistant bacterium on Mars for the astronauts to "discover." To accomplish this, he did plant a bomb on board, designed to detonate with the deployment of the aerobrakes. But the damage to the habitat on the rocky launch ultimately caused the bomb to detonate in transit. This also explains Josh's brittle emotional state: he realizes that his attempt to give the astronauts something to discover very nearly killed them instead. Bob ultimately tells Josh that Valkerie has figured it out, and that they all forgive him for what he did, knowing as they do that he never meant them any harm.

The last scene is a set-up for the sequel: Bob, who is now enamored of Valkerie, proposes marriage to her before a world-wide six-billion-strong television audience that has tuned into watch "the first two astronauts to walk on Mars."

{{endspoiler}}

==Characters in ''Oxygen'' ==
*[[Astronaut]] Joshua "Josh" Bennett, original Mission Commander, afterwards CapCom.
*Astronaut Kennedy "The Hampster" Hampton, original Pilot Officer, afterwards Mission Commander.
*Astronaut Alexis "Lex" Ohta, original Mission Specialist (Geology), afterwards Pilot Officer.
*Astronaut Robert "Kaggo" Kaganovski, Mission Specialist (Engineering)
*Astronaut Candidate Valerie "Valkerie" Jansen, eventual Mission Specialist (Life Sciences and Crew Medicine)
*Nathan "Nate" Harrington, Mars Mission Director
*Steven Perez, Chief Administrator, [[NASA]]
*Robert Abrams, MD, senior psychiatrist, [[NASA]]
*Special Agent Crystal Yamaguchi, [[FBI]]
*Cathe Willison, engineer

==Major themes==
Space exploration, the importance of friendship, the power of prayer and faith, the Providential nature of God, and how sometimes humans fail to hear the voice of God because "He won't send an e-mail."

==Allusions/references to other works==
'''''Oxygen''''' contains scattered allusions to ''[[Star Trek]]'', and more specifically to which characters in that 1960's television series are most analogous to various positions on a Mars crew.

'''''Oxygen''''' also contains an allusion to ''[[The Right Stuff]]'', by describing Astronaut Kennedy Hampton as being an astronaut in the "fighter jock" mold--addicted to flying as a physical sport, given to moderately heavy social drinking, sometimes given to driving while intoxicated, and accepting questionable attentions from female hangers-on, also known as [[Groupie|groupies]]. (Note: this novel is devoid of any sexual content beyond Astronaut Hampton crudely soliciting a sexual bribe from Astronaut Jansen, who indignantly refuses.)

==Allusions/references to actual history, current science, and popular culture==
'''''Oxygen''''' makes repeated and obvious references to the near-disastrous ''[[Apollo 13]]'' mission.

The [[Mars Habitat Unit|crew habitat]], the [[Earth Return Vehicle]], the Ares [[Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle]], and various other pieces of equipment are all products of the active research program of [http://www.marssociety.org/ The Mars Society] under the directorship of [[Robert Zubrin|Doctor Robert Zubrin]]. The mission profile is an adaptation of NASA's own Mars Design Reference Mission profile, which itself derives from the Mars Society's own Mars Semi-direct Mission profile.

The following real-life institutions and events bear direct reference in '''''Oxygen''''': the [[United States Senate]], [[NBC]], and the [[National Football League]] (and its premier event, the [[Super Bowl]]). Specifically:

* A US Senator threatens to terminate Project Ares and even NASA itself.

* NASA commits with NBC to launch Ares 10 the day before the Super Bowl, on a transit timed to have it land on Mars on [[Fourth of July|Independence Day]]. This is ''not'' an optimal launch profile, and as such it is a source of tremendous frustration and consternation on the part of everyone involved, not least the crew.

==Literary significance & criticism==
'''''Oxygen''''' is one of few novels to propose that astronauts might not be the unblemished heroes of the popular legend that has grown about them. This legend dates back to Projects Apollo, Gemini, and especially Mercury. Though the author [[Tom Wolfe]] (''[[The Right Stuff]]'') has definitively revealed that the Mercury astronauts were ''not'' unblemished heroes (with the possible exception of [[John Glenn]]), the notion of an astronaut deliberately manipulating his administrative superiors to influence a flight assignment, and another astronaut resorting to planting a "discoverable scientific find" in order to ensure continuance of his country's space program, might have proved difficult for readers to accept.

For all its award-winning history, '''''Oxygen''''' is out-of-print today, and its author, Randy Ingermanson, has announced his intention to submit his future work to a different publisher. The jarring portrait of NASA's finest might serve as one possible explanation for the lack of continued interest in this title. However, Christian critics have consistently praised the work, perhaps ''because'' it unabashedly demonstrates that no human beings deserve placement on any sort of pedestal, and that all human beings are quite capable of making mistakes, often disastrous ones, even with the best of intentions.

By far, however, the greatest significance of works like this is that they seek to bridge the gap between faith on one side, and pure and applied science on the other. '''''Oxygen''''' forthrightly addresses certain areas of science that might appear to test the Christian faith quite sorely. These include the very possibility of finding [[Extraterrestrial life|living organisms]] on a world other than [[earth]]. Regrettably, '''''Oxygen''''' does ''not'' offer any explanation that might reconcile the disparate concepts of life on worlds beyond earth, and [[God]] having [[creation|created]] life on earth and only on earth. One possible explanation might be that Mars harbors living organisms carried to it in the event that caused the [[Great Flood]]. But neither this novel nor its sequel discuss that possibility at all, possibly because the theory remains controversial even in [[creationism|creationist]] circles. Instead, they offer an assurance that the Christian faith is strong enough to stand any test, including a scientific finding that might on the surface appear to contradict Scripture. (In fact, Scripture is silent on the nature of the planets, and indeed on all celestial bodies, except the sun, moon, and stars.)
===Awards and nominations===
'''''Oxygen''''' won the 2002 [[Christy Award]] for the best futuristic Christian novel in its year of release.

==Allusions/references from other works==
'''''Oxygen''''' is a prequel to '''''[[The Fifth Man]]''''', in which most of the above-listed characters reappear.

==Film adaptations==
The motion-picture rights to '''''Oxygen''''' are not known to have been sold to any motion-picture producer.

==Sources, references, external links, quotations==
[http://www.rsingermanson.com/index.html Randy Ingermanson's home page]

[http://www.rsingermanson.com/html/oxygen.html Official page for '''''Oxygen''''']

[http://www.marssociety.org/ The Mars Society Home]

[[Category:Novels]]

Oxygen (novel)

2008-05-08T15:00:37Z

BMoore:

[[Image:OxygenNovel.jpeg|thumb|200px|right|Cover art by Lookout Design Group]]
{{delete}}
'''''Oxygen''''' is a [[science fiction|futuristic]] [[Christian]] [[novel]].

== Description ==
* By [[John B. Olson]] and [[Randall S. Ingermanson]]
* Grand Rapids, [[Michigan]]: [[Bethany House]], 2001.
* ISBN 0764224425
* 365 pages, paperback
* Cover illustration by Lookout Design Group, Inc.

==Plot introduction==
The first crewed ship to fly to [[Mars]] suffers damage from an in-space explosion, which severely limits the crew's oxygen supply. This force them to make some hard, lifeboat-like choices to stay alive.

===Explanation of the novel's title===
[[Oxygen]] is a vital element for life--and one that the accident to the characters places in perilously short supply.

==Plot summary==
{{spoiler}}
===Beginning===
As the novel begins, Dr. Valerie ("Valkerie") Jansen is on a field trip on the slope of [[Mount Trident]] on the [[Alaska Peninsula]]. In real life, this volcano has not erupted for many years--but in the novel, Mount Trident vents sulfur dioxide into the air, and this gas settles into the valley where Valkerie is encamped. She barely survives the experience, at one point taking the air from the tires of her Jeep, which is the only air available for her to breathe.

The next morning, the Chief Administrator of [[NASA]], together with one of NASA's senior physicians, lands on the slope of Mount Trident in a helicopter. They are looking for Valkerie, because they wish to interview her for a position as an [[Astronaut]] Candidate. The conversation that follows is very confusing to both sides, chiefly because Valkerie is convinced that Mount Trident is about to erupt and all three must evacuate at once. Eventually, however, Valkerie climbs aboard the helicopter with the two NASA officials.

Eventually she is summoned to Houston, Texas, and reports for training at NASA's headquarters complex. A hot dispute between the NASA Administrator and Nate Harrington, the Mars Mission Director, results in her beginning a training regimen that is more grueling than usual, leading her to believe that Harrington wants her dropped from the program on any pretext he can invent. But in fact the NASA brass are very much impressed with her academic record and her seemingly unique ability to cope with "five-sigma" days—days remarkable for a series of dire, often life-threatening crises. (Her breathing the air in her Jeep tires to survive the fumarolic venting incident is a case in point.) As for Mr. Harrington, he has never wanted anything more than to have the NASA administrator respect his prerogatives as Mars Mission Director—and furthermore, he is distracted by a series of events that have nothing to do with Valkerie or her candidacy.

Nate's distractions include: a serious budget problem that has forced NASA to sell exclusive broadcast rights to a major television network, a clear threat from a prominent [[United States Senate|US Senator]] that he "has the votes" to terminate NASA's flagship program, a compromise of project security that darkly suggests a terrorist plot against NASA (and requires him to have an FBI agent as a semi-regular on the NASA campus)--and a controversy involving the crew selection for Ares 10, which is to be the first crewed mission to Mars. NASA's psychiatrists have abruptly demanded interviews with all members of the Ares 10 crew—Josh Bennett, Kennedy Hampton, Alexis "Lex" Ohta, and Bob "Kaggo" Kaganovski. Bob in particular fears that the psychiatrists want to remove him from the crew—because he has never felt entirely secure in his position, mainly because he does not have the devil-may-care abandon that is part of the "astronaut stereotype" and which Kennedy displays in overabundance. So when the psychiatrists call him in for an interview, he tells them that he would gladly obey any order given him by Josh, the assigned mission commander—not mentioning that he always reserves the right to act as he sees fit if he thinks that Josh, or any other commander, has issued a wrong order.

But the psychiatrists are not suspicious of Bob at all, but rather of Josh. Specifically, their protocols inform them that having one man, even the mission commander, dominate the crew is a recipe for disaster. Bob's interview, added to an earlier interview given by Kennedy, only add to their disquiet. During their deliberations, they then run a computer-based decision-analytic model on two possible crew complements—one including Josh, and the other removing Josh as mission commander and assigning Valkerie Jansen to the flight. To everyone's surprise, a crew complement that includes Valkerie scores very high on their decision-analytic indices.

Thus the psychiatrists issue their final "recommendation," which carries the force of an order: Josh Bennett is to be dropped from the crew, Kennedy Hampton is to be promoted to mission commander, and the crew will gain a new mission specialist: Valkerie Jansen.

Valkerie feels doubly guilty about accepting the assignment. First, she sees herself as usurping the place of another, more experienced astronaut (Josh). Second, she is afraid that a prior association will return to haunt her—specifically, her relationship with a fellow student at [[Yale University]] who killed himself in a laboratory explosion he had caused because of his notion of [[Christian]] duty. (This bombing incident took place during the heyday of [[Operation Rescue]]—and furthermore, the presence of a religious-motivated picket line at NASA's main gate only adds to her apprehensions about having her Christian associations revealed.)

Josh is ignorant of her fears concerning her Christian associations, but recognizes that she might feel guilty over supplanting him. So he takes her on a training flight to the [[Kennedy Space Center]] and there tells her that her primary duty is to Project Ares, which will shut down completely if she does not accept the assignment. He gallantly offers to take personal responsibility for her remaining training. With this assurance, she returns to Houston and tells Nate Harrington that she will accept the assignment.

===Launch—and Disaster===

In January of 2014, Ares 10 launches into space. The launch is very violent, because the mission controllers decide to launch in the face of a crosswind that exceeds NASA's stated limits. This causes damage to multiple habitat systems, including the telemetry bus, the Ku-band antenna, and a solar panel. Valkerie develops serious doubts about continuing the mission, especially when she catches Kennedy in a lie about a chemical fluid spill (he says that he spilled juice from a snack container, but Valkerie knows better) and then appears to threaten her with the non-regulation acetylene blowtorch he has brought aboard. Bob is actually no more eager to continue than Valkerie. But Kennedy insists on continuing the mission and browbeats his crew into telling Houston that they are all agreed. Subsequently, they perform trans-Martian injection, thus committing themselves.

Three months later, they have (finally!) repaired their data telemetry bus, and Kennedy and Bob perform an EVA to repair the Ku-band antenna, a repair that would have been pointless before. After completing the repair, they proceed to inspect the dual solar panels to see whether they can repair the damaged panel. Bob discovers some stray exposed wires that do not appear on anyone's schematics of the habitat. He proceeds to test them with a [[Multimeter|multimeter]]—and by a fateful error, sets the multimeter to measure resistance rather than electromotive potential ("voltage"). As a result, he inadvertently bridges a circuit between the wires—and thus causes an explosion. Someone has, quite simply, planted a bomb on board, and Bob has triggered it.

The explosion blows away the otherwise intact solar panel, compromises the hull, and dazes Bob and fills his arm with what turns out to be stainless-steel shrapnel—a detail whose full significance the astronauts will realize only much later. Valkerie, standing by in the EVA suit room, immediately (a) suits up, (b) places the unconscious Lex Ohta into a rescue bubble, (c) hastily repairs the hull breach, and (d) releases the remaining oxygen from the fuel-cell tanks. Only then can she open the airlock to admit Kennedy, who at first insists that Bob is dead. Valkerie, believing that Kennedy acted carelessly, goes outside to fetch him in.

Presently Bob recovers enough to discover that Valkerie's repair was incomplete, and simply asks her to help him make a more complete repair. But as a result of the original hull breach and Valkerie's incomplete repair efforts, the crew no longer has enough oxygen on board to survive the transit to Mars. Neither will they have sufficient power for all ship's systems from the remaining solar panel when they reach Mars. When NASA (represented by a very shaken Josh Bennett as CapCom) fails to inform them of this fact in a timely fashion, the astronauts bleakly conclude that they can no longer trust NASA.

===A life-or-death choice===

Josh Bennett refuses to give up on the crew. He remembers that an [[Earth Return Vehicle]] is on its way to Mars at the same time, and proposes to accelerate it to intercept Ares 10, so that the crew can use it as a lifeboat. Engineer Cathe Willison computes a solution for the intercept—but then points out that the oxygen will only last if two of the crew sacrifice themselves. Valkerie, however, proposes another solution: observing that Lex, who is still in a coma, is consuming less oxygen, she proposes that two other astronauts go into drug-induced comas, with one astronaut remaining awake to accomplish the rendezvous and then reawaken the rest of the crew. NASA's doctors conclude that Valkerie could in fact synthesize enough [[sodium pentathol]] to accomplish this plan. But this begs the question of which astronaut will remain awake.

That question is more than academic—because a review of surveillance tapes made inside the habitat prior to launch identifies six people only who could have planted the bomb. They are the four members of the crew, Josh Bennett, and Nate Harrington. No one suspects Nate or Josh (not yet), and so the astronauts suspect one another. Furthermore, Kennedy is deliberately manipulating his crewmates' emotions, even to the point of crudely demanding sexual favors from Valkerie (which she refuses to grant).

Two further items of evidence eventually decide the issue in Valkerie's favor. One, Josh Bennett discovers that Kennedy in fact manipulated NASA's psychiatric brass in order to have Josh removed from the crew. Two, a computer simulation predicts that if Bob is the one to stay awake, he'll only use up all the oxygen.

Bob, ever reserving his right to act at discretion, secretly prepares a dose of sodium pentathol to use on Valkerie after she has sedated Kennedy. But at the last minute, Valkerie tells him that she forgives him for not trusting her. He cannot bring himself to rebel against Valkerie, and so allows her to sedate him.

===Another disaster—and eventual landing===

Valkerie now faces a problem with which she almost cannot cope: total isolation, with no one to converse with—not even Houston, because she must power down the radio to conserve energy. She spends most of the time in prayer, but mostly crying out to God to "send her an e-mail" and give her a reason to believe.

As the ERV continues its approach, Valkerie asks for and receives permission to revive Bob so that he can help her pilot the habitat to a rendezvous with the ERV. Unhappily, the ERV is approaching far too fast. Valkerie's attempt to match velocity with it ends in failure, and worse—she uses up more fuel than they can spare.

With the ERV speeding past the habitat, Bob and Valkerie suddenly remember that the ERV carries a crew re-entry vehicle with its own engine. They issue orders to detach it from the ERV and bring it to a slow rendezvous. Valkerie makes another spacewalk to cut loose its oxygen tank and bring it aboard. Bob, in turn, receives instructions to build a Sabatier scrubber—an ultra-low-power device for removing carbon dioxide from the ship's air.

They then reawaken Kennedy, who must regain his strength to perform the landing—and then decide that the only way they can land is to abandon the original mission profile calling for a Martian orbital capture, and instead dive straight down to the Martian surface. This is an incredibly risky maneuver, one which they almost do not complete because they are about to use an aerobrake deployment system that is non-functional. (Another failure of trust is responsible for this predicament, which they avoid only by some last-minute deduction of NASA's true intentions.) They intend to land in a camp that previous missions have already established—but they end up landing too far away. However, they manage to pool their remaining oxygen to give to Bob and Kennedy, so that they can retrieve a pressurized powered rover to rescue Valkerie and Lex. When the men return, they find the women unconscious and seemingly dead. But they are not dead, because Valkerie has found Bob's hidden dose of sodium pentathol and uses that to put her and Lex into a coma once again. They survive, but Valkerie suffers multiple rib fractures when Bob attempts [[cardiopulmonary resuscitation]].

Finally, the astronauts realize the significance of the stainless-steel shrapnel with which Bob had been wounded in the initial explosion. None of the ship's systems was made of stainless steel--in fact, the lack of any material but plastic was a source of great frustration to Valkerie when she first attempted to seal the hull breach. Valkerie and Lex realize that the stainless steel must have come from a bacterial culture vial that Josh Bennett had received from a former girlfriend in [[Antarctica]]—and that the vial contained a radiation-resistant bacterium, the same one that in fact had contaminated some of the ship's systems after the explosion. Now the astronauts realize what has happened to them: Josh Bennett, fearing cancellation of Project Ares and the disbanding of NASA, sought to "seed" a radio-resistant bacterium on Mars for the astronauts to "discover." To accomplish this, he did plant a bomb on board, designed to detonate with the deployment of the aerobrakes. But the damage to the habitat on the rocky launch ultimately caused the bomb to detonate in transit. This also explains Josh's brittle emotional state: he realizes that his attempt to give the astronauts something to discover very nearly killed them instead. Bob ultimately tells Josh that Valkerie has figured it out, and that they all forgive him for what he did, knowing as they do that he never meant them any harm.

The last scene is a set-up for the sequel: Bob, who is now enamored of Valkerie, proposes marriage to her before a world-wide six-billion-strong television audience that has tuned into watch "the first two astronauts to walk on Mars."

{{endspoiler}}

==Characters in ''Oxygen'' ==
*[[Astronaut]] Joshua "Josh" Bennett, original Mission Commander, afterwards CapCom.
*Astronaut Kennedy "The Hampster" Hampton, original Pilot Officer, afterwards Mission Commander.
*Astronaut Alexis "Lex" Ohta, original Mission Specialist (Geology), afterwards Pilot Officer.
*Astronaut Robert "Kaggo" Kaganovski, Mission Specialist (Engineering)
*Astronaut Candidate Valerie "Valkerie" Jansen, eventual Mission Specialist (Life Sciences and Crew Medicine)
*Nathan "Nate" Harrington, Mars Mission Director
*Steven Perez, Chief Administrator, [[NASA]]
*Robert Abrams, MD, senior psychiatrist, [[NASA]]
*Special Agent Crystal Yamaguchi, [[FBI]]
*Cathe Willison, engineer

==Major themes==
Space exploration, the importance of friendship, the power of prayer and faith, the Providential nature of God, and how sometimes humans fail to hear the voice of God because "He won't send an e-mail."

==Allusions/references to other works==
'''''Oxygen''''' contains scattered allusions to ''[[Star Trek]]'', and more specifically to which characters in that 1960's television series are most analogous to various positions on a Mars crew.

'''''Oxygen''''' also contains an allusion to ''[[The Right Stuff]]'', by describing Astronaut Kennedy Hampton as being an astronaut in the "fighter jock" mold--addicted to flying as a physical sport, given to moderately heavy social drinking, sometimes given to driving while intoxicated, and accepting questionable attentions from female hangers-on, also known as [[Groupie|groupies]]. (Note: this novel is devoid of any sexual content beyond Astronaut Hampton crudely soliciting a sexual bribe from Astronaut Jansen, who indignantly refuses.)

==Allusions/references to actual history, current science, and popular culture==
'''''Oxygen''''' makes repeated and obvious references to the near-disastrous ''[[Apollo 13]]'' mission.

The [[Mars Habitat Unit|crew habitat]], the [[Earth Return Vehicle]], the Ares [[Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle]], and various other pieces of equipment are all products of the active research program of [http://www.marssociety.org/ The Mars Society] under the directorship of [[Robert Zubrin|Doctor Robert Zubrin]]. The mission profile is an adaptation of NASA's own Mars Design Reference Mission profile, which itself derives from the Mars Society's own Mars Semi-direct Mission profile.

The following real-life institutions and events bear direct reference in '''''Oxygen''''': the [[United States Senate]], [[NBC]], and the [[National Football League]] (and its premier event, the [[Super Bowl]]). Specifically:

* A US Senator threatens to terminate Project Ares and even NASA itself.

* NASA commits with NBC to launch Ares 10 the day before the Super Bowl, on a transit timed to have it land on Mars on [[Fourth of July|Independence Day]]. This is ''not'' an optimal launch profile, and as such it is a source of tremendous frustration and consternation on the part of everyone involved, not least the crew.

==Literary significance & criticism==
'''''Oxygen''''' is one of few novels to propose that astronauts might not be the unblemished heroes of the popular legend that has grown about them. This legend dates back to Projects Apollo, Gemini, and especially Mercury. Though the author [[Tom Wolfe]] (''[[The Right Stuff]]'') has definitively revealed that the Mercury astronauts were ''not'' unblemished heroes (with the possible exception of [[John Glenn]]), the notion of an astronaut deliberately manipulating his administrative superiors to influence a flight assignment, and another astronaut resorting to planting a "discoverable scientific find" in order to ensure continuance of his country's space program, might have proved difficult for readers to accept.

For all its award-winning history, '''''Oxygen''''' is out-of-print today, and its author, Randy Ingermanson, has announced his intention to submit his future work to a different publisher. The jarring portrait of NASA's finest might serve as one possible explanation for the lack of continued interest in this title. However, Christian critics have consistently praised the work, perhaps ''because'' it unabashedly demonstrates that no human beings deserve placement on any sort of pedestal, and that all human beings are quite capable of making mistakes, often disastrous ones, even with the best of intentions.

By far, however, the greatest significance of works like this is that they seek to bridge the gap between faith on one side, and pure and applied science on the other. '''''Oxygen''''' forthrightly addresses certain areas of science that might appear to test the Christian faith quite sorely. These include the very possibility of finding [[Extraterrestrial life|living organisms]] on a world other than [[earth]]. Regrettably, '''''Oxygen''''' does ''not'' offer any explanation that might reconcile the disparate concepts of life on worlds beyond earth, and [[God]] having [[creation|created]] life on earth and only on earth. One possible explanation might be that Mars harbors living organisms carried to it in the event that caused the [[Great Flood]]. But neither this novel nor its sequel discuss that possibility at all, possibly because the theory remains controversial even in [[creationism|creationist]] circles. Instead, they offer an assurance that the Christian faith is strong enough to stand any test, including a scientific finding that might on the surface appear to contradict Scripture. (In fact, Scripture is silent on the nature of the planets, and indeed on all celestial bodies, except the sun, moon, and stars.)
===Awards and nominations===
'''''Oxygen''''' won the 2002 [[Christy Award]] for the best futuristic Christian novel in its year of release.

==Allusions/references from other works==
'''''Oxygen''''' is a prequel to '''''[[The Fifth Man]]''''', in which most of the above-listed characters reappear.

==Film adaptations==
The motion-picture rights to '''''Oxygen''''' are not known to have been sold to any motion-picture producer.

==Sources, references, external links, quotations==
[http://www.rsingermanson.com/index.html Randy Ingermanson's home page]

[http://www.rsingermanson.com/html/oxygen.html Official page for '''''Oxygen''''']

[http://www.marssociety.org/ The Mars Society Home]

[[Category:Novels]]

Nijmegen

2008-05-08T14:16:25Z

BMoore: Pointless information removed

'''Nijmegen''' is a city in the Dutch province of [[Gelderland]], lying in the east of the country close to the German border. It is a port on the [[River Waal]], the main lower branch of the [[River Rhine]], which divides a few miles upstream of the city. Nijmegen is the oldest city in the Netherlands, originating as a Roman settlement named ''Noviomagus''. It was important in medieval times, and the Emperor [[Charlemagne]] had a palace here, remains of which survive. On 22 February 1944 the city was attacked in error by bombers of the US Eighth Air Force, killing around 800 civilians, and in September of that year it became a battleground during [[Operation Market Garden]], when it was liberated by American, British and Canadian forces and its strategic bridges captured. The city celebrates 17 September as Liberation Day. For the next six months Nijmegen was a front line city, and was heavily shelled by German forces in the vicinity.

The city has a population of 161,000.

[[Category:Dutch Cities and Towns]]

Leiden

2008-05-08T14:14:53Z

BMoore:

'''Leiden''' (in older sources sometimes spelled ''Leyden'')is a small city in the Dutch province of [[Zuid Holland]], located approximately midway between [[The Hague]] and [[Amsterdam]]. It is the home of Leiden University, founded in 1575 and one of the most prestigious universities in Europe.

The city has a population of 118,000.

==Further Information==
Leiden University: http://www.leiden.edu/

[[Category:Dutch Cities and Towns]]

Liberal logic

2008-05-06T13:02:55Z

BMoore:

'''Liberal logic''' is an argument by [[liberal]]s that is deceptively attractive to some, but is actually nonsensical. Here are some examples:

# frequent reliance on [[circular reasoning]], as in demanding censorship of [[intelligent design]] while simultaneously citing the resulting silence as proof against it<ref>See, e.g., [[Richard Sternberg]].</ref>
# often a [[liberal]] responds to a logical comment or question with an (illogical) expression of personal like or dislike, as in "but I like it!"
# claim that switching from heterosexual to [[homosexual]] is customary, but switching back is somehow impossible
# criticize [[Christians]] for literal interpretations of [[Genesis]], but then insist on even more literal interpretations when it suits the [[liberal]] ideology<ref>For example, [[liberals]] here insist that [[homeschooling]] can only mean being taught while in someone's own home. Liberals also often insist that the [[Bible]] literally prohibits judging anything.</ref>
# no matter what happens in the weather, [[global warming]] caused it
# belief that a [[correlation]] and/or [[causation]] (e.g., between [[atheism]] and [[suicide]]) can be disproved by a [[counterexample]] (e.g., one [[atheist]] who remained sane)
# [[Americans]] should "move on" past the misconduct of [[Bill Clinton]] and [[Ted Kennedy]], but should dig up as much old dirt as possible about [[John McCain]]
# if [highly implausible assumption like "[[embryonic stem cell]] research will find the cure for paralysis"], then would you support it (without any consideration of alternatives)?
# [[Barack Obama]] on [[Afghanistan]]: with fewer soldiers, we didn't have enough ammo and humvees!<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/us/politics/21text-demdebate.html?sq=transcript&st=nyt&scp=2&pagewanted=print]</ref>
# personal experience dictates personal views, rather than rising above bad and/or unusual experiences and basing one's views on [[logic]]
# never admit shame for [[liberal]] behavior, but often tell others they should be ashamed of themselves
# [[free speech]] for anything and everything ... except the [[conservative]] truth, and religion.
# [[Hollywood]] promotion of [[abortion]] is welcomed, but views of Hollywood actresses towards their own children are concealed
# carrying an unborn child to birth reduces risk of breast cancer, but choosing [[abortion]] rather than childbirth somehow does not increase the relative risk
# requesting increased spending by [[government]] to reduce poverty, which actually poverty is increased by the dependency
# insisting that an [[atheistic]] culture cannot harm anyone, but also insisting that classroom prayer can cause harm
# insisting on "tolerance" for anything that is anti-[[Christian]], while censorship for anything is [[Christian]]
# insisting that teaching [[abstinence]] does not reduce premarital sex and associated disease
# insisting that premarital sex is fine
# insisting that increasing taxes must increase government revenue, when often people just work less and revenues then decline
# denying that widespread ownership of guns, largely defensive weapons, can reduce crime
# Even though the [[Supreme Court]] overrules precedents every year by 5-4 votes, [[Roe v. Wade]] cannot be overruled, or can only be overruled if it is a unanimous 9-0 vote (this argument tries to make irreversible law out of the dicta in a weak majority opinion in ''[[Planned Parenthood v. Casey]]'', even though the very creation of that "secret opinion" was procured by [[liberal deceit]].)<ref>See Jeffrey Toobin's ''The Nine''.</ref>
# The pronoun "he" has been used to include men and women collectively for centuries, but [[liberals]] find that illogical today. This does not mean to replace the word 'she' on the article for Hillary Clinton with 'he'.

(add to list)

==See also==

*[[Liberal bias]]
*[[Liberal hysteria]]
*[[Liberal hate speech]]
*[[Liberal style]]
*[[Liberal denial]]
*[[Liberal obfuscation]]
*[[Liberal quotient]]
*[[Liberal friendship]]
*[[Liberal]]

==References==
<references/>
[[category:politics]]
[[Category:Logic]]
[[Category:oxymoron]]

Talk:Violent video games

2008-05-04T14:42:56Z

BMoore:

Wait. How do violent video games teach children to "engage in horrific virtual violence" when violent games aren't intended for children? Most are M rated games and, at least here in California, minors can't even buy them. [[User:Ultimahero|Ultimahero]] 02:08, 4 May 2008 (EDT)

:Because parents don't have the patience to check the ratings on what they buy their children. Or, even better, explain to them the differences between fact and fiction, allowing them to seperate the lovely gore of Grand Theft Auto from real life. [[User:IndianaJ|IndianaJ]] 02:12, 4 May 2008 (EDT)

Then the paretns are to blame, not video games. They're responsible. [[User:Ultimahero|Ultimahero]] 02:15, 4 May 2008 (EDT)

And I've never been desensitized to indulge in violent acts. This seems like a straw man argument. [[User:Ultimahero|Ultimahero]] 02:17, 4 May 2008 (EDT)

:To play devil's advocate for a moment: The vast majority of people who play these games don't act out on them. But there does seem to be a correlation in that school shooters tend to play those games. But it may well be that violent people like violent things. The media also noticed that these people listened to metal and tried to say that metal causes violence. I listen to metal and I definitely resent such implications. [[User:DanH|DanH]] 02:23, 4 May 2008 (EDT)

::Don't forget about comic books, man. Also, what about Cho, the shooter at V-Tech? He didn't regularly play video games, which was rather remarkable for someone in his demographic. [[User:IndianaJ|IndianaJ]] 02:24, 4 May 2008 (EDT)

But there are millions of people who play video games, and only a handful of shootings. There are far more people who play that aren't violent than those who are. The whole "video games make people violent thing" is an incorrect stereotype. [[User:Ultimahero|Ultimahero]] 02:25, 4 May 2008 (EDT)

:To be fair, violent video games really are acting out violence, and I don't think the article claims that everyone who plays them will be violent. Music and comic books aren't. It's something that I'm kind of up in the air about. I don't think my kids will be playing Grand Theft Auto when I have them. That being said, I don't support Hillary Clinton's calls to ban such games. [[User:DanH|DanH]] 02:29, 4 May 2008 (EDT)

::This is the age old question: do video games make people violent or do violent people play video games? From what I've read there are a number of studies which provide evidence for and against the claim, so we can't really take a concrete position. That said, video games do tend to get a bad rap in the media, particularly from uneducated folk (in this field) like Jack Thompson (who accused Counter Strike for being responsible for Cho and Halo for being responsible for the Washington Sniper, neither of which was true). I'm removing the quote that was added because it's one persons opinion with no scientific backing. [[User:StatsMsn|StatsMsn]] 06:56, 4 May 2008 (EDT)

[http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PhyllisSchlafly/2008/04/07/violent_video_games_held_to_be_free_speech?page=2http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PhyllisSchlafly/2008/04/07/violent_video_games_held_to_be_free_speech?page=2 This] stands out as a particularly reliable source for the claim that teenagers who play these games are all desensitized to violence and commit horrible crimes. And the second source does not say directly that the games lead to violent or criminal acts. In fact, there isn't much evidence of violent video games being a major cause of violent acts in real life. -[[User:BMoore|BMoore]] 10:42, 4 May 2008 (EDT)

Violent video games

2008-05-04T14:31:59Z

BMoore:

'''Violent video games''' are [[video games]] that allow the player to commit horrific virtual violence. These can lead to increased aggression,<ref>http://www.apa.org/science/psa/sb-anderson.html</ref> though not all studies support this, but there is no proven correlation between real life violence and virtual violence.<ref>http://www.itweek.co.uk/vnunet/news/2184836/link-video-games-violent-teens</ref> Examples of violent video games include:

* Postal 2: Apocalypse Weekend (M-rated) -- The ads for this game boast that new weapons will enable you "to hack your enemies to meaty bits!" It involves a game character who commits violent acts against unarmed civilians. Other features in the Postal series include: urinating on people to make them vomit in disgust, using cats as shotgun silencers, and playing fetch with dogs using human heads.

* The Punisher (M-rated) -- Game player is able to jam knives into victims' sternums and pull up to increase the damage, cut off heads, ram a character's open mouth onto a curb, run a character over with a forklift, rip a character's arms off with an industrial hook, and set a character on fire in an electric chair.

* Resident Evil: 4 (M-rated) -- Game player uses a special blood-splattered chainsaw controller designed for playing the game, which includes chainsaw decapitations and impalements, and characters ripping off other characters' throats and biting off their heads.

* Manhunt (M-rated) -- Game player's character is James Earl Cash, a convicted serial killer facing execution. The execution is ordered to be faked so that a character named "The Director" can use Cash as a star in a series of snuff films. As the Cash character kills other characters, by suffocating them with a plastic bag, slicing them up with a chainsaw, shooting them point blank with a nail gun, stabbing them in the eyeballs with a glass shard, or beheading them with a cleaver, The Director makes sexually vulgar comments. The game has two difficulty settings: fetish and hardcore.

* God of War (M-rated) -- Game features disembowelment, mouth-stabbing, eye-gouging, severed limbs, and human sacrifice.

* Silent Hill 1-4 -- large portions of these games involve roaming around decaying buildings and beating hideously malformed humanoid monsters to death with blunt instruments. <ref>[http://youtube.com/watch?v=oywfsv2SJNg]</ref>

* Condemned -- Requires the player to bludgeon NPC's to death. Since the game is played on the wii it promotes the player to act out the gruesome killings.

The Court of Appeals for the [[Eighth Circuit]] declared this to be [[free speech]] and struck down a [[Minnesota]] law that prohibited minors from purchasing or renting video games bearing a "Mature" or "Adult Only" rating.<ref>''Entm't Software Ass'n v. Swanson'', 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 5634 (8th Cir. Mar. 17, 2008).</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Video games]]

== References ==

<references/>

== Sources ==

* [http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=60631 Violent video games free speech?]

[[Category:Video Games]]

Violent video games

2008-05-04T14:17:36Z

BMoore:

'''Violent video games''' are [[video games]] that allow the player to commit horrific virtual violence. A few teenagers playing these games are desensitized to indulge in horrible violent and criminal acts<ref>http://www.townhall.com/columnists/PhyllisSchlafly/2008/04/07/violent_video_games_held_to_be_free_speech?page=2 </ref><ref>http://www.apa.org/science/psa/sb-anderson.html</ref>. Examples include:

* Postal 2: Apocalypse Weekend (M-rated) -- The ads for this game boast that new weapons will enable you "to hack your enemies to meaty bits!" It involves a game character who commits violent acts against unarmed civilians. Other features in the Postal series include: urinating on people to make them vomit in disgust, using cats as shotgun silencers, and playing fetch with dogs using human heads.

* The Punisher (M-rated) -- Game player is able to jam knives into victims' sternums and pull up to increase the damage, cut off heads, ram a character's open mouth onto a curb, run a character over with a forklift, rip a character's arms off with an industrial hook, and set a character on fire in an electric chair.

* Resident Evil: 4 (M-rated) -- Game player uses a special blood-splattered chainsaw controller designed for playing the game, which includes chainsaw decapitations and impalements, and characters ripping off other characters' throats and biting off their heads.

* Manhunt (M-rated) -- Game player's character is James Earl Cash, a convicted serial killer facing execution. The execution is ordered to be faked so that a character named "The Director" can use Cash as a star in a series of snuff films. As the Cash character kills other characters, by suffocating them with a plastic bag, slicing them up with a chainsaw, shooting them point blank with a nail gun, stabbing them in the eyeballs with a glass shard, or beheading them with a cleaver, The Director makes sexually vulgar comments. The game has two difficulty settings: fetish and hardcore.

* God of War (M-rated) -- Game features disembowelment, mouth-stabbing, eye-gouging, severed limbs, and human sacrifice.

* Silent Hill 1-4 -- large portions of these games involve roaming around decaying buildings and beating hideously malformed humanoid monsters to death with blunt instruments. <ref>[http://youtube.com/watch?v=oywfsv2SJNg]</ref>

* Condemned -- Requires the player to bludgeon NPC's to death. Since the game is played on the wii it promotes the player to act out the gruesome killings.

The Court of Appeals for the [[Eighth Circuit]] declared this to be [[free speech]] and struck down a [[Minnesota]] law that prohibited minors from purchasing or renting video games bearing a "Mature" or "Adult Only" rating.<ref>''Entm't Software Ass'n v. Swanson'', 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 5634 (8th Cir. Mar. 17, 2008).</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Video games]]

== References ==

<references/>

== Sources ==

* [http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=60631 Violent video games free speech?]

[[Category:Video Games]]

Liberal myths

2008-05-04T14:03:28Z

BMoore:

{{uncited}}

'''Liberal Myths''' are heavily promoted falsehoods motivated by a [[liberal]] belief system. They include:

*The claim that the population has increased by a large amount, and human beings are beginning to overpopulate. (This myth is an attempt to justify abortions)
*The claim that people today are more knowledgeable than in prior centuries.
*The claim that the [[George W. Bush|Bush]] tax cuts substantially reduced 2006 revenues and expanded the [[budget]] deficit.
*The claim that the Bush tax cuts have not helped the economy.
*Anthropogenic [[Global Warming]].[http://www.nowpublic.com/some-exasperating-liberal-myths]
*The claim that a fetus is not a living being.
*The claim that [[gun control]] reduces crime.
*The claim that [[abortion]] and [[breast cancer]] are unrelated.

{{liberalism}}

[[Category:Deceit]]
[[Category:liberals]]

Liberal myths

2008-05-04T14:03:11Z

BMoore:

Queen

2008-05-04T05:04:30Z

BMoore:

Can refer to:

*A female ruler of an [[independent state]].
*A [[King|king's]] wife (queen consort).
*A female [[ant]] or other [[insect]].
*A successful [[British]] rock band.
*A [[playing card]] in a standard deck of cards which carries a picture of a queen.
*The most powerful piece in the game of [[chess]].

[[Category:Disambiguation Pages]]

User talk:Aledstorm

2008-05-03T18:21:37Z

BMoore: New page: {{welcome}} May you be safe from the curse of Captain Morgan -~~~~

{{welcome}}
May you be safe from the curse of Captain Morgan -[[User:BMoore|BMoore]] 14:21, 3 May 2008 (EDT)

Spore (video game)

2008-05-03T17:09:12Z

BMoore: A bit of detail, and also, 'Worrying'?

'''''Spore''''' is a forthcoming [[computer]] god [[video game|game]] by Will Wright, the creator of ''The Sims'' and the ''SimCity'' series, which has currently peaked at ''SimCity 4''. Wright has aspired to the creation of video games which mimic or replicate life, in an entertaining fashion, and the trend of the SimCity games was towards greater accuracy, realism, depth of control, and detail.

In this sense, ''Spore'' is a departure from the trend. In the game, the player takes control of a single cell, and guides the [[evolution]] of its species through a vast time span, eventually becoming an [[animal]] and forming a [[civilization]], before exploring space through a UFO. Accordingly, ''Spore'' implicitly accepts the [[Theory of evolution]] as truth, and rejects the theory of Cretinism.

It's release date has been confirmed as September 5th in Europe, and September 7th elsewhere.

==References==
*Official ''Spore'' [http://www.spore.com/index.php website].
[[category:Entertainment]]

White nationalism

2008-05-03T15:41:49Z

BMoore: Was that even necessary? It should be obvious enough that it's a violation of free speech, and...

'''White nationalism''' is a movement that believes in the survival of, and the creation of a separate, [[segregation|segregated]] homeland whose membership would be contingent on ethnicity - white, European/American ethnicity, to be precise.

Its supporters claim that it is not a sanitised face for the white supremacist movement<ref>Swain, Carol M. (2002). The New White Nationalism in America: Its Challenge to Integration.</ref>, claiming that while supremacist advocate political and social dominance for whites, nationalists believe only in separatism. This view is challenged by many anti-racist groups, such as the [[SPLC]]<ref>http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=790</ref>, and [[Searchlight]]. The anti-Nazi activities of the [[Jewish Defense Organization]], including publishing the names, addresses and telephone numbers of white nationalists online, has caused many such groups to close.

==See also==
*[[Christian Identity]]
*[[White supremacy]]
*[[Ku Klux Klan]]
*[[American Nazi Party]]
*[[Prussian Blue]]

==References==
<references/>

Essay:Liberal Intellectualism

2008-05-03T15:33:49Z

BMoore:

[[Liberal]] ideology, and [[liberal]] arguments, have their greatest appeal with intellectual people who are long in academic degrees but short in intellectual achievements of their own. Perhaps they genuinely fall for the superficial, fallacious [[liberal logic]], or perhaps they just enjoy the attention and extra income in being pseudo-intellectuals and media-promoted experts.

Examples of not-quite-intellectuals who promote [[liberal]] arguments include:

*[[John Kerry]]
:*privileged youth, weak student at [[Yale]], no original work
*[[Al Gore]]
:*privileged youth, poor graduate student, claimed to help with the creation of the [[internet]]<ref>http://www.snopes.com/quotes/internet.asp</ref>
*[[Bill Clinton]]
:*may have virtually flunked out of the pre-med program at [[Georgetown University]], never released his grades, failed to earn a degree at [[Oxford]], no original work or ideas
*[[Richard Dawkins]]
:*lasted only 2 years teaching at [[University of California, Berkeley]], a mere lecturer at [[Oxford]] until a wealthy ally donated a professorship for him
*[[Stephen Jay Gould]]
:*[[Antioch College]] graduate (geology major), his work is riddled with contradictions
*[[Laurence Tribe]]
:*dropped out of a graduate math program, passed over initially for Law Review, passed over for [[Solicitor General]] in 1993,<ref>Tribe admitted he was being considered, but he was not nominated. "Under Clinton, Crimson tide washes over Washington," The Boston Globe (Mar. 4, 1993).</ref> [[plagiarism]] later found in his work<ref>"Joseph Bottum, books and arts editor of the Weekly Standard, presents overwhelming evidence to support his claim that Tribe's 1985 book, God Save This Honorable Court, was largely copied from a 1974 book called Justices and Presidents by the University of Virginia's Henry J. Abraham. Bottum's case rests on the relentless citation of example after example where it is clear that Tribe has copied both the substance and, in many cases, the exact wording of Abraham's text. Most damning is Tribe's repetition of errors, like slight misquotations of original sources, in Abraham's book."[http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/007975.php]</ref>
*[[Robert McNamara]]
:*described as a "whiz kid," he wrote or did nothing of significance, mishandled [[Vietnam War]]
*[[Henry Kissinger]]
:*fluent in relatively few languages for a diplomat, had no insights or noteworthy work, mishandled [[Vietnam War]] and [[Soviet Union]]
*[[J. Robert Oppenheimer]]
:*repeatedly passed over for the [[Nobel Prize]] due to a lack of achievement, allowed multiple leaks from [[Los Alamos]]
*[[Jon Stewart]]
*[[Noam Chomsky]]
:*famous for making a few guesses about [[linguistics]] some of which turned out to be partially correct. He has not done any work in linguistics in 30 years and just spends his time promoting left-wing politics outside his supposed area of expertise.
*[[John Maynard Keynes]]
:*dropped out of [[math]] to pursue the less rigorous [[economics]], but was unable to earn a doctorate even in that
*[[Michel Foucault]]
*[[Rachel Carson]]
:* Started the [[environmentalist]] movement with her book [[Silent Spring]] which was found to be full of errors, exaggerations and disregard for actual [[science]].
*[[Bertrand Russell]]
:*claimed to be proving the completeness and consistency of math, a goal [[Godel]] proved was impossible. Advocated unilateral nuclear disarmament.
*[[Ward Churchill]]
:*Offended millions of Americans by comparing those that died in 9/11 to Adolf Eichmann, notorious organizer of the [[Holocaust]]. Had the gall to sue the University that terminated him.<ref>http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Jul25/0,4670,EmbattledProfessor,00.html</ref>
*[[Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr.]]
:*privileged youth, rise to the top based upon family name and inherited connections. Currently publisher of the ''[[New York Times]]''.
*[[Charles Darwin]]
:*poor student
*[[Carl Sagan]]
:*insisted that there must be life in outer space
*[[Hillary Rodham Clinton]]
:*flunked the [[D.C.]] bar exam; worked on the House Judiciary impeachment staff investigating [[Richard Nixon]]. Hillary's work was so poorly conceived and drafted that a member of the Committee, [[William Dixon]] said Hillary "paid no attention to the way the [[Constitution]] works in this country, the way politics works, the way Congress works, the way legal safeguards are set up."<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=foWUM2R1K0wC&pg=PA121&lpg=PA121&dq=hillary+nixon+olson&source=web&ots=06xJC-jwnM&sig=P6LflOsDROMR16cn_WGvXg4iZHU#PPA122,M1 Hell to Pay: The Unfolding Story of Hillary Rodham Clinton], By Barbara Olson, Regnery Publishing, Inc, 2001, pp. 122-123.</ref>

Please add other examples.

== Praised Heaped by Pseudo-Intellectual [[Liberals]] on Each Other ==

It is remarkable how pseudo-intellectual [[liberal]]s praise each other as geniuses. Examples include:

*[[Bertrand Russell]] declaring that the most intelligent man he ever knew was [[John Maynard Keynes]]<ref>http://www.hwkhelp.com/node/43</ref>

*[[Laurence Tribe]], who saw the best law students for several decades, insisted that fellow [[liberal]] [[Barack Obama]] was the "best student I ever had" and the "most exciting research assistant."<ref>http://www.cmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071114/NEWS01/711140429/1217/NEWS98]</ref>

Please add other examples.

== Motivation ==

There are two primary motivations for the [[liberal]] advocacy by pseudo-intellectuals:

* it is easier for them to obtain acclaim from the liberal press than from real intellectuals

* they genuinely fail to understand certain abstractions, such as:

:* how cutting taxes often increases government revenue ([[Laffer Curve]])
::* it should be noted that many economist also fail to understand this <ref>Blanchard, O. ''Macroeconomics, 4th edition''. 2003, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall (p. 430-431, 500)</ref><ref>Begg, D. Fischer, S. & Dornbusch, R. ''Economics, 8th Edition''. 2005, Berkshire, United Kingdom: McGraw-Hill (p. 289-290)</ref>
:* how guns save more lives through deterrence and prevention than they harm
:* how childbirth has a positive effect on health, and thus [[abortion]] harms health
:* how cease-fires always help a determined opponent in war
:* how arms limitations treaties always helps a dishonest adversary

* they expect superficial, flawed logic to persuade others, such as:

:* claiming that inequality in outcome implies discrimination
:* demanding equal treatment for genders in all situations
:* claiming that the [[gay agenda]] is like the civil rights struggle by African Americans
:* insisting that government can reduce poverty with more programs

Please add to these lists.

== References ==

<references/>
[[Category:Essays]]
[[Category:Oxymorons]]
[[Category:Liberals]]

Osama Bin Laden

2008-05-03T15:22:53Z

BMoore: I heard that this wasn't a blog

[[Image:382px-AQ00100.jpg|right|thumb]]
'''Osama Bin Laden''' is a [[Saudi Arabia]]n millionaire and the leader of [[al Qaeda]], a worldwide [[terrorist]] group responsible for [[September 11, 2001 attacks]] and some other terrorist attacks on Americans in the 1990s. He obtained his wealth by inheriting it from his father, Mohammed Awad bin Laden, who was a successful [[entrepreneur]] in the [[construction]] [[industry]].

During the [[Clinton Administration]] <ref>[http://www.bannerofliberty.com/OS8-98MQC/8-24-1998.1.html Did Bill Clinton Smooth the Way for Bin Laden to Become the World's Most Successful Terrorist?], Mary Mostert, Original Sources, August 24, 1998. </ref>, bin Laden issued two Declarations of War against the United States for the basing of troops in the Arabian Peninsula to defend against external aggression by [[Saddam Hussein]] and because of the suffering of the Iraqi people under UN economic sanctions.<ref>[http://www.kimsoft.com/2001/binladenwar.htm Bin Laden's Declaration of War], 1998.</ref> However, Clinton did not take the threat seriously, and did not make an effort to capture or kill Bin Laden. <ref> [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4540958/] Osama bin Laden: missed opportunities</ref>

Bin Laden lived in Sudan for most of the 1990's at the invitation of [[Hassan al-Turabi]], a powerful Sudanese political leader and terrorism supporter. He then returned to [[Afghanistan]], where he had fought against the Soviets in the 1980's. He was protected by the [[Taliban]] until the American liberation of [[Afghanistan]] following [[9/11]].

In the 1990s, Bin Laden also gave funding to Chechen terrorists fighting against Russia.[http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/DJ29Ag05.html] These terrorists were later responsible for the [[Beslan school siege of 2004]]. Chechens also fought in Afghanistan against U.S. forces on behalf of the Taliban.[http://muslimvillage.net/story.php?id=370]

During the 1980s insurgency against the [[Soviet]] occupation of [[Afghanistan]] the [[Carter Administration]] initially directed help to train and arm anti-Soviet Islamic militants, some of whom were radical Islamists. Bin Laden had his own source of funding, though, and would have shunned influence by America.<ref>http://usinfo.state.gov/media/Archive/2005/Jan/24-318760.html</ref>

In 1998, Bin Laden and [[Ayman al-Zawahiri]], then leader of the Egyptian terrorist group called the [[Islamic Brotherhood]], announced the joining of al Qaeda and the [[Islamic Brotherhood]] to form the ''World Islamic Front for the Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders''<ref> http://www.janes.com/security/international_security/news/jir/jir011003_1_n.shtml</ref>. In 1998, the United States embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were destroyed by suicide bombers; the United States later indicted both Ben Laden and al-Zawahiri for the attacks which killed 224 people. In retaliation the United States launched [[cruise missile]]s, however, both terrorist leaders escaped.

Bin Laden is cited by the [[United States]] government as the most wanted terrorist. He remains at large to this day despite seven years of the United States army searching for him.

== See also ==
*[[Terrorism]]
*[[FBI Most Wanted Terrorist List]]
* [[Yasser Arafat]]

==References==
<references/>

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bin Laden, Osama}}
[[Category:Military Commanders]]
[[Category:Terrorists]]
[[Category: al-Qaeda]]

White supremacy

2008-05-03T15:06:07Z

BMoore: White supremacy doesn't have to involve the 'Aryan' race.

'''White supremacy''' is a [[racist]] ideology which asserts that [[white people]] are somehow "better" than people of other races. These feelings can range from mild (personal bigotry) to extreme (advocating political and social dominance for white people, or ethnic cleansing). White supremacism is often associated with [[Nazism]].

White supremacism as a movement in the United States was most recently closely associated with four groups, [[Aryan Nations]], the [[National Alliance]], the [[Church of the Creator]], and [[White Aryan Resistance]], as well as many smaller, often short-lived groups. All four of these groups peaked in the 1980s-90s and are now in disarray. Aryan Nations, in particular, attempted to unite disparate elements of white supremacism around the Christian Identity belief system. Another group, the [[Ku Klux Klan]], which has existed in some form since [[Reconstruction]], is also closely associated with white supremacism.

[[category:Civil Rights]]
[[Category:Political Movements]]

Talk:Interdependence

2008-05-03T13:20:45Z

BMoore: New page: The definition seems to copied from [http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=interdependence here]. -~~~~

The definition seems to copied from [http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=interdependence here]. -[[User:BMoore|BMoore]] 09:20, 3 May 2008 (EDT)

Barack Hussein Obama

2008-05-03T06:17:20Z

BMoore: /* Religious Affiliations */

'''Barack Hussein Obama, Jr.''' (b. August 4, 1961) is the junior Senator from [[Illinois]], elected to the United States Senate as a [[Democratic Party|Democrat]] in 2004. Obama is currently the only [[African American]] serving in the [[United States Senate]], where he serves his first term. Obama falsely claimed that he was a constitutional law professor when in actuality he only held the title of "Senior Lecturer." <ref>http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/03/30/politics/p132303D74.DTL&type=politics</ref><ref>http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x4238307</ref>
[[Image:Democrat Obama during the Pledge.jpg|325px|thumb|right|Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama on the campaign trail with [[Bill Richardson]] and [[Hillary Clinton]] during the [[National Anthem]]. Notice Obama's lack of an American flag pin. (from Time.com)]]

Obama is [[pro-abortion]]. So much so, in fact, that he even blocked the [[Illinois]] version of the Born Alive Infants Protection Act, even though it was unanimously supported by the [[U.S. Senate]].<ref>http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080208070510AAmIod2&show=7</ref> Obama said "the first thing I'd do as president is, is sign the Freedom of Choice Act" for the [[abortion]] industry.<ref>[http://christiannewswire.com/news/560716251.html]</ref> Obama states that he consistently opposed the [[Iraq War]] since 2002, a claim and position that former President [[Bill Clinton]] criticized as "the biggest fairy tale I've ever seen."<ref>http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN1131516320080111</ref>

Obama has no military, executive or foreign policy experience.<ref>"Fresh doubts over Barack Obama's foreign policy credentials were expressed on both sides of the Atlantic last night, after it emerged that he had made only one brief official visit to London – and none elsewhere in Western Europe or Latin America. ... Mr Obama had failed to convene a single policy meeting of the Senate European subcommittee, of which he is chairman."[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article3080794.ece]</ref> Yet he is the favorite of the leftist attack site "MoveOn.org" for the [[Democratic]] nomination for [[President of the United States]] in the [[2008 Presidential Election|2008 election]],<ref>MoveOn.org reportedly favored Obama by 70-30% over Clinton. [http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/02/moveonorg_obama.html]</ref> campaigning to the left of [[Hillary Clinton]].<ref>For example, Obama promised not to use nuclear weapons against terrorists, a promise [[Hillary Clinton]] refused to make. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/02/AR2007080202288.html]</ref> He has no clear personal achievement that cannot be explained as the likely result of [[affirmative action]]. Some examples border on the absurd: Obama has no background in [[physics]], yet it is claimed that "Obama analyzed and integrated [[Albert Einstein|Einstein]]'s [[theory of relativity]], the [[Heisenberg uncertainty principle]], as well as the concept of curved space as an alternative to [[gravity]], for a Law Review article that Tribe [for whom Obama worked as a research assistant] wrote titled, 'The Curvature of Constitutional Space'." <ref>http://cbs2chicago.com/politics/barack.obama.harvard.2.334825.html</ref> Obama's "research" for Constitutional Law Professor Tribe on this article also raises issues about preferences, as Obama had not yet even completed any law school courses<ref>Obama did not start his second year of law school until September 1989, the earliest he could have taken constitutional law, yet this article must have been written, submitted and accepted prior to that time to be published in the November 1989 issue of the Law Review.</ref> on the [[Constitution]].<ref>The liberal Professor Tribe saw the best law students for several decades, yet insisted that Obama was the "best student I ever had" and the "most exciting research assistant." [http://www.cmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071114/NEWS01/711140429/1217/NEWS98]</ref>

Throughout his career, Obama repeatedly ducked controversial stands in an apparent attempt to make it easier to be elected to higher office. For example, as a state senator in [[Illinois]], he voted "present" rather than "aye" or "nay" nearly an astounding 130 times.<ref>http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/20/us/politics/20obama.html</ref> During that same period, he was planning to run for the [[House of Representatives]], which was unsuccessful, and then for [[U.S. Senate]], which was successful after his opponent was smeared with a court-ordered disclosure of confidential divorce records.

Barack Obama is often praised for his speeches, except when he is not able to read them from a [[teleprompter]]. "Shorn of his Teleprompter, we saw a different Obama. His delivery was halting and unsure. ... The prepared text for his remarks, as released on his website, sounded a lot like a typical Obama speech. ... [But with] no Teleprompter signaling the prepared text, Obama failed to deliver the speech in his characteristically flawless fashion."<ref>http://www.weeklystandard.com/content/public/articles/000/000/014/728ofzey.asp</ref> When Obama ridiculed [[Hillary Clinton]] for being like [[Annie Oakley]] -- a figure unknown to Obama's generation outside of [[Hollywood]] -- it became clear that he was not writing his own speeches.<ref>"Some Obama adviser probably earned his or her dollars for that cut," the USA Today wrote. [http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/columnist/raasch/2008-04-17-2008-04-17-raasch_N.htm]</ref>

==Early Life and Education==
Senator Obama was born in Honolulu, [[Hawaii]] to Barack Obama, Sr., and Ann Dunham in 1961. In 1967 he moved to Jakarta, [[Indonesia]], with his mother and new stepfather. He attended a [[Catholic]] elementary school, followed by an Indonesian public school, until he returned with his mother to Hawaii. There he attended the Punahou School, the leading private preparatory school in [[Hawaii]], until he graduated in 1979. 
Obama continued his education at Occidental College in Los Angeles, [[California]], before graduating with his Bachelor of Arts from [[Columbia University]] in New York, [[New York]]. After working as a community organizer in New York City and Chicago, Illinois, Obama enrolled at [[Harvard]] Law School. He became a member of the [[liberal]] ''Harvard Law Review'' in 1989, which used racial [[quotas]] for membership, and was then elected by popular vote as its first African American president in 1990. He graduated ''magna cum laude'' with his J.D. in 1991 and chose not to pursue a federal clerkship, which is the typical post-graduate position for top law students.

He was "Senior Lecturer in the Law" -- not a professor-level position -- at The [[University of Chicago]] Law School as of 2004.<ref>http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/04/041103.obama.shtml</ref> He is no longer active at the school.<ref>http://www.law.uchicago.edu/faculty/obama</ref>

==Legal Career==
Following law school, Obama continued his work as a community organizer in Chicago as Director of Illinois Project Vote. In 1993 he was hired as an associate at the Chicago law firm Miner, Barnhill & Galland, P.C., and began lecturing in Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago Law School. He remains on the faculty on leave of absence through today. During this time he wrote his first book, ''Dreams from My Father'', detailing his background, his youth, and his education. ''Dreams'' was published in 1995.

==Senate Career==
Obama was elected to the Illinois State Senate for the first time in 1996 and served there for the next eight years. Following a failed campaign for the House of Representatives, Obama ran for the open Senate seat from Illinois in 2004. Obama delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. He won a seat in the [[U.S. Senate]] after [[liberals]] obtained the release of confidential and personally embarrassing divorce records of his opponent, Jack Ryan, forcing him to resign from the race and be replaced by an out-of-state candidate, [[Alan Keyes]].

His 2007 voting record in the U.S. [[Senate]] places him as its most [[liberal]] member. Among fellow Senate Democrats, he was further left than liberals like [[Ted Kennedy]], [[John Kerry]], [[Dianne Feinstein]], [[Charles Schumer]], [[Russ Feingold]], [[Carl Levin]], [[Joseph Biden]] and [[Harry Reid]].<ref>[http://nationaljournal.com/voteratings/sen/lib_cons.htm?o1=lib_composite&o2=desc]</ref> He has grown steadily more liberal since arriving at the Senate: the same analysis assessed him as 10th most liberal in 2006<ref>[http://www.nationaljournal.com/members/news/2007/voteratings/sen/lib_cons.htm?o1=lib_composite&o2=desc]</ref> and 16th most liberal in 2005.<ref>[http://www.nationaljournal.com/members/news/2007/voteratings/sen/lib_cons.htm?o1=lib_composite&o2=desc]</ref>

In late 2006, Obama's second book, ''The Audacity of Hope'', was published. Its title was supplied by the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., a minister who has stated that "racism is how this country was founded and how this country was run .... We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God."<ref>http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/03/14/obama_condemns_pastors_remarks.html</ref> The book contains more of Senator Obama's personal story including the roles of both family and politics. ''Audacity'' spent 30 weeks on the ''New York Times'' Nonfiction Best Sellers list.<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/27/books/bestseller/0527besthardnonfiction.html?_r=1&oref=slogin New York Times Best Sellers Non Fiction]</ref>

=== Bills Co-Sponsored ===

Obama's principal legislation was S. 2433, which was an attempt to force the [[U.S.]] to increase its foreign aid by hundreds of billions of dollars under the guide of reducing global poverty. [[Conservatives]] blocked the bill.<ref>http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPolitics.asp?Page=/Politics/archive/200802/POL20080225a.html</ref>

Obama did support and co-sponsor a bill championed by [[Tom Coburn]] and known as the Coburn-Obama Government Transparency Act of 2006, which was signed into law by President [[George W. Bush]] on Sept. 9, 2006. This law created a website that will list the federal government's grants and contracts.<ref> http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/09/20060926.html</ref>

Between Jan 13, 2007 and March 13, 2008, Sen. Obama has sponsored 120 mostly [[liberal]] resolutions and bills in the Senate.<ref>http://thomas.loc.gov/</ref> His supporters cite the following less [[liberal]] examples, but this list is not representative:

*S.117 : A bill to amend titles 10 and 38, United States Code, to improve benefits and services for members of the Armed Forces, veterans of the Global War on Terrorism, and other veterans, to require reports on the effects of the Global War on Terrorism, and for other purposes.

*S.133 : A bill to promote the national security and stability of the economy of the United States by reducing the dependence of the United States on oil through the use of alternative fuels and new technology, and for other purposes.

*S.453 : A bill to prohibit deceptive practices in Federal elections.

*S.713 : A bill to ensure dignity in care for members of the Armed Forces recovering from injuries.

=== Accomplishments while serving on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee ===

In February 2008, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved Obama's proposal on a new strategy to reduce poverty throughout the world.

Obama worked with Sen. Lugar writing legislation aimed at improving conventional and nuclear non-proliferation efforts. This legislation was signed by [[George W. Bush|President Bush]] in January 2008.

In June 2007 the Senate passed his resolution condemning violence by the Zimbabwe government. It also passed legislation co-sponsored by Obama that financed a Special Court for Sierra Leone to prosecute former Liberian President Charles Taylor. <ref> http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/02/26/obamas_senate_foreign_relations_work/ </ref>

==Presidential Campaign==
[[Image:obama.jpg|thumb|right|Senator Barack Obama]]
Senator Obama began his anti-war candidacy for President of the United States on February 10, 2007, in Springfield, Illinois. His announcement speech largely avoided specific campaign issues and focused on his general political message of hope for the future. It also attempted to strongly invoke the memory of Abraham Lincoln and his "House Divided" speech.<ref>[http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/02/10/obama.president/index.html "Obama declares he's running for president"] 11 February 2007, www.CNN.com </ref>

Obama's campaign has been financed largely by [[leftist]] donors opposed to the war and to the [[American]] military in general. Obama has encouraged this by refusing to wear the customary flag on his lapel during appearances and by other less-than-patriotic gestures and symbols, such as declining to put his hand over his heart during a patriotic recitation.

By early April 2007, his campaign generated over $25 million dollars from over 100,000 contributors. $23.5 million of that money will be available for the Democratic Primary.<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/us/politics/05obama.html Obama Shows His Strength in a Fund-Raising Feat on Par With Clinton], 4 April 2007, Jeff Zeleny and Patrick Healy,'' The New York Times''</ref> After the first Democratic presidential debate in Columbia, South Carolina, Obama's image as an "articulate" spokesman came into question after his failure to state right away that he would retaliate in case of further terrorist strikes against the United States.<ref>[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/27/AR2007042702162.html?hpid=moreheadlines Clinton Campaign Tries to Keep Heat on Obama Over Debate Response], Dan Balz, ''Washington Post'' April 28, 2007.</ref><ref>Chicago Sun-Times,
[http://www.suntimes.com/news/sweet/362269,CST-NWS-sweet29.article 'I was a little nervous' at debate'], Lynn Sweet,
April 29, 2007,</ref>

During a fund raising event in Virginia in May 2007 Obama told donors,
{{Cquote|This week there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died. An entire town destroyed.<ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,271357,00.html Transcript: 'Special Report with Brit Hume,' May 9, 2007], retrieved from ''FOX News'', 06/13/07.</ref>}}

Obama evidently was misinformed, whereas in reality the tornado which touched down in Kansas cost the lives of nine people in the town of Greensburg, and twelve overall in Kansas.

By August it appeared Obama was running to be left off the ticket completely rather than the much ballyhooed Hillary/Obama ticket the [[mainstream media]] was pushing. After a series of ill-advised foreign policy statements, Obama was openly criticized as a lightweight even by liberals, in much the same vein as [[John Edwards]] and [[Dan Quayle]] had been depicted. First, Obama said he would have face to face meetings with two of Florida's most fearful enemies, [[Fidel Castro]] and [[Hugo Chavez]]. Florida is a key state to any presidential ambitions. Then Obama advised he would be willing to invade the sovereign territory of a U.S. ally without prior consultation. Finally, Obama broke the cardinal rule of declaring he would not use nuclear weapons, removing the element of bluff U.S. Presidents had vitally depended upon throughout the [[Cold War]] era. The incidents all added up to a picture of a candidate ill-prepared and ill-advised, lacking in a basic understanding of the office of the presidency, and failing to surround himself with appointees able to make up for his deficiencies. However, Obama won the Iowa Democratic caucuses, pushing [[Hillary Clinton]] into third place, which gave him a serious chance of becoming the Democratic nominee.

==Political Views==
Obama's political views have been a matter of controversy even before he put himself forward as a Presidential Candidate. Former House majority leader [[Tom DeLay]] has described Obama's record in the Illinois Senate as that of a [[Communism|“Marxist leftist".]]<ref>[http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_121306/content/stop_the_tape.guest.html|Sexy Rock Star Obama Whines About His Ears], RushLimbaugh.com, December 13 2006</ref> While he is generally considered [[liberal]] by [[America]]n standards, on an international scale he could be considered a moderate [[conservative]].<ref>http://politicalcompass.org/usprimaries2008</ref> In May 2007, Obama (and Sen. Hillary Clinton) voted against funding the Iraq War for the first time.<ref>[http://uspolitics.about.com/od/legislatio1/a/HR2206.htm HR 2206 - Emergency Appropriations], Kathy Gill, Your Guide to U.S. Politics: Current Events. May 26 2007.</ref><ref>[http://more.gov.mtopgroup.com/2007/05/votes-hr-2206-iraq-supplemental.html Votes - H.R. 2206: Iraq Supplemental], May 28, 2007. Retrieved from Deeper Inside the Mountain, June 4, 2007.</ref>

On [[gun control]], according to an opinion article in the [[Wall Street Journal]]:<ref>David Kopel, "The Democrats and Gun Control," Wall St.J., Page A19, April 17, 2008 [http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB120839466717921537-lMyQjAxMDI4MDE4NzMxOTc0Wj.html]</ref>

:As a state senate candidate in 1996, Mr. Obama endorsed a complete ban on all handguns in a questionnaire. The Obama campaign has claimed he "never saw or approved the questionnaire," and that an aide filled it out incorrectly. But a few weeks ago, Politico.com found an amended version of the questionnaire. It included material added in Mr. Obama's handwriting.

Obama has said, "Doing the Lord's work is a thread that runs through our politics since the very beginning," and "it puts the lie to the notion that [[separation of church and state]] in America means somehow that faith should have no role in public life."<ref>[http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2007/06/17/news/iowa/8db7c1a17d2b51f9862572fd000fc9f4.txt Obama says religion has place in politics], By Todd Dorman, ''Sioux City Journal'', June 18, 2007.</ref>

Nonetheless, he asserted that elements of [[sex education]] should be taught in kindergarten.<ref>"Barack Obama reaffirmed to [[Planned Parenthood]] this week that he believes elements of sex education should begin in kindergarten." [http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=3395856 (ABC News)] July 20, 2007 </ref>

Obama spoke at the May 1, 2006, illegal immigration march in Chicago.<ref>[http://nomoreblather.com/barack-obama-and-the-immigration-marches Immigration marches]</ref>

::''We are hungry for change!'' S.C. January 26, 2008.

== Foreign Policy Experience ==

In Russia and the former Soviet republics, he met with representatives of the International Republican Institute and National Democratic Institute to discuss democracy in the former Soviet republics. He also met with Russian military officials and visited numerous nuclear/biological weapons destruction sites in Russia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan with Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar (R-IN). On the same tour, he visited London, UK, and met with Tony Blair, sitting UK Prime Minister.[http://obama.senate.gov/press/050823-obama_to_visit/]

Obama visited South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Chad; he discussed his tour of Robben Island prison, met with U.S. troops, and visited refugee camps of the people fleeing Darfur and addressed Africa's growing AIDS epidemic. <ref>http://obama.senate.gov/podcast/060906-090606_africa_t/</ref>

During a ten day tour of the Middle East, he talked with government leaders in Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq, Jordan and Israel. <ref> http://obama.senate.gov/news/060113-obama_wraps_up/</ref>

==Religious Affiliations==
[[Daniel Pipes]] concludes that Obama was raised a Muslim,
<ref>In his autobiography, ''Dreams of My Father'', Obama relates how he got into trouble for making faces during Koranic studies, thereby revealing he was a Muslim, for Indonesian students in his day attended religious classes according to their faith.</ref>
yet in ''The Audacity of Hope'' Obama is described as growing up in a non-religious environment. When he was a child in Indonesia, he attended a local Muslim school for two years and a local [[Catholic]] school for two years, according to his own books.<ref>"Obama has noted in his two books, 'Dreams From My Father' and 'The Audacity of Hope,' that he spent two years in a Muslim school and another two years in a Catholic school while living in Indonesia from age 6 to 10." [http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/01/22/obama.madrassa/]</ref> His father was a non-practicing [[Muslim]].

Obama attended a Muslim school but [[CNN]] states that it was not a [[madrassa]].<ref>http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/01/22/obama.madrassa/</ref>

Obama and his his wife (reared a Baptist) have been active members since 1988 at the Trinity [[United Church of Christ]]<ref>http://www.tucc.org/about.htm</ref> in Chicago. Obama describes his conversion in ''The Audacity of Hope''. The title of this book is taken from one of Pastor Wright's sermons. In April 2008, to advance his presidential campaign, Obama disavowed Pastor Wright's views due to the Pastor's racism.

== Books ==

* ''Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance.''
* ''The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream.''
* ''Barack Obama in His Own Words.'' (B. Obama and Lisa Rogak)

==Published Criticism==
On April 11, 2007, staff writers of ''The Boston Globe'' reported the criticisms of several black commentators regarding Obama's apparent hesitation to join the race to condemn acclaimed radio personality [[Don Imus]],<ref>[http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/04/11/obamas_silence_on_imus_alarms_some_blacks/ Obama's silence on Imus alarms some blacks], Rick Klein and Joseph Williams, ''The Boston Globe'', April 11, 2007.</ref> who made a racially insensitive remark<ref>[http://www.reuters.com/article/industryNews/idUSN1237895620070412|title=Furor over Imus puts heat on other broadcasters], Daniel Trotta, Reuters, 2007-04-12.</ref> on the air during the April 4 broadcast. Obama did not comment on Imus's remarks until well after prominent civil rights leaders [[Al Sharpton]] and [[Jesse Jackson]] had called Imus to account and after Imus was suspended by MSNBC and CBS Radio. Obama later weighed in on April 10 by saying, "The comments of Don Imus were divisive, hurtful, and offensive to Americans of all backgrounds." 

The ''Globe'' reported that Obama's perceived delay in addressing Don Imus's remarks was described by Melissa Harris Lacewell, a professor of politics and African-American studies at Princeton University, as "miss[ing] an opportunity to prove himself to blacks and white liberals who would have wanted Obama take the lead in denouncing Imus."<ref>[http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/04/11/obamas_silence_on_imus_alarms_some_blacks/ Obama's silence on Imus alarms some blacks], Rick Klein and Joseph Williams, ''The Boston Globe'', April 11, 2007.</ref><ref>[http://time-blog.com/real_clear_politics/2007/04/obama_race_and_the_election.html Obama, Race, and The Election,] ''Real Clear Politics.com''</ref>

In June 2007 the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' reported Obama had actually received nearly three times more campaign cash from indicted slum landlord Tony Rezko<ref>[http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/353829,CST-NWS-rez23.article Barack Obama and his slumlord patron], Tim Novak, Chicago Sun-Times, April 23, 2007.</ref> and his associates than Obama has publicly acknowledged.<ref>[http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/432197,CST-NWS-obama18.article Rezko cash triple what Obama says], Chris Fusco and Tim Novak, ''Chicago Sun-Times'', June 18, 2007.</ref>

==See Also==
*[[Previous Breaking News/Barack Obama|Articles about '''Barack Obama''' from previous "Breaking News"]]

==Further reading==
*[[Peter Hitchens|Hitchens, Peter]] [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=511901&in_page_id=1811 ''The Black Kennedy: But does anyone know the real Barack Obama?''] [[Daily Mail]]. Accessed 4 February 2008.

==Sources==

*[http://obama.senate.gov/about/ Official Senate Website]
*[http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/pfd2005/N00009638_2005.pdf Barack Obama Personal Financial Disclosures Summary: 2005], retrieved from opensecrets.org 17 June 2007.
*[http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=O000167 Biographical Directory of the United States Congress]
*[http://www.law.uchicago.edu/faculty/obama/cv.html University of Chicago Law School] Faculty Listing
*[http://www.biography.com/search/article.do?id=12782369 Barack Obama Biography] from Biography.com
*[http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/barack_obama/index.html?inline=nyt-per New York Times Topics, Barack Obama]

{{liberalism}}

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Obama, Barrack}}
{{2008 presidential candidates}}
[[Category:United States Senators]]
[[Category:Democratic Party]]

Public school culture

2008-05-03T06:14:06Z

BMoore: This article is pointless, but it might as well be a bit less confusing

'''Public school culture''' is a culture fostered in [[public school]] which is characterized by:

* fashion that includes black ([[Goth (subculture)|Goth]]) clothing
* facial piercings and rings, [[tattoo]]s, and male earrings
* [[depressed]] demeanors
* an absence of objective morality; instead, a principal will say someone "made the wrong choice"
* a sense of hopelessness
* a lack of critical thinking about [[liberal]] indoctrination
* [[compulsive profanity]]
* general inability to look someone in the eye
* extreme [[anxiety]]
* feeling that it is funny to be dumb
* being so accustomed to [[censorship]] of ideas that there is genuine surprise when someone actually says something unfamiliar or [[politically incorrect]]
* lack of awareness that prayer is censored in [[public schools]] and that teachers' unions are very [[liberal]]
* alcohol and drug abuse
* disrespect for teachers
* bullying
* gang activity
* Having a wide range of new ideas, both positive and negative
* Involvement in various sports events and other participation
* Membership to social groups such as chess clubs or more important groups such as school council or editing a student newspaper which helps social development
(a start)

Debate: Should certain books be banned from libraries?

2008-05-03T06:10:48Z

BMoore: /* No */

Well, I'll come out clearly and say that I'm against any book banning, but I think it would be a topic for a lively discussion so I place it before you and eagerly await your opinions.

==No==

No, a library is a place that categorizes knowledge, even obscene or unpopular knowledge. Banning books from libraries is tantamount to censorship. [[User:TheNobleSith3|TheNobleSith3]] 00:08, 3 May 2008 (EDT)

Censorship is a liberal concept, and thus I do not believe in it. It is an attempt to create conformity among the youth of our nation. -[[User:BMoore|BMoore]] 02:10, 3 May 2008 (EDT)

==Yes==

[[Category:Conservapedia Debates]]

Liberal gullibility

2008-05-03T06:09:02Z

BMoore: Some liberals believe that they've seen UFOs. That's because they're delusional, not gullible.

'''Liberal gullibility''' is the tendency of some people to easily believe false [[liberal]] claims. [[Michael Moore]] makes a fortune from liberal gullibility and [[Al Gore]] won a [[Nobel Prize]] on the back of it.

Examples of liberal gullibility include beliefs such as:

* Taking away [[gun]]s will prevent gun crime. (Unfortunately, if good people get rid of their guns, criminals will not. In the [[Luby's massacre]] in Killeen, Texas, people were essentially sitting ducks which resulted in the deaths of 24 people and 20 people being injured. One of the survivors, Suzanna Hupp, said she was unable to stop the incident because Texas at the time did not allow people to carry concealed weapons. She later became a politician and pushed for legislation to allow Texans to carry a concealed weapon to help prevent/limit massacres like this from happening in Texas again).
* Human beings contribute to [[global warming]]. (This has been disputed by a number of scientists including Nobel prize winners).
* Providing government health care for all will reduce illness. (Government provided healthcare would probably result in people going to the hospital more frequently than necessary, causing system overload - this happened in Massachusetts after a similar policy was enacted there. It may also cause a decrease in the number of doctors interested in becoming specialty doctors).
* Government programs reduce poverty. (The problem with such policies is that they create dependence and since poorer people have more children then the rich it only worsens the problem).
* The [[Piltdown Man]] was the missing link, and so was the [[Nebraska Man]]. ([[Liberals]] believed and taught these hoaxes for decades in the 20th century).
* Circular reasoning "proves" something. (For example, assuming an element had a half-life of 700 million years in order to "prove" that the universe is older than 700 million years).
*Legalizing drugs will kill the black market. (Whereas the black market will simply find a new market).
*Remarkable [[homing]] and [[migration]] are somehow the result of [[magnetism]].<ref>http://www.newscientist.com/channel/life/dn13811-birds-can-see-the-earth</ref>
(add more)

== References ==

<references/>
[[category:psychology]]
[[category:politics]]

Mount Everest

2008-05-02T20:52:27Z

BMoore:

[[Image:mount_everest.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Mount Everest]]

The summit of '''Mount Everest''', or '''Qomolangma''', is the highest point on Earth, at 29,035 ft (8,850 m). (The formerly accepted elevation of 29,028 ft (8,848 m), established in the early 1950s, was recalculated in the late 1990s to be 29,035 ft.) <ref> http://www.mounteverest.net/ </ref>

It is is part of the [[Himalayas|Himalayan]] mountain range and is located on the border between [[Nepal]] and [[Tibet]].

== Name ==

Mount Everest, once known as Peak 15, was named after [[Sir George Everest]], the British surveyor-general of [[India]] in 1865. In Nepal, Mt Everest is called "Sagarmatha" which translates roughly as "goddess of the sky" and in Tibet it is called "Qomolangma" which translates to "mother of the universe". <ref> http://www.mnteverest.net/history.html </ref>

== Notable Climbers ==

English explorer [[George Mallory]] disappeared in 1924 while attempting to summit the mountain. His body was discovered below Everest's peak in 1999. It is unclear whether or not he was successful in climbing to the top of the mountain before he died.

[[Sir Edmund Hillary]] and Tenzing Norgay are credited with the first successful ascent on May 29,1953.

Another notable climber is [[Reinhold Messner]], who made the first solo ascent on Aug. 20,1980, after a prior successful summit two years earlier with his partner Peter Habeler, made without supplemental oxygen.

The first female to climb Everest was a Japanese climber named Junko Tabei. She summited on May 16th, 1975.

== Climbing Mt Everest ==

Climbers can approach Mt Everest from either Tibet or Nepal. The two most often used climbing routes are the southeast ridge from Nepal and the northeast ridge from Tibet. The southeast ridge is considered to be easier to climb and is preferred by many climbers.

Climbers are required to have valid permits to climb issued by the Nepalese or Tibet government.

Many climbers these days are part of commercial expeditions, although some climbers choose to climb alone. Most commercial expeditions employ local residents to assist in the climb, often Sherpas, who live in the Khumbu, the national park surrounding Everest, and are adapted to the high altitude. Sherpas with experience climbing the mountain can offer valuable assistance in many tasks, carrying gear and equipment, setting up camps, laying out routes, fixing ropes for the climb, and acting as guides and assisting climbers.

The climb itself is difficult and takes much planning if it is to be successful. Climbers must take into consideration the weather conditions, and few climb without supplemental oxygen.

Typically, the expedition will take several weeks or longer. A Base camp is usually established near the bottom of the mountain, then 3 to 4 camps at higher levels. At each camp, climbers spend several days in "acclimatization" to get used to the higher altitude. Climbing at high altitudes can be dangerous and without proper acclimatization can cause serious, life threatening medical conditions, including High Altitude Pulmonary Edema (HAPE) and High Altitude Cerebral Edema (HACE) which are caused by fluid collecting in the lungs and brain.

Other medical problems that can occur while climbing the mountain include [[frostbite]], snow blindness and [[hypothermia]].

Many times, weather will be the deciding factor in whether or not the climbers will be able to summit the mountain (reach the top).

The top of Everest is always covered in snow, and a strong wind constantly blows.

Most summit attempts are made from late March through May before the summer [[monsoon]] season begins. <ref> http://www.answers.com/topic/mount-everest </ref>

== Expeditions ==

In 1996 members of three commercial expeditions were stranded high on the mountain during a blizzard, and several climbers lost their lives on the mountain, including veteran climbers [[Scott Fischer]] and [[Rob Hall]] who owned the commercial expedition companies. One survivor, [[Jon Krakauer]] wrote a book about the tragedy, called ''[[Into Thin Air]]''.

==References==
<references/>

==External Links==
*[http://www.panoramas.dk/fullscreen2/full22.html 360-degree image (not live) taken from atop Mount Everest]

[[Category:Mountains|Everest, Mount]]

Talk:Women in the military

2008-05-02T19:56:19Z

BMoore: /* Liberal opinion */

==Where is the evidence?==

Ed, while obvious statements like "the sky is blue" don't need citations, in an encyclopedia website it's wrong to make assertions like some the ones here and not back them up with valid references. Where is the evidence that women are less effective in fighting than men, or the reference for stating that their use by the Polish military was a failure? --[[User:DinsdaleP|DinsdaleP]] 11:11, 1 May 2008 (EDT)

:You can fact-tag any assertion which requires a citation. --[[User:Ed Poor|Ed Poor]] [[User talk:Ed Poor|Talk]] 11:13, 1 May 2008 (EDT)

:: More to the point, using Kelly Flynn as a representative example of women pilots is an insult to the skills and accomplishments of the many fine, dedicated women putting their lives on the line for us each day. (No male serviceman was ever discharged for adultery? There are no female pilots who ''are'' qualified without retests?) Support the troops, Ed. They deserve better than this. I'm going to do some research and add to this article, if that's okay with you. I want to point out where women have made significant contributions to the military, and add cited references to their effectiveness in the Israeli army to provide an objective counterpoint to the Polish statement. --[[User:DinsdaleP|DinsdaleP]] 11:19, 1 May 2008 (EDT)

:::I don't understand how (1) this is an insult or (2) how it being insult means it is untrue or irrelevant. Are you trying to improve the article, or are you just making a point? --[[User:Ed Poor|Ed Poor]] [[User talk:Ed Poor|Talk]] 11:37, 1 May 2008 (EDT)

:::: You're repeating old, unproven stereotypes about women in combat roles, which many women serving in those roles would find insulting, I'm sure. As you can see by now I'm adding valid-sourced comments to the article, and not just talking. Also, I have to question the validity of the sources you're using. You back up your comment about women being ineffective in the Israeli army by citing an essay, where that assertion is made but not backed up with any evidence. The same goes for your reference for men being better soldiers than women - linking to an essay that makes generalizations does not make those generalizations credible. --[[User:DinsdaleP|DinsdaleP]] 12:02, 1 May 2008 (EDT)

==Women in the Israeli Army==

I had deleted the comment about Israeli women being pulled from combat over being ineffective, because the source used had no references itself that validated the assertion. In response, I found the following source showing that the Israeli military itself is recommending that women serve in combat roles: [http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/09/17/africa/ME-GEN-Israel-Women-in-Uniform.php Israeli military study calls for opening all combat roles to women] --[[User:DinsdaleP|DinsdaleP]] 12:29, 1 May 2008 (EDT)

Interesting I never realized that women served in the Israeli army-- [[Image:50 star flag.png|12px]] [[User:Deborah]] [[Special:Contributions/Deborah|(contributions)]] [[User_talk:Deborah|(talk)]] 15:39, 1 May 2008 (EDT)

:There are differences in how they're allowed to serve, but the core principle that the country belongs to every citizen, so every citizen should have a part in its defense. --[[User:DinsdaleP|DinsdaleP]] 16:02, 1 May 2008 (EDT)

==Kelly Flynn==

I've edited the section that mentions Kelly Flynn because it's not fair or respectful to the hundreds of women aviators who earned their positions fairly to hold up an isolated incident as representative of their collective skills and professionalism. If it can be shown that Captain Piro, Lt. Parker, or any significant percent of the hundreds of female combat pilots in the service today got to fail multiple times before earning their wings, then that should be cited as fact. Otherwise it's just innuendo, and these dedicated Americans risking their lives for us deserve more respect than that. --[[User:DinsdaleP|DinsdaleP]] 15:34, 1 May 2008 (EDT)

:The Flynn case casts a pall over all women. If you want to show that it's an isolated case, go ahead - if you find facts to support it. But it's common knowledge that [[gender norming]] is rampant in the U.S. military. If you think otherwise, the burden of proof is on you. --[[User:Ed Poor|Ed Poor]] [[User talk:Ed Poor|Talk]] 15:01, 2 May 2008 (EDT)

==Should this Article be Renamed, or just Restructured?==
The more I think about it, it seems that the original purpose of this article was to present an opinion piece that would show women to be unsuited for close-combat positions in ground forces. It's obvious that women have been and will continue to serve in all branches of the military, and will always be appreciated for serving their country. There's a lot of value in having an article titled "Women in the Military" expand on the history of how women have served since the Revolutionary war, and the changing nature of how they've been able to serve. One section of the article could then be titled "Controversy over the suitability of women for combat roles", and Ed's points expanded on there. --[[User:DinsdaleP|DinsdaleP]] 20:48, 1 May 2008 (EDT)

== Lynndie England ==

Proves that women can be just as MEAN as men, anyway. --[[User:Gulik5|Gulik5]] 23:20, 1 May 2008 (EDT)
:...and that stupidity is gender-neutral ;-) --[[User:DinsdaleP|DinsdaleP]] 09:47, 2 May 2008 (EDT)

::Her commanding officer was a woman who was incompetent - never should have been put in charge of a prison. --[[User:Ed Poor|Ed Poor]] [[User talk:Ed Poor|Talk]] 14:59, 2 May 2008 (EDT)

::: Doesn't that, in turn, make the next-level commander up the line incompetent as well, and was that person female, too? The "incompetence comes from being female" line of reasoning is a non-starter; gender has nothing to do with leadership.--[[User:DinsdaleP|DinsdaleP]] 15:18, 2 May 2008 (EDT)

==Liberal opinion==

I deleted a section and a paragraph, because
#Lack of parallism in the "myths" section. I couldn't tell whether it was meant to be a list of assumptions found to be false, or what.
#It read like a lawyer's brief: completely one-sided, intended to support the feminist desire to put women in combat.

However, as Dinsdale suggests above, we can improve the article by dividing it into:
*How woman do help men win wars - and historically have helped them.
*Why women ought not serve in combat

Anyone (say, Dinsdale) with a keen appreciation for women's service to their country could write the "women helping men" article. --[[User:Ed Poor|Ed Poor]] [[User talk:Ed Poor|Talk]] 14:58, 2 May 2008 (EDT)

:: The legitimate source I cited in the paragraph you deleted was a study commissioned by Congress to determine the suitability of women for military service, based on objective medical testing and research. The goal was to provide fair evidence either way in deciding if and how women should serve, instead of relying on opinion alone as had been done in the past. It did dispel many myths, and at the same time it acknowledged that some accommodations in equipment and training were required due to the physiological differences between women and men. That reality in no way means that women are unfit to serve, even in combat roles. In an all-male army, people are still assigned to roles based on their abilities - shorter men with less muscle strength are not going to do as well as a guy built like a linebacker, but no one's telling him he'd be a bad fighter or that he couldn't hold his own in the field. Since the study showed that there's no difference between the abilities of stronger women and weaker males when both met the qualifying standards of enlistment, then there's no reason to exclude on gender alone.

::Is a statistically-average woman going to do as well as a statistically-average man in hand-to-hand combat? Probability says no, and the survey didn't dispute that. However, there are many combat roles that do not focus on hand-to-hand fighting ability, so ruling women out of all combat roles based on gender alone is wrong. I thought Conservatives believed in achievement through merit, so why not let women earn any role they qualify for fairly, instead of holding them back based on a misogynist agenda?

:: If you believe an encyclopedia article titled "Women in the military" should emphasize a subordinate and supporting role for men, count me out. My objective would be to recognize women in the military for the contributions they made, period.

::What I'd suggest instead is that it's appropriate to have the article dedicate a section to the question of roles where women may or may not be suitable for, but those roles need to be defined better than generic terms like "combat". After reading the article about Captain Piro, I'd challenge you to claim she's not a skilled and valued combat veteran. --[[User:DinsdaleP|DinsdaleP]] 15:55, 2 May 2008 (EDT)

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

2008-05-02T19:35:51Z

BMoore: /* External links */

'''''Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed''''' is a controversial [[documentary]] charging [[Darwinists]] in [[United States of America|America]] with suppressing and persecuting opponents in violation of that country's [[First Amendment]]<ref>Stein told O'Reilly, "This whole problem is about violation of the First Amendment. There are many scientists - many - who have been expelled from their jobs, who have had their web sites shut down, who have been denied grants [or] tenure because they wanted to question the limits and boundaries of Darwinism ... that's not how society has progressed." </ref> in order to avoid discussing the scientific challenges which [[Intelligent Design]] presents to the [[On_the_Origin_of_Species_by_Means_of_Natural_Selection | Origins of Species]] aspects of [[Theory of Evolution]].
The film's premise is that scientists have been expelled like naughty children from schools, universities and the scientific community, merely for daring to ask inconvenient questions.<ref>[http://www.expelledthemovie.com/news.php Expelled the movie website]</ref>
The documentary is co-written and hosted by [[Ben Stein]] and was released in America on Friday, April 18, 2008.

The film is described in its online trailer as “a startling revelation that freedom of thought and freedom of inquiry have been expelled from publicly-funded high schools, universities and research institutions.” <ref>http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/27/science/27expelled.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2</ref>

The film argues that [[scientist]]s and [[educator]]s who promote intelligent design are persecuted by the scientific establishment.<ref name=pressrelease>{{cite web |author=Lesley Burbridge-Bates|publisher=[http://www.premisemedia.com/ Premise Media]|date=[[2007-08-22]] |url=http://www.premisemedia.com/EXPELLED-PressRelease_08-22-07.pdf |title=''Expelled'' [[Press Release]] |accessdate=2007-09-29 |format= |work=}}</ref>
Examples given by the film include [[Richard Sternberg]], a [[biology|biologist]], journal editor, and research associate at the [[National Museum of Natural History]], and [[Guillermo Gonzalez]], a pro-[[Intelligent design]] [[astrophysics|astrophysicist]] denied tenure at [[Iowa State University]] in 2007.<ref name="nyt">[http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/27/science/27expelled.html?_r=3&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin Scientists Feel Miscast in Film on Life's Origin], New York Times, 27 September 2007</ref>

In the film's trailer, Stein states that there are "people out there who want to keep science in a little box where it can’t possibly touch God" and that "freedom of thought and freedom of inquiry have been expelled from publicly-funded high schools, universities and research institutions."<ref name="nyt"/>

==Summary==

The film documents how some opponents of [[intelligent design]] have ulterior motives for suppressing any presentation of ID in classrooms or scientific journals, based on the theory's ideological implications. The implication being that if ID is true, naturalistic evolution as a causation for all life on the planet is false, which removes the ground on which one of the most successful arguments for atheism is built. The film documents why advocacy for atheism is one motive to suppress ID and raises awareness to those who do not understand the underlying philosophical culture war.

The film attempts to describe how the current status quo of the educational system is a ''de facto'' endorsement of atheism as a state religion. As a result of this state sponsored perspective, those teachers, professors and academics who speak publicly to oppose atheistic dogma are denied access to funding, tenure and other benefits of participation in academia. The film does not argue to replace the state religion of atheism with any religion or belief in God.

Rather, the film argues that all viewpoints should be included in discussion because of the intrinsic benefits of freedom. To describe the current situation, the film uses the metaphor of a wall erected between [[Darwinism]] and all other alternate explanations, similar to the [[Berlin Wall]] which the Communists erected to prevent communication and movement within the city. Rather than permit students to be exposed to weaknesses and flaws in evolutionary doctrine, the establishment suppresses alternate ideas and destroys the careers of academics and even journalists who openly question it.

The film shows how opposition to ID is chiefly based on fervent (almost rabid) support for [[atheism]]. ID says that a purely naturalistic explanation of the first appearance of life is not as likely as the idea that it was designed. This leads ideologically to questions about an Intelligent Designer with supernatural powers, just as surely as Darwinism's "survival of the fittest" leads to [[Social Darwinsm]] and [[Eugenics]].

* Those who are horrified at the [[Holocaust]] perpetrated by the Nazis condemn Darwinism for provided Hitler with ideological justification for his "[[Final Solution]]".

==Darwinism==

The movie describes Darwinism as a brilliant theory for the 19th century, but hints at some of the many holes in Darwin's work. For example, modern science has uncovered some aspects of the staggering complexity of the cellular and subcellular mechanisms. Armed with even a limited knowledge of the inner workings at the cellular level, the idea that this life randomly designed itself almost defies credulity. This is a material fact of which [[Charles Darwin|Darwin]] was wholly unaware.

But the film does not point to the problems with Darwin's work to prove that evolution is false. In fact, the film accepts that over time, species really do adapt or evolve as described by Darwin. The film pays tribute to the brilliance of Darwin, who correctly described adaptation, natural selection and some evolutionary processes.

The film's criticism is not so much with Darwin, but rather with the atheistic dogma that has become attached to Darwinism. The film points out that others have used Darwin's ideas as a panacea to neatly resolve the question of the origins of life and even the origin of species. Through brief examples, the film illustrates why the Theory of Evolution as an explanation for the origins of life requires a leap of faith in atheism that is at least as problematic as the leap required to believe the reverse. This sets up the main thrust of the film.

==Academic Freedom==

Another point the film makes is that science is never served by a strict adherence to dogma. No question in science should be off the table. Therefore, a scientific mind must allow for the possibility that anything not falsifiable is possible. Contrary to this thought, forces in our culture today are fully invested in an atheistic concept of the universe and thus their interpretation of the Theory of Evolution and the Origin of Species is above reproach. These forces are fully entrenched in academia and it is policy at many institutions of learning to brook no dissent when it comes to the idea of Intelligent Design.

The open mind begs the question: if we cannot establish with certainty whether the life was created or whether it appeared from sheer luck, then why are we forcing one of these two choices upon our academia?

Just as [[Einstein]]'s [[Theory of Relativity]] obliterated and at the same time upheld [[Isaac Newton]]'s work in Physics, the film implies that there is perhaps a great deal to learn by asking questions about the origins of life. The film shows why Darwin's work is important and in many respects valid. That said, Darwin's works should not be used as philosophical works to describe the nature of God or the origins of life.

==About intelligent design itself==

Ben Stein told Bill O'Reilly,

: Intelligent design is an attempt to fill in the gaps; it might be totally wrong. <ref>[http://www.expelledthemovie.com/video.php Film trailer]</ref>

==Eugenics==

The film shows the historical connection between the ideology of "[[survival of the fittest]]" and the [[Holocaust]]. By the 1920s, German textbooks were teaching evolutionary concepts including heredity and racial hygiene. The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics was founded in 1927; in 1933, Germany passed the Law for the Protection of Heredity Health. [[Josef Mengele]] studied [[anthropology]] and [[paleontology]] and received his Ph.D. for his thesis entitled "Racial Morphological Research on the Lower Jaw Section of Four Racial Groups." In 1937, Mengele was recommended for and received a position as a research assistant with the Third Reich Institute for Hereditary, Biology and Racial Purity at the University of Frankfort, and subsequently became the "Angel of Death" for directing the operation of gas chambers of the [[Holocaust]] and for conducting horrific medical experiments on inmates in pursuit of [[eugenics]]. [[Evolutionist]] [[Stephen Jay Gould]] admitted: "The [[Nazi]] racial hygiene program began with involuntary sterilizations and ended with [[genocide]]."<ref>http://www.georgetown.edu/research/nrcbl/scopenotes/sn28.htm</ref>

*One academic says in the film, "While I would never want to indict a theory for how someone misused it ... [yet] views of human nature that lower our estimation of what we are have consequences to how people treat each other." <ref>http://www.wingclips.com/cart.php?target=product&product_id=16681&category_id=778</ref>

*Steven C. Meyer said, "In Darwinism there's a denial of any intrinsic dignity for human persons. We are the result of undirected natural processes that did not have us in mind"<ref>Meyer is alluding to a statement by Harvard paleontologist [[George Gaylord Simpson]].</ref>

While the film takes pains to point out that evolution is not directly responsible for the Holocaust, one Jewish group felt the movie went too far:
*The film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed misappropriates the Holocaust and its imagery as a part of its political effort to discredit the scientific community which rejects so-called intelligent design theory.
*Hitler did not need Darwin to devise his heinous plan to exterminate the Jewish people and Darwin and evolutionary theory cannot explain Hitler's genocidal madness.
*Using the Holocaust in order to tarnish those who promote the theory of evolution is outrageous and trivializes the complex factors that led to the mass extermination of European Jewry.<ref name=ADL> [http://adl.org/PresRele/HolNa_52/5277_52.htm Anti-Evolution Film Misappropriates the Holocaust]</ref>

==Filmmaker statements==

{{quotebox|"If you acknowledge this idea that [[design]] can be detected scientifically in the universe, then you open up the door to saying, 'Maybe this [[atheist]]ic view isn't true,' [and] the entire worldview of people who are atheists crashes down around them," Mathis said. "This is a foundational concept for people who believe this way. So they defend it with incredible vigor."<ref>[http://www.sbcbaptistpress.org/bpnews.asp?id=27761 Intelligent Design foes no match for Stein in 'Expelled'] - Baptist Press </ref> }}

== Negative Reception==

Before the film opened, pro-[[evolution]] opponents of the film were heavily critical of its premise.

The pro-[[evolution]] magazine ''[[Scientific American]]'' criticized the film, calling it "intellectually dishonest," and detailed their objections with the film and intelligent design in a series of inflammatory articles.<ref>http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=sciam-reviews-expelled</ref>

The pro-[[evolution]] magazine ''[[New Scientist]]'' ran a review which described the movie as follows: "''Expelled'' is pure propaganda, its style reminiscent of a substandard [[Michael Moore]] flick complete with voice-over narration and lots of aimless wandering around". The review criticized the movie's treatment of [[Richard Dawkins|Dawkins]] and even made claims of trying to "sneak ID into schools".<ref>Gefter, Amanda, Warning! They've Got Designs on You, 12 April 2008, New Scientist.</ref>

[[NCSE]] used the film's release to launch a fresh attack on ID, repeatedly calling it "creationism" as part of their strategy to demonize scientific critiques of evolution. The gist of their defense of Caroline Crocker's dismissal was (1) she wasn't "fired" (because that means only immediate termination in their book) but merely let go at the end of the semester; and (2) each mention of intelligent design in class was an unauthorized addition to the curriculum. Apparently, only pro-evolution information is allowed in evolution class, and its weaknesses are not to be revealed if you want to get [[tenure]]. <ref>http://www.expelledexposed.com/index.php/the-truth/crocker</ref>

The cherry-picked meta-review site [[Rotten Tomatoes]] lists an average rating of 3/10, or 9% "fresh," making one of the lowest-rated movies indexed on the site. It summarizes the consensus of reviews as "a cynical political stunt disguised as a documentary."<ref>http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/expelled_no_intelligence_allowed/</ref>

John Derbyshire, a columnist at the [[conservative]] [[National Review|National Review Online]], wrote a surprisingly critical review, claiming that [[creationists]] have been "morally corrupted" and engage in "willful act[s] of deception." He concludes that attacking science (by which he means [[evolution]]) is equivalent to attacking [[Western Civilization]].<ref>http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZGYwMzdjOWRmNGRhOWQ4MTQyZDMxNjNhYTU1YTE5Njk=</ref>

== Viewer Reception ==
''Expelled'' opened on April 18, 2008, on 1000 screens. It grossed $3.2 million US, or more than $3,000 per screen.<ref name=wnd>"[http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=62152 'Expelled' propelled to box office top 10]." ''WorldNetDaily'', April 21, 2008. Accessed April 21, 2008.</ref>

==Positive reception==

In ''National Review'', [[David Klinghoffer]], a Senior Fellow at the [[Discovery Institute]], describes the [[Darwin-Hitler connection]]:
* Expelled touches on [[Darwinism]]’s historical social costs, notably the unintended contribution to [[Nazi]] racial theories. That part packs an emotional wallop. It also happens to be based on impeccable scholarship. <ref name=dk>[http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=Mjg1NDg2ZDM5YTMwMGFiZGNhNTU5M2MwOTQ2NGE1Mjc=]</ref>
* "The key elements in the ideology that produced [[Auschwitz]] are [[moral relativism]] aligned with a rejection of the sacredness of [[human life]], a belief that violent competition in nature creates greater and lesser [[races]], that the greater will inevitably exterminate the lesser, and finally that the lesser race most in need of extermination is the [[Jews]]. All but the last of these ideas may be found in [[Darwin]]’s writing."

Tom Bethell, a [[conservative]] journalist for the ''[[American Spectator]]'', wrote:
:The film, a documentary, is about scientists and researchers who acknowledge the scientific evidence for the intelligent design of life and who have been ostracized or denied tenure as a result. In a word, they have been "expelled" from the academy. <ref>http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=12759</ref>

[[Carl Wieland]], the managing director for [[Creation Ministries International]], wrote:
{{QuoteBox|This powerful documentary is all about the persecution and censorship of any scientist who dares to oppose the Darwinist paradigm, by even suggesting the relatively modest hypothesis that the universe shows detectable evidence of design.<ref>Wieland, Carl, [http://creationontheweb.com/content/view/5638/ Cracking the wall in science] 20th February, 2008, (Creation Ministries International).</ref>}}

[[Richard Dawkins]] "posits a creation theory of his own that fits the parameters of the film's working definition of intelligent design" in [[Expelled]], but claims the movie is "dull, artless, amateurish, too long, poorly constructed, and utterly devoid of any style, wit, or subtlety."<ref>http://www2.nysun.com/article/74583</ref>

In his quest to attack Ben Stein, Kluger puts words in his mouth, and then commits the [[strawman fallacy]]:
{{QuoteBox|"[Stein] makes all the usual mistakes nonscientists make whenever they try to take down evolution, asking, for example, how something as complex as a living cell could have possibly arisen whole from the earth's primordial soup. The answer is it couldn't--and it didn't...<ref>Kluger, Jeffrey, [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1729703,00.html Ben Stein Dukes it Out with Darwin], April 10th, 2008, Time</ref>}}

:The movie does not criticize Darwinists for saying the cell "arose whole" but for arguing "that life arose from a primordial sea on a lifeless planet through a chance collision of chemicals". This is the typical pro-evolution device of pretending that critics don't understand what evolution is saying. But it backfires, because the movie comes with a leader's guide which shows that Kluger is the one in error.

== See also ==
*[[Origins debate]]
*[[Theory of evolution]]
*[[Creation-evolution controversy]]
*[[Design detection]]
*[[Suppression of alternatives to evolution]]
*[[Premise Media]] (Producers of the film)

== External links ==
* [http://www.discovery.org/a/4689 Michael Shermer’s Fact-Free Attack on Expelled Exposes Intolerance of Darwinists towards Pro-Intelligent Design Scientists]
* [http://expelledthemovie.com/theaterap.php Theater locater for North America]
* [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/expelled_no_intelligence_allowed/ Reviews of 'Expelled' on Rotten Tomatoes.] reveal [[liberal gullibility]].

== References ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Movies]]
[[Category:Intelligent Design]]
[[Category:Evolution]]