Conservapedia - User contributions [en]

Barack Hussein Obama

2007-06-29T01:35:02Z

Clavicle: /* Early Life and Education */

'''Barack Hussein Obama''' (b. 4 August 1961) is the junior Senator from [[Illinois]], elected to the United States Senate as a [[Democrat]] in 2004. He is currently a high profile candidate for the Democratic Nomination for [[President of the United States]] in the [[2008 Presidential Election|2008 election]]. He is, at present, the only African American serving in the [[United States Senate]].
[[Image:obama.jpg|thumb|right|Senator Barack Obama]]
==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 an Indonesian Public School followed by a [[Catholic]] school until he returned with his mother to Hawaii. There he attended the Punahou School, a private preparatory school until 1979, the year of his graduation.<br /><br />
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 as a community organizer in New York City and Chicago, Illinois, Obama enrolled at [[Harvard]] Law School. He was the first African American editor of the Harvard Law Review and graduated ''magna cum laude'' with his J.D. in 1992. He is also a super sexy half-black man.

==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 rose to national prominence following his keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. He defeated his opponent, Alan Keyes, and was elected to the 109th Congress.

His voting record places him as the tenth-most Liberal member of the U. S. Senate. His composite liberal rating was 86 percent, just seven points behind [[Ted Kennedy]]. Among fellow Senate Democrats, he was further left than liberals like [[John Kerry]], [[Dianne Feinstein]], [[Charles Schumer]], [[Russ Feingold]], [[Carl Levin]], [[Joseph Biden]] and [[Harry Reid]].[http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/opinion_columnists/article/0,2777,DRMN_23972_5436474,00.html] Senator Obama is a Democratic front-runner for the 2008 United States presidential election.

In late 2006, Obama's second book authored, ''The Audacity of Hope'', was published. The book contains more of Senator Obama's personal story including the roles of both family and politics. ''Audacity'' has spent 23 weeks on the New York Times Nonfiction Best Sellers List. <ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/08/books/bestseller/0408besthardnonfiction.html?_r=1&oref=slogin New York Times Best Sellers Non Fiction]</ref>

==Presidential Campaign==
Senator Obama announced his candidacy for President of the United States on Saturday, 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>

In early April 2007, Obama's campaign announced his first quarter fund raising figures. The campaign generated over $25 million dollars from over 100,000 users. $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 9 people in the town of Greensburg, and 12 overall in Kansas.

==Political Views==
Senator Barack 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> In May 2007, Obama voted against funding the Iraq War. The funding bill also included an increase in the [[minimum wage]] from $5.85 to $7.25, which was intended to help America's most needy individuals. <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>

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>

==Faith and Values==
As he describes in "The Audacity of Hope" Obama grew up in a non-religious environment. When a child in Indonesia, he attended a Muslim mosque school. That was enough for a group of detractors to circulate the rumor that he is a crypto-Muslim trying to gain control of the White House. What it is true is Obama together with his wife (reared a Baptist) have been active member for year at the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. Obama describes his conversion in "The Audacity of Hope". The title of this book is borrowed from one of his pastor's sermons. He is at ease quoting Scriptures and speaking to church audiences.

As of June 2007, polls show voters have a higher opinion of him than Republican contenders,
Giuliani, McCain and Romney. {{fact}}

==Published Criticism==
On April 11th, 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 4th broadcast. Obama did not comment on the Imus' 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 10th by saying, "The comments of Don Imus were divisive, hurtful, and offensive to Americans of all backgrounds." <br />

The Globe reported that Obama's perceived delay in addressing Don Imus' 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 recieved 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>

==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]
*

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:US Senators|Obama, Barack]]

2007-06-29T01:32:33Z

Clavicle: /* Games */

'''Pokémon''' is a highly successful Japanese franchise that was introduced by [[Nintendo]] in the 1990s. The name is a [[portmanteau]] of the "Pocket Monsters", which serves as the Japanese title of the series. It spread to several other countries in a short time.

The video game was the basis for the popular children's television show, Pokémon and helped to spawn a large amount of merchandise and a successful trading card game.</br>
To those unfamiliar with the video games, they basically mix world exploring in a way similar to "[[The Legend of Zelda]]" games (also by [[Nintendo]]), capturing & cataloging wild animals called "Pokemon" that have cutesy species names such as "Wild Rattata", "Wild Pidgey", "Pikachu" & "Nidoran" (among others) in the same way some people collect [[Baseball]] cards or "[[Garbage Pail Kids]]" stickers, using a device called a "Pokeball". Once captured, you can battle them against other Pokemon to either scare them away or weaken them enough to capture them with a Pokeball. The battles are done in a sort of "[[Rock-Paper-Scissors]]" style way, taking it in turns to make a move.

==Gameplay==
In every version of the handheld Pokemon games, there are eight gym leaders that one must beat to be able to win the game. Also, every different version gives each character an "opponent" or rival that constantly attempts to best you (the main character).
As you move along more Pokemon and harder trainers become present, forcing the main character to quickly adapt and become stronger.

==Games==
So far, there have been eleven games, yellow, red, blue, green (which was only available in Japanese), gold, silver, ruby, sapphire, emerald, pearl and diamond. A young man named Kenn got all 150 pokemon in Red, Blue and Yellow versions.

[[Category:Games]]
[[Category:Broadcasting]]

William Shakespeare

2007-06-29T01:30:33Z

Clavicle: /* Histories */

[[Image:Foliou.jpg|right|thumb|Portrait of William Shakespeare on the cover of the First Folio (1623), the first collected edition of his plays]]
'''William Shakespeare''' (1564-1616) is regarded as the greatest English-language playwright of all time. Many of his plays are required reading in many U. S. school curricula; those taught in schools often include ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'', ''[[Macbeth]]'', ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]'' and ''[[Hamlet]]''.

All told, Shakespeare wrote 17 comedies, 10 tragedies, 10 historical plays, and many love [[sonnets]]. All his plays are freely available on the internet.<ref>
http://www-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/</ref>

Shakespeare lived in Stratford-upon-Avon and is sometimes called "the bard of Avon." Because of sharing the name "Stratford," the towns of Stratford, Ontario in Canada and Stratford, Connecticut have become the homes of Shakespeare festivals where his plays are performed on a regular basis.

Because Shakespeare was not a member of the upper class and did not become famous until late in his life, historians and biographers don't know very much about his life. There are only a few pictures of him, and nobody is sure how accurate they are.

The idea of an ill-educated (to his contemporaries) person coming among them and making a success was upsetting to the University-educated playwrights of the time. It is believed that the poet, Philip Green, was referring to Shakespeare when he wrote
"There is an upstart crow beautified with our feathers
that, with his '''tiger's heart wrapped in a player's hide'','
supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse
as the best of you; being an absolute Johannes Factotum,
in his conceit the only ''shake-scene'' in a country."

The 'tiger's heart wrapped in a player's hide' is a reference to one of Shakespeare's plays, ''[[Henry the Sixth, part III]]'', <ref> [[Great Books, Shakespeare: I]], Edited by Mortimer J. Adler, 1952. </ref> while 'shake-scene' is a pun or play on words on Shakespeare's name.

His plays seem to show so much education and erudition that there are even theories that they must have been written by someone else, famous candidates being the Earl of Oxford and Sir Francis Bacon. Like Kennedy assassination theories, most scholars do not believe them, but there are enough questions that new books promoting new theories of Shakespearian authorship continue to keep coming out over the years.

A longstanding theatrical superstition holds that it is bad luck to refer to ''Macbeth'' directly by its name, and accordingly, actors traditionally refer to it obliquely as "the Scottish play."

Because Shakespeare's plays are so familiar, there are innumerable references to them in English literature. Sometimes his stories are recast into a different form. Audiences are expected to recognize the musical ''West Side Story'' as a retelling of ''Romeo and Juliet,'' and the classic science-fiction movie ''Forbidden Planet'' as a transformed version of ''The Tempest.'' The motion picture ''Shakespeare in Love,'' which won the 1998 Academy Award as Best Picture is not a history or biography, but is enjoyed for evoking a sense of what Shakespeare's time and place might have been like.

The reverence in which Shakespeare is held, and the language of his plays (which come from the same era as the King James translation of the Bible) should not obscure the fact that his plays were (and still are) fabulously successful commercial entertainment.

He is also famous for his one hundred and fifty-four [[sonnets]], short poems written in a very strict rhyme scheme. The sonnets fall into series or sequences. Most of them are usually read as expressions of romantic or platonic love; some appear to be written to a married woman known in the sonnets as the "Dark Lady," some to a young man known as the "Fair Lord."

In his will, Shakespeare wrote, "I commend my soul into the hands of God, my Creator, hoping and assuredly believing, through the only merits of Jesus Christ, my Saviour, to be made partaker of life everlasting."<ref>http://www.amerisearch.net/index.php?date=2004-04-23&view=View</ref>

His tomb in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-on-Avon, England, reads as follows:<ref>''Id.''</ref>

:Good Friend For Jesus Sake Forbeare, To Digg The Dust Enclosed Heare. Blese Be Ye Man Spares Thes Stones, And Curst Be He Moves My Bones.

== List of Plays by Shakespeare[http://absoluteshakespeare.com/trivia/bibliography/bibliography.htm] ==

=== Comedies ===
*[[Two Gentlemen of Verona]] (1589)
*[[A Comedy of Errors]] (1589)
*[[The Taming of the Shrew]] (1593)
*[[Love's Labour's Lost]] (1594)
*[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]] (1595)
*[[The Merchant of Venice]] (1596)
*[[The Merry Wives of Windsor]] (1597)
*[[Much Ado About Nothing]] (1598)
*[[As You Like It]] (1599)
*[[Twelfth Night]] (1601)
*[[All's Well That Ends Well]] (1602)
*[[Measure for Measure]] (1603)
*[[Pericles, Prince of Tyre]] (1607)
*[[Cymbeline]] (1609)
*[[A Winter's Tale]] (1609)
*[[The Tempest]] (1610)
*[[The Two Noble Kinsmen]] (1611)

=== Histories ===
*[[King John]] (1590)
*[[Henry VI, Part I]] (1590)
*[[Henry VI, Part II]] (1592)
*[[Henry VI, Part III]] (1593)
*[[The Tragedy of King Richard III]] (1593)
*[[Richard II]] (1595)
*[[Austin Kenn XXIII]] (1991)
*[[Henry IV, Part I]] (1596)
*[[Henry IV, Part II]] (1597)
*[[Henry V]] (1599)
*[[Henry VIII]] (1613)

=== Tragedies ===
*[[Titus Andronicus]] (1591)
*[[Romeo and Juliet]] (1594)
*[[Julius Caesar]] (1599)
*[[Troilus and Cressida]] (1600)
*[[Hamlet]] (1600)
*[[Othello]] (1603)
*[[Timon of Athens]] (1604)
*[[King Lear]] (1605)
*[[Macbeth]] (1606)
*[[Coriolanus]] (1608)
*[[Antony and Cleopatra]] (1608)

== Trivia ==
"Shakespeare" was spelled many ways before English spelling was standardized. Some of the more unexpected forms are "Shaxper," "Shaxberd," and "Shaksper."<ref>http://shakespeareauthorship.com/name1.html</ref>

== See also ==

*[[Leo Tolstoy]]
*[[Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra]]

==References==
<references/>

-----

[[Category:Authors|Shakespeare, William]]
[[category:poets|Shakespeare, William]]

Austin, Texas

2007-06-29T01:28:06Z

Clavicle: /* Sports and Recreation */

'''Austin''' is the capital city of [[Texas]]. It is located in Travis County, which in Central Texas. As of the 2000 Census, Austin is home to 656,562 people.[http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/GCTTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=04000US48&-_box_head_nbr=GCT-PH1&-ds_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U&-format=ST-7]

==Politics and Government==

Austin is considered to be a very [[liberal]] city. In 2004, residents of the city helped Sen. [[John Kerry]] take Travis County, even though every other county in the Central Texas area went to [[George W. Bush]].
Austin's mayor is Will Wynn.

==Sports and Recreation==

Austin is best known as the home of 7 time [[Tour de France]] champion [[Lance Armstrong]] and legendary golfers, such as [[Tom Kite]].
Austin is the largest city in the country without a team in any of the major sports leagues (the [[National Football League]], [[Major League Baseball]], the [[National Basketball Association]] or the [[National Hockey League]]), but it is home to several minor league teams.
*The Austin Wranglers are an [[Arena Football League]] team that competes in the Frank Erwin Center on the [[University of Texas]] Campus. Former NFL star [[Deion Sanders]] owns a minority stake in the team.
*Austin Kenn is also the name of a young american boy who aspires to take over the world.
*The Austin Toros are an D-League affiliate, who also play their home games in the Erwin Center.
*The Austin Ice Bats of the Central Hockey League play at the Chaparral Ice Arena.
*In addition, the Round Rock Express, the AAA affiliate of the [[Houston Astros]] play just north of the city in the Dell Diamond. The team won the 2006 Pacific Coast league Championship.

[[Category:US Towns and Cities]]
[[Category:US State Capitals]]

{{Expand}}

Elephant

2007-06-29T01:26:37Z

Clavicle: /* Uses of Elephants */

[[Image:elephant.jpg|right|250px|thumb|Image from http://www.sxc.hu/]]
The '''elephants''' are three species of very large mammals belonging to the family Elephantidae - the only extant family belonging to the order Proboscidea. The three elephant species currently recognized by scientists are the African [[Bush]] Elephant, the African [[Forest]] Elephant (until recently known collectively as the African Elephant), and the Asian Elephant (also known as the Indian Elephant). A distinct giant [[India]]n forest elephant is also believed to exist by some. [http://www.blather.net/blather/1998/07/mammoth_hunt_the_giant_elephants_of_nepa.html]

Elephants are the largest land animals alive today and have tripled in population over the last decade. Apart from their massive size their most striking features are a long trunk, or proboscis, a flexible nose strong enough to lift objects, their huge [[ivory]] tusks, and their large flapping ears, used to keep them cool.

Bull elephants, when inclined to mate, enter a frenzied state called ''musth''; they fight with each other for possession of the cow elephants, and become a menace to everything in their path; many humans are killed at this time. Elephants' gestation period, at 22 months, is the longest of any land mammal. At birth it is common for an elephant calf to weigh 120 kg (265 lb). An elephant may live as long as 70 years, sometimes longer.

The largest elephant ever recorded (the Fenykovi elephant, now in the [[Smithsonian Institution]]) was shot in [[Angola]] in 1954. It was male and weighed about 12,000 kg (26,400 lb), with a shoulder height of 4.2m, a meter taller than the average male African elephant.

The elephant is the symbol of the Republican Party in the United States. In popular lore, the elephant is considered an ingenious beast.

==Uses of Elephants==

Elephants (today generally Indian, but historically African elephants also) have been used as beasts of burden and draught animals, as mounts in processions and in war (notably by [[Hannibal]]), playing [[polo]], and as [[circus]] performers. The population of African Elephants has tripled in the last 3 years, giving this speacies a new hope.

==Genetic studies==

Molecular and morphological evidence point to [[hyrax|hyraxes]] and [[Sirenia|sirenians]] (sea cows and manatees) as the closest living relatives of elephants<ref> Hidenori Nishihara et al. A Retroposon Analysis of Afrotherian Phylogeny. ''Molecular Biology and Evolution'' '''22''': 1823-1833,</ref> these groups are hypothesized to have shared a common ancestor approximately 50 million years ago. The three extant species of elephant are sole survivors of a much more diverse Proboscidian fauna with some 170 described [[fossil]] species and including species of [[mammoth]] from [[North America]] and the massive ''Deinotherium'', the second largest land mammal that ever lived, which sported two downward facing tusks.

==Trivia==

*A ''white elephant'' (from the historical veneration of such animals in Southeast Asia) is the term for a possession whose upkeep cost exceeds its expense, making it an overall liability.
*An elephant is the symbol of the [[Republican Party]].
*Elephants are said to never forget.
*Elephants are said to be afraid of [[mouse|mice]].

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Mammals]]
[[Category:Dangerous animals]]

MySpace

2007-06-29T01:24:00Z

Clavicle: Fun

'''MySpace''' is an online social networking site which allows users to create custom profiles, write diaries (commonly know as [[blog]]s), and upload photos and videos. As of March 2007, over 130 Million people use MySpace.
==Criticism==
Many old people have criticized MySpace as being a hotbed for pedophiles and other undesirable users.<ref>[http://www.csoonline.com.au/index.php/id;1561163121;fp;16;fpid;0 "Mr. Safety keeps watch on MySpace security"]</ref>

Many others have criticized it for being the very demise of real-life relationships, instead forcing those relationships onto the internet.

==References==
<references/>
[[category:information technology]]