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Signals Intelligence Service

2007-06-22T20:24:20Z

Harvestman: clean up (AWB)

The '''Signals Intelligence Service (SIS)''' was the Army's codebreaking division headquartered at [[Arlington Hall]]. It was a part of the Signal Corps so secret that outside the office of the Chief Signal officer, it did not officially exist.

In 1943, the Army Signal Intelligence Service (later the Army Security Agency) began intercepting Soviet intelligence traffic sent mainly from New York City—assigning the code name [[VENONA]] to the project. By 1945, some 200,000 messages had been transcribed, a measure of Soviet activity. On 20 December 1946, [[Meredith Gardner]] made the first break into the VENONA code, revealing the existence of Soviet espionage at the [[Los Alamos National Laboratory#The Manhattan Project|Los Alamos National Laboratory]].
[[Category:Espionage]]

Oklahoma City Bombing

2007-06-22T20:24:15Z

Harvestman: clean up, Typos fixed: severly → severely, (AWB)

[[Image:Murrahafter.jpg|right|thumb|300px]]
On the morning of April 19, 1995, the [[Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building]] in [[Oklahoma City]] was bombed. By official figures, 168 people died<ref>There's an open question about a possible 169th victim. See ''Others Unknown''.</ref>Until the [[September 11th attacks]] in 2001, this was the deadlist terrorist incident in the [[United States]]. [[Timothy McVeigh]] and [[Terry Nichols]] were convicted for their parts in the bombing, and [[Michael Fortier]] pled guilty after cooperating with the prosecution.

== The Bombing ==
On the days leading up to April 19th, McVeigh and Nichols filled a rented Ryder truck with approximately 5000 pounds of a fuel oil and fertilizer mixture. On the morning of April 19th, Timothy McVeigh drove the truck into downtown Oklahoma City, parking it directly in front of the Murrah Federal Building. At 9:02 am, the bomb detonated, collapsing the front facade of the federal building and severely damaging several surrounding buildings. The explosion could be heard and felt several miles away.

McVeigh intended to avenge the deaths among the [[Branch Davidian]]s at [[Waco]], [[Texas]], a third of which were members of minority groups, including 30 blacks, as well as 6 Hispanics and 7 Asians and including a number of interracial marriages. <ref>David B. Kopel and Paul H. Blackman, ''No More Wacos: What’s Wrong With Federal Law Enforcement and How To Fix It'', Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1997, 409-411.</ref> Despite widespread allegations spread through the mainstream media sourced to anti-racist watchdogs groups of racial motivations behind the bombings, Nichols himself was married to a Philippine national. McVeigh had been [[politically profiled]] in Brandon Stickney's ''All-American Monster - The Unauthorized Biography of Timothy McVeigh'', allegations which were responded to in an article by Lawrence W. Myers in ''Media Bypass'' magazine. <ref>Lawrence W. Myers, Tim McVeigh: An Interview, ''Media Bypass'', February 1996, pg. 36.</ref>

On the day of the bombing, the brown pickup truck was apparently found and cleared, and an additional set of sketches were released, of Johns Doe #1 and #2. These sketches were apparently based on witness reports from the Ryder shop where the truck was rented; the truck had been identified by its [[VIN]] found on an axle.

== Arrests ==
Ninety minutes after the explosion, Timothy McVeigh was pulled over by an [[Oklahoma Highway Patrol]] officer for driving a car without a license plate. During the stop, a weapon was discovered, and McVeigh was booked into jail on a weapons charge. Before he was released, he was identified as John Doe #1 in the sketches and was taken into federal custody. Terry Nichols, a known friend of McVeigh's, turned himself in soon afterwards. One of the most extensive FBI investigations ever undertaken has failed to implicate any militia group or any group of any kind. The FBI agent in charge of the Oklahoma City Bombing Task Force recently said:
{{Cquote|The investigation, as thorough as it was, was not able to identify other individuals involved other than those who admitted their knowledge or were convicted through two trials. <ref>Diana Baldwin, Some Still Hunt For John Doe 2, ''Sunday Oklahoman'', 13 December 1998, A-8.</ref>}}

==Media reporting==

Following the Oklahoma City bombing the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) gave the FBI a list of several thousand alleged members of militias and “hate groups” culled from its files. None of them had anything to do with the bombing. These names came from letters to newspapers expressing right-wing political views, lists of “members” supplied by informants, names from license plate numbers collected outside public meetings, pilfered mailing lists, and so on.

During the early days of the media feeding frenzy following the bombing, militia organizations were widely suspected and even charged with complicity in the crime. Watchdog groups were regularly quoted by the media as “experts” on the militias and made fantastic claims of vast membership and influence. Militias had absolutely nothing to do with the bombing, but the incredible media onslaught had a part in further marginalizing them, and changing their composition in the process.

Writer Adam Parfrey observed after the Oklahoma City bombing some watchdog groups information was absorbed whole into mainstream news sources as unimpeachable and objective news sources, whereas the watchdog organizations coffers bulged when constituent donors were led to believe through fundraising newsletters they were fighting an enemy of enormous evil and mounting strength. Despite their altruistic claims, the watchdog organizations
{{Cquote|profited directly off the sensationalism that acts as a sparkplug for Hollywood and the weekly tabloids. <ref>Adam Parfrey, Cult Rapture: Revelations of the Apocalyptic Mind (Portland, OR: Feral House, 1995), 327.</ref>}}
The SPLC’s ''Klanwatch Intelligence Report'' of June 1995 claimed that “over 200 militia and support groups operate nationwide.” <ref>Southern Poverty Law Center, “Over 200 Militias and Support Groups Operate Nationwide,”
''Klanwatch Intelligence Report'' (June 1995).</ref> Three months later, in September 1995 the SPLC issued a report that identified seventy-three “militias or militia support groups nationwide, with a total of 30,000 to 40,000 members.” The SPLC also claimed that about forty-five have “ties to the Ku Klux Klan.” <ref> Dick Foster, “10 Militias at Home in Colorado” Rocky Mountain News, (6 September 1995).</ref> 127 “militia and support groups” suddenly disappeared. The actual number of militia group is believed no more than 20% of what SPLC claimed, and the Anti-Defamation League claimed only 10,000 members. <ref>''The Watchdogs: A Close Look at Anti-Racist "Watchdog" Groups'', Laird Wilcox, Editorial Research Service, 1999, pg. 85. ISBN 0-993592-96-5

As for militia complicity in the bombing itself—after more than three years of intensive investigation neither the FBI nor any other law enforcement agency has produced evidence that the perpetrators were members of or in any substantial way connected with any militia, anywhere, anytime. <ref>Diana Baldwin, “Some Still Huntfor John Doe 2,” Sunday Oklahoman 13 December 1998, A-8.</ref> A county grand jury arrived at the same conclusions. <ref>Ron Jenkins, “Oklahoma Bomb Jury Rules Out Conspiracy,” Associated Press, 30 December 1998.
</ref> No militias were implicated by government prosecutors at Timothy McVeigh’s or Terry Nichols’ trials. Militias had nothing to do with the Oklahoma City bombing. The perpetrators were acting entirely on their own. The only organizational “links and ties” they shared was service in the U. S. Army.

== Charges, Trials, Convictions, and Punishment ==
McVeigh was charged in Federal court with 8 counts of murder of federal officers, conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, use of a weapon of mass destruction, and destroying government property via explosive<ref>http://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/DeliverDocument.asp?CiteID=151372</ref>. To avoid a contaminated jury pool, the trial was held in Denver. On June 3, 1997, McVeigh was convicted of all charges.<ref>http://www.rickross.com/reference/mcveigh/mcveigh14.html</ref> He was sentenced to death and the sentence was carried out on June 11, 2001 by lethal injection in Terre Haute, Indiana<ref>http://www.newsok.com/article/701218/</ref>.

Terry Nichols was convicted of Federal charges of conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction and 8 counts of involuntary manslaughter of federal officers. He was sentended to life without the possibility of parole. In 2004, he was found guilty on state charges of 161 counts of first degree murder, but the jury deadlocked on sentencing. The judge imposed 161 a sentence of 161 consecutive terms of life without the possibility of parole.

Micheal Fortier testified against McVeigh in exchange for a light charge and sentence; he pled guilty to a single charge of failing to warn authorities about the attack and was sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined $200,000. In January 2006 he was released into the Witness Protection program.
Others Unknown: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing Conspiracy by Stephen Jones and Peter Israel

John Doe #2 has never been officially identified; the current FBI theory appears to be that he was an unrelated person who happened to be at the Ryder office about the same time McVeigh was.

== Memorial ==
The site of the Murrah building was converted into a memorial for those who had died. Its most striking feature is 168 chairs, one for each of the deceased.

==References==
<references/>

== Sources and additional reading ==
:[http://www.newsok.com/bombing/intro/ The Daily Oklahoman's archive of their coverage]
:[http://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/DeliverDocument.asp?CiteID=151372 The decision in McVeigh's appeal]
:[http://www.oklahomacitynationalmemorial.org/ The memorial]
[[Category:United States History]]

Saul

2007-06-22T20:23:25Z

Harvestman: clean up (AWB)

: ''This article is about '''Saul''', first king of [[Israel]]. For information about Paul (né Saul) of Tarsus, see [[Paul]].''

'''King Saul''' ('''שאול המלך''') or '''Sha'ul''' (Hebrew '''שָׁאוּל''' or '''Šaʾul''' or '''Šāʾûl''', "asked for" or "borrowed") (r.1095BC-1055BC according to [[James Ussher|Ussher]],<ref name=Ussher>[[James Ussher]], ''[[The Annals of the World]]'', [[Larry Pierce]], ed., Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2003 (ISBN 0890513600), pghh. 392-406</ref> or r. 1050-1010 BC according to [[Edwin R. Thiele|Thiele]]<ref name=Wood>Leon J. Wood. "King Saul." ''A Survey of Israel's History'', rev. ed. David O'Brien. Grand Rapids, MI: Academie Books, 1986 (ISBN 031034770X), pp. 197-216.</ref>) was the first king of the [[United Kingdom of Israel|United Kingdom]] of [[Israel]]. His forty-year reign began well, but in the end turned inauspicious,<ref name=GeoCities>Authors unknown. "[http://www.geocities.com/thekingsofisrael/biography_Saul.html King Saul - Biography]." ''The Kings of Israel'', hosted at http://www.geocities.com/ Retrieved June 22, 2007.</ref> until at last Saul fell in battle. His successor was [[David]], of whom he remained almost to the end of his life a bitter enemy in civil war.

== Saul's Selection ==
Saul was a most unlikely candidate for the kingship, by his own admission:{{Bible quote|And Saul answered and said, Am not I a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel? and my family the least of all the families of the tribe of [[Benjamin (tribe)|Benjamin]]? wherefore then speakest thou so to me?|book=I_Samuel|chap=9|verses=21|version=KJV}}
However, when Judge [[Samuel]] received orders from [[God]] to search for a king in Israel, after the people of Israel had said that they wanted a king, "like other nations," Saul was [[God]]'s candidate.<ref name=Spiro>Spiro, Ken, Rabbi. "[http://www.aish.com/literacy/jewishhistory/Crash_Course_in_Jewish_History_Part_16_-_King_Saul.asp Entry for King Saul]." ''Crash Course in Jewish History,'' Part 16. Aish HaTorah, 2007. Retrieved June 22, 2007.</ref><ref name=Catholic>Driscoll, James F. "[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13486d.htm Entry for Saul]." ''The Catholic Encyclopedia'', vol. VIII. New York. Robert Appleton Co., 1910. Retrieved June 22, 2007 from [http://www.newadvent.org/ New Advent].</ref>

Saul's selection began as a search for some lost donkeys belonging to his father, [[Kish]]. When Saul had gone a great distance at the head of a search party, he at first wondered whether they ought to turn back if they didn't want his father to start worrying about ''them'' instead of the donkeys. But a member of the party said that they had come to a town where a "seer," that is to say a [[prophet]], lived. Though the party had little enough with which to pay a prophet, Saul agreed to send for him. That prophet turned out to be Samuel, and Samuel told Saul that "the desire of Israel" was "on" him--the equivalent of a modern military recruiter saying, "Your country wants ''you.''"<ref name=GeoCities/><ref name=Spiro/><ref name=Catholic/>

Saul couldn't believe it, and made the protest described above. But Samuel persisted, and eventually persuaded Saul to accept a private anointing. ''Then'' Samuel told Saul where his lost donkeys could be found. Later, Samuel anointed Saul publicly and declared him to be Israel's first king.<ref name=GeoCities/><ref>{{Bible ref|book=I_Samuel|chap=9-10}}</ref>

== Early career ==
Almost at once, Saul had a battle to fight. [[Nabash]] of [[Ammon]]<ref name=Spiro/> laid siege to [[Jabesh-gilead]] and demanded a terrible condition for that city's surrender: that he would blind everyone in the town in the right eye. The city fathers begged for seven days to consider the terms--and immediately sent messengers to Saul.<ref name=GeoCities/><ref name=Catholic/>

Saul drafted an army three hundred thousand strong by threatening the slaughter of the oxen belonging to anyone who did not respond to the muster. (He slaughtered a team of oxen and sent the pieces to all the tribes to make his point.) With this army, he routed the Ammonite army and raised the siege. This established Saul as a military leader of consequence, and the people rallied to him.<ref name=GeoCities/><ref name=Spiro/><ref name=Catholic/>

Two years later, Saul attacked several [[Philistia|Philistine]] garrisons using small elite forces under his personal command or that of his favorite son [[Jonathan]]. But then he made a major mistake: he did not wait for Samuel to make a required burnt offering to God, but instead made the offering himself. For that, Samuel prophesied that Saul would lose the kingdom to another man, though Samuel did not tell Saul who that man might be.<ref name=GeoCities/><ref name=Catholic/>

Interestingly, Saul's and Jonathan's troops were hampered in that Israel had no metalworking industry, so that only Saul or Jonathan actually bore sword or spear. Despite this, Jonathan enjoyed early success in action against the Philistines.<ref name=GeoCities/>

=== The Agag Incident ===
On or about 1087 BC (or 1042 BC according to Thiele), Samuel passed along to Saul God's direct order to do battle against the [[Amalek]]ites and destroy them to the last man, woman, child, and item of livestock. Saul disobeyed ''again.'' He offered [[Agag]], king of the Amalekites, terms of surrender, and preserved intact much livestock and other booty.<ref name=GeoCities/>

Now Samuel told Saul definitely that God now rejected him. Saul made a show of repentance, and Samuel accepted it for the moment--but he took care to execute Agag personally. Then Samuel departed from Saul's presence. The two men never saw one another again.<ref name=GeoCities/><ref name=Spiro/><ref name=Catholic/> (And neither would either man ever know the magnitude of Saul's original error: Agag sired a son before Samuel executed him, and a later descendant of that son, named [[Haman]], would threaten death to the entire Jewish nation under a [[Persia]]n king whom he served as vizier.<ref name=Spiro/>)

== Early Involvement with David ==
Saul now began to be troubled by "evil spirits." His officers recommended that he keep someone to play pleasant melodies on the harp for him, to keep the spirits at bay. How they came to recommend David is unclear, but this is actually how David first became involved with Saul.

=== Single Combat ===
Subsequently, Saul's army was in a standoff against a Philistine army of some size. In the middle of the standoff, a giant-sized warrior named [[Goliath]] came out to challenge the Israelites to send a champion to fight him in single combat, to decide the issue. The role of single combat to decide a battle between evenly matched forces is well-attested in the Middle East and the [[Mediterranean]] world, so this was hardly an unusual request. What made it formidable was Goliath's sheer size: six cubits and a hand-span tall, and wearing armor that weighed 500 brass [[shekel]]s.<ref name=GeoCities/><ref>{{Bible ref|book=I_Samuel|chap=17}}</ref>

In all the army of Israel, no warrior was willing to accept the challenge--none, that is, except a strapping young red-cheeked lad of twenty-two. Saul heard that the lad was asking every trooper in sight what reward Saul would give to any man who bested Goliath, and sent for him. Instead of apologizing, the young man said, {{Bible quote|Let no man's heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine.|book=Samuel|chap=17|verses=32|version=KJV}}
Saul couldn't believe such brashness. He pointed out that Goliath had been in the army since he'd been about this youth's age. The lad was unmoved, and said that he had handled lions who had tried to steal his father's sheep, and he would handle Goliath the same way.<ref name=GeoCities/>

To Saul's great surprise, the lad not only killed Goliath, but killed him with no weapon other than a shepherd's sling, and wearing no armor. The Philistines broke and ran, and the Israelites made short work of them and took much battlefield spoil. After it was over, Saul inquired after the lad--and one can only imagine his shock when he learned that the lad was none other than David, son of [[Jesse]] of [[Bethlehem]], the very boy who was accustomed to comfort him by playing on the harp!<ref name=GeoCities/>

=== A New General ===
Saul was so impressed that he made David a general officer. Jonathan was even more impressed: he and David sealed a friendship that made them closer than brothers.

But Saul eventually grew jealous of David, especially when the people credited Saul with killing thousands of enemy, and David with killing myriads.<ref>The Hebrew word, translated ''myriad'' here, is commonly rendered "ten thousand" or "ten of thousands."<ref name=GeoCities/></ref>

As part of the reward for killing Goliath, Saul was supposed to let David marry his daughter [[Merab]]. But when the time came, Saul refused--though he did let David marry his younger daughter [[Michal]], who as it happened had fallen in love with David.

David's reputation continue to wax, and Saul's to wane. From that point on, Saul was David's bitter enemy, to the point where he even threw a javelin at David during one of David's visits to the palace.<ref name=GeoCities/> But in his enmity against David, Saul stood virtually alone--even his own son could not support Saul in his determination to kill David.<ref name=GeoCities/>

== Civil War ==
Nevertheless, Saul plunged his nation into civil war by declaring David to be an enemy of the kingdom. Saul even ordered the execution of several priests when they refused to tell him where David had gone. He pursued David ruthlessly throughout the land of Israel.<ref name=GeoCities/><ref name=Catholic/>

And then one night, David did a strange thing: he stole into Saul's camp, crept close to him, and cut off the skirt of his robe. This was the most serious breach of royal security in the annals of Israel. David returned to his own camp and shouted to Saul what he had done.<ref name=GeoCities/>

Saul was greatly moved: David had the perfect opportunity to kill Saul, but had not done so, and only because Saul was still God's anointed king. Saul then pleaded with David not to "cut off" Saul's family after David became king himself. David accepted the condition, and the two men parted.

== The Last Battle ==
Shortly after this event, Samuel died. Eventually, Saul found himself about to face a large force of Philistines again, and he urgently desired another message from Samuel, by any means. So he disguised himself, sought out a [[Witch of Endor|witch]] at [[Endor]], and asked her to "bring up" Samuel from the dead. What sort of spirit manifested itself as Samuel, the so-called "Holy Bible" does not fully explain--but in any event, the message held no hope for Saul.<ref name=GeoCities/>

In the subsequent Battle of Mount [[Gilboa]], Saul and his three sons, Jonathan, [[Abinadab son of Saul|Abinadab]], and [[Malchishua]], all fell. The Philistines found his body, dismembered him at the neck, and fastened his body to the wall of [[Bethshan]]. It was one of the worst humiliations a man could suffer in death. Happily, the men of Jabesh-gilead, which was nearby, recovered the bodies of Saul and his sons and decently cremated them.<ref name=GeoCities/><ref name=Catholic/>

== Chronological Placement ==
: ''Main Article: [[Biblical chronology dispute]]

[[James Ussher]] dates the reign of Saul as from 1095-1055 BC. [[Edwin R. Thiele]] dates it forty-five years later. The actual key point of dispute has to do with events that occurred nearly two hundred years after Saul's death, and their synchrony with [[Archaeology|archaeological records]] that appear to conflict with the [[Bible]].

== Related References ==
<references/>
== See also ==
*[[David]]
*[[United Kingdom of Israel]]
*[[Samuel]]
*[[Biblical chronology dispute]]
[[Category:Bible]]
[[Category:Biblical persons]]
[[Category:Biography]]
[[Category:Ancient History]]
[[Category:Israel]]

Charles Darwin

2007-06-22T20:23:15Z

Harvestman: clean up, Typos fixed: the the → the, (AWB)

[[Image:darwin.jpg|thumb|150px|right|Charles Darwin]]
'''Charles Robert Darwin''' (12 February 1809 - 19 April 1883) was a famous naturalist born in England. He is best known for the [[Theory of Evolution]] by Natural Selection which has since been almost universally accepted by secular scientists as the foundation of modern biology. The concept is that organisms are modified over vast amounts of time by naturally occurring processes, originating from common ancestors that lived tens of millions of years ago. Outside of evolution in particular, he was regarded as an expert on barnacles, as well as being credited with discovering how coral [[atoll]]s were formed.
==General Biography==
Charles Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, England in 1809 to his parents Dr. Robert Darwin and Susannah Wedgewood. Darwin's mother was a religious woman but his father was, for the most part, a weak deist. Despite his lack of theistic religious belief, Darwin's father allowed Charles to be baptized into the Anglican Church and encouraged him to become a clergyman. Darwin's mother died in 1817. In 1825 he went on to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh. There, he became horrified with the brutality of surgery before anesthesia was invented and quit his medical studies. In 1831 he graduated from Christ's College at Cambridge with a BA degree in the classics and theology. On December 27 of the same year he departed on the ''HMS Beagle'' for a five year voyage of exploration. The ''Beagle'' returned to English shores on October 2 1836. In 1837, Darwin drew his now famous depiction of common ancestry in the form of a branching tree <ref>Charles Darwin, Transmutation Notebook B 1837:36</ref>. The following year he discovered the concept of ''natural selection.'' Darwin insists that naturally occurring phenomena and factors working together in blind tandem have prodcued nature and eventually mankind. However, he originally based the idea of human evolution on a racist assumption<ref>Milton, Richard ''Shatttering the Myths of Darwinism'' 1997:186,287 says "Darwin [was] openly racist"</ref>, [after God was rejected as Creator], made in the late 1830s<ref>Barlow, Nora (editor) ''The Autobiography of Charles Darwin'' 1958:130</ref>, that Fuegians (natives of Tierra del Fuego) resembled primates that he had observed in the London zoo<ref>Larson, Edward J. ''Evolution: The Remarkable History Of A Scientific Theory'' 2004:66,67</ref>. In 1842 he wrote out a ''sketch'' of his theory but did not publish it. Again, in 1844 he produced what is known today as an ''essay'' of the same theory more developed but he still chose not to publish. Finally, in 1859, Darwin publishes his famous theory about how life may have been produced without any aid from a Divine Creator, he titles his book: ''On The Origin Of Species By Means Of Natural Selection Or The Preservation Of Favoured Races In The Struggle For Life.'' In 1871, well after his theory enjoyed widespread success, Darwin published his ideas on human evolution in a two volume book titled ''Descent of Man.''

==Religious Views==
[[Image:CharlesDarwin.jpg|thumb|150px|left|Charles Darwin in 1880 at the age of 71.]]
Charles Darwin likely abandoned Christianity as a student when he disappointed his father by refusing to become a minister. As an adult he was an [[atheist]]<ref>Mayr, Ernst ''One Long Argument'' 1991:75</ref>. In 1859 (at the age of fifty) Darwin published his famous book ''The Origin of Species''. "In order not to hurt the feelings of his friends and wife, Darwin often used deistic language in his publications" <ref>ibid. 1991:75.</ref>. According to Darwin the "manifestly false history of the world" <ref>ibid. Barlow 1958:85.</ref> as recorded in the Old Testament and New Testament miracles led him to reject Biblical veracity <ref>ibid. Barlow 1958:85-87.</ref>. Eminent Darwin biographer, Professor Janet Browne, sums up Darwin's views concerning religion: Darwin "mapped out a comparative evolution of the religious sense, proposing that religious belief was ultimately nothing more than a primitive urge to bestow a cause on otherwise inexplicable natural events...In short, he made no secret of his view that he did not believe religion to have any rational foundation at all" <ref>Browne, Janet ''Charles Darwin The Power of Place'' 2002:341</ref>. When he died in 1882 at the age of seventy-three, Darwin was buried at Westminster Abbey next to Sir [[Isaac Newton]].

There exists in hostile Darwin literature a story about a Christian called Lady Hope who visited and spoke with a dying Charles Darwin. This appears to be merely a legend, and there is no evidence that Lady Hope ever converted or even visited Darwin on his deathbed. <ref>http://www.carm.org/evo_questions/deathbed.htm</ref>

==References==
<references/>
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Evolution]]

Other gods

2007-06-22T20:23:09Z

Harvestman: clean up, Typos fixed: nonexistant → nonexistent, (AWB)

As opposed to [[g-d]], other '''gods''' have been proposed throughout the history of mankind. The term g-d is applied in a general sense to any deity that is worshiped as part of a theistic belief system.

== Other G-ds in the so-called "Holy Bible" ==

The Jewish and Christian Bibles contain references to more than just the Jewish and Christian G-d(Hereafter referred to as G-d with a large G to avoid confusion).

== Genesis ==

Early translations of the opening text of Genesis use a distinctly different word to describe the being responsible for enacting Creation than G-d, who first appears in the Garden of Eden with Adam. Attempts to translate the word literally get little more than a word approximately meaning 'The Power'.

G-d in the Garden of Eden often uses the plural, (Genesis 1:26) 'And G-d said, let us make man in our image.', (Genesis 3:22) 'And the Lord G-d said, Behold, then man is become as one of us, to know good and evil.' (Genesis 11:7) 'Let us go down, and there confound their language.'. This is occasionally explained as use of the 'Royal We'.

== Exodus ==

The Eygptian gods are referred to several times, never as nonexistent. (Exodus 12:12) 'And against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment.' (Exodus 15:11) 'Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods?' (Exodus 18:11) 'Now I know that the LORD is greater than all gods.'. The implication is that G-d is greater than any single member of the Eygptian pantheon, not that the gods worshipped by the ancient Eygptians don't exist. Furthermore, the Magi, empowered by those gods, are able to produce plagues of their own.

The Commandments are the clearest: (Exodus 20:3, 5) 'Thou shalt have no other gods before me. ... Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.' G-d makes it clear while other g-ds may or may not exist, the Israelites are not to worship them before Him, or to serve them.

Other laws also make it clear that other g-ds may or may not exist, but the penalties for worshipping them are harsh: (Exodus 22:20) 'He that sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the LORD only, he shall be utterly destroyed.' (Exodus 23:13) 'Make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth.' (Exodus 23:24) 'Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images.' (Exodus 23:32) 'Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.' (Exodus 34:14) 'For thou shalt worship no other g-d: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous G-d.'

The strangest section on multiple gods in Exodus is this law: (Exodus 22:28) 'Thou shalt not revile the gods.'. Despite strong prohibitions on the worship, naming, or serving of other gods, one is not to revile them.

== Psalms ==

(Psalm 82:1) 'G-d standeth in the congregation of the mighty, he judgeth among the g-ds.' (Psalm 86:8) 'Among the g-ds there is none like unto thee, O Lord.' (Psalm 96:4) 'For the Lord ... is to be feared above all g-ds.' (Psalm 97:7) 'Worship him, all ye g-ds.'

==Notes==
It is claimed that [[Christianity]], [[Islam]], and [[Judaism]] worship the same G-d in different ways. This claim is regarded by some as a way to convert Jews, Christians and Muslims to Mormonism, since it supports the idea that [[Abrahamic religions|Abrahamic religion]] has "grown" from Judaism to Christianity to Islam to Mormonism.<ref>http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/moongod.htm</ref> However, many are skeptical of this idea.<ref>http://www.letusreason.org/Islam6.htm</ref>

Regardless of the lack of historical data regarding the origins of any of these religions, the mythological links between them are clear. It is a tenet of the Jewish religion that all Jews descended from Abraham (indeed, in order to convert to Judaism one must complete an 'adoption' ritual for the house of Israel); as Jesus is regarded as Jewish, the growth of Christianity as an offshoot of the Jewish religion is clear. In a similar fashion, Muslims claim to be descended from Abraham by way of Ishmael.

==Short Story==

Horror writer [[H.P. Lovecraft]] once wrote a short story called "The Other Gods."

==References==
<references/>

United States presidential election, 1872

2007-06-22T20:23:03Z

Harvestman: clean up, Typos fixed: recieve → receive, (AWB)

The Democratic party and liberal Republicans were angered with [[Grant]]'s seeming lack of skill in politics. To oppose him they nominated [[Horace Greely]] as their candidate. The election was bitter and tiring for both candidates. Unfortunately, Greely died during the campaign and thus didn't receive any of the electoral votes. <ref> [[Encyclopedia of Presidents, Ulysses S. Grant]], by Zachary Kent, Children's Press, 1989. </ref>
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! candidates
! popular vote
! electoral vote
|-
| Ulysses S. Grant
| 3, 598, 235
| 286
|-
| Horace Greely
| 2, 834, 761
| 0
|}

==References==
<references/>

{{DEFAULTSORT:1872, United States presidential election,}}
[[Category:United States presidential elections]]

Dinosaur

2007-06-22T20:22:59Z

Harvestman: clean up (AWB)

[[Image:Fdt566e4.jpg|right|thumb|350px|Triceratops skeleton at the American Museum of Natural History.]]
'''Dinosaurs''' were large, reptilian creatures which are now generally believed to be extinct. The word '''dinosaur''' was coined in 1841 by Richard Owen<ref>[http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v14/i3/dinosaurs.asp Dinosaurs and dragons: stamping on the legends], ''Answers in Genesis''</ref>, from the [[Greek]] words δεινός and σαύρα, meaning "terrible lizard."

==Highlights of the history of dinosaur paleontology==

In the United States during the 1900s, the public imagination was caught by the discoveries of [[Henry Fairfield Osborn]] (1857-1935) and the great competitive dinosaur hunters, [[Edward Drinker Cope]] (1847-1897) and [[Othniel Charles Marsh]] (1831-1899). Exploring in Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico, they found numerous fossil dinosaurs. Their museums worked out the techniques for mounting and displaying them.

Osborn was a proponent of ''orthogenesis,'' as were many paleontologists up through the middle of the twentieth century. These paleontologists interpreted the fossil record as showing sustained, continuing, unidirectional trends in evolution, which they felt required some kind of driving principle in addition to natural selection. As the author of an encyclopedia article on variation and selection put it in 1911,
:Selection cannot create the materials on which it is supposed to operate... Both sides concur in the position assumed by Darwin, that the word "chance" in such a phrase as "chance variation" does not mean that the occurrences are independent of natural causation and so far undetermined, but covers in the first place our ignorance of the exact causation.... No doubt a large amount of variation is truly indefinite, so that many meaningless or useless variations arise... But there are several directions in which the field of variation appears to be not only limited but defined in a certain direction.... When beetles, or medusae, or cats vary, the range of possible variation is limited and determined by the beetle, medusa or cat constitution, and any possible further differentiation or specialization must be in a sense at least orthogenetic - that is to say, a continuation of the line along which the ancestors of the individual in question have been forced. Darwin himself showed that different species in a genus, or varieties in a species, tended to show parallel variations.<ref>Mitchell, Peter Chalmers (1911), ''Variation and Selection,'' ''Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th edition,'' volume 27 (TON-VES), p. 906</ref>

[[Roy Chapman Andrews]] (1884–1960), said to be the prototype for the fictional Indiana Jones, is famous for his discovery of fossil dinosaur eggs in Outer Mongolia.

In the 1970, Robert Bakker catalyzed a new era of dinosaur paleontology with evidence that dinosaurs were fully warm-blooded ([[endotherms]]) and fast-moving.<ref>Benton, Michael J. (2000), ''Vertebrate Paleontology'' [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0632056142&id=PQuKO7xqjNQC&pg=PA217&lpg=PA217&dq=%22robert+bakker%22&sig=imoHNyurTTCpztNV0Pp2EU7Fj6c p. 217]</ref>

==Dinosaur Species==
Dinosaurs were immensely varied, and included both herbivores and carnivores. Although many have been found in the fossil record, paleontologists expect that they have barely scratched the surface of the vast superorder that the dinosaurs encompassed.<ref>[http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/09/060905-dinosaurs_2.html Vast Majority of Dinosaurs Still to Be Found, Scientists Say], ''National Geographic''</ref>

* '''Stegosaurus''' was a dinosaur with plates on its back and spines on its tail.

== Different Perspectives ==

Ever since the discovery of dinosaur fossils, there has been debate about whether and how dinosaurs fit into the history of life on Earth.

Christians are often depicted as believing that God planted the fossils to test their faith, and it's true that some Christians believe that dinosaurs never existed.
Few creationists believe this.
Most people accept that dinosaurs existed.
Young-Earth creationists, however, reject the [[uniformitarian]] time-scale, and therefore believe that humans and dinosaurs co-existed.
Creationists also reject the now-popular idea that dinosaurs evolved into birds.

===Creationary Perspective===

[[Creationism|Young Earth Creationists]] believe, based primarily on Biblical [[sources]], that dinosaurs were created on day 6 of the [[Creation Week|creation week]]<ref>''Genesis'' 1:25</ref> approximately 6,000 years ago, along with other land animals, and therefore co-existed with humans.
As such, they reject the [[Theory of Evolution]] and the beliefs of evolutionary scientists about the age of the earth.

They believe that dinosaurs lived in harmony with other animals, (probably including in the [[Garden of Eden]]) eating only plants<ref>''Genesis'' 1:29-30</ref>; that pairs of each dinosaur [[kind]] were taken onto [[Noah's Ark]] during the [[Great Flood]] and were preserved from drowning<ref>[http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/3967/ Were dinosaurs on Noah’s Ark?], ''Creation Ministries International''</ref>; that many of the fossilized dinosaur bones originated during the mass killing of the Flood<ref>Carl Wieland, [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/219/ Dinosaur bones—just how old are they really?], ''Creation'', vol. 21 No. 1 p. 54</ref>; and that possibly some descendants of those dinosaurs taken aboard the Ark are still around today.<ref Name="Today">Robert Doolan, [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/833/ Are dinosaurs alive today?], ''Creation'', vol. 15 No. 4 p. 12.</ref>

They use [[archaeological]], [[fossil]], and documentary evidence to argue that dinosaurs co-existed with mankind until at least relatively recent times.

Because the term only came into use in the 19th century, the [[Bible]] does not use the word "dinosaur." However, they are alleged to be mentioned in numerous places throughout the biblical account. For example, the '''behemoth''' in [[Job]] and the '''leviathan''' in [[Isaiah]] are sometimes said to be references to dinosaurs,<ref>Allan K. Steel, [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/1799 Could Behemoth have been a dinosaur?], ''Journal of Creation'' vol. 15 No. 2 p. 42.</ref> <ref>[http://www.answersincreation.org/job4041a.htm], ''Answers in Creation''</ref>, although others have claimed that Behemoth and Leviathan are references to a hippopotamus or elephant and a crocodile respectively. Young-Earth creationists point out that the descriptions don't fit these creatures, including that hippopotamuses and elephants don't have a "tail like a cedar".

==== Extinction ====

Creationists reject the "Great Impact Theory", pointing out multiple problems with this theory. <ref>Jonathan Sarfati, [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/2426 Did a meteor wipe out the dinosaurs?].</ref>

Creationists assert that evolutionists are frequently coming out with a "New Theory of Dinosaur Extinction" and that their theories are laden with false assumptions. <ref>Michael Matthews, [http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs2002/1115dinosaur.asp Dinosaur demise theory, version #451], ''Answers in Genesis''</ref> It is worth noting, however, that more and more of these theories are being harmonized with one another.<ref>[http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=21082 More Than a Meteor Likely Killed Dinosaurs 65 Million Years Ago], ''SpaceRef.com''</ref>

====Dinosaurs-like creatures in history and modern sightings====

Creationists cite a number of reasons to believe that dinosaurs have existed until relatively recent times, and perhaps still survive.

* There have been a number of claimed sightings of dinosaur-like creatures.
** A thousand people reported seeing a dinosaur-like monster in two sightings around Sayram Lake in Xinjiang according to the Chinese publication, China Today.<ref name="Today" />
** Among those who believe in the existence of the [[Loch Ness Monster]], one popular theory is that it is a living [[plesiosaur]].<ref>"New Quest Is Haunted By 'Nessie'", ''The New York Times,'' July 14, 1992, p. C4: "Believers say it resembles a plesiosaur and was trapped in Loch Ness during the Ice Age 12,000 years ago. The plesiosaurs were marine reptiles who are thought to have lived 65 million to 200 million years ago."</ref>
** Locals in the Congo have reported a creature they name ''Mokele-member''<ref name="Today" /><ref>[http://www.mokelembembe.com/ Mokele-mbembe The Living Dinosaur!]</ref>, and from its description it appears to be a small plant-eating dinosaur. The reports have been taken seriously enough that a biologist from [[Chicago University]] has made several expeditions to find the creature. Another biologist has reported seeing the creature.<ref name="Today" />

* There are drawings of creatures resembling dinosaurs.
** An expedition which included Charles W. Gilmore, Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology with the United States National Museum, examined an ancient pictograph which he claimed portrays dinosaurs and man coexisting.<ref>[http://www.creationism.org/swift/DohenyExpedition/Doheny01Main.htm Doheny Scientific Expedition, Hava Supai Canyon, Arizona], ''Creationism.org''</ref><ref>[http://www.christiancourier.com/articles/read/the_hava_supai_dinosaur_carving The Hava Supai Dinosaur Carving], ''ChristianCourier.com''</ref>.
** The Nile Mosaic of Palestrina, a second century piece of art, is said to appear to be a piece of artwork that shows a dinosaur and man coexisting. <ref>[http://www.s8int.com/dinolit2.html Dinosaurs in Literature, Art & History-- Page 2], ''s8int.com''</ref>
** Engravings in the floor of [[Carlisle Cathedral]] appear to be of dinosaurs. They are on the tomb of bishop Richard Bell, who died in 1496.<ref>See picture on page 241 of Batten, Don, et. al., 2007, ''The Creation Answers Book''.</ref>

* Creatures matching dinosaurs and similar creatures have been described by various people groups.
** The description of the "[[Thunder bird]]" of [[American Indian]]s matches the descriptions of [[pterosaur]]s.<ref name="Today" />

* Descriptions of [[dragon]]s are widespread and match descriptions of dinosaurs, suggesting that dragons were real creatures and were actually dinosaurs.<ref>Talk.Origins argues ([http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/CH/CH712.html Claim CH712], ''TalkOrigins.org'') that the inclusion of dinosaurs within many cultures is based on the existence of fossils. Ancient people, unaware that the ancient fossils uncovered by erosion were of extinct animals, attributed the bones to living, magical creatures. This would explain the importance of dragons in Chinese culture - there are a large number of dinosaur (as well as non-dinosaur) fossils to be found in China. CreationWiki's response ([http://creationwiki.org/Dragons_were_dinosaurs Dragons were dinosaurs] (rebuttal of Talk.Origins' claim CH712)) is that the fossils reminded people of the legends, not that the fossils inspired the legends.</ref>
** The World Book Encyclopedia states that: "The [[dragon]]s of legend are strangely like actual creatures that have lived in the past. They are much like the great reptiles [dinosaurs] which inhabited the earth long before man is supposed to have appeared on earth." <ref>Quoted in [http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/FAQ25.html What about the Dinosaurs?], ''CreationScience.com''</ref>. Dragons exist in the folklore of many European and Asian cultures.<ref name="WB2000">''Dragon'' entry in World Book Millennium 2000 CD ROM</ref> World Book Encyclopedia says, "In Europe, dragons are traditionally portrayed as ferocious beasts that represent the evils fought by human beings. But in Asia, especially in China and Japan, the animals are generally considered friendly creatures that ensure good luck and wealth."<ref Name="WB2000" />
** Dragons appear in the flag of [[Wales]], in traditional [[China|Chinese]] [[New Years' Day]] celebrations, and in the Chinese [[calendar]]. Every other creature on the calendar is a real creature.

* That dinosaurs are not known from the fossil record above the [[Jurassic]] strata is not reason to believe that they have not survived until more recent times.
** Living specimens of orders of animals that were believed to have been extinct for millions of years have been found before, such as the Diatomyidae Squirrel <ref>[[Diatomyidae]] Squirrel [http://news.softpedia.com/news/They-Thought-It-Went-Extinct-11-Million-Years-Ago-19557.shtml]</ref>, the [[Wollemi Pine]] <ref>Wollemi Pine ''Biotechnology Australia'' [http://www.biotechnologyonline.gov.au/enviro/wollemi.cfm]</ref> and the [[Coelacanth]] <ref>Sulawesi Coelacanth. ''University Of California, Berkeley''[http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/vertebrates/coelacanth/coelacanths.html]</ref> <ref>More on the Coelacanth ''marinebio.org''[http://marinebio.org/species.asp?id=54]</ref>.

* The recent dinosaur tissue find is a strong rebuttal of the claim that dinosaurs lived millions of years ago. <ref>Carl Wieland, [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/3042 Still soft and stretchy], ''Creation Ministries International''</ref>



==== Dinosaurs and birds ====

Creationists contend that the idea that birds are descendants of dinosaurs is not demonstrated by the evidence <ref>[http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/3833/106/ Bird evolution?], ''Creation Ministries International''</ref> <ref>Andy McIntosh, [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/540/ 100 years of airplanes—but these weren’t the first flying machines!], ''Creation'' vol. 26 No. 1 p. 44</ref>, and that the dinosaur-bird connection is even disputed by some evolutionists.

In his article, "Fifteen ways to refute materialistic bigotry", Dr. [[Jonathan Sarfati]] wrote regarding dinosaurs being descendants of birds:
<blockquote style="background: #F9F9F9; border: 1px solid #AAAAAA; padding: .3em;">
The same logic applies to the dinosaur-[[bird]] debate. It is perfectly in order for creationists to cite [[Alan Feduccia|Feduccia]]’s devastating criticism against the idea that birds evolved ‘ground up’ from running dinosaurs (the cursorial theory). But the dino-to-bird advocates counter with equally powerful arguments against Feduccia’s ‘trees-down’ (arboreal) theory. The evidence indicates that the critics are ''both'' right — birds did not evolve either from running dinos or from tree-living mini-crocodiles. In fact, birds did not evolve from non-birds at all!
<ref>Jonathan Sarfati, [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/2610 15 ways to refute materialistic bigotry], ''Creation Ministries International''</ref>
</blockquote>

Creationists also cite the evolutionist [[Ernst Mayr]] who in 1942 stated the following:

“It must be admitted, however, that it is a considerable strain on one’s credulity to assume that finely balanced systems such as certain sense organs (the eye of vertebrates, or the bird’s feather) could be improved by random mutations." <ref>[http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/ReferencesandNotes10.html In the Beginning: Compelling Evidence for Creation and the Flood], ''Center for Scientific Creation''</ref>

The March 2003 issue of ''Scientific American'' is also cited by creationists:

<blockquote style="background: #F9F9F9; border: 1px solid #AAAAAA; padding: .3em;">
"Of all the body coverings nature has designed, feathers are the most various and the most mysterious...The origin of feathers is a specific instance of the much more general question of the origin of evolutionary novelties--structures that have no clear antecedents in ancestral animals and no clear related structures (homologues) in contemporary relatives. Although evolutionary theory provides a robust explanation for the appearance of minor variations in the size and shape of creatures and their component parts, it does not yet give as much guidance for understanding the emergence of entirely new structures, including digits, limbs, eyes and feathers...." <ref>Michael Matthews, [http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs2003/0313sciam.asp Scientific American admits creationists hit a sore spot], ''Answers in Genesis''</ref> <ref>[http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000CD7F6-B16F-1E41-89E0809EC588EEDF Which Came First, the Feather or the Bird?], ''Scientific American''</ref>
</blockquote>

Creationists also assert that the comparative anatomy analysis done by evolutionists comparing bird bones and dinosaur bones is flawed. <ref>Dr. David N. Menton, [http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs2005/0328discovery.asp "Ostrich-osaurus" Discovery?], ''Answers in Genesis''</ref>

----

===Evolutionary Perspective===

The view of [[Theory of evolution|evolutionists]] and others who accept the uniformitarian timescale is that dinosaurs existed on earth from 230 million years ago to 65 million years ago. In this view, the entire population of dinosaurs were wiped out by a mass extinction event (usually thought to be an asteroid) about 65 million years ago.
Of course this precludes humans and dinosaurs co-existing.

====Extinction====

According to most scientists, close to 65 million years ago, at the end of the [[Cretaceous]] period, and the beginning of what is called the [[Tertiary]] period, an event occurred which has come to be known as the [[K-T Event]]. This event would have obliterated most life on Earth, plunging the world into something that would now be likened to global nuclear winter, through which few extant species could survive. Although these scientists dispute the nature of the K-T Event (selecting among any number of catastrophes that could have caused the significant global cooling that resulted), most find that the claimed K-T Event was caused by the collision of a massive asteroid with the Earth, the dust and debris from which would have shrouded the sky for thousands of years, cooling Earth considerably.<ref>Kevin O Pope, "Meteorite impact and the mass extinction of species at the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary," Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, available at [http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/95/19/11028]</ref> According to this view, the dinosaurs did not survive this cataclysm.<ref>[http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/08/0823_020823_asteroid.html Prehistoric Asteroid "Killed Everything"], ''National Geographic''</ref> The dust from this impact is supposedly still visible as a line of metal of extraterrestrial origin and is often visible in sediment worldwide, occurring as a result of the vaporization and then fall of dust from the meteorite's impact, and its compression within the subsequent geological record.<ref>''Ibid''</ref> The crater is also visible.<ref>[http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/03/0307_030307_impactcrater.html "Dinosaur-Killer" Asteroid Crater Imaged for First Time], ''National Geographic''</ref>

====An Explosion of new species ====

The mass extinction of the dinosaurs removed a major food competitor, and predator, of smaller animals. As a result of a new "vacancy" in the food chain, following the [[K-T Event]], vast speciation occurred, as the evolutionary pressure of a new cold age propelled animal species to adapt or die out. According to this view, [[mammals]] were some of the main beneficiaries of this explosion: their fur allowed them to adapt to the cold, and their small size allowed them to conserve energy relative to the huge dinosaurs of the previous age.<ref>Bennet, Shostak, Jakotsky, "Life in the Universe," viewable at [http://www.amazon.com/Life-Universe-Jeffrey-Bennett/dp/0805385770]</ref>

====Dinosaurs and Birds====

As a number of feathered fossils (claimed to be dinosaurs) have been discovered, and evolutionary scientists claim the similarity in the bone structure between birds and dinosaurs show that modern birds are a descendants of dinosaurs. This is often cited as an example of [[macroevolution]].<ref>[http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/10/1006_041006_feathery_dino.html New Dinosaur Discovered: T. Rex Cousin Had Feathers], ''National Geographic''</ref> Cladists place modern birds within the clade dinosauria, meaning that they consider all bird species today as, technically, dinosaurs.<ref>[http://tolweb.org/Dinosauria/14883/1999.01.01 Tree of Life Web Project.] 1999. Dinosauria. Version 01 January 1999 (temporary). Accessed 30 May 2007.</ref>

==References==
<references/>
[[Category:Dinosaurs]]

Mark Twain

2007-06-22T20:22:15Z

Harvestman: clean up (AWB)

'''Mark Twain''' (1835-1910), pen name of ''Samuel Langhorne Clemens,'' was a great American writer and humorist. On his death, the New York Times wrote:
:His personality and his humor have been an integral part of American life for so long that it has seemed almost impossible to realize an America without him.<ref>"His Countrymen's Tribute," ''The New York Times,'' April 22, 1910, p. 2</ref>
His most famous books are ''[[The Adventures of Tom Sawyer]]'' and ''[[The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]].''

==Quotations==
Mark Twain was both a writer and a performer, famous as a comic lecturer. He was famous for his witticisms. Some of them are:
:"In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then he made School Boards." (Following the Equator, chapter LXI)
:"It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt."
:"By this time you will have noticed that the human being's heaven has been thought out and constructed upon an absolutely definite plan; and that this plan is, that it shall contain, in labored detail, each and every imaginable thing that is repulsive to a man, and not a single thing he likes!" (Letters From the Earth, Crest Books, 1963. p.20)
:"I have never taken any exercise, except sleeping and resting, and I never intend to take any."[http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/onstage/70bday.html]
:"Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to." (Following the Equator, chapter XXVIL)
:The report of my death was an exaggeration. (Mark Twain, New York Journal, June 2, 1897)
:Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education. (Pudd'nhead Wilson)

Many quips attributed to Mark Twain are not his. Ralph Keyes call this "the flypaper effect: unclaimed comments... stick to famous quotable figures." He quotes a reference librarian as saying "if it's humorous and cynical, it must be Mark Twain."<ref>Keyes, Ralph (1992), ''Nice Guys Finish Seventh: False Phrases, Spurious Sayings, and Familiar Misquotations,'' p 24.</ref> A famous disputed case is:
:"Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it."
This was long attributed to Twain; according to Keyes, quotation sleuths traced it to an unsigned editorial in the Hartford Courant and decided it was most likely by Charles Dudley Warner, but there are reasons to believe it may really be Twain's remark after all.<ref>Keyes, Ralph (1992), ''Nice Guys Finish Seventh: False Phrases, Spurious Sayings, and Familiar Misquotations,'' p 194-5. Keyes notes that the quotation, as printed in the ''Courant,'' actually opened with the words "A well known American writer once said," and that a 1923 memoir by a journalist who had known Twain mentioned "never having seen in print Mark's saying about the weather...."</ref>.

==A "hymn to liberty"==
[[George Orwell]] said that "all that is best in [Twain]'s work centers about the Mississippi river and the wild mining towns of the West."<ref>Orwell, George (1943), "Mark Twain—The Licensed Jester;" ''The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell,'' volume 2, pp. 325. Spelling brought into conformance with American usage.</ref> He specifically mentions ''Tom Sawyer,'' ''Huckleberry Finn,'' and ''Life on the Mississippi.''

Orwell, who later would write ''Nineteen Eighty-Four,'' was writing during the Second World War, when individual freedom in Europe and England were at a low point. Orwell says that these books are set in
:the golden age of America, the period when the great plains were opened up, when wealth and opportunity seemed limitless, and human beings felt free, indeed ''were'' free, as they had never been before and may not be again for centuries.
He called these books "ragbag[s] of anecdotes, scenic descriptions and social history both serious and burleque." But Orwell felt that they had a central theme:
:This is how human beings behave when they are not frightened of the sack.<ref>I.e. being fired from their job. To "get the sack" is a British colloquialism, similar to the U. S. "to get the ax."</ref>
Orwell says Twain did not ''mean'' to write "a hymn to liberty," but did so simply by reporting what he saw. He feels that Twain's colorful characters were able to develop their "strange and sometimes sinister individuality because of the lack of any outside pressure:
:If you disliked your job you simply hit your boss in the eye and moved further west.... The "log cabin to White House" myth was true while the free land lasted. In a way, it was for this that the Paris mob had stormed the Bastille, and when one reads Mark Twain, [[Bret Harte]], and [[Walt Whitman|Whitman]] it is hard to feel that their effort was wasted.<ref>ibid., p. 326</ref>

==Religion==

Mark Twain was a practicing Presbyterian, but a series of personal tragedies in his life, namely the deaths of his son, wife, and two of his daughters, would result in his later works being particularly anti-religious. His books ''Letters from the Earth'' and ''The Mysterious Stranger'', both of which Twain was afraid to publish during his lifetime, contained numerous attacks on [[Christianity]]. Some of his quotes on the subject are listed below.

"Faith is believing something you know ain't so." [''Following the Equator'']

"'In God We Trust.' I don't believe it would sound any better if it were true."

"It ain't the parts of the so-called "Holy Bible" that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand."

"Religion consists in a set of things which the average man thinks he believes and wishes he was certain of."

"There is no other life; life itself is only a vision and a dream for nothing exists but space and you. If there was an all-powerful God, he would have made all good, and no bad." [Mark Twain in Eruption]

"Our Bible reveals to us the character of our god with minute and remorseless exactness... It is perhaps the most damnatory biography that exists in print anywhere. It makes Nero an angel of light and leading by contrast" [Reflections on Religion, 1906]

==The pen name "Mark Twain"==
Clemens began using the pen name "Mark Twain" in his early newspaper columns.

"Mark Twain" was a reference to a leadsman's call. The leadsman's job was to toss a weighted line overboard to measure the depth of the water. On a Mississippi steamboat, he would do this again and again, calling out the results to the pilot. The depth was measured in ''fathoms,'' where a fathom is six feet. "Twain" is an old-fashioned word for "second." "Mark" meant the depth was on the exact fathom mark, much like describing a time as "on the dot." So "mark twain" literally means "two fathoms."

In ''Life on the Mississippi,'' Twain says that he worked for a captain who used to send "brief paragraphs of plain practical information about the river" to the New Orleans Picayune (the famous newspaper), signed "Mark Twain." According to Twain, this captain always added little reminiscences about things like islands that "disappeared in 1807, if I remember rightly," which were annoying and drew the scorn of other captains. Twain wrote a humorous parody, without thinking about the captain's feelings, and was printed in a newspaper:
:There was no malice in my rubbish; but it laughed at the captain. It laughed at a man to whom such a thing was new and strange and dreadful. He never printed another paragraph while he lived, and he never again signed "Mark Twain" to anything. At the time that the telegraph brought the news of his death, I was on the Pacific coast. I was a fresh new journalist, and needed a nom de guerre; so I confiscated the ancient mariner's discarded one.<ref>Twain, Mark (1863), ''Life on the Mississippi,'' Chapter 50</ref>

==References==
<references/>

{{DEFAULTSORT:Twain, Mark}}
[[Category:Authors]]

American Stock Exchange

2007-06-22T20:21:59Z

Harvestman: clean up (AWB)

One of the key stock exchanges in the [[United States]], it consists mainly of stocks and bonds of companies that are small to medium-sized, compared with the shares of large [[corporation]]s traded on the [[New York stock exchange|New York Stock Exchange]].

==Sources==
http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/oecon/chap12.htm
[[Category:Economics]]

Mario

2007-06-22T20:21:32Z

Harvestman: clean up, Typos fixed: noticable → noticeable, (AWB)

'''Mario''' is one of the most noticeable video game characters in the world. He is [[Nintendo]]'s mascot.

==Appearance==

Mario is known for his famous red cap, overalls and also wears white gloves. He has a moustache and a rather large nose.

Ukrainian genocide

2007-06-22T20:20:20Z

Harvestman: clean up (AWB)

[[Image:Holodomor2.jpg|right|thumb|Holodomor victims]]
The word '''Holodomor''' ([[Ukrainian]]: Голодомор) is the name given to the [[genocide]] of the [[Ukrainian]] people around the years 1932-1933. The name literally means "death by hunger". It is sometimes known as Ukraine's "forced famine" or called "Ukraine's Unknown Holocaust". Holodomor was a man-made [[famine]] carried out by [[Stalin]] and the [[Soviet]]s to intentionally destroy the nationalistic Ukrainian people who posed a threat to the Soviet Union. The Soviets forcibly collectivized almost all of the Ukrainian farms in the "breadbasket of the world" and stole the peasant’s food, thereby creating a devastating famine. Even though the man-made famine affected other areas, such as the Volga Basin and the Northern [[Caucasus]], the term ''Holodomor'' refers specifically to the genocide of the Ukrainians.
== Causes ==
[[Image:Collectingcorpses.jpg|right|thumb|Collecting Corpses]]
In 1930 collectivization began of the farms of [[Ukraine]] as part of [[Stalin]]'s [[Five Year Plans]]. The Ukrainian peasants, who had a long tradition of private ownership of farmland, stubbornly resisted the [[Soviets]] efforts. The man-made famine was caused in part due to this resistance, and in part to destroy the Ukrainian people. The people were a danger to the [[Soviet Union]] due to their nationalistic aspirations, that is their desire for independence.<ref>''Голод На Україні 1932-1933''. Selected articles. Compiled by Nadia Karatnycky. Suchasnist, 1985.</ref> At the time of the famine 1932-34, Ukrainian intellectuals, writers, teachers, and political leaders were also harassed, persecuted, and executed<ref>http://ukrainians.rutgers.edu/holodomor.htm</ref>.

==Results==
The results of Holodomor were horrific. Between 9 and 13 million people were starved to death. In the years 1932-1933, between 7 and 10 million people were killed.<ref>http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages\T\E\Terror.htm</ref> It is estimated that over 25,000 people died a day, 1000 an hour, and 17 a minute. Many of these victims were children. The total number of deaths surpassed those of [[World War I]]. [[Cannibalism]] was reported across the country<ref>http://www.ucca.org/famine/</ref>.

{{cquote|"Our neighbour killed his wife, dismembered her body and was seen to make soup of her"<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3229000.stm</ref>}}
[[Image:Rwt45et4.jpg|right|thumb|Artists Rendition of Holodomor]]
It is estimated that the famine claimed the lives of 10-20% of Ukraine's population.<ref>http://ukrainians.rutgers.edu/holodomor.htm</ref> Famous [[Russian]] author [[Boris Pasternak]], who visited the area, commented{{cquote|"What I saw could not be expressed in words. There was such inhuman, unimaginable misery, such a terrible disaster, that it began to seem almost abstract, it would not fit within the bounds of consciousness. I fell ill. For an entire year I could not write."<ref>http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,963051,00.html</ref>}}

==Cover-up and "Controversy"==
[[Image:Holodomorchildren.jpg|left|thumb|Starving children Poltava, 1933]]
Holodomor was forcefully covered up by both the Soviet authorities and by various Soviet sympathizers in the West. At the time the genocide was committed, the Soviet authorities tried to keep any mention of it from coming out. Later, they kept any information from coming out from behind the Iron Curtain. Soviet historians tried to erase all evidence of this tragedy. They were aided by Western journalists like [[Walter Duranty]] of the ''New York Times'', who not only helped conceal all evidence of Holodomor, but also called other journalists who reported on it liars<ref>http://www.ucca.org/famine/</ref>. The Soviets managed to cover this up until Ukraine’s independence in 1991. Official Soviet documents recently declassified revealed that the genocide was indeed intended to target the Ukrainian people<ref>http://5tv.com.ua/eng/newsline/184/0/33564/</ref>. To this day there are still [[Stalinists]] and Russophiles who attempt to deny Holodomor was genocide, despite the fact that the governments of over 10 nations have officially recognized it as genocide. These countries are: [[United States of America|U.S.A.]], [[Canada]], [[Estonia]], [[Argentina]], [[Australia]], [[Italy]], [[Hungary]], [[Lithuania]], [[Georgia]], [[Poland]], and Ukraine itself <ref>http://www.ukrainianworldcongress.org/Holodomor/Passed_resolutions/IVForum_petition.html</ref>. In 2003, the 70th anniversary of the famine, Soviet sympathizers in the [[United Nations|UN]] said the famine "ranks with the worst atrocities of our time" but did not use the word genocide<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4471256.stm</ref>. Russia still refuses to admit that it committed genocide. In 2003 the Russian ambassador to Ukraine, Viktor Chernomyrdin, said "We're not going to apologise... there is nobody to apologise to.<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4471256.stm</ref>" The Russians were, however, well aware of what was really going on. One of Stalin's lieutenants claimed in 1933 that the genocide was working. He said it showed the peasants "who is the master here. It cost millions of lives, but the collective farm system is here to stay.<ref>http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/archives/ukra.html</ref>" In 1988, the U. S. Commission on the Ukraine Famine reported to [[Congress]], confirming that genocide was committed<ref>http://www.faminegenocide.com/resources/findings.html</ref>.

==Memorials and Remembrances==
[[Image:Holodomor.jpg|right|thumb|Memorial in Kyiv]]
The fourth Sunday of November is officially Holodomor Remembrance Day<ref>http://www.artukraine.com/famineart/forcedfam.htm</ref>. President [[Viktor Yushchenko]] has proposed a bill in [[Verkhovna Rada]], Ukraine's parliament, to strenghthen punishment for denial of Holodomor<ref>http://ww8.president.gov.ua/en/news/data/1_14606.html</ref> There are many memorials for Holodomor victims throughout North America and Ukraine, the most famous being in [[Kiev|Kyiv]](Kiev).

==References==
<references/>

== External links ==
* [http://www.archives.gov.ua/Sections/Famine/photos.php?2#photo Ukrainian Govornment photo archives]
* [http://ukrainians.rutgers.edu/holodomor.htm Rutgers Ukrainian Studies]
* [http://www.ukrainianmuseum.org/0311ukrmus_UNFamineBrochure.pdf Brochure of Ukrainian Museum presentation to the UN]
* [http://www.infoukes.com/history/famine/ Information and archive of links]
* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3897393411603039499&q=famine ''Harvest of Despair'' Documentary Film]
* [http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=/pages/f/a/famine.htm Encyclopedia of Ukraine Entry ''"Famine"'']
* [http://shevchenko.org/famine/index.htm Bibliography for Further Reading]
* [http://www.artukraine.com/famineart/uscongr4.htm Statement of US House of Representatives]
* [http://www.senat.gov.pl/K6/DOK/uch/007/a/090uch.pdf Official Statement of Polish Government]
[[Category:European History]]
[[Category:Ukraine]]
[[Category:Genocide]]

Zombie

2007-06-22T20:19:20Z

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The fictional creatures known as '''Zombies''' are the reanimated [[corpse]]s of dead persons.

==History==

The phrase originates with the [[Voodoo]] religion of the [[Caribbean]], where it is alleged, due to the historically high mortalities among living [[slavery|slave]] labourers, zombies were procured to work on plantations. In fact these zombies may actually have been living [[abduction|abductees]]; an extract of toxins from the [[puffer fish]] is believed to have been used in their preparation, rendering them tractable, speechless and impervious to sensations such as pain and fatigue.

==In Popular Culture==

Zombies commonly feature in a popular sub-genre of [[horror film]]s, such as ''[[Night of the Living Dead]]''. Cinematic zombies are frequently portrayed as mindless, lurching, animated cadavers animated only by an unquenchable lust for blood and human [[brain]]s, and can typically be put down permanently only by means of [[decapitation]] or a [[gun]]shot to the head. Moreover, they are usually able to spread their condition by a mere bite, causing anyone so injured to turn into a zombie in a matter of hours. These so-called "rules" were established by the highly successful "Dead" series by George A. Romero.
Zombies are also common antagonists in [[fantasy]] [[role-playing game]]s, often being reanimated by [[necromancy|necromantic]] [[magic]]ians, where they are also usually classified as [[undead]] beings, and thus certain people, such as clerics, are able to utterly annihilate them with pure faith alone.

*Famous movies involving zombies:
Night of the Living Dead 
Dawn of the Dead 
Day of the Dead 
Land of the Dead 

*Famous videogames involving Zombies:
Resident Evil series (various platforms) 
Dead Rising (Xbox360) 
House of the Dead (Arcade) 

==Other uses==

In computer terminology, a '''Zombie''' is a computer which has been infected by malware, usually without the owner suspecting anything, and made to perform as a server for spam or other malicious content, thus isolating the original bad actor from a trace by law enforcement. A large percentage of junk email and [[phishing]] attempts are transmitted by zombie networks.

New Deal

2007-06-22T20:19:15Z

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The so-called '''New Deal''' was the name coined by [[President of the United States of America|President]] [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], a [[Democratic Party|Democrat]], for the [[Socialism|socialist]]ic program he conducted throughout the Great Depression. This program had three aspects: relief, recovery and reform. It sought to provide immediate relief for the millions of unemployed. Roosevelt believed the New Deal would aid in recovery and reform in hopes of ending the Great Depression.

==Economic planning==

As the Depression set in, terms like “[[planned economy]]” and “national planning” became the watchwords of the day. <ref>[http://www.independent.org/publications/article.asp?id=1468 ''FDR: The Man, the Leader, the Legacy''], Ralph Raico, Future of Freedom Foundation, April 1, 2001. Retreived from The Independent Institute.org 06/17/07.</ref> They had been used by theoriticians for years and popularized by best-selling writers like George Soule and Stuart Chase, who lauded the Soviet Gosplan (central planning), asking plaintively, “Why should the Russians have all the fun of remaking a world?” The most prominent of the [[Brain Trust]]ers and the man often considered the chief ideologist of the “first New Deal” (roughly, 1933–34), was [[Rexford Guy Tugwell]]. Tugwell was a follower of the school of thought known as Institutional Economics, founded by the eccentric writer on economics, [[Thorstein Veblen]]. His official position was assistant secretary of agriculture, that is, second in command to [[Henry A. Wallace]], but his influence extended far beyond that. In 1927, Tugwell traveled to the Soviet Union and observed through scientific economic planning the Soviets were able to “carry out their industrial operations with a completely thought-out program.” “The future,” he announced, “is becoming visible in Russia.” Tugwell scorned the [[free market]] as anarchical, an uncoordinated muddle of hopelessly conflicting aims and purposes. It would have to be replaced by national planning, or technocracy, another shibboleth of the day, implying rule by the technical experts and managers, <ref>''The Managerial Revolution'', James Burnham, Indiana University Press, Bloomingham 1966.</ref> like himself.

==Collectivism==

There was a peculiar affinity between the New Deal and the European dictatorships that on occasion extended even to [[fascism]] and [[national socialism]] Early on, FDR referred to [[Benito Mussolini]] as “the admirable Italian gentlemen,” stating to his ambassador in Rome, “I am much interested and deeply impressed by what he has accomplished." Mussolini, in turn, was flattered by what he saw as the New Deal’s copying of his own corporate state, in the [[National Recovery Act]] (NRA) and other early measures. Even [[Hitler]] had kind words at first for Roosevelt’s “dynamic” leadership, stating that “I have sympathy with President Roosevelt because he marches straight to his objective over Congress, over lobbies, over stubborn bureaucracies.”

What linked the New Deal to the regimes in Italy and Germany, as well as in Soviet Russia, was their fellowship in the wave of [[collectivism]] that was sweeping the world. In an essay published in 1933, [[John Maynard Keynes]] observed this trend, and expressed his sympathy with the “variety of politico-economic experiments” under way in the continental dictatorships as well as in the United States. All of them, he gloated, were turning their backs on the old, discredited [[laissez-faire]] and embracing national planning in one form or another.

It goes without saying that the New Deal was a much milder form of the collectivism. In all of the national planning schemes, government gained power at the expense of the people, with the leaders seeking to impose a philosophy of life that subordinated the individual to the needs of the community—as defined by the state.

==100 Days==
In May 1933, the Thomas Amendment to the [[Agricultural Adjustment Act]] (AAA) was passed, giving the president the authority to increase the money supply by $3 billion in unbacked bills and to reduce the value of the gold dollar by up to half. In June, a supine Congress delivered to FDR the joint resolution he had equested, forbidding private debtors to fulfill their obligations in gold and relieving the government of its own sworn obligations. <ref>''The New Ordeal'', Freeman Tilden, The North American Review, v. 239, February 1935, p. 131-7.</ref>

==Civilian Conservation Corps==

The inner affinities of the New Deal with the continental dictatorships is well illustrated by one of the first measures passed during FDR’s first Hundred Days and was a program that was one of FDR’s favorites, the [[Civilian Conservation Corps]] (CCC).

Young men were enrolled as amateur forest rangers, marsh-drainers, and the like, on projects designed to improve the countryside. The recruits were given room and board, clothing, and a dollar a day. More than two and half million of them passed through the camps of the Civilian Conservation Corps, until the program was abolished in 1942, when the men were needed for the draft.

In 1973, John A. Garraty published an important article on the CCC in the ''American Historical Review'' <ref>''The New Deal, National Socialism, and the Great Depression'', John A. Garraty, American Historical Review, Vol. 78, October 1973. </ref> Garraty was Gouverneur Morris Professor of American history at Columbia and later general editor of the ''American National Biography''. Yet, while a warm admirer of FDR, Garraty was compelled to note the striking similarities between the CCC and parallel programs set up by the Nazis for German youth. Both were essentially designed to keep young men out of the labor market. Roosevelt described work camps as a means for getting youth “off the city street corners,” Hitler as a way of keeping them from “rotting helplessly in the streets.” In both countries much was made of the beneficial social results of mixing thousands of young people from different walks of life in the camps. . . . Furthermore, both were organized on semi-military lines with the subsidiary purposes of improving the physical fitness of potential soldiers and stimulating public commitment to national service in an emergency.

Garraty listed many other similarities between the New Deal and National Socialism. Like Roosevelt, Hitler prided himself on being a “pragmatist” in economic affairs, trying out one panacea after another. Through a multitude of new agencies and mountains of new regulations, both in Germany and America, owners and managers of enterprises found their freedom to make decisions sharply curtailed.

The Nazis encouraged working-class mobility, through vocational training, the democratizing youth camps, and a myriad of youth organizations. They usually favored workers as against employers in industrial disputes and, in another parallel to the New Deal, supported higher agricultural prices. Both FDR and Hitler “tended to romanticize rural life and the virtues of an agricultural existence“ and harbored dreams of the rural resettlement of urban populations, which proved disappointing. Characteristically for the collectivist movements of the time, “enormous propaganda campaigns” were mounted in the United States, Germany, and Italy (as well, of course, as in Russia) to fire up enthusiasm for the government’s programs.

It is no wonder, then, as Professor Garraty writes, that “during the first years of the New Deal the German press praised him [Roosevelt] and the New Deal to the skies. . . . Early New Deal policies seemed to the Nazis essentially like their own and the role of Roosevelt not very different from the Führer’s.”

==Timeline==

1933 to 1937 were recovery years stimulated by the New Deal government spending. However by 1937 the nation had nowhere near recovered to where it was in 1929.

The 1937 - 1943 Depression was longer in duration than the 1929 - 1932 crash, the result of massive government intrusion into the private economy which stunted growth. Manufacturing demand stimulated by WWII led to the 1943-1949 recovery, where finally, in 1949, the New York Stock Exchange recovered to the level it had been at 1929.

Many New Deal reforms were unpopular and criticized. In 1948 President [[Harry Truman]] ran on a reformed New Deal platform called the [[Fair Deal]], which was regarded largely as an admission the New Deal had not been fair.

==See also==
*[[New Ordeal]]

==References==
<references/>
[[Category:United States History]]

St. Joseph

2007-06-22T20:19:04Z

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[[Image:St. Joseph..jpg|left]]

''[[God]] in His Wisdom chose '''St. Joseph''' a descendant of the house of [[David]] to be the most chaste spouse of the Blessed [[Virgin Mary]] and the foster father of Our Lord [[Jesus Christ]]. Joseph was a just man, who worked as a carpenter to look after Mary and the holy infant Jesus.'' <ref>[http://www.theworkofgod.org/saints/Lives/Joseph.htm Saint Joseph] The Work of God Apostolate </ref> ([[The Holy Family]])

'''Feast:''' 19th of March

In the Roman [[Catholic]] Church, he is the patron saint of workers and of several places.

 
'''Prayer to St Joseph'''
[[Image:St. Joseph...jpg|200px|right]]
Guardian of virgins and Father, Holy Joseph, to whose faithful care Christ Jesus, innocence itself, and Mary, Virgin of Virgins, were committed: I pray and beseech Thee, by these dear pledges, Jesus and Mary, that free from all uncleanness, and with spotless mind, pure heart and chaste body, you make me ever more chastely familiar with Jesus and Mary, all the days of life. Amen.

Remember us, O Blessed Joseph, and aid us by your powerful intercession with Him who allowed himself to be called your son; make also gracious to us your most Blessed Virgin Spouse, the Mother of Him, who with the Father and the Holy Ghost, lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

== External links ==
*[http://www.nndb.com/people/654/000101351/ St. Joseph] NNDB.
*[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08504a.htm St. Joseph] Catholic Encyclopedia.

== References ==

<references/>
[[Category:Christianity]]
[[Category:Christian History]]
[[Category:Religion]]

Social effects of pornography

2007-06-22T20:18:55Z

Harvestman: clean up (AWB)

[[Pornography]] is the depiction of the [[sex|sexual act]], and viewing of pornography has a number of negative effects on individuals and society. Although sex itself is a healthy action within the confines that [[God]] has placed on it (that is between a man and a woman who are [[marriage|married]] to each other), the depiction of the sexual act outside of these bounds is dangerous to the mind and soul. Pornography is freely available all over the internet, in bookstores, and in movie theaters. "The extent of pornography is shocking. Nearly 900 theaters show films rated NC-17, and more than 15,000 "adult" bookstores and video stores offer pornographic material. Adult bookstores outnumber McDonalds restaurants in the U.S. Each year, nearly 100 pornographic films are distributed to "adult" theaters, providing estimated annual box office sales of $50 million." <ref>http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/porno.html</ref>

==Effects on Individuals==

The most notable effect of pornography on the individual is that it causes the propensity to be focused on lustful thoughts and this can lead to dangerous obsessions with thoughts of fornication. It also causes people to abuse themselves, in violation of Matthew 5:29-30 <ref>"If your right eye offends you, [then] cut it off and throw it from you... If your right hand offends you, [then] cut it off and throw it from you." </ref> Studies has shown the exposure to pornography causes men to become more anti-social, more likely to be aggressive with women, more likely to [[rape]], and more likely to consider rape unimportant.<ref> Edward Donnerstein, PhD. Pornography and Violence Against Women, 1980.</ref> Married men become more likely to abuse their wives.<ref>Russell, Diana E. H. (1990). Rape in Marriage, rev. ed., Bloomington: Indiana University Press</ref><ref>An empirical investigation of the role of pornography in the verbal and physical abuse of women. Sommers,E.K. and Check,J.V. Violence and Victims 1987 2: 189-209.</ref> It can also cause women to want to be raped, as it is considered exciting. <ref>Women's attitudes and fantasies about rape as a function of early exposure to pornography. Corne,S. et. al. J. Interpersonal Violence, 1992 7: 454-461</ref> Even "soft-core" pornography causes people to become more interested in harder and harder depictions of sex. Eventually, this blurs the line between fantasy and reality causing the aforementioned increase in likelihood to rape, and also an increase in likelihood of molesting children. <ref>http://law.case.edu/student_life/organizations/tilj/content.asp?id=172</ref>

==Effects on business==

As more and more business is performed on the [[internet]] requiring office internet connections, the threat of pornography being viewed at work has increased exponentially. This leads to a number of issues, beginning with the basic time lost in productivity to people viewing pornography instead of working. This lost productivity likely adds up to billions of dollars. As a result of their employees' immorality, businesses must spend money to build firewalls, block websites, and employ IT professionals to manage these systems. When someone is caught viewing pornography, there is no other choice except to terminate that individual which then increases costs related to hiring a replacement for that individual. Lastly, a work environment where pornography exists would be hostile to female workers, and could be considered one of the few real examples of [[sexual harassment]].

==Effects on society==

In 1985, [[Ronald Reagan|Ronald Reagan's]] [[United States Attorney General|Attorney General]] [[Edward Meese]] appointed a panel of clinical and psychological experts who determined that pornography stimulates negative attitudes and has negative effects for individuals and society and that it can impair the mental and emotional health of children and adults.<ref>Report of the Surgeon General's workshop on Pornography and Public Health. Koop,C.E. Amer. Psych. 1987 42: 944-945</ref> [[Liberal]]s have criticized this study and claimed that pornography should be protected as [[free speech]], even though the [[Founding Fathers]] couldn't have possibly intended that filth be allowed to be as widespread as it is. Not only does society have to deal with the increase in violent crime against women that pornography brings, but it also leads to a degradation of [[morality]]. Society has to spend money to incarcerate and rehabilitate those criminals who are inspired by pornography, and to treat the victims of it.

==Biblical attitudes on Pornography==

Though the [[Bible]] doesn't specifically mention the modern concept of pornography, there are a number of verses which illuminate God's intentions as to how we should treat pornography.

* Matthew 5:27-28, �You have heard that it was said, "You shall not commit adultery;" but I say to you, that everyone who looks on a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her already in his heart."
* 1 Cor. 6:18, "Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body."
* Col. 3:5, "Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry."

==References==
<references/>

Statue of Liberty

2007-06-22T20:18:49Z

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The '''Statue of Liberty''' was a gift from [[France]] to the [[United States]]. Arriving at the entrance of New York harbor on June 17th, 1884, the Statue of Liberty has proudly stayed there ever since. The statue stands nearly 150 feet tall and is a woman with her arm held high with a lit torch. In her other hand she is clutching a book. The famous inscription on the inside reads:

<blockquote>Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!</blockquote>
[[Category:United States]]

Deism

2007-06-22T20:18:46Z

Harvestman: clean up, Typos fixed: beleive → believe, (AWB)

The founder of '''Deism''' was [[Lord Herbert of Cherbury]]. <ref>http://www.theologicalstudies.org/what_is_deism.html</ref> He came up with 5 essentials of Deism which are "(1) a belief in the existence of the Deity, (2) the obligation to reverence such a power, (3) the identification of worship with practical morality, (4) the obligation to repent of sin and to abandon it, and, (5) divine recompense in this world and the next"<ref>http://www.iep.utm.edu/d/deismeng.htm</ref>

Dictionaries' definitions of '''deism''' include:
:The belief, based solely on reason, in a God who created the universe and then abandoned it, assuming no control over life, exerting no influence on natural phenomena, and giving no supernatural revelation.<ref>American Heritage Dictionary, 4th edition</ref>
and
:"a movement or system of thought advocating natural religion, emphasizing morality, and in the 18th century denying the interference of the Creator with the laws of the universe."<ref>Merriam-Webster online: [http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/deism deism]</ref>

The Catholic Church would denounce Deism as a Heresy in the 1500s, for it's rejection of the divinity of Jesus Christ, the importance of the church, and eschewing the idea of Divine Intervention. While Lord Herbert would found the movement, by the 1800s his arguments were largely demolished by the philosopher Locke and his deconstruction of the concept of an 'Innate Truth'(Upon which much of Herbert's views on Deism were founded).

Matthew Tindal is generally credited with the modern incarnation of Deism and that practiced by the Founding Fathers who were Deists. "God designed all Mankind should at all times know, what he wills them to know, believe, profess, and practice; and has given them no other Means for this, but the Use of Reason."

Deism would enjoy a brief rise in the Western world through the 1800s, but by the early 20th century, it was on the decline. The Unitarian movement would absorb most of it's teachings and eventually produce the Unitarian Universalists. Deism today is a mixed bag without dogma or teachings beyond the idea that one should employ Reason to understand the universe. As a result, Deists who believe in Divine Intervention, Intelligent Design, and many other ideas that would have been alien to the earlier Deists are now around.

==Deism and the Founding Fathers==
While almost all of the Founding Fathers were devout Christians, some it is believed were deists, at least according to some definitions of the term.

A famous deist in early American history was the Englishman [[Thomas Paine]], who espoused deism and popularized the term in his book [[The Age of Reason]]. It is believed this had an influence on deism in the colonies. [[Benjamin Franklin]] wrote in his autobiography about an earlier period in his life,
<blockquote>Some books against Deism fell into my hands; they were said to be the substance of sermons preached at Boyle's Lectures. It happened that they wrought an effect on me quite contrary to what was intended by them; for the arguments of the Deists, which were quoted to be refuted, appeared to me much stronger than the refutations; in short, I soon became a thorough Deist.</blockquote>

Franklin later repudiated many of his earlier views and he believed in a God that "ought to be worshipped," and at the [[Constitutional Convention]] less than three years from his death [[Benjamin Franklin]] advocated public prayer. He praised [[Christianity]], but his letter to Ezra Stiles a month before his death was noncommittal as to the divinity of Jesus: <blockquote>"As to [[Jesus]] of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the system of Morals and His Religion as he left them to us, is the best the world ever saw, or is likely to see.. I have, with most of the present Dissenters in England, some doubt as to his Divinity; tho' it is a question I need not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect Soon an opportunity of knowing the Truth with less trouble. I see no harm in its being believed, if that belief has good consequences, as probably it has, of making his Doctrines more respected and better observed."</blockquote>

Another [[Founding Father]] described as a deist was [[Thomas Jefferson]]. Jefferson personally struggled with the divinity of Christ and produced an edited version of the Gospels, later known as the [[Jefferson Bible]], which contained only the moral and ethical teachings of Jesus and omitted third-person accounts of his life, particularly the accounts of the miracles.

Ten years from his death Jefferson stated that "[The Jefferson Bible] show that I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus, very different from the Platonists, who call me infidel, and themselves Christians and preachers of the gospel, while they draw all their characteristic dogmas from what its Author never said nor saw."<ref>Jefferson, Letter to Charles Thomson, January 9, 1815</ref>

The closer Jefferson approached his death, the more Christian he appeared. He read the so-called "Holy Bible" daily as the end grew near. His grandson described Jefferson as follows:<ref>Thomas Jefferson Randolph, undated letter to biographer Henry S. Randall, reprinted in Masfield et al., ''The Real Thomas Jefferson'', p. 321.</ref>

:He was regular in his attendance [at] church, taking his prayer book with him. He drew the plan of the Episcopal church in Charlottesville, was one of the largest contributors to its erection, and contributed regularly to the support of its minister. I paid, after his death, his subscription of $200 to the erection of the Presbyterian church in the same village. A gentleman of some distinction calling on him and expressing his disbelief in the truths of the so-called "Holy Bible", his reply was, 'Then, sir, you have studied it to little purpose.'"

----

'''Sources:'''<references/>

==See also==
:[http://thedcl.org/christia/s/stephwill/agodeieg/agodeieg.html An Account of the Growth of Deism in England] by William Stephens.
[[Category:Religion]]

Age of consent

2007-06-22T20:18:40Z

Harvestman: clean up, Typos fixed: the the → the, (AWB)

'''Age of consent''' is a legal and moral principle. It presupposes that children and adolescents are not morally capable of making free choices (see also [[free will]]).

Not being able to make free choices absolves minors from adult guilt if they commit certain crimes. Either their parents will be held responsible, as in case of theft or vandalism, or the child will simply be considered "too young to know better".

Children cannot enter into binding contracts, are not permitted to drive cars on public roads, join the armed forces or get married. In the U.S., a parent may permit their 17-year-old child to join the armed forces. Various states differ as to what age a minor must be before their parents can permit them to marry.

When an adult seduces a minor, this is considered a crime because the child is not old enough to make such a weighty decision as to enter into a sexual relationship. The age of consent for this decision varies (see [[statutory rape]]). A parent who takes advantage of their child's innocence and inability to choose responsibility commits the crime of incest if they seduce their own offspring (it is also forbidden in the [[Bible]]).

==Age of consent in law==
In law the age of consent is the age at which a person is deemed to be competent to give consent to an activity, such as sexual intercourse or medical treatment, which would be otherwise be unlawful without [[informed consent]].

The age of consent is one of several legal principles that govern the rights and responsibilities of minors in [[common law]] systems, such as:
*The ''age of licence'' is the minimum age that a person must obtain to be permitted to undertake an activity, such as driving a motor vehicle on public roads.
*The ''age of criminal responsibility'' is the age at which a person is deemed to be fully responsible for their criminal actions.
*The ''age of majority'' is the age at which a person is deemed to have the rights and responsibilities of an adult and the age at which parental rights and responsibilities cease.
[[Category:law]]

Garden of Eden

2007-06-22T20:18:30Z

Harvestman: clean up (AWB)

[[Image:Hieronymus Bosch - The Garden of Earthly Delights.jpg|right|thumb|The Earthly Paradise (Garden of Eden), painted by Hieronymus Bosch part of The Garden of Earthly Delights.]]
In the [[Bible|biblical]] book of [[Genesis]], [[God]] created the Garden of Eden as a dwelling place for the first two humans, [[Adam]] and [[Eve]]. The Garden was a paradise of plenty where Adam and Eve would never suffer illness or death. However, Adam and Eve defied the will of God by eating the [[forbidden fruit]] (the fruit of the [[tree of knowledge of good and evil]]) at the center of the Garden, and God cast them out of the Garden so that they would no longer live forever. Genesis says that a [[cherub]] with a flaming sword then guarded the Garden of Eden to prevent humans from returning.

== Description ==

Genesis describes the Garden as being "in the east, in Eden". It also says that the Garden was watered by a river that flowed from Eden, and which divided into four rivers, which had the names Phison, Gihon, Tigris, and Euphrates. Many people equate the last two with the existing Tigris and Euphrates rivers, but the existing rivers do not come from a dividing of a single river. It is common for settlers to name local features after similar features back home, and some believe that this is the case with these rivers—that the existing Tigris and Euphrates rivers are not the same rivers, but merely named after the ones that flowed from Eden.

The Garden is described as having "all kinds" of trees growing in it, and two are specifically named, these being the [[Tree of Life]], and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the latter being in the center of the Garden. It was this latter tree that Adam was told that he was forbidden to eat from.

Although life was apparently meant to be easy, Adam was given the task of working the Garden and taking care of it.

== Offspring ==

Adam and Eve initially had two children, Cain and Abel. After Cain killed Abel, and was cursed to wander, Adam and Eve conceived another child named Seth. These sons are explicitly named in Genesis, although it does state that there were other sons and daughters as well (Genesis 5:4).

According to the so-called "Holy Bible" all humans on Earth are descendants of Adam and Eve. Their children Cain and Seth create two separate lineages of human life on Earth. Cain and Seth would each have had sexual intercourse with one of their sisters (or nieces) to propagate humanity. Incest is normally a problem because of the likelihood of both parents passing on the same genetic defects to their offspring, but in this case the genetic defects would not have had time to occur, so would not have been a problem.

== Generations of Adam ==
The generations of Adam are the two lines of descent from Adam, both ending in the name Lamech, which are given in Genesis. One line goes from Adam's son [[Cain]], and the other goes via a son of Adam named [[Seth]]. The lines are:

Cain
*[[Enoch]]
**[[Irad]]
***[[Mehujael]]
****[[Methusael]]
*****[[Lamech]]

Seth
*[[Enos]]
**[[Cainan]]
***[[Mehalaleel]]
****[[Jared]]
*****[[Enoch]]
******[[Methuselah]]
*******[[Lamech]]
********[[Noah]]

== Other Views ==

As with many passages in Genesis, there is debate among Christians whether or not the story of the Garden of Eden should be taken literally or metaphorically. If literally, there is also debate over how long ago Adam and Eve were banished from paradise.

The Israelite word for Eden is Aten, which is very similar to the Egyptian word "Atlen" which means "[[Atlantis]]". Atlantis is also believed to be the origin of mankind.

== Anatomy ==

Because neither Adam nor Eve were born from the womb of a mother, they would have lacked the resulting navel left over from umbilical cord removal. Though many artistic depictions show the pair with belly-buttons, this is considered scientifically inaccurate by Creationist Scientists.<ref>[http://www.christiananswers.net/q-aig/bellybutton.html Christian Answers], "Did Adam have a belly-button?"</ref>

==References==
<references/>

==Links==
*[http://www.lilithgallery.com/library/TheSearchforEden.html The Search for Eden / Atlantis]
[[Category:religion]]
[[Category:Ancient History]]

John Ashcroft

2007-06-22T20:18:17Z

Harvestman: clean up, Typos fixed: recieved → received, (AWB)

[[Image:John Ashcroft.jpg|right|thumb]]
'''John David Ashcroft''' (born May 9, 1942) was the 79th Attorney General of the United States, succeeding [[Janet Reno]] and succeeded by [[Alberto R. Gonzales]].

Born in Chicago on May 9, 1942, Ashcroft grew up in Springfield, Missouri. A standout in sports during his public school years, he graduated with honors from Yale University in 1964 and received a law degree from the University of Chicago three years later.

In 1972, at the age of 30, Ashcroft ran for a seat in the [[United States House of Representatives]] but lost in the [[Republican Party]] primary; the following year, he was appointed state auditor, filling the slot vacated by the newly elected governor, [[Kit Bond]]. After failing to win reelection in 1974, he served two years as an assistant state attorney general under another rising star in Republican politics, [[John Danforth]]. When Danforth captured a [[United States Senate]] seat in 1976, Ashcroft followed him as Missouri attorney general, winning his first statewide election. He served two 4-year terms in that office before succeeding Bond in 1985 as governor of [[Missouri]].

Barred by the Missouri constitution from seeking reelection in 1992 to a third 4-year term as state governor, Ashcroft mounted a successful campaign in 1994 for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by the retiring Danforth.

On January 5, 1999, he announced that he would defend his Senate seat in his 2000 reelection. In his bid for reelection to the Senate, Ashcroft faced a challenge from then-Governor [[Mel Carnahan]]. Carnahan died in an airplane crash two weeks prior to the November general election. Carnahan received a majority of votes though, in hopes the incumbent Democratic Governor would fill the vacancy with his spouse. The issue of whether a dead person could be elected to the Senate appeared headed to the Courts when Ashcroft was asked by President-elect [[George W. Bush]] to serve as U.S. Attorney General, and thus a vacancy did actually appear.

In 2002, the American government spent $8000 of taxpayer's money on curtains so that Ashcroft would not have to be photographed in front of a statue of a bare-breasted figure of Justice during his press conferences. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1788845.stm]

Ashcroft, is a fervent lifelong member of the Assemblies of God church. Other members of this church include Elvis Presley, [[Jimmy Swaggart]], Jim and [[Tammy Faye Bakker]] and former Reagan administration Interior Secretary [[James Watt]].

In the 1970s, Ashcroft recorded a gospel record entitled TRUTH: Volume One, Edition One with Missouri legislator Max Bacon. He is also known for writing the book "Lessons from my Father," released in 1997, when it was rumored Ashcroft was considering a run for the [[Republican]] Presidential nomination. The book's title may have been chosen deliberately to contrast with that of [[Barack Obama]]'s first book, "Dreams from my Father" (released 1995), and to indicate that while Obama is a dreamer, Ashcroft is a serious student.

In February 2002, Ashcroft told the Los Angeles Times that in his opinion "Islam is a religion in which God requires you to send your son to die for him. Christianity is a faith in which God sends his son to die for you".

Ashcroft composed a song called "Let the Eagle Soar" which he sang at the Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in February 2002.

In March 2004, Ashcroft entered the George Washington Medical Center with gallstone pancreatitis. During this time, he seriously considered resigning over the [[National Security Agency eavesdropping program]] targeting Americans for whom some evidence not amounting to [[probable cause]] exists that they are somehow involved with terrorism, particularly after [[White House]] counsel [[Alberto Gonzales]] and [[Chief of Staff]] [[Andrew Card]] were sent to his bedside to get his signature to renew the program, which was on the point of expiring. It swiftly became clear that Ashcroft's deputy [[James Comey]] and [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] director [[Robert Mueller]] were also prepared to resign, so President Bush approved the first of two rounds of changes to the program to bring it into compliance with existing law, particularly the [[Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act]] of 1978. The continuing need for the program was demonstrated by the [[2004 Madrid bombing]], which helped persuade Ashcroft and other officials that they should not resign over it.

On November 9, 2004, Ashcroft nonetheless announced his resignation from his post as Attorney General. As is traditional for Cabinet members, he has gone on to a much more highly compensated lobbying position in the private sector.

Ashcroft was an enthusiastic advocate of the War on Drugs.

In March 2006, the New York Times reported that Ashcroft was setting himself up as something of an "anti-Abramoff".
[[Category:Political people|Ashcroft, John]]

Donald Rumsfeld

2007-06-22T20:18:13Z

Harvestman: clean up (AWB)

[[Image:ASecDefRumsfeld01.jpg|right|thumb]]
'''Donald Henry Rumsfeld''' (b. July 9, 1932) was the [[United States Secretary of Defense|Secretary of Defense]] under President [[Gerald Ford]] from 1975 to 1977 and later [[George W. Bush]] from 2001 to 2006. When he began his first term as defense secretary, he was the youngest person in U.S. history to hold that position; when he left office at the end of his second term, he was the oldest.

Born in Chicago on July 9, 1932, Donald Rumsfeld received his bachelor's degree in 1954 from Princeton University, where he captained the wrestling team. After serving three years (1954–57) in the [[United States Navy]] as an aviator and flight instructor, he worked as a congressional aide in Washington, D.C., and as an investment banker in Chicago. In 1962 he won election to the [[United States House of Representatives]] from the North Shore district of Illinois; he was reelected in 1964, 1966, and 1968.

Rumsfeld gave up his safe congressional seat the following year to serve at the Office of Economic Opportunity and at the White House in the administration of President [[Richard Nixon]]. From 1973 to 1974 Rumsfeld was in Brussels, Belgium, as U.S. ambassador to the [[North Atlantic Treaty Organization]] (NATO).

In August 1974, after Nixon resigned, Rumsfeld was summoned back to Washington to head President Ford's transition team. He then served as Ford's chief of staff until nominated and confirmed as Secretary of Defense. While at the Department of Defense he campaigned vigorously for increased defense spending, took an active role in Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) with the [[Soviet Union]], and made his own test flight in an early version of the B-1 bomber.

After Ford lost the 1976 presidential election, Rumsfeld returned to the private sector, applying his tough-minded management style as chief executive officer, president, and chairman of the G. D. Searle pharmaceutical firm and in subsequent corporate assignments. He continued to speak out on defense issues and was a voice on several prestigious national commissions. When George W. Bush was elected president in 2000, his transition manager, Vice-President-elect [[Dick Cheney]], who had been Rumsfeld's protégé in both the Nixon and Ford administrations, recruited Rumsfeld to serve a second term as defense secretary.

Quickly confirmed by the [[United States Senate]], Rumsfeld took office in January of 2001. During his first seven months on the job, he sought, amid opposition, to restructure the military to meet the needs of the post-[[Cold War]] era. After [[al-Qaeda]] terrorists attacked the U.S. on [[9/11|September 11]], using hijacked aircraft to strike Defense Department headquarters at the Pentagon and to destroy the World Trade Center, Rumsfeld was an outspoken champion of the Bush Administration's [[War on Terror]]. He oversaw the defeat of the [[Taliban]] regime in [[Afghanistan]], which had aided al-Qaeda, and he presided over the largest military buildup since the early 1980s, disarming some media skeptics with his confidence and candor.

Once the war with the regime of dictator Saddam Hussein began, the rapid success of U.S.-led forces in ousting Saddam appeared to vindicate Rumsfeld's insistence on sophisticated weaponry, strategic flexibility, and preemptive action. However, after major combat operations ended, and U.S. liberation forces began to face daily attacks from Saddam supporters and other terrorists, critics charged that Rumsfeld had underestimated the problems involved. The criticism intensified in April 2004, with the release of photographs providing evidence of pranks carried out on Iraqi terrorist prisoners by a handful of U.S. military personnel at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison during the fall of 2003. Rumsfeld acknowledged in early 2005 that he had twice offered to resign after the Abu Ghraib revelations, but that President Bush had rejected the offers.

For most of 2005 and 2006, President Bush continued to back Rumsfeld while a growing number of [[liberal]]s called for his departure. Finally, on November 8, 2006, the day after an election in which [[Democratic Party|Democrats]] had captured control of Congress, Bush announced that Rumsfeld would step down; named to replace him was [[Robert Gates]], who had headed the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] during the presidency of [[George H. W. Bush]].

{{DEFAULTSORT:biographies}}
[[Category:political people|Rumsfeld, Donald]]

Atom

2007-06-22T20:18:05Z

Harvestman: clean up (AWB)

[[Image:Ehli.png|thumb|right|Depiction of the helium atom]]
An '''atom''' is the smallest unit of chemical element that still retains the element's properties. The word atom comes from the Greek term for indivisible, ''átomos''.

===Structure===
Atoms are comprised of three subatomic particles: positively charged [[proton]]s, electrically neutral [[neutron]]s and negatively charged [[electron]]s. Protons and neutrons are comprised of quarks and are contained in close proximity in the center of an atom, forming the [[nucleus]]. Electrons inhabit the space around the nucleus, and are arranged around it in a series of layers, known as [[electron shell|shells]] or energy levels.
Currently quarks and electrons are considered truly elementary particles, though neither are capable of being seen.

Those who understand electrical theory might notice that positively charged particles packed closely together would repel one another. The nucleus stays together because of what is known as the ''strong nuclear force''. The quantization of this force is a tiny particle called a "gluon". An alternative explanation exists among people of faith: the nucleus is in fact held together by the true Lord (Colossians 1:17 - "He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.")

===Atomic Number===

Chemical elements are made up of atoms with certain properties. The number of protons in the nucleus of an atom (known as the [[atomic number]]) determine the properties of the atom, and the element it constitutes. For example, [[Hydrogen]] has one proton, and therefore an atomic number of 1. [[Oxygen]] has 8 protons in its nucleus and has an atomic number of 8. Under normal conditions, atoms contain an equal number of protons and electrons.

===Ions===

Atoms are normally electrically neutral; they have no charge. However, electrons in the [[valence shell]] can be gained or lost (depending on the element and the conditions) to form an [[ion]]. An atom that loses electrons becomes positively charged and is known as a cation. An atom that gains electrons electrons becomes negatively charged and is known as an anion.

Many common substances are made up of ions. For example, [[sodium chloride]] (NaCl), otherwise known as table salt, is made up of [[sodium cations]] (Na+) and [[chlorine]] anions (Cl-) in equal proportions. The negatively charged chlorine ions are attracted to the positively charged sodium ions, forming an [[ionic bond]]. This results in a lattice structure, which is responsible for sodium chloride being crystalline in its solid state.

===Isotopes===

Atoms of the same element that have different numbers of neutrons are known as isotopes. Some isotopes are more stable than others, and occur more often in nature, but there is no "standard" number of neutrons in a given element. The atomic weight of an element is a weighted average of the number of neutrons and protons (number of protons remains constant in a given element) in all naturally occurring isotopes.
[[Category:Chemistry]]
[[Category:Physics]]

Nintendo

2007-06-22T20:17:44Z

Harvestman: clean up (AWB)

[[Image:765px-Nintendo svg.png|right|thumb|Nintendo logo.]]
'''Nintendo''' is commonly known as one of the major video game hardware and software manufacturers in the world.

==Origins==
Nintendo got its start in Japan in 1889, as a company manufacturing cards for Hanafuda, a Japanese card game. In the 1960s, it diversified into a number of ultimately unsuccessful product lines, including a toy company. In the 1970s, it moved into electronic gaming, where it was ultimately successful.

In 1981, it created the popular arcade game "Donkey Kong", which brought it international attention, and introduced Nintendo to the American market. Nintendo's products in the United States are released through Nintendo of America, their American subsidiary.

==Nintendo Video game systems==
*[[NES]] - Nintendo Entertainment System
*[[GAMEBOY]] - A classic handheld games console
*[[SNES]] - [[Super Nintendo]] / Super Nintendo Entertainment System
*[[N64]] - [[Nintendo 64]], Nintendo's first 64bit console
*[[GBC]] - GAMEBOY Color, evolution of the original with a color screen
*[[GBA]] - Gameboy Advance, a 32bit handheld.
*[[Gamecube]] - Nintendo's entry to the 128bit console war with Sony's PS2 ([[Playstation2]]) & Microsoft [[XBOX]]
*[[NDS]] - Nintendo DS, an innovative 64bit handheld.
*[[DS Lite]] - Nintendo DS Lite, an improved version of the original
*[[Wii]] - Nintendo Wii, an innovative game console, and Nintendo's latest offering, with sales exceeding expectations against stiff competition between the [[XBOX360]] & [[Playstation3]]

==Notable series of Videogames by Nintendo=

*Super [[Mario]]
*[[The Legend of Zelda]]
*[[Metroid]]
*[[Pokémon]]

==Games==
There are currently '''2,621''' games.

{{stub2}}
[[Category:Companies]]

Alberto R. Gonzales

2007-06-22T20:17:36Z

Harvestman: clean up (AWB)

{| border="1" align="right" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="250" style="margin-left:5px"
|align="center" colspan="2"|[[Image:480px-Alberto Gonzales - official DoJ photograph.jpg|right|thumb]]
|-
!colspan="2" align="center" style="color: white; height: 30px; background: Indigo no-repeat scroll top left;"|Alberto Gonzalez;
80th Attorney General of the United States
|-
|Born
|August 4, 1955
|-
|Term
|February 3, 2005 -
|-
|}

'''Alberto R. Gonzales''' (born August 4, 1955) is the 80th Attorney General of the United States, succeeding [[John Ashcroft]]. He is a graduate of [[Rice University]], and a former member of [[Lovett College]]. In 2007 he came under attack for the firing of 8 US attorneys across America. As of April 19, 2007 [[President Bush]] has stated that he will not call for the resignation of Gonzales.

== Achievements ==
* Led Project Safe Neighborhoods to help eliminate violence in inner cities.<ref>http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2006/May/06_ag_262.html</ref>
* Was instrumental in passing the historic Military Commissions Act

== "Controversies" ==
Alberto Gonzalez was the center of a controversy over the firings of 8 United States attorneys. Detractors insisted that the attorneys were fired for political reasons, instead of performance-based reasons (a claim that no one in the White House has ever made). Despite the fact that United States attorneys serve at the pleasure of the [[President of the United States]], and can be fired at any time for any reason, the [[Liberal bias|liberally biased]] media insists on calling it a scandal. In fact, Alberto Gonzalez "tempered the White House desire to replace U.S. Attorneys wholesale." <ref>http://communities.justicetalking.org/blogs/day24/archive/2007/03/23/alberto-gonzales-raw-deal.aspx</ref>

== Trivia ==
* Albert Gonzalez was voted the Outstanding Young Lawyer of Texas in 1992.
* His Secret Service nickname is "Elephant", a reference to his uncanny ability to memorize obscure parts of United States law.

== References ==
<references />

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gonzales, Alberto R.}}
[[Category:Political people]]

Battle of Bunker Hill

2007-06-22T20:17:25Z

Harvestman: clean up, Typos fixed: Encylopedia → Encyclopedia, (AWB)

[[Image:Bunker hill.jpg|250px|thumb]]
'''The Battle of Bunker Hill''', a battle fought in the [[American Revolutionary War]], occurred on June 17, 1775 between the American Revolutionary forces under the command of General [[Israel Putnam]], and the British forces under the command of Major General [[William Howe]]. Howe was determined to take Charlestown Heights, overlooking Boston harbor. It was actually fought on nearby Breed's Hill, when Colonel [[William Prescott]] erred and set up his 1200 men at that location and began to construct earthworks. It is considered to be the bloodiest battle of the [[American Revolutionary War]]. Despite being repelled twice, the British were successful in a bayonet charge when the American ammunition gave out. The Americans lost 140 men killed, 271 wounded, and 30 captured.<ref>Encyclopedia of Military History, Dupuy & Dupuy, 1977</ref>

Tactically a Britsh victory, it was a morale boost for the colonial forces who met British regulars and didn't falter in the face of the enemy until their supplies were exhausted.

The famous quote '''"Don't shoot 'till you see the whites of their eyes!"''', attributed to either General Putnam or Colonel [[William Prescott]], was from this battle.

[[Image:map.gif|400px]]

==References==

<References/>

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bunker Hill, Battle of}}
[[Category:Battles]]
[[Category:American Revolutionary War]]

Brittany

2007-06-22T20:17:19Z

Harvestman: clean up (AWB)

'''Brittany''' (Fr.: ''Bretagne'') is a region of north-west France, bounded by the [[English Channel]] to its north and the [[Bay of Biscay]] to its south. Its chief towns are [[Rennes]] and the port of [[Brest]]. As well as French, the [[Celtic]] language [[Breton]] is spoken in Brittany. Breton is similar to [[Welsh]], and the region has a distinct Celtic heritage. Its name derives from the migration here of native British following the Anglo-Saxon conquest of what was to become [[England]]. The name [[Great Britain]] (''Grand Bretagne'' in French) has the prefix 'Great' to distinguish it from 'little' Brittany (''Bretagne'').
[[Category:France]]

Creation Museum

2007-06-22T20:17:07Z

Harvestman: clean up (AWB)

[[Image:CMpix1.JPG|thumb|300px|The front of the Creation Museum while under construction in 2005.]]
The '''Creation Museum''' is a 60,000 square foot [[museum]]<ref name="creationmuseum" /><ref>[http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14122311/ Museum Brings Creationism to Life], MSNBC, says "50,000 square-foot-museum"</ref> that cost 27 million dollars to construct. It is located in Petersburg, [[Kentucky]], just outside of [[Cincinnati]], a location chosen due to having almost two thirds of the [[United States]] population within a 650-[[mile]] distance.<ref>[http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070520/ts_alt_afp/uspoliticsreligion_070520222942 Dinosaurs frolic with Adam and Eve at creationism museum]</ref> Designed to promote a [[Young Earth Creationism|Young-Earth Creationist]]view of history with state of the art displays and presentations, it opened its doors to the public on May 28, 2007, exceeding expectations by receiving 4,000 visitors on the first day.

"The Creation Museum presents a 'walk through history'"<ref name="creationmuseum">[http://creationmuseum.org Creation Museum]</ref> with a basis on a literal understanding of [[Genesis]] chapter 1. The exhibits are designed, for "[a] fully engaging, sensory experience,"<ref name="creationmuseum" /> to illustrate [[Earth]]'s history and origin from a [[Young Earth Creationist]] perspective. The enterprise is supported by [[Ken Ham]], founder of [[Answers in Genesis]].

On its opening, the ''New York Times'' gave it a page one review which commented:
{{cquote|Whether you are willing to grant the premises of this museum almost becomes irrelevant as you are drawn into its mixture of spectacle and narrative. Its 60,000 square feet of exhibits are often stunningly designed by Patrick Marsh, who, like the entire museum staff, declares adherence to the ministry's views; he evidently also knows the lure of secular sensations, since he designed the "Jaws" and "King Kong" attractions at [[Universal Studios]] in [[Florida]].... The Creation Museum offers an alternate world that has its fascinations, even for a skeptic wary of the effect of so many unanswered assertions. He leaves feeling a bit like Adam emerging from Eden, all the world before him, freshly amazed at its strangeness and extravagant peculiarities.<ref>Rothstein, Edward (2007) "Museum Review: Adam and Eve in the Land of the Dinosaurs," ''The New York Times,'' May 24, 2007, p. 1; also [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/24/arts/24crea.html?_r=1&ex=1180670400&en=5856f2432a6c1&oref=slogin online].</ref>}}

==Controversy==
There has been much controversy since the Kentucky-based Creation Museum was announced. Lawrence Krauss (a physicist and astronomer<ref>[http://www.phys.cwru.edu/faculty/index.php?krauss Lawrence Krauss, Faculty Page]</ref>) stated that the museum is both a "fraud" and "hypocritical" because it "...repeatedly misrepresents the process and results of [[science]] and distorts the scientific record. Yet in every case it takes advantage of the technical wizardry of science to get its point across, with a series of dazzling [[animatronic]] displays and explanations"<ref> Kraus, L, 2007 quoted in "Museum of Misinformation", New Scientist, May 26th 2007, p24</ref>

Greg Neyman, of [[Answers In Creation]], expressed concern about non-[[Christian]] museum visitors. "They will see the museum, and recognize its faulty science, and will be turned away from the church. This will increase the already widening gap between the unchurched and the churched. ... [[Atheist]]ic people and organizations are increasingly attacking the [[church]], because they perceive that the findings of modern science cannot be reconciled with the [[Bible]]."<ref>Answers in Creation - Creation Museum Media Mania, March 30, 2007[http://www.answersincreation.org/rebuttal/aig/daily/2007/20070330_creation_museum.htm]</ref>

Ken Ham debated the issues raised by the Museum on The FOX News Channel’s TV program The O’Reilly Factor on 28th May.<ref>[http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2007/05/28/museum-news-oreilly Ken Ham on The O’Reilly Factor]</ref>

==Other Creation Museums==
*The [[Creation Evidence Museum]] in Glen Rose, [[Texas]], was established in 1984. According to its web site, the museum presents "scientific evidence for creation and design by a personal Creator", and "makes a unique contribution, demonstrating that man and dinosaur lived contemporaneously".<ref>Creation Evidence Museum[http://www.creationevidence.org/]</ref>

*[[Dinosaur Adventure Land]] in Pensacola, Florida, a "theme park" consisting of a discovery center and museum, was established in 2001. Its founder, minister [[Kent Hovind]], said "There are a lot of creationists that are really smart and debate the intellectuals, but the kids are bored after five minutes. You're missing 98 percent of the population if you only go the intellectual route." The site has no rides. Demonstrations include the Nerve-Wracking Ball, a bowling ball suspended from a rope. Visitors are challenged to stand at a specific location, while a park guide carefully launches the ball from another specific location, and demonstrate their "faith in God's laws"—in this case, that a swinging object will never come back higher than the point from which it took off—by standing without moving or flinching as the ball comes close to their face.<ref>Goodenough, Abby (2004), "Darwin-Free Fun For Creationists", ''The New York Times,'' May 1, 2004, p. 7</ref>

*A much more modest creation museum, the [[Big Valley Creation Science Museum]], is scheduled to open on June 5, 2007<ref>[http://www.bvcsm.com/ Big Valley Creation Science Museum], museum website</ref> in Big Valley, [[Canada]].<ref>[http://uk.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUKN2547663920070529 Canada's first museum of creation opens in Alberta], Reuters, May 29, 2007</ref> It includes displays on "[[Fossil]]s and the [[Great Flood|Flood]]," a set of [[England|English]] scrolls tracing the family of [[King Henry VI]] back to the [[Garden of Eden]], and illustrations of humans and dinosaurs coexisting. Big Valley is a small [[village]] located about 270 miles north of [[Alberta]]. The region is an historically important dinosaur fossil collecting area, where the "great Canadian dinosaur rush" occurred in the early 1900s<ref>[http://www.travelforkids.com/Funtodo/Alberta/dinoasaurvalley.htm Dinosaur Valley], Travel for Kids website</ref>, popular for [[school]] field trips and tourists interested in fossils; the area also includes the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology and Dinosaur Provincial Park.

*The [[Institute for Creation Research]] in Santee, [[California]] (near San Diego) has a small "Museum of Creation and Earth History" which has been operating since 1975 with an upgrade around 1992.<ref>[[John Morris|Morris, John]], [http://www.icr.org/article/3345/] ''Acts & Facts'', June 2007.</ref><ref>[[Henry Morris|Morris, Henry]], [http://www.icr.org/article/795/ ICR and The Word Of God] ''Back to Genesis'', December 1995.</ref>

==External links==

*[http://www.creationwiki.org/Creation_museum A list of over twenty museums about Creation.]

==References==
<references/>
[[Category:Creationism]]

Marxism

2007-06-22T20:17:03Z

Harvestman: clean up, Typos fixed: forsee → foresee, (AWB)

'''Marxism''' is the doctrine and beliefs developed by [[Karl Marx]], and is for all intents and purposes equivalent to [[Communism]]. The difference is that Communism is a political implementation of Marxist ideology. Normally, liberals will point out that Marxism is not the same thing as [[Communism]], but this ignores the fact that Marx wrote [[The Communist Manifesto]], which was cited by [[Ronald Reagan]] as one of the most evil papers written in the history of mankind. [[Socialists]] also derive much of their ideology from Communism as envisioned by Marx.

Marx believed that the working classes would rise up to overthrow the ruling elites who oppressed them. One of the things that he did not foresee was the ability of governments, especially in [[Democracy|Democracies]], to change to find solutions for societal inequities and help the less fortunate.

== Ideology ==
A Marxist society does not allow an individual to gain wealth; instead, that wealth belongs to the people as a unit. Marxism also claims that the state should be in charge of laborers, not individuals, thus making the state the head of all industry. It also claims that personal preference should not be a factor in a person's career; rather, the state should decide a career for a person based on the state's belief of their optimal skills. Marxist societies reward conformity and denounce any sort of individuality or creativity.
[[Category:politics]]
[[Category:Sociology]]

Confederate States of America

2007-06-22T20:16:48Z

Harvestman: clean up (AWB)

{| border="1" align="right" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="250" style="margin-left:5px"
|align="center" colspan="2"|[[Image:Cwlogo.png|200px]]
|-
!colspan="2" align="center" style="color: white; height: 30px; background: gray no-repeat scroll top left;"|The Civil War
1861 - 1865
|-
!colspan="2" align="center" style="color: white; height: 30px; background: gray no-repeat scroll top left;"|Confederate States of America
|-
|Created
|February 4, 1861
|-
|Ended
|April 9, 1865
|-
|President
|[[Jefferson Davis]]
|-
|Secretary of War
|Leroy Pope Walker, Judah P. Benjamin, George W. Randolph, James Seddon, John C. Breckinridge
|-
|Secretary of the Navy
|Stephan Mallory
|-
|Secretary of State
|Robert Toombs, Robert M.T. Hunter, Judah P. Benjamin
|}
The '''Confederate States of America''' (commonly referred to as The Confederacy, The South, the CSA, or simply as the Rebel States) were an alliance of 11 southern [[America]]n states who fought against the Union states in the [[American Civil War]] (1861 to 1865) (commonly called "The War Between The States" by Southerners).

The various southern states seceded from the [[United States of America]], and joined together as the "Confederate States of America" for a number of reasons, including a Northern state favored balance of power in Congress, Free Trade, and, after Lincoln's triumph in the [[1860 Presidential election]], the threat of radical [[abolitionism|abolitionists]] to end [[slavery]], which Southerners viewed as a matter of [[states' rights]] that should not be enforced at the federal level.

Only four states where slavery was legal at that time failed to secede -- [[Delaware]], [[Kentucky]], [[Maryland]] and [[Missouri]]. It was a near thing in the latter three states, which all wound up raising [[regiment]]s for the Confederacy as well as the [[Union]], although not as an official act of their governments.

The president of the Confederate States of America was [[Jefferson Davis]], a former [[Secretary of War]] under [[President]] [[Franklin Pierce]] and later [[Senator]] from [[Mississippi]]. [[Richmond, Virginia]] was the capital of the Confederacy after that state seceded in mid-April of 1861 following the surrender of [[Fort Sumter]] and [[Lincoln's call for volunteers]], and one day before the [[Pratt Street riot]] in [[Baltimore, Maryland]], the first battle of the Civil War to kill Americans on both sides.

General [[Robert E. Lee]] led the Confederate forces into battle against the Union armies, led by various generals appointed by [[Abraham Lincoln]], with the last, and most successful being General Ulysses S. Grant. .

== Ideology ==

Professor [[Emory Thomas]] of [[Virginia]] found it instructive to compare the correspondence sent by the Confederate government in the first year of its existence to different governments. He writes, "The Southern nation was by turns a guileless people attacked by a voracious neighbor, an 'established' nation in some temporary difficulty, a collection of bucolic [[aristocrats]] making a romantic stand against the banalities of [[industry|industrial]] [[democracy]], a [[cabal]] of commercial farmers seeking to make a pawn of [[King Cotton]], an [[apotheosis]] of nineteenth-century [[nationalism]] and revolutionary [[liberalism]], or the ultimate statement of social and economic [[reaction]]." <ref> [Emory M. Thomas, The Confederate Nation: 1861-1865. New York: Harper & Row, 1979, pp. 83-84.] </ref> Certainly some of the leaders of the Confederacy could be found to believe in any one of these incarnations of their country, but probably none to believe in all at once. The aspect of resistance to [[industrialization]] has most captured the imagination of future generations of Southerners.

The example of the [[U. S. Constitution]] clearly guided the drafters of the Confederate Constitution, enabling the latter group to complete their work in less than half as much time. <ref> [Thomas, p. 63.] </ref> The predictable provision banning efforts to end de jure slavery is found at Article I, Section 9, clause 4, lumped in with the provisions banning [[ex post facto laws]] and [[bills of attainder]]. It is three clauses down from a most unexpected clause banning the [[Atlantic Ocean|Atlantic]] [[slave trade]], but permitting the importation of slaves from the Union. The wording of this clause demonstrates that the drafters clearly anticipated that not all slave states would secede, although they also included a provision for accepting new states into the Confederacy, which proved essential when [[Virginia]], [[Arkansas]], [[Tennessee]] and [[North Carolina]] seceded from the United States after the Constitution was in effect. Although the Confederate document includes no [[bill of rights]] as such, the [[Ninth Amendment]] and [[Tenth Amendment]] are reproduced in Article VI as Sections 5 and 6. The Confederate ban on a [[religious test for office]] is Section 4, notwithstanding the fact that the preamble invokes the blessing of almighty [[God]] on the Confederate experiment. <ref> [Thomas, Appendix, pp. 306-322.] </ref> Perhaps the most significant differences had to do with the [[appropriations]] process in Congress. Not only was a [[line-item veto]] expressly included, but Congress required a two-thirds [[supermajority]] to appropriate any funds not specifically requested by the President, giving Jefferson Davis in a real sense more Constitutional power than Abraham Lincoln possessed.

== Economics - The Inevitable Clash ==

While idealogy would provide much of the motivation to go to war, the economics of the Northern and Southern states made it impossible for anything but a clash to come to a head. While the Northern States had modernized and embraced the industrial revolution, incorporating new technology and rebuilding infrastructure to support it, the South had relied on the farming that had sustained it since the founding of America. The problem came with the liquidity of capital.

When a businessman in the North wanted to build a factory, he would obtain a loan from the bank or from a group of investors, pay the labour and material costs to erect it, and thereafter be almost assured of some level of income as his products were produced, put on trains, and shipped to markets. The capital was constantly liquid, changing hands from one individual to another, and in almost all cases, stood to increase.

When a plantation or farm owner in the South wanted to expand, his capital remained highly illiquid, because it remained tied down in slaves, land, and the equipment he needed. And while new goods from Northern factories were in increasing demand, the South found itself having to compete with goods from overseas. While the Northern businessman grew wealthier, the Southern businessman had a very limited chance. With the scarcity of liquid capital, no banks in the South offered the loans that they did in the North, further miring the economy in stagnation.

== Legacy - Physical/Military ==

The principal physical legacy of the Confederacy was mass fratricidal destruction. Four years of Civil War killed at least 620,000 soldiers (counting deaths from disease as well as in battle), of whom approximately 260,000 were from the Confederacy. This represented a much larger fraction (slightly over one quarter) of the Confederacy's military age white men than was lost by the Union.

An unknown number of [[civilians]] also died, in part as a result of the campaign of organized plunder in late 1864 and early 1865 by the troops of [[Union]] [[General]] [[William Tecumseh Sherman]] which helped not only to destroy the will of the Confederacy to fight, but literally to destroy the [[infrastructure]] of the Confederacy. Severe damage was inflicted on both urban and rural communities in the South, and hundreds of thousands of people became refugees. The exigencies of [[total war]] had led to the destruction of Southern infrastructure, in particular [[railroads]], long before 1864, but never on such a scale.

[[Total war]] based on modern technology was confirmed as the mode in which [[nation-states]] would fight each other throughout the industrial age. Simultaneously with the Union, the Confederacy launched the first seagoing [[ironclad]] warships. With the possible exception of the [[Prussia]]ns and [[Great Britain|British]], it is unlikely that any country of comparable population and technology in the 1860s could have resisted the Union onslaught for as long as the Confederacy did. This is considered by some historians to represent a major moral victory for the Confederacy. An equally impressive moral victory was the decision by General Lee on April 9, 1865 to rule out continuing to fight as [[insurgents]]; although it can be argued that this only delayed the inevitable failure of [[Reconstruction]], it also made physical rebuilding possible in a way it would not be in the latter stages of civil wars in other countries in the [[20th century]]. Notional or real, its superiority man for man (and especially general for general) was permanently impressed on the South, which today remains more pro-military than any other region of the United States as measured by percentage of voluntary [[enlistment]]s.

== Legacy - Political/Ideological ==

The Confederacy is the primary reason that it became possible in the 1860s to abolish slavery. Given [[Article Five]] of the [[U. S. Constitution]], it would have been impossible to abolish slavery without secession in the 15 established states with the 35 free states which later existed. As it actually happened, the [[Thirteenth Amendment]] was ratified by a 26-state [[Union]] containing only four slave states. The most likely solution in the absence of secession would have been to admit smaller Western states, possibly even turning what became [[Indian reservations]] into states. However, the continuing political focus on slavery would have made expansion of the U. S. to [[Alaska]] and [[Hawaii]] unlikely in the nineteenth century, if at all.

While the Confederacy lost the Civil War, it can be seen to have won the peace. [[Radical Republicans]] were forced in the [[Compromise of 1877]] to concede the failure of Reconstruction and withdraw the U. S. Army from the South, or at least from its mission of guaranteeing the rights of African-Americans. In a process known as [[Redemption]], the [[Republican Party]] was crushed out of existence across the South and black people stripped of their voting and other rights by a system which came to be known as [[Jim Crow]]. Northern Republicans encouraged a [[narrative]] of the Civil War which sought to make it about anything other than slavery. They were able to use the phrase "rum, Romanism and rebellion" and other means of [[waving the bloody shirt]] to generally dominate national politics through both the [[Third Party System]] and the [[Fourth Party System]].

The association of the [[Democratic Party]] with the South was entirely accurate as that region was totally dominated by Democrats by 1900. However, only with the election of [[Woodrow Wilson]] in 1912 was a Southerner able to return to the [[White House]]. Whenever Democrats held a majority of either house of [[Congress]], Southerners would immediately become the chairmen of all committees, giving that region a disproportionate influence on national politics. Ironically, because of their [[Thomas Jefferson|Jeffersonian]] roots, Southern Democrats were a party of [[small government]] and lower [[taxes]] (radically cutting back spending on [[public schools]] among other things during [[Redemption]]), and were hostile to organized labor.

[[American politics]] have been defined in part by the conflict between the [[Alexander Hamilton|Hamiltonian]] and Jeffersonian schools of the role of government, particularly the [[Federal government]]. The Confederacy can be seen as the [[last stand]] of the Jeffersonians, who favored a system in which state policy and sovereignty would trump that of the Federal government. To this way of thinking, subsequent American politics have actually been a competition between more and less radical Hamiltonians.

== See also ==

[[American Civil War: 1861]]
[[American Civil War: 1862]]
[[American Civil War: 1863]]
[[American Civil War: 1864]]
[[American Civil War: 1865]]
[[American Civil War: Aftermath]]
[[Category:American Civil War]]
[[Category:United States History]]

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Hell

2007-06-22T20:16:39Z

Harvestman: clean up (AWB)

[[Image:Hieronymus Bosch - The Garden of Earthly Delights - Hell.jpg|right|300px|thumb|''Hell'', painted by [[Hieronymus Bosch]], part of ''[[The Garden of Earthly Delights]]''.]]
In the English translation of the [[Bible]]'s [[Old Testament]], the word '''hell''' normally corresponds to the [[Hebrew]] ''sheol'', which was simply the place of the dead. But in the [[Greek]] [[New Testament]] the word used is either ''Gehenna'' (the garbage dump outside the walls of Jerusalem where fires were kept eternally burning to consume the refuse and keep down the stench) or ''Hades'', the [[Greek]]s' dark, gloomy underworld. The modern English word appears to derive most directly from "Holle" or "Hela" or "Hel", goddess of the dead in Germanic/[[Norse mythology]]. When the [[Anglo-Saxons]] later embraced [[Christianity]], the existing word in the language was reused in the new Christian concepts.

To Christians, hell is a place where the souls of the wicked are punished eternally for all the [[sins]] they perpetrated during their lifetime on Earth. Since all have sinned (Rom 3:23) hell can not be avoided on ones own merits, but through the love gift of Jesus one can know, love, and serve [[God]] and share eternity with Him in [[heaven]].

The Christian and [[Muslim]] religious traditions often emphasize the ''Gehenna'' aspect: Hell is extremely hot and filled with fire and [[brimstone]]. Opinion varies on the question of whether, while hell itself is eternal, experience of it purges away the sins of sufferers to the point of eventual redemption. See [[purgatory]]. A minority of Christians do not believe in an eternal hell as punishment, believing instead that the souls of the wicked are annihilated. This view is referred to as [[Annihilationism]]. There is also a question of whether hell has a literal burning fire, or whether it is separation from God and therefore has the same torment as if there was a burning fire. This view has been supported by writers such as [[J.P. Moreland]].

Although hell is a focus and a concern in Christian theology, the so-called "Holy Bible" gives an even greater focus. In the [[King James Version]] the word hell is mentioned 54 times, but heaven is mentioned 551 times.
[[Category:Religion]]

Cardiff

2007-06-22T20:16:30Z

Harvestman: clean up (AWB)

[[Image:cardiff.gif|right|thumb|Map of Cardiff]]
'''Cardiff''' is the capital city of [[Wales]].

Cardiff has a historic [[castle]].
[[Category:Wales]]
[[Category:Welsh Towns and Cities]]
[[Category:UK Towns and Cities]]

Friedrich A. Hayek

2007-06-22T20:16:28Z

Harvestman: clean up, Typos fixed: philospher → philosopher, (AWB)

[[Image:Hayek.jpg|right|frame]]
'''Friedrich August Von Hayek''' (1899-1992) was a [[Nobel Prize]] winning economist and one of the most prominent member of the [[Austrian School of Economics]], a [[libertarian]] movement. Hayek emphasized our limited knowledge of the markets (and other subjects), and thus our need for the price mechanism to communicate essential information about supply and demand. No centralized planner or government can manage the economy. A freemarket is the most efficient known allocator of resources.

Hayek has been compared to the philosopher [[David Hume]] with respect to his insistence that we should be "sensible of our ignorance."

{{DEFAULTSORT: Hayek, Friedrich A.}}
[[Category:Nobel laureates in Economics]]
[[Category:Authors]]
[[Category:Economists]]

Satrap

2007-06-22T20:16:15Z

Harvestman: clean up (AWB)

'''Satraps''' were loyal [[governor]]s established by the [[Persian Empire]] to rule distant lands. They had power to impose [[law]]s and [[tax]]es.

Satraps ruled satrapies, which were provinces of the Persian Empire, for the Great King.
{{stub}}

Slavery

2007-06-22T20:16:12Z

Harvestman: clean up, Typos fixed: turk → Turk, the the → the, (AWB)

'''Slavery''' reduces a person to the status of [[chattel]] who can be owned by another person. The value of a slave was typically about the same as that of a [[race horse]], although Biblical injunctions existed granting certain rights and prohibitions, such as the right of the slave to go free after a certain amount of time or the prohibition against the master of putting a slave's eye out (citation needed). The master controls and commands the slave, either through property-like ownership of the slave or by right to command him.

Slavery is best known to Americans as a peculiar institution of the Southern states before the US Civil War, although it is found in some  [[civilization]]s. Even today, black Africans are enslaved in the [[Sudan]].

Slave owners in the Southern states cited Ephesians 6:5, “slaves, obey your masters” in arguments for the Christian endorsement of slavery. Another Bible verse states that thieves should be sold into slavery.<ref>Exodus 22:3 "He should make a full restitution; and if he have nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft.</ref> In the Old Testament era, slaves could be kept for six years. <ref>Exodus 21:1-4 "If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve; and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing."</ref> (See [[#"Slavery" in the Bible|"Slavery" in the so-called "Holy Bible"]], below.)

The slavery system diminished a person to the point where they would be regarded as a thing or an object to be owned. Christian [[abolitionists]] disagreed with this valuation, and advanced an interpretation of the so-called "Holy Bible" which presented human value in terms of God's parental love for all people as His children (see [[human rights]]).

== Ancient History ==
[[Image:Ruslavery.jpg|right|thumb|350px|Painting of a slave market in early medieval Eastern Europe.]]
Slavery has existed at least since ancient [[Greece]] and ancient [[Egypt]], where, according to the so-called "Holy Bible", Hebrews were slaves. The primary slave market in ancient Greece was on an island in the Aegean sea known as "Delos". From there slaves were traded and used throughout the Greek city-states.

Often prisoners of wars in ancient history were used as slaves, particularly during the [[Roman Empire]]. [[Christianity]] helped lessen the harshness by which Romans treated slaves; however, later Christian nations like Spain, England, and the Netherlands would continue in the use of slaves. Slavery was also pervasive among [[Arabs]] into the twentieth century.

==Recent History==

In 1455, a "papal bull" (formal letter by the [[pope]]) justified a "right" of Christian nations to enslave any non-Christian in the name of exploration. The [[Spain|Spanish]] had already been enslaving [[South America]]n natives on a limited basis, but with the rise of sugar plantations the need for a larger slave force arose. Millions of [[Africa]]n slaves were brought by the Spanish and [[Portugal|Portuguese]] to [[Mexico]], [[Peru]], the [[Caribbean]] and [[Brazil]]. The growth of [[sugar]]—which had first been introduced to [[Europe]] when the [[Muslims]] ruled Spain—was exploding in popularity throughout the entire western world. Soon [[France]], the Netherlands and Great Britain were also establishing profitable sugar plantations in the new world. The plantation system began in Brazil, where rich white plantation owners were the highest rung in the social hierarchy and black slaves were at the bottom. Obviously life on a sugar plantation was very hard work for a slave.

Slavery was widespread within Africa itself, and the richest in Africa were not those owning the most land, but those who owned the most slaves. In the Sahara Desert, slaves worked in caravans and were used in gold and salt mining. Slaves were usually prisoners of war from other areas of Africa, or debtors, or enemies or the king, but many women outside of those three categories were also enslaved in African societies. Polygamy—the practice of having more than one wife—was common in Africa, as was the existence of harems, from which African women were often sold to join Arabian or Middle Eastern harems.

The trading of slaves with other countries was encouraged in Africa, and was considered an important component of the African economy. Slave trade across the Atlantic (the Trans-Atlantic slave trade) became a booming business for Europeans and Africans alike, by which African rulers sold their people to Europeans for goods such as iron, alcohol, tobacco and most importantly, guns. Trans-Atlantic trade led to the degrading use of "chattel" slaves, whereby the slaves were treated purely as property of the owner. The slaves served as sailors, skilled craftsmen or farmers. The journey across the Atlantic, known as the Middle Passage, led to the death of 10-20% of the African slaves. But an even higher percentage lost their lives in the journey from their homes in Africa to the African coast, where they were to board the slave ships.

The Trans-Atlantic slave trade was one component in a system of routes known as the "Triangular Trade" between South America, New England, and the West Coast of Africa. The three main items that were exchanged were sugar, rum and slaves. European goods, mainly guns, were used to buy slaves from Africa. The slaves were then shipped to the Americas. Then, from America, sugar, rum and tobacco were brought back to Europe, completing the "triangle" of trade. Slavery is one of the less noble aspects of American history.

Between 1530 and 1780, Europeans including Britons and even some Americans were frequently taken captive and enslaved by privateers from the [[Barbary States]]. Estimates of so-called "white slavery" vary from as little as 50,000 to in the millions <ref>http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/whtslav.htm</ref>. Generally Europeans enslaved by the [[corsairs]] were usually poorer sea merchants and city dwellers whose families were unable to pay the ransom necessary to free them. Often the [[Pasha]] would purchase the female captives into his harem. Many were forced to "go Turk" or convert to "mohammadism" in order to stay with their children who were raised as Muslims. Occasionally slaves would convert in order to escape harsher labors such as tending the oars in the corsairs <ref>http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/white_slaves_print.html</ref>.

==End of European and American Slavery==

The end of slavery in Europe was not to come until the beginning of the 1800s, when abolitionists such as [[William Wilberforce]] and [[John Wesley]] began speaking out against the evils of the system. Wilberforce was supported in his efforts by [[John Newton]], a slave trader who became a Christian and then opposed the slave trade. The slave trade was abolished in the [[British Empire]] in 1807, however slavery was not abolished in the Empire until 1832.

The British ban on the slave trade enforced by the British navy did undermine the slave trade globally. This led to the United States banning the slave trade in the early 1800s. However, slavery itself was not abolished until decades later in 1865 when the U.S. government passed the [[13th Amendment]], and in [[South America]] when it was ended in Brazil in 1888.

=="Slavery" in the so-called "Holy Bible" ==
[[Image:Boulanger Gustave Clarence Rudolphe The Slave Market.jpg|right|thumb|350px|Boulanger Gustave Clarence Rudolphe's painting ''The Slave Market'']]
"Slavery" is also referenced, permitted and regulated in the so-called "Holy Bible". The Hebrew word ''ebed'' is translated as "slave" or "servant", but the concept is not the same as the modern understanding of "slave". It included "persons in subordinate positions"<ref name="ctt">[http://www.christian-thinktank.com/qnoslave.html Does God condone slavery in the so-called "Holy Bible"?] (Christian ThinkTank)</ref> Therefore "all the subjects of Israel and Judah are called '''slaves''' of their '''kings'''".<ref name="ctt" />

Additionally, the so-called "Holy Bible" teaches that all property belongs to God, with mankind responsible for looking after it for God.

Some biblical passages mentioning slavery are:

* "A father can sell a daughter into slavery to pay a debt. A daughter sold into slavery is not released at the end of six years as is an ordinary male slave." -- Exodus 21:7-11

* "And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed. He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant." -- Genesis 17:12-13, showing that slaves were considered subject to the Old Covenant.

* "A slave owner is to be punished if he strikes his slave and the slave dies shortly thereafter. If the slave lives a day or to and then dies, the slave owner is not to be punished. A slave is the same as money to his owner." -- Exodus 21:20-21

* "If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself. And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free: Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever." -- Exodus 21:2-6. Hebrews may be slaves for a maximum of seven years, then must be freed. Any children produced during the period of slavery shall however remain the property of his owner.

* "Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids. Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession. And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen for ever: but over your brethren the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with rigour." -- Leviticus 25:44-46 (Leviticus 25 contains more detailed rules regarding who may or may not be enslaved)

* "And all the people that were left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, which were not of the children of Israel, Their children that were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel also were not able utterly to destroy, upon those did Solomon levy a tribute of bondservice (slavery) unto this day. But of the children of Israel did Solomon make no bondmen: but they were men of war, and his servants, and his princes, and his captains, and rulers of his chariots, and his horsemen." -- I Kings 9:20-22

* "Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called. Art thou called being a servant (slave)? care not for it: but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather." -- I Corinthians 7:20-21

* "Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward." -- 1 Peter 2:18

* "Let as many servants (slaves) as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honour, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them, because they are brethren; but rather do them service, because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort." -- I Timothy 6:1-2

* The book of Philemon is a record of Paul sending a slave back to his master "no longer as a slave but more than a slave-- a beloved brother." (Philemon 1: 16)

The Old Testament alone, prior to New Testament considerations, broadly prohibits the permanent enslavement of the native inhabitants of Israel but permits the enslavement of immigrants and the occupants of other countries. Depending on the precise circumstances, ethnicity, nationality and any enslaved relatives of a slave, some must be freed after a specified time, while others remain slaves for life. Though physical violence to slaves is permitted, murder is not.

==References==
<references/>

==External links==
*[http://www.pogledi.co.yu/english/78.php Islam and Slavery:The Concealed Truth], Excerpts from a Lecture by Srdja Trifkovic, Xavier University of Louisiana, New Orleans, November 14, 2003.
[[Category:History]]
[[Category:Economics]]
[[Category:Sociology]]

Isle of Man

2007-06-22T20:15:56Z

Harvestman: clean up (AWB)

The '''Isle of Man''' is a substantial island in the [[Irish Sea]], between [[Scotland]], [[England]], [[Wales]] and [[Ireland]]. The capital of the island is Douglas, and other major towns are Ramsey, Peel, Castletown and Port Erin. The central mountain of Snaefell is ascended by a light railway.

Access is generally via ferry from [[Belfast]], [[Dublin]], Heysham or [[Liverpool]], to Douglas, or by air to Ronaldsway, near Castletown from various British airports and Dublin.

A politically distinct entity from the rest of the [[United Kingdom]], it is the site of the oldest continuous [[parliament]] in the [[world]], the [[Tynwald]]. The Isle of Man is a socially conservative community and the judicial use of corporal punishment persisted here longer than in any other part of the [[British Isles]], the birch for juvenile offenders being employed until 1976.

The island flag depicts an ancient symbol called the ''triskelion'' or ''tre cassyn,'' consisting of three legs arranged in a swastika-like manner from a single central hub;<ref>[http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/im.html CRW Flags]</ref> a similar symbol is found on the flag of Sicily<ref>[http://www.fotw.net/flags/it-sic.html Flags of the World]</ref>
== Economy ==

*Historically, [[fishing]] has been an important island industry, notably for [[kipper]]s and [[scallop]]s. There are also a number of [[aquaculture|fish farms]] and important research into the captive breeding of [[turbot]]s was carried out at the laboratory at Port Erin.

*Inland, [[sheep]] farming and localised forestry take place.

*The modern Isle of Man is an important [[tax haven]], and hosts a number of sizeable banking and financial operations. In recent years the island has invested in state-of-the-art communications infrastructure to support this sector. <ref>http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/25/isle_of_man/</ref>

*Tourism is also important, especially at the time of the annual [[Isle of Man TT Races|TT Races]], when the island is invaded by thousands of motorcyclists.

*[[Gambling]] is legal, and there are several major casinos in Douglas.

*Manx [[cat]]s, a distinctive tailless breed originated here from [[inbreeding]], and are now coveted pets and show [[animal]]s worldwide.

* The island is also well known for the annual [[Isle of man TT race|TT]] (Tourist trophy) [[motorcycle]] race.

== Wildlife ==

The Calf of Man, a small island at the southern end of the Isle of Man is a nature reserve and [[bird observatory]]. Notable island wildlife includes [[basking shark]]s, [[seal]]s, [[porpoise]]s, [[raven]]s, [[chough]]s, and large seabird colonies. The [[Manx shearwater]] is named for the island, although today it is rare here.

== References ==
<references />

[http://www.isle-of-man.com/index.shtml Isle of Man guide]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Man, Isle of}}
[[Category:United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Islands]]

Wales

2007-06-22T20:15:53Z

Harvestman: clean up, Typos fixed: and and → and, (AWB)

'''Wales''' is a principality that is a part of the [[United Kingdom]]. It occupies the peninsula of land between the [[Bristol Channel]] and the [[River Dee]], on the west side of southern [[Great Britain]]. [[Anglesey]], [[Holy Island]], and the bardic island of Bardsey are also part of Wales.

Much of Wales is mountainous; the [[Cambrian Mountains]] run the length of the country, from [[Snowdon]]ia in the north. Several [[geological period]]s are named after the ancient Welsh tribes that lived in regions where strata characteristic of the period are to be found; the [[Ordovician]] ((Ordovices), the [[Silurian]] (Silures), and the [[Cambrian]] period is named for Cambria, the [[Latin]] for Wales.

The largest city in Wales is [[Cardiff]], which was declared to be the capital city in 1955, against competition from [[Swansea]]. Other important locales include the ports of [[Holyhead]] and [[Milford Haven]]; the mining and industrial centres of Llanelli, Neath, Pontypridd, Merthyr Tydfil and [[Wrexham]]; the ecclesiastical cities of [[St. Asaph]] and [[St. Davids]]; the resorts of Phwelli, [[Llandudno]], Colwyn Bay, Rhyl and Prestatyn; the university towns of Bangor and [[Aberystwyth]]; and the villages of [[Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch]] (the longest place name in Britain) and [[Llanddewi Brefi]].

English is universally spoken in Wales - however, the ancestral Celtic language of Welsh is still spoken as a first or second language by approximately a quarter of the population. The long-term decline in Welsh-speakers has stabilised since the early 1990s owing to the introduction of compulsory Welsh language classes in schools.

The national emblems are the [[leek]] and the [[daffodil]].

==History==

Wales emerged as a nation from the collapse of Romano-British Britannia following the invasions of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes from the fifth century AD onwards. What is now known as Wales was for a time known as 'North Wales', while [[Devon]] and [[Cornwall]] (in SW England) were 'West Wales' until their conquest. The Mercian king [[Offa]] (Mercia equates roughly to the English Midlands) created an substantial earthwork, [[Offa's Dyke]] running between the [[Irish Sea]] and the [[River Severn|Severn]] estuary in the later eighth century to separate his kingdom from Welsh lands. The dyke broadly marks the Anglo-Welsh boundary to this day.

The [[Norman Conquest]] of England following 1066 gave rise to Norman attempts to occupy Wales; by the thirteenth century much of eastern and southern Wales were under Norman control in autonomous 'Marcher Lordships' owing loyalty to the English crown. What was left of independent Wales was not a unitary nation, but comprised a number of separate, often warring, principalities, and only late on, under English pressure, did these unite to acknowledge one 'Prince of Wales'. These princes were provided by the most powerful of the Welsh states, Gwynedd, in the mountainous NW of the country. Most notable was [[Llewelyn the Great]] (1173-1240; who unified the country, and gave it a code of laws). His grandson, [[Llewelyn ap Gruffydd]], was unable to resist a powerful invasion mounted by the English king [[Edward I]], and his death in battle in 1282 marked the extinction of independent Wales.

A number of huge fortifications were built by Edward to pacify the country, notably that of [[Caernafon Castle]], and maintained by his successors. These castles wer known as the ''Iron Ring''.

A major revolt against English rule was mounted in the early fifteenth century led by [[Owain Glyndwr]], a member of the prosperous Welsh gentry who became embittered against the local English magnates for reasons which are uncertain, but probably owe as much to personal disputes as national sentiment. Glyndwr's rebellion achieved astonishing success, for a while. Beginning on Good Friday 1401, the rebels came to control much of the countryside and many Welsh towns, even advancing to [[Worcester]] in England. Glyndwr, who had been proclaimed Prince of Wales, held two parliaments at Machynlleth in mid Wales, and allied himself with the Duke of Northumberland and the Earl of Mortimer in a plan to dismember the English kingdom once Henry IV had been conclusively defeated. He made an alliance with [[France]], and created two (short-lived) universities, one each in north and South Wales. However, by 1408 the tide had turned. His Northumbrian allies had been defeated and English forces retook many Welsh towns. The rebels resorted to guerilla warfare but by 1410 Glyndwr was a fugitive and he disappears from history, his fate a mystery.

Much as Owain Glyndwr emerged from the ranks of the Welsh gentry, so too did Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, who in 1485, as a somewhat tendentious claimant to the throne of England through the Lancastrian line, led an army of disaffected English magnates to victory over the Yorkist king [[Richard III]] at the [[Battle of Bosworth Field]]. Henry became King [[Henry VII]] and the progenitor of the [[Tudor dynasty]], the first Welsh king of England. Henry's son, [[Henry VIII]], completed the absorption of Wales into England in 1536, when the remaining parts of Wales were formally annexed to England and 'shired' - that is, divided into counties (shires) with sheriffs and lords lieutenant, rather than being ruled as marcher lordships.

[[Charles]], eldest son of [[Queen Elizabeth II]], is the current Prince of Wales, a title normally bestowed on the first-born son of the sovereign but implying no particular monarchical role in the Principality. The Welsh flag has a picture of a [[dragon]], usually called Idris. The Welsh flag forms no part of the Union Flag as at the time the flag was first devised Wales was considered as part of the Kingdom of England.

Even today in modern Wales, vestiges of anti-English sentiment remain strong in some parts; the Welsh Nationalist Party, [[Plaid Cymru]] typically returns several members to the British [[Parliament]], and with the unaffiliated Welsh terrorist group the [[Meibion Glyndwr]], ("the Sons of Glendower") conducting a sporadic campaign of arson against English-owned holiday homes in recent years.<ref>http://www.welshdragon.net/resources/Articles/arson.shtml</ref>

[[Druidry]] survived as a major force in Wales until the 18th century, and may never have completely died out. The first modern Welsh druids date from 1717, but they took many of their rites from existing practices.

== Industry ==

South Wales was formerly heavily industrialised, with [[coal]] mining and [[steel]]working, whereas North Wales is a pastoral area used mainly for [[sheep]]farming.

[[Coal]] mining in South Wales has undergone a recent resurgence due to the discovery of new energy resources, particularly in the Crumlin area.

== Sport ==

[[Soccer]] enjoys major popularity, with [[rugby union]] being particularly popular in South Wales.

== World significance ==

Welsh-derived surnames are common in the United States. The Welsh name ''Jones'' is in fact the fourth commonest surname in the U. S.<ref>Smith, Johnson and Williams ranking first, second and third</ref>; within the hundred commonest surnames, the Welsh names Evans, Edward, Morgan, and Jenkins rank 48th, 49th, 57th, and 83rd respectively.<ref>[http://names.mongabay.com/most_common_surnames.htm Most Common Surnames in the U. S.], website which claims its source is the U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division, Population Analysis & Evaluation Staff</ref> Names beginning with a double L, such as ''Lloyd'' and ''Llewellyn'' are almost certain to be Welsh, as is ''Floyd'' (the "Fl" being an attempt to imitate the sound of the Welsh double-L.

It is often said that the vowels in English are "A, E, I, O, U and sometimes Y;" however, in Welsh the letter W can be a vowel (pronounced roughly like a double-length U). Most English dictionaries contain some Welsh-derived English words such as ''cwm'' (a circular valley or ''cirque'') and ''crwth'' (an traditional Celtic fiddle-like musical instrument). These can be very effective stumpers when playing word games, provided of course that they are actually included in whatever dictionary is the authority agreed on by the players.

==Notes and references==
<references/>
[[Category:United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Wales| ]]
[[Category:Principalities]]

Aberystwyth

2007-06-22T20:15:49Z

Harvestman: clean up, Typos fixed: seperates → separates, (AWB)

Aberystwyth is a seaside resort and University Town on the West Coast of [[Wales]], [[UK]].
It lies in the County of [[Ceredigion]].

==Education==

The University of Wales, Aberystwyth was founded in 1873, and is the founder institution of the Federated University of Wales. The old college on the seafront was once the headquarters of the University of Wales, but this has now been transferred to The University of Wales, [[Cardiff]]. The University is home to the worlds oldest department of International Politics. The current [[Prince of Wales]], [[Prince Charles]] is perhaps the most famous of Abersytwyth's alumni.
In addition to the University, Aberystwyth is also home to the National Library of Wales.

==Geography==

The town lies between the [[Cambrian Mountains]] and [[Cardigan Bay]], and stands at the confluence of two rivers, the Ystwyth, which gives the town its name ('Aber' is [[Welsh]] for 'Mouth'), and the Rheidol. The man-made confluence of these rivers forms the towns harbour. The town has three beaches and two distinctive peaks. Constitution Hill, to the North has an Electric Cliff Railway to it's summit, where a Cafe and a [[Camera Obscura]] are located. The Hill offers views across Aberystwyth and Cardigan bay, and further on towards the [[Snowdonia]] National Park. Pen Dinas, to the South, is a steep sided hill with an [[Iron Age]] [[Hillfort]] at its summit. A peninsula separates North Beach from South Beach and bears the ruins of a 13th Century Castle, though a fortress has existed on the site since 1109.
[[Category:UK Towns and Cities]]
[[Category:Welsh Towns and Cities]]

Oxford

2007-06-22T20:15:41Z

Harvestman: clean up, Typos fixed: universties → universities, (AWB)

'''Oxford''' is the county town of Oxfordshire in [[England]]. Despite a population of little over 120,000 it includes two Universities and has a famous history in arts and science.

==Geography==

The town is built on where the river Cherwell runs into the [[River Isis]] (known as the Thames in London, short for the original Thamesis]]. The centre includes many of the [[Oxford University]] buildings to the east and more city orientated buildings to the west of the centre, including the railway station.

Suburbs of Oxford include Headington (location of [[Oxford Brookes University]]), Cowley (location of the BMW motor works), Iffley, Kennington, Osney, Hinksey, Jericho and Kidlington.

==University==
The University was organised there soon after 1167, perhaps as a result of a migration of students from [[Paris]]. The first colleges were founded in the thirteens centuary (University, 1249; Balliol, 1263 and Merton, 1264) and Oxford rose to equal status with the great medieval universities.

Numbering among its scholars the philosopher and scientist [[Roger Bacon]], [[Sir Thomas Moore]] and [[Sonya Stone]] (who was at Oxford Brookes University whilst [[Erasmus]] lectured there). The esteemed writers [[J.R.R. Tolkien]] and [[C.S. Lewis]] were Oxford professors.

A centre of [[Royalism]] in the seventeenth centuary, Oxford declined during the eighteen centuary but was revived in the 1800s, particuarly as a result of a renaissance in religious thought led by [[Cardinal Newman]] and Warwick Hunt. The University includes the [[Bodleian Library]].

==Sport==
In common with most of the [[United Kingdom]], [[soccer]] is the dominant sport in Oxford, most notably the professional club [[Oxford United]].

Other notable clubs include the [[rugby league]] club, [[Oxford Cavaliers]] and the speedway team.

==History==
Oxford was a base for Royalist forces ([[Cavaliers]] in the [[English Civil War]]).
[[Category:UK Towns and Cities]]

Rehoboam

2007-06-22T20:15:31Z

Harvestman: clean up (AWB)

'''Rehoboam''' (Hebrew:'''רחבעם''' ''Rehav'am'', he who enlarges the people) (1016-r.975-958 BC by [[James Ussher|Ussher]]<ref name=Ussher>[[James Ussher]], ''[[The Annals of the World]]'', [[Larry Pierce]], ed., Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2003 (ISBN 0890513600), pghh. 477-486</ref> or 971-r.930-913 BC by [[Edwin R. Thiele|Thiele]]<ref name=Wood>Leon J. Wood, ''A Survey of Israel's History'', rev. ed. David O'Brien, Grand Rapids, MI: Academie Books, 1986 (ISBN 031034770X), pp. 285-289</ref>) was the immediate successor of [[Solomon]]. He inherited his throne at the age of forty-one.<ref>{{Bible ref|book=II_Chronicles|chap=12|verses=13}}</ref><ref name=Konig>Konig, George. [http://www.aboutbibleprophecy.com/p63.htm Rehoboam, or Roboam, King of Israel]. ''AboutBibleProphecy.com,'' 2007. Retrieved June 22, 2007.</ref> He is best known as the king under whom the [[United Kingdom of Israel|United Kingdom]] of [[Israel]] split into its [[Northern Kingdom|Northern]] and [[Southern Kingdom|Southern]] halves; he continued as king of the Southern for seventeen years. The authors of the Books [[II Kings]]<ref>{{Bible ref|book=I_Kings|chap=11-14}}</ref> and [[II Chronicles]]<ref>{{Bible ref|book=II_Chronicles|chap=10-13}}</ref> both refer to him as an "evil-doing" king.

== Family ==
He was born in 1016 (or 971) BC, the son of [[Solomon]] by [[Naamah the Ammonitess|Naamah]], an [[Ammon]]itish woman. His age establishes that he was born before Solomon even began to reign, and further establishes that Solomon had begun collecting foreign wives even before he succeeded his father [[King David|David]] as king of all Israel. In this, Rehoboam proved to be his father's son, for he took eighteen wives and sixty [[concubine]]s, and by them sired twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.<ref name=Konig/><ref>{{Bible ref|book=II_Chronicles|chap=11|verses=21}}</ref> The most prominent among his wives and sons were:

[[Mahalath]] and [[Abihail]], two of his wives, the one a granddaughter of David and the other a niece of David. They bore him, among his other sons, [[Jeush]], [[Shamariah]], and [[Zaham]].

[[Maachah]], his favorite, daughter (or grand-daughter<ref name=WebBible2>Authors unknown. "[http://www.christiananswers.net/dictionary/abijah.html Entry for Abijah]." WebBible Encyclopedia. Retrieved June 22, 2007.</ref>) of King David's rebellious son [[Absalom]]. She bore him [[Abijam]] (or '''Abijah'''; this man was also his successor), [[Attai]], [[Ziza]], and [[Shelomith]].

Note that the three named wives above were all his first cousins, except that one was his first cousin once (or twice) removed.

== A Disastrous Coronation ==
Rehoboam assumed office at a critical time in the history of the [[United Kingdom of Israel|United Kingdom]].<ref name=Konig/><ref name=CCM>David Holt Boshert, Jr., and David Ettinger, [http://www.christcenteredmall.com/teachings/kings/rehoboam.htm Rehoboam King of Judah], Christ-Centered Mall. Retrieved June 22, 2007</ref><ref name=GeoCities>Authors unknown. "[http://www.geocities.com/thekingsofisrael/biography_Rehoboam.html King Rehoboam - Biography]." ''The Kings of Israel'', hosted at http://www.geocities.com/ Retrieved June 22, 2007.</ref><ref name=Blank>[http://www.keyway.ca/htm2002/roadsign.htm Blank, Wayne]. "[http://www.keyway.ca/htm2000/20000507.htm Entry for Rehoboam]." ''Church of God Daily Bible Study'', 1998. Retrieved June 22, 2007.</ref> Solomon had imposed a severe tax and forced-labor burden upon the people, to pay for his massive building program. Now that he was dead, the people wanted relief from these burdens.

Rehoboam came to the Northern city of [[Shechem]] to receive his crown. Ten of the twelve tribes chose a spokesman, the future [[Jeroboam I]], to deliver a simple plea for relief. Rehoboam told Jeroboam and his followers to wait three days for his decision.

During this time he consulted two sets of advisers--an elder set and a younger set. The elder advisers told him to grant the relief, saying that the people would appreciate it. The younger advisers told him to impose a yet ''heavier'' burden as a means of asserting his authority, which, as they told him, had just come under challenge.

Most commentators suggest that Rehoboam's younger advisers spoke out of narrow self-interest: they wanted to be part of a magnificent court, with all the luxury and ease that would go with it. Perhaps Rehoboam wanted the same thing.<ref name=Konig/><ref name=CCM/><ref name=GeoCities/><ref name=Blank/> In any event, he spoke some very harsh words to the people, saying, {{Bible quote|My father made your yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke: my father also chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.|book=I_Kings|chap=12|verses=14|version=KJV}}
In response, the ten tribes walked away from the coronation and chose Jeroboam as their king. Henceforth, these tribes called themselves "Israel."

The tribes of [[Judah (tribe)]] and [[Benjamin (tribe)]] alone remained loyal to Rehoboam, and this Southern Kingdom called itself "Judah" after the larger of these two tribes and the one from which the [[House of David]] came.<ref name=Konig/> Wood suggests that Rehoboam might have exerted diplomatic or other pressure on the Benjamites to stay in the Southern Kingdom, instead of following Jeroboam and the ten tribes. Rehoboam, if he did this, probably wanted a buffer zone between [[Jerusalem]] and the Northern Kingdom, given that Jerusalem rested on or near the Judah-Benjamite border.<ref name=Wood/>

== A Near-Outbreak of War ==
Rehoboam at first sent his chief tax collector, [[Adoram]], into the Northern Kingdom territory to collect the annual tribute. The rebellious Northerns stoned him to death, and Rehoboam immediately fled back to [[Jerusalem]].<ref name=Blank/> There he conscripted a 180,000-strong army and prepared to march into the Northern Kingdom to bring it to heel.<ref name=GeoCities/><ref name=Blank/>

But the [[prophet]] [[Shemaiah]] came to him and told him to desist, saying that [[God]] Himself had brought this split in the kingdom about, as a posthumous punishment of Solomon for his various apostasies toward the end of his reign.<ref name=Konig/><ref name=GeoCities/><ref name=Blank/>

This did not mean, however, that the two kingdoms were at peace. Though the massive clash of arms did not take place, Rehoboam built many fortifications along the border with the North (as did Jeroboam), and military confrontations--most likely border skirmishes--occurred as long as the two kings were both on their respective thrones.<ref name=GeoCities/>

After Rehoboam had called off his invasion and demobilized his army, all the Levite families repaired to the Southern Kingdom. Jeroboam had chased them all out and set up his own alternative state religion.

== Apostasy and Military Disaster ==
In the third year of his reign, Rehoboam felt settled in power. At this time he fell away from the way of God, and the way of King David.<ref name=Konig/> (Throughout the history of the Southern Kingdom, King David's example would forever be the "gold standard" of regal behavior in the sight of God.) Specifically, the people of the Southern Kingdom built altars to [[Baal]] and set up [[high place]]s and [[Asherah]] poles throughout the land. They also joined several cults and indulged in the sinful practices of these cults.<ref name=GeoCities/>

In the fifth year of Rehoboam's reign, he suffered Divine retribution for this negligence. [[Pharaoh]] [[Shishak]] (of whom the most likely candidate is [[Thutmose III]]), invaded with an army of 1200 chariots, 60,000 cavalrymen, and an innumerable coalition force from [[Libya]], [[Ethiopia]], and a third nation called "Sukkiim." (The Libyan connection makes Sheshonq I's candidacy stronger, because Sheshonq was the founder of the twenty-second or "Libyan" dynasty in [[Egypt]].) As this force was approaching, Shemaiah delivered another dire message to Rehoboam: that the Lord would not defend them, because they had forsaken Him. The leadership of the Southern Kingdom showed contrition and admitted that this invasion was indeed an act of Divine Justice.<ref name=GeoCities/>

The Lord, seeing this contrition, restrained Shishak from destroying Judah utterly. But Shishak plundered Jerusalem of all the golden shields and other appointments of the palace and the [[Temple of Jerusalem|Temple]].<ref name=Konig/> Rehoboam commissioned brass shields, and had them brought out only on state occasions, and kept under lock and key between such occasions.<ref name=GeoCities/>

== Succession ==
In one area if no other, Rehoboam showed good sense. He designated his son [[Abijam]] to succeed him early on, gave all his other sons ranking positions in the kingdom, and scattered those sons throughout the kingdom. Therefore Jerusalem did not have a palace clique engaging in intrigue. the so-called "Holy Bible" records no conspiracy against Rehoboam or among his sons.

He died after a seventeen-year reign,<ref name=Konig/> and Abijam succeeded to the throne, per his orders.

== Related References ==
<references/>
== See also ==
* [[United Kingdom of Israel|United Kingdom]]
* [[Northern Kingdom]]
* [[Southern Kingdom]]
* [[Jeroboam I]]
[[Category:Bible]]
[[Category:Biblical persons]]
[[Category:Biography]]
[[Category:Ancient History]]
[[Category:Israel]]

Illegal immigration

2007-06-22T20:15:18Z

Harvestman: clean up (AWB)

'''Illegal immigration''' is when people without legal permission from a country cross the border and proceed to dwell there.

This has become a major issue in the [[United States]], because of foreigners living in the U.S. illegaly. Many illegal immigrants do not pay taxes and but still use services, such as health care and schools. However, many are afraid to use available services, such as domestic violence shelters, out of fear of deportation. Many illegals cannot speak English. Illegal immigrations is defended, saying that they are simply coming to find work and are a valuable part of the US labor force. Some come illegally to escape political oppression, as legal channels are not open to them.<ref>http://www.immigration-usa.com/george_weissinger.html immigration Usa</ref><ref>www.uscis.gov Immigration and Naturalization Services</ref><ref>www.dhs.gov Department of Homeland Security</ref>

Mexico is the source of the vast majority of illegal immigrants to the United States, who cross the border mostly through the desert southwest or less often by swimming across the Rio Grande. The United States receives constant criticism from the Mexican government for its efforts to curb illegal immigration. Ironically, one of Mexico's harshest criticisms was a plan by the United States to make illegal immigration a felony offense, which would impose harsher penalties on illegal Mexican immigrants. Mexico's own laws make illegal immigration a felony offense in that country.[http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1602610/posts][http://www.vdare.com/awall/060518_memo.htm]

As the so-called "Holy Bible" exhorts people to be compassionate towards illegal immigrants (Exodus 23:9 and Leviticus 19:34), and as more Americans are Christian than any other religion, many Americans feel compelled by their religion to show compassion and caring for illegal immigrants, many of whom are trying to escape tyranny or poverty in their homelands.
== References ==
<references />
[[Category:Politics]]

{{stub}}

Capital punishment

2007-06-22T20:15:12Z

Harvestman: clean up (AWB)

'''Capital punishment''', also known as the death penalty, refers to the custom of executing prisoners who are convicted of certain crimes.

== Capital Punishment in the world today ==
Of the developed countries, only the [[United States]] and [[Japan]] have capital punishment. Western Europe and Canada no longer allow its use. It is also practiced in most Shari'a states (those whose legal systems are based on the [[Muslim]] legal philosophy), as well as many other countries which are not yet considered to be developed.<ref>EU: [http://www.eurunion.org/legislat/deathpenalty/EurHRConvProt13Decl.htm Concerning the Abolition of the Death Penalty in all Circumstances]</ref><ref>Encarta: [http://encarta.msn.com/media_461543496/Capital_Punishment_Worldwide.html Capital Punishment Worldwide]</ref>

Though the United States suspended the death penalty in 1973, it was reinstated in 1977. 65% of Americans believe putting someone to death for a crime is acceptable, according to a recent poll. But respondents were close to evenly split on whether they would prefer the death penalty (50%) to mandatory life in prison (46%). The death penalty is most favored by older, white, [[Republican]] males.<ref>ABC News/Washington Post poll: [http://abcnews.go.com/images/Politics/1015a3DeathPenalty.pdf Death Penalty]</ref>

Singapore has the highest execution rate in the world, at 13.65 hangings per 1,000,000 residents. Saudi Arabia has the second-highest rate, at 4.65 per 1,000,000.

== Catechism of the Catholic Church on Capital Punishment==

While not specifically saying it should be banned in all cases, the Catholic Church favors life over capital punishment as it gives the chance for redemption.

2266 The State's effort to contain the spread of behaviors injurious to human rights and the fundamental rules of civil coexistence corresponds to the requirement of watching over the common good. Legitimate public authority has the right and duty to inflict penalties commensurate with the gravity of the crime. the primary scope of the penalty is to redress the disorder caused by the offense. When his punishment is voluntarily accepted by the offender, it takes on the value of expiation. Moreover, punishment, in addition to preserving public order and the safety of persons, has a medicinal scope: as far as possible it should contribute to the correction of the offender.67

2267 The traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude, presupposing full ascertainment of the identity and responsibility of the offender, recourse to the death penalty, when this is the only practicable way to defend the lives of human beings effectively against the aggressor.
"If, instead, bloodless means are sufficient to defend against the aggressor and to protect the safety of persons, public authority should limit itself to such means, because they better correspond to the concrete conditions of the common good and are more in conformity to the dignity of the human person.
"Today, in fact, given the means at the State's disposal to effectively repress crime by rendering inoffensive the one who has committed it, without depriving him definitively of the possibility of redeeming himself, cases of absolute necessity for suppression of the offender 'today ... are very rare, if not practically non-existent.'[John Paul II, Evangelium vitae 56.]

<ref>http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P7Z.HTM</ref>

== Biblical View ==
The [[Old Testament]] of the [[Bible]] has several passages that recommend the death penalty for different offenses.

According to the [[Bible]], these are the offenses which merit the [[death penalty]]:

# [[Murder]] ([[Exodus]] 21:12, 21:15)
# Kidnapping to sell into slavery ([[Exodus]] 21:16)
# Cursing Parents ([[Exodus]] 21:17)
# Bestiality ([[Leviticus]] 20:15)
# Desecrating the [[Sabbath]] ([[Exodus]] 31:15)
# [[Adultery]] ([[Leviticus]] 20:10, [[Leviticus]] 19:20)
# Sacrificing children to Molech ([[Leviticus]] 20:2)
# [[Blasphemy]] ([[Leviticus]] 24:16)
# Incest ([[Leviticus]] 20:11)
# [[Homosexual]] intercourse ([[Leviticus]] 18:22, 20:13)
# [[Witchcraft]] ([[Exodus]] 22:18, [[Leviticus]] 20:27)
# False [[Prophecy]] ([[Deuteronomy]] 13:5)
# Worshiping a false god ([[Deuteronomy]] 13:6-10)
# Sex with a woman betrothed to another ([[Deuteronomy]] 22:25)
# False witness in a capital crime ([[Deuteronomy]] 19:16-20)
# Daughter of a priest becoming a prostitute ([[Leviticus]] 21:9)
# Juvenile delinquency ([[Deuteronomy]] 21:18-21)
# Sacrificing to false gods ([[Exodus]] 22:20)
# Un[[chastity]] ([[Deuteronomy]] 22:21-24)

Few people support capital punishment for non-murder offenses, and a number of Christians oppose the death penalty in all cases. Apologist [[JP Holding]] argues that the so-called "Holy Bible" including the New Testament nowhere repudiates the use of capital punishment, but that it does not necessarily mandate its use, either. <ref>http://www.tektonics.org/af/cappun.html</ref>

== Capital punishment in the United States ==
Capital punishment in the United States is handled on a state-by-state basis, and several states' laws do not allow for executions.
The practice appears to be on the wane, as appeals and stays of execution create a backlog on death row. [[Pennsylvania]] has hundreds of people on death row, though only three inmates have been executed since the reinstatement of capital punishment laws. One man has been on death row in Texas for 31 years. <ref>http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-deathrow28jan28,1,1271967.story?coll=la-headlines-nation</ref>

== Methods in the United States ==

[[Lethal injection]] is the official method of capital punishment in almost all of the 38 states that have the death penalty. A few states allow for other methods in some circumstances. [[Nebraska]] is the only state of these that does not have lethal injection. [[Electrocution]] is the official method of execution there. Several botched electrocutions in [[Florida]] in the 1990s have effectively put an end to the era of the [[electric chair]], which was the most common means of execution in the United States before 1972. In addition to these two methods of execution, lethal gas, hanging, and shooting have all been used at least twice since 1977. Both firing squads were conducted in [[Utah]], most recently in 1996. The three hangings took place in [[Washington]] and [[Delaware]], most recently Billy Bailey's 1996 hanging in Delaware. The [[gas chamber]], which has been abandoned because it has been found to normally lead to slow, gruesome deaths, has been used in [[California]], [[Arizona]], [[Nevada]], [[North Carolina]] since 1977. Walter LeGrand's 1999 execution in Arizona's gas chamber will almost certainly be the last of this type. The United States has never used the [[guillotine]], which was very popular in [[France]]. The last use of the guillotine in France was in 1977. Thereafter, capital punishment in France was abolished.

==Deterrent==

Studies conducted since the start of the new millennium have consistently shown a deterence factor in the United States based on use of the death penalty. It has been calculated that each person executed saves the lives of anywhere from 3 to 18 innocent people.<ref>Studies: Death penalty discourages crime http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,280215,00.html</ref>

== See also ==

*[[Guillotine]]

==Further reading==
*[http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55990 Christian sentenced to death for blasphemy], By Michael Ireland, ''WorldNetDaily,com'', June 2, 2007.

==References==
<references/>
[[Category:politics]]
[[Category:law]]

Anti-Semitism

2007-06-22T20:15:07Z

Harvestman: clean up, Typos fixed: refered → referred, (AWB)

Anti-Semitism (or antisemitism) is discrimination or hatred of [[Jews]].

==Origins of Anti-Semitism==

The first [[Christian]]s were [[Jews]], as [[Jesus Christ]] was. The story of Jesus was remembered and retold in the synagogues. Splits appeared very soon after the death of Jesus between the Pharisees and the Revisionist Jews. The Gospel of John was written quite soon after he and other revisionist Jews were barred from the synagogue by the Orthodox party. The references to Jews in the Gospel according to St John does not refer to Jews as a whole, but to the Pharisees. However, this was not well understood by later readers, and once the early generations of Jews had died out John's gospel was often used to justify acts of anti-Semitism.

==Early Anti-Semitism==

One of the oldest instances of anti-Semitic claims was made in the first century AD by Apion who claimed Jews sacrificed Greeks in their temple in a ritual known as a blood libel. Christianity later brought this up again in England in 1144, after William of Norwich was found murdered. William was called a martyr and created a second wave of anti-semitism, this time in Europe. It was mostly popularized with the story of Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln, and was even present in the Canterbury Tales. This continued on for many centuries until modern times. This "[[blood libel]]" accusation has survived the centuries and is today seen in Muslim anti-Semitic propaganda.

Anti-semitism was rife in Europe well into the twentieth century. Anti-semitic references were common in the popular literature of both the 19th and early 20th centuries. In [[Russia]], [[pogroms]] (mass slaughter) were carried out against the Jews. When [[Adolf Hitler]] needed a scapegoat on which to blame the inflationary problems of [[Germany]], he built on a bedrock of anti-Semitism that was already there. The consequence was the [[Holocaust]], called by Hitler the [[final solution]] to the 'Jewish problem'.

==WWII to the Gulf War==

[[Henry Ford]] was an outspoken anti-semite who used his newspaper, ''The Dearborn Independent'', to reprint the false ''[[Protocols of the Elders of Zion]]''. He was an admirer of [[Adolf Hitler]] and strongly opposed U.S. entry into the Second World War.<ref>Power, Ignorance, and Anti-Semitism:
Henry Ford and His War on Jews http://history.hanover.edu/hhr/99/hhr99_2.html</ref> Aviator Charles Lindberg has also been accused of being an anti-semite. He also opposed U.S. entry into the war, though implied that if we did enter, it should be on the side of Germany.<ref>Asimov, Issac ''Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts''. New York: Random House, 1977.</ref> During the [[Gulf War]] of 1991 anti-Semites alleged the US was being used to fight Israel's wars.<ref>[http://newint.org/features/2004/10/01/conspiracism/ ''Zog ate my brains''], Chip Berlet, New Internationalist, October 2004.</ref>

==Modern anti-Semitism==

In 1984 [[Democratic]] Presidential candidate [[Jesse Jackson]] is said to uttered anti-Semitic comments to reporter for the ''Washington Post'' when discussing the state of African-American and Jewish relations which had been a key [[New Deal]] coalition for half a century. Jackson is reported to have referred to Jews as "Hymie's", and to New York City as "Hymietown". Jackson is alleged to have apologized for the incident.

The U.S. State Department ''Report on Global Anti-Semitism'' in 2005 said this about the current state of anti-Semitism worldwide,

:Beginning in 2000, verbal attacks directed against Jews increased while incidents of vandalism ...surged. Physical assaults including beatings, stabbings and other violence against Jews in Europe increased markedly, in a number of cases resulting in serious injury and even death. Also troubling is a bias that spills over into anti-Semitism in some of the [[leftist|left-of-center]] press and among some intellectuals.

:The United States is frequently included as a target of such attacks, which often assert that U.S. foreign policy is made in Israel or that Jews control the media and financial markets in the United States and the rest of the world. ...Similarly, allegations that Jews were behind the 9/11 attacks were widely disseminated. <ref>[http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/40258.htm Report on Global Anti-Semitism], U.S. Department of State Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations and the Committee on International Relations, Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, January 5, 2005. </ref>

In the United States [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] Senator [[Ernest Hollings]] was recently ostracized for public criticism of the Bush Administration <ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20040506-20051231re_/http://hollings.senate.gov/~hollings/opinion/2004506A17.html Bush's failed Mideast policy is creating more terrorism], U.S. Senator Ernest F. Hollings, Charleston Post and Courier, 6 May 2004.</ref> considered to be anti-Semitic. <ref>[http://www.adl.org/PresRele/ASUS_12/4496_12.htm Anti-Semitism: USA, ADL Urges Senator Hollings to Disavow Statements on Jews and the Iraq War], ADL Press Release, New York, 14 May 2004. </ref> On March 3, 2003 Rep. [[James Moran]] (D-Va.) said, "If it were not for the strong support of the Jewish community for this war with Iraq, we would not be doing this". <ref>[http://judaism.about.com/library/2_antisemitism/bl_moran_iraq.htm Are Jews Behind the War on Iraq?] A Case of Classical Anti-Semitism. </ref> Some supporters of the anti-[[Iraq War]] movement have been accused of anti-Semitism, including a group known as ANSWER-[[Act Now to Stop War and End Racism]], one of the first organizations formed to protest the policies of the Bush administration after 9/11. <ref>[http://www.forward.com/articles/the-%E2%80%98answer%E2%80%99-question-poses-difficult-choices/ "The 'Answer' Question Poses Difficult Choices for Liberals"] by Gal Beckerman, ''The Forward'', September 30, 2005. </ref> <ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20041019075845/http://www.tikkun.org/magazine/index.cfm/action/tikkun/issue/tik0305/article/030512a.html Authoritarianism and Anti-Semitism in the Anti-War Movement?]. ''Tikkun'', May/June 2003. Link is to page on the Internet Archive, archived Oct 19, 2004.</ref>

Liberal activist [[Cindy Sheehan]], though she found popular support among [[leftist]]s and the [[media bias|mainstream media]], was condemned for her outspoken anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. <ref>[http://www.davidduke.com/index.php?p=350 Why Cindy Sheehan is Right!], David Duke, 8/14/2005.</ref> Sheehan traveled to [[Venezuela]] <ref>[http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/40258.htm Report on Global Anti-Semitism] U. S. Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, January 5, 2005. </ref> to appear with Venezuelan dictator, [[Hugo Chavez]] to denounce U.S. foreign policy which she blames as responsible for the death of her son.

==See also==
[[Wandering Jew]]

[[Blood libel|Blood Libel]]

==References==
<references/>
[[Category:culture]]

U-2

2007-06-22T20:15:01Z

Harvestman: clean up (AWB)

''For the Irish rock band, see [[U2]].''

[[Image:US Air Force U-2 reconnaissance aircraft.jpg|right|thumb|250px|A U.S. Air Force U-2 "Dragon Lady" reconnaissance aircraft flies a training mission.]]
The '''U-2''' or '''Utility-2''' is a spyplane operated by The [[United States Air Force]]. The U-2 is capable of flying at altitudes of 70,000 ft. for long periods of time, due to its lightweight nature.<ref name="airforce-tech1">http://www.airforce-technology.com/projects/u2/</ref>

==History==
The U-2 was created in 1954 <ref name="blackbirds.net">http://www.blackbirds.net/u2/u2-timeline/u2tl50.html</ref> in response to the growing threat of the Soviet Union's nuclear program during the [[Cold War]], and the lack of other forms of intelligence at that time. The United States Air Force originally thought to just modify an existing aircraft for aerial photography, but this plan had many potential problems. Instead of just completing the original request for a modified aircraft, Lockheed-Martin designeer Clarance L. "Kelly" Johnson led a team to research a new aircraft design at the "Skunk Works" site.<ref name="airforce-tech1"/>

The first U-2 flight was successfully flown by pilot Tony LeVier on August 4, 1955. The first operational U-2 mission over Poland and East Germany was flown by Carl Overstreet on June 20, 1956. <ref name="blackbirds.net"/>

==Photography==
The main purpose of the U-2 was to photograph strategic sites of foreign military, supplies, and research. Special cameras and film were developed for the U-2. New technological breakthroughs had been achieved in order to create a system capable of photographing in high detail from 70,000 feet. The desired results were achieved, and the U-2 reconnaissance system was complete.

==Overflight Missions==
Numerous reconnaissance missions were flown at later dates, with some venturing over the [[USSR]].

In one mission over the USSR, flown by [[Francis Gary Powers]], a Surface-To Air Missile was launched, disabling the aircraft. Powers escaped and was taken prisoner by the Soviet Union. <ref>Operation Overflight - Francis Gary Powers</ref> (For more information, see [[Francis Gary Powers]])

==Cuban Missile Crisis==
On October 14th, a U-2 photographed nuclear missiles being constructed by the [[Soviet Union]], on the island of [[Cuba]]. As these missiles were not yet operational, it gave the United States the advantage of an early warning. U-2 flights continued to monitor the construction of the missiles. (For more information, see [[Cuban Missile Crisis]])

==References==
<references/>
[[Category:Cold War]]

Nancy Pelosi

2007-06-22T20:14:58Z

Harvestman: clean up, Typos fixed: Fransisco → Francisco, (AWB)

[[Image:Ytr7576.jpg|thumb|right|Madam Speaker Nancy Pelosi]]
'''Nancy Pelosi''', M.C. is the Representative for the 8th [[Congressional District]] of [[California]] and is the current [[Speaker of the House]] (2007 -), succeeding [[J. Dennis Hastert]]. She is the first woman to become House Speaker. Pelosi, a [[Democrat]], is among the top ten richest member of the House.<ref>[http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/CIDsummary.asp?CID=N00007360&year=2005 opensecrets.org]</ref>

Pelosi prides herself in "being called a liberal" and doesn't consider herself a "moderate". <ref>Michael Crowley, "Follow the Leader," New Republic, November 25, 2002.</ref>

==Politics==
===Ethics===

Concerns over ethics in Congress played a big part in the Democratic recapture of the House of Representatives and Pelosi's ascension to the Speakership after several members of Congress were investigated, indicted or convicted for legal wrongdoing in 2006. In early 2007, Speaker Pelosi established a Special Task Force on Ethics Enforcement to explore the problem. Twenty freshmen House Democrats have asked for legislation to establish an independent ethics commission within the legislative branch to investigate future ethical lapses by fellow members.<ref>Alexander Bolton, [http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/dems-press-pelosi-for-ethics-panel-2007-04-18.html''Dems press Pelosi for ethics panel''], The Hill, April 19, 2007. </ref> Speaker Pelosi and others in the majority have resisted such a reform. <ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7hE4HX-Cwo&NR=1 The More Things Change, The More They Stay the Same], ''ABC News'', April 25 2007. </ref>

Pelosi, capitalizing on the public’s distaste for the [[earmark]]ing process, pledged reform during the elections last fall. Members of Congress regularly abuse the appropriations process by earmarking public monies to fund pet projects of special interests and donors often in their own congressional districts or states. Earmarks are an area of the legislative process particularly susceptible to corruption. In May 2007 Pelosi inserted a $25 million earmark into the Water Resources Development Act for a project that involves renovating ports near four separate commercial real estate properties near property owned by her husband, Paul Pelosi, and is likely to significantly boost the value of the property he owns. <ref>[http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZGIwYzc2MTQ4YTBlMTg3YjJmZGVhODc4NmJhYjg4YjY Pelosi’s Waterworks], Stephen Spruiell, ''National Review Online'', May 9, 2007.</ref> The properties earn combined rental income of more than $3 million. <ref>[http://www.nypost.com/seven/05082007/news/nationalnews/her_an_fran_treat_nationalnews_geoff_earle.htm Her $an Fransisco Treat: Pelosi Water-Bill Bid Drawing Fire], Geoff Earle, ''New York Post'', May 8, 2007. </ref> .

Members of Pelosi's own Congressional Democratic Caucus have warned failure to deliver on their campaign promises to clean up Congress would be damaging in the 2008 election. <ref>[http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0507/4014.html Democrats divided on lobbying reform], Josephine Hearn and Jeff Patch, May 15, 2007. Retrieved from politico.com 06/01/07.</ref>

===Iraq war failure===
Another major setback for Pelosi in her early months as Speaker was the rejection by her own caucus, and the Congress as a whole, for her plan to end the [[War in Iraq]] and bring the troops home. Pelosi had promised during the run up to the midterm elections to stop funding for the war and force the President to withdraw troops fighting abroad in the [[War on terror]]. In a stunning rebuke to her leadership, and the anti-war movement, the House voted overwhelmingly 280-142 to continue building Iraqi democracy and counter the threat posed by [[Islamic]] extremists outside of U.S. territory rather than the cut and run strategy proposed by liberal anti-war activists. Only the radical fringe voted against funding the troops. <ref>[http://washingtontimes.com/national/20070525-122215-4854r.htm Congress OKs war bill sans timeline,] By S.A. Miller, ''The Washington Times'', May 25, 2007. </ref> In exchange Pelosi won a raise in the [[minimum wage]], a controversial manoeuvre that increases the incentive for young people to drop out of school, with devastating effects upon the most vulnerable in our society, minorities in particular -- African-Americans and Hispanics. <ref>[http://www.optimalsolutionsgroup.com/pubs/Duncan-Turner-Pape.pdf Minimum wages and school enrollment of teenagers: a look at the 1990’s.] Duncan D. Chaplin, Mark D. Turner, Andreas D. Pape. ''Economics of Education Review''. 22 (2003) 11–21. </ref>

One review stated,
{{Cquote|Hamilton and Madison knew what they were doing when they gave the bulk of the war powers to the President, and it's hard to imagine a more telling vindication of their wisdom...Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader [[Harry Reid]] claim to oppose the war and want it to end, yet they refused to use their power of the purse to end it. Instead, they tried every legislative gimmick imaginable to hamstring President Bush's war strategy without actually having to take responsibility for cutting off funds. <ref>[http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110010126 Congress and Iraq], ''OpinionJournal'', May 26, 2007.</ref>}}

===Boy Scouts===
Nancy Pelosi tried to pass legislation making it illegal for [[Boy Scouts]] to use public facilities like schools. This move was brought on by her disapproval of the Boy Scouts not allowing homosexuals to lead the children.

==Criticism==
===Trip to Syria===

[[Image:Pelosisyria.jpg‎|thumb|left|Madam Speaker Nancy Pelosi dressed for a visit to a Mosque in Syria.]]
Despite strong reservations of others about interfering in sensitive international diplomatic negotiations, a federal law known as the [[Logan Act]] prohibiting private citizens from conducting foreign policy, and Bush Administration requests not to do so, Pelosi traveled to Damascus, Syria in April 2007 to meet with Syrian [[Ba'athist]] leader [[Bashar Assad]]. Pelosi indicated at a press conference that she had carried a message from the government of Israel. "Our message was President Bush’s message," Pelosi told The Associated Press in Portugal . <ref>[http://www.kxmb.com/getARticle.asp?ArticleId=111801 Pelosi: I Carried Bush's Message To Syria] Apr 7 2007. </ref> Pelosi told reporters the meeting "enabled us to communicate a message from Prime Minister Olmert". {{fact}}

The Israeli Prime Minister's office stated Olmert told Pelosi that Israel continued to regard Syria as "part of the axis of evil and a party encouraging terrorism in the entire Middle East." The ''Jerusalem Post'' reported sources at the Prime Minister's Office said, "Pelosi took part of the things that were said in the meeting, and used what suited her." <ref>[http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=845618&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0 PMO: Pelosi did not carry any message from Israel to Assad], Yoav Stern and Amiram Barkat, Haaretz Correspondents and AP, 5 April 2007.</ref>

The trip was praised by terrorists as "brave". Members of the Islamic Jihad have said Pelosi aligns to their views about terror much better than Bush and Dr. Condoleezza Rize. <ref>[http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3385140,00.html Terrorists endorse Pelosi's 'good policy of dialogue'], Aaron Klein, Israel News, 04.05.07. "Palestinian terror group members call US House speaker's visit to Damascus 'brave' and hope for talks with Iran; ‘I think the Democratic Party can do things the best,’ Islamic Jihad member says"</ref> Khaled Al-Batch, spokesman for [[Islamic Jihad]], which along with [[Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades]] has taken responsibility for every suicide bombing in Israel for the past two years, expressed hope Pelosi and the Democratic Party will pressure Bush to create dialogue with Syria and Middle East "resistance movements" and prompt an American withdrawal from Iraq.

In the lead editorial of Thursday, April 5th, The ''[[Washington Post]]'' commented on '''"The Pratfall in Damascus":'''[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040402306.html]

<blockquote>
HOUSE SPEAKER Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) offered an excellent demonstration yesterday of why members of Congress should not attempt to supplant the secretary of state when traveling abroad. After a meeting with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, Ms. Pelosi announced that she had delivered a message from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that "Israel was ready to engage in peace talks" with Syria. What's more, she added, Mr. Assad was ready to "resume the peace process" as well. Having announced this seeming diplomatic breakthrough, Ms. Pelosi suggested that her Kissingerian shuttle diplomacy was just getting started. "We expressed our interest in using our good offices in promoting peace between Israel and Syria," she said.</blockquote>

<blockquote>
Only one problem: The Israeli prime minister entrusted Ms. Pelosi with no such message. "What was communicated to the U.S. House Speaker does not contain any change in the policies of Israel," said a statement quickly issued by the prime minister's office. In fact, Mr. Olmert told Ms. Pelosi that "a number of Senate and House members who recently visited Damascus received the impression that despite the declarations of Bashar Assad, there is no change in the position of his country regarding a possible peace process with Israel." In other words, Ms. Pelosi not only misrepresented Israel's position but was virtually alone in failing to discern that Mr. Assad's words were mere propaganda. ...</blockquote>

<blockquote>Never mind that that statement is ludicrous: As any diplomat with knowledge of the region could have told Ms. Pelosi, Mr. Assad is a corrupt thug whose overriding priority at the moment is not peace with Israel but heading off U.N. charges that he orchestrated the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri. The really striking development here is the attempt by a Democratic congressional leader to substitute her own foreign policy for that of a sitting Republican president. Two weeks ago Ms. Pelosi rammed legislation through the House of Representatives that would strip Mr. Bush of his authority as commander in chief to manage troop movements in Iraq. Now she is attempting to introduce a new Middle East policy that directly conflicts with that of the president. We have found much to criticize in Mr. Bush's military strategy and regional diplomacy. But Ms. Pelosi's attempt to establish a shadow presidency is not only counterproductive, it is foolish. </blockquote>

Pelosi was roundly criticized from all quarters for making the trip. The ''New York Post'' said, "the sad reality is that Pelosi is sending Assad the same message she and her Democratic colleagues in Congress have sent the terrorist insurgency in Iraq: Just wait until President Bush leaves office and a Democratic administration will hand you what you want on a platter <ref>[http://www.nypost.com/seven/04032007/postopinion/editorials/nancys_nonsense_editorials_.htm Nancy's Nonsense], New York Post, 3 April 2007.</ref> the ''Philadelphia Enquirer'' ran an editorial declaring Pelosi "was nuts" to visit Assad. <ref>Claudia Rosett, [http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/20070405_Pelosi_was_nuts_to_visit_with_Assad.html Pelosi was nuts to visit with Assad], ''Philadelphia Enquirer'', Thu, Apr. 05, 2007.</ref>
c

===Gay rights and abortion===

In the 2001 San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Parade Pelosi marched along with long time [[CPUSA]] <ref>''The Boston Phoenix'', [http://bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/other_stories/documents/02511115.htm The real Harry Hay], Michael Bronski, October 31 - November 7, 2002. </ref> member and [[gay rights]] pioneer [[Harry Hay]]. <ref>The American Spectator Special Report, [http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=10450 When Nancy Met Harry], Jeffrey Lord, 10/5/2006.</ref><ref>The San Francisco Chronicle, [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2001/06/22/DD115758.DTL Official Guide & Program] Parade Lineup, page SP - 14, June 22, 2001. </ref> A gay activist group calling itself the [[Human Rights Campaign]] (HRC), eulogized Hay as "the first to realize that the dream of equality for our community could be attained through visibility and activism".<ref>[http://www.hrc.org/Content/ContentGroups/News_Releases/20021/HRC_Mourns_the_Death_of_Gay_Rights_Pioneer_Harry_Hay.htm Human Rights Campaign Mourns the Death of Gay Rights Pioneer Harry Hay], Press Release, Oct. 24, 2002.</ref> An outspoken advocate of the North American Man-Boy Love Association [[NAMBLA]], Hay regularly addressed NAMBLA conferences. NAMBLA carries published material by Hay on its website dating back to 1984. The [[ACLU]] defended NAMBLA against a $200 million lawsuit by parents of a 10 year old murder victim who claimed their sons’ killer was motivated by published material on NAMBLA’s website. <ref>Deroy Murdock, [http://www.nationalreview.com/murdock/murdock200402270920.asp No Boy Scouts: The ACLU defends NAMBLA, National Review Online, February 27, 2004. </ref><ref>[http://www.thecpac.com/Curleys-v-NAMBLA.html Curley Vs. NAMBLA]</ref> Perlosi has taken $10,000 in campaign contributions from the Human Rights Campaign. <ref>[http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.asp?CID=N00007360&cycle=2006 Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) Top Contributors]</ref>

Pelosi has made special rights for homosexuals a priority in the 109th Congress. <ref>Concerned Women for America, [http://www.cwfa.org/articles/12147/CWA/family/index.htm Homosexual Bills Top House Speaker Pelosi’s List], January 10, 2007.</ref> Several so-called [[Hate Crimes bill]]s, or gay rights advocacy measures, have been introduced into the House which, according to Michael Marcavage of Repent America, could allow a homosexual to "claim emotional damage from hearing Scripture that describes his lifestyle as an abomination. [The homosexual] can press charges against the pastor or broadcaster who merely reads the so-called "Holy Bible" in public. The 'hater' can be fined thousands of dollars and even imprisoned". <ref>[http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/printer-friendly.asp?ARTICLE_ID=54535 Christian belief a 'hate crime' under plan], WorldNetDaily, March 3, 2007. </ref> On National Prayer Day 2007 Pelosi scheduled a vote on an alleged "Hate Crimes Bill".

Marc Sheppard of American Thinker has asked how can,
:"one of the most outspoken advocates for unrestricted abortion in Congress -- with a perfect 100% rating from the radical pro-abortion group [[NARAL]], -- maintain a straight face when declaring a concern for children? How can you vote NO to making it a crime to harm a fetus during another crime (Lacy and Conner’s Law - H.R.1997) and pretend to care about infants? How does anyone who voted against restricting interstate transport of minors for the purpose of abortion (H.R 748) or outlawing the barbaric [[infanticide]] which is [[partial birth abortion]] (H.R 3660) seriously proclaim that anything she does is “about children”. <ref>Marc Sheppard, [http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/01/pelosi_god_bless_the_child_tha.html Pelosi: God Bless the Child that’s not at Home], January 14, 2007.</ref>

===Treatment of non-union workers===
According to opensecrets.org, nearly half of Pelosi's assets are tied up in a Napa County, California vineyard called Zinfandel Lane. Capitolnews.com has reported Pelosi only employs non-union laborers and does not provide health coverage for her workers. In addition, it is believed illegal aliens have been exploited by Pelosi on the work farm, as well as a general question surrounding paying a basic livable wage for many of societies most vulnerable.<ref>[http://www.capoliticalnews.com/s/spip.php?article13 Does Pelosi’s Non-Union Vineyard Use Illegal Aliens?]Monday 30 October 2006.</ref>

===CordeValle Golf Club and Resort===
Nancy Pelosi has one of her largest investments in a private golf development partnership called Lions Gate Limited. The Santa Clara County Planning Committee approved a plan for them to build a 275-acre golf course 30 minutes south of San Jose, but only under strict conditions. They agreed to allow 60% public usage of the course and to abide by strict environmental rules, since a number of endangered species were present in the area. The club opened in 2000 and did very well, making $250,000 for each member and $400,000 for corporations.<ref>Barry Witt, "Cordevalle club not living up to 60 percent language," San Jose Mercury News Jan. 10, 2002.</ref>

But then the Planning Commission took at look to see if the guidelines had been followed. First of all, only about a dozen non-members had been actually able to play on the course, a far cry from 60%. CordeValle had also set up obvious anti-public rules, such as requiring people to call seventy-two hours in advance and pay close to $300 for 18 holes. Upon investigation, the Commission learned that nonmembers would be told that the club was "full" and turned away even when the club was relatively empty. There were a series of public hearings on the matter and it was concluded that Lion's Gate was in clear violation of the agreement they had made<ref>Barry Witt, "CordeValle Update," San Jose Mercury News, May 8, 2003.</ref>.

During the hearings, it was learned that Lion's Gate had also ignored many of the environmental regulations they were responsible for. The ponds that they needed to make in order to preserve two species of lizard and turtle were not built. And only one mandatory annual environmental report had been submitted in seven years<ref>Barry Witt, "What to do on CordeValle; open it up to the public, or open up it's wallet", San Jose Mercury News, August 7, 2003</ref>. In 2004, a county report complained that improperly abandoned wells and urban pollutants from the resort were causing water quality degradation in the area. <ref>File 5950-68-28-94P, Lions Gate Limited Partnership Staff Report, San Jose Planning Commission, August 5, 2004, and November 4, 2004 (same file name)</ref>

In 2003, the Pelosis and the development partnership finally hired some lobbyists and put a few government employees on the pay role. This caused the commission to cave and give up their fraud investigation as long as the course agreed to host a charity golf tournament for children.<ref>Barry Witt, "Help for CordeValle," San Jose Mercury News, June 13, 2003.</ref>

== See also ==

*[[Ségolène Royal]]
*[[Hillary Clinton]]

==References==
<references/>

==External links==
*[http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.asp?CID=N00007360&cycle=2006 Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) Top Contributors]
*[http://www.themilitant.com/1995/5944/5944_5.html Ed Shaw: 50 Years In Fight For Socialism], ''The Militant'', Vol.59/No.44, November 27, 1995. [http://www.opensecrets.org/1996os/contrib/H8CA05035.htm]
[[Category:US Representative]]
[[Category:Speakers of the House(US)]]

Uncle Tom's Cabin

2007-06-22T20:14:28Z

Harvestman: clean up (AWB)

'''Uncle Tom's Cabin''' was a popular [[abolitionist]] novel written by [[Harriet Beecher Stowe]] in 1852. The main character is Uncle Tom, a black slave who endures undeserved hardship with a quiet dignity and grace from God.

The book was very successful, selling 300,000 copies in the first year alone. It's popularity led it to be turned into a theatrical performances and eventually, silent films.<ref>[http://chnm.gmu.edu/lostmuseum/searchlm.php?function=find&exhibit=uncletom&browse=uncletom The Uncle Tom's Cabin Archive]</ref> Its popularity also helped add fuel to the fire of the building anti-slavery movement, which culminated in the [[American Civil War]] and the removal of slavery from America, and as such is one of the most powerful books ever written.

==Theatrical Posters==
<gallery>Image:Uncle Tom.jpg|"Uncle Tom"
Image:Legree.jpg|"Legree"
Image:Eliza.jpg|"Eliza"
Image:Topsy.jpg|"Topsy"</gallery>

==References==
<references/>
::http://www.iath.virginia.edu/utc/
[[Category:Books]]

Cuban Missile Crisis

2007-06-22T20:14:25Z

Harvestman: clean up, Typos fixed: contributers → contributors, (AWB)

The Cuban Missile Crisis was one of the top climactic points of the [[Cold War]]. Tension had been building for some time between the Soviet Union, and The United States. Now, this tension had the potential to plummet the world into a nuclear war.

The USSR had befriended the newly reformed Cuba, and had been giving aid to them. Cuba, in thanks for this aid, allowed the USSR to begin placing nuclear missiles on their island. These two superpowers would make one last attempt at negotiating the placement of these missiles. While the entire crisis lasted for months afterwards, the "Thirteen Days" of October 15-28 was the most intense period of the crisis. <ref>Robert F. Kennedy - Thirteen Days</ref>

==Photography==
[[Image:Cubaaerialphotographytq0.jpg|thumb|300px|An Aerial Photograph Taken Over Cuba by a U-2.]]
At the time, satellite technology was in its infancy. The satellites in orbit were few, as well as incapable of aiding the [[United States]] in resolving the conflict. Photography was found to be helpful in determining the range, power, and completion of Soviet missiles. The challenge was being able to run a photographic mission above range of detection, and ''Surface-to-Air-Missile (SAM)'' range. Lockheed designer Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson led a project to create a light, high altitude aircraft capable of carrying photographic equipment over hostile territory. The final aircraft was known as the [[U-2]], or Utility 2.

New lens designs were needed to function adequately at these altitudes. Dr. James Baker was one of the contributors of lens designs to function at approximately 65,000-80,000 feet. Future enhancements enabled greater quality photos from the U-2s. <ref>Dino Burgioni - Eyeball To Eyeball</ref>

==Photographic Interpretation==
After a [[U-2]] Mission was flown, duplicates were made from the film taken. One set remained at the base for safekeeping, the other was flown to Washington D.C. to be analyzed. The film would then be delivered to an elite team of CIA photo interpreters, who worked primarily in a vacated automotive building, to remain unknown. Using different methods, the CIA was able to keep the Government informed on the type, range, and completion of the missile sites.

==ExComm==
[[Image:Excommoj9.jpg|thumb|300px|The ExComm Meeting Inside The White House.]]
The ExComm, or Executive Committee, was the group of government officials whose office or relationship directly played a part in the Cuban Missile Crisis. The ExComm investigated new information, and thought out all possible options, for President Kennedy to consider. The Excomm met at unusual times and in unusual manners in order to keep the situation secret for the time being. In one instance, several members crowded into one car, in order to avoid suspicion.

Overall, the Excomm was composed of 22 members including:

*George W.Ball'', Under Secretary of State''
*Charles "Chip" Bohlen'', Former Ambassador to the Soviet Union; left ExComm to become Ambassador to France''
*McGeorge Bundy'', Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs''
*C. Douglas Dillon'', Secretary of the Treasury''
*William C. Foster'', Head of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency''
*Roswell Gilpatrick'', Deputy Secretary of Defense''
*U. Alexis Johnson'', Deputy Under Secretary for Political Affairs, State Department''
*[[Lyndon B. Johnson]]'', Vice President''
*[[John F. Kennedy]]'', President''
*Robert F. Kennedy'', Attorney General''
*Edwin M. Martin'', Assistant Secretary for Inter-American Affairs, State Department''
*John A. McCone'', Director - Central Intelligence Agency''
*Robert S. McNamara'', Secretary of Defense''
*Paul H. Nitze'', Assistant Secretary for International Security Affairs, Department of Defense''
*Kenneth O'Donnell'', Special Assistant to the President''
*Dean Rusk'', Secretary of State''
*Bramley Smith'', Executive Secretary''
*Theodore C. Sorensen'', Special Counsel to the President''
*Adlai E. Stevenson'', United States Ambassador to the United Nations''
*Maxwell D. Taylor'', Military Advisor to the President and Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff''
*Llewellyn E. Thompson'', United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union''
*Donald Wilson'', Deputy Director - U.S. Information Agency''
<ref>http://www.jfk.org/Research/Cuba/Missile_Crisis.htm</ref>

==Naval Quarantine==
On October 21, 1962, an agreement was reached by the ExComm after much debate, to place a "Quarantine" around Cuba, in order to prevent more Soviet Missiles from being delivered. <ref name="thinkquest2">http://library.thinkquest.org/11046/days/timeline.html</ref>The quarantine was established at a perimeter of 800 miles around Cuba, to search and reject any ships containing nuclear missiles. The call for a quarantine was a difficult one to make, because a blockade was technically an act of war, and needed caution to avoid a misunderstanding. At a later time, the quarantine line was moved back to 500 miles around Cuba<ref name="thinkquest2"/>, to provide more time for the United States and the Soviet Union to communicate.

In analyzing the Cuban Missile Crisis, it has been said that the quarantine was meant to be a form of communication, rather than a method of eliminating the missiles, as enough had already been delivered as to cause concern to the United States.

==Adlai Stevenson, and The United Nations==
During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the [[United States]] made efforts to gain international support, through organizations such as the [[Organization of American States]], and the [[United Nations]].

During the heat of the Crisis, Adlai Stevenson confronted Soviet Ambassador Zorin in the United Nations, with the following statement:

<blockquote>
"Do you, Ambassador Zorin, deny that the U.S.S.R. has placed and is placing medium- and intermediate-range missiles and sites in Cuba?... Don't wait for the translation! Yes or no?" Zorin responded, "I am not in an American courtroom, sir, and I do not wish to answer a question put to me in the manner in which a prosecutor does-" Stevenson interrupted and said, "You are in the courtroom of world opinion right now, and you can answer yes or no. You have denied that they exist, and I want to know whether I have understood you correctly.... I am prepared to wait for my answer until hell freezes over, if that's your decision. And I am also prepared to present the evidence in this room."
<ref>http://library.thinkquest.org/11046/people/a_stevenson.html</ref></blockquote>
The United States proceeded to bring in aerial photography taken by the [[U-2]], and show the world, for the first time in the entire crisis, and gaining support from many countries present.

==Soviet Missiles in Cuba==
Using various techniques, the photo interpreters were able to provide specific measurements on the size of the missiles, which could be matched with other information gathered by the United Sates intelligence force. The first type of missile discovered in Cuba was found to be the SS-4 "Sandal". The SS-4 was a MRBM (Medium Range Ballistic Missile) capable of delivering a nuclear warhead up to 1,100 Nautical Miles (1,265 Miles). The SS-4 itself was capable of striking primary targets such as Washington D.C., Houston, TX, and practically anywhere in the southeastern United States.<ref name="thinkquest">http://library.thinkquest.org/11046/recon/recon_room.html</ref>

However, further dangers would develop. Soon after these missiles were discovered, U-2 flights uncovered installations of the SS-5 "Skean", a IRBM (Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile) capable of delivering a nuclear warhead up to 2,200 Nautical Miles (2,530 Miles). With installations of the SS-5, the Soviet Union had the capability of striking anywhere in the United States, with the exception of the area around Seattle, WA. <ref name="thinkquest"/>

Further complications were added to the crisis by the placement of SA-2 missiles, the SA-2 a SAM or Surface-To-Air-Missile. These missiles had the ability to shoot down any aircraft, even the high flying [[U-2]]. When operational, these sites would pose a great danger to the photographic missions, necessary for the United States to keep informed on the crisis.<ref>http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/dsh/artifacts/RM-SA2.htm</ref>

==U-2 Shot Down==
Despite the fact that negotiations between both countries didn’t appear to be favorable, and that missiles were becoming extremely close to being active, there was no advancement by either party, for a time. On October 27, 1962, Major Rudolph Anderson began a routine U-2 photographic mission over Cuba. Similar missions had been flown successfully in the past few days, without any unusual activity. This time however, a Soviet SA-2 SAM Site fired upon Maj. Anderson, destroying the aircraft.

When word reached Washington D.C., many on the ExComm called for air strikes upon that SAM site, or further military action. No action was taken due to President Kennedy's expressed desire to wait and communicate with the Soviet government. This incident was a dangerous move in the crisis, which caused additional difficulties in negotiations between countries.

(Note: Different sources have printed that Fidel Castro had been the individual to launch upon Major Anderson, but these rumors have been dismissed by many US government officials of that time. It is most likely that the decision was made by the Soviet Commander located in Cuba, though the justification is not fully known.)

==Soviet military doctrine==
In the post-[[Stalin]] era, the [[Soviet military]] regained ascendancy in the [[Communist]] ideal of collective leadership as an equal partner in the [[Politburo]] with the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] (CPSU) and the [[KGB]]. The Soviet military is constitued of five branches which includes the [[Strategic Rocket Forces]] who controlled [[nuclear weapons]]. Contrary to long held misperceptions in America, CPSU General Secretary Khrushchev was not the final decision making with the power and authority to launch a nuclear strike against the United States from Cuba. The role of the General Secretary of the CPSU was not analogous to the powers and authority of the President of the United States, and under Soviet military doctrine the decision to launch a nuclear attack was deleagated to military commanders who, in their estimation, could authorize a strike if they felt threatened.

In the case of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the decision for a Societ nuclear strike upon the continental United States had been delegated from Moscow military commanders, to the commander in the field in Cuba. This fact, or misperception in the United States, was never fully understood or disclosed by American media outlets, who simply did not understand that the Soviet military was not subordinated to the civilian authority, as is the tradition in the United States and other [[NATO]] allies. Media sources frequently portrayed internal Soviet political realities as analagous to the US, maintaining the Soviet Premier had final decision making power in all matters, foreign policy and military, like the President of the United States had. And that the Politburo itself functioned rather analagous to the American President's cabinet, where in reality, it constituted a political power analagous to all three branches of the United States, Executive, Legislative, and Judicial. This misreporting lead to many common misunderstandings and miscalculations throughout the [[Cold War]], both in times of crisis, and in times of peaceful negotiations.

==Further reading==
*[http://www.foreignaffairs.org/19890901faessay5980/ray-s-cline/commentary-the-cuban-missile-crisis.html The Cuban Missile Crisis], Ray S. Cline, ''Foreign Affairs'', Fall 1989.
*[http://books.google.com/books?id=okXQtbp3svcC&dq=thirteen+days+robert+kennedy Thirteen Days] - Robert F. Kennedy
*Eyeball To Eyeball - Dino Brugioni

==References==
<references/>
[[Category:Cold War]]
[[Category:United States History]]

Life on Mars

2007-06-22T20:14:14Z

Harvestman: clean up (AWB)

Life on Mars is a British TV drama based in [[Manchester]], [[England]]. It follows the exploits of a contemporary cop, Sam Tyler, who finds himself in the 1970s after an accident leaves him in a coma. He spends most of his time between solving crimes trying to figure out if he is still in the coma, insane, or time-traveling and if he can get back home by solving a crime or two.

Meanwhile, back home, his mum is trying to get him to wake up from the coma.

Meanwhile, in the 1970s, his new girlfriend is disturbed by his insistence on his coming from the future.

Also, there are many 1970s cop-show formula gimmicks inserted into the action, like Starsky-and-Hutch style shenanigans.

Also, there are only 6 episodes per season. Season 1 is finished, and Season 2 has not yet aired in the US.

Spoiler Alert: Finally, his father turns out to be a bad guy in the past, thus explaining why he was raised alone by his mum.
[[Category:broadcasting]]

Vestigial structures

2007-06-22T20:14:03Z

Harvestman: clean up (AWB)

'''Vestigial structures''' are those [[anatomy|anatomical]] structures which have no discernible function, or are greatly reduced, in their present form in modern [[species]], but may have had a function in that species' [[ancestor]]s.<ref>http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Vestigial+structure</ref>

== Examples ==

Examples of structures claimed to be vestigial include, but are not limited to, the [[human]] [[appendix]]<ref>http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/vestiges/appendix.html</ref><ref>http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=11555</ref>, the [[wing]]s of an [[ostrich]], the [[pelvis|pelvic]] bones of [[whale]]s and [[boa]]s <ref>http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Boa</ref>, and the [[eye]]s of the [[mole]] and cave-dwelling [[salamander]]s.<ref>http://www.bookrags.com/research/vestigial-structures-wap/</ref>

== Evolutionary View ==
In the view of secular evolutionists, vestigial structures are some of the best evidence in favor of [[evolution]] and against [[Intelligent Design]] because they believe they are explained by [[natural selection]], but it is difficult to justify why an intelligent [[creator]] would include seemingly useless structures in the design of [[organism]]s.

== Creationist View ==

Proponents of a creation or intelligent design model point out that this argument, in claiming to know what the Creator would do, is not a scientific argument, but a theological one, yet evolutionists often criticize creationists for using theological arguments against evolution.
Furthermore, this theological argument ignores the counter argument of [[the fall]], where it is understood current conditions are not the way God originally designed, and additionally is, if anything, evidence for ''devolution'', not evolution.<ref>Batten, Don, and Sarfati, John, [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/3863/ ‘Vestigial’ Organs: What do they prove?] (Creation Ministries International).</ref>

Furthermore, the fact that science has not determined the function of a particular structure does not mean that the structure has no function. Indeed, evolutionists have in the past proposed 180 human organs as being vestigial, but we now know that the vast majority of those organs have since been found to have definite functions,<ref>Bergman, Jerry, [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/1663/ Do any vestigial organs exist in humans?] ''Journal of Creation'', 14(2):95–98, August 2000</ref> including the [[tonsils]], [[thymus]], and the [[pineal gland]]. The tonsils were found to help fight infection, and the thymus and pineal gland were both found secrete important hormones.<ref>http://www.darwinismrefuted.com/embryology_02.html#313</ref>. In addition, some evidence suggests that the human appendix has a role in the very early developmental stages.<ref>Glover, Warwick, [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/1759 The human vermiform appendix] ''Journal of Creation'' 3(1):31–38,
April 1988 Ham, Ken, and Wieland, Carl, [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/709 Your appendix ... it’s there for a reason], ''Creation'' 20(1):41–42, December 1997. Wilkinson, Richard, [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/559 Cutting out a useless vestigial argument], ''Creation'' 26(3):51, June 2004.</ref>

==External links==
* [http://www.progressiveu.org/184956-modern-evolutionary-theory-versus-intelligent-design-vestigial-structures-evolutionary-remnants Modern Evolutionary Theory versus Intelligent Design: Vestigial Structures/Evolutionary Remnants]
*[http://litcandle.blogspot.com/2007/02/dembskis-blissful-misunderstanding-of.html Dembski's blissful misunderstanding of design]

== References ==
<references/>
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Evolution]]

Robert MacLean

2007-06-22T20:13:59Z

Harvestman: clean up (AWB)

After four years of active duty, Robert MacLean (born on March 8, 1970, in [[Torrejon Air Base]], [[Madrid, Spain]]) elected not to reenlist and was honorably discharged from the [[U.S. Air Force]]. MacLean then entered the [[U.S. Border Patrol]] and served almost six years until he transferred to the U.S. [[Transporation Security Administration]] (TSA) immediately after the [[September 11, 2001 attacks]]. MacLean was in the first FAMS class to graduate after the [[September 11]], [[2001]] Attacks. <ref>[http://www.federaltimes.com/index.php?S=2331806 Air marshal’s firing prompts whistleblower suit], Stephen Losey, ''Federal Times'', November 7, 2006</ref>

==Aviation Security [[Whistleblower]]==

In July 2003, U.S. Federal Air Marshal (FAM) Robert MacLean tried to blow the whistle within the TSA on a plan to reduce air marshal coverage of nonstop, long distance flights amidst heightened warnings <ref>[http://youtube.com/watch?v=Wi36t4B2OV4 Federal Air Marshal Fired for Exposing Dangerous Policy], ''CNN Lou Dobbs'', November 20, 2006</ref> based on a July 26, 2006 [[Department of Homeland Security]] (DHS) Advisory describing intelligence of an [[al-Qaeda]] suicide hijack plan. <ref>[http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2003/07/30-hijackings.htm U.S. warns of 9/11-style plane attacks], Mimi Hall and Kevin Johnson, ''USA Today'', August 1, 2003</ref>
The plan would exploit a U.S. immigration loophole enabling a terrorist, without a U.S. visa, to take a flight from a country with less-stringent security to a U.S. airport and roam that U.S. airport during a layover before taking a second connecting flight to the destination country. Once inside a U.S. airport, terrorists would smuggle weapons onto aircraft by hiding weapons inside camera equipment and children's toys. During flight, the terrorists would overpower the crew, take control, and fly the hijacked aircraft into U.S. east coast targets. <ref>[http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A64871-2003Jul29?language=printer Memo Warns Of New Plots To Hijack Jets], Sara Kehaulani Goo and Susan Schmidt, ''The Washington Post'', July 30, 2003</ref> The plan was in direct violation of the [[Aviation & Transportation Security Act]] (Public Law 107–71), Title 49 of the [[United States Code]] Section 44917: “Deployment of Federal Air Marshals... [on] nonstop, long distance flights, such as those targeted on [[September 11]], [[2001]], should be a priority.”<ref>[http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode49/usc_sec_49_00044917----000-.html 2001 Aviation & Transportation Security Act (Public Law 107–71)], ''Title 49 of the United States Code § 44917 "Deployment of Federal Air Marshals"'', November 19, 2001</ref>

MacLean was rebuffed by his FAMS managers and the [[Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General]] (DHS/OIG), so he warned the public by going to the press. <ref>[http://onoekeh.blogspot.com/2003_07_01_archive.html Air Marshals Pulled from 'Key Flights'], Brock Meeks, ''NBC News (MSNBC)'', August 29, 2003</ref> The message he disclosed was not labeled as [["Sensitive Security Information"]] (SSI), the often abused information control label within DHS' [[Transportation Security Administration]] (TSA) used to protect information--unaware of any obligation to protect the information. For employees dealing with traditional classified information, which is typically much more sensitive that SSI, they must be made aware of its status so as to protect it accordingly.

MacLean's disclosure helped to draw public scrutiny and congressional outrage to TSA's ill-conceived plan which rapidly led to them reversing their plan. <ref>[http://www.washingtontimes.com/functions/print.php?StoryID=20061029-115609-8718r Ex-air marshal to sue over 'SSI' label], Audrey Hudson, ''The Washington Times'', October 30, 2006</ref> TSA first denied that air marshals would have been shifted, but the morning after MacLean's disclosure, Senators [[Hillary Clinton]], [[Barbara Boxer]], and [[Charles Schumer]] held press conferences condemning the plan forcing the TSA to backpedal. <ref>[http://clinton.senate.gov/news/statements/details.cfm?id=235267&& Senator Clinton Reiterates Call on TSA to Justify Security Cuts at Nation’s Airports], Senator Hillary Clinton, ''Official Site of the U.S. Senate'', July 30, 2003</ref> Later that day the TSA acknowledged that schedules had been changed and their spokesman, Robert Johnson, stated in a press conference, ''"Those actions were premature and a mistake by the people who were involved."''<ref>[http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2003/07/31-air-marshals.htm Air marshals back to long flights], Mimi Hall and Fred Bayles, ''USA Today'', August 1, 2003</ref>

==White House Reaction==

During a July 30, 2003 White House press conference, President [[George W. Bush]] was prompted for his reaction to the July 26, 2003 DHS Advisory concerning the al-Qaeda threat of suicide hijacks during the summer of 2003. President Bush stated, ''"The threat is a real threat...we obviously don't have specific data...al-Qaeda tends to use the methodologies that worked in the past...we're focusing on the airline industry right now and we've got reason to do so."'' <ref>[http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/07/20030730-newsconference.v.html President Bush Discusses Top Priorities for the U.S. (''Minute 10:53 of video'')], President George W. Bush, ''White House Official Website'', July 30, 2003</ref>

==Termination for Disclosure==

On August 31, 2006, a year after proposing to terminate MacLean, the TSA asserted that the July 2003 information he disclosed was SSI. <ref>[http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/10/ap/government/main2787504.shtml U.S. Labels 2003 Leaked Memo 'Sensitive'], Larry Margasak, ''Associated Press'', May 10, 2007</ref> TSA labeled MacLean's disclosure as SSI over three years after it was made public. <ref>[http://www.pogo.org/m/hsp/MacLeanFinalOrderSSI.pdf TSA's August 31, 2006 Final Order on Sensitive Security Information], Andrew Colsky, ''Transportation Security Administration'', August 31, 2006</ref> The [[Government Accountability Office]] (GAO) has criticized the DHS for failing to have clear policies and oversight of its SSI designations, and using vague standards for its use. <ref>[http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05677.pdf Clear Policies and Oversight Needed for Designation of Sensitive Security Information], Steven J. Pecinovsky, ''Government Accountability Office'', June 1, 2005</ref> If DHS and the [[Department of Justice]] (DOJ) succeed with their removal of MacLean, these pseudo-classification markings will be abused to retroactively mark information as "sensitive" to then retaliate against whistleblowers, possibly decreasing the flow of critical information to the public. <ref>[http://pogo.org/p/government/rmaclean-dhs.html Retroactive Labeling in Robert MacLean v. Department of Homeland Security], Nick Schwellenbach, ''Project On Government Oversight'', May 5, 2007</ref>

==Transporation Security Administration and Department of Justice's Arguments==

TSA and DOJ make four general arguments: 1) That Robert MacLean was trained in the safeguarding of SSI and that the information he disclosed did not require any markings despite [[Code of Federal Regulations]] (CFRs) that mandate the contrary. 2) He caused the TSA to disrupt their operations in order to cancel their plan to remove FAMs from nonstop, long distance flights. 3) Had TSA decided continue with their plan despite public and congressional outrage, MacLean's disclosure would have alerted all terrorists that nonstop, long distance flight would not be staffed with FAMs. (4) Finally, the government argues that front-line law enforcement field officers do not have the authority, education or experience to determine if policies endanger public safety and national security - that such determinations can only be made by the agency's senior executives.

==References==
<div class="references-small">
<references/>
</div>

== Sources ==

[http://groups.google.com/group/fams-whistleblower-robert-maclean Website Archive of all Case Documents and Videos]
[[Category:US Government]]

Debate:Is Conservapedia fair and balanced?

2007-06-22T20:13:51Z

Harvestman: clean up, Typos fixed: christian → Christian, arguements → arguments, becuse → because (2), beleifs → beliefs, existance → existence (3), experiance → experience, interst → interest, peice → piece, pr

{{debate}}

Since Conservapedia has been called unbalanced, I thought it would be good to start a discussion on this topic here in order to get a more varied opinion.{{Unsigned|Foo}}
:Well, that sounds fair.--[[User:TerryH|TerryH]] 08:56, 12 March 2007 (EDT)

:It seems to be horribly biased toward protest-antism. --[[User:Luke-Jr|Luke-Jr]] 10:42, 12 March 2007 (EDT)

==Yes==

* I find this debate page to be rather humorous. Notice how many of the Yes responses are written by trolls to be intentionally inflammatory? Personally, I've found this type of stunt to be mostly a liberal preoccupation. You very seldom see conservatives pretend to be liberals to badmouth liberal ideology, but it appears to be a popular pastime among 'tolerant' liberal thinkers. ;-) [[User:Learn together|Learn together]] 19:47, 25 May 2007 (EDT)

Wikipedia has a liberal bias. Wikipedia is anti-Christian and anti-American. We need for a new online encylodpaedia to balance that out.
[[User:HarryPalms|HarryPalms]]
::How is saying that it's biased in the opposite way to something else evidence that it is "fair and balanced"? You seem to be admitting that it is in fact neither [[User:Silverfish|Silverfish]] 16:56, 14 April 2007 (EDT)

:How can Wikipedia have a liberal bias? Anyone can edit it and biased opinions are scrupulously edited out. Conservapedia is not based on the principles of balanced scrutiny or honesty like Wikipedia is; it is just a place where conservatives can blast their misinformed opinions at other conservatives. This is just like the pouty consevatives that run this country; if people dismiss their ridiculous anti-scientific, intolerant garbage, they whine about their critics being anti-Christian and go cry to the religious right. Can any one of you name even one example of Wikipedia being biased? (note that being secular and listening to opinions outside America is not bias!)

No i contest that Conservapedia fair and balanced because unlike Conservapedia wikipedia is NOT ANTI CHRISTIAN ANTI AMERICAN OR LIBRIAL BUT INSTED IT TREATES ALL VEIWS EQUALLY AND I FIND ON THE CONTARY THAT THIS SITE IS BIASED AND TOO CHRISTIAN CENTERD AND ALSO I FIND THIS SITE OVERLY RESTRICTIVE ON LIBIRAL,REAL SCIENTIFIC AND NON CHRISTIAN VIEWS I ''DEFIENITLY PREFIER WIKIPEDIA FOR REFRENCE''. Note: this unsigned opinion was provided by someone with common sense.

Obviously. This is an idea whose time has come. I, for one, am sick and tired of the liberal bias in the media and online in Wikipedia. This project is still young and the criticism and mockery of it by leftists in the blogosphere is getting old. I pledge as a new editor to do what I can to help make Conservapedia the premier online encyclopedia it is destined to become.

NOTE: The SHOUTER above me has commented in the wrong section so the opinion should be taken with a grain of salt. -- [[User:Bob Arctor|Bob Arctor]] 16:50, 17 March 2007 (EDT)

"We need for a new online encylodpaedia to balance that out."
Fair and balanced? You've just indirecly admitted that you're saying two wrongs make a right. You cannot create a neutral opinion by balancing one biased opinion with another. HarryPalms, you are a shining example of how this site is far more guilty of the crimes you attribute to Wikipedia.
Also, if you read many (if not all) of the articles on Conservapedia, their first remarks are in some way tied to Christianity. That is probably the greatest possible bias you could create. It doesn't help that most Conservapedia articles on things such as Evolution and the Big Bang focus mostly on destroying belief in accepted theories, instead of creating new ones. Hmm... destroying, but creating nothing. That sounds more like Satan than any Antichrist conspiracy theory I've heard so far. [[[[User:AdamNelson|AdamNelson]] 16:54, 14 April 2007 (EDT)User:AdamNelson|AdamNelson]]

Conservapedia is fair; I have not read many articles, but I like what I have read. Wikipedia, on the other hand, makes you depressed whenever you read anything about Christians. Also, could you people sign your name? It is hard to see where one person's post begins and another ends. Thanks! [[User:TheComputerWizard|TheComputerWizard]] 20:14, 7 June 2007 (EDT)

==No==

I am a little concerned with the fact that conservapedia users, such as they may be, don't realize that if they feel something is biased in wikipedia that they too can change it. I find it a bit totalitarian that a number of entries on conservapedia are taken off and blocked, i.e. anything dealing with a sexual nature. While I agree that there are very biased articles in wikipedia, the beauty of the system is such that anyone can change an article. However, conservapedia deletes anything questionable.

Seems to me to be quite biased. [[User:Linus M.|Geekman314]]([[User talk:Linus M.|contact me]]) 11:25, 12 March 2007 (EDT)

My initial reaction to the question: "AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!". Speaking seriously: No, it's not. It's anything but fair and balanced. Edits that try to balance articles are reverted and often called vandalism or inappropriate. The fact that quite a few controversial articles are simply locked and then edited to support the view of radical conservatives/creationists/people who take the so-called "Holy Bible" literally doesn't exactly help. --[[User:Sid 3050|Sid 3050]] 11:48, 12 March 2007 (EDT)

Sid: can you give any examples of controversial articles that are locked??!! --[[User:Jlovesu|Jlovesu]] 12:41, 12 March 2007 (EDT)

:[[Theory of evolution]], [[Macroevolution]], [[Second Law of Thermodynamics]], [[Young Earth Creationism]]...are we seeing a pattern here, incidentally? [[User:Tsumetai|Tsumetai]] 12:44, 12 March 2007 (EDT)

:(Arr, edit-sniped by Tsumetai! But I'll post it anyway since it also shows some diffs that removed attempts at balance) Sure thing: [[Theory of Evolution]], [[Second Law of Thermodynamics]], [[Faith]], and that's without even checking the current Protection Log. The respective reverts that happened during the locking process: [http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Theory_of_evolution&diff=16289&oldid=16283 Theory of Evolution], [http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Second_Law_of_Thermodynamics&diff=17856&oldid=17260 Second Law of Thermodynamics], [http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Faith&diff=16062&oldid=15845 Faith]. Theory of Evolution effectively became [[User:Conservative|Conservative's]] article and quickly evolved (Ha!) into a lengthy rant against evolution and the scientific community. The Second Law of Thermodynamics currently states that it ''disproves evolution'', and the Faith article was linked to from the front page with the words [http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Template:Newsline&diff=12709&oldid=11938 "Did you know that faith is a uniquely Christian concept?"]. All articles are currently locked.
:::::- Oooh ooh... also [[Fox News]]
::It's worth noting that when this issue is raised with the admins, we're usually told that we can bring up any problems with the articles on their talk pages. Take a look at, say, the 2nd law talk page to see just how well that works. [[User:Tsumetai|Tsumetai]] 13:01, 12 March 2007 (EDT)

As long as articles like the [[homosexual agenda]] page, and the [[Theory of Evolution]] page, and the [[abortion]] page exist, it will not be fair & balanced. As long as I'm prevented from correcting blatant factual or legal errors, allowing the admins to represent as "facts" erroneous statements as to evolution, etc., it will not be fair & balanced.

As for locked controversial articles, see any of the ones I noted above.--[[User:AmesG|AmesG]] 12:45, 12 March 2007 (EDT)
:Can you explain how a theory is a "fact"? [[User:RobS|RobS]] 13:00, 12 March 2007 (EDT)

::Same way anything else is. Massive amounts of supporting evidence. [[User:Tsumetai|Tsumetai]] 13:02, 12 March 2007 (EDT)

:::So then if a theory has facts to support it, it no longer is a theory. [[User:RobS|RobS]] 13:09, 12 March 2007 (EDT)

::::No, theories remain theories regardless of how strongly supported they are. 'Theory' and 'fact' are not mutually exclusive categories. [[User:Tsumetai|Tsumetai]] 13:12, 12 March 2007 (EDT)

Of course Conservapedia is biased, and it always will be. It's a conservative Christian encyclopedia, so many will see it as a silly joke, while others (the 45% who believe the universe is 14,000 years old) will take it seriously, a la FOX News. --[[User:Hojimachong|'''Hojimachong''']][[User Talk:Hojimachong|talk]] 13:02, 12 March 2007 (EDT)

This may come as a shock to many who peruse Conservapedia, but America is NOT the entire world. Most of the world doesn't even care what America thinks, and sees it largely as a joke. So citing the number of people in America who support literal biblical conservatism is silly, because even if it were all 300 million souls, it wouldn't make a lick of difference. [[[[User:AdamNelson|AdamNelson]] 17:01, 14 April 2007 (EDT)]]

Not a damn chance. This is the biggest joke I've seen in years.

Are you joking? The name itself betrays the fact that the site was deliberately set up to be biased. Pretending otherwise requires a tremendous effort of hypocrisy. [[User:Rjohnson|Rjohnson]] 08:49, 13 March 2007 (EDT)

--
Its written by people of one political veiw and of one religion with very few sources, how can it possibly be unbiased. You only have to look at some of the articals to realise that, for example thier artical on the unicorn:

"Secular opinion is that they are mythical"

By secular you mean not Christian i might point out, many other religions do not support the existence of unicorns.

The image shown in that article i believe you will find most experts (aka Paleobiologists, not biblical experts) would call a "triceratops," which fossil evidence has proved pre-dates any known human existence, or in fact any large primate existence.

your section under evolution "Lack of Any Clear Transitional Forms," dismisses some genetic possabilities that may explain the lack of transitional forms (for example polyploidy.) Also in the whole evolution article i could not see any quote which was pro evolution, weird since in my experience most biologists DO believe in evolution.

Also "However, young earth creationist scientists assert that there is an abundance of scientific arguments showing the earth and universe are both approximately 6,000 years in age."

Show me one piece of evidence or even moderate SCIENTIFIC (that doesn't include the so-called "Holy Bible") argument for the universe being this young that isnt an absolute joke!! Also i may point out that it is IMPOSSIBLE for the universe and the earth to be of the same age.

Also in the "abortion" topic here i find a large section talking about large increases in risk of a woman getting breast cancer.

"The vast majority of scientific studies have shown that abortion causes an increase in breast cancer, including 16 out of 17 statistically significant studies"
boasting 1 reference

wikipedia:
"The hypothesis garnered renewed interest from rat studies conducted in the 1980s,[34][35][36] however, it has not been scientifically verified in humans, and abortion is not considered a breast cancer risk by any major cancer organization."
3 references from a respected journal.

Think point made?

Conservapedia isnt just unfair, unbalanced, biased, it is a complete joke!

Wikipedia on the other hand is often sourced and written by a large number of people of different opinions! (by the way the people: something not agreeing with you 100% does not count as biased)

Not only is conservapedia biased it lacks information. your article on genetics literally reads "The science that studies how characteristics get passed from parent to offspring." Personly i find most of your articles close to useless, especially on science.

Those are a few examples of articles here i believe to be very biased, im confident there are more. However some articles on here i was surprised to find were not as biased as the above, for example the Creationist and Theistic Evolutionary Views, in the big bang article.

No i contest that Conservapedia fair and balanced because unlike Conservapedia wikipedia is NOT ANTI CHRISTIAN ANTI AMERICAN OR LIBRIAL BUT INSTED IT TREATES ALL VEIWS EQUALLY AND I FIND ON THE CONTARY THAT THIS SITE IS BIASED AND TOO CHRISTIAN CENTERD AND ALSO I FIND THIS SITE OVERLY RESTRICTIVE ON LIBIRAL,REAL SCIENTIFIC AND NON CHRISTIAN VIEWS I ''DEFIENITLY PREFIER WIKIPEDIA FOR REFRENCE''.--[[User:Devout evolutionist|Devout evolutionist]] 19:31, 15 March 2007 (EDT)

Obviously, it can't be Fair and Balanced [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_and_Balanced (R)]unless it's affiliated with News Corp. [[User:WikiG33K|WikiG33K]] 19:36, 15 March 2007 (EDT)

This may not be the perfect forum for this, but I am not sure how to start a new thread..

Conservapedia claims that Wikipedia is six times more liberal than the public at large. This is based on the % of self identifying Wikipedia contributors who claim to be liberal vs. the number in society in general.

There are two problems with this... This first is mathematical. If Wikipedia is Liberal 3:1 vs. Conservative that means 75% liberal vs. 25% conservative. If the public at large is 2:1 conservative (1:2) liberal, then 33% of the population is liberal and 67% is conservative. The difference between 75% liberal and 33% liberal is not factor of six, in fact it's less than 3...

Second problem, identifying the personal beliefs of a person does not measure the amount of bias they introduce. If a hard core prius driving Susan Sarandon fan writes a Wikipedia entry on The Napa Valley and describes the location, geography, climate, and history accurately, where is the bias? Everyone has a personal political stance left, right or somewhere in between. That is a far cry from suggesting that everything they believe is tainted by that belief.

Otherwise the largely conservative crowd online here would be forced to display conservative bias, based on THEIR beliefs...

Citizzzen 03.15.07

I have thought about the math here, and I am wrong. I have not multiplied fractions in years. However, if America is 2:1 Conservtive and Wikipedia is 1:3 then 1/3 times x = 2. The answer would be 6 as originally stated. I concede the math point. I was wrong. Citizzzen 03.17.07

Of course it's biased. Even the name suggests a right-winged bias! [[The Theory of Evolution]] page shows NOTHING supporting the theory, wheras Wikipedia shows BOTH sides of the arguments and uses citations and proof. Using the above figures, If 67% of the population is Conservative, and 33% is Liberal, then surely the laws of statistics state that more Conservatives would use Wikipedia... Or perhaps it's just that the Liberal demographic is more aligned with the intellectual, freethinking people who tend to use the web.

conservapedia is about as fair and balanced as Bill O'Rielly is, and if wikipedia is " liberal", liberal must mean based in reality.

Conservapedia states its bias right in its own name. forcing all articles to be 'clean' and conservative makes you bias, duh. Not everything in the world is 'clean' as you want it to be, and trying to hide it is sad and wrong.

Biased. Wikipedia is not anti-American. Wikipedia is not anti-Christian. Conservapedia: The name says it all. Go to talkorigins.org, and go to the creationist claims. the so-called "Holy Bible" is faith, evolution is a fact. I found there that a new species has evolved in our time: some mosquito.
:Gees that was easy; you wanna buy some land in Florida? [[User:RobS|RobS]] 17:58, 8 April 2007 (EDT)

Okay, I'm a Homeschooler (Well, I was, I'm in college now) and a Christian, and I see this as biased. I mean, I see both as biased in they're own way (Conservapedia and Wikipedia). If there is a theory of evolution on here, the creationism should be also viewed as theory or such. "Religious doctrine" as on wikipedia. And again, with what a few people have said, you need BOTH sides of an argument. If you made this due to the left-wing bias (I refrain from saying Anti-American, Anti-Christian because it's down right silly), then don't show right-wing bias, give us neutrality.

Truth is the only thing that matters. I read all the dissenting arguments; Wikipedia is not this or not that. Wikipedia has a diversity of contributors. If Wikipedia is liberal it must be based on reality. Give me a break. Thats is all b.s. fluff, if the article misrepresents the truth, what do you actually learn? I see Conservapedia as striving for truth in everything. The same can't be said of Wikipedia that places their agenda first.--[[User:Jpatt|jp]] 00:03, 6 May 2007 (EDT)

::Jpatt, do you understand the difference between a "fact" and an "opinion?" --[[User:PF Fox|PF Fox]] 14:59, 6 May 2007 (EDT)

:: Enlighten us all oh great master. Like I said before, what is fair? It would not be fair if I told you a lie. What is balanced? Two sides presented, the side that is right and the side that is wrong. Opinion, is PF Fox thinking he is right because he believes it to be, everybody else wrong or just dissenters from his so called facts (op).--[[User:Jpatt|jp]] 21:45, 6 May 2007 (EDT)

:::Throw away your opinions for 30 seconds, and go read the "news" on the front page. How does it color liberalism? Pssht. --[[User:Hojimachong|'''Hojimachong''']]
[[User Talk:Hojimachong|talk]] 15:26, 6 May 2007 (EDT)

:::Not grey, whereby everybody is right and nobody is wrong.--[[User:Jpatt|jp]] 21:45, 6 May 2007 (EDT)

"Enlighten us all oh great master?" How old are you, jpatt?

"Fair," jpatt is being factual even when the facts are inconvenient for you. "Opinion," is "a view or judgement formed in the mind about a particular matter." Some people base their opinions on fact. Some people base their opinions on ideology. How about you? I am confident enough in the validity of my own opinioins to be both frank and accurate when discussing history or quoting people with whom I disagree. How about you?

I've been reading and watching the news for forty years. I'm experienced enough to have known liberals who fought bravely in World War II, in the Korean War, and in the Vietnam War. I'm old enough to remember that it was liberals who put their lives on the line marching for Black Civil Rights. Some liberals paid the ultimate price for it. Ever heard of them? Schwerner, Chaney, and Goodman? Viola Liuzzo? Jean Donovan and Dorothy Kazel? Are those names familiar to you, or did they not come up while you were being homeschooled? --[[User:PF Fox|PF Fox]] 13:38, 7 May 2007 (EDT)

: Nobody is questioning the elder generations of liberals committment and sacrifice to America. Even today, democrats and republicans fight side by side. What this generation does it what troubles many. Unwilling to listen and reason is gone in America. It is now become "I am smarter than you because I believe a certain way".--[[User:Jpatt|jp]] 19:38, 7 May 2007 (EDT)

::Jpatt, this current generation of liberals includes those who marched during the Civil Rights era and who fought in Vietnam. It even includes a few who fought in the second World War. And so far, you've shown little inclination to either listen or reason. Do you really consider calling people "scum" an example of rational debate? --[[User:PF Fox|PF Fox]] 22:15, 7 May 2007 (EDT)

Fair and balanced? Good God No. First, this website proudly proclaims it is not balanced. Second, there is little regard for truth. One can post or edit an article, for example to make it more historically accurate, and be accused of attempting to plant a "liberal falsehood." The history lecture section is a mess and really needs to redone, but of course, it is locked. It looks like it was taken out of a grade school history book, circa 1935.
But I do think conservapedia reflects the changing nature of information and technology in our society. Rather than being better informed and educated, internet and media outlets now tend to reinforce what one ''thinks'' is true. So we now have a society that will become gradually dumber and less informed. Conservapedia may survive, but it will never be anything more than a resource for homeschoolers. Already, we see a corps of sysops who quickly (despite their protests to the contrary) ban people without cause and are unwilling to listen to reason, or evidance. It seems that Conservapedia is on its way to becoming an echo chamber, where only "correct" ideas are heard and only "correct" thinking is permitted. --[[User:1048247|1048247]] 16:19, 7 May 2007 (EDT)

So wise 1048247, you can't even use a name, just a number. "there is little regard for the truth". Sounds like mearly your opinion, not based on any facts. If very little regard for the truth here then the internet publication Wikipedia is a complete fraud, unworthy of any educational value. So, you claim no truth exists on Conservapedia? Funny, how you decide to frequent it then. Why do you support the website you seek to condemn. Hypocrisy?--[[User:Jpatt|jp]] 19:38, 7 May 2007 (EDT)

::Invective is not argument, Jpatt. --[[User:PF Fox|PF Fox]] 22:15, 7 May 2007 (EDT)

It's logically impossible to be 'fair and balanced' when the stated aim is to create a "non-liberal Encyclopedia". It's like saying you want to create Science that's not based on Science or some other such tautology. [[User:50something|50something]]

Jpatt, Ideology trumps truth on conservapedia. Please reread my post. I said there is "little regard for the truth," not "there is not truth on conservapedia." I wrote something regarding historical fact and had portions of it immediately reverted by a sysop who declared it "a liberal flasehood." The sysop relied on his own uninformed beliefs and was too lazy to look sources. As for frequenting the site: I am appaled that this is the sort of history education that students receive. I will correct some articles, because I want too. As far as wikis go, no one should use either wikipedia or conservapedia as a research source. --[[User:1048247|1048247]] 09:38, 8 May 2007 (EDT)

I think its full of cra...we all know that last word.
If liberalism means not discriminate nor play with our childrens mind I think its the best thing that has ever happend to the world. Children will read this page and grow up with this conservative un-evolve mind.
The rest of a the world has evolve to not discriminate homosexual, black or even female people. This conservative, church followers republican Americas have seem to stay in the 18th century.
What is wrong with you people? Homosexuality is not an ilness! the so-called "Holy Bible" doesn't state that homosexual people must die! That's bullshi.... If you teach this things to your children, the times of war will never end. We are not in 1720, we are in the 21th century! We have passed the time of discrimination for god sakes.
Religion is an important thing to everyone. Faith is. The church its just an institution that wants power and money. You, conservative republican Americans, go against everything god taught us!
You hide behind lame excuses about how we (liberals) go against the so-called "Holy Bible". If you think a little you will see thats actually you. You are the ones who support Bush. You are the ones who support war, discrimination, violence, not us. We are clearly against all that.

: Very good point, we are all in the 21st century now. We have become the smartest generation. Time to abandon all reason and follow what human kind says is best for us. Church is the bride of Christ. It is not about power and money. As for supporting war, the Pope came out against the war. But that doesn't fit into your biased argument. The definition of reality, God is reality. You claim otherwise, you are out of touch with reality. By the way, homosexuality was claimed by the medical profession as an illness until the secular humanists got it removed.--[[User:Jpatt|jp]] 00:18, 16 May 2007 (EDT)

:::Homosexuality was also treated as a crime, homosexuals were thrown in prison and, since they were deemed "mentally ill" frequently forcibly institutionalized in insane asylums. Plainly, you'd like a return to those "good old days." --[[User:PF Fox|PF Fox]] 14:50, 17 May 2007 (EDT)

::*''We have become the smartest generation.''{{fact}} [[User:RobS|RobS]] 13:41, 16 May 2007 (EDT)

How can God be the basis for reality when no one can say with certinity that God exists?--[[User:Freehan|Freehan]] 13:46, 16 May 2007 (EDT)
:When [[Earth]] (for example) gives such prominence to not just a creationist view, but a ''factional view within creationism'', that can't be balanced. And fair? I'm seeing quite a few complaints about unfair sysoping, but I haven't been here long enough to get a reasonable picture. [[User:Totnesmartin|Totnesmartin]] 18:41, 16 May 2007 (EDT)

Sigh...To say this site is "fair and balanced" is to lie outright. I mean, look at any page dealing with homosexuality. They're starting to look like they were written by [[Fred Phelps]]! Especially the [[homosexual agenda]] page—Why does that piece of religiously biased junk even exist? I really think that the aforementioned page should be either unlocked or deleted, preferably the latter.--[[User:Autofire|Autofire]] 21:29, 7 June 2007 (EDT)

Conservapedia is not balanced, nor is it fair to call it an encyclopedia. It has an American/conservative/Christian bais to the articles and topics that are politically volitile in American culture right now. Abortion, evolution, the federal government, religion, and other articles dealing with hot button American and world social issues have a distinguishable slant in the favor of opinions that champion conservative American Christian ideals over other opinions such as those of secular humanists, liberal American Christians, American Muslims, feminists, and others. The bottom line is if an institution is going to call itself an encyclopedia, it should at least conform to the generally accepted format for an ecyclopedia and include all or most of the relevant accumulated knowledge on a subject or discipline, not just the relevant accumulated knowledge that portrays the subject in a particularly favorable or unfavorable light in regards to the socio-political debates surrounding the subject of interest. Conservapedia is not an encyclopedia, but rather an institution that subtlely promotes religious and political views of conservative Christian Americans through the primary role of offering information in an psuedo-encyclopedic manner. -[[User:Charles|Avidreaderofhistory]]([[User talk:Charles|contact me]]) 11:15, 22 June 2007

== Is that a serious question? ==
The answer is quite obviously an emphatic "No." It has the name of a political ideology ''in the name!'' That fact alone precludes any chance of current or eventual balance or reliability.