Conservapedia - User contributions [en]

Facebook

2012-12-05T15:36:06Z

JJCC: /* Censorship and harassment by Facebook */ HTTP not needed in shortened url

[[Image:Newfacebooklogo3.jpg|thumb|Facebook logo|right]]
'''Facebook''' (stylized '''facebook''') is a [[liberal]]-promoted [[social networking]] website that profits by exploiting personal information in users' profiles, and by advertising. Users can spend, or indeed waste, their time on it in a variety of ways: by uploading pictures (typically of themselves), by gossiping about others, by talking to friends, by interfering with marriages and personal relationships, and by acting like a [[busybody]]. Facebook use is correlated with underachievement in school and disruption of social relationships, such as marriage. For many teenagers, Facebook use replaces healthier activities and gatherings.

Despite being called "social networking," Facebook is typically a poor substitute for real social networking. One survey conducted showed that Facebook feeds narcissistic tendencies.<ref>http://articles.cnn.com/2010-08-30/tech/facebook.narcissism.mashable_1_facebook-social-networking-status-updates?_s=PM:TECH</ref><ref>http://m.zdnet.com/blog/facebook/facebook-overuse-can-lead-to-psychological-disorders-in-youth/2389</ref>

Other studies done have shown that the use of Facebook is associated with poorer performance in school. Facebook use is also associated with a substantial percentage of marital problems and an increase in psychological disorders in youth.<ref>[http://thetechjournal.com/internet/facebook-is-the-new-cause-of-divorce.xhtml#ixzz1OmdIs3rN Facebook is the new cause of divorce, The Tech Journal, December 23, 2009]</ref><ref>http://m.zdnet.com/blog/facebook/facebook-overuse-can-lead-to-psychological-disorders-in-youth/2389</ref> The site is heavily promoted by [[liberal]]s, presumably because it is so unproductive or even counterproductive.

Activities on Facebook have caused people to be fired from their jobs.

Anybody with an account can create an unlimited amount of unproductive pages, which can then be "liked" by other users.

Facebook is based in Palo Alto, [[California]]. The name of the site is based on the paper facebooks that many colleges give to incoming students, faculty, and staff depicting members of the campus community.<ref> [http://www.associatepublisher.com/e/f/fa/facebook.htm Facebook] </ref>

==Monetary value==
It is rumored that Facebook generates around $1 million per week in revenue. <ref>[http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/04/26/facebook-goes-beyond-college-high-school-markets/ "Facebook goes beyond college and high school markets"]</ref>
In September 2006, [[Yahoo]] began talks to acquire Facebook for as high as $1 billion. In October, Google allegedly offered $2.3 billion.<ref>[http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2006/10/10/first-youtube-now-facebook-rumors-circulate "First Youtube, Now Facebook: Rumors Circulate"]</ref> All outside offers have been rejected. 2009 estimates put a net value of $6.5 billion. <ref>[http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10285409-36.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0 Facebook stock trading open; valuation $6.5 billion] CNET News, July 13, 2009</ref> 2010 estimates of the privately held company put the value at $14 billion dollars. <ref>[http://techcrunch.com/2010/01/20/facebook-valued-at-14-billion-on-secondmarket/ Facebook Valued At $14 Billion On SecondMarket, TechCrunch.com, January 20, 2010]</ref>

In 2011, [[Goldman Sachs]] invested $500 million in Facebook. JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley was put in charge of an initial public offering of Facebook stock in 2012. The company went public at $38-per-share IPO price valued Facebook at $104 billion. <ref>[http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/22/us-facebook-forecasts-idUSBRE84L06920120522 Insight: Morgan Stanley cut Facebook estimates just before IPO, Reuters.com, May 22, 2012]</ref> As of August 2012, the company is trading down at $20 per share, a loss of $50 billion in value.

==Origins==
Facebook was founded in February 2004 by [[Harvard]] sophomores [[Mark Zuckerberg]], Chris Hughes, Dustin Moskovitz and Eduardo Saverin, with help from Andrew McCollum. By December of 2004, after expanding the site to other universities, the number of registered users exceeded one million. In August 2005 Facebook obtained the domain name facebook.com and dropped the "the" from the site's name.

==2010==
A movie was made about the origins of Facebook, called ''The Social Network''. The film did not meet expectations at the [[Academy Awards]] and, despite heavy media promotion, was number one in America for only several weeks. Mark Zuckerberg was not involved in the creation of film and said that it was more Hollywood storytelling than reality.

It has been known among Silicon Valley technology companies that Facebook has been luring away [[Google]] employees to the extent that Google is now offering bonuses for staying with the company. On October 15, 2010, Facebook announced the release of a new email client. Internally referred to as Titan, the media has dubbed it a "Gmail Killer". Zuckerberg insists it is not a head-to-head competitor of Google's Gmail service; rather, it will be more of a instant messaging service. <ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/11/15/gmail-beware-facebook-unveils-e-mail-service/ E-MAIL WAR: Facebook Launches 'Gmail Killer' -- AOL Jumps In, Too, FOX News, November 15, 2010]</ref>

==Liberal policies==
The world's largest online social network added civil unions and domestic partnerships to the list of relationships that its users can pick from to best describe their romantic status. The [[Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation]] had lobbied for the policy adoption. The option is only available to Facebook users in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., France and Australia. <ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/02/18/facebook-adds-support-sex-civil-unions Facebook Adds Support for Same-Sex Civil Unions, Fox News, February 18, 2011</ref>

98% of political donations from Facebook employees went to [[Barack Obama]] in the 2008 presidential election. <ref>[http://beforeitsnews.com/story/684/994/Facebook_self_appointed_arbiter_of_free_speech_tells_Tea_Party_no_more_organizing.html Facebook – self appointed arbiter of “free speech” – tells Tea Party no more organizing, Before It's News, June 2, 2011]</ref>

==Censorship and harassment by Facebook==

Ongoing censorship and harassment by Facebook is documented at [http://www.facebookcensorship.com facebookcensorship.com] with screenshots. Also documented is the wholesale destruction of groups that took some people years to build by Facebook's deleting all of the members. Facebook then deleted the discussion areas from "pages" to further their control and censorship.

==Privacy issues==
Facebook Privacy Policy is constantly changing. This is not for the benefit of the users but to the monetary value they represent to advertisers. Due to the size of Facebook, all kinds of data on your habits are monitored. Not just by Facebook either, the government can peek at your life and monitor you behind the scenes. <ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/05/17/13-year-old-boy-questioned-secret-service-facebook-posting/?test=latestnews 13-Year-Old Boy Questioned by Secret Service Over Facebook Posting, Fox News, May 17, 2011]</ref> <ref>[http://www.stltoday.com/news/national/govt-and-politics/article_bbd23382-6ecf-11e0-aeef-001a4bcf6878.html Feds mine Facebook for info, STLToday.com, April 25, 2011]</ref> Facebook claims your personal information is not for sale. They make the case that it is anonymously collected data, thereby protecting your privacy. Third parties develop applications to run on top of Facebook. Your privacy is effectively in the hands of unknown organizations. The below examples include what information is on display by every user.

* Many users post their full address, e-mail address, birthday, and telephone number, and these can be available to their entire network (and, in reality, anyone). This information in the wrong hands can be used for purposes of phishing, stalking, or even identity theft.
* Some universities have begun to use students' pages to investigate underage drinking and other violations of university policy. This is very possible, since university faculty and staff can sign up for the same network as their students through their campus e-mail account.<ref> [http://en.allexperts.com/e/f/fa/facebook.htm Facebook on allexperts.com]</ref>
*The so-called "news feed" has aroused some discomfort among Facebook users, as it displays all changes and status updates from their friends by default.
*The "wall" feature allows a user to post a message to another user which remains on their profile page. This posting is viewable to everyone who can view the page (which is pretty much the entire world), and shows up on the news feed for all friends of both the sender and the recipient by default.
*As with Google ads, Facebook collects profile information, and places ads on the page that reflect the user's personal information. This resulted in one man logging into his facebook account, and seeing his wife's photograph appear in an advertisement for a dating website.<ref> [http://www.kvoa.com/news/husband-finds-wife-in-facebook-singles-ad/] Husband finds wife in facebook singles ad</ref>
*The privacy settings on Facebook give users a false sense of security and encourage people to post things they shouldn't. As with other social networks, Facebook refuses to admit that its privacy settings that apparently allow only "friends" to see certain information are completely bogus and can easily be cracked by people with little to no [[hacking]] experience. Instead, Facebook actually ''encourages'' young users to only allow "friends" to see certain information, rather than just warning them that what they post can be seen by the world and to not post what they wouldn't want people to see.<ref>
[http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2008/01/myspace_torrent This is why only a fool would trust any social networking platform to keep any information private]</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Social media]]
* [[Twitter]]
* [[MySpace]]
* [[Google Plus | Google+]]

== External links ==
*[http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/01/fashion/weddings/chris-hughes-sean-eldridge-weddings.html Chris Hughes married his partner Sean Eldridge.] The gay co-funder of Facebook.

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Online social networking]]
[[Category:Websites]]

Facebook

2012-12-05T15:33:38Z

JJCC: Caption the image

[[Image:Newfacebooklogo3.jpg|thumb|Facebook logo|right]]
'''Facebook''' (stylized '''facebook''') is a [[liberal]]-promoted [[social networking]] website that profits by exploiting personal information in users' profiles, and by advertising. Users can spend, or indeed waste, their time on it in a variety of ways: by uploading pictures (typically of themselves), by gossiping about others, by talking to friends, by interfering with marriages and personal relationships, and by acting like a [[busybody]]. Facebook use is correlated with underachievement in school and disruption of social relationships, such as marriage. For many teenagers, Facebook use replaces healthier activities and gatherings.

Despite being called "social networking," Facebook is typically a poor substitute for real social networking. One survey conducted showed that Facebook feeds narcissistic tendencies.<ref>http://articles.cnn.com/2010-08-30/tech/facebook.narcissism.mashable_1_facebook-social-networking-status-updates?_s=PM:TECH</ref><ref>http://m.zdnet.com/blog/facebook/facebook-overuse-can-lead-to-psychological-disorders-in-youth/2389</ref>

Other studies done have shown that the use of Facebook is associated with poorer performance in school. Facebook use is also associated with a substantial percentage of marital problems and an increase in psychological disorders in youth.<ref>[http://thetechjournal.com/internet/facebook-is-the-new-cause-of-divorce.xhtml#ixzz1OmdIs3rN Facebook is the new cause of divorce, The Tech Journal, December 23, 2009]</ref><ref>http://m.zdnet.com/blog/facebook/facebook-overuse-can-lead-to-psychological-disorders-in-youth/2389</ref> The site is heavily promoted by [[liberal]]s, presumably because it is so unproductive or even counterproductive.

Activities on Facebook have caused people to be fired from their jobs.

Anybody with an account can create an unlimited amount of unproductive pages, which can then be "liked" by other users.

Facebook is based in Palo Alto, [[California]]. The name of the site is based on the paper facebooks that many colleges give to incoming students, faculty, and staff depicting members of the campus community.<ref> [http://www.associatepublisher.com/e/f/fa/facebook.htm Facebook] </ref>

==Monetary value==
It is rumored that Facebook generates around $1 million per week in revenue. <ref>[http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/04/26/facebook-goes-beyond-college-high-school-markets/ "Facebook goes beyond college and high school markets"]</ref>
In September 2006, [[Yahoo]] began talks to acquire Facebook for as high as $1 billion. In October, Google allegedly offered $2.3 billion.<ref>[http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2006/10/10/first-youtube-now-facebook-rumors-circulate "First Youtube, Now Facebook: Rumors Circulate"]</ref> All outside offers have been rejected. 2009 estimates put a net value of $6.5 billion. <ref>[http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10285409-36.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0 Facebook stock trading open; valuation $6.5 billion] CNET News, July 13, 2009</ref> 2010 estimates of the privately held company put the value at $14 billion dollars. <ref>[http://techcrunch.com/2010/01/20/facebook-valued-at-14-billion-on-secondmarket/ Facebook Valued At $14 Billion On SecondMarket, TechCrunch.com, January 20, 2010]</ref>

In 2011, [[Goldman Sachs]] invested $500 million in Facebook. JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley was put in charge of an initial public offering of Facebook stock in 2012. The company went public at $38-per-share IPO price valued Facebook at $104 billion. <ref>[http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/22/us-facebook-forecasts-idUSBRE84L06920120522 Insight: Morgan Stanley cut Facebook estimates just before IPO, Reuters.com, May 22, 2012]</ref> As of August 2012, the company is trading down at $20 per share, a loss of $50 billion in value.

==Origins==
Facebook was founded in February 2004 by [[Harvard]] sophomores [[Mark Zuckerberg]], Chris Hughes, Dustin Moskovitz and Eduardo Saverin, with help from Andrew McCollum. By December of 2004, after expanding the site to other universities, the number of registered users exceeded one million. In August 2005 Facebook obtained the domain name facebook.com and dropped the "the" from the site's name.

==2010==
A movie was made about the origins of Facebook, called ''The Social Network''. The film did not meet expectations at the [[Academy Awards]] and, despite heavy media promotion, was number one in America for only several weeks. Mark Zuckerberg was not involved in the creation of film and said that it was more Hollywood storytelling than reality.

It has been known among Silicon Valley technology companies that Facebook has been luring away [[Google]] employees to the extent that Google is now offering bonuses for staying with the company. On October 15, 2010, Facebook announced the release of a new email client. Internally referred to as Titan, the media has dubbed it a "Gmail Killer". Zuckerberg insists it is not a head-to-head competitor of Google's Gmail service; rather, it will be more of a instant messaging service. <ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/11/15/gmail-beware-facebook-unveils-e-mail-service/ E-MAIL WAR: Facebook Launches 'Gmail Killer' -- AOL Jumps In, Too, FOX News, November 15, 2010]</ref>

==Liberal policies==
The world's largest online social network added civil unions and domestic partnerships to the list of relationships that its users can pick from to best describe their romantic status. The [[Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation]] had lobbied for the policy adoption. The option is only available to Facebook users in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., France and Australia. <ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/02/18/facebook-adds-support-sex-civil-unions Facebook Adds Support for Same-Sex Civil Unions, Fox News, February 18, 2011</ref>

98% of political donations from Facebook employees went to [[Barack Obama]] in the 2008 presidential election. <ref>[http://beforeitsnews.com/story/684/994/Facebook_self_appointed_arbiter_of_free_speech_tells_Tea_Party_no_more_organizing.html Facebook – self appointed arbiter of “free speech” – tells Tea Party no more organizing, Before It's News, June 2, 2011]</ref>

==Censorship and harassment by Facebook==

Ongoing censorship and harassment by Facebook is documented at [http://www.facebookcensorship.com http://www.facebookcensorship.com] with screenshots. Also documented is the wholesale destruction of groups that took some people years to build by Facebook's deleting all of the members. Facebook then deleted the discussion areas from "pages" to further their control and censorship.

==Privacy issues==
Facebook Privacy Policy is constantly changing. This is not for the benefit of the users but to the monetary value they represent to advertisers. Due to the size of Facebook, all kinds of data on your habits are monitored. Not just by Facebook either, the government can peek at your life and monitor you behind the scenes. <ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/05/17/13-year-old-boy-questioned-secret-service-facebook-posting/?test=latestnews 13-Year-Old Boy Questioned by Secret Service Over Facebook Posting, Fox News, May 17, 2011]</ref> <ref>[http://www.stltoday.com/news/national/govt-and-politics/article_bbd23382-6ecf-11e0-aeef-001a4bcf6878.html Feds mine Facebook for info, STLToday.com, April 25, 2011]</ref> Facebook claims your personal information is not for sale. They make the case that it is anonymously collected data, thereby protecting your privacy. Third parties develop applications to run on top of Facebook. Your privacy is effectively in the hands of unknown organizations. The below examples include what information is on display by every user.

* Many users post their full address, e-mail address, birthday, and telephone number, and these can be available to their entire network (and, in reality, anyone). This information in the wrong hands can be used for purposes of phishing, stalking, or even identity theft.
* Some universities have begun to use students' pages to investigate underage drinking and other violations of university policy. This is very possible, since university faculty and staff can sign up for the same network as their students through their campus e-mail account.<ref> [http://en.allexperts.com/e/f/fa/facebook.htm Facebook on allexperts.com]</ref>
*The so-called "news feed" has aroused some discomfort among Facebook users, as it displays all changes and status updates from their friends by default.
*The "wall" feature allows a user to post a message to another user which remains on their profile page. This posting is viewable to everyone who can view the page (which is pretty much the entire world), and shows up on the news feed for all friends of both the sender and the recipient by default.
*As with Google ads, Facebook collects profile information, and places ads on the page that reflect the user's personal information. This resulted in one man logging into his facebook account, and seeing his wife's photograph appear in an advertisement for a dating website.<ref> [http://www.kvoa.com/news/husband-finds-wife-in-facebook-singles-ad/] Husband finds wife in facebook singles ad</ref>
*The privacy settings on Facebook give users a false sense of security and encourage people to post things they shouldn't. As with other social networks, Facebook refuses to admit that its privacy settings that apparently allow only "friends" to see certain information are completely bogus and can easily be cracked by people with little to no [[hacking]] experience. Instead, Facebook actually ''encourages'' young users to only allow "friends" to see certain information, rather than just warning them that what they post can be seen by the world and to not post what they wouldn't want people to see.<ref>
[http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2008/01/myspace_torrent This is why only a fool would trust any social networking platform to keep any information private]</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Social media]]
* [[Twitter]]
* [[MySpace]]
* [[Google Plus | Google+]]

== External links ==
*[http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/01/fashion/weddings/chris-hughes-sean-eldridge-weddings.html Chris Hughes married his partner Sean Eldridge.] The gay co-funder of Facebook.

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Online social networking]]
[[Category:Websites]]

Talk:Icarly

2012-12-04T19:26:35Z

JJCC: /* Parody? */

==Parody?==
Huh? This article does not make any sense. Granted, I have only seen bits of this show with my nephews, but still. From what I know, despite Nickelodeon being a lefty network, the show doesn't promote lesbianism or homosexuality. If you have any evidence to the contrary, please share, but there is none I can find. Thanks.--[[User:JamesWilson|JamesWilson]] 10:43, 30 August 2011 (EDT)

:Having a daughter, I have seen 50 episodes and no homosexuality. --[[User:Jpatt|Jpatt]] 21:15, 3 December 2012 (EST)

::The user fan-base is pro-homosexual, and most fans support a romantic relationship between the main characters. However, the actor who plays Freddie is a Christian and I believe has protested fans pairing the main characters together. Either way, I'll leave it as it is now - although the iCarly fan-base, again, is heavily pro-homosexual. Regards, [[User:JJCC|Mr. Jonskon]]([[User talk:JJCC|Talk]]) 14:26, 4 December 2012 (EST)

Mystery:Does God Have a Sense of Humor?

2012-12-04T16:54:21Z

JJCC: Undo revision 1021995 by Naka (talk)

'''Does [[God]] Have a Sense of Humor?'''

Rarely is the sense of humor of God discussed or analyzed, '''''but there are many compelling reasons to conclude that God does have a sense of humor''''':

*'''names''': remarkable skills seem to be given to people who have unusual names to match the skill, as in "Usain Bolt" (the fastest sprinter in world history); "Learned Hand" (one of the finest judges in history); "Michael Arms" (an [[2012 Summer Olympics|Olympic]] rower from [[New Zealand]]);<ref>http://www.bbc.com/sport/olympics/2012/athletes/047f7705-2b90-4267-94da-e2c02de08d98</ref>; "Richie Incognito" (an [[NFL]] offensive lineman).<ref>http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5002565</ref> and "[[George McGovern]]" (a former U.S. Senator and presidential candidate). Also, there are many whites named "Black" and African Americans named "White".
*'''political scandals''': liberals once mocked General David Petraeus by calling him "General Betray Us"; liberal President Obama subsequently appointed him as head of the CIA, whereupon he caused a massive scandal that betrayed liberals by embarrassing them.
*'''football''': [[Tim Tebow]]'s completion of ten passes for 316 yards, at 31.6 yards per competition, in his stunning playoff victory against the [[Pittsburgh Steelers]], echoed his promotion of [[John_1-7_(Translated)#Chapter_3|John 3:16]].
*'''implausible absurdities''': the election outcome for the 2000 presidential election was implausibly close in [[Florida]], and apparently [[Al Gore]] lost because some [[Democrat]] voters misread the "butterfly ballot."
*'''logic''': man has a sense of humor, and man was created in the image of God. Hence God has a sense of humor.
*'''history''': man's sense of humor improved with the discovery and expansion of Christianity, which indicates their strong correlation. [[Friedrich Nietzsche]], after attacking Jesus and God in the last books he would ever write, went insane.
*'''sociology''': the massive carvings of caricatures of human beings found, without a plausible explanation, on [[Easter Island]].
*'''politics''': atheistic political figures are known for their lack of a sense of humor, such as [[Attila the Hun]] and [[Adolf Hitler]], which suggests that the opposite of God is a lack of sense of humor.
*'''religious''': the encounter on the road to Emmaus, described at [[Luke_17-24_(Translated)#Chapter_24|Luke 25:13-31]], strongly suggests that God has intervened in amusing ways; also, God sometimes uses [[sarcasm]], as in [[Amos_(Translated)#Chapter_4|Amos 4:4]].
*'''scientific''': snowstorms have disrupted [[global warming]] conferences; regions that promote the global warming hoax have been subjected to brutally cold weather.
*'''zoology''': there are various animals, such as the duck-billed platypus or the long-necked giraffe, that seem designed in order to amuse.
*'''[[atheism]]''': atheistic nations like [[North Korea]] are known for their lack of a sense of humor.
*'''[[ontological argument|ontological]]''': God is defined as the greatest being conceivable, and it's better to have a sense of humor than not; therefore God has a sense of humor.
*'''intrinsic humor''': some humor is funny to virtually everyone who has a sense of humor - which would be impossible in the absence of intrinsic humor. Yet intrinsic humor would be impossible unless God appreciated it also.
*'''contradictions and disbelief''': contradictions and surprise are the essence of humor, and God's allowance of their basis to continue to exist suggests that God may find amusement in it.
*'''media''': Within weeks after the [[lamestream media]] made the unlikely claim that [[Fidel Castro]] -- who has not been seen in public since the frail dictator went to a hospital for a very grave condition in July 2006 -- had met the [[Pope]], a five-day suspension was imposed on [[Florida Marlins]] manager Ozzie Guillen for expressing admiration that Fidel Castro has such longevity.
*'''inexplicable humor''': [[liberals]] in [[Colorado]] wanted to expel the successful, but outspokenly [[Christian]], [[Tim Tebow]], but he ended up in a much bigger media market as a result.
*'''dreams''': some dreams might be God playing a trick for amusement purposes on you.
[[Category:Mystery]]
*'''the Bible''': see [[humor in the Bible]]

== References ==

<references/>

[[Category:Theology]]
[[Category:Humor]]

Icarly

2012-12-04T02:08:16Z

JJCC: iCarly often supports homosexuality

'''iCarly''' is a popular children's show on Nickelodeon. Parents Television Council rated the show as wholesome entertainment. The story centers on Carly's webcast from her studio apartment where she lives with her guardian and older brother Spencer. The show's finale aired November 23, 2012. The show supports [[homosexuality]] between the two main characters (Carly and Samantha).
[[Category:Television]]

Hermann Goring

2012-12-04T01:46:48Z

JJCC: Short article to remove redlink

'''Hermann Goring''' (12 January 1893 - 15 October 1946) was a German military leader and leading member of the [[Nazi Party]].

Nickelodeon

2012-12-04T00:09:47Z

JJCC: Create page for Worst Liberal TV Shows

'''Nickelodeon''' (often shortened to '''Nick''') is a kid's TV channel that is owned by [[Viacom]]. It has a heavy liberal bias as seen in ''Glen Martin DDS''.

== See Also ==
[[Essay:Worst Liberal TV Shows]]

MINIX

2012-12-04T00:05:47Z

JJCC:

'''MINIX''' is a free [[Unix]]-based operating system designed by [[Andrew Tanenbaum]] in 1987.<ref>[http://minix3.org MINIX 3 website]</ref> MINIX later inspired [[Linus Torvalds]] to design [[GNU/Linux|Linux]].<ref>[http://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/comp.os.minix/wlhw16QWltI comp.os.minix LINUX-MINIX discussion]</ref> Its latest stable release is 3.2.0 and developer snapshot is 3.2.1.<ref>[http://www.minix3.org/download/index.html MINIX3 download page]</ref> Although originally designed as a hobby of Tanenbaum, it was later released as [[open source]] and is now developed by contributors.<ref>[http://git.minix3.org MINIX3 Git project page]</ref>

==References==
<references/>

George Lucas

2012-12-04T00:03:18Z

JJCC: Remove whitespaces

'''George Walton Lucas''' (born May 14, 1944) is an [[United States|American]] filmmaker. He is the creator of the ''[[Star Wars]]'' series as well as many other films, including ''[[American Graffiti]]'', ''[[THX 1138]]'', and, with the help of Steven Spielberg, ''[[Indiana Jones]]''.

He lives in Modesto, [[California]] and is, in his own words, a "[[Buddhist]] [[Methodist]]". <ref>http://www.adherents.com/people/pl/George_Lucas.html</ref>

==Early Life==

George Lucas, the son of a middle class business man, grew up in Modesto, California. His childhood and teenage years heavily revolved around cars and girls, and this aspect of his life became the basis for his movie ''American Graffiti''. He was a poor student, however, in his senior year of high school, he got into a serious, life-changing car accident. After he graduated, he was able to bring his grades up in community college, and got into USC's film program.

==American Zoetrope==
With Francis Ford Coppola, he founded an independent film studio, American Zoetrope. Their first feature was ''THX 1138'', based on one of Lucas's student films. The film depicted his then pessimistic view of the 21st century, a world where people engage in mindless, pointless consumerism and love is outlawed. It was poorly received at the time, but currently holds an 89% "fresh" approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. The film was not commercially successful.

Following a dispute, he withdrew from the Writers' Guild of America and the Directors' Guild in 1980 over his choice of using no opening credits in ''The Empire Strikes Back''. In addition, he originally wanted his friend Steven Spielberg to direct ''Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi'' (1983), but his dispute with the Director's Guild barred him from doing so.<ref>http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000184/bio</ref> Since then, in all of his recent films, he has hired actors who are not members of the Screen Actors' Guild, as legally a non-Guild member cannot hire Guild members.<ref>http://www.stagesource.org/download/8_advice_article_for_aftra_sag.pdf </ref>

==References==
<references/>

==Links==
*[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000184/ George Lucas] at the Internet Movie Database

A&E books Biography channel book on George Lucas

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lucas, George}}

[[category: Directors]]
[[category:Buddhists]]

Great Wall of China

2012-12-04T00:01:21Z

JJCC: In this case, "it was" fits better than "it is"

[[Image:Great_wall.jpg|right|180px|thumb|The Great Wall Of China. Image by [http://philip.greenspun.com/ Philip Greenspun]]]
The '''Great Wall of China''' is a long wall in [[China]]. It was constructed in ancient times as a barrier against invading armies. This was unsuccessful as the Mongols simply bribed the guards.<ref>Hucker, Charles O. ''China's Imperial Past: An Introduction to Chinese History and Culture.'' Stanford UP, 1997.</ref> It is 4,000 miles long and more than 20 feet tall.

Work started in 500 BC under [[Qin Shi Huang]], connecting older walls which were constructed by individual states. Most of the work was done in the [[Ming Dynasty]]. <ref>Susan Wise Bauer, ''The History of the Ancient World''</ref>Towers were built; originally as watchtowers, but later [[cannon]]s<ref>http://factsanddetails.com/china.php?itemid=27&catid=2&subcatid=1</ref> were added.

The Great Wall of China is not the only [[human|man-made]] structure visible from space, or the [[Moon]]. This legend probably originated with [[Richard Halliburton]]'s 1938 "Second Book of Marvels". It has been disputed whether it is even visible from low earth orbit. A 2008 article in Scientific American stated: "The unglamorous truth is that the wall is only visible from low orbit under a specific set of weather and lighting conditions. And many other structures that are less spectacular from an earthly vantage point—desert roads, for example—appear more prominent from an orbital perspective."<ref>[http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=is-chinas-great-wall-visible-from-space Scientific American, ''Is China's Great Wall Visible from Space? Though it stretches for some 4,500 miles, the ancient Chinese fortification is not as visible from orbit as modern desert roads'', by Mara Hvistendahl, February 21, 2008]</ref> In 2005 an [[American]] astronaut (of [[Chinese]] descent) succeeded in [[photograph]]ing the Wall. <ref>BBC News, Shanghai ''Great Wall visible in space photo'', by Francis Markus, 19 April, 2005 [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4459311.stm BBC News report of "China Daily" article 4/19/2005]</ref>

There is no truth to the notion that there are ''few'' human structures visible from space; Cecil Adams comments:

<blockquote>

Any number of man-made structures can be seen from space, provided we mean "structure" to mean "anything built." Many of these are things that look like long, straight lines when seen from far off, such as [[highway]]s, [[railroad]]s, [[canal]]s, and of course walls. If the orbit is low enough you can see even more, I have here a photo of [[Cape Canaveral]] taken during the Gemini V flight in which the big Launch Complex 39, used for the Apollo missions, is clearly visible. Another photo of the Nile delta, taken from a height of 100 miles, shows an extensive road network. Gemini V astronauts Gordon Cooper and Charles Conrad were able to spot, among other things, a special checkerboard pattern that had been laid out in [[Texas]], a rocket-sled test in [[New Mexico]], and the [[aircraft carrier]] that would later pick them up in the Atlantic, along with a destroyer trailing in its wake.<ref>[http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_092.html Is the Great Wall of China the only man-made object you can see from space?] Cecil Adams, ''The Straight Dope''</ref>
</blockquote>

As to whether the Wall can be seen from space, Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean says, "The only thing you can see from the Moon is a beautiful sphere, mostly white, some blue and patches of yellow, and every once in a while some green vegetation. No man-made object is visible at this scale." <ref>[http://www.nasa.gov/vision/space/workinginspace/great_wall.html NASA, ''China's Wall Less Great in View from Space'', 05.09.05 ]</ref>

According to [[NASA]] director [[Adnan Lulla]], "A lot has been said and written about how visible the wall is. In fact, it is very, very difficult to distinguish the Great Wall of China in astronaut photography, because the materials that were used in the wall are similar in color and texture to the materials of the land surrounding the wall -- the dirt." <ref>http://www.nasa.gov/vision/space/workinginspace/great_wall.html</ref>

[[Image:Wall China.gif|left]]

The Great Wall was listed as [[World Heritage]] by the [[UN]] in [[1987]].<ref>http://www.thegreatwall.com.cn/en </ref> Although long sections of the wall are now in ruins or have disappeared, it is still one of the more remarkable structures on earth and China's best-known monument.

== References ==
<references/>

== See also ==
*[[Beijing]]
*[[World History Lecture Three]]

== External links ==
*[http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9037891/Great-Wall-of-China Great Wall of China] Encyclopaedia Britannica.

[[Category:China]]
[[Category:Buildings]]
[[Category:Tourist Attractions]]
[[Category:Chinese History]]

New France

2012-12-03T21:47:54Z

JJCC: /* Captured by Britain */

'''New France''' was the territory of [[North America]] acquired by [[France]], during the [[Age of Exploration]]. The territory stretched from [[Hudson Bay]] to [[New Orleans]], with the seat of government based in [[Québec]]. The French colony existed from 1655 to 1763, when Britain took over and created the colony of [[Canada]]. The legacy of New France continues to this day, with a significant portion of the Canadian population being descended from about 10,000 of the original settlers.
[[Image:NewFrance1645.jpg|thumb|300px|New France in 1645]]
==Territory==
New France was colonized by France from the exploration of the [[Saint Lawrence River]] by [[Jacques Cartier]] in 1534. At its peak in 1712, the territory of New France extended from Labrador to Lake Superior and from the [[Hudson Bay]] to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico, and included much of what is now eastern [[Canada]]. The territory was then divided in five colonies, each with its own administration: Canada, [[Acadia]], [[Hudson Bay]], [[Newfoundland]] and Louisiana. About 16,000 French settlers came, of whom about 10,000 concentrated in farming villages along the St. Lawrence River. The French government formed alliances with some of the Indian tribes, who helped the fur trappers extend their activity throughout the Great Lakes region. With France and Britain often at war, New France was frequently at war with the British colonies to the South.

The area around New Orleans and west of the Mississippi passed to Spain, which ceded it to France in 1803, allowing France to sell it as the [[Louisiana Purchase]] to the United States.

== History ==
The first European explorer to reach New France was [[Jacques Cartier]]<ref> See [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=34229&query=Cartier ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography''] </ref>; he was commissioned by the king of [[France, history|France]] to "discover certain islands and lands where it is said that a great quantity of gold, and other precious things, are to be found." Sailing into the [[St. Lawrence River]] in 1534, he planted a cross in Gaspé, giving France control over what would become Nouvelle France, its North American colony. Travelling up-river, Cartier established a settlement at Stadacona, near present-day [[Quebec City]]. The settlement was not viable and was soon abandoned.

In 1602, King [[Henry IV]] of France gave a monopoly of the Canadian fur trade to a Rouen business group. This charter company, the first of several that were to rule New France for the next 60 years, appointed [[Samuel de Champlain]] chief agent for its overseas adventure.<ref> See [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=34237&query=Samuel%20AND%20de%20AND%20Champlain ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography''] </ref> Champlain possessed qualities that were needed for the founding of New France. Ardently religious, he was, like the king himself, a Catholic with a Protestant background. Adventurous, a skilled seaman and cartographer, Champlain was also patriotically eager to help expand French power in the new imperial age.

In 1608 Champlain sailed up the St. Lawrence to Cape Diamond, where he built the fur-trading fort of Quebec. From there, Champlain began to explore and map systematically the whole upper St. Lawrence region from Georgian Bay in the northwest to Lake Champlain in the south. In order to maintain friendly relations with the local Algonquin and Huron Indians, who controlled the fur-trading routes to the interior, Champlain was also forced to support them in their bloody feud with the Five Nations of the Iroquois confederacy. As a result, the Iroquois aligned with the Dutch and English to the south and became implacable and dangerous enemies of the French.

Trappers and woodsmen such as Etienne Bruléand Jean Nicolet<ref> See [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=34552&query=Jean%20AND%20Nicolet ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography''] </ref> pushed further into the interior. Known as coureurs-de-bois, they extended both the fur trade and French imperial claims as far as the headwaters of the Mississippi. Their success encouraged the charter companies to concentrate on the fur trade rather than build a solid agricultural base in the St. Lawrence Valley and induced many intrepid young colonists to leave the settlements and became coureurs-de-bois. Moreover, with France involved in the [[Thirty Years War]] (1618-1648), little encouragement or support was sent to New France.

What settlement did occur after Champlain's death (1635) was controlled by the [[Jesuits]] (Society of Jesus). Inspired by the missionary spirit of the [[Counter-Reformation]], they sought to convert the Indians to Christianity and to keep New France Catholic. Traveling with the coureurs-de-bois, Jesuit priests established missions as far west as Georgian Bay. Under François Laval,<ref> See [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=35012&query=laval ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography''] </ref> who was named head of the colonial Church in 1659 and Bishop of New France in 1674, Protestants were not permitted to settle in Canada. This policy strengthened a feeling of common purpose and even a nascent nationalism in New France.

Because of their involvement with the French fur trade, the missionaries were exposed to attacks by the Iroquois, who were allied with rival Dutch traders in the Hudson River valley of New Netherland. The Jesuits were successful in converting the Hurons, who trapped most of the furs. In 1648 the Iroquois, seeking to wipe out the Hurons and divert the flow of furs to the Dutch at Fort Orange (now Albany, New York), invaded the Huron country and massacred its inhabitants. Father Jean Brébeuf and several other Jesuit priests were tortured and burned at the stake, martyrs to the cause of Christianity and French Canada.<ref> See [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=34214&query=Brébeuf ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography''] </ref> The Iroquois then moved on the centre of New France. Montreal, which had been founded in 1642 on an island in the St. Lawrence river, had become the principal control centre for the interior fur trade. It was repeatedly subjected to Iroquois harassment, and its defence to the death by men like Adam Dollard gace it legendary heroes<ref> See [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=34298&query=dollard ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography''] </ref>.
===Royal Province===
In 1663 King [[Louis XIV]] nationalized the private fur-trade monopoly. He made New France a royal province with a superior council to carry out the king's edicts. Three officers dominated the council: the governor, with responsibility for defence; the intendant, to administer justice and promote economic growth; and the bishop, who wielded great power through his control of the church. Despite chronic feuding, conciliar government proved efficient. Under the leadership of dedicated intendants such as Jean Talon, the first to hold the office, New France began to flourish.<ref> See [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=34663&query=Talon ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography''] </ref> Population grew from 2,000 in 1663 to 6,000 in 1672. In addition, nearly 1,000 members of the veteran French regiment, the Carignan-Salières, were sent in to protect the colony, and many remained permanently. Talon's encouraged large families, domestic industries, and stable farming communities. The French seigneurial landholding system was instituted, whereby a few seigneurs owned all the land and the habitants paid an small annual rent. Few men were rich by colonial standards, and no one by Parisian standards. Thus differences in rank meant little; feudal dues were a modest burden on the habitants. Bishop Laval secured for the Church huge seigneurial land grants as well as heavy endowments for the Jesuit order. Education was in the hands of the clergy. The Church insisted on the right to regulate the colony's morals, but it was unable to prevent the sale of brandy to Indians by the fur traders.
[[File:Newfrance.jpg|thumb|300px]]
====Frontenac====
In 1672 the king appointed an aristocrat Comte de Frontenac as governor of the new colony.<ref> See [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=34218&query=Frontenac ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography''] </ref> Although he was later celebrated by the American historian [[Francis Parkman]] as the Fighting Governor, Frontenac antagonized many colonists by his corruption and angered the Hurons by not defending them against the Iroquois.<ref> David E. Griffin, "The Man for the Hour": A Defense of Francis Parkman's Frontenac," ''The New England Quarterly,'' Vol. 43, No. 4 (Dec., 1970), pp. 605-620 [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0028-4866(197012)43%3A4%3C605%3A%22MFTHA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-6 in JSTOR]</ref>

===King William's War===
Recalled in 1682, Frontenac left an internally divided and poorly defended colony but when fresh Iroquois began and war with England started again ([[King William's War]]), he was reappointed as governor in 1689. He sent mixed Indian and French raiding parties to raid English settlements in New England and New York. The women and children were kidnapped, the men tortured and killed. The enraged English colonists retaliated in force. In 1690 a fleet from Massachusetts captured Port Royal in Acadia. English attacks on Quebec and Montreal were defeated, however, and the French seized most of the English fur trading posts operated by Hudson's Bay Company posts. Peace was concluded with the English in 1697 and with the Iroquois in 1701. By then it was clear that New France was a minor pawn in the great game of European power politics.

===Queen Anne's War===
In the early 18th century the American colonies experienced a population explosion, accompanied by rapid economic growth. The shortage of land forced young men to the frontiers, west and north, near New France. During the [[War of the Spanish Succession]] (1702-1713) the British again captured Port Royal, which had been returned to France in 1697, and attacked Quebec. France lost the war and the [[Treaty of Utrecht]] in 1713 gave the British possession of Hudson Bay and Acadia, which was renamed [[Nova Scotia]].

Having lost most approaches to the St. Lawrence, the French strengthened their defences and threatened Nova Scotia and the [[Newfoundland]] fisheries; the English responded by intensifying their pressure all along the frontier. The English Fort Oswego, on the south shore of Lake Ontario, challenged French territorial claims and threatened their fur trade. French forts at Crown Point and Ticonderoga, south of the St. Lawrence, blocked a British invasion by way of Lake Champlain and the Richelieu River. In the far northwest Pierre La Vérendrye built a string of fur trading posts in the 1730s that stretched across the prairies as far as the Saskatchewan River, challenging the Hudson's Bay Company's westward thrusts.<ref> See [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=35488&query=Vérendrye ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography''] </ref>

==Captured by Britain==
''See: [[French and Indian War]]''

In the context of the [[Seven Years War]] raging in Europe, the British attached major importance to the capture of North America from the French. The great battle on the Plains of Abraham in 1759 was won by the cleverness of British General James Wolfe (1727-1759),<ref> See [http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=1720&interval=20&&PHPSESSID=mo9rhgn2v2uv55grd4a7v5pbf6 ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography'']</ref> who was killed as the British surprised and captured Quebec city; the French commander marquis de Montcalm (1712-59) also was killed<ref> See [http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=1720&interval=20&&PHPSESSID=mo9rhgn2v2uv55grd4a7v5pbf6 ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography'']</ref>. The conflict was not over, for at the battle of St Foy in 1760, the French beat the British and again laid siege to Quebec. The siege failed and, aided by the Royal Navy, the British were finally able to force the French army back to Montreal and capture Quebec.<ref> See Stephen Manning, ''Quebec: The Story of Three Sieges'' (2009)</ref> The Treaty of Paris in 1763 ratified British control of New France, now renamed Quebec.

==Colonial society==
New France had a well-established social order, based on a system of seigneurial tenure. It was a diluted form of European feudalism without any rich aristocrats. In Canada, the seigneur owned the land and the habitants (tenant farmers) paid him annual rent. He lacked the political powers of the landowners in France and England, and operated on a much smaller scale than the manorial lords in upstate New York. The habitant family was typically self-sufficient and independent. Nevertheless, the seigneurial system was very effective in establishing cohesive settlement along the St. Lawrence. Catholic religious orders provided the colony with a modest degree of education and medical care, while the Church tried to enforce its strict moral code that prohibited drunkenness, gambling, and sexual improprieties. The government mirrored the absolute monarchy in France. The colony was administered by a governor (a military officer who was responsible for external security), an intendant (entrusted with civil affairs), and a sovereign council (composed of these two officials, the bishop, the attorney-general, and several aides). Individual citizens were allowed to appeal personally or through their patron to members of the government for redress of grievances.

Before 1800 priests and the faithful had created a universe in the wilderness marked by the pervasive presence of the supernatural, which they tried to influence by means both orthodox and magical. God was considered omnipotent, the source of benedictions and punishment; but the people, and to some extent the clergy, attributed much power to magic and the Devil.<ref>Peter Moogk, ''La Nouvelle France: The Making of French Canada a Cultural History'' (2000), ch. 9 </ref>

New France enjoyed growing economic prosperity during the first half of the 18th century. The seigneurs, augmented their rents by financing the fur trade and operated inns, gristmills, trading posts and other small enterprises. An iron forge opened near Trois-Riviers in 1738; it was soon taken over by the government which leased it to local entrepreneurs who remained in business for over a century providing stoves as well as horsehoes iron bars for blacksmiths to use. The colony received revenue both from the fur trade, which was the major economic activity, and a subsidy from Paris. Although [[mercantilism]] (the idea that the colonies existed for the material benefit of the mother country) dominated economic thought in Paris, the Crown used subsidies to promote the economic development of New France. Farming, particularly the cultivation of wheat, was strongly encouraged. Shipbuilding, iron mining, lumbering, and commercial fishing all became important. The population grew steadily but totalled only about 65,000 in 1763, all descended from about 10,000 immigrants. By contrast, the American colonies to the south had more than two million inhabitants. Quebec's final years under French control were ones of repeated wars, with inflation and administrative corruption compounding the hardships of the people. Wartime dislocations hindered agricultural production, causing severe food shortages on some occasions.

==Further reading==
* [http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCESubjects&Params=A1''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (2008)] the best starting point
* [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ ''The Dictionary of Canadian Biography''](1966-2006), scholarly biographies of every major person in New France
* Dechêne, Louise. ''Habitants and Merchants in Seventeenth-Century Montreal'' (2003)
* Eccles, W. J. ''Essays on New France'' (1988) [http://www.amazon.com/Essays-New-France-W-Eccles/dp/0195405803/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206177810&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]
* Greer, Allan ''The people of New France'' (1997)
* Havard, Gilles, and Cécile Vidal, "Making New France New Again: French historians rediscover their American past," ''Common-Place'' (July 2007) v 7 #4 [http://www.common-place.org/vol-07/no-04/harvard/ online version]
* Moogk, Peter.; ''La Nouvelle France: The Making of French Canada a Cultural History'' (2000) to 1763 [http://www.questia.com/library/book/la-nouvelle-france-the-making-of-french-canada-a-cultural-history-by-peter-moogk.jsp online edition]
* Parkman, Francis. Author of famous multivolume narrative by America's leading historian, with total command of the sources and a brilliant writing style that engages the reader; liberals strongly dislike Parkman's conservative tone
** ''The Pioneers of France in the New World'' (1865) [http://books.google.com/books?id=Pjd6AAAAMAAJ&dq=inauthor:francis+inauthor:parkman&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&num=30&as_brr=1 excerpt and text search]
** ''The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century'' (1867) [http://books.google.com/books?id=i_pOAAAAMAAJ&dq=inauthor:francis+inauthor:parkman&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&num=30&as_brr=1 excerpt and text search]
** ''La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West'' (1869) [http://books.google.com/books?id=N3ktAAAAYAAJ&dq=inauthor:francis+inauthor:parkman&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&num=30&as_brr=1 excerpt and text search]
** ''The Old Régime in Canada'' (1874) [http://books.google.com/books?id=CMoNAAAAYAAJ&dq=inauthor:francis+inauthor:parkman&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&num=30&as_brr=1 excerpt and text search]
** ''Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV'' (1877) [http://books.google.com/books?id=UwdPAAAAMAAJ&dq=inauthor:francis+inauthor:parkman&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&num=30&as_brr=1 excerpt and text search]
** ''A Half Century of Conflict'' (1892) [http://books.google.com/books?id=tHsOAAAAYAAJ&dq=inauthor:francis+inauthor:parkman&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&num=30&as_brr=1 excerpt and text search]
**''Montcalm and Wolfe: The French and Indian War''. (1884), [http://books.google.com/books?id=4BlFAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=intitle:Montcalm+intitle:and+intitle:Wolfe+inauthor:Parkman&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=1&as_miny_is=2009&as_maxm_is=12&as_maxy_is=2009&as_brr=0&as_pt=ALLTYPE full text online]
* Trudel, Marcel. ''The Beginnings of New France 1524-1663'' (1973)
====Notes====
<References/>

[[Category:Canadian History]]
[[Category:Colonial America]]

New France

2012-12-03T21:47:22Z

JJCC: /* Captured by Britain */

'''New France''' was the territory of [[North America]] acquired by [[France]], during the [[Age of Exploration]]. The territory stretched from [[Hudson Bay]] to [[New Orleans]], with the seat of government based in [[Québec]]. The French colony existed from 1655 to 1763, when Britain took over and created the colony of [[Canada]]. The legacy of New France continues to this day, with a significant portion of the Canadian population being descended from about 10,000 of the original settlers.
[[Image:NewFrance1645.jpg|thumb|300px|New France in 1645]]
==Territory==
New France was colonized by France from the exploration of the [[Saint Lawrence River]] by [[Jacques Cartier]] in 1534. At its peak in 1712, the territory of New France extended from Labrador to Lake Superior and from the [[Hudson Bay]] to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico, and included much of what is now eastern [[Canada]]. The territory was then divided in five colonies, each with its own administration: Canada, [[Acadia]], [[Hudson Bay]], [[Newfoundland]] and Louisiana. About 16,000 French settlers came, of whom about 10,000 concentrated in farming villages along the St. Lawrence River. The French government formed alliances with some of the Indian tribes, who helped the fur trappers extend their activity throughout the Great Lakes region. With France and Britain often at war, New France was frequently at war with the British colonies to the South.

The area around New Orleans and west of the Mississippi passed to Spain, which ceded it to France in 1803, allowing France to sell it as the [[Louisiana Purchase]] to the United States.

== History ==
The first European explorer to reach New France was [[Jacques Cartier]]<ref> See [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=34229&query=Cartier ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography''] </ref>; he was commissioned by the king of [[France, history|France]] to "discover certain islands and lands where it is said that a great quantity of gold, and other precious things, are to be found." Sailing into the [[St. Lawrence River]] in 1534, he planted a cross in Gaspé, giving France control over what would become Nouvelle France, its North American colony. Travelling up-river, Cartier established a settlement at Stadacona, near present-day [[Quebec City]]. The settlement was not viable and was soon abandoned.

In 1602, King [[Henry IV]] of France gave a monopoly of the Canadian fur trade to a Rouen business group. This charter company, the first of several that were to rule New France for the next 60 years, appointed [[Samuel de Champlain]] chief agent for its overseas adventure.<ref> See [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=34237&query=Samuel%20AND%20de%20AND%20Champlain ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography''] </ref> Champlain possessed qualities that were needed for the founding of New France. Ardently religious, he was, like the king himself, a Catholic with a Protestant background. Adventurous, a skilled seaman and cartographer, Champlain was also patriotically eager to help expand French power in the new imperial age.

In 1608 Champlain sailed up the St. Lawrence to Cape Diamond, where he built the fur-trading fort of Quebec. From there, Champlain began to explore and map systematically the whole upper St. Lawrence region from Georgian Bay in the northwest to Lake Champlain in the south. In order to maintain friendly relations with the local Algonquin and Huron Indians, who controlled the fur-trading routes to the interior, Champlain was also forced to support them in their bloody feud with the Five Nations of the Iroquois confederacy. As a result, the Iroquois aligned with the Dutch and English to the south and became implacable and dangerous enemies of the French.

Trappers and woodsmen such as Etienne Bruléand Jean Nicolet<ref> See [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=34552&query=Jean%20AND%20Nicolet ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography''] </ref> pushed further into the interior. Known as coureurs-de-bois, they extended both the fur trade and French imperial claims as far as the headwaters of the Mississippi. Their success encouraged the charter companies to concentrate on the fur trade rather than build a solid agricultural base in the St. Lawrence Valley and induced many intrepid young colonists to leave the settlements and became coureurs-de-bois. Moreover, with France involved in the [[Thirty Years War]] (1618-1648), little encouragement or support was sent to New France.

What settlement did occur after Champlain's death (1635) was controlled by the [[Jesuits]] (Society of Jesus). Inspired by the missionary spirit of the [[Counter-Reformation]], they sought to convert the Indians to Christianity and to keep New France Catholic. Traveling with the coureurs-de-bois, Jesuit priests established missions as far west as Georgian Bay. Under François Laval,<ref> See [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=35012&query=laval ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography''] </ref> who was named head of the colonial Church in 1659 and Bishop of New France in 1674, Protestants were not permitted to settle in Canada. This policy strengthened a feeling of common purpose and even a nascent nationalism in New France.

Because of their involvement with the French fur trade, the missionaries were exposed to attacks by the Iroquois, who were allied with rival Dutch traders in the Hudson River valley of New Netherland. The Jesuits were successful in converting the Hurons, who trapped most of the furs. In 1648 the Iroquois, seeking to wipe out the Hurons and divert the flow of furs to the Dutch at Fort Orange (now Albany, New York), invaded the Huron country and massacred its inhabitants. Father Jean Brébeuf and several other Jesuit priests were tortured and burned at the stake, martyrs to the cause of Christianity and French Canada.<ref> See [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=34214&query=Brébeuf ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography''] </ref> The Iroquois then moved on the centre of New France. Montreal, which had been founded in 1642 on an island in the St. Lawrence river, had become the principal control centre for the interior fur trade. It was repeatedly subjected to Iroquois harassment, and its defence to the death by men like Adam Dollard gace it legendary heroes<ref> See [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=34298&query=dollard ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography''] </ref>.
===Royal Province===
In 1663 King [[Louis XIV]] nationalized the private fur-trade monopoly. He made New France a royal province with a superior council to carry out the king's edicts. Three officers dominated the council: the governor, with responsibility for defence; the intendant, to administer justice and promote economic growth; and the bishop, who wielded great power through his control of the church. Despite chronic feuding, conciliar government proved efficient. Under the leadership of dedicated intendants such as Jean Talon, the first to hold the office, New France began to flourish.<ref> See [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=34663&query=Talon ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography''] </ref> Population grew from 2,000 in 1663 to 6,000 in 1672. In addition, nearly 1,000 members of the veteran French regiment, the Carignan-Salières, were sent in to protect the colony, and many remained permanently. Talon's encouraged large families, domestic industries, and stable farming communities. The French seigneurial landholding system was instituted, whereby a few seigneurs owned all the land and the habitants paid an small annual rent. Few men were rich by colonial standards, and no one by Parisian standards. Thus differences in rank meant little; feudal dues were a modest burden on the habitants. Bishop Laval secured for the Church huge seigneurial land grants as well as heavy endowments for the Jesuit order. Education was in the hands of the clergy. The Church insisted on the right to regulate the colony's morals, but it was unable to prevent the sale of brandy to Indians by the fur traders.
[[File:Newfrance.jpg|thumb|300px]]
====Frontenac====
In 1672 the king appointed an aristocrat Comte de Frontenac as governor of the new colony.<ref> See [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=34218&query=Frontenac ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography''] </ref> Although he was later celebrated by the American historian [[Francis Parkman]] as the Fighting Governor, Frontenac antagonized many colonists by his corruption and angered the Hurons by not defending them against the Iroquois.<ref> David E. Griffin, "The Man for the Hour": A Defense of Francis Parkman's Frontenac," ''The New England Quarterly,'' Vol. 43, No. 4 (Dec., 1970), pp. 605-620 [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0028-4866(197012)43%3A4%3C605%3A%22MFTHA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-6 in JSTOR]</ref>

===King William's War===
Recalled in 1682, Frontenac left an internally divided and poorly defended colony but when fresh Iroquois began and war with England started again ([[King William's War]]), he was reappointed as governor in 1689. He sent mixed Indian and French raiding parties to raid English settlements in New England and New York. The women and children were kidnapped, the men tortured and killed. The enraged English colonists retaliated in force. In 1690 a fleet from Massachusetts captured Port Royal in Acadia. English attacks on Quebec and Montreal were defeated, however, and the French seized most of the English fur trading posts operated by Hudson's Bay Company posts. Peace was concluded with the English in 1697 and with the Iroquois in 1701. By then it was clear that New France was a minor pawn in the great game of European power politics.

===Queen Anne's War===
In the early 18th century the American colonies experienced a population explosion, accompanied by rapid economic growth. The shortage of land forced young men to the frontiers, west and north, near New France. During the [[War of the Spanish Succession]] (1702-1713) the British again captured Port Royal, which had been returned to France in 1697, and attacked Quebec. France lost the war and the [[Treaty of Utrecht]] in 1713 gave the British possession of Hudson Bay and Acadia, which was renamed [[Nova Scotia]].

Having lost most approaches to the St. Lawrence, the French strengthened their defences and threatened Nova Scotia and the [[Newfoundland]] fisheries; the English responded by intensifying their pressure all along the frontier. The English Fort Oswego, on the south shore of Lake Ontario, challenged French territorial claims and threatened their fur trade. French forts at Crown Point and Ticonderoga, south of the St. Lawrence, blocked a British invasion by way of Lake Champlain and the Richelieu River. In the far northwest Pierre La Vérendrye built a string of fur trading posts in the 1730s that stretched across the prairies as far as the Saskatchewan River, challenging the Hudson's Bay Company's westward thrusts.<ref> See [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=35488&query=Vérendrye ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography''] </ref>

==Captured by Britain==
'''See: [[French and Indian War]]'''

In the context of the [[Seven Years War]] raging in Europe, the British attached major importance to the capture of North America from the French. The great battle on the Plains of Abraham in 1759 was won by the cleverness of British General James Wolfe (1727-1759),<ref> See [http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=1720&interval=20&&PHPSESSID=mo9rhgn2v2uv55grd4a7v5pbf6 ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography'']</ref> who was killed as the British surprised and captured Quebec city; the French commander marquis de Montcalm (1712-59) also was killed<ref> See [http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=1720&interval=20&&PHPSESSID=mo9rhgn2v2uv55grd4a7v5pbf6 ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography'']</ref>. The conflict was not over, for at the battle of St Foy in 1760, the French beat the British and again laid siege to Quebec. The siege failed and, aided by the Royal Navy, the British were finally able to force the French army back to Montreal and capture Quebec.<ref> See Stephen Manning, ''Quebec: The Story of Three Sieges'' (2009)</ref> The Treaty of Paris in 1763 ratified British control of New France, now renamed Quebec.

==Colonial society==
New France had a well-established social order, based on a system of seigneurial tenure. It was a diluted form of European feudalism without any rich aristocrats. In Canada, the seigneur owned the land and the habitants (tenant farmers) paid him annual rent. He lacked the political powers of the landowners in France and England, and operated on a much smaller scale than the manorial lords in upstate New York. The habitant family was typically self-sufficient and independent. Nevertheless, the seigneurial system was very effective in establishing cohesive settlement along the St. Lawrence. Catholic religious orders provided the colony with a modest degree of education and medical care, while the Church tried to enforce its strict moral code that prohibited drunkenness, gambling, and sexual improprieties. The government mirrored the absolute monarchy in France. The colony was administered by a governor (a military officer who was responsible for external security), an intendant (entrusted with civil affairs), and a sovereign council (composed of these two officials, the bishop, the attorney-general, and several aides). Individual citizens were allowed to appeal personally or through their patron to members of the government for redress of grievances.

Before 1800 priests and the faithful had created a universe in the wilderness marked by the pervasive presence of the supernatural, which they tried to influence by means both orthodox and magical. God was considered omnipotent, the source of benedictions and punishment; but the people, and to some extent the clergy, attributed much power to magic and the Devil.<ref>Peter Moogk, ''La Nouvelle France: The Making of French Canada a Cultural History'' (2000), ch. 9 </ref>

New France enjoyed growing economic prosperity during the first half of the 18th century. The seigneurs, augmented their rents by financing the fur trade and operated inns, gristmills, trading posts and other small enterprises. An iron forge opened near Trois-Riviers in 1738; it was soon taken over by the government which leased it to local entrepreneurs who remained in business for over a century providing stoves as well as horsehoes iron bars for blacksmiths to use. The colony received revenue both from the fur trade, which was the major economic activity, and a subsidy from Paris. Although [[mercantilism]] (the idea that the colonies existed for the material benefit of the mother country) dominated economic thought in Paris, the Crown used subsidies to promote the economic development of New France. Farming, particularly the cultivation of wheat, was strongly encouraged. Shipbuilding, iron mining, lumbering, and commercial fishing all became important. The population grew steadily but totalled only about 65,000 in 1763, all descended from about 10,000 immigrants. By contrast, the American colonies to the south had more than two million inhabitants. Quebec's final years under French control were ones of repeated wars, with inflation and administrative corruption compounding the hardships of the people. Wartime dislocations hindered agricultural production, causing severe food shortages on some occasions.

==Further reading==
* [http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCESubjects&Params=A1''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (2008)] the best starting point
* [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ ''The Dictionary of Canadian Biography''](1966-2006), scholarly biographies of every major person in New France
* Dechêne, Louise. ''Habitants and Merchants in Seventeenth-Century Montreal'' (2003)
* Eccles, W. J. ''Essays on New France'' (1988) [http://www.amazon.com/Essays-New-France-W-Eccles/dp/0195405803/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206177810&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]
* Greer, Allan ''The people of New France'' (1997)
* Havard, Gilles, and Cécile Vidal, "Making New France New Again: French historians rediscover their American past," ''Common-Place'' (July 2007) v 7 #4 [http://www.common-place.org/vol-07/no-04/harvard/ online version]
* Moogk, Peter.; ''La Nouvelle France: The Making of French Canada a Cultural History'' (2000) to 1763 [http://www.questia.com/library/book/la-nouvelle-france-the-making-of-french-canada-a-cultural-history-by-peter-moogk.jsp online edition]
* Parkman, Francis. Author of famous multivolume narrative by America's leading historian, with total command of the sources and a brilliant writing style that engages the reader; liberals strongly dislike Parkman's conservative tone
** ''The Pioneers of France in the New World'' (1865) [http://books.google.com/books?id=Pjd6AAAAMAAJ&dq=inauthor:francis+inauthor:parkman&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&num=30&as_brr=1 excerpt and text search]
** ''The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century'' (1867) [http://books.google.com/books?id=i_pOAAAAMAAJ&dq=inauthor:francis+inauthor:parkman&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&num=30&as_brr=1 excerpt and text search]
** ''La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West'' (1869) [http://books.google.com/books?id=N3ktAAAAYAAJ&dq=inauthor:francis+inauthor:parkman&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&num=30&as_brr=1 excerpt and text search]
** ''The Old Régime in Canada'' (1874) [http://books.google.com/books?id=CMoNAAAAYAAJ&dq=inauthor:francis+inauthor:parkman&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&num=30&as_brr=1 excerpt and text search]
** ''Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV'' (1877) [http://books.google.com/books?id=UwdPAAAAMAAJ&dq=inauthor:francis+inauthor:parkman&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&num=30&as_brr=1 excerpt and text search]
** ''A Half Century of Conflict'' (1892) [http://books.google.com/books?id=tHsOAAAAYAAJ&dq=inauthor:francis+inauthor:parkman&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&num=30&as_brr=1 excerpt and text search]
**''Montcalm and Wolfe: The French and Indian War''. (1884), [http://books.google.com/books?id=4BlFAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=intitle:Montcalm+intitle:and+intitle:Wolfe+inauthor:Parkman&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=1&as_miny_is=2009&as_maxm_is=12&as_maxy_is=2009&as_brr=0&as_pt=ALLTYPE full text online]
* Trudel, Marcel. ''The Beginnings of New France 1524-1663'' (1973)
====Notes====
<References/>

[[Category:Canadian History]]
[[Category:Colonial America]]

Template:DenverBroncos

2012-12-03T21:44:53Z

JJCC: Better looking

{| align="center" class="toccolours" style="background:white;border:2px solid rgb(193,193,193); text-align: left;font-size:95%;" cellpadding="10px"
|-
!colspan="7" style="font-size:100%; background-color: rgb(35,24,228); text-align:center; border: 2px solid rgb(255,255,255)" | Denver Broncos Roster

|-
| valign="top" | '''Quarterbacks'''
* 18 [[Peyton Manning]]
* 16 [[Caleb Hanie]]
* 6 [[Brock Osweiler]]
'''Running Backs'''
* 35 [[Lance Ball]]
* 49 [[Chris Gronkowski]]
* 21 [[Ronnie Hillman]]
* 27 [[Knowshon Moreno]]
* 40 [[Jacob Hester]] FB
'''Wide Receivers'''
* 12 [[Matthew Willis]]
* 88 [[Demaryius Thomas]]
* 11 [[Trindon Holliday]]
* 87 [[Eric Decker]]
* 17 [[Andre Caldwell]]
* 14 [[Brandon Stokley]]

| valign="top" |'''Tight Ends'''
* 81 [[Joel Dreessen]]
* 85 [[Virgil Green]]
* 84 [[Jacob Tamme]]
* 80 [[Julius Thomas]]

'''Offensive Linemen'''
* 78 [[Ryan Clady]] T
* 75 [[Chris Clark]] T
* 74 [[Orlando Franklin]] T
* 73 [[Chris Kuper]] G
* 68 [[Zane Beadles]] G
* 65 [[Manny Ramirez]] G
* 64 [[Philip Blake]] G IR
* 67 [[Dan Koppen]] C
* 54 [[C.J. Davis]] C/G
* 50 [[J.D. Walton]] C IR

| valign="top" | '''Linebackers'''
* 55 [[D.J. Williams]] WLB
* 52 [[Wesley Woodyard]] WLB
* 58 [[Von Miller]] SLB
* 56 [[Nate Irving]] MLB
* 57 [[Keith Brooking]]
* 53 [[Steven Johnson]]
* 59 [[Danny Trevathan]]
* 51 [[Joe Mays]] MLB IR

'''Defensive Backs'''
* 24 [[Champ Bailey]] CB
* 20 [[Mike Adams]] S
* 30 [[David Bruton]] S
* 36 [[Jim Leonhard]] S
* 26 [[Rahim Moore]] S
* 31 [[Omar Bolden]] CB
* 32 [[Tony Carter]] CB
* 25 [[Chris Harris]] CB
* 22 [[Tracy Porter]] CB
* 28 [[Quinton Carter]] S IR

| valign="top" |'''Special Teams'''
*  5 [[Matt Prater]] K
*  4 [[Britton Colquitt]] P
*  46 [[Aaron Brewer]] P

'''Defensive Linemen'''
* 91 [[Robert Ayers]] DE
* 95 [[Derek Wolfe]] DE
* 92 [[Elvis Dumervil]] DE
* 70 [[Malik Jackson]] DL
* 97 [[Justin Bannan]] DT
* 98 [[Sealver Siliga]] DT
* 96 [[Mitch Unrein]] DT
* 99 [[Kevin Vickerson]] DT
* 93 [[Jeremy Beal]] DE IR
* 90 [[Jason Hunter]] DE IR
* 94 [[Ty Warren]] DT IR

''Rookies in italics''
|-
| colspan="2" |'''Coaches'''
*[[John Fox]] Head Coach
*[[Jack Del Rio]] Defensive Coordinator
*[[Mike McCoy]] Offensive Coordinator
*[[Jeff Rodgers]] Special Teams Coordinator
'''Abbreviations'''
*IR=Injured Reserve
*PR=Practice Squad
*DR=Designated Return
|colspan="2"|
|}<noinclude>

<includeonly>[[Category:National Football League]]</includeonly><noinclude>[[Category:Navigation box|{{PAGENAME}}]]
{{TemplateDoc|pages=Denver Broncos|purpose=Roster section|cat=National Football League}}
{{Parms|
}}

Siege of Minorca

2012-12-03T21:41:11Z

JJCC: Add Aftermath

The '''Siege of Minorca''' was a [[siege]] of Fort St. Philip during the [[Seven Years War]]. This contributed to the Declaration of War on 18 May, 1756. A French force of 15,000 (led by Duke de Richelieu) laid siege to a smaller garrison of 2,000 British led by William Blakeney). This siege resulted in a French victory.

== Siege ==
A French force under the command of Duke de Richelieu landed on the island ([[Minorca]]) and besieged the British garrison, forcing them to surrender after a month long siege. A relief force under the command of Admiral [[John Byng]] sailed with the intention to save the island, but was stopped at the [[Battle of Minorca]] and withdrew to [[Gibraltar]], and the British garrisons' resistance gave out. Admiral Byng was later executed on charges of treason after being blamed for the loss.

== Aftermath ==
The French held onto Minorca until 1763, when it was returned to [[Great Britain]] in return for [[Guadeloupe]]. Minorca was again taken by the French in 1781 and ceded to Spain after the [[American Revolutionary War]] was over.

MINIX

2012-12-03T21:35:39Z

JJCC: Add full stop

MINIX

2012-12-03T21:35:10Z

JJCC: Created page with "'''MINIX''' is a free Unix-based operating system designed by Andrew Tanenbaum in 1987.<ref>[http://minix3.org MINIX 3 website]</ref> MINIX later inspired [[Linus Torvald..."

'''MINIX''' is a free [[Unix]]-based operating system designed by [[Andrew Tanenbaum]] in 1987.<ref>[http://minix3.org MINIX 3 website]</ref> MINIX later inspired [[Linus Torvalds]] to design [[GNU/Linux|Linux]].<ref>[http://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/comp.os.minix/wlhw16QWltI comp.os.minix LINUX-MINIX discussion]</ref> It's latest stable release is 3.2.0 and developer snapshot is 3.2.1<ref>[http://www.minix3.org/download/index.html MINIX3 download page]</ref>

==References==
<references/>

Linux (operating system)

2012-12-03T21:26:11Z

JJCC: Redirect to GNU/Linux

#REDIRECT [[GNU/Linux]]

Windows (operating system)

2012-12-03T21:24:57Z

JJCC:

'''Windows''' is an [[operating system]] produced and maintained by [[Microsoft Corporation]]. It was estimated that as of December 2007<ref>[http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_os.asp OS Statistics]. Refsnes Data. Retrieved 29 January, 2008.</ref> Microsoft Windows accounted for nearly 90% of operating system usage, with 3 out of 4 being to the [[Windows XP]]. Windows is used both as a desktop operating system and a [[server]]<ref>[http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/default.mspx Windows Server 2003 R2 Home]. Microsoft Corporation. Retrieved 29 January, 2008.</ref> operating system, and is intended for use with the [[Intel]] x86-64 family of processors.

Early versions of Windows (98 and earlier) were notoriously unreliable, despite (or maybe because of?) Microsoft's near-monopoly share of the operating system market. They crashed so often that the term "blue screen of death" entered the vocabulary. See also this satire: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX8yrOAjfKM&feature=related Matrix Runs on Windows XP]

While initially Windows was merely a [[graphical user interface]] extension to [[MS-DOS]] shell<ref>[http://www.microsoft.com/windows/WinHistoryProGraphic.mspx Windows History: Windows Desktop Timeline]. Microsoft Corporation. Retrieved 29 January, 2008.</ref>, it became a full operating system beginning with the release of Windows NT.

See also:

*[[Windows XP]]
*[[Windows Vista]]
*[[Windows Seven]]
*[[Windows 8]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External Links==
[http://www.microsoft.com/windows/default.mspx Microsoft Windows Home Page]

[[Category: Operating Systems]]
[[Category:Microsoft]]

Buffalo Bills

2012-12-03T21:20:35Z

JJCC: /* Super Bowl History */

The '''Buffalo Bills''' are a [[National Football League]] [[franchise]] playing in [[Buffalo, New York]]. They are part of the [[American Football Conference]] and play in the East division. The team is named for [[William Frederick Cody]], more famously known as [[Buffalo Bill]]. The Bills play at Ralph Wilson Stadium.

==Team==
{{:Buffalo Bills/Roster}}

==Super Bowl History==
The Bills most recent string of success occurred from 1991-1994 when they reached the [[Super Bowl]] for four straight years, only to lose each time. The team came closest to winning the 1991 Super Bowl, in which the team trailed the [[New York Giants]] by one point with seconds remaining in the Super Bowl, when Scott Norwood missed a 47-yard field goal. The Bills have not seen a playoff berth since 1999.

==See also==
*[[Miami Dolphins]]
*[[New England Patriots]]
*[[New York Jets]]
*[[American Football Conference]]
== Exterior Links ==

*[http://www.buffalobills.com/ Official Team Website]

{{NFL Teams}}

[[category:National Football League]]
[[Category:New York]]

Denver Broncos

2012-12-03T21:18:19Z

JJCC: KC: Kansas City

{{NFLTeam
|name=Denver Broncos
|logo=DenverBroncoslogo.png
|text=rgb(28,38,168)
|background=rgb(232,109,36)
|location=Denver, CO
|year=1960
|colors=Orange and blue
|mascot=Miles
|champs=1997, 1998
|website=www.denverbroncos.com
}}

The '''Denver Broncos''' are a [[National Football League]] franchise based in [[Denver]], [[Colorado]], formed in 1960. They are part of the [[American Football Conference]] (AFC) and play in the AFC West Division. The team had an unsuccessful bid for the [[Super Bowl]] several times (1977, 86, 87, and 88) before finally winning the "Big Game" under [[John Elway]], winning two years in a row in 1997 and 1998, in no small thanks to the running game and Terrell Davis.

The teams colors are predominantly Orange and Blue.

They have had long running rivalries with the Oakland/LA Raiders, the Cleveland Browns, and the Kansas City Chiefs.

Longtime coach [[Mike Shanahan]] was fired after fourteen seasons with the team. His replacement is Josh McDaniels, the former Offensive Coordinator of the [[New England Patriots]]. Josh McDaniels was later replaced with John Fox.

==Roster==
{{DenverBroncos}}

==See also==
*[[Oakland Raiders]]
*[[Kansas City Chiefs]]
*[[San Diego Chargers]]
*[[American Football Conference]]

== External links ==
*[http://www.denverbroncos.com Official Team Website]
*[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/nfl/teams/broncos/index.html SI.com - Team News]

{{NFL Teams}}

[[Category:National Football League]]
[[Category:Colorado]]

Template:DenverBroncos

2012-12-03T21:15:47Z

JJCC: Revamp Part 2: Defense completely updated to current 2012 roster

{| align="center" class="toccolours" style="background:white;border:2px solid rgb(193,193,193); text-align: left;font-size:95%;" cellpadding="10px"
|-
!colspan="7" style="font-size:100%; background-color: rgb(35,24,228); text-align:center; border: 2px solid rgb(255,255,255)" | Denver Broncos Roster

|-
| valign="top" | '''Quarterbacks'''
* 18 [[Peyton Manning]]
* 16 [[Caleb Hanie]]
* 6 [[Brock Osweiler]]
'''Running Backs'''
* 35 [[Lance Ball]]
* 49 [[Chris Gronkowski]]
* 21 [[Ronnie Hillman]]
* 27 [[Knowshon Moreno]]
* 40 [[Jacob Hester]] FB
'''Wide Receivers'''
* 12 [[Matthew Willis]]
* 88 [[Demaryius Thomas]]
* 11 [[Trindon Holliday]]
* 87 [[Eric Decker]]
* 17 [[Andre Caldwell]]
* 14 [[Brandon Stokley]]

| valign="top" |'''Tight Ends'''
* 81 [[Joel Dreessen]]
* 85 [[Virgil Green]]
* 84 [[Jacob Tamme]]
* 80 [[Julius Thomas]]

'''Offensive Linemen'''
* 78 [[Ryan Clady]] T
* 75 [[Chris Clark]] T
* 74 [[Orlando Franklin]] T
* 73 [[Chris Kuper]] G
* 68 [[Zane Beadles]] G
* 65 [[Manny Ramirez]] G
* 64 [[Philip Blake]] G IR
* 67 [[Dan Koppen]] C
* 54 [[C.J. Davis]] C/G
* 50 [[J.D. Walton]] C IR

| valign="top" | '''Linebackers'''
* 55 [[D.J. Williams]] WLB
* 52 [[Wesley Woodyard]] WLB
* 58 [[Von Miller]] SLB
* 56 [[Nate Irving]] MLB
* 57 [[Keith Brooking]]
* 53 [[Steven Johnson]]
* 59 [[Danny Trevathan]]
* 51 [[Joe Mays]] MLB IR

'''Defensive Backs'''
* 24 [[Champ Bailey]] CB
* 20 [[Mike Adams]] S
* 30 [[David Bruton]] S
* 36 [[Jim Leonhard]] S
* 26 [[Rahim Moore]] S
* 31 [[Omar Bolden]] CB
* 32 [[Tony Carter]] CB
* 25 [[Chris Harris]] CB
* 22 [[Tracy Porter]] CB
* 28 [[Quinton Carter]] S IR

| valign="top" |'''Special Teams'''
*  5 [[Matt Prater]] K
*  4 [[Britton Colquitt]] P
*  46 [[Aaron Brewer]] P

'''Defensive Linemen'''
* 91 [[Robert Ayers]] DE
* 95 [[Derek Wolfe]] DE
* 92 [[Elvis Dumervil]] DE
* 70 [[Malik Jackson]] DL
* 97 [[Justin Bannan]] DT
* 98 [[Sealver Siliga]] DT
* 96 [[Mitch Unrein]] DT
* 99 [[Kevin Vickerson]] DT
* 93 [[Jeremy Beal]] DE IR
* 90 [[Jason Hunter]] DE IR
* 94 [[Ty Warren]] DT IR

''Rookies in italics''
|-
| colspan="2" |'''Coaches'''
*[[John Fox]] Head Coach
*[[Jack Del Rio]] Defensive Coordinator
*[[Mike McCoy]] Offensive Coordinator
*[[Jeff Rodgers]] Special Teams Coordinator
*'''Abbreviations'''
*IR=Injured Reserve
*PR=Practice Squad
*DR=Designated Return
|colspan="2"|
|}<noinclude>

<includeonly>[[Category:National Football League]]</includeonly><noinclude>[[Category:Navigation box|{{PAGENAME}}]]
{{TemplateDoc|pages=Denver Broncos|purpose=Roster section|cat=National Football League}}
{{Parms|
}}

Template:DenverBroncos

2012-12-03T21:02:27Z

JJCC: Revamp Part 1: Offense completely updated to current 2012 roster

{| align="center" class="toccolours" style="background:white;border:2px solid rgb(193,193,193); text-align: left;font-size:95%;" cellpadding="10px"
|-
!colspan="7" style="font-size:100%; background-color: rgb(35,24,228); text-align:center; border: 2px solid rgb(255,255,255)" | Denver Broncos Roster

|-
| valign="top" | '''Quarterbacks'''
* 18 [[Peyton Manning]]
* 16 [[Caleb Hanie]]
* 6 [[Brock Osweiler]]
'''Running Backs'''
* 35 [[Lance Ball]]
* 49 [[Chris Gronkowski]]
* 21 [[Ronnie Hillman]]
* 27 [[Knowshon Moreno]]
* 40 [[Jacob Hester]] FB
'''Wide Receivers'''
* 12 [[Matthew Willis]]
* 88 [[Demaryius Thomas]]
* 11 [[Trindon Holliday]]
* 87 [[Eric Decker]]
* 17 [[Andre Caldwell]]
* 14 [[Brandon Stokley]]

| valign="top" |'''Tight Ends'''
* 81 [[Joel Dreessen]]
* 85 [[Virgil Green]]
* 84 [[Jacob Tamme]]
* 80 [[Julius Thomas]]

'''Offensive Linemen'''
* 78 [[Ryan Clady]] T
* 75 [[Chris Clark]] T
* 74 [[Orlando Franklin]] T
* 73 [[Chris Kuper]] G
* 68 [[Zane Beadles]] G
* 65 [[Manny Ramirez]] G
* 64 [[Philip Blake]] G IR
* 67 [[Dan Koppen]] C
* 54 [[C.J. Davis]] C/G
* 50 [[J.D. Walton]] C IR

| valign="top" | '''Linebackers'''
* [[Andra Davis]]
* 52 [[Louis Green]]
* 57 [[Mario Haggan]]
* 53 [[Niko Koutouvides]]
* 58 [[Nate Webster]]
* 55 [[D.J. Williams]]
* 51 [[Jamie Winborn]]
* 59 [[Wesley Woodyard]]

'''Defensive Backs'''
* 24 [[Champ Bailey]] CB
* 36 [[Josh Barrett]] S
* 34 [[Josh Bell]] CB
* 32 [[Dre' Bly]] CB
* [[Bran Dawkins]] S
* 39 [[Vernon Fox]] S
* [[Andre Goodman]] CB
* [[Renaldo Hill]] S
* 44 [[Herana-Daze Jones]] S
* 37 [[Calvin Lowry]] S
* 33 [[Marquand Manuel]] S
* 20 [[Marlon McCree]] S
* 26 [[Jack Williams]] CB

| valign="top" |'''Special Teams'''
*  5 [[Matt Prater]] K
*  1[[Brett Kern]] P

'''Defensive Linemen'''
* 93 [[Nic Clemons]] DT
* 96 [[Tim Crowder]] DE
* 92 [[Elvis Dumervil]] DE
* 91 [[Ebenezer Ekuban]] DE
* 60 [[John Engelberger]] DE
* 60 [[Ronald Fields]] DT
* 94 [[Jarvis Moss]] DE
* 90 [[Kenny Peterson]] DT
* [[Darrell Reid]] DT
* 63 [[Dewayne Robertson]] DT
* 79 [[Marcus Thomas]] DT

''Rookies in italics''
|-
| colspan="2" |'''Coaches'''
*[[Josh McDaniels]] Head Coach
*[[Steve Watson]] Assistant Head Coach
*[[Rick Dennison]] Offensive Coordinator/Offensive Line
*[[Bob Slowik]] Defensive Coordinator/Defensive Backs
*IR=Injured Reserve
|colspan="2"|
|}<noinclude>

<includeonly>[[Category:National Football League]]</includeonly><noinclude>[[Category:Navigation box|{{PAGENAME}}]]
{{TemplateDoc|pages=Denver Broncos|purpose=Roster section|cat=National Football League}}
{{Parms|
}}

Denver Broncos

2012-12-03T20:50:30Z

JJCC: Josh McDaniels was replaced with John Fox

{{NFLTeam
|name=Denver Broncos
|logo=DenverBroncoslogo.png
|text=rgb(28,38,168)
|background=rgb(232,109,36)
|location=Denver, CO
|year=1960
|colors=Orange and blue
|mascot=Miles
|champs=1997, 1998
|website=www.denverbroncos.com
}}

The '''Denver Broncos''' are a [[National Football League]] franchise based in [[Denver]], [[Colorado]], formed in 1960. They are part of the [[American Football Conference]] (AFC) and play in the AFC West Division. The team had an unsuccessful bid for the [[Super Bowl]] several times (1977, 86, 87, and 88) before finally winning the "Big Game" under [[John Elway]], winning two years in a row in 1997 and 1998, in no small thanks to the running game and Terrell Davis.

The teams colors are predominantly Orange and Blue.

They have had long running rivalries with the Oakland/LA Raiders, the Cleveland Browns, and the KC Chiefs.

Longtime coach [[Mike Shanahan]] was fired after fourteen seasons with the team. His replacement is Josh McDaniels, the former Offensive Coordinator of the [[New England Patriots]]. Josh McDaniels was later replaced with John Fox.

==Roster==
{{DenverBroncos}}

==See also==
*[[Oakland Raiders]]
*[[Kansas City Chiefs]]
*[[San Diego Chargers]]
*[[American Football Conference]]

== External links ==
*[http://www.denverbroncos.com Official Team Website]
*[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/nfl/teams/broncos/index.html SI.com - Team News]

{{NFL Teams}}

[[Category:National Football League]]
[[Category:Colorado]]

Causes of Homosexuality

2012-12-03T02:02:11Z

JJCC: Undo revision 1021777 by FradmundLL (talk)

[[File:70810564 64d3a67932.jpg|alt=Causes of homosexuality|right|275px|thumb|Homosexuality is rare in [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox Jews]]. For more information please see: [[Religious Upbringing and Culture Affects Rates of Homosexuality]].]]

The '''causes of [[homosexuality]]''' are attributable to man's sinful nature, nurture and environment, and personal choice. How important each factor is, though, is an issue that is debated. Those from the most [[liberal]] school usually assume a philosophy of determinism, treating homosexuality as an identity or orientation which one has no choice over, and which cannot be changed. This belief is then used to justify acting it out.<ref>Sylvia Thorson-Smith, ''Reconciling the broken silence'', p. 30</ref> The contrasting and warranted position is that homosexuality is a choice, that of yielding to ultimately harmful desires, and which choice is partly affected by nurture and environment.

==Causes of homosexuality - Biblical explanation ==

The [[Bible]], being the most comprehensive transcendent moral authority, abundantly deals with human nature and behavior and consistently manifests that the nature of man has not changed since [[the Fall]]. So the Bible is certainly the preeminent authoritative source when it comes to providing a framework when determining the causes of homosexuality. Man is shown to have been created as a perfectly made being (Gn. 1:31) - yet not as a robot - but as a being designed to be able to make choices, which thereby allowed him to distort his perfection. God from the beginning also joined male and female in life-long marriage, and placed a priority on the family, and provided laws, as needed, for its health and preservation and that of society, while aberrations result from failure to abide by them. ''For more information please see:'' [[Homosexuality and the Bible]] and [[Homosexuality and biblical interpretation]]''

===Nature of man and causes of homosexuality ===
In the beginning, man disobeyed his Creator, and as part of the punishment for so doing both mankind and that which he was given stewardship of was negatively affected. In addition to physical decay and the suffering and natural death of living creatures being introduced into the world, (Gn. 2:17; 3:17-19; Rm. 5:12,17; 6:23; ) the Fall resulted in the nature of man demonstrating a certain proclivity to sin. However, this does not determine that a man must practice a certain sin, nor does it justify man giving into this attraction to sin, as God also gave man ability to resist sin. (Gn. 4:7)<ref>http://www.sbts.edu/documents/tschreiner/Homosexuality.pdf</ref>

Certain negative physical effects of sin are also seen as being progressive, as with time more diseases and other aberrations seemed to have occurred, and laws against incest later became necessary. In addition, as men continued to act contrary to the basic moral laws which they knew innately and through creation, conscience and oral tradition, a formal body of law was given through [[Moses]], which detailed and codified the immutable morality God enjoins upon man. (Ex. 20; Dt. 4:8,9; Lv. 18; Gal. 3:19) Addition laws include ceremonial laws which the [[New Testament]] reveals were typological. ''For more information please see:'' [[Leviticus 18]].''

As regards homosexuality, from the beginning of the Bible and throughout, it consistently teaches that God only sexually joined opposite genders together, sanctifying them in marriage, having created men and women uniquely compatible and complementary.(Gn. 2:18-24; Mt. 19:4; 1Cor. 11:8-12)<ref>http://www.cbmw.org/Articles/</ref>

In contrast to what God had ordained by design and decree, homosexuality is one of many sins which are a result of man yielding to his sinful nature, and is a form of fornication, although a most perverse kind. The prohibition of it is given along with sexual relations with animals, (Lv. 18:23) and is clearly condemned wherever it is manifestly dealt with. (Lv. 18:22; 20:13; Mk. 7:21; Rm. 1:20-27; 1Cor. 6:9; 1Tim. 1:10)

The Bible, as well as history, also evidences that while there are three areas in which man sins, those of lust for pleasure, possessions and power, (1Jn. 2:16) individuals may differ as regards which type of sins present the greatest temptation for them, with genetics playing at least a part in that. That judgment upon a people who gave into a specific sin could result in a genetic predisposition to that same sin among their offspring may be speculated, but it is not proven.

===Environment===

The Bible provides a clear link between the adherence of a family or a nation to the laws of God and the moral choices of offspring. (Prov. 22:6) The Bible also positively examples close father-son and familial relationships, and may be seen to partially implicate detachment with rebellion. (Gn. 37-50; 2 Sam. 13-18) Studies today have shown that [[Religious Upbringing and Culture Affects Rates of Homosexuality|religious upbringing and culture can strongly affect rates of homosexuality]].

The record of [[Sodom]], as well as accounts of nations elsewhere, testify that living within the environment of people where [[iniquity]] abounds is conducive to furthering the same iniquity among succeeding generations, resulting in the necessity of Divine judgment when nations became given over to such. (Lv. 18:24; 20:22; Dt. 18:12; 28; Jer. 14:9,10; Rm. 2:2)

In Genesis 19, the city of Sodom is revealed as a place in which men sexually lusted after men, from which the term "sodomy" was derived (like as homosexuals use the term "gay", although this is contradictory in the end), and Jude 7 refers to Sodom and its region being given to fornication, including that of unnatural relations.

In Ezekiel 16:49 the general iniquity of Sodom and its "sisters" is given as "pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness" and general indifference to the needy. The next verse proceeds to inform that "the Sodomites were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good." The word for ''abomination'' here is ''tô‛êbah'', which is not the word often used for ritual uncleanness, but is often used for sexual sin, in particular sexual sins and including sodomy. (Lv.18:22; 26-27,29,30; 20:13; Dt. 23:18; 24:4 1Ki. 14:24; Ezek. 22:11; 33:26) Sodom is also associated more with sexual sins than with any other ''physical'' type of sin.

What the Bible, as well as secular history, reveals is that prevalent homosexuality is concomitant with pride, affluence, increased free time, and selfish indulgence and carelessness.<ref>[http://peacebyjesus.witnesstoday.org/Homosex_versus_the_Bible.html Homosexual relations and the Bible: see Genesis 19 to Ezekiel 16:49]</ref> Therefore, rebellion against God's laws and order and the resultant environmental factors are seen to be a cause in promoting sensuality and homosexuality.

===Idolatry and judgment===
[[Image:Martin destruction sodom640x422.jpg|thumbnail|300px|right|Destruction of [[Sodom]] by [[God]]]]

In [[Romans 1]], God, through the [[apostle Paul]], condemns both male and female homoeroticism, which, as a cultural practice, is shown to be a manifestation and a result of idolatry, in which man progressively acted contrary to that which God has revealed by creation, by design and normality. This is morality which is confirmed by written decree (the Law), as the next chapter declares. As a result of this continued rebellion, which was partly manifest in God being reduced to an image like unto corruptible creatures (like as today with homosexuals construing Christ to be homosexual, or sanctioning it, as well as nature effectively being worshiped), "God gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves." (v. 24)

It is also stated that a certain afflictive punishment(s) of the body were incurred by those men who engaged in relations with each other. (v. 27) Unless repentance takes place, worse consequences will follow. (Rv. 21:28)

While some seek to render this chapter as only condemning homosexual relations when done as part of idolatry, the condemnation is not due to its association with paganism, rather as it inherently contrary to that which God ordained, then it is a manifestation of false religion, regardless of its form, though in ancient times in which religion was an inseparable part of culture, then formal idolatry was what was more manifested. Romans 1 proceeds to show that homosexuality is not alone as a fruit of idolatry, but that this particular pernicious physical sin is one of many inherently evil things. (Rm. 1:28-32) ''For more information please see:'' [[Romans 1]].

In summary, God's eternal power is manifest in His [[creation]] (Romans 1:18-20). Nonetheless, certain people chose to worship the creature more than the Creator (Romans 1:21-25). Therefore, God gave them up to homosexuality and other sins and gave them over to a reprobate mind (Romans 1:26-32). As an example of the truth of this teaching, [[feminist]]s, wishing to deny the [[Women#New_Testament_statements_on_the_role_of_women|God-given role of women]], often engage in [[goddess]] worship and other forms of [[idolatry]]<ref>[http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/goddess.html "Probe Ministries: Goddess Worship," by Russ Wise]</ref> and as a consequence are often given up to lesbianism.<ref>[http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56458 Hetero woman: Feminism turned me into a lesbian], from [[WorldNetDaily]]</ref>

=== Conclusion of Biblical explanation ===

What is revealed in the Bible is that homosexuality is a practice due to man yielding to his sinful nature and disobeying the good laws of God, and misusing, among other things, his sexual abilities. This disobedience itself is idolatry (whatever holds your chief allegiance is your god, at least at that time), while continued idolatry results in homosexuality as a practice, as God delivers one over to perverse desires. In addition, individual and societal disobedience to the laws of God creates an environment which is conducive to perpetuating and further intensifying iniquity, which if continued, in time requires judgment. Studies today have shown that [[Religious Upbringing and Culture Affects Rates of Homosexuality|Religious upbringing and culture can strongly affect rates of homosexuality]].

== Modern studies concerning the causes of homosexuality ==

Some studies indicate environmental factors can be involved in persons becoming homosexuals. Stanton L. Jones, Mark A. Yarhouse state in ''Homosexuality: the use of scientific research in the church's moral debate'' (and a main source for this section),
<blockquote>
The origins of homosexuality are not clearly understood by scientists, and the topic is a subject of hot debate. Theories and and empirical studies, which often contrast sharply, abound. The theories about the [[etiology]] of homosexuality fall into two very large categories: theories that point to nature (that is, biological variables) and theories that point to nurture (that is, the influence of experience, of psychological variables." (p. 52).
</blockquote>

Those who emphasize nurture, sometimes known as the ''[[psychoanalysis|psychoanalytical theory]]'', see powerful psychological forces at work, shaping and molding children from their birth, while those who emphasize nature contend that early homosexual traits attest to a biological cause. (p. 53)

Despite many psychological studies which indicate that the parent-child relationship, early childhood development, early homosexual experiences, and childhood abuse foster homosexuality, liberals tend to reject the environmental aspect, and favor a biological influence.<ref>David G. Myers, ''A level of explanations view'', Psychology of Christianity: four views. pp. 54-83</ref> This is then used to render homosexuals to be slaves to genes, and justified in acting it out.

==Environment and nurture==
[[Image:325979 dna150.jpg|thumbnail|150px|left|[[Columbia University]] [[psychiatry]] professors Drs. William Byrne and Bruce Parsons stated: "There is no evidence that at present to substantiate a [[biology|biological]] theory. [T]he appeal of current biological explanations for sexual orientation may derive more from dissatisfaction with the present status of [[psychosocial]] explanations than from a substantiating body of experimental data".<ref>http://www.cwfa.org/images/content/bornorbred.pdf</ref>]]

That homosexuality is affected by environment and nurture has been the historical secular position.

In his 1980 work ''Overcoming Homosexuality'', Robert Kronemeyer writes: "With rare exceptions, homosexuality is neither inherited nor the result of some glandular disturbance or the scrambling of genes or chromosomes. Homosexuals are made, not born 'that way.' I firmly believe that homosexuality is a learned response to early painful experiences and that it can be unlearned. For those homosexuals who are unhappy with their life and find effective therapy, it is 'curable.'<ref>Robert Kronemeyer, ''Overcoming Homosexuality'', p. 7 (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1980)</ref>

Similarly, in a 1989 ''[[USA Today]]'' article, [[San Francisco]] State University professor of psychology John DeCecco, and the former editor of the 25-volume, ''Journal of Homosexuality'', stated, "The idea that people are born into one type of sexual behavior is entirely foolish". Homosexuality is "a behavior, not a condition," and something that some people can and do change, just like they sometimes change other tastes and personality traits."<ref>Kim Painter, ''A Biological Theory for Sexual Preference'', USA Today, 1 January 1989, p. 4D</ref>

===Parental relationships with offspring===

The psychoanalytical theory is the historical position, which implicates a detached, rejecting or absent father, often along with a close bond to the mother, as working, on the conscious and unconscious level, against a secure sexual identity. Also contributing to this can be a mother who has animosity toward the father, or men in general, and who works to present him negatively, and to make the child side with her.

One of the earliest studies supporting this position was that of Irving Bieber and associates.<ref>Bieber, ''Homsexuality: A psychoanalytical study of male homosexuality'' (1962)</ref> Comparison of 106 homosexuals with 100 male heterosexuals showed that mothers of the former had enmeshed seductive type relationships with their sons, while their fathers were detached, distant or rejecting. This study was contested by some who charged the researchers with bias, but a further study by Ray B. Evans, which also compared homosexuals with heterosexuals, reported similar results, this time among self-identified homosexuals who had never sought treatment.<ref>Ray b. Evans, "Childhood parental relationships of homosexual men", ''Journal of Consulting and clinical psychology'', 33. (1969), pp. 129-33.</ref>

Based upon his work with 200 male homosexuals, Gerard van den Aardweg stated that 79 percent described their mother as "overanxious", or "overconcerned" about them; their safety, health, and being overly sentimental when they met with some hardship, as well as manifesting other aspects of over-mothering. In addition, in 71 percent of homosexual cases, "the most important factor was the father's detachedness or nonparticipation in the son's upbringing. The fathers of 38 percent of the men were so hypercritical that the sons were made to feel either rejected and/or inferior. <ref>Gerard van den Aardweg, ''on the origins and treatment of homosexuality'' (1985), pp.184-85.</ref>

Another study of about 1500 homosexuals showed much less influence by the mother, while far more reported an unaffectionate or detached father, and approximately half of homosexuals reported they had negative feelings toward their fathers, versus 29 percent of heterosexuals.<ref>Bell, Weinberg, Hammersmith, ''Sexual preference: Its development in men and women'' (1981).</ref>

While these factors are conducive to homosexuality, it should be stressed that these do not ensure that children raised this way will become homosexual, nor are these factors alone in influencing it.

===Sexual abuse===

Childhood sexual abuse is well attested to demonstrate a correlation to the incidence of homosexuality among those affected by it. A large national survey of almost 35,000 Americans showed that more than three times as many men and women who had been sexually abused as children became homosexuals, versus that of heterosexuals.<ref>7.4 percent or homosexual men and 3.1 percent of females, versus 2.0 percent of heterosexual men and 0.8 percent women.</ref><ref>Laumann, Gagnon, Michael, and Michaels, ''The social organization of homosexuality:...'', (1994) p. 344</ref> Another study reported that 58 percent of male adolescents who later became homosexuals suffered sexual abuse as children, while 90 percent who did not suffer sexual abuse identified themselves as heterosexuals.<ref>Sheir and Johnson, ''Sexual victimization of boys:... (1988) pp. 1189-93</ref> In addition, 43 percent of male homosexuals reported sexual activity with another male during the ages of 10-12, versus 9 percent of heterosexuals.<ref>Manosevitz, "Early sexual behavior in adult homosexual and heterosexual males", ''Journal of abnormal psychology'', 76 (1970), 396-402.</ref>

===Educational indoctrination===
As part of the liberal ideology in modern [[education]], and as a result of psychological tactics used by homosexual [[activist]]s, schools have increasingly fostered the promotion of homosexuality, whether as part of official policy through homosexual activists working with or in schools. As a form of indoctrination which begins at the kindergarten level, homosexuality is treated as healthy and normal, with students at very impressionable ages sometimes being influenced to experiment with homosexual behavior. This is often done under the rubric of [[HIV]] instruction of preventing [[suicide]] by homosexuals, and preventing ''[[homophobia]]''. <ref>[http://www.cwfa.org/articles/12546/MEDIA/family/index.htm CWA: School Tells Kids to Hide Pro-‘Gay’ Propaganda From Parents], Concerned Women for America, 3/13/2007</ref><ref>[http://www.missionamerica.com/agenda.php Fighting the Gay Agenda in Schools Articles], Mission America</ref><ref>[http://www.chroniclewatch.com/2009/06/17/indoctrination-of-youth/ Roberto Santiago, The Indoctrination of our Youth],The Chronicle Watch, June 17, 2009</ref><ref>[http://www.missionamerica.com/oldagenda26.php GLSEN, Corruption and Crime], Mission America</ref> <ref>[http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=127050 'Hate' laws could label 5-year-olds 'offenders'] WorldNetDaily, March 05, 2010</ref><ref>[http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=126233 'Czar' sees transgender school goals in reach], WorldNetDaily, February 25, 2010</ref><ref>[http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=54683 District gags 14-year-olds after 'gay' indoctrination], WorldNetDaily, March 13, 2007</ref>

==Biological research on the causes of homosexuality ==

''For more information please see:'' [[Genetics, Homosexuality, Evolutionary Paradigm, and Creation Science]] and [[Homosexuality and Genetics]].

The belief that homosexuality has a biological cause can be traced back to the preliminary findings of neuroscientist Dr. Simon LeVay. In 1991 LeVay's studied the brains of 41 cadavers which included 19 homosexual males, and claimed that "a tiny area believed to control sexual activity [the hypothalamus] was less than half the size in the gay men than in the heterosexuals."<ref>Charlene Crabb, ''Are Some Men Born to Be Homosexual?'', U. S. News & World Report, 9 September 1991, p. 58</ref><ref>S. LeVay, "A Difference in Hypothalamic Structure Between heterosexual and Homosexual Men," Science 253 (1991), pp. 1034-37</ref> This study was immediately seized upon by many as proof that homosexuality was biologically determined.

However, further scrutiny showed this hasty conclusion as lacking in warrant.

*1. The range of sizes of the hypothalamic region varied and was inconsistent. The region at subject was the same size in a few homosexual men as that of the heterosexuals, while in a few other heterosexuals this region was a small as that of a homosexual.
*2. The fact that all 19 of the homosexual men had died of [[AIDS]] could easily have accounted for or contributed to the differences.
*3. It has not been determined if the smaller hypothalamuses were the cause rather than the effect of homosexual activity. "Researchers have found that when people who become blind begin to learn Braille, the area of the brain controlling the reading finger actual grows larger."<ref>Reported in D. Gelman "Born or Bred?" Newsweek, 24 February 1992, pp. 46-53</ref><ref>http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/homotheo.html</ref>
*4. Levay's study was based study was based upon a supposed sexual functional correlation between the SDN-POA brain center in male rats and a brain center called INAH3 in humans, but which assumption was shown to be false.<ref>http://www.biblebelievers.com/Cameron4.html</ref>
*5. The sexual history of the "heterosexual" men was not known, and Levay's samples included 16 brains from men whose sexual orientation was unknown.<ref>[http://www.equip.org/PDF/DH055-1.pdf Joseph P. Gudel, ''HOMOSEXUALITY: Fact and Fiction'']</ref>
*6. And as William Byne noted, LeVay’s work "has not been replicated, and human neuroanatomical studies of this kind have a very poor track record for reproducibility. Indeed, procedures similar to those LeVay used to identify nuclei have previously led researchers astray".<ref>Byne, William (1994), “The Biological Evidence Challenged,” Scientific American, May, 1994, 270: p. 53</ref>.
*7. The conclusions were that which were sought by the researcher. Dr. LeVay, a homosexual himself, confessed that his study was not entirely a dispassionate scientific endeavor,<ref>Simon LeVay on The Phil Donahue Show, ''Genetically Gay: Born Gay or Become Gay?'', January 3, 1992</ref> He also later stated, "I did not prove that homosexuality is genetic, or find a genetic cause for being gay."<ref>Byrd, A. Dean, Shirley E. Cox, and Jeffrey W. Robinson (2001), ''Homosexuality: The Innate-Immutability Argument Finds No Basis in Science'', The Salt Lake Tribune</ref><ref>http://www.sltrib.com/2001/may/05272001/commenta/100523.htm</ref>

Two prominent geneticists, Paul Billings and Jonathan Beckwith, commenting on the quality of the LeVay research, stated that LeVay, "could not really be certain about his subject's sexual preferences, since they were dead", and that his "research design and subject sample did not allow others to determine whether it was sexual behavior, drug use, or disease history that was correlated with the observed differences among the subjects' brains." And in addition, it was very likely that LeVay's method of defining homosexuality would "create inaccurate or inconsistent study groups." <ref>P. Billings and J. Beckwith, "Born Gay?" Technology Review, July 1993, p. 60,61</ref>

Another study, published in ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States of America'', examined the ''anterior commissure'' (a structure that divides the left and right halves of the brain) of male heterosexuals and homosexual men, most of whom died of AIDS. The study shows that the anterior commissure was larger in women and in 27 of the 30 homosexual men than in heterosexual men.<ref>L. Allen, et al., ''Sexual Orientation and the Size of the Anterior Commissure in the Human Brain,'' Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States of America 89, no. 15 (1992), pp. 7199-7202</ref>.

Here again, how AIDS might have factored in this difference is an issue, and the findings of this study were overall in contradiction to another study published in 1988, which found, in part, that the anterior commissure was larger in men than in women.<ref>S. Demeter et al., "Morphometric analysis of the human corpus callosum and anterior commissure," Human Neurobiology 6 1988), pp. 219-26</ref>

A 1991 study of twins by Michael Bailey and Richard Pillard was also promoted as establishing biological determination of homosexuality, but which conclusion was also soon found to be lacking in warrant, and contrary to other studies.<ref>http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/homotheo.html</ref><ref>[http://www.biblebelievers.com/Cameron4.html Dr. Paul Cameron, ''Born WHAT Way?'']</ref>

That blood chemistry as well as brains can change over time in response to environment and lifestyle has been documented by studies.<ref>http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/narth/bioresearch.html</ref><ref>Dr. Jeffrey Satinover, ''The Biology of Homosexuality: Science or Politics?''</ref><ref>http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/narth/bioresearch.html</ref>
[[File:Richard Dawkins pic.jpg|alt=Richard Dawkins|thumbnail|260px|right|The [[atheist]] [[Richard Dawkins]] speculates that a "gay gene" causes homosexuality, but science has not discovered such a gene.<ref>[http://anglicansamizdat.wordpress.com/2010/04/26/richard-dawkins-explains-how-the-gay-gene-was-preserved/ Richard Dawkins speculates that gene for homosexuality exists]</ref> ]]

=== Causes of homosexuality and origins paradigms ===

In 1993, Professor [[Miron Baron]], M.D., the renowned medical researcher and Professor at [[Columbia University]], wrote in [[BMJ]] (British Medical Journal) that there is a conflict relative to the theory of [[evolution]] and the notion of [[gene|genetic]] [[determinism]] concerning [[homosexuality]]. Dr. Baron wrote "...from an evolutionary perspective, [[homosexuality and genetics|genetically determined homosexuality]] would have become [[extinct]] long ago because of reduced reproduction."<ref>[http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1678219 BMJ. 1993 August 7; 307(6900): 337–338.]</ref> In the United States, [[Theory of evolution and liberalism|liberals are more likely to believe in the theory of evolution]].<ref>http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/10/22/opinion/polls/main965223.shtml</ref> Also, in the United States, twice as many liberals as conservatives (46% versus 22%) believe people are born homosexual and [[Views on Homosexuality|liberals generally have more favorable opinions about homosexuality]].<ref>http://people-press.org/report/?pageid=764</ref> Given Dr. [[Miron Baron]]'s commentary about homosexuality, many American liberals are inconsistent on the issues of evolution and homosexuality.

==Conclusions==

Sociologist Steven Goldberg, Ph.D. states,
<blockquote>
Virtually all of the evidence argues against there being a determinative physiological causal factor and I know of no researcher who believes that such a determinative factor exists...such factors play a predisposing, not a determinative role...I know of no one in the field who argues that homosexuality can be explained without reference to environmental factors.
</blockquote>

Goldberg also expressed, "Gay criticism has not addressed the classic family configuration"; it has merely "asserted away the considerable evidence" for the existence of family factors. Studies which attempt to disprove the existence of the classic family pattern in homosexuality are "convincing only to those with a need to believe." <ref>S. Goldberg, ''When Wish Replaces Thought: Why So Much of What You Believe is False'' (1994), Buffalo, New York: Prometheus Books</ref>

Psychiatrists Friedman and Downey: "Despite recent neurobiological findings suggesting homosexuality is genetically-biologically determined, credible evidence is lacking for a biological model of homosexuality." <ref>R. Friedman, M.D. and J. Downey, M.D., ''Journal of Neuropsychiatry'', vol. 5, No. 2, Spring l993</ref>

Psychiatrist and author Jeffrey Satinover, M.D. concludes,
<blockquote>
Like all complex behavioral and mental states, homosexuality is...neither exclusively biological nor exclusively psychological, but results from an as-yet-difficult-to-quantitate mixture of genetic factors, intrauterine influences...postnatal environment (such as parent, sibling and cultural behavior), and a complex series of repeatedly reinforced choices occurring at critical phases of development.<ref>J. Satinover, M.D., ''Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth'', (1996). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books</ref></blockquote>

Drs. William Byne and Bruce Parsons, researchers at the New York State Psychiatric Institute,having carefully analyzed all the major biological studies of homosexuality, found none that definitively supported a biological theory of causation. "Human Sexual Orientation: The Biologic Theories Reappraised." Archives of General Psychiatry 50, no.3. (1993)

Other similarly express that nurture and choice factor as being mostly or wholly determinative.<ref>[http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/narth/homorig.html On the Origins of Homosexuality:
Is a Person "Born that Way"?]</ref>

===Indications of onset homosexuality===

Childhood manifestations of gender non-conformity such as consistent preference by a boy for the clothing, company and play things (dolls, etc.) of girls over that of boys is generally seen as predisposing such to homosexuality.<ref>Stanton L. Jones, Mark A. Yarhouse, ''Homosexuality: the use of scientific research in the church's moral debate'', pp. 52-92</ref> However, this is not always the case, and many children who manifest gender non-conformity are simply trying to discover what gender is.

==Homosexuality as a choice==
The Bible shows that while nurture and environment can make one more predisposed to certain types of behavior, man's sinful nature can also deceive one into believing that sinful behaviors are not sin, while yielding to sin reduces ones ability to resist it. Secular studies also indicate that most homosexuals have been attracted to the opposite gender.

A research project (2004) of Robert Goetze identified 84 articles or books that contain some relevance to the possibility of sexual orientation change. Of the data reported, 31 of the 84 studies showed a quantitative outcome of individuals able to change sexual orientation.<ref>http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/2553</ref>

===Former homosexuals===
[[Image:St Paul Preaching.jpg|left|thumb|200px|St. [[Paul]] defends his preaching (Giovanni Ricco)]]
''For more information please see'': [[Ex-Homosexuals]] and [[Overcoming Homosexuality]]

One of the earliest historical records of the existence of [[Ex-Homosexuals|ex-homosexuals]] is found in the letter of the [[Paul|Apostle Paul]] to the [[Corinth|Corinthian]] [[Christianity|Christian]] church (approx. 59 AD).
{{cquote|Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the [[Kingdom of God|kingdom of God]]? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such '''were''' some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the [[Holy Spirit|Spirit]] of our [[God]]. - I Corinthians 6:9-11 (KJV)}}

Today people still report leaving homosexuality and becoming heterosexual by being born again through repentance and faith in the Lord [[Jesus Christ]].<ref>http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56481</ref><ref>http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?ID=19650</ref><ref>http://www.cwfa.org/articles/4216/CFI/cfreport/index.htm</ref><ref>http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.aspid=25145</ref><ref>http://www.witnessfortheworld.org/blkexgbks.html</ref> <ref>http://www.frontlinemin.org/wasgay.asp</ref><ref>http://www.charismamag.com/display.php?id=9019</ref><ref>http://www.apocalipsis.org/testimony.htm</ref><ref>http://www.baylor.edu/lariat/news.php?action=story&story=13784</ref>

[[Peter LaBarbera]] is the President of [[Americans for Truth]] which is a organization which counters the [[Homosexual Agenda|homosexual agenda]]. Peter LaBarbera stated the following regarding Christian ex-homosexuals who reported being transformed by the power of God:
{{cquote|Another factor from my experience as a close observer of the “ex-gay” phenomenon is that many former homosexuals do not linger in “[[Reparative Therapy|reparative therapy]]” programs, or participate in them at all. They attribute their dramatic and (relatively) rapid transformation to the power of God, and likely would not show up in a study of this kind. In fact, these “unstudied” overcomers would appear to be the most successful ex-homosexuals because they’ve moved on with their lives — as “reborn” Christians can move on after overcoming any besetting sin.<ref>http://www.americansfortruth.com/news/landmark-study-change-for-homosexuals-is-possible.html</ref>}}

==Additional sources concerning the causes of homosexuality ==

There has been much work done since the latter part of the 20th century. Below are some resources in regards to the various causes of homosexuality:

*[[Religious Upbringing and Culture Affects Rates of Homosexuality]]
*[[Sexual Abuse Being a Contributing Factor for Homosexuality]]
*[[Homosexuality and Choice]]
*[[Homosexuality and Genetics]]
*[[Homosexuality in animals myth]]
*[[Genetics, Homosexuality, Evolutionary Paradigm, and Creation Science]]

==See Also==
*[[Resources on becoming a Christian]]
* [[Homosexuality and the Bible]]
*[[Homosexuality and biblical interpretation]]
*[[Homosexuality and bestiality]]
*[[Ex-Homosexuals]]
*[[Teenager Homosexuality]]
*[[Homosexuality Research]]
*[[Homosexuality Statistics]]

==External Links==
*[http://www.allaboutworldview.org/causes-of-homosexuality-faq.htm What are some of the causes of homosexuality?]
*[http://ankerberg.org/Articles/_PDFArchives/streams-of-life/SL2W0803.pdf What Causes Homosexuality] by Dr. John F. Ankerberg
* [http://www.godandscience.org/evolution/genetics_of_homosexuality.html Rich Deem, ''Genetics and Homosexuality: Are People Born Gay? The Biological Basis for Sexual Orientation]

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

[[Category:Homosexuality]]
[[Category:Psychology]]
[[Category:Sociology]]

User:JJCC

2012-12-03T02:01:07Z

JJCC:

Hello, I am '''JJCC'''. I deeply oppose [[Barack Obama]] and supported [[Mitt Romney]] during the 2012 Presidential elections.

Feel free to say hi on my talk page!
[[File:Cross flag mine.png|150px|thumb|I'm a [[Christian|C]][[Conservative|C]].]]

=== What does JJCC stand for? ===
It stands for '''J'''ay '''J'''onskon '''[[Christian|C]]'''[[Christian|hristian]] '''[[Conservative|C]]'''[[Conservative|onservative]]

=== About Me ===
My name is Jay Jonskon, I am 23 years old, I come from [[Sweden]]. My English is not perfect - so feel free to correct any spelling/grammar mistakes I may have.

User:JJCC

2012-12-03T01:59:17Z

JJCC: Cleanup & addition

Hello, I am '''JJCC'''. I deeply oppose [[Barack Obama]] and supported [[Mitt Romney]] during the 2012 Presidential elections.

Feel free to say hi on my talk page!
[[File:Cross flag mine.png|150px|thumb|I'm a [[Christian|C]][[Conservative|C]].]]

=== What does JJCC stand for? ===
It stands for Jay Jonskon [[Christian]] [[Conservative]].

=== About Me ===
My name is Jay Jonskon, I am 23 years old, I come from [[Sweden]]. My English is not perfect - so feel free to correct any spelling/grammar mistakes I may have.

Icarly

2012-12-03T01:57:40Z

JJCC: Series finale premiered Nov. 23

Microsoft

2012-12-03T01:53:36Z

JJCC: /* Software Products */ Add period

[[Image:Microsoft logo.svg|right|frame]]
'''Microsoft''' is a liberal<ref>http://www.microsoft.com/about/diversity/en/us/programs/ergen/gleam.aspx</ref><ref>http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politicsnorthwest/2010011331_microsoft_donates_to_r-71_camp.html</ref> American corporation founded by [[Bill Gates]] and [[Paul Allen]] in 1975 and headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA. Its current CEO is [[Steve Ballmer]]. Microsoft focuses on developing and manufacturing [[software]], [[hardware]] and other technology oriented products and services.

Microsoft was investigated for antitrust violations by the [[Department of Justice]], and in 2001 the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit affirmed the finding of the trial court that monopolization by Microsoft had violated the [[Sherman Act]].<ref>United States v. Microsoft Corp., 346 U.S. App. D.C. 330 (D.C. Cir. 2001).</ref> The appellate court, however, overturned the lower court ruling to break Microsoft up and instead remanded the case to a new trial judge with instructions suggesting a less drastic remedy. By then, President [[George W. Bush]] had replaced [[Bill Clinton]] and the Bush Administration dropped the demand of the Clinton Administration for a break-up of Microsoft.

==Software Products==
*[[Windows (operating system)]], including [[Windows 8]], [[Windows 7]], [[Windows Vista]], [[Windows XP]], and older versions of the desktop OS, versions for servers, versions for media centers, teacher edition, and versions for mobile devices
*[[MS DOS]] Microsoft's first operating system
*[[SQL Server]]
*[[Microsoft Office]] word processor, spreadsheet editor, slide-show creator, etc.
*[[Expression]] vector graphics editor
*[[Virtual PC]] PC emulator
*[[SharePoint]]
*[[Windows Defender]] [[anti-virus software|anti-virus]] and anti-spyware software
*[[Windows Live Writer]] blog publishing software
*[[XNA]] game development tool
*[[Visual Studio]] integrated development environment for C++, Visual Basic, C#, etc.
and hundreds more.

==Publishing==
*[[Microsoft Press]] releasing books dealing with various computer technologies.

==Services==
*[[MSN]] Internet service provider
*[[Bing]] search engine
*[[Encarta]] encyclopedia
*[[Hotmail]] free internet e-mail service
*[[Windows Live]] web portal
*[[XBOX Live]] Xbox online multiplayer service
*[[MSNBC]] news service
*[[Windows Marketplace]] online shopping service
*[[Windows Live Spaces]] social-networking service
*[[Windows Live ID]] online ID and password storage service
*[[LIVE Anywhere]] cross-platform multiplayer gaming service
*[[Microsoft Ignition]] online digital music service

==Hardware Products==
*[[Xbox]] gaming console
*[[Xbox 360]] gaming console
*[[Microsoft Surface|Surface]] touch-interface computer
*[[Natural keyboard]]
*[[LifeCam]] webcam
*[[SideWinder]] game-pad and joystick
*[[Ultra-Mobile PC]] tablet computer
*[[Fingerprint Reader]] reads fingerprint as password
*[[IntelliPoint Mouse]] optical mouse
*[[MSN TV]] TV that allows web browsing

==Corporate Slogan==
:''Your potential. Our passion.''

==See Also==
:[http://conservapedia.com/Previous_Breaking_News/Bill_Gates Previous News]
:[http://www.microsoft.com/en/us/default.aspx Microsoft official site]

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:computers]]
[[Category:Companies]]
[[Category:Microsoft]]

User talk:JJCC

2012-12-03T01:50:38Z

JJCC:

My talk page. Remember to sign your messages with four tildes (~). Spam, vandalism and/or nonsensical edits will be reverted.

== "The Soviet Union was arguably not a combatant..." ==

I would love to see how you would argue that the USSR was not a combatant in the war. [[User:MattyD|MattyD]] 20:02, 26 November 2012 (EST)

:Not in a greater WWII. Notice I removed it from the Axis side only. The Soviet Union did invade Poland -- but NEVER joined the Axis, and therefore is not part of the Axis in the left column of the infobox. [[User:JJCC|JJCC]] 20:04, 26 November 2012 (EST)
::Ah "in the Axis." That's entirely different. Sorry to trouble you. [[User:MattyD|MattyD]] 20:05, 26 November 2012 (EST)
:::No problem. And you weren't any trouble -- I enjoy discussing with other people :) [[User:JJCC|JJCC]] 20:07, 26 November 2012 (EST)

== Hydromorphone ==

You are free to research, and create articles, but please do not copy WP's articles over. It is not merely a copyright violation (Violates their licence), but is also ethically frowned upon. [[User:Brenden|brenden]] 20:10, 26 November 2012 (EST)

:Sorry that is being used as a placeholder, I am currently working on an article right now but a completely blank page would seem impractical, no? [[User:JJCC|JJCC]] 20:11, 26 November 2012 (EST)

==edits to the Universe page==

Greetings! I just wanted to clarify, I mean no disrespect. I am not denying the 6000 year creation. It's just that not all conservatives accept this model. And there may be another reason why the distant stars are visible; the in situ model is just one of many possibilities.

[[User:KatieKomori|KatieKomori]] 17:04, 27 November 2012 (EST)

:I see what you mean, but at Conservapedia it is a generally accepted idea that the earth is 6000 years old. I would discuss this further on it's talk page before continuing; some other Conservatives may have something to say about this. And btw: you can sign your talk posts with four tildes (~). [[User:JJCC|JJCC]] 16:58, 27 November 2012 (EST)
::It is not, do not pretend it is. JJCC, I am suspecting you are trolling, ''this stops now''. I can, and will make a block if this parody/trolling does not stop.[[User:Brenden|brenden]] 17:26, 27 November 2012 (EST)
:::I am not trolling, but most pages here reference 6000 years old. That's all. [[User:JJCC|JJCC]] 07:54, 28 November 2012 (EST)

== Final warning ==

You are facing a blocking for [http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Talk%3AMain_Page&action=historysubmit&diff=1021338&oldid=1021337 this edit]. You are already aware of what the standards are here, and you already know that you barely earned my forgiveness last time. This is your final warning - tone down your edits, or face a lengthy blockage.[[User:Brenden|brenden]] 16:30, 29 November 2012 (EST)

:Fine... [[User:JJCC|JJCC]] 17:46, 29 November 2012 (EST)

User:JJCC

2012-12-03T01:49:08Z

JJCC:

Hello, I am '''JJCC'''. I deeply oppose [[Barack Obama]] and supported [[Mitt Romney]] during the 2012 Presidential elections.

Feel free to say hi on my talk page!

=== What does JJCC stand for? ===

It stands for Jay Jonskon [[Christian]] [[Conservative]].

[[File:Cross flag mine.png|150px|thumb|I'm a [[Christian|C]][[Conservative|C]].]]

War of 1812

2012-12-02T21:57:46Z

JJCC:

{{World War 2
| image =WarOf1812.jph
| conflict =
| date =1812 - 1815
| location =North America
| combatant1 =[[United States of America]]
| combatant2 =[[British Empire]]
| commander1 =[[James Madison]]
| commander2 =Lord Liverpool
| strength1 =35,800 soldiers 450,000 militia 125 natives
| strength2 =48,160 regulars 10,000 militia 10,000 natives
| casualties1 =21,000
| casualties2 =8,000
}}
The '''War of 1812''' was a war declared by the United States against Britain (and its Empire), lasting from June 18, 1812 to February 18, 1815. The causes involved three American grievances against Britain: suppressing American trade with France,<ref> According to [[Franklin Roosevelt]], "We engaged in the War of 1812 to vindicate our right to peaceful trade." [http://www.presidentialrhetoric.com/historicspeeches/roosevelt_franklin/fourfreedoms.html]</ref>
impressing (seizing) sailors with U.S. papers, and supplying and inciting hostile Indian raids in the west that attacked American settlers headed to Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan. The Americans also felt a strong need to uphold national honor in the face of British insults. The Americans did not seek to permanently take over Canada, but wanted to seize western Ontario as a bargaining chip. The main British war goal was to defeat France and therefore stop neutrals like the U.S. from helping France. Britain also wanted to assert its dominance of the seas. A secondary British goal was the creation of a "neutral" Indian state in the area of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and Illinois, that would be "guided" (or controlled) by Britain and serve to block American expansion.<ref>Canadian opinion was not consulted, but the people favored the British and feared the Americans because they opposed monarchy and Catholicism. Relatively few Canadians volunteered to fight the Americans; the fighting was done by British regulars and their Indian allies.</ref> The war followed a series of failed efforts by the U.S. to use economic pressure through the [[Embargo of 1807]]. Britain acted too late diplomatically to head off the conflict.

The fighting at sea was characterized by a tight British blockade that shut down most American shipping, together with some dramatic naval battles that added glory to the small U.S. Navy. On land the war was a draw characterized by a series of invasions launched by the U.S. against Canada, and by the British against Washington, New York state, and New Orleans. All the invasions were abject failures. By late 1814, with Napoleon gone and Britain friends with France, and the Indian tribes defeated, the causes for the war had largely vanished, and a treaty was agreed to that left the prewar boundaries unchanged.

Although the war was a draw, Americans celebrated a great victory--many called it their Second War of Independence-- and acclaimed General [[Andrew Jackson]] a national hero for his decisive victory at New Orleans. In Canada, anti-American and pro-British elements celebrated the repulse of an American invasion. Just as the peace took hold, Napoleon returned and the British had to deal with him; they largely forgot about the war.
[[Image:1812cause.jpg|thumb|420px]]
==Origins==
With Britain engaged in a life-and-death war with France, the efforts of a small country like the U.S. to remain neutral were futile. The British Royal Navy controlled the seas and stopped American shipments headed to France. Worse, the Royal Navy, needing more men, boarded American merchant ships and "impressed" (seized) 6000 sailors who were American citizens but had been born in Britain. Finally Americans were convinced that the British were using their base in western Canada to supply and encourage Indian raids on American frontier settlements.

When a British warship in June 1807 attacked and disabled [[USS Chesapeake|USS ''Chesapeake'']], and impressed several crewmen, a general wave of indignation rose in which even the maritime interests joined. This was an insult to the flag, but President [[Thomas Jefferson]] decided against war and instead tried to punish Britain by cutting off American trade. This annoyed the British some but outraged New England, where shipping was shut down and the economy badly hurt.<ref> New England started to industrialize to rebuild its economy.</ref>

In the South and west, "war hawks," led by young Republicans such as [[Henry Clay]] and [[John C. Calhoun]], demanded war. President [[James Madison]] tried to negotiate. Congress passed "Macon's Bill #2" in 1810 that promised if Britain or France allowed American shipping, the U.S. would put an embargo on the other country. [[Napoleon]] tricked the U.S. into believing, falsely, that France had dropped its restrictions. Madison then slapped an embargo on trade to Britain (which was by far the largest trading partner of the U.S.). The British failed to act quickly, and by the time London dropped its restrictions, the U.S. had reached the point of no return. In June 1812, the main cause of the war for the U.S. was defined as the need to protect republican values against British imperialism. Madison sent a war message to Congress on June 1 listing all the complaints against Britain and asking for a declaration of war. With New England vehemently opposed, Congress declared war on June 18. Federalists called it, "Mr. Madison's War."
[[Image:7648ruy6g.gif|right|200px|thumb|[[James Madison]], wartime president]]

===Myths of the origins===
Many Canadians falsely believe that a main cause of the war was American expansionism or desire for Canadian land. The topic was much discussed among historians before 1940, but is rarely cited by experts any more.<ref> it was refuted by [http://www.jstor.org/pss/1896211 Warren H. Goodman, "The Origins of the War of 1812: A Survey of Changing Interpretations," ''Mississippi Valley Historical Review'', v 28 (September, 1941), 171-86. in JSTOR].</ref> The myth was propounded after the war by pro-British Canadians who tried to incite anti-Americanism.<ref> W. Arthur Bowler, "Propaganda in Upper Canada in the War of 1812," ''American Review of Canadian Studies'' (1988) 28:11-32; C.P. Stacey, "The War of 1812 in Canadian History" in Morris Zaslow and Wesley B. Turner, eds. ''The Defended Border: Upper Canada and the War of 1812'' (Toronto, 1964)</ref>

Madison and his advisors did believe that conquest of Canada would be easy and that economic coercion would force the British to come to terms by cutting off the food supply for their West Indies colonies. Furthermore, possession of Canada would be a valuable bargaining chip. Frontiersmen demanded the seizure of Canada not because they wanted the land (they had plenty), but because the British were thought to be arming the Indians and thereby blocking settlement of the west. <ref>Stagg (1983)</ref> As Horsman concludes, "The idea of conquering Canada had been present since at least 1807 as a means of forcing England to change her policy at sea. The conquest of Canada was primarily a means of waging war, not a reason for starting it."<ref>Horsman (1962) p. 267 </ref> Hickey flatly states, "The desire to annex Canada did not bring on the war." <ref> Hickey (1990) p. 72. Likewise Brown (1964) concludes, "The purpose of the Canadian expedition was to serve negotiation not to annex Canada." Roger H. Brown, ''The Republic in Peril: 1812'' (1964) p. 128. Burt, a leading Canadian scholar, agrees completely, noting that Foster, the British minister to Washington, also rejected the argument that annexation of Canada was a war goal. Alfred L. Burt ''The United States, Great Britain, and British North America from the Revolution to the Establishment of Peace after the War of 1812'' (1940) pp 305-10. </ref>

==The Opposing Forces==
At the outbreak of the war, the United States had a total population of about 7.7 million people and was very unprepared for war. A series of border forts garrisoned by very small Regular Army detachments stretched along the Canadian boundary: Fort Mackinac, on the straits between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron; Fort Dearborn, on the site of what is now Chicago; Fort Detroit; and Fort Niagara, at the mouth of the Niagara River on Lake Ontario. The actual strength of the Regular Army in June 1812 totaled 11,744 officers and men, including an estimated 5,000 recruits enlisted for the additional force authorized the preceding January, in contrast to an overall authorized strength of 35,600. The weak U.S. Navy consisted of 20 vessels: the 3 large 44-gun frigates such as [[USS Constitution|USS ''Constitution'']], 3 smaller frigates of the [[USS Constellation|''Constellation'']] class rated at 38 guns, and 14 others. Jefferson's policy had been to build large numbers of small gunboats which could defend American harbors but which could not sail long distances and thus could not be an offensive weapon. The gunboats were a total failure and historians have been highly critical of Jefferson's policy.<ref>Merrill D. Peterson, ''Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation: A Biography'' (1975) pp 836-39.</ref>

The war hawks in Congress hurriedly tried to remedy years of neglecting the military. In March 1812 it had tried to place the Army’s supply system on a more adequate footing by establishing a Quartermaster Department on the military staff in place of the inefficient and costly military agent system. At the same time Congress created the Office of the Commissary General of Purchases in the War Department, and for the first time since the Revolution the Army’s supply system was placed under the exclusive control of the Secretary of War. In May Congress had made provision for an Ordnance Department responsible for the inspection and testing of all ordnance, cannon balls, shells, and shot; the construction of gun carriages and ammunition wagons; and the preparation and inspection of the "public powder." It enlarged the Corps of Engineers by adding a company of bombardiers, sappers, and miners and expanded and reorganized the Military Academy at West Point. In addition to increasing the Regular Army, Congress had authorized the President to accept volunteer forces and to call upon the states for militia. The difficulty was not planning for an army, but raising one.

The main flaw in the American strategy was the false assumption that inexpensive amateur militia units could fight a war with a very well trained professional army. The war revealed that the militia units sometimes did fight well, if under strong leadership like that of Andrew Jackson. The militia did very poorly in offensive warfare--refusing at one critical point to cross the border into Canada when a battle was raging. The U.S. lost that battle. [[John C. Calhoun]] learned the lesson well. After the war he became Secretary of War and built a professional army under the leadership of very good generals, especially [[Winfield Scott]].

One of the world’s major powers was ranged against the United States; but on the basis of available resources, the two belligerents were rather evenly matched. Most of Britain’s forces were tied up in the war against Napoleon, and for the time being very little military and naval assistance could be spared for the defense of Canada. At the outbreak of the war, there were about 7,000 British and Canadian regulars in Upper and Lower Canada (now the provinces of Ontario and Quebec). With a total white population of only half a million, Canada itself had only a small reservoir of militia to draw upon. When the war began, Maj. Gen. Isaac Brock, the military commander and civil governor of Upper Canada, had 800 militiamen available in addition to his 1,600 regulars. In the course of the war, the two provinces put a total of about 10,000 militiamen in the field; whereas in the United States, probably 450,000 of the militiamen saw active service, though not more than half of them ever got near the front.

The support of Indian tribes gave Canada one source of manpower that the United States lacked. After the [[Battle of Tippecanoe]], [[Tecumseh]], the [[Shawnee]] chief, had led his warriors across the border into Canada. There, along with the Canadian Indians, they joined the forces opposing the Americans. Perhaps 3,500 Indians were serving in the Canadian forces during the Thames River campaign in the fall of 1813, probably the largest number that took the field at any one time during the war.

The bulk of the British Navy was also fighting in the war against Napoleon. In September 1812, three months after the outbreak of war with the United States, Britain had no more than eleven ships of the line, thirty-four frigates, and about an equal number of smaller naval vessels in the western Atlantic. These were all that could be spared for operations in American waters, which involved the tremendous tasks of escorting British merchant shipping, protecting the St. Lawrence River, blockading American ports, and at the same time hunting down American frigates.

A significant weakness in the American position was the disunity of the country. In the New England states, public opinion ranged from mere apathy to actively expressed opposition to the war. A good many Massachusetts and Connecticut ship owners outfitted [[privateers]] (privately owned and armed vessels that were commissioned to take enemy ships), but how much of this was a result of patriotism and how much was hope for profit remains a matter of conjecture. Many New Englanders went so far as to sell grain and provisions to the British. Throughout the war, there were serious problems in raising and sustaining the militia from New England. Nevertheless, several of those states spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on local defense even if they contributed little directly to the federal effort. And despite the regional disaffection with the war, New England was second only to the Mid-Atlantic States in providing regular units: New England raised thirteen regiments of soldiers, whereas New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania combined provided fifteen.

Canada was not faced with the same degree of public opinion challenges. Nevertheless, many inhabitants of Upper Canada were recent immigrants from the United States who had no great desire to take up arms against their former homeland. Other Canadians thought that the superiority of the United States in men and material made any defense hopeless. That General Brock was able to overcome this spirit of defeatism and obtain the degree of support he needed to defend Canada is a lasting tribute to the quality of his leadership.

==The Strategic Pattern==
[[Image:1812map.jpg|thumb|200px|main areas of the fighting]]
The fundamental military strategy of the United States was simple enough. The primary undertaking would be the conquest of Canada. The United States also planned an immediate naval offensive, whereby a swarm of privateers and the small Navy would be set loose on the high seas to destroy British commerce. The old invasion route into Canada by way of Lake Champlain and the Richelieu River led directly to the most populous and most important part of the enemy’s territory. The capture of Montreal would cut the line of communications upon which the British defense of Upper Canada depended, making the fall of that province inevitable. But this invasion route was near the center of disaffection in the United States from which little local support could be expected. The places where enthusiasm for the war ran high and where the Canadian forces were weak offered a safer theater of operations, though one with fewer strategic opportunities. Thus, in violation of the principles of objective and economy of force, the first assaults were delivered across the Detroit River and across the Niagara River between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario rather than along the Hudson–Lake Champlain–Montreal line of advance.

The war progressed through three distinct stages. In the first, lasting until the spring of 1813, England was so hard pressed in Europe that it could spare neither men nor ships in any great number for the conflict in North America. The United States was free to take the initiative, to invade Canada, and to send out cruisers and privateers against enemy shipping. During the second stage, lasting from early 1813 to the beginning of 1814, Britain was able to establish a tight blockade but still could not materially reinforce the troops in Canada. During this stage the American Army, having gained experience, won its first successes. The third stage, in 1814, was marked by the constant arrival in North America of British regulars and naval reinforcements, which enabled the enemy to raid the North American coast almost at will and to take the offensive in several quarters. At the same time, in this final stage of the war American forces fought their best fights and won their most brilliant victories.

==The First Campaigns==
The first blows of the war were struck in the [[Detroit]] area and at Fort Mackinac. President Madison gave Brig. Gen. William Hull, Governor of the Michigan Territory, command of operations in that area. Hull arrived at Fort Detroit on July 5, 1812, with a force of about 1,500 Ohio militiamen and 300 regulars, which he led across the river into Canada a week later. At that time the whole enemy force on the Detroit frontier amounted to about 150 British regulars, 300 Canadian militiamen, and some 250 Indians led by Tecumseh. Most of the enemy forces were at Fort Malden, about twenty miles south of Detroit, on the Canadian side of the river. General Hull had been a dashing young officer in the Revolution, but by this time age and its infirmities had made him cautious and timid. Instead of moving directly against Fort Malden, Hull issued a bombastic proclamation to the people of Canada announcing their imminent liberation from "tyranny and oppression"; but he stayed at the river landing almost opposite Detroit. He sent out several small raiding detachments along the Thames and Detroit Rivers, one of which returned after skirmishing with the British outposts near Fort Malden.

In the meantime General Brock, who was both energetic and daring, sent a small party of British regulars, Canadians, and Indians across the river from Malden to cut General Hull’s communications with Ohio. By that time Hull was discouraged by the loss of Fort Mackinac, whose sixty defenders had quietly surrendered on July 17 to a small group of British regulars supported by a motley force of fur traders and Indians who at Brock’s suggestion had swiftly marched from St. Joseph Island, forty miles to the north. Hull also knew that the enemy in Fort Malden had received reinforcements (which he overestimated tenfold) and feared that Detroit would be completely cut off from its base of supplies. Taking counsel of his fears, on August 7 he began to withdraw his force across the river into Fort Detroit. The last American had scarcely returned before the first men of Brock’s force appeared and began setting up artillery opposite Detroit. By August 15 five guns were in position and opened fire on the fort, and the next morning Brock led his troops across the river. Before Brock could launch his assault, the Americans surrendered. Militiamen were released under parole; Hull and the regulars were sent as prisoners to Montreal. Later paroled, Hull returned to face a court-martial for his poor conduct during the campaign, was sentenced to be shot, and was immediately pardoned.

On August 15, the day before the surrender, the small garrison at distant Fort Dearborn, acting on orders from Hull, had evacuated the post and started out for Detroit. The column was almost instantly attacked by a band of Indians who massacred the Americans before returning to destroy the fort. With the fall of Mackinac, Detroit, and Dearborn, the entire territory north and west of Ohio fell under enemy control. The settlements in Indiana lay open to attack, the neighboring Indian tribes hastened to join the winning side, and the Canadians in the upper province lost some of the spirit of defeatism with which they had entered the war.

Immediately after taking Detroit, Brock transferred most of his troops to the Niagara frontier, where he faced an American invasion force of 6,500 men. Maj. Gen. Stephen van Rensselaer, the senior American commander and a New York militiaman, was camped at Lewiston with a force of 900 regulars and about 2,300 militiamen. Van Rensselaer owed his appointment not to any active military experience, for he had none, but to his family’s position in New York. Inexperienced as he was in military art, van Rensselaer at least fought the enemy, which was more than could be said of the Regular Army commander in the theater, Brig. Gen. Alexander Smyth. Smyth and his 1,650 regulars and nearly 400 militiamen were located at Buffalo. The rest of the American force, about 1,300 regulars, was stationed at Fort Niagara.

Van Rensselaer planned to cross the narrow Niagara River and capture Queenston and its heights, a towering escarpment that ran perpendicular to the river south of the town. From this vantage point, he hoped to command the area and eventually drive the British out of the Niagara peninsula. Smyth, on the other hand, wanted to attack above the falls, where the banks were low and the current less swift; and he refused to cooperate with the militia general. With a force ten times that of the British opposite him, van Rensselaer decided to attack alone. After one attempt had been called off for lack of oars for the boats, van Rensselaer finally ordered an attack for the morning of October 13. The assault force numbered 600 men, roughly half of them New York militiamen. The attack did not go well. Several boats drifted beyond the landing area; and the first echelon of troops to land, numbering far fewer than 500, was pinned down for a time on the riverbank below the heights. The men eventually found an unguarded path, clambered to the summit, and, surprising the enemy, overwhelmed his fortified battery and drove him down into Queenston.

Later in the morning the Americans repelled a hastily formed counterattack, during which General Brock was killed. This, however, was the high point of van Rensselaer’s fortunes. Although 1,300 men were successfully ferried across the river under persistent British fire from a fortified battery north of town, less than half of them ever reached the American line on the heights. Most of the militiamen refused to cross the river, insisting on their legal right to remain on American soil; and General Smyth ignored van Rensselaer’s request for regulars. Meanwhile, British and Canadian reinforcements arrived in Queenston, and Maj. Gen. Roger Sheave, General Brock’s successor, began to advance on the American position with a force of 800 troops and 300 Indian skirmishers. Van Rensselaer’s men, tired and outnumbered, put up a stiff resistance on the heights but in the end were defeated, with 300 Americans killed or wounded and nearly 1,000 captured.

After the defeat at Queenston, van Rensselaer resigned and was succeeded by the unreliable Smyth, who spent his time composing windy proclamations. Disgusted at being marched down to the river on several occasions only to be marched back to camp again, the new army that had assembled after the battle of Queenston gradually melted away. The men who remained lost all sense of discipline, and finally at the end of November the volunteers were ordered home and the regulars were sent into winter quarters. General Smyth’s request for leave was hastily granted, and three months later his name was quietly dropped from the Army rolls.

Except for minor raids across the frozen St. Lawrence, there was no further fighting along the New York frontier until the following spring. During the Niagara campaign the largest force then under arms, commanded by Maj. Gen. Henry Dearborn, had been held in the neighborhood of Albany, more than two hundred and fifty miles from the scene of operations. Dearborn had a good record in the Revolutionary War and had served as President Jefferson’s Secretary of War. Persuaded to accept the command of the northern theater, except for Hull’s forces, he was in doubt for some time about the extent of his authority over the Niagara front. When it was clarified, he was reluctant to exercise it. Proposing to move his army, which included seven regiments of regulars with artillery and dragoons, against Montreal in conjunction with a simultaneous operation across the Niagara River, Dearborn was content to wait for his subordinates to make the first move. When van Rensselaer made his attempt against Queenston, Dearborn, still in the vicinity of Albany, showed no sign of marching toward Canada. At the beginning of November he sent a large force north to Plattsburg and announced that he would personally lead the army into Montreal, but most of his force got no farther than the border. When his advance guard was driven back to the village of Champlain by Canadian militiamen and Indians and his Vermont and New York volunteers flatly refused to cross the border, Dearborn quietly turned around and marched back to Plattsburg, where he went into winter quarters.
[[Image:Cornepainting.jpg|right|200px|thumb|''In Action'', depicting the battle between USS ''Constitution'' and HMS ''Guerriere'', by Michel Felice Corne (1812)]]
If the land campaigns of 1812 reflected little credit on the Army, the war at sea brought lasting glory to the infant Navy. Until the end of the year the American frigates, brigs of war, and privateers were able to slip in and out of harbors and cruise almost at will; in this period they won their most brilliant victories: USS ''Constitution'' would claim HMS ''Guerierre'' off New England and HMS ''Java'' off Brazil; [[USS United States|USS ''United States'']] would capture HMS ''Macedonian''; the sloops USS ''Hornet'' and USS ''Wasp'' would wreak havoc off England itself; and USS ''Essex'' would decimate the British whaling fleet in the Pacific. At the same time, American privateers were picking off English merchant vessels by the hundreds. Having need of American foodstuffs, Britain was at first willing to take advantage of New England’s opposition to the war by not extending the blockade to the New England coast; but by the beginning of 1814 it was effectively blockading the whole coast and had driven most American naval vessels and privateers off the high seas.

==The Second Year, 1813==
On land, the objects of the American plan of campaign for 1813 were the recapture of Detroit and an attack on Canada across Lake Ontario. For the Detroit campaign, Madison picked Brig. Gen. William Henry Harrison, governor of the Indian Territory and hero of Tippecanoe. The difficulties of a winter campaign were tremendous, but the country demanded action. Harrison therefore started north toward Lake Erie at the end of October 1812 with about 6,500 men. In January 1813 a sizable detachment of around 1,000 men pushed on to Frenchtown, a small Canadian outpost on the Raisin River, twenty-six miles south of Detroit. There, the American commander, Brig. Gen. James Winchester, positioned his men, their backs to the river with scant natural protection and their movements severely hampered by deep snow. A slightly larger force of British regulars, militiamen, and Indians under Col. Henry Proctor soundly defeated the Americans, killing over 100 Kentucky riflemen and capturing about 500. The brutal massacre of wounded American prisoners by their Indian guards made "Remember the Raisin" the rallying cry of the Northwestern Army, but any plans for revenge had to be postponed, for Harrison had decided to suspend operations for the winter. He built Forts Meigs and Stephenson and posted his army near the Michigan border at the western end of Lake Erie.

The Ontario campaign was entrusted to General Dearborn, who was ordered to move his army from Plattsburg to Sackett’s Harbor, where Commodore Isaac Chauncey had been assembling a fleet. Dearborn was to move across the lake to capture Kingston and destroy the British flotilla there, then proceed to York (now Toronto), the capital of Upper Canada, to capture military stores. Finally, he was to cooperate with a force from Buffalo in seizing the forts on the Canadian side of the Niagara River.

The American strategy was basically sound. The capture of Kingston, the only tenable site for a naval station on the Canadian side of Lake Ontario, would give the United States control of the lake and, by cutting the British lines of communications, frustrate enemy plans for operations in the west. After the fall of Kingston, the operations against York and the Niagara forts would be simple mopping-up exercises. When the time came to move, however, Dearborn and Chauncey, hearing a rumor that the British forces in Kingston had been reinforced, decided to bypass that objective and attack York first. About 1,700 men sailed up Lake Ontario without incident, arriving off York before daybreak on April 27. Dearborn, who was in poor health, turned over the command of the assault to Brig. Gen. Zebulon Pike, the explorer of the Southwest. The landing, about four miles west of the town, was virtually unopposed. The British garrison of 600 men, occupying a fortification about halfway between the town and the landing, was overwhelmed after sharp resistance; but just as the Americans were pushing through the fort toward the town, a powder magazine exploded, killing or disabling many Americans and a number of British soldiers. Among those killed was General Pike. Remnants of the garrison fled toward Kingston, 150 miles to the east. The losses were heavy on both sides—almost 20 percent of Dearborn’s forces had been killed or wounded. With General Dearborn incapacitated and General Pike dead, the troops apparently got out of hand. They looted and burned the public buildings and destroyed the provincial records. After holding the town for about a week, they recrossed the lake to Niagara to join an attack against the forts on the Canadian side of the Niagara River.

Meanwhile, Sackett’s Harbor had been almost stripped of troops for the raid on York and for reinforcing the army at Fort Niagara. At Kingston, across the lake, Sir George Prevost, the Governor General of Canada, had assembled a force of 800 British regulars in addition to militia. Taking advantage of the absence of Chauncey’s fleet, which was at the other end of the lake, Prevost launched an attack on Sacked’s Harbor with his entire force of regulars on the night of May 26. The town was defended by about 400 regulars and approximately 750 militiamen under the command of Brig. Gen. Jacob Brown of the New York militia. Brown posted his men in two lines in front of a fortified battery to cover a possible landing. Coming ashore under heavy fire, the British nevertheless pressed rapidly forward, routed the first line, and pushed the second back into the prepared defenses. There, the Americans held. The British then tried two frontal assaults but were repulsed with heavy losses. While they were re-forming for a third attack, General Brown rallied the militia and sent it toward the rear of the enemy’s right flank. This was the turning point. Having suffered serious losses and in danger of being cut off, the British hurriedly withdrew to their ships.
[[Image:BattleofLakeErie.jpg|thumb|200px|right|''Battle of Lake Erie'', by William Henry Powell, 1873.]]
On the same day Prevost sailed against Sacked’s Harbor, General Dearborn at the western end of Lake Ontario was invading Canada with an army of 4,000 men. The operation began with a well-executed and stubbornly resisted amphibious assault led by Col. Winfield Scott and Comdr. [[Oliver Hazard Perry]], U.S. Navy, with Chauncey’s fleet providing fire support. Outnumbered by more than two to one, the British retreated, abandoning Fort George and Queenston to the Americans. An immediate pursuit might have sealed the victory; but Dearborn, after occupying Fort George, waited several days and then sent about 2,000 men after the enemy. The detachment advanced to within ten miles of the British and camped for the night with slight regard for security and even less for the enemy’s audacity. During the night a force of about 700 British soldiers attacked the camp and thoroughly routed the Americans. Dearborn withdrew his entire army to Fort George. About two weeks later, a 500-man detachment ventured fifteen miles outside the fort and, when attacked, surrendered to a force of British and Indians that was half as large. After these reverses there was no further action of consequence on the Niagara front for the remainder of the year. Dearborn, again incapacitated by illness, resigned his commission in early July. Both armies were hard hit by disease, and the American forces were further reduced by the renewal of the war in the west and by an attempt against Montreal.
===Control of Lake Erie===
Hull’s disaster at Detroit in 1812 and Harrison’s unsuccessful winter campaign had clearly shown that any offensive action in that quarter depended upon first gaining control of Lake Erie. Commander Perry had been assigned the task of building a fleet and seizing control of the lake. Throughout the spring and summer of 1813, except for the time he had joined Dearborn’s force, the 27-year-old Perry had been busy at Presque Isle assembling his fleet, guns, and crews. By the beginning of August his force was superior to that of the British in every respect except long-range armament. Sailing up the lake, he anchored in Put-in-Bay, near the line still held by General Harrison in the vicinity of Forts Meigs and Stephenson. There, on September 10 Perry met the British Fleet, defeated it, and gained control of Lake Erie.
===Battle of the Thames===
As soon as the damage to Perry’s ships and the captured British vessels had been repaired, Harrison embarked his army and sailed against Fort Malden. A regiment of mounted Kentucky riflemen under Col. Richard M. Johnson moved along the shore of the lake toward Detroit. Vastly outnumbered on land and now open to attack from the water, the British abandoned both Forts Malden and Detroit and retreated eastward. Leaving a detachment to garrison the forts, Harrison set out after the enemy with the Kentucky cavalry regiments, five brigades of Kentucky volunteers, and a part of the 27th Infantry, a force of about 3,500 men. On October 5 he made contact with the British on the banks of the Thames River about eighty-five miles from Malden. The enemy numbered about 2,900, of whom about 900 were British regulars and the remainder Indians under Tecumseh. Instead of attacking with infantry in the traditional line-against-line fashion, Harrison ordered a mounted attack. The maneuver succeeded completely. Unable to withstand the charging Kentuckians, the British surrendered in droves. The Indians were routed; Tecumseh, who had brought so much trouble to the western frontier, was killed. Among those who distinguished themselves that day was Commander Perry, who rode in the front rank of Johnson’s charge.
===American victory in the west===
As a result of the victory, which illustrated successful employment of the principles of offensive and mass and highlighted the importance of combined land-sea operations, Lake Erie became an American lake. The Indian confederacy was shattered. The American position on the Detroit frontier was reestablished, a portion of Canadian territory was brought under American control, and the enemy threat in that sector was eliminated. There was no further fighting here for the rest of the war. It was a decisive victory.

The small remnant of the British force that had escaped capture at the Thames—no more than 250 soldiers and a few Indians—made its way overland to the head of Lake Ontario. Harrison, after discharging his Kentucky volunteers and arranging for the defenses of the Michigan Territory, sailed after it with the remainder of his army. He arrived at the Niagara frontier at an opportune time, since the American forces in that theater were being called upon to support a two-pronged drive against Montreal.
===Attack on Montreal fails===
The expedition against Montreal in the fall of 1813 was one of the worst fiascoes of the war. It involved a simultaneous drive by two forces: one, an army of about 4,000 men assembled at Plattsburg on Lake Champlain under the command of Brig. Gen. Wade Hampton, and another of about 6,000 men under the command of Maj. Gen. James Wilkinson, which was to attack down the St. Lawrence River from Sackett’s Harbor. Hampton and Wilkinson were scarcely on speaking terms, and there was no one on the spot to command the two of them. Neither had sufficient strength to capture Montreal without the other’s aid; each lacked confidence in the other, and both suspected that the War Department was leaving them in the lurch. At first contact with the British, about halfway down the Chateaugay River, Hampton retreated and, after falling back all the way to Plattsburg, resigned from the Army. Wilkinson, after a detachment of about 2,000 men was severely mauled in an engagement just north of Ogdensburg, also abandoned his part of the operation and followed Hampton into Plattsburg.
===Niagara===
In the meantime, during December 1813 the British took advantage of the weakened state of American forces on the Niagara frontier. They recaptured Fort George and crossed the river to take Fort Niagara, which remained in British hands until the end of the war. Before evacuating Fort George, the Americans had burned the town of Newark and part of Queenston. In retaliation the British, after assaulting Fort Niagara with unusual ferocity, loosed their Indian allies on the surrounding countryside and burned the town of Buffalo and the nearby village of Black Rock.
===Jackson defeats Indians in South===
see [[Creek War]]

During 1813 a new theater of operations opened in the south. Maj. Gen. (of the Tennessee militia) [[Andrew Jackson]], an ardent expansionist, wrote the Secretary of War that he would "rejoice at the opportunity of placing the American eagle on the ramparts of Mobile, Pensacola, and Fort St. Augustine." For this purpose Tennessee had raised a force of 2,000 men to be under Jackson’s command. Congress, after much debate, approved only an expedition into that part of the gulf coast in dispute between the United States and Spain and refused to entrust the venture to the Tennesseans. Just before he went north to take part in the Montreal expedition, General Wilkinson led his regulars into the disputed part of West Florida and without meeting any resistance occupied Mobile, while the Tennessee army was left cooling its heels in Natchez.

Inspired by Tecumseh’s earlier successes, the "Red Stick" anti-assimilation faction of the Creek Indians took to the warpath in the summer of 1813 with a series of outrages culminating in the massacre of more than 500 men, women, and children at Fort Mims. Jackson, with characteristic energy, reassembled his army, which had been dismissed after Congress rejected its services for an attack on Florida, and moved into the Mississippi Territory. His own energy added to his problems, for he completely outran his primitive supply system and dangerously extended his line of communications. The hardships of the campaign and one near defeat at the hands of the Indians destroyed any enthusiasm the militia might have had for continuing in service. Jackson was compelled to entrench at Fort Strother on the Coosa River and remain there for several months until the arrival of a regiment of the Regular Army gave him the means to deal with the mutinous militia.

[[File:Aj-map1812.jpg|thumb|350px|Jackson's campaigns]]

At the end of March 1814 Jackson decided he had sufficient strength for a decisive blow against the Indians, who had gathered a force of about 900 warriors and many women and children in a fortified camp at the Horseshoe Bend of the Tallapoosa River. Jackson had about 2,000 militia and volunteers, nearly 600 regulars, several hundred friendly Indians, and a few pieces of artillery. The attack was completely successful. A bayonet charge led by the regulars routed the Indians, whom Jackson’s forces ruthlessly hunted down and killed all but a hundred or so of the warriors. "I lament that two or three women and children were killed by accident," Jackson later reported. The remaining hostile tribes fled into Spanish territory. As one result of the campaign Jackson was appointed a major general in the Regular Army. The campaign against the Creeks had no other effect on the outcome of the war, but for that matter neither had any of the campaigns in the north up to this point.

===Americans reorganize===
The conduct of the war in 1812 and 1813 revealed deficiencies in the administration of the War Department that would plague the American cause to the end. In early 1813 Madison replaced his incompetent Secretary of War William Eustis with John Armstrong, who instituted a reorganization that eventually resulted in the substitution of younger, more aggressive field commanders for the aged veterans of the Revolution. Congress then authorized an expansion of the Army staff to help the Secretary manage the war. In March it re-created the Offices of the Adjutant General, Inspector General, Surgeon, and Apothecary General and assigned eight topographical engineers to the staff.
====Logistics====
Competent leadership meant little, however, without sufficient logistical support; and logistics, more than any other factor, determined the nature of the military campaigns of the war. Lack of transportation was a major problem. The United States was fighting a war on widely separated fronts that required moving supplies through a wilderness where roads had to be built for wagons and packhorses. For this reason, ammunition and clothing supplies proved inadequate. General Harrison had to depend on homemade cartridges and clothing from Ohio townsmen for his northwestern campaign, and Brig. Gen. Winfield Scott’s regulars would fight at Chippewa in the gray uniforms of the New York militia. Winter found the troops without blankets, inadequately housed, and without forage for their horses. Most important, the subsistence supply failed so completely that field commanders found it necessary to take local food procurement virtually into their own hands.

Transportation difficulties accounted for only part of the problem. The supply system devised in 1812 proved a resounding failure. Congressional intent notwithstanding, the Quartermaster General had never assumed accountability for the money and property administered by his subordinates or administrative control over his deputies in the south and northwest. Moreover, the functions of his office, never clearly defined, overlapped those of the Commissary General. In a vain attempt to unravel the administrative tangle, Congress created the Office of Superintendent General of Military Supplies to keep account of all military stores and reformed the Quartermaster Department, giving the Quartermaster General stricter control over his deputies. In practice, however, the deputies continued to act independently in their own districts.

Both Congress and the War Department overlooked the greatest need for reform as the Army continued to rely on contractors for the collection and delivery of rations for the troops. With no centralized direction for subsistence supply, the inefficient, fraud-racked contract system proved to be one of the gravest hindrances to military operations throughout the war.

==The Last Year of the War, 1814==
After the setbacks at the end of 1813, a lull descended on the northern frontier. In March 1814 Wilkinson made a foray from Plattsburg with about 4,000 men and managed to penetrate about eight miles into Canada before 200 British and Canadian troops stopped his advance. It was an even more miserable failure than his attempt of the preceding fall.

In early 1814 Congress increased the Army to 45 infantry regiments, 4 regiments of riflemen, 3 of artillery, 2 of light dragoons, and 1 of light artillery. The number of general officers was fixed at 6 major generals and 16 brigadier generals in addition to the generals created by brevet. Secretary of War Armstrong promoted Jacob Brown, who had been commissioned a brigadier general in the Regular Army after his heroic defense of Sacket’s Harbor, to the rank of major general and placed him in command of the Niagara–Lake Ontario theater. He also promoted the youthful George Izard to major general and gave him command of the Lake Champlain frontier. He appointed six new brigadier generals from the most able, but not necessarily most senior, colonels in the Regular Army, among them Winfield Scott, who had distinguished himself at the battle of Queenston Heights and was now placed in command at Buffalo.
===Niagara again===
British control of Lake Ontario, won by dint of feverish naval construction during the previous winter, obliged the Secretary of War to recommend operations from Buffalo, but disagreement within the President’s Cabinet delayed adoption of a plan until June. Expecting Commodore Chauncey’s naval force at Sackett’s Harbor to be strong enough to challenge the British Fleet, Washington decided upon a coordinated attack on the Niagara peninsula. Secretary Armstrong instructed General Brown to cross the Niagara River in the vicinity of Fort Erie and, after assaulting the fort, either to move against Fort George and Newark or to seize and hold a bridge over the Chippewa River, as he saw fit.

Brown accordingly crossed the Niagara River on July 3 with his force of 3,500 men, took Fort Erie, and then advanced toward the Chippewa River, sixteen miles away. There, a smaller British force, including 1,500 regulars, had gathered to oppose the Americans. General Brown posted his army in a strong position behind a creek with his right flank resting on the Niagara River and his left protected by a swamp. In front of the American position was an open plain, beyond which flowed the Chippewa River; on the other side of the river were the British.

In celebration of Independence Day, General Scott had promised his brigade a grand parade on the plain the next day. On July 5 he formed his troops, numbering about 1,300; but on moving forward discovered British regulars had crossed the river undetected and had lined up on the opposite edge of the plain. Scott ordered his men to charge, and the British advanced to meet them. The two lines approached each other, alternately stopping to fire and then moving forward, closing the gaps torn by musketry and artillery fire. They came together first at the flanks, about sixty or eighty yards apart at the center. At this point the British line crumbled and broke. By the time a second brigade sent forward by General Brown reached the battlefield, the British had withdrawn across the Chippewa River and were retreating toward Ancaster on Lake Ontario. Scott’s casualties amounted to 48 killed and 227 wounded; British losses were 137 killed and 304 wounded.

Brown followed the retreating British as far as Queenston, where he halted to await Commodore Chauncey’s fleet. After waiting two weeks for Chauncey, who failed to cooperate in the campaign, Brown withdrew to Chippewa. He proposed to strike out to Ancaster by way of a crossroad known as Lundy’s Lane, from which he could reach the Burlington Heights at the head of Lake Ontario and at the rear of the British.

Meanwhile, the British had drawn reinforcements from York and Kingston and more troops were on the way from Lower Canada. Sixteen thousand British veterans, fresh from Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington’s victories over the French in Europe, had just arrived in Canada, too late to participate in the Niagara campaign but in good time to permit the redeployment of the troops that had been defending the upper St. Lawrence. By the time General Brown decided to pull back from Queenston, the British force at Ancaster amounted to about 2,200 men under General Phineas Riall; another 1,500 British troops were gathered at Fort George and Fort Niagara at the mouth of the Niagara River.

===Lundy's Lane===
As soon as Brown began his withdrawal, Riall sent forward about 1,000 men along Lundy’s Lane, the very route by which General Brown intended to advance against Burlington Heights; another force of more than 600 British troops moved out from Fort George and followed Brown along the Queenston road; while a third enemy force of about 400 men moved along the American side of the Niagara River from Fort Niagara. Riall’s advance force reached the junction of Lundy’s Lane and the Queenston road on the night of July 24, the same night Brown reached Chippewa, about three miles distant. Concerned lest the British force on the opposite side of the Niagara cut his line of communications and entirely unaware of Riall’s force at Lundy’s Lane, General Brown on July 25 ordered Scott to take his brigade back along the road toward Queenston in the hope of drawing back the British force on the other side of the Niagara. In the meantime, that force had crossed the river and joined Riall’s men at Lundy’s Lane. Scott had not gone far when much to his surprise he discovered himself face-to-face with a strong enemy element.

The ensuing battle, most of which took place after nightfall, was the hardest fought, most stubbornly contested engagement of the war. For two hours Scott attacked and repulsed the counterattacks of the numerically superior British force, which, moreover, had the advantage of position. Then both sides were reinforced. With Brown’s whole contingent engaged, the Americans now had a force equal to that of the British, about 2,900. They were able to force back the enemy from his position and capture his artillery. The battle then continued without material advantage to either side until just before midnight, when General Brown ordered the exhausted Americans to fall back to their camp across the Chippewa River. The equally exhausted enemy was unable to follow. Losses on both sides had been heavy, each side incurring about 850 casualties. On the American side, both General Brown and General Scott were severely wounded, Scott so badly that he saw no further service during the war. On the British side, General Riall and his superior, General Drummond, who had arrived with the reinforcements, were wounded. Riall was taken prisoner.

Both sides claimed Lundy’s Lane as a victory, with some justification, but Brown’s invasion of Canada was halted. Commodore Chauncey, who failed to prevent the British from using Lake Ontario for supply and reinforcements, contributed to the ambiguous outcome. In contrast to the splendid cooperation between Harrison and Perry on Lake Erie, relations between Brown and Chauncey were far from satisfactory. A few days after the Battle of Lundy’s Lane the American army withdrew to Fort Erie and held this outpost on Canadian soil until early in November.

Reinforced after Lundy’s Lane, the British laid siege to Fort Erie at the beginning of August but were forced to abandon the effort on September 21 after heavy losses. Shortly thereafter General Izard arrived with reinforcements from Plattsburg and pushed forward as far as Chippewa, where the British were strongly entrenched. After a few minor skirmishes, he ceased operations for the winter. The works at Fort Erie were destroyed, and the army withdrew to American soil on November 5.

During the summer of 1814 the British had been able to reinforce Canada and to stage several raids on the American coast. Eastport, Maine, on Passamaquoddy Bay, and Castine, at the mouth of the Penobscot River, were occupied without resistance. This operation was something more than a raid since Eastport lay in disputed territory, and it was no secret that Britain wanted a rectification of the boundary. No such political object was attached to British forays in the region of Chesapeake Bay.

===Raids on Washington and Baltimore===
[[Image:Bombardment of Ft McHenry.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Bombardment of Ft McHenry, Baltimore Harbor, September 13, 1814]]
On August 19 a force of some 4,000 British troops under Maj. Gen. Robert Ross landed on the Patuxent River and marched on Washington. At the Battle of Bladensburg, five days later, under the eyes of President Madison, who had arrived on the scene with a number of civilian officials just before the battle, Ross easily dispersed the 5,000 militia, naval gunners, and regulars hastily gathered together to defend the capital. The British then entered Washington, burned the Capitol Building, the White House, and other public buildings and returned to their ships.<ref> The British probably were not acting in response to American burning of York in Canada, as some speculated.</ref>

Baltimore was next on the schedule, but that city had been given time to prepare its defenses. A rather formidable line of redoubts covered the land approach; the harbor was guarded by Fort McHenry and blocked by a line of sunken gunboats. On September 13 a spirited engagement fought by Maryland militia, many of whom had run at Bladensburg just two weeks before, delayed the invaders and caused considerable loss, including General Ross, who was killed. When the fleet failed to reduce Fort McHenry, the assault on the city was called off.

The British attacks in the Chesapeake Bay region were both high and low points for the American cause. The destruction of Washington after a humiliating defeat was certainly demoralizing. However, the successful defense of Baltimore, and in particular the stirring events around the defense of Fort McHenry that would be enshrined forever in Francis Scott Key’s poem, "The Star-Spangled Banner," had a far-reaching impact on the war and on later American history.

[[Image:FtMcHenry.jpg|right|300px|thumb|Fort McHenry today, flying a replica of the "Star Spangled Banner" that flew over the fort on September 13, 1814]]

===Invasion of New York===
Two days before the attack on Baltimore, the British suffered a much more serious repulse on Lake Champlain when they launched a major invasion of New York state. After the departure of General Izard for the Niagara front, Brig. Gen. Alexander Macomb had remained at Plattsburg with a force of about 3,300 men. Supporting this force was a small fleet under Commodore [[Thomas Macdonough]]. Across the border in Canada was an army of British veterans of the Napoleonic Wars whom Prevost was to lead down the route Burgoyne had taken in 1777. Moving slowly up the Richelieu River toward Lake Champlain, Prevost crossed the border and on September 6 arrived before Plattsburg with about 11,000 soldiers. There, he waited for almost a week until his naval support was ready to join the attack. With militia reinforcements, Macomb now had about 4,500 men manning a strong line of redoubts and blockhouses that faced a small river. Macdonough had anchored his vessels in Plattsburg Bay, out of range of British guns but in a position to resist an assault on the American line. On September 11 the British flotilla appeared and Prevost ordered a joint attack. There was no numerical disparity between the naval forces but an important one in the quality of the seamen. Macdonough’s ships were manned by well-trained seamen and gunners, the British ships by hastily recruited French-Canadian militia and soldiers with only a sprinkling of regular seamen. As the enemy vessels came into the bay the wind died; and the British were exposed to heavy raking fire from Macdonough’s long guns. The British worked their way in and came to anchor; and the two fleets began slugging at each other, broadside by broadside. At the end the British commander was dead and his ships battered into submission. Prevost immediately called off the land attack and withdrew to Canada the next day. He was bitterly critcized by his subordinates and recalled to London for a court martial, but died before it took place.

Macdonough’s victory ended the gravest threat that had arisen so far. More important, it gave impetus to peace negotiations then under way. News of the two setbacks, Baltimore and Plattsburg, reached England simultaneously, aggravating the war weariness of the British and bolstering the efforts of the American peace commissioners to obtain satisfactory terms.

==New Orleans: The Final Battle==
[[Image:Andrew Jackson.jpg|right|200px|thumb|[[Andrew Jackson]]]]
The progress of the peace negotiations influenced the British to continue an operation that General Ross, before his repulse and death at Baltimore, had been instructed to carry out: a descent upon the gulf coast to capture New Orleans and possibly sever Louisiana from the United States. Maj. Gen. Sir Edward Pakenham, one of the Duke of Wellington’s distinguished subordinates, was sent to America to take command of the expedition. On Christmas Day, 1814, Pakenham arrived at the mouth of the Mississippi to find his troops disposed on a narrow isthmus below New Orleans between the Mississippi River and a cypress swamp. They had landed two weeks earlier at a shallow lagoon some ten miles east of New Orleans and had already fought one engagement. In this encounter, on December 23, General Jackson, who had taken command of the defenses on December 1, almost succeeded in cutting off a British advance detachment of 2,000, but after a three-hour fight in which casualties on both sides were heavy, he was compelled to retire behind fortifications covering New Orleans.

Opposite the British and behind a ditch stretching from the river to the swamp, Jackson had raised earthworks high enough to require scaling ladders for an assault. About 3,500 men with another 1,000 in reserve manned the defenses. It was a varied group, composed of the 7th and 44th Infantry Regiments, Major Beale’s New Orleans Sharpshooters, LaCoste and Daquin’s battalions of free African Americans, the Louisiana militia under General David Morgan, a band of Choctaw Indians, the Baratarian pirates, and a motley battalion of fashionably dressed sons and brothers of the New Orleans aristocracy. To support
his defenses, Jackson had assembled more than twenty pieces of artillery, including a battery of nine heavy guns on the opposite bank of the Mississippi.
[[Image:New-O-1812.JPG|thumb|200px|Jackson at New Orleans]]
After losing an artillery duel to the Americans on January 1, Pakenham decided on a frontal assault in combination with an attack against the American troops on the west bank. The main assault was to be delivered by about 5,300 men, while about 600 men under Lt. Col. William Thornton were to cross the river and clear the west bank. As the British columns appeared out of the early morning mist on January 8, they were met with murderous fire, first from the artillery, then from the muskets and rifles of Jackson’s infantry. Achieving mass through firepower, the Americans mowed the British down by the hundreds. Pakenham and one other general were killed and a third badly wounded. More than 2,000 of the British were casualties; the American losses were trifling.

Suddenly, the battle on the west bank became critical. Jackson did not make adequate preparations to meet the advance there until the British began their movement, and by then it was too late. The heavy guns of a battery posted on the west bank were not placed to command an attack along that side of the river; and only about 800 militia, divided in two groups a mile apart, were in position to oppose Thornton. The Americans resisted stubbornly, inflicting greater losses than they suffered, but the British pressed on, routed them, and overran the battery. Had the British continued their advance, Jackson’s position would have been critical; but Pakenham’s successor in command, appalled by the repulse of the main assault, ordered Thornton to withdraw from the west bank and rejoin the main force. For ten days the shattered remnant of Pakenham’s army remained in camp unmolested by the Americans, then reembarked and sailed away.

The British appeared off Mobile on February 8, confirming Jackson’s fear that they planned an attack in that quarter. They overwhelmed Fort Bowyer, a garrison manned by 360 regulars at the entrance to Mobile Harbor. Before they could attack the city itself, however, word arrived that a treaty had been signed at Ghent on Christmas Eve, two weeks before the Battle of New Orleans. The most lopsided victory of the war, which helped propel Andrew Jackson to the Presidency, had been fought after the war was officially over.

==Victory, defeat or stalemate?==
===Popular Views===
The popular image of the war in the U.S. was an American victory, and in Canada a Canadian victory. The British paid little attention since their were preoccupied with Napoleon.

Men who promoted British imperialism in Canada called the war a victory for Canada--meaning a victory for British control of Canada. They systematically attacked and harassed democratic spokesmen as too "American" until the spokesman finally erupted in futile revolts in 1837 and the Empire clamped down on them, hanging some and forcing others into exile in the United States. A "militia myth" became popular in Canada to the effect that a spontaneous uprising of the Canadian people defeated the American invaders (historians say it was the British army).

The news of the peace settlement followed so closely on Jackson’s triumph in New Orleans that the war as a whole was popularly regarded in the United States as a great victory. Yet, at best, it was a draw. American strategy had centered on the conquest of Canada and the harassment of British shipping. The land campaign had failed miserably, and during most of the war the Navy was bottled up behind a tight British blockade of the North American coast. The initial success of the privateering effort had enriched a few individuals but was no substitute for a robust navy and did little to achieve the war aims. Ironically, the greatest losers in the war were probably the Indians. The Battles of the Thames in the north and Horseshoe Bend in the south dealt them blows from which they never recovered and in the south set the stage for the forcible removal of most members of the tribes of the "Five Civilized Nations" to the west.

===Historians===
Historians have differing and more complex interpretations. They are in full agreement that the native Indian tribes were the war's clear losers, losing land, power and any hope of keeping their semi-autonomous status. Historians also agree that neither side gained or lost territory.

In recent decades the consensus of the majority of American, British and Canadian historians is that the war ended in stalemate, with the Treaty of Ghent closing a war that had become militarily inconclusive. Neither side wanted to continue fighting since the main causes had disappeared. These historians often add that the war could have been avoided in the first place. It is seen as a mistake for everyone concerned because it was marked by multiple fiascoes and failures on both sides, as shown especially by the repeated American failure to seize parts of Canada, and the failed British invasions of New York and New Orleans.
However, some noted historians have called the war a British victory and an American defeat, arguing that the British achieved their military objectives in 1812 (resisting American incursions) while the Americans failed to conquer Canada. Many non-academic Canadians share this view.<ref>Carl Benn, “The War of 1812” ( ), by a Canadian; Latimer, ''1812 War with America'' (2007), by a Brit.</ref>

A third view,<ref>Wesley B. Turner, "The War of 1812: The War That Both Sides Won" (2000), a Canadian; Mark Zuehlke, ''For Honour's Sake: The War of 1812 and the Brokering of an Uneasy Peace'' (2007), a Canadian; Walter L. Hixson, "War of 1812," in Paul Finkelman ed, '' Encyclopedia of the United States in the Nineteenth Century'' (2001) 3:360.</ref> argues that the U.S. was successful because (1) the U.S. had restored its honor and successfully resisted a powerful Empire for a second time, thus winning a "second war of independence"; (2) the threat of Indian raids ended as did the British plan for a semi-independent Indian sanctuary, and (3) the Royal Navy had stopped restricting American trade and impressing American sailors. Rjensen (talk) 22:31, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

===Lessons===
While the treaty favored neither belligerent, the war at least taught the Americans several important lessons. Although the Americans were proud of their reputation as the world’s most expert riflemen, the rifle played only a minor role in the war. On the other hand, the American soldier displayed unexpected superiority in gunnery and engineering. Artillery contributed to American successes at Chippewa, Sacket’s Harbor, Norfolk, the siege of Fort Erie, and New Orleans. The war also boosted the reputation of the Corps of Engineers, a branch that owed its efficiency chiefly to the Military Academy. Academy graduates completed the fortifications at Fort Erie, built Fort Meigs, planned the harbor defenses of Norfolk and New York, and directed the fortifications at Plattsburg. If larger numbers of infantrymen had been as well trained as the artillerymen and engineers, the course of the war might have been entirely different.
====Sea power====
Sea power played a fundamental role in the war; and when combined sea-land operations went well, the resulting campaign was generally successful. In the west, both opponents were handicapped in overland communication, but the British were far more dependent on the Great Lakes for the movement of troops and supplies for the defense of Upper Canada. In the east, Lake Champlain was strategically important as an invasion corridor to the populous areas of both countries. Just as Perry’s victory on Lake Erie decided the outcome of the war in the far west, Macdonough’s success on Lake Champlain decided the fate of the British invasion in 1814 and helped influence the peace negotiations.
====Militia====
The much-maligned militia performed, on the whole, as well and as poorly as the Regular Army. The defeats and humiliations of the regular forces during the first years of the war matched those of the militia, just as in a later period the Kentucky volunteers at the Thames and the Maryland militia before Baltimore proved that the state citizen-soldier could perform well. The keys to the militiamen’s performance, of course, were training and leadership, the two areas over which the national government had little control. The militia, occasionally competent, was never dependable; though in relationship to the regulars its record was comparable. However, in the nationalistic period that followed the war, when the exploits of the regulars were justly celebrated, an ardent young Secretary of War, John Calhoun, would be able to convince Congress and the nation that the first line of American defense should be a standing army.
===War goals===
In terms of war goals, the Americans achieved the war goals of stopping the Indian raids, reopening trade with France (now that Napoleon was gone and France was a British ally), and regaining national honor. The British did not officially end impressment, but they suspended the practice, never to resume it. The Americans thus achieved all their main war goals. The British achieved their main war goal of stopping American trade with France (using the blockade), as well as keeping Canada, but they failed to gain the neutral Indian state. Indeed, the Indians were the big losers.
===Indians lose===
The Indians allied to the British came out as losers. The British also had the long-standing goal of creating a large "neutral" Indian state that would cover much of Ohio, Indiana and Michigan; it would be a British satellite and block American expansion in the Great Lakes region. They made the demand as late as 1814 at the peace conference, but lost battles at Thames and New Orleans that would have validated their claims.<ref> Dwight L. Smith, "A North American Neutral Indian Zone: Persistence of a British Idea" ''Northwest Ohio Quarterly'' 1989 61(2-4): 46-63; Francis M. Carroll, ''A Good and Wise Measure: The Search for the Canadian-American Boundary, 1783-1842'' (2001) [http://books.google.com/books?id=1AjlS20Q5J8C&pg=PA24&dq=barrier+intitle:Good+intitle:and+intitle:Wise+intitle:Measure+intitle:The+intitle:Search+intitle:for+intitle:the+intitle:Canadian-American+inauthor:Francis+inauthor:M+inauthor:Carroll&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=1&as_miny_is=2009&as_maxm_is=12&as_maxy_is=2009&num=30&as_brr=0&as_pt=ALLTYPES p 23 online] </ref> The British proposal to create a "neutral" Indian zone was rejected by the Americans at Ghent and never resurfaced. In the decade after 1815, many Americans assumed that the British continued to conspire with their former Indian allies in an attempt to forestall American hegemony in the Great Lakes region. Such perceptions were faulty. After the Treaty of Ghent, the Indians became an undesirable burden to British policymakers who now looked to the United States for markets and raw materials. British agents in the field continued to meet regularly with their former Indian partners, but they did not supply arms or encouragement for Indian campaigns to stop American expansionism in the Midwest. Abandoned by their powerful sponsor, Great Lakes Indians ultimately migrated or reached accommodations with the Americans.<ref> Colin G. Calloway, "The End of an Era: British-Indian Relations in the Great Lakes Region after the War of 1812," ''Michigan Historical Review'' 1986 12(2): 1-20. 0890-1686</ref> In the Southwest, Indian resistance had been crushed by General Andrew Jackson; as President (1829-37), Jackson systematically removed the major tribes to reservations west of the Mississippi.<ref> Robert V. Remini, ''Andrew Jackson and His Indian Wars'' (2002)</ref>

==See also==
* [[Embargo of 1807]]

==Bibliography==
* Most of this article was copied directly from Maurice Matloff, ''American Military History'' (2005 edition). This is a government publication with no copyright. [http://www.history.army.mil/books/AMH-V1/ch06.htm it is online here.]

* Benn, Carl. ''The War of 1812'' (2003). short survey with British perspective [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=107722609 online edition]
* Berton, Pierre; ''The Invasion of Canada: 1812-1813'' (1980); ''Flames Across the Border: 1813-1814'' (1981). popular Canadian narrative
* Borneman, Walter R. ''1812: The War That Forged a Nation'' (2004), popular
* Brown, Roger H. ''The Republic in Peril: 1812'' (1964). on American politics [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=100695976 online edition]
* Burroughs, Peter. "Prevost, Sir George," ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online'' [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=36742&query=prevost online version]
* Burt, Alfred L. ''The United States, Great Britain, and British North America from the Revolution to the Establishment of Peace after the War of 1812''. [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=750041 (1940), detailed history by Canadian scholar; online]
*Coles, Harry L. ''The War of 1812'' (1965) brief scholarly survey* Goodman, Warren H. "The Origins of the War of 1812: A Survey of Changing Interpretations," ''Mississippi Valley Historical Review'', XXVIII (September, 1941), 171-86. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0161-391X(194109)28%3A2%3C171%3ATOOTWO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-R in JSTOR]
* Egan, Clifford L. "The Origins of the War of 1812: Three Decades of Historical Writing," ''Military Affairs'', Vol. 38, No. 2 (Apr., 1974), pp. 72-75. short article on historiography [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0026-3931(197404)38%3A2%3C72%3ATOOTWO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-A in JSTOR]
* Engelman, Fred L. ''The Peace of Christmas Eve'' (1962), popular account; [http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1960/1/1960_1_28.shtml online excerpt from ''American Heritage Magazine'' (Dec 1960) v 12#1]
* Heidler, Donald & Jeanne T. Heidler (eds) ''Encyclopedia of the War of 1812'' (2nd ed 2004) 636pp; most comprehensive guide; 500 entries by 70 scholars
* Heidler, David S. and Heidler, Jeanne T. ''The War of 1812.'' (2002). 217 pp.
* Herbert C. W. Goltz, "Tecumseh" ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online'' [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=36806&query=tecumseh online version]
* Hickey, Donald. ''The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict''. (1989). the standard history; by leading American scholar [http://books.google.com/books?id=YoLL0HgYw-0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=intitle:1812+inauthor:hickey&lr=&num=30&as_brr=0 exvcerpts and text search]
** Hickey, Donald R. ''The War of 1812: A Short History'' (1995), abridged version [http://books.google.com/books?id=3GLq_jMv5ToC&printsec=frontcover&dq=intitle:1812+inauthor:hickey&lr=&num=30&as_brr=0 excerpts and text search]
* Hickey, Donald R. [http://www.press.uillinois.edu/f06/hickey.html ''Don't Give Up the Ship! Myths of the War of 1812''.] (2006) ISBN 0-252-03179-2
* Hitsman, J. M. ''The Incredible War of 1812'' (1965), survey by Canadian scholar
* Horsman, Reginald. ''The Causes of the War of 1812'' (1962). [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=55079259 online edition]
* Kaplan, Lawrence S. "France and Madison's Decision for War 1812," ''The Mississippi Valley Historical Review,'' Vol. 50, No. 4. (Mar., 1964), pp. 652-671. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0161-391X%28196403%2950%3A4%3C652%3AFAMDFW%3E2.0.CO%3B2-J in JSTOR]
* Langguth, A. J. ''Union 1812: The Americans Who Fought the Second War of Independence'' (2006) 495pp, popular history
* Latimer, Jon. ''1812: War with America'' (2007), 656pp; the most recent survey; has a British perspective
* Malcomson, Robert. ''Historical Dictionary of the War of 1812.'' (2006). 699 pp.
*Mahan, Alfred T. ''Sea Power in Its Relation to the War of 1812'', (1903), famous history [http://books.google.com/books?id=3zzOkc61L3sC&printsec=frontcover&dq=intitle:1812+inauthor:mahan&lr=&num=30&as_brr=0 full text online]
*Mahon, John K. ''The War of 1812'', (2d ed. 1991), standard military history
*Misiak, Zig "Western Hooves of Thunder", McArthurs Raid on the Six Nations 1814, ISBN 978-098118803-4, www.warof1812rph.com
*Owsley, Frank L., Jr. ''Struggle for the Gulf Borderlines: The Creek War and the Battle of New Orleans, 1812–1815'', (2d ed. 2000)
* Perkins, Bradford. (1962). ''The Causes of the War of 1812.'' short survey
* Perkins, Bradford. ''Prologue to War: England and the United States, 1805-1812''. (1961). detailed diplomatic history by American scholar
* Pratt, Julius W. "Western War Aims in the War of 1812," ''Mississippi Valley Historical Review'', 12 (June, 1925), 36-50. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0161-391X%28192506%2912%3A1%3C36%3AWAITWO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X in JSTOR], influential article
* Quimby, Robert S., ''The US Army in the War of 1812: an operational and command study'' (1997) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=42476620 online version]
*Remini, Robert V. ''Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Empire, 1767–1821'', (1977), standard scholarly biography; Remini has other books on Jackson and on the battle of New Orleans
* Risjord, Norman K. "1812: Conservatives, War Hawks, and the Nation's Honor," ''William and Mary Quarterly'', 18 (April, 1961), 196-210. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0043-5597(196104)3%3A18%3A2%3C196%3A1CWHAT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-B in JSTOR]
* Roosevelt, Theodore. ''The Naval War of 1812'' (1885) [http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext05/7trnv10.txt full text online]
* Sheppard, George. ''Plunder, Profit, and Paroles: A Social History of the War of 1812 in Upper Canada'' (1994) the Canadians were reluctant to fight; British regulars and Indians did the fighting [http://books.google.com/books?id=-YAISS6JpIEC&pg=PP13&lpg=PP13&dq=George+Sheppard+history+McMaster+University,&source=bl&ots=0gOplxoF2q&sig=w0FSh6XYFuTlvFGJtgiUKeDbqNE&hl=en&ei=fLvKSsmYAZL4sgPL4-WhBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2#v=onepage&q=George%20Sheppard%20history%20McMaster%20University%2C&f=false excerpt and text search]
* Smelser, Marshall. ''The Democratic Republic 1801-1815'' (1968) general survey of US politics & diplomacy
* Stacey, C.P. "Brock, Sir Isaac," ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online'' [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=36410&query=isaac%20AND%20brock online version]
* Stagg, John C. A. ''Mr. Madison's War: Politics, Diplomacy, and Warfare in the Early American Republic, 1783-1830''. (1983), major overview (by a leading scholar; he is from New Zealand)
* Stagg, J. C. A. "James Madison and the 'Malcontents': The Political Origins of the War of 1812," ''William and Mary Quarterly'' (Oct., 1976) [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0043-5597%28197610%293%3A33%3A4%3C557%3AJMAT%22T%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X in JSTOR]
* Taylor, George Rogers, ed. ''The War of 1812: Past Justifications and Present Interpretations'' (1963), selections from historians and primary sources [http://www.questia.com/library/book/the-war-of-1812-past-justifications-and-present-interpretations-by-george-rogers-taylor.jsp online edition]

==Links==
*[http://www.nps.gov/fomc Fort McHenry National Monument]
*[http://www.ussconstitution.navy.mil/ USS ''Constitution'' official website]
*[http://www.history.navy.mil/docs/war1812/const1.htm USS ''Constitution'' battle records posted by U.S. Naval Historical Center]
*[http://www.warof1812.net/ Website dedicated to the War of 1812]
*[http://www.warof1812.ca/ Canadian website on the War of 1812]
*[http://americanhistory.si.edu/ssb/2_home/fs2.html History of the "Star Spangled Banner"]
*[http://www.warof1812rph.com/ Website dedicated to the War of 1812/Six Nations]
====notes====
<references/>

[[Category:Wars]]
[[Category:Napoleonic Wars]]
[[Category:United States History]]
[[Category:Canadian History]]
[[Category:British History]]
[[Category:United States Navy]]
[[Category:United States Army]]
[[Category:Early National U.S.]]
[[Category:War of 1812]]
[[Category:Indian Wars]]

World War II

2012-12-02T18:56:10Z

JJCC:

{{World War 2
| image =WWII collage.JPG
| conflict =
| date =1939-1945
| location =Europe North and eastern Africa Eastern Asia Pacific Ocean Atlantic Ocean 
| combatant1 ='''Allies''' [[Great Britain]] [[France]] [[Soviet Union]] (from 1941) [[China]] [[United States]] (from 1941) [[Poland]] [[Denmark]] [[Norway]] [[Belgium]] [[Luxembourg]] [[Canada]] [[Australia]] [[New Zealand]] [[Netherlands]] [[Yugoslavia]] [[Greece]] [[Italy]](from 1943 to 1945)
| combatant2 ='''Axis''' [[Nazi Germany]] [[Italy]](until 1943) [[Japan]] [[Hungary]](1941–45) [[Romania]](1941–44) [[Bulgaria]](1941–44) [[Italian Social Republic]] (1943-1945)
| commander1 =
| commander2 =
| strength1 =
| strength2 =
| casualties1 =
| casualties2 =
}}
'''World War II''' was a global set of conflicts, beginning in 1931 in Asia, 1935 in Africa, and 1939 in Europe, all lasting until 1945, in which the [[Allies|Allied powers]] (led after the Fall of France by the [[British Commonwealth]], and including the [[United States]], the [[Soviet Union]], the [[Republic of China]], among many other nations), completely defeated the [[Axis Powers]] (led by [[Third Reich|Nazi Germany]], and including [[Italy]], [[Japan]], [[Hungary]], [[Romania]] and [[Bulgaria]]). Although Japan's war against China began in 1937, the main conflict started in September 1939 when Germany and the Soviet Union divided [[Poland]]; [[Britain]] and [[French Third Republic|France]] then declared war on Germany.

The conflict was the deadliest in human history with estimated deaths ranging from 50 million to over 70 million soldiers and civilians.<ref>http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm#Second</ref> It ended with the Soviet Union dominant in Eastern Europe, and the U.S. and its allies dominant in Western Europe, setting the stage for the [[Cold War]].
==Causes==
:''See: [[Causes of World War II]]''

==War Begins in Europe==
[[Image:Communazi Peace Pact.jpg|thumb|300px|right|By terms of a secret protocol to the [[Nazi-Soviet pact]], [[Poland]] was partitioned with Germany and the USSR each occupying 200,000 square kilometers.]]
:''See also: [[Molotov-Ribbentrop pact]]''

In the immediate run up to WWII, there were frequent reports of trespassing Polish troops. On August 31, 1939 German covert operatives staged a fake attack by Polish troops on a German radio station. WWII started on September 1, 1939, when German troops invaded Poland. Hitler justified this as a defensive act, pointing to the frequent border incidents, and said famously that from this moment on Germany would strike back.

The major tactical innovation of the war was the use of combined arms warfare, typified by the German doctrine of [[blitzkrieg]]. In this style of warfare armor, infantry, artillery and air power (see [[Luftwaffe]]) all coordinate to achieve overwhelming superiority at point on the enemy lines. Armor and fast-moving infantry units then exploit the gap and penetrate deep behind enemy lines. The objective is to cause a widespread collapse of the enemy's ability to fight. It was particularly effective during the early stages of the war, before the Allies developed effective countermeasures.
On September 17, 1939, Poland was invaded from the east by Hitler’s ally, [[Josef Stalin|Stalin]].

In 1939-1940, eastern Poland, [[Estonia]], [[Latvia]], [[Lithuania]] and [[Bessarabia]] were invaded and annexed by the Soviet Union.

==War in the West==
[[Image:Caen_sniper.jpg|left|thumb|200px|A Canadian soldier in the ruins of Caen, 9 July 1944]]
Once the invasion of Poland was complete, German forces regrouped while French and British forces remained on the defensive, leading US commentators to dub it the [[Sitskreig|Phoney War]]. May 10 1940 made clear that the war was real, as Germany invaded France, occupying neutral countries such as the [[Netherlands]], [[Luxembourg]] and [[Belgium]] in the process. Resistance by the British and French armies proved ineffective, and France was soon surrendered. British and French troops were routed and evacuated mainland Europe at [[Dunkirk]]. France was divided into the northern [[Occupied France]] and the collaborationist [[Vichy regime]] in the south of France, including [[Corsica]].

The collapse and occupation of France, together with Germany's non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union,<ref>[http://nobsopus.blogspot.com/2007/01/celebrations-marking-60-years-since-end.html Celebrations Marking 60 Years Since the End of World War II], Pavel Vitek, ''Russkii vopros - Studies'', No. 1 2005. Translation from Russian.</ref>, Germany's alliance with fascist Italy and an expansionist Japan, the benevolent neutrality of fascist Spain, and the fact that little of Europe was outside Axis control, led many to assume that Britain had been defeated. Indeed it would appear that the seemingly foolish decision of the relatively weak Britain to continue the war took the Axis powers off guard. This decision ensured the remaining British Empire was still involved in the war, with Japan threatening many British possessions in Asia.

In 1940 [[Denmark]] and [[Norway]] were invaded by German forces, to preempt a British occupation of Norway and occupy its coastline and ports to be used by the [[Kriegsmarine]]. Norway also contained a source of [[Heavy water]], potentially crucial in the construction of an atomic weapon. The operation was successful, but losses were heavy, especially to the Kriegsmarine. This was soon followed by the British troops invited by [[Iceland]] and American occupation of [[Greenland]]. (The goal was to prevent any increase in the range of German air and submarine activity, brought about the occupation of these lands - and of the Azores at the request of the Portuguese Government.)

With Britain the sole opposing European nation, the [[Battle of Britain]] commenced. The [[Luftwaffe]] attempted to achieve aerial dominance over the south of Britain, in order to allow a sea based invasion of the British Isles to proceed. From 10th July to the end of October the [[Royal Air Force]] and the Luftwaffe fought for dominance; the resilience of the RAF, which counted in its ranks also Commonwealth personnel, US volunteers and Polish and Czech exiles, and the use of [[radar]] and its associated early warning systems, had forced a rethink of German tactics. It was the first significant setback for the Germans in the War. They now concentrated on the great population centers, especially London, hoping that huge civilian casualties would weaken morale and lead to a lessening of the war effort by the populace. The period that followed, popularly known as [[the Blitz]], lasted into May 1941. Around 40,000 civilians and civil defense workers died; but the Germans failed to reach their objectives and their resources were soon diverted to the Eastern front as Hitler began concentrating on the impending invasion of the Soviet Union.

With the pressure off their airbases the RAF was now able to increase its nightly raids on industrial sites in Germany and occupied lands. Because of the inability to correctly target these sites, the raids soon turned into “area bombing”, and German civilian casualties rose. These raids were to reach further into Germany as the war progressed and were greatly increased when American bombers began their sorties.

==Finnish Wars==

The Soviet Union invaded [[Finland]], a neutral, on November 30 1939. This conflict came to be known as the "Winter War". Despite the overwhelming numbers of the Red Army, the Finnish resistance was strong and the battle was hard fought before the Soviet army took control. Outside powers (including the U.S.) considered intervention to help Finland; only a little aid trickled in and Finland was forced to sue for peace. The peace treaty signed in March 1940 favored the Soviets, but they paid heavily for their victory with 200,000 dead. Finland lost 25,000 dead, and had to absorb 400,000 refugees from areas turned over to the Soviets. In 1941 Finland joined Germany in attacking the Soviets, in the "Continuation War" (1941-44), but lost again. An armistice in Sept. 1944 stabilized the border, using March 1940 lines; in addition Finland had to pay heavy reparations and had to remain neutral in the [[Cold War]].<ref> Roger R. Reese, "Lessons of the Winter War: a Study in the Military Effectiveness of the Red Army, 1939-1940," ''Journal of Military History'' 2008 72(3): 825-852 </ref>

==Soviet-German War==
1941 marked the major turning point in the war in Europe, when the Germans undertook [[Operation Barbarossa]] - the invasion of the Soviet Union. Stalin was repeatedly informed by his own spies and anti-German countries that Germany was about to attack; he rejected the accurate reports and paid dearly for the blunder.

In June--behind schedule because of diversions in the Balkans--the Germans launched their massive war against the Soviet Union (known as the "Great Patriotic War" in Russia). It was by far the largest, bloodiest, and most decisive phase of World War II. Outside observers in the first few months figured that Germany would win easily. But the Nazi armies were split three ways, logistics became worse and worse as distances grew, and none met their objective by the time the extreme Russian winter of 1941-42 set in. Blitzkrieg had failed against the Soviets, and the Germans lacked the resources to fight a long war against a country with such vast areas and so many more people. The Luftwaffe, which promised to overcome the slowness of ground travel, failed to provide adequate support and was soon matched and outnumbered by the Soviet air force.<ref> The best studies of this theater are by [http://books.google.com/books?as_q=&num=30&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_brr=0&as_pt=ALLTYPES&lr=&as_vt=&as_auth=glantz+david&as_pub=&as_sub=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&as_isbn=&as_issn= David Glantz]</ref>

In the third year of war Germany began to suffer from a lack of important ressources such as oil. Hitler therefore ordered the german army to take the city of Stalingrad and the oil fields of Baku in South Russia. The operation failed after the 6th German army was encircled in Stalingrad and completely annihilated. The [[Battle of Stalingrad]] marked a turning point in the war and the Soviet Union started launching their own offensives. After a time of comparatively slow progress, the brilliant Soviet officer, Konstantin Rokossovsky, engineered "Operation Bagration", named-so after the Napoleonic Russian hero. The operation was extremely successful for the Soviets, leading to around 600,000 Soviet casualties and over 500,000 German casualties, including over 60,000 German vehicles and tanks. Even the Germans' best officer, Erich von Manstein, couldn't turn the situation around. Finally, in 1945, Soviet troops stormed Berlin, and forced Nazi Germany into capitulation.

==Far East==

After Pearl Harbor, the Japanese juggernaut seemed unstoppable. In the south, they conquered the [[Philippines]], the oil-rich Dutch East Indies, Malaysia, and extended their reach as far as the Solomon Islands. In the west, they seized [[Burma]] and the vital port at [[Rangoon]], and even attacked British forces at [[Ceylon]]. The Japanese empire now reached as far as [[Wake Island]] in the east and the [[Aleutian Islands]] to the north. Attacks on Japanese targets, including the Doolittle raid, boasted American morale, but did little material damage. In May 1942, Japanese forces were finally halted at the [[Battle of the Coral Sea]], which cost the Americans a precious [[aircraft carrier]], but saved southern [[New Guinea]]. At the [[Battle of Midway]] a month later, the Japanese lost four of their best carriers, suffering a blow to their sea power from which they never recovered.

The Americans took the offensive in August with a landing on the island of [[Guadalcanal]]. The overall American offensive strategy was two-pronged. Forces in the south advanced up the Solomon island chain and New Guinea, while in the central Pacific, Marines took island after island, including [[Battle of Tarawa|Tarawa]], Eniwetok, [[Saipan]], and [[Guam]]. The two lines of attack came together at the Philippines.

Integral to the strategy was the policy of island hopping. Many Japanese strongholds were bypassed, allowing the American forces to concentrate on more strategically significant islands. For example, [[Truk]] and Rabaul were home to major Japanese air and naval bases, but once the bases were neutralized, there was no reason to take on the troops there. This policy not only saved thousands of American (and Japanese) lives, it shortened the war by at least several months.

The American invasion of the Philippines took place in late October of 1944 when Marines landed on Leyte Island. A few days later, the US Navy shattered what was left of Japanese naval power in the [[Battle of Leyte Gulf]]. The Japanese fought hard, however, and Leyte took two months to secure. When the Americans landed on the other islands, they found the troops there equally unwilling to retreat, but with American superiority in almost every area, the outcome was never really in doubt. [[Manila]] was captured by March, and the American position had become solid enough that leaders could start preparing for the final stage: [[Operation Downfall|the invasion of Japan]]. The first step was taken when the island of [[Okinawa]] was captured in June after two months of heavy fighting. Operation Olympic, the invasion of [[Kyushu]], was scheduled for November 1945, followed by Operation Coronet, the invasion of [[Honshu]], in March of 1946.

The Japanese, soldiers and civilians alike, were expected to put up a fierce defense. Army Chief of Staff [[George C. Marshall]] believed that Japan would fight to the last man, and insisted on preparing for a land invasion of Japan with an army of 2,000,000 men anticipating a tremendous number of casualties. Some analysts estimated the number of projected casualties from Operation Olympic alone at 250,000 dead and wounded.<ref>Historical Atlas of the U.S. Navy, by Craig L. Symonds, the Naval Institute, 1995</ref> For this reason, Washington strongly requested the Soviets declare war on Japan. At the Potsdam conference in mid-July 1945, Stalin told President Truman the Soviets would declare war on Japan but would not give a firm timetable.<ref>Wheeler (1983) p. 58</ref>
[[Image:Ww2-asia usma.edu pic.gif|thumb|300px|left|Time Line of Pacific War]]

==Japanese capitulation==
After the successful atom bomb test in the U.S., President Truman was left with the awesome task of deciding what to do with the power of the atomic bomb. Truman assembled a committee to advise him. The committee recommended the bomb should be used on the Japanese Empire mainland to save American lives and produce maximum shock to try to convince the Japanese to surrender.<ref>Wheeler (1983) pp. 58-60</ref> Therefore, on August 6, 1945, a B-29 Superfortress, the "Enola Gay" piloted by Paul Tibbet, dropped an atomic bomb (now called a nuclear weapon) on [[Hiroshima]]. Japan did not respond, so on August 9, "Bocks Car", a B-29 piloted by Frederick C. Bock dropped the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki.<ref>Wheeler (1983) pp. 94-101</ref>

The Soviet Union declared war on Japan at midnight August 8, 1945, in response to the American requests and in a last-minute grab for the spoils of war. It invaded Manchuria and Korea with 1.6 million troops; the Japanese army disintegrated. The Soviets captured 600,000 military and civilian prisoners of war; most of whom never returned home again.<ref>Wheeler (1983) p. 156</ref> It was no longer possible for the Imperial Army to defend the emperor. On August 15, 1945, Emperor Hirohito by radio broadcast announced Japan would accept the terms of the Allies, unconditional surrender.<ref>Wheeler (1983) pp. 165-167</ref> By follow up message, the Japanese government stated they were surrendering with the understanding the Emperor would remain on the throne and would not be hung as a war criminal. Washington agreed, saying the authority of the emperor would be "subject to the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers." On September 2, 1945, the Japanese Emperor formally surrendered all Japanese forces to the Allies in a famous ceremony aboard the battleship ''USS Missouri'' in Tokyo Bay. This was the ending of World War II, after six years almost to the day.

==Effects of war on empires==

*[[Iron Curtain]]
:The Red army conquered practically everything east of the "Iron Curtain," destroying independent national governments and making them all subservient to Moscow. The US grudgingly tolerated this imperialism until 1947, when it was Greece's turn. Then the US drew the line and adopted a policy of [[containment]]. Because of the geography of war, [[Yugoslavia]] and [[Albania]] escaped the Red Army. They fell under the control of independent Communists--Yugoslavia received American support, and Albania turned to Red China for help against the Soviets.

*[[British Empire]]
:The war effectively bankrupted Britain, which soon gave up India (which then included Pakistan and Ceylon) and many of its other colonies.

* French Empire
:France saluted its overseas Empire as the savior of France, and wanted control back. That led to nasty large scale wars in Algeria and Vietnam, which France lost.

*the Netherlands and Indonesia
:The Dutch returned to the [[Dutch East Indies]] to face an insurrection they could not handle. Dutch acknowledged in 1949 the sovereignty of [[Indonesia]], a non-Communist state.

*Supremacy of the USA in the Western World
:The war left the U.S. with a vastly stronger economy than anyone else. To save on budget deficits the military was demobilized, but the long-term strategy was in confusion after Roosevelt's death.

==See also==
===Land war===
[[Image:Bradley.jpg|thumb|290px|''Time'' Dec. 4, 1944]]
* [[Battle of the Bulge]], Dec. 1944
* [[Battle of Okinawa]], spring 1945
* [[Second Sino-Japanese War]], 1937-45
* [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]], US general
* [[Omar Bradley]], US general
* [[George S. Patton, Jr.]], US general
===Air war===
* [[Luftwaffe]], German air force
* [[World War II in the Air]]
* [[Bombing of Japan]]
* [[Bombing of Germany]]
===Naval===
* [[Attack on Pearl Harbor]], Dec. 1941
* [[Battle of Midway]], June 1942
* [[Chester W. Nimitz]], US Admiral

===Homefronts===
* [[Holocaust]], killing the Jews

===Leaders===
* [[Charles de Gaulle]], France
* [[Adolf Hitler]], Germany
* [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], US
* [[Winston Churchill]], Britain
* [[Joseph Stalin]], Russia
* [[Chiang Kai-shek]], China
* [[Benito Mussolini]], Italy
* [[William Lyon Mackenzie King]], Canada
* [[John Curtin]], Australia

==Further reading==
For a more detailed guide, see [[Bibliography of World War II]]

* Dear, I. C. B. and M. R. D. Foot, eds. ''Oxford Companion to World War II'' (in Britain titled ''Oxford Companion to the Second World War'' (2005; 2nd ed. 2009). the best reference book; [http://www.amazon.com/Oxford-Companion-World-War-II/dp/019280670X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236549909&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* ''Times Atlas of the Second World War'' (1995)
* Weinberg, Gerhard L. ''A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II'', (1994) the best overall view of the war.
* Wheeler, Keith. ''The Fall of Japan'' (1983)

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

== External Links ==
* United States Department of the Navy/Navy Historical Center's [http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq36-4.htm Fleet Admiral Chester William Nimitz]
* [http://www.onpower.org/history_wwii.html/ World War II]
* [http://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?issueID=12&articleID=139 "On the Brink of World War II: Justus Doenecke’s ''Storm on the Horizon''," by Ralph Raico]
*[http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~epf/1997/padilla.html Kursk: The Turning Point on the Eastern Front in World War II], by Roberto R. Padilla II
* [http://encyc.org/WorldWarII World War II - Encyc]
* [http://www.independent.org/publications/working_papers/article.asp?id=1499 "Government and the Economy: The World Wars," by Robert Higgs]
* [http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=113 "How War Amplified Federal Power in the Twentieth Century," by Robert Higgs]
* [http://www.independent.org/store/book_detail.asp?bookID=65 ''Depression, War and Cold War'', by Robert Higgs]
* [http://www.independent.org/publications/article.asp?id=138 "Wartime Prosperity?", by Robert Higgs]
* [http://www.independent.org/issues/article.asp?id=1431 Pearl Harbor]
[[Category:World War II| ]]
[[Category:Wars]]

World War II

2012-12-02T18:54:55Z

JJCC: Undo revision 1021701 by JJCC (talk)

{{World War 2
| image =WWII collage.JPG
| conflict =
| date =1939-1945
| location =Europe North and eastern Africa Eastern Asia Pacific Ocean Atlantic Ocean 
| combatant1 ='''Allies''' [[Great Britain]] [[France]] [[Soviet Union]](From 1941) [[China]] [[United States]](from 1941) [[Poland]] [[Denmark]] [[Norway]] [[Belgium]] [[Luxembourg]] [[Canada]] [[Australia]] [[New Zealand]] [[Netherlands]] [[Yugoslavia]] [[Greece]] [[Italy]](from 1943 to 1945)
| combatant2 ='''Axis''' [[Nazi Germany]] [[Italy]](until 1943) [[Japan]] [[Hungary]](1941–45) [[Romania]](1941–44) [[Bulgaria]](1941–44) [[Italian Social Republic]] (1943-1945)
| commander1 =
| commander2 =
| strength1 =
| strength2 =
| casualties1 =
| casualties2 =
}}
'''World War II''' was a global set of conflicts, beginning in 1931 in Asia, 1935 in Africa, and 1939 in Europe, all lasting until 1945, in which the [[Allies|Allied powers]] (led after the Fall of France by the [[British Commonwealth]], and including the [[United States]], the [[Soviet Union]], the [[Republic of China]], among many other nations), completely defeated the [[Axis Powers]] (led by [[Third Reich|Nazi Germany]], and including [[Italy]], [[Japan]], [[Hungary]], [[Romania]] and [[Bulgaria]]). Although Japan's war against China began in 1937, the main conflict started in September 1939 when Germany and the Soviet Union divided [[Poland]]; [[Britain]] and [[French Third Republic|France]] then declared war on Germany.

The conflict was the deadliest in human history with estimated deaths ranging from 50 million to over 70 million soldiers and civilians.<ref>http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm#Second</ref> It ended with the Soviet Union dominant in Eastern Europe, and the U.S. and its allies dominant in Western Europe, setting the stage for the [[Cold War]].
==Causes==
:''See: [[Causes of World War II]]''

==War Begins in Europe==
[[Image:Communazi Peace Pact.jpg|thumb|300px|right|By terms of a secret protocol to the [[Nazi-Soviet pact]], [[Poland]] was partitioned with Germany and the USSR each occupying 200,000 square kilometers.]]
:''See also: [[Molotov-Ribbentrop pact]]''

In the immediate run up to WWII, there were frequent reports of trespassing Polish troops. On August 31, 1939 German covert operatives staged a fake attack by Polish troops on a German radio station. WWII started on September 1, 1939, when German troops invaded Poland. Hitler justified this as a defensive act, pointing to the frequent border incidents, and said famously that from this moment on Germany would strike back.

The major tactical innovation of the war was the use of combined arms warfare, typified by the German doctrine of [[blitzkrieg]]. In this style of warfare armor, infantry, artillery and air power (see [[Luftwaffe]]) all coordinate to achieve overwhelming superiority at point on the enemy lines. Armor and fast-moving infantry units then exploit the gap and penetrate deep behind enemy lines. The objective is to cause a widespread collapse of the enemy's ability to fight. It was particularly effective during the early stages of the war, before the Allies developed effective countermeasures.
On September 17, 1939, Poland was invaded from the east by Hitler’s ally, [[Josef Stalin|Stalin]].

In 1939-1940, eastern Poland, [[Estonia]], [[Latvia]], [[Lithuania]] and [[Bessarabia]] were invaded and annexed by the Soviet Union.

==War in the West==
[[Image:Caen_sniper.jpg|left|thumb|200px|A Canadian soldier in the ruins of Caen, 9 July 1944]]
Once the invasion of Poland was complete, German forces regrouped while French and British forces remained on the defensive, leading US commentators to dub it the [[Sitskreig|Phoney War]]. May 10 1940 made clear that the war was real, as Germany invaded France, occupying neutral countries such as the [[Netherlands]], [[Luxembourg]] and [[Belgium]] in the process. Resistance by the British and French armies proved ineffective, and France was soon surrendered. British and French troops were routed and evacuated mainland Europe at [[Dunkirk]]. France was divided into the northern [[Occupied France]] and the collaborationist [[Vichy regime]] in the south of France, including [[Corsica]].

The collapse and occupation of France, together with Germany's non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union,<ref>[http://nobsopus.blogspot.com/2007/01/celebrations-marking-60-years-since-end.html Celebrations Marking 60 Years Since the End of World War II], Pavel Vitek, ''Russkii vopros - Studies'', No. 1 2005. Translation from Russian.</ref>, Germany's alliance with fascist Italy and an expansionist Japan, the benevolent neutrality of fascist Spain, and the fact that little of Europe was outside Axis control, led many to assume that Britain had been defeated. Indeed it would appear that the seemingly foolish decision of the relatively weak Britain to continue the war took the Axis powers off guard. This decision ensured the remaining British Empire was still involved in the war, with Japan threatening many British possessions in Asia.

In 1940 [[Denmark]] and [[Norway]] were invaded by German forces, to preempt a British occupation of Norway and occupy its coastline and ports to be used by the [[Kriegsmarine]]. Norway also contained a source of [[Heavy water]], potentially crucial in the construction of an atomic weapon. The operation was successful, but losses were heavy, especially to the Kriegsmarine. This was soon followed by the British troops invited by [[Iceland]] and American occupation of [[Greenland]]. (The goal was to prevent any increase in the range of German air and submarine activity, brought about the occupation of these lands - and of the Azores at the request of the Portuguese Government.)

With Britain the sole opposing European nation, the [[Battle of Britain]] commenced. The [[Luftwaffe]] attempted to achieve aerial dominance over the south of Britain, in order to allow a sea based invasion of the British Isles to proceed. From 10th July to the end of October the [[Royal Air Force]] and the Luftwaffe fought for dominance; the resilience of the RAF, which counted in its ranks also Commonwealth personnel, US volunteers and Polish and Czech exiles, and the use of [[radar]] and its associated early warning systems, had forced a rethink of German tactics. It was the first significant setback for the Germans in the War. They now concentrated on the great population centers, especially London, hoping that huge civilian casualties would weaken morale and lead to a lessening of the war effort by the populace. The period that followed, popularly known as [[the Blitz]], lasted into May 1941. Around 40,000 civilians and civil defense workers died; but the Germans failed to reach their objectives and their resources were soon diverted to the Eastern front as Hitler began concentrating on the impending invasion of the Soviet Union.

With the pressure off their airbases the RAF was now able to increase its nightly raids on industrial sites in Germany and occupied lands. Because of the inability to correctly target these sites, the raids soon turned into “area bombing”, and German civilian casualties rose. These raids were to reach further into Germany as the war progressed and were greatly increased when American bombers began their sorties.

==Finnish Wars==

The Soviet Union invaded [[Finland]], a neutral, on November 30 1939. This conflict came to be known as the "Winter War". Despite the overwhelming numbers of the Red Army, the Finnish resistance was strong and the battle was hard fought before the Soviet army took control. Outside powers (including the U.S.) considered intervention to help Finland; only a little aid trickled in and Finland was forced to sue for peace. The peace treaty signed in March 1940 favored the Soviets, but they paid heavily for their victory with 200,000 dead. Finland lost 25,000 dead, and had to absorb 400,000 refugees from areas turned over to the Soviets. In 1941 Finland joined Germany in attacking the Soviets, in the "Continuation War" (1941-44), but lost again. An armistice in Sept. 1944 stabilized the border, using March 1940 lines; in addition Finland had to pay heavy reparations and had to remain neutral in the [[Cold War]].<ref> Roger R. Reese, "Lessons of the Winter War: a Study in the Military Effectiveness of the Red Army, 1939-1940," ''Journal of Military History'' 2008 72(3): 825-852 </ref>

==Soviet-German War==
1941 marked the major turning point in the war in Europe, when the Germans undertook [[Operation Barbarossa]] - the invasion of the Soviet Union. Stalin was repeatedly informed by his own spies and anti-German countries that Germany was about to attack; he rejected the accurate reports and paid dearly for the blunder.

In June--behind schedule because of diversions in the Balkans--the Germans launched their massive war against the Soviet Union (known as the "Great Patriotic War" in Russia). It was by far the largest, bloodiest, and most decisive phase of World War II. Outside observers in the first few months figured that Germany would win easily. But the Nazi armies were split three ways, logistics became worse and worse as distances grew, and none met their objective by the time the extreme Russian winter of 1941-42 set in. Blitzkrieg had failed against the Soviets, and the Germans lacked the resources to fight a long war against a country with such vast areas and so many more people. The Luftwaffe, which promised to overcome the slowness of ground travel, failed to provide adequate support and was soon matched and outnumbered by the Soviet air force.<ref> The best studies of this theater are by [http://books.google.com/books?as_q=&num=30&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_brr=0&as_pt=ALLTYPES&lr=&as_vt=&as_auth=glantz+david&as_pub=&as_sub=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&as_isbn=&as_issn= David Glantz]</ref>

In the third year of war Germany began to suffer from a lack of important ressources such as oil. Hitler therefore ordered the german army to take the city of Stalingrad and the oil fields of Baku in South Russia. The operation failed after the 6th German army was encircled in Stalingrad and completely annihilated. The [[Battle of Stalingrad]] marked a turning point in the war and the Soviet Union started launching their own offensives. After a time of comparatively slow progress, the brilliant Soviet officer, Konstantin Rokossovsky, engineered "Operation Bagration", named-so after the Napoleonic Russian hero. The operation was extremely successful for the Soviets, leading to around 600,000 Soviet casualties and over 500,000 German casualties, including over 60,000 German vehicles and tanks. Even the Germans' best officer, Erich von Manstein, couldn't turn the situation around. Finally, in 1945, Soviet troops stormed Berlin, and forced Nazi Germany into capitulation.

==Far East==

After Pearl Harbor, the Japanese juggernaut seemed unstoppable. In the south, they conquered the [[Philippines]], the oil-rich Dutch East Indies, Malaysia, and extended their reach as far as the Solomon Islands. In the west, they seized [[Burma]] and the vital port at [[Rangoon]], and even attacked British forces at [[Ceylon]]. The Japanese empire now reached as far as [[Wake Island]] in the east and the [[Aleutian Islands]] to the north. Attacks on Japanese targets, including the Doolittle raid, boasted American morale, but did little material damage. In May 1942, Japanese forces were finally halted at the [[Battle of the Coral Sea]], which cost the Americans a precious [[aircraft carrier]], but saved southern [[New Guinea]]. At the [[Battle of Midway]] a month later, the Japanese lost four of their best carriers, suffering a blow to their sea power from which they never recovered.

The Americans took the offensive in August with a landing on the island of [[Guadalcanal]]. The overall American offensive strategy was two-pronged. Forces in the south advanced up the Solomon island chain and New Guinea, while in the central Pacific, Marines took island after island, including [[Battle of Tarawa|Tarawa]], Eniwetok, [[Saipan]], and [[Guam]]. The two lines of attack came together at the Philippines.

Integral to the strategy was the policy of island hopping. Many Japanese strongholds were bypassed, allowing the American forces to concentrate on more strategically significant islands. For example, [[Truk]] and Rabaul were home to major Japanese air and naval bases, but once the bases were neutralized, there was no reason to take on the troops there. This policy not only saved thousands of American (and Japanese) lives, it shortened the war by at least several months.

The American invasion of the Philippines took place in late October of 1944 when Marines landed on Leyte Island. A few days later, the US Navy shattered what was left of Japanese naval power in the [[Battle of Leyte Gulf]]. The Japanese fought hard, however, and Leyte took two months to secure. When the Americans landed on the other islands, they found the troops there equally unwilling to retreat, but with American superiority in almost every area, the outcome was never really in doubt. [[Manila]] was captured by March, and the American position had become solid enough that leaders could start preparing for the final stage: [[Operation Downfall|the invasion of Japan]]. The first step was taken when the island of [[Okinawa]] was captured in June after two months of heavy fighting. Operation Olympic, the invasion of [[Kyushu]], was scheduled for November 1945, followed by Operation Coronet, the invasion of [[Honshu]], in March of 1946.

The Japanese, soldiers and civilians alike, were expected to put up a fierce defense. Army Chief of Staff [[George C. Marshall]] believed that Japan would fight to the last man, and insisted on preparing for a land invasion of Japan with an army of 2,000,000 men anticipating a tremendous number of casualties. Some analysts estimated the number of projected casualties from Operation Olympic alone at 250,000 dead and wounded.<ref>Historical Atlas of the U.S. Navy, by Craig L. Symonds, the Naval Institute, 1995</ref> For this reason, Washington strongly requested the Soviets declare war on Japan. At the Potsdam conference in mid-July 1945, Stalin told President Truman the Soviets would declare war on Japan but would not give a firm timetable.<ref>Wheeler (1983) p. 58</ref>
[[Image:Ww2-asia usma.edu pic.gif|thumb|300px|left|Time Line of Pacific War]]

==Japanese capitulation==
After the successful atom bomb test in the U.S., President Truman was left with the awesome task of deciding what to do with the power of the atomic bomb. Truman assembled a committee to advise him. The committee recommended the bomb should be used on the Japanese Empire mainland to save American lives and produce maximum shock to try to convince the Japanese to surrender.<ref>Wheeler (1983) pp. 58-60</ref> Therefore, on August 6, 1945, a B-29 Superfortress, the "Enola Gay" piloted by Paul Tibbet, dropped an atomic bomb (now called a nuclear weapon) on [[Hiroshima]]. Japan did not respond, so on August 9, "Bocks Car", a B-29 piloted by Frederick C. Bock dropped the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki.<ref>Wheeler (1983) pp. 94-101</ref>

The Soviet Union declared war on Japan at midnight August 8, 1945, in response to the American requests and in a last-minute grab for the spoils of war. It invaded Manchuria and Korea with 1.6 million troops; the Japanese army disintegrated. The Soviets captured 600,000 military and civilian prisoners of war; most of whom never returned home again.<ref>Wheeler (1983) p. 156</ref> It was no longer possible for the Imperial Army to defend the emperor. On August 15, 1945, Emperor Hirohito by radio broadcast announced Japan would accept the terms of the Allies, unconditional surrender.<ref>Wheeler (1983) pp. 165-167</ref> By follow up message, the Japanese government stated they were surrendering with the understanding the Emperor would remain on the throne and would not be hung as a war criminal. Washington agreed, saying the authority of the emperor would be "subject to the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers." On September 2, 1945, the Japanese Emperor formally surrendered all Japanese forces to the Allies in a famous ceremony aboard the battleship ''USS Missouri'' in Tokyo Bay. This was the ending of World War II, after six years almost to the day.

==Effects of war on empires==

*[[Iron Curtain]]
:The Red army conquered practically everything east of the "Iron Curtain," destroying independent national governments and making them all subservient to Moscow. The US grudgingly tolerated this imperialism until 1947, when it was Greece's turn. Then the US drew the line and adopted a policy of [[containment]]. Because of the geography of war, [[Yugoslavia]] and [[Albania]] escaped the Red Army. They fell under the control of independent Communists--Yugoslavia received American support, and Albania turned to Red China for help against the Soviets.

*[[British Empire]]
:The war effectively bankrupted Britain, which soon gave up India (which then included Pakistan and Ceylon) and many of its other colonies.

* French Empire
:France saluted its overseas Empire as the savior of France, and wanted control back. That led to nasty large scale wars in Algeria and Vietnam, which France lost.

*the Netherlands and Indonesia
:The Dutch returned to the [[Dutch East Indies]] to face an insurrection they could not handle. Dutch acknowledged in 1949 the sovereignty of [[Indonesia]], a non-Communist state.

*Supremacy of the USA in the Western World
:The war left the U.S. with a vastly stronger economy than anyone else. To save on budget deficits the military was demobilized, but the long-term strategy was in confusion after Roosevelt's death.

==See also==
===Land war===
[[Image:Bradley.jpg|thumb|290px|''Time'' Dec. 4, 1944]]
* [[Battle of the Bulge]], Dec. 1944
* [[Battle of Okinawa]], spring 1945
* [[Second Sino-Japanese War]], 1937-45
* [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]], US general
* [[Omar Bradley]], US general
* [[George S. Patton, Jr.]], US general
===Air war===
* [[Luftwaffe]], German air force
* [[World War II in the Air]]
* [[Bombing of Japan]]
* [[Bombing of Germany]]
===Naval===
* [[Attack on Pearl Harbor]], Dec. 1941
* [[Battle of Midway]], June 1942
* [[Chester W. Nimitz]], US Admiral

===Homefronts===
* [[Holocaust]], killing the Jews

===Leaders===
* [[Charles de Gaulle]], France
* [[Adolf Hitler]], Germany
* [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], US
* [[Winston Churchill]], Britain
* [[Joseph Stalin]], Russia
* [[Chiang Kai-shek]], China
* [[Benito Mussolini]], Italy
* [[William Lyon Mackenzie King]], Canada
* [[John Curtin]], Australia

==Further reading==
For a more detailed guide, see [[Bibliography of World War II]]

* Dear, I. C. B. and M. R. D. Foot, eds. ''Oxford Companion to World War II'' (in Britain titled ''Oxford Companion to the Second World War'' (2005; 2nd ed. 2009). the best reference book; [http://www.amazon.com/Oxford-Companion-World-War-II/dp/019280670X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236549909&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* ''Times Atlas of the Second World War'' (1995)
* Weinberg, Gerhard L. ''A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II'', (1994) the best overall view of the war.
* Wheeler, Keith. ''The Fall of Japan'' (1983)

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

== External Links ==
* United States Department of the Navy/Navy Historical Center's [http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq36-4.htm Fleet Admiral Chester William Nimitz]
* [http://www.onpower.org/history_wwii.html/ World War II]
* [http://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?issueID=12&articleID=139 "On the Brink of World War II: Justus Doenecke’s ''Storm on the Horizon''," by Ralph Raico]
*[http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~epf/1997/padilla.html Kursk: The Turning Point on the Eastern Front in World War II], by Roberto R. Padilla II
* [http://encyc.org/WorldWarII World War II - Encyc]
* [http://www.independent.org/publications/working_papers/article.asp?id=1499 "Government and the Economy: The World Wars," by Robert Higgs]
* [http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=113 "How War Amplified Federal Power in the Twentieth Century," by Robert Higgs]
* [http://www.independent.org/store/book_detail.asp?bookID=65 ''Depression, War and Cold War'', by Robert Higgs]
* [http://www.independent.org/publications/article.asp?id=138 "Wartime Prosperity?", by Robert Higgs]
* [http://www.independent.org/issues/article.asp?id=1431 Pearl Harbor]
[[Category:World War II| ]]
[[Category:Wars]]

World War II

2012-12-02T18:53:28Z

JJCC:

Counterexamples to Relativity

2012-12-02T18:50:17Z

JJCC:

The [[theory of relativity]] is a mathematical system that allows no exceptions. It is heavily promoted by [[liberals]] who like its encouragement of [[moral relativism|relativism]] and its tendency to mislead people in how they view the world.<ref group="note">See, e.g., historian Paul Johnson's book about the 20th century, and the article written by liberal law professor Laurence Tribe as allegedly assisted by [[Barack Obama]]. Virtually no one who is taught and believes Relativity continues to read the [[Bible]], a book that outsells ''New York Times'' bestsellers by a hundred-fold.</ref> Here is a list of 46 counterexamples: any one of them shows that the theory is incorrect.
#Computer simulations based on the theory of relativity predict far more [[black holes]] than are observed.<ref>"The ratio of the mass of black holes in galaxy centers to the rest of the matter in galaxies is larger in the simulations than in the real universe." [http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=biggest-black-hole-blast-ever Scientific American November 28, 2012]</ref> Indeed, it is debatable whether [[black holes]] exist at all.
#The orbital eccentricity of the [[Moon]]'s orbit is increasing, contrary to what Relativity predicts.<ref>http://arxiv.org/abs/1102.0212</ref>
#The [[Pioneer anomaly]].
#The [[Sun]] is a '''''perfect''''' sphere - "the solar flattening is ... too small to agree with that predicted from its surface rotation."<ref>http://www.tgdaily.com/space-features/65491-why-is-the-sun-so-round</ref>
#Subatomic particles with mass have a speed observed to be as fast as the speed of light ("we are 100% sure that the speed of light is the speed of neutrinos"<ref>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17364682</ref>), which contradicts Relativity because the [[Lorentz factor]] is then infinite.<ref>http://www.hindustantimes.com/Roll-over-Einstein-Law-of-physics-challenged/Article1-749189.aspx - note that a similar observation of faster-than-light speeds was also made in 2007 (with a larger margin of error).</ref><ref>http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/18/us-science-neutrinos-light-idUSTRE7AH0T720111118</ref> Neutrinos were observed to travel at the speed of light by an independent experiment also: "Their neutrinos traveled at precisely the speed of light, not faster or slower."<ref>http://junkscience.com/2012/03/21/no-you-still-cant-go-faster-than-light/</ref>
#Anomalies in the locations of spacecraft that have flown by [[Earth]] ("flybys"). During the gravity assists from Earth, both the Galileo spacecraft and the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft experienced a change in velocity different than that predicted by General Relativity.<ref>http://trs-new.jpl.nasa.gov/dspace/bitstream/2014/19088/1/98-0296.pdf</ref><ref>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23410705/</ref>
#Spiral galaxies confound Relativity, and unseen, nonexistent "[[dark matter]]" has been invented to try to retrofit observations to the theory.<ref>http://arxiv.org/abs/1105.1873</ref> "Dark matter mysteriously missing around sun. Theories say neighborhood should be filled with it, but new study shows otherwise."<ref>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47101905</ref>
#The acceleration in the expansion of the universe confounds Relativity, and unseen "[[dark energy]]" has been invented to try to retrofit observations to the theory.
#Increasingly precise measurements of the advance of the perihelion of Mercury show a shift greater than predicted by Relativity, well beyond the margin of error.<ref group="note">In a complicated or contrived series of calculations that most physics majors cannot duplicate even after learning them, the theory of general relativity's fundamental formula, <math>G_{\mu\nu} = 8 \pi K T_{\mu\nu}\,</math>, was conformed to match Mercury's then-observed precession of 5600.0 arc-seconds per century. Subsequently, however, more sophisticated technology has measured a different value of this precession (5599.7 arc-seconds per century, with a margin of error of only 0.01), and leading promoters of Relativity (such as Professor Clifford Will) have omitted this in listing tests confirming Relativity.</ref>
#Despite wasting millions of taxpayer dollars searching for gravitational waves predicted by the theory, no direct observation of gravity waves has occurred.<ref>http://arxiv.org/abs/1102.3781</ref> ''Sound like [[global warming]]?''
#The discontinuity in momentum as velocity approaches "c" for infinitesimal mass, compared to the momentum of light.
#The logical problem of a force which is applied at a right angle to the velocity of a relativistic mass - does this act on the rest mass or the relativistic mass?
#The observed lack of curvature in overall space.<ref group="note">If space were curved, one would never expect the universe as a whole to be almost precisely flat. Yet it is.</ref>
#The universe shortly after its creation, when quantum effects dominated and contradicted Relativity.
#The [[action-at-a-distance]] of [[quantum entanglement]].<ref group="note">Quantum entanglement has not yet communicated information faster than the speed of light, but has already exhibited action faster than the speed of light.</ref>
#The [[action-at-a-distance]] by [[Jesus]], described in [[John 1-7 (Translated)|John 4:46-54]], [[Matthew 10-19 (Translated)|Matthew 15:28]], and [[Matthew 20-28 (Translated)|Matthew 27:51]].
#The failure to discover [[gravitons]], despite spending hundreds of millions in taxpayer money in searching. While these tax dollars were not necessarily "wasted", the lack of results indicate that scientists need to revisit their hypothesis.
#Newly observed data reveal that the fine-structure constant, α (alpha), actually varies throughout the universe, demonstrating that all inertial frames of reference do '''not''' experience identical laws of physics as claimed by Relativity.<ref group="note">For a report on the data, see a paper submitted in 2010 by John Webb and Julian King of the University of new South Wales, Australia, to the ''Physical Review Letters''.</ref>
#The double star "W13" weighs "40 times as much as the sun—more than enough to form a [[black hole]]. So why is it not a black hole? The only explanation [a leading scientist] can think of ... does not make astrophysical sense."<ref>http://www.economist.com/node/17035953</ref>
#The inability of the theory to lead to other insights, contrary to every verified theory of physics.
#The change in mass over time of standard kilograms preserved under ideal conditions.<ref>[[Mystery:Why Is the Kilogram Losing Weight?]]</ref>
#The uniformity in temperature throughout the universe.<ref>http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn6092-speed-of-light-may-have-changed-recently.html ("A varying speed of light contradicts Einstein's theory of relativity, and would undermine much of traditional physics. But some physicists believe it would elegantly explain puzzling cosmological phenomena such as the nearly uniform temperature of the universe.")</ref>
#"According to Einstein’s view on the universe, space-time should be smooth and continuous" but observations instead show "inexplicable static" greater than "all artificial sources of" possible background noise.<ref>[http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/Cool-Astronomy/2010/1025/Is-the-universe-a-big-hologram-This-device-could-find-out. Hunt for gravitational waves discovers unexpected data instead].</ref>
#"The snag is that in quantum mechanics, time retains its Newtonian aloofness, providing the stage against which matter dances but never being affected by its presence. These two [QM and Relativity] conceptions of time don’t gel."<ref>http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=splitting-time-from-space</ref>
#The theory predicts [[wormholes]] just as it predicts [[black holes]], but wormholes violate causality and permit absurd time travel.<ref>http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v61/i13/p1446_1 . The popular science press promotes black holes to a far greater extent than wormholes.</ref>
#The theory predicts natural formation of highly ordered (and thus low entropy) black holes despite the increase in [[entropy]] required by the [[Second Law of Thermodynamics]].<ref group="note">Contrived explanations have been suggested for this dilemma, such as Stephen Hawking proposing that the entropy of matter in a black hole is somehow stored in the surface area of its event horizon to be released back into its surroundings as the black hole decays by radiation, known as "Hawking radiation."</ref>
#Data from the [[PSR B1913 16|PSR B1913+16]] increasingly diverge from predictions of the [[General Theory of Relativity]] such that, despite a Nobel Prize in Physics being awarded for early work on this pulsar, no data at all have been released about it for over five years.
#The lack of useful devices developed based on any insights provided by the theory; no lives have been saved or helped, and the theory has not led to other useful theories and may have interfered with scientific progress.<ref group="note">Contrary to the claims of Relativists, the GPS system has never been based on Relativity. The Time Service Department, U.S. Navy, observed that "The Operational Control System (OCS) of the Global Positioning System (GPS) does not include the rigorous transformations between coordinate systems that Einstein’s general theory of relativity would seem to require" in part because "the effects of relativity, where they are different from the effects predicted by classical mechanics and electromagnetic theory, are too small to matter – less than one centimeter, for users on or near the earth.”</ref> This stands in stark contrast with every verified theory of science.
#Relativity requires different values for the inertia of a moving object: in its direction of motion, and perpendicular to that direction. This contradicts the logical principle that the laws of physics are the same in all directions.
#Relativity requires that anything traveling at the speed of light must have mass zero, so it must have momentum zero. But the laws of electrodynamics require that light have nonzero momentum.
#Unlike most well-tested fundamental physical theories, the theory of relativity violates conditions of a conservative field. Path independence, for example, is lacking under the theory of relativity, as in the "twin paradox" whereby the age of each twin under the theory is dependent on the path he traveled.<ref group="note">In defense of the theory, it is noted that it mandates conservation of the matter-stress-energy tensor (the only way to get ''real'' conservation, since matter and energy are interchangeable.) This follows from the "contracted Bianchi identity." [http://www.mth.uct.ac.za/omei/gr/chap6/node14.html] Also, the curl of the "gravitational field vector" is exactly zero in the absence of moving sources, due to symmetries of [[Riemann]]'s tensor. It follows, from [[Stokes' Theorem]], that the gravitational field is conservative and has a potential function. Energy is conserved.</ref>
#The Ehrenfest Paradox: Consider a spinning hoop, where the tangential velocity is near the speed of light. In this case, the circumference (<math>2 \pi R</math>) is length-contracted. However, since <math>R</math> is always perpendicular to the motion, it is not contracted. This leads to an apparent paradox: does the radius of the accelerating hoop equal <math>R</math>, or is it less than <math>R</math>?
#Based on Relativity, Einstein predicted in 1905 that clocks at the Earth's equator would be slower than clocks at the North Pole, due to different velocities; in fact, all clocks at sea level measure time at the same rate, and Relativists made new assumptions about the Earth's shape to justify this contradiction of the theory; they also make the implausible claim that relativistic effects from gravitation precisely offset the effects from differences in velocity.<ref>http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v227/n5255/abs/227270a0.html</ref>
#The Twin Paradox: Consider twins who are separated with one traveling at a very high speed such that his "clock" (age) slows down, so that when he returns he has a younger age than the twin; this violates Relativity because ''both'' twins should expect the other to be younger, if motion is relative. Einstein himself admitted that this contradicts Relativity.<ref group="note">Einstein attempted to explain the paradox based on the acceleration that one twin uniquely undergoes, but the length of travel can simply be extended such that any effect from acceleration would be ''de minimis''.</ref>
#Based on Relativity, Einstein claimed in 1909 that the [[aether (science)|aether]] does not exist, but in order to make subatomic physics work right, theorists had to introduce the aether-like concept of the Higgs field, which fills all of space and breaks symmetries.
#[[Minkowski space]] is predicated on the idea of four-dimensional vectors of which one component is [[time]]. However, one of the properties of a [[vector space]] is that every vector have an inverse. Time (formally: movement forward in time) cannot be a vector because it has no inverse.
#In [[Genesis (ch.1)|Genesis 1:6-8]], we are told that one of God's first creations was a firmament in the heavens. This likely refers to the creation of the luminiferous [[aether]].
#It is impossible to perform an experiment to determine whether Einstein's theory of relativity is correct, or the older Lorentz aether theory is correct. Believing one over the other is a matter of [[faith]].
#Despite a century of wasting billions of dollars in work on the theory, "No one knows how to solve completely the equations of general relativity that describe gravity; they are simply beyond current understanding."<ref>[http://www.mathunion.org/o/General/Prizes/2006/TaoENG.pdf Statement in awarding the coveted Fields Medal]</ref>
#Experiments in electromagnetic induction contradict Relativity: "Einstein’s Relativity ... can not explain the experiment in graph 2, in which moving magnetic field has not produced electric field."<ref>http://www.wbabin.net/weuro/qingping1.pdf</ref><ref>http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0504223</ref>
#Relativity breaks down if a [[solenoid]] is traveling at or near the speed of light.<ref>http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?p=3244279</ref>
#General Relativity predicts how the gravitational fields of the Sun and Moon generate ocean tides. However, in the summer of 2009, tides along the East Coast of the United States were higher than expected. <ref>http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/07/hightides/</ref>
#The supermassive black hole within the [[Andromeda galaxy]] puzzled researchers by increasing in brightness by a factor of 100 in 2006.<ref>http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2010/0525/Two-giant-black-holes-surprise-scientists-with-unexpected-behavior.</ref>
#Scientists are unable to explain a June 2012 cluster of earthquakes in Ireland.<ref>http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0607/1224317443871.html</ref>
#Apparently, the equations of General Relativity do not apply to the motions of extra-solar planets. Scientists are studying Gamma Cephei, a system of two stars and one known planet. When data from the Hubble Space telescope was analyzed, it was found that the observed orbital arrangement should not be stable.<ref>http://stardate.org/radio/program/gamma-cephei-iv</ref>
#General Relativity fails to predict the Allais Effect. The Christian researcher and economist Maurice Allais noted a sudden change in the orientation of a swinging pendulum during the 1959 solar eclipse.<ref>http://www.allais.info/allaisdox.htm</ref> Many subsequent attempts to duplicate the result have been ''reported as'' failures, consistent with an concerted effort to suppress knowledge about the phenomenon.
(add to list)

''For a discussion of attempts to rebut some of these counterarguments, see [[Essay:Rebuttal to Counterexamples to Relativity]].''

== See also ==
*[[E=mc²]]
*[[Counterexamples to Evolution]]
*[[Counterexamples to an Old Earth]]
*[[Counterexamples to the Bible]]
== Notes ==
<references group="note"/>
== References ==

{{Reflist}}
{{Counterexamples}}
{{Relativity}}
[[Category:physics]]
[[Category:relativity]]
[[Category:science]]

Counterexamples to Relativity

2012-12-02T18:49:02Z

JJCC: Undo revision 1021685 by Politicnut (talk)

The [[theory of relativity]] is a mathematical system that allows no exceptions. It is heavily promoted by [[liberals]] who like its encouragement of [[moral relativism|relativism]] and its tendency to mislead people in how they view the world.<ref group="note">See, e.g., historian Paul Johnson's book about the 20th century, and the article written by liberal law professor Laurence Tribe as allegedly assisted by [[Barack Obama]]. Virtually no one who is taught and believes Relativity continues to read the [[Bible]], a book that outsells ''New York Times'' bestsellers by a hundred-fold.</ref> Here is a list of 46 counterexamples: any one of them shows that the theory is incorrect.
#Computer simulations based on the theory of relativity predict far more [[black holes]] than are observed.<ref>"The ratio of the mass of black holes in galaxy centers to the rest of the matter in galaxies is larger in the simulations than in the real universe." [http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=biggest-black-hole-blast-ever Scientific American November 28, 2012]</ref> Indeed, it is debatable whether [[black holes]] exist at all.
#The orbital eccentricity of the [[Moon]]'s orbit is increasing, contrary to what Relativity predicts.<ref>http://arxiv.org/abs/1102.0212</ref>
#The [[Pioneer anomaly]].
#The [[Sun]] is a '''''perfect''''' sphere - "the solar flattening is ... too small to agree with that predicted from its surface rotation."<ref>http://www.tgdaily.com/space-features/65491-why-is-the-sun-so-round</ref>
#Subatomic particles with mass have a speed observed to be as fast as the speed of light ("we are 100% sure that the speed of light is the speed of neutrinos"<ref>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17364682</ref>), which contradicts Relativity because the [[Lorentz factor]] is then infinite.<ref>http://www.hindustantimes.com/Roll-over-Einstein-Law-of-physics-challenged/Article1-749189.aspx - note that a similar observation of faster-than-light speeds was also made in 2007 (with a larger margin of error).</ref><ref>http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/18/us-science-neutrinos-light-idUSTRE7AH0T720111118</ref> Neutrinos were observed to travel at the speed of light by an independent experiment also: "Their neutrinos traveled at precisely the speed of light, not faster or slower."<ref>http://junkscience.com/2012/03/21/no-you-still-cant-go-faster-than-light/</ref>
#Anomalies in the locations of spacecraft that have flown by [[Earth]] ("flybys"). During the gravity assists from Earth, both the Galileo spacecraft and the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft experienced a change in velocity different than that predicted by General Relativity.<ref>http://trs-new.jpl.nasa.gov/dspace/bitstream/2014/19088/1/98-0296.pdf</ref><ref>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23410705/</ref>
#Spiral galaxies confound Relativity, and unseen, nonexistent "[[dark matter]]" has been invented to try to retrofit observations to the theory.<ref>http://arxiv.org/abs/1105.1873</ref> "Dark matter mysteriously missing around sun. Theories say neighborhood should be filled with it, but new study shows otherwise."<ref>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47101905</ref>
#The acceleration in the expansion of the universe confounds Relativity, and unseen "[[dark energy]]" has been invented to try to retrofit observations to the theory.
#Increasingly precise measurements of the advance of the perihelion of Mercury show a shift greater than predicted by Relativity, well beyond the margin of error.<ref group="note">In a complicated or contrived series of calculations that most physics majors cannot duplicate even after learning them, the theory of general relativity's fundamental formula, <math>G_{\mu\nu} = 8 \pi K T_{\mu\nu}\,</math>, was conformed to match Mercury's then-observed precession of 5600.0 arc-seconds per century. Subsequently, however, more sophisticated technology has measured a different value of this precession (5599.7 arc-seconds per century, with a margin of error of only 0.01), and leading promoters of Relativity (such as Professor Clifford Will) have omitted this in listing tests confirming Relativity.</ref>
#Despite wasting millions of taxpayer dollars searching for gravitational waves predicted by the theory, no direct observation of gravity waves has occurred.<ref>http://arxiv.org/abs/1102.3781</ref> ''Sound like [[global warming]]?''
#The discontinuity in momentum as velocity approaches "c" for infinitesimal mass, compared to the momentum of light.
#The logical problem of a force which is applied at a right angle to the velocity of a relativistic mass - does this act on the rest mass or the relativistic mass?
#The observed lack of curvature in overall space.<ref group="note">If space were curved, one would never expect the universe as a whole to be almost precisely flat. Yet it is.</ref>
#The universe shortly after its creation, when quantum effects dominated and contradicted Relativity.
#The [[action-at-a-distance]] of [[quantum entanglement]].<ref group="note">Quantum entanglement has not yet communicated information faster than the speed of light, but has already exhibited action faster than the speed of light.</ref>
#The [[action-at-a-distance]] by [[Jesus]], which is most certainly mythologised, described in [[John 1-7 (Translated)|John 4:46-54]], [[Matthew 10-19 (Translated)|Matthew 15:28]], and [[Matthew 20-28 (Translated)|Matthew 27:51]].
#The failure to discover [[gravitons]], despite spending hundreds of millions in taxpayer money in searching. While these tax dollars were not necessarily "wasted", the lack of results indicate that scientists need to revisit their hypothesis.
#Newly observed data reveal that the fine-structure constant, α (alpha), actually varies throughout the universe, demonstrating that all inertial frames of reference do '''not''' experience identical laws of physics as claimed by Relativity.<ref group="note">For a report on the data, see a paper submitted in 2010 by John Webb and Julian King of the University of new South Wales, Australia, to the ''Physical Review Letters''.</ref>
#The double star "W13" weighs "40 times as much as the sun—more than enough to form a [[black hole]]. So why is it not a black hole? The only explanation [a leading scientist] can think of ... does not make astrophysical sense."<ref>http://www.economist.com/node/17035953</ref>
#The inability of the theory to lead to other insights, contrary to every verified theory of physics.
#The change in mass over time of standard kilograms preserved under ideal conditions.<ref>[[Mystery:Why Is the Kilogram Losing Weight?]]</ref>
#The uniformity in temperature throughout the universe.<ref>http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn6092-speed-of-light-may-have-changed-recently.html ("A varying speed of light contradicts Einstein's theory of relativity, and would undermine much of traditional physics. But some physicists believe it would elegantly explain puzzling cosmological phenomena such as the nearly uniform temperature of the universe.")</ref>
#"According to Einstein’s view on the universe, space-time should be smooth and continuous" but observations instead show "inexplicable static" greater than "all artificial sources of" possible background noise.<ref>[http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/Cool-Astronomy/2010/1025/Is-the-universe-a-big-hologram-This-device-could-find-out. Hunt for gravitational waves discovers unexpected data instead].</ref>
#"The snag is that in quantum mechanics, time retains its Newtonian aloofness, providing the stage against which matter dances but never being affected by its presence. These two [QM and Relativity] conceptions of time don’t gel."<ref>http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=splitting-time-from-space</ref>
#The theory predicts [[wormholes]] just as it predicts [[black holes]], but wormholes violate causality and permit absurd time travel.<ref>http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v61/i13/p1446_1 . The popular science press promotes black holes to a far greater extent than wormholes.</ref>
#The theory predicts natural formation of highly ordered (and thus low entropy) black holes despite the increase in [[entropy]] required by the [[Second Law of Thermodynamics]].<ref group="note">Contrived explanations have been suggested for this dilemma, such as Stephen Hawking proposing that the entropy of matter in a black hole is somehow stored in the surface area of its event horizon to be released back into its surroundings as the black hole decays by radiation, known as "Hawking radiation."</ref>
#Data from the [[PSR B1913 16|PSR B1913+16]] increasingly diverge from predictions of the [[General Theory of Relativity]] such that, despite a Nobel Prize in Physics being awarded for early work on this pulsar, no data at all have been released about it for over five years.
#The lack of useful devices developed based on any insights provided by the theory; no lives have been saved or helped, and the theory has not led to other useful theories and may have interfered with scientific progress.<ref group="note">Contrary to the claims of Relativists, the GPS system has never been based on Relativity. The Time Service Department, U.S. Navy, observed that "The Operational Control System (OCS) of the Global Positioning System (GPS) does not include the rigorous transformations between coordinate systems that Einstein’s general theory of relativity would seem to require" in part because "the effects of relativity, where they are different from the effects predicted by classical mechanics and electromagnetic theory, are too small to matter – less than one centimeter, for users on or near the earth.”</ref> This stands in stark contrast with every verified theory of science.
#Relativity requires different values for the inertia of a moving object: in its direction of motion, and perpendicular to that direction. This contradicts the logical principle that the laws of physics are the same in all directions.
#Relativity requires that anything traveling at the speed of light must have mass zero, so it must have momentum zero. But the laws of electrodynamics require that light have nonzero momentum.
#Unlike most well-tested fundamental physical theories, the theory of relativity violates conditions of a conservative field. Path independence, for example, is lacking under the theory of relativity, as in the "twin paradox" whereby the age of each twin under the theory is dependent on the path he traveled.<ref group="note">In defense of the theory, it is noted that it mandates conservation of the matter-stress-energy tensor (the only way to get ''real'' conservation, since matter and energy are interchangeable.) This follows from the "contracted Bianchi identity." [http://www.mth.uct.ac.za/omei/gr/chap6/node14.html] Also, the curl of the "gravitational field vector" is exactly zero in the absence of moving sources, due to symmetries of [[Riemann]]'s tensor. It follows, from [[Stokes' Theorem]], that the gravitational field is conservative and has a potential function. Energy is conserved.</ref>
#The Ehrenfest Paradox: Consider a spinning hoop, where the tangential velocity is near the speed of light. In this case, the circumference (<math>2 \pi R</math>) is length-contracted. However, since <math>R</math> is always perpendicular to the motion, it is not contracted. This leads to an apparent paradox: does the radius of the accelerating hoop equal <math>R</math>, or is it less than <math>R</math>?
#Based on Relativity, Einstein predicted in 1905 that clocks at the Earth's equator would be slower than clocks at the North Pole, due to different velocities; in fact, all clocks at sea level measure time at the same rate, and Relativists made new assumptions about the Earth's shape to justify this contradiction of the theory; they also make the implausible claim that relativistic effects from gravitation precisely offset the effects from differences in velocity.<ref>http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v227/n5255/abs/227270a0.html</ref>
#The Twin Paradox: Consider twins who are separated with one traveling at a very high speed such that his "clock" (age) slows down, so that when he returns he has a younger age than the twin; this violates Relativity because ''both'' twins should expect the other to be younger, if motion is relative. Einstein himself admitted that this contradicts Relativity.<ref group="note">Einstein attempted to explain the paradox based on the acceleration that one twin uniquely undergoes, but the length of travel can simply be extended such that any effect from acceleration would be ''de minimis''.</ref>
#Based on Relativity, Einstein claimed in 1909 that the [[aether (science)|aether]] does not exist, but in order to make subatomic physics work right, theorists had to introduce the aether-like concept of the Higgs field, which fills all of space and breaks symmetries.
#[[Minkowski space]] is predicated on the idea of four-dimensional vectors of which one component is [[time]]. However, one of the properties of a [[vector space]] is that every vector have an inverse. Time (formally: movement forward in time) cannot be a vector because it has no inverse.
#In [[Genesis (ch.1)|Genesis 1:6-8]], we are told that one of God's first creations was a firmament in the heavens. This likely refers to the creation of the luminiferous [[aether]].
#It is impossible to perform an experiment to determine whether Einstein's theory of relativity is correct, or the older Lorentz aether theory is correct. Believing one over the other is a matter of [[faith]].
#Despite a century of wasting billions of dollars in work on the theory, "No one knows how to solve completely the equations of general relativity that describe gravity; they are simply beyond current understanding."<ref>[http://www.mathunion.org/o/General/Prizes/2006/TaoENG.pdf Statement in awarding the coveted Fields Medal]</ref>
#Experiments in electromagnetic induction contradict Relativity: "Einstein’s Relativity ... can not explain the experiment in graph 2, in which moving magnetic field has not produced electric field."<ref>http://www.wbabin.net/weuro/qingping1.pdf</ref><ref>http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0504223</ref>
#Relativity breaks down if a [[solenoid]] is traveling at or near the speed of light.<ref>http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?p=3244279</ref>
#General Relativity predicts how the gravitational fields of the Sun and Moon generate ocean tides. However, in the summer of 2009, tides along the East Coast of the United States were higher than expected. <ref>http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/07/hightides/</ref>
#The supermassive black hole within the [[Andromeda galaxy]] puzzled researchers by increasing in brightness by a factor of 100 in 2006.<ref>http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2010/0525/Two-giant-black-holes-surprise-scientists-with-unexpected-behavior.</ref>
#Scientists are unable to explain a June 2012 cluster of earthquakes in Ireland.<ref>http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0607/1224317443871.html</ref>
#Apparently, the equations of General Relativity do not apply to the motions of extra-solar planets. Scientists are studying Gamma Cephei, a system of two stars and one known planet. When data from the Hubble Space telescope was analyzed, it was found that the observed orbital arrangement should not be stable.<ref>http://stardate.org/radio/program/gamma-cephei-iv</ref>
#General Relativity fails to predict the Allais Effect. The Christian researcher and economist Maurice Allais noted a sudden change in the orientation of a swinging pendulum during the 1959 solar eclipse.<ref>http://www.allais.info/allaisdox.htm</ref> Many subsequent attempts to duplicate the result have been ''reported as'' failures, consistent with an concerted effort to suppress knowledge about the phenomenon.
(add to list)

''For a discussion of attempts to rebut some of these counterarguments, see [[Essay:Rebuttal to Counterexamples to Relativity]].''

== See also ==
*[[E=mc²]]
*[[Counterexamples to Evolution]]
*[[Counterexamples to an Old Earth]]
*[[Counterexamples to the Bible]]
== Notes ==
<references group="note"/>
== References ==

{{Reflist}}
{{Counterexamples}}
{{Relativity}}
[[Category:physics]]
[[Category:relativity]]
[[Category:science]]

Abortion

2012-12-02T18:47:38Z

JJCC: Undo revision 1021687 by Politicnut (talk)

[[Image:Baby.jpg|right|thumb|250px|An unborn child in the womb. Liberals believe that the unborn child has no right to life.]]
'''Abortion''' is the induced termination of a [[pregnancy]],<ref>American Heritage Dictionary definition, [http://www.bartleby.com/61/7/A0020700.html abortion].</ref> often causing [[fetal pain]]. As of 2012, it is estimated there have been over 54 million babies murdered by abortion in the [[United States]] since 1973.<ref name=factsheet>''National Right to Life Committee''. [http://www.christianliferesources.com/?/library/view.php&articleid=1042 U.S. Abortion Statistics By Year (1973-Current)]. National Right to Life Factsheet, January 2012. (Privacy laws and likely desire to keep this silent holocaust from raising alarm hinders data collection on abortion. CDC researchers have admitted they probably undercount the total number of abortions because reporting laws vary from state to state and some abortionists probably do not report or under-report the abortions they perform. Abortions from CA and NH have not been counted by the CDC since 1998, and reports from other states are also missing for some years.)</ref> Abortion is a billion-dollar industry in the [[United States]]. Although [[Planned Parenthood]] likes to claim abortion accounts for just 3% of its services, according to its 2007-08 budget, it received $1.038 billion of revenue, and half to two-thirds relates to its abortion services. (''See [[Abortion#Planned_Parenthood.27s_Budget|Planned Parenthood's Budget]]'') Dr. George Tiller "estimated that he performed 250 to 300 late-term abortions in 2003, each costing an average of $6,000."<ref>Hegeman, R. (2009, March 25). [http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2009/03/25/kan_doctor_testifies_in_abortion_case_against_him/ Kan. doctor testifies in abortion case against him]. ''Associated Press''.</ref>

All of the arguments for abortion fall flat when given serious scrutiny. Right to choice is a misnomer, since moral people can recognize that choosing to murder is a choice worthy of punishment. Right to one's body is no excuse for using that body to harm others. A right to privacy should not permit murder, whether in the privacy of one's own home or own body. And
{{TOC right}}
as Thomas Lucente Jr. once pointed out, saying one can't criticize a woman's choice to murder her children is the same as saying one can't criticize the president without being the president.<ref name=lucente>Lucente Jr., T.J. (2012, January 29). [http://www.limaohio.com/articles/right-78475-privacy-one.html Right to Privacy is Not a License to Kill]. ''LimaOhio.com.'' Freedom Communications, Inc.</ref> Both life of the mother and rape are rare circumstances accounting for less than 1% of all abortions, with little bearing on the broader "abortion on demand" issue, particularly since all legislation the Pro-Life movement has been putting out recently has included exceptions for them, and many states had laws allowing abortion for such cases before Roe v. Wade - abortion was legalized for other reasons. (''See [[Abortion#Arguments_On_Abortion|Arguments On Abortion]]'')

Ultimately, this debate is about when a fetus becomes a human being worthy of all applicable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness under the [[Declaration of Independence]], for once it is we should not take its life lightly. And when it comes to that, 18,150 abortions occur after the 21st week of pregnancy<ref name=induced>(2011, August). [http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_induced_abortion.html/ Facts on Induced Abortion in the United States]. ''Guttmacher Institute''.</ref> - the earliest point children can be born prematurely and live.<ref name=tooyoung>Rochman, B. (2011, May 27). [http://healthland.time.com/2011/05/27/baby-born-at-21-weeks-survives-how-young-is-too-young-to-save/ A 21-Week-Old Baby Survives and Doctors Ask, How Young is Too Young to Save?] ''Time Magazine''.</ref> An additional 45,980 abortions occur in the 16th-20th weeks of pregnancy.<ref name=induced /> These are 60 thousand abortions each year that are clearly murder, since the child is at or near the same stage of pregnancy as children born prematurely via C-Section. Furthermore, substantial fetal development occurs within the first 12 weeks (1st trimester) of pregnancy, including brain wave activity at 6 weeks, complete body sensitivity at 10 weeks, and all facial expressions (including smiling) at 11 weeks.<ref name=clowes>Clowes, Brian, PhD. 2001. [http://www.hli.org/index.php/the-facts-of-life/480?task=view The Facts of Life]. Ch. 12. Front Royal: Human Life International.
Also in: Sharing the Pro-Life Message. Chicago: Pro-Life Action League, 2009. Print.</ref> By not erring on the side of caution when potentially infringing on the inalienable right to life given by our Creator, the Pro-Choice movement has brought the blood of countless children on their hands, and on our nation's. (''See [[Abortion#When_Does_Life_Begin.3F|When Does Life Begin?]]'')

A growing body of evidence increasingly suggests that abortion is linked to Breast Cancer, later premature births, and other health concerns. Millions of women who had an abortion later suffer psychologically or physically from it, and support groups exist to help.<ref>Rodgers-Melnick, A. (2002, January 20). [http://www.post-gazette.com/regionstate/20020120abortion0120p3.asp Groups support those who regret abortions]. ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette''.</ref> Many victims of abortion find healing by speaking out against, and discouraging, similar harm to other mothers and their children.<ref>"I've noticed that everyone who is for abortion has already been born," observed President [[Ronald Reagan]]. He also observed, "With me, abortion is not a problem of religion, it's a problem of the Constitution. I believe that until and unless someone can establish that the unborn child ''is not a living human being'', then that child is already protected by the Constitution, which guarantees life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to all of us."</ref> "Abortion doesn't solve your problems, it only creates different ones," warned a full-page ad by women who had abortions.<ref>''Anglicans for Life'' and ''Priests for Life''. [http://www.silentnomoreawareness.org/signaturead/ad.pdf We Regret Our Abortions]. ''Orange County Right to Life''.</ref> Abortion always ends the life of the unborn child, typically by dismemberment. Abortion increases the risk of breast cancer, future premature birth, mental illness, and other long-term health problems for the mother, as detailed below. (''See [[Abortion#Health_Concerns|Health Concerns]]'')

One of NARAL's founders, [[Bernard Nathanson]], acknowledged that NARAL in the early days of the Pro-Choice movement simply fabricated statistics on back-alley abortions; inflating the actual numbers ten-fold to get abortion legalized. Rather than making abortion rare, the annual number of abortions has increased 1500% since [[Roe v. Wade]].<ref name=nathanson>Kupelian, David (2005, January 20). "[http://www.wnd.com/2005/01/28544/ Blood Confessions: Ex-Abortionists Spill Their Guts]." ''Whistleblower Magazine''. ''Whistleblower Magazine'' (2003, January 2). "[http://www.wnd.com/2003/01/16460/ Ex-Abortionists Expose America's Greatest Scandal]."</ref> (''See [[Abortion#History|History]]'') Gallup polling in 2012 reveals that just 24% of Americans support abortion after the first 12 weeks of pregnancy,<ref name=gallupabortion>''Gallup''. "[http://www.gallup.com/poll/1576/abortion.aspx/ Abortion]." Do you think abortion should be legal in most circumstances or only in a few circumstances?</ref> even though abortion is allowed in all 9 months. <ref name=ninemonths>[http://www.whyprolife.com/is-abortion-legal-all-9-months-of-pregnancy/ Is Abortion Legal All 9 Months of Pregnancy?] ''WhyProLife.com''.</ref> Just 25% believe abortion should be legal under all circumstances, and an additional 13% believe it should be legal under most circumstances. Most Americans believe abortion should usually be illegal save in rare cases.<ref name=gallupabortion /> (''See [[Abortion#Public_Opinion|Public Opinion]]'')

[[Abortion in Poland]] declined by 99% after [[communism]] was overthrown (and abortion abolished<ref>''Catholic World News'' (2007, April 11). [http://www.catholicculture.org/news/features/index.cfm?recnum=50451 Liberal abortion law takes effect in Portugal]. Trinity Communications.</ref>), and women's health has dramatically improved there due to fewer abortions.<ref>Johnston, W.R., Dr. (2008, October 9). [http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/policy/abortion/ab-poland.html Historical abortion statistics, Poland]. ''Johnston's Archive'.</ref>

==Statistics on abortion==

* As of 2012, it is estimated there has been over 54 million babies murdered by abortion since the Supreme Court handed down its 1973 ''Roe v. Wade'' decision. After reaching 25 percent from a high of over 1.6 million in the year 1990, the number of abortions performed annually in the U.S. has leveled off at about 1.2 million infants murdered by abortion a year, based on data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI).<ref name=factsheet />
* Approximately 22% of all U.S. pregnancies ended in abortion.<ref>Jones RK and Kooistra, K., [http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1363/4304111/abstract Abortion incidence and access to services in the United States], 2008, Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 2011, 43(1):41-50. (Excludes miscarriages.)</ref>
* Only about 1 percent each year are attributed to rape and incest.<ref name=rare>Johnston, W.R., Dr. (2008, October 9). [http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/policy/abortion/abreasons.html Reasons given for having abortions in the United States]. ''Johnston's Archive'.</ref> 40% of women ages 15 to 44 have had at least one abortion. 4 out of 10 teen pregnancies end in murder by abortion. Based on the rate of abortion, it was estimated (2000) that 43 percent of American women would have at least one abortion by the age of 45.
* 7 out of 10 U.S. women are sexually active (usually as fornicators) but do not want to become pregnant.<ref>''Alan Guttmacher Institute'', In Brief: Fact Sheet, [http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_induced_abortion.html/ Facts on Induced Abortion in the United States], August 2011.</ref>
* Women who have never married and are not cohabiting account for 45% of all abortions. 57% of all women having abortions between 15-44 are in their 20’s. 36% of non-Hispanic women are abortions were white, 30% are non-Hispanic black, and 25% are hispanic.<ref name=patients>Jones RK, Finer LB and Singh S, [https://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/US-Abortion-Patients.pdf Characteristics of U.S. Abortion Patients], 2008, New York: Guttmacher Institute, 2010.</ref>
* 37% of women killing babies by abortion were Protestant, (include those who identified as “Christian” but who did not specify a denomination) while 28% were Catholic, and 20% identified themselves as born-again, evangelical, charismatic or fundamentalist (in 2000, some 13% of abortion patients aged 18 and older identified as born-again or evangelical before the question was reworded slightly for the 2008 survey), while 27% gave no religious affiliation, increasing from 22% in 2000. (Protestants were under-represented among those committing abortion in proportion to the total number of Protestants nationwide, and the relative abortion rate for this group was lower than the rate for all women.)<ref name=patients />
* Although 66% of women having abortions had some type of health insurance, 57% paid for their abortion out of pocket. Among women with private health insurance, 63% paid out of pocket.<ref name=patients />

==Arguments On Abortion==
The following are some common Pro-Choice arguments on abortion, and problems with the reasoning.
===Right to Choose===
The obvious question not being confronted is what choice is at stake? The choice to kill another human being to bypass the consequences and responsibilities that should accompany the choice to create another life; in essence the choice to murder one's own children so sex can be engaged in freely without responsibility or consequence.<ref>Hoffman, M.C. (2012, May 28). [http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/abortion-is-murder-for-the-purpose-of-population-control-says-turkish-prime Abortion is ‘murder’ for the purpose of population control, says Turkish prime minister]. ''Life Site News''.</ref> Sometimes women die from abortion.<ref>See "Documented Incidents of 365 Women Who Have Been Killed by "Safe" and Legal Abortion." [http://abortionviolence.com/DEATHS.HTM 365 women who have been killed by 'Legal' abortion]</ref> Since abortion is deliberate and thought about in advance, it is comparable to a premeditated killing.<ref>First-degree murder is defined as "a killing which is deliberate and premeditated." [http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/first+degree+murder First Degree Murder]. ''The Free Dictionary''.</ref>
====Rare Circumstances: Life of Mother and Rape====
''BBC News'' has an article called "Abortion in self-defence" arguing that abortion should be allowed in cases where the mother's life and health are at risk, and that this is justifiable self-defense. However, ''BBC News'' acknowledges that abortion is NOT justified for the following reasons: {{cquote|"But supposing the mother is not in physical danger, what then? There are a number of cases where some people argue that a woman should have the right to an abortion, such as: damage to mental health, damage to family, damage to career prospects, damage to financial prospects, damage to plans for her life. The self-defence argument for abortion seems to fail here, because although a threat to life can be a defence to a charge of killing someone, none of the above would be an adequate defence in a case of homicide, nor would they be regarded as reasons that justified euthanasia. But if we don't regard the foetus as a person with a right to live, or if we regard it as a being that doesn't have a full right to life, then these cases of self-defence may be arguable."
-''BBC News''.<ref name=bbc>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/abortion/philosophical/selfdefence.shtml Abortion in Self-Defence]. ''BBC News''. Retrieved July 23, 2012.</ref>}} However, (A) danger to life of the mother, like rape, is a very rare circumstance that accounts for less than 1% of all abortions<ref name=rare />, (B) all major legislation put out by the Right to Life movement over the past decade has included exceptions allowing abortions for rape and life of the mother (e.g. [[Mexico City Policy]], [[Born Alive Infant Protection Act]], [[Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act]], etc.) and (C) at least 13 states had legislation allowing abortion for rape or life of the mother BEFORE Roe v. Wade<ref>[http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/facts/abortiontimeline.html Abortion History Timeline]. ''National Right to Life Committee''.</ref> - abortion was legalized for other reasons.

The bottom line is that apart from such extremely rare circumstances, ''BBC News'' acknowledges that "''The self-defence argument for abortion seems to fail here, because although a threat to life can be a defence to a charge of killing someone, none of the above would be an adequate defence in a case of homicide, nor would they be regarded as reasons that justified euthanasia.''"<ref name=bbc /> Choosing to kill another person, in other words, is unjustifiable unless the mother's life is in danger or, debatably, if rape occurred. In fact, those who bring up cases like rape and life of the mother are doing so because, deep inside, they themselves know that choosing to murder another human being is justifiable only under such extreme circumstances, and NOT for abortion on demand.

The only way to justify abortion apart from such circumstances is, as ''BBC News'' says, "''if we don't regard the foetus as a person with a right to live, or if we regard it as a being that doesn't have a full right to life''".<ref name=bbc /> You see, this is not about the right to choose at all, and such a slogan distracts from the real issue - the real issue is whether the fetus is a human being deserving of a full right to life. Because if it is a human being worthy of the right to life, then there is no excuse for "choosing to kill" via abortion on demand.

===Right to One's Body===
The Pro-Choice movement likes to say that women should have a right to their bodies. However, such a right should logically not allow one to harm others with that body, including physical assault, murder, rape, or theft, and therefore, this is not an absolute right, but a privilege that is not intended to exceed another's unalienable rights, including the right to life. As Hugh V. McLachlan of ''Glasgow Caledonian University'' pointed out in 1997, there is no entitlement to one's body and "''we have rights duties, liabilities, restrictions and
disadvantages as well as rights concerning our own bodies.''" {{cquote|"Consider the assumption at issue in the abstract: 'That particular X is your X and, therefore, you are entitled to do what you want with it'. As a matter of pure logic, the claim is an absurdity. What if 'X' stands for a Thompson Machine Gun? Should we say: 'That is your machine gun and, therefore, you can do whatever you like with it?' On the contrary, although there might be some things which you and only you can of right do to and with the gun, if that particular machine gun is your machine gun then it is incumbent upon you in particular to ensure that certain things are not done with it. Is the situation any different when 'X' pertains to one's body or to parts of it? I do not think so."
-Hugh V. McLachlan, ''Glasgow Caledonian University''.<ref name=mclachlan>McLachlan, H.V. (1997). [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1377347/ Bodies, Rights, and Abortions]. Journal of Medical Ethics. Vol. 23. p. 176.</ref>}}
As McLachlan continues to point out, this emphasis on rights neglects the other side of the coin, responsibilities or duties. He gives on pg. 177 the example of an insurance policy, and how using one's body to commit suicide can invalidate such a contract.<ref name=mclachlan /> Logically, creating another human life should likewise bring responsibly for actions toward that life - how is the decision to create another human life of lesser importance than the decision to sign an insurance contract? Why should one be able to kill a separate person to void the sexual decision to bring about another life, yet not be able to kill oneself without voiding an insurance contract? {{cquote|"Certainly a woman has a right to control her own body, but the unborn entity, though for a time living inside her body, is not part of her body. Hence, abortion is not justified, since no one's right to personal autonomy is so strong that it permits the arbitrary execution of others."
-Francis J. Beckwith, ''Christian Research Journal''.<ref>Beckwith, F.J. (1991). [https://christiananswers.net/q-sum/q-life009.html Doesn't a woman have the right to control her own body?] ''Christian Research Journal''. At ''ChristianAnswers.net''.</ref>}}Ultimately, the real question is whether the fetus in question is another human being to be accorded unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness under the Declaration of Independence, for if so, no right to one's body should give power to infringe on its unalienable right to life. Your right to your body does not include the right, in other words, to kill others using that body to avoid the responsibilities and consequences of a sexual decision to create another life. That is what in the real world is called "murder" and it is reprehensible. Therefore, the real question is at what point a fetus becomes a human being.

===Right to Privacy===
To get abortion legalized, the Pro-Choice movement had to argue that women should have a "right to privacy".<ref>Levin, M.R. (2005, March 14). [http://old.nationalreview.com/levin/levin200503140754.asp Death by Privacy]. ''The National Review''.</ref> However, logically, if the fetus is a human being and thus murder would be committed, privacy is no excuse for such murder. Logically, killing someone in the privacy of one's own home should no more be an excuse for murder than killing them in the privacy of one's body. Furthermore, as Judge Henry J. Friendly pointed out in the nation's first major abortion case, [[Hall v. Lefkowitz]], abortion is actually a complete violation of privacy when you look at it, requiring intervention in a woman's most private areas by a physician and variety of medical personnel.
{{cquote|A holding that the privacy of sexual intercourse is protected against governmental intrusion scarcely carries as a corollary that when this has resulted in conception, government may not forbid destruction of the fetus. The type of abortion the plaintiffs particularly wish to protect against governmental sanction is the antithesis of privacy. The woman consents to intervention in the uterus by a physician, with the usual retinue of assistants, nurses, and other paramedical personnel, indeed the condition calling for such intervention may very likely have been established by clinical tests... Yet, even if we were to take plaintiffs’ legal position that the legislature cannot constitutionally interfere with a woman’s right to do as she will with her own body so long as no harm is done to others, the argument does not support the conclusion plaintiffs would have us draw from it. For we cannot say the New York legislature lacked a rational basis for considering that abortion causes such harm. Even if we should put aside the interests of the father, negligible indeed in the many cases when he has abandoned the prospective mother but not in all, the legislature could permissibly consider the fetus itself to deserve protection.<ref name=friendly>Randolph, A. Raymond. [http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/jlpp/Vol29_No3_Randolph.pdf Before Roe v. Wade: Judge Friendly's Draft Abortion Opinion]. ''Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy''. Vol. 29.</ref>}}
===Women Choose, Not Men===
The Pro-Choice movement likes to say men and fathers should have no say in the abortion debate, only women. However, as Thomas J. Lucente Jr. points out, this is similar to saying one can't criticize the President unless one is the President. {{cquote|"The pro-abortion crowd will argue that because I am a man, I should not be allowed to have an opinion on abortion, unless, of course, I support the mass murder of 50 million babies in the last 39 years. That's akin to saying I can't criticize the president unless I have been the president."
-Thomas J. Lucente Jr.<ref name=lucente />}} As [[Alan Keyes]] has pointed out, the Pro-Choice movement essentially is arguing for the baby's rights to be dependent on the mother's desire for it, making women slave-owners, essentially - this is very different from the [[Declaration of Independence]] which says the Creator gives us our unalienable rights, rather than them being dependent upon other people.<ref>Jefferson, T. (1776, July 4). [http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/index.htm The Declaration of Independence]. Retrieved from ''USHistory.org''. Independence Hall Association.</ref> {{cquote|"Either you can subscribe to the American creed which says that God endowed us with our rights, or you can subscribe to the abortion creed which says that those rights are the consequences of our mother's will."
-Alan Keyes, speech at Southern Methodist University, Feb. 24, 1997.<ref>[http://www.abortiontv.com/Words/Slavery.htm Former Presidential candidate, Alan Keyes shares his views on the commonalities between abortion and slavery]. ''AbortionTV.com''.</ref>}}
{{cquote|"... abortion is to our time what slavery was to the 19th Century, and if anyone of conscience went anywhere in the 19th Century and did not confront the American people with the evil of slavery, then they were not doing what statesmanship required... Well, it's a part of her body utterly dependent on her body, not viable apart from her body. She has, therefore, absolute power over this being, and given that absolute power she has the absolute right to dispose of it according to her will. We don't recognize what that's saying? What that's saying is that power makes for right. Might makes for right. If I have you in my power, I may dispose of you and your life according to my will. And if that argument is now accepted, and we have embraced it as a fundamental principle of law, then we have rejected the right principle. For if our right, our most basic and conditional right, the right to life itself comes to us not from God but from our mother's choice, then there is no human right that transcends in its claim, human choice and human power. Abortion is the paradigm, the ultimate paradigm of despotism, tyranny, oppression, slavery, holocaust."
-Alan Keyes, speech in San Francisco, March 3, 2003.<ref>[http://www.notable-quotes.com/a/abortion_quotes.html Abortion Quotes]. ''NotableQuotes.com''.</ref>}} Ultimately, every American has a responsibility to stand up for the rights of other Americans when they are being murdered - regardless of gender. And to say a mother should be able to murder her children whenever she feels like it, apart from the father's opinions, is simply wrong.

==When Does Life Begin?==
Logically, we ought to be erring on the side of caution when potentially infringing on another person's inalienable right to life, rather than seeing how close we can come to committing murder without doing so. Abortion in the U.S. is legal in all 9 months (36 weeks) of pregnancy.<ref name=ninemonths />
===Premature Birth===
Even though children can be born as early as 21 weeks after pregnancy<ref name=tooyoung /> the Guttmacher Institute, Planned Parenthood's research arm, reports that 1.5% of the 1.21 million abortions in the United States occur after the 21st week of pregnancy.<ref name=induced /> Therefore, 18,150 abortions occur each year after the earliest point that children can be born prematurely and live. An additional 3.8% occur 16-20 weeks after pregnancy, an additional 45,980 abortions each year that are most certainly murder given proximity to time of premature birth.<ref name=induced /> Why is a baby considered human outside the womb, yet nothing more than a fetus to be aborted at or near the same point in pregnancy if still inside the womb? And what will abortionists argue? That this is "only" 50-60 thousand innocent lives being taken each year?

===Fetal Development===
{{cquote|"Modern biology instructs that the genetic code that will dictate the entire future of the fetus is formed as early as the ___ day after conception; the fetus is thus something more than inert matter. The rules of property and of tort have come increasingly to recognize its rights."
-Judge Henry Friendly, [[Hall v. Lefkowitz]].<ref name=friendly>Randolph, A. Raymond. "[http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/jlpp/Vol29_No3_Randolph.pdf Before Roe v. Wade: Judge Friendly's Draft Abortion Opinion]." ''Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy''. Vol. 29.</ref>}}
According to Brian Clowes, Ph.D<ref name=clowes />, as cited by the Pro-Life Action League<ref>(2009). [http://www.whyprolife.com/life-in-the-womb/ Sharing the Pro-Life Message]. "Life in the Womb." Pro-Life Action League. Chicago.</ref>, fetal development occurs as follows after conception:
* 2 weeks: First completed brain cells appear.
* 3 weeks: Heart begins beating, eyes form; brain, spinal column, and nervous system virtually complete.
* 4 weeks: Muscle development, arm and leg buds visible, neocortical cells appear, blood flows in baby's veins separate from mother's blood.
* 5 weeks: Pituitary gland forms, mouth, ears, and nose take shape.
* 6 weeks: Brain waves can be detected.
* 7 weeks: Cartilage skeleton completely formed, umbilical cord complete, brain coordinates voluntary muscle movement and involuntary organ movement, lips sensitive to touch.
* 8 weeks: Based on nervous system development, a fetus can likely feel pain, teeth present, all organs present save lungs, taste buds and fingerprints forming, responds to tapping on amniotic sac.
* 9 weeks: Fingernails form, can bend its fingers around an object and suck its thumb.
* 10 weeks: All parts of body sensitive to touch; can swallow, squint, frown, and pucker brow.
* 11 weeks: Breathing amniotic fluid and does so until birth, urination, all facial expressions (including smiling) possible, taste buds complete.
* 12 weeks: Can kick, turn over, make a fist, hiccup, cry, open its mouth, press its lips together, and practice breathing.
* 13 weeks: All senses are present, including vocal chords.
* 20 weeks: Can be surprised by loud external noises.
* 23 weeks: A fetus demonstrates REM (Rapid Eye Movement).
* 4 months: Can grasp, swim, and turn somersaults.
* 6 months: Hair growth on head and eyebrows, eyelashes form.
* 7 months: A fetus' hands can support its entire weight.
* 8 months: Fetus weighs more than 4 lbs., all body systems present.
* 9 months: After this point, the fetus gains a half lb. each week and 41 of the 45 total generations of cell replication have already taken place.

Given this, it is small wonder that 76% of Americans in 2011 disapprove of abortion after the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.
 (''See [[Abortion#2nd_Trimester|Public Polling]]'')

==Health Concerns==
===Mental Health Risks From Abortion===
A comprehensive review of literature, published in the ''British Journal of Psychiatry'' suggests that "there is a significant increase in mental health problems after abortion."<ref name="BJP">{{cite web|url = http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/199/3/A11.full#sec-3|title =Abortion, mental health and dental disease|publisher = British Journal of Psychiatry|quote=A comprehensive review of the literature suggests that there is a significant increase in mental health problems after abortion. Coleman (pp. 180–186) suggests that these risks need to be reflected in the delivery of abortion services, and raises the thorny issue that 90% of UK abortions are justified on the presumption that abortion actually reduces the risk to mental health associated with continuing the pregnancy. There is an increasing awareness of increased comorbid physical illness in patients with severe mental illness. Kisely and colleagues (pp. 187–193) found that the levels of advanced dental disease were increased threefold in patients with severe mental illness. The authors suggest that there needs to be improved recognition of this problem – reflected in a more proactive approach to dental hygiene in these patients.|accessdate = 01 September 2011}}</ref><ref name="DavenportMD">{{cite web|url = http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/09/major_study_links_suicide_and_other_mental_health_problems_to_abortion.html|title =Major Study Links Suicide and Other Mental Health Problems to Abortion|publisher = [[American Thinker]]|quote=An important meta-analysis published today in the prestigious British Journal of Psychiatry demonstrates that nearly 10% of mental health problems in women are directly attributable to abortion. "Abortion and mental health: quantitative synthesis and analysis of research published 1995-2009," by Priscilla Coleman of Bowling Green University, shows that women with an abortion history have an 81% increased risk of mental health problems and 155% increased risk of suicide. This meta-analysis combines 22 studies of 877,181 women, 163, 831 of whom have had abortions. A meta-analysis is an especially powerful type of study because it includes a large number of subjects, and by combining studies is much more reliable than a single study.|author=Mary L. Davenport, MD|accessdate = 01 September 2011}}</ref>

===Abortion and 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.<ref name=trumped>Malek, K. (2003). [http://www.jpands.org/vol8no2/malec.pdf The Abortion-Breast Cancer Link: How Politics Trumped Science and Informed Consent]. ''Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons'', 8(2), 41-45.</ref> "A new study coming from researchers in [[Sri Lanka]] finds women who had abortions ... [had a] 3.42 [increased risk] ... compared with those who kept their baby. ... The Sri Lankan study is the fourth epidemiological study in fourteen months to report an abortion-breast cancer link, including studies from the U.S., China and Turkey."<ref>Ertelt, S. (2010, June 22). [http://www.lifenews.com/nat6451.html Study Confirms Abortion Triples Breast Cancer Risk Among Sri Lanka Women]. ''LifeNews.com''.</ref> LifeNews also reported in 2009 that a [[National Cancer Institute]] researcher admitted there was a link between abortion and breast cancer.<ref>Ertelt, S. (2009, January 1). [http://www.lifenews.com/nat5850.html National Cancer Institute Researcher Admits Abortion-Breast Cancer Link True]. ''LifeNews.com''.</ref> Studies showing that abortion increases breast cancer predate the political controversy.<ref>(2002). [http://www.bcpinstitute.org/brochure.htm Breast Cancer Prevention Institute Online Brochure]. ''Breast Cancer Prevention Institute''.</ref> A study at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center published in 2009 confirmed a 40% increase in risk in breast cancer from abortion.<ref>Byrne, D. (2010, January 11). [http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/dennis-byrne-barbershop/2010/01/breast-cancer-oral-contraceptives-abortion-and-lies.html Breast cancer, oral contraceptives, abortion and lies (?)] ''ChicagoNow''.</ref><ref>It is undisputed that childbirth protects against breast cancer, and thus early termination of pregnancy must increase the risk of cancer for the mother compared to carrying that same pregnancy to birth.</ref> Yet the abortion industry conceals this increased risk, just as the tobacco industry concealed its cancer risk for decades.<ref>Addison, T.E., M.D. (1998, July). [http://www.mindfully.org/Industry/Tobacco-ChronologyJul98.htm A Chronology of Tobacco in the Civilized World], ''San Francisco Medicine''.</ref>
[[Image:Abortion Hurts Women.jpg|thumb|250px|right|Walk for Life rally]]
A new study on breast cancer in Turkey published in April 2009 in the peer-reviewed World Journal of Surgical Oncology found, through a surveying process, that induced abortion was a statistically significant cause of breast cancer risk. The study concludes, “Our findings suggest that age and induced abortion were found to be significantly associated with increased breast cancer risk….”<ref>Ozman, V. et al. (2009, April 8). [http://wjso.com/content/7/1/37 Breast cancer risk factors in Turkish women – a University Hospital based nested case control study]. ''World Journal of Surgical Oncology'', 7(37). doi:10.1186/1477-7819-7-37</ref>

Specifically, the study found that Turkish women who received one or more induced abortions had a 66% higher risk of breast cancer than women who never had an abortion.<ref>Baklinski, T.M. (2009, July 29). [http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jul/09072903.html Study: Breast Cancer Risk 66% Higher in Turkish Women with Abortions]. ''LifeSiteNews.com''.</ref> <ref>Malek, K. (2009, July 28). [http://www.abortionbreastcancer.com/press_releases/090728/index.htm Study: Turkish Women with Abortions Have Statistically Significant 66% Increase in Breast Cancer Risk / Researchers Likely Underestimated the Risk, Reports Scientist]. ''Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer''.</ref>

Dr. Janet Daling, who considers herself supportive of a right to perform abortions, brought the abortion-breast cancer link into the mainstream with her federally funded research on the topic. Her report, released in 1994, found a 50% increase in breast cancer risk due to induced abortion.<ref>Janet R. Daling et al., "Risk of Breast Cancer Among Young Women: Relationship to Induced Abortion," 86 Journal of the National Cancer Institute; (1994);1584</ref><ref>(2001, March 28). [http://www.abortionbreastcancer.com/032801.htm Women's Organization Accuses MAMM of Misleading Public About Abortion-Breast Cancer Link]. ''Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer''.</ref> She said, "I have three sisters with breast cancer and I resent people messing with the scientific data to further their own agenda, be they pro-choice or pro-life. I would have loved to have found no association between breast cancer and abortion, but our research is rock solid and our data is accurate."<ref>L.A. Daily News, Sept. 1997.</ref> Similarly, an early study published in Japan in 1957 showed that women who have abortions have a much higher risk of breast cancer than those who decide to keep their baby.<ref>Segi M, et al. An epidemiological study on cancer in Japan. GANN. 1957; 48:1-63.</ref>

In a peer-reviewed medical journal, Karen Malec observed that:<ref name=trumped />

:Thirty-eight epidemiological studies exploring an independent link [between abortion and] breast cancer have been published. Twenty-nine report risk elevations. Thirteen out of 15 American studies found risk elevations. Seventeen studies are statistically significant, 16 of which report increased risk.

Dr. Angela Lanfranchi, M.D., F.A.C.S., a specialist in breast cancer an a clinical assistant professor of surgery at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, has explained the physiology and epidemiology of the abortion-breast cancer link. She made the following observation:<ref>Angela Lanfranchi, M.D., F.A.C.S, "The breast physiology and the epidemiology of the abortion breast cancer link," 12 Imago Hominis, No. 3, 228 (2005) (emphasis added).</ref>

:This past August in Minneapolis, Patrick Carroll, director of the Pension and Population Research Institute of London, presented a paper to the largest gathering of statisticians in North America. '''He showed that abortion was the best predictor of breast cancer in Britain.''' Breast cancer is the only cancer in Britain which has its highest incidence and mortality rate among the upper rather than lower social classes. Abortion before a full term pregnancy and late pregnancy were the best explanations for this incidence. He also found that there had been a 70% increase risk of breast cancer between 1971 and 2002 and that for women between 50 and 54 years of age incidence was highly correlated with abortion.

Demographic evidence of abortion causing breast cancer includes the following. Breast cancer rates are far lower in Western countries that prohibited abortion than in those that promoted it. Ireland, which virtually bans abortion, reportedly has a lifetime rate of breast cancer of only 1 in 13, nearly half the rate of 1 in 7.5 in the United States.<ref>"Probability of breast cancer in American Women," National Cancer Institute (Apr. 15, 2005); K. O'Flaherty, R. Oakley, "Self-checks 'useless' in breast cancer fight," Sunday Tribune (Ireland), at 8 (Oct. 6, 2002).</ref> The rate of breast cancer increases steadily as one travels from Ireland, where abortion is illegal, to Northern Ireland, where abortion is legal but rare, to England, where abortion is common. <ref> R. O'Reilly, "New weapon in war against breast cancer," The Press Association Limited (Dec. 17, 1998); "Portugal-abortion referendum," Associated Press Worldstream (June 27, 1998).</ref>

In Romania, abortion was illegal under two decades of rule by the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, and the country enjoyed one of the lowest breast cancer rates in the entire world during that time, far lower than comparable Western countries. Romania's breast cancer rate was an astounding one-sixth the rate of the United States.<ref>A. Khan, "The role of fat in breast cancer," The Independent (May 18, 1998).</ref> But after the execution of Ceausescu on Christmas Day, 1989, Romania has taken the opposite approach, embracing abortion to the point that Romania now has one of the highest abortion rates in the world.<ref>N. Abdullaev, "Russians are quickest to marry and divorce," Moscow Times (Dec 8, 2004).</ref> One Romanian observer decried, "The liberalization of abortions in Romania in 1990, the significant increase of the number of abortions at relatively short intervals, determined a rise in the incidence of breast and uterine cervix cancer in my country."<ref>Information packet, Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) World Conference on Breast Cancer (July 1997).</ref>

Studies on rats, which are an accepted method for identifying causes of cancer in humans, further confirm that abortion does indeed increase the risk of breast cancer. As Dr. [[Joel Brind]] observed, "Researchers also widely admit to the biological plausibility of abortion as an independent cause of breast cancer, through the estrogen-mediated stimulation of breast growth in the absence of differentiation. This was demonstrated experimentally in rats in the landmark experiments of Russo and Russo."<ref>[[Joel Brind]], "[http://www.jpands.org/vol10no4/brind.pdf Induced Abortion as an Independent Risk Factor for Breast Cancer: A Critical Review of Recent Studies Based on Prospective Data]," J. of Am. Physicians & Surgeons 105 (Winter 2005) (citing Russo J, Russo IH. Susceptibility of the mammary gland to
carcinogenesis. 1980;100:497-512).</ref> Additional scientific information on the abortion-breast cancer link is available at [http://www.bcpinstitute.org BCPInstitute.org].

An expert (Dr. Lynn Rosenberg) hired to defend abortion felt compelled to admit, under cross-examination, that a woman increases her risk for breast cancer by having an abortion compared to carrying her pregnancy to childbirth:<ref>[http://www.abortionbreastcancer.com/rosenberg's_testimony.htm Rosenberg's Testimony]. ''Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer''.</ref>

:Question by the attorney: 'So in other words, a woman who finds herself pregnant at age 15 will have a higher breast cancer risk if she chooses to abort that pregnancy, than if she carries the pregnancy to term, [is that] correct?'

:Dr. Lynn Rosenberg: 'Probably, yes.'

:Question: 'Looking at that another way, let's compare two women. Let's say both got pregnant at age 15-- one terminates the pregnancy, but the other carries the pregnancy to term. And both women go on to get married and have two kids, say, at age 30 and age 35. Is the risk of breast cancer higher for the woman who had an abortion at age 15 or the woman who had a baby at age 15, all other things being equal?'

:Dr. Lynn Rosenberg: 'It's probably higher for the one who had an abortion at age 15.'

Despite the overwhelming evidence -- and inescapable logic -- for abortion increasing breast cancer, promoters of abortion cite flawed articles in an attempt to deny the link. The flaws in these articles are exposed in the [[Harvard abortion study]] and "Legal Implications of a Link Between Abortion and Breast Cancer" by Andrew Schlafly in the ''Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons''.<ref>Schafly, A. (2005, Spring). [http://www.jpands.org/vol10no1/aschlafly.pdf Legal Implications of a Link Between Abortion and Breast Cancer]. ''Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons'', 10(1), 10-14.</ref>

As Dr. Lanfranchi has explained:<ref>Lanfranchi, A. (2008, Spring). [http://www.jpands.org/vol13no1/lanfranchi.pdf The Federal Government and Academic Texts as Barriers to Informed Consent]. ''Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons'', 13(1), 12-15.</ref>

:Well-documented breast physiology accounts for the fact that oral contraceptives and abortion are risk factors for breast cancer. There is an effort to suppress this information by federal agencies and those in academic medicine. Without this information, women cannot make a fully informed choice about their method of fertility control or about whether to maintain an unplanned pregnancy. Medical ethics demands that they be informed.

Pro-choice should include ''informed'' choice.<ref>The Archdiocese of St. Louis, for example, remarked about abortions and increased risk for breast cancer: "To dismiss that link is irresponsible." http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5620863.html (Link no longer works)</ref> Yet efforts continue to suppress awareness that abortion increases breast cancer. Pro-life scientists were almost entirely barred from the National Cancer Institute's "study" of the link, and its resulting statements were fatally flawed as explained in [[National Cancer Institute on Abortion]].

Just as organizations denied or failed to disclose the connection between smoking and lung cancer, many organizations aligned with [[liberal]] politicians deny the correlation between abortion and breast cancer despite numerous studies published in peer reviewed journals indicating a likely connection.

[[File:Smelliesdoublecrochet.jpg|right|thumb|250px| The Smellie's double crochet abortion tool was used to grab and forcibly remove the fetus from the womb.]]

===Abortion Causes Future Harm with Premature Births===

"At least 49 studies have demonstrated a statistically significant increase in premature births (PB) or low birth weight (LBW) risk in women with prior induced abortions (IAs)."<ref>Brent Rooney and Byron C. Calhoun, "Induced Abortion and Risk of Later Premature Births," 8 J. Am. Physicians & Surgeons 46 (Summer 2003). [http://www.jpands.org/vol8no2/rooney.pdf]</ref> Premature birth tragically causes brain damage, and an array of other severe, lifelong injuries ranging from Cerebral Palsy to blindness, or even death, and few mothers would knowingly increase the risk of that happening. "There are at least seventeen (17) studies that have found that previous induced abortions increase preterm birth risk” and thereby increase debilitating Cerebral Palsy in children."<ref>Brent Rooney, Letter, 96 European Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, 239 (2001) (citations omitted).</ref>

In 2008, the generally pro-abortion British medical journal, ''The Lancet'', admitted that a procedure often used in abortion increase the risk of premature birth:<ref name=lancet>Dr, Jay D. Iams, Dr. Robert Romero, Jennifer F. Culhane (PhD), Dr. Robert L. Goldenberg. [http://www.v2020la.org/pub/PUBLICATIONS_BY_TOPICS/ROP/Primary,_secondary,_and_tertiary_interventions.....pdf]Primary, secondary, and tertiary interventions to reduce the morbidity and mortality of preterm birth. Lancet 2008;371:164-175. While the text of this article conceals the connection with abortion, it cites as support for its claims two studies showing how abortion increases risk of premature birth: the 2004 'Ancel' study of ten European countries and the 2005 'Moreau' study that used French subjects. Ancel P-Y, Lelong N, Papiernik E, Saurel-Cubizoilles M-J, Kaminski M. [http://humrep.oxfordjournals.org/content/19/3/734.full History of induced abortion as a risk factor for preterm birth in European countries: results of the EUROPOP survey]. Human Reproduction. 2004;112:734-740. Moreau C, Kaminski M, Ancel PY et al. [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15777440 Previous I induced abortions and the risk of very preterm delivery; Results of the EPIPAGE study]. British J Obstetrics Gynaecology 2005; 112:430-437.</ref>

:"For example, greater public and professional awareness of evidence that repeated uterine instrumentation--eg, uterine curettage or endometrial biopsy--is associated with increased risk of subsequent preterm birth might over time influence decision-making about the procedure."

Researchers Rooney and Calhoun observed:<ref name=lancet />

:Large studies have reported a doubling of [early premature birth] EPB risk from two prior IAs. Women who had four or more IAs experienced, on average, nine times the risk of [extremely early premature births] XPB, an increase of 800 percent. These results suggest that women contemplating IA should be informed of this potential risk to subsequent pregnancies, and that physicians should be aware of the potential liability and possible need for intensified prenatal care.

Demographic evidence of how abortion increases premature birth includes the following:

:* The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): "[T]he abortion rate for black women has been approximately '''three times''' as high as that for white women (range: 2.6--3.1) since 1991"<ref>http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5407a1.htm (emphasis added)</ref>
:* ''Science Daily'''s report on a study by the Washington University School of Medicine: "African-American women are '''three times''' more likely to deliver babies three to 17 weeks prematurely than Caucasian women"<ref>Washington University School of Medicine (2007, February 12). [http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070209074144.htm African-American Mothers]. (emphasis added)</ref>

In 2002 an article entitled "Preterm Birth: A Continuing Challenge" noted that premature births are abnormally high in the United States, citing a study that observed that a previous abortion is a "risk factor for both infertility and preterm birth."<ref>Moore, M.L. (2002, Fall). [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1595132/ Preterm Birth: A Continuing Challenge]. ''The Journal of Perinatal Education'', 11(4), 37-40. doi: 10.1624/105812402X88948</ref>

The rate of premature birth is elevated by the same amount as the abortion rate, as expected if abortion increases the risk of premature birth.

===Other Health Risks from Abortion===

The [[U.S. Supreme Court]] ruled in 2007 that:<ref>''Gonzales v. Carhart'', 127 S. Ct. 1610, 1634 (2007).</ref> {{cquote|"While we find no reliable data to measure the phenomenon, it seems unexceptionable to conclude some women come to regret their choice to abort the infant life they once created and sustained. See Brief for Sandra Cano ''et al.'' as Amici Curiae in No. 05-380, pp 22-24. Severe depression and loss of esteem can follow."}} A study published in the Southern Medical Journal observed that there are higher death rates associated with women who have abortion, and that these higher death rates persist over time and across socioeconomic boundaries.<ref>D.C. Reardon, P.G. Ney, F.J. Scheuren, J.R. Cougle, P.K. Coleman, T. Strahan, "Deaths associated with pregnancy outcome: a record linkage study of low income women," 95 Southern Medical Journal 8, at 834-41 (August 2002).</ref>

In [[England]], the "Royal College of Psychiatrists says women should not be allowed to have an abortion until they are counselled on the possible risk to their mental health." The medical royal college warned that women who have abortions may be at risk of mental health problems.<ref>http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article3559486.ece (Link no longer works)</ref> A New Zealand study found that abortion in young women may be associated with increased risks of mental health problems.<ref>Fergusson, D.M., et. al. (2006, January). [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16405636 Abortion in young women and subsequent mental health]. ''The Journal of Child Psychology andPsychiatry'', 47(1), 16-24. PMID: 16405636.</ref> The researcher in this study, who was not pro-life, was shaken by the study and had to go to four journals before he could find one who would publish it. <ref name=gilson>Gilson, T. (2006, February 24). [http://www.thinkingchristian.net/C1148465919/E20060224082323/index.html Abortion and Mental Health]. ''Thinking Christian''.</ref>

The study concludes with the following statement:
{{cquote|These findings are inconsistent with the current consensus on the psychological effects of abortion. In particular, in its 2005 statement on abortion, the American Psychological Association concluded that “well-designed studies of psychological responses following abortion have consistently shown that risk of psychological harm is low...the percentage of women who experience clinically relevant distress is small and appears to be no greater than in general samples of women of reproductive age” (American Psychological Association, 2005). This relatively strong conclusion about the absence of harm from abortion was based on a relatively small number of studies which had one or more of the following limitations: a) absence of comprehensive assessment of mental disorders; b) lack of comparison groups; and c) limited statistical controls. Furthermore, the statement appears to disregard the findings of a number of studies that had claimed to show negative effects for abortion (Cougle et al., 2003; Gissler et al., 1996; Reardon & Cougle, 2002). <ref name=gilson />}}

Professor David Fergusson, lead author of the New Zealand study stated:
{{cquote|It borders on scandalous that one of the most common surgical procedures performed on young women is so poorly researched and evaluated. If this were Prozac or Vioxx, reports of associated harm would be taken much more seriously with more careful research and monitoring procedures." <ref>Throckmorton, W. (2006, January 20). [http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2006/jan/20/20060120-091648-6456r/?page=all#pagebreak Abortion and Mental Health]. ''The Washington Times''.</ref>}}

Another study published in the OB/GYN Survey detailed long-term physical and psychological health consequences of induced abortions.<ref>J.M. Thorp, Jr., K.E. Hartmann, and E.M. Shadigian, "[content.silaspartners.com/156/41045/156_41045_shadigian.1.pdf Long-Term Physical & Psychological Health Consequences of Induced Abortion: Review of the Evidence]," 58 OB/GYN Survey 1, at 67-79 (2003)</ref>

Suicide rates among women who had abortions are six times higher than women who gave birth in the prior year. Overall, deaths from suicide, homicide and accidents were 248% higher after an abortion, as found by a 13-year study in Finland of its entire population.<ref>http://www.abortionrecoverycounseling.com/Page8.html (Link no longer works)</ref>

In the United States, only one state (Missouri) requires that the abortionist have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the abortion.<ref>Mo. Rev. Stat. § 188.080 prohibits an abortion by a physician "who does not have clinical privileges at a hospital which offers obstetrical or gynecological care located within thirty miles of the location at which the abortion is performed or induced."</ref> In the other 49 states, an abortion patient can and often is left without prompt medical care by the treating physician.

One of the largest abortion providers in the United States, the Metropolitan Medical Associates of New Jersey, was shut down in 2007 by state health officials after one of its botched abortions left a 20-year-old woman in a coma for more than four weeks. She "became severely ill following the abortion and was transferred to Newark Beth Israel Medical Center where she needed blood transfusions and had her uterus removed. She also suffered a stroke due to the serious blood loss and had one of her lungs collapse." The State of New Jersey had shut down the same facility in 1993 also.<ref>Ertelt, S. (2007, March 1). [http://www.lifenews.com/state2137.html Woman Comatose for a Month After Botched Abortion Caused Center’s Closing]. ''LifeNews.com''.</ref>

==History==
[[Image:115523-004-FA619CA3.jpg|thumb|right|250px| The perverse and cruel [[atheism|atheist]] [[Marquis de Sade]] advocated induced abortion.<ref>http://jme.bmj.com/content/6/1/7.abstract</ref>]]
''Please also see:'' [[History of abortion]]

Abortion was an extremely harsh '''''punishment''''' in the [[Old Testament]], imposed against those who have "rebelled against" God:

:"Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit: yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their womb." (Hosea 9:16)

:"Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up." (Hosea 13:16)

:"Then Menahem smote Tiphsah, and all that were therein, and the coasts thereof from Tirzah: because they opened not to him, therefore he smote it; and all the women therein that were with child he ripped up." (2 Kings 15:16)

The father of [[medicine]], [[Hippocrates]], expressly prohibited abortion in his ethical [[Oath]] long before [[Christianity]].

The ''Journal of Medical Ethics'' article declared concerning the [[atheism|atheist]] and [[sadism|sadist]] [[Marquis de Sade]]:
{{cquote|In 1795 the Marquis de Sade published his La Philosophic dans le boudoir, in which he proposed the use of induced abortion for social reasons and as a means of population control. It is from this time that medical and social acceptance of abortion can be dated, although previously the subject had not been discussed in public in modern times. It is suggested that it was largely due to de Sade's writing that induced abortion received the impetus which resulted in its subsequent spread in western society.<ref>Farr, A.D. (1980). [http://jme.bmj.com/content/6/1/7.abstract The Marquis de Sade and induced abortion]. ''Journal of Medical Ethics'', 6, 7-10. doi:10.1136/jme.6.1.7</ref>}}

[[Population control]] is based on [[pseudoscience]] and ill founded [[economics|economic]] assumptions.<ref>Egnor, M. (2010, November 30). [http://www.evolutionnews.org/2010/11/pz_myers_on_abortion040971.html P.Z. Myers on Abortion]. ''Evolution News and Views''.</ref>

=== Adolf Hitler and Abortion ===
''For more information see:'' [[Abortion and Adolf Hitler]]
[[Image:Hitlerspeech.jpg|thumb|290px|right|[[Adolf Hitler]]]]‎In 1942 [[Adolf Hitler]] declared:
{{cquote|In view of the large families of the Slav native population, it could only suit us if girls and women there had as many abortions as possible. We are not interested in seeing the non-[[German]] population multiply…We must use every means to instill in the population the idea that it is harmful to have several children, the expenses that they cause and the dangerous effect on woman's health… It will be necessary to open special institutions for abortions and doctors must be able to help out there in case there is any question of this being a breach of their professional ethics. <ref>Hoffman, M.C. (2007, September 7). [Israeli Doctor Exposes Nazi Abortion Program http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/sep/07090708.html]. ''LifeSiteNews.com''.</ref>}}

After [[World War II]], the War Crimes Tribunal indicted ten [[Nazi]] leaders for "encouraging and compelling abortion," which the tribunal considered a "crime against humanity."<ref>Wilke, J.C., Dr., et. al. (2006). [http://www.abortionfacts.com/online_books/love_them_both/why_cant_we_love_them_both_25.asp#But%20didn%E2%80%99t%20Hitler%20oppose%20abortion? Why Can't We Love Them Both: Chapter 25, Euthanasia]. ''AbortionFacts.com''.</ref>
===Hall v. Lefkowitz===
[[Hall v. Lefkowitz]] was a court case on November 4, 1969<ref>"[http://www.leagle.com/xmlResult.aspx?xmldoc=19691335305FSupp1030_11150.xml&docbase=CSLWAR1-1950-1985 Hall v. Lefkowitz]." 305 F.Supp. 1030 (1969). www.Leagle.com.</ref> during which Roy Lucas, an assistant professor at the University of Alabama Law School, and his self-founded James Madison Constitutional Law Institute, sued to challenge New York's abortion laws. A three-judge court presided which included famous judge Henry Friendly. Friendly wrote a draft opinion in the spring of 1970 declaring government had right to regulate abortion and protect a fetus, contrary to the later [[Roe v. Wade]] ruling. However, shortly thereafter the New York legislature amended state abortion law to allow abortion within the first 24 weeks of pregnancy, and Hall's case was dismissed as unnecessary.<ref name=friendly>Randolph, A. Raymond. "[http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/jlpp/Vol29_No3_Randolph.pdf Before Roe v. Wade: Judge Friendly's Draft Abortion Opinion]." ''Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy''. Vol. 29.</ref> [[Hall v. Lefkowitz|Read some of Friendly's arguments]] made years before Roe v. Wade.

===NARAL's Lies About Back-Alley Abortions===
Bernard Nathanson, one of NARAL's co-founders, described how he and the organization fabricated abortion statistics and used slogans to sway the public during the early days of Roe v. Wade.
{{cquote|I remember laughing when we made those slogans up. We were looking for some sexy, catchy slogans to capture public opinion. They were very cynical slogans then, just as all of these slogans today are very, very cynical. We persuaded the media that the cause of permissive abortion was a liberal, enlightened, sophisticated one. Knowing that if a true poll were taken, we would be soundly defeated, we simply fabricated the results of fictional polls. We announced to the media that we had taken polls and that 60 percent of Americans were in favor of permissive abortion. We aroused enough sympathy to sell our program of permissive abortion by fabricating the number of illegal abortions done annually in the U.S. The actual figure was approaching 100,000, but the figure we gave to the media repeatedly was 1,000,000. Repeating the big lie often enough convinces the public. The number of women dying from illegal abortions was around 200-250 annually. The figure we constantly fed to the media was 10,000. These false figures took root in the consciousness of Americans, convincing many that we needed to crack the abortion law. Another myth we fed to the public through the media was that legalizing abortion would only mean that the abortions taking place illegally would then be done legally. In fact, of course, abortion is now being used as a primary method of birth control in the U.S. and the annual number of abortions has increased by 1,500 percent since legalization.<ref name=nathanson />

=== Roe v. Wade ===
Prior to 1973 abortion was illegal in most of the United States, though a few states (such as Hawaii and New York) allowed it with restrictions.<ref>''A Timeline of Reproductive Rights'' [http://ecampus.bentley.edu/org/wc/reproductiverights.html The Women's Center]</ref> The U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 [[Roe v. Wade]]<ref>Online text of [http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=CASE&court=US&vol=410&page=113 Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973)]</ref> decision ruled that abortions are lawful under the [[U.S. Constitution]] up to the point at which the fetus becomes able to survive outside the womb, and an accompanying decision issued the same day captioned [[Doe v. Bolton]] essentially legalized abortion in the unlimited discretion of the abortionist at any time during pregnancy, up to and including birth. Conservatives immediately criticized these decisions as examples of [[Judicial Activism]].
===Present Day ===
In 2008, worldwide there were approximately 115,000 abortions done per day.<ref name=abortionno>[http://www.abortionno.org/Resources/fastfacts.html Abortion Facts]. ''The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform].</ref> In 2008, approximately 83% of all abortions were performed in developing countries and 17% occurred in developed countries.<ref name=abortionno />

States may regulate abortion, such as requiring a 24-hour waiting period and parental consent for minors. Abortion clinics often fail to comply with the health standards of surgical facilities, and States can require compliance (but often do not, resulting in discomfort and harm to the victims of abortion). Many abortionists lack hospital admitting privileges at nearby facilities, so women having complications must go on their own to emergency rooms to see physicians unfamiliar with what actually happened. For any other operation the cost of treating complications is included in the cost of the operation, but for abortions the abortion clinics take their money and typically do not pay for the care of complications.

The more pro-abortion the State regulations are, the larger the number of abortion clinics it will have. [[Arizona]], though a pro-life State, has a regulatory system that results in twelve abortion clinics operating within its borders. In contrast, [[Mississippi]] has only one abortion clinic, and [[Missouri]] has only two.

==Reasons Given For Abortions==

[[File:AbortionReasons.jpg‎|thumb|400px| Primary reasons women reported for undergoing abortions]]

The Alan Guttmacher Institute, which is not a [[conservative]] or [[pro-life]] organization, conducted a poll of more than 1,200 patients undergoing induced abortions at 11 large-scale [[abortion facilities]] in the United States. The women were asked to identify reasons for seeking abortions, and identify the primary motivation. An additional 38 women at four sites were interviewed in-depth.<ref name="agiSurvey">[http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/psrh/full/3711005.pdf Lawrence Finer, et al., "Reasons U.S. Women Have Abortions: Quantitative and Qualitative Perspectives", ''Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health'', September 2005]</ref>

The poll omitted any reference to whether the women were able to see an ultrasound of their unborn children before choosing to have an abortion. For the vast majority of women who have abortion, the reason is a lack of knowledge about the unborn child as displayed by an ultrasound. Because a large part of their campaign funds are bankrolled by the abortion industry, liberals are frequent opponents to laws making available ultrasound treatment for patients not certain of the decision. Some physicians have been reported intimidating and pressuring patients to continue with an abortion after the patient has had a change of heart, either on the operating table or before surgery. One doctor, who was also employed as a spokesman for a prominent liberal pro-abortion think tank, reportedly forced a patient to undergo the procedure in order to fill a quota on insurance claims.

Among reasons provided to the women as part of the poll, the two most common selections were "Having a baby would dramatically change my life" (74%) and "I can't afford a baby now" (73%).<ref name="agiSurvey"/> Concerns about their own health were mentioned by only 13% of the women, while only 12% mentioned concerns about the baby's health, though only 3% and 4% respectively gave those as their primary reason for seeking abortion.<ref name="agiSurvey"/>

Interestingly, only 14% indicated "[[husband]] or partner wants me to have an abortion" as a reason, down from 24% in a previous survey in 1987.<ref name="agiSurvey"/> This contrasts with research on women post-abortion, among whom 64% reported feeling pressured by others to abort, and may indicate pressure to abort comes not so much from husbands now as other relationships.<ref name="reardon">[http://www.theunchoice.com/pdf/FactSheets/ForcedAbortionFactSheet.pdf David Reardon, "Forced Abortion in America", April 2010]</ref>

What is often ignored in studies of why women submit to abortions is an ambivalence by some in early pregnancy. Such ambivalence typically resolves when the mother becomes more aware of her unborn child, as displayed by an [[ultrasound]].<ref>Lederman, ''Psychosocial Adaptation in Pregnancy'', 1984</ref><ref>"The Unwanted Pregnancy," ''Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology'', 1970, Cited in Gardner, ''Abortion: The Personal Dilemma'', 1972</ref><ref>Nichols and Humenick, ''Childbirth Education: Practice, Research, and Theory'', 1988</ref>

==Public Opinion==
Public polling, as seen below (sourced from Gallup<ref name=gallupabortion/>), reveals that Americans are increasingly calling themselves Pro-Life (50%) and continue to say abortion should be legal only in a few circumstances (59%) such as rape (75%) and life of the mother (83%).
===Legal or Illegal===
According to Gallup's most recent poll (May 3-6, 2012), 20% of Americans believe abortion should always be illegal, and 39% believe it should be legal only in a few circumstances, a combined 59% that believe it should always or usually be illegal. 25% believe abortion should always be legal, and 13% believe that it should be legal in most circumstances, a combined 38% that believe it should always or usually be legal. 4% hold no opinion. The percentage of Americans which believe abortion should always or usually be illegal has varied from a low of 51% (Sept. 6-7, 1994, and Sept. 22-24, 1995) to a high of 62% (May 2-5, 2005). Gallup has polled the question 33 times since it began asking in 1994.<ref>''Gallup''. "[http://www.gallup.com/poll/1576/abortion.aspx/ Abortion]." Do you think abortion should be legal in most circumstances or only in a few circumstances?</ref>
===Pro-Life vs. Pro-Choice===
Currently, 50% of Americans describe themselves as Pro-Life, 41% describe themselves as Pro-Choice, and 4% as Mixed/Neither, as of the most recent poll (May 3-6, 2012). The percentage of Americans describing themselves as Pro-Life has varied from a low of 33% (Sept. 3-6, 1995) to a high of 51% (May 7-10, 2009). Gallup has polled the question 41 times since it began asking in 1995.<ref name=gallupabortion/>
===By Trimester===
Gallup has asked the following question four times from 2003-2011: "Thinking more generally, do you think abortion should generally be legal or generally illegal during each of the following stages of pregnancy. How about -- [RANDOM ORDER]?"<ref name=gallupabortion/>
====1st Trimester====
The following results were given for "In the first three months of pregnancy" (1st Trimester):
{| border="1" cellpadding="2" align="center"
! Polling Date
! Should be legal
! Should be illegal
! Depends (vol.)
! No opinion
|-
| 2011, June 9-12
|align="center"|62%
|align="center"|35%
|align="center"|2%
|align="center"|1%
|-
| 2003, January 10-12
|align="center"|66%
|align="center"|29%
|align="center"|3%
|align="center"|2%
|-
| 2000, March 30-April 2
|align="center"|65%
|align="center"|31%
|align="center"|2%
|align="center"|2%
|-
| 1996, July 25-26
|align="center"|64%
|align="center"|30%
|align="center"|4%
|align="center"|2%
|-
|}

====2nd Trimester====
The following results were given for "In the second three months of pregnancy" (2nd Trimester):
{| border="1" cellpadding="2" align="center"
! Polling Date
! Should be legal
! Should be illegal
! Depends (vol.)
! No opinion
|-
| 2011, June 9-12
|align="center"|24%
|align="center"|71%
|align="center"|3%
|align="center"|2%
|-
| 2003, January 10-12
|align="center"|25%
|align="center"|68%
|align="center"|4%
|align="center"|3%
|-
| 2000, March 30-April 2
|align="center"|24%
|align="center"|69%
|align="center"|4%
|align="center"|3%
|-
| 1996, July 25-26
|align="center"|26%
|align="center"|65%
|align="center"|7%
|align="center"|2%
|-
|}
====3rd Trimester====
The following results were given for "In the last three months of pregnancy" (3rd Trimester):
{| border="1" cellpadding="2" align="center"
! Polling Date
! Should be legal
! Should be illegal
! Depends (vol.)
! No opinion
|-
| 2011, June 9-12
|align="center"|10%
|align="center"|86%
|align="center"|2%
|align="center"|1%
|-
| 2003, January 10-12
|align="center"|10%
|align="center"|84%
|align="center"|4%
|align="center"|2%
|-
| 2000, March 30-April 2
|align="center"|8%
|align="center"|86%
|align="center"|3%
|align="center"|3%
|-
| 1996, July 25-26
|align="center"|13%
|align="center"|82%
|align="center"|3%
|align="center"|2%
|-
|}
===By Circumstances===
According to the most recent Gallup poll (June 9-12, 2011), the following percentages of Americans say abortion should be legal under each circumstance:<ref name=gallupabortion/>
{| border="1" cellpadding="2" align="center"
! Circumstance
! Should be legal
! Should be illegal
! Depends (vol.)
! No opinion
|-
| When the woman's life is endangered
|align="center"|83%
|align="center"|13%
|align="center"|1%
|align="center"|3%
|-
| When the woman's physical health is endangered
|align="center"|82%
|align="center"|15%
|align="center"|1%
|align="center"|2%
|-
| When the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest
|align="center"|75%
|align="center"|22%
|align="center"|1%
|align="center"|2%
|-
| When the woman's mental health is endangered
|align="center"|61%
|align="center"|35%
|align="center"|2%
|align="center"|2%
|-
| When there is evidence the baby may be mentally impaired
|align="center"|51%
|align="center"|46%
|align="center"|2%
|align="center"|2%
|-
| When there is evidence the baby may be physically impaired
|align="center"|50%
|align="center"|45%
|align="center"|2%
|align="center"|3%
|-
| When the woman or family cannot afford to raise the child
|align="center"|36%
|align="center"|61%
|align="center"|1%
|align="center"|2%
|-
|}
===Pro-Life Initiatives===
According to Gallup's most recent poll (July 15-17, 2011) these proposals by the Pro-Life movement have received the following public support levels. Those marked "(2005)" were polled most recently on November 11-13, 2005. Those marked "(2003)" were last polled on January 10-12, 2003.<ref name=gallupabortion/>
{| border="1" cellpadding="2" align="center"
! Proposal
! Favor
! Oppose
! No opinion
|-
| (2003) A law requiring doctors to inform patients about alternatives to abortion before performing the procedure
|align="center"|88%
|align="center"|11%
|align="center"|1%
|-
| A law requiring doctors inform patients about possible risks of abortion before performing the procedure
|align="center"|87%
|align="center"|11%
|align="center"|2%
|-
| A law requiring women under 18 to get parental consent for any abortion
|align="center"|71%
|align="center"|27%
|align="center"|2%
|-
| A law requiring women seeking abortions to wait 24 hours before having the procedure done
|align="center"|69%
|align="center"|28%
|align="center"|3%
|-
| A law making partial birth abortions illegal except for life of the mother
|align="center"|64%
|align="center"|31%
|align="center"|5%
|-
| (2005) A law requiring that the husband of a married woman be notified if she decides to have an abortion
|align="center"|64%
|align="center"|34%
|align="center"|2%
|-
| A law requiring women seeking an abortion be shown an ultrasound image of her fetus at least 24 hours before
|align="center"|50%
|align="center"|46%
|align="center"|3%
|-
| A law letting pharmacists and health providers opt out of medicine/surgical procedures resulting in abortion
|align="center"|46%
|align="center"|51%
|align="center"|4%
|-
| (2005) A constitutional amendment to ban abortion in all circumstances, except to save the life of the mother
|align="center"|37%
|align="center"|61%
|align="center"|2%
|-
|}

==Abortion Alternatives==
[[Optionline]] provides consultants that connects individuals to nearby pregnancy centers that offer the following services: free pregnancy tests and pregnancy information; Information about the risks of abortion and the morning after pill; medical services, including [[STD]] tests; early ultrasounds and pregnancy confirmation. In addition, some of these centers provide information regarding free housing to women who are facing housing concerns.<ref>[http://www.pregnancycenters.org/ OptionLine]. ''OptionLine.org''.</ref>

The primary alternative to abortion is adoption. [[Liberty Godparent Foundation]] is a [[Christian]] organization focused on improving the lives of unwed pregnant teens, babies and adoptive families by providing two alternatives, The Liberty Godparent Maternity Home and Family Life Services Adoption Agency.<ref>[http://www.godparent.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=20&Itemid=59 Family Life Services]. ''GodParentFoundation.org''.</ref>. [[Catholic Social Services]] provides adoption assistance to people of all beliefs in addition to supporting families in need.

==Planned Parenthood's Budget==
[[Planned Parenthood]] likes to claim that abortion accounts for just 3% of its services.<ref>[http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/who-we-are/planned-parenthood-glance-5552.htm Planned Parenthood At a Glance]. ''Planned Parenthood''.</ref> However, an examination of its finances reveals that much if not most of its [[income]] relates to abortion.<ref>Barto, N. & Musgrave, M. (2012, July 29). [http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/2012/07/27/20120727womens-health-care.html Diverting Funds Betters Women's Health Care]. ''The Arizona Republic''.</ref> According to Planned Parenthood's 2007-08 budget, it received $1.038 billion of [[revenue]] from the following sources:<ref>[http://www.plannedparenthood.org/files/AR08_vFinal.pdf Annual Report 2007-2008]. Pg. 18. ''Planned Parenthood''.</ref>
{| border="1" cellpadding="2" align="center"
!
! Revenue (millions)
! %
|-
| Health Center Income
|align="center"|$374.7
|align="center"|36.1%
|-
| Govt. Grants & Services
|align="center"|$349.6
|align="center"|33.7%
|-
| Contributions & Requests
|align="center"|$244.9
|align="center"|23.6%
|-
| Other Operating Revenue
|align="center"|$68.9
|align="center"|6.6%
|-
|align="center"|'''Total Revenue'''
|align="center"|'''$1,038.1'''
|align="center"|'''100.0%'''
|-
|}
Planned Parenthood's reported $374.7 million of revenue from "Health Center Income". Given that it reported performing 305,130 abortions<ref>Page 9.</ref>, at an average cost of $450 (which lines up with statistics from the [[National Abortion Federation]]<ref>Dudley, S. (2003). [http://www.prochoice.org/about_abortion/facts/economics.html Economics of Abortion]. ''National Abortion Federation''.</ref>), approximately $137.4 million of that $374.7 million Health Center Income came directly from performing abortions per analysis by [[Live Action]].<ref>Schmidt, D. (2010, May 14). [http://liveaction.org/blog/data-36-7-of-planned-parenthoods-health-center-income-is-from-abortions/ DATA: 36.7% of Planned Parenthood’s 'Health Center Income' is from Abortions]. ''Live Action''.</ref>

Since much of its money comes from Government Grants and Services or Contributions and Requests ($595.5 million) likely related to abortion, in addition to this $137.4 million of direct abortion revenue, it appears probable that as much as half to two-thirds of Planned Parenthood's revenue relates to abortion.

==Targeted Demographics==
===Women in China===
Forced abortion caused by China's One-Child Policy leads to deaths of mothers<ref>Bo Gu, B. (2012, June 14). [http://behindthewall.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/06/14/12222877-gruesome-photos-put-spotlight-on-chinas-one-child-policy?lite Gruesome Photos Put Spotlight on China's One-Child Policy]. ''NBC News''.</ref>, as well as "gendercide".<ref>Hayes, A. (2012, April 30). [http://articles.cnn.com/2012-04-30/asia/world_asia_china-forced-abortions_1_reggie-littlejohn-china-s-national-population-abortions?_s=PM:ASIA Activists allege forced abortions, sterilizations in China]. ''CNN''. Littlejohn, R. (2012, April 27). [http://www.lifenews.com/2012/04/27/the-real-war-against-women-forced-abortion-gendercide/ The Real War Against Women: Forced Abortion, Gendercide]. ''LifeNews''.</ref> Because men tend to be higher wage earners, many families choose to abort their female children, opting instead for males.<ref>Ling, C. [http://www.allgirlsallowed.org/category/topics/one-child-policy-china One-Child Policy Statistics]. ''AllGirlsAllowed.com''.</ref> Photos in 2012 of these forced abortions led to national outrage and calls to end China's One-Child Policy.<ref>Riviera, G. (2012, June 14). [http://abcnews.go.com/International/chinas-forced-abortions-child-rule-hits-women/story?id=16558428 How China's Forced Abortion Policy Hits Two Women]. ''ABC News''. Wong, E. (2012, July 22). [http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/23/world/asia/pressure-to-repeal-chinas-one-child-law-is-growing.html?pagewanted=all Reports of Forced Abortions Fuel Push to End Chinese Law]. ''New York Times''. MacLeod, C. (2012, July 24). [http://www.usatoday.com/news/story/2012-07-25/China-forced-abortions/56465974/1 Pressure mounts to stop China's forced abortions]. ''USA Today''. Sudworth, J. (2012, June 15). [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-18453995 Chinese officials apologise to woman in forced abortion]. ''BBC News''.</ref> The sex-selective abortion policy has led to a huge gender disparity in China, 122.66 boys for every girl born, the highest ratio in the entire Asia Specific region<ref>(2010, March 9). [http://www.un.org.cn/cms/p/news/27/1346/content.html Gender Inequality Persists in China]. ''United Nations in China''. Ward, C. (2011, August 12). [http://abcnews.go.com/International/chinas-census-shows-growing-gender-gap/story?id=14288216 China's Preference for Boys Shows Growing Gender Gap]. ''ABC News''.</ref>, and resulted in 32 million single males.<ref>LaFraniere, S. (2009, April 10). [http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/11/world/asia/11china.html Chinese Bias for Baby Boys Creates a Gap of 32 Million]. ''The New York Times''. AFP (2010, January 12). [http://news.discovery.com/human/china-birth-rate-single-men.html China's Gender Gap Leaves Millions of Single Men]. ''Discovery News''.</ref> Logically this is a driving force behind human trafficking, prostitution, and the female slave trade which occurs near China.<ref>Weisenthal, J. (2010, April 12). [http://articles.businessinsider.com/2010-04-12/news/30049254_1_boys-and-girls-selective-abortions-village-hall Amazing First-Hand Account Of The Massive Gender Disparity In China]. ''Business Insider''.</ref>

===Minority Communities===
[[File:4287336112 d3f9126c99.jpg|right|thumb|325px|According to [[Cybercast News Service]]: "An analysis by the Cybercast News Service compared the location of [[Planned Parenthood]] abortion clinics with population data from the U.S. Census in 2000. The results appear to bolster the charge that the organization targets black communities."<ref>http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewSpecialReports.asp?Page=%5CSpecialReports%5Carchive%5C200502%5CSPE20050207a.html (Link no longer works.)</ref>
 
 
(photo obtained from [http://www.flickr.com/photos/muriel215/4287336112/ Flickr, see Creative commons license agreement)] ]]
"Each day '''1,786''' African American children are aborted." According to the [[U.S.]] Census of 2006, African Americans are at 1.96 birth rate which is beneath the replacement level of 2.1. <ref>[http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/1685410938.html African American Pro-Life Group Holds Protest at NAACP] Christian News Network, July 13, 2009</ref> At the continued rate, [[racism]] by abortion will decimate the black population of the U.S.

According to writer George Grant, the author of ''Killing Angel'':

"During the 1980s when [[Planned Parenthood]] shifted its focus from community-based clinics to school-based clinics, it again targeted inner-city minority neighborhoods...Of the more than 100 school-based clinics that have opened nationwide in the last decade [1980s], none has been at substantially all-white schools....None has been at suburban middle-class schools. All have been at black, minority or ethnic schools.” <ref>Green, T.L. (2001, May 10). [http://www.citizenreviewonline.org/special_issues/population/the_negro_project.htm The Negro Project: Margaret Sanger's Eugenic Plan for Black Americans]. ''Concerned Women For America''.</ref>

Planned Parenthood itself reported that its abortions on minorities in 1991 were 42.7% of its total abortions. <ref name=ppracism>Murphy, L.K. (1994, June). [http://www.ewtn.com/library/PROLIFE/PPRACISM.TXT Planned Parenthood's Racism]. ''Life Research Institute''.</ref>. However, during that time period, minorities comprised only 19.7% of the U.S. population.<ref name=ppracism />

According to [[Cybercast News Service]]: "An analysis by the Cybercast News Service compared the location of Planned Parenthood abortion clinics with population data from the U.S. Census in 2000. The results appear to bolster the charge that the organization targets black communities."<ref>http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewSpecialReports.asp?Page=%5CSpecialReports%5Carchive%5C200502%5CSPE20050207a.html (Link no longer works.)</ref>

==Political Support of Abortion==
The most powerful political action committee (PAC) is EMILY’s List.<ref>http://www.emilyslist.org/newsroom/releases/20070201.html (Link no longer works.)</ref> EMILY's List contributes money to Democratic candidates who support abortion-on-demand, including forced taxpayer funding of abortion. EMILY's List candidates also oppose regulations such as:

* Providing health information to abortion patients;
* Requiring that the abortionist have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital in case there is a complication; and
* Providing parental notification if the patient is a teenager.

Due to the influence of the abortion industry and EMILY's List, nearly every Democratic presidential candidate and senatorial candidate supports abortion-on-demand. "EMILY's List, the nation's largest political action committee, continues to be the dominant financial resource for Democratic candidates," its above-referenced website declares.

There is no comparably funded organization opposing abortion, because there are no monetary rewards to defending human life. Instead, candidates and supporters who oppose abortion are motivated by religious and ethical principles.
===Pro-Life Democrats===
''See also:'' [[DFLA#2009-2010_Obamacare_Influence]]

While most Democrats support abortion, a growing number have been affiliating with [[Democrats For Life of America]], also known as Pro-Life Democrats. ObamaCare in 2009-2010 would have passed rapidly if not for their influence, since Democrats had a Supermajority allowing them to pass anything without a single Republican vote. However, 40 Pro-Life Democrats, led by Congressman [[Bart Stupak]] signed a letter refusing to let ObamaCare pass without reforms on the abortion issue, and fought the bill from June 2009 to March 2010, in an attempt to add the Stupak Amendment to the bill (which was added to the House bill but removed in the Senate despite attempts by Sen. [[Ben Nelson]] to add it there as well).
===Politics and Demographics===
''See also:'' [[American atheism]] and [[Global atheism]] and [[Decline of atheism]] and [[liberal]]

The Birkbeck College, University of London professor Eric Kaufman wrote in his 2010 book ''Shall the Righteous Inherit the Earth?'' concerning America:
{{cquote|High evangelical fertility rates more than compensated for losses to liberal Protestant sects during the twentieth century. In recent decades, white secularism has surged, but Latino and Asian religious immigration has taken up the slack, keeping secularism at bay. Across denominations, the fertility advantage of religious fundamentalists of all colours is significant and growing. After 2020, their demographic weight will begin to tip the balance in the [[Culture War|culture wars]] towards the conservative side, ramping up pressure on hot-button issues such as abortion. By the end of the century, three quarters of America may be pro-life. Their activism will leap over the borders of the 'Redeemer Nation' to evangelize the world. Already, the rise of the World Congress of Families has launched a global religious right, its arms stretching across the bloody lines of the War on Terror to embrace the entire Abrahamic family.<ref>[http://questionevolution.blogspot.com/2012/05/why-are-years-2012-and-2020-key-years.html Why are 2012 and 2020 key years for Christian creationists and pro-lifers?]</ref>}}

==Ultrasound images==
About 80% of women who see an ultrasound of their fetus (unborn child) decide not to abort.<ref>(2005, April 22). [http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/145703/abortion_foes_use_ultrasound__focus_on_the_family_budgets/ Abortion Foes Use Ultrasound ; Focus on the Family Budgets Millions for Pricey Equipment]. ''RedOrbit''.</ref>

*http://www.ob-ultrasound.net/frames.htm
*http://www.flickr.com/photos/drakelelane/388759116/
*http://www.parentingweekly.com/pregnancy/pregnancy_information/ultrasound/13_weeks.htm
*http://www.parentingweekly.com/pregnancy/pregnancy_information/ultrasound/ultrasound_3d.htm
*http://www.parentingweekly.com/pregnancy/pregnancy_information/ultrasound/triple_jump.htm

== See Also ==
*[[Conservapedia:Pro-life Project|Conservapedia Pro-life Project]]
*[http://www.conservapedia.com/Category:Abortion Directory of abortion related articles]
*[http://www.investigatemagazine.com/mar3abrt.htm Abortion and breast cancer in New Zealand]
*[[Abortion and the Bible]]
*[[Abortion and eugenics]]
*[[Abortion Facts]]
*[[Abortion funding]]
*[[Abortion genocide]]
*[[Abortion procedures]]
*[[Abortion rates by US state]]
*[[Abortionist]]
*[[Anti Abortion activism: a personal essay]]
*[[More News/Abortion|Articles about '''Abortion''' from "More News"]]
*[[Culture of life]]
*[[Separate Life|Essay on abortion]]
*[[Eugenics]]
*[[Fetus]]
*[[Harvard abortion study]]
*[[Abortion breast cancer studies]]
*[[Homosexual activists and abortion]]
*[[Margaret Sanger]]
*[http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/chs/abrpt/2006abrpt.pdf Minnesota official abortion statistics]
*[[National Right to Life Committee]]
*[[Partial birth abortion]]
*[[Planned Parenthood]]
*[[Right to life]]
*[[Right to life movement]]
*[[Sanctity of life]]
*[[Silent scream]]
*[[Taxpayer-funded abortion]]

==External Links==
* [http://creationwiki.org/Abortion Abortion] by [[CreationWiki]]
* [http://www.abortionfacts.com/ Abortion Facts]
* [http://www.carm.org/abortion.htm Abortion] by [[Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry]]
* [http://www.lifesitenews.com/ LifeSiteNews.com]
* [http://www.ProLifeOnCampus.com/ Pro Life on Campus]
* [http://www.aim.org/wls/category/abortion/ What Liberals Say - Category: Abortion], [[Accuracy In Media]]
{{Abortion}}
{{Liberalism}}

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

[[Category:Abortion]]
[[Category:Sexuality]]
[[Category:Religion and Politics]]
[[Category:Liberals]]
[[Category:Featured articles]]

Siege of Minorca

2012-12-01T20:33:42Z

JJCC:

Siege of Minorca

2012-12-01T20:26:41Z

JJCC: Created page with "The '''Siege of Minorca''' was a siege of Fort St. Philip during the Seven Years War. This contributed to the Declaration of War on 18 May, 1756. A French force of 15,000..."

Seven Years' War

2012-12-01T20:19:25Z

JJCC: /* 1756 */

The '''Seven Years' War''' (1756 - 1763) was an international conflict involving [[Prussia]] against the allied European nations. It was caused by the tension between [[Austria]] and Prussia as well as [[Great Britain]] and [[France]]. Great Britain, allied with Prussia, [[Hanover]] [[Portugal]] and other European minor countries, waged war upon France, [[Spain]], [[Austria]], [[Russia]] and other minor European countries, leading to what has been referred to as the 'First World War', although in modern terms that would be [[World War I|WWI]]. War broke out in 1754 in [[Europe]] and later spread to [[North America]], [[Scandinavia]] and [[India]]. It resulted in France losing much of it's claim on [[New France]], Spain losing [[Florida]] and [[Bengal]] while receiving [[Louisiana]] from a defeated French.

==Background==
In the [[Diplomatic Revolution]] of 1756, the French, Austrians and Russians made an [[Military alliance|alliance]] against Prussia, resulting in assistance from Great Britain, who saw Hanover, threatened by France's militaristic style. The British hoped that these alliances would bring peace to Europe, but instead this was one of the major causes.

== Course of the war ==

=== 1756 ===
Although British Prime Minister, the [[Duke of Newcastle]], remained optimistic that war wouldn't break out, the French [[Siege of Minorca|attacked Minorca]] in April, sparking the war. A British attempt at relieving [[Minorca]] failed, and Minorca fell on 28 June. War was later declared war on 18 May, nearly two years after the Seven Years' War was believed to have started.

Having received reports of clashes in North America, and with the backing of an [[Anglo-Prussian Alliance]], [[Frederick I]] crossed the border at [[Saxony]] on 29 August. Saxony was one of rival Austria's allies; he intended this as a pre-emption of an anticipated Austro-French invasion of [[Silesia]].

==References==
<references />

==See Also==
*[[Battle of Quiberon Bay]]

[[Category:European History]]
[[Category:Wars]]

Seven Years' War

2012-12-01T20:18:51Z

JJCC: /* 1756 */

The '''Seven Years' War''' (1756 - 1763) was an international conflict involving [[Prussia]] against the allied European nations. It was caused by the tension between [[Austria]] and Prussia as well as [[Great Britain]] and [[France]]. Great Britain, allied with Prussia, [[Hanover]] [[Portugal]] and other European minor countries, waged war upon France, [[Spain]], [[Austria]], [[Russia]] and other minor European countries, leading to what has been referred to as the 'First World War', although in modern terms that would be [[World War I|WWI]]. War broke out in 1754 in [[Europe]] and later spread to [[North America]], [[Scandinavia]] and [[India]]. It resulted in France losing much of it's claim on [[New France]], Spain losing [[Florida]] and [[Bengal]] while receiving [[Louisiana]] from a defeated French.

==Background==
In the [[Diplomatic Revolution]] of 1756, the French, Austrians and Russians made an [[Military alliance|alliance]] against Prussia, resulting in assistance from Great Britain, who saw Hanover, threatened by France's militaristic style. The British hoped that these alliances would bring peace to Europe, but instead this was one of the major causes.

== Course of the war ==

=== 1756 ===
Although British Prime Minister, the [[Duke of Newcastle]], remained optimistic that war wouldn't break out, the French [[Battle of Minorca|attacked Minorca]] in April, sparking the war. A British attempt at relieving [[Minorca]] failed, and Minorca fell on 28 June. War was later declared war on 18 May, nearly two years after the Seven Years' War was believed to have started.

Having received reports of clashes in North America, and with the backing of an [[Anglo-Prussian Alliance]], [[Frederick I]] crossed the border at [[Saxony]] on 29 August. Saxony was one of rival Austria's allies; he intended this as a pre-emption of an anticipated Austro-French invasion of [[Silesia]].

==References==
<references />

==See Also==
*[[Battle of Quiberon Bay]]

[[Category:European History]]
[[Category:Wars]]

Battle of Stalingrad

2012-12-01T20:08:48Z

JJCC:

The '''Battle of Stalingrad''' (21 August 1942 - 2 February 1943) was a battle between [[Nazi]] [[Germany]] and the [[Soviet Union]] for the Soviet city of Stalingrad (now [[Volgograd]]). The Battle of Stalingrad was the bloodiest battle in human history, with over 1.4 million dead soldiers, and 40,000 civilian dead.<ref>Craig, William. ''Enemy at the Gates''. New York: Penguin Books, 1973.</ref>

The battle of Stalingrad was the turning in World War II. It was a decisive Soviet victory, as Chuikov's Don/Stalingrad front (mainly 62nd army) crushed Paulus's army group B. Germany suffered casualties that were simply irreplaceable. Hitler's armies were no longer undefeated, their moral was severally dented and the Soviets never felt better.

The people of Stalingrad endured and fought alongside their compatriot Soviet soldiers suffering over 100,000. Stalingrad claimed over 350,000 German casualties. The Red army sacrificed 500,000 civilians to hold the city, another 500,000 soldiers were wounded or diseased.<ref>[http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/wwii/stalingrad/annihilation.aspx Military History Online - Battle of Stalingrad]</ref>

==Quotes==
*''"We and our allies owe and acknowledge an ever-lasting debt of gratitude to the armies and people of the Soviet Union."'' -- Frank Knox, Secretary of the Navy
*''"History knows no greater display of courage than that shown by the people of the Soviet Union."'' -- -Henry L. Stimson, US Secretary of War
*''"If I do not get the oil of Maikop and Grozny then I must end this war."'' -- Adolf Hitler
*''"On the European Front the most important development of the past year has been the crushing offensive of the Great Armies of Russia..."'' -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt
*''"The disaster of Stalingrad profoundly shocked the German people and armed forces alike...Never before in Germany's history had so large a body of troops come to so dreadful an end."'' -- General Siegfried von Westphal

==References==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:World War II Battles]]

Operation Barbarossa

2012-12-01T19:58:37Z

JJCC:

'''Operation Barbarossa''', the largest military operation of all time, was [[Nazi Germany]]'s invasion of the [[Soviet Union]] which began in summer 1941. It was planned for earlier in the year, but was delayed due to Germany's need to conquer [[Greece]] first after [[Italy]]'s disastrous effort to attack that country had met with failure.

The operation against the Soviet Union was a 'Blitzkrieg' ('lightning war') that saw the German Wehrmacht and its allies advance cover greater distances in less time than any of their other campaigns. Of course it would also need to, due to the vast land area that made up the Soviet Union and Russia in particular. The [[Luftwaffe]] worked in co-ordination with the [[Panzer]] Divisions to ensure as rapid an advance as possible. The attack aimed to reach the capital of the [[USSR]], [[Moscow]], before the dreaded Russian winter set in, but failed to do so. The Russians threw back the German armies at that time; their first military success.

The Germans began their offensive anew in 1942 after the winter had passed and again met with success, but the Russians were bolstered by supplies from the Allies including some from the [[United States]] and their continued mobilization of their own great manpower reserves. Also, the addition of the [[T-34 tank]] gave them a weapon that was in many ways superior to any other tank that had been seen in the war. The [[Battle of Stalingrad]] in late 1942/early '43 was the turning point in the War on the Eastern Front, and a Nazi victory became practically impossible after that as the size of the Soviet forces and their fighting ability continued to grow.

[[Category:Russian History]]
[[Category:German History]]
[[Category:World War II]]

Seven Years' War

2012-12-01T02:34:56Z

JJCC: /* Background */ Finish tomorrow

The '''Seven Years' War''' (1756 - 1763) was an international conflict involving [[Prussia]] against the allied European nations. It was caused by the tension between [[Austria]] and Prussia as well as [[Great Britain]] and [[France]]. Great Britain, allied with Prussia, [[Hanover]] [[Portugal]] and other European minor countries, waged war upon France, [[Spain]], [[Austria]], [[Russia]] and other minor European countries, leading to what has been referred to as the 'First World War', although in modern terms that would be [[World War I|WWI]]. War broke out in 1754 in [[Europe]] and later spread to [[North America]], [[Scandinavia]] and [[India]]. It resulted in France losing much of it's claim on [[New France]], Spain losing [[Florida]] and [[Bengal]] while receiving [[Louisiana]] from a defeated French.

==Background==
In the [[Diplomatic Revolution]] of 1756, the French, Austrians and Russians made an [[Military alliance|alliance]] against Prussia, resulting in assistance from Great Britain, who saw Hanover, threatened by France's militaristic style. The British hoped that these alliances would bring peace to Europe, but instead this was one of the major causes.

== Course of the war ==

=== 1756 ===
Although British Prime Minister, the [[Duke of Newcastle]], remained optimistic that war wouldn't break out, the French [[Battle of Minorca|attacked Minorca]].

==References==
<references />

==See Also==
*[[Battle of Quiberon Bay]]

[[Category:European History]]
[[Category:Wars]]

Bilderberg group

2012-12-01T02:30:22Z

JJCC: /* Obama administration */

The '''Bilderberg group''' is an international organization made up of [[political]], [[financial]], [[academic]] and [[military]] heavyweights that comes together annually to discuss world affairs. The name was chosen from the Dutch hotel where it held its first meeting in 1954. <ref>[http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/20010.html Bilderbergers excite conspiracists] Politico, March 15, 2009</ref> From the outside, conspiracists believe Bilderberg members are a '''"shadowy, elitist cabal intent on installing a one-world government that subverts the will of the [[American]] people."''' The group meets once a year by annual invitation-only conference and includes 150 [[North America]] and [[Western Europe]] influential figures. No other events are held and no policy statements are issued. Bilderberg meetings are closed to the press, participants are asked not to publicly discuss the proceedings and the attendee list is only occasionally released.

=== Obama administration ===
The following people have ties to Bilderberg:

* [[Paul Volcker]]
* [[Larry Summers]]
* [[Timothy Geithner]]
* [[Kathleen Sebelius]]
* [[Hillary Clinton]]
* [[Ben Bernanke]] <ref>[http://www.infowars.com/bilderberg-ben-and-the-globalist-agenda/ Bilderberg Ben and the Globalist Agenda, InfoWars, June 8, 2008]</ref>

Representative [[Ron Paul]] fears the group’s influence. "And my biggest concern is what they preach: [[Keynesian economics]] and interventionism and world planning," and "They do believe in a powerful centralized government."

=== External Links ===
* [http://www.prisonplanet.com/obama-picks-bilderberger-for-health-secretary.html Prison Planet.com]
* Thousands of Bilderberg videos can be found at YouTube

==References==
<references/>
[[Category:International Political Organizations]]

IPhone

2012-12-01T02:28:17Z

JJCC:

{{lowercase}}
The [[Apple Inc.|Apple]] '''iPhone''' is a next-generation [[cell phone]] built with [[internet|web]] capability in "true-web" fashion; rather than viewing "mobile" versions of web-pages, as is common on other mobile devices, it uses a [[touch screen]] panel, enabling the user to navigate a full-size [[web page]]. In the United States, the iPhone has been exclusive to the [[American Telephone and Telegraph|AT&T Mobility]] network, but the latest version was made available on the [[Verizon Communications|Verizon Wireless]] network in February 2011.

== Other Applications ==
Aside from cellular phone capabilities, and web-viewing, the iPhone also offers (through partnership with [[Google|Google Maps]]), a full-featured map application that users can use anywhere in the [[United States]], over AT&T's [[EDGE]] data network. Other standard [[Personal Digital Assistant|PDA]] capabilities were included, too, such as [[Microsoft Outlook]] synchronization capability.

In 2008, with the release of the iPhone 2.0 operating system (later renamed to iOS 2.0), users were able to download applications via the App Store. Applications distributed by Apple must adhere to several restrictions, which has led to much controversy, as well as several groups developing unofficial software that can be installed on an iPhone via "jailbreaking."

== Release and Price Controversy ==
The iPhone was released in the United States on 29 June 2007 to wide acclaim. Upon release the iPhone was capable only of usage on the [[AT&T]] network, and retailed (depending on memory size) for $500 and $600. The pricing of the device rapidly made it a luxury and status symbol, although it restricted availability to most other users.

Only 69 days after the release, though, on 5 September 2007, Apple slashed the prices of the device to $400 for the model formerly priced at $600, and discontinued selling the lower-capacity $500 model. This quick price cut - aside from being very uncommon in Apple's tradition of delayed price cuts - inflamed some so-called "early adopters," or those who had purchased the iPhone in the preceding two months, and now had no recourse against Apple's seemingly capricious price cut. Apple founder [[Steve Jobs]], conscious of his company's image, quickly offered a $100 credit to the [[iTunes]] Music Store to every early adopter who could not otherwise obtain price relief from a return or exchange.

Starting in 2008 with the release of the iPhone 3g, AT&T, and later Verizon Wireless, reduced the cost of the iPhone when a two year contract is signed. In May 2011, AT&T released a version of the iPhone 4.0 that comes factory unlocked, although at a much steeper price<ref>[http://articles.cnn.com/2011-06-14/tech/unlocked.iphone.available_1_iphone-32gb-model-gsm-network?_s=PM:TECH Unlocked iPhone 4 now available in the U.S.] CNN.com, June 14, 2011</ref>.

== Notable Oversights ==
Despite the iPhone's technological breakthroughs, it initially lacked several features that users have come to expect of [[Personal Digital Assistant|PDAs]], such as a copy and paste feature, [[Bluetooth]] synchronization capability, and a customizable ringtone. The latter of these two features, within one week of the iPhone's release, were available to users who were willing to "[[hack]]" their device to add such functionality, a practice known as "jailbreaking". Copy and paste functionality and bluetooth were announced for iPhone OS 3.0, and ringtones are now available via the [[iTunes]] store.

Also, many AT&T customers were befuddled that the iPhone's designers had not taken the chance to use AT&T's [[3G]] mobile data network, a considerably faster and more usable framework than the included EDGE compatibility. Apple stated that the EDGE network was used to prolong battery life, as the battery on the original iPhone would not last long on 3G. The newest version of the iPhone is now capable of utilizing the 3G network.

In 2010, AT&T dropped support for unlimited data plans and began offering limited data plans to new customers<ref>[http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/06/att-adds-iphone-tethering-kills-unlimited-data-for-ipad-smartphones/ AT&T Adds iPhone Tethering, Kills Unlimited Data for iPad, Smartphones] Wired Magazine, June 2, 2010</ref>. Users in large metropolitan areas, such as San Francisco, New York City, Chicago and Minneapolis have all reported extremely slow data speeds with AT&T, as AT&T has been unable to keep up with the demand of data usage by their customers.

At release, the iPhone sorely disappointed consumers because it lacked an [[Adobe]] Flash Player. Since November 2010 the Skyfire browser, which is available in iTunes app store for an additional charge, plays Flash. <ref>www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/11/skyfire-iphone-app/</ref>

===Privacy and Spyware Concerns===
The iOS app store offers many free and paid apps, although some have been found to be [[spyware]].<ref>[http://blogs.computerworld.com/14568/iphone_apps_are_spyware_panic iPhone Spyware] [http://blogs.wsj.com/wtk-mobile/ What they know mobile]</ref>
While there is no known [[malware]] for iOS, users may download or forward infected files. Malware can flow through your device into your [[computers]] at home and at work, by [[e-mail]], or via remote locations such as MobileMe and DropBox, web servers or WebDAV shares.<ref>[http://gizmodo.com/5843076/virusbarrier-for-iphone-protect-your-iphone-by-scanning-for-malware VirusBarrier for iPhone: Protect Your iPhone By Scanning for Malware], ''Gizmodo'', September 22, 2011.</ref><ref>[http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/18/lookout-finally-brings-intelligent-smartphone-security-and-tracking-application-to-ios/ Lookout Finally Brings Intelligent Smartphone Security And Tracking Application To iOS], techcrunch.com, October 18, 2011.</ref> Furthermore, some have expressed concern over Apple's new tracking patent, which describes a system that could:
* Take pictures of the user
* Record user's voice, even when not calling
* Determine user's heartbeat "signature"
* Determine if the device has been hacked
* Monitor internet activity
While this is said to be an innovation on anti-theft software, identifying unauthorized users, some have called this spyware.<ref>[https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/08/steve-jobs-watching-you-apple-seeking-patent-0 EFF IPhone article]</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Apple Inc.]]
[[category:technology]]

World War II

2012-12-01T02:23:03Z

JJCC: Add Italian Social Republic: Consisted of Italian remnant after Mussolini's capture

{{World War 2
| image =WWII collage.JPG
| conflict =
| date =1939-1945
| location =Europe North and eastern Africa Eastern Asia Pacific Ocean Atlantic Ocean 
| combatant1 ='''Allies''' [[Great Britain]] [[France]] [[Soviet Union]](From 1941) [[China]] [[United States]](from 1941) [[Poland]] [[Denmark]] [[Norway]] [[Belgium]] [[Luxembourg]] [[Canada]] [[Australia]] [[New Zealand]] [[Netherlands]] [[Yugoslavia]] [[Greece]] [[Italy]](from 1943 to 1945)
| combatant2 ='''Axis''' [[Nazi Germany]] [[Italy]](until 1943) [[Japan]] [[Hungary]](1941–45) [[Romania]](1941–44) [[Bulgaria]](1941–44) [[Italian Social Republic]] (1943-1945)
| commander1 =
| commander2 =
| strength1 =
| strength2 =
| casualties1 =
| casualties2 =
}}
'''World War II''' was a global set of conflicts, beginning in 1931 in Asia, 1935 in Africa, and 1939 in Europe, all lasting until 1945, in which the [[Allies|Allied powers]] (led after the Fall of France by the [[British Commonwealth]], and including the [[United States]], the [[Soviet Union]], the [[Republic of China]], among many other nations), completely defeated the [[Axis Powers]] (led by [[Third Reich|Nazi Germany]], and including [[Italy]], [[Japan]], [[Hungary]], [[Romania]] and [[Bulgaria]]). Although Japan's war against China began in 1937, the main conflict started in September 1939 when Germany and the Soviet Union divided [[Poland]]; [[Britain]] and [[French Third Republic|France]] then declared war on Germany.

The conflict was the deadliest in human history with estimated deaths ranging from 50 million to over 70 million soldiers and civilians.<ref>http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat1.htm#Second</ref> It ended with the Soviet Union dominant in Eastern Europe, and the U.S. and its allies dominant in Western Europe, setting the stage for the [[Cold War]].
==Causes==
:''See: [[Causes of World War II]]''

==War Begins in Europe==
[[Image:Communazi Peace Pact.jpg|thumb|300px|right|By terms of a secret protocol to the [[Nazi-Soviet pact]], [[Poland]] was partitioned with Germany and the USSR each occupying 200,000 square kilometers.]]
:''See also: [[Molotov-Ribbentrop pact]]''

In the immediate run up to WWII, there were frequent reports of trespassing Polish troops. On August 31, 1939 German covert operatives staged a fake attack by Polish troops on a German radio station. WWII started on September 1, 1939, when German troops invaded Poland. Hitler justified this as a defensive act, pointing to the frequent border incidents, and said famously that from this moment on Germany would strike back.

The major tactical innovation of the war was the use of combined arms warfare, typified by the German doctrine of [[blitzkrieg]]. In this style of warfare armor, infantry, artillery and air power (see [[Luftwaffe]]) all coordinate to achieve overwhelming superiority at point on the enemy lines. Armor and fast-moving infantry units then exploit the gap and penetrate deep behind enemy lines. The objective is to cause a widespread collapse of the enemy's ability to fight. It was particularly effective during the early stages of the war, before the Allies developed effective countermeasures.
On September 17, 1939, Poland was invaded from the east by Hitler’s ally, [[Josef Stalin|Stalin]].

In 1939-1940, eastern Poland, [[Estonia]], [[Latvia]], [[Lithuania]] and [[Bessarabia]] were invaded and annexed by the Soviet Union.

==War in the West==
[[Image:Caen_sniper.jpg|left|thumb|200px|A Canadian soldier in the ruins of Caen, 9 July 1944]]
Once the invasion of Poland was complete, German forces regrouped while French and British forces remained on the defensive, leading US commentators to dub it the [[Sitskreig|Phoney War]]. May 10 1940 made clear that the war was real, as Germany invaded France, occupying neutral countries such as the [[Netherlands]], [[Luxembourg]] and [[Belgium]] in the process. Resistance by the British and French armies proved ineffective, and France was soon surrendered. British and French troops were routed and evacuated mainland Europe at [[Dunkirk]]. France was divided into the northern [[Occupied France]] and the collaborationist [[Vichy regime]] in the south of France, including [[Corsica]].

The collapse and occupation of France, together with Germany's non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union,<ref>[http://nobsopus.blogspot.com/2007/01/celebrations-marking-60-years-since-end.html Celebrations Marking 60 Years Since the End of World War II], Pavel Vitek, ''Russkii vopros - Studies'', No. 1 2005. Translation from Russian.</ref>, Germany's alliance with fascist Italy and an expansionist Japan, the benevolent neutrality of fascist Spain, and the fact that little of Europe was outside Axis control, led many to assume that Britain had been defeated. Indeed it would appear that the seemingly foolish decision of the relatively weak Britain to continue the war took the Axis powers off guard. This decision ensured the remaining British Empire was still involved in the war, with Japan threatening many British possessions in Asia.

In 1940 [[Denmark]] and [[Norway]] were invaded by German forces, to preempt a British occupation of Norway and occupy its coastline and ports to be used by the [[Kriegsmarine]]. Norway also contained a source of [[Heavy water]], potentially crucial in the construction of an atomic weapon. The operation was successful, but losses were heavy, especially to the Kriegsmarine. This was soon followed by the British troops invited by [[Iceland]] and American occupation of [[Greenland]]. (The goal was to prevent any increase in the range of German air and submarine activity, brought about the occupation of these lands - and of the Azores at the request of the Portuguese Government.)

With Britain the sole opposing European nation, the [[Battle of Britain]] commenced. The [[Luftwaffe]] attempted to achieve aerial dominance over the south of Britain, in order to allow a sea based invasion of the British Isles to proceed. From 10th July to the end of October the [[Royal Air Force]] and the Luftwaffe fought for dominance; the resilience of the RAF, which counted in its ranks also Commonwealth personnel, US volunteers and Polish and Czech exiles, and the use of [[radar]] and its associated early warning systems, had forced a rethink of German tactics. It was the first significant setback for the Germans in the War. They now concentrated on the great population centers, especially London, hoping that huge civilian casualties would weaken morale and lead to a lessening of the war effort by the populace. The period that followed, popularly known as [[the Blitz]], lasted into May 1941. Around 40,000 civilians and civil defense workers died; but the Germans failed to reach their objectives and their resources were soon diverted to the Eastern front as Hitler began concentrating on the impending invasion of the Soviet Union.

With the pressure off their airbases the RAF was now able to increase its nightly raids on industrial sites in Germany and occupied lands. Because of the inability to correctly target these sites, the raids soon turned into “area bombing”, and German civilian casualties rose. These raids were to reach further into Germany as the war progressed and were greatly increased when American bombers began their sorties.

==Finnish Wars==

The Soviet Union invaded [[Finland]], a neutral, on November 30 1939. This conflict came to be known as the "Winter War". Despite the overwhelming numbers of the Red Army, the Finnish resistance was strong and the battle was hard fought before the Soviet army took control. Outside powers (including the U.S.) considered intervention to help Finland; only a little aid trickled in and Finland was forced to sue for peace. The peace treaty signed in March 1940 favored the Soviets, but they paid heavily for their victory with 200,000 dead. Finland lost 25,000 dead, and had to absorb 400,000 refugees from areas turned over to the Soviets. In 1941 Finland joined Germany in attacking the Soviets, in the "Continuation War" (1941-44), but lost again. An armistice in Sept. 1944 stabilized the border, using March 1940 lines; in addition Finland had to pay heavy reparations and had to remain neutral in the [[Cold War]].<ref> Roger R. Reese, "Lessons of the Winter War: a Study in the Military Effectiveness of the Red Army, 1939-1940," ''Journal of Military History'' 2008 72(3): 825-852 </ref>

==Soviet-German War==
1941 marked the major turning point in the war in Europe, when the Germans undertook [[Operation Barbarossa]] - the invasion of the Soviet Union. Stalin was repeatedly informed by his own spies and anti-German countries that Germany was about to attack; he rejected the accurate reports and paid dearly for the blunder.

In June--behind schedule because of diversions in the Balkans--the Germans launched their massive war against the Soviet Union (known as the "Great Patriotic War" in Russia). It was by far the largest, bloodiest, and most decisive phase of World War II. Outside observers in the first few months figured that Germany would win easily. But the Nazi armies were split three ways, logistics became worse and worse as distances grew, and none met their objective by the time the extreme Russian winter of 1941-42 set in. Blitzkrieg had failed against the Soviets, and the Germans lacked the resources to fight a long war against a country with such vast areas and so many more people. The Luftwaffe, which promised to overcome the slowness of ground travel, failed to provide adequate support and was soon matched and outnumbered by the Soviet air force.<ref> The best studies of this theater are by [http://books.google.com/books?as_q=&num=30&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_brr=0&as_pt=ALLTYPES&lr=&as_vt=&as_auth=glantz+david&as_pub=&as_sub=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&as_isbn=&as_issn= David Glantz]</ref>

In the third year of war Germany began to suffer from a lack of important ressources such as oil. Hitler therefore ordered the german army to take the city of Stalingrad and the oil fields of Baku in South Russia. The operation failed after the 6th German army was encircled in Stalingrad and completely annihilated. The [[Battle of Stalingrad]] marked a turning point in the war and the Soviet Union started launching their own offensives. After a time of comparatively slow progress, the brilliant Soviet officer, Konstantin Rokossovsky, engineered "Operation Bagration", named-so after the Napoleonic Russian hero. The operation was extremely successful for the Soviets, leading to around 600,000 Soviet casualties and over 500,000 German casualties, including over 60,000 German vehicles and tanks. Even the Germans' best officer, Erich von Manstein, couldn't turn the situation around. Finally, in 1945, Soviet troops stormed Berlin, and forced Nazi Germany into capitulation.

==Far East==

After Pearl Harbor, the Japanese juggernaut seemed unstoppable. In the south, they conquered the [[Philippines]], the oil-rich Dutch East Indies, Malaysia, and extended their reach as far as the Solomon Islands. In the west, they seized [[Burma]] and the vital port at [[Rangoon]], and even attacked British forces at [[Ceylon]]. The Japanese empire now reached as far as [[Wake Island]] in the east and the [[Aleutian Islands]] to the north. Attacks on Japanese targets, including the Doolittle raid, boasted American morale, but did little material damage. In May 1942, Japanese forces were finally halted at the [[Battle of the Coral Sea]], which cost the Americans a precious [[aircraft carrier]], but saved southern [[New Guinea]]. At the [[Battle of Midway]] a month later, the Japanese lost four of their best carriers, suffering a blow to their sea power from which they never recovered.

The Americans took the offensive in August with a landing on the island of [[Guadalcanal]]. The overall American offensive strategy was two-pronged. Forces in the south advanced up the Solomon island chain and New Guinea, while in the central Pacific, Marines took island after island, including [[Battle of Tarawa|Tarawa]], Eniwetok, [[Saipan]], and [[Guam]]. The two lines of attack came together at the Philippines.

Integral to the strategy was the policy of island hopping. Many Japanese strongholds were bypassed, allowing the American forces to concentrate on more strategically significant islands. For example, [[Truk]] and Rabaul were home to major Japanese air and naval bases, but once the bases were neutralized, there was no reason to take on the troops there. This policy not only saved thousands of American (and Japanese) lives, it shortened the war by at least several months.

The American invasion of the Philippines took place in late October of 1944 when Marines landed on Leyte Island. A few days later, the US Navy shattered what was left of Japanese naval power in the [[Battle of Leyte Gulf]]. The Japanese fought hard, however, and Leyte took two months to secure. When the Americans landed on the other islands, they found the troops there equally unwilling to retreat, but with American superiority in almost every area, the outcome was never really in doubt. [[Manila]] was captured by March, and the American position had become solid enough that leaders could start preparing for the final stage: [[Operation Downfall|the invasion of Japan]]. The first step was taken when the island of [[Okinawa]] was captured in June after two months of heavy fighting. Operation Olympic, the invasion of [[Kyushu]], was scheduled for November 1945, followed by Operation Coronet, the invasion of [[Honshu]], in March of 1946.

The Japanese, soldiers and civilians alike, were expected to put up a fierce defense. Army Chief of Staff [[George C. Marshall]] believed that Japan would fight to the last man, and insisted on preparing for a land invasion of Japan with an army of 2,000,000 men anticipating a tremendous number of casualties. Some analysts estimated the number of projected casualties from Operation Olympic alone at 250,000 dead and wounded.<ref>Historical Atlas of the U.S. Navy, by Craig L. Symonds, the Naval Institute, 1995</ref> For this reason, Washington strongly requested the Soviets declare war on Japan. At the Potsdam conference in mid-July 1945, Stalin told President Truman the Soviets would declare war on Japan but would not give a firm timetable.<ref>Wheeler (1983) p. 58</ref>
[[Image:Ww2-asia usma.edu pic.gif|thumb|300px|left|Time Line of Pacific War]]

==Japanese capitulation==
After the successful atom bomb test in the U.S., President Truman was left with the awesome task of deciding what to do with the power of the atomic bomb. Truman assembled a committee to advise him. The committee recommended the bomb should be used on the Japanese Empire mainland to save American lives and produce maximum shock to try to convince the Japanese to surrender.<ref>Wheeler (1983) pp. 58-60</ref> Therefore, on August 6, 1945, a B-29 Superfortress, the "Enola Gay" piloted by Paul Tibbet, dropped an atomic bomb (now called a nuclear weapon) on [[Hiroshima]]. Japan did not respond, so on August 9, "Bocks Car", a B-29 piloted by Frederick C. Bock dropped the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki.<ref>Wheeler (1983) pp. 94-101</ref>

The Soviet Union declared war on Japan at midnight August 8, 1945, in response to the American requests and in a last-minute grab for the spoils of war. It invaded Manchuria and Korea with 1.6 million troops; the Japanese army disintegrated. The Soviets captured 600,000 military and civilian prisoners of war; most of whom never returned home again.<ref>Wheeler (1983) p. 156</ref> It was no longer possible for the Imperial Army to defend the emperor. On August 15, 1945, Emperor Hirohito by radio broadcast announced Japan would accept the terms of the Allies, unconditional surrender.<ref>Wheeler (1983) pp. 165-167</ref> By follow up message, the Japanese government stated they were surrendering with the understanding the Emperor would remain on the throne and would not be hung as a war criminal. Washington agreed, saying the authority of the emperor would be "subject to the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers." On September 2, 1945, the Japanese Emperor formally surrendered all Japanese forces to the Allies in a famous ceremony aboard the battleship ''USS Missouri'' in Tokyo Bay. This was the ending of World War II, after six years almost to the day.

==Effects of war on empires==

*[[Iron Curtain]]
:The Red army conquered practically everything east of the "Iron Curtain," destroying independent national governments and making them all subservient to Moscow. The US grudgingly tolerated this imperialism until 1947, when it was Greece's turn. Then the US drew the line and adopted a policy of [[containment]]. Because of the geography of war, [[Yugoslavia]] and [[Albania]] escaped the Red Army. They fell under the control of independent Communists--Yugoslavia received American support, and Albania turned to Red China for help against the Soviets.

*[[British Empire]]
:The war effectively bankrupted Britain, which soon gave up India (which then included Pakistan and Ceylon) and many of its other colonies.

* French Empire
:France saluted its overseas Empire as the savior of France, and wanted control back. That led to nasty large scale wars in Algeria and Vietnam, which France lost.

*the Netherlands and Indonesia
:The Dutch returned to the [[Dutch East Indies]] to face an insurrection they could not handle. Dutch acknowledged in 1949 the sovereignty of [[Indonesia]], a non-Communist state.

*Supremacy of the USA in the Western World
:The war left the U.S. with a vastly stronger economy than anyone else. To save on budget deficits the military was demobilized, but the long-term strategy was in confusion after Roosevelt's death.

==See also==
===Land war===
[[Image:Bradley.jpg|thumb|290px|''Time'' Dec. 4, 1944]]
* [[Battle of the Bulge]], Dec. 1944
* [[Battle of Okinawa]], spring 1945
* [[Second Sino-Japanese War]], 1937-45
* [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]], US general
* [[Omar Bradley]], US general
* [[George S. Patton, Jr.]], US general
===Air war===
* [[Luftwaffe]], German air force
* [[World War II in the Air]]
* [[Bombing of Japan]]
* [[Bombing of Germany]]
===Naval===
* [[Attack on Pearl Harbor]], Dec. 1941
* [[Battle of Midway]], June 1942
* [[Chester W. Nimitz]], US Admiral

===Homefronts===
* [[Holocaust]], killing the Jews

===Leaders===
* [[Charles de Gaulle]], France
* [[Adolf Hitler]], Germany
* [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], US
* [[Winston Churchill]], Britain
* [[Joseph Stalin]], Russia
* [[Chiang Kai-shek]], China
* [[Benito Mussolini]], Italy
* [[William Lyon Mackenzie King]], Canada
* [[John Curtin]], Australia

==Further reading==
For a more detailed guide, see [[Bibliography of World War II]]

* Dear, I. C. B. and M. R. D. Foot, eds. ''Oxford Companion to World War II'' (in Britain titled ''Oxford Companion to the Second World War'' (2005; 2nd ed. 2009). the best reference book; [http://www.amazon.com/Oxford-Companion-World-War-II/dp/019280670X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1236549909&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* ''Times Atlas of the Second World War'' (1995)
* Weinberg, Gerhard L. ''A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II'', (1994) the best overall view of the war.
* Wheeler, Keith. ''The Fall of Japan'' (1983)

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

== External Links ==
* United States Department of the Navy/Navy Historical Center's [http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq36-4.htm Fleet Admiral Chester William Nimitz]
* [http://www.onpower.org/history_wwii.html/ World War II]
* [http://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?issueID=12&articleID=139 "On the Brink of World War II: Justus Doenecke’s ''Storm on the Horizon''," by Ralph Raico]
*[http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~epf/1997/padilla.html Kursk: The Turning Point on the Eastern Front in World War II], by Roberto R. Padilla II
* [http://encyc.org/WorldWarII World War II - Encyc]
* [http://www.independent.org/publications/working_papers/article.asp?id=1499 "Government and the Economy: The World Wars," by Robert Higgs]
* [http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=113 "How War Amplified Federal Power in the Twentieth Century," by Robert Higgs]
* [http://www.independent.org/store/book_detail.asp?bookID=65 ''Depression, War and Cold War'', by Robert Higgs]
* [http://www.independent.org/publications/article.asp?id=138 "Wartime Prosperity?", by Robert Higgs]
* [http://www.independent.org/issues/article.asp?id=1431 Pearl Harbor]
[[Category:World War II| ]]
[[Category:Wars]]

Safari (web browser)

2012-11-30T19:34:17Z

JJCC: 5.0 > 6.0.2

The '''Safari''' web browser is released by [[Apple Inc.]]; it was formerly only for their [[Macintosh]] (Mac) [[operating system]], however in March 2008 the browser became available to [[Microsoft]] [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]] operating systems as well.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://blogs.chron.com/techblog/archives/2008/03/safari_31_for_windows_and_mac_is_out_1.html|format=HTML|language=English|author=Dwight Silverman|work=Chron.com|publisher=The Houston Chronicle|title=Safari 3.1 for Windows and Mac is out|date=Mar 18 2008|accessdate=Feb 16 2009}}</ref>

Safari 6.0.2 is the current version; new features included better performance, a Safari Reader that allowed the isolation of news articles text and extensions.

==Safari 4.0==
[[CNET]] tests on February 24, 2009 showed Safari 4.0 to be the fastest browser on the market.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://crave.cnet.co.uk/software/0,39029471,49301219,00.htm|work=CNET UK|language=English|title=Safari 4 benchmarked: 42x faster than IE 7, 3.5x faster than Firefox 3|date=Feb 24 2009|accessdate=Apr 13 2009}}</ref> This version of Safari employed significant user interface changes: the tab bar was placed at the top of the browser; the default new page was "Top Sites" - a collection of websites frequently visited by the user; and Cover Flow (an iTunes feature that was installed in version 7.0<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?contentid=6649|date=Sep 13 2006|format=HTML|language=English|title=Apple Announces iTunes 7|work=Geekzone|accessdate=Apr 13 2009}}</ref>) was used to display various collections - such as bookmarks or the browser history.

==References==
<references/>

==External links==
*[http://www.apple.com/safari/ The Safari Web Browser (official website)]
[[Category:Web browsers]]
[[Category:Apple Inc.]]

State of Palestine

2012-11-30T19:25:56Z

JJCC: *

[[File:Flag of Palestine.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The Flag of Palestine]]
The '''State of Palestine''' was unilaterally declared on November 15, 1988 in [[Algiers]] at an extraordinary session in exile of the [[Palestine National Council]], the legislative arm of the [[Palestine Liberation Organization]]. Legal justification for this act was based on [[United Nations General Assembly]] Resolution 181 (II) of 29 November 1947, which provided for the termination and partition of the [[British Mandate for Palestine]] into two states.<ref>[http://unispal.un.org/unispal.nsf/0/7F0AF2BD897689B785256C330061D253 Resolution 181 (II). Future government of Palestine] - United Nations</ref>

At the time, the PLO did not have control over any part of [[Palestine]] (or any other territory), and therefore the State of Palestine failed to meet one of the main defining aspects of a real [[state]] - namely, occupying a territory.

The State of Palestine was recognized immediately by the [[Arab League]] and several other Islamic nations, at the expense of recognition of [[Israel]]. It maintains embassies in these countries (which are generally simply [[Palestine Liberation Organization]] delegations).

Currently 130 [[United Nations]] member states have formally recognized Palestine as a state, stretching from Africa to Asia, Europe to Latin America.. Around 150 countries maintain diplomatic relations with the Palestinians in one form or another...
In October, 2011, Palestine was granted full membership at the U.N. cultural organization, [[UNESCO]], in a diplomatic victory won despite stiff resistance from the United States and Israel. <ref> [http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/12/15/182782.html More than 100 countries recognize Palestine as a state.] </ref>

A pro-Arab website expresses the Palestinian view concerning the border of Palestine by declaring they want a border which existed prior to the [[Six-Day War]]:
<blockquote>
The value of a UN resolution recognizing an independent state for the Palestinian people, with its borders running exactly along the 1949 Armistice line, which was the border between Israel and the West Bank until June 4, 1967, should not be undermined.<ref> [http://english.alarabiya.net/views/2011/04/27/146903.html Obama, Netanyahu and the 'Palestinian state'.] </ref>
</blockquote>

Pro-Israel advocates typically point out that Israel has repeatedly had to defend itself against attacks by neighboring Arab states and counter that reverting Israel's border to borders which existed before the Six-Day war would not allow Israel to have defensible borders.<ref>[http://www.defensibleborders.org/amidror.htm Defensible borders]</ref>

The Israeli government of Prime Minister [[Benjamin Netanyahu]] is openly opposed to the proposed Palestinian statehood and is threatening retaliatory action. US officials, notably Secretary of State [[Hillary Clinton]] are also opposed.

In November 2012, Palestine was granted the status of a non-member observer state by the [[United Nations General Assembly]]. This move was applauded by the [[Vatican]]. <ref>[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/29/vatican-palestinian-state_n_2215307.html?&ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009]</ref>

==See also==
*[[Arab-Israeli conflict]]
*[[Hamas]]
*[[Israel]]
*[[Palestine]], for the region
*[[Palestinian Authority]]

==References==
<references/>

State of Palestine

2012-11-30T19:25:39Z

JJCC: fix ref

[[File:Flag of Palestine.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The Flag of Palestine]]
The '''State of Palestine''' was unilaterally declared on November 15, 1988 in [[Algiers]] at an extraordinary session in exile of the [[Palestine National Council]], the legislative arm of the [[Palestine Liberation Organization]]. Legal justification for this act was based on [[United Nations General Assembly]] Resolution 181 (II) of 29 November 1947, which provided for the termination and partition of the [[British Mandate for Palestine]] into two states.<ref>[http://unispal.un.org/unispal.nsf/0/7F0AF2BD897689B785256C330061D253 Resolution 181 (II). Future government of Palestine] - United Nations</ref>

At the time, the PLO did not have control over any part of [[Palestine]] (or any other territory), and therefore the State of Palestine failed to meet one of the main defining aspects of a real [[state]] - namely, occupying a territory.

The State of Palestine was recognized immediately by the [[Arab League]] and several other Islamic nations, at the expense of recognition of [[Israel]]. It maintains embassies in these countries (which are generally simply [[Palestine Liberation Organization]] delegations).

Currently 130 [[United Nations]] member states have formally recognized Palestine as a state, stretching from Africa to Asia, Europe to Latin America.. Around 150 countries maintain diplomatic relations with the Palestinians in one form or another...
In October, 2011, Palestine was granted full membership at the U.N. cultural organization, [[UNESCO]], in a diplomatic victory won despite stiff resistance from the United States and Israel. <ref> [http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/12/15/182782.html More than 100 countries recognize Palestine as a state.] </ref>

A pro-Arab website expresses the Palestinian view concerning the border of Palestine by declaring they want a border which existed prior to the [[Six-Day War]]:
<blockquote>
The value of a UN resolution recognizing an independent state for the Palestinian people, with its borders running exactly along the 1949 Armistice line, which was the border between Israel and the West Bank until June 4, 1967, should not be undermined.<ref> [http://english.alarabiya.net/views/2011/04/27/146903.html Obama, Netanyahu and the 'Palestinian state'.] </ref>
</blockquote>

Pro-Israel advocates typically point out that Israel has repeatedly had to defend itself against attacks by neighboring Arab states and counter that reverting Israel's border to borders which existed before the Six-Day war would not allow Israel to have defensible borders.<ref>[http://www.defensibleborders.org/amidror.htm Defensible borders]</ref>

The Israeli government of Prime Minister [[Benjamin Netanyahu]] is openly opposed to the proposed Palestinian statehood and is threatening retaliatory action. US officials, notably Secretary of State [[Hillary Clinton]] are also opposed.

In November 2012, Palestine was granted the status of a non-member observer state by the [[United Nations General Assembly]]. This move was applauded by the [[Vatican]]. <ref[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/29/vatican-palestinian-state_n_2215307.html?&ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009]</ref>

==See also==
*[[Arab-Israeli conflict]]
*[[Hamas]]
*[[Israel]]
*[[Palestine]], for the region
*[[Palestinian Authority]]

==References==
<references/>