Conservapedia - User contributions [en]

Exact sciences

2009-02-22T04:37:35Z

JoshuaStanley:

The '''exact sciences''' actually measure what they study, as opposed to the "fuzzy subjects" which mostly engage in uninformed speculation. Evolution is a "fuzzy subject" subject because it cannot be witnessed, but rather is based on secular guesses using existing evidence. Needless to say, exact sciences are far more accurate than fuzzy subjects.

==Topics==
*[[mathematics]]
*[[astronomy]]
*[[physics]] (excepting [[relativity]])
*[[chemistry]]

==Fuzzy subjects==
*[[evolution]]
*[[paleontology]]
*[[creation science]]
*[[baraminology]]

[[Category:Science]]

Catch-22

2009-02-22T03:59:12Z

JoshuaStanley: Added a basic summary for a long and complicated storyline

{{infobox book
| name = Catch-22
| author = [[Joseph Heller]]
| language = [[English]]
| yearpublished = 1961
}}

'''''Catch-22''''' is a bitterly satirical anti-war novel by [[Joseph Heller]] (1961).

== Plot ==
It deals with American bombardier John Yossarian. Yossarian is stationed on the Italian island of Pianosa during [[World War II]]. He attempts to get out of flying more combat missions by pretending to be crazy. The problem is, only a sane man would want to get out of combat, therefore Yossarian cannot be considered crazy.

The novel is notable for its staggered chronology, and the fact that each chapter is named after and follows one of the large cast of characters. Heller uses the staggered chronology to slowly reveal more background to Yossarian's antics which, while seeming silly or insane at first, end up evoking horror.

The term "Catch-22" has entered popular language to mean an unwinnable situation.

==Summary==
In the beginning, Yossarian is in the hospital faking a liver disease. He is so irritated by a narrow-minded Texan that he soon returns to his quarters. His tent mate, Orr, uses outstanding mechanical talents to improve the living conditions. In a flashback, at Ferrara, Yossarian is an inexperienced bombardier hoping to succeed in his mission so it will not be repeated. Having failed to release his bombs on the first run, Yossarian decides to take a second pass. He succeeds, but a young pilot named Kraft is killed. Although Yossarian is promoted to captain and awarded a medal, the death haunts him. When the squadron eventually must bomb Bologna a second time, Orr is shot down and presumed lost at sea. On the mission over Avignon, Yossarian’s plane is badly damaged and a gunner named Snowden is severely wounded. The squadron’s mess officer is an entrepreneurial whiz named Milo Minderbinder, who uses squadron funds to purchase black-market products, and builds an enormous syndicate. He eventually contracts with both sides of the war and goes so far as to arrange an air raid on his own base for profit. One day, while flying his plane low over the beach, McWatt accidentally slices Kid Sampson in two. Nately insists on flying extra missions so that he can stay near the prostitute he loves, and is killed the next time out. When Yossarian reports the tragedy to her in Rome, she attacks him repeatedly, even after he returns to Pianosa. Yossarian decides to no longer fly missions and Colonels Cathcart and Korn call him in and say that he can return home if only he will speak well of the commanding officers and abandon the men of the squadron. Yossarian agrees and is again assaulted by Nately's Whore when he steps outside. In the hospital, Yossarian decides to go back on the agreement and plans to rescue Nately’s Whore’s kid sister from the streets of Rome and flee to Sweden where Orr has turned up after cleverly using his plane crash as a way to escape. Yossarian hopes to find himself by losing himself, to seek a separate peace, to run toward life by escaping the madness of war.

== Sequel ==
Heller wrote a sequel entitled ''Closing Time'', published in 1994.

==Film Adaptations==
''Catch-22'' was made into a film of the same name, which was released in 1970.

==References==
*Heller, Joseph. ''Catch-22''. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1961.
*Falstein, Louis. ''Face of a Hero'', 1951.

[[category:Novels]]

Talk:Exact sciences

2009-02-22T03:28:29Z

JoshuaStanley:

==Witnessing Evolution==

Wasn't the whole point of the Lenski Experiment that it provided conclusive evidence of bacteria evolving a useful trait over thousands of generations, and the specimens that inherited the trait thrived compared to those that did not? That would be a contemporary witnessing of evolution, I'd think. --[[User:DinsdaleP|DinsdaleP]] 10:16, 21 February 2009 (EST)

:By evolution, I mean the [[theory of evolution through natural selection]], which posits that significant new species have come into being without intelligent intervention.

:Whenever we discuss evolution, we need to cut through the mental fog and specify which [[aspects of evolution]] we're talking about. Most evolution opponents grant that a species can develop new characteristics in the wild (see [[microevolution]]). --[[User:Ed Poor|Ed Poor]] [[User talk:Ed Poor|Talk]] 10:26, 21 February 2009 (EST)

:Perhaps it was just a contemporary witnessing of [[adaptation]] - an ability it's designer gave it to deal with differing environmental contexts. --[[User:Qwestor|Qwestor]] [[User talk:Qwestor|Talk]] 11:39, 21 February 2009 (EST)

==Creation Science==
Though I am a creationist, I would think that creation science should probably go into the same category as evolution, as a fuzzy subject. Anyone else have any thoughts? --[[User:JoshuaStanley|JoshuaStanley]] 22:28, 21 February 2009 (EST)

Jesse Helms

2009-02-21T21:29:14Z

JoshuaStanley: fixed spelling

[[Image:JesseHelms.jpg|right|thumb|250px]]
'''Jesse Helms''' (born Jesse Alexander Helms, Jr., October 18, 1921, d. July 4, 2008) was a five-time [[Republican]] [[U.S. Senator|senator]] from [[North Carolina]]. <ref>http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=H000463</ref> Helms, throughout his tenure as United States Senator was known for his [[conservative]] principles, including his support for a strong defense, individual rights, the oppressed, and support for freedom. Like most conservative politicians who eschew political correctness, Helms was frequently the target of mainstream [[media bias]], despite his former career in the media.<ref>http://www.jessehelmscenter.org/jessehelms/biography.asp</ref> Helms was a staunch advocate for equality under law, but due to his Southern background and incorrect party affiliation, his positions were misrepresented through typically biased reporting.<ref>http://www.jessehelmscenter.org/jessehelms/fictionortruth.asp#handsad</ref> However, Helms opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.<ref>Larry Margasak, Jesse Helms: Polarizer, not a compromiser, Newsweek, July 5, 2008, [http://www.newsweek.com/id/144633]</ref>

Frequently Helms was the target of massive, heavily funded [[liberal]] efforts to defeat him at reelection, and every time Helms crushed the liberals and won handily. In 1990, a weak election year for [[Republicans]], polls just prior to the election suggested that his [[liberal]] African American opponent Harvey Gantt would prevail. Helms ran a final advertisement that became famous as the "hands" ad, showing a white pair of hands and a voice complaining that he lost a job opportunity due to [[affirmative action]], which his opponent supported.<ref>The voice in the ad stated, "You needed that job and you were the best qualified, but they had to give it to a minority because of a racial quota. Is that really fair? Harvey Gantt says it is."[http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92241325&ft=1&f=1003]</ref> The [[liberal]] press accused Helms of injecting race into the campaign, to which he responded:<ref>http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92241325&ft=1&f=1003</ref>

:"Absolutely not. What am I supposed to do? Ignore everything that involves a black man? That would make me speechless in this campaign, and Mr. Gantt knows how to dish it out but he can't take it."

While Helms might be called an Internationalist, his support can be understood more in terms of Western military alliances that strengthened US Security such as [[NATO]] as opposed to organizations such as the [[UN]] <ref>http://www.jessehelmscenter.org/jessehelms/fictionortruth.asp#fic1</ref>.

Helms died at age 86 of natural causes on the [[Fourth of July]], 2008, in [[Raleigh]].<ref>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080704/ap_on_re_us/obit_helms</ref>

== Early Life ==
Helms' parents were Jesse Helms Sr., the local chief of police, and his wife Ethel Mae Helms.<ref>http://www.answers.com/topic/jesse-helms</ref>
=== Education ===
Helms attended public schools. He said this about his high school principal:<ref>http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5glajfJbQP2WmgGcjVzbfYrT4VKWwD91N40A80</ref>

:"If he taught us anything, he taught us that we are personally responsible and accountable. I remember that day, and always will, when he called in several from the senior class. ... He said you can make it in this country. He said it's going to take hard work. ... He said you're going to succeed. He said you'll own your own homes and you'll have two cars and all that. I thought this man had lost his mind."

Helms attended Wingate Junior College and Wake Forest College.

=== Journalist ===
In 1939, Helms quit Wake Forest to work as a [[journalist]] on the Raleigh News and Observer. By the age of 21 he managed one of the paper's smaller papers. <ref>http://www.answers.com/topic/jesse-helms</ref>

During World War II, Helms served in the Navy as a recruiter. It was during his military career that he discovered his knack for broadcasting.

=== WRAL Radio and AA to Senator Willis Smith ===

In 1948, became a radio news director at WRAL in Raleigh, NC. Helms reported on the heated 1950 Democratic primary for the Senate. Another ad featured photographs Helms himself had doctored to illustrate the allegation that Graham's wife had danced with a black man. The winner of this race, Senator Willis Smith, took him to Washington as his administrative assistant a post at which he served until 1953 staying on to become Senator Alton Lennon's assistant after Smith's untimely demise<ref>http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=H000463</ref>. Willis, like Helms was a conservative Southern Democrat <ref>http://www.answers.com/topic/jesse-helms</ref>. Willis's defeated opponent, the liberal Frank Porter Graham was appointed by his supporter President Harry Truman as Ambassador to the United Nations<ref>http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=g000353</ref>. Helms also worked on the unsuccessful Democratic primary presidential campaign of Richard B. Russell, Jr., in 1952.

=== Bankers Association to Capital Broadcasting ===
Helms early work in politics lead him to become the Executive director of the North Carolina Bankers Association and later the Raleigh City Council where he opposed excessive taxation and supported limiting the growth of government<ref>http://www.answers.com/topic/jesse-helms</ref>. By the mid-1960's, Helms became the executive Vice President for Capitol Broadcasting in Raleigh. He directed the news operation and delivered over-the-air commentaries. Helms developed a following due to his firebrand but perceptive political commentary <ref>http://www.jessehelmscenter.org/jessehelms/biography.asp</ref> which often attacked the decline of morality, liberal trends in society of the time, the Federal government's dubious social engineering in the southern states and Judicial activism <ref>http://www.answers.com/topic/jesse-helms</ref>.

== Senate Career ==

=== Democrat to Republican ===

In 1970, Helms left the Democratic party for the Republican party, which had long been unpopular outside the Carolina mountain districts. His shift reflected the movement of young white conservatives into the GOP across the South. In 1972 he ran for the Senate as a supporter of Republican presidential candidate [[Richard M. Nixon]]. Helms faced liberal Democrat Nick Galifianakis. Helms's successful tactic was to associate Galifiankis with the highly unpopular liberal presidential candidate [[George McGovern]]. He won the Senate seat with 54% of the vote. He was reelected in 1978 (with 55%), 1984 (with 52%), 1990 (with 53%), and 1996 (with 53%). His margins were never large and his campaigns were always intensely fought. Although repeatedly targeted for defeat by national Democrats, he always pulled off narrow victories, and helped his allies win statewide office as well.

=== Senator No ===
Helms' opposition to increasing the role of the federal government in the lives of every day citizens earned him the title "Senator No". From his first term to his last Helms rejected nominations of unqualified liberal candidates, against federal spending (except millitary spending and federal aid for farmers), <ref>http://www.answers.com/topic/jesse-helms</ref> and opposed naming a holiday for Dr. [[Martin Luther King]]<ref>[http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/04/obit.helms/index.html]</ref>. Helms supported and befriended qualified candidates regardless of party affiliation whom he felt would better the country, such as [[Madeline Albright]] for US Ambassador to the United Nations and later Secretary of State (ref: Madam Secretary, Madeline Albright). Helms was known for his bipartisan friendships despite ideological differences. However, Helms was broadminded and tolerant of contrary views, and unafraid to be proven in error. For instance Helms originally stood against increased funding to stop the devastation caused by [[AIDS]] in Africa. Helms change of heart on this issue in his own words: "It had been my feeling that AIDS was a disease largely spread by reckless and voluntary sexual and drug-abusing behavior, and that it would probably be confined to those in high risk populations. I was wrong." <ref>Jesse Helms, ''Here's Where I Stand: A Memoir'' (2005)</ref>

=== Standing on principle ===
Helms challenged the Republican party to promote the socially and economically conservative values of the American People. Helms's conservative values won him a 100% rating from the American Conservative Union for the entire last decade he was in office and never more than 10% according to similar liberal groups. Terry O'Neill -- of the far left [[feminist]] group, the [[National Organization for Women]] -- on hearing of Helms ill health and planned retirement reacted gleefully with the statement "It's a very good thing for the country that he's leaving the Senate."

Helms stated his disbelief in the old adage that "morality cannot be legislated". Helms took an active role in campaigning and in helping the Republican party to engage these values. First in his early work for Smith, then locally and eventually in early 1980 played a key role in helping the father of modern conservative, Ronald Reagan, win the Republican primary and take the White House back from the liberal president Jimmy Carter. Helms's political action committee spent over $4.6 million dollars to help Reagan capture the white house <ref>http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b8990d63719.htm</ref>. Until recently, when Helms became incapacitated, in his home state of North Carolina few Conservative Republican candidates would run for state or national office without an endorsement from Helms.

=== Foreign Policy ===

Helms believed that America should stand against dictators and help bring its values of freedom and democracy to the world. This belief caused Helms to stand against "Most Favored Nation" status for China (which the Reagan and Nixon Administrations supported). At the same time, Helms stood for a strong national defense and strongly opposed Communism and would occasionally compromise on the humanitarian part of his policy when it suited those aims, such was the case in his support for the dictator Augusto Pinochet. <ref>http://www.jessehelmscenter.org/principles/default.asp</ref>
Helms opposed arms control and nuclear test-ban treaties even when some of these measures were supported by Reagan himself <ref>http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b8990d63719.htm</ref>.

=== Liberal opposition ===

Some in the liberal media have questioned Helms' integrity, largely due to his standing against Affirmative Action programs and quotas and secondly for his opposition to many liberal appointees for federal office <ref>http://www.jessehelmscenter.org/jessehelms/fictionortruth.asp#fic2</ref>. Helms stated in his biography he has stood up for candidates in the jobs for which they were qualified. He has opposed liberal and unqualified candidates in posts for which they were not qualified. The record shows Helms enthusiastically supported African American candidates [[Clarence Thomas]], [[Colin Powell]], [[Claude Allen]], and [[Condoleezza Rice]], as well as other well qualified candidates for the positions in which they were appointed. <ref>http://www.jessehelmscenter.org/jessehelms/fictionortruth.asp#fic5</ref>.

In 1996, Helms caused controversy by seeming to threaten then president [[Bill Clinton]] when he said 'Mr. Clinton better watch out if he comes down here (North Carolina). He’d better have a bodyguard'.<ref>[http://www.bartleby.com/66/41/27741.html The Columbia World of Quotations]</ref>

== Humanitarian ==

Jesse Helms continued to work on his humanitarian causes after leaving office until he became incapacitated. Since then others continue his work in his name. His approach encourages individual and organization charity rather than government intervention. <ref>http://www.jessehelmscenter.org</ref>

==Work for Americans held captive==
On December 5, 1991, Senator Helms wrote to Russian President Boris Yeltsin concerning U.S. servicemen who were POWs or MIAs. "The status of thousands and thousands of American servicemen who are held by Soviet and other Communist forces, and who were never repatriated after every major war this century, is of grave concern to the American people." Yeltsin would ultimately respond with a statement made on June 15, 1992, while being interviewed aboard his presidential jet on his way to the United States, "Our archives have shown that it is true — some of them were transferred to the territory of the U.S.S.R. and were kept in labor camps... We can only surmise that some of them may still be alive."

====Korean Airlines Flight 007====
On December 10, just five days after Senator Helms had written Yeltsin concerning American servicemen, he again wrote to Yeltsin, this time concerning KAL 007 shot down by the Soviets just west of Sakhalin Island on Sept. 1, 1983, "One of the greatest tragedies of the Cold War was the shoot-down of the [[Korean Airlines Flight 007]] by the Armed Forces of what was then the Soviet Union on September 1, 1983. . . The KAL-007 tragedy was one of the most tense incidences of the entire Cold War. However, now that relations between our two nations have improved substantially, I believe that it is time to resolve the mysteries surrounding this event. Clearing the air on this issue could help further to improve relations [http://www.rescue007.org/helms_letter.htm]." Yeltsin would ultimately respond on January 8, 1992 by handing over to the International Civil Aviation Organization what the Russians had for so many years denied possessing: the tapes of the KAL 007's "Black Box" (its Digital Flight Data Recorder and Cockpit Voice Recorder). With the return of the tapes, Yeltsin would hand over the real-time Soviet military communications of the shootdown requested by Helms, reopening the question about the fate of KAL 007 and its passengers (See [[KAL 007: Timeline of Interception and Shootdown]] for the reconstruction of KAL 007's flight after the attack based on these military communications)

Helms on various occasions expressed pointed concern for the fate of the passengers of KAL 007. Here are the interrogaties he had addressed to Yeltsin, expressing that concern with pointed reference to Congressman[[Larry McDonald]], passenger aboard the flight:

"From Soviet reports of the incident, please provide

a) A list of the names of any living passengers and crew members from the airplane;

b) A list of missing passengers and crew;

c) A list of dead passengers and crew;

d) A list and explanation of what happened to the bodies of any dead passengers and crew;

Please provide detailed information on the fate of U.S. Congressman Larry McDonald.”

And finally, Helms would add:

1. How many KAL-007 family members and crew are being held in Soviet camps?

2. Please provide a detailed list of the camps containing live passengers and crew, together with a map showing their location[http://www.rescue007.org/helms_letter.htm].

Concerning Stacy (3years) and Noelle (5 years) Grenfell, passengers aboard KAL 007, Senator Helms, who was on sister flight KAL 015 also on the way to Seoul, [[South Korea]] to celebrate the 30th year anniversary of the U.S. South Korea Mutual Defense Treaty, would write:

:''I’ll never forget that night when that plane was just beside ours at Anchorage airport with two little girls and their parents...I taught them, among other things, to say I love you in deaf language, and the last thing they did when they turned the corner was stick up their little hands and tell me they loved me.'' [http://www.rescue007.org/grenfells.htm]

== Summary ==

Helms and his conservative values can be summed up in his own words: "Compromise, hell!" Helms said. "That's what has happened to us all down the line -- and that's the very cause of our woes." <ref>http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b8990d63719.htm</ref>

==Bibliography==
* CQ. "Helms, Jesse Alexander" in CQ, ''Politics in America 2002. The 107th Congress.'' (2001)
* Furgurson, Ernest B. ''Hard Right: The Rise of Jesse Helms.'' 1986. 302 pp.
* Thrift, Bryan Hardin. "Jesse Helms, the New Right, and American Freedom." PhD dissertation Boston U. 2005. 364 pp. DAI 2004 65(5): 1935-1936-A. DA3132781 full text in [[ProQuest Dissertations & Theses]]
* Link William A. ''Righteous Warrior: Jesse Helms and the Rise of Modern Conservatism'' (2008), the major scholarly biography
* Luebke, Paul. ''Tar Heel Politics: Myths and Realities.'' (1990) [http://www.questia.com/read/7885884 online edition]
* Snider, William D. ''Helms and Hunt: The North Carolina Senate Race, 1984'' (1985) [http://www.questia.com/read/94817386 online edition]

===Primary sources===
* Helms, Jesse. ''Here's Where I Stand: A Memoir'' (2005)
* Helms, Jesse. "Saving the U.N.: A Challenge to the Next Secretary-General," ''Foreign Affairs,'' September/October 1996 [http://www.foreignaffairs.org/19960901facomment3388/jesse-helms/saving-the-u-n-a-challenge-to-the-next-secretary-general.html online edition]

==See Also==
*[[Jesse Helms: A Tribute]]
*[[Larry McDonald]]

== References ==
<references/>

==External Links==
*[http://www.rescue007.org/ International Committee for the Rescue of KAL 007 - for Senator Helms work on Committee for Foreign Relations in KAL 007 matters]
*[http://www.rescue007.org/helms_letter.htm Letter of Senator Helms To Boris Yeltsin requesting location and fate of Cong. [[Larry McDonald]] and rest of KAL 007 passengers]
*[http://www.rescue007.org/republican_staff_study.htm Complete 1991 Republican Staff Study (draft) on KAL 007 of Committee on Foreign Relations commissioned by Senator Helms]
*[http://www.aim.org/aim-report/hold-russia-accountable-for-kal-007-shootdown/ Accuracy In Media report "Hold Russia Acountable For KAL 007 Shootdown", with Jesse Helms addendum below]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Helms, Jesse}}
[[Category:Former United States Senators]]
[[Category:Conservatives]]
[[Category:Republican Party]]

Jesse Helms

2009-02-21T21:24:20Z

JoshuaStanley:

[[Image:JesseHelms.jpg|right|thumb|250px]]
'''Jesse Helms''' (born Jesse Alexander Helms, Jr., October 18, 1921, d. July 4, 2008) was a five-time [[Republican]] [[U.S. Senator|senator]] from [[North Carolina]]. <ref>http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=H000463</ref> Helms, throughout his tenure as United States Senator was known for his [[conservative]] principles, including his support for a strong defense, individual rights, the oppressed, and support for freedom. Like most conservative politicians who eschew political correctness, Helms was frequently the target of mainstream [[media bias]], despite his former career in the media.<ref>http://www.jessehelmscenter.org/jessehelms/biography.asp</ref> Helms was a staunch advocate for equality under law, but due to his Southern background and incorrect party affiliation, his positions were misrepresented through typically biased reporting.<ref>http://www.jessehelmscenter.org/jessehelms/fictionortruth.asp#handsad</ref> However, Helms opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.<ref>Larry Margasak, Jesse Helms: Polarizer, not a compromiser, Newsweek, July 5, 2008, [http://www.newsweek.com/id/144633]</ref>

Frequently Helms was the target of massive, heavily funded [[liberal]] efforts to defeat him at reelection, and every time Helms crushed the liberals and won handily. In 1990, a weak election year for [[Republicans]], polls just prior to the election suggested that his [[liberal]] African American opponent Harvey Gantt would prevail. Helms ran a final advertisement that became famous as the "hands" ad, showing a white pair of hands and a voice complaining that he lost a job opportunity due to [[affirmative action]], which his opponent supported.<ref>The voice in the ad stated, "You needed that job and you were the best qualified, but they had to give it to a minority because of a racial quota. Is that really fair? Harvey Gantt says it is."[http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92241325&ft=1&f=1003]</ref> The [[liberal]] press accused Helms of injecting race into the campaign, to which he responded:<ref>http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92241325&ft=1&f=1003</ref>

:"Absolutely not. What am I supposed to do? Ignore everything that involves a black man? That would make me speechless in this campaign, and Mr. Gantt knows how to dish it out but he can't take it."

While Helms might be called an Internationalist, his support can be understood more in terms of Western military alliances that strengthened US Security such as [[NATO]] as opposed to organizations such as the [[UN]] <ref>http://www.jessehelmscenter.org/jessehelms/fictionortruth.asp#fic1</ref>.

Helms died at age 86 of natural causes on the [[Fourth of July]], 2008, in [[Raleigh]].<ref>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080704/ap_on_re_us/obit_helms</ref>

== Early Life ==
Helms' parents were Jesse Helms Sr., the local chief of police, and his wife Ethel Mae Helms.<ref>http://www.answers.com/topic/jesse-helms</ref>
=== Education ===
Helms attended public schools. He said this about his high school principal:<ref>http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5glajfJbQP2WmgGcjVzbfYrT4VKWwD91N40A80</ref>

:"If he taught us anything, he taught us that we are personally responsible and accountable. I remember that day, and always will, when he called in several from the senior class. ... He said you can make it in this country. He said it's going to take hard work. ... He said you're going to succeed. He said you'll own your own homes and you'll have two cars and all that. I thought this man had lost his mind."

Helms attended Wingate Junior College and Wake Forest College.

=== Journalist ===
In 1939, Helms quit Wake Forest to work as a [[journalist]] on the Raleigh News and Observer. By the age of 21 he managed one of the paper's smaller papers. <ref>http://www.answers.com/topic/jesse-helms</ref>

During World War II, Helms served in the Navy as a recruiter. It was during his military career that he discovered his knack for broadcasting.

=== WRAL Radio and AA to Senator Willis Smith ===

In 1948, became a radio news director at WRAL in Raleigh, NC. Helms reported on the heated 1950 Democratic primary for the Senate. Another ad featured photographs Helms himself had doctored to illustrate the allegation that Graham's wife had danced with a black man. The winner of this race, Senator Willis Smith, took him to Washington as his administrative assistant a post at which he served until 1953 staying on to become Senator Alton Lennon's assistant after Smith's untimely demise<ref>http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=H000463</ref>. Willis, like Helms was a conservative Southern Democrat <ref>http://www.answers.com/topic/jesse-helms</ref>. Willis's defeated opponent, the liberal Frank Porter Graham was appointed by his supporter President Harry Truman as Ambassador to the United Nations<ref>http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=g000353</ref>. Helms also worked on the unsuccessful Democratic primary presidential campaign of Richard B. Russell, Jr., in 1952.

=== Bankers Association to Capital Broadcasting ===
Helms early work in politics lead him to become the Executive director of the North Carolina Bankers Association and later the Raleigh City Council where he opposed excessive taxation and supported limiting the growth of government<ref>http://www.answers.com/topic/jesse-helms</ref>. By the mid-1960's, Helms became the executive Vice President for Capitol Broadcasting in Raleigh. He directed the news operation and delivered over-the-air commentaries. Helms developed a following due to his firebrand but perceptive political commentary <ref>http://www.jessehelmscenter.org/jessehelms/biography.asp</ref> which often attacked the decline of morality, liberal trends in society of the time, the Federal government's dubious social engineering in the southern states and Judicial activism <ref>http://www.answers.com/topic/jesse-helms</ref>.

== Senate Career ==

=== Democrat to Republican ===

In 1970, Helms left the Democratic party for the Republican party, which had long been unpopular outside the Carolina mountain districts. His shift reflected the movement of young white conserbvatives into the GOP across the South. In 1972 he ran for the Senate as a supporter of Republican presidential candidate [[Richard M. Nixon]]. Helms faced liberal Democrat Nick Galifianakis. Helms's successful tactic was to associate Galifiankis with the highly unpopular liberal presidential candidate [[George McGovern]]. He won the Senate seat with 54% of the vote. He was reelected in 1978 (with 55%), 1984 (with 52%), 1990 (with 53%), and 1996 (with 53%). His marhgins were never large and his campaigns were always intensely fought. Although repeatedly targeted for defeat by national Democrats, he always pulled off narrow victories, and helped his allies win statewide office as well.

=== Senator No ===
Helms' opposition to increasing the role of the federal government in the lives of every day citizens earned him the title "Senator No". From his first term to his last Helms rejected nominations of unqualified liberal candidates, against federal spending (except millitary spending and federal aid for farmers), <ref>http://www.answers.com/topic/jesse-helms</ref> and opposed naming a holiday for Dr. [[Martin Luther King]]<ref>[http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/04/obit.helms/index.html]</ref>. Helms supported and befriended qualified candidates regardless of party affiliation whom he felt would better the country, such as [[Madeline Albright]] for US Ambassador to the United Nations and later Secretary of State (ref: Madam Secretary, Madeline Albright). Helms was known for his bipartisan friendships despite ideological differences. However, Helms was broadminded and tolerant of contrary views, and unafraid to be proven in error. For instance Helms originally stood against increased funding to stop the devastation caused by [[AIDS]] in Africa. Helms change of heart on this issue in his own words: "It had been my feeling that AIDS was a disease largely spread by reckless and voluntary sexual and drug-abusing behavior, and that it would probably be confined to those in high risk populations. I was wrong." <ref>Jesse Helms, ''Here's Where I Stand: A Memoir'' (2005)</ref>

=== Standing on principle ===
Helms challenged the Republican party to promote the socially and economically conservative values of the American People. Helms's conservative values won him a 100% rating from the American Conservative Union for the entire last decade he was in office and never more than 10% according to similar liberal groups. Terry O'Neill -- of the far left [[feminist]] group, the [[National Organization for Women]] -- on hearing of Helms ill health and planned retirement reacted gleefully with the statement "It's a very good thing for the country that he's leaving the Senate."

Helms stated his disbelief in the old adage that "morality cannot be legislated". Helms took an active role in campaigning and in helping the Republican party to engage these values. First in his early work for Smith, then locally and eventually in early 1980 played a key role in helping the father of modern conservative, Ronald Reagan, win the Republican primary and take the White House back from the liberal president Jimmy Carter. Helms's political action committee spent over $4.6 million dollars to help Reagan capture the white house <ref>http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b8990d63719.htm</ref>. Until recently, when Helms became incapacitated, in his home state of North Carolina few Conservative Republican candidates would run for state or national office without an endorsement from Helms.

=== Foreign Policy ===

Helms believed that America should stand against dictators and help bring its values of freedom and democracy to the world. This belief caused Helms to stand against "Most Favored Nation" status for China (which the Reagan and Nixon Administrations supported). At the same time, Helms stood for a strong national defense and strongly opposed Communism and would occasionally compromise on the humanitarian part of his policy when it suited those aims, such was the case in his support for the dictator Augusto Pinochet. <ref>http://www.jessehelmscenter.org/principles/default.asp</ref>
Helms opposed arms control and nuclear test-ban treaties even when some of these measures were supported by Reagan himself <ref>http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b8990d63719.htm</ref>.

=== Liberal opposition ===

Some in the liberal media have questioned Helms' integrity, largely due to his standing against Affirmative Action programs and quotas and secondly for his opposition to many liberal appointees for federal office <ref>http://www.jessehelmscenter.org/jessehelms/fictionortruth.asp#fic2</ref>. Helms stated in his biography he has stood up for candidates in the jobs for which they were qualified. He has opposed liberal and unqualified candidates in posts for which they were not qualified. The record shows Helms enthusiastically supported African American candidates [[Clarence Thomas]], [[Colin Powell]], [[Claude Allen]], and [[Condoleezza Rice]], as well as other well qualified candidates for the positions in which they were appointed. <ref>http://www.jessehelmscenter.org/jessehelms/fictionortruth.asp#fic5</ref>.

In 1996, Helms caused controversy by seeming to threaten then president [[Bill Clinton]] when he said 'Mr. Clinton better watch out if he comes down here (North Carolina). He’d better have a bodyguard'.<ref>[http://www.bartleby.com/66/41/27741.html The Columbia World of Quotations]</ref>

== Humanitarian ==

Jesse Helms continued to work on his humanitarian causes after leaving office until he became incapacitated. Since then others continue his work in his name. His approach encourages individual and organization charity rather than government intervention. <ref>http://www.jessehelmscenter.org</ref>

==Work for Americans held captive==
On December 5, 1991, Senator Helms wrote to Russian President Boris Yeltsin concerning U.S. servicemen who were POWs or MIAs. "The status of thousands and thousands of American servicemen who are held by Soviet and other Communist forces, and who were never repatriated after every major war this century, is of grave concern to the American people." Yeltsin would ultimately respond with a statement made on June 15, 1992, while being interviewed aboard his presidential jet on his way to the United States, "Our archives have shown that it is true — some of them were transferred to the territory of the U.S.S.R. and were kept in labor camps... We can only surmise that some of them may still be alive."

====Korean Airlines Flight 007====
On December 10, just five days after Senator Helms had written Yeltsin concerning American servicemen, he again wrote to Yeltsin, this time concerning KAL 007 shot down by the Soviets just west of Sakhalin Island on Sept. 1, 1983, "One of the greatest tragedies of the Cold War was the shoot-down of the [[Korean Airlines Flight 007]] by the Armed Forces of what was then the Soviet Union on September 1, 1983. . . The KAL-007 tragedy was one of the most tense incidences of the entire Cold War. However, now that relations between our two nations have improved substantially, I believe that it is time to resolve the mysteries surrounding this event. Clearing the air on this issue could help further to improve relations [http://www.rescue007.org/helms_letter.htm]." Yeltsin would ultimately respond on January 8, 1992 by handing over to the International Civil Aviation Organization what the Russians had for so many years denied possessing: the tapes of the KAL 007's "Black Box" (its Digital Flight Data Recorder and Cockpit Voice Recorder). With the return of the tapes, Yeltsin would hand over the real-time Soviet military communications of the shootdown requested by Helms, reopening the question about the fate of KAL 007 and its passengers (See [[KAL 007: Timeline of Interception and Shootdown]] for the reconstruction of KAL 007's flight after the attack based on these military communications)

Helms on various occasions expressed pointed concern for the fate of the passengers of KAL 007. Here are the interrogaties he had addressed to Yeltsin, expressing that concern with pointed reference to Congressman[[Larry McDonald]], passenger aboard the flight:

"From Soviet reports of the incident, please provide

a) A list of the names of any living passengers and crew members from the airplane;

b) A list of missing passengers and crew;

c) A list of dead passengers and crew;

d) A list and explanation of what happened to the bodies of any dead passengers and crew;

Please provide detailed information on the fate of U.S. Congressman Larry McDonald.”

And finally, Helms would add:

1. How many KAL-007 family members and crew are being held in Soviet camps?

2. Please provide a detailed list of the camps containing live passengers and crew, together with a map showing their location[http://www.rescue007.org/helms_letter.htm].

Concerning Stacy (3years) and Noelle (5 years) Grenfell, passengers aboard KAL 007, Senator Helms, who was on sister flight KAL 015 also on the way to Seoul, [[South Korea]] to celebrate the 30th year anniversary of the U.S. South Korea Mutual Defense Treaty, would write:

:''I’ll never forget that night when that plane was just beside ours at Anchorage airport with two little girls and their parents...I taught them, among other things, to say I love you in deaf language, and the last thing they did when they turned the corner was stick up their little hands and tell me they loved me.'' [http://www.rescue007.org/grenfells.htm]

== Summary ==

Helms and his conservative values can be summed up in his own words: "Compromise, hell!" Helms said. "That's what has happened to us all down the line -- and that's the very cause of our woes." <ref>http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b8990d63719.htm</ref>

==Bibliography==
* CQ. "Helms, Jesse Alexander" in CQ, ''Politics in America 2002. The 107th Congress.'' (2001)
* Furgurson, Ernest B. ''Hard Right: The Rise of Jesse Helms.'' 1986. 302 pp.
* Thrift, Bryan Hardin. "Jesse Helms, the New Right, and American Freedom." PhD dissertation Boston U. 2005. 364 pp. DAI 2004 65(5): 1935-1936-A. DA3132781 full text in [[ProQuest Dissertations & Theses]]
* Link William A. ''Righteous Warrior: Jesse Helms and the Rise of Modern Conservatism'' (2008), the major scholarly biography
* Luebke, Paul. ''Tar Heel Politics: Myths and Realities.'' (1990) [http://www.questia.com/read/7885884 online edition]
* Snider, William D. ''Helms and Hunt: The North Carolina Senate Race, 1984'' (1985) [http://www.questia.com/read/94817386 online edition]

===Primary sources===
* Helms, Jesse. ''Here's Where I Stand: A Memoir'' (2005)
* Helms, Jesse. "Saving the U.N.: A Challenge to the Next Secretary-General," ''Foreign Affairs,'' September/October 1996 [http://www.foreignaffairs.org/19960901facomment3388/jesse-helms/saving-the-u-n-a-challenge-to-the-next-secretary-general.html online edition]

==See Also==
*[[Jesse Helms: A Tribute]]
*[[Larry McDonald]]

== References ==
<references/>

==External Links==
*[http://www.rescue007.org/ International Committee for the Rescue of KAL 007 - for Senator Helms work on Committee for Foreign Relations in KAL 007 matters]
*[http://www.rescue007.org/helms_letter.htm Letter of Senator Helms To Boris Yeltsin requesting location and fate of Cong. [[Larry McDonald]] and rest of KAL 007 passengers]
*[http://www.rescue007.org/republican_staff_study.htm Complete 1991 Republican Staff Study (draft) on KAL 007 of Committee on Foreign Relations commissioned by Senator Helms]
*[http://www.aim.org/aim-report/hold-russia-accountable-for-kal-007-shootdown/ Accuracy In Media report "Hold Russia Acountable For KAL 007 Shootdown", with Jesse Helms addendum below]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Helms, Jesse}}
[[Category:Former United States Senators]]
[[Category:Conservatives]]
[[Category:Republican Party]]

T.S. Eliot

2009-02-21T21:22:37Z

JoshuaStanley:

[[Image:T S Eliot.jpg|right|thumb|250px]]
'''Thomas Stearns Eliot''' (1888-1965) was an American-born British poet, playwright, and literary critic. He was a dominant force in the English and American literary scene during the middle third of the twentieth century, and presented a powerful conservative voice. His poems include "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (1915), "The Waste Land" (1922, and "The Journey of the Magi" in 1927; his plays include "Murder in the Cathedral" (1935). His light verse book "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats" (1939), later made intt the hit musical "Cats" (1981). He studied at Oxford, Paris, and Harvard. He won the Nobel Prize for literature.

T. S. Eliot was born and grew up in St. Louis, [[Missouri]], from a prominent intellectual family of Yankee origins. But in 1914 he moved to England.

In 1927 Eliot was baptised into the Church of England, became a subject of the king, published essays by conservative thinkers, and proclaimed himself, "classicist in literature, royalist in politics, and anglo-catholic in religion." He became deeply involed in Church affairs and wrote a historical play about the Church, "Murder in the Cathedral," which was first performed in the chapter house of Canterbury Cathedral in June 1935.

Eliot's religious views are most notably contained in the poem ''Ash Wednesday'', which he wrote in 1927 after his conversion, and particularly in the ''Four Quartets''. These were four related poems published separately between 1935 and 1942, and republished in one volume in 1943. Their titles are ''Burnt Norton'',<ref>http://www.tristan.icom43.net/quartets/norton.html</ref> ''East Coker'',<ref>http://www.tristan.icom43.net/quartets/coker.html</ref> ''The Dry Salvages'',<ref>http://www.tristan.icom43.net/quartets/salvages.html</ref> and ''Little Gidding''.<ref>http://www.tristan.icom43.net/quartets/gidding.html</ref>

Eliot considered ''Four Quartets'' to be his masterpiece. It draws upon his study, over three decades, of mysticism and philosophy. Christian imagery and symbolism in the poems is abundant.

Notable plays include ''The Cocktail Party'', which concerns a group of contemporary people talking about their marital and other problems, and who are counseled by a mysterious character, ostensibly a psychiatrist; and ''Murder in the Cathedral'', about the death of [[Thomas Becket]].

== Excerpts ==

Some famous lines from T. S. Eliot that are often alluded to or quoted include:

:Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach? 
:I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach 
:I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. 
:I do not think that they will sing to me. 
::(from "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock")<ref>http://www.artofeurope.com/eliot/eli1.htm</ref>

:This is the way the world ends 
:Not with a bang but a whimper. 
::(from "The Hollow Men")<ref>http://www.artofeurope.com/eliot/eli2.htm</ref>

:April is the cruellest month, breeding 
:Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing 
:Memory and desire, stirring 
:Dull roots with spring rain. 
::(from ''The Waste Land'')<ref>http://www.artofeurope.com/eliot/eli3.htm</ref>

:The whole earth is our hospital 
:Endowed by the ruined millionaire, 
:Wherein, if we do well, we shall 
:Die of the absolute paternal care 
:That will not leave us, but prevents us everywhere. 
::(from ''East Coker'', ''Four Quartets'')<ref>http://www.ubriaco.com/fq.html</ref>
==Bibliography==
* Ackroyd, Peter. ''T.S. Eliot'' (1984), excellent scholarly biography
* Brand, Clinton A. "The Voice of This Calling: The Enduring Legacy of T. S. Eliot," ''Modern Age'' Volume 45, Number 4; Fall 2003 [http://www.mmisi.org/ma/45_04/brand.pdf online edition], conservative perspective
* Bush, Ronald. "Eliot, Thomas Stearns (1888–1965)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography,'' Sept 2004; online edn, May 2007; very good summary
* Calder, Angus. ''T.S. Eliot'' (1987), 184pp; short interpretive biography [http://www.questia.com/read/85871115?title=T.S.%20Eliot online edition]
* Gordon, Lyndall. ''T.S. Eliot: An Imperfect Life'' (1999) [http://www.amazon.com/T-S-Eliot-Imperfect-Lyndall-Gordon/dp/0393320936/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228759309&sr=1-5 excerpt and text search]
* Kenner, Hugh. ''The Invisible Poet'' (1960). by conservative critic
* Kimball, Roger. "A Craving for Reality: T.S. Eliot Today," ''New Criterion,'' Vol. 18, October 1999 [http://www.questia.com/read/5001820050?title=A%20Craving%20for%20Reality%3a%20T.S.%20Eliot%20Today online edition], by conservative critic
* Moody, A. David, ed. ''The Cambridge Companion to T. S. Eliot'' (1995) [http://www.amazon.com/Cambridge-Companion-Eliot-Companions-Literature/dp/0521421276/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228759309&sr=1-4 excerpt and text search]
* Tate, Allen, ed. ''T. S. Eliot: the man and his work'' (1967), by conservative critic
* Williamson, George. ''A Reader's Guide to T.S. Eliot: A Poem-By-Poem Analysis'' (1998) [http://www.amazon.com/Readers-Guide-Eliot-Poem-Poem/dp/0815605005/ref=pd_bbs_sr_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208101920&sr=8-7 excerpt and text search]

===Primary sources===
* Eliot, T.S. ''Collected Poems, 1909-1962'' (The Centenary Edition) (1991) [http://www.amazon.com/Collected-Poems-1909-1962-Centenary-Eliot/dp/0151189781/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228759309&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]
* Eliot, T.S. ''Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, Illustrated Edition'' (1982) [http://www.amazon.com/Possums-Book-Practical-Cats-Illustrated/dp/0151686564/ref=pd_bbs_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208101920&sr=8-4 excerpt and text search]
* Eliot, T.S. '' Selected Prose of T.S. Eliot'' ed. by Frank Kermode (1975) [http://www.amazon.com/Selected-Prose-T-S-Eliot-T/dp/0156806541/ref=pd_bbs_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208101920&sr=8-8 excerpt and text search]
* Eliot, T.S. '' The Waste Land'' (Norton Critical Editions) ed. by Michael North (2000) [http://www.amazon.com/Waste-Land-Norton-Critical-Editions/dp/0393974995/ref=pd_bbs_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208101920&sr=8-6 excerpt and text search]
* Eliot, T.S. '' Selected essays'' (1932); enlarged (1960)
* Eliot, T.S. ''The letters of T. S. Eliot,'' ed. Valerie Eliot, vol 1 (1988)

==References==
<references/>

==External links==
*[http://www.bartleby.com/198/1.html The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock]
*[http://www.bartleby.com/201/1.html The Waste Land]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eliot, Thomas Stearns}}
[[Category:Nobel laureates in Literature]]
[[category:Poets]]
[[category:Conservatives]]

Lawrence Di Rita

2009-02-21T21:20:36Z

JoshuaStanley:

[[Image:Lawrence Di Rita.jpg|right|thumb|250px]]
'''Lawrence Di Rita''' (born in [[Detroit]], [[Michigan]]) was a close aide to [[United States Secretary of Defense]] [[Donald Rumsfeld]] and is currently a spokesman for Bank of America|Bank of America Corp.

Di Rita served as acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs and [[U.S. Department of Defense]] spokesmen under Secretary Rumsfeld. Reportedly, he was slated to become Secretary of the Army but his nomination was scuttled due to opposition in the [[United States Senate]]. His prior position was Special Assistant to Rumsfeld. Throughout his time in [[the Pentagon]], Di Rita was considered the Defense Secretary's right-hand aide. Even after Rumsfeld's resignation, Di Rita was authorized by Rumsfeld to speak on his behalf to ''Time'' magazine regarding matters such as Rumsfeld's current plans and activities<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1623260,00.html Donald Rumsfeld's Next Move - TIME]</ref>.

Di Rita received a [[bachelor's degree]] from the [[United States Naval Academy|U.S. Naval Academy]] and a master's degree from [[Johns Hopkins University]] School of Advanced International Studies. He served as a [[United States Navy|U.S. Navy]] officer until 1994 at which time Di Rita joined the [[Heritage Foundation]] as Deputy Director of Foreign Policy and Defense Studies. Di Rita was Policy Director to the 1996 Presidential campaign of U.S. Senator Phil Gramm and Chief of Staff for U.S. Senator [[Kay Bailey Hutchison]] from 1996 until 2001.

{{DEFAULTSORT:DiRita, Lawrence}}
[[Category:Conservatives]]
[[Category:Heritage Foundation]]
[[Category:Political Figures]]
[[Category:Republican Party]]
[[Category:United States Appointed Officials]]

Elaine Chao

2009-02-21T21:18:53Z

JoshuaStanley:

[[Image:480px-Elaine Chao.jpg|right|thumb]]
'''Elaine Chao''' is the [[Secretary of Labor]] in the cabinet of the [[Bush]] administration. She is the first Asian-American woman to be appointed to a U.S. Cabinet position. From 1996 to her appointment in 2001, she was a Distinguished Fellow at the [[Heritage Foundation]], and from 1992 to 1996, she was president of the United Way of America.

==External links==
*[http://www.dol.gov/_sec/aboutosec/chao.htm Biography] at the U.S. Dept. of Labor
*[http://unionreports.gov Union Reports, Other Reports, and Collective Bargaining Agreements]

[[Category:Conservatives|Chao, Elaine]]
[[Category:Heritage Foundation|Chao, Elaine]]
[[Category:Political Figures|Chao, Elaine]]
[[Category:Republican Party|Chao, Elaine]]
[[Category:United States Appointed Officials|Chao, Elaine]]

Edmund Burke

2009-02-21T21:17:13Z

JoshuaStanley:

[[Image:Burke-Edmund.jpg|right|thumb|300px]]
'''Edmund Burke''' (born January 12, 1729 in [[Dublin]], died July 9, 1797) was an [[Anglo-Irish]] statesman, an orator, and a political theorist who is still widely read.

Burke rallied Britain against the radicalism of the [[French Revolution]]. In the process he became one of the first to develop a coherent conservative political philosophy; his ideas continue to influence conservatives. Burke argued that a nation's institutions, customs and values were the long-term product of its experiences over the centuries, as small adjustments were made to fit changing needs and the cumulative effect was the current society. Writing before the [[Industrial Revolution]] had shown much impact, he thought change was always incremental and slow. Indeed he argued that current observers were unlikely to fully appreciate the hidden gems of wisdom of the "ancient constitution"; efforts to impose radical changes based on visions rather than experience, such as the [[French Revolution]], were therefore doomed to failure. Keenly concerned with the fairness of the [[British Empire]] Burke opposed royal efforts to suppress the [[American Revolution]]; he called for more liberties for the people of [[India]] and his native [[Ireland]].

==Life==
He was born in [[Dublin]], Ireland, the son of a Protestant lawyer and a Catholic mother. He was educated in classics at a [[Quaker]] boarding school and at [[Trinity College Dublin]], he remained a committed [[Anglican]] the rest of his life. He considered a national established church a requirement for sound government. In 1750 he went to London to study law but soon left his course. In 1756 he published his first book anonymously ''A Vindication of Natural Society'', a satirical account of the rise of civilization and how it produces unhappiness and distress; it attacked the political rationalism and religious skepticism of Henry St. John, Viscount [[Bolingbroke]]. In 1757 he anonymously published the ''Origin of Our Ideas on the Sublime and Beautiful'', his most philosophical work; it is a founding manifesto of Romanticism, which came to dominate European thought and sensibility after 1800.<ref> Byrne, William F. Byrne, "Burke's higher romanticism: politics and the sublime," ''Humanitas'' (2006) [http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-6661343/Burke-s-higher-romanticism-politics.html online] </ref> He founded the ''The Annual Register'', a record of contemporary political events. He was a member of the intellectual circle around [[Samuel Johnson]].

After serving as private secretary to several senior parliamentarians, Burke was given a seat in Parliament in 1765 and remained in Parliament for over thirty years. His success as an orator, political writer and party member for the [[Whig Party, Britain|Whigs]] was extensive although he was never given a particularly high office by his party when it took government, possibly because of his independent streak.
==Political goals==
During his political career he campaigned constantly, but unsuccessfully in the short term. He advocated administrative reform of the royal household and to increase the power of the crown so as to reward its supporters; He supported the elimination of anti-Catholic laws in [[Ireland]] and the controls on trade with that island.; He was in favour of generous treatment to the American Colonists, and supported reconciliation from the outbreak of hostilities with the [[American Revolution]]; He favoured strong state support for the established Anglican Church and for the landed gentry;
==India==
He fought for restrictions on the powers of the [[East India Company]] in its administration of [[India]]; in particular he used stunningly brilliant speeches to lead the greatest impeachment trial in the history of the [[British Empire]], that of the first governor-general of India for the East India Company, Warren Hastings 1732–1818. He was alleged to have committed "high crimes and misdemeanours" during his governorship of India, 1772–1785. Hastings was charges with financial corruption, use of political power for extorting bribes from native rulers of India, abuse of judicial authority, despotism, and arbitrary rule; he was being tried specifically for illegally occupying territory in India by launching aggressive offensive and criminal wars against native rulers, treaty violations, and for open violence against native rulers and the people of India.

Burke charged that the corrupt state of Indian government could be remedied only if it were taken from both the crown and the company. He proposed that India be governed by a board of independent commissioners in London.

Hastings was acquitted in 1795 after an 8-year trial, thanks to defense spokesmen opposing Burke who articulated a vision of empire based on ideas of power, conquest, and subjugation of the colonized in pursuit of the exclusive national interests of the colonizer. Burke had a different vision, calling for a deterritorialized supranational juridical sovereignty based on a recognition of the a priori rights of the colonized. These two opposing discourses and visions, as they came to be articulated in the trial, had decisive implications for both the nature and evolution of the British empire and its imperial institutions and of Indian legal and political discourse and institutions in the 19th and 20th centuries.<ref> Mithi Mukherjee, "Justice, War, and the Imperium: India and Britain in Edmund Burke's Prosecutorial Speeches in the Impeachment Trial of Warren Hastings." ''Law and History Review'' 2005 23(3): 589-630. Issn: 0738-2480 Fulltext: [[History Cooperative]]</ref> In the early 20th centuries, a series of imperial historians like Fitzjames Stephen, John Strachey, Sophia Weitzman, Lucy S. Sutherland, and Keith Feiling dismissed Burke's accusations that Hastings had been personally corrupt and argued that his arbitrariness was justified by the necessities of maintaining empire in the east, a view that Hastings himself articulated in the trial.<ref> Lucy S. Sutherland, The East India Company in Eighteenth-Century Politics (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1952); Keith Grahame Feiling, Warren Hastings (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1954).
</ref>

==French Revolution==
Burke supported military intervention against the [[French Revolution]] and for tighter controls of civil Liberties in Britain, so as to prevent such an occurrence happening there. Rejecting [[Jean Jacques Rousseau]] (1712-78) and the philosophies, Burke said the popular will does not really exist, but that the ancient constitution did, and it should be upheld.

His great book ''Reflections On the Revolution in France'' (1790) was ignored at the time but in the long run helped reduce revolutionary sentiments among British thinkers, and had a significant impact on Italian and French conservatives.

The book, for example, has ten pages on the monasteries of France that deplores not only the confiscation of their property but also the destruction of the institutions themselves, which are defended for their contribution to learning, beauty, and agriculture and for their general social role. Their "superstition" is vindicated as preferable to that of the radical philosophies. Burke maintains that they could and should have been reformed rather than suppressed.<ref> Derek Beales, "Edmund Burke and the Monasteries of France." ''Historical Journal'' 2005 48(2): 415-436. Issn: 0018-246x </ref>

By contrast with the French fiasco, he praised the Glorious Revolution of 1688 in Britain, saying, "The Revolution was made to preserve our ancient indisputable laws and liberties, and that ancient constitution of government which is our only security for law and liberty." The English were not creating a new regime, merely restoring the old one that had been distorted by the Catholic James II.<ref> J.G.A. Pocock, "Burke and the Ancient Constitution", ''Historical Journal,'' 3 (1960), 125-43 </ref>
==Role of religion==
Burke in particular saw the established church (the Church of England) and the aristocracy, whose power was based on landed property, as the true carriers of tradition. Burke's Christian faith, broad, undogmatic and ecumenical, was a basic element in his beliefs and prevented any sympathy, acceptance or compromise with the anti-religious aims of the French Revolution.

For Burke, the great struggle was that between religion and atheism, and he sought to develop a union of all Christian religious sects, denominations, and traditions to combat those who opposed Christianity. For years he supported the rights of Protestant dissenters and Roman Catholics in England. He believed that religion, established churches, and confessional states added important dimensions of depth and wisdom to society.

==Later life==
Both a British and an Irish patriot, Burke believed that only the British Parliament could implement Irish reforms and sought a union between the two countries based on mutual respect. Most of Burke's causes were effectively lost, but Burke's ceaseless politics of principle made them burning issues and subsequently made him famous. He died disappointed three years after his retirement and the death of his son, which caused him much grief.
==Historiography==
The "New Conservative" interpretation of Burke's philosophy with its concentration upon the Natural Law has dominated Burke studies since the 1940s, especially in America, where it continues to influence [[American conservatism]]. It began with Leo Strauss, ''Natural Right and History'' (1953), and Russell Kirk, ''The Conservative Mind from Burke to Santayana'' (1953). This interpretation has not been accepted in England.

==Works==
He wrote:
* "Inquiries into the Sublime and Beautiful" (defending the American colonies and examining how people interpret what they see)
* "Reflections on the Revolution in France" (warning that the [[French Revolution]] was evil because a few would gain control and abuse their power)

==Quotations==
Burke's "A Letter to a Member of the National Assembly," (1791) included the following:

:"What is liberty without wisdom and without virtue?

:It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and
:madness, without restraint.

:Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their
:disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites; in
:proportion as they are disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise
:and good in preference to the flattery of knaves.

:Society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon will and
:appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the
:more there must be without.

:It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of
:intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters."

Edmund Burke's most famous quote is this: "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

==Bibliography==
* Cone, Carl B. ''Burke and the Nature of Politics (2 vols, 1957, 1964), a detailed modern biography of Burke; somewhat uncritical and sometimes superficial regarding politics
* Courtenay, C.P. ''Montesquieu and Burke'' (1963), good introduction
* Crowe, Ian, ed. ''The Enduring Edmund Burke: Bicentennial Essays'' (1997) essays by by American conservatives [http://www.questia.com/read/82425344?title=The%20Enduring%20Edmund%20Burke%3a%20Bicentennial%20Essays online edition]
* Crowe, Ian, ed. ''An Imaginative Whig: Reassessing the Life and Thought of Edmund Burke.'' (2005). 247 pp. essays by scholars
* Gibbons, Luke. ''Edmund Burke and Ireland: Aesthetics, Politics, and the Colonial Sublime.'' (2003). 304 pp.
* Kirk, Russell. ''Edmund Burke: A Genius Reconsidered'' (1997) by a leader of [[American conservatism]] [http://www.questia.com/read/85677594?title=Edmund%20Burke%3a%20A%20Genius%20Reconsidered online edition]
* Kirk, Russell. ''The Conservative Mind from Burke to Santayana'' (1953), put Burke in the mainstream of [[American conservatism]] [http://www.questia.com/read/55416563?title=The%20Conservative%20Mind%2c%20from%20Burke%20to%20Santayana online edition]
* Kramnick, Isaac. ''The Rage of Edmund Burke: Portrait of an Ambivalent Conservative'' (1977) [http://www.questia.com/read/100291647?title=The%20Rage%20of%20Edmund%20Burke%3a%20Portrait%20of%20an%20Ambivalent%20Conservative online edition]
* Lock, F. P. ''Edmund Burke'' (2 vol 1998, 2007), the standard scholarly biography [http://www.questia.com/read/58609717?title=Edmund%20Burke%20-%20Vol.%201 vol 1 online]
* Lucas, Paul. "On Edmund Burke's Doctrine of Prescription; Or, An Appeal from the New to the Old Lawyers," ''Historical Journal,'' 11 (1968) opens the way towards an effective synthesis of Burke's ideas of History, Change and Prescription.
* Magnus, Philip. ''Edmund Burke: A Life'' (1939), older biography
* Marshall, P. J. ''The Impeachment of Warren Hastings'' (1965), the standard history of the trial and Burke's role
* O'Gorman, Frank. ''Edmund Burke: Edmund Burke: His Political Philosophy'' (2004) 153pp [http://www.questia.com/read/108557108?title=Political%20Thinkers%3a%20%20Edmund%20Burke online edition]
* Parkin, Charles. ''The Moral Basis of Burke's Political Thought'' (1956)
* Pocock, J.G.A. "Burke and the Ancient Constitution", ''Historical Journal,'' 3 (1960), 125-43; shows Burke's debt to the Common Law tradition of the 17th century [http://www.jstor.org/pss/3020472 in JSTOR]
* Raeder, Linda C. "Edmund Burke: Old Whig." ''Political Science Reviewer'' 2006 35: 115-131. Issn: 0091-3715 Fulltext: [[Ebsco]], argues Burke's ideas closely resemble those of conservative philosopher Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992).
* Stanlis, Peter. ''Edmund Burke and the Natural Law'' (1958)
* Taylor, Quentin P. "On Edmund Burke's A Vindication of Natural Society," ''Modern Age'' Volume 43, Number 3; Summer 2001 [http://www.mmisi.org/ma/43_03/taylor.pdf online edition]
* Whelan, Frederick G. ''Edmund Burke and India: Political Morality and Empire'' (1996)
===Primary Sources===
* ''Burke's Politics'' (1949), edited by R. Hoffman and P. Levack
* Burke, Edmund, ''The Writings and Speeches of Edmund Burke'' (9 vol 1981- ) [http://www.questia.com/read/59629780?title=The%20Writings%20and%20Speeches%20of%20Edmund%20Burke%20-%20Vol.%201 vol 1 online]; [http://www.questia.com/read/73877114?title=The%20Writings%20and%20Speeches%20of%20Edmund%20Burke%20-%20Vol.%202 vol 2 online]; [http://www.questia.com/read/73877114?title=The%20Writings%20and%20Speeches%20of%20Edmund%20Burke%20-%20Vol.%202 vol 6 ''India: The Launching of the Hastings Impeachment, 1786–1788'' online]; [http://www.questia.com/read/74655036?title=The%20Writings%20and%20Speeches%20of%20Edmund%20Burke%20-%20Vol.%208 vol 8 online]; [http://www.questia.com/read/29059987?title=The%20Writings%20and%20Speeches%20of%20Edmund%20Burke%20-%20Vol.%209 vol 9 online];

====notes====
<references/>

{{DEFAULTSORT: Burke, Edmund}}
[[Category:British Politics]]
[[Category:Conservatives]]
[[Category:Anglo-Irish People]]
[[Category:French Revolution]]
[[Category:British History]]

L. Paul Bremer

2009-02-21T21:14:35Z

JoshuaStanley: added image

[[Image:Bremer signs Iraq Transfer document, 2004.jpg|right|thumb|400px|Bremer signing the Iraqi Sovereignty Transfer document on June 28, 2004]]
'''Lewis Paul Bremer III''' (born September 30, 1941), known as '''Paul Bremer''' and also nicknamed '''Jerry Bremer''', is an American diplomat. He was Director of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance for post-war [[Iraq]] following [[Operation Iraqi Freedom]] in 2003, replacing Jay Garner on May 6, 2003.

In late 2001, along with former Attorney General [[Edwin Meese III]], Bremer co-chaired the [[Heritage Foundation]]'s Homeland Security Task Force, which created a blueprint for the [[White House]]'s [[Department of Homeland Security]].

==External links==
* [http://www.harpers.org/archive/2004/09/0080197 "Baghdad year zero: Pillaging Iraq in pursuit of a neocon utopia"], Naomi Klein, September 2004
* [http://www.nndb.com/people/289/000023220/ Paul Bremer profile, NNDB]
* [http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/entity.jsp?entity=paul_bremer Paul Bremer] timeline at the History Commons
* [http://www.iraqcoalition.org/bremerbio.html CPA Bios]
* [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5139135 Bremer's Tale: The Top American in Iraq], NPR ''Fresh Air from WHYY'' (Audio), January 10, 2006
* [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/14/AR2006011400007.html?nav=hcmodule CPA Reunion Party] ''January 14, 2006''
* [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/yeariniraq/ "Frontline: the lost year in iraq |PBS"] 2006
*[http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article313538.ece What has happened to Iraq's missing $1bn?], [[The Independent]], September 19, 2005
*[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1072-1731547,00.html My sadness at the privatisation of Iraq], ''Times Online'', August 12, 2005
*[http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05207/543937.stm Former Bush aide turns critic as Iraq inspector], ''[[Wall Street Journal]], July 26, 2005''—Contains another perspective on the conflict between Bremer and Inspector General Bowen
*[http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002357082_iraqspend04.html Iraq reconstruction riddled with waste, audits find] ''The Seattle Times, July 4, 2005''
* [http://www.naples.avemaria.edu/newscenter/newsdetail.asp?newsID=84 Ave Maria University Commencement Address], June 19, 2005
* [http://worcester.indymedia.org/news/2005/04/1086.php Bremer Speaks at Clark University] ''Worcester IMC April 19, 2005''
* [http://orient.bowdoin.edu/orient/article.php?date=2005-04-15&section=1&id=4 Bremer, students spar] ''The Bowdoin Orient]'', April 15, 2005
* [http://www.timesrecord.com/website/archives.nsf/56606056e44e37508525696f00737257/8525696e00630dfe05256fe0005d13dd?OpenDocument&Highlight=0,Bremer Bremer explains, defends Iraq war] ''Brunswick Times Record'', April 11, 2005
* [http://www.sigir.mil/pdf/dfi_ministry_report.pdf Oversight of Funds Provided to the Iraqi Ministries through the National Budget Process] report from the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction that documents the unaccounted for $9 billion
* [http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/wariniraq/paulbremer.htm TD Waterhouse Keynote Address @ IA Conference] ''American Rhetoric February 4, 2005''
* [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,124608,00.html Transcript: Paul Bremer, Former U.S. Administrator in Iraq] ''Fox News'' July 6, 2004
* [http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,655426,00.html Paul Bremer's Rough Ride] ''TIMES Archive'' June 28, 2004
* [http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-06-17-bremer-qanda_x.htm Bremer Answers Questions]''USAToday'' June 17, 2004
* [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48543-2004May22.html In Iraq, the Job Opportunity of a Lifetime''] [[Washington Post]], May 22, 2004 (about young volunteers hired by the Pentagon to handle financial tasks in Iraq)
* [http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4121960/ Racing the Clock in Iraq], ''Newsweek'', February 9, 2004
* [http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/031124fa_fact1_g Letter From Baghdad, War After the War] ''The New Yorker'' November 2003
* [http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/july-dec03/bremer_9-24.html "Online NewsHour" Interview] September 24, 2003
* [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/target/interviews/bremer.html Frontline Interview with L. Paul Bremer] August 1, 2003
* [http://www.cathstan.org/news/06-19-03/3.shtml Faith Gives Him Strength], June 19, 2003
* [http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0109/14/cf.00.html How Should America Address Terrorist Aggression], ''CNN'' television interview September 14, 2001
* [http://www.nixoncenter.org/publications/Program%20Briefs/vol6no19Bremer.htm Countering the Changing Threat of International Terrorism A Presentation by Ambassador L. Paul Bremer] ''The Nixon Center'' July 19, 2000
* [http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/international/jan-june00/terror_6-6.html Global Threat], ''pbs'' interview of L. Paul Bremer, III and former [[CIA]] official Larry Johnson, June 6, 2000
* [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1079/is_n2146_v89/ai_7654929 Terrorism: its evolving nature - by L. Paul Bremer, III] ''US Dept. of State Bulletin'' May 1989

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bremer, L. Paul}}
[[Category:Conservatives]]
[[Category:Heritage Foundation]]
[[Category:Political Figures]]
[[Category:Republican Party]]
[[Category:United States Appointed Officials]]

Proposition 8

2009-02-21T05:42:31Z

JoshuaStanley: added image

[[Image:Yes on prop 8 prop 4 sign.jpg|right|thumb|A house in California showing support for Prop 8 and other conservative causes]]
'''Proposition 8''' was a ballot proposition in [[California]] that added the following text to Section 7.5 of Article I of the California Constitution: ''Only marriage between a man and a woman is recognized in California.'' <ref>Voter Information Guide, ''Proposition 8'' [http://www.voterguide.sos.ca.gov/text-proposed-laws/text-of-proposed-laws.pdf#prop8]</ref> It sought to return [[traditional marriage]] to the state. The proposition passed with 52.3% of the vote on November 4, 2008.

The proposition only affected whether same-sex couples could call themselves married under California law, and did not affect any substantive rights. Same-sex couples can still file joint state tax returns, adopt children, and enjoy other marital benefits under the California domestic partnership law. They could not call themselves under federal law anyway, and the federal government does not recognize any same-sex marriages.

==History of Marriage in California==
Historically marriage in the state of California had always been between a man and a woman as that was the understood definition of marriage. There was no need to include language that specified gender. In 1977, amidst a changing climate that saw the advent of the gay rights movement, the California legislature amended the California Family Code to make it clear that marriage was between a man and a woman. <ref>UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, ''Same-Sex Marriage in California - Overview and Issues''[http://igs.berkeley.edu/library/htGayMarriage.html]</ref>

In 2000 the possibility of same-sex marriage being legalized in other states led to Proposition 22 being passed, adding language to restrict California from recognizing the marriages of same-sex couples from other states as valid. <ref>California Voter Guide, ''Limit on Marriages. Initiative Statute. Text of Proposition 22'' [http://primary2000.sos.ca.gov/VoterGuide/Propositions/22text.htm] Section 308.5 was added to the Family Code, to read, "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."</ref> Proposition 22 passed easily with 61% of the vote, but it was overturned by the Court in May of 2008. The court went further and mandated that [[gay marriage|same-sex marriage]] licenses be issued by judicial degree, not by the will of the voters or the legislature. The licenses were not recognized by the federal government or by most other states.

==The Campaign for Proposition 8==
Proposition 8 was written in response to four California Supreme Court Justices who overturned the will of the people and sought to redefine traditional marriage in California.

With a total of over 70 million dollars being spent, it became the most expensive campaign on a social proposition in history.

The measure apparently passed with 52% of the votes being for to 48% against. While much was made of the fact that it was losing in the polls up until the time of the election, proponents pointed out that similar measures were often reported as polling poorly, but the actual vote was different. For instance Proposition 22 was supposed to be too close to call in 2000. Although it had been claimed that minority voters were against the message, exit polling on election day showed that latinos favored it overall while blacks favored it with a 70% yes vote. The large number of blacks who came out to vote for [[Barack Obama]] helped to tip the scale for Proposition 8's passing. Obama himself said confusingly that he was against same-sex marriage and against Proposition 8.<ref>http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20081106/news_1n6exit.html</ref>

==Vandalism and Protests==
Unfortunately the democratic process alone is not sufficient to some. Supporters of gay marriage vandalized some "Yes on 8" signs, sent hate mail, and ultimately made death threats which caused at least one top supporter of Proposition 8 to hire a bodyguard.<ref>ABC 30HD, Fresno, CA. "[http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=news/local&id=6479879 Prop 8 Threat: Fresno Police close to Arrest]"</ref> Ultimately the realization that the people had spoken led to protests and arrests.<ref>FoxNews.com, ''Several Gay Marriage Ban Protesters Arrested in Clashes With Police in California'', Thursday, November 06, 2008 [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,447744,00.html]</ref> Continuing protests months after the election have led to more issues.<ref>http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,450884,00.html</ref> The Holy Redeemer Catholic Church was vandalized with the words Prop H8 and a Nazi swastika in spray paint. <ref>[http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=41858 San Francisco Catholic Church Attacked by Pro-Homosexual Marriage Vandals] CNSNews, January 13, 2009</ref> The slang H8 stands for 'Hate' or Proposition Hate.

==Aftermath==

Due to the passage of Proposition 8, same-sex marriage licenses are no longer being issued in California.

California Attorney General Jerry Brown has argued that the 18,000 same-sex marriages that were performed before Proposition 8 passed should still be considered valid in California.<ref>[http://www.aclu.org/lgbt/relationships/37701prs20081105.html ACLU:''California Will Honor Marriages of Same-Sex Couples Married Before the Possible Passage of Prop. 8, Initiative Would Apply to Future Marriages'', 11/5/2008]</ref> Others have postulated the marriages may be converted to domestic partnerships <ref>[http://www.volokh.com/posts/1225907782.shtml The Volokh Conspiracy, ''What Will Happen to California Same-Sex Marriages?'', Eugene Volokh, 11/5/2008]</ref>, which in California have the same rights as marriage.<ref>[http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2008/11/the_odd_legal_g.html Concurring Opinions,''A small wrinkle regarding the Volokh proposal on Prop 8 retroactivity'', by Kaimipono D. Wenger, 11/5/2008]</ref> The leaders of the Proposition 8 petition have not taken a position in this matter.

The California Supreme court will hear three lawsuits which seek to overturn Proposition 8. According to the AP, "All three cases claim the ban abridges the civil rights of a vulnerable minority group. They argue that voters alone did not have the authority to enact such a significant constitutional change."<ref>AP, ''Calif. Supreme Court to take up gay marriage ban'', Nov 19, 2008 [http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081119/D94I8U1G3.html]</ref> Similar laws upholding traditional marriage had already been passed in 30 other states.

The sponsors of Proposition 8 asked the California Supreme Court on December 19th to no longer recognized the alleged marriages of the estimated 18,000 same-sex couples who exchanged vows before voters approved the ballot initiative that said that same-sex marriages were not to be recognized. <ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2008Dec19/0,4670,GayMarriageLawsuits,00.html Prop.8 sponsors seek to nullify 18K gay marriages] AP, December 19, 2008</ref> "Proposition 8's brevity is matched by its clarity. There are no conditional clauses, exceptions, exemptions or exclusions," read Kenneth Starr.

A group of Hollywood actors led by Jack Black created “Prop 8: The Musical.” The music video mocks Christians, defames Christ, and distorts the teaching of the Bible. The video was written by Marc Shaiman, composer for “Hairspray” and “South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.” <ref>[http://www.cnsnews.com/public/Content/Article.aspx?rsrcid=40318 Group Calls for Hollywood to Apologize for ‘Prop 8: The Musical’] CNSNews, December 4, 2009</ref>

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Law]]
[[Category:California]]
[[Category:Homosexual Agenda]]
{{Liberalism}}

Exact sciences

2009-02-21T05:02:21Z

JoshuaStanley: I hope this is a good addition... feel free to revert me if its not. =P

The '''exact sciences''' actually measure what they study, as opposed to the "fuzzy subjects" which mostly engage in uninformed speculation. Evolution is a "fuzzy subject" subject because it cannot be witnessed, but rather is based on secular guesses using existing evidence. Needless to say, exact sciences are far more accurate than fuzzy subjects.

==Topics==
*[[mathematics]]
*[[astronomy]]
*[[physics]]
*[[chemistry]]

==Fuzzy subjects==
*[[Evolution]]

[[Category:Science]]

Jack London

2009-02-20T23:09:33Z

JoshuaStanley: fixed spelling

[[Image:Jack London.jpg|right|200px]]
'''Jack London''' (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916) was a famous writer and novelist of the early 20th century. He had a traumatic early life, two troubled [[marriage]]s, and a [[death]], possibly due to [[suicide]], shrouded in mystery. After engaging in "oyster pirating," becoming a tramp, and getting a grueling, low-paying job, he went to the [[University of California at Berkeley]] in 1896, only to stay a year and fail to graduate. He joined the Klondike [[Gold Rush]] in 1897, during which he developed Scurvy. However, some of his best known and most successful stories, such as the ''Call of the Wild'' and ''White Fang'', were based on his Gold Rush experiences.

London became a [[socialist]], and his ''political'' leanings are revealed in some of his writing, especially the less-known ''[[The Iron Heel]]'', an early pro-socialist [[dystopian]] [[novel]].

The cause of his death is unknown. In the past it was usually claimed to be suicide. However, there is no real proof of this, and it is based heavily on events in his [[fiction]]. In the present day, his death is usually credited to uremia, a type of poisoning.<ref>http://www.jacklondons.net/nosuicide.html</ref>

Among his best-known works are the novels ''The Call of the Wild'', ''White Fang'', ''Martin Eden'', and ''The Iron Heel''. Also well known is his autobiographical work ''John Barleycorn''.

== External links ==

*[http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/l#a120 Jack London]

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

The Iron Heel

2009-02-20T23:08:42Z

JoshuaStanley: fixed spelling

'''The Iron Heel''' (first published 1908) is an early example of [[dystopian]] literature, written by [[American]] [[writer]] and [[socialist]] [[Jack London]].

It takes place in the United States in the early 1900s, and envisions the joining of [[capitalist]]s and trusts with the government, creating an oppressive capitalistic oligarchy which suppresses freedom and organized labor.

Though credited with influencing [[George Orwell]]'s ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]'', ''The Iron Heel'' portrays socialism as leading to a glorious "Brotherhood of Man", rather than portray the dangers that it might eventually cause.

[[Category:Books]][[Category:Literature]]