Conservapedia - User contributions [en]

Thatcherism

2008-12-05T15:05:35Z

Mario: red link

[[Thatcherism]] refers to the economic policy of Margaret Thatcher while British prime minister between 1979 and 1990.
It consisted of
*[[free market]] [[Supply-side economics|supply-side economics]]
*[[tax]] reduction
*artificial manipulation of the money supply to reduce [[inflation]]
*[[privatization]] of public industry
*reining in of [[labor union|trade union]] influence and power

By 1983, Thatcherism in Britain had led to the worst [[unemployment]] figures since 1923.
[[Category:Economics]][[Category:British History]]

Ammunition control

2008-12-05T14:58:23Z

Mario: Link for 'gun'

'''Ammunition control''' is legislation that seeks to track, monitor and control the ownership and use of [[gun]]s by requiring tracking and monitoring of ammunition.

In 2008 there were 18 states seeking to impose some form of '''ammunition control''' over lawful owners and users of guns:<ref>http://ammunitionaccountability.org/Legislation.htm</ref>

*Alabama
*Arizona
*California
*Connecticut
*Hawaii
*Illinois
*Indiana
*Kentucky
*Maryland
*Mississippi
*Missouri
*New Jersey
*New York
*Pennsylvania
*Rhode Island
*South Carolina
*Tennessee
*Washington.

== References ==

<references/>
[[Category:gun control]]

Iwo Jima

2008-12-05T14:54:51Z

Mario: Links for 'American' and 'Marines'

'''Iwo Jima''' is an unihabited sulfurous island 650 miles southeast of [[Tokyo]].
The '''battle of Iwo Jima''' in February 1945, was a victory by 70,000 [[American]] [[Marines]] over 22,000 [[Japanese]] defenders of a small island in [[World War II]]. Although the military advantages of winning were minor, the battle became iconic in America as the epitome of heroism in desperate hand-to-hand combat.

Iwo Jima was a small island (only 8 square miles) on the route of the [[B-29]]s from Saipan to Japan. Airfields there could provide emergency landing fields for stricken Superfortresses, so Admiral [[Chester Nimitz]] decided to take it; the invasion was code named "Operation Detachment." Following a massive naval and air bombardment, 70,000 Marines landed on February 19, 1945.

After the grueling experience of cave warfare on other islands such as [[Peleliu]], the Marines were ready with new tactics and new weapons, especially bazookas and hand-held and tank-mounted flame throwers. Lt. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi was ready with his 21,000 soldiers (far more than expected). His strategy was not to win, but to make the Yankees suffer far more than they could endure. He took advantage of the volcanic island's thousand caves and an ample supply of concrete, to build a vast underground defensive network interconnected by deep tunnels. His hidden artillery, mortars and machine guns survived the bombardment and stunned wave after wave of oncoming Marines. Each pillbox in a mutually-supportive grouping had to be destroyed by frontal assault. The last one was easy; it was murder attacking the first one.

The 5th Marine Division's 2nd battalion landed on Beach Red 2 on D-Day and spent 17 days and nights in combat. Of its 954 men, 216 were killed, 538 wounded, and 94 others were evacuated for sickness. Only 106 survived unscathed.

On D+4 the 28th Marines planted the Stars and Stripes on Mount Suribachi; watching in awe, Navy Secretary James Forrestal exclaimed that this dramatic moment guaranteed "there will be a Marine Corps for the next 500 years!" Associated Press reporter Joe Rosenthal's photograph of six soldiers raising the American flag on February 23, 1945 is often cited as the most reproduced photograph of all time. (It was not faked or staged.) The photograph become the archetypal representation not only of that battle, but of the entire Pacific war. Of the six soldiers in Rosenthal's photo, only three survived the battle.

The Japanese fought to the last man, killing 6,000 Marines and wounding 20,000 more. Seven GIs won the Medal of Honor by throwing themselves atop grenades to save their comrades. Should Iwo Jima have been bypassed? Over 25,000 airmen eventually made emergency landings on Iwo, but most would have survived without the island. The battle taught Japan how to deal with Americans: inflict more casualties than the Yankees were willing to bear.

The iconic memory of Iwo Jima comprises the flag raising ceremony and memories of combat; the Japanese perspective was brought vividly to life in the film by Clint Eastwood, ''Letters from Iwo Jima'' (2007). The flag raising is often a theme in editorial cartoons, including both calls for heroism and parodies.<ref> Janis L. Edwards, and Carol K. Winkler, "Representative Form and the Visual Ideograph: the Iwo Jima Image in Editorial Cartoons." ''Quarterly Journal of Speech'' 1997 83(3): 289-310. Issn: 0033-5630 </ref>
==Bibliography==
* Alexander, Joseph H. ''Closing In: Marines in the Seizure of Iwo Jima'' (1994), short Marine Corps history [http://ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USMC/USMC-C-Iwo/index.html online edition]
* Bartley, Whitman S. ''Iwo Jima: Amphibious Epic'' (1954), Marine Corps official history. [http://ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USMC/USMC-M-IwoJima/index.html online edition]
* Hearn, Chester. ''Sorties into Hell: The Hidden War on Chichi Jima'' (2003), American prisoners were tortutred on nearby island; [http://www.questia.com/read/107113549?title=Sorties%20into%20Hell%3a%20%20The%20Hidden%20War%20on%20Chichi%20Jima online edition]
* Newcomb, Richard F., and Harry Schmidt. ''Iwo Jima'' (2002), brief. [http://www.amazon.com/Iwo-Jima-Richard-F-Newcomb/dp/0805070710/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213464547&sr=1-4 excerpt and text search]
* Nichols, Chas. S. and Henry I. Shaw Jr.. ''Okinawa: Victory in the Pacific.'' (1955) 332pp; official Marine Corps history. [http://www.questia.com/read/16185380?title=Okinawa%3a%20Victory%20in%20the%20Pacific online edition]
* Wright, Derrick, and Gordon Rottman. ''Hell in the Pacific: The Battle for Iwo Jima'' (2008)

===Memory===
* Bradley, James and Ron Powers. ''Flags of Our Fathers.'' (2000). 376 pp [http://www.amazon.com/Flags-Our-Fathers-James-Bradley/dp/0553384155/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213464497&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]
* Buell, Hal. ''Uncommon Valor, Common Virtue: Iwo Jima and the Photograph That Captured America.'' (2006). 336 pp.
* Burrell, Robert S. "Breaking the Cycle of Iwo Jima Mythology: A Strategic Study of Operation Detachment," ''The Journal of Military History'' 68.4 (October 2004), 1143–86. Sees a needless battle caused by bureaucratic infighting at the Pentagon; notes the Navy did not expect large numbers of casualties before hand.
** Hanley, Brian; "The Myth of Iwo Jima: a Rebuttal." ''Journal of Military History'' 2005 69(3): 801-808. Says Burrell is engaging in retrospective analysis based on the high casualty rate among US troops, and his arguments draw on no new material.
** Burrell, Robert S. ''The Ghosts of Iwo Jima.'' (2006) 262 pp.
* Dower, John W. "Lessons from Iwo Jima." ''Perspectives: American Historical Association Newsletter'' 2007 45(6): 54-56. Issn: 0743-7021 [http://www.historians.org/perspectives/issues/2007/0709/0709med2.cfm online edition]
* Marling Karal Ann and John Wetenhall, ''Iwo Jima: Monuments, Memories, and the American Hero'' (1991)
** Linenthal, Edward T. "Shaping a Heroic Presence: Iwo Jima in America Memory." ''Reviews in American History'' 1993 21(1): 8-12. Issn: 0048-7511 [http://www.jstor.org/pss/2702942 Jstor]
* Sandberg, Walt. ''The Battle of Iwo Jima: A Resource Bibliography and Documentary Anthology.'' (2005). 254 pp.

===Films and fiction===
* "Flags of Our Fathers." Eastwood, Clint, producer and director; Spielberg, Steven and Lorenz, Robert, producers. Color. 2hr., 12min. Dreamworks Pictures, 2006. Distrib. by Paramount; screenplay by Iris Yamashi ta
* ''Letters from Iwo Jima'' (2007) Directed by Clint Eastwood. Produced by Robert Lorenz. Amblin Entertainment, 2006. 141 mins. (Warner Home Video; [http://www.amazon.com/Letters-Iwo-Jima-Two-Disc-Special/dp/B00005JPKE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1213465363&sr=8-1 DVD]
===Primary Sources===
* Kakehashi, Kumiko, ed. ''So Sad to Die in Battle: Based on General Tadamichi Kuribashi's Letters from Iwo Jima'' (2007), the basis for a very powerful American movie, ''Letters from Iwo Jima'' (2006)
* Smith, Larry, ed. ''Iwo Jima: World War II Veterans Remember the Greatest Battle of the Pacific'' (2008) [http://www.amazon.com/Iwo-Jima-Veterans-Remember-Greatest/dp/0393062341/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213464547&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]
* Sugihara, Kinryu, and Stephen J. Lofgren. "Diary of First Lieutenant Sugihara Kinryu: Iwo Jima, January-February 1945." ''Journal of Military History'' 1995 59(1): 97-133. Issn: 0899-3718 [http://www.jstor.org/pss/2944366 in Jstor]

==See also==
* [[Battle of Okinawa]]
====notes====
<references/>
[[Category:World War II]]
[[Category:Islands]]

Ludwig van Beethoven

2008-12-05T14:47:51Z

Mario:

[[Image:Stieler Portrait Ludwig van Beethoven.jpg|thumb|Joseph Karl Stieler - "Portrait Ludwig van Beethoven when composing the M.]]
'''Ludwig van Beethoven''' (baptized December 17, 1770 - March 26, 1827) was a German composer of the late [[Classical period (music)|Classical]] and early [[Romantic period (music)|Romantic]] eras.

Widely considered to be among the greatest, if not the greatest composer of Western music, he was also an accomplished pianist. His compositions include some of the most famous and enduring music ever written.

==Early Life==

His early musical training was with the violin, and later in composition and keyboards. At first he was taught by his father, Johann, and then by C.G. Neefe, a court organist. At 11 he is recorded as filling in for Neefe as an organist; at 12 he had some early compositions published. In 1787 he went to Vienna, but quickly returned on hearing that his mother was dying. In 1792 he went back to Vienna, where he then settled. He pursued his studies, first with [[Joseph Haydn]], and later with contemporaries Johann Schenk, Johann-Georg Albrechtsberger and Antonio Salieri

==The Music==

Beethoven's works include nine [[Symphony|symphonies]], sixteen [[string quartet]]s, 32 [[piano sonata]]s, five [[piano concerto]]s, a [[violin concerto]], an [[opera]] (''Fidelio''), the ''Missa Solemnis'', and numerous other pieces, including [[chamber music]], [[overture]]s, incidental music, and [[song]]s.

The composer's works are often divided into three periods: the Early, Middle, and Late Periods. The Early Period music shows a strong affinity for the music of Mozart and Haydn, Beethoven's instructors, and is firmly in the realm of the Classical style. The Middle Period produced some of the most famous works, including the Fifth Symphony. The The Third Symphony, also called "Eroica" is considered to be the first movement of the Romantic period. Beethoven's Late Period is characterized by a highly romantic and introspective nature. His most enduring works, including the Ninth Symphony and the late string quartets, come from this period.

Many of his compositions remain popular with the general public, such as the piano bagatelle "Fur Elise", the ''Moonlight Sonata.'' (a title not actually attributed to Beethoven), opus 27 no. 2, and many of the symphonies. The late string quartets are still considered "difficult" music, though they still have a strong following among devoted followers of classical music.

==Beethoven's Deafness==

Although the music of Beethoven is remarkable in its own right, it is perhaps most amazing in light of the fact that much of it was written when he was near or totally deaf. The most stirring example of this is the Ninth Symphony, written in 1824 when he had lost all hearing. Accounts differ on the details, but at the end of the performance, one of the performers had to turn the composer to see the ovations which he could not hear.

Critics and music historians disagree on the extent to which Beethoven's deafness affected his music. Many of his later works, especially the late string quartets, were considered unintelligible when they were written, and this difficulty was attributed to his deafness. Others argue that his deafness had little to no ultimate effect on the quality of his music: he had a profound ability to "hear" the music even when deaf. There can be little doubt, however, that the loss of hearing had a profound personal effect on the composer, which undoubtedly bled into his highly personal music.

==Beethoven and Religion==

There is some dispute between scholar's over Beethoven's religious stance, as his letters and the accounts of friends provide conflicting evidence. While he was raised a Roman Catholic and made several well-documented references to his faith, it is known that he never attended religious services. His teacher, the great composer Franz Joseph Haydn, thought Beethoven was an atheist. His friend and biographer Anton Schindler considered him a deist. Furthermore, Beethoven's choice of text in the choral movement of his ninth symphony indicates at least an interest (if not a belief) in Pantheism.

The most convincing evidence for Beethoven's spirituality can be found in his late music. The String Quartet No. 15 contains a slow movement which Beethoven himself describes as a "hymn of thanks to God" for a recovery from serious illness. Perhaps most convincing, though, is the fervent nature of the Missa Solemnis, Op. 123. The sincerity found in this work could only have come from a deeply-rooted faith in God.

==Trivia==

*Beethoven was the teacher of Carl Czerny, who in turn taught [[Franz Liszt]], commonly considered to be the greatest pianist of all time.
*The first recording of all 32 of Beethoven's piano sonatas was made by pianist [[Artur Schnabel]], a major accomplishment repeated by few pianists, including Murrah Perrahia, Alfred Brendel (3 times), Daniel Barenboim, and Ursula Oppens.
*Beethoven described the piano as "the god of all instruments" and wrote more for piano than for any other instrument, including 5 piano concertos, 32 piano sonatas, 10 sonatas with violin and piano, 5 sonatas with cello and piano, many piano variations, and a number of miscellaneous short pieces, such as "Fuer Elise."

== Key compositions ==

=== [[Symphonies]] ===
=== [[Concertos]] ===
=== [[Sonatas]]===
==== Pathetique====
==== Moonlight sonata ====
==== Tempest ====
==== Hamerclavier ====
=== [[Bagatelles]]===
==== [[Fur Elise]] ====

== See also ==

*[[Romantic period (music)]]
*[[Edvard Grieg]]
*[[Franz Schubert]]

==External Links==

* [http://www.all-about-beethoven.com/index.html Beethoven]

* [http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/beethoven.html Beethoven]

[[Category:Composers|Beethoven, Ludwig van]]

Margaret Thatcher

2008-12-05T14:44:45Z

Mario: /* Notable quotes */

{{Prime Minister
|image=Margaret_Thatcher.jpg
|seq=71
|term_start=May 4 1979
|term_end=November 28 1990
|party=Conservative Party
|previous=James Callaghan
|next=John Major
|birth_date=October 13 1925 (aged 83)
|birth_place=Grantham
|spouse=[[Denis Thatcher|Sir Denis Thatcher, Bt]]
|religion=[[Methodist]]
}}

'''Margaret Hilda Thatcher (nee Roberts)''', later Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven (born October 13, 1925), was [[Prime Minister]] of the [[United Kingdom]] from 1979 to 1990, the first woman to hold the position. With the possible exceptions of [[Harold Macmillan]] and (less frequently) [[Tony Blair]], she is usually regarded as the greatest post-[[World War II|WWII]] Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

Thatcher was chosen to be the leader of the Conservative Party in February 1975, succeeding former Prime Minister [[Edward Heath]]. She was opposed to socialism and out-of-control union power which had brought down the previous Conservative government in 1974. She led the Conservatives to victory in the May 1979 [[General Election]] and was thus appointed Prime Minister.

Lady Thatcher sold many of the nationalized industries back to private investors and made tax cuts. She broke the power of the trade unions which stood in the way of the rationalization of the coal industry and modernization of the newspaper industry. Due to her strong standards and her leadership style, she became known as the "[[Iron Lady]]," a term originally coined as an insult by the communist [[Soviet Union]], but one she adopted, at the instigation of her political ally [[Enoch Powell]], with glee. A famous statement of hers was that "the lady is not for turning", in reference to calls from within her own party to back down on issues that were important to her. Thatcher was always a strong supporter of the the [[United States]], and was a good friend of President [[Ronald Reagan]], uniting with him in actions against the Communists.

She led Britain to victory against [[Argentina]] in a 1982 war over sovereignty of the [[Falkland Islands]]. The United States was allied with both countries, and initially tried to broker a negotiated settlement. When that failed, the U.S. supported Britain with vital intelligence information. The conflict led to a strong friendship with the Chilean leader [[Augusto Pinochet]] after Chile helped Britain in the conflict.

Thatcher won a total three general elections (1979, 1983 and 1987). By 1990, her popularity was waning and there were calls from within her own party for her to step aside. She was challenged for the party leadership, and when it became clear to her that she would not have the necessary votes she decided not to stand for a second party vote in 1990. [[John Major]] won the party leadership vote, and was subsequently appointed to succeed Thatcher as Prime Minister. Thatcher was the longest serving British Prime Minister in more than 150 years and, alongside Winston Churchill, many consider her to be one of the two most important British political leaders of the twentieth century.

Her regime was controversial, however. Social mobility decreased, whilst education and the [[National Health Service]] suffered a number of cuts. [[Unemployment]] rose to unprecedented levels, exceeding one in ten, and the method of counting was regularly altered to lower the published figures. Many of her actions in the north of England seemed petulant, infamously the sudden closure of much of the mining industry, whilst refusing to interfere with the consequences.

She fundamentally moved the British economy from an industrialist model, to a financial, speculative economy. This shift also served to undermine trade union power with fewer people in stable long term employment and instead in the service industry.

[[Time Magazine]] wrote of Lady Thatcher: ''"She was the catalyst who set in motion a series of interconnected events that gave a revolutionary twist to the century's last two decades and helped mankind end the millennium on a note of hope and confidence. The triumph of capitalism, the almost universal acceptance of the market as indispensable to prosperity, the collapse of Soviet imperialism, the downsizing of the state on nearly every continent and in almost every country in the world — Margaret Thatcher played a part in all those transformations, and it is not easy to see how any would have occurred without her. [[Champion]] of free minds and markets, she helped topple the welfare state and make the world safer for capitalism"'' [http://www.time.com/time/time100/leaders/profile/thatcher.html]

==Career prior to 1979==

The predominant influence in Lady Thatcher's early life was her father, [[Alfred Roberts]]. Roberts was a grocer by occupation who was active in local politics. Years later, Lady Thatcher continued to acknowledge his formative influence on her (for example, in the second volume of her memoirs, ''The Path to Power'').

Lady Thatcher attended Somerville College, [[Oxford University|Oxford]], where she read chemistry and became chairman of the university Conservative association. After graduating, she worked for a time as a research chemist before qualifying as a barrister and practicing as a [[tax]] lawyer, an indication of her interest in financial matters. In this time period, it was uncommon in Britain for a female from an ordinary middle-class background to go to a top-class university and then to pursue a career in the male-dominated and somewhat elitist world of the Bar.

Lady Thatcher married [[Denis Thatcher]], a successful businessman whom she met at a Conservative Party meeting. They had two children, twins [[Mark Thatcher|Mark]] and [[Carol Thatcher|Carol]].

Under the troubled Conservative premiership of [[Edward Heath]] (1970-1974), Thatcher served as Secretary of State for Education during which time her most noted achievement was the withdrawal of a daily milk ration to primary age schoolchildren earning her the nickname Milk-Snatcher. After the Conservatives were defeated in the elections of February and October 1974, Thatcher challenged the more liberal Heath for the leadership of the party. When she went into Heath's office to tell him her decision, he did not even bother to look up. "You'll lose," he said. "Good day to you." [http://www.time.com/time/time100/leaders/profile/thatcher.html]

Though at the time she was a relatively untested figure (and many in the party were wary of choosing a woman leader), she defeated both Heath and other male rivals in the contest in February 1975. Heath subsequently became a prominent personal and political adversary of Thatcher, drawing accusations of bitterness.

In the 1970s, Lady Thatcher's strongly conservative, pro-capitalist stance resonated with a new mood among the British electorate, many of whom had become dissatisfied with the post-[[World War II]] liberal consensus (the "post-war consensus", sometimes also called "Butskellism" after the centrist Conservative politician [[Rab Butler]] and the moderate Labour politician [[Hugh Gaitskell]]). Thatcher and the Conservatives offered a clear alternative vision for an increasingly aspirational society. The Conservative politician Sir [[Keith Joseph]] was the primary intellectual force behind these theories that later became known as ''Thatcherism''. They were strongly influenced by the pro-market intellectuals [[Friedrich von Hayek]] and [[Milton Friedman]].
[[Image:503px-Thatcher-loc.jpg|right|thumb|Margaret Thatcher as Leader of the Opposition in 1975.]]

===Attitude to Abortion===

Margaret Thatcher, throughout her parliamentary career, voted in favor of liberal abortion laws.[http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1988thatcher.html]
==1979 election==
The Labour party under [[James Callaghan]] (prime minister 1976-79) contested the May 1979 election as unemployment passed the one-million mark and unions became more aggressive. The Conservatives used a highly effective poster created by Saatchi and Saatchi, showing a dole queue snaking into the distance and it carried the caption "Labour isn't working".

Voters gave Conservatives 43.9% of the vote and 339 seats to Labour's 269, for an overall majority of 43 seats. People generally voted against Labour rather than for the Conservatives. Labour was weakened by the steady long-term decline in the proportion of manual workers in the electorate. Twice as many manual workers normally voted Labour as voted Conservative, but they now constituted only 56% of the electorate. When [[Harold Wilson]] won narrowly for Labour in 1964, they had accounted for 63%. Furthermore they were beginning to turn against the trade unions—alienated, perhaps, by the difficulties of the winter of 1978-9. In contrast, Tory policies stressing wider home ownership, which Labour refused to match. Thatcher did best in districts where the economy was relatively strong and was weaker where it was contracting.

==Prime Ministership==
===Economic policy===
Thatcher's chief goals in power were to reverse Britain's economic decline and to reduce the range of the state as well as standing taller on the international stage. She found a soul-mate in Ronald Reagan, elected in 1980 but whom she had met in 1975. Thatcher started by increasing interest rates to drive down inflation which hit the manufacturing sector and caused unemployment to rise sharply and there was a deep recession in the early 1980s blamed on her Government's economic policy. This led to her famous quote: 'the lady is not for turning', and she refused a policy u-turn and, despite an open letter from 364 economists, taxes were increased in the middle of a recession. Although unemployment did not reach 3 million till 1982, a year earlier British cities burned as thousands took to the streets to demonstrate their frustration. Inflation was going down though, allowing interest rates to fall.
===Falkland Islands===
As the economy started to recover Argentina invaded the Falklands, the first (and unprovoked) invasion of sovereign British territory by a foreign government since the Second World War. This invasion was preceded by her withdrawal of military defense from the islands. Thatcher immediately declared her resolve to recapture the islands in line with the wishes of their inhabitants, and dispatched a naval task force to that end. With help from President [[Augusto Pinochet|Pinochet]] of [[Chile]] and, more covertly, [[Ronald Reagan]], the British forces swiftly recaptured the islands. The resulting wave of patriotic enthusiasm as well as her right to buy policy for council homes, and a uselessly divided opposition, meant she got a landslide victory in the June 1983 general election.
===Unions===
The central theme of Thatcher's second term was reducing the power of the trade unions with a series of measures that a number of unions reacted to with industrial action. In particular the National Union of Mineworkers led by Arthur Scargill. The Tories had prepared for the strike by building up coal reserves and the deploying well paid police units fitted out with new riot gear brought in after the disturbances of 1981 who taunted the strikers by waving fivers at them. The miners responded with bricks and very ugly scenes developed on picket lines that split the country. Scargill's failure to hold a ballot for the strike undermined public support and the striker's chant of 'vote with your feet' calling miners to join the strike was turned on them as more and more returned to work over the year of the strike.
===IRA===
In the middle of the strike, on October 12 1984, the IRA detonated a bomb during the Conservative Party conference in Brighton. Thatcher unfortunately escaped injury but five people died in the attack and Margaret Tebbit was left paralyzed, the conference went on as normal.
===Privatization===
Thatcher's political and economic philosophy emphasized free markets and since gaining power she had experimented in selling off nationalized industries starting with the National Freight company, most of the large utilities followed.

Privatization was perhaps the most enduring legacy of the political economy developed under Thatcher. She privatized long-nationalized corporations (such as the telephone and aerospace firms) and, most important, sold public housing to tenants, all on favorable terms. The policy developed an important electoral dimension during the second Thatcher government (1983-90). It involved more than denationalization: wider share ownership was the second plank of the policy, and this provides an important historical perspective on the relationship between Thatcherism and 20th-century conservatism.<ref> Richard Stevens, "The Evolution of Privatisation as an Electoral Policy, c. 1970-90." ''Contemporary British History'' 2004 18(2): 47-75. Issn: 1361-9462 Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]</ref>

===Foreign policy===
Thatcher supported Reagan's policies of deterrence against the Soviets and US forces stationed nuclear cruise missiles at British bases, arousing mass protests by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. She supported the US bombing raid on [[Libya]] from bases in Britain in 1986 and, by refusing to side with a European consortium, in backing a the Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation of the USA over a British company Westland. Michael Heseltine resigned in protest at her style of leadership over this. In 1984 she visited [[China]] and signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration with [[Deng Xiaoping]] that agreed the handover of [[Hong Kong]] in 1997. Also that year at the Fontainebleau summit Thatcher argued that the UK paid far more to the EEC than it received in spending and negotiated a budget rebate using the argument that ‘We want our money back’. In 1985, the University of Oxford voted to refuse her an honorary degree in protest against her cuts in funding for education.
===Reelected 1987===
In 1987, Thatcher became the first British PM to win three consecutive general elections since [[Lord Liverpool]] (1812-1827).
===Environment===
In the late 1980's Thatcher began to be concerned by environmental policy and in 1988 she made a major speech accepting the problems of global warming, ozone depletion and acid rain.
===Europe===
At Bruges, she made a speech in which she outlined her opposition to proposals from the European Communities for a federal structure and increasing centralization of decision-making believing that the role of the EC should be limited to ensuring free trade and effective competition. She was specifically against Economic and Monetary Union, through which a single currency would replace national currencies, and for which the EC was making preparations. In 1989 the economy high interest rates were imposed to stop an unsustainable boom. At the Madrid European summit, Nigel Lawson and Geoffrey Howe forced Thatcher to agree the circumstances in which she would join the Exchange Rate Mechanism, a preparation for monetary union. She took revenge on both by demoting Howe and listening more to her adviser Sir Alan Walters on economic matters. Lawson resigned that October and in November, a so-called ‘stalking horse candidate Sir Anthony Meyer challenged Thatcher for the leadership of the Conservative Party. In 1989 a new system of local government finance to replace the rates was introduced for Scotland in 1989 and for England and Wales in 1990. Called the 'Community Charge' but known as the Poll Tax was applied at the same amount to every individual resident with only limited discounts. Widespread opposition culminated in a huge [http://newsfilm.bufvc.ac.uk/article.php?story=200510081953085 demonstration] in London on March 31 that turned into the largest outbreak of public disorder central London had seen in a century which was followed by millions of people refusing to pay the tax. This along with her government's handling of the economy, her perceived arrogance and a general feeling that she would never retire, made her politically vulnerable. Geoffrey Howe resigned on November 1 and condemned Thatcher's policy on the European Communities then openly invited 'others to consider their own response'. Michael Heseltine's response was a leadership challenge which resulted in a narrow failure, by two votes, for Thatcher to win automatic re-election. After consulting with cabinet colleagues she found a vast majority thought that she could not win on the second ballot. On November 22nd Thatcher announced that she would not be a candidate in the second ballot. She supported John Major as her successor, and retired from Parliament at the 1992 election.

==Life after being Prime Minister==

After leaving the House of Commons, Thatcher was dubbed '''Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven''' and entered the House of Lords, an entirely normal and expected honor for a British ex-Prime Minister. More controversially, Denis Thatcher was given a Baronetcy, which ensured that their son, Mark, would inherit the title of "Sir Mark".

Leaving power reportedly depressed Lady Thatcher, and aside from writing her memoirs, her role as 'backseat driver' in the Major administration was not well received. She publicly endorsed [[William Hague]] against [[Kenneth Clarke]] for the Conservative leadership in 1997. She made many speaking engagements around the world, including very vocal support of former dictator General [[Augusto Pinochet]], whom the new Labour administration extradited to Spain on charges of torturing political opponents. In March 2002 she suffered a mild stroke, and she was told by her doctors to make no more public speeches on health grounds. Nevertheless she insisted in 2004 on attending the funeral of her old friend and political soul-mate, Ronald Reagan, against her doctor's orders. Baroness Thatcher is still seen at Tory party gatherings and has continued endorsing party leaders, such as Iain Duncan Smith. In August 2008, the world had the misfortune to learn from Lady Thatcher's daugher that Lady Thatcher had been suffering from [[dementia]] for as many as eight years.<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7579352.stm</ref> This has been a debilitating blow for her loyal supporters and supporters of freedom worldwide.

[http://www.time.com/time/time100/leaders/profile/thatcher.html][http://www.fandmpublications.co.uk/pages/margaretbiography1.htm][http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page126.asp]

==Quick Facts==
*Born: 13 October 1925 in [[Grantham]], [[Lincolnshire]]

*First entered Parliament: 8 October 1959

*Became leader of the [[Conservative]] Party in February 1975

*Elected as Prime Minister in May 1979

*Age she became PM: 53 years, 204 days

*Maiden Speech: 5 February 1960 during the second reading of her Private Member's Bill

*Total time as PM: 11 years, 209 days

*Nickname: "The Iron Lady"

*Education: Kesteven and Grantham Girls' School and Somerville College, Oxford

*Before Thatcher became an MP, she worked as a research chemist for British Xylonite and then Lyons & Company, where she helped develop methods for preserving ice cream.

*Family: Margaret Thatcher is the younger of two daughters. She often gave her father as an example of an outstanding citizen. She married [[Sir Denis Thatcher]], and has twins: one son and one daughter.

*Interests: Music, art, opera and reading.

[http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page126.asp][http://www.time.com/time/time100/leaders/profile/thatcher.html]

==Husband==
Denis Thatcher, ''as the first male PM spouse in history'', was always likely to be the center of media attention - and he didn't disappoint.

When she met him, Baroness Thatcher remarked that "it was clear to me at once that Denis was an exceptional man - he had a certain style and dash." Described as a man of integrity, humor and common sense, he had a strong business background and fought with the Royal Artillery during the war.

It was said that Denis was in 'the Thatcher party not the Tory party'. He once famously remarked, recalling the words of Mark Twain, that: "it's better to keep my mouth shut and be thought a fool rather than open it and remove all doubt."

Just after he died in 2003, his widow paid tribute to the man she loved by saying: "Being PM is a lonely job. In a sense, it ought to be - you cannot lead from a crowd. But with Denis there, I was never alone. What a man. What a husband. What a friend."

[http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page126.asp][http://www.time.com/time/time100/leaders/profile/thatcher.html]

== Notable quotes==

*"I like Mr Gorbachev, we can do business together."

*"The lady is not for turning"

*"I have made it quite clear that a unified Ireland was one solution that is out. A second solution was a confederation of two states. That is out. A third solution was joint authority. That is out- that is a derogation of sovereignty."

*"I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left."

*"If you lead a country like Britain, a strong country, a country which has taken a lead in world affairs in good times and in bad, a country that is always reliable, then you have to have a touch of iron about you."

*"I do not know anyone who has got to the top without hard work. That is the recipe. It will not always get you to the top, but should get you pretty near."

*"There is no such thing as society."

*"What Britain needs is an iron lady."

*"Unless we change our ways and our direction, our greatness as a nation will soon be a footnote in the history books, a distant memory of an offshore island, lost in the mists of time like Camelot, remembered kindly for its noble past."

*"I just owe almost everything to my father [and] it's passionately interesting for me that the things that I learned in a small town, in a very modest home, are just the things that I believe have won the election."

*"Democratic nations must try to find ways to starve the terrorist and the hijacker of the oxygen of publicity on which they depend." [http://www.quoteworld.org/authors/margaret-thatcher/1/]

*"It will be years before a woman either leads the Conservative Party or becomes Prime Minister. I don't see it happening in my time" (in 1970)[http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page126.asp]

== See also ==
*[[Thatcherism]]
*[[Conservative Links]]

==External Links==
* [http://www.margaretthatcher.org/ Margaret Thatcher Foundation]

==References==
{{reflist}}
==Bibliography==
* Adonis, Andrew, and Tim Hames, eds. ''A Conservative Revolution: The Thatcher-Reagan Decade'' (1994), comparative perspective
* Backhouse, Roger E. "The Macroeconomics of Margaret Thatcher," ''Journal of the History of Economic Thought'' 2002 24(3): 313-334 online at EBSCO
* Campbell, John. ''Margaret Thatcher. Vol. 1: The Grocer's Daughter.'' (2000); ''Margaret Thatcher. vol. 2: Iron Lady'' (2007), 520pp; 913pp; long, detailed authoritative biography
* Clarke, Peter. "Margaret Thatcher's Place in History: Two Views," ''Journal of the History of Economic Thought'' 2002 24(3): 357-368 online at EBSCO
* Dellheim, Charles. ''The Disenchanted Isle: Mrs. Thatcher's Capitalist Revolution.'' (1995) 352 pp.
* Evans, Brendan. ''Thatcherism and British Politics, 1975-1997'' (2000)
* Evans, Eric J. ''Thatcher and Thatcherism.'' (2nd ed. 2004). 176 pp [http://www.questia.com/read/107494201?title=Thatcher%20and%20Thatcherism online edition]
* Fry, Geoffrey K. ''Politics of the Thatcher Revolution: An Interpretation of British Politics 1975 - 1990'' (2008)
* Geelhoed, Bruce E. and Hobbs, James F. ''Margaret Thatcher's Last Hurrah: In Victory and Downfall, 1987 and 1990.'' (1992). 193 pp. [http://www.questia.com/read/15091359?title=Margaret%20Thatcher%3a%20In%20Victory%20and%20Downfall%2c%201987%20and%201990 online edition]; also [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Margaret-Thatcher-Victory-Downfall-1987/dp/0275941485/ref=sr_1_34?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212823416&sr=8-34 excerpt and text search]
* Haseler, Stephen. ''The Battle for Britain: Thatcher and the New Liberals.'' (1990). 195 pp.
* Holmes, Martin. ''The First Thatcher Government, 1979-83: Contemporary Conservatism and Economic Change'' (1985); ''Thatcherism: Scope and Limits, 1983-87.'' (1989). 174 pp. a sympathetic assessment.
* Jenkins, Peter. ''Mrs. Thatcher's Revolution: The Ending of the Socialist Era.'' (1988). 417 pp. critical
* Johnson, Christopher. ''The Grand Experiment: Mrs. Thatcher's Economy and How It Spread.'' (1993). 341 pp.
* Kavanagh, Dennis. ''Thatcherism and British Politics: The End of Consensus?'' (1987). 334 pp.
* Kavanagh, Dennis, and Anthony Seldon, eds. ''The Thatcher Effect'' (1989), major interpretive essays by experts
* King, Anthony. "The Outsider as Political Leader: the Case of Margaret Thatcher." ''British Journal of Political Science'' 2002 32(3): 435-454. Issn: 0007-1234 Fulltext: [[CUP]] and [[Jstor]]. Thatcher was a social outsider, psychological outsider and political outsider.
* Krieger, Joel. ''Reagan, Thatcher, and the Politics of Decline.'' (1987). 247 pp.
* Moon, Jeremy. ''Innovative Leadership in Democracy: Policy Change under Thatcher.'' (1993). 157 pp.
* Morgan, K.O. ''The People's Peace: British History, 1945-90'' (1990) survey by leading scholar
* Pugliese, Stanislao, ed. ''The Political Legacy of Margaret Thatcher.'' (2003). 419 pp.
* Reitan, Earl A. ''The Thatcher Revolution: Margaret Thatcher, John Major, and Tony Blair, and the Transformation of Modern Britain, 1979-2001.'' (2003). 260 pp.
* Reitan, Earl A. ''Tory Radicalism: Margaret Thatcher, John Major, and the Transformation of Modern Britain, 1979-1997.'' (1997). 222 pp.
* Riddell, Peter. ''The Thatcher Decade: How Britain Has Changed during the 1980's.'' (1989). 236 pp.
* Roy, Subroto and Clarke, John, eds. ''Margaret Thatcher's Revolution: How It Happened and What It Meant.'' (2005). 209 pp.
* Savage, S.P., and L. Robbins, eds. ''Public Policy under Thatcher'' (1990), essays by experts
* Sharp, Paul. ''Thatcher's Diplomacy: The Revival of British Foreign Policy.'' (1997). 269 pp.
* Smith, Geoffrey. ''Reagan and Thatcher.'' (1991). 285 pp.
* Thompson, Juliet S., and Wayne C. Thompson. ''Margaret Thatcher: Prime Minister Indomitable'' (1994) [http://www.questia.com/read/85710688?title=Margaret%20Thatcher%3a%20Prime%20Minister%20Indomitable online edition]
* Waine, Barbara. ''The Rhetoric of Independence: The Ideology and Practice of Social Policy in Thatcher's Britain.'' (1992). 172 pp.
* Wall, Stephen. ''A Stranger in Europe: Britain and the EU from Thatcher to Blair'' (2008) [http://www.amazon.com/Stranger-Europe-Britain-Thatcher-Blair/dp/0199284555/ref=sr_1_26?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212823185&sr=1-26 excerpt and text search]
* Walters, A. A. ''Britain's Economic Renaissance: Margaret Thatcher's Reforms, 1979-1984.'' (1986). 200 pp.
* Wapshott, Nicholas. ''Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher: A Political Marriage.'' (2007) 329 pp.
* Whipple, Amy C. "'Ordinary People': The Cultural Origins of Popular Thatcherism in Britain, 1964-1979." PhD dissertation Northwestern U. 2004. 253 pp. DAI 2004 65(5): 1926-A. DA3132626 Fulltext: [[ProQuest Dissertations & Theses]]
* Young, Hugo. ''The Iron Lady: A Biography of Margaret Thatcher.'' (1989). 570 pp. well-written and well researched
* [http://www.amazon.com/Margaret-Thatcher-Bibliography-Bibliographies-Statesmen/dp/book-citations/0313282889/ref=sid_dp_av?ie=UTF8&citeType=citing#citing additional books]
===Primary sources===
* Clark, Alan. ''Mrs. Thatcher's Minister: The Private Diaries of Alan Clark.'' (1994). 421 pp.
* Thatcher, Margaret. ''The Path to Power (1995); ''The Downing Street Years.'' (1993). 914 pp., highly detailed memoirs

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thatcher, Margaret}}
[[Category:Conservatives]]
[[Category:United Kingdom Prime Ministers]]

Transsexual

2008-12-05T14:39:30Z

Mario: Undo revision 578328 by BABS (Talk)

A '''transsexual''' is a person who has had, or plans to obtain, a [[sex change]], and many are involved in [[transgender activism]].

In order to obtain a [[sex change]], established international medical standards require someone to be treated for [[gender identity disorder]] for at least one year, with unsuccessful resolution of the medical disorder without surgical means. It is intended to be used only as a last resort, when all other therapies have failed.<ref>http://www.wpath.org/Documents2/socv6.pdf</ref>

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

==External Links==
*[http://www.oregonlive.com/metro/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1203474312300211.xml&coll=7 Transsexual inmate loses sex-change surgery lawsuit], [[Ashbel Green]], ''[[The Oregonian]]'', February 20, 2008

[[Category:Medicine]]
[[Category:Psychology]]

Margaret Thatcher

2008-12-05T14:37:23Z

Mario: poicy to policy, red links

{{Prime Minister
|image=Margaret_Thatcher.jpg
|seq=71
|term_start=May 4 1979
|term_end=November 28 1990
|party=Conservative Party
|previous=James Callaghan
|next=John Major
|birth_date=October 13 1925 (aged 83)
|birth_place=Grantham
|spouse=[[Denis Thatcher|Sir Denis Thatcher, Bt]]
|religion=[[Methodist]]
}}

'''Margaret Hilda Thatcher (nee Roberts)''', later Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven (born October 13, 1925), was [[Prime Minister]] of the [[United Kingdom]] from 1979 to 1990, the first woman to hold the position. With the possible exceptions of [[Harold Macmillan]] and (less frequently) [[Tony Blair]], she is usually regarded as the greatest post-[[World War II|WWII]] Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

Thatcher was chosen to be the leader of the Conservative Party in February 1975, succeeding former Prime Minister [[Edward Heath]]. She was opposed to socialism and out-of-control union power which had brought down the previous Conservative government in 1974. She led the Conservatives to victory in the May 1979 [[General Election]] and was thus appointed Prime Minister.

Lady Thatcher sold many of the nationalized industries back to private investors and made tax cuts. She broke the power of the trade unions which stood in the way of the rationalization of the coal industry and modernization of the newspaper industry. Due to her strong standards and her leadership style, she became known as the "[[Iron Lady]]," a term originally coined as an insult by the communist [[Soviet Union]], but one she adopted, at the instigation of her political ally [[Enoch Powell]], with glee. A famous statement of hers was that "the lady is not for turning", in reference to calls from within her own party to back down on issues that were important to her. Thatcher was always a strong supporter of the the [[United States]], and was a good friend of President [[Ronald Reagan]], uniting with him in actions against the Communists.

She led Britain to victory against [[Argentina]] in a 1982 war over sovereignty of the [[Falkland Islands]]. The United States was allied with both countries, and initially tried to broker a negotiated settlement. When that failed, the U.S. supported Britain with vital intelligence information. The conflict led to a strong friendship with the Chilean leader [[Augusto Pinochet]] after Chile helped Britain in the conflict.

Thatcher won a total three general elections (1979, 1983 and 1987). By 1990, her popularity was waning and there were calls from within her own party for her to step aside. She was challenged for the party leadership, and when it became clear to her that she would not have the necessary votes she decided not to stand for a second party vote in 1990. [[John Major]] won the party leadership vote, and was subsequently appointed to succeed Thatcher as Prime Minister. Thatcher was the longest serving British Prime Minister in more than 150 years and, alongside Winston Churchill, many consider her to be one of the two most important British political leaders of the twentieth century.

Her regime was controversial, however. Social mobility decreased, whilst education and the [[National Health Service]] suffered a number of cuts. [[Unemployment]] rose to unprecedented levels, exceeding one in ten, and the method of counting was regularly altered to lower the published figures. Many of her actions in the north of England seemed petulant, infamously the sudden closure of much of the mining industry, whilst refusing to interfere with the consequences.

She fundamentally moved the British economy from an industrialist model, to a financial, speculative economy. This shift also served to undermine trade union power with fewer people in stable long term employment and instead in the service industry.

[[Time Magazine]] wrote of Lady Thatcher: ''"She was the catalyst who set in motion a series of interconnected events that gave a revolutionary twist to the century's last two decades and helped mankind end the millennium on a note of hope and confidence. The triumph of capitalism, the almost universal acceptance of the market as indispensable to prosperity, the collapse of Soviet imperialism, the downsizing of the state on nearly every continent and in almost every country in the world — Margaret Thatcher played a part in all those transformations, and it is not easy to see how any would have occurred without her. [[Champion]] of free minds and markets, she helped topple the welfare state and make the world safer for capitalism"'' [http://www.time.com/time/time100/leaders/profile/thatcher.html]

==Career prior to 1979==

The predominant influence in Lady Thatcher's early life was her father, [[Alfred Roberts]]. Roberts was a grocer by occupation who was active in local politics. Years later, Lady Thatcher continued to acknowledge his formative influence on her (for example, in the second volume of her memoirs, ''The Path to Power'').

Lady Thatcher attended Somerville College, [[Oxford University|Oxford]], where she read chemistry and became chairman of the university Conservative association. After graduating, she worked for a time as a research chemist before qualifying as a barrister and practicing as a [[tax]] lawyer, an indication of her interest in financial matters. In this time period, it was uncommon in Britain for a female from an ordinary middle-class background to go to a top-class university and then to pursue a career in the male-dominated and somewhat elitist world of the Bar.

Lady Thatcher married [[Denis Thatcher]], a successful businessman whom she met at a Conservative Party meeting. They had two children, twins [[Mark Thatcher|Mark]] and [[Carol Thatcher|Carol]].

Under the troubled Conservative premiership of [[Edward Heath]] (1970-1974), Thatcher served as Secretary of State for Education during which time her most noted achievement was the withdrawal of a daily milk ration to primary age schoolchildren earning her the nickname Milk-Snatcher. After the Conservatives were defeated in the elections of February and October 1974, Thatcher challenged the more liberal Heath for the leadership of the party. When she went into Heath's office to tell him her decision, he did not even bother to look up. "You'll lose," he said. "Good day to you." [http://www.time.com/time/time100/leaders/profile/thatcher.html]

Though at the time she was a relatively untested figure (and many in the party were wary of choosing a woman leader), she defeated both Heath and other male rivals in the contest in February 1975. Heath subsequently became a prominent personal and political adversary of Thatcher, drawing accusations of bitterness.

In the 1970s, Lady Thatcher's strongly conservative, pro-capitalist stance resonated with a new mood among the British electorate, many of whom had become dissatisfied with the post-[[World War II]] liberal consensus (the "post-war consensus", sometimes also called "Butskellism" after the centrist Conservative politician [[Rab Butler]] and the moderate Labour politician [[Hugh Gaitskell]]). Thatcher and the Conservatives offered a clear alternative vision for an increasingly aspirational society. The Conservative politician Sir [[Keith Joseph]] was the primary intellectual force behind these theories that later became known as ''Thatcherism''. They were strongly influenced by the pro-market intellectuals [[Friedrich von Hayek]] and [[Milton Friedman]].
[[Image:503px-Thatcher-loc.jpg|right|thumb|Margaret Thatcher as Leader of the Opposition in 1975.]]

===Attitude to Abortion===

Margaret Thatcher, throughout her parliamentary career, voted in favor of liberal abortion laws.[http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1988thatcher.html]
==1979 election==
The Labour party under [[James Callaghan]] (prime minister 1976-79) contested the May 1979 election as unemployment passed the one-million mark and unions became more aggressive. The Conservatives used a highly effective poster created by Saatchi and Saatchi, showing a dole queue snaking into the distance and it carried the caption "Labour isn't working".

Voters gave Conservatives 43.9% of the vote and 339 seats to Labour's 269, for an overall majority of 43 seats. People generally voted against Labour rather than for the Conservatives. Labour was weakened by the steady long-term decline in the proportion of manual workers in the electorate. Twice as many manual workers normally voted Labour as voted Conservative, but they now constituted only 56% of the electorate. When [[Harold Wilson]] won narrowly for Labour in 1964, they had accounted for 63%. Furthermore they were beginning to turn against the trade unions—alienated, perhaps, by the difficulties of the winter of 1978-9. In contrast, Tory policies stressing wider home ownership, which Labour refused to match. Thatcher did best in districts where the economy was relatively strong and was weaker where it was contracting.

==Prime Ministership==
===Economic policy===
Thatcher's chief goals in power were to reverse Britain's economic decline and to reduce the range of the state as well as standing taller on the international stage. She found a soul-mate in Ronald Reagan, elected in 1980 but whom she had met in 1975. Thatcher started by increasing interest rates to drive down inflation which hit the manufacturing sector and caused unemployment to rise sharply and there was a deep recession in the early 1980s blamed on her Government's economic policy. This led to her famous quote: 'the lady is not for turning', and she refused a policy u-turn and, despite an open letter from 364 economists, taxes were increased in the middle of a recession. Although unemployment did not reach 3 million till 1982, a year earlier British cities burned as thousands took to the streets to demonstrate their frustration. Inflation was going down though, allowing interest rates to fall.
===Falkland Islands===
As the economy started to recover Argentina invaded the Falklands, the first (and unprovoked) invasion of sovereign British territory by a foreign government since the Second World War. This invasion was preceded by her withdrawal of military defense from the islands. Thatcher immediately declared her resolve to recapture the islands in line with the wishes of their inhabitants, and dispatched a naval task force to that end. With help from President [[Augusto Pinochet|Pinochet]] of [[Chile]] and, more covertly, [[Ronald Reagan]], the British forces swiftly recaptured the islands. The resulting wave of patriotic enthusiasm as well as her right to buy policy for council homes, and a uselessly divided opposition, meant she got a landslide victory in the June 1983 general election.
===Unions===
The central theme of Thatcher's second term was reducing the power of the trade unions with a series of measures that a number of unions reacted to with industrial action. In particular the National Union of Mineworkers led by Arthur Scargill. The Tories had prepared for the strike by building up coal reserves and the deploying well paid police units fitted out with new riot gear brought in after the disturbances of 1981 who taunted the strikers by waving fivers at them. The miners responded with bricks and very ugly scenes developed on picket lines that split the country. Scargill's failure to hold a ballot for the strike undermined public support and the striker's chant of 'vote with your feet' calling miners to join the strike was turned on them as more and more returned to work over the year of the strike.
===IRA===
In the middle of the strike, on October 12 1984, the IRA detonated a bomb during the Conservative Party conference in Brighton. Thatcher unfortunately escaped injury but five people died in the attack and Margaret Tebbit was left paralyzed, the conference went on as normal.
===Privatization===
Thatcher's political and economic philosophy emphasized free markets and since gaining power she had experimented in selling off nationalized industries starting with the National Freight company, most of the large utilities followed.

Privatization was perhaps the most enduring legacy of the political economy developed under Thatcher. She privatized long-nationalized corporations (such as the telephone and aerospace firms) and, most important, sold public housing to tenants, all on favorable terms. The policy developed an important electoral dimension during the second Thatcher government (1983-90). It involved more than denationalization: wider share ownership was the second plank of the policy, and this provides an important historical perspective on the relationship between Thatcherism and 20th-century conservatism.<ref> Richard Stevens, "The Evolution of Privatisation as an Electoral Policy, c. 1970-90." ''Contemporary British History'' 2004 18(2): 47-75. Issn: 1361-9462 Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]</ref>

===Foreign policy===
Thatcher supported Reagan's policies of deterrence against the Soviets and US forces stationed nuclear cruise missiles at British bases, arousing mass protests by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. She supported the US bombing raid on [[Libya]] from bases in Britain in 1986 and, by refusing to side with a European consortium, in backing a the Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation of the USA over a British company Westland. Michael Heseltine resigned in protest at her style of leadership over this. In 1984 she visited [[China]] and signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration with [[Deng Xiaoping]] that agreed the handover of [[Hong Kong]] in 1997. Also that year at the Fontainebleau summit Thatcher argued that the UK paid far more to the EEC than it received in spending and negotiated a budget rebate using the argument that ‘We want our money back’. In 1985, the University of Oxford voted to refuse her an honorary degree in protest against her cuts in funding for education.
===Reelected 1987===
In 1987, Thatcher became the first British PM to win three consecutive general elections since [[Lord Liverpool]] (1812-1827).
===Environment===
In the late 1980's Thatcher began to be concerned by environmental policy and in 1988 she made a major speech accepting the problems of global warming, ozone depletion and acid rain.
===Europe===
At Bruges, she made a speech in which she outlined her opposition to proposals from the European Communities for a federal structure and increasing centralization of decision-making believing that the role of the EC should be limited to ensuring free trade and effective competition. She was specifically against Economic and Monetary Union, through which a single currency would replace national currencies, and for which the EC was making preparations. In 1989 the economy high interest rates were imposed to stop an unsustainable boom. At the Madrid European summit, Nigel Lawson and Geoffrey Howe forced Thatcher to agree the circumstances in which she would join the Exchange Rate Mechanism, a preparation for monetary union. She took revenge on both by demoting Howe and listening more to her adviser Sir Alan Walters on economic matters. Lawson resigned that October and in November, a so-called ‘stalking horse candidate Sir Anthony Meyer challenged Thatcher for the leadership of the Conservative Party. In 1989 a new system of local government finance to replace the rates was introduced for Scotland in 1989 and for England and Wales in 1990. Called the 'Community Charge' but known as the Poll Tax was applied at the same amount to every individual resident with only limited discounts. Widespread opposition culminated in a huge [http://newsfilm.bufvc.ac.uk/article.php?story=200510081953085 demonstration] in London on March 31 that turned into the largest outbreak of public disorder central London had seen in a century which was followed by millions of people refusing to pay the tax. This along with her government's handling of the economy, her perceived arrogance and a general feeling that she would never retire, made her politically vulnerable. Geoffrey Howe resigned on November 1 and condemned Thatcher's policy on the European Communities then openly invited 'others to consider their own response'. Michael Heseltine's response was a leadership challenge which resulted in a narrow failure, by two votes, for Thatcher to win automatic re-election. After consulting with cabinet colleagues she found a vast majority thought that she could not win on the second ballot. On November 22nd Thatcher announced that she would not be a candidate in the second ballot. She supported John Major as her successor, and retired from Parliament at the 1992 election.

==Life after being Prime Minister==

After leaving the House of Commons, Thatcher was dubbed '''Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven''' and entered the House of Lords, an entirely normal and expected honor for a British ex-Prime Minister. More controversially, Denis Thatcher was given a Baronetcy, which ensured that their son, Mark, would inherit the title of "Sir Mark".

Leaving power reportedly depressed Lady Thatcher, and aside from writing her memoirs, her role as 'backseat driver' in the Major administration was not well received. She publicly endorsed [[William Hague]] against [[Kenneth Clarke]] for the Conservative leadership in 1997. She made many speaking engagements around the world, including very vocal support of former dictator General [[Augusto Pinochet]], whom the new Labour administration extradited to Spain on charges of torturing political opponents. In March 2002 she suffered a mild stroke, and she was told by her doctors to make no more public speeches on health grounds. Nevertheless she insisted in 2004 on attending the funeral of her old friend and political soul-mate, Ronald Reagan, against her doctor's orders. Baroness Thatcher is still seen at Tory party gatherings and has continued endorsing party leaders, such as Iain Duncan Smith. In August 2008, the world had the misfortune to learn from Lady Thatcher's daugher that Lady Thatcher had been suffering from [[dementia]] for as many as eight years.<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7579352.stm</ref> This has been a debilitating blow for her loyal supporters and supporters of freedom worldwide.

[http://www.time.com/time/time100/leaders/profile/thatcher.html][http://www.fandmpublications.co.uk/pages/margaretbiography1.htm][http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page126.asp]

==Quick Facts==
*Born: 13 October 1925 in [[Grantham]], [[Lincolnshire]]

*First entered Parliament: 8 October 1959

*Became leader of the [[Conservative]] Party in February 1975

*Elected as Prime Minister in May 1979

*Age she became PM: 53 years, 204 days

*Maiden Speech: 5 February 1960 during the second reading of her Private Member's Bill

*Total time as PM: 11 years, 209 days

*Nickname: "The Iron Lady"

*Education: Kesteven and Grantham Girls' School and Somerville College, Oxford

*Before Thatcher became an MP, she worked as a research chemist for British Xylonite and then Lyons & Company, where she helped develop methods for preserving ice cream.

*Family: Margaret Thatcher is the younger of two daughters. She often gave her father as an example of an outstanding citizen. She married [[Sir Denis Thatcher]], and has twins: one son and one daughter.

*Interests: Music, art, opera and reading.

[http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page126.asp][http://www.time.com/time/time100/leaders/profile/thatcher.html]

==Husband==
Denis Thatcher, ''as the first male PM spouse in history'', was always likely to be the center of media attention - and he didn't disappoint.

When she met him, Baroness Thatcher remarked that "it was clear to me at once that Denis was an exceptional man - he had a certain style and dash." Described as a man of integrity, humor and common sense, he had a strong business background and fought with the Royal Artillery during the war.

It was said that Denis was in 'the Thatcher party not the Tory party'. He once famously remarked, recalling the words of Mark Twain, that: "it's better to keep my mouth shut and be thought a fool rather than open it and remove all doubt."

Just after he died in 2003, his widow paid tribute to the man she loved by saying: "Being PM is a lonely job. In a sense, it ought to be - you cannot lead from a crowd. But with Denis there, I was never alone. What a man. What a husband. What a friend."

[http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page126.asp][http://www.time.com/time/time100/leaders/profile/thatcher.html]

== Notable quotes==

*"I like Mr Gorbachev, we can do business together."

*"The lady is not for turning"

*"I have made it quite clear that a unified Ireland was one solution that is out. A second solution was a confederation of two states. That is out. A third solution was joint authority. That is out-that is a derogation of sovereignty."

*"I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left."

*"If you lead a country like Britain, a strong country, a country which has taken a lead in world affairs in good times and in bad, a country that is always reliable, then you have to have a touch of iron about you."

*"I do not know anyone who has got to the top without hard work. That is the recipe. It will not always get you to the top, but should get you pretty near."

*"There is no such thing as society."

*"What Britain needs is an iron lady."

*"Unless we change our ways and our direction, our greatness as a nation will soon be a footnote in the history books, a distant memory of an offshore island, lost in the mists of time like Camelot, remembered kindly for its noble past."

*"I just owe almost everything to my father [and] it's passionately interesting for me that the things that I learned in a small town, in a very modest home, are just the things that I believe have won the election."

*"Democratic nations must try to find ways to starve the terrorist and the hijacker of the oxygen of publicity on which they depend." [http://www.quoteworld.org/authors/margaret-thatcher/1/]

*"It will be years before a woman either leads the Conservative Party or becomes Prime Minister. I don't see it happening in my time" (in 1970)[http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page126.asp]

== See also ==
*[[Thatcherism]]
*[[Conservative Links]]

==External Links==
* [http://www.margaretthatcher.org/ Margaret Thatcher Foundation]

==References==
{{reflist}}
==Bibliography==
* Adonis, Andrew, and Tim Hames, eds. ''A Conservative Revolution: The Thatcher-Reagan Decade'' (1994), comparative perspective
* Backhouse, Roger E. "The Macroeconomics of Margaret Thatcher," ''Journal of the History of Economic Thought'' 2002 24(3): 313-334 online at EBSCO
* Campbell, John. ''Margaret Thatcher. Vol. 1: The Grocer's Daughter.'' (2000); ''Margaret Thatcher. vol. 2: Iron Lady'' (2007), 520pp; 913pp; long, detailed authoritative biography
* Clarke, Peter. "Margaret Thatcher's Place in History: Two Views," ''Journal of the History of Economic Thought'' 2002 24(3): 357-368 online at EBSCO
* Dellheim, Charles. ''The Disenchanted Isle: Mrs. Thatcher's Capitalist Revolution.'' (1995) 352 pp.
* Evans, Brendan. ''Thatcherism and British Politics, 1975-1997'' (2000)
* Evans, Eric J. ''Thatcher and Thatcherism.'' (2nd ed. 2004). 176 pp [http://www.questia.com/read/107494201?title=Thatcher%20and%20Thatcherism online edition]
* Fry, Geoffrey K. ''Politics of the Thatcher Revolution: An Interpretation of British Politics 1975 - 1990'' (2008)
* Geelhoed, Bruce E. and Hobbs, James F. ''Margaret Thatcher's Last Hurrah: In Victory and Downfall, 1987 and 1990.'' (1992). 193 pp. [http://www.questia.com/read/15091359?title=Margaret%20Thatcher%3a%20In%20Victory%20and%20Downfall%2c%201987%20and%201990 online edition]; also [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Margaret-Thatcher-Victory-Downfall-1987/dp/0275941485/ref=sr_1_34?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212823416&sr=8-34 excerpt and text search]
* Haseler, Stephen. ''The Battle for Britain: Thatcher and the New Liberals.'' (1990). 195 pp.
* Holmes, Martin. ''The First Thatcher Government, 1979-83: Contemporary Conservatism and Economic Change'' (1985); ''Thatcherism: Scope and Limits, 1983-87.'' (1989). 174 pp. a sympathetic assessment.
* Jenkins, Peter. ''Mrs. Thatcher's Revolution: The Ending of the Socialist Era.'' (1988). 417 pp. critical
* Johnson, Christopher. ''The Grand Experiment: Mrs. Thatcher's Economy and How It Spread.'' (1993). 341 pp.
* Kavanagh, Dennis. ''Thatcherism and British Politics: The End of Consensus?'' (1987). 334 pp.
* Kavanagh, Dennis, and Anthony Seldon, eds. ''The Thatcher Effect'' (1989), major interpretive essays by experts
* King, Anthony. "The Outsider as Political Leader: the Case of Margaret Thatcher." ''British Journal of Political Science'' 2002 32(3): 435-454. Issn: 0007-1234 Fulltext: [[CUP]] and [[Jstor]]. Thatcher was a social outsider, psychological outsider and political outsider.
* Krieger, Joel. ''Reagan, Thatcher, and the Politics of Decline.'' (1987). 247 pp.
* Moon, Jeremy. ''Innovative Leadership in Democracy: Policy Change under Thatcher.'' (1993). 157 pp.
* Morgan, K.O. ''The People's Peace: British History, 1945-90'' (1990) survey by leading scholar
* Pugliese, Stanislao, ed. ''The Political Legacy of Margaret Thatcher.'' (2003). 419 pp.
* Reitan, Earl A. ''The Thatcher Revolution: Margaret Thatcher, John Major, and Tony Blair, and the Transformation of Modern Britain, 1979-2001.'' (2003). 260 pp.
* Reitan, Earl A. ''Tory Radicalism: Margaret Thatcher, John Major, and the Transformation of Modern Britain, 1979-1997.'' (1997). 222 pp.
* Riddell, Peter. ''The Thatcher Decade: How Britain Has Changed during the 1980's.'' (1989). 236 pp.
* Roy, Subroto and Clarke, John, eds. ''Margaret Thatcher's Revolution: How It Happened and What It Meant.'' (2005). 209 pp.
* Savage, S.P., and L. Robbins, eds. ''Public Policy under Thatcher'' (1990), essays by experts
* Sharp, Paul. ''Thatcher's Diplomacy: The Revival of British Foreign Policy.'' (1997). 269 pp.
* Smith, Geoffrey. ''Reagan and Thatcher.'' (1991). 285 pp.
* Thompson, Juliet S., and Wayne C. Thompson. ''Margaret Thatcher: Prime Minister Indomitable'' (1994) [http://www.questia.com/read/85710688?title=Margaret%20Thatcher%3a%20Prime%20Minister%20Indomitable online edition]
* Waine, Barbara. ''The Rhetoric of Independence: The Ideology and Practice of Social Policy in Thatcher's Britain.'' (1992). 172 pp.
* Wall, Stephen. ''A Stranger in Europe: Britain and the EU from Thatcher to Blair'' (2008) [http://www.amazon.com/Stranger-Europe-Britain-Thatcher-Blair/dp/0199284555/ref=sr_1_26?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212823185&sr=1-26 excerpt and text search]
* Walters, A. A. ''Britain's Economic Renaissance: Margaret Thatcher's Reforms, 1979-1984.'' (1986). 200 pp.
* Wapshott, Nicholas. ''Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher: A Political Marriage.'' (2007) 329 pp.
* Whipple, Amy C. "'Ordinary People': The Cultural Origins of Popular Thatcherism in Britain, 1964-1979." PhD dissertation Northwestern U. 2004. 253 pp. DAI 2004 65(5): 1926-A. DA3132626 Fulltext: [[ProQuest Dissertations & Theses]]
* Young, Hugo. ''The Iron Lady: A Biography of Margaret Thatcher.'' (1989). 570 pp. well-written and well researched
* [http://www.amazon.com/Margaret-Thatcher-Bibliography-Bibliographies-Statesmen/dp/book-citations/0313282889/ref=sid_dp_av?ie=UTF8&citeType=citing#citing additional books]
===Primary sources===
* Clark, Alan. ''Mrs. Thatcher's Minister: The Private Diaries of Alan Clark.'' (1994). 421 pp.
* Thatcher, Margaret. ''The Path to Power (1995); ''The Downing Street Years.'' (1993). 914 pp., highly detailed memoirs

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thatcher, Margaret}}
[[Category:Conservatives]]
[[Category:United Kingdom Prime Ministers]]

Water-soluble

2008-12-05T14:29:14Z

Mario: red link

A water-soluble substance is a substance that is readily dissolved in water. water-soluble substances are usually polar or ionic.

Edge

2008-12-05T14:24:26Z

Mario:

An '''edge''' is a line, border, or [[boundary]] at which an object terminates, or a line at which two objects meet. In the abstract [[rhetorical]] sense, it can mean an advantage in an argument or debate, i.e. ''"John McCain gained the '''edge''' in the presidential campaign."''

It can also be used as a verb, meaning "to sharpen", or in the aforementioned abstract definition.

In [[mathematics]], an edge is one of the two components of a [[graph]] (in the sense of graph theory).

[[Category:Rhetoric]][[Category:Mathematics]]

Pride

2008-12-05T14:21:42Z

Mario:

[[Image:Pride, Jacob Matham.png|right|thumb|120px|A personification of pride.]]
'''Pride''' is a lofty view of one's self or one's own. Pride often manifests itself as a high opinion of one's [[nation]] (national pride), [[ethnicity]] (ethnic pride), or appearance and abilities ([[vanity]]). Pride is considered a negative attribute by most major world religions, but some philosophies consider it positive. The opposite of pride is [[humility]].

==Judaism==

Judaism, using Pride in the sense of hubris or arrogance, denounces it - the phrase "Pride goes before a fall" is a paraphrase of a passage from the book of Proverbs, in the Old Testament. Many more verses of the Tanakh/Old Testament speak of Pride and arrogance. "Blessed is that man that makes the Lord his trust, and looks not to the proud, nor to those that turn aside to lies." (Psalm 40:4) "Talk no more exceeding proudly, nor let arrogancy come out of your mouth: for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed." (I Sam. 2:3)

==Christianity==

In Christianity, Pride (also Vanity or arrogance) is the essentially competitive and excessive belief in one's own abilities that interferes with the individual's recognition of the grace of God, or the worth which God sees in others;[citation needed] for example: "In his Pride the wicked does not seek Him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God." (Psalm 10:4) Pride the greatest of the [[Seven Deadly Sins]] (pride, [[envy]], [[anger|wrath]], [[sloth (sin)|sloth]], [[greed]], [[bollocks]] and [[lust]]).

* According to Sebastien Michaelis, humans are seduced by Pride by the great demon Belial, who is also known as The Lord of Arrogance.

* Saint Thomas Aquinas wrote that "inordinate self-love is the cause of every sin." In this he followed St. Gregory.

The well-known English maxim, "Pride goes before a fall," is itself an adaptation of Proverbs 16:18.[3]

==Islam==

In Islam, Pride is forbidden as well. According to a narration from Muhammad, he said: "He in whose heart there is as much as an atom of arrogance will not enter paradise," and a man remarked: "A man likes his garment to be beautiful and his sandals to be beautiful." Then Muhammad replied: "God, Most High, is beautiful and likes beauty; arrogance is disdaining what is true and despising people." (Sahih Muslim).

==Buddhism==

In Buddhism, Pride is seen as illogical as no one person or thing can be better or worse than something or someone else.

==Hinduism==

In Hinduism, Ravana, an evil king who was killed by Rama, avatar of Vishnu, exhibited the sins of Pride and Lust.

==Taoism==

In Taoism, according to the Tao Te Ching, Pride and Greed are human errors.

{{DivineComedy}}

[[Category:Sin]]

Thyroid gland

2008-11-25T15:14:04Z

Mario: needed due to red link

The Thyroid gland is the gland which produces hormones which regulate the metabolism and control the production of proteins.

Humanistic aestheticism

2008-11-25T15:09:44Z

Mario: removing red links

'''Humanistic Aestheticism''' was formed by [[England|English]] essayist Walter Pate and [[Oscar Wilde]] as [[aesthetics]] which is more concerned with the individual, the self, than with popular movements like [[Industrialism]] or [[Capitalism]]. In their view art was not meant to instruct and should not concern itself with social, moral, or political guidance. Another tenet of [[humanist]] aestheticism is that the artist’s life was even more important than any work that he produced; his life was to be his most important body of work.

Oscar Wilde was a leader in promoting the aestheticism movement near the end of the Nineteenth Century. Wilde was influenced as a college student by the works of the English poet and critic Algernon Charles Swinburne and the American writer [[Edgar Allan Poe]]. He advocated freedom from moral restraint and the limitations of society. This point of view contradicted contemporary Victorian conventions.

The most important of Wilde’s critical works, published in May 1891, is a volume titled ''Intentions''. It consists of four essays: “The Decay of Lying,” “Pen, Pencil and Poison,” “The Critic as Artist,” and “The Truth of Masks.”

==Source==
[http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/id-144,pageNum-56.html Cliff's Notes: Oscar Wilde's Aesthetics]

[[category:art]]

Molecular bond

2008-11-25T15:06:09Z

Mario: covalent compunds don't exist, they are called molecules

A '''molecular bond''' is a shared pair of [[valence electron]]s that holds [[atom]]s together in covalent [[molecule]]s.<ref>Wile, Dr. Jay L. ''Exploring Creation With Chemistry''. Apologia Educational Ministries, Inc. 1998</ref>

==References==
<references/>

[[category:chemistry]]

User:Mario

2008-11-25T15:03:40Z

Mario: New page: Hi there, I'm Mario. I don't really know much about wiki's, so I'm just going through random pages, sorting out red links, grammar, punctuation etc. at the moment. I might sometimes make ...

Hi there, I'm Mario.

I don't really know much about wiki's, so I'm just going through random pages, sorting out red links, grammar, punctuation etc. at the moment. I might sometimes make a few major edits, particularly on british history, which has some major gaps in, but not until I've got the hang of it.

I'm british by the way.

Birkenhead

2008-11-25T14:59:04Z

Mario: red link removed "Joseph Paxton"

Birkenhead is an urban centre in the [[Merseyside]] [[conurbation]] in north-west [[England]]; located on the [[Wirral]] peninsula, it lies at the mouth of the [[River Mersey]] opposite the port of [[Liverpool]]. Like Liverpool, Birkenhead was a major port; but it also developed a significant shipbuilding industry. It is also notable for the development of Birkenhead Park. This was designed by Sir Joseph Paxton and opened in 1847 and is regarded as the first municipal public park in the UK (although it is arguable that Moor Park in [[Preston]] was the first). It was surrounded by elaborate suburban villas as part of the master plan; and is known to have been a major influence on the thinking of [[Frederick Law Olmsted]], the planner of [[Riverside]], [[Illinois]], and [[Central Park]], [[New York City]].

Birkenhead is linked to Liverpool by road and rail tunnels and by the famous 'Ferry 'cross the Mersey'.

[[Category:United Kingdom Cities and Towns]]

Petition

2008-11-25T14:57:02Z

Mario: needed due to red link

A petition is a document, written most often by an interest group, with a list of demands or statements written on it. Underneath the statement is space for signatures gathered from anyone who agrees with the statement. It is then sent to the person or organisation which it is attempting to pressurise, with the intent to show mass public opinion on the subject.

USS Growler (SS-215)

2008-11-14T15:08:50Z

Mario: minor grammar change

{| border="1" align="right" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="300" style="margin-left:5px"
|align="center" colspan="2"|[[Image:USSGrowlerSS215.jpg|300px]]
|-
!colspan="2" align="center" style="color: white; height: 30px; background: navy no-repeat scroll top left;"|USS ''Growler'' (SS-215)
|-
!align ="center" style="color: white; height: 30px; background: navy no-repeat scroll top left;"|Career
!align ="center" style="color: white; height: 30px; background: navy no-repeat scroll top left;"|[[Image:US Naval Jack 48 stars.png|48px|United States Navy Jack]]
|-
|-
| Class:
| ''Gato''
|-
| Launched:
| 2 November 1941
|-
| Commissioned:
| 20 March 1942
|-
| Fate:
| Sunk in battle, 8 November 1944
|-
! colspan="2" align="center" style="color: white; height: 30px; background: navy;"| General characteristics
|-
| Displacement:
| 2,424 t
|-
| Length:
| 311 ft 9 in
|-
| Beam:
| 27 ft 2 in
|-
| Draft:
| 15 ft 3 in
|-
| Speed:
| 20 knots
|-
| Complement:
| 66 officers and men
|-
| Armament:
| One 3"/54 deck gun; 10 torpedo tubes
|}
'''USS ''Growler''''' (SS-215) was a ''Gato''-class submarine whose service in [[World War II]] earned the boat eight battle stars and a postumous [[Medal of Honor]] for her commanding officer.

==History==
''Growler'' (SS-215) was launched 2 November 1941, by Electric Boat Company of Groton, [[Connecticut]], and commissioned on 20 March 1942, Lieutenant Commander Howard W. Gilmore in command.

''Growler's'' first war patrol began 29 June 1942 as she cleared [[Pearl Harbor]] for her assigned patrol area around Dutch Harbor, [[Alaska]]; topping off at [[Midway]] on 24 June, she entered her area on 30 June. Five days later she saw her first action: sighting three destroyers, ''Growler'' closed them for a submerged torpedo attack and then surfaced. Her torpedoes struck the first two targets amidships, putting them out of action, and hit the third in the bow, but not before she had fired two torpedoes at ''Growler''. As the Japanese torpedoes "swished down each side" of ''Growler'', she dived deep, but no depth charges followed. One of the torpedoed destroyers, ''Arare'', was sunk, and the other two were severely damaged. ''Growler'' completed her patrol without finding any more targets, and on 17 July berthed at Pearl Harbor.

On 5 August ''Growler'' began her second and most successful war patrol, entering her area near [[Taiwan]] on 21 August. Two days later she conducted a submerged night attack on a freighter, surfacing to give chase when both torpedoes ran under the target and failed to explode; the freighter's quick exit into shallow waters prevented ''Growler'' from gun attack. Patrolling amidst a large fishing fleet on 25 August, ''Growler'' sighted and fired at a large passenger freighter but all three torepdoes missed; after a 3-hour depth charge attack, in which some 53 ash cans were dropped, ''Growler'' surfaced and almost immediately spotted a convoy. After 2 hours of maneuvering, she failed to catch up with the main body of the convoy but did fire at and sink an ex-gunboat, the ''Senyo Maru''. No more ships appeared in this immediate area for 3 days, so ''Growler'' shifted to the east side of the island. First to fall victim was ''Eifuku Maru'', a 5,866-ton cargo ship ''Growler'' sank within 40 minutes after first sighting her on 31 August. On 4 September ''Growler'' sank by gunfire the ''Kashino'', a 4,000-ton supply ship; 3 days later she sent two torpedoes into the 2,204-toh cargo ship ''Taika Maru'', which broke in half and sank in 2 minutes. On 15 September ''Growler'' cleared her patrol area, and arrived back at Pearl 30 September.

During refitting, new surface radar was installed, as well as a new 20mm. gun; thus equipped, ''Growler'' sailed from [[Hawaii]] for her new patrol area in the Solomon Islands across the key Truk-Rabaul shipping lines. Her patrol area in these days of bitter fighting over [[Guadalcanal]] was almost continually covered by enemy planes, and only eight enemy ships were sighted with no chance for attack. ''Growler'' cleared the area 3 December and arrived in Brisbane, [[Australia]], 10 December.

[[New Year's Day]] of 1943 saw ''Growler'' sail from Brisbane for what was to prove one of the most gallant actions in naval history. Entering her patrol area, again athwart the [[Truk]]-[[Rabaul]] shipping lanes, on 11 January, she waited only 5 days before sighting an enemy convoy. Maneuvering inside the escorts, ''Growler'' fired two torpedoes and saw them hit; then, as her war diary reports, she was in the unfortunate predicament of being about 400 yards from the destroyer and had to dive without being able to continue the attack. She was credited with sinking ''Chifuku Maru'', a passenger-cargo ship.

====Loss of Gilmore====
The patrol continued as normal, with two further attacks, but no sinking's until shortly after 0100. 7 February when ''Growler'' stealthily approached a gunboat for a night surface attack. The small fast ship suddenly turned to ram. Comdr. Gilmore then took the only move to save his ship; he brought ''Growler'' left full rudder and rammed the enemy amidships at 17 knots. Machine gun fire raked the bridge at point blank range. The courageous sub seemed lost. Comdr. Gilmore cleared the bridge except for himself. Desperately wounded, he realized that he could not get below in time if his ship were to be saved. "Take her down" he ordered; and, as he floated in the sea, he wrote another stirring tale of inspirational naval history. For his heroic sacrifice to ship and crew, Comdr. Gilmore was awarded the [[Medal of Honor]], one of six submariners to receive it.

Severely damaged, but still under control, ''Growler'' returned to Brisbane under command of her executive officer, Lt. Comdr. A. F. Schade; she docked 17 February for extensive repairs.

==Last patrols==
''Growler's'' fifth, sixth, and seventh patrols, out of Brisbane to the Bismarck-Solomons area, were relatively uneventful; heavy enemy air cover and a lack of targets resulted in her coming home empty-handed from all but the fifth, on which she sank the passenger-cargo strip ''Miyadono Marti''. The seventh patrol was marred by trouble with the storage battery and generators, and on 27 October 1943, only 11 days out of Brisbane, she was ordered to Pearl Harbor, arriving 7 November, and from there to the Navy Yard at Hunter's Point, [[California]] for an extensive overhaul and refitting.

Returning to the Pacific, on 21 February 1944, ''Growler'' departed Pearl Harbor, and after refueling at Midway, headed for her patrol area. However, a week out of Midway a typhoon's high seas and wind delayed her arrival to the patrol area. Once there, ''Growler'' was again plagued by violent weather which made even periscope observation almost impossible.

''Growler'' returned to Majuro 16 April, and departed there 14 May to take up patrol in the Marianas-Eastern [[Philippines]]-Luzon area, where the first stages of the attack on the Marianas and the [[Battle of the Philippine Sea]] were getting underway. Rendezvousing with ''Banff'' and ''Seahorse'' to form a wolfpack, she continued the patrol closing several targets but achieving firing position only once, when she sank the cargo vessel ''Katori Maru''.

Her 10th patrol, from Pearl Harbor 11 August, found her in a new wolfpack, nicknamed "Ben's Busters" after ''Growler's'' skipper Comdr. T. B. Oakley; in company with ''Sealion'' and ''Pampanito'', she headed for the [[Formosa Straits]] area. Aided greatly by reconnaissance and guidance from planes, the wolfpack closed a convoy for night surface action 31 August; their torpedoes plunged the Japanese into chaos, with their own ships shooting at each other in the dark, but no sinkings were reported. Two weeks later. 12 September, the wolfpack sighted a second convoy and closed for torpedo action. A destroyer spotted ''Growler'' and attacked her, but the sub calmly fired a spread at the destroyer. Heavily damaged by the torpedoes, the flaming destroyer bore down on ''Growler'' and only adroit maneuvering took her out of the enemy's way; paint on the bridge was seared by the heat of the passing destroyer. Meantime ''Growler's'' other torpedoes and those of ''Sealion'' and ''Pampanito'' were hitting the convoy, and when Ben's Busters returned to Fremantle 26 September, they were credited with a total of six enemy ships. ''Growler'' had sunk the destroyer ''Shikinami'' and the frigate ''Hirado''; and her companions had racked up two each. The submarines had also rescued over 150 Allied prisoners from one of the torpedoed ships which had served the Japanese as a prison ship. This difficult operation had been carried out despite rough seas caused by an approaching typhoon.

==Loss==
''Growler's'' llth and final war patrol began out of Fremantle 20 October in a wolfpack with ''Hake'' and ''Hardhead''. On 8 November the wolfpack, headed by ''Growler'', closed a convoy for attack, with ''Growler'' on the opposite side of the enemy from ''Hake'' and ''Hardhead''. The order to commence attacking was the last communication ever received from ''Growler''. After the attack was underway, ''Hake'' and ''Hardhead'' heard what sounded like a torpedo explosion and then a series of depth charges on ''Growler's'' side of the convoy, and then nothing. All efforts to contact ''Growler'' for the next 3 days proved futile, and the gallant submarine, veteran of seven successful war patrols, was listed as lost in action against the enemy, cause unknown.

''Growler'' has received eight battle stars for her service in World War II.

==Medal of Honor Citation for Howard W. Gilmore==
''"For distinguished gallantry and valor above and beyond the call of duty as Commanding Officer of the USS ''Growler'' during her Fourth War Patrol in the Southwest Pacific from 10 January to 7 February 1943. Boldly striking at the enemy in spite of continuous hostile air and antisubmarine patrols, Commander Gilmore sank one Japanese freighter and damaged another by torpedo fire, successfully evading sever depth charges following each attack. In the darkness of night on 7 February, an enemy gunboat closed range and prepared to ram the ''Growler''. Commander Gilmore daringly maneuvered to avoid the crash and rammed the attacker instead., ripping into the port side at 17 knots and bursting wide her plates. In the terrific fire of the sinking gunboat's heavy machine guns, Commander Gilmore calmly gave the order to clear the bridge and refusing safety for himself, remained on deck while his men preceded him below. Struck down by the fusillade of bullets and having done his utmost against the enemy, in his final moments, Commander Gilmore gave his last order to the officer of the deck, "Take her down." The ''Growler'' dived seriously damaged but under control, she was brought safely to port by her well-trained crew inspired by the courageous fighting spirit of their dead captain."''

----
''Article incorporates text from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, a work in the public domain.''

==References==
*[http://www.submarinesailor.com/biography/HowardGilmore/HowardGilmore-4.htm SubmarineSailor.com bio on Gilmore]

{| style="width: 100%; background:transparent; border: 2px solid #000099;" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1"
!colspan=2 style="width: 100%; text-align: center; background-color: #000088; color: white; "|'''Copyright Details'''
|-
!style="background-color: #000088; color:white;"|License:
|style=" background-color: none;"| This work is in the [[Public Domain]] in the United States because it is a work of the United States Federal Government under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the U.S. Code
|-
!style=" background-color: #000088; color:white;"|Source:
|style="background-color: none;border-top: 2px solid black"| File available from the {{{1|[[United States Federal Government]] [http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/g9/growler-iii.htm]}}}.
|}

[[Category:United States Navy]][[Category:Submarines]]

Bronchoscopy

2008-11-14T15:06:00Z

Mario: removing exessive punctuation

'''Ponchoscopy''' (bron-KOS-ko-pee) is a procedure used to look inside the lungs' airways, called the bronchi and bronchioles. The airways carry air from the trachea (TRA-ke-ah), or windpipe, to the [[lungs]].

During the procedure, your doctor passes a thin, flexible tube called a bronchoscope through your nose (or sometimes your mouth), down your throat, and into the airways. If you have a breathing tube, the bronchoscope can be passed through it to your airways.

At the bronchoscope's tip are a light and a mini-camera, so the doctor can see your windpipe and airways. You will be given medicine to make you relaxed and sleepy during the procedure.

If there's a lot of bleeding in your lungs or a large object stuck in your throat, your doctor may use a bronchoscope with a rigid tube. The rigid tube, which is passed through the mouth, is wider. This allows your doctor to see inside it more easily, treat bleeding, and remove stuck objects.

A rigid bronchoscopy is usually done in a hospital operating room while you're under general anesthesia. Anesthesia is used so you will sleep through the procedure and not feel any pain.

== Overview ==

Bronchoscopy is usually done to find the cause of a lung problem. Your doctor may take samples of mucus or tissue from your lungs during the procedure to test in a lab.

Bronchoscopy may show a tumor, signs of an infection, excess mucus in the airways, the site of bleeding, or something blocking the airway, like a piece of food.

Sometimes bronchoscopy is used to treat lung problems. It may be done to insert a stent in an airway. An airway stent is a small tube that holds the airway open. It's used when a tumor or other condition blocks an airway.

In children, the procedure is most often used to remove something blocking the airway. In some cases, it's used to find out what's causing a cough that has lasted for at least a few weeks.

== Outlook ==

Bronchoscopy is usually a safe procedure. You may be hoarse and have a sore throat after the procedure. There's a slight risk of minor bleeding or developing a fever or pneumonia.

A rare but more serious risk is a pneumothorax (noo-mo-THOR-aks), or collapsed lung. In this condition, air collects in the space around the lungs, which causes them to collapse. This problem is easily treated.

Scientists are studying new methods of bronchoscopy, including virtual bronchoscopy. This is a kind of computed tomography (CT) scan. A CT scan uses special x-ray equipment to take clear, detailed pictures of the inside of your body. During the scan, you lie on a table that slides through the center of a tunnel-shaped x-ray machine. X-ray tubes in the scanner rotate around you and take pictures of your lungs.

Virtual bronchoscopy is still not used often.

== Sources ==

* [http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Index/b.html NIH Glossary]
[[category:medicine]]
[[Category:Medical Terms]]