Conservapedia - User contributions [en]

British Broadcasting Corporation

2007-05-05T12:59:41Z

Mralph72:

[[Image:BBC Logo 1997-Present.png|right|thumb|BBC logo.]]

'''BBC''' ('''British Broadcasting Corporation''') is public sector [[television]] and [[radio]] broadcaster in the [[United Kingdom]]. It is the leading broadcaster in the [[United Kingdom]] and is regarded as one of the leading broadcasters in the world. In terms of audience figures, it is the largest broadcaster in the world. It was founded in [[London]] in 1927.

The BBC operates seven national television channels in the UK and seven national radio networks, as well as the BBC World Service radio network. Outside the UK the BBC operates BBC World TV, BBC America TV, BBC Canada TV and BBC Prime TV.

The BBC is entirely owned by the UK government, however under its charter it operates entirely independently of government control. The BBC produces many well known television programs, including Bod, Grange Hill, Holby City, Are you being served? and [[Doctor Who]].

==BBC News==

BBC News, part of the [[British Broadcasting Corporation]] (BBC) is the largest news reporting organization in the world. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/newswatch/ukfs/hi/newsid_3970000/newsid_3975900/3975913.stm]

==External Links==
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/ BBC official site]

[[Category:Broadcasting]]

Talk:Saddam Hussein

2007-05-05T12:56:46Z

Mralph72: /* Several Problems Here */

{{Stub}}

== Several Problems Here ==

Aside from the Saddam-friendly flavor of this article, which makes it seem a virtual paradise, and him an "enlightened" elected official instead of the despotic dictator he was, I find it disturbing Saddam isn't shown to be the master genocide practitioner of the region. Like feeding political opponents into industrial shredders carted into the dining room for his guests amusement.--~ [[User:TK|TK]] [[User_talk:TK|MyTalk]] 06:38, 15 April 2007 (EDT)
:Given the nostaligia of reactionaries in the US Congress and elsewhere for the good old days under Saddam, I suggest we let them paint the picture of the fascist paradise they want to return to after timetables for US withdrawl are met. Alternatively, these reactionaries and supporters of fascism among the American left may assist a more theocratic style regime ''ala'' Iran or Saudi Arabia once funding gets cut off for any further US invovlement. [[User:RobS|RobS]] 13:03, 15 April 2007 (EDT)

== Classic Conservapedia==

This is a gem of an article. So wonderfully simplistic. [[User:Mralph72|Mralph72]] 08:56, 5 May 2007 (EDT)

Talk:Osama Bin Laden

2007-05-05T12:53:46Z

Mralph72:

:Osama Bin Laden actually appears (uncredited) as a tribal leader in the American blockbuster ''Rambo III'' [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095956/]. This is a well-known statement, based on the presence of Rambo III filming in Afghanistan, Bin Laden's then friendliness with US interests, and the presence of a lot of extras. I think this should be included. [http://www.plp.org/misc/oblncia.html]

==Bush==

Erm - how can an article about OBL not mention George Bush?! Utter madness from the home schooled loonies [[User:Mralph72|Mralph72]] 08:53, 5 May 2007 (EDT)

Talk:Bill Clinton

2007-05-05T12:51:16Z

Mralph72: /* Impeached? */

:I am going to have to rewrite this article for obvious reasons.[[User:Geo.plrd|Geo.]] 00:37, 5 March 2007 (EST)

:Too even-handed?[[User:McTavidge|McTavidge]] 22:37, 14 March 2007 (EDT)

:Well, I tend to think that the fact that the article claims that Clinton was impeached isn't greatly even-handed. I'm a conservative like any other person with reasonable political ideals, but I think we're sort of stretching credibility with this one. [[User:Karalius Nyder|Karalius Nyder]] 22:31, 20 March 2007 (EDT)
:Sorry, my apologies - he was impeached! I need to brush up on my American politics. [[User:Karalius Nyder|Karalius Nyder]] 00:45, 21 March 2007 (EDT)

== Article name ==

Ok, does this make sense to have as William Jefferson Clinton when he was known as Bill Clinton? I don't think that anyone seriously would move [[Julias Caesar]] to [[Gaius Julius Caesar]] or [[Plutarch]] to [[Mestrius Plutarchus]] and I don't see how these are substantially different. [[User:JoshuaZ|JoshuaZ]] 21:12, 5 March 2007 (EST)

:White House website says: [http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/bc42.html William J. Clinton]
:Columbia Encyclopedia says: [http://www.bartleby.com/65/cl/ClintonB.html Bill Clinton]
:Encarta says: [http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761564341/Clinton_Bill.html Bill Clinton]
:Britannica says: [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9003019/Bill-Clinton Bill Clinton]
:American Heritage Dictionary says: [http://www.bartleby.com/61/2/C0410250.html Clinton, William Jefferson]
:Clinton Library is: [http://www.clintonlibrary.gov/ William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum]
:Gale's Biography Research Center says:
::Bill Clinton
::(American president, 1946-)
::Also known as: William Jefferson Clinton, William J. Clinton, William Clinton, William Jefferson Blythe
:and includes
::"Bill Clinton," in American Decades 1990-1999. Tandy McConnell, ed. Detroit: Gale Group, Inc., 2001.
::"Bill Clinton," in Current Leaders of Nations. Gale Research, 1998.
::"Bill Clinton," in Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed. 17 Vols. Gale Research, 1998.
::"Bill Clinton," in Newsmakers. Cumulation issue. Gale Research, 1992. (A profile of the individual's personal life, career, and newsworthy achievements.)
::"William Jefferson Clinton", in Contemporary Authors Online.
::"Bill Clinton," in Worldmark Encyclopedia of the Nations, Volume 6: World Leaders, 10th ed. Gale Group, 2001.

::I've moved the article to "Bill Clinton" and created redirects for all the other forms of the name.

:::[[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith]] 21:20, 5 March 2007 (EST)

== Impeached? ==

From everything I've learned, Bill Clinton didn't get impeached. He was on the verge of being impeached and resigned. Article needs to be fixed if thats the case.

:I think you're thinking of [[Richard Nixon]]. Clinton _was_ impeached, but went on with running the country anyway. --[[User:BDobbs|BDobbs]] 23:55, 3 April 2007 (EDT)

*Impeachment is a term not for removal, but for a vote of trial. President Clinton was impeached, and put on trial. He was not convicted. President Clinton was convicted in another matter, of a Felony. He lost his law license because of that perjury conviction. President Nixon was threatened with Impeachment, but never was there a vote, or trial. --~ [[User:TK|TK]] [[User_talk:TK|MyTalk]] 03:50, 14 April 2007 (EDT)

:: Bill Clinton was convicted of a felony? cite, please? He gave up his law license and paid a $25,000 fine to the Arkansas bar in exchange for no criminal charges being filed.<ref>http://archives.cnn.com/2001/ALLPOLITICS/stories/01/19/clinton.lewinsky/</ref>. It's not exactly scot-free or exoneration, but it's also not a felony conviction. -- [[User:Jtl|Jtl]] 03:59, 14 April 2007 (EDT)

*Yes, one step ahead, it seems. He essentially pleaded "Nolo Contendre", and for doing so, was spared the humilation of being convicted. Sorry for my inexcuseable error in mistating a conviction, when on a technicality, he really wasn't. [http://archives.cnn.com/2001/ALLPOLITICS/stories/01/19/clinton.lewinsky/]

<blockquote>
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In a disciplinary action never before taken against a sitting U.S. president, an Arkansas Supreme Court panel has filed suit to strip Bill Clinton of his license to practice law

"The conduct of Mr. Clinton ... was motivated by a desire to protect himself from the embarrassment of his own conduct," the Arkansas State Supreme Court Committee on Professional Conduct declared in its five-page lawsuit, filed on Friday at about 3:45 p.m. (4:45 p.m. EDT) with the Pulaski County Circuit Court clerk in Little Rock.[http://archives.cnn.com/2000/LAW/06/30/clinton.disbarment.02/]</blockquote>
--~ [[User:TK|TK]] [[User_talk:TK|MyTalk]] 04:11, 14 April 2007 (EDT)

As far as I can tell, he didn't plead nolo contendre either, ''because there weren't any charges filed''. Your quote isn't about a plea; it isn't even about charges being filed. It's about a lawsuit being filed. Civil cases aren't criminal. Lawsuits being filed aren't lawsuits being decided. Agreements to avoid charges aren't convictions, or guilty pleas, or even nolo contendre pleas.

In your mind, was Rush Limbaugh convicted of a felony in the oxycontin case? He paid a fine and agreed to drug testing for some number of years in exchange for charges not being filed. --[[User:Jtl|Jtl]] 04:15, 14 April 2007 (EDT)

*What a throughly mean spirited and nasty person you must be. Let it go. I admitted my mistake. What has happened to you in your life to make you this way? I don't condone anyone in the public eye getting treatment others wouldn't get. It is no matter if its Clinton or Limbaugh, and that should be obvious. That you thought I would condone Limbaugh's illegal activities, and not Clinton's speaks to your mind-set. --~ [[User:TK|TK]] [[User_talk:TK|MyTalk]] 04:17, 14 April 2007 (EDT)

:: And that you would assume I thought knew the answer to my honest question speaks to yours. --[[User:Jtl|Jtl]] 04:23, 14 April 2007 (EDT)

== Bin Laden ==

This article goes to great lengths to link the rise of Bin Laden to Clinton, but the old blighter doesn't get a mention in the article on Dubya. Why so? (Need I ask!) [[User:Mralph72|Mralph72]] 08:51, 5 May 2007 (EDT)

Australia

2007-05-05T12:42:51Z

Mralph72: /* Pre European Contact */

[[Image:AustraliaFlag.gif‎ |thumb|300px|Australia's flag]]
The [[Commonwealth]] of Australia is a [[country]]-[[continent]] with its west coast on the [[Indian Ocean]], east coast on the [[Pacific Ocean]] facing [[New Zealand]], southern coast on the [[Southern Ocean]] facing [[Antarctica]], and northern coast bordering [[Indonesia]] and [[Papua New Guinea]]. Australia is considered as part of [[Oceania]], but has been establishing its place in [[South East Asia]].

Australia is the only country to occupy an entire continent. The Australian continent is the smallest continent in the world; it is 2,400 miles, (3,860 km) from east to west and 2,000 miles (3,220 km) from north to south. It covers an area of 2,967,877 sq miles (7,686,810 sq km). The Australian coastline is 22,812 miles long (36,735 kilometers). The mainland of Australia is about the same size as the mainland 48 states of the USA.

[[Image:Mapaust.gif‎ |Map of Australia]]
{{clear}}
Australia has six states and two internal territories. The states are [[New South Wales]], [[Victoria]], [[Queensland]], [[Western Australia]], [[South Australia]] and [[Tasmania]]. The internal territories are the [[Northern Territory]] (responsible government since 1978) and the [[Australian Capital Territory]] (responsible government since 1988) which is the location of Australia's capital city, [[Canberra]]. External territories include [[Christmas Island]] and the [[Australian Antarctic Territory]].

== History==
=== Pre European Contact ===
Australia was originally inhabited by people who are commonly known as [[Aborigines]] although they come from over 700 smaller nations each with their own tribal name and language. Over time, many of these nations and tribes lost their identity or were decimated by disease, poor nutrition, massacres by white settlers and the forced removal of children from their parents into white families or mission stations. Nevertheless, many Aboriginal languages and traditions have survived the more than 200 years of white settlement. Under recent legislation recognising native title, Aboriginal communities now have the right to claim back land dispossessed from them where they can prove that lasting cultural links still persist and where the native title has not been extinguished by freehold or leasehold title. Aborigines were not Christians and were therefore bad and naughty people. The European settlers were conservative Christians and therefore were good people. The good people killed off many of the bad people. Later they decided to stop killing the bad people and just took their babies away instead. Aborigines today have a life expectancy 20 years less than Australians of other ethnicities, and this proves they are still very very bad people.

=== Post European Contact ===
European discovery of the mainland of Australia was by [[Holland|Dutch]] sailors heading to the spice isles of what is now [[Indonesia]], in the 16th Century. Most of their descriptions of Australia are based on the exploration of the North West coast which is very rugged and inhospitable.

In [[1770]] the [[England|English]] navigator, Lieutenant [[James Cook]], Captain of the [[Royal Navy]] bark, [[HMS Endeavour]], discovered the east coast of Australia which is much more capable of maintaining life and settlers. In [[1788]] the [[First Fleet]] arrived at [[Sydney]] Cove, [[New South Wales]] - comprising officers, Marines, convicts and a very few free settlers. Later fleets brought more convicts who were dispersed also to Tasmania and other remote settlements. Over time, when freed, the former convicts settled areas beyond [[Sydney Harbour]].

As the 18th century came to a close convicts were given land packages and more free settlers came to the land in the hope of setting up farms and businesses. A number of colonies started to be formed - the most populated being New South Wales (whose capital city is Sydney). These colonies later became the states.

The 1850s saw the discovery of [[gold]] and large number of people moved to Australia to find new wealth. Most of these people were British, although there were also many dispossessed by the "land clearings" in [[Scotland]] and the [[Ireland|Irish]] [[potato]] [[famine]], and there was a significant number of [[China|Chinese]] immigrants during this rush. "Americans were drawn to Australia to participate in various enterprises such as the gold fields" <ref>[http://www.immi.gov.au/media/publications/statistics/comm-summ/textversion/usa.htm| Australian Dept of Immigration and Citizenship]</ref>

== System of Government ==
Australia became a federated country on [[1 January]] [[1901]] under the [[Constitution of Australia]], and all former British colonies became states. The declaration of federation was made in Sydney. The parliament met in [[Melbourne]], Victoria, until the infrastructure was built for the capital city, [[Canberra]].

Australia has a [[Parliament|parliamentary system]] of government based on the British system with a [[bicameral]] system: the [[Australian House of Representatives|House of Representatives]] and the [[Australian Senate|Senate]]. Each state and territory also has its own parliament.

Australia is a [[democracy]] which has allowed men of [[European]] descent to vote since federation, with non-Aboriginal women gaining the vote in 1902 and Aboriginal men and women gaining suffrage in 1962. Voting is compulsory for all citizens who are 18 years old and over (with a few exceptions.)

Australia's Head of Government is the [[Prime Minister of Australia]]. The current Prime Minister is [[John Howard]], the leader of the [[Liberal Party of Australia]]. The Deputy Prime Minister is [[Mark Vaile]], the leader of the [[National Party of Australia]]. The two parties are in [[coalition]] to form the Government.

The Head of State is [[Queen Elizabeth II]], the Queen of Australia (who is the same person, but a different title, as the Queen of Great Britain.) Under the Constitution, and in practice, the authority of the Head of State is vested in the [[Governor-General of Australia]], currently the retired Major-General Sir Michael Jeffery, AC CVO MC, who assents to acts of parliament, is the Commander in Chief of the military forces, and appoints all Ministers of the Government; all these various powers are normally exercised on advice from the Ministers.

The Government of Australia is exercised, day-to-day, by the Ministers through their various Departments of State.

Australia has [[preferential voting]], which is designed to ensure that the candidates with the most support get into office, rather than the candidate with the most primary votes. So if three candidates, A, B, and C, get 40%, 35%, and 25% of the votes respectively (so no candidate has more than 50% of the votes), then the second preference of the voters who voted for C are distributed to the remaining candidates. The result might be that A ends up with 45% of the votes, and B with 55%, indicating that 55% of the voters prefer candidate B over A.

One consequence of this voting system is that it encourages a multiplicity of parties and even independent candidates. There have been times when the balance of power has been held my minor parties or independent individuals.

There is no limit on the time a person can be a Member of Parliament (MP) (elected, notionally, for 3 years, but the timing of elections is decided by the Prime Minister) or a Senator (elected for two cycles of the House of representatives.) The Prime Minister is normally a member of the House of Representatives, and the tenure is not limited by statute. (John Gorton was a Senator when appointed leader of his party. He immediately resigned from the Senate and stood for election to the House of Representatives.)

The Federal 'opposition' political party, is the [[Australian Labor Party]] which most Americans would recognize as "liberal". Its leader is [[Kevin Rudd]]. As of March 2007, the Labor Party is in government in all of the states and territories. The Labor Party is "social democratic" while the Liberals are "liberal conservatives"; however, some of the smaller parties are more liberal or more conservative than Labor and Liberal respectively.

===Parliamentary political parties===
* Australian Democrats
* Australian Greens
* Australian Labor Party
* Country Liberal Party
* Family First Party
* Liberal Party of Australia
* National Party of Australia

Despite the name, the Liberal Party, which has been in power in Australia since 1996, is conservative in political stance, a paradox established since the years that Sir Robert Menzies was Prime Minister. Menzies helped found the Liberal Party in 1944 and was the Prime Minister from 1939 until 1941 and then again from 1949 until 1966. <ref> [http://www.liberals.net/liberalpartyhistory.htm History of the Liberal Party in Australia]</ref>The liberal term refers to the party's apparent laissez-faire approach to economic management.

== Prime Ministers of Australia <ref>[http://www.aph.gov.au/library/parl/hist/primmins.htm Prime Ministers of Australia]</ref> ==
{|border=0 cellpadding=3 cellspacing=2 width=90%
!<big>Prime Minister</big>||<big>Dates</big>
|-
|'''Sir [[Edmund Barton]], PC, GCMG, KC''' (Protectionist Party)
|[[1 January]] [[1901]]—[[24 September]] [[1903]] (2 years, 8 months, 24 days)
|-
|'''[[Alfred Deakin]]''' (Protectionist Party)
|[[24 September]] [[1903]]—[[27 April 1904]] (7 months, 4 days)
|-
|'''[[John Christian Watson]]''' (Australian Labor Party)
|[[27 April]] [[1904]]—[[17 August]] [[1904]] (3 months, 21 days)
|-
|'''[[George Houstoun Reid]] (later Sir George), PC, KC''' (Free Trade)
|[[18 August]] [[1904]]—[[5 July]] [[1905]] (10 months, 18 days)
|-
|'''Alfred Deakin''' (Protectionist Party)
|[[5 July]] [[1905]]—[[13 November]] [[1908]] (3 years, 4 months, 9 days)
|-
|'''[[Andrew Fisher]]''' (Australian Labor Party)
|[[13 November]] [[1908]]—[[2 June]] [[1909]] (6 months, 21 days)
|-
|'''[[Alfred Deakin]]''' (Protectionist Party)
|[[2 June]] [[1909]]—[[29 April]] [[1910]] (10 months, 28 days)
|-
|'''Andrew Fisher''' (Australian Labor Party)
|[[29 April]] [[1910]]—[[24 June]] [[1913]] (3 years, 1 month, 26 days)
|-
|'''[[Joseph Cook]] (later Sir Joseph)''' (Liberal Party of Australia)
|[[24 June]] [[1913]]—[[17 September]] [[1914]] (1 year, 2 months, 25 days)
|-
|'''Andrew Fisher''' (Australian Labor Party)
|[[17 September]] [[1914]]—[[27 October]] [[1915]] (1 year, 1 month, 11 days)
|-
|'''[[William Morris Hughes]]''' (Australian Labor Party; Nationalist Party from 1917)
|[[27 October]] [[1915]]—[[9 February]] [[1923]] (7 years, 3 months, 14 days)
|-
|'''[[Stanley Melbourne Bruce]], PC, CH, MC''' (Nationalist Party)
|[[9 February]] [[1923]]—[[22 October]] [[1929]] (6 years, 8 months, 14 days)
|-
|'''[[James Henry Scullin]], PC''' (Australian Labor Party)
|[[22 October]] [[1929]]—[[6 January]] [[1932]] (2 years, 2 months, 16 days)
|-
|'''[[Joseph Aloysius Lyons]], PC, CH''' (United Australia Party)
|[[6 January]] [[1932]]—[[7 April]] [[1939]] (7 years, 3 months, 2 days)
|-
|'''Sir [[Earle Christmas Grafton Page]], PC, GCMG''' (Australian Country Party)
|[[7 April]] [[1939]]—[[26 April]] [[1939]] (20 days)
|-
|'''[[Robert Gordon Menzies]], PC, KC''' (United Australia Party)
|[[26 April]] [[1939]]—[[29 August]] [[1941]] (2 years, 4 months, 4 days)
|-
|'''[[Arthur William Fadden]] (later Sir Arthur)''' (Country Party)
|[[29 August]] [[1941]]—[[7 October]] [[1941]] (1 month, 9 days)
|-
|'''[[John Curtin]], PC''' (Australian Labor Party)
|[[7 October]] [[1941]]—[[5 July]] [[1945]] (3 years, 8 months, 29 days)
|-
|'''[[Francis Michael Forde]], PC''' (Australian Labor Party)
|[[6 July]] [[1945]]—[[13 July]] [[1945]] (8 days)
|-
|'''[[Joseph Benedict Chifley]], PC''' (Australian Labor Party)
|[[13 July]] [[1945]]—[[19 December]] [[1949]] (4 years, 5 months, 7 days)
|-
|'''[[Robert Gordon Menzies]] (later Sir Robert), PC, KC''' (Liberal Party of Australia)
|[[19 December]] [[1949]]—[[26 January]] [[1966]] (16 years, 1 month, 8 days)
|-
|'''[[Harold Edward Holt]], PC, CH''' (Liberal Party of Australia)
|[[26 January]] [[1966]]—[[19 December]] [[1967]] (1 year, 10 months, 23 days)
|-
|'''[[John McEwen]] (later Sir John), PC''' (Country Party)
|[[19 December]] [[1967]]—[[10 January]] [[1968]] (23 days)
|-
|'''[[John Grey Gorton]], PC''' (Liberal Party of Australia)
|[[10 January]] [[1968]]—[[10 March]] [[1971]] (3 years, 2 months)
|-
|'''[[William McMahon]] (later Sir William), PC, CH''' (Liberal Party of Australia)
|[[10 March]] [[1971]]—[[5 December]] [[1972]] (1 year, 8 months, 25 days)
|-
|'''[[Edward Gough Whitlam]], QC''' (Australian Labor Party)
|[[5 December]] [[1972]]—[[11 November]] [[1975]] (2 years, 11 months, 7 days)
|-
|'''[[John Malcolm Fraser]], PC, CH''' (Liberal Party of Australia)
|[[11 November]] [[1975]]—[[11 March]] [[1983]] (7 years, 4 months)
|-
|'''[[Robert James Lee Hawke]], AC''' (Australian Labor Party)
|[[11 March]] [[1983]]—[[20 December]] [[1991]] (8 years, 9 months, 10 days)
|-
|'''[[Paul John Keating]]''' (Australian Labor Party)
|[[20 December]] [[1991]]—[[11 March]] [[1996]] (4 years, 2 months, 20 days)
|-
|'''[[John Winston Howard]]''' (Liberal Party of Australia)
|[[11 March]] [[1996]]— (11 years so far)
|}

== Geography ==

Australia relies a great deal on industry, agriculture and tourism to foster its economy. It has a thriving film industry and very advanced technology. Most tourists visit places such as Sydney Harbour, Uluru (Ayers Rock) in Central Australia and the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland. Other favorite destinations are the wine making areas of South Australia and northern Victoria, the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, the natural wonders of Tasmania and the huge outback expanses of Western Australia and the Northern Territory. Some cattle stations in Australia rival [[Texas]] in size and the distance between towns in some areas is enormous.

80% of Australia's population, of just over 20,000,000 people, live on the coast line. It is one of the world's most sparsely populated countries (2.7 people per square kilometre)<ref>[http://www.abs.gov.au ABS]</ref>. Water is scarce and some cities have some form of water restrictions in place.

Weather extremes are common in Australia with temperatures sometimes measured into the high 40s Celsius (45 degrees Celsius = 113 degrees Fahrenheit). The city of Darwin was destroyed by Cyclone Tracey in 1974 and bush fires often ravage the southern states - one of the worst occurring on Ash Wednesday in 1983 when over 2,000 homes were destroyed and over 70 people lost their lives in Victoria and South Australia.

Australia is noted for its unique biodiversity. Many animals are found only in Australia, the most well known examples are the group of marsupials ([[kangaroos]], [[wombats]], [[wallabies]] and [[koalas]]), and the only two [[monotremes]], the [[platypus]] and the [[echidna]]. Examples of plants that are native to Australia are the [[banksia]], [[yellow wattle]] and [[gum tree]].

Studies indicate that Australia's unique wildlife is the result of Australia becoming an island, being cut off from the Asian land bridge between 40,000–250,000 years ago on the uniformitarian timescale.

== Sport ==

Australia is often known as a sporting nation with success worldwide in [[swimming]], [[tennis]], [[rugby league]] and [[rugby union]], [[cricket]], [[netball]], [[basketball]], and even speed [[ice skating]]. Australians are very keen horse racers with the Melbourne Cup <ref>[http://www.melbournecup.com.au| Melbourne Cup]</ref> attracting up to 120,000 spectators at Flemington Race Course on the first Tuesday in November. There is a public holiday for the cup race in Melbourne, while the remainder of the country virtually pauses during the running of the cup race. This day also coincides (mostly) every second year with the [[American]] [[Congress|Congressional]] [[election]]s and every four years with the [[President|Presidential]] election.

Unique to Australia is a game known as [[Australian rules football]] or Aussie Rules, which is played on a [[cricket]] oval in winter, that draws huge crowds across Australia. It is similar to [[Gaelic football]], played in [[Ireland]], and teams from the two nations play annual competition games based on a blended system of rules.

==Religion==
Australia is a [[secular]] nation, in that it has no established religion associated with the Government. Of Australia's population of around 20 million, approximately 1.5 million attend weekly religious services <ref>[http://www.ncls.org.au/default.aspx?docid=2250&track=82083| National Church Life Survey 2004]</ref>. The Australian public school system is described as "free, secular and compulsory" with the secular meaning without favour to any particular religion - most primary schools, however, do offer some form on non-compulsory religious education according to the parents' wishes. The state systems of a number of states offer studies in religion at the senior level.

There is a large Catholic school system in Australia with most parishes having their own primary school and many hundreds of Catholic High Schools across the country. There are also a large number of independent schools founded by various religions or demominations of the Christian faith - some hold that religious background to be more important than others.

==Comparing Australian and U.S. Economic and Health statistics==
Whilst the Australian society is similar in many aspects to those of the U.S., a comparison of key economic (in $U.S.) and health indicators highlights some interesting fundamental differences:

'''GDP Per Capita'''
*U.S. $43,500.00
*Aus $32,900.00

'''Budget Defecit/Surplus'''
*U.S. $841.00 per capita defecit
*Aus $444.00 per capita surplus. Australia has had budget surpluses every year since 2001

'''Public Debt'''
*U.S. 64.7% of GDP
*Aus 14.1% of GDP

'''Military Expenditure'''
*U.S. 4.06% of GDP
*Aus 2.5 % of GDP

'''Life Expectancy at Birth'''
*U.S. 77.85 years (combined male and female)
*Aus 80.5 years (combined male and female)

'''Infant Mortality Rates'''
*U.S. 6.43 deaths/1,000 live births
*Aus 4.63 deaths/1,000 live births

'''HIV/AIDS Prevalence Rates'''
*U.S. 0.6% of population
*Aus 0.1% of population

Australians also enjoy a universal health scheme and significant subsidies on most prescription medications, both of which are likely to account for some of the significant differences between the life expectancy and infant mortality rates between the U.S. and Australia.

==External links==
* [http://www.fed.gov.au Australian Government portal]
* [http://www.aph.gov.au Australian Parliament House (Reps & Senate) portal]
* [http://www.gg.gov.au Governor-General of Australia]

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Oceanian Countries]]
[[Category:Continents]]

Conservapedia talk:About

2007-05-05T12:31:15Z

Mralph72: /* WHAT? */

Is that "LIBERAL BIAS" economic or social?

Well, I'm going to assume economic bias, unless I hear otherwise, and change the page accordingly.

==What kind?==

"Conservapedia is rapidly becoming one of the largest and most reliable online educational resources of its kind."

What kind is this, exactly? Is it the kind of source that has an inherent bias and slant towards a point of view? Because in my readings of CP articles, there hardly seems to be an attempt to be factually correct and completely bias-free... – [[User:frijole|Fʀɪɺøʟɛ]] ( [[User_talk:Frijole|тɐʟк]] • [[Special:Contributions/Frijole|¢ʘи†ʀ¡βs]] ) 12:58, 13 March 2007 (EDT)

:: Conservapedia will never become one of the largest and most reliable online educational resources of its kind. Nope. --[[User:WhatWouldJesusEdit?|WhatWouldJesusEdit?]] 11:50, 15 March 2007 (EDT)

::: Thank God somebody said that. This site is utterly useless. I mean, totally useless. There is no way I could use this for research on a project, not even one on conservatives.

When are you conservative, home schooled, fundamentalists going to realize that you've been lied to all these years!
I've read some of the trash that constitutes "conservapedia". Why are there no references to our ancient ancestors?
Why no mention of Homo Habilis, Cro Magnon or any of the other fossil remnants of early humans that
scientists have discovered over the years. Could it be that the conservatives don't know how to put a literalists
bibilical spin on the overwhelming evidence that WE EVOLVED and that the Earth is indeed ancient?
Anyone who would use this forum to gather knowledge is simply using nonsense, lies and distortions to substantiate
there own myopic, misguided understanding of the world.

Who's the closed minded one now? [[User:MountainDew|MountainDew]] 21:07, 21 March 2007 (EDT)

== WHAT? ==

Another example of the closed mind of the conservative. Running scared, as it were, from anything that might challenge or make them think out-side of their comfort zone. This is the most biased site I have come across, and the claims it makes are unfounded and untrue. While
Wikipedia is a world-wide resource, this I imagine will be mainly used in the United States... I'm suprised that you don't have to go through security and background checks and prove you're a legal US citizen to join this site.
Good luck!

:: I agree. Whereas this site forces you to use American English, Wikipedia allows Commonwealth English in articles. Some of the articles on this site are a disgrace too. Many are one sentence long, and articles that are somewhat controversial, e.g. [[Homosexuality]], are locked. [[User:O2mcgovem|O2mcgovem]] 19:17, 21 March 2007 (EDT)

::: Please everyone, don't take this site too seriously. It is intended as an ironic joke. Isn't it? [[User:Mralph72|Mralph72]] 08:31, 5 May 2007 (EDT)

== Bias ==

Anything that anyone doesn't believe in can be considered a bias, but shooting down the other point of view as a bias and creating a site with the other biased side without trying to make a non biased site is completely ridiculous. I am a conservative my self, but I believe that creating this site for the reasons that wikipedia is biased for showing a liberal view and making this site have only a conservative view is even more biased. By doing this for all of the wrong reasons, and degrading wikipedia, you have shown how naive some people can be.
--[[User:Erik|Erik]] 23:07, 15 March 2007 (EDT)

:: Well said, this site gives conservatives a bad name. [[User:O2mcgovem|O2mcgovem]] 19:17, 21 March 2007 (EDT)

== This says it all. ==

"Conservapedia" was founded by high school students. I suppose that explains the ridiculously uninformed political slant. Great job, guys!

== Liberal Theologians ==

If this site is against the liberal ideology, would it then be fair to say that it is against the liberal view of the bible? Liberal view referring to the viewpoints that came out of people like Carl Barth. --[[User:Ymmotrojam|Ymmotrojam]] 10:52, 23 March 2007 (EDT)

Anyone have any thoughts on this? --[[User:Ymmotrojam|Ymmotrojam]] 15:48, 26 March 2007 (EDT)

I do - I work in a counter-cult ministry and am frustrated to see how secular humanism is the true "proponent" of the American Public.

Public schools are trashing conservative worldview at an alarming rate. There are more neo-marxist, neo-darwinian, neo-pagan and feminists than I have ever seen in my life. Their views are "compatiable" with neo-darwinian worldview which is promoted in our courts of law. The whole thing is just sad.

Nancy Pearcey writes a wonderful book on this for recovering the evangelical Christian worldview titled Total Truth. While not everyone who may be conservative certainly isn't evangelical, it's still an excellent read! --[[User:JollyCharacter|JollyCharacter]] 21:11, 10 April 2007 (MDT)

== Worry Not ==

Like you, for me this site was a source of disbelief, outrage, amusement and finally, hilarity. Sadly, it's already getting SENSIBLE. Because other people are editting it. And it's now getting the same liberal/leftie/international/The Rest of the World 'bias' that the billions of people who haven't been home schooled in the wilds of N. America have. For the record I'm from Scotland, which evangelist Pat Robertson described as 'as dark country full of homosexuals'

The Rev Robertson certainly hasn't been to Scotland....is he confused by the kilts?

== Reliability ==

Quote: "Conservapedia is rapidly becoming one of the largest and most reliable online educational resources of its kind."

This comment has no supporting arguments, or source.

:I strongly agree. I find it to be certainly untrue. [[User:Linus M.|Liπus the Turbogeek]]([[User talk:Linus M.|contact me]]) 15:56, 26 March 2007 (EDT)

== Bias? ==

An example of such, this page is. [[User:Linus M.|Liπus the Yoda]]([[User talk:Linus M.|contact me]]) 21:32, 25 March 2007 (EDT)

==Liberal bias of Wikipedia==

:I agree with Aschlafly's assessment, based on my 5 1/2 years of participation in the Wikipedia project:
:*Our study suggests that Wikipedia is '''6 times''' more liberal than the American public.
:Wikipedia is stuffed with [[Liberal bias]]. Its NPOV policy sounds good, but has become unenforceable. --[[User:Ed Poor|Ed Poor]] 13:36, 27 March 2007 (EDT)

::But… 3:1/1:2 doesn't equal 6:1! [[User:Linus M.|Liπus the Turbogeek]]([[User talk:Linus M.|contact me]]) 13:52, 27 March 2007 (EDT)

::How do you work out if how liberal wikipedia and how liberal the American public is??? And anyway you need to realise there is more alot more to the world than the U.S.A. and as for the use of British English, British English is proper english because english comes from England and for those of you who consider the world to be centred around America and don't know where england is, it's in Britain (where British English is from).
User: Plqgnmv 21 April 2007

== Edit request: copyright link ==

As there is a link to [[Conservapedia:About]] displayed at the bottom of every page, could someone who is allowed to edit it please add a link to [[Conservapedia:Copyright]] to the page so that readers can easily find out their permissions for reuse. Something like:

:Conservapedia encourages free reuse of its material. For details see [[Conservapedia:Copyright]].

Thanks. --[[User:Scott|Scott]] 21:40, 13 April 2007 (EDT)

Talk:National Health Service

2007-05-05T12:28:09Z

Mralph72:

This should be a disambiguation page, because NHS can also refer to National Honor Society. It doesn't make sense that a British health service should take precedence over that on Conservapedia. [[User:MountainDew|MountainDew]] 17:21, 12 March 2007 (EDT)
:Add a disambiguation page then!(The beauty of the wiki software ey ;-))[[User:MatteeNeutra|MatteeNeutra]] 17:22, 12 March 2007 (EDT)
:: It doesn't make sense that one of the largest employers in the world and perhaps the most significant example of a socialised health system (entirely relevant to conservatives one would think) should take precedence over the "National Honor Society", whatever that is? Priceless. [[User:Mralph72|Mralph72]] 08:28, 5 May 2007 (EDT)

United States of America

2007-05-05T12:04:41Z

Mralph72: /* Overview */

{| border="1" align="right" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="300" style="margin-left:5px"
|align="center" colspan="2"|
|-
!colspan="2" align="center" style="color: black; height: 30px; background: white no-repeat scroll top left;"|United States of America
|-
!colspan="2" align="center" style="color: black; height: 30px; background: white no-repeat scroll top left;"|[[Image:Kljghlkjkh.png|250px]]
Flag of the United States
|-
|Capital
|[[Washington, D.C.]]
|-
|Government
|Federal constitutional republic, Representative democracy
|-
|Official Language
|None ([[English]] de facto)
|-
|President
|[[George W. Bush]] ([[Republican|R]])
|-
|Vice President
|[[Dick Cheney]] ([[Republican|R]])
|-
|Senate majority leader
|[[Harry Reid]] ([[Democrat|D]])
|-
|House majority leader
|[[Nancy Pelosi]] ([[Democrat|D]])
|-
|Area
|3,718,695 sq mi
|-
|Population (2007 estimate)
|301,554,000
|-
|GDP (2007 estimate)
|$13.049 trillion
|-
|GDP per capita (2007 estimate)
|$44,333
|-
|}

The '''United States of America''' (commonly referred to as '''the United States''', '''the USA''', '''the US''', or simply as '''America''') is a North American nation that consists of a federal union of fifty individual states. Its origins lie in the [[British Empire]]: it was founded on July 4, [[1776]] with the signing of the [[Declaration of Independence]], and its independence from Britain was formally recognized in 1783, following the [[American Revolutionary War|War of Independence]]. The US is currently the world's sole [[superpower]]; it has the world's largest economy, and is recognized as having the world's most powerful military.

==Overview==
The United States has land borders with [[Canada]] and [[Mexico]], as well as several territorial water boundaries with Canada, [[Russia]] and The Bahamas. It is otherwise bounded by the [[Pacific Ocean]], the Bering Sea, the Arctic Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea. Two of the fifty states, [[Alaska]], an exclave, and [[Hawaii]], an archipelago, are not contiguous with any of the other states. Alaska in located in northwest North America and the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean. The United States also has a collection of overseas territories and possessions around the world. Each of the 50 states has a high level of local autonomy under the federal system.

At over 3.7 million square miles (over 9.6 million km²), the U.S. (including its non-contiguous and overseas states and territories) is the third largest country by total area. It is the world's third most populous nation, with over 300 million people.

American military, economic, cultural, and political influence increased through the 19th and 20th centuries. Since the mid-20th century, the United States has become a dominant global influence in contemporary economic, political, military, scientific, technological and cultural matters. With the collapse of the [[Soviet Union]] at the end of the [[Cold War]], the nation emerged as the world's sole remaining superpower, greatly influencing world affairs, as it continues to do today.

The decline in American education standards, primarily caused by the increase in home schooling, is expected to lead to Americans being reduced to just having silly arguments about how all the animals got from Noah's Ark to where they are. Madness is on the increase throughout the nation, in particular at the White House.

==Background==

[[Image:76485685i79.jpg|right|thumb|300px|The drafting committee presenting the [[Declaration of Independence]] to the [[Continental Congress]], painted by John Trumbull 1817–1819.]]

[[George Washington]], [[Thomas Jefferson]], and other [[Founding Fathers]] formally established the United States by the ratification of the [[U.S. Constitution]] in 1788. Since the presidency of [[John Quincy Adams]] the United States has been governed by one of two [[political parties]] in a [[republic]] increasingly tending towards [[democracy]] as the [[franchise]] has expanded. The younger of the two existing major parties, the [[Republican Party]], was created in 1854. Between independence in 1776 and ratification of the [[Constitution]] in 1788, the United States' governing documents included the [[Articles of Confederation]] and the [[Declaration of Independence]] itself.

The Declaration of Independence acknowledges the existence of a [[God]] when it refers to "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" and says all men "are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights," though the latter statement was made by [[Thomas Jefferson]], whose religious beliefs had far more in common with Unitarianism then traditional Christianity. Some Christians argued that since many of the Founding Fathers were Christians (although the majority of them could actually be qualified as Deists) and that, explicitly or not, the United States was founded upon the principles and ideals of Christianity. However, the freedom of (and from) religion (stating that the government cannot interfere in the conduct of religious groups, or vice versa) is a fundamental aspect of the [[First Amendment]] to the Constitution. This separation is a continuing source of conflict in American society, generally between those attempting to exert their own religious or anti-religious views over others. This [[Free Exercise Clause]] of the Amendment began increasingly to be tested and interpreted by the [[judiciary]] in the late 19th century as a result of the increasing population of religious [[minorities]] in the United States.

==History and geography==

[[Image:56eugyjnm.jpg|right|thumb|300px|The [[White House]], the official home and workplace of the [[President of the United States]] of America.]]

In [[1783]], when the [[Peace of Paris]] concluded hostilities against [[Great Britain]], the former [[colonial power]], the United States' population totaled some three million [[citizens]] and [[slaves]] living on slightly less than one million square miles of land. An unknown number of [[Native Americans]] also lived in the western part of the United States, which was then bordered on the west by the [[Mississippi River]], on the north by [[Lake Superior]], [[Lake Huron]], [[Lake Erie]] and [[Lake Ontario]], on the east by the [[Atlantic Ocean]], and on the south by [[Florida]], then controlled by [[Spain]]. The land border with Canada was not clarified until the [[Rush-Bagot Agreement]] of 1816.

The majority of the taxable population lived in the thirteen original [[states]]. In alphabetical order they are [[Connecticut]], [[Delaware]], [[Georgia]], [[Maryland]], [[Massachusetts]], [[New Hampshire]], [[New Jersey]], [[New York]], [[North Carolina]], [[Pennsylvania]], [[Rhode Island]], [[South Carolina]] and [[Virginia]]. In 1790, an agreement between supporters of Jefferson and those of [[Alexander Hamilton]] resulted in the creation of the [[District of Columbia]] from part of [[Maryland]]; it has served as the national capital from 1800 on. The remainder of the 1783 territory was eventually organized as the states of [[Ohio]], [[Indiana]], [[Michigan]], [[Illinois]], [[Wisconsin]], [[Kentucky]], [[Tennessee]], [[Mississippi]] and [[Alabama]]. Two additional states were added during the first fifty years by [[secession]] from existing states: [[Vermont]] from New York, and [[Maine]] from Massachusetts. After that, the legality of [[secession]] became an issue.

In 1803, [[French]] emperor [[Napoleon Bonaparte]] took advantage of a lull in his war with Great Britain to sell the [[Louisiana Territory]] to the United States, more than doubling the nation's land area. This territory would later be organized as the states of [[Minnesota]], [[North Dakota]], [[South Dakota]], [[Montana]], [[Wyoming]], [[Nebraska]], [[Iowa]], [[Missouri]], [[Arkansas]], [[Kansas]], [[Oklahoma]], and [[Louisiana]] proper. President Jefferson commissioned [[Lewis and Clark]] to explore the new territory, which they did from 1802 to 1804.

[[Florida]] and [[Texas]] joined the United States as a result of [[revolutions]] by settlers from the United States against their central governments. Florida's was fought in 1810, while the much better remembered [[Texas Revolution]] was fought in 1836. While Spain was willing to cut its losses in Florida and relinquished any claims on the state in the [[Adams-Oniz Agreement]] of 1819, one of the successors to its empire in the Americas, Mexico, was considerably more attached to Texas and fought the [[Mexican War]] between 1846 and 1848 to reverse its annexation by the United States. Losing badly, Mexico was forced to cede the sparsely populated northern portion of itself under the [[Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo]]. This territory eventually became the states of [[California]], [[Nevada]], [[Utah]], [[Colorado]], [[New Mexico]] and [[Arizona]]. At approximately the same time, [[President]] [[James K. Polk]] had agreed with the British that the 49th Parallel (degree of latitude) would serve as the boundary between the U. S. and Canada from [[Lake of the Woods]] (partially in Minnesota) to the [[Pacific Ocean]]. This territory was later organized as the states of [[Washington]], [[Oregon]] and [[Idaho]].

In 1867, [[Secretary of State]] [[William Seward]] purchased [[Alaska]] from [[Russia]]. Critics referred to this as "Seward's Folly." Alaska is the westernmost extremity of [[North America]] bounded on the east by Canada, on the south by the Pacific Ocean, on the west by the [[Bering Strait]] and on the north by the [[Arctic Ocean]]. At $7,000,000, Alaska cost the United States considerably less per acre than the [[Mexican Cession]] and slightly less than the Louisiana Territory. Of course, [[inflation]] was less of a factor at this time due to the world [[economy]] still being principally [[agrarian]]. Although at the time it was considered a foolish bargain, Alaska would later become a large source of economic prosperity due to large gold, oil, and other natural resources. Alaska would not be admitted as a state until 1959.

The 50th and so far final state, [[Hawaii]], was also admitted in 1959, 67 years after the DOLE corporation, sugar producers, and the US Marine Corps deposed the last native [[queen]] of the archipelago and 62 years after annexation had become politically feasible as a result of the [[Spanish-American War]], in which the United States also annexed [[Puerto Rico]], [[Guam]] and [[Wake Island]]. The last three islands are not states, although [[Puerto Rico]] has occasionally held non-binding [[referenda]] to express its desired status within the United States.

The United States has occasionally relinquished territory. The most significant example of this was certainly the granting of independence in 1946 to the [[Philippines]] as part of the general [[decolonization]] of [[Asia]] and [[Africa]] following [[World War II]]. Under both [[autocratic]] and [[democratic]] governments, the Philippines have subsequently remained a strong American ally, and today contribute more troops to the U. S. [[military]] than some states. Other Pacific territories such as the [[Federated States of Micronesia]] and [[Palau]] have also become independent in the postwar era with little objection from opinion leaders on the mainland. More controversial was the 1977 agreement between President [[Jimmy Carter]] and [[General]] [[Omar Torrijos]] to return the [[Panama Canal Zone]], which had been part of the United States since 1914, to [[Panama]] in the year 2000. Ultimately the United States lived up to this agreement despite the worst fears of both [[liberals]] (who decried [[Operation Just Cause]], the 1989 invasion of Panama) and [[conservatives]] (who feared the management of the [[Panama Canal]] by [[Chinese]] interests).

The USA's has been criticized for holding back its [[United Nations]] dues (currently, even after the Helms-Biden amendment, the United States has withheld 41%, or $1.246 billion dollars, <ref>http://www.un.org/ga/president/55/speech/una_usa.htm</ref>) as the US has sought reforms within the international organization.

== References ==
<references/>

[[Category:North American Countries]]
[[Category:NATO members]]
[[Category:United States]]

United States of America

2007-05-05T12:03:48Z

Mralph72: /* Overview */

{| border="1" align="right" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="300" style="margin-left:5px"
|align="center" colspan="2"|
|-
!colspan="2" align="center" style="color: black; height: 30px; background: white no-repeat scroll top left;"|United States of America
|-
!colspan="2" align="center" style="color: black; height: 30px; background: white no-repeat scroll top left;"|[[Image:Kljghlkjkh.png|250px]]
Flag of the United States
|-
|Capital
|[[Washington, D.C.]]
|-
|Government
|Federal constitutional republic, Representative democracy
|-
|Official Language
|None ([[English]] de facto)
|-
|President
|[[George W. Bush]] ([[Republican|R]])
|-
|Vice President
|[[Dick Cheney]] ([[Republican|R]])
|-
|Senate majority leader
|[[Harry Reid]] ([[Democrat|D]])
|-
|House majority leader
|[[Nancy Pelosi]] ([[Democrat|D]])
|-
|Area
|3,718,695 sq mi
|-
|Population (2007 estimate)
|301,554,000
|-
|GDP (2007 estimate)
|$13.049 trillion
|-
|GDP per capita (2007 estimate)
|$44,333
|-
|}

The '''United States of America''' (commonly referred to as '''the United States''', '''the USA''', '''the US''', or simply as '''America''') is a North American nation that consists of a federal union of fifty individual states. Its origins lie in the [[British Empire]]: it was founded on July 4, [[1776]] with the signing of the [[Declaration of Independence]], and its independence from Britain was formally recognized in 1783, following the [[American Revolutionary War|War of Independence]]. The US is currently the world's sole [[superpower]]; it has the world's largest economy, and is recognized as having the world's most powerful military.

==Overview==
The United States has land borders with [[Canada]] and [[Mexico]], as well as several territorial water boundaries with Canada, [[Russia]] and The Bahamas. It is otherwise bounded by the [[Pacific Ocean]], the Bering Sea, the Arctic Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea. Two of the fifty states, [[Alaska]], an exclave, and [[Hawaii]], an archipelago, are not contiguous with any of the other states. Alaska in located in northwest North America and the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean. The United States also has a collection of overseas territories and possessions around the world. Each of the 50 states has a high level of local autonomy under the federal system.

At over 3.7 million square miles (over 9.6 million km²), the U.S. (including its non-contiguous and overseas states and territories) is the third largest country by total area. It is the world's third most populous nation, with over 300 million people.

American military, economic, cultural, and political influence increased through the 19th and 20th centuries. Since the mid-20th century, the United States has become a dominant global influence in contemporary economic, political, military, scientific, technological and cultural matters. With the collapse of the [[Soviet Union]] at the end of the [[Cold War]], the nation emerged as the world's sole remaining superpower, greatly influencing world affairs, as it continues to do today.

The decline in American education standards, primarily caused by the increase in home schooling, is expected to lead to America being reduced to silly argument about how all the animals got from Noah's Ark to where they are. Madness is on the increase throughout the nation, in particular at the White House.

==Background==

[[Image:76485685i79.jpg|right|thumb|300px|The drafting committee presenting the [[Declaration of Independence]] to the [[Continental Congress]], painted by John Trumbull 1817–1819.]]

[[George Washington]], [[Thomas Jefferson]], and other [[Founding Fathers]] formally established the United States by the ratification of the [[U.S. Constitution]] in 1788. Since the presidency of [[John Quincy Adams]] the United States has been governed by one of two [[political parties]] in a [[republic]] increasingly tending towards [[democracy]] as the [[franchise]] has expanded. The younger of the two existing major parties, the [[Republican Party]], was created in 1854. Between independence in 1776 and ratification of the [[Constitution]] in 1788, the United States' governing documents included the [[Articles of Confederation]] and the [[Declaration of Independence]] itself.

The Declaration of Independence acknowledges the existence of a [[God]] when it refers to "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" and says all men "are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights," though the latter statement was made by [[Thomas Jefferson]], whose religious beliefs had far more in common with Unitarianism then traditional Christianity. Some Christians argued that since many of the Founding Fathers were Christians (although the majority of them could actually be qualified as Deists) and that, explicitly or not, the United States was founded upon the principles and ideals of Christianity. However, the freedom of (and from) religion (stating that the government cannot interfere in the conduct of religious groups, or vice versa) is a fundamental aspect of the [[First Amendment]] to the Constitution. This separation is a continuing source of conflict in American society, generally between those attempting to exert their own religious or anti-religious views over others. This [[Free Exercise Clause]] of the Amendment began increasingly to be tested and interpreted by the [[judiciary]] in the late 19th century as a result of the increasing population of religious [[minorities]] in the United States.

==History and geography==

[[Image:56eugyjnm.jpg|right|thumb|300px|The [[White House]], the official home and workplace of the [[President of the United States]] of America.]]

In [[1783]], when the [[Peace of Paris]] concluded hostilities against [[Great Britain]], the former [[colonial power]], the United States' population totaled some three million [[citizens]] and [[slaves]] living on slightly less than one million square miles of land. An unknown number of [[Native Americans]] also lived in the western part of the United States, which was then bordered on the west by the [[Mississippi River]], on the north by [[Lake Superior]], [[Lake Huron]], [[Lake Erie]] and [[Lake Ontario]], on the east by the [[Atlantic Ocean]], and on the south by [[Florida]], then controlled by [[Spain]]. The land border with Canada was not clarified until the [[Rush-Bagot Agreement]] of 1816.

The majority of the taxable population lived in the thirteen original [[states]]. In alphabetical order they are [[Connecticut]], [[Delaware]], [[Georgia]], [[Maryland]], [[Massachusetts]], [[New Hampshire]], [[New Jersey]], [[New York]], [[North Carolina]], [[Pennsylvania]], [[Rhode Island]], [[South Carolina]] and [[Virginia]]. In 1790, an agreement between supporters of Jefferson and those of [[Alexander Hamilton]] resulted in the creation of the [[District of Columbia]] from part of [[Maryland]]; it has served as the national capital from 1800 on. The remainder of the 1783 territory was eventually organized as the states of [[Ohio]], [[Indiana]], [[Michigan]], [[Illinois]], [[Wisconsin]], [[Kentucky]], [[Tennessee]], [[Mississippi]] and [[Alabama]]. Two additional states were added during the first fifty years by [[secession]] from existing states: [[Vermont]] from New York, and [[Maine]] from Massachusetts. After that, the legality of [[secession]] became an issue.

In 1803, [[French]] emperor [[Napoleon Bonaparte]] took advantage of a lull in his war with Great Britain to sell the [[Louisiana Territory]] to the United States, more than doubling the nation's land area. This territory would later be organized as the states of [[Minnesota]], [[North Dakota]], [[South Dakota]], [[Montana]], [[Wyoming]], [[Nebraska]], [[Iowa]], [[Missouri]], [[Arkansas]], [[Kansas]], [[Oklahoma]], and [[Louisiana]] proper. President Jefferson commissioned [[Lewis and Clark]] to explore the new territory, which they did from 1802 to 1804.

[[Florida]] and [[Texas]] joined the United States as a result of [[revolutions]] by settlers from the United States against their central governments. Florida's was fought in 1810, while the much better remembered [[Texas Revolution]] was fought in 1836. While Spain was willing to cut its losses in Florida and relinquished any claims on the state in the [[Adams-Oniz Agreement]] of 1819, one of the successors to its empire in the Americas, Mexico, was considerably more attached to Texas and fought the [[Mexican War]] between 1846 and 1848 to reverse its annexation by the United States. Losing badly, Mexico was forced to cede the sparsely populated northern portion of itself under the [[Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo]]. This territory eventually became the states of [[California]], [[Nevada]], [[Utah]], [[Colorado]], [[New Mexico]] and [[Arizona]]. At approximately the same time, [[President]] [[James K. Polk]] had agreed with the British that the 49th Parallel (degree of latitude) would serve as the boundary between the U. S. and Canada from [[Lake of the Woods]] (partially in Minnesota) to the [[Pacific Ocean]]. This territory was later organized as the states of [[Washington]], [[Oregon]] and [[Idaho]].

In 1867, [[Secretary of State]] [[William Seward]] purchased [[Alaska]] from [[Russia]]. Critics referred to this as "Seward's Folly." Alaska is the westernmost extremity of [[North America]] bounded on the east by Canada, on the south by the Pacific Ocean, on the west by the [[Bering Strait]] and on the north by the [[Arctic Ocean]]. At $7,000,000, Alaska cost the United States considerably less per acre than the [[Mexican Cession]] and slightly less than the Louisiana Territory. Of course, [[inflation]] was less of a factor at this time due to the world [[economy]] still being principally [[agrarian]]. Although at the time it was considered a foolish bargain, Alaska would later become a large source of economic prosperity due to large gold, oil, and other natural resources. Alaska would not be admitted as a state until 1959.

The 50th and so far final state, [[Hawaii]], was also admitted in 1959, 67 years after the DOLE corporation, sugar producers, and the US Marine Corps deposed the last native [[queen]] of the archipelago and 62 years after annexation had become politically feasible as a result of the [[Spanish-American War]], in which the United States also annexed [[Puerto Rico]], [[Guam]] and [[Wake Island]]. The last three islands are not states, although [[Puerto Rico]] has occasionally held non-binding [[referenda]] to express its desired status within the United States.

The United States has occasionally relinquished territory. The most significant example of this was certainly the granting of independence in 1946 to the [[Philippines]] as part of the general [[decolonization]] of [[Asia]] and [[Africa]] following [[World War II]]. Under both [[autocratic]] and [[democratic]] governments, the Philippines have subsequently remained a strong American ally, and today contribute more troops to the U. S. [[military]] than some states. Other Pacific territories such as the [[Federated States of Micronesia]] and [[Palau]] have also become independent in the postwar era with little objection from opinion leaders on the mainland. More controversial was the 1977 agreement between President [[Jimmy Carter]] and [[General]] [[Omar Torrijos]] to return the [[Panama Canal Zone]], which had been part of the United States since 1914, to [[Panama]] in the year 2000. Ultimately the United States lived up to this agreement despite the worst fears of both [[liberals]] (who decried [[Operation Just Cause]], the 1989 invasion of Panama) and [[conservatives]] (who feared the management of the [[Panama Canal]] by [[Chinese]] interests).

The USA's has been criticized for holding back its [[United Nations]] dues (currently, even after the Helms-Biden amendment, the United States has withheld 41%, or $1.246 billion dollars, <ref>http://www.un.org/ga/president/55/speech/una_usa.htm</ref>) as the US has sought reforms within the international organization.

== References ==
<references/>

[[Category:North American Countries]]
[[Category:NATO members]]
[[Category:United States]]

Koala

2007-05-05T11:59:46Z

Mralph72: /* Origins */

[[Image:Koala-cub.jpg|right|250px|thumb|A koala with her cub.]]
The '''Koala''' ''(Phascolarctos cinereus'') is an arboreal (tree-dwelling) [[herbivore|herbivorous]] animal native to [[Australia]], feeding exclusively on the leaves of the [[Eucalyptus]] tree, and the only known member of the family Phascolarctidae. This animal sleeps about 20 hours a day so it is rarely awake at all. It is not in fact a real bear at all, but rather a [[marsupial]], which means it raises its young in a pouch on its belly.

The Koala is found all along the eastern coast of Australia from near Adelaide to the southern part of Cape York Peninsula, and as far from the coast as there is enough rainfall to support suitable forests. The Koalas of South Australia were largely exterminated during the early part of the 20th century, but the state has since been repopulated with Victorian stock. The Koala is not found in [[Tasmania]] or [[Western Australia]].

===Origins===
Koalas are correctly said to be indigenous to the [[Middle East]], as are all terrestrial animals. Australia became their adopted home to which koalas journeyed after the original two were released from [[Noah's Ark]] at the conclusion of the [[Great Flood]]. Most creationists believe that these ancient Koalas were considerably hardier, faster, and far less fastidious in their diet than their modern descendants, which have degenerated into sleepy, gum-leaf chewing opiate addicts as a result of human sinfulness. The virile, proactive Koala of Biblical times would have been far better endowed physically and emotionally to undertake the epic journey across the world from Mt Ararat to Australia. Initially, koalas arriving from the middle east set up kebab shops in western Sydney, but over time have inhabited most of the east of the continent. As original Australian fauna consist almost entirely of marsupials, it is likely that bands of marsupials undertook this journey together. Indeed, the Koala may have been carried by the Kangaroos in their pouches, along with other small marsupials for much of this time. The koalas then used the kangaroos to make the kebabs.

[[Category:Marsupials]]