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Harold Godwinson

2007-03-15T21:49:34Z

Rhodite:

'''Harold Godwinson''' (1022-1066) was the last [[Anglo-Saxon]] King of [[England]]. He was the son of Godwin, Earl of Wessex, and he succeeded to the Earldom after Godwin's death in 1053. Harold was the leader of the anti-Norman party in England. He succeeded to the English throne on January 5, 1066, after the death of [[Edward the Confessor]]. He defeated an invasion by the [[Denmark|Danish]] King [[Harald Hardrada]] on September 25, but died fighting [[William the Conquerer]] at the [[Battle of Hastings]] on October 14.

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[[Category:Biographies]]

Edward the Confessor

2007-03-15T21:41:50Z

Rhodite: create article

'''Edward the Confessor''' was an [[Anglo-Saxon]] King of [[England]], ruling England from 1042 to 1066 AD. Edward was the son of King [[Ethelred the Unready]], and he was raised in [[Normandy]] after England was conquered by the [[Denmark|Danish]] King [[Canute]] in 1016 AD. When Edward became King, he brought many advisers from Normandy with him, including Robert of Jumiege, whom he made [[Archbishop of Canterbury]] in 1051 AD. This made many of the Anglo-Saxon nobles unhappy, and Godwin, the Earl of Wessex, led an unsuccessful revolt against Edward. [[William the Conquerer]], Duke of Normandy, claimed that Edward had promised him the English throne, and when Edward died in 1066 AD William invaded England and made himself king.

[[Category:Biographies]]

Harold Godwinson

2007-03-15T21:25:30Z

Rhodite: create article

'''Harold Godwinson''' was the last [[Anglo-Saxon]] King of [[England]]. He succeeded to the English throne on January 5, 1066, after the death of [[Edward the Confessor]]. He defeated an invasion by the [[Denmark|Danish]] King [[Harald Hardrada]] on September 25, but died fighting [[William the Conquerer]] at the [[Battle of Hastings]] on October 13.

[[Category:Biographies]]

James K. Polk

2007-03-15T20:59:51Z

Rhodite: Oregon Country

'''James Knox Polk''' was the 11th [[president]] of the [[United States]]. He was elected in 1844 as a Democrat and served as president from 1845-1849.

Polk was an early pioneer of the [[Bush Doctrine]] of preventive war, launching an invasion of [[Mexico]] to prevent an imminent Mexican attack on [[Texas]]. Unfortunately, Polk was unable to prevent several thousand Mexicans from entering the country and gaining citizenship when the United States annexed [[California]] and [[New Mexico]]. Polk has also been criticized for accepting a compromise settlement with [[England]] over the [[Oregon]] Country instead of pursuing a preventive war with [[Canada]] in order to gain all of it.

Polk declined to run for a second term.

[[Category:Biographies]]
[[Category:Presidents of the United States]]

James K. Polk

2007-03-15T20:26:59Z

Rhodite: Mexican War

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'''James Knox Polk''' was the 11th [[president]] of the [[United States]]. He served as president from 1845-1849.

Polk was an early pioneer of the [[Bush Doctrine]] of preventive war, launching an invasion of [[Mexico]] to prevent an immenent Mexican attack on [[Texas]]. Unfortunately, Polk was unable to prevent several thousand Mexicans from entering the country when the United States annexed Texas, [[California]] and [[New Mexico]].

[[Category:Biographies]]
[[Category:Presidents of the United States]]

Clarke, Arthur Charles

2007-03-15T02:35:48Z

Rhodite: create article

'''''Arthur Charles Clarke''''' is a [[homosexual]] [[England|Englishman]] and [[science fiction]] writer. He invented the [[communications satellite]] and co-wrote the screenplay for the movie ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey]]''. He lives in [[Sri Lanka]].

[[Category: Biographies]]

Ecclesiastes

2007-03-15T02:29:46Z

Rhodite:

'''Ecclesiastes''' is the twenty-first book of the Protestant Bible. It is classified, with Job, Psalms, Proverbs, and the Song of Solomon, as part of the "wisdom literature." It is particularly admired as a model of clear and eloquent prose.

Many phrases and passages in it are famous: "to eat, and to drink, and to be merry," "there is no new thing under the sun," "the race is not to the swift." The title of [[Marcel Proust|Proust]]'s novel ''Remembrance of Things Past,'' [[Ernest Hemingway|Hemingway]]'s "The Sun Also Rises," and [[George Stewart]]'s ''Earth Abides,'' are all phrases from Ecclesiastes. Folksinger [[Pete Singer]] made a passage from it into the song "Turn, Turn, Turn" which, when recorded by The Byrds, was a #1 hit in the United States in 1965.

The word "Ecclesiastes" is derived from a Greek word meaning "gathering" or "congregation," from which come the words "Ecclesiastical" (relating to the Church) and the Spanish word ''Iglesia'' (church). It means one who speaks to a congregation, i.e. a preacher, and it opens "The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem." That is, the book is by tradition ascribed to King Solomon.

The speaker begins "Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity." (Ecc 1: 2) Here, ''vanity'' means "empty" or "useless" or "in vain." The speaker says that everything that can be accomplished by human effort is empty, fleeting, and repetitious: "Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us." (Ecc 1: 10) "I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit." (Ecc 1: 14)

He denies that there is an afterlife, or even life in the memory of others: "For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun."

Consequently, he advises living in the moment: "Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry." (Ecc 8: 15) He praises life, saying "a living dog is better than a dead lion." (Ecc 9: 4)

He believes prayer is not answered:

:All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.

In a famous verse, he says that human life is governed more by chance than by justice:

:I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

[[George Orwell]], in his essay on ''Politics and the English Language,'' contrasted the beautiful language of the Bible with the way he says the same thing might be expressed today in "modern English:"

:Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compel the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account.

Six verses before the end the tone shifts abruptly. Beginning with the words "and moreover," a second voice takes over. [[Isaac Asimov]] notes that this second writer is "apparently appalled at the pessimism of the Preacher" and tries to finish up in a way that does not contradict the Preacher or deny his wisdom, yet is less negative in tone. He does seem to suggest that there is a danger in being overly intellectual: "by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh." (Ecc 12:12) In a summary that does not really seem to summarize the Preacher's words, he says: "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man."

''Ecclesiastes'' should not be confused with ''Ecclesiasticus,'' which a completely different book of the Bible. ''Ecclesiasticus'' is found in the Catholic Douay bible; in Protestant bibles it is either omitted or included as one of the ''apocrypha,'' material considered valuable but not having the full authority of Scripture.

Isaac Asimov

2007-03-15T02:25:42Z

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'''''Isaac Asimov''''' was a [[Jew|Jewish]] [[atheist]] who was born in [[Russia]]. He was a [[science fiction]] writer who wrote several stories mocking religion, such as "Reason" and "Bridle and Saddle". He also wrote an atheistic book on the [[Bible]] and one on the [[Book of Ruth]], as well as biased book on the Holy Land called ''The Land of Canaan''. He died of [[AIDS]].

[[Category: biographies]]