Greatest American

[-Demosthenes-]

Hey, I saw part of the Greatest American thing on Discovery the other day. http://tv.channel.aol.com/greatestamerican

They are voting on the top 25 I think now. I don't know where Madison went! Seriously man, the main author of the Constitution?!

Who do you think is the greatest American?

[paleolithic]

The guy who shot John Lennon... Just kidding.

 

Hmm, maybe Tecumseh of the Shawnees, or Geronimo.

 

Yes I know, nothing to do with science.

[Severian]

Lol - they have Albert Einstein in there!

 

I hope Oprah Winfrey wins, just for a good chuckle at our American friends' expense....

[atinymonkey]

I don't know where Madison went! Seriously man' date=' the main author of the Constitution?!

[/quote']

Jesus. How many times do I have to say the constitution was copied from the Magna Carta?

 

http://www.archives.gov/exhibit_hall/featured_documents/magna_carta/

http://www.archives.gov/exhibit_hall/featured_documents/magna_carta/legacy.html

 

The American Bar even erected a monument attesting to it!

 

I wish you would stop making thease errors about the foundation of democracy. It's getting repetative.

[j_p]

I hope Oprah Winfrey wins, just for a good chuckle at our American friends' expense....

 

Born in poverty in the Jim Crow South, raised in poverty in violent Northern industrial slums, finally rescued by a strict and active father [a role that has been historically discouraged by oppressive economic and social structures in the US]. She was the first African American on Forbes List, and is still personally active in and financially supportive of multiple charities.

 

You think a bunch of white boys whose daddies' money bought them their offices are more deserving of the title?

 

I think she is a fine symbol of what the US has achieved in the latter half of the twentieth century. She done good, and she still does good.

 

Einstein was an American citizen.

[-Demosthenes-]

ATM, the bill of rights is all that is similar to the Magna Carta. There is nothing of three branches of government, or a bicameral legilsature. The Constitution outlines a government and guarentees rights (in the Bill of Rights). The government outlined is nothing like what was organized in England at the time, and nothing like what the Magna Carta ever talked about. It is true that the preamble and the bill of rights have many similarities. You keep thinking that I have some warped view of U.S. history, but it seems it's you that has a warped view of English history.

[-Demosthenes-]

No free man shall be arrested, or imprisoned, or deprived of his property, or outlawed, or exiled, or in any way destroyed, nor shall we go against him or send against him, unless by legal judgement of his peers, or by the law of the land.

This is basically the only part that was really "copied" from the Magna Carta. There weren't really any other ideas taken from the Magna Carta. More ideas came from you British Bill of Rights (1689).