Protests against Wall St bailout starts

neverdespairgirl

Chris2685 wrote: »

Who the hell is King Canute?

Canute, more usually now spelled !!!!, was King of England after Aethelred the Unready, and before Edward the Confessor.

His father, Sweign (sp?) Forkbeard, was King for less than a year, after invading and forcing out Aethelred for a time. Then he died, and Unready came back (he'd been lurking with his in-laws in Normandy - his wife was Emma, sister of the Duke of Normandy).. Aethelred the Unready was a pun - the name Aethelred in Old English meant "nobly advised", so he was nicked "Nobly advised the ill-advised".

Aethelred wasn't a good King, really - he was weak, and thought he could get rid of Viking invasions and pillaging by paying them off - the Danegeld (sometimes still used as an insult, not, paying Danegeld). They came back and wanted more, etc. I think it was Kipling who said, "That if once you have paid him the Danegeld, You never get rid of the Dane"

After Aethelred died, he was succeeding briefly by his son, Edmund (I think) and hen Canute re-invaded and ended up King. TO consolidate his power, he married Emma, sister of the Duke of Normandy, and previously wife of Aethelred. Her two sons by Aethelred prudently stayed in Normandy - Edward (the Confessor) and Alfred.

Canute was succeeded by his sons, in order, Harold Harefoot and the Harthacanute, and then came his step-son, Edward the Confessor.

This is from memory, so it could be inaccurate in parts.

StevieJ

PasturesNew wrote: »

It's part of the Britishness test.

I didn't think he was British, I thought he was a Dane.

neverdespairgirl

But he married a Norman lass, and was King of England (-:

Emma, his wife, is fascinating. She was the daughter-in-law of two separate Kings of England (Sweign * Forkbeard, Edgar), wife of another two (Aethelred the Unready, Canute) and mother of two more - Harthacanute and Edward the Confessor. She was also the step-mother of another two English Kings (Edmund and Harold Harefoot). She was mother-in-law to the Counts of Vexin (sp?) and Boulougne, and to Henry III of Germany, and step-mother to Kings of Norway and Denmark

And her second son, Alfred Aetheling, was murdered by having his eyes put out, by Earl Godwin, father of Harold Godwinson, who lost the Battle of Hastings against Emma's great-nephew, William the Conqueror. Quite a life, really!

She also, very unusually, wrote (or caused to be written) a book of her life, Encomium Emmae Reginae, which omitted all reference to her marriage to Aethelred the Unready, and her children by him.


* - still not happy about the spelling, but not sure what to write instead

baby_boomer

Chris2685 wrote: »

Who the hell is King Canute?

An immigrant in 1016 who liked England so much that he decided he'd run the place .

It's in the Britishness test as an early example of integration and multi-culturalism at work (if you miss out the killing of a couple of Anglo-Saxon earls ).

ndg, you forgot to mention that Emma tried to overthrow her own son King Edward the Confessor by scheming to put King Magnus of Norway on the throne, so don't put her too high on that pedestal. She'd obviously grown attached to !!!!'s Viking cohorts, while her son was in Normandy 1018-40.

This could explain the gaps in the book you mention :rotfl:

Complex, turbulent times. But great fun to read about.

Oh dear. I see that ndg and I have both fallen foul of the MSE thought police spell checker which doesn't allow the correct spelling of Canute i.e. C n u t.

jamescredmond

'sweyn' is one spelling.

the origin of this word is obscure, but I once read a manuscript that recorded a banquet given in honour of forkbeard and drafted up by an anonymous cleric:

'ye hall was much filled with gayness and frivolity this michaelmas day.
ye lord and master was much ataken with ye company attendant and verily did he partake of the mead that so plastereth the multitudes.

having sated ye royal thirst with nigh 2 hogs heads, we seeth him 'sweyn to- and -fro' amongst ye noble guests till he stumbleth over the spit-boy and puketh all into the hearth.

ah well. that be the way it goeth.'

I hope this helps.

moanymoany

There are definite rumblings in parts of the US about this bailout. Paulson made his billions on Wall Street and it looks to many as though he wants to protect his old mates by capitulating to demands not to hit salaries and pay full wack for the toxic debt.

The American on the street has little or no safely net. In Europe - love it or hate it - there are Welfare States. This gives most Europeans protection for families, benefits and health.

If your child has raging earache you can take it to the doctors, you get the medicine and you get more medical care if it is needed. This costs nothing. An American parent has to pay for the doctor, the medicine and any treatment neeeded. Medical care with no insurance is abysmal or non-existent. On the film about Wal-Mart there were parents who are not covered by insurance and rely on 'home remedies' if their children - or themselves - are ill. It also gave the proportion of the American people who are not covered by any insurance. I forget the figure - but I remember my surprise that it was so large.

I don't think that it is impossible that what is happening in Washington at the moment will be the start of turmoil, already there have been mass demonstrations. The internet is being used to rally opposition. Whether the bailout goes ahead or not - there are difficult times ahead for America.

baby_boomer

At the very least the bank robbers will be exposed. In the US it's not taken for granted, as it has been in the UK, that the government knows how to spend "tax dollars".

Isn't it interesting that there is no equivalent UK phrase for "tax dollars"? This says a lot about our respective attitudes to government. But we may get one soon.

Financial services has always been a con game to rip off the ignorant consumer. In this case, as the dodgy mortgages were passed on - increasing risk - several people took their usual cut. And no-one blew the whistle because they were all making money. And the bosses who might have known were on short term bonuses and had the protection of golden parachutes written into their contracts.

I'm with Main Street. Let the Revolution roll. It was blackmail to try to rush this through Congress. Blackmail by an administration that has lost credibility and always helps out the big business which bankrolled it.

No-one knows how much this bail-out will really cost, what effect it will have on the US economy, on the dollar (expect falls and rising oil prices for the US) and the US position in the world.

And if Gordon thinks Congress is going to help bail out the UK banks, he's got another thing coming. I suspect he'd better get planning a similar measure over here and working out how to sell it.

To mm

47 million was the last figure I saw re those without US health insurance.

moanymoany

Just had a little browse and found this interesting article.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/_media/SiCKO_sickofactoids.pdf

• According to the UN Human Development Report, while the United States leads the world in spending on health care, “countries spending substantially less than the US have healthier populations.… The infant mortality rate for the U.S. is now higher than for many other industrial countries.”11


• A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that older
Americans are significantly less healthy than their British counterparts - we have more diabetes, heart attacks, strokes, lung disease and cancer. Even the poorest Brits can expect to live longer than the richest Americans.14

Not all bad for us then -

baby_boomer

Americans pride themselves on standing on their own two feet.

Which further explains their anger at subsidising the rich bank robbers who have previously spouted the American doctrine of "rugged individualism" to American citizens and the rest of the world.

Unfortunately these bank robbers are drowning but they have a rope which will pull us all under with them. So they are likely to get their way.

Watch out for Black Monday to help sway a few Congressman - most of whom, but only 1/3 of the Senate, face their electorate in November.

I guess they'd welcome a Presidential debate to see which way public opinion is going before they make their final decision :rotfl:

lotto-dreamer

moanymoany wrote: »

It also gave the proportion of the American people who are not covered by any insurance. I forget the figure - but I remember my surprise that it was so large

Not sure if the following is accurate in terms of figures, but the most read/popular comment on BBC News "Have Your Say" comments thus:

Forty million Americans can't afford health insurance; the minimum wage hasn't been raised in 10 years and the country has one of the worst poverty levels in the developed world. Yet as soon as the rich squeal $700 billion is magically found. America needs a second revolution.
colin craig, Stratford