[color=#000000:post_uid0]I took this one a while ago. IIRC, I scored something like:

Economic Left/Right: -3.xx
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -3.xx

It put me in the lower left quadrant, a little to the right of Gandhi.

Heigh ho.[/color:post_uid0]

[color=#000000:post_uid0][quote:post_uid0]Who were you close to on the graph?[/quote:post_uid0]

Somewhere between Nelson Mandela and John Cretien (sorry if it's spelled wrong).

[quote:post_uid0]Very much so. Â I try not to remind PHJ of that.[/quote:post_uid0]

Bush has to be the the most singularly moronic man who has ever held the post of President of the United States. In fairness though, part of my dislake of him can be shared by the American electoral system. If it wasn't for [i:post_uid0]that[/i:post_uid0] then Gore would be in office and hopefully doing things slightly better.

Sorry. When it comes to politics I can't really seem to help myself. Used to drive my friends nuts actually.[/color:post_uid0]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]Economic Left/Right: -4.75
Authoritarian/Libertarian: 0.51

Putting me closest to the Pope. Which is odd, because I seem to recall getting *two* negative scores last time. Of course the wording etc. affects the score somewhat.[/color:post_uid0]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]Just where do I go to do that?[/color:post_uid0]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]Right about here.[/color:post_uid0]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]Economic Left/Right: -5.00
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -2.62


I'll be a benign dictator.[/color:post_uid0]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]So I still have the highest Left score so far, according to that quiz. Everybody will now tremble at my feet (No doubt caused by the odour :D )[/color:post_uid0]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]EL/R: 2.00
A/L: 0.56

Am I the only one with double-positives? Shweet.
Closer to Tony Blair than Bush. Little more Libertarian, I think.

No offence, PHJ, but if Gore won (or if Clinton was still in power *hehehe*) , the U.S. would be in marshall law after 9/11, Iraq would have nuked, gassed, bugged, hacked, stabbed, and generally attacked us, and the economy would be ruined. But on the bright side, all of my dad's emergeny rations would be put to good use :D .[/color:post_uid0]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]Economic Left/Right: -2.12
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -1.79



Freaky. It puts me pretty close to Jean Chretien on the graph....

Why are there no famous right libertarians?[/color:post_uid0]

[quote:post_uid0="PointyHairedJedi"][color=#000000:post_uid0]Sorry. When it comes to politics I can't really seem to help myself.[/color:post_uid0][/quote:post_uid0]
[color=#000000:post_uid0]Hence, "I try not to remind PHJ of that." The intent of the sentence wasn't to remind PHJ of that. ;)

Incidentally, last time I took that test I got the same kind of result as Derek: dead centre. Tests usually place me more centrist than I think I am. If I recall correctly, the only direction I was even nudged in was authoritarian.[/color:post_uid0]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]Cat, here's some info.

(I may have gotten stuff wrong, this is all off the top of my head, so if you guys can help me out here...)

Nelson Mandela is the hero of the anti-apartheid (and libertarian) group. The apartheid regime was basically a white colonialist regime in South Africa, that figured racism as a governmental policy was a jolly idea. Mandela is a symbol of freedom, and despite being retired from the presidency for many a year now he is still a current figure (I believe Thabo Mbeki is the current leader of SA, but I'm not sure). He's also involved in the AIDS issue, was the first black president of South Africa, etc. Big hero, lots and lots and LOTS of decorations. Like the Nobel Peace Prize. A year or two ago he was given honourary citizenship here, and has had a Canadian school named after him (I think), honourary doctorate, and I THINK the Order of Canada (highest honour here). Loads of stuff like that.

One of the Canadian Alliance (a far-right party) guys called him a terrorist and then refused to see him face to face to sort out the issue. Mandela did use economic sabotage and other, not so pretty methods, but wasn't a warlord.

Here's his BBC biography: ...

The Dalai Lama is the supreme head of...... I believe it's the Mahayana sect of Buddhism. He is, according to Mahayana tenets, the reincarnation of... I can't remember. A Buddha, I think (there are many, sort of). Basically, the spiritual leader of Tibet in exile. He was nearly disappeared by the Chinese government. the Communists were NOT kind to the Tibetans, smashing their temples and generally wrecking their stuff as symbols of the old--and thus soiled, impure, corrupt, inferrior, anti-revolutionary, anti-socialist, etc--regime. Note to future youth: cultural revolution = BAD IDEA. His followers spirited him away through the Himalayas to India. He is not recognized by most governments because of China. More a symbol, really, but he wrote a book or two. A google search should turn up a million or so hits. I've forgotten his actual name.

He's the symbol of hope for the Tibetans (China occupies Tibet and is brutalizing the Tibetans), and a revered figure in many countries. You may have heard of the Free Tibet movement. Actually, a friend of my sister's married a Tibetan (Pema Dolma).

He came to Victoria a few years ago (about an hour's journey sound by car). I was ticked when I only found out much later.

Some info on the Dalai Lama here: ...

Jean Chretien is our current PM, going to retire soon. He's one of the Old Guard Liberals, Pierre Trudeau's close friend. Trudeau is oft described as the sort of "father" of modern Canada, but Chretien did a fair bit of grunt work (as with the FLQ terrorists in the 70s). He's a Francophone from Quebec. Those not in the know, i.e. the people putting out the deck of cards which say he's "more French than Canadian" have made a glaring error: he's not French. Quebec isn't French, they don't speak "Parisian" French, different government, didfferent political alignment. Stupid people. Anyway, he and Bush don't get along that well, being on opposite sides of a large political divide. Issues of divergance include: Kyoto, the anti-landmine treaty (actually a Chretien administration project), softwood lumber tariffs, wheat tariffs, security, etc. Chretien has seen... what, three American presidents as PM? Been in federal politics since the 60s. Long in the tooth. And since he's retiring, not afraid to tick people off. Which just amuses me, but I'm odd that way. ;)

My mum likes Chretien, and you can't really blame her. Those safety nets are sort of why I'm, you know, alive right now. Seriously, not joking.

BBC's profile, sorta: ...

Offical govt. site: ...

Everybody KNOWs who the other guys are..... right?

Nan, compulsive political analyst (it's all my dad's fault)[/color:post_uid0]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]I can see the resemblence between me and Nelson Mandela, but I'm not quite sure about the Dalai Lama...

[quote:post_uid0]anti-apartheid[/quote:post_uid0]
Really? I always wondered how you pronounce words like that... ;)[/color:post_uid0]

[color=#000000:post_uid0][quote:post_uid0]anti-apartheid

Really? I always wondered how you pronounce words like that... [/quote:post_uid0]

Well, it was a Dutch word to begin with, so unless the Boers mangled it unrecognisably, however you pronounce it should be close to what it should be.[/color:post_uid0]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]No, really, how we pronounce it is exactly what it should be. If the Boers mangled it unrecognisably, they got it wrong. ;)

But what I meant was, how you, people of America, Canada, Singapore, Australia and whatever other countries you're from, pronounce it. Especially the ei.[/color:post_uid0]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]CG - Bah. He's still an idiot. Not to mention he's completely at the beck and call of American Big Buisness.

CM - I've always pronounced 'apart-eyed'. How is it you pronounce it?[/color:post_uid0]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]Yeah, we pronounce it apart-eyed as well :)

I'm libertarian enough that I've stoped arguing with people, even for fun - it's gotten exhausting, course I still do it now and again, over things like "That was my ham on rye you just ate!" rather than "That was someone else's people they just oppressed!"[/color:post_uid0]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]The problem is, few languages have the ei- (or ij-) sound. I don't think English does. It's in the French Marseille, but I have no idea how to explain it otherwise.
Michiel, a little help please?[/color:post_uid0]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]"Marseille" in English is "mar-say."

Here, anyway.

By "ij" you mean something like "ayee"?

Some people pronounce it aparth-eyed. I've heard it with a "th" sound instead of a "t", but a very soft, barely noticeable "th". most common is apart-eyed. That I've found, anyway.[/color:post_uid0]

[color=#000000:post_uid0]Economic Left/Right: -7.88
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -5.28

But um, I'm not really extreme... I just went for the more anti-corprate stance today...[/color:post_uid0]

[color=#000000:post_uid0][quote:post_uid0="PointyHairedJedi"]CG - Bah. He's still an idiot. Not to mention he's completely at the beck and call of American Big Buisness.[/quote:post_uid0]
You may want to skip this. It's a boring analysis, and I'll shut up after this so as to avoid alienating too many people.

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Pointy has a... well, point.

Bush Jr. has a number of black smears on his career, starting with the fact that he may or may not have actually been ELECTED.

Then there was his pulling out of Kyoto. The US being, by far, the greatest polluter on the planet makes that a decision of DUBIOUS moral standing at best.

Then there was the anti-landmine treaty. I had a relative who, while chopping wood inthe forest in Poland years after the war, stepped on an unexploded landmine and got his leg blown off. Mines = evil. Mind, Russia also refused. Of course, the Russians have a truly and unabashedly [b:post_uid0]barbarous[/b:post_uid0] history with landmines. Systematically seeding Afghanistan from the air with mines designed to fall slowly and spread over as wide an area as possible counts as barbarous. As does boobytrapping little girl's dolls with mines. And, I believe, China refused to sign. China, who makes the family pay for the bullets required to execute their relative. Truly [sarcasm]stellar[/sarcasm] company.

Then there's the illegal (according to the WTO for I believe the THIRD time) tariffs on softwood. And the tariffs on wheat. Supposedly, wheat farmers in Canada are "subsidized." Bit rich coming from an administration which openly subsidizes ITS farmers.

Then there was his administration's plan to pipe oil from Alaska to the States proper. Which would go through Canada. He neglected to realize that would involve asking the Canadian government for permission. That's just pertaining to Canada. That doesn't count the alienation of the UN, the wider destabilization of the world, the Iraq debacle, Afghanistan, the alienation of NATO, the somewhat steep decline in international esteem for the US, the attempts to put weapons in space, etc etc.

Though Condoleezza Rice is fairly competant (IIRC), his attorney general has disconcerting fascistic leanings. John Ashcroft. They guy who lost a lower level election to a dead man. They guy on a KKK list of people they'd like to see in the White House (him and Pat Buchanan, Mr. AIDS is divine revenge on gay people). The guy who accepted an honourary degree from a university which has a ban on interracial dating (bit of a political gaffe, that).

Bush DOES have the AIDS thing to his credit, though.

For me it's not a partisan issue, but one of basic lack of experience, and to a degree, creative thinking.

------ end rant.

I heard Kissinger's new book is good. Anybody read it?[/color:post_uid0]