.... ... probably the only truly original cultures are the ones we don't know about because they were pre-historic.  Every culture and civilization borrows form its neighbors and those it comes into contact with, that is the nature of the beast.  The truly successful ones are those that take what they need and develop what they cant take and use the combination more efficiently than their neighbors and competitors.....

This seems like a truism to me... nothing new under the sun (unless it happened in the dark of night)  😉

If I remember correctly part of it was over who would get to appoint the Bishops… Pope wanted loyalty to himself (and the Church) and Henry wanted the same but his vassals that were Churchly but personally loyal to him.

I'm blue collar, more or less  ;D

This from the Hoover Archives: http://hoover.archives.gov/info/faq.html#chicken: During the 1928 presidential campaign, did Herbert Hoover really promise "a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage?"The Hoover campaign used a variety of slogans in 1928 including "Vote for Prosperity," "Lest We Forget" (referring to Hoover's World War I relief work), and "Who but Hoover?"Other slogans were introduced by Hoover supporters, often without direct input from Mr. Hoover. The link between Hoover and the phrase "a chicken in every pot" can be traced to a paid advertisement which apparently originated with the Republican National Committee, who inserted it into a number of newspapers during the 1928 campaign. The ad described in detail how the Republican administrations of Harding and Coolidge had "reduced hours and increased earning capacity, silenced discontent, put the proverbial 'chicken in every pot.' And a car in every backyard, to boot." The ad concluded that a vote for Hoover would be a vote for continued prosperity.Hoover did make a variety of optimistic statements during the campaign, such as, "the slogan of progress is changing from the full dinner pail to the full garage," and "given a chance to go forward with the policies of the last eight years, and we shall soon with the help of God be in sight of the day when poverty will be banished from this Nation," but Hoover never promised "a chicken in every pot."Sigh... another icon bites the dust.  ::)

I'm guessing the Canadian Thanksgiving is quite different than American Thanksgiving, right?  I didn't even know they had the holiday.

The history of Thanksgiving in Canada goes back to an explorer, Martin Frobisher, who had been trying to find a northern passage to the Pacific Ocean. Frobisher's Thanksgiving was not for harvest but homecoming. He had safely returned from a search for the Northwest Passage, avoiding the later fate of Henry Hudson and Sir John Franklin. In the year 1578, he held a formal ceremony, in what is now the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, to give thanks for surviving the long journey. The feast was one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations by Europeans in North America. Frobisher was later knighted and had an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean in northern Canada named after him ? Frobisher Bay. --from Wikipedia

How about the Christmas music that started about Halloween? Retailers are pushing the beginning of the shopping season as hard as they can. Perhaps President Obama will consider a similar idea as a new stimulus?

I think the immediate issue is the veracity of scientific claims, especially those which are thoroughly mixed with serious political ramifications.

This, of course, is the story in a nutshell; there is some weak science on both sides but seems to me the better science always gets drowned out by the appeal to emotions that bubble around the end of the earth as we know it scenarios of GW. seriously flawed science that scares the crap out of us will always get more attention than the idea things aren't totally out of control and we could have a very positive impact if we tried some things... the things in question aren't the really sexy, green things that Gore et al can use to drive their political agenda (read they are practical and often cheap), so it's fingers in the ears: La, la, la, la....The other point is that what ever we do... any interaction with the natural world has both positive and negative feedbacks. We need to maximize the former while minimizing (or altogether avoiding) the latter. This is why the third theme of geography is interaction... I call it how we play the cards Mother Nature dealt and the results thereof.

.... and ... challenged scientifically ! That hacking is a good point: it can lead to a contradictorily debate !

My emphasis... both points are otherwise lost in a science v. religion debate that really isn't the point at all(MHO)

Oh, and this fits in with what has been stated by conservatives for years about how GW is a new "religion", complete with a moral code ("living green"), sins ("producing too much carbon"), indulgences ("buying/selling carbon credits"), prophets/messiahs ("Al Gore"), holy food ("organic food"), and fear of eternal punishment ("the melting of the polar caps and devastation of the earth").  

Is it a religion of love? Are they going to kill us to convert us?