Who Am I?
 | This user believes that no quantity of spelling errors can make American English a language or dialect. |
 | This user believes the European Union shoudl revert back to its original function - a free trade area - without French protectionism and a castrated CAP. |
 | This user believes Israel shoudl return to its original borders. The Crusades were a good idea but we lost tehm long ago - lets make the best of a bad situation |
 | This user drinks Coca Cola, and thinks taht those who drink Diet Coke are fools - sugar is far better for you than artifical shit. |
 | This user supports the independence of a democratic, capitalist, prosperous, and free Taiwan. |
 | This user is reading theBible |
 | This user is a carnivore. You lack a devloped appendix and have canine teeth for a reason! |
 | This user believes that London is the capital of the civilised world. |
I am a citizen of the United Kingdom. I was born in London, and live in Chorleywood, Hertfordshire. I'm a Caucasian male, aged 18 to 64, and heterosexual. I am not Jewish, despite myriad daydreams to the contrary. I am able-bodied and neurologically capable. I am a narcissist, and fear sock puppets and bumblebees, but am otherwise sound of mind. That's enough for you to know.
Whom do I admire?
I hold firmly that admiration is a long neglected sentiment. Character is unvalued, as too is personal virtue. Most people have one hero, or, at most, a handful. I count hundreds of figures, contemporary or historical, as my heroes. I will list but a handful of disparate figures (in alphabetical order) to give an idea.
- Lance Armstrong - Quite simply, the greatest sportsman in history. An inspiration to those fighting in the face of overwhelming odds, and an inspiration to those that refuse to compromise.
- Neil Armstrong - The embodiment of the Second Age of Discovery. He went where no man had gone. His first step on the moon was the pinnacle of man's achievements. Why is it that only eleven people have ever followed in his famous footsteps?
- Sir Edward Carson - The defender of the United Kingdom. He saved Northern Ireland from Irish domination, and preserved our country as it is today. It's a pity we're missing 26 counties, though.
- Winston Churchill, Duke of London - Who doesn't admire him? His defeat by Clement Attlee in 1945 remains the most disgraceful event in the recent history of our country.
- Sir Richard Doll - Proved that smoking causes cancer and heart disease. His research will, eventually, push that filthy practice off the face of the Earth.
- King Edward I of England - The greatest monarch, of any country, in history (closely followed by James I/VI. He created the independent judiciary, reformed the Royal Household, oversaw an economic revival, annexed Wales, built dozens of castles, and tried to unite the crowns of England and Scotland peacefully (although failing). Pity about his anti-Semitism.
- The Few - The 2,927 pilots of the RAF and of allied air forces, that jousted with the Luftwaffe over the skies of the British Isles. Had the Battle of Britain been lost, there can be no doubt that civilisation would have been lost, too.
- Sir Edmund Hillary - I know what you're thinking. I've already named Neil Armstrong, so Hillary's just overkill, right? Seemingly so, but Sir Edmund has two significant advantages. First, he is an incredible philanthropist, having devoted the past forty years of his life to the Sherpas. Second, he is a New Zealander.
- Daniel M. Lewin - Proved that even the average billionaire ex-commando is capable of acts of extreme heroism.
- Sir Isaac Newton - Greatest person in history. By himself, he advanced nearly every single field of science.
- Adam Smith - Creator of the modern world. Smith developed many of the ideas of capitalism, free trade, and modern economics.
- Jan Smuts - The original opponent of Apartheid. A man of too many achievements to list. One of the most remarkable figures in history.
- Steven Spielberg KBE - Spielberg is a genius, and entirely under-rated. Given that he's the most famous and bankable director in history and worth a fortune, that's saying something.
- Baroness Thatcher - Greatest woman ever, and greatest peace-time Prime Minister ever. Thatcher turned the Sick man of Europe into its most dynamic economy, ended class struggle in the UK, opposed political integration in Europe, defeated Argentina, and supported the unity of the UK.
- Duke of Wellington - Find a better commander of men, and I'll eat my hat.
- Simon Wiesenthal KBE - Most dedicated servant of humanity in the 20th Century? For decades, he slaved away to bring a smidgeon of justice to the greatest injustice in history. He didn't care that nobody paid attention to his work. His principled devotion and refusal to bow under tremendous odds mark him out as one of history's greatest 'nobodies'.
And, finally:
What do I believe?
Wikipedia is not paper. That means that I'm Wikipedistically Inclusionist. It's also worth pointing out that since life is not paper, either, I am also a proper inclusionist. Although I would rather not admit to any sort of weakness, I am a weak atheist.
I am a libertarian, but a constitutional conservative. I believe in the inherent superiority of the individual over the collective, the virtues of self- over enforced sacrifice, the power of private ownership, and free market capitalism.
I am a member of the Conservative Party. In the 2005 leadership contest, I spoiled my ballot in protest at the two abysmal candidates that we were given. His abysmal unsuitability aside, I'd be very appreciative if David Cameron would become the next Prime Minister. Failing that, I think that I might be a good choice.
Oh, and, since it's the only political issue that most plebs care about, I supported the War in Iraq. In retrospect, I'd have preferred regime change in Havana, but the idea was never floated.
What have I contributed?
As of 18th February 2007, I have made 9,374 edits of 5,151 unique pages on the English Wikipedia. My major contributions are listed here. I have written one Featured Article (#1), two Featured Lists (#1, #2), and one Good Article (#1).
I have launched four mini-projects, of varying sizes, at Wikipedia:
- I decided to try to boost the article on Jan Smuts to featured article status. Very generously, at least one person thinks that the article is good enough as it is. He is wrong. It may get there some day, but not quite yet.
- More recently, noticing that the number of articles on diplomacy were heavily outnumbered by all sorts of articles on obscure crap about which nobody really gives a rat's arse, I dedicated some time to creating lists of British ambassadors and High Commissioners to other countries. That got tedious, and I figured that I didn't have enough time to do it for the hundreds of countries with which the UK has had diplomatic relations. I may periodically pick this up again, but I'll never finish it, so don't bother asking.
- Being both a sports nut and Commonwealth of Nations nut, I was shocked to see that the articles on the Commonwealth Games were woefully short. So, I set about doing what little I could. That mostly involves making lots of navigation templates that nobody will ever use. However, I am happier with this project than the previous two, as I actually finished something. How about that?
- After getting giddy at having completed something, however limited it was in value, I turned my attention to other matters. I tried to find a country about which I had a passing interest, on which there's lots of information lying about, and that had few Wikipedia articles of note (but had already been furnished with maps, because I'm awful at making them). The perfect country turned out to be Luxembourg, so I've now launched WikiProject Luxembourg to help to improve the coverage of that tiny part of Europe.
- As a diversion from my Luxembourg mini-project (which is still ongoing; rest assured of that), I decided to continue to improve the coverage of diplomacy at Wikipedia. Furthermore, I decided that the best way to improve it would be to improve to an excellent level a very small slice of the diplomatic history of the world. In the above case, it was the diplomatic history of the United Kingdom. In this case, it's the diplomatic history of New Zealand. The result can be seen here and here. Thus, in under two days and with minimal effort, I completed my second thing at Wikipedia.
