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Charlie Wilson (Texas politician)

Charles Nesbitt Wilson (June 1, 1933 – February 10, 2010) was an American politician and naval officer who was a 12-term Democratic Representative from Texas's 2nd congressional district. Wilson is best known for leading Congress into supporting Operation Cyclone, the largest-ever Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) covert operation, which during the Carter and Reagan administrations supplied military equipment to the Afghan Mujahideen during the Soviet–Afghan War. His behind-the-scenes campaign was the subject of the non-fiction book Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History by George Crile III and the subsequent film Charlie Wilson's War, in which he was portrayed by Tom Hanks.

Early life, education and naval career
Wilson was born on June 1, 1933, in the small town of Trinity, Texas, to Charles Edwin Wilson (1905–1981), an accountant for a local timber company, and Wilmuth Wilson (née Nesbitt; 1907–1985), a local florist. Wilson had one sister, Sharon, now known as Sharon Wilson Allison (who would go on to become a local chair of Planned Parenthood and then president of the International Planned Parenthood Federation).

Growing up, Wilson attended Trinity public schools and, upon graduation from Trinity High School in 1951, he attended one semester at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas, before being appointed to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. While at Annapolis, Wilson earned the second most demerits in the history of the Academy (his roommate, Robert Mullen, earned the most demerits). Wilson graduated eighth from the bottom of his class in 1956 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering, specializing in electronics.

Between 1956 and 1960, Wilson served in the United States Navy, attaining the rank of Lieutenant and serving as the Gunnery Officer on the USS John W. Weeks (DD-701). He was assigned to the Pentagon as part of an Office of Naval Intelligence unit that evaluated the Soviet Union's nuclear forces.

Early political career highlights
From a young age, Wilson took an interest in national security and foreign matters. Growing up during World War II encouraged Wilson to avidly read military history, including numerous articles and other literature on the war. This led Wilson to have a lifelong admiration for Winston Churchill. Wilson even took the opportunity as a child to "keep watch" over Trinity for Japanese aerial attacks from his post in the back yard. Wilson's early sense of patriotism and his strong interest in international affairs encouraged him to become politically active later in life.

According to Wilson himself, he first entered politics as a teenager by running a campaign against his next-door neighbor, city council incumbent Charles Hazard. When Wilson was thirteen years old, his fourteen-year-old dog entered Hazard's yard. Hazard retaliated by mixing crushed glass into the dog's food, causing fatal internal bleeding. Following this incident, Wilson obtained a driver's permit and drove ninety-six voters to the polls in his family's two-door Chevrolet. As patrons left the car, Wilson told each of them that he did not want to influence their vote, but that the incumbent Hazard had purposely killed his dog. After Hazard was defeated by a margin of 16 votes, Wilson went to his house to tell him that his black constituents voted to defeat him, and he "shouldn't poison any more dogs." Wilson cited this as "the day [he] fell in love with America."

While Wilson worked at the Pentagon, he volunteered to help in John F. Kennedy's 1960 presidential campaign. While volunteering in Kennedy's campaign, Wilson took a 30-day leave from the U.S. Navy and entered his name into the race for Texas state representative of his home district on the Democratic ticket. This action violated Navy regulations, as active-duty service members are prohibited from holding public office. When Wilson returned to duty, his family and friends went door to door campaigning. In 1961, at age 27, he was sworn into office in Austin, Texas.

Temple-Inland, Inc., an East Texas forest products producer owned by Arthur Temple, Jr., and Temple's son, Buddy Temple, employed Wilson during his incumbency in the Texas legislature, but business interests were nevertheless suspicious of Wilson's policies. While serving as a Texas state legislator for twelve years (six in the Texas House of Representatives and six in the Texas Senate), Wilson battled for the regulation of utilities, fought for Medicaid, tax exemptions for the elderly, the Equal Rights Amendment, and attempted to raise the state's minimum wage. He was also one of the few prominent Texas politicians to be pro-choice. All of these policies earned Wilson the reputation of being the "liberal from Lufkin."

Congressional politics
In 1972, Wilson was elected to the United States House of Representatives from Texas's 2nd congressional district, taking office the following January. Re-elected eleven times, Wilson thoroughly enjoyed his job and always sought to "take care of the home folks" until his resignation on October 8, 1996. Although hawkish on foreign issues, he was liberal on other issues such as women's rights, social security and abortion.

As a freshman representative, Wilson achieved the designation of the Big Thicket in Southeast Texas as a National Preserve in 1974. This early achievement made his colleagues respect his political power and Wilson quickly earned an appointment on the United States House Committee on Appropriations. During his incumbency, Wilson's colleagues regarded him as the "best horse trader in Washington" because of his ability to negotiate and trade votes with other congressmen to ensure passage of his favored bills.

Despite not having many Jewish constituents, Wilson developed a strong relationship with Israel during his entire congressional career. This bond began during Wilson's first year in Washington when the Yom Kippur War occurred. From a young age, Wilson had always supported the "underdog", and Wilson quickly went to Israel's defense as a self-proclaimed "Israeli commando". While on the appropriations committee, Wilson increased U.S. aid to Israel to $3 billion annually. Later, Wilson's close ties with Israel enabled him to collaborate with Israeli defense engineers to create and transport man-portable anti-aircraft guns into Pakistan to be used in the Soviet–Afghan War.

As for domestic policy, Wilson ceaselessly championed for the individual's rights, especially women's and minorities' rights. He continuously voted pro-choice and fought voting discrimination against African Americans. Women and African Americans were two of his largest constituent bases. Wilson respected his district's female vote so much that in 1974 he used the League of Women Voters to pass the Safe Drinking Water Act. In addition to supporting women's rights legislation, Wilson broke Washington tradition and hired female staffers. Although Wilson never had a female chief of staff, his office was filled with women who tirelessly helped the congressman. "Charlie's Angels", as they were commonly called, handled constituent problems for Wilson to ensure none of his constituents lacked in aid and support. Wilson's staff quickly drew the attention of his colleagues and media. Although rumors of scandals surrounded Wilson's office, Wilson emphatically insisted that his staff should be respected and their diligent work for the representative enabled them to have freedom to work independently of Wilson.

Wilson worked on improving Americans' lives, especially those of the underprivileged. Wilson lobbied against business interests to maintain a $3.35 per hour minimum wage. Wilson also sought to increase Medicare and Medicaid funding for the elderly, underprivileged and veterans, and gained funding to open the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Lufkin, Texas. Wilson avidly supported the individual rights to own firearms. This support created tension between Wilson and his sister Sharon Allison, but they reached an agreement that Allison would leave Wilson alone about his views on firearms, and Wilson would support Allison's pro-choice agenda.

Wilson achieved a measure of success through his horse trading capabilities. Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill appointed Wilson to the United States House Committee on Ethics in 1980 to help protect Representative John Murtha, Jr. from investigations during the Abscam scandal. In return for Wilson's appointment to this committee, O'Neill also gave him a coveted spot on the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees. Wilson also gained a position on the House Defense Appropriations subcommittee. This appointment enabled Wilson to funnel support money for Somoza in Nicaragua and support Mujahideen efforts to oust the Soviets from Afghanistan.

Soviet–Afghan War
In 1980, Wilson read an Associated Press dispatch on the congressional wires describing the refugees fleeing Soviet-occupied Afghanistan. The communist Democratic Republic of Afghanistan had taken over power during the Saur Revolution and asked the Soviet Union to help suppress resistance from the Afghan mujahideen. According to biographer George Crile III, Wilson called the staff of the United States House Committee on Appropriations dealing with "black appropriations" and requested a two-fold appropriation increase for Afghanistan. Because Wilson had just been named to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense (which is responsible for funding CIA operations), his request went through.

That was not the last time he increased the CIA budget for its Afghan operation. In 1983, he secured an additional $40 million, $17 million of which was allocated for anti-aircraft weapons to shoot down Mil Mi-24 Hind helicopters. The next year, CIA officer Gust Avrakotos directly approached Wilson—breaking the CIA's policy against lobbying Congress for money—asking Wilson for $50 million more. Wilson agreed and convinced Congress, saying, "The U.S. had nothing whatsoever to do with these people's decision to fight ... but we'll be damned by history if we let them fight with stones." Later, Wilson succeeded in giving the Afghans $300 million of unused Pentagon money before the end of the fiscal year. Thus, Wilson directly influenced the level of United States government support for the Afghan mujahideen. Wilson later said that the covert operation succeeded because "there was no partisanship or damaging leaks." Michael Pillsbury, a senior Pentagon official, used Wilson's funding to provide Stinger missiles to the Afghan resistance in a controversial decision to supply the Mujahideen with U.S.-origin state of the art weaponry.

Joanne Herring, along with others, played a role in helping the Afghan resistance fighters get support and military equipment from the United States government. She persuaded Wilson to visit the Pakistani leadership, and after meeting with them he was taken to a major Pakistan-based Afghan refugee camp so he could see for himself the atrocities committed by the Soviets against the Afghan people. About that visit, Wilson later said that "the experience that will always be seared in my memory, was going through those hospitals and seeing, especially those children with their hands blown off from the mines that the Soviets were dropping from their helicopters. That was perhaps the deciding thing ... and it made a huge difference for the next 10 or 12 years of my life because I left those hospitals determined, as long as I had a breath in my body and was a member in Congress, that I was going to do what I could to make the Soviets pay for what they were doing!" In 2008, Wilson said he had "got involved in Afghanistan because I went there and I saw what the Soviets were doing. And I saw the refugee camps."

For his efforts, Wilson was presented with the Honored Colleague Award by the CIA. He became the first civilian to receive the award. However, Wilson's role remains controversial because most of the aid was supplied to Islamist hardliner Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who has been accused of serious war crimes and later allied with the Taliban after the U.S. invasion.

The decision of the Soviet Union to withdraw from Afghanistan and declare the invasion a mistake led to Wilson commending the Soviet leadership on the floor of the House of Representatives. He also supported United States involvement in the Bosnian War, touring the former Yugoslavia over five days in January 1993; on his return he urged the Clinton administration to lift the arms embargo on Bosnia, remarking "This is good versus evil and, if we do not want to Americanize this, then what do we want to Americanize? We have to stand for something."

During Charlie Wilson's visit to Afghanistan, he met Jalaluddin Haqqani. He wanted to fire a Stinger missile at one of the Soviet helicopters. Haqqani was happy to make Charlie Wilson's wartime wish come true. They dragged chains and tires on the road to create a dust cloud, which would attract Soviet helicopters. However, none of the Soviet helicopters showed up and Charlie Wilson was unable to fire any missiles.

"Good Time Charlie"
Wilson unashamedly lived an extravagant and flamboyant life. Beginning in his naval years, Wilson enjoyed partying and having nights on the town. Wilson was a self-proclaimed "ladies' man" and the news media reported on his exotic bedroom, complete with hot tub and handcuffs where he engaged in romantic affairs. Wilson's "Good Time Charlie" image was first exposed to the public in a 1978 column by Kathleen McLean in The Washington Post.

Over the course of his congressional career, when reporters questioned Wilson about his constituents' view of their representative, Wilson reported that they knew they were not electing a "constipated monk" to office. Wilson unashamedly embraced his playboy persona and never played down his "Good Time" image in public.

Wilson's enjoyment of parties led him to invest with two Texas businessmen to open the Elan–Washington Club. To increase the number of club patrons, Wilson passed out memberships to his congressional colleagues. Halfway through his passing out memberships, Wilson decided that his actions might not be deemed ethical by congress and commented that he "was ethicized right out of business".

Throughout the course of his life, Wilson drank heavily, which may have been a factor in his divorce from Jerry. While in Washington, Wilson became a functioning alcoholic and suffered from severe bouts of depression and insomnia, and his drinking intensified during his involvement in Afghanistan. Wilson's drunkenness also led to a scandal in 1980 when an eyewitness reported that Wilson's Lincoln Continental hit a Mazda in a hit-and-run accident on the Key Bridge in Washington, D.C., the night before his first trip to Pakistan. Although he was never convicted, this accident illustrates Wilson's recklessness with alcohol.

During one of his foreign excursions, Wilson was transported to a hospital in Germany where doctors told Wilson his heart was failing due to his excessive drinking. Wilson sought a second and third opinion at hospitals in Bethesda and Houston and the German doctors' conclusions were confirmed: Wilson had to stop drinking. After these diagnoses, Wilson quit drinking hard liquor but continued to drink wine for several years. His excessive drinking and associated heart problems forced Wilson to have a heart transplant in September 2007. Overcoming his struggle with alcoholism, Wilson finally quit drinking after marrying Barbara Alberstadt, a former ballerina, in 1999.

In addition to alcohol abuse, Wilson allegedly used illegal drugs. In 1980, Wilson was accused of using cocaine at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, but an investigation by Justice Department attorney Rudy Giuliani was dropped due to lack of evidence. Liz Wickersham told investigators that she saw Wilson use cocaine only once in the Cayman Islands, but this was outside United States jurisdiction. In "The Charlie Wilson Real Story", Wilson reveals he traveled to Las Vegas in the summer of 1980, and recalls an experience with two strippers in a hot tub.

"The girls had cocaine, and the music was loud. It was total happiness. And both of them had ten long, red fingernails with an endless supply of beautiful white powder ... The feds spent a million bucks trying to figure out whether, when those fingernails passed under my nose, did I inhale or exhale, and I ain't telling."

In 2007, when questioned about his past alleged cocaine use, Wilson reaffirmed: "Nobody knows the answer to that and I ain't telling."

In addition to his "Angels" in the office, Wilson always had a female escort when he was not on the House floor. Wilson's primary motivator to be on the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees was so he always had a place to take a date. Also, following his second trip to Pakistan, Wilson always brought a female companion with him. At one point he even brought Carol Shannon to entertain his hosts with her belly dancing ability. Bringing women to Pakistan created tension between Wilson and the CIA in 1987 when the agency refused to fund his girlfriend's travel expenses. In response, Wilson cut the agency's funding the next year. According to businesswoman and political activist Joanne Herring, Wilson cared about his dates and enjoyed being romantic and caring. Although he was an "unapologetic sexist, chauvinistic redneck", he attracted many women over a number of years.

Wilson has been said to have lived life as "one big party", and lived by the mantra that he could "take his job seriously without taking himself seriously".

Retirement
Wilson declined to run for re-election in 1996 and became a lobbyist for Pakistan before retiring to Lufkin. He donated his congressional papers to Stephen F. Austin State University. In 1999, he married Barbara Alberstadt, his second wife. Wilson received a heart transplant in 2007, and continued to follow the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where he expressed concerns about events in that region. In July 2009, the University of Texas System Board of Regents established the Charles N. Wilson Chair in Pakistan Studies, which encourages research in the geopolitical importance of Pakistan, as well as its culture, history, and literature.

Death

Wilson died at the age of 76 on February 10, 2010, at Memorial Health System of East Texas at Lufkin (now the CHI St. Luke's Health Memorial Lufkin) in Lufkin, Texas, after collapsing earlier in the day. He suffered from cardiopulmonary arrest. "America has lost an extraordinary patriot whose life showed that one brave and determined person can alter the course of history," said Robert Gates, then United States Secretary of Defense.

Wilson received a graveside service with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery on February 23, 2010.

A six-piece jazz band punctuated each eulogy with Charlie's favorites "As Time Goes By", "My Way", and in honor of his years as a naval intelligence officer "Anchors Aweigh", and "Navy Hymn".

"He will be missed from the Golan Heights to the Khyber Pass, from the Caspian to the Suez and the halls in Congress, for his civility, and willingness to listen and help and not posture," said John Wing, who worked closely with Wilson on global issues, the two forming a dynamic force in Afghanistan, as well as other regions.

The front rows of the school's Temple Theater were packed with people such as Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, former U.S. Representative Martin Frost, former Lieutenant Governor Ben Barnes and Houston gas titan Oscar Wyatt and his wife Lynn.

After Sunday's service, his widow Barbara welcomed a small group of her late husband's intimates to their home on the golf course in Lufkin. Next to an American eagle sculpture in the living room, the words of Abdur Rahman Khan, emir of Afghanistan from 1880 to 1901, are emblazoned on a brass plaque: "My spirit will remain in Afghanistan even though my soul will go to God. My last words to you my son and successor are: Never Trust the Russians."

In popular culture
Wilson's successful effort to increase the funding of the anti-Soviet Afghan war was revealed in the book Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History (2003), by George Crile III. In the 2007 film adaptation Charlie Wilson's War, actor Tom Hanks portrayed Wilson. The film portrayed him as a politically incorrect swashbuckler who liked the company of beautiful women.

On December 27, 2007, the History Channel broadcast The True Story of Charlie Wilson, a two-hour documentary about the congressman's Afghan war efforts and his personal life.

title: Charlie Wilson (Texas politician)


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June Rowlands

June Rowlands (née Pendock; May 14, 1924 – December 21, 2017) was a Canadian politician who was the 60th mayor of Toronto from 1991 to 1994. She was the first woman to serve as Toronto's mayor. Rowlands also served as a city councillor and was chair of the Metropolitan Toronto Police Commission.

Early years
Rowlands was born as June Pendock in 1924 in Saint-Laurent, Quebec, and raised in Toronto. She graduated from the University of Toronto. Before public life Rowlands worked as a customer representative with Bell Canada. Rowlands served with the Association of Women Electors and National Council on Welfare in the 1970s.

She was also president of the Metro Family Service Association and served on the board of directors of the Central Mortgage and Housing Corp.

She and her husband Harry Rowlands (1922–1989), whom she divorced, raised five children.

Political career
Rowlands was elected to Toronto City Council in 1976. She served as the junior alderman for Ward 10 covering Rosedale and part of North Toronto. In 1978, she topped the vote in her ward becoming its senior alderman with the added duty of sitting on Metro Council. In the 1980s, as a Metro Councillor, she was appointed to sit in the Toronto Transit Commission becoming the first woman member of that body. She attempted to enter federal politics by running for the Liberal Party of Canada in the 1984 federal election. She ran in the suburban riding of York—Scarborough, far from her electoral base in the old City of Toronto, and was defeated by Progressive Conservative Paul McCrossan.

Rowlands remained on both Metro and Toronto City Councils until the 1988 municipal election in which she did not run but accepted an appointment as Chair of the Police Commission. In 1991, she left the commission after being replaced as commissioner by Susan Eng.

Mayor of Toronto
Rowlands was elected mayor in 1991 after a campaign that focused on law and order. The election began with a group of three centre-right women: Rowlands, Susan Fish, and Betty Disero. The left was mostly unified behind City Councillor Jack Layton. Eventually, right wing support coalesced around Rowlands, and she was elected by a two-to-one margin over Layton after the withdrawal of her fellow female candidates.

Rowlands is commonly associated with a 1991 incident in which the emerging Toronto pop group Barenaked Ladies was barred from performing at the city's annual New Year's Eve show at Nathan Phillips Square on the grounds that the group's name objectified women. Rowlands maintained that the decision was taken by city staff in the Protocol Office, not herself.

After one term in office, Rowlands was defeated in 1994 by Barbara Hall, and retired from politics.

Death
Rowlands died in her sleep at a long-term care facility in downtown Toronto on December 21, 2017, aged 93.

Toronto Mayor John Tory offered his condolences, and flags at Toronto City Hall, Metro Hall and other civic centres were lowered to half-mast until December 29, 2017.

June Rowlands Park
June Rowlands Park, formerly Davisville Park, was renamed in 2004 in recognition for her dedication to the City of Toronto. Located on the northwest corner of Davisville Avenue and Mount Pleasant Road (within her old Ward 10), the park is the recreational hub of the area, with a baseball diamond, a children's playground named after Sharon, Lois and Bram, and a wading pool. The Davisville Tennis Club operates six courts along the north side of the park on Millwood Road.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: June Rowlands


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Cooperative Baptist Fellowship

The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF) is a Baptist Christian denomination in the United States, established after the conservative resurgence within The Southern Baptist Convention. It is affiliated with the Baptist World Alliance, and headquartered in Decatur, Georgia. According to a census published in 2023, the CBF claimed 1,800 churches and 750,000 members.

History
The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has its origins in a meeting in Atlanta in 1990 of a group of theologically moderate churches within The Southern Baptist Convention disagreeing about the control of the direction of the convention by fundamentalists, as well as the opposition to the ordination of women. The denomination was officially founded in 1991.

By 1996, the fellowship had 1,400 churches and was still affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. In 1998, it began ordaining chaplains.

In 2002, it officially left the Southern Baptist Convention and became a member of the Baptist World Alliance. By 2018, the Kentucky Baptist Convention within the Southern Baptist Convention proceeded with the excommunication of churches having a dual affiliation with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, due to a relaxation allowing hiring of non-executive LGBT staff.

Since the first quarter of the 21st century, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship officially partnered with the National Baptist Convention of America, similar to the American Baptist Churches USA and Progressive National Baptists fellowship agreement of 1970.

Organization
There are CBF-affiliated churches in 43 out of the 50 states. Alongside the national CBF, there are 19 state and regional organizations that are affiliated with CBF and help provide churches with local resources. As of 2015, it has 1 affiliated theological institute, the Baptist Seminary of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky.

Beliefs
The denomination has a Baptist confession of faith.

The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, like the Southern Baptist Convention from which it split, does not enforce particular beliefs upon congregations, as is congruent with traditional Baptist theology. The fellowship's "understanding of Baptist faith and practice is expressed by [their] emphasis on freedom in biblical interpretation and congregational governance, the participation of women and men in all aspects of church leadership and Christian ministry, and religious liberty for all people." The CBF also ascribes to the "Four Fragile Freedoms" as developed in The Baptist Identity: Four Fragile Freedoms by Walter Shurden. CBF interprets these freedoms as: soul freedom, Bible freedom, church freedom, and religious freedom.

Affirmation of women in ministry was one of the founding principles of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Most CBF members agree that both men and women may be ordained as ministers or deacons and serve as pastors of churches.

On social issues, the CBF does not issue position statements. CBF members agree that as it is a fellowship of autonomous churches, issuing statements would be beyond its purpose. It does have an organizational policy on homosexual behavior. However, CBF policies are not binding on individual congregations which make their own decisions regarding any issue; neither can a congregation be excluded from the CBF for disagreeing with core values or policies. In 2016, the CBF co-sponsored a conference on sexuality and initiated the "'Illumination Project' approved by the Governing Board (formerly the Coordinating Council) to develop models for the Fellowship community to air differences not only about the hiring ban but also other hot-button issues dividing churches, denominations and society". In 2018, the Affirming Network for full LGBTQ inclusion and affirmation was founded.

title: Cooperative Baptist Fellowship


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The New Statesman (1987 TV series)

The New Statesman is a British sitcom made in the late 1980s and early 1990s satirising the United Kingdom's Conservative government of the period. It was written by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran at the request of, and as a starring vehicle for, its principal actor Rik Mayall.

The show's theme song is an arrangement by Alan Hawkshaw of part of the Promenade from Pictures at an Exhibition by Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky.

The programme was made by the ITV franchise Yorkshire Television between 1987 and 1992, although the BBC made two special episodes; one in 1988, the other in 1994. It won the BAFTA Award for Best Comedy Series in 1991.

Cast list

 * Rik Mayall as Alan B'Stard MP
 * Michael Troughton as Piers Fletcher-Dervish MP
 * Marsha Fitzalan as Sarah B'Stard
 * Rowena Cooper as Norman/Norma Bormann (Series 1; she was credited as "R. R. Cooper" in all but episode six, in order to keep her gender uncertain)
 * Charles Gray as Roland Gidleigh-Park (Series 1)
 * Vivien Heilbron as Beatrice Protheroe (Series 1)
 * Steve Nallon as Mrs Thatcher (Series 1–2)
 * John Nettleton as Sir Stephen Baxter (Series 1–2)
 * Nick Stringer as Bob Crippen (Series 1–2)
 * Berwick Kaler as Geoff Diquead (Series 2)
 * Terence Alexander as Sir Greville McDonald (Series 2–4)
 * Brigitte Kahn as Frau Kleist MEP, who shares Alan's office for most of Series 4.
 * Peter Sallis as Sidney Bliss, (played by John Normington in the special Who Shot...) a former hangman and current publican in Alan's constituency
 * John Woodvine as Sir Malachi Jellicoe (Series 1)
 * Benjamin Whitrow as Paddy O'Rourke

Alan Beresford B'Stard MP
B'Stard was a selfish, greedy, dishonest, lecherous, ultra-right-wing Conservative backbencher who occasionally resorted to murder to fulfil his ambitions. The show was mostly set in B'Stard's antechambers in the Palace of Westminster and featured Piers Fletcher-Dervish, B'Stard's gullible upper-class sidekick. B'Stard shares a middle name with Norman Tebbit.

B'Stard was MP for the then-fictional constituency of Haltemprice (in 1997, re-drawn boundaries led to the constituency of Boothferry in East Yorkshire being renamed "Haltemprice and Howden"). Goldsborough Hall was used to portray his Yorkshire country residence and was used as a backdrop for the opening photo sequences along with some exterior shots in the first series, including the scene where he tries to run over the gardener in his Bentley. The town of Knaresborough, North Yorkshire was used to film the opening election sequence in the first episode and roads around Goldsborough were used to shoot the police car chase from the first series where the policeman's gun backfires. Some city scenes were not filmed in London, but Leeds, with Leeds Town Hall used as the High Court.

Alan was the youngest MP at the age of 31, and was a distillation of the greed and callousness that were considered the hallmarks of new money Thatcherites. B'Stard was married to Sarah, a vain, devious nymphomaniac who wanted nothing more than for Alan to die so she could become a rich widow. The couple cheated on each other in perpetuity but remained in a marriage of convenience; Sarah because of Alan's money and Alan because Sarah's father controlled the local Tory Party and held Alan's seat in his gift.

Alan's schemes grew wilder and more bold as the series progressed taking in bribery, murder and provoking trade union disputes to make a profit. Later, B'Stard would intentionally mismanage the Tory election campaign so Labour would be blamed for an economic crisis, stage his own assassination to bring back hanging (and make £1 million in the process). In the last episode he creates splits in both the Tory and Labour parties and names himself Lord Protector.

Whatever crises and scandals swirled around the evil B'Stard, he would always come up smelling of roses. When accused of engaging in sex acts with minors, Alan successfully sued The Times newspaper; when he plotted to get his hands on the stolen millions of Robert Maxwell who was hiding in Bosnia he was hailed as a humanitarian hero. Even when Alan was sentenced to death he managed to escape the noose and retain his position in Parliament. B'Stard's greatest triumph came when he managed to get himself released from incarceration in a Siberian gulag following his assassination attempt on Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev and returned to the UK a hero. Having lost his Westminster seat during his forced absence in Russia, Alan manages to procure himself a German seat in the European Union's parliament as well as getting Piers onto the European Commission, with the two of them proceeding to cause more havoc on the continent and further enhance Alan's reputation back home.

B'Stard would habitually use others to aid his quest for money and power. Sidney Bliss, the local pub landlord (and a former hangman), was completely in his power in the hope of regaining his position. Many others – old Nazis, Cabinet ministers and even Salman Rushdie – would regularly pay to buy his silence.

A running joke throughout the series was that, despite his extreme good looks and how easy it was for him to pursue his constant womanising, B'Stard was very under-endowed and suffered from premature ejaculation. A good quantity of women he bedded would be disappointed or contemptuous of his abilities in bed, despite his delusion that they must have enjoyed his sexual company as much as he did theirs. In fact, he thinks it a sign of virility that he's able to be so quick in bed.

In the stage show it was revealed that Alan had been the architect of New Labour when he realised the Tories were done for (effectively ignoring the last episode of the series), picking a young guitar-playing hippie named Tony Blair and grooming him to be PM. B'Stard transformed Labour into a second Conservative Party, eradicating socialism and effectively running the country from his palatial office at Number 9 Downing Street. The show saw an older Alan, fabulously rich after orchestrating Black Wednesday, still up to his old tricks playing America and Al-Qaeda off each other in the hunt for weapons of mass destruction. By now, Alan is onto his fourth wife (Arabella Lucretia B'Stard), although the show's first run saw Sarah still firmly in place.

Rik Mayall's death on 9 June 2014 prompted Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran to also kill B'Stard by writing an obituary for him (with B'Stard's date of death the same as Mayall's). It is explained that Alan died while making love to his two faithful Polynesian masseurs and states that B'Stard went on to marry Lady Gaga, his fifth wife and left behind five children and twelve grandchildren. It is also revealed that B'Stard's birth date is 29 February.

The Hon. Sir Piers Fletcher-Dervish, Baronet MP
Alan's bumbling fellow MP who helps out with his schemes, which at times Piers complicates or outright foils with his naivety. Alan frequently bullies Piers into following his commands and exploits his childlike personality for his own gain. Piers remains loyal to Alan despite the abuse the latter subjects him to. Any attempts at refusing or rebelling against him tend to end painfully. Instances of abuse include Alan tying Piers' beloved childhood teddy bear to a chair and setting it on fire during a psychotic episode after Piers was promoted to junior ministerial position, and Alan threatening to kill Piers's new-born son Gervais to force him into vacating his seat in order to get Sir Greville back into parliament. Piers owes his position largely to nepotism, with his safe Conservative seat "south of Watford" having been held by members of the Fletcher-Dervish family for generations.

Sarah B'Stard
Alan's materialistic wife who almost equals her husband in his capacity for cruelty and sexual deviancy. Despite coming from a wealthy background herself, she married Alan for his money and to further her social status, being far more invested in her hedonistic desires than his welfare, which she willingly compromises numerous times throughout the series. Throughout the series she has had affairs with Alan's election and political agent Beatrice Protheroe, Cabinet minister Sir Greville McDonald, and possibly even Piers Fletcher-Dervish.

Sir Greville McDonald
Sir Greville was introduced in the final episode of series 2, portrayed as a corrupt cabinet minister who recruited an unwitting Piers as junior Minister for Housing in order to 'nod through' the provision of heritage site subsidies for some of his various property investments. Sir Greville had his first dealings with B'Stard in this episode who implied he would expose him unless he agreed a similar arrangement for B'Stard, and thus became a suspect for the audience in Alan's shooting at the episode's climax. By the time of Alan's 'miraculous recovery', Sir Greville had been promoted by Thatcher to Minister for Law and Order and negotiated with Alan for the return of the gallows (earning himself a finder's fee of £50,000). Sir Greville found it particularly amusing when B'Stard was sentenced to death and in fact spent the night of Alan's planned execution with the condemned man's wife.

Greville can be viewed as an older and more restrained version of B'Stard. Just as quick to make shady money and with somewhat sordid personal tastes but with a stronger respect for parliamentary institutions and the Conservative Party itself. Greville in fact places the good of the Tory Party far above the good of the country and says as much in the last episode.

By series 3, Greville is Secretary of State for the Environment and has developed a love-hate relationship with B'Stard which eventually evolves into a mutual respect. Series 4 found Greville out of Parliament after the 1992 election when local voters disagreed with his decision to place a nuclear waste plant in the middle of his own constituency. After some persuasion from B'Stard, Greville takes over Piers' seat and becomes Secretary of State for European Affairs, thus ensuring a wealth of opportunities to connive with Alan in Europe. The last episode saw Greville split with Alan and become part of The Progressive Federalists who were soundly thrashed by Alan's New Patriotic Party at the polls.

Sir Stephen Baxter
An elderly backbench Conservative MP who shared the office with Alan and Piers during the first two series. Sir Stephen's morally uptight old-school attitude and respect for parliamentary protocol meant that he contrasted sharply with the self-centred Alan and the clueless Piers, serving as further comic foil to bounce the two of them off. Despite being in parliament for a very long time he has been consigned to the back benches for many years after taking the fall in a scandal involving another minister who would go on to become Secretary of State for Wales. Alan has little respect for him and is more than willing to exploit Sir Stephen's helpful and professional nature for his own ends, including plagiarising one of Sir Stephen's speeches in the Commons in order to ensure that Alan's Private Member's Bill on arming the police would pass into law. He is last seen in Series 2 when, having already been alienated by the introduction of TV cameras and film crews into the House of Commons, Sir Stephen witnesses Piers inflating a blow-up Alan B'Stard doll in a suggestive manner. Sir Stephen gives Piers a stern telling-off before declaring that he "might as well accept that peerage" and then leaves the office, suggesting that he moved up to the House of Lords.

Roland Gidleigh-Park
Roland is Sarah's xenophobic father and leader of the local Conservatives. His power means that B'Stard must maintain his favour to keep his seat. Unlike B'Stard, he cares for the Haltemprice constituency.

Norman/Norma Bormann
Norman is Alan's accountant and personal confidante. After being forced into hiding by being pursued by the authorities, Norman handles this problem through undergoing a sex-change, and throughout the first series the effects of this happen rapidly.

Sidney Bliss
Sidney is an elderly, neurotic publican in Alan's Yorkshire constituency, doubling as an infrequent assistant. As a former hangman with an obsessive love for the method of execution, he asks Alan for the chance to get his old career back.

In the special Who Shot..., he managed to regain his old position when the death penalty was re-introduced. After Alan's unsuccessful and half-hearted lobbying of Sir Greville McDonald for Sidney's reinstatement as a hangman, Sidney blackmailed Sir Greville into reinstating him, threatening to tell the newspapers that he carried out the secret execution of Lord Lucan in 1974, ten years after the abolition of the death penalty in 1964. Sidney likely lost his position as hangman, as well as his chance to 'tour' South Africa and South America, after Alan survived his execution due to the gallows' construction from balsa wood.

Bob Crippen
Bob Crippen is the self-righteous but short-tempered Labour MP who represents the deprived inner city constituency of Bramall, and, like B'Stard, has a large majority. Crippen is B'Stard's first established rival in the series. His political career followed time spent working in the car manufacturing industry and as a trade union representative.

Beatrice Protheroe
Beatrice Protheroe was Alan's election agent during the 1987 general election, subsequently becoming his political agent when he became an MP. She was having an affair with Sarah, Alan's wife and an old school friend. She appeared only in the first series, with her subsequent absence being left unexplained.

Filming
Goldsborough Hall was used to portray B'Stard's Yorkshire residence and was used as a backdrop for the opening photo sequences along with some exterior shots in the first series. The town of Knaresborough, North Yorkshire was used to film the opening election sequence in the first episode and roads around Goldsborough were used to shoot the police car chase from the first series. Some city scenes were not filmed in London, but Leeds, with Leeds Town Hall used as the High Court. Bramham Park was used as Piers' fiancé Clarissa's family home in the series 2 episode "May The Best Man Win".

Political ideals
Over the course of the series, stage shows and newspaper columns, Alan opined on numerous topics, most of which demonstrated his contempt for the working class and indeed anyone not of the political and financial elite (the ordinaries). During an argument with a constituent, B'Stard declared that he believed he was helping British industry by driving a Bentley (a Lagonda In series 4) and having his suits handmade by British craftsmen. B'Stard's arrogance even extended to claiming that there was nothing wrong with the education system that could not be put right with £2,500 a term, and that National Health Service (NHS) waiting lists could be abolished by shutting down the health service, thereby eradicating poor people and eliminating poverty. B'Stard continued this train of thought through his defection to New Labour when he was instrumental in arranging a postcode lottery for cancer treatment so that "only the right people get better".

B'Stard has demonstrated a willingness to ignore his 'principles', supposedly championing causes he does not believe in, in the pursuit of profit or other personal benefits. Having stated that he is a libertarian and thus believes that pornography, prostitution and drugs should be commercially available to willing consumers (including himself), he once supported a parliamentary anti-pornography group and the efforts of Lady Virginia Imry to publish her pamphlet "Sex is Wrong". In another instance, he endorsed environmentalism after a staged assassination attempt to campaign for the reintroduction of the death penalty by hanging (supposedly as an environmentally-friendly alternative to electrocution and a stronger deterrent to crime than lethal injection), with himself winning the contract to build new gallows. In most of these circumstances, he will claim to represent an organisation with an unwieldy long name and the acronym C.A.S.H. (i.e., the Christian Association for Society Handbooks or Central Amazonian Spiritual Healers) in order to fraudulently cash cheques from unsuspecting donors.

Alan at one time proposed inverting the rallying cry of the American War of Independence by stating that "No representation without taxation" was a more fitting clarion call, believing people such as himself (the "enterprising, over-taxed minority") to be called on far too often to bail out other members of society (albeit as part of a long-term scheme to disenfranchise Labour voters in Hackney and ensure the election of a Conservative borough council that would support oil exploration in Hackney Marshes). Alan used the same argument when proposing to cut off all social security payments to elderly people as he believes they should have considered how they would look after themselves instead of wasting their money on "ghastly holidays in Blackpool". When being interviewed by Brian Walden, Alan readily conceded that should he rule, the rich would only pay tax on their cocaine, children would be forced to work in mills and the elderly and infirm would be left to die by the thousands. In this same interview, B'Stard espoused English nationalist views, stating that he would support Scottish and Welsh independence but establish neocolonial economic ties to England, as well as anti-immigration views, proposing the construction of a thirty-foot-tall electrified 'B'Stard's Fence'.

Audience reaction
The sitcom was one of the most critically successful ITV comedy series of its day, and developed a strong following: the audience laughter was so loud and persistent that it apparently caused the show to overrun and the writers had to shorten the scripts to compensate.

Rik Mayall said of the audience reaction he received "In the first series people were saying 'Gosh, isn't Rik Mayall good-looking?' but by the second they were saying 'Gosh, isn't Rik Mayall a good actor?' and that's all I ever really wanted."

The Sunday Telegraph
Tying in with the original run of the stage show, British broadsheet newspaper The Sunday Telegraph ran a weekly opinion column penned by Alan B'Stard himself (in reality his creators, Marks and Gran). In it, Mr B'Stard writes as the founder of New Labour and effective ruler of the country, commenting on the week's events in politics, often referring to his frustrations with Tony and the rest of the cabinet. The column is written to suggest that the stage show is actually written by B'Stard himself as a method of communicating his achievements to 'the ordinaries'. One column mentioned how after Alan's divorce from his wife (a sub-plot of the original stage show), the ex-Mrs B'Stard "came over all dead".

New Statesman magazine
A bi-weekly opinion column first appeared in New Statesman magazine in 2010. As with the columns in The Sunday Telegraph and the Daily Mail, the articles are written as if by B'Stard himself as dictated to Marks and Gran. In these latest columns, B'Stard is now a Lord, (his final Sunday Telegraph piece seeing him leave the Commons and the country to become head of the World Bank) but still commentating on current events.

title: The New Statesman (1987 TV series)


text:
Talk:Sarah Josepha Hale

Untitled
I deleted the image, because it was taken from http://www.womenwriters.net/domesticgoddess/hale1.html, which explicity says 'Images from Godey's Lady's Book copyright Hope Greenberg, University of Vermont. Used by permission.'

It was written in the 19th century. You made a mistake. Live with it and let me continue working. Alexandros 23:02, 11 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Should we risk a lawsuit from Ms. Greenberg? RickK 23:03, 11 Nov 2003 (UTC)

I've contacted Ms. Greenberg, I will report on her response. RickK 23:16, 11 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Oh my goodness people! This is such a terribly written article! Please someone fix it! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.138.41.185 (talk) 23:12, 9 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Thanks... WP:SOFIXIT. --Midnightdreary (talk) 23:16, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

i agree ms.greenberg should be reported soon. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.42.55.79 (talk) 23:08, 29 November 2012 (UTC)

Incorporating poetry in context
Someone added the text of Hale's most famous poem; and Midnightdreary assessed the poem as unnecessary. In contrast, I'm persuaded that this poem is a meaningful addition, potentially useful to prospective readers.
 * diff 01:00, 30 November 2008 User:Tenmei  ... Undid revision 254870775 by Midnightdreary -- not unhelpful, not ridiculous, not POV -- see talk?
 * diff 22:42, 29 November 2008 User:Midnightdreary ... Removed as unnecessary and ridiculously POV

Perhaps this aspect of the article deserves further discussion? --Tenmei (talk) 01:15, 30 November 2008 (UTC)
 * Sorry if it seemed harsh. The POV seemed pretty obvious to me: "most famous work" is not neutral but a judgment. Of course, I also think that having full poems in articles is particularly unnecessary (see guidelines at WP:POETRY for links to some relevant policies and guidelines). Besides, there's already a full article on "Mary's Lamb". Let me ask you: how do you feel the full text of the poem (in its modern incarnation) is helpful in an article on a woman who was one of the most influential woman critics/editors of her day? --Midnightdreary (talk) 02:45, 30 November 2008 (UTC)
 * Tenmei, I agree with Midnightdreary, it is not important to put the poem in the article, besides the poem having its own article, you can also find it by using the Wikisource link at the bottom of Hale's page. Lets not distract from her many good works and interesting life. (I am glad to see more people interested in this lovely lady.) - Epousesquecido (talk) 05:02, 30 November 2008 (UTC)
 * I'm going to go ahead and remove it. If there is further support for including it, it would have to be under a different heading ("Most famous work" is inappropriate), formatted correctly (using the "poem" tag), and after her biography. I'm sorry if I sound uncivil, but this addition was pretty unjustifiable all around. --Midnightdreary (talk) 15:05, 2 December 2008 (UTC)
 * My question wasn't merely rhetorical -- I really didn't understand the reasons why the addition was unhelpful; and now I'm better informed about why it can be construed as a distraction. I simply didn't see it; and my uncertainty in terms of Mary had a little lamb was informed by poetry excerpts I'd incorporated in a number of articles, e.g.,
 * Emperor Temmu (c. 631-686); Man'yōshū
 * Empress Jitō (645–702); Hyakunin Isshu
 * Yukio Ozaki (1858–1954)
 * Nisei
 * Sansei; Lawson Fusao Inada (1938- )
 * Context matters, of course. Does the reasoning applied in this instance extend to articles with an arguably different cultural context? --Tenmei (talk) 16:48, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Northwoods
Not sure why there is such confusion over the title of a book. It seems to have two titles; the trick is finding which came first. Here's the 1827 version from New York  --Midnightdreary (talk) 13:25, 12 December 2009 (UTC)

Saint Sarah?
There is a link to the saints portal at the end of this article, and the article itself is categorized under Category:Anglican saints. A quick Google search did not produce any evidence that Sarah Josepha Hale has been canonized or anything. What gives? --Midnightdreary (talk) 15:38, 9 May 2011 (UTC)

 * Apparently (according to April 30) she is commemorated on the anniversary of her death in the Episcopal Church. I actually got here via that link. I don't think that means she's been "canonized" in the sense in which that term is used in Roman Catholicism, nor that "Saint" is the appropriate title; perhaps the implied level of veneration is more similar to "beatification/Blessed". But I'm a Baptist and not an expert on the details of either the Episcopal or the Catholic systems of doling out sainthood. But if she is in fact on the Episcopal calendar of "lesser feasts" or whatever they call them, then that ought to be mentioned in this article (and if she's not then she ought to be removed from the April 30 "Holidays and Observances" list). --Haruo (talk) 19:21, 24 April 2024 (UTC)

 * I have seen it in that article as well. However, the information would need to be carefully cited here to a reliable source in order to be mentioned -- as it should be on the April 30 article too. --Midnightdreary (talk) 20:21, 24 April 2024 (UTC)

Moved to Philadelphia
An account of how Thanksgiving went national in the Philadelphia Inquirer says that Godey allowed Hale to stay in Boston until her son's graduation, after which she moved to Philadelphia. Can someone research just when that was and include the move in this article?--DThomsen8 (talk) 01:36, 30 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Reassessed this from a "Start" to a "C," at least. Could we call this a "B class" article even without that info? Djembayz (talk) 23:54, 28 November 2013 (UTC)

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title: Talk:Sarah Josepha Hale