User:SwedishConqueror

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I'm a young man from the Mid-Atlantic, and I am currently a college Freshman. I can't believe it! I'm going to school just outside of Washington, D.C., and I'm majoring in Political Science. I enjoy history, novels, and, obviously, politics. I'm kind of in-between on the political scale, but I'd say I lean towards the Democrats, even though I agree with some of what President Bush does.

I have recently read:

A Tale of Two Cities, perhaps the most inspiring novel I've ever picked up and one that will be with me for the rest of my life
1901: A Novel, an interesting alternative history book about a German invasion of the United States in the summer of 1901.

Also, I'm of Swedish heritage and am very proud.

I have a developing interest in Latin America, particularly the ongoing situation in Cuba. I really hope that Fidel Castro is out of power for good. I feel that the United States should initiate a direct military intervention in Cuba, culminating hopefully with the eventual annexation of the island and its restoration to democratic government through the election of a colonial governor under the United States. With our influence, Cuba can be safe and propsperous as it once was in the days before Theodore Roosevelt granted it its independence in 1903.

Short of that, I at least wish for our forces to assist the Cubans in an orderly and successful transition to democracy.

I am a great proponet of benevolent American colonial rule, and believe that the surrender of our colonies in the early 20th Century was a colossal mistake (not that it was able to stop the great American military machine from triumphing in two World Wars).

The United States used to own: Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, the Panama Canal, the Philippines, the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, and virtually Liberia. The vast majority of these nations enjoyed a more affluent and stable existence under American government than they have since experienced independent of it.

We currently control Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and a number of smaller territories. These colonies are profoundly better off for our influence and protection.

[edit] My Ponytail

I am a reasonably attractive person. I am eighteen years old.

Perhaps my dominant physical feature, aside from my slenderness, is my ponytail. It is very long and has been growing now for four years. It is so long that it sometimes gets caught in the straps of my backpack, and I will often find it stuck under my shoulder when I'm sleeping.

I began growing it on May 22, 2002, and have not had a real haircut since I was fourteen.

MY PONYTAIL IS SEVENTEEN INCHES LONG

How many guys do you know who can say that? It's SO long that I can actually chew on it. I can put it in my mouth--I don't like to, though, 'cause if you're gonna grow it really long like mine, you've got know how to take care of it.

I tried to make a category with Wikipedians with ponytails at least a foot long, but they deleted it 'cause there weren't enough people. Think about that! A foot long! That means I could stick one end of it into a sub sandwich, and it was still come out five inches on the other end!

My ponytail is AWESOME, and I bet almost anything that no other guy on here has one as long. Anyone think they do? I've been growing mine since eighth grade, so bring it on. This is not just a ponytail, it's a mane. I would never, ever cut it.

One time I got a job in a restaurant and the manager was like, "About your ponytail...you need to make it shorter." For like a minute I thought she was going to tell me to cut it and I about peed myself, but she just wanted me to fold it in half. I did and it was still longer than any other boy's hair. Freaking amazing.

The guys are jealous and the girls don't mind, if you know what I mean.

Honestly, I can't tell you how many conversations with girls have started, "I love your ponytail! How long have you been growing it?"

"Four years."

"Oh, wow. Can I touch it?"

Enough said.

It's very long but also very thick, which makes it flop around a lot, fall over my shoulder, spread out over the back of my shirt, etc.

I am proud, though not to the point of being arrogant. Anyway, my ponytail is long, blonde, feaking awesome, kind of wavy, thick, and, oh yeah, LONG.

The Madsen family curse refers to a series of strange events that have befallen members of the Scandinavian Madsen family and their immediate relations. While many are skeptical of the existence of a "curse," most will concede that the sheer number of calamities assailing one family is unusual.

It is worth noting that, of Heinrich Madsen's thirteen sons and daughters, six died or disappeared, often in early adulthood. The deaths of those who perished as young children were not "normal," even by the standards of the time, when children were constantly in danger of fatal bouts of cholera, smallpox, and even influenza.

In addition, a number of Heinrich and Cornelia Madsen's grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and inlaws suffered bizarre deaths (Vivian Madsen), close calls (Leroy Heller), or horrific accidents (Howard Madsen).

Some of the events considered part of the "curse" include:

Approximately 1870: 12-year-old Cornelia Bengstrom's father dies at sea.

1877: Heinrich Madsen marries Cornelia Bengstrom, aged eighteen.

1878: Dora Madsen, aged four, daughter of Heinrich Waldemar Madsen and Cornelia Bengstram Madsen, is murdered at a dinner party in Copenhagen. A culprit in the girl's poisoning is never identified.

1879: Karl Madsen, aged eight, son of Heinrich Madsen and brother of the slain Dora Madsen, is blinded in one eye following an assassination attempt at a fair outside of Copenhagen. The young boy was rushed by an assailant weilding a sword.

1880: The Madsens, in part because of events in their native Denmark, emigrate to Germany and eventually to the United States.

1890: William Madsen, the infant son of Heinrich Madsen, dies under mysetrious circumstances in Baltimore.

1891: Ella Madsen, daughter of Heinrich and Cornelia Madsen, is born.

1898: Edith Harris, infant daughter of Edith Madsen Harris and granddaughter of Henrich Madsen, dies.

Approximately 1900: Edith Madsen Harris, daughter of Heinrich and Cornelia Madsen, dies of syphillus. The Harris children are subsequently split up and sent to live with different relations.

1903: George Madsen, son of Heinrich Madsen, disappears in Kansas and is never seen again.

1907: Ella Madsen, daughter of Heinrich Madsen, marries American millionaire Leroy Heller.

1908: Ivan Harris, son of Edith Madsen Harris and grandson of Heinrich Madsen, dies at the age of twelve under mysterious circumstances while in the care of the Oddfellows fraternal organization.

1924: Leroy Heller is ambushed on a drive in the countryside and is shot in the chest. Despite being severely wounded, Heller survives the assassination attempt.

April, 1929: Elsa Heller, daughter of Leroy Heller, suffers a severe skull fracture at the age of eighteen months. The child is pushed into the side of a radiator by an assailant who is never identified.

October 29, 1929: The U.S. stock market crashes, and Leroy Heller loses approximately $3,000,000.00 (or approximately $34 million by 2005 standards) [1]

1933: Leroy Heller is robbed by a business associate of $50,000.00 (or approximately $677,000.00 by 2005 standards [2])

1933: Ella Madsen Heller nearly murdered at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair in front of her four-year-old daughter Elsa. The last of the Heller family's diamonds, their sole remaining assets, are stolen. The wealthy Heller family is plunged by 1935 into deep poverty.

September, 1935: Otto Madsen, a well-known artist and the son of Heinrich Madsen, falls from a scaffold while painting a church fresco in St. Louis and is killed.

1936: Howard Madsen, aged 22, son of Karl Madsen (who himself was partially blinded in 1879) and grandson of Heinrich Madsen, is injured and permanently paralyzed from the waist down while working with the Civilian Conservations Corps in Oregon.

1940: George Madsen, aged 23, son of Emil Madsen and grandson of Heinrich Madsen, is killed in a skiing accident in Colorado.

1941: Vivian Madsen, aged twenty-three, daughter of Karl Madsen and sister of the maimed Howard Madsen, is assassinated by strangulation in San Francisco mere months before American entry into the Second World War.

December 7, 1941: Cora Madsen, daughter of Heinrich Madsen, witnesses the Japansese bombing of Peal Harbor. The traumatized Cora leaves Hawaii to stay with her brother Emil Madsen in Denver, Colorado.

1942: Cora Madsen, on her way from Colorado to San Francisco, disappears. Despite an exhaustive search, she is never found.

1951: Thaddeus Peters, son of Elsa Heller Peters (who witnessed an assassination attempt on her mother in 1933 and whose father was nearly assassinated in 1924), is born with severe spinabifida.

1964: Harry Peters, aged six, son of Hugh and Elsa Heller Peters, is ambushed while walking home from school and is nearly killed by a gang of young teenagers. He spends two weeks in the hospital.

February, 1969: Melissa Peters, daughter of Elsa Heller Peters, is born with a severe case of Trisomy cromosome disorder, and dies three weeks later.

September, 1969: Hugh Peters III, son of Hugh Peters II and grandson of Hugh Peters I and Elsa Heller Peters, is also born with a severe case of Trisomy cromosome disorder, merely six months after his aunt's death. Doctors are at a loss to explain the highly improbable reoccurrence of the genetic defect in so short a period of time. The boy dies six weeks later.

Approximately 1972: Hugh Peters I suffers a mental breakdown and is unable to work

1996: Thad Peters dies from a combination of spinabifida complications and leukemia. He is 45.</

Jehu Eyre advised and fought alongside George Washington, with whom he crossed the Delaware in 1776.

Jehu Eyre (January 10, 1738- July 23, 1781)[3], born in Burlington, New Jersey and died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was an American businessman, French and Indian War and Revolutionary War veteran [4], and member of the influential Eyre family, which played a major role in the American Revolution and the early Republic.

He was married to Lydia Wright Eyre[5]. The couple wed in on December 28, 1761, when Jehu was twenty-three years old. Jehu's brother Manuel, also a major player in the Revolution, had married Lydia's sister Martha on January 8th of the same year. [6].

A close friend and confidant to future President George Washington, Eyre first fought beside the man in the French and Indian War, when Jehu served as the Chief Engineer and Director of Artillery for the Province of Pennsylvania [7]. Eyre and Washington were both participants of the July 9, 1755 Battle of Monongahela, when forces under British General Edward Braddock were defeated by combined French and Native American units.

Of the carnage there, Jehu Eyre later wrote:

“

When we came to the place where they crossed of the Monongahela, we saw a great many men's bones along the shore. We kept along the road about 1 1/2 miles, where the first engagement begun, where there are men's bones lying about as thick as the leaves do on the ground; for they are so thick that one lies on top of another for about a half a mile in length and about one hundred yards in breadth.

”

[8]

From the beginning of the Revolutionary War, Jehu Eyre was an adviser to George Washington, and served under the General at Valley Forge during the 1776-1777 winter [9]. He and his brothers were commissioned by Washington to build vessels for the independence effort at the Eyre family's shipping yards in Kensington, and provided some of the first ships in the Continental Navy [10]. The earliest gunboat of the American Navy was built under the supervision of the Eyre family. Christened "Bull Dog," it was launched at Kensington on July 26, 1775 [11].

That year, Jehu Eyre mustered his workers into a force for the defense of Philadelphia known as the "Kensington Artillery." [12][13].

On December 25, 1776, Jehu Eyre accompanied Washington in his famed Crossing of the Delaware [14], a resounding success and a critical battle that saved the Revolution from being snuffed out in its infancy.

At the battle of Brandywine, Eyre fought heroically with his artillery company to halt the seizure of Philadelphia [15], but his efforts would be unsuccessful. Following the British invasion of the city in 1777, the naval works at Kensington were destroyed [16], to be rebuilt after the conflict's conclusion by Jehu's children and grandchildren.

Jehu Eyre died of malaria in 1781, and his diaries were later published as The Memorials of Colonel Jehu Eyre.[17]

Eyre's siblings were also heavily involved in the Revolution, and his and his brothers' descendants would remain powerful business leaders for several generations after the war ended.

His remains are buried in the prestigious Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia[18].