for the Government's liberal approach? what does it mean?

[Aleaf]

There is a sentence i read in an english newspaper i can't figure out :"The Newcastle clone is the biggest success so far for the Government's liberal approach"
Thanks in advance if anyboday can help me:))
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Try to change youself before you try to change others.

[Haihao]

'the Government's liberal approach': the Government's approach of/to/for liberalism (on this issue), I think.

[Jamie (K)]

"Liberal" is a tricky word.

I think that in the article you're talking about, "liberal" means giving more freedom to people to do what they want. Evidently the British government has a hands-off policy toward cloning. That's what I understand from the sentence, anyway, and this is the original meaning of "liberal".

When discussing American politics, because of the way the political parties have evolved, the word "liberal" often means something opposite to what it originally meant. In the US, political liberals are usually something like socialists. They're for higher taxes, more intervention in people's lives by the government, and many ways they want to control people and restrict them from doing what they want. The conservatives are usually for lower taxes, keeping the government from interfering too much in people's lives, free trade, etc.

[Prezbucky]

yep

Classical Liberalism is the root and offspring of democracy.

American liberals, on the other hand, are just left-of-center Americans, according to the American center of politics.

American political stuff:

Democrat mascot: donkey
Republican mascot: elephant

Republican nickname: GOP (Grand Old Party)

Notable presidents from the two current parties:

Democrats:
- Andrew Jackson (War of 1812)
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt (champion of socialism, WW2 chief)
- John F. Kennedy (Bay of Pigs, the moon)
- Bill Clinton (didn't inhale, Monica, Whitewater, tech boom -- his VP, Gore, invented the internet after all)

Republicans:
- Abraham Lincoln (Civil War, Gettysburg Address, saved the USA with Grant)
- Teddy Roosevelt (speak softly but carry a big stick, park service)
- Richard Nixon (opened trade with China, Watergate)
- Ronald Reagan (champion of free enterprise, outspent the USSR, Star Wars)
_________________
Billie Jean is not my lover. Hee.

[Prezbucky]

The Gettysburg Address

Context:

Things had not gone well for the Union (North) in the first couple years of the Civil War -- the Confederates (South) had had the better of the results, due to many factors, chief among them the total lack of effective Union generals.

But on July 4, 1863, the tide shifted with the North's win at Gettysburg and Grant's win at Vicksburg (Mississippi), which basically moved the actual Confederate military boundary hundreds of miles east, boxing in the South. Grant had, in effect, set their left boundary. The Battle of Gettysburg was the turning point in the East.

For the USA, July 4, 1863 was nearly as big a day as July 4, 1776.

Lincoln gave this famous speech on November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Here it is (The Harvard Classics edition -- I like the style/punctuation of this version):

Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that the nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow, this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.

The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
_________________
Billie Jean is not my lover. Hee.

[Jamie (K)]

The Gettysburg Address is considered one of the greatest speeches in American history, but the people at the time were disappointed. Lincoln wrote the speech on the back of an envelope, so it was very short. People at the time were used to long, blustery speeches.

[Prezbucky]

...shows what awful taste they had. hehe
_________________
Billie Jean is not my lover. Hee.

[Prezbucky]

Jamie, how history repeats itself:

Until the North started to win, many northern Democrats were opposed to the Union efforts to bring the South back to the US. General McClellan himself -- who later would oppose Lincoln politically -- did not really want to fight, and it showed in his generalship.

Thankfully, we had Lincoln (and Grant/Sherman/Sheridan) to save the Union.

What has happened since to mirror their actions in the civil war?

- Hippies ruined our chances at winning in Vietnam... they said "What are we fighting for?" And the obvious answer was, "We're fighting to help South Vietnam resist the tyrannical/communist Viet Cong from taking over."

How did they not get that?

- Anti-war folks (most of them Dems) today are trying to kill our efforts in Iraq. Again it's "Why are we there?" And, to me, the answer is again fairly obvious and valid: "To topple a dictator and hasten positive political and social change to improve the lives and rights of Iraqis."
_________________
Billie Jean is not my lover. Hee.

[Jamie (K)]

History repeats itself again. Here's something from Ann Coulter's column today.
http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/AnnCoulter/2007/05/23/importing_a_slave_class

[Prezbucky]

yes, but she's so politically incorrect, like, ohmygod.
_________________
Billie Jean is not my lover. Hee.

[Aleaf]

Big THANKS for the explainations
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Try to change youself before you try to change others.

[Aleaf]

Gettysburg Address was only 9 minutes and was criticized by newspapers at first. but little by little, as pp read the speech they began to understand better. They began to appreciate its simplicity and its deep meaning.It was a speech which only Abraham Lincon could have made.
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Try to change youself before you try to change others.

[Jamie (K)]

Aleaf, that's a good observation.

Now, just a friendly piece of English advice. Spell out the word "people". We don't write "ppl", and this time you wrote "pp", which would be pronounced like a children's slang word for urine.

[Prezbucky]

...not just urine, but (also) the male projector of said urine.

"PP" (actually, "peepee" or "pee pee" -- all sound the same in spoken form) is a child's word used to represent both.

be very careful, aleaf. hehe
_________________
Billie Jean is not my lover. Hee.

[Aleaf]

LoooL
okay people.
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Try to change youself before you try to change others.