100 Greatest Americans? Are you kidding!

Heh actually Elysium, we had our top 100 in 2002 (top Briton's that is), they've been exporting the format ever since.
Here are the top 25, and numbers 3 and 17 are somewhat dubious indeed.

1 Sir Winston Churchill
2 Isambard Kingdom Brunel
3 Diana, Princess of Wales
4 Charles Darwin
5 William Shakespeare
6 Sir Isaac Newton
7 Queen Elizabeth I
8 John Lennon
9 Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson
10 Oliver Cromwell
11 Ernest Shackleton
12 Captain James Cook
13 Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell
14 King Alfred the Great
15 Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
16 Margaret, Baroness Thatcher
17 Michael Crawford
18 Queen Victoria
19 Sir Paul McCartney
20 Sir Alexander Fleming
21 Alan Turing
22 Michael Faraday
23 Owain Glyndwr
24 Queen Elizabeth II
25 Professor Stephen Hawking

Rest of the list. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_Gre...

I look forward to seeing the top 10 Americans. If Lincoln or Kennedy don't win it, nobody will. Glorious patriotic revelry ahoy!

Paul Revere got trumped.

Same with Robert E Lee and Ulysses S Grant

They need to change Michael with Andrew Jackson.

Francis Scott Key?

Honestly most of the presidents should be in there.

Id pick Mary Pickford over Kate Hepburn.

Holy Crap! Of all the random names... Joseph Smith? Youve got to be kidding me! Sorry if Im offending any mormons but come on!

Oh. my. God.

They need to change Michael with Andrew Jackson

Nope, Andrew Jackson was a wart on a pig's ass.

Can you say "Trail of Tears"? Although it took place 1 year after he left office, Andrew Jackson was the one who signed the Indian Removal Act into law. He is also the one to thank for screwing up the original intent of the Electoral College, helping to make it the farce that it is today.

Michael Moore and Rush Limbaugh deserve to be on that list more. Hell, ANY of the people (outside of Michael Jackson) that Elysium is objecting to probably deserve it more.

Mixolyde wrote:

Bah! Joe Montana over Favre anyday.

Yes, this list is {ableist slur}, yes, so are all americans. Did we really need more proof? meh

Hey, I didn't say Joe Montana shouldn't be on the list too, and that he shouldn't be higher than Brett Favre. There's room for 100 people; Thomas Jefferson was an overrated hack, he can go.

As far as athletes go, what about Jesse Owens or Jim Thorpe? EIther of them make it?

VicD714 wrote:

As far as athletes go, what about Jesse Owens or Jim Thorpe? EIther of them make it?

No Super Bowl victory, no care.

Botswana wrote:
They need to change Michael with Andrew Jackson

Nope, Andrew Jackson was a wart on a pig's ass.

Can you say "Trail of Tears"? Although it took place 1 year after he left office, Andrew Jackson was the one who signed the Indian Removal Act into law. He is also the one to thank for screwing up the original intent of the Electoral College, helping to make it the farce that it is today.

Michael Moore and Rush Limbaugh deserve to be on that list more. Hell, ANY of the people (outside of Michael Jackson) that Elysium is objecting to probably deserve it more.

He did kick some ass at the Battle of New Orleans though. Although that was after the Treaty of Ghent, so it was pretty much irrelevant. And the British assault was so incompetent that *I* could have led the Louisianians to victory, so it counts for even less. And it bears mentioning that Jean Lafitte could kick Jackson's ass any day of the week. So you're right, Jackson sucked.

He's revered as a hero in New Orleans, though; thus our famous Jackson Square in the French Quarter. Here he is now, up on his high horse.

illum wrote:

Heh actually Elysium, we had our top 100 in 2002 (top Briton's that is), they've been exporting the format ever since.
Here are the top 25, and numbers 3 and 17 are somewhat dubious indeed.

1 Sir Winston Churchill
2 Isambard Kingdom Brunel
3 Diana, Princess of Wales
4 Charles Darwin
5 William Shakespeare
6 Sir Isaac Newton
7 Queen Elizabeth I
8 John Lennon
9 Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson
10 Oliver Cromwell
11 Ernest Shackleton
12 Captain James Cook
13 Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell
14 King Alfred the Great
15 Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
16 Margaret, Baroness Thatcher
17 Michael Crawford
18 Queen Victoria
19 Sir Paul McCartney
20 Sir Alexander Fleming
21 Alan Turing
22 Michael Faraday
23 Owain Glyndwr
24 Queen Elizabeth II
25 Professor Stephen Hawking

Rest of the list. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_Gre...

I look forward to seeing the top 10 Americans. If Lincoln or Kennedy don't win it, nobody will. Glorious patriotic revelry ahoy! :D

Looked at the Brits list and I'm appalled that Jeremy Clarkson didn't make the list ;), that guy is a freaking riot on Top Gear. At least he got to do the commentary on Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who I've never heard of, as an American, but I did look at his bio and looked to be an interesting chap.

Ellen DeGeneres... Why? Her entire career is based on three words: "I am gay!"

Winston Churchill

Would you like some tea? I would, 'cause I'm Winston Churchill!

IMAGE(http://www.computing.dcu.ie/computety/2005/shager-cty/peter.jpg)

illum wrote:

22 Michael Faraday

I would like to take this chance to say that Michael Faraday is the coolest man to ever live. At a time in which science was only for the rich and educated, Faraday ran around and smacked chemistry around. All hail!

LobsterMobster wrote:

Ellen DeGeneres... Why? Her entire career is based on three words: "I am gay!"

Not saying she deserves to be on the list, but in her defense she was a pretty good stand-up comedian (or is that comedianne) before they gave her a TV show.

Wow...I would hope than in a list of 100 Greatest Americans one would exclude those that have spent a large majority of their early life not in America (Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mel Gibson).

Far be it from me to claim this list sane, but I'd argue that inclusion of aliens who live in America today makes sense - melting pot and all. In so far, I wouldn't have necessarily objected to the inclusion of Schwarzenegger if his term(s) had already ended, for example.

Botswana wrote:
LobsterMobster wrote:

Ellen DeGeneres... Why? Her entire career is based on three words: "I am gay!"

Not saying she deserves to be on the list, but in her defense she was a pretty good stand-up comedian (or is that comedianne) before they gave her a TV show.

Plus, creating the first central gay character in a prime-time TV show, and not being afraid of all the idiotic backlash that ensued (parental advisories, protests, threats, etc) counts for a lot in my book.

Wasn't Albert Einstein German?

I had a feeling this would end up being a Top 100 List from People magazine when I saw the commercials, since that's what a big chunk of Americans seem to call news these days.

It's disgraceful.

Ellen is one of the only female comedians I find funny. I think it's 'cause she likes chicks. That must be where the funny comes from.

I'm not really surprised about this list. America doesn' publicize its authors or inventors or diplomats. If you were to say "don't you think that Henry Ford was more important than Michael Jackson?" I think you'd mostly get agreement. But people like that don't even enter a lot of Americans' minds, when thinking about stuff like this. Other countries focus more on the full spectrum of their citizens. America focuses mostly on beautiful people, and its presidents.

Mex wrote:

Wasn't Albert Einstein German?

I believe he became a nationalized citizen of the U.S., but I am not positive.

yes he was german and emigrated to the US during the nazi reign, so he sure makes more sense on that list than Arnold Schwarzenegger :). Both are americans but not by birth...

There were several other German scientists who came over at that time as well - most of our success in the early days of Space can be attributed to the fine German minds that came to the US. Werner Von Braun is the one that sticks in my mind, but I know there were others.

By the way, this is really no different than the "Best 100 Books of the 20th Century" list (published by Random House, if I recall). That, however, was fascinating because there was a critics' list published side-by-side with an internet vote list. Critics list number one was something you would expect (The Great Gatsby or some such). Internet number one, if I recall, was some Lord of the Rings thing. Number two? Some Lord of the Rings thing. Number three? Some Lord of the Rings thing. Number four? Some other sci-fi thing. Etc.

Dr. Phil (In the love of all that's sacred, who the hell nominates Dr ****ing Phil as a great American besides Dr. Phil?)

I hate him. Beyond the ability of human communications to elaborate upon; I hate Dr. Phil.

Reaper81 wrote:

I hate him. Beyond the ability of human communications to elaborate upon; I hate Dr. Phil.

Is that working for you?

doihaveto wrote:

Plus, creating the first central gay character in a prime-time TV show, and not being afraid of all the idiotic backlash that ensued (parental advisories, protests, threats, etc) counts for a lot in my book.

Um, actually I think Tony Randall created the first central gay character in a prime-time TV show ... in 1981.

Love, Sidney

Rat Boy wrote:

In Mix's defense, I look to that old addage that holds that a person is smart, people are stupid.

Its not just that people/americans are stupid, but the fact that they take pride in their stupidity. I was in a bookstore recently, when I overheard the following conversation:

Moron 1: I don't like books, magazaines are OK, becuase I can get some info in small bits.

Moron 2: Hehe, yeah I haven't even read a book since college.

Now a couple of points about this, first these were middle aged yuppy looking people a man and a woman, and secondly, as I mentioned before this was in a BOOKSTORE! They were basically admitting that they had no interest in a place that contained knowledge and entertainment of a form that requires actuall effort or thought. As this was a used bookstore, and had no magazines, I wondered what they were even doing there, but realised they were with someone else, who was actually interested in books.

Sigh.

Caught a little of this on last night and just changed the channel. Its pathetic.

Dr. Phil ?!?! What the hell has Dr. Phil done to deserve any ranking at all?

Badferret wrote:

Moron 1: I don't like books, magazaines are OK, becuase I can get some info in small bits.

Moron 2: Hehe, yeah I haven't even read a book since college.

Neighbor came over when we moved into our new house a few years ago. Noticed our four, yes four whole bookshelves, filled with books.

Neighbor: "Why do you have all those books? What do you do with them?"

Wife: "Some are mine, some are [True Name of SlyFrog Omitted to Prevent Stalking by Internet Groupies]."

Neighbor: "So does [SlyFrog] read all of them?"

Wife: "Um, no, I read too sometimes."

Neighbor: "Huh."

This reminds me of when AOL had a survey of the "most important moment of the 20th century" when the millenium ended. If memory serves, Elvis's first televised performance was in the top three. World War II was 12th.

Rat Boy has it dead on. A person is smart. People are freaking idiots.