Alexandra at All things Beautiful is posting the results of a UK poll naming the 10 Worst Britons in the last 1000 years, (Thomas Becket?) and that’s given her an idea - she wants bloggers to contribute their ideas on the worst Americans in the last 230 years.
Siggy has commented on his nominees. He is predictably fearless, scathing and unstinting in his critique.
I’m not sure I will be participating in this one - frankly, I want to kind of keep to thinking about Christmas - but keep checking back with Alexandra as she is linking to all the blogs who do contribute - it should be interesting! 
I see already that, like me, Betsy Newmark is surprised to see Becket on the list and she comments intelligently on the Brit list.
On a related note, LGF is taking nominations for Idiotarian of the Year. I agree with Michelle.
Related: The 20 people screwing up America.
December 27th, 2005 at 9:07 pm
If you’ve never read it-there is a wonderful book on Thomas Becket by Shelley Mydans called “Thomas” in which she works to the conclusion that
it was not so much the church law Becket fought for, but that he did what he did for love of God. There are a few stunning scenes of conversion she writes that I’ve never forgotten. The book is well researched-available used on Amazon.
December 27th, 2005 at 10:12 pm
That Brit list was pretty uneven. I don’t think either Oswald Moseley or King John belong on it, nasty as they were: Moseley never got anywhere near real power despite the press attention he got, and John was curbed pretty sharply by his barons at Runnymede.
Titus Oates, though, belongs there, as does Richard Rich and (curiously omitted) Henry VIII, the guy who thought with his *other* brain (the little one residing in his pants) and turned the Church in England into the plaything of the sovereign.
I liked SCA’s list of the worst Americans. Mikey Schiavo’s definitely up there, isn’t he? And I understand he’s now writing a book about his “ordeal.” Just imagine: “It’s not my fault! That’s what she wanted! Ask my brother, he heard her say so! And anyway her parents were mean to me!”
I hope it lands on the 99-cent remainder table and stays there.
December 28th, 2005 at 12:41 am
Great commments Anne B! I hope Michael will wind up on that same table someday! Following his award for “Florida Guardian of the Year, 2005″(seriously), Michael started his own Political Action Committee(PAC). You can guess which way this stickweed leans. Unless we write our political representatives and move these cases out of Probate Court, Michael Sciavo will be the Judas Goat for Socialized medicine’s solution for the high cost of health care.
December 28th, 2005 at 10:06 am
Sir Oswald Mosley was small potatoes (he was the model for Roderick Spode in P.G. Wodehouse’s stories). If I was going to choose the most evil Brit for the 20th century, I’d pick the Cambridge spies, Guy Burgess, Kim Philby et al. But I suppose in some quarters, they’d be considered heroes.