Exactly a month this week - on November 5th 2008 - the world will discover whether Sarah Palin is a heartbeat away from becoming President of The United States of America.

Today, though, comes the revelation that John McCain's running mate is rather more distantly associated with another great public office: the Royal Family.

In a repeat of trends of previous presidential elections, genealogists have discovered that Palin is a distant relative of a woman who made a similarly dramatic, overnight entrance onto the world stage: Diana, Princess of Wales.

Announcing details of their discovery that Palin and Diana are tenth cousins, Ancestry.com’s chief family historian explains: "When you've got candidates who have deep roots in America, there's a good chance that they're going to have some famous cousins."

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Name: exploora	Comment: Many of the companies which are "American" are really international or transnational or multinational. Regardless of the structure, most of these companies integrate into many countries and their losses will be felt by many countries. I think this crash appears to be more like an hemorrhage than a sneeze, in my opinion.

Name: anyacat

Comment: I think, Valmae, that's the reasoning behind the adage: When the American economy sneezes, Europe develops pneumonia. I think, however, if we want to look for trouble, we could be looking East at China. For example, China has a history of economic supremacy, having been the world's largest economy for much of the 700 years starting around 1000. the Chinese were instrumental in introduction of early-ripening rice and later of New World crops like maize and sweet potatoes created food surpluses, allowing the buildup of porcelain and silk industries that dominated global trade. Which, to me, seems like an early example of modern capital and technology transfers. So maybe if we are looking for the bad guys, it could be, and I only offer this as one possibility as I have nothing specific to back it up, but maybe the US economy is being manipulated by the Chinese. Or maybe it was just a matter of greedy Wall Street guys who took greedy to its farthest point. You know, when you start looking for conspiracy theories, the possibilities are endless. As for the issue of "the issue," well, the queen need not be involved in this one if John Reznikoff has some Windsor hair, which he may. Can you imagine the headlines THAT story would make if it was found that the Duke of Windsor did not die childless. Although illegitimate heirs cannot succeed, the payoff in media coverage would be monumental and lucrative, particularly in the United States, where we love stories like this and are willing to pay for them. I'm actually thinking of tracking John Reznikoff down myself to ask if he has a lock of the Windsor hair.

Name: valmae

Comment: European Banksters at fault – rubbish! Just take a walk around the City of London/Canary Wharf and you will see Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Chase Manhatten, Citibank, First Boston and the empty offices of Lehman Bros. Lehman Bros who temporarily transferred their operation to London after 9/11, in order to keep the wheels turning. Lehman Bros. who finally raided their London vaults to keep the US operation going and to hell with London! Woolworths was one of the first chains to set up in UK. The motor industry was dominated by Fords, GM and Chrysler for many years. It is historic fact that Fords always pulled back on production and finance in UK when the chips were down. Asda supermarket chain is owned by Wallmart. MacDonalds, Starbucks, Kentucky Fried Chicken altered our eating habits. Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola is drunk extensively in UK. When in the US I am always amazed at how UK many brands are, in fact, from the US. The flow of UK pounds to the US has been, is and is likely to continue to be beyond understanding. Now, Emily, along with one or two others I think your assertions regarding your father are difficult to understand without concrete proof. There is a middle-aged man who claims to be Princess Margaret’s illegitimate son. He asked for access to the QM’s and P.Margaret’s wills. He had a polite refusal and challenged the Queen in the courts and I believe it has gone to appeal. That might be difficult in the case of the Duke of Windsor. The Queen and her immediate family were not his heirs. However, this challenger is not afraid to “put his penny on the drum”.

Name: Carolyn	Comment: As you wish, Emily. I am not going to reply with the words that are in my mind, because these comments will just become a tit for tat situation, and continue ad infinitum. Re DNA - I believe that if you were serious you would jump at the chance to prove/disprove your claims, whatever the cost.

Name: anyacat	Comment: Well, what can I say, apparently you are either not interested in actually discovering your claimed ancestor or you know your story to be specious. I actually thought you might be interested in pursing your claim. Taking you seriously is not an error I am likely to repeat. European "banksters" beware, the US government just nationalized US banking--socialism for the wealthy.

Name: Emily Elizabeth Windsor-Cragg

Comment: Carolyn, if you are not here and if you are not seeing with your own eyes the destruction of our National Constitution, the financial takeover by European banksters, the erosion of the rule of law beginning with the Government, you have no room to criticize my dissent from the corruption I see and experience. Anyacat, if Her Majesty is seen to be perfectly suited to whatever form of "REIGN" she has adopted and adapted to, I don't see any point in paying for a DNA test. "Reign" MEANS to "oversee Rule"; the JOB of Monarch is to oversee and at times, over-rule, a corrupted or dumbed-down Parliament. If the JOB of Monarch has been dumbed-down to the point that all it is, is socializing and handing out door prizes, well, that's not a JOB I would be interested in. I have worked in HR, in teaching and training, as a writer, and I'm not SUITED for an acting role. If you see my gist. EEWC

Name: Carolyn

Comment: You do your Country a great disservice Emily, with your accusations, which I do not believe for one moment. Ironically it only proves that you do live in a Democracy, because if you made those claims in some countries you might suffer dire consequences. Now that you know where you can go to possibly find a sample of hair with the DNA of one or more of the direct male descendents of the Windsors why don't you try? Please let us know if you are successful, or not.

Name: Anyacat

Comment: MEANWHILE: Collector John Reznikoff presides over what Guinness World Records contends is the planet’s “largest collection of hair from historical figures.” You will find him in Westport, Connecticut, in an offices run under the auspices of University Archives. He has a unique, non-duplicable card catalogue of the DNA great personages. Whether that includes a hair sample of the Duke of Windsor I do not know. But if someone is interested in proving a claim based on DNA, this is a good place to start because if Reznikoff has a sample of Windsor hair, it's only a matter of doing a DNA test, which costs somewhere in the neighborhood of $250.

Name: Emily Elizabeth Windsor-Cragg

Comment: To quote Carolyn: Yes, exactly. I think we all live in a democratic country/state, so we are free to comment as we wish. Most of the comments here are reasonable, but when they are not, in my opinion, and the known facts of history are grossly distorted, then I will comment. It is a two way street, not a one way lane guarded by the "word police". The Truth is, America's elections are rigged by the elite layer of society, just as the media are rigged by ideologues. There IS NO DEMOCRACY; there is NO REPUBLIC. Every avenue of change is blocked by Globalists, Corporatists and Fascists. And that's how it is in America. EEWC

Name: Anyacat

Comment: The cause of the economic downturn in the United States has many causes and the occupation of Iraq is certainly included. Add to the list sub-prime loans and the predatory lending practices of some banks. In the United States, we lost the capacity to produce our own oil in the early 1970s, and it was then predicted that unless something major changed, we would be out of reserves by 2000. Now, we buy our oil from Venezuela. The Alaskans sell their oil, at a very high price, to the Japanese. The history of an event is written by the victor, which is why the American Civil War is known as the War of Northern Aggression in the former Confederate states. If you read the US Declaration of Independence you will find a great deal of anger and some flaming rhetoric, some of which had no correlation to actual fact. But the Colonies were in open rebellion against the mother country, so all bets were off--and had it not been for the French, we might still be singing God Save the Queen. Now there's a fact that is soft peddled in US history survey classes.

Name: Carolyn	Comment: "Subprime realstate"? Did you mean subprime real estate, Exploora? Everyone will see more clearly 20 years after an event. It is called hindsight. How this all relates to Diana's genealogy is beyond me

Name: exploora

Comment: The future is what really matters. One country's fight for independence is possibly another country's fight to quench a rebellion. How a success in the present is measured might be more objective and correct, when future generations do it. But to forget how the increase in the cost of oil combined with the cost of the war, may have led to the crises, one could go back to the crash of 1974 and compare it to the crash of 2008. It could feel like a dejavous, until someone starts screaming at you and calling you are an idiot. Why does the stock market begin to collapse when the price of oil gets to a certain point. Why does the value of the dollar fall at such a time? In twenty years from now, we might actually be told how this war really effected the crises. Now blame it on subprime realstate.

Name: exploora

Comment: It is about power not whether the idea is sound or not. If someone has enough power they can make almost anything happen and beleivable, and a person without power or means to actuallize their hopes and ambitions, has to let them go or they could be accuses of grandiose thoughts or what have you. Now look at Prince Harry and Prince William, they were allowed to go on that bike trip for charity, I read that it would take 6 security guards to watch them, so who knows. They have power. If someone suggested doing something similar, they would be treated as if they were crazy possibly, even though they could possibly accomplish the same thing if they had the power. Ability is one thing,having the means to reach your potential, is another thing. Confusing the issue of having the lack of ability with having the lack of means is fine, but often charity is the last thing a person really wants, if they have the means to do things for themselves, that is what most people want.

Name: Carolyn	Comment: Yes, exactly. I think we all live in a democratic country/state, so we are free to comment as we wish. Most of the comments here are reasonable, but when they are not, in my opinion, and the known facts of history are grossly distorted, then I will comment. It is a two way street, not a one way lane guarded by the "word police".

Name: anyacat

Comment: Well, Exploora, it's all part of the process. One who puts an idea out there, half-baked or not, must expect some sort of response, sometimes equally half-baked--or not. I believe it's called conversation. If offering a historic or factual foundation for some comments is jumping down throats than I am certainly guilty of that. You are free to think and comment independently to your heart's content, but occasionally someone with whom you do not agree will use that same freedom to comment.

Name: exploora	Comment: It is really about having the freedom to relate to something or someone, while being able to think independently without fearing someone is going to jump down your throat.

Name: Carolyn	Comment: So unfair, and so rare!

Name: anyacat	Comment: Yep, expecting people to understand reason and rhetoric is just so darn unfair.

Name: Emily Elizabeth Windsor-Cragg

Comment: What Horace Mann that was most destructive to educating the young was separate them into age groups. Previously, children all learned together, with the older ones assisting the younger ones with theory and the younger ones helping the older ones with routine tasks. They didn't just train people for jobs; they expected everyone to understand reasoning and rhetoric. Recently on-line there was published an eighth-grade summary test given to all kids who wanted to graduate from the eighth grade. It is so difficult that most high school graduates today could not pass it. with a college education, I only scored 85%. Dumbing down the children is for the convenience of human resource management as if children were cattle. I really appreciate your command of history, anyacat. I believe in and subscribe to the conspirators' sense of history having been hijacked by Fascist elements, behind closed doors, not only in the 30s, but lately. Edward wasn't Fascist enough for his father to have any respect for him. Moreover, I believe that Wallace was "planted" in his way by Eliz Bowes-Lyon, who was spurned by the Prince of Wales around 1920 and never got over it. Hell hath no fury ... as they say. EEWC

Name: exploora

Comment: I think a lot of people don't even understand the concept of dumbing down and the related losses they may be experiencing. Like the intolerance related to writing English with an accent on chats and then refusing to relate to the concept by going on about stuff which demeans the person personally. That is usually how the fighting starts in a lot of situations. A person will not "agree" with the other person they assume the other person is off the wall, instead of realizing they are not able to relate because of the culture and personal expereince differences, which does not mean what the person is saying isn't opening up a window and possibly a door. It isn't really about the past it is about how we are able to shape the future. Some people will have the power and some will have to depend on others. Who a person is forced to depend on often can determine the quality of their life. Maybe that is all that really does matter.

Name: anyacat

Comment: Actually, Carolyn, I am fascinated by the way in which history is twisted by various organizations to fit their, often paranoid, view of the world. While I am not adverse to noting the peccadilloes of historical figures, I really am annoyed when fact is mixed with fiction. This is not to mean that I accept all historical views without question. History, after all, is written by the victors and American history, anyway, is taught from a victorious perspective which often overlooks or at least soft peddles some of the harsher realities. What annoys me is that many of the ideas and attitudes mask a basic racist and anti-Semitic view of the world. The American author Taylor Caldwell made a fortune writing intricately plotted stories about the development of the US from an agrarian society to an industrial world power. Particularly in The Captains and The Kings, Caldwell posits that the world is ruled by private consortiums of financiers and industrialists who hijack world governments by instigating wars that further enrich them. Her writing is thrilling and her history quite good, so many people assume that she is telling a truth that is hidden from the rest of us through her fiction. Caldwell was an arch-conservative, a member of the John Birch Society and was associate with the anti-Semitic Liberty Lobby. American politician (and garden-variety nut case) Phyllis Schlafly wrote A Choice, Not an Echo, in which she suggests a conspiracy theory in which the Republican Party was secretly controlled by elitist intellectuals dominated by members of the Bilderberger group, whose policies would pave the way for global communist conquest. In his novel, The Icon, Fredrick Forsyth presents a group that decides to undermine a nationalist Russian leader loosely modeled on Vladimir Putin (among others). Conspiracy theories abound, some creditable, but most are not. But a good conspiracy theory is often the answer for those who would seek an alternate reality in which they are prominently featured. In closing, I would like to mention that as Governor General of the Bahamas during World War II, the Duke of Windsor used his considerable influence to resolve civil unrest over low wages in Nassau--even though he blamed the trouble on communist agitators and draft-dodging Jews. Additionally, he was praised for his efforts to combat poverty on the island nation, although he was as contemptuous of the Bahamians as he was of most non-white peoples of the Empire. But that was the sum total of what the Duke did to assist people. Saying, "Something must be done," to and about Welsh miners and then walking off the job is not the sign of a strong leader in my book. As a side note, I still cannot figure out what Horace Mann did or said or promoted that was so bad. I suppose the home school advocates might find fault, but he did seem to promote education for everyone in the US.

Name: Valmae Smith-Tudor

Comment: Ho, ho, ho! The CURRENT Prince of Wales attended Cambridge and won a degree. He is 60 years old next month, so there is no doubt whatsoever that he has in the past received training and his training is on going. There is much, much more to being a Constitutional Monarch these days - it is a minefield. As for Edward VIII, aka Duke of Windsor, he gave up. We have no time for quitters, whatever the excuse.

Name: Carolyn

Comment: Trouble is Anyacat, you just know your history too well Thank heavans you are here to point out the facts of history, istead of some poster's distorted interpretation of it. Theodore Herzl would be rolling around in his grave laughing at the reference to Cecil Rhodes! GeorgeV and GeorgeV1 were both second sons, and their education had to be fast tracked when they became the heirs. George V1 particularly, after EdwardV111 did a runner and dumped the "job" on his brother. That is not leadership. Elizabeth11 was educated in all aspects of being the Monarch from the time when the said Duke abdicated. And as Anyacat has said, the British Monarch is a constitutional Monarch, not a dictator. The Duke of Windsor spent the rest of his life, after his abdication leading no-one, except himself and Wallis, in a life of idle luxury.

Name: anyacat

Comment: Too bad Edward VIII didn't understand his role as a politically neutral constitutional monarch. Theodor Herzl would be might surprised to find that Zionism was concocted by Cecil Rhodes and his pals. Horace Mann, who died in 1853, established a single school system throughout the Massachusettsinstead of separate local school districts. He urged separate classrooms for students at different levels of learning, and discouraged learning by rote and flogging as punishment. Most importantly, he worked effectively for more and better equipped school houses, longer school years (until 16 years old), higher pay for teachers, and a wider curriculum. What this has to do with the British monarchy is a mystery to me. Edward VIII was educated at home by his tutor Henry Hansell until he entered the Royal Naval College at Osborne, Isle of Wight in 1907; he also attended Dartmouth Royal Naval College in 1909; and Magdalen College, Oxford University in 1912. Before his accession to the throne, Edward VIII made no secret of his disagreement with liberal politics. Although he proclaimed that "something must be done," he did nothing to help anybody at any time.

Name: Emily Elizabeth Windsor-Cragg

Comment: Dumbing the people down has been the deliberate agenda and method for consolidating power since the Cecil Rhodes' Round Table concocted Zionism and adopted the education methods of Horace Mann at the turn of the 20th century. It enabled courtiers to dominate the sitting Monarch since George V, nor George VI, nor HRM Elizabeth II were never educated in statecraft nor leadership responsibilities, only in ritual and ceremony. The last Prince of Wales to be fully educated in the duties of LEADERSHIP [of the people] was Edward VIII who sought solutions to problems, not merely ceremony and appearances; but he was a Liberal Democratic guy and the Powers that existed in WWI didn't WANT such a King to ascend. EEWC

Name: exploora	Comment: It still doesn't explain how dumbed down we are getting. I am not just referring to what possible vice president.

Name: Anyacat	Comment: Reportedly, Sarah Palin is a 10th cousin of Diana (and both are distantly related to Franklin D. Roosevelt via John Strong and his wife Abigail Ford, who emigrated to the United States, where he died in Massachusetts in 1699); Lynn Chaney (Dick's wife) is a eigth cousin once removed. Apparently, Barak Obama is distantly related to Brad Pitt. All this according to Ancestry.com.

Name: Rachel	Comment: Isn't everyone related to Diana?

Name: Emily Elizabeth Windsor-Cragg

Comment: Yep. Predatory Reptilian-hybrid. Tricky. This is a world in which Mammals were given to thrive and set up a society based on Justice, Fairness and Truth. Apparently, if you look at who's LEADING, the mammals are being exploited and suppressed, in favor of Reptile-hybrids who deceive, exploit and waste the love of God. I wouldn't vote for that candidacy if those two were the last two standing humans on this planet. We the people do not need more predation and deception. EEWC