For what, writing a pro-Bomb letter to Roosevelt? You realize he never actually worked on the thing, right?
Or are you saying he should have just pretended never to notice the whole E=mc[sup]2[/sup] thing? (Which really didn’t have much to do with nuclear fission anyway.)
Let me put it even more bluntly:
Einstein’s connection to the atomic bomb is really quite tenuous. (I’m assuming the Bomb is foolsguinea’s problem with him, because if not that then I can’t imagine what.) He didn’t do the fundamental research on fission that explains how it works. He didn’t play any part in the effort to build it. Didn’t advocate using it. All he did was co-author one letter urging its development.
On the other hand, he did advance our knowledge of the fundamental workings of the universe more than perhaps any other individual in human history.
In as much as Einstein was an American (he only had U.S. citizenship for the last 15 years of his life), he should be on the list of best Americans, not worst Americans.
Of course not…that’s precisely why Phelps can’t be credited with the distinction of being one of the Worst Americans, personally credited with causing these specific suicides.
Alger Hiss and Julius Rosenberg. I’m still undecided about if Edward Mandell House was misguided or diabolical.
Seriously, this is how you’re characterizing Phelps?
My own experience in the area of gay life is pretty limited. But from what I can tell, a lot of people end up in support of gay rights precisely because of the behavior of the Phelps family and their dog-and-pony shows.
That being said, I can empathize to some degree. As a Jew, I’ve been targeted for conversion efforts by at least one religious denomination. I went through the self-loathing period. At some point, I realized that none of these people had anything worth saying, let alone listening to. I learned to ignore them and go about my business. I know it’s easier said than done, and it took a while to get to that point, but I did it.
Robin
See post #51.
Meh. The Soviets would have had the Bomb soon enough with no help from spies; they had plenty of good physicists.
What harm did he ever do America?!
Every little Nazi-boy’s hot dream date: Jimbo Carter.
WTF?!!
Yeah, cause starting Habitant for Humanity was such an evil thing 
I’d go with Nixon, Anita Bryant, and Timothy McVeigh–three people who did evil cause they thought they had the right to.
Aldrich Ames and Robert Hansen. It’s not just that the betrayed America and got people killed. It’s that they did it for almost no reason. No ideology. No higher purpose. They crossed the line from “misguided” to “truly sick.”
I can pretty much understand the others, but why Sherman?
WTF what? Haven’t you ever trawled the dark underbelly of the Internet? The Naziboys love your little Jimboboy. He’s the hottest thing since sauerkraut and fat men in lederhosen. I can’t be bothered to list all the ills begotten by that snivelling little boy from the pathetic handling of the Iran revolution and hostage situation to Zimbabwe and his good pal Mugabe. Or his stupid books and pathetic Nobel Lobby Price. Yeah. Shove a rod of iron up his little ass. Not that I think he would notice, since he has already been buggered by practically all and everybody in the who’s who of two bit dictators. Don’t know if he is the worst. You have so many able contestants. But he’s definitely a fearsome finalist.
I don’t know what kind of criteria you guys are using for worst American ever but I don’t think you’re on the right track, Fred Phelps? LBJ? Noam Chomsky?
This is like a ‘greatest movie ever made’ thread in which everyone’s offering is one of The Lord of the Rings movies.
Nationalities are like friends, you can have racist friends, friends that get drunk and ruin your car, friends that talk behind your back, and as bad as they are sometimes you might still hang out with them. The Antithesis of a American is someone who knowingly and deliberately hurts all Americans because they’re Americans.
So people like the Rosenburgs would be way up there.
. . . What has any of that to do with a Nazi agenda?! Are you using the word “Nazi” in some unconventional sense?
I certainly hope I was not guilty of such a typo.