what is mean by uncle sam?
546068
Historians aren't completely certain how the character "Uncle Sam" was created, or who (if anyone) he was named after. The prevailing theory is that Uncle Sam was named after Samuel Wilson.\n\nWilson was born in Arlington, Mass., on September 13, 1766. His childhood home was in Mason, New Hampshire. In 1789, he and his brother Ebenezer walked to Troy, New York.\n\nDuring the War of 1812, Wilson was in the business of slaughtering and packing meat. He provided large shipments of meat to the US Army, in barrels that were stamped with the initials "U.S." Supposedly, someone who saw the "U.S." stamp suggested -- perhaps as a joke -- that the initials stood for "Uncle Sam" Wilson. The suggestion that the meat shipments came from "Uncle Sam" led to the idea that Uncle Sam symbolized the federal government.\n\nSamuel Wilson died in 1854. His grave is in the Oakwood Cemetery in Troy.\n\nUncle Sam's traditional appearance, with a white goatee and star-spangled suit, is an invention of artists and political cartoonists; Samuel Wilson did not look like the modern image of Uncle Sam. For example, Wilson was clean-shaven, while Uncle Sam is usually portrayed with a goatee.\n\nThomas Nast, a prominent 19th-century political cartoonist, produced many of the earliest cartoons of Uncle Sam. However, historians and collectors take note: Many of Nast's cartoons may appear to depict Uncle Sam, while in fact they depict Yankee Doodle or "Brother Jonathan." It is easy to mistake a Brother Jonathan cartoon for one of Uncle Sam, since both figures wear star-spangled suits of red, white and blue. As a rule, Brother Jonathan was drawn with a feather in his cap, while Uncle Sam was not; and Uncle Sam is nearly always drawn with a beard, while Brother Jonathan was clean-shaven.\n\nSome have suggested that Dan Rice, a 19th-century clown, inspired Thomas Nast's Uncle Sam cartoons. Rice's clown costume consisted of a hat and star-spangled suit, much like the costome worn by Uncle Sam. However, Rice was born in 1823, and did not begin clowning until 1844; and Uncle Sam cartoons appeared as early as 1838. Therefore, it seems unlikely that Rice was, in fact, the inspiration for Nast's cartoons.\n\nThe single most famous portrait of Uncle Sam is the "I WANT YOU" Army recruiting poster from World War I. The poster was painted by James Montgomery Flagg in 1916-1917.
59333
Uncle Sam is a national personification of the United States dating from the War of 1812. Common folklore holds that his origins trace back to soldiers stationed in upstate New York, who would receive barrels of meat stamped with the initials U.S. The soldiers jokingly referred to it as the initials of the meat supplier, Uncle Samuel Wilson, of Troy, New York. The 87th United States Congress adopted the following resolution on September 15, 1961: "Resolved by the Senate and the House of Representatives that the Congress salutes Uncle Sam Wilson of Troy, New York, as the progenitor of America's National symbol of Uncle Sam." A monument marks his birthplace in Arlington, Massachusetts. However, counter-arguments to this theory have been raised by some (for example, see Cecil Adams' article at The Straight Dope) so the precise origin of the term may never be proven.
13501
It is a reference to George W Bush's Middle initial.  "Dubya" is (sort of) a phonetic rendering of how the letter "W" is pronounced in Texas.
72352
Its "Sic semper tyrannis" Missy!! Duuuu!\n\n Sic semper tyrannis is a Latin phrase meaning "Thus always to tyrants". It is the state motto of Virginia (and also that of the USS Virginia), recommended by George Mason to the Virginia Convention in 1776. The phrase is attributed to Brutus at the assassination of Julius Caesar. Also, according to some witnesses, John Wilkes Booth shouted it after shooting Abraham Lincoln in 1865. In his mug shots following the Oklahoma City Bombing Timothy McVeigh is wearing a shirt with a picture of Lincoln on it and "Sic Semper Tyrannis" written below.\n\nI dont understand how you could not know this!
115596
your post to file on all of them its only little ,\nbut i would just so not to p*** uncle sam off !
605097
Uncle sam is my daddy and he's pretty much everyone's daddy here in the US. What does he do? well, he screws us over every year on April 15th.
1076839
Uncle Sam ... \nStar Spangle Banner.
1104750
Just in case you were too stupid to catch it, that article is referring to the Patriot Act. Also know as "The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001" < If you think that is bad... well, you shouldn't be starting any political arguments.
1135690
They didn't want to swear a long time ago so they used other words here is part of a site that may help....\n\nThe explanation of "Sam Hill" is actually pretty simple -- it's an early 19th century American euphemism for "hell" used as an oath. Perhaps due to our Puritan ancestry, Americans have always been especially creative when it comes to inventing linguistic detours around oaths and blasphemies. "Heck," "drat," "darn," "gosh," "jiminy," "gee-whiz" and "goldarn," for example, all started out as euphemisms for exclamations of surprise or rage no newspaper would print and no proper dinner table conversation would tolerate. To digress a bit, I have always wondered whether Walt Disney knew, when he christened his little cartoon creation "Jiminy Cricket," that the name was a rather transparent euphemism for the blasphemous oath "Jesus Christ." \n\nBecause the euphemism "Sam Hill" is also a perfectly good real name, many people assume that the phrase must have originally referred to a real person. A reader wrote me several years ago, wondering if he might have uncovered the "original" Sam Hill in the person of Samuel Hill (1857--1931), a lawyer, financier and railroad magnate known in the Northwest U.S. as "the Father of Good Roads." After doing a little checking, however, I can say with certainty that while Mr. Hill may have been famous for many things, he was not the source of this phrase. In fact, "What in the Sam Hill" was in widespread use by 1839, quite a few years before this particular Sam Hill was born.\n\n\n\n--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
365787
America stands for freedom.  However freedom doesn't come free.
446304
I found this on line,\n\n"Devious Derivations: Popular Misconceptions -- and More than 1,000 True Origins of Common Words and Phrases" by Hugh Rawson (toExcel, Iuniverse.com, 1994, 2000). This reference has some new information on the origins listed here (new information in parenthesis), new origins and what could be the actual origin. \n\n: : 1. Orrin Kendall biscuits, which soldiers ate during the Civil War. \n: : 2. Short for Aux Cayes, a Haitian port that American sailors praised for its rum. \n: : 3. Old Keokuk, a Native American tribal chief who was said to have signed treaties with his initials. \n: : 4. OK stands for "all correct" or the illiterate phrase "Orl Korrect." \n: : 5. U.S. President Martin Van Buren's nickname "Old Kinderhook" -- OK for short. He was a native of Kinderhook, N.Y.\n: : 6. Choctaw word "okeh," (or "hoke") meaning "indeed" (or "It is so.")\n: : 7. Scottish "auch aye", meaning "ah yes." (Or "och aye," meaning "okay.")\n: : 8. From the French maritime phrase "au quai" meaning "at dock", and therefore at last safe from the ravages of the open sea.\n: : 9. '0 killed' - the report of the night's death toll during the First World War. \n: : 10. All clear after the shoot-out at O.K. Corral. \n: : 11. Instruments calibrated at an Observatory at Kew had, affixed to them, a stamp, or impression, to authenticate that calibration. This stamp was O K - Observatory Kew. \n\n: : New origins from Mr. Rawson's book:\n: : 12. The abbreviation is for Oberst Kommandant, German for "Colonel in Command," used by either -- take your pick -- a General Schliessen or Baron von Steuben when initialing letters and orders during the American Revolution.\n: : 13. It comes from the name of a freight agent, Obadiah Kelly, whose initials were widely disseminated on bills of lading.\n: : 14. The abbreviation is for Open Key, popularized by telegraphers in the 1860s.\n: : 15. It comes from the names of Lords Onslow and Kilbracken, who initialed bills after they were read and approved in England's House of Lords. \n: : 16. From a misreading of "Order Recorded" on official documents.\n: : 17. Or from Finnish "oikea," correct.\n: : 18. From the Greek "olla," all, plus "Kalla," good.\n\n: : Professor Allen Walker Read of Columbia University, "finally unveiled its (O.K.'s) origins in a series of magisterial articles in 'American Speech' in 1963 and 1964.What Professor Read discovered was that the abbreviation arose in a humorous manner at a time when Americans were indulging in a great deal of wordplay, including abbreviations, acronyms, puns and intentional mispronunciations and misspellings. The earliest example of O.K. that he unearthed (and it is so far still the oldest known specimen) is from the Boston 'Morning Post' of March 23, 1839. It appears in connection with a note by the paper's editor, Charles Gordon Greene, about a visit to New York of some members of the local Anti-Bell-Ringing Society. (The A.B.R.S., as it was usually known, was itself something of a joke, having been formed the previous year to oppose -- its name to the contrary -- an ordinance of the Boston Common Council against ringing dinner bells.) In an aside, Mr. Greene suggested that if the Bostonians were to return home via Providence, they might be greeted by one of his rivals, the editor of that city's 'Journal,' who 'would have the 'contribution box,' et ceteras, o.k. -- all correct -- and cause the corks to fly, like sparks, upward.'.Thus, it appears that O.K. was invented, possibly by Greene, as an abbreviation of the jocular 'Oll' or perhaps 'Orl korrect,' meaning "All right.' This explanation would seem farfetched, except for Read's finding that it dovetai
433708
Waddaya mean what does this have to do with the military?\nThis is the stuff office jocky's watch all day while we work. Get it together man.
127930
ARE YOU KIDDING? COULD MEAN WHATS UP TO EVERYONE IN S.A OR A HISPANIC SLANG OF WHATS UP TO THE HOMMIE..GET WITH IT DUDE.LOL
429720
Mit kersek, en itt? Azt mondjok, hogy a hires lakem lefogta a ferjemet en meg \nlecsaptam a fejet. De nem igaz, en artatlan \nvagyok. Nem tudom mert mondja \nUncle Sam hogy en tettem. probaltam\na rendorsegen megmayarazni de nem ertettek meg...\n\nMeans:\nVersion 1:  What am I doing here? Why do they say, the famous Police, that I held down by husband and with an axe cut off his head? It isn't true! My hands are white (i.e. I am innocent). I don't know why they have told Uncle Sam that I did this. I tried to explain to them but they will not understand... .."\n\nVersion 2: WHAT AM I DOING HERE? THEY SAY, THE FAMOUS\nHUNGARIAN POLICE, THAT I KILLED MY HUSBAND. BUT I DIDN'T DO\nIT, I AM NOT GUILTY. I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT UNCLE SAM SAYS I\nDID IT. THEY SAY I DID IT, BUT REALLY I......."
916517
The skull with the cowboy hat is a symbol of the CSA or Confederate States of America....When you hear someone say "The South Shall Rise Again", this is generally the organization they're talking about, which has also been connected to the Ku Klux Klan and more than one group of fascist neo-Nazis.  Several bands have also used this image to sell albums including Lynard Skinard, Pantera and Guns & Roses.  Eventhough SOME of their music can be 'southern rock', they have not been connected to the CSA or any of the other groups mentioned. \nHope I helped!
922106
Volunteers in Service To America.\nHere is the link; now you do the work.
1138545
Becuase if they didn't Uncle Sam would tax the hell out of them. Then again, some people are just the ultimate altruists.