The True Meaning of Thanksgiving

When I was in elementary school, I was taught that Thanksgiving was a holiday remembering the Pilgrims giving thanks to the Native Americans for saving them when they didn't know how to survive in the American wilderness. The Pilgrims arrived, had no idea where they were, had no idea what they were doing, and almost were wiped out because of it, until the Indians showed them how to plant corn and brought gifts; and in return, the Pilgrims brought plague and stole the Indians' land. This is what is taught in schools, and it's not true. Sure, horrible diseases were brought to the Americas that did a lot of damage to the inhabitants, but the disease went both ways and was not part of a sinister plan. Nor were the Pilgrims "saved" by the Indians. The truth, which they won't teach in schools, is that Thanksgiving is a very religious holiday that has nothing to do with the Indians at all. Thanksgiving came about when the colonists abandoned their original communal system and adopted capitalism, and the "thanks" goes to God for saving them from starvation.

It also irritates me to no end when people call it "Turkey Day," since that's not what day it is. This is not like calling Christmas X-mas, which is completely legitimate, as the "x" is the Greek letter Chi, which has been a symbol for Christ for over 1000 years. That's beside the point, though.

The lies about Thanksgiving go even farther. This is from a story by Mike Ivey in the Madison Capital Times, under the headline "The Pilgrims Were Really Grave Robbers":

Everything you know about the "first" Thanksgiving is wrong.

Plymouth Rock.

Pilgrims.

Perseverance.

Big feast.

Happy Indians sharing in the bounty.

According to award-winning filmmaker Patty Loew, it's all bunk, except maybe the part about eating turkey. Early settlers were so hungry they ate about anything with fur or feathers.

Otherwise, there is little connection between reality and the version of Thanksgiving events still taught in most schools.

That point was hammered home Sunday by Loew.

A member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe, Loew was the keynote speaker at the third annual "Interfaith Thanksgiving Celebration" held at Lakeview Lutheran Church on Madison's north side.

Loew said the problem with the traditional Thanksgiving story is that it plays to the American version of history where peace loving English settlers tame the wilderness and survive attacks from the bloodthirsty Indians.

"It's the quintessential American holiday," she said. "It involves escaping danger, surviving in a harsh environment, carving out a new life."

Unfortunately, Loew says, the whole Thanksgiving story is nothing but myth.

In reality, the Indian tribes living along the Eastern seaboard had been decimated by disease in the years preceding the storied landing at Plymouth Rock in 1620.

An epidemic of bubonic plague, most likely brought to the New World by European fishermen in 1617, had killed an estimated 90 percent of the Native population by the time the Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts.

"What the settlers found were empty villages with crops still in the field because the Indians had either died or left," Loew said, quoting a version of events laid out by author James Loewen. www.trinicenter.com/historicalviews/thanksgiving.htm.

The more religious of the settlers -- only 32 of the 102 who landed at Plymouth were actually Pilgrims -- thought the existing villages and cleared fields were a sign that God was providing for them.

Other settlers took to digging up the graves of Indians, picking through the housewares, blankets or weapons buried with the dead.

"So the first Thanksgiving in America was actually held by grave robbers," Loew told the crowd of more than 200.

Loew challenged the audience to tell the correct version of events and think about what it means when they celebrate this Thursday with family or friends.

"We're not just talking about feel good history, but history that reflects the truth," said Loew, a longtime local TV anchor who serves as associate professor of life sciences communications at UW-Madison.

So if the Pilgrims were out digging up graves, why didn't they get the plague? I've heard similar stories cited elsewhere, as well. While it is true that disease and conflict had widespread effects on the native populations and colonists alike, this has nothing to do with Thanksgiving. And of course every year PETA complains about cruel treatment of turkeys, as if it would make us stop eating them.

So what is the true story of Thanksgiving? You can read what I have to say, or better yet, go to my sources and read these articles:

"Giving Thanks" by Jennifer James

"The Real Story of Thanksgiving" from a transcript of The Rush Limbaugh Show

The true Thanksgiving story is a perfect example of why communism fails. The early colonists were sponsored by English merchants, who required that the colonists keep everything common and distribute everything equally. Of course this wasn't a very efficient way to do things, since the more productive people have no incentive to work harder than anyone else, and the rest had no reason to work since they were entitled to a share whether they contributed or not. William Bradford wrote in his journal that the results of keeping everything common brought about needless suffering and should be every schoolchild's lesson.

"The experience that we had in this common course and condition, tried sundry years...that by taking away property, and bringing community into a common wealth, would make them happy and flourishing – as if they were wiser than God...For this community (so far as it was) was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort. For young men that were most able and fit for labor and service did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men's wives and children without [being paid] that was thought injustice."

Seeing the dangers ahead, and fearing that this communal system would be as harmful as the harsh winter they had suffered through, Bradford decided to ignore the original contract with the merchant sponsors, and divided the land into individual plots, for which the colonists were personally responsible. He got the system out of the way and allowed capitalism to take over. Bradford wrote that "This had very good success, for it made all hands industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been. The Pilgrims soon found themselves with more bounty than they could consume themselves, and so were able to set up trade with the Indians. Their success attracted more settlers and began the Great Puritan Migration.

Thanksgiving came about as the Pilgrims learned the hard lessons of socialism, that it doesn't work. The only system that works is capitalism. Capitalism is not greed, it is personal accountability and responsibility. In fact, it is socialism that allows greed to pull everyone down. Capitalism requires contributing to the system before benefitting from it. Thanksgiving is a capitalist and religious holiday; thanks to God for providing for the Pilgrims once they got their heads on straight and did what they could for themselves, thanks to capitalism for saving them from the evils of socialism.

Interestingly enough, while every year people complain about the commercialization of Christmas, there is little complaint of the under-commercialization of Thanksgiving other than to mention that it is forgotten in retail stores as they put up Christmas merchandise as they take down Halloween. Incidentally, I don't complain about the commercial Christmas thing, because does Wal-Mart running ads and putting up decorations take anything away from me remembering Christ's birth? It doesn't. If there was ever a holiday that should be commercialized, it's Thanksgiving. This year, celebrate the triumph of capitalism over socialism by buying lots of food from grocery stores, and doing some extra Christmas shopping. It may be our last chance before Obama institutes his economic plan, and we have to triumph over socialism all over again.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Teton Sunrise

This morning I hiked up the Menan Buttes west of Rexburg to watch the sun rise over the Tetons. Partly I did this because I need to take some photos for my final project in my photography class, but also I really needed a field trip just by myself, and to enjoy a good view. It was 16°F outside, and it was awesome. The sun came up about 7:30 am, and I got some good pictures. Be sure to click on them for a bigger version:












Now on to the rest of my Thanksgiving break. I mean, back to tons of homework during my "week off."

Do You Know Muse?

Automated advertising can be funny. I'm pretty sure Facebook and Google, etc. use information from my profile to advertise to my interests, but this unintended mixup made me laugh:

That's all for now.

80-Proof Diamonds

Time for another filler post while I wait for time to write something good. Ready for some randomness?

Yesterday was International Toilet Day. That's right. It was started in 2001 by the World Toilet Organization. It really exists. They meet and discuss ways to improve sanitation around the world, which is a good goal I guess, but they're a bunch of crazies. They say that "each year lack of toilets causes 200 million tons of human waste to go uncollected and untreated around the world, fouling the environment and exposing millions of people to diseases." Holy crap! They're trying to develop "dry toilets" that you don't have to flush, because apparently any civilization that flushes toilets wastes more water than is sustainable. Stop flushing your toilets, people! If you do, places like this will no longer be necessary.

Scientists have found a way to make a film of synthetic diamonds out of tequila. Apparently they've been doing this for awhile with a solution of 40% ethanol 60% water, but apparently tequila, which is 40% alcohol (that's what 80-proof means), has just the right amount of carbon and other things to make exactly the kind of diamond they need. These diamonds are slightly impure (like the ones in Congo by Michael Crichton), which makes them highly useful in electronics. Read about it here.

Speaking of tequila, this is very informative:

And the effects of tequila on lego figures:

One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor.

These are some very cool videos I found of Ken Block driving around in a Subaru, doing some incredible drifting and other stunts:

And William Shatner demonstrating why it's a good idea for civilians to have guns:

That was a clip from Boston Legal, and if that's all you've seen of that show you've seen as much as I have. Pretty cool, though.

That's all for now.

Life Without Walls

I have to rant for a bit.

Microsoft has launched a new ad campaign that I couldn't help but noticing because it's so stupid. I've seen a lot of stupid commercials, but these rank among the worst ever. The campaign is called "Life Without Walls," and I guess is supposed to reject the stereotype of Windows users created by Apple ads depicting Windows users as stuffy businessman-types who follow the crowd and replace it with the idea that every unique person can be a windows user, too. The worst idea about this is that they have PC users upload video of themselves saying "I'm a PC" and giving a statement about themselves, then I'm pretty sure they deliberately chose the worst examples to put in the commercials. Or maybe just the worst of nerds and Deepak Chopra* are likely to upload themselves.

Here's an example of one of the ads; but I have to warn you, there are some creepy people in this video:

First off, do you really want a life without walls? There's no privacy in a life without walls! What you really want is a life without limits, but with plenty of protective boundaries, such as walls. Maybe this is to put a positive spin on Windows' susceptibility to viruses; there are no walls to keep the viruses out. And if you replace "walls" with "limits," then you really do want to go with Apple, since you can run Windows on a Mac (as fast or faster than on an equivalent PC!), but you can't run MacOSX on a PC. Which one has more limits?

Secondly, by starting your ad with the guy from Apple's Mac vs. PC ads, and having everyone say "I'm a PC," Microsoft is unwittingly admitting that Apple controls the board here. They're acknowledging that Apple, with it's small but growing market share, is a threat. Seriously, ever since Steve Jobs went back to Apple and saved their butts, Apple has single-handedly driven the computer market and now the gadget market. If you got a Zune because you refused to buy an iPod, thank Apple for forcing Microsoft to make a product to compete. If you're a Blackberry fan excited for the new version coming out, thank iPhone for turning the smartphone market on its head practically overnight. If you like the colorful George Foreman Grills they had awhile back, thank the original often mocked but often imitated colorful iMac, which saved Apple from extinction. Apple sets not just the trends but the standards, and is driving the entire PC market today, and this awful ad campaign acknowledges that.

Stuff that imitates Apple products:

And finally, if you were Microsoft, would you really want that to be the face you show to the world? Seriously? You couldn't find people who aren't completely socially awkward nerds to show in your ads? This doesn't help the stereotype they're trying to fight, it just replaces it. At least the PC guy in the Apple ads looks like a normal guy; now I'm seeing the "real" PCs, and they're stereotype nerds.

That's a bit harsh, I suppose; surely they're not all that bad. Let's look at another one:

I'm still not being fair, because it's way too easy to make fun of Tron Guy, especially since he's everywhere these days. I should be nice, though (see comments!), since Tron has been a favorite movie of mine since I was little, and the purpose of this post is more to question Microsoft's judgment than mock a super-fan. So how about more of this guy:

They really do have some somewhat normal people, too, though:

Though some of those guys I still wouldn't want in my ad. There are more at Microsoft's website, both normal people and weird ones, like this guy and this guy. I thought about submitting my own "I'm a Mac," just out of spite, but then I decided I don't really feel like it.

Anyway, I get really annoyed by stupid commercials, and I just couldn't let this one escape.

*If you want to see a real idiot who is more than an average guy, watch Deepak Chopra talk about why he is a PC:

In the montage ad they show him saying "I'm a PC, and a human being. Not a human doing, not a human thinking; a human being." Well, how profound, Mr. Philosopher man! Maybe you should do some more thinking and doing, you might be of some value to this world rather than spouting gibberish about quantum healing and other nonsense. Seriously, what is that supposed to mean?

Michael Crichton

With so much of my time spent on homework, I am way behind on posting. This post is a whole week late, but I want to speak on this topic anyway.

Last week, while America was going to the polls, Michael Crichton died of cancer, joining my list of personal heroes who have died this year. He was 66 years old, and had kept his cancer quiet, so his death was very unexpected.

While the quality of his recent work had suffered quite a bit (his last couple books were a bit disappointing), he is still one of the most influential authors of the late 20th century, and played an important role along with Orson Scott Card and William Sleator in shaping my taste in books. Additionally, he was a recent and powerful ally in the fight against global warming alarmism, making some excellent speeches on the topic before congress. He received a degree in anthropology from Harvard, and then went on to medical school, writing books along the way, and became a full-time writer after receiving his M.D. degree after the success of The Andromeda Strain. He will definitely be missed.

I think that the best way to remember an artist is by his work, and so the best I can do for Mr. Crichton is to praise his books. So here are my picks from the works of Michael Crichton:

Sphere: This book is often overlooked, but is by far my favorite; in fact, it is my second favorite sci-fi book after Enders Game. I've read it nearly a dozen times, and it is almost like a first read every time, there's so much in it. The premise is that a team of scientists is brought together to investigate a space ship that has been found on the bottom of the ocean, 1000ft. deep. The strange thing is, the ship is American-built, and it has been there for 300 years. As the team explores the ship and deals with cramped quarters in a deep-sea habitat, all their fears start coming real.

This book has absolutely perfect pacing, alternating between tense scenes as the characters face dangerous sea monsters and worse, and entertaining dialogue as the scientists debate their theories on the space ship, time travel, and other things. The psychological aspect of this book is very well thought out, and this book is full of interesting ideas. Unfortunately it was made into a very poor movie, but the bright side is that the movie has an excellent soundtrack by Elliot Goldenthal that perfectly sets the mood. It won't be a classic - Jurassic Park has secured that place and earned it - but in my opinion this is a better book and a must-read.

Jurassic Park: As I said, this book earns its place as a classic. This book got people excited about science and dinosaurs again, and is a truly original book. Chances are you've already read it, but if you haven't you must and if you have you should again. When he first wrote this it was from the point of view of the children visiting the park, and no one wanted to publish it. He finally realized it was because he adults reading his manuscript weren't identifying with the child characters because they wanted to be the ones having the adventure. He rewrote it from an adult point of view, and it sold immediately. The sequel, The Lost World, is very good, too. Also, this is the only Michael Crichton book to be made into a good movie, which will also be a classic. I still believe that no movie has matched the special effects achievements of Jurassic Park, because no one has cared as much to make things look real. It is 100% convincing.

Congo: If this book doesn't make you afraid of gorillas, it's not possible. This book follows a group of scientists as they take a tame gorilla deep into the jungles of Congo to return her to the wild, and hope to solve a mystery at the same time. A previous expedition to the area in search of special diamonds that have important technology applications was mysteriously attacked by wild gorillas; and they hope the tame gorilla, who can speak sign language, can help to piece together what happened. They face violent natives and rebels on the way, and eventually the ruins of mysterious ancient civilization, and an unusually violent race of gorillas. I couldn't put this book down, and have read it a few times since and it doesn't lose its effect. Unfortunately, the movie barely resembles the book.

Those are my absolute favorites that everyone must read. Runners-up include The Lost World (an excellent sequel to Jurassic Park that still hasn't been made into a movie whatever people say), The Andromeda Strain (scientists investigate a mysterious microorganism spreading from a crashed satellite, and was Crichton's first bestseller), Terminal Man (a violent man is given an experimental treatment similar to a pacemaker to calm his mind, and it goes horribly wrong), Eaters of the Dead (renamed 13th Warrior, an attempt to finish a scrap of manuscript about a Middle-Eastern man going on a quest with some Vikings, and is inspired by Beowulf), and State of Fear (not a great book in and of itself, but makes an excellent case against global warming alarmism while remaining entertaining). The rest of his books are entertaining, but not at all masterpieces. Read Sphere, Jurassic Park and Congo, and if you like those go on to the runners-up and then on from there.

In addition to his books, he made some great speeches on global warming and environmentalism in general. These are must-reads for anyone interested in the issue, especially since Crichton was a convert to the skeptic side of the debate. He did some research hoping to incorporate it into a book, and found that there's not much real science to support the idea that Man is causing global warming (surprise surprise!). The speeches are all on his website, and I encourage you to read them at least once. They are as entertaining as some of his books, so don't worry that they're dry and boring. I will link to the best ones here:

Environmentalism as Religion (this one is my favorite)

Testimony before the United States Senate

The Case for Skepticism on Global Warming

Complexity Theory and Environmental Management

Science Policy in the 21st Century

Aliens Cause Global Warming

You will be missed, Mr. Crichton; thank you for giving us so much to remember you by.

Boston Brass

I have quite a lot I'd like to write about in this blog, but haven't in awhile because I've just been so busy. The worst thing is, the more I do, the more there is to do, and I honestly don't think I can get caught up in all three of my difficult classes this semester. I'm to the point where I think I might have to choose which one I'm going to have to take over again. There was one highlight to the weekend, though, and that is that I took a break from my unproductive weekend to be unproductive at a very good concert by the Boston Brass.

The Boston Brass are a brass quintet from.... Boston. Not all the members are from Boston, but the quintet is. Even cooler than going to the concert was that I got to hang out with them and get to know them a bit before hand, so it was like going to a concert put on by a bunch of friends.

Bryce Mecham, who teaches Trombone at BYU-Idaho, has been keeping me involved in music events at the school even though I'm not a music major and I'm not officially taking music courses this semester, since they don't fit my schedule. I took lessons from him last semester, which was the first time I'd ever actually taken real Trombone lessons. Anyway, each of the brass faculty was allowed to invite two students to have lunch with the Boston Brass and BYU-Idaho brass faculty last Friday, and I was invited as one of Bryce Mecham's guests even though I'm not officially a student of his, which is extra cool. I sat near Jeff Conner, one of the trumpet players, and had casual conversation about music in general, and he asked questions about missions, since most of us there were returned missionaries. I also was invited to attend a master class taught by Andrew Hitz, the tuba player for Boston Brass (Lance LaDuke couldn't make it to teach the Trombones), and even though I was just there to listen and not play, I learned new things.

Then there was the concert. Actually, it was half concert, half comedy show. There was almost too much comedy; there was about 50/50 music and talking, and I think I'd have preferred more music. I'm not complaining, though, because these guys are hilarious. One of the trumpet players, Jose Sibaja, is from Costa Rica, so he introduced a couple Latin jazz songs. At one point, he claimed he could only do a set of songs justice by announcing it in Spanish, and had Lance translate, and of course the translation was deliberately botched. Later they invited to the stage a couple girls who had been cheering louder than the rest, and had them play a Hollywood Squares type game. One of the questions was about sports, and when Lance (who was "hosting" the show) asked if they knew anything about sports, one of the girls said "not the kind with balls," which made Kate and me laugh extra hard. As soon as she realized she'd said something that could be taken the wrong way, she was very embarrassed. They won free CDs, which was cool; I had to buy mine.

The music half was excellent. They played a wide variety of songs, from the famous bit of Dvorak's New World Symphony to two of my favorite jazz pieces: Manteca and Caravan. Manteca is still stuck in my head, and I don't mind. All the music was arranged by J.D. Shaw, who plays the french horn. I'd never thought of the french horn as a jazz instrument before, in fact, I'd never been a huge fan of it; but Shaw was no question the best of the five. I've never heard that instrument played so well. Andrew Hitz was awesome on the tuba as well; they played a funk piece, and he did an incredible bassline. I was only a bit disappointed, because Lance, the Trombone player, wasn't featured as much as I would have liked. I like to see my instrument dominate, but since the music was so good, it was alright.

Unfortunately, there's not much to offer on YouTube for Boston Brass, but I found a few decent videos. They don't come close to doing the band justice, but I'll share them anyway. If you only listen to one, make it Caravan by Duke Ellington.

Danza Final:

Largo from New World Symphony:

Caravan: