Mark Twain on Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day, a function which originated in New England two or three centuries ago when those people recognized that they really had something to be thankful for - annually, not oftener - if they had succeeded in exterminating their neighbors, the Indians, during the previous twelve months, instead of getting exterminated by their neighbors, the Indians.  Thanksgiving Day became a habit, for the reason that in the course of time, as the years drifted on, it was perceived that the exterminating had ceased to be mutual and was all on the white man's side, consequently on the Lord's side; hence it was proper to thank the Lord for it and to extend the usual annual compliments.  

~Mark Twain

Lincoln’s Proclamation Establishing Thanksgiving Holiday

From 1863.

Thanksgiving in 1810, 1910, and 2010

A retrospective.

via Instapundit.

Some science of Thanksgiving links

The Genetics of White Meat and Dark Meat from Scientific American

Tyrannosaurus Rex Had a Wishbone from Smithsonian's Dinosaur Tracking blog

•Why Arsenic is Used in Turkey Processing, and Why It's Not Worth the Risk, an LA Times essay by Deborah Blum, author of The Poisoner's Handbook

•A Genetically Modified Thanksgiving from Popular Science

•The Genetic Origins of Snood Erections from The Annals of Improbable Resarch

•A 3-Dimensional Cosehedron-Shaped Pecan Pie, and other Thanksgiving DIY projects from Popular Mechanics

•Animation, based on CT scans, showing how the snood (the weird floppy thing on the face of a male turkey) is connected to the blood vessels that allow it to engorge.




via BoingBoing.

Cato's Plan to Cut Spending and Balance the Federal Budget

Comprehensive and detailed, with links to further details.

Gore: U.S. corn ethanol "was not a good policy"

Well, duh.  Think he'll apologize for his part in imposing it?

"He explained his own support for the original programme on his presidential ambitions.

"One of the reasons I made that mistake is that I paid particular attention to the farmers in my home state of Tennessee, and I had a certain fondness for the farmers in the state of Iowa because I was about to run for president.""

Obama's foreign policy would have made sense in 1983

Jackson Diehl: So has nothing changed in the past quarter-century? In fact, almost everything has - especially when it comes to nuclear arms control and Israel's national objectives. What hasn't changed, it seems, is Barack Obama - who has led his administration into a foreign policy time warp that is sapping its strength abroad and at home.

Monday stuff

The evolution of cranberries.

Massive plagues of rats swarm across India every fifty years.

 

Every Arnold Schwarzenegger Scream From Every Arnold Movie.  Also, Defenestration the movie.

 

Unfortunately not yet available in the US: The Flush Tracker.  "Hidden underground, it’s easy to take the sewer systems for granted, but now you can find out where yours goes."

Frog bites more than it can chew.

 

How to Win a Coin Toss.

 

Partygoer dressed as sheep saved by Jesus after being set alight.

 

In the Glorious Future, Could Space Travel Be Poop-Powered?

 

GALLERY: Capturing The Atom Bomb On Film.  Also, Morning Dew Photography.

 

Turn your elevator into an express elevator.

 

The Origin of Familiar Symbols.

 

11 Prisons Turned Into Hotels.

 

Seeing Where the Microwaves Are in a Microwave Oven.

 

Everything you ever wanted to know about the mating habits of crickets, including but not limited to Cricket Sets Testicle Size Record. 

Gloria Allred On TSA Pat-Down

Video.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: "Did they touch your body parts?"

GLORIA ALLRED: "Yeah, they did and it was a first time anybody touched them in a long time and frankly, I liked it," Gloria Allred."

Inside the White House the night of Nov. 22, 1963

The Miami Herald. 

By a twist of fate, Miami native David Pearson -- then a Peace Corps press officer, later the operator of a South Florida public relations and marketing firm -- was called to help at the White House on the evening of Nov. 22, 1963, the day John F. Kennedy was shot. His observations, first published in 1983, are reprinted here in abridged form, on the eve of the 47th anniversary of JFK’s assassination.

Lameduck Iowa Governor Gives State Workers $200 Million Pay Raise

No negotiation - the state accepted the union's proposal as is.