On Wed, 21 Nov 2007 09:20:29 -0800 (PST), Chuck Gould
wrote:

On Nov 21, 9:41?am, John H. wrote:
On Wed, 21 Nov 2007 08:10:00 -0800 (PST), Chuck Gould





wrote:
Catastrophe was almost miraculously avoided yesterday afternoon after
two small planes collided in the air above Tacoma's Commencement Bay.

One of the planes was able to fly to an airfield in nearby Puyallup,
WA and execute a safe landing. The other plane, with two persons
aboard, was unable to continue flying and the pilot ditched the
aircraft into Commncement Bay. Several people fishing from shore on
the south side of the bay used cell phones to report the crash.

First on the scene was a an approximately 50-foot LOA pleasure boat.
By the time USCG personnel responded to the incident, the pleasure
boaters had recovered the pilot and his mother (the passenger on the
flight). The pilot and passenger were transferred to a local hospital,
where they are being treated for hypothermia. Both are expected to
survive.

Thank God for pleasure boaters with big boats and big hearts.

Have you seen Seattle's latest attempt to gain fame and notoriety? I think
they're trying to compete with San Francisco.

http://tinyurl.com/3excuu

I suppose Thanksgiving, during which thanks was given to God, will soon go
the way of Christmas. I wonder who will be the first to outlaw it's
celebration in the schools. Looks like Seattle is leading the pack.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -


The traditional story of Thanksgiving we learned 50 years ago in
school is generally bogus. HOWEVER (!), the reivsionist pop-left
version of Thanksgiving is just as bogus. Those school administrators
should be fired for outright ignorance of history, nevermind the
blatant attempt to
politicize the cirriculum. (Even when the effort is to swing the
cirriculum to the left, liberals should be alarmed. And when the
effort is to swing the cirriculum to the right, even conservatives
should be concerned).

The local Native leader in the area around Plymouth Colony was a man
named Massasoit. Massasoit had a long history of interaction with
Europeans prior to the arrival of the English Separatists and the
tradesmen and servants that accompanied them to the new world. He
distrusted Europeans, and had previously expelled several groups of
them from the area. The earlier waves of European exploration had
brought smallpox to Massasoit's people, however, and the devastating
effects of the disease so reduced his tribe's population that he was
left vulnerable to incursions from the rival group, the Naragansetts.

Massasoit sent an English speaking spy (Tsquantum) to live among the
new white people and learn as much as he could about them.
One of the funniest mistruths about the Pilgrims in America is the
Tsquantum supposedly showed the settlers the "old Indian trick" of
fertilizing corn hils with dead fish. In reality, the Massachusett
people never fertilized with fish.... this is a practice that
Tsquantum first observed during his years of captivity on the European
mainland but was not common in England and Holland, where the
Separatists were from.

Eventually Massasoit concluded that the new arrivals were of no
particular military threat. Their muskets were not as accurate as a
bow and arrow, and actually had less range. The new Europeans were
obviously ill equipped to survive in the new environment without
native support, and seemed unable or unlikely to want to expand into
additional territory. (Big mistake, Massasoit). While he had the
capability to massacre or expel the colonists at will- Massasoit
decided that an alliance, even if temporary, with the Europeans would
reestablish the political power he had lost when so much of his
population had died off from smallpox.

Those colonists who had survived the first winter, spring, and summer
in the New World and those of Massasoit's people who had survived the
smallpox gathered for a common meal to celebrate the new military
alliance between Massasoit and the Europeans.

Author Charles C. Mann ("1491") describes the first thanksgiving in
this paragraph:

By fall the settler's situation was secure enough that they held a
feast of thanksgiving. Massasoit showed up with ninety people, most of
them young men with weapons. The PIlgrim militia responded by marching
around and firing their guns in the air in a manner intended to convey
menace. Gratified, both sides sat down, ate a lot of food, and
complained about the Narrangansett. Ecce; Thanksgiving.

A source a little closer to the event perhaps:

http://members.aol.com/calebj/mourt6.html

"And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us,
yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you
partakers of our plenty."