In 1620 a band of religious separatists who weren’t happy with their situation in England (Church of England) or Amsterdam or Leiden (cultural influences) departed for the New World. For some reason, they planned their trip such that they arrived in Massachusetts in December. They found land that had been cleared by a prior Indian settlement and subsequently decimated by disease — most likely smallpox — and were able to settle there during the winter.

Fortunately, a native Patuxet named Squanto who had twice been kidnapped and enslaved by Englishmen was able and willing to translate for the Pilgrims and teach them how to raise corn and catch eel. Having survived their first year by the skin of their teeth and brought in their first harvest, the Pilgrims celebrated their first Thanksgiving 386 years ago.

So, today, as you enjoy your turkey and mashed potatoes and what have you, give thanks to God and/or Squanto as your preferences dictate.

I was in a nine hour deposition today. About pigs. Feel free to talk amongst yourselves.

Ken de la Bastide, writing for the Kokomo Tribune has an article (picked up by the Courier Journal) entitled Desegregation at its Dawn about Charles Burk, now 85 years old, who was a federal marshal out of Logansport who was assigned to help with desegregating more than a dozen school integrations. Burk talks about the bravery (or perhaps ignorance) of one of the little girls he helped. He also described the racist pieces of crap masquerading as teachers (not his words) who refused to teach the little girl.

Ryan Lenz, writing for the Associated Press, has an article on the raid of a currency protest group in Evansville. From the article, I gather that this Liberty Dollar group mints coins — not counterfeit, I guess, since they aren’t duplicates of existing currency — and puts them into circulation. I don’t know if similarity to federal coinage is part of the gag or if they’re just using currency that is accepted in an underground economy of some sort. One of their coins features Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul.

The organization, which is critical of the Federal Reserve, has repeatedly clashed with the federal government, which contends that the gold, silver and copper coins it produces are illegal. NORFED claims its Liberty Dollars are inflation free and can restore stability to financial markets by allowing commerce based on a currency that does not fluctuate in value like the U.S. dollar.

“They’re running scared right now and they had to do something,” von NotHaus told The Associated Press Friday. “I’m volunteering to meet the agents and get arrested so we can thrash this out in court.”

There is a pretty substantial Wikipedia entry about the Liberty Dollar here. From the description there, it looks like there is no intent for the coinage to be mistaken for federal coinage. They claim that the coins are “numismatic pieces or medallions which may be used voluntarily as barter.”

From a purely individual standpoint, I don’t suppose there is any problem with people using alternate currencies among themselves, so long as the use is entirely voluntary and well-informed. In other words, nobody should ever be fooled into thinking that the currency is something other than private issue. From a government standpoint, a government should be very jealous of its prerogatives with respect to currency — it’s almost as important to a government as keeping a monopoly on violence. There was a line in Frank Herbert’s Dune on the subject of keeping power to the effect of “Control the courts and the currency, let the rabble have the rest.”

I was reading this Journal and Courier article about a blackout in downtown Lafayette yesterday. There was brief mention of the fact that, because of the blackout, a meal couldn’t be prepared at a Chamber of Commerce luncheon. They called Brad Cohen, owner of Arni’s Pizza, and he was Johnny-on-the-Spot with 13 pizzas and some salad. I wouldn’t mention this in isolation, but it seems like everywhere I look in Lafayette, Cohen and Arni’s is there helping out the community. My personal experience is as a coordinator of the annual Legal Aid golf outing. Cohen and Arni’s have been kind enough to donate food for the lunch. My wife was involved with a MOMs Club charitable event, and Arni’s donated. Just a very solid member of the community, very much doing their part to make Lafayette a great place. And, might I add — great pizza.