Ah, Thanksgiving. To most of us, the word conjures up images of turkey dinner, pumpkin pie and watching football with family and friends. It kicks off the holiday season and is the biggest shopping weekend of the year. We’re taught that Thanksgiving came about when pilgrims gave thanks to God for a bountiful harvest. We vaguely mumble thanks for the food on our table, the roof over our head and the loved ones around us. We casually think about how lucky we are and how much better our lives are than, say, those in Bangladesh. But surely there is something more to celebrate, something more sacred about this holiday.

For several years stories in the media have reported a farm labor shortage. This study examines this question and finds little evidence to support this conclusion.

A Top 25 list cut from Quantcast listings.

In another move that both infuriates and attempts to suppress Christianity, China is reported to have officially banned Bibles - for athletes - from the 2008 Olympics.  The Bible was included on a “prohibited items list” prepared by the Chinese government and distributed to athletes who intend to participate in the China-hosted Olympics.  Under penalty of Chinese law, Bibles may not be brought into the Olympic village.  Interestingly, no ban applies or has ever applied to the Muslim Quran.  Apparently, Islam and all of its practices are still to be allowed.  Also, apparently (although the secular and decidedly anti-Christian mainstream press did not report this story), China heard about the uproar caused by its actions from the new media and is now denying they occurred.  China has now declared that athletes will be allowed to bring Bibles into the Olympic Village if they are “exclusively for personal use.”

Ah, Thanksgiving. To most of us, the word conjures up images of turkey dinner, pumpkin pie and watching football with family and friends. It kicks off the holiday season and is the biggest shopping weekend of the year. We’re taught that Thanksgiving came about when pilgrims gave thanks to God for a bountiful harvest. We vaguely mumble thanks for the food on our table, the roof over our head and the loved ones around us. We casually think about how lucky we are and how much better our lives are than, say, those in Bangladesh. But surely there is something more to celebrate, something more sacred about this holiday.

Federal agents and over 200 law enforcement officers executed multiple search and arrest warrants in Los Angeles, Missouri and Georgia, in connection with Operation “Crimson Vex,” an investigation into an illegal drug trafficking conspiracy, announced Peter Brust, Acting Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI in Los Angeles, Thomas P. O’Brien, United States Attorney for Los Angeles and Timothy Landrum, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration in Los Angeles.

The discovery this week of a 4.38-carat diamond at the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas brought back the following fond memories, which first ran in a column in 1987.

The surge of U.S. troops in Baghdad is succeeding but deeper structural problems continue to plague the American presence in Iraq. The country’s largest dam, 40 kilometers northwest of Mosul, near the Turkish border, spectacularly symbolizes this predicament.

New Study Looks at Agricultural Labor Force - WASHINGTON (November 2007)—A new Backgrounder from the Center for Immigration Studies challenges assertions by farmers and the media that crops are rotting in the fields for lack of workers. Philip Martin, a professor of agricultural and resource economics at the University of California, Davis, examines workers’ wages, farmers’ earnings, and the prospects of mechanization.

Don’t use wimpy MicroCrap Progressive servers!

Last month, during a Saudi television show, Muslim author and religious leader Muhammad Al-Arifi advised young Muslim men how to deal with their new wives. Apparently in the shadow of Mecca, it is perfectly acceptable to beat your wife as long as you do not hit her in the face, so as not to “make her face ugly.”

Nov. 1 - All major stock indexes took a fall today, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average losing 362.14 points, or 2.6 percent.

About 100,000 Turkish troops, backed by aircraft and tanks, are poised to enter Iraq for counterterrorism purposes. But once there, they might just stay permanently, occupying the Mosul area, leading to dangerous regional consequences.

One of the silliest complaints that liberals never tire of leveling against conservatives is that we’re divisive. I should hope so. God forbid that those of us on the right should ever roll over for the knuckleheads on the left. But this is a perfect example of the pot calling the kettle divisive. 

When most coastal residents tell me their impressions of the American Midwest, they think of bucolic terrain, churchgoing folks, Main Streets dotted with Old Glory, Mom and Pop stores and family values. While much of this is true, especially the farther you move out from the major Midwest cities, most of these folks actually mistake the Midwest for the Great Plains.