Excellent post Rick!!!!! It ain't what Columbus did after he got here that is celebrated on Columbus Day....it is the simple fact that he got here at all. Sure the Vikings may have got here before him....and there is actually some evidence that the Chinese may have made it across the Pacific to S America....but they weren't talkin'. After Columbus found the joint, it stayed found (I think that is a Frank Sinatra qoute).

McGrath!!!!

"..."That's a pretty good description of a conservative" - I take it you mean "a black hole so powerful, not even satire can escape!"...."

No Sir!!! (or ma'am...I honestly don't know) That would be Rosie O'Donnell you are thinking of and she is as liberal as they come.

Also it wasn't the British Victory in the 7 years War that sealed the fate of the Indians, as much as the colonists' victory in the Revolution. The British tended to regard natives as another people to be incorporated into the Empire....the American settlers looked upon them as another part of the landscape that needed to be cleared off to plant crops.

While I am at it....a conservative is someone who believes in individual liberty and freedom. In the last century we were called liberals.....