Free Republic

These men in history set themselves apart because: they thought it worthwhile to have God in their thinking. Even through their unimaginable hardships and loathsome past that make many today scream “victicrat.” Hindsight shows us that these modern “victicrats” are the Progressives of today. * “A victicrat is one who blames all ills, problems, concerns, and unhappiness on others” (Larry Elder, Ten Things You Can’t Say in America, St. Martins, New York: NY [2000], p. 22-33). Thankfully, these men (and women) of history — especially Squanto — saw God’s providential hand working in their lives and considered it all joy...

THAT TURKEY IS MARXIST. EvergladesInstitute.org ^ | November 23, 2005 | Jan Michael Jacobson Posted on Wednesday, November 23, 2005 8:46:38 PM by GladesGuru THAT TURKEY IS MARXIST. The first Thanksgiving was not at all what most Americans have been taught. The Indians didn’t make the difference between starvation and plenty for the Pilgrims in what they called ‘Ye Plimouth Colonie’. What really made the critical difference between that first year, which Governor Bradford called “The Starving Winter”, and the year of the first Thanksgiving? This critical factor lies at the heart of the American experiment in government. Yet virtually...

The study of the history and culture of one's own country is a vital element of education. It is important for children to understand how and why they are living the way they are now and that it is a result of what people who lived before them have done. They need to be able to connect the dots -- these prevailing thoughts led to fights, these ideas led to prosperity, this action led to that one, and so on. It is from making these kinds of connections that the child learns how to think logically. The tale of the...

A couple of days ago I received a tweet on Twitter from a liberal I didn't know, the whole thing seemed random, but I'm thankful for the message she wanted me to receive. Thanksgiving celebrates the day native Americans shared the harvest with illegal immigrants. I don't want to reveal the handle of this microblogging sage, lest a stampede of tweeps rush her like some wise person atop an ant hill. That would be a precarious journey, especially for me, I HATE ants...definitely not thankful for childhood issues. I will say that part of her Twitter handle shares the...

Most people would agree that politics and religion are the two most likely topics that could divide even the best of friends. Webster's dictionary says that politics is the political opinions or sympathies of a person, while it says that religion is a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith. Now as for me personally, except that ones religious faith could ultimately decide ones eternal destination, I don't see much difference between the two. When I watch Al Gore espousing his views on politics, I am reminded of an old friend of mine who...

Feast and football. That’s what many of us think about at Thanksgiving. Most people identify the origin of the holiday with the Pilgrims’ first bountiful harvest. But few understand how the Pilgrims actually solved their chronic food shortages. Many people believe that after suffering through a severe winter, the Pilgrims’ food shortages were resolved the following spring when the Native Americans taught them to plant corn and a Thanksgiving celebration resulted. In fact, the pilgrims continued to face chronic food shortages for three years until the harvest of 1623. Bad weather or lack of farming knowledge did not cause the...

For many years, Thanksgiving celebrations at the original Plimoth Plantation have delighted thousands of visitors wanting to see the recreation of the famous 1621 event where the Pilgrims joined the Wampanoag Indians in a feast that may have included the following: Deer meat, sallet (salad), mussels, sauc'd turkey, and a pottage of cabbage, leeks, and onions. Still to come are the stewed pompion (pumpkin), a chine of , fricassee of fish, cheesecake, a charger of Holland cheese, and fruit, plus the evening's entertainment - hymns, communal rounds, and jovial wordplay. [PETA is again planning to do something ridiculous and...

" . . . it well appeared the famine must still ensue . . ." [i] Famine stalked The Pilgrims the first years. But their conquest of famine helped end old world feudalism. I suggest the reader access the Project Gutenberg online edition of Governor William Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation.[ii], for the original source, see endnotes. I'll paraphrase some passages. July 1620 The Pilgrims' contract[iii] with their financial backers, the London Merchant Adventurers Company, included conditions of seven years of joint stock and partnership and communal property, followed by a division and release from obligations, "3.  ... all profits and benefits that are got...

With the United States under direct assault from the evils of Socialism (or other forms of "Collectivism" including: Communism, or Fascism...pick your tyranny), and with Thanksgiving Day upon us, it's timely, appropriate, and necessary to visit the nation's very first attempt with Socialism, nearly four centuries ago.

Reading Nathaniel Philbrick's Mayflower, an account of the voyage of the Pilgrims and the settling of Plymouth Colony, what strikes me most is not simply the extraordinary suffering of those who made the crossing, or how close to failure the entire venture teetered for years, or even the author's recounting of the first celebration we've since dubbed Thanksgiving. What leaps out from the pages of the history, probably because it's so little a part of the common narrative of the Pilgrims, is a crucial decision by the colony's governor, William Bradford, to change the fundamental organization of Plymouth's economy, a...

As American families sit down to their traditional Thanksgiving feasts they will naturally recall the familiar story of the Pilgrims taught to every school kid and, in the process, distort the true character of the nation’s religious heritage. Most children learn that the Mayflower settlers came to the New World to escape persecution and to establish religious freedom. But the early colonists actually pursued purity, not tolerance and sought to build fervent, faith-based utopias, not secular regimes that consigned religion to a secondary role. The distinctive circumstances that allowed these fiery believers of varied denominations to cooperate in the founding...

BEIJING — China will give swine flu vaccinations to thousands of Muslims about to make the annual pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, state media said, as authorities reported the mainland's third death from the illness. Concerns over the hajj, which attracts about 3 million Muslims every year to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, have led several countries to impose travel bans over fears the mass gathering could speed the spread of swine flu. Arab health ministers in July banned children, the elderly and those with chronic illnesses from attending this year. All of China's 12,700 Muslims making the pilgrimage...

Thousands of Catholic Pilgrims Queue For A Glimpse of St Therese of Lisieux Remains At The Start Of Month-Long UK Tour Sophie Freeman 17th September 2009 [Several Pics in URL] Thousands of people flocked to a cathedral yesterday to catch a glimpse of the relics of a Roman Catholic nun described as the 'greatest saint of modern times'. Pilgrims collapsed in tears as a casket containing the remains of St Therese of Lisieux arrived at St John's Catholic Cathedral in Portsmouth for the first part of a month-long UK tour. Many of the faithful touched the protective glass or pressed...

Even as the Left still flirts with socialism (and I'm being nice with the word, "flirts"), the first Pilgrims who arrived here in 1620 learned their lesson early: socialism, even on the scale of the Pilgrims colony at Plymouth Rock, doesn't work. William Bradford wrote about his "experiment" with socialism then in his journal, "Of Plymouth Plantation". Check it out sometime in a library or get it on Amazon. It is an early primary history of the Pilgrims' spirit of adventure, free enterprise, and devotion to religious freedom. We could use a little taste of their spirit today. I pulled...

The Health Ministry announced Egypt's first swine flu fatality on 19 July. The victim was identified as 28-year-old Samah El-Sayed Salima, recently returned from Saudi Arabia after the omra. Her death came after the Health Ministry had repeatedly advised pilgrims to cancel omra trips. El-Sayed began suffering flu-like symptoms in Mecca. She also had an underlying heart condition. Egypt's first cases of swine flu were confirmed in June among people travelling from the US. Soon cases were being reported among passengers coming from Western countries and from Saudi Arabia after performing omra rituals. The Ministry of Health began to call...

When the Pilgrims landed in 1620, they established a system of communal property. Within three years they had scrapped it, instituting private property instead. Hoover media fellow Tom Bethell tells the story. There are three configurations of property rights: state, communal, and private property. Within a family, many goods are in effect communally owned. But when the number of communal members exceeds normal family size, as happens in tribes and communes, serious and intractable problems arise. It becomes costly to police the activities of the members, all of whom are entitled to their share of the total product of the...

Where can I find another New World for religious freedom? I guess I will try and reclaim this one that my forefathers first claimed. Can I now be a neo-Pilgrim instead of a neoCon?

The several dozen Pilgrims who celebrated the first Thanksgiving in Massachusetts in 1621 would later fold their Plymouth Colony of religious Separatists into the nearby Massachusetts Bay Colony of Puritans...

PATRIOT PERSPECTIVE Pilgrims Regress By Mark Alexander In the aftermath of a momentous election, an election sure to change the course of our nation, it is tempting to despair. On this Thanksgiving, though, let us resist that powerful temptation and instead take stock of the blessings of liberty. President Ronald Reagan often cited the Pilgrims who celebrated the first Thanksgiving as our forebears who charted the path of American freedom. He made frequent reference to John Winthrop's "shining city upon a hill." As Reagan explained, "The phrase comes from John Winthrop, who wrote it to describe the America he imagined....

Wampanoag Indians in a History Channel scene, filmed at Plimoth Plantation (AP Photo) (CNSNews.com) – A nine-year-old girl was recently asked to remove her “Indian” costume before entering the Wampanoag Homesite of the Plimoth Plantation, a historical site that allows visitors to experience Plymouth, Mass., as it was in the 17th century. The outdoor museum features a 1627 English village beside a Wampanoag home site. The purpose of the museum is to educate visitors (school-children and adults) about what happened between the Native Americans and the colonists, especially during the first Thanksgiving. The nine-year-old was one of thousands who flock...