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Thanksgiving Day - the True History by Fred E. Foldvary The Thanksgiving Day that millions of Americans celebrate, with turkey and stuffing, is a myth. The true history was forgotten long ago, and even most of the history books have it wrong. The Pilgrims landed in 1620 and founded the Colony of New Plymouth in what is now Massachusetts. They had a difficult first winter, but survived with the help of the Indians. The usual story in the history textbooks relates how in the fall of 1621, the grateful Pilgrims held their first Thanksgiving Day and invited the Indians to...

(NEW YORK) -- Usually Spider-Man is the one spinning a web, but on Thursday the superhero was the one who ended up getting snared. The Spider-Man balloon, measuring nearly 30-feet tall and 78-feet long, had part of its left arm torn when it hit a branch during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Balloon handlers held tight to their balloons, which were threatened by winds of up to 26 mph during the annual parade. The New York Police Department had considered grounding the balloons, a popular draw at the annual parade, but instead ordered them to...

An Indiana man maintains he was fired for refusing to keep his Pizza Hut restaurant open on Thanksgiving, claiming it was unfair to his employees. Tony Rohr, the General Manager of the Pizza Hut in Elkhart, Ind. had been with the company for ten years and worked his way up from cook. In a meeting with his superiors, Rohr learned that this year the store would remain open on the national holiday. He was told, “It was a competitive decision and that everyone was open, so we will be too.”

Mark Levy • Herald/Review Private Zachary Wilson, with Bravo Company, 40th Expeditionary Signal Battalion, enjoys a Thanksgiving meal at the Thunderbird Dining Facility Wednesday on Fort Huachuca. Wilson is spending his first Thanksgiving away from his family. The 20-year-old soldier from St. Louis, Mo., was eating his Thanksgiving meal Wednesday — actually a pre-holiday feast — at the Thunderbird Dining Facility. Turkey and dressing, along with ham, cole slaw, another salad and banana pudding was the spread he choose for his meal, which he declared to be “pretty good.”But like many young GIs, no Thanksgiving or Christmas meal will be “like mom’s,” he said.Assigned to...

1 We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing; he chastens and hastens his will to make known; the wicked oppressing now cease from distressing. Sing praises to his name; he forgets not his own. 2 Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining, ordaining, maintaining his kingdom divine; so from the beginning the fight we were winning; thou, Lord, wast at our side; all glory be thine! 3 We all do extol thee, thou leader triumphant, and pray that thou still our defender wilt be. Let thy congregation escape tribulation; thy name be ever praised! O Lord,...

The principles America was founded on have paved the way for the freedoms and privileges each citizen is thankful for today. At the heart of conservatism, is the recognition that many of these founding ideals are worth fighting to preserve. In the words of John Quincy Adams: "Posterity--you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it." So in the spirit of preserving today’s blessings for tomorrow’s Americans, let’s take a look at ten things the Founding Fathers would be fighting against in the 21st century....

For many Americans, the Thanksgiving meal includes seasonal dishes such as roast turkey with stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie. The holiday feast dates back to November 1621, when the newly arrived Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians gathered at Plymouth for an autumn harvest celebration, an event regarded as America’s “first Thanksgiving.” But what was really on the menu at the famous banquet, and which of today’s time-honored favorites didn’t earn a place at the table until later in the holiday’s 400-year history? Many people report feeling drowsy after eating a Thanksgiving meal. Turkey often gets blamed because...

Cher told her fans on Wednesday that she does not celebrate Thanksgiving. In fact, she appears to deplore the American holiday, calling in the “beginning of a great crime.” Cher said that the American settlers were guilty of taking land from native Americans who had no concept of property ownership and also intentionally infected them with smallpox. “You don’t celebrate the holiday I thought?” a fan asked Cher. “I DON’T,” Cher replied emphatically. She said that, to her, Thanksgiving is a day to see family, eat food together and watch a movie. “Not 2 celebrate the beginning of a GREAT...

The Grinch that defended the Grinch that stole Thanksgiving Yeah, that would be me. I'm the guy in the public defender's office that got the call at 11:30 last night, to come down and represent the Grinch, who had just been arrested on grounds of screwing up Thanksgiving. I told the Grinch to plead not guilty at the speedily arranged arraignment. Since then, I've been feverishly preparing a court brief to argue to the Judge for dismissal. Do I like taking these kinds of cases? Do dogs like getting scratched in the eye by the family cat? No, it has...

BABY PANDA! Don't be too surprised if you hear a liberal relative shout that out at the Thanksgiving table today if the topic of talk turns to Obamacare. Although Barack Obama himself has been urging members of Organizing For America to bring up Obamacare talking points at the dinner parties today, another liberal school of thought is that the President's signature program has fumbled so badly that it is now too embarrassing to defend. So when a gloating relative points out that conservatives have been right about the train wreck of Obamacare all along, one must change the subject entirely....

It was 150 years ago that Sarah Josepha Hale gave us Thanksgiving as we know it. The influential editor was the best friend Thanksgiving ever had. We are accustomed, in a more jaded and secular age, to wars on various holidays; Hale waged a war for Thanksgiving. For years, she evangelized for nationalizing the holiday by designating the last Thursday of November for it to be celebrated annually across the country. Besides plugging for Thanksgiving in her publication, Godey’s Lady’s Book, she wrote Presidents Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce, and Buchanan about it before hitting pay dirt with Abraham Lincoln. On October...

President Barack Obama and outgoing New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg have both tried to nudge their way into America’s Thanksgiving (or Thanksgivukkah) dinners, with talking points about Obamacare and gun control, respectively. Not only is introducing contentious political issues into a family holiday a recipe for unhappiness, but it also reflects the disturbing Orwellian ambitions of Obama’s big-government liberalism. The idea that politics must be brought into every family discussion and every personal relationship has been a hallmark of Obama’s style since the 2008 campaign, when he told his supporters to confront their neighbors, to get “in their face.” During...

And we do have much to be thankful for. Thank God for all our blessings. Thank God we live in America and we have each other. Thank God that the good people of America are finally waking up to the horrors of Obama's Marxist policies. Thank God we have an election coming up and we have a good chance of retaking the senate. Thank God that the corrupt evil doers will soon be defeated and we can begin righting the wrongs. And thank God this FReepathon is nearly completed. And thank you all very much for your continuing support and...

General Mihailovich Lt. Colonel Albert B. Seitz [American Office of Strategic Services OSS] ''As we proceeded out over the Adriatic my mind flashed back to one incident which will always have great meaning for me. Before I was leaving my tour of Serbia, the Minister [General Mihailovich] had expressed a desire to do something to honor America saying 'Here we have Slava, the day of our patron saint. What is America’s slava?' "I thought for a moment and said, 'We have four great days: Christmas, New Years, Independence Day, and Thanksgiving. Christmas we love because it is the day...

Your guide to dealing with relatives with awful views this long weekend. A special "Obamacare train wreck" edition Once again, Americans everywhere are spending a wonderful day with their families, being thankful for things, and also probably getting trapped wherever they are for days because of storms and mass nationwide flight delays and cancellations. But while family is a wonderful thing, sometimes people in your family hold very different beliefs than you do about important things like race relations and Islam. Once again, I am here with your guide to arguing intelligently, or at least coherently, with your right-wing relations....

Sign-up for your Thanksgiving Cheat Sheet Have a Republican relative? Just want to make sure you've got the latest facts and figures about President Obama's agenda and Republican obstructionism? Sign up to get your Thanksgiving Cheat Sheet and we'll text it directly to your phone. Mobile Phone Number Email Address Your Name (First & Last) Get Your Cheat Sheet:

This "Thanksgiving MULLINGS" was first published in 2002. Please take a moment on this Thanksgiving to say a Prayer of Thanks for those brave Americans in uniform, and also for the civilians, who are serving in far off places, away from their families, protecting us, and projecting America's values as we enjoy our Thanksgiving dinners safe from fear, and from want; and as we exercise our freedoms of worship and of speech. In 2003, I wrote the Thanksgiving column from Camp Victory just outside of Baghdad. Please take a look back at the Iraq Travelogue by clicking here: "Good Morning...

Don't anybody be shocked, but those Pilgrims being celebrated today weren't just cardboard cut-outs. They were part of the Religious Right. Or maybe the Religious Left, since the Pilgrims emphasized communal organization as much as they did individual rights. But right or left, the Pilgrims were definitely religious. That is, they believed in something beyond themselves. Something spiritual but worldly, too. Not a stained-glass kind of faith but beliefs that impelled sacrifice, risk, commitment ... movement. And not just in the metaphorical sense. They would have to abandon their roots, forget all they had known, resettle, become strangers in...

In spite of the mess the Obama Administration has made of our lives today is still a day for pausing to remember how blessed we are to be here in America the greatest country under the watchful eye of God. Think of your advantages; love your family and let this day renew your resolve to fight to keep the blessings our Founding Fathers gave us. While things are as dark and dreary as they have been in our lifetime, there is room for gratitude to God for what we have. Our prayers for deliverance from the cabal that has taken...

Thanksgiving always had particular resonance for one group of religious freedom-seekers. The once-in-a-lifetime convergence of Thanksgiving Day with the first day of Hanukkah has inspired culinary fusions like deep-fried turkey, song parodies and clever T-shirts. One enterprising lad has even invented the "Menurkey": a menorah (candelabrum) in the shape of a turkey. Humor aside, one group of American Jews—the members of New York's Congregation Shearith Israel —have reason to find in this year's calendrical happenstance a source both of institutional memory and of profound pride. Of all American synagogues, Shearith Israel has been celebrating both Hanukkah and Thanksgiving from the...