Have a selfish Thanksgiving ~ By Patrice Lewis

There's at least three kinds of people that love Socialism or Communism: People that like to control people with big government, government workers that really don't have to work that hard to have it made and keep their jobs, and people that don't like to work but still want equal results for unequal effort (the entitlement mentality of social justice).

The second point to make today is about the "Tragedy of the Commons," as John Stossel does a wonderful job explaining in the following video:

Video provided by TheREALjohnny2k

For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: "The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat."

~ 2 Thessalonians 3:10 (New International Version, ©2010)

Patrice wrote:

The result of this practical expression of 2 Thessalonians 3:10 was an unprecedented harvest and a spiritual swelling of gratitude. The Pilgrims were moved by compassion to voluntarily share with those less fortunate. Thus everyone prospered.

The only people that think that being prosperous is selfishness are those people that I described at the beginning of this post. And that is the irony of the title chosen by Patrice. Those that prosper the most are probably the least selfish and most compassionate of all people. And that is why I call Thanksgiving, "Thanks & Giving Day." Just sayin'...

The first Thanksgiving happened because people were allowed to be "selfish." The irony today is our government is regulating or even making illegal the very things that pulled the Pilgrims out of their desolate, starving mess: individual initiative, selfish behavior and a strong faith in God.

Thanksgiving is not just about giving thanks for our bounty. It's also about celebrating the fact that only by embracing individual freedom did that bounty come about.

A happy and "selfish" Thanksgiving to you all.

Have a selfish Thanksgiving

By Patrice Lewis

November 20, 2010 ~ 1:00 am Eastern

© 2010



I thought everyone knew this story, but it seems I'm wrong. Most of us are products of the public school system, after all, so it's not surprising that it isn't better known. So let's have a little history lesson, shall we?

Thanksgiving, we've all been taught, came about because the Pilgrims had a bumper harvest after a couple of bad years. Overcome with gratitude toward "the universe" (to use the politically correct non-Deistic term), they participated in "diversity" by inviting the Native Americans to share several days of feasting.

This is all most of us learned about the origins of Thanksgiving. But that, to paraphrase Paul Harvey, is nowhere near the rest of the story.

What was the reason behind the disastrous harvests that nearly wiped out the fledgling Plymouth colony? It was nothing short of communism.

Disillusioned by the greed and materialistic lifestyles of the English upper class, as well as persecuted unmercifully for their religious convictions, a group of puritans departed England for Holland and spent 12 years in that gentle and welcoming land. But the younger generation of puritan children began drifting away from the strict ideals of their elders toward the more worldly and relaxed Dutch lifestyle. Fearful for the state of their children's souls and desperate to escape the contaminating influence of anyone who wasn't puritan, once more they packed up and left. This time they aimed to colonize the New World.

After weeks at sea, they arrived at a bad time of year – December – so all they could do was brace themselves and hunker down. It was a winter of great hardship and hunger, but also a time to dream about the possibilities incumbent in this new land. When spring came, they had a chance to put into practice the pure ideals they envisioned while in England and Holland.

"Their vision of the New World," notes Matthew Burke, "was to build a society constructed on a new foundation of communal sharing and social altruism. Their aim was based on the communism of Plato's 'Republic,' in which there would be no private property, and all work, and the harvest thereof, would be shared in common."

As Gov. William Bradford noted in his diary, the result was famine and starvation "both physically and spiritually."

But why? What could interfere with such lofty and idealistic goals? After all, the Pilgrims were striving "to move to a point where people can work in common for the common good and get back what they need to live a life worthy of human beings," to quote Carl Dix of the Revolutionary Communist Party USA.

The answer is simple: human nature.

The young and healthy men resented working uncompensated for other people. The strong reaped nothing from any extra work they did, and so had the exact same amount as those less fit for work; "this was thought injustice," noted Bradford. The women, called upon to provide "service for other men, as dressing their meat, washing their clothes, etc. ... deemed it a kind of slavery, neither could their husbands brook it."

In other words, this happy little experiment in communism failed miserably.

It did more than fail: it led the colony toward horrible starvation in a land that should have been one of plenty.

So the Pilgrims scrapped the whole communal shebang and started from scratch. Everyone was issued a parcel of land. It was up to each family to work that land. They were not responsible for their neighbor's failures; nor could they claim any of their neighbor's successes. In other words, they quite literally reaped what they sowed. "The women now went willingly into the field, and took their little ones with them to set corn, which before would [allege] weakness, and inability," noted Bradford's diary.

The harsh lesson was that communism is "antithetical with the human nature and spirit. It results in shortages, poverty, resentment and slavery," notes Burke. It also results in laziness, an entitlement mentality and an unwillingness to get off one's butt. After all, what's the motivation to work harder if the fruits of your own labor are forcibly removed and given to someone who will not work?

The result of this practical expression of 2 Thessalonians 3:10 was an unprecedented harvest and a spiritual swelling of gratitude. The Pilgrims were moved by compassion to voluntarily share with those less fortunate. Thus everyone prospered.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the foundation for our modern Thanksgiving: an utter rejection of communism and embracing the natural desire to keep what you've worked for.

Why is this so hard for the progressives to understand?

You see, no matter how many times communism has been tried and has failed – over and over and over again – there are elements in our modern society who are sure this time it will be different. This time people will give up their evil, selfish, materialistic ways and embrace each other in love and harmony. We'll sing Kumbaya while holding hands around a communal fire. What's mine is yours and what's yours is mine. Golly, that sounds swell.

READ FULL STORY at WorldNetDaily.com

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Happy Thanksgiving! ~ By Sarah Palin

An excerpt from Sarah Palin's Notes (Facebook)

By Sarah Palin Yesterday (November 25, 2009) at 9:01pm Over three hundred years ago, a group of settlers fleeing religious persecution decided to set a new course for human history in a new frontier. Those early pioneers chose a rocky shoreline to establish their way of life. Centuries later, America continues to set the example of what can come from a free and hardworking people. We truly remain the shining city upon a hill that the colonial leader John Winthrop implored us to be. What started as a small colony in the territory that would eventually become the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has progressed into the greatest and most prosperous nation in history. Americans remain the freest people on earth because of our cherished Constitution and the system of government it establishes. [CLICK HERE TO READ MORE]

A Thanksgiving prayer ~ By Joseph Farah

From WorldNetDaily

By Joseph Farah Posted: November 26, 2009 ~ 1:00 am Eastern © 2009 Thank You, Lord, for allowing me to live in the greatest country in the world – one where we as citizens are permitted to live in freedom, to speak our minds, to debate the great issues of the day openly and without fear, and, most of all, to worship You and to tell others about You and Your Gospel of saving grace and redemption. We as Americans take all this for granted too often. Yet, from the earliest commemorations of Thanksgiving here in America, this was the common denominator that brought people of the New World together. I'm so thankful to be part of a country where worshipping You is not a crime – yet. I'm thankful we have the opportunity to tell others about You. I'm thankful You have blessed this land in so many ways. I'm thankful for the way You chastise this land and judge it with leaders unworthy of this nation's great heritage but who are, in Your wisdom, necessary to correct us and reveal our iniquities. I'm thankful for Your patience with Americans, who, despite their countless blessings, do not often recognize from where they come. I'm thankful we have abundant food today – that we get to celebrate this solemn occasion in the warmth of our homes, with our families and friends. I'm thankful we have such abundance that we can share it with those less fortunate, not just here in our homeland, but around the world. I'm thankful You gave Your Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for us so that we could be saved from our sin and, through Him, share the precious gift of an eternal life with You. [CLICK HERE TO READ MORE]

How the Pilgrims progressed ~ By Joseph Farah

Commentary from WorldNetDaily

Do you think we are wise enough to learn a lesson from the Pilgrims' experience today? Or are we doomed to repeat the failures and experience the miseries of socialism, again, for ourselves?

By Joseph Farah Posted: November 25, 2009 ~ 1:00 am Eastern © 2009 As America embarks on a bold leeward lurch toward centralized power and massive redistribution of wealth in addressing its economic problems, it might be time to take a step back and learn a lesson from our forebears, the Pilgrims. But first we must familiarize ourselves with the historical truth of their experience – something that has been in short supply in the media and our schools. Kids often learn today that the Mayflower gang were pretty incompetent – bad farmers, bad fishermen, bad hunters. They came to the New World unprepared for the hardships they would face in the wilderness. They were rescued by the friendly native Americans who taught them the survival skills they would need, so the story goes. The first harvest festival was a time of rejoicing and giving thanks to their saviors – the Indians who befriended them and guided them to a better way of life. That picture is totally wrong. Here's the real story. Before leaving Europe the Pilgrims entered into a contract, dated July 1, 1620, that would have all profits of their "trade, traffic, trucking, working, fishing, or any other means of any person or persons, remain in the common stock until division." In other words, the settlement at Plymouth Bay was the first New World experiment in communism – long before Karl Marx supposedly invented it. To say that social experiment was a total failure would be an understatement. The first winter spelled death and disease and hunger for the colony because the Pilgrims had arrived too late in the season to plant crops and build adequate shelters. Half of them died. The following spring, however, they planted and hunted and fished to get by – just barely. They did invite some of the friendly Indians to join them in their first "Thanksgiving" celebration. But they were not thanking the Indians. They were thanking God for pulling them through. As William Bradford wrote in his journal: "And thus they found the Lord to be with them in all their ways, and to bless their outgoings and incomings, for which let His holy name have the praise forever, to all posterity." Nevertheless, Bradford remained troubled by the colony's inability to prosper. He found the answer by studying the Bible and revisiting the notion of private property and incentivized hard work. [CLICK HERE TO READ MORE]

How the Pilgrims progressed - by Joseph Farah

They went back to their Bibles and saw that in practicing utopian communism, they were attempting to be "wiser than God." Once they abandoned that deadly economic system, they flourished. Are we wise enough to learn the lesson from the Pilgrims' experience today? Or are we doomed to repeat the failures and experience the miseries of socialism?

Thanksgiving: Overcoming Socialism - Empower Texans

read more | digg story

Hunting & Fishing: A Thanksgiving Tradition

Hunting and fishing surround Thanksgiving, a holiday that annually sees thousands of Americans take to the outdoors. It is a tradition our states should foster and protect -- with good reason. There is no better way to support your local economy, get a jump on your New Year’s resolution to eat better and know your food is fresh than to hunt locally. read more | digg story, submitted by covertress