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   From: peter@adelphia.net   
      
   In article ,   
   	"Paul"  writes:   
   >   
   > "John Miller"  wrote in message   
   > news:bro5qj$nml$1@n4vu.com...   
   >> John-Doe wrote:   
   >> > That's not Saddam that they've arrested - he's a stand in - one of   
   >> > SH's cousins.   
   >>   
   >> Yo' momma...   
   >>   
   >> --   
   >> John Miller   
   >>   
   >> Majorities, of course, start with minorities.   
   >>                 -Robert Moses   
   >   
   >   
   > Speaking of minorities, is it true that the Pilgrims were intolerant   
   > religious fundamenalist zealots who where forced out of Britain because of   
   > their adherance to an extremist lifestyle?   
      
   No, but that sums up teh upstart Puritans who came later.   
   The Plymouth Pilgims, as opposed to the Massachusetts Bay Puritans,   
   had been pretty much run out of England (To the Netherlands,   
   aoriginally) becase they didn't want to be considered a part of teh   
   Church of England, which was a Capital Offence at the time.  The   
   Puritans were an ultra-conservative Fundamentalist group whose main   
   premeise was to take over teh Church of England, and bend it to their   
   particular use.   
      
   The Pilgrims tended to be a much more cheerful lot, and while they   
   espoused radical ideas like Democratic Government, they were also on   
   good terms with the local native population.  (In fact, Cheif   
   Massasoit really liked having them around.  His tribe's population had   
   been reduced by disease, and so much of his lands were unattended, and   
   the neighboring Pequods and Mohicans (Pequots and Mohegans, the ones   
   that are in the Casino business now) were looking to take over teh   
   terretory.  Having a bunch of Big Guys With Guns around was viewed as   
   a good move, terretorial integrety-wise.  Having a decent Brewer along   
   didn't hurt much.  I can't really say tht they were all that an   
   uptight group.  They lived teh first couple of winters with 100 people   
   in one room, and quite a few children were borne, so they can't have   
   been _that_ shy.   
      
   The Puritans, on the other hand, like most comitted fanatics, were   
   cold, reptilian creatures incapable of understanding the finer   
   things.  It is believed that they reproduced through Partenogenises.   
      
   --   
   Pete Stickney   
    A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many   
    bad measures.  -- Daniel Webster   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)