Huffington Post frequently makes the mistake of straying from the only subject they know anything about: politics. To maximize the error, they make sure the folks writing about a given non-politics-related topic have a background as far removed from that topic as possible. And so we have neuroscientist Dan Agin writing about the history of religion, the Constitution, and holidays, along with other cultural topics he can't find a spare five minutes to research. Busy schedule, no doubt. His Thanksgiving: Puritans, Pilgrims, and Sexual Obsession is a must-read in the sense that you must read it yourself to know for sure I'm not making it up.

Wow. We learn a lot from Dan. For one, that "the idea that the Puritans (and Pilgrims) suffered from religious persecution in England is probably a myth"! (Dan, read up on the Church of England. And King James the First.) We also learn "that what the Pilgrims and other Puritans were all about was sexual obsession"! His proof is something to behold. We wonder if Dan knows that the people he writes about were neither Bible literalists nor New-Testament-based.

In fact--and consider this a MY(P)WHAE exclusive--the Puritans were very much not Catholics. Way not very much. So, um, why would their attitude toward sex mirror the stereotypical Catholic attitude? I mean, just sayin'.

Then again, I have a few minutes with which to check out such details of history. Some others aren't so fortunate. I'm thankful that I have those few minutes with which to Google stuff.

Happy Thanksgiving! Travel, eat, and be thankful!


Lee