Oct 31, 2012

The following is Thomas Jefferson’s “original rough draft” of the Declaration of Independence, before being revised by the other members of the Committee of Five and Congress: A Declaration of the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in General Congress assembled. When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for a people...

Oct 31, 2012

The Spirit of Evil Besides the hideous giant Utgard-Loki, the personification of mischief and evil, whom Thor and his companions visited in Jötun-heim, the ancient Northern nations had another type of sin, whom they called Loki also. In the beginning, Loki was merely the personification of the hearth fire and of the spirit of life. At first a god, he gradually...

Oct 31, 2012

Delivered on October 14, 1912 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin after being shot in the chest by a would-be assassin. Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible. I don’t know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose. But fortunately I had my manuscript, so you see I was going to make a long...

Oct 31, 2012

Widely regarded as the catalyst for the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther’s 95 Theses was a protest against abuses related to the sale of indulgences. Luther, a German monk, proposed that they violated the original intent of confession and penance. He argued that Christians were being falsely told that God’s punishment for sin could be avoided...

Oct 30, 2012

Among the Sioux chiefs of the “transition period” only one was shrewd enough to read coming events in their true light. It is said of Spotted Tail that he was rather a slow-moving boy, preferring in their various games and mimic battles to play the role of councilor, to plan and assign to the others their parts in the fray. This he did so cleverly...