Saturday, March 22, 2008

Today In Busybody History: For their own good.

On this date in 1630 the Massachusetts Bay Colony outlawed the possession of cards, dice, and gaming tables, forever stamping out the vice of gambling in the colonies. Or something.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Puritanism: the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, is having fun.

Too bad so much of it survived into the 21st Century.

Don M said...

Bugger them darn Puritans. They can put a Cotton Mather right where a cotton swab would be kinder.

Anonymous said...

You guys might be surprised at some of the splinter groups of the Puritan movement - the Presbyrterian church is one, and is considered the least radical as it maintains alot of the trappings of the Church of England(like say Infant Baptism). And contrary to munchkinwranglers assertation, we do enjoy a good time, almost too much. We just claim to feel bad about it afterwards. :)

Baptists too, trace their history back to the puritan movement.

At the other end of the spectrum you have the Pilgrims, who didn't believe in having clergy, and practiced community property. They referred to the C of E as "the Harlot of Babylon" and considered most of mankind as unredeemable.

Anonymous said...

Sorry it took me so long to add a comment. Just got home from the semi regular poker game a few minutes ago.

If poker is outlawed, then only outlaws will play poker you know.

Anonymous said...

I can't complain about that, I just wish they didn't let all the Indians have casinos, More business for us in Vegas!