>>  >Thank you all for the explanation (private and public), but I'm
>>>still wandering where did Americans get that strange idea?
>>>
>>Alain,
>>
>>I don't have this documented, but I learned it once. If memory serves
>>correctly, during the early history of America, individuals suspected of
>>being witches were often put to death by burning at the stake. This was a
>>particularly nasty and intolerant part of our history. That intolerance
>>extended to homosexuals also, and as the fire was stoked with bundles of
>>sticks (faggots), homosexuals were sometimes tossed on, too; hence the
>>name. It goes back centuries.
>>
>>  0"0
>>  =J= a  y
>
>
>You got to admit that burning them at the stake cured them. :-)
>
>tedd

Tedd, I don't know if you are being funny or bigoted or both.

Cured who. Neither was ill.

Witch burning is a classic example of the malleability of any moral
standard with the times. I am sure we will get back to it someday. Some do
pretty good with books though still... some doofus keeps trying to ban
books at the local board meetings each month here.

This thread should migrate to the X-fb list where we can burn each other
with flames there. Then Tedd would be flaming. Nice symmetry.  :)

Robert Covington