Free Republic

"""FBI Raid Thomas Paine’s House, Point Guns At His Young Children; How an Award-Winning Reporter Became Thomas Paine""" I can say with certainty, my decision to journey back into journalism was made after the FBI pointed guns at the heads of my wife and children. I knew that first morning (the FBI actually raided my home twice and pointed guns at my family twice) when federal agents raided our home one definitive thing was going to unfold: These bastards — and their bosses — were going to pay for violating my family. My kids. My home. One way or the...

Good detail from Thomas Paine.

I see regularly the slogan from the American Humanists Association: “Good Without God.” And I think….well, maybe for a while, one can be good (before men). But only because they piggyback on the Judeo-Christian values they may have imbibed. After a while, it all fades away. The reality of that fading away now hits us daily in the news. There’s not a week that goes by without some new report of violence and mayhem. Some attacks are worse than others. Just recently, the UK’s Daily Mail referred to “lawless Paris,” in an attack on innocent people, including tourists. Their sensational...

The key to victory, the key to the courage that brings victory is not simply fighting the fight, but KNOWING we fight a righteous battle for the One who gave us Liberty. Our founders were in a position to pledge their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor because they were firmly rooted in ALL the assurances of Liberty. Our founders knew that Liberty is a gift from God and those that stand for God’s gifts will be victorious through God’s promises. They firmly believed that living in tyranny was worse than dying for Liberty. Did these brave men and...

Sometimes the rigors of daily life just get too overwhelming, causing me to turn to other less stressful items of interest. So I am now reading, “Benjamin Franklin -- An American Life,” by famed biographer, Walter Isaacson. It is already an amazing story about an amazing man, and I am not half way through its 586 pages --- small type, no pictures! Benjamin Franklin: author, inventor, scientist, politician, raconteur. But he considered himself, first and foremost, to be a printer. And would generally sign his name, “Benjamin Franklin, printer.” For in that Colonial period, a printer was a person of...

In his masterpiece, Common Sense, Thomas Paine observed: "Men who look upon themselves born to reign, and others to obey, soon grow insolent; selected from the rest of mankind their minds are early poisoned by importance; and the world they act in differs so materially from the world at large, that they have but little opportunity of knowing its true interests, and when they succeed to the government are frequently the most ignorant and unfit of any throughout the dominions." Paine may have been discussing the British monarch circa 1776, but his insight is equally applicable to Obama and Co.,...

The Coffee Party, a liberal Facebook group with nearly a million fans, posted this meme of Thomas Paine, one of America’s founding fathers. While I’m glad to see anyone studying the Founding, it looks like the message was lost on a majority of their left-leaning audience. Below are 11 of the best comments from their readers, with my responses: 1. “That is exactly like trying to reason with a republikkklan” -Ed. You know the KKK was founded by Democrats, right? 2. “Thomas Paine must have anticipated the Tea Party!” -Ed. Yes, he did – the original Tea Party that you’ve...

Historians, political scientists, and philosophers alike often look at revolutions and ask the question "Was it a simple coup d'etat, or a real popular revolution? And if a real popular revolution, just how 'popular' was it, really?" It's often not that easy to tell. We can easily look at the Russian Revolution, for example, and see how there was first a large popular revolution, one that was then taken over by a much smaller communist contingent that was nowhere near as popular, but was brutal enough to win over the nascent White Russian government. One can do the math easily,...

Bob Basso dressed as Thomas Payne and made some excellent U-Tube video's. Last I heard, he was called to the White Hut for a meeting.....never to be heard from again. Anybody know what happened to Bob?

Born on this date in 1737, Thomas Paine was one of the great voices of the American Revolution, stirring patriots to action with his words in Common Sense (1776) and The American Crisis (a series published 1776-1783). He later was involved in the French Revolution in the 1790's. Paine's words concerning the American Revolution continue to resound today. Not a man lives on the continent but fully believes that a separation must some time or other finally take place, and a generous parent should have said, "If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child...

Men who are sincere in defending their freedom, will always feel concern at every circumstance which seems to make against them; it is the natural and honest consequence of all affectionate attachments, and the want of it is a vice. But the dejection lasts only for a moment; they soon rise out of it with additional vigor; the glow of hope, courage and fortitude, will, in a little time, supply the place of every inferior passion, and kindle the whole heart into heroism. -Thomas Paine, The American Crisis No. IV

"Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one..." -Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776

Today marks the anniversary of the publication of one of Thomas Paine's most celebrated works, The American Crisis, a series of pamphlets published over a span of seven years during the Revolutionary War. The first pamphlet was published on December 23, 1776, and contained some of Paine's most memorable work. A few of those words from the first pamphlet include: "These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and...

THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be...

On November 30, 1774, a 37-year-old Englishman—an ex-privateer, ex–corset stay maker, ex–tax collector (fired twice for dereliction of duty), and ex-husband (also twice over)—arrived in Philadelphia with a letter of recommendation from Benjamin Franklin in his pocket. The old philosopher’s praise was understandably restrained. This “ingenious worthy young man,” Franklin wrote, would make a useful “clerk, or assistant tutor in a school, or assistant surveyor.” Four months later, however, the shots that rang out at Lexington and Concord galvanized the newcomer’s hitherto aimless life into focus and purpose. “When the country into which I had just set foot was set...

Historians have long tried to pinpoint exactly when the name 'United States of America' was first used and by whom. A new find suggests the man might have been George Washington himself. As if George Washington hasn’t been credited enough with laying the foundation stones of the American republic, a new discovery might put one more feather in his cap. Our leading Founding Father could have been author of the country's name. The identity of who coined the name “United States of America” has eluded historians for years. Online sources vary greatly, erroneously crediting Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton,...

As if George Washington hasn’t been credited enough with laying the foundation stones of the American republic, a new discovery might put one more feather in his cap. Our leading Founding Father could have been author of the country's name. The identity of who coined the name “United States of America” has eluded historians for years. Online sources vary greatly, erroneously crediting Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and others.

I stumbled upon this while trying to research a matter and I was struck by Paine's simplicity and ... uhh ... common sense.It seems so fitting to post it and I hope I can post daily until all of Common Sense is re-published here ... in the Free Republic Paine so loved and articulated.

How many of you know conservatives or people who claim they want to do the necessary things to save the republic? They spout off about reining in the government and cutting spending. They demand entitlement reform and a government that functions within the scope of its constitutional parameters. They slam politicians who tax and spend and wave Gadsden Flags to show their patriotic spirit. Yes that’s right they talk the talk that is until it becomes personal or in some way impacts them. These are the modern day “sunshine patriots” that Thomas Paine spoke of back during that difficult winter...

On January 10th 1776 a 47 page pamphlet written by an anonymous writer was published in the English colonies. The mood in the colonies was one of uneasiness as open revolt was beginning to flare up in the New England colonies. Deep divisions over the debate for independence from mother England were gripping many of the colonists. Many colonists feared just entertaining the idea of breaking away from England was treason and punishable by death. They believed that the differences they had with the crown could be reconciled. Then a 39 year pamphleteer who just two years earlier lived in...