Thomas Paine: ESSAY ,With His Name Left Out, the History of Liberty Cannot be Written

Whatever Happened to Common Sense?

The time was 1775, the rebellion was increasing in intensity. Blood had been shed at Lexington and Concord, and Falmouth had been bombarded by ships of the Royal Navy. The rebellion had begun, but the War for Independence had not.
The Continental Congress issued their declaration of causes, as well as extending peace overtures to King George with the "Olive Branch Petition", George Washington, now the commander-in-chief, preceded his evening meals with a toast to the king.

Taking Back Our Republic

WHAT DO YOU THINK THE FOREFATHERS WOULD DO, IN THIS COUNTRY TODAY ?

If you are looking for the true means and Intent of the Constitution / Bill Of Rights of the Forefathers. Then you need to read their quotes. Which were used to create the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. And Our Freedoms and Rights and Securities. They gave to WE THE PEOPLE. And will Show you exactly where this Government has and is going wrong.

Thomas Paine's American Revolution

Glenn Beck promoted this video today by Thomas Paine was a good friend of Benjamin Franklin.
He wrote "Common Sense" (the name Glenn Beck chose for his upcoming tour)
George Washington credited his book with the Revolution.
Now we are in dire need of a 2nd Revolution.
Thomas Paine (resurrected) in this video asks Americans, "HAVE YOU BECOME A NATION OF COWARDS?"
Watch him as he lays out our nations problems AND what we can do to solve them
Powerful rendition of Thomas Paine himself.
This video was produced by FUNBOBBASSO on YouTube
He is to be commended for this great work (and rendition)

"We need a revolution every 200 years, because all governments become stale and corrupt after 200 years."
--Benjamin Franklin

What would Thomas Jefferson Think?

Inspired by the words of Thomas Paine, the new nation's leaders sought to resolve grievances with the government to allow the citizenry to live free from tyranny, while remaining true to the concepts of civil rights and individual liberty.

IT IS TIME TO TAKE A STAND, AMERICA! OCT. 11TH, 2013 – TRUCKERS ACROSS AMERICA GOING ON STRIKE! JOIN THEM!

“The time is now near at hand which will probably determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves, whether they are to have any property they can call their own, or whether their houses and farms are to be pillaged and destroyed and they consigned to a state of wretchedness from which they cannot be delivered. Our cruel and unrelenting Enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance or the most abject submission.” ~General George Washington

Thomas Paine’s "American Crisis" is published

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 his country; but he that stands 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.

WE THE PEOPLE

What would Thomas Paine say to President Obama if he were here with us today?

Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4,1777 

WE ARE AT WAR**…. With mad Leftists and anti-American forces that are destroying America!

From Michael Hutton 

**WE ARE AT WAR**…. With mad Leftists and anti-American forces that are destroying America! They can’t be reasoned with and facts do not affect them. Does anyone doubt that they would kill us if they could… that they would remove us from the picture? 

The Mystery of Faith

My parents raised me as a Catholic. So I understand much about the Catholicism and what Catholics believe about the Christian faith. Nonetheless, I did not understand enough. So when I read The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine at age seventeen, that was enough to cause me to drift away, and I did not return to Christianity until I was fifty years old (see THOMAS PAINE’S PROFESSION OF FAITH).
When I realized how foolish I had been, I did the human thing. I blamed someone else. I blamed the Catholic Church. Upon reflection, I realized that was not fair. I was smart enough to read the Bible, but until I was over fifty I had never bothered.
Since that realization, I generally take a neutral attitude towards the various Christian churches. When we organize churches, we do so to carry out the Great Commission. Whatever else we might want to say about it, the Catholic Church does do an effective job of spreading the Christian faith. Unfortunately, like most human organizations, it fulfills its functions in series of fits and starts, and on occassion it piles on some ideas that lead to much head scratching.
In The Mystery of Faith, Biltrix explains why Catholics believe the Mass is sacred. It has to do with “transubstantiation“.

In the Eucharistic Celebration, Christ himself is present among us in his body, blood, soul, and divinity. Once this occurs, the priest pronounces the words: “The Mystery of Faith.” (from here)

Supposedly, most Protestant churches do not believe in “transubstantiation“. Nonetheless, most Protestant churches believe something surprisingly similiar.

Matthew 18:18-20 Amplified Bible (AMP)
¹⁸ Truly I tell you, whatever you forbid and declare to be improper and unlawful on earth must be what is already forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit and declare proper and lawful on earth must be what is already permitted in heaven.
¹⁹ Again I tell you, if two of you on earth agree (harmonize together, make a symphony together) about whatever [anything and everything] they may ask, it will come to pass and be done for them by My Father in heaven.
²⁰ For wherever two or three are gathered (drawn together as My followers) in (into) My name, there I Am in the midst of them.

When Christians come together to worship, we do so to bring Jesus Christ into our midst. To aid us in our quest for salvation, we do as Jesus instructed us. That includes celebrating His last supper with His apostles. When we celebrate the Last Supper, together we remember Jesus. As His disciples we remember what He did for us. In our place, He died. Therefore, does it truly make any difference if Catholics believe Jesus is present with them during the Mass? Don’t all Christians effectively believe the same thing and for much the same reason? MORE

The Second American Revolution

Thomas Paine, author of "Common Sense," returns to modern times to plea for a second revolution to take back America, Now!

http://wwwlibertyfriends.blogspot.com/p/thomas-paine-and-american-crisis.html

Why Nullification?

 Three Arguments You are here:

Home Featured, Nullification Why Nullification? Three Argu…

 

 

Writing for the Tenth Amendment Center, a person finds oneself spending a lot of time and pixels defending the concept of nullification.  These defenses generally take the form of answers to two questions.  Is nullification a legally valid concept?  Is nullification a good idea?  The arguments about whether or not nullification is a good idea can often be split into whether it’s a good idea from a practical sense, and whether it’s a good idea from the philosophical sense.

THE AMERICAN CRISIS: FROM A MODERN DAY THOMAS PAINE

Thomas Paine And The American Crisis

The High Cost of Patriotism

The price our Founding Fathers paid for our freedom is legendary. Hundreds of stories and articles not mention history books have related the pain, poverty and anguish that our Founders suffered because of their loyalty to America rather than the British Crown.

Not all of the original 56 died in poverty. There were several that managed to keep their collective heads above water. But in the end; yes, most were impoverished if not stone cold broke and many of the original signers of the Declaration of Independence are actually buried in ‘Potters Fields’ up and down the East Coast.

Where law ends, tyranny begins. Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it.

QUOTING…  “Where law ends, tyranny begins. 

Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of 

those who possess it.”

Liberty is Null and Void

Liberty is Null and VoidApril 18, 2012Posted by Dr. Robert owens in Politics.
Tags: 10th amendment, 9th Amendment, Dr. Robert Owens, Nullification, Repeal Amendment
1 comment so far

America was founded as a Federal Republic. This means our nation was designed to have two levels of sovereignty. The States which pre-date the central government and which created the central government is to be one level and the central government they created was to be the second. The separate States first combined to found a central government when they drafted and ratified the Articles of Confederation in 1781. This combination was strengthened and expanded in the writing and ratification of the Constitution in 1789. However, in both of these new beginnings it was always stated and assumed that the States were the building blocks out of which the whole was built.
The Anti-Federalists sought to safe guard the inherent rights of the Sovereign States in the face of a proposed national government which concentrated power and superseded the primacy of the States. The Anti-Federalists are often dismissed by those of succeeding generations who have been educated by the victorious philosophical descendants of the Federalists, as mere obstructionists and people of no-account. However, their ranks were filled by some of the greatest names of the Revolutionary times such as Samuel Adams, George Mason, Thomas Paine, and Thomas Jefferson.
Another well-known leader of the Antifederalists, Patrick Henry, questioned the very legitimacy of what are possibly the most famous words in the document: “We the People” when he said, “I have the highest veneration for those gentlemen; but, sir, give me leave to demand, What right had they to say, We, the people? My political curiosity, exclusive of my anxious solicitude for the public welfare, leads me to ask, Who authorized them to speak the language of, We, the people, instead of, We, the states? States are the characteristics and the soul of a confederation. If the states be not the agents of this compact, it must be one great, consolidated, national government, of the people of all the states.”
Once the Constitution was maneuvered through the ratification process most of the Anti-Federalists faded into the background. Forgotten were their war time services and forgotten were their warnings that a central government once established would inevitably grow in power to eclipse the States.
In the early days of the Republic the former Anti-Federalists attempted to keep alive the idea that it was the States which had created the central government and that the States therefore had the authority to determine if the central government had overstepped the authority which had been delegated to them by the States. They proposed to do this through a process known as Nullification.
Nullification is the process through which they believed a State could suspend a federal law within its borders. In opposition to the Alien and Sedition Acts of the Adams Administration Thomas Jefferson and James Madison first enunciated this concept in1798. The tactic was accepted as a legitimate tool of the States by the Hartford Convention in 1814. It was seen as a logical and legal protection against the encroachment of the central government upon the sovereign rights of the States.
The idea that a state or a combination of States could nullify what they perceived as unconstitutional laws passed by the central government which exceeded the delegated powers granted to it remained a point of contention until it reached a crisis in 1832.
The enactment of tariffs which were believed to be advantageous to the rapidly industrializing North and injurious to the agrarian South brought the question to a head. South Carolina led the way by adopting an Ordinance of Nullification which stated that the tariffs, “are unauthorized by the constitution of the United States, and violate the true meaning and intent thereof and are null, void, and no law, nor binding upon this State.”
This was countered by President Jackson’s Proclamation Regarding Nullification, December 10, 1832. In this proclamation President Jackson stated, “I consider, then, the power to annul a law of the United States, assumed by one State, incompatible with the existence of the Union, contradicted expressly by the letter of the Constitution, unauthorized by its spirit, inconsistent with every principle on which It was founded, and destructive of the great object for which it was formed.”
Immediately after the President issued his proclamation Congress passed the Force Act. This law authorized the use of military force against any state resisting the tariff acts. The President being the man of action immediately sent warships to Charleston harbor and ordered the strengthening federal fortifications there. The situation staggered towards war as both the central government and the government of South Carolina prepared to dispute the Doctrine of Nullification on the field of battle.
It was at this critical juncture that Henry Clay who had not been able to find any other State willing to join South Carolina earned his reputation as the Great Compromiser. On the same day the Force Bill passed, Clay negotiated the passage of the Tariff of 1833. This law provided for the gradual reduction of the tariff over ten years until it reached the levels which existed in 1816. Jackson signed both measures thus priming and holstering the Federal power at one time. In response South Carolina repealed its Ordinance Nullification while at the same time reaffirming its belief in the legality of Nullification by nullifying the Force Bill. President Jackson knew he had won a victory and sought to move on by ignoring this face saving action.
After this crisis the issue of nullification died down. However, the belief that this was a viable and legal recourse for the States did not disappear, it instead evolved into the belief that the States which had created the Union could or should be able to nullify the union itself. This in turn led to the secession of Southern States beginning with South Carolina.
This next crisis precipitated the Civil War. This most deadly of all American wars destroyed the balance. The power of the States was crushed by the overwhelming power of the central government. Since that time the central government has grown, and grown, and grown until today it has become Leviathan. Not the sea monster referred to in the Bible but the soul crushing all controlling political and social government described by Thomas Hobbs.
Today this debate over the relationship between the central government and the States has resurfaced. As an administration moves aggressively to transform America beyond any semblance of a federal structure into a centrally-planned and totally controlled socially engineered society citizens from sea to shining sea are searching for ways to return to the limited government won by the Revolution and supposedly safe-guarded by the Constitution.
One of the most revolutionary proposals is a direct descendant of the Doctrine of Nullification. The Repeal Amendment is supported by citizens and their representatives in every State and in the Federal Congress. This proposed amendment states, “Any provision of law or regulation of the United States may be repealed by the several states, and such repeal shall be effective when the legislatures of two-thirds of the several states approve resolutions for this purpose that particularly describe the same provision or provisions of law or regulation to be repealed.” As of today, no State has passed the Amendment, and it has not gained enough support in Congress to advance past the proposal stage.
This proposed amendment is designed to restore the validity of the 9^th and 10^th amendments which have been fundamentally supplanted and submerged by the ever growing power of the central government.
The 9^th Amendment states, “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” The 10^th Amendment states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
Unless we rebuild the reality of a balanced federal system we will soon find ourselves locked in the embrace of an all-powerful central government. This Leviathan will seek to regulate the smallest details of our lives and the spirit of totalitarianism we spent the last half of the twentieth century fighting will win by default as the change our fellow citizens voted for brings the death of hope.
Keep the faith. Keep the peace. We shall overcome.

Can We Reproduce Washington's Victory at Yorktown?

Newt Gingrich's Victory at Yorktown is the third novel in a series about the Revolutionary War. It chronicles how General George Washington needed a bold and decisive move to end an impasse; thus, he drew up a risky plan to engage the British at Yorktown with the support of the French navy. To ensure success, Washington struggled with deserters who wanted pay and food and a Congress that appeared to have lost its will. American Thinker had the opportunity to interview Newt Gingrich about his book and how these stories parallel what is happening today.

Philosophy As The Ultimate Expression Of The Human Spirit

 

 

Philosophy As The Ultimate Expression Of The Human Spirit
By Bradley Harrington

For most of man’s history, human beings have lived under the thumb of either (a) A state; (b) A Church; or (c) Both at the same time.

Examples of all three abound, and the existence, historically, of such organizations that have sought to employ either the “social” or “mystical” methods of human control are responsible for the abysmal state of most of human existence.

Take communism, for instance, which qualifies as an (a). Here we have a system of social “organization,” if you want to call it that, that subverts the free and independent will of individual human beings in favor of the “State-centered” mentality, the approach that the individual is nothing and that society is everything - and individuals within that culture who resist such an approach are dealt with via the tools of the State. Usually quite bloodily.

Or take the Moonies, for instance, the “Unification Church” under the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, from which the slang word “Moonies” derived, which qualifies as a (b). Here we have a system of religious organization that also subverts the free and independent will of human beings, but this time in favor of the “Church-centered” mentality, the approach that the individual is nothing and that the Church and God are everything - and individuals within that culture who resist such an approach are dealt with via the tools of the Church. Maybe not physically bloody, but still psychologically controlling and intimidating all the same. Who can forget the “de-programming” experts that had to be employed by families missing their loved ones to the Moonie organization, swallowed by what were once their own free choices?

Or take the reign of the Catholic Church during the Dark and Middle Ages, for instance, which qualifies as (c). Here we had a system combining both the “social” and “mystical” aspects of control together into one fell punch, the State and the Church rolled up into one. Generally, under such systems, the “mystical” method is first employed to re-establish the desired control - but, if and when that were to fail, then things usually got bloody through the State side of things.

Or crispy, in Giordano Bruno’s case; he was fried alive at a stake by the civil authorities after the Roman Inquisition found him guilty of “heresy” in 1600, for daring to assert that the Sun was a star and that the Earth orbited around it. His long laundry list of “crimes” boiled down to... “Holding opinions contrary to the Catholic faith.”

Nor is any of this to say that all States are executioners, or that all Churches are mind-floggers. Historically, however, when reins of control have been handled by either, the record hasn’t been very good; indeed, one could conclude that whenever a concentration of power exists, whether it be based in the “social” or “mystical” arena, things are going to get ugly.

Is there another way possible, a different way, a way that doesn’t employ either mental or physical force, a way that does not seek to establish control at all?

Yes, there is - and the best historical example of it, in either the “social” or “mystical” arena, is the United States of America, the land of the Enlightenment, the land opened up by the power of man’s untrammeled mind in either arena. For the first time, people were left free to assume their own thoughts, beliefs, ideas and peaceful actions, without having to conform to someone else’s standard of conduct. It was no longer an issue of either “social” or “mystical” control, but an issue of control versus non-control instead.

Nor was the path that led to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States an easy one to follow. It was a terribly hard climb up the ladder of man’s mind, while proponents of both State and Church control hollered bloody murder over a period of nearly three centuries - through Spinoza, Copernicus, Bruno, Galileo, Newton and dozens of others in the disciplines of both physics and philosophy. Those men continued to climb, discover, advance and triumph. The unparalleled accomplishment of Newton’s Theory of Gravitation changed everything; someone had finally beaten the Ancient Greeks at their own game. The resulting beauty and simplicity of Newton’s intellectual achievements in the realm of physics fired up an entire generation of thinkers - men such as Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, who applied that “Newtonian” approach to the political arena. Men who believed in the power of the mind to overcome all obstacles and build a society in which all of the historical controls were minimized or eliminated.

This - not religion as such - was America’s guiding idea, her integrating principle, her leitmotif, her approach to existence: The belief that all men and women, not just a select few, were intelligent enough to govern their own affairs - and that such citizens had an inherent right to do so. Thomas Jefferson, as well as many of the other Founding Fathers, were the direct intellectual descendants of John Locke, who did so much to establish the principles of private property that ultimately came to dominate American culture throughout the 1700s’ and 1800s’.

And, again, this is not to say that religion doesn’t and didn’t play a huge role in men’s lives, because it did. But man had religion in the year 800; what he didn’t have was freedom, which required the accomplishments of Newton and Locke before that could happen.

This is the “revival” America needs: To reassert the fundamental value, efficacy and integrity of human consciousness and its power to, in the words of Thomas Paine, “begin the world over again” anytime we care to.

Beware of Sunshine Patriots

Patriotism is suddenly in fashion across American. Flag-waving has become so popular that the Chinese are actually working overtime to manufacture enough American flags to meet demand. Everywhere, citizens are demonstrating their patriotic support for their country and their President. Across our great nation, there is new pride in America and a new sense of community. There's just one problem – in our rush to defend America, our most basic liberties are under attack as never before. Back in 1778, Thomas Paine warned Americans about false patriots who wave the flag on sunny days, but fail to uphold liberty in stormy weather: "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 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." Americans want those responsible for the WTC tragedy caught and punished. However, that doesn't mean that Americans must lose any of their Constitutional rights. To the contrary, any infringement on the Bill of Rights not only violates America's heritage of freedom, it violates the Constitution and dishonors the brave American patriots who sacrificed their lives for our freedom. Waving the flag and singing patriotic songs may help unite us as a nation, but let's not forget that America's Constitution and Bill of Rights must always come first. As Thomas Jefferson so wisely advised his fellow Americans: "A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular; and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inferences." The real tragedy of September 11th is that the public's fear of terrorism is being used to fraudulently barter away rights that are supposed to be guaranteed, without exceptions, to all Americans. Cowed by public hysteria, Congress has turned its back on the Constitution and passed anti-terrorism bills (H.R. 2975 and S. 1510) that authorize completely unconstitutional activities such as the "delayed notice" provision, Section 213, allowing the government to conduct covert searches. This means that law enforcement agencies can enter a person's home or office, search through the person's possessions, in some cases seize physical objects or electronic information, without the person knowing that law enforcement agents were there. America, once admired for its freedom and democratic ideals, suddenly finds itself in a secret war, with secret courts, sealed warrants and secret searches. Like deer caught in the headlights, we are too paralyzed by fear and denial to take proper evasive actions. Waving flags and promoting false patriotism, this new and highly secretive oligarchy is shamelessly using our fear of terrorism to suspend our rights and the media's access to the truth. Even the Freedom of Information Act is under attack with Attorney General John Ashcroft issuing a new statement of policy that encourages federal agencies to "resist Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, whenever they have legal grounds to do so." Speaking of summer soldiers and sunshine patriots, how is it that the Congress abrogated its responsibility to exert checks and balances on this power grab by the Bush Administration? The Congressional oath is to uphold the Constitution, and the rights guaranteed by that document, against all enemies foreign and domestic. There is nothing there about selling out our Constitutional rights because of a war or "national security." No, each member of Congress took an oath to defend our rights. Now Congress has betrayed its oath, sold out our rights, and is guilty of aiding and abetting a slow-motion coup d'etat. Showing solidarity with the President may seem patriotic, but no one has the right to barter away our inalienable rights, especially the Congress, since their oath requires them to defend the Constitution and the rights it guarantees. Yes it's terrible that 5,000 innocent people were so brutally slaughtered on 9/11, but we must remember that hundreds of thousands of brave American patriots also paid the ultimate price to preserve our heritage of freedom. Patriotism is more than waving a flag or supporting the government. Real patriotism demands an unwavering commitment to upholding and defending all of our rights, regardless of any argument of necessity or "national security."

Christopher Hitchens: Whisky, Cigs & Jefferson

 

 

 

Christopher Hitchens

 

 

http://socraticmama.com/ [Inspiration & Support for Secular Families]
Hitchens takes Churchill down a peg or two in his 2002 article for the Atlantic [but says he's still a 'great man']:-
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/print/2002/04/the-medals-of-his-defeats/3...
A reposte to Hitchens from The Churchill Centre:-
http://www.winstonchurchill.org/support/the-churchill-centre/publications/fin...
2006: Hitchens at D.G.Wills Books, 7461 Girard Avenue, La Jolla, Ca. 92037

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2011/12/In-Memoriam-Christopher-Hitche... Vanity Fair In Memoriam: Christopher Hitchens, 1949--2011, by Juli Weiner, Dec 15th 2011.

Christopher Hitchens—the incomparable critic, masterful rhetorician, fiery wit, and fearless bon vivant—died today at the age of 62. Hitchens was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in the spring of 2010, just after the publication of his memoir, Hitch-22, and began chemotherapy soon after. "My chief consolation in this year of living dyingly has been the presence of friends," he wrote in the June 2011 issue. He died in their presence, too, at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. May his 62 years of living, well, so livingly console the many of us who will miss him dearly
------
Christopher Eric Hitchens (born 13 April 1949) is an Anglo-American author and journalist whose books, essays, and journalistic career span more than four decades. He has been a columnist and literary critic at The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, Slate, World Affairs, The Nation, Free Inquiry, and became a media fellow at the Hoover Institution in September 2008. He is a staple of talk shows and lecture circuits and in 2005 was voted the world's fifth top public intellectual in a Prospect/Foreign Policy poll. He's known for his admiration of George Orwell, Thomas Paine, and Thomas Jefferson and for his excoriating critiques of, among others, Mother Teresa, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and Henry Kissinger. His confrontational style of debate has made him both a lauded and controversial figure. As a political observer, polemicist and self-defined radical, he rose to prominence as a fixture of the left-wing publications in his native Britain and in the United States. His departure from the established political left began in 1989 after what he called the "tepid reaction" of the Western left following Ayatollah Khomeini's issue of a fatwa- calling for the murder of Salman Rushdie. The 11 September 2001 attacks strengthened his internationalist embrace of an interventionist foreign policy, and his vociferous criticism of what he called "fascism with an Islamic face." His numerous editorials in support of the Iraq War caused some to label him a neoconservative, although Hitchens insists he is not "a conservative of any kind"

Hitchens on the war on drugs:- http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2007/03/31/legalize_it



 

 

SWEET LAND OF LIBERTY

NAT HENTOFF

NO OBAMA IMPEACHMENT?  WHO ARE WE?