The Right's Rotten History by Harvey J. Kaye

http://www.newdeal20.org/2010/11/16/the-rights-rotten-history-27079/?author=166

Thomas Paine v. Dick Morris

 The little tiff in New Rochelle between the Huguenot and Historical Society, who have just decided to initiate a Thomas Paine Award of some sort and the same (in my opinion) dunderheads at the TPNHA who sold off the prize holdings (now in private and anonymous hands) of the Paine Museum. The writer of this article makes a mistake or two, for which he is forgiven. For one thing, John Adams did NOT write (regardless of what the plaque outside the cottage states) that ""Without the pen of Paine, the sword of Washington would have been wielded in vain." That was penned by Joel Barlow. Paine, moreover, not only believed in government intervention, he advocated, as shown in this blog a 100% tax on income over what would be something like 3.25 million dollars per annum. Nevertheless, for the interest of our readers:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/nov/16/history-us-politics?showallcomments=true#end-of-comments

Congressman Ron Paul on airport scanners

 This bears recognition and I personally believe that Tom Paine would approve:

"[W]e have to realize that the real problem is that the American people have been too submissive. We have been too submissive. It has been going on for a long time. ... [T]he bill that I have introduced ... is very simple. It is one paragraph long. It removes the immunity from anybody in the Federal government that does anything that you or I can't do.

If you can't grope another person and if you can't X-ray people and endanger them with possible X-rays, [and] you can't take nude photographs of individuals, why do we allow the government to do it? We would go to jail. He would be immediately arrested, if an individual citizen went up and did these things, and yet we just sit there and calmly say, 'oh, they are making us safe.'

And besides, the argument from the executive branch is that when you buy a ticket, you have sacrificed your rights and it is the duty of the government to make us safe. That isn't the case. You never have to sacrifice your rights. The duty of the government is to protect our rights, not to use them and do what they have been doing to us." - -- Ron Paul - (1935-) American physician, US Congressman (R-TX), US Presidential candidate - Source: Congressional Record, Nov. 17, 2010

Thomas Paine -- schoolmaster v. priest.

"One good schoolmaster is of more use than a hundred priests." Thomas Paine, Worship and Church Bells, 1797.

Thomas Paine on property and privelege

"... when property is made a pretense for unequal or exclusive rights,
it weakens the right to hold the property, and provokes indignation
and tumult; for it is unnatural to believe that property can be secure
under the guarantee of a society injured in its rights by the
influence of that property." Thomas Paine - Dissertation on First
Principles of Government, 1795.