Glenn Beck and Thomas Paine -- more ignorant claptrap

Tipped off by alert Paine reader and advocate HJK, I decided to post this video of Glenn Beck in action spouting lies and nonsense about Thomas Paine. Can you count how many misrepresentations? 

Thomas Paine on honesty.

"He who dares not offend cannot be honest." Thomas Paine, The Forrester Letters, 1776.

Thomas Paine on Lying and Liars.

"When anything is attempted to be supported by lying, it is presumptive evidence that the thing supported is a lie also. The stock on which a lie can be engrafted must be of the same species as the graft." Thomas Paine -- To the Citizens of the United States, 1802.

Thomas Paine on right government

"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: for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries BY A GOVERNMENT, which we might expect in a country WITHOUT GOVERNMENT, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer. Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built upon the ruins of the bowers of paradise. For were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform and irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver; but that not being the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a part of his property to furnish means for the protection of the rest; and this he is induced to do by the same prudence which in every other case advises him, out of two evils to choose the least. Wherefore, security being the true design and end of government, it unanswerably follows that whatever form thereof appears most likely to ensure it to us, with the least expense and greatest benefit, is preferable to all others."

Thomas Paine, Common Sense, Pt. 1: Of the Origin and Design of Government in General, with Concise Remarks on the English Constitution.

Thomas Paine, Catholics, The American Right Wing, and Religious Establishment

"Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it is always the strongly-marked feature of all law-religions, or religions established by law. Take away the law-establishment, and every religion re-assumes its original benignity. In America, a catholic priest is a good citizen, a good character, and a good neighbour; an episcopalian minister is of the same description: and this proceeds independently of the men, from there being no law-establishment in America."

Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, part I.

Thomas Paine replies to Bob Basso

 Actor Ian Ruskin does a magnificent job of replying to the gas-bag Basso who hasn't the foggiest notion of Thomas Paine or his ideas. Don't miss this and share it with your friends. The Thomas Paine Review heartily endorses Mr. Ruskin's work:

Thomas Paine Monument in New Rochelle, New York.

Here's a nice older image of the monument taken not long after the bust of Paine by American sculptor Wilson McDonald was added. All in all, the author of this blog believes the addition an enormous mistake. The bust is fine on its own and deserves a good exhibition location ... but the monument should have been left as Paine's followers intended ... a simple, classic marble column ... to commemorate the original resting place of America's greatest revolutionary.