Yo yo yo, the original T. Paine inna house!

Thomas Paine was a very strict atheist and wasn't exactly conservative (for his time).

And of course, what subby said.

I work in a bookstore, and this is easily one of the faster-selling books of the year in the week or two it's been out. The original, OTOH, not so much. Beck may claim his book to be bi or non-partisan, but claiming it's influenced by Thomas Paine is at best extraordinarily ill-informed and at worst a slippery attempt at revisionism. Paine's book was important not because of the message, American revolutionaries agreed with him, he just put their sentiments into excellent prose and quotable lines that the lay people could read. The ones who couldn't read listened to excerpts from the book and memorized the zingers and jabs directed at the British. The forward in my copy mentions that before the revolution, roughly 3,000,000 colonials were literate, and the pamphlet was printed roughly 700,000 times over the course of a few years.

The product description from the publisher does not mention Paine's Agrarian Justice nor his attacks against organized religion and religious dogma, which alienated him from a lot of the founding fathers later in his life.

But I'm sure most of the good Middle-Americans buying this book in droves know that.

Something tells me those aspects of Thomas Paine have been thrown down Glenn Beck's memory hole. He's had Paine turned into a dyed-in-the-wool Republican, tossing off all of the points that made him what he was, and basically made him an American prophet. I'd be surprised if there was more than the tiniest bit of truth to Beck's version of Pain.e

Glenn Beck claims his newest book is influenced by Thomas Paine.

That's fine. And by the same reasoning, Napoleon's invasion of Moscow was influenced by winter.

glenn beck is a farkin' paine in the earhole

And another Olympic feat of mental gymnastic performed by Beck.

My Fox News-loving, total Obama-despising, forever republican-voting parents even find Beck to be an insufferable whiny asshole.

Thomas Paine was also a traitor to his own country.

Glenn Beck will go away if we talk about him more.

Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck Glenn Beck

See? He's vanishing into obscurity!

/glenn beck

All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit. ~ Thomas Paine

Is it not a species of blasphemy to call the New Testament revealed religion, when we see in it such contradictions and absurdities. ~ Thomas Paine

It is not a God, just and good, but a devil, under the name of God, that the Bible describes. ~ Thomas Paine

Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst. ~ Thomas Paine

Link (new window)

A+

I see so many of these far right lunatics claim they are the intellectual heirs to Paine's philosophy that I have just decided they are talking about a different Tom Paine that I have never read. Or they are just farking idiots that completely fail to understand what Paine was all about. One of these anyway...

Beck's fans can read?

Glenn Beck is a sniveler

My poop has more intellectual credence than that doughbag.

JerkyMeat: Glenn Beck is a sniveler

He just snivels because he loves America so much, you heartless bastage!

Also influenced by Thomas Paine. (new window)

Is the 'Plug' tag on strike?

robmilmel: JerkyMeat: Glenn Beck is a sniveler

He just snivels because he loves America so much, you heartless bastage!

He's so patriotic that he simply farts out magnetic ribbons and cries red/white/blue tears.

Lying scumbag is lying.

When did Beck become a far-left socialist atheist?

From the reviews, it sounds like he glommed on to Paine's book title, and that's as deep as he went.

Fark It: I work in a bookstore, and this is easily one of the faster-selling books of the year in the week or two it's been out. The original, OTOH, not so much. Beck may claim his book to be bi or non-partisan, but claiming it's influenced by Thomas Paine is at best extraordinarily ill-informed and at worst a slippery attempt at revisionism. Paine's book was important not because of the message, American revolutionaries agreed with him, he just put their sentiments into excellent prose and quotable lines that the lay people could read. The ones who couldn't read listened to excerpts from the book and memorized the zingers and jabs directed at the British.

That's what Beck thinks his book is. If you ever pay attention to him you'll realize he thinks the current government needs to be changed and that all smart, intelligent, sane people agree with him. He is just putting their sentiments into a digestible and easy to read form.

Obviously the difference between him and Paine is that Paine actually had intelligent people who agreed.

I don't suppose subby or anyone else can provide some links to quotes where Paine supported minimum wage and Social Security?

I don't disbelieve you. I just like to review evidence firsthand.

There is no way Beck can write a political book nearly as boring as Thomas Paine!

/seriously, his writings are very boring.

Nina_Hartley's_Ass: Beck's fans can read?

You seem to be making the assumption that all copies of the book that are sold will be sold to individual purchasers and not at all to the folks who buy these types of books in bulk for the sole purpose of bumping it closer to the top of the New York Times best-seller list.

/When you make an assumption, you make an ass out of U and Mption!
//obscure?

I'm sorry, I'm wrong - Paine was a deist, not at all an atheist, but he got labeled an atheist by the organized religious authorities he was so strong against.

Anyway, Beck's comparing himself to a guy so left-wing that French revolutionaries elected him to the French National Convention.

Influenced doesn't necessarily mean that he agrees with Thomas Paine's thoughts on liberty. Being a authoritarian fascist he must have really hated Paine's work.

chuggernaught: There is no way Beck can write a political book nearly as boring as Thomas Paine!

/seriously, his writings are very boring.

Then he is clearly a failure and a fool, because his #1 intent was to entertain you.

Interesting. Here's a link to the Wikipedia article discussing the Pamphlet "Agrarian Justice," in which Paine proposed Social Security. Clearly a very advanced thinker for our time.

Link (new window)

Why do conservatives hate our founding fathers?

captain_heroic44: I don't suppose subby or anyone else can provide some links to quotes where Paine supported minimum wage and Social Security?

I don't disbelieve you. I just like to review evidence firsthand.

In advocating the case of the persons thus dispossessed, it is a right, and not a charity . . . [Government must] create a national fund, out of which there shall be paid to every person, when arrived at the age of twenty-one years, the sum of fifteen pounds sterling, as a compensation in part, for the loss of his or her natural inheritance, by the introduction of the system of landed property. And also, the sum of ten pounds per annum, during life, to every person now living, of the age of fifty years, and to all others as they shall arrive at that age.

captain_heroic44: Interesting. Here's a link to the Wikipedia article discussing the Pamphlet "Agrarian Justice," in which Paine proposed Social Security. Clearly a very advanced thinker for our time.

Link (new window)

Why do conservatives hate ourhis founding fathers?

FTFM. Jeez.

I ignore Beck.

captain_heroic44: Interesting. Here's a link to the Wikipedia article discussing the Pamphlet "Agrarian Justice," in which Paine proposed Social Security. Clearly a very advanced thinker for ourhis time.

Link (new window)

Why do conservatives hate our founding fathers?

God damn.

Drunk or something tonight.

Maybe this is a non sequitur, but you can get a free EBook of the real Common Sense here (new window).

A free audio book is available here (new window).

If you know anyone that is a fan of Beck's book, perhaps you should pass these links on to them.

Fark It: captain_heroic44: I don't suppose subby or anyone else can provide some links to quotes where Paine supported minimum wage and Social Security?

I don't disbelieve you. I just like to review evidence firsthand.

In advocating the case of the persons thus dispossessed, it is a right, and not a charity . . . [Government must] create a national fund, out of which there shall be paid to every person, when arrived at the age of twenty-one years, the sum of fifteen pounds sterling, as a compensation in part, for the loss of his or her natural inheritance, by the introduction of the system of landed property. And also, the sum of ten pounds per annum, during life, to every person now living, of the age of fifty years, and to all others as they shall arrive at that age.

Wow. Very interesting. Thank you.

Why do conservatives hate our founding fathers?

NeverDrunk23: He's so patriotic that he simply farts out magnetic ribbons and cries red/white/blue tears.

What do magnetic ribbons have to do with patriotism? You mean like in ancient cassette tapes? Am I missing something?

You people act as if you've never seen a horrific, grotesque accident before.

res ipsa dixit: NeverDrunk23: He's so patriotic that he simply farts out magnetic ribbons and cries red/white/blue tears.

What do magnetic ribbons have to do with patriotism? You mean like in ancient cassette tapes? Am I missing something?

If your car doesn't have 67 Support Our Troops magnetic ribbons on it, then you are a baby-eating liberal omni-triAtheist super commie.

Biggs: I ignore Beck.

Its hard to ignore someone who is 2 steps away from lighting themselves on fire in order for people to look at him and listen to his ramblings.

captain_heroic44: Fark It: captain_heroic44: I don't suppose subby or anyone else can provide some links to quotes where Paine supported minimum wage and Social Security?

I don't disbelieve you. I just like to review evidence firsthand.

In advocating the case of the persons thus dispossessed, it is a right, and not a charity . . . [Government must] create a national fund, out of which there shall be paid to every person, when arrived at the age of twenty-one years, the sum of fifteen pounds sterling, as a compensation in part, for the loss of his or her natural inheritance, by the introduction of the system of landed property. And also, the sum of ten pounds per annum, during life, to every person now living, of the age of fifty years, and to all others as they shall arrive at that age.

Wow. Very interesting. Thank you.

Why do conservatives hate our founding fathers?

Because they were men of varied backgrounds and differing viewpoints who came together to advance the cause of freedom at the risk of death. They weren't chickenhawks or bloviating demagogues. Their names live on in our textbooks, our greatest national monuments, our tallest buildings, and not in The Smoking Gun's database or in reference to deviant sexual acts (Santorum v John Hancock).

The words of Thomas Paine and the other Founding Fathers live on to this day. The words of people like Beck, O'Reilly, Limbaugh, Malkin, etc, live on as the hateful rallying cries of a dying movement and ideology, in the dark, regressive corners of the American psyche.

If I turn the volume off and watch Beck, I could swear he is exhibiting all sorts of Gay mannerisms. Just look at his limp wrist action.

Fark It: Because they were men of varied backgrounds and differing viewpoints who came together to advance the cause of freedom at the risk of death. They weren't chickenhawks or bloviating demagogues. Their names live on in our textbooks, our greatest national monuments, our tallest buildings, and not in The Smoking Gun's database or in reference to deviant sexual acts (Santorum v John Hancock).

Everyone in politics loves to claim they are an extension of the dream of the Founding Fathers, who amongst themselves had as much, if not more, that divided them as much as the cause that united them. No "chickenhawks"? Thomas Jefferson saw no action during the Revolution, and while history has certainly vindicated his contributions to the cause, many of his contemporary critics loved to point out the fact that he had "never once fired a shot in anger" during the war, which set him apart from many of his colleagues. And while there was no "Smoking Gun," the often slanderous writings published through proxies during his run for President against John Adams probably wouldn't be tolerated to this day. Oh, no doubt, the men who signed that Declaration would have signed their own death warrants had the Revolution failed, and for that we should all be grateful, but these weren't a bunch of brave, egalitarian, altruistic souls marching in lockstep to change the world. They were as bitterly divided, provincial, and partisan as anything we see today. It'd fun to romanticize them, but it's not accurate, either.

Why is everyone shocked. Republicans are the people that re-write the supposed acts of Jesus Christ for their own agenda. I really don't think altering the history of some mortal author is going to give them any qualms. Do you?

captain_heroic44: Fark It: captain_heroic44: I don't suppose subby or anyone else can provide some links to quotes where Paine supported minimum wage and Social Security?

I don't disbelieve you. I just like to review evidence firsthand.

In advocating the case of the persons thus dispossessed, it is a right, and not a charity . . . [Government must] create a national fund, out of which there shall be paid to every person, when arrived at the age of twenty-one years, the sum of fifteen pounds sterling, as a compensation in part, for the loss of his or her natural inheritance, by the introduction of the system of landed property. And also, the sum of ten pounds per annum, during life, to every person now living, of the age of fifty years, and to all others as they shall arrive at that age.

Wow. Very interesting. Thank you.

Why do conservatives hate our founding fathers?

Indeed - that is extremeley interesting. I'd never read that.

DNRTFA or the thread, but I can say one thing for Paine and Beck, they both are propagandists. Just one was more successful in fomenting revolution than the other. But the other guy is still trying.

/you mean to say that Beck is a journalist and not a propagandist?
//the hell you say.

006andahalf: But the other guy is still trying.

He's actually pretty successful at making himself out to be the Republinazi he is. He doesn't have to try to be any more of a horse's ass, in fact he might be trying a little too hard.

whidbey: 006andahalf: But the other guy is still trying.

He's actually pretty successful at making himself out to be the Republinazi he is. He doesn't have to try to be any more of a horse's ass, in fact he might be trying a little too hard.

But has he formented a revolution?

006andahalf: But has he formented a revolution?

Maybe a few bowel movements...

I'd like to repost a link back from when the Tea Party B.S. was going on (Yeah it's a KOS Link i know)

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/4/12/719358/-Annotating-Glenn-Becks-Thom a s-Paine?idiot

Seriously this has gotta be maybe one of the worst things i have ever seen in my whole life.

Nina_Hartley's_Ass: Also influenced by Thomas Paine. (new window)

OMFG THAT is HILARIOUS I wonder if Beck is aware of this.