http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Thomas+Paine

Thomas Paine (Thetford, England, 29 January 1737 – 8 June 1809, New York City, USA) was a pamphleteer, revolutionary, radical, liberal and intellectual. Born in Great Britain, he lived in America, having migrated to the American colonies just in time to take part in the American Revolution, mainly as the author of the powerful, widely read pamphlet, Common Sense (1776), advocating independence for the American Colonies from the Kingdom of Great Britain and of The American Crisis, supporting the Revolution.

Later, Paine was a great influence on the French Revolution. He wrote the Rights of Man (1791) as a guide to the ideas of the Enlightenment. Despite an inability to speak French, he was elected to the French National Assembly in 1792. Regarded as an ally of the Girondists, he was seen with increasing disfavour by the Montagnards and in particular by Robespierre.

Paine was arrested in Paris and imprisoned in December 1793; he was released in 1794. He became notorious with his book, The Age of Reason (1793-94), which advocated deism and took issue with Christian doctrines. While in France, he also wrote a pamphlet titled Agrarian Justice (1795), which discussed the origins of property and introduced a concept that is similar to a guaranteed minimum income.

Paine remained in France during the early Napoleonic Era, but condemned Napoleon's moves towards dictatorship, calling him "the completest charlatan that ever existed."[1] Paine remained in France until 1802, when he returned to America on an invitation from Thomas Jefferson, who had been elected president.

Paine died at 59 Grove Street in Greenwich Village, New York City, on the morning of June 8, 1809. More.......

WOW!

I thought he was some dude that ran a bodega down in Queens .....

Are you sure you have this right, canjcat?

And so ....

Not by today's standards.

Sorry, Livy......you have him confused with some 'Paine' in the a$$.

Every new idea is a liberal idea that will become more conservative as time passes when adopted. That's what distinguishes liberal from conservative.

Thanks for straightening me out there, canjcat ....

I'm getting old ....

Sometimes I need that ....

So who's the dude with the bodega then?

Is that George Washington?

And so ...

Another thing that distinguishes them today is that liberals weep over a lot of things like people being in prison for committing crimes and they like group hugs and grief counseling ....

They are also against state's right and they want a strong central welfare government ...

And hey, this is America, as a conservative, I'm cool with that ....

Everybody gets to believe in whatever they want .....

Isn't democracy wonderful?

And so ...

And Robespierre in his turn, took a turn on the guillotine ....

But just the once ....

It left him about a head shorter than he was when he didn't like Tom Paine ...

And so ...

How are you with the "Live free or die" thing up there, canjcat ....

Some people are embarrassed by it, I hear ....

Some people think that it is foolish ....

Out of date with the times ...

"WHY NOT JUST COMPROMISE", they would have it say ...

And there is a famous Supreme Court case on free speech that comes from New Hampshire, and involves a person who was ticketed for having covered over the words "Live free or die" on his license plate with black tape ...

He didn't want to be carrying advertising on belief systems for the state, was his issue ...

He wanted to believe in something else ...

He didn't like the dying part ....

And so ...

And talk about political intrigue and factions and political instability, alright ....

It's hard to keep straight who was doing what to whom and when during the French revolution ....

It's getting like that here now ....

And so ...

I can't say I'm a die hard (pun intended) "Live Free or Die" resident. As a residential transplant from the gregarious South, the notion of "stay out of my way and out of my face" 100% of the time is rather foreign to me. It's not intense in southern New Hampshire as this area is considered to be a series of bedroom communities for Boston. However, go north of Manchester and you're in a completely different world where the state motto is taken and lived by quite seriously. A lot of participants in the Free State Project have moved to NH. When visiting northern New Hampshire, residents are very open about identifying you as not being a 'local'. It's an interesting population mix here in the Granite State. Interesting indeed.

And it is interesting the hear your perspective of it, canjcat, especially as you have been elsewhere, and so, have a basis of comparison ...

I have always wondered if being up north, where it is colder longer, and darker longer in the winter, makes us different up here from people down south ...

That "changes in latitude, changes in attitude" thing that Jimmy Buffet sings about ...

You're confusing liberalism with sensitivity.

You're confusing liberals with federalists.

It's actually not. It's just that many liberal Americans don't use the dictionary and therefore believe that they are conservative and that liberalism is a dirty word.

Yes it is. And how about those NY Giants?

What can you say about the Giants?

How about that Plaxico Burress?

If they had him, then maybe they could have been a contender ...

But he shot himself in the leg with his pistola ...

And the rest is history ...

And so ...

It's actually not America anymore, billfmsd?

My goodness ...

When did that happen?

I must have missed it ...

And so ...