Category — Thomas Paine

In this week’s crossword, there are a few cryptic clues. It should be solvable regardless of how tough they may be, since the source of all the words used, the first few paragraphs of Thomas Paine’s, The Crisis, is included for your reading pleasure.

“An unwritten constitution is not a constitution at all.” Thomas Paine

Our Founders wouldn’t have spent so much time on the wording if they intended the Constitution be open to interpretation by whoever happened to be in office or on the court. They wanted it written down because words have meaning and they chose their words carefully.

The world-shattering concept of the unalienable rights of the individual put forth in the Declaration of Independence turned the world upside down. In one fell swoop the Divine Right of Kings became the consent of the governed.

The First Principles form the bedrock of the American experiment. The Founders disagreed on a lot of things, but it was their shared belief in these core values that enabled them to compromise on things that might have been insurmountable otherwise.

Is the Justice Department, at the behest of political appointees, selectively enforcing law? Recent actions provide glaring evidence to support this possibility.

Glenn Beck’s Common Sense avoids the descent into mere diatribe. What’s more it actually does compare favorably with Thomas Paine’s pamphlet of the same name. However, Beck is explicit in calling out that he is not advocating for people to take up arms and revolt in the same way that the patriots of 1776 did. He is calling for people to get up and be heard before it’s too late.

“… 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

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Not really, but it makes for a good title. 

I just finished reading Paine’s Common Sense, and after witnessing some of the debate at the round table at Blair House and listening to the talking heads go on about …