<!--QuoteBegin-Mudy+Feb 12 2008, 12:08 PM-->QUOTE(Mudy @ Feb 12 2008, 12:08 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>In last two years Clintons Global had spent 50+ millions in Africa.</b> He raised money for New Orleans. His and Her contribution after 2000 is remarkable. [right][snapback]78398[/snapback][/right]<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->Must be their lingering guilt over Rwanda. Theirs was a nice manual on how to sit in the white house and do nothing. <!--emo&:angry:--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/mad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='mad.gif' /><!--endemo-->
I suppose the Rwandans are not quite so bitter as the Serbians, though - the former got hit with US govt's indifference, while the latter got to face active scheming from the US govt which carefully arranged the board against them.
Huzay for Bill clinton's reign... Three cheers... No?
Not that I like obama any better. Everytime I see him, I keep thinking how ignorant he is. I don't know that he's not worse than merely ignorant.
America is faced with the devil and the deep blue sea. So they should find the third option.
The US needs someone like Thomas Paine - someone who intrinsically believes in all people. Someone who doesn't pretend to be 'colour-blind' to win votes, but someone who is innately beyond bothering about ethnicity or gender or other petty nonsense.
Thomas Paine was someone who was for the French Revolution, yet stood up valiantly to save the life of the French royals (he was obviously against taking revenge on the French aristocracy) with his own life in the balance.
This <b>Deist</b> wrote the <i>Rights of Man</i> that sent the castaist christo Brits shrieking in fear. He started the abolition that sent the christos in two continents into hysteria. He also wrote the <i>Age of Reason</i> which scared the living daylights of the christian meme, as he exposed its hollow lies and frauds.
If the US still has another person like this, (s)he should be the president:
http://www.cygnus-study.com/ (section "Learn", subsection "Thomas Paine")
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Thomas Paine: A Hero for the World</b>
Every once in a while, the world is fortunate to have a great person come to edify. Generally the person is completely ignored or disdained by their own generation but increasingly valued by subsequent ones. Such is the case for the greatest American hero, Thomas Paine.
Thomas Paine came to live in the United States in 1774 at the invitation of Benjamin Franklin. Soon after his arrival, he began to speak his mind and was both hated and loved by many.
<b>Paine was the greatest defender of the disenfranchised that this country has ever known. He was a prolific writer and the first piece that he ever had published was against slavery in America. He pled for the rights of black people, and stated that it was an offense to all humanity that they should be imprisoned and forced into submission. A few short days after the publishing of this article, the American Anti-Slavery Society was formed. Some 90 years later the Emancipation Proclomation finished the job that Thomas Paine got started.</b>Â <!--emo&:clapping--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/clap.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='clap.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Paine continued to fight for rights. He fought against the practice of dueling, claiming that it was a "barbarous act" that did not solve the right/wrong issue. <b>He fought against the mistreatment of animals with, "A Protest Against Cruelty to Animals." He fought for equal rights for women with, "A plea for the Rights of Women," one of the earliest documents of it's kind in the New World.</b>Â <!--emo&:clapping--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/clap.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='clap.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Thomas Paine was the first to coin the phrase "The United States of America". He was the first to suggest that colonies become united. He was the first to suggest separation from Great Britain.
The United States of America was born as much from the pen of Thomas Paine as it was from the sword of George Washington.
For the next decade or so, Thomas Paine set about making the newly founded nation as strong as possible. He sailed to France with Ben Franklin in order to secure six million silvers for a loan, as well as clothing and military stores. He raised 1.5 million dollars in 1780 to pay the army which had been considering mutiny.
At the end of all of this, he knew that his work had been done in America. Being a man not prone to idleness, he set out for England to educate the people there.
<b>Once in England, Thomas Paine wrote the well known book, "Rights of Man". In the book he wrote that all people were of the same mother and as such deserved the same equal treatment. He wrote that the upper ruling class was there by birth and not through some feat or divine placement. Needless to say, this text caused BIG trouble in the monarchy of England.</b> (Remember, christo-castaism was ingrained in England. Christoism's castaism was <i>factually</i> everything that they can only ever <i>accuse</i> Hinduism of.)
Immediately upon publication in England, the Rights of Man was suppressed. The author was indicted. Those who published it and those who sold it were arrested. To avoid arrest and probable death, Paine left England. However, his ideas had left their mark on the nation and the English people today enjoy a freedom that stems back to those who rallied around Paine's text.
After leaving England, Paine went to France where he had become widely famous. His actions in America were well known.The pamphlet "Common Sense" had been published in French and was having an immense effect. The French knew of the "Rights of Man". Paine was so popular in France that he was elected to the National Convention by three political parties. Once in government, he founded the first Republican Society in France and wrote their manifesto. These actions helped to give Paine the reputation as the "defender of popular rights" throughout America, England, Scotland, Ireland and France.
Despite his popularity, trouble soon found Thomas Paine in France. After the French Revolution, the king of France was to be executed as a traitor. The National Convention wanted the King dead. But Thomas Paine, being the great humanist that he was, made a plea to the Convention to spare the king's life. He asked that the king be exiled to the United States. He asked not only as a citizen of the United States but also as a member of the Convention. This action of asking for sparing the king's life was, at that time, a request to also be executed.
Robert Ingersoll, a widely published Agnostic, wrote of Paine, "From the moment that Paine cast his vote in favor of mercy - in favor of life - the shadow of the guillotine was on him. He knew that when he voted for the King's life, he voted for his own death."
<b>Paine recognized his predicament, and knew that his time on Earth could be very short. Knowing that there was no time to lose, he set out to write "The Age of Reason". The book contained Paine's thoughts on "revealed religions" and the Bible. This writing was as threatening to the church as "The Rights of Man" had been to the monarchy. In writing "Age of Reason," Paine sought to break the bonds that the church held on the common man. The book is as powerful a source of revelation today as it was when it was written some two hundred years ago.
Ingersoll again points out, "Not one argument that Paine urged against the inspiration of the Bible, against the truth of miracles, against the barbarities and infamies of the Old Testament, against the pretensions of priests and the claims of kings, has ever been answered." And it is true even 100 years after Ingersoll wrote that.
In 200 years, no one has been able to disprove the points that Paine made against the Bible. What are we to make of this?</b>
(Thomas Paine was not an atheist, nor was he a christian disapproving of the church. He was a Deist. His God comes across to me like the Grand Spirit of the native Americans.)
Thomas Paine was arrested just a few short hours after completing the first part of the Age of Reason in December, 1793. He was forgotten by almost everyone but not the future American president, James Monroe. Monroe wrote in Paine's behalf and won his release in November of the following year. While in prison, Paine finished his work on part II of "Age of Reason".
After his release, Paine remained in France for some time before returning to America, expecting to live out his days among those he had helped to gain their independence. What he got was widespread hatred. The Federalists hated him because of how he fought for the rights of the people. The slave-traders hated him for trying to ruin their business. The clergy hated him for his work, and he was labeled an atheist, a blasphemer, a hater and enemy of God and men, alike.
I leave the end of Thomas Paine's life to the words of Robert Ingersoll:
"Thomas Paine had passed the legendary limit of life. One by one most of his old friends and acquaintances had deserted him. Maligned on every side, execrated, shunned and abhorred -- his virtues denounced as vices -- his services forgotten -- his character blackened, he preserved the poise and balance of his soul. He was a victim of the people, but his convictions remained unshaken. He was still a soldier in the army of freedom, and still tried to enlighten and civilize those who were impatiently waiting for his death, Even those who loved their enemies hated him, their friend -- the friend of the whole world -- with all their hearts.
On the 8th of June, 1809, death came -- Death, almost his only friend.
At his funeral no pomp, no pageantry, no civic procession, no military display. In a carriage, a woman and her son who had lived on the bounty of the dead -- on horseback, a Quaker, the humanity of whose heart dominated the creed of his head -- and, following on foot, two negroes filled with gratitude -- constituted the funeral cortege of Thomas Paine."<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->This is the sort of person Americans should find amidst themselves and elect. Anyone less is a waste of time.
I suppose the Rwandans are not quite so bitter as the Serbians, though - the former got hit with US govt's indifference, while the latter got to face active scheming from the US govt which carefully arranged the board against them.
Huzay for Bill clinton's reign... Three cheers... No?
Not that I like obama any better. Everytime I see him, I keep thinking how ignorant he is. I don't know that he's not worse than merely ignorant.
America is faced with the devil and the deep blue sea. So they should find the third option.
The US needs someone like Thomas Paine - someone who intrinsically believes in all people. Someone who doesn't pretend to be 'colour-blind' to win votes, but someone who is innately beyond bothering about ethnicity or gender or other petty nonsense.
Thomas Paine was someone who was for the French Revolution, yet stood up valiantly to save the life of the French royals (he was obviously against taking revenge on the French aristocracy) with his own life in the balance.
This <b>Deist</b> wrote the <i>Rights of Man</i> that sent the castaist christo Brits shrieking in fear. He started the abolition that sent the christos in two continents into hysteria. He also wrote the <i>Age of Reason</i> which scared the living daylights of the christian meme, as he exposed its hollow lies and frauds.
If the US still has another person like this, (s)he should be the president:
http://www.cygnus-study.com/ (section "Learn", subsection "Thomas Paine")
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Thomas Paine: A Hero for the World</b>
Every once in a while, the world is fortunate to have a great person come to edify. Generally the person is completely ignored or disdained by their own generation but increasingly valued by subsequent ones. Such is the case for the greatest American hero, Thomas Paine.
Thomas Paine came to live in the United States in 1774 at the invitation of Benjamin Franklin. Soon after his arrival, he began to speak his mind and was both hated and loved by many.
<b>Paine was the greatest defender of the disenfranchised that this country has ever known. He was a prolific writer and the first piece that he ever had published was against slavery in America. He pled for the rights of black people, and stated that it was an offense to all humanity that they should be imprisoned and forced into submission. A few short days after the publishing of this article, the American Anti-Slavery Society was formed. Some 90 years later the Emancipation Proclomation finished the job that Thomas Paine got started.</b>Â <!--emo&:clapping--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/clap.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='clap.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Paine continued to fight for rights. He fought against the practice of dueling, claiming that it was a "barbarous act" that did not solve the right/wrong issue. <b>He fought against the mistreatment of animals with, "A Protest Against Cruelty to Animals." He fought for equal rights for women with, "A plea for the Rights of Women," one of the earliest documents of it's kind in the New World.</b>Â <!--emo&:clapping--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/clap.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='clap.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Thomas Paine was the first to coin the phrase "The United States of America". He was the first to suggest that colonies become united. He was the first to suggest separation from Great Britain.
The United States of America was born as much from the pen of Thomas Paine as it was from the sword of George Washington.
For the next decade or so, Thomas Paine set about making the newly founded nation as strong as possible. He sailed to France with Ben Franklin in order to secure six million silvers for a loan, as well as clothing and military stores. He raised 1.5 million dollars in 1780 to pay the army which had been considering mutiny.
At the end of all of this, he knew that his work had been done in America. Being a man not prone to idleness, he set out for England to educate the people there.
<b>Once in England, Thomas Paine wrote the well known book, "Rights of Man". In the book he wrote that all people were of the same mother and as such deserved the same equal treatment. He wrote that the upper ruling class was there by birth and not through some feat or divine placement. Needless to say, this text caused BIG trouble in the monarchy of England.</b> (Remember, christo-castaism was ingrained in England. Christoism's castaism was <i>factually</i> everything that they can only ever <i>accuse</i> Hinduism of.)
Immediately upon publication in England, the Rights of Man was suppressed. The author was indicted. Those who published it and those who sold it were arrested. To avoid arrest and probable death, Paine left England. However, his ideas had left their mark on the nation and the English people today enjoy a freedom that stems back to those who rallied around Paine's text.
After leaving England, Paine went to France where he had become widely famous. His actions in America were well known.The pamphlet "Common Sense" had been published in French and was having an immense effect. The French knew of the "Rights of Man". Paine was so popular in France that he was elected to the National Convention by three political parties. Once in government, he founded the first Republican Society in France and wrote their manifesto. These actions helped to give Paine the reputation as the "defender of popular rights" throughout America, England, Scotland, Ireland and France.
Despite his popularity, trouble soon found Thomas Paine in France. After the French Revolution, the king of France was to be executed as a traitor. The National Convention wanted the King dead. But Thomas Paine, being the great humanist that he was, made a plea to the Convention to spare the king's life. He asked that the king be exiled to the United States. He asked not only as a citizen of the United States but also as a member of the Convention. This action of asking for sparing the king's life was, at that time, a request to also be executed.
Robert Ingersoll, a widely published Agnostic, wrote of Paine, "From the moment that Paine cast his vote in favor of mercy - in favor of life - the shadow of the guillotine was on him. He knew that when he voted for the King's life, he voted for his own death."
<b>Paine recognized his predicament, and knew that his time on Earth could be very short. Knowing that there was no time to lose, he set out to write "The Age of Reason". The book contained Paine's thoughts on "revealed religions" and the Bible. This writing was as threatening to the church as "The Rights of Man" had been to the monarchy. In writing "Age of Reason," Paine sought to break the bonds that the church held on the common man. The book is as powerful a source of revelation today as it was when it was written some two hundred years ago.
Ingersoll again points out, "Not one argument that Paine urged against the inspiration of the Bible, against the truth of miracles, against the barbarities and infamies of the Old Testament, against the pretensions of priests and the claims of kings, has ever been answered." And it is true even 100 years after Ingersoll wrote that.
In 200 years, no one has been able to disprove the points that Paine made against the Bible. What are we to make of this?</b>
(Thomas Paine was not an atheist, nor was he a christian disapproving of the church. He was a Deist. His God comes across to me like the Grand Spirit of the native Americans.)
Thomas Paine was arrested just a few short hours after completing the first part of the Age of Reason in December, 1793. He was forgotten by almost everyone but not the future American president, James Monroe. Monroe wrote in Paine's behalf and won his release in November of the following year. While in prison, Paine finished his work on part II of "Age of Reason".
After his release, Paine remained in France for some time before returning to America, expecting to live out his days among those he had helped to gain their independence. What he got was widespread hatred. The Federalists hated him because of how he fought for the rights of the people. The slave-traders hated him for trying to ruin their business. The clergy hated him for his work, and he was labeled an atheist, a blasphemer, a hater and enemy of God and men, alike.
I leave the end of Thomas Paine's life to the words of Robert Ingersoll:
"Thomas Paine had passed the legendary limit of life. One by one most of his old friends and acquaintances had deserted him. Maligned on every side, execrated, shunned and abhorred -- his virtues denounced as vices -- his services forgotten -- his character blackened, he preserved the poise and balance of his soul. He was a victim of the people, but his convictions remained unshaken. He was still a soldier in the army of freedom, and still tried to enlighten and civilize those who were impatiently waiting for his death, Even those who loved their enemies hated him, their friend -- the friend of the whole world -- with all their hearts.
On the 8th of June, 1809, death came -- Death, almost his only friend.
At his funeral no pomp, no pageantry, no civic procession, no military display. In a carriage, a woman and her son who had lived on the bounty of the dead -- on horseback, a Quaker, the humanity of whose heart dominated the creed of his head -- and, following on foot, two negroes filled with gratitude -- constituted the funeral cortege of Thomas Paine."<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->This is the sort of person Americans should find amidst themselves and elect. Anyone less is a waste of time.