B U L L E T I N

B U L L E T I N
of T h o m a s P a i n e F r i e n d s
copyright 2006 Thomas Paine Friends, Inc.

Volume 7 Number 4 December 2006

~ ~ ~ TALKING WITH THOMAS ~ ~ ~

by Joyce Chumbley (JAC)

The last few years have certainly seemed like a time to try our souls. But, then, recently it has begun to feel like maybe we might have an opportunity

to make the world over again. More and more, I've been reading the name of Thomas Paine invoked in media stories about current events, and I turn to

his works for relevant insights myself. But I wanted to be more methodical--indeed, more technological--about my approach, and so, being inspired by

a computer competition held in 2005 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), I wrote a computer program that gives me instant access to

the words of Thomas Paine in response to issues of our day. Here's how it works: I type a statement or question, and the program immediately searches throughout Thomas Paine's works located on the Internet, and from cyberspace brings back a response. It's amazing! So, I decided to share a recent example

of what I now call "Talking with Thomas."

JAC: Thomas, what is

America

's most important contribution to the modern world, achieved in your lifetime?

TP: I am a citizen of a country which knows no other majesty than that of the people--no other government than that of the representative body--no other sovereignty than that of the laws.[1]

TP: In

America

, THE LAW IS KING. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other.[2]

JAC: Well, in these times--since the beginning of the 21st century--there has developed a new American crisis, starting with the presidential election in the year 2000.

JAC: Yes, but the outcome of the 2000 election was highly suspect, because of vote manipulation and fraud (problems that have not yet been remedied), and a President was "selected" by the narrowest majority decision of the Supreme Court. This "Executive-in-Thief," as he is often called, has proceeded to usurp powers never intended by the Constitution or laws of the land and never experienced before in the history of this country.

TP: Nature seems sometimes to laugh at mankind, by giving them so many fools for Kings; at other times, she punishes their folly by giving them tyrants; but

England

must have offended highly to be cursed with both in one.[5]

JAC: And the curse is repeated in the

United States

230 years later with an arrogant, willfully ignorant, and delusional would-be king, who thinks he is above the law. He is, further, manipulated by a cabal of zealots (called, these days, "neoconservatives") who devised a Plan for the New American Century (PNAC) even before the election. Their stated purpose was to gain complete domination by the

United States

over the whole world, its people, and its resources. Of course, they embellished their plan with words of high purpose--such as, "democracy" and "freedom."

TP: Such men are never good moral evidences of any doctrine they preach. They are always in extreme, as well of action as of belief.[6]

JAC: A few women, too, have unfortunately joined this gang. And when a terrorist attack on the

occurred in 2001, which may have been allowed to happen by the government, the Bush Administration had its casus belli to begin a military campaign. First, the

attacked a country in the Middle East (western Asia) thought to have been a base for the foreign terrorist attackers, and many Americans supported that response. Then, the

began an unprovoked, totally aggressive war on another country in the region, which for some time had been on the neocon's target list. In order to justify the second invasion and subsequent occupation, the Administration told the American people that the dictatorial leader of that country had weapons of mass destruction, was somehow connected to the perpetrators of the original terrorist attack, and was an imminent threat to the

. Those excuses were repeated over and over and broadcast throughout the news reporting so that the American people would be terrified and would rally to support the war. But all those excuses were lies. The real reasons were to establish a base of

control in the Middle East and to expropriate the resources of the region, all accomplished with taxpayer money.

TP: A continual circulation of lies among those who are not much in the way of hearing them contradicted, will in time pass for truth, and the crime lies not in the believer but in the inventor.[7]

1 To the Authors of "The Republicans," 1791 2 Common Sense, 1776 3 To the Citizens of the

United States

, 1802

4 Rights of Man, I, 1791 5 The Forester's Letters, 1776 6 The Age of Reason, II, 1795 7 The American Crisis, 1777

-- continued on page 8, Talking with Thomas