Oops. Rick Perry Is Still Talking
Rick Perry is prancing all over the country saying that he knows stuff, like how to bottom out an educational system and wreck a state university and keep folks from getting health care. So, if that’s what you’re looking for, Rick is your man.
He’s also real good at oops.
He spoke at a Virginia Republican fundraiser.
“Thomas Paine wrote that ‘the duty of a patriot is to protect his country from his government,’” Perry said, drawing applause from the crowd during his Feb. 24 event at the Richmond Marriott.
Well, that’s real spiffy but Thomas Paine never said that.
Saying that the quote doesn’t even sound like Paine, Gary Berton says it doesn’t appear in any of Paine’s writings, adding that Paine was oops to the English rule of the states, but …
But in the meantime, he was for a strong central government with redistribution of wealth,” added Berton, who is also the coordinator of the Institute of Thomas Paine Studies at Iona College in New Rochelle.
Best anybody can figure, the quote came from Edward Abbey, an American anarchist, environmentalist and novelist.
Yeah, that sounds about right.
Thanks to David for the heads up.
Wahoo for Abbey when he ran into folks like Perry and Abbott.
1My brother the Teatard keeps calling himself a Federalist. I keep trying to explain to him that I don’t think he understands what that word means. I really wish they’d all paid better attention in school.
2I’ll wager the Accused Felon has never read a word of Thomas Paine. One of his lackeys threw that in his speech and he didn’t bother to check it out. Oh, yes, that’s the kind of president this country needs. Hail to the Ignoramus.
3Really, pRick. Just keep on keeping on. With every gaffe you tap dance closer and closer to the edge of the cliff.
4A vector I know, BUT…
5These neo-cons have come to worship the words of Thomas Paine. Likely because he is literate and they are not. But if you look at the list of “100 Greatest Britons” as was made in 2002 by the BBC, you will note at number 34, Thomas Paine, hisownself. Yessiree, one and the same. Go figure huh!? One of the 100 Greatest Britons as well.
I’d like someone to tell Rick that he quoted Edward Abbey, and then to tell him who Abbey was and a few other things he said. And can they get video so we can watch?
6On to NH with the pRick, where he can mangle the NH license plate motto: “live free or die.”
pssst hint, pRick, that wasn’t coined by Raygun’s imaginary Welfare Queen.
7It seems the quote has been confused with radical environmentalist Edward Abbey’s statement that, “A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”
8And “patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel”, I remember reading recently.
9That would be Samuel Johnson.
10Well, Abbey was right about a few things: “Power is always dangerous. Power attracts the worst and corrupts the best.”
Seems Mr. Abbey would have agreed with Adlai Stevenson: “By the time a man has done everything necessary to become President, he is no longer fit for the job.”
11The thing is, the idiots who listen to his babblings will never know the difference, and he counts on that.
12Well, if Rick Perry’s running a government, the rest of us sure need protection from it.
13Edward Abbey has been cited as writing: “A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.” A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Vox Clamantis en Deserto) : Notes from a Secret Journal (1990) ISBN 0312064888
Whether that’s true or not, I have not tried to verify. Nevertheless, Abbey’s observations are much more entertaining that anything ever coming from Rick Perry.
http://www.abbeyweb.net/quotes.htx
14The modern-day Republican party’s beliefs have a lot in common with anarchy. They want to destroy government. What’s unusual is that they want to destroy it from within while collecting government paychecks, much like a parasite feeding from a host.
So they are anarchistic parasites.
15I opened the Abbey website, and the first quote I saw was, “Counterpart to the knee-jerk liberal is the new knee-pad conservative, always groveling before the rich and the powerful.”
16I’ve been feeling the anarchist truthiness from these “traditionalists” for years, but never used the label. So, these folks love our country, but hate the Government. And, because I love our country AND our government, I’m some kind of liberal whack-job.
I am too young to remember the 1950s, but I do remember the 60s (and Vietnam…). The small Gubbiment eutopia NEVER existed once WWII, Korea, and the Cold War rolled around. And the primary reason was as Eisenhower warned: a massive military-industrial complex that produced the overwhelming desire to USE the military, since we spent so much money on it.
Upon reflection, if congress is truly serious about stopping Iran, etc., then let them vote to create a draft. If things are so dire, then let them take the heat and justify their stance with actions the Congress *can* take.
Big Gubbiment anarchists, just what the Koch brothers need to rob the rest of us blind.
17Old Fart: I have advocated a return to the draft for a long time.
18It would be an immediate eye-opener for young folks, engage them in civics like nothing else these days and would get a lot more people paying attention to RWNJs love of war and sales of war machines. Recently I heard a speaker describe these non-stop wars as significantly just “commercials” for the big war machine contractors to show oppressive governments new toys.
Ohh, knee pads for groveling. I could have used those in my so called marriage…my ex hated women – he thought “Slave Girls of Gore” was a textbook!
19Mark, hurray for your statement. Please y’all tell the gummint to quit handing out military equipment like door prizes to towns.
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