rinos? They are pinos, patriots in name only.

That said, we need pinos these next four years to effect at least some filibuster threat on some issues.

rinos? They are pinos, patriots in name only.

That said, we need pinos these next four years to effect at least some filibuster threat on some issues.

Demagogue or not, Sam Adams was a patriot. And we would be wise to remember the 11th commandment even today. We will need every patriot in the next 4 years.

kelley in virginia on November 23, 2008 at 10:08 AM

even “rinos”?

what about people who aren’t transfixed with loyal jealosy over sarah palin’s jennifer anniston-like suffering? can you make common cause with those people?

or does the definition of “patriotism” include a palin clause now as well?

“The general principles upon which the Fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity…I will avow that I believed and now believe that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and the attributes of God.” [June 28, 1813; Letter to Thomas Jefferson]

“We recognize no Sovereign but God, and no King but Jesus!”
[April 18, 1775, on the eve of the Revolutionary War after a British major ordered John Adams, John Hancock, and those with them to disperse in “the name of George the Sovereign King of England." ]

SAM Adams quotes

In his work, The Rights of the Colonists, which was circulated in 1772, Adams boldly asserted:

The right to freedom being the gift of the Almighty…The rights of the colonists as Christians…may be best understood by reading and carefully studying the institutions of The Great Law Giver and Head of the Christian Church, which are to be found clearly written and promulgated in the New Testament.

As the Declaration of Independence was being signed in 1776, Sam Adams declared:

We have this day restored the Sovereign to Whom all men ought to be obedient. He reigns in Heaven and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let His kingdom come.

And Adams wrote these poignant words in his Last Will and Testament:

Principally, and first of all, I resign my soul to the Almighty Being who gave it, and my body I commit to the dust, relying on the merits of Jesus Christ for the pardon of my sins.
Sam Adams never forgot those stirring days during the Great Awakening when George Whitefield “thundered in the Pulpit”. . . . [I]n his eyes, the chief purpose of the American Revolution was to separate New England from the “decadent” mother country in order that Puritanism might again flourish as it had in the early seventeenth century. Adams hoped to do by means of a political revolution what George Whitefield had done through a religious awakening. Puritanism was his goal: revolution his method of attaining it.

In 1772, Adams wrote a document called “The Rights of the Colonists.” This treatise is viewed historically as a key document for articulating the reasons why America should sever all political ties to Great Britain. In this document, Adams argued:

The right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty . . . the rights of the Colonists as Christians . . . MAY BE BEST understood by reading and carefully studying the institutions of the great Lawgiver and the Head of the Christian Church, which are to be found clearly written and promulgated in the New Testament.

Historian Robert Flood points out that: Samuel Adams “regarded individual freedom as ‘the law of the Creator’ and a Christian right documented in the New Testament.” Adams clearly saw the colonists’ rights as coming from God, a belief that several years later became the cornerstone of the Declaration of Independence

BOTH patriots!!!

As I recall, Sam Adams was quite wealthy.

Sackett

Actually, Adams went through poverty, and at critical times of the development of the revolution, and during the war as well, he was near penniless. His wife Betsy would sometimes write to Sam asking of whom she should visit to ask for a loan. He relied on the kindness of others at times.

entagor on November 23, 2008 at 12:18 PM

I know, that’s why it will take activism to return these subjects to the schools!

And you all are mistaken. The forgotten man in the Revolution/founding is clearly George Mason.

With the help of ancestry.com I’ve learned that Samuel Adams is my 13th great grand father. [...]

cannonball on November 23, 2008 at 10:28 AM

Very cool! I’m sure that was fun to discover!

Needed in times of vague, tepid, wishy-washy Obama-esque rhetoric.

All the rest is superfluous. We don’t care about your fear of flying, etc. Get over yourself.

wilk on November 23, 2008 at 1:28 PM

Dear Ed,

I appreciate your book recommendation, and empathize with your fear of flying, because I have flaws of my own, with impatience and nitpicking being chief among them.

————————————————————-

Little civics lesson for you, wilk.

wilk on November 23, 2008 at 1:28 PM

Well, that’s just nasty. Of course we enjoy hearing details about Ed…that’s what makes this a great site. Info + human touch = happy Hotairians.

Schools already teach the founders were not really Christians, they were racists, imperialists, and authors of an imperfect document which must bend to the new truths

entagor on November 23, 2008 at 12:18 PM

Some were not really Christians, a few were racists, some had imperialist tendencies. The Founders knew the constitution was inadequate that is why they gave us a means to amend it.

wilk on November 23, 2008 at 1:28 PM

Get over yourself when Michelle hires you to blog, you can write whatever the hell you want.

Ed,
I think we probably would have run Sam Adams out of the Republican party if he were alive today.

Show a pix of the book cover and here’s all you needed to say: “Great read, you should get it.”

All the rest is superfluous. We don’t care about your fear of flying, etc. Get over yourself.

I agree with you.

It is my opinion this course would be rejected by the teachers as inappropriate, i.e. dangerous to the ideas they are trying to instill in their charges

If the course was taught it would be created to prove the founders and their opinions were a source of evil, not good

Schools already teach the founders were not really Christians, they were racists, imperialists, and authors of an imperfect document which must bend to the new truths

Wouldn’t it be great to have a real history channel that read through the writings and speeches of these men in detail.

Currently I am following several Bible reading programs on television and gaining so much more from the full text

There is a huge body of correspondence and speeches that never make it to the public, except as culled by historians
The more you read by the founders, the more they grow as giants.

These men were great because they followed conviction, and were well grounded in morals and convictions when they were tested. Circumstance did not find them. They were raised to approach their circumstance with integrity and courage.

History does not make men. Their mothers and fathers make them and arm them well or poorly for the battle that can be ignored, or engaged

They were revolutionary ideas then and many other countries have seen them as inspirational–why can’t we?