By Ron Beasley
It's the 4th of July, the birthday of this Republic. It is a good day to think about how it all started. That history has been re-written many times over the last 233 years so this might be a good day to make a resolution to become more informed. A good place to start is A Leap in the Dark: The Struggle to Create the American Republic by John Ferling. You can find my review here. The writings of Thomas Paine are another must read. You can find an online copy of Paine's Common Sense here or if you prefer a book The Essential Thomas Paine is a good one. And you might want to take another look at the Adamses. They are described as Americas first political dynasty. The have been compared to today's Bush dynasty but even though both John and his son John Quincy are thought to have had failed presidencies it is horribly unfair to compare them to the Bush family. Without John Adams there would not be a United States of America. A good source of information on the Adams family is America's First Dynasty: The Adamses, 1735-1918.
By Ron Beasley
Well I can't compete with the drama of Anderson's photo here but I've got one anyway.
Click on picture for larger image.




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"Whoever can speak, speaking now to the whole nation, becomes a power, a branch of government, with inalienable weight in law-making, in all acts of authority. It matters not what rank he has, what revenues or garnitures. The requisite thing is, that he have a tongue which others will listen to; this and nothing more is requisite. The nation is governed by all that has tongue in the nation: Democracy is virtually there." ------ ~Thomas Carlyle, On Heroes and Hero Worship, 1841 |





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Invisible History:Afghanistan's Untold Story By Paul Fitzgerald & Elizabeth Gould Read Ron's Review |
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1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus By Charles C. Mann Read Ron's Review |
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Leap In The Dark: Struggle to Create The American Republic By John Ferling Read Ron's Review |
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Thinking Points: Communicating Our American Values And Vision By George Lakoff Read Steve's Review |
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Shantaram: Fiction By Gregory David Roberts Read Ron's Review |
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The Limits Of Power: The End Of American Exceptionalism By Andrew J Bacevich |
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The Family By Jeff Sharlet Reading Now |
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Man's Search for Meaning By Victor W. Frankl Read Ron's Review |
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Sarum: The Novel Of England Fiction By Edward Rutherfurd Read Ron's Review |