Joe Conason: Thomas Paine Memorial Lecture

On Jan. 21, 2009, the Center for Inquiry-New York City hosted its annual Thomas Paine Memorial Lecture, given by Joe Conason.

Joe Conason is an investigative reporter and outspoken political commentator in the tradition of Thomas Paine. He is a regular contributor to 'The New York Observer' and 'Salon.com' and the author of many books, including most recently 'It Can Happen Here: Authoritarian Peril in the Age of Bush'. This lecture, which was delivered the day after the presidential inauguration, provides a broad view of Paine's political and economic ideas and their relevance to American society, politics and government today.

For more:

www.centerforinquiry.net/nyc

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• thomas paine
• joe conason
• cfi
• center for inquiry
• politics

[bigtexansfan]

Great job Joe. Intellectually insightful as usual. Didn't try any right-wing bullshit such as spinning facts and stretching the truth.

[guyfroml]

Joe Conason is disingenuous. I find it ironic to hear such a progressive-socialist give the impression he understands what Thomas Paine was all about - that is a joke.

[wimvandenberghe]

He = President Obama. Forget to mention that.

[wimvandenberghe]

In his book "The Audacity of Hope", he has a chapter on "Faith" in which he expresses great skepticism regarding his faith and then he goes on to say: "This is not to say that I'm unanchored in my faith. There are some things that I'm absolutely sure about—the Golden Rule, the need to battle cruelty in all its forms, the value of love and charity, humility and grace." He doesn't mention anything supernatural and is very Jeffersonian in that sense, i.e. he has a humanistic philosophy.

[dhudson0001]

Wonderful! Thanks so much for posting this!