George W. Bush Quotes

This was another of Palin’s gaffs reflecting on her shallow knowledge of American History. Paul Revere’s ride was for the purpose of warning Samuel Adams and John Hancock and the Americans along the way. It was not to warn the British of course. However, there was a grain of truth in her misstatement. Halfway on his ride, Revere was stopped by the British and questioned. The British were on their way to capture the Armory and its weapons. Revere did tell the British that as a result of his warning the Americans along the way, there would likely be 500 patriots in defense. So in a sense, Revere “warned” the British. This is another of example Palin’s shallow understanding of events and ideas for which she was notorious. See {623710} for a historians view. She was following the Freedom Trail in Massachusetts and commenting for the press at every opportunity. Ironically, Palin. In her own inimitable style, was loquacious on a subject she had not studied or prepared for.

In early America, the political parties had their own newspapers where “truth” was not an important journalistic virtue. Red scares and other fears of foreign conspiracies are as old as our nation. In 1798 the Federalists accused Vice President Thomas Jefferson, among others, of being in contact with the foreign conspirators and printed details of a "manufactured" plot to massacre the citizens of Philadelphia in one of their controlled newspapers. The nation was so alarmed that the infamous Alien and Sedition Acts were passed by Congress a few months later. These were probably the greatest infringements on American civil liberties in our history.

See Lord Salisbury for an earlier, jaundiced view of experts.

The Emperor had refused to allow trade between China and the Western “Christians” See {641621}. The English diplomats implied to the Emperor that the ships would trade with costal Chinese despite his edicts. He threatened to use force to prevent contact. His Empire, however, was not strong enough militarily to keep the English and other Christians away.