JANUARY 29, 1956 — DEATH OF H.L. MENCKEN, US JOURNALIST

1956 — DEATH OF H.L. MENCKEN, US JOURNALIST
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace in a continual state of alarm (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing them with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." [Note: Mencken would have, no doubt, included the recent “fiscal cliff” negotiations as one such “hobgoblin.”)

JANUARY 29, 1737 -- BIRTH OF TOM PAINE, US REVOLUTIONARY

1737 -- BIRTH OF TOM PAINE, US REVOLUTIONARY
Commenting on the value of colonial-issued money, the “Continental”...
"Every stone in the Bridge that has carried us over seems to have a claim upon our esteem. But this was a corner stone, and its usefulness cannot be forgotten."