Reply #7: A pet peeve of mine is the abuse of the "tree of liberty" quote.

[tjwash]

It is always used by wingers while taken wildly out of context. I know it fits nicely on a t-shirt or a sig line, but it just bugs me that people who don't read their history, act as if it is some biblical like saying.

Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac liked it so much, that he gave a speech to the French national assembly where he said “L’arbre de la liberté… croît lorsqu’il est arrosé du sang de toute espèce de tyrans (The tree of liberty grows only when watered by the blood of tyrants),” which pretty much kicked the French revolution into high gear. Of course the French then got the Guillotine going, and heads rolling, and ironically, climaxed with the most vicious tyrant of all; Napoleon Bonaparte taking power.

Jefferson admitted years later that he wished he would have never said it.