Happy belated birthday, Tom

When I saw this post over at Ed Brayton's place, I told myself I would definitely do a "happy birthday Tom Paine" post before the day was out. Then the day ran out, and I hadn't done it, so I'm doing it today. Coincidentally, yesterday I read a good chuck of Sandman vol. VI (Neil Gaiman), which has a very good French Revolution sequence in which Paine appears briefly. Made for a nice way to accidentally celebrate Paine's birthday.