Can there be anything more tedious than the smarmy leftie academic who makes a career out of telling Americans that everything they know and love about their country is wrong? My brother sat at the dinner college in the late 1960s and told my father that Paul Revere was a drunk, Franklin was a wife-beater, etc., all taken in from some warmed-over radical wannabe in history class.

Real history can be better than myth, but Paul Revere was more important than the poem told us - he was at the hub of the Boston rebellion. The Hemmings story is trivia to the nation's storyl, and only serves - in this article - as a sharp stick in the eye of a few contemporary descendents. The real story certainly can't be told by people loaded down with "let's piss off the bourgeoisie" pretentions.

The whole American independence myth, originally created to bind the original 13 separate colonies into a unified nation state, is nothing more than a comfort blanket for those who are scared of the unknown.

Surely, after all this time, the USA has enough self confidence to move on from these stories for children and accept its history, in all its shades of grey.

It may not be quite as dashing or as Disneyfied as the myths and some of your heroes may be a bit tarnished but at least it would be a bit more honest.

So, JonFrum hates the smarmy (please look up that word, Jon) academic left because his little brother was really shallow.

Those of us who love our country do so warts and all. You apparently don't love your country, just some imaginary version of it.