In Congress, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new guards for their future security — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. — The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our People, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free system of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislature, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

---

John Hancock

Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
Geo. Walton

Wm. Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
Edward Rutledge
Thos. Heyward, Junr.
Thomas Lynch, Junr.
Arthur Middleton

Samuel Chase
Wm. Paca
Thos. Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Th. Jefferson
Benja. Harrison
Thos. Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton

Robt. Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benja. Franklin
John Morton
Geo. Clymer
Jas. Smith
Geo. Taylor
James Wilson
Geo. Ross
Caesar Rodney
Geo. Read
Tho. Mckean

Wm. Floyd
Phil. Livingston
Frans. Lewis
Lewis Morris
Richd. Stockton
Jno. Witherspoon
Fras. Hopkinson
John Hart
Abra. Clark

Josiah Bartlett
Wm. Whipple
Saml. Adams
John Adams
Robt. Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
Step. Hopkins
William Ellery
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
Wm. Williams
Oliver Wolcott
Matthew Thornton

Some Timely Quotes From Mr. Jefferson

"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual. "

-Thomas Jefferson

"That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves. "

-Thomas Jefferson

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not. "

-Thomas Jefferson

"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground. "

-Thomas Jefferson

"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive."

-Thomas Jefferson

"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government. "

-Thomas Jefferson

"To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical. "

-Thomas Jefferson

"We may consider each generation as a distinct nation, with a right, by the will of its majority, to bind themselves, but none to bind the succeeding generation, more than the inhabitants of another country. "

-Thomas Jefferson

"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty."

-Thomas Jefferson

"A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government. "

-Thomas Jefferson

"Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto. "

-Thomas Jefferson

"Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition. "

-Thomas Jefferson

"Do not bite at the bait of pleasure, till you know there is no hook beneath it. "

-Thomas Jefferson

"Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories. "

-Thomas Jefferson

"Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny. "

-Thomas Jefferson

"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. " 

-Thomas Jefferson

What Should These united states Be Like; In My Opinion

What does the government need to do?  

1. Build Raods

2. Provide For Defense

3. Provide Courts

4. Provide Police

5. Regulation to enforce advertising and Contracts (so you know that things are "as advertised")

6. Powers granted in the Constitution

Things which are optional but the governement should slowly stop handling:

These things should evenutually become private charities

1. A voluntary scholarship fund for children to attend charter type private schools

2. A voluntary medical assistance fund for the poor and disabled

3. A voluntary monetary assistance fund for the poor and disabled

4. A voluntary food assistance program for the poor and disabled

How it should all be funded:

1. taxes should be collected at local levels and dispursed up to state and national level

2. If an income tax is levied, no more than .oooooo3% flat tax (each person is only 1 of ~300,000,000)

3. flat rate tax on all consumption, whenever a product or service is bought

4. All the above voluntary programs should funded voluntarily, not with tax dollars

That is it; nothing more.  Now I know it will most likely never get this good during my life time, but we need to start shrinkning government, and maybe one day things can become close.

The Naivitee of Artists

   I myslelf am an artist of sorts; as a writer/producer/director; however, the naivitee of other artists is staggering for me to think about.  When the Gulf War happened and we left without doing anything to Sadaam Huusain many artists had a thing or two to say.  Most notable of these was David O. Russel's Three Kings 

div>However; after George W. Bush invaded Iraq to oust Sadaam, Russel made an anti-Iraq war documentary called Soldiers Paydiv>

Many clebrities now talk about the horrible things taking place in Africa, especially Dafour.  However, they fail to mention that such corrupt governments confiscate most of the money and goods that come into the countries.  You have to do one or the other; war or ignore them.  These ragimes take most of the money and food we send, so this current situation is a black hole.  Either have the balls to spend the money to liberate people or have the balls to be fiscally responsible and draw back our military.  We can't have both, aid to these countries won't work; if we are going to help these people we need to put some power to our words, otherwise it is just a "feel good" waste of money.   I am not one for war; but if you want to free these people, that is the only way, sending aide is like jacking off and hoping to have a child.

The Fear of Freedom

   I  think I have finally figured it out, why Republicans and Democrats think the way they do; it's the fear of freedom.  Not their own, but of others.  Of course they want all the freedoms they can handle, but they are afraid of giving freedom to others.

   Republicans fear the repeal of drug prohibition because they fear that everyone else will just be high all the time and driving around selling drugs to kids.  They fear gay marriage because they think it will lead to people doing crazy things like marrying horses (no kidding, this is what my dad actually says).

   Democrats fear guns, and think if guns are banned that people will run around shooting everything in sight.  They fear small government because they think people can't take care of themselves.

   How can anyone walk around being this afraid of things?  I mean, I have generalized anxiety disorder, I have days where I stay in my house because I'm afraid to go outside.  My biggest fear in all the world is puppets.  I'm usually convinced people are doing things just to spite me.  But even I think it is paranoid to be as afraid of freedom as Republicans and Democrats.

   To want freedoms for yourself because those are the freedoms you like, and to deny people other freedoms because you don't like them is not acting in self-interest.  If only everyone acted in self-interest (do unto others as you would have them do unto you type stuff)  then there would be no problem, and I think if we spent half as much time teaching our children how to properly behave as we dosending them to public schools which teach a horrbly skewed socialist pallet of half-truths and useless nonsense, then we'd be ok.

Counting Blue Cars

   In a few of my posts I have spoken about how religious I tend to be.  At this moment I would wish to refine what I have meant by such statements.   I do not believe in organized religion, it leaves nothing to the individual.  I also do not believe in atheism, it ignores certain evidence, and for the most part asserts as fact something which it may never know.

  Organized religion tells people how to think based on what god they follow, and what the church higherarchy decrees.  To me, this is absence of thought.  To believe what another tells you simply because they claim a closer relationship with God means you abandon your own thought.   I bow to no man, and no man shall tell me fables which ignore the facts of this world and tell me they give him power over.

   Atheists (the majority anyway)  protest to know the unknowable, that there is no God.  To know something means one must have concrete undisputed evidence that it is true.  Of course, in the case of God, you cannot prove something unprovalbe, and neither can you disprove something unprovable.   Iy they were to say, they think or believe there is no God, I could maybe agree.

  I, myself am a Deist Catholic (Catholic in a cultural sense not spiritual).  I look at the world through the lens of logic.  I believe the big bang, and most all other theories.  The big bang; there was a cosmic egg of all of existence existing in a singularity.  But what created that egg, surely, the laws of nature tells us something cannot come from nothing.  And for all that mess to end up creating humans, a life form capable to concieve os such things, the chances are far against it.  The universe acts in predictable, describable means.   My logic tells me that there is a god of some sort, I don't think it interacts with humans through prophecy.

  I don't care what you believe; just don't try and say it is fact.  Facts are backed up by real world experimenst.  There are no such experiments for God.  In practicality, you believe or you don't, you don't know or or know it is not.

Back to the title- Counting Blue Cars by Dishwalla.

Self Interest V Selfishness

   It seems this is a distinction which needs to be made.  Self interest is not the same as selfishness.  It is out of selfishness a man demotes those under him to the idea of lesser beings.  It is out of self interest a man treats each as his equal.  

   It seems that the so called "liberals" in america (lower cased for purpose) can not distinguish between the two.   To them, the man who cheats his employees out of selfishness is the same as the man who treats his employees well out of self interest.   To them; both are in need of compulsitory compliance.  

   There is a difference.  The man who acts in selfishness does not worry about future consequences.  The man who acts in self interest does.

   If one were to steal a loaf of bread out of selfishness, they would only be worrying about survival.  If one were to steal a loaf of bread out of self interest they would consider everything, if they were in the position of the bread seller woud they wish to have thier bread stolen?

   Self interest is based on the ideal "do unto others as you would have done to you"  Selfishness is based onto the ideal "what is good for me is good for me."

   A man working on selfishness would steal from another to aquire as much material wealth as possible.

   A man working on self interest would aquire goods as he wished them to aquired from him.

   In short, a man working out of selfishness is a danger to society.  A man working out of self interest is a benefit to society.  A man working for an ideal is a parasite.  A man working for himself is reality.