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 Legislatures, 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 & 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 attentions 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.

Winston-Salem Gun Show

Headed to the gun show with a couple of buddies. Hoping to get a chance to handle the new (newish) Walther PPQ.
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif


Update: Had a good time at the gun show. Long line to get in (30 minutes to get to the door) but there was a lot to see. Only one dealer had the Walther PPQ I was looking for. I'll have to check them out when I'm ready to buy (I liked it a lot - wish I could shoot it before making final decision, but no gun range seems to have one to rent).

The President, the Sheriff, and the Birth Certificate

Yesterday, Sheriff Joe* announced that he thinks President Obama's birth certificate is phony-baloney. I read the first 8 news articles on Google News about it, and they all went something like this:
"Nuh-uh, you're just mad 'cuz you're under investigation, neener neener, you racist."

That seems to be the level of professionalism in journalism these days. In every article, with one exception** the justice department investigation was brought up by the third sentence, usually in the first sentence, and usually stating it as the cause for the sheriff's investigation. And maybe it is.

But the problem I have is this, a press conference was called to discuss discrepancies found with documents put forth by our President. Not one of the reporters (I watched the live feed) asked a question about the substance of the investigation or its conclusions. And then I read their filed reports and saw that they had already made up their minds - this is a birther issue and it's already been debunked.

Not so fast. Rememebr when skeptics were originally asking to see the long form Hawaiian birth certificate? They were originally told that the short form*** is all that exists. Asking to see the long form birth certificate is the equivalent of asking to see one written in unicorn blood, you ignorant racists, it doesn't exist.

Then, after years of denying that such a form is possible to obtain, they don't exist, blah-blah, along comes the president provides the long form birth certificate that skeptics were asking for. The cheer from the left was "See, we told you!!" when they had spent 2+ years saying that it didn't exist.

So is it unreasonable to take a good long look at this document that doesn't exist but then suddenly does?

I know that some on the political Right will never believe regardless of the evidence, and some on the Left will never disbelieve. But once we've eliminated the fanatics who are worshiping their leaders, we're left with people who, hopefully, can be objective and look at evidence and ask reasonable questions.


*Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County Arizona. I like a few of the things he does, but some of the things he does to humiliate prisoners begs the question - If people are innocent until proven guilty, shouldn't those innocent people be treated with respect?

**Guess which news org did not bring up the justice department investigation until 8 paragraphs in? CBS, NYTimes, AP, FoxNews? Yeah, tough choice.

***Hawaii issues two birth related documents: a Certification of Live Birth and a Birth Certificate. The former is the one that was originally presented. The latter is the longer form that skeptics kept asking for.

How I discovered witchcraft

Actually how I discovered "The Discoverie of Wichcraft" by Reginald Scot.

I love how the Internet connects so many sources of information, but Wikipedia is my downfall. All those articles hyper-linked, just waiting for a click, you know, just to see. It always turns into reading the whole article, then clicking through all the links I find there. I usually end up with several browser tabs open to a wide variety of articles. But the pièce de résistance of most articles is the External Links section.

It all started with a Dallas media blog, Frontburner, posting an article that The Illusionist would be playing at the Angelika Dallas. This is an animated film by the makers of The Triplets of Belleville (Les Triplettes de Belleville. I innocently went to wikipedia and searched for illusionist. I knew the first article would be about actual magicians and not the film, but I also knew that hyperlinks would lead me to my destination. Eventually.

The article about illusionists was fascinating. I read a bit about Houdini, Herrmann the Great (the stage magician that introduced the look we all know and expect of a classic magician- top hat, goatee, and tailcoat), and Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin (a watchmaker turned magician who was Houdini's namesake).

But the link that grabbed me, was about a book called "The Discoverie of Witchcraft" by Reginald Scot. Published in 1584 (27 years prior to the King James Bible), the book was an expose on medieval witchcraft, including methods used by charlatans to fool the unsuspecting. Because it was critical of the Church's prosecution of those accused of witchcraft, it was not well recieved by clergy, and when King James came to the throne in 1603, he allegedly had all available copies burned.

In the External Links section of the article is a link to archive.org, where you can download a complete text or even scanned images from an 1886 reprint of the book. I can't resist having copies of such obscure books, so I downloaded a pdf and am browsing through it. I love the old language even if I doubt I'll ever read the entire thing.

Thank you Al Gore!

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 Legislatures, 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 & 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 attentions 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.

My son-in-law checked! This one is TRUE!*

Subject: [Fwd: [Fwd: You have to read this!!]]

I don't normally forward these, but this one is just too good.

>Subject: [Fwd: You have to read this!!]
>I got this from my best friend's daughter.
>You should pass it along to all your friends.
>I know they'll appreciate it!!


Every one in America (of a certain age) has heard of Madeline Murray O'Hair. Once known as the most hated woman in America, she founded the American Atheists organization, and was nearly single-handedly responsible for having PRAYER and BIBLE READING removed from PUBLIC SCHOOLS when she SUED the Baltimore City Public School System. In 1995 she was MURDERED by having her HEAD and HANDS cut off!!

A few people in America know that Madeline Murray O'Hair's son rejected her atheist teachings and became a CHRISTIAN - he even founded his own organization to promote Christianity.

But almost no one knows what I'm about to tell you. I recently visited my daughter's church in Louisiana. The pastor announced that they had a special guest who had been asked to share with the congregation a story that he had recently told the pastor.

The guest was a POLICE OFFICER from San Antonio Texas who had cracked the MURDER of Madeline Murray O'Hair by arresting her KILLER, David Roland Waters. David Waters was a notorious criminal in TEXAS and had actually been hired by Madeline Murray O'Hair because he too was an ATHEIST.

The POLICE OFFICER spent many hours interrogating David Waters. What he learned was amazing. David Waters grew up in a CHRISTIAN home in MARYLAND. He enjoyed school, especially the PRAYERS that the students used to recite each morning. When schools stopped having PRAYERS, David Waters drifted away from CHRISTIANITY, eventually rejecting his upbringing and becoming an ATHEIST. Once he STOPPED believing in GOD, he stopped caring about other people. He eventually drifted south to TEXAS, where his petty crimes became increasingly VIOLENT. When he went to work for Madeline Murray O'Hair, he killed her for the MILLION dollars in GOLD coins that she had.

But this is the FASCINATING part. When David Waters lived in Baltimore Maryland he attended the SAME school that Madeline Murray O'Hair sued in 1960 and STOPPED PRAYER and BIBLE READINGS!

It just goes to show that there is a GOD and he has a sense of HUMOR!

Red and White package

A few weeks ago, on my way to work, I walked out of my house carrying a small red and white package. My neighbor across the street walked out of his house at almost the same time, also carrying a small red and white package in his hands. We walked toward the street, directly toward each other. For a split second, I thought we were doing the same thing - putting a recently watched Netflix movie in the mailbox.

But my neighbor stopped well short of his mailbox, at the small flagpole in his front yard. As he does every morning, he unfurled and raised his American flag.