IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
hen 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 harass 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 benefit 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 British 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.

Dear M,

I think I am with you on this one. It’s a sad, sad day when the democrats are starting to look like the fiscally conservative ones.

.

I look at things in terms of where the money goes.

If McCain gets into office who knows what countries we’ll be invading and fighting. An endless round of fighting. After reading his book Faith of my Fathers it’s clear he just does whatever the hell he wants. But he’s going to cut pork barrel spending! Really? Then what about the other 99% of waste and wanton printing of money?

Only slightly less disastrous is Obama’s ex nihilo tax-the-hell-out-of-business something-for-nothing government-can-help-with-everything approach. Two examples:

1) In a forum I heard a questioner complain about how businesses were going overseas and what would he do about it. Answer: tax the businesses mercilessly. What?

2) Also, in his book he says that the privatization of Social Security (here’s another idea, let’s let people just keep their money) will create losers. Well, we can’t have that can we! The problem is the non-privatization of Social Security also creates losers, except the loser is the person who actually created the wealth.

I did the math: if the taxes I collect out of my worker’s checks were invested, they would each retire with about half a house. I wonder how that measures up with what they will (might) get back from the Social Security program.

I’m still doing a lot of reading and studying. It may not seem like it, but I may still come around to Eric’s point of view. I admit that other theories might turn out to be right.

Of course, it hardly matters what the candidates are saying now. It’s all a farce. The real objective is to part the commoners from their labor (through inflation/printing of money, income tax, and lawsuits). There is a class of people who are not producing anything of value. The system is designed to protect that group and assure their lifestyle.

Imagine a settlement where only barter is allowed. Let’s say a complex community of 10,000 people. A man walks into the pie shop. Give me two cream pies, please, he says. The pie shop owner asks what he has in value to give in exchange. Oh, nothing, he says, I’m on my way down to the lake to relax for the day, I don’t really have anything to trade.

I don’t think a reasonable person would give him the pies. In fact, I think this individual would be driven out of town on a rail in short order because the deception would be readily apparent. His sloth would be on display for all to see.

The system of paper money we have currently is extremely adept at hiding this man behind layers upon layers of exchanges that we accept as fair. In fact, the entire banking system is a farce designed to make a switcheroo of valuable and tangible goods for paper. But it’s paper that can be in turn switched out for other goods. It’s like a game of musical chairs, but every round a commoner is dropped off into poverty. Four lawyers retire to Villas in Italy while four hundred workers are ruined.

Even if that hypothetical town had gold-backed money it would be the same deal. Only slightly less transparent.

I’m not talking about welfare moms here, or food stamps. While I believe those programs would be better administrated by private charities run on donations, I am talking about the bailouts. Those are one thousand times worse.

I was reading yesterday about the Fed “pumping 70 billion into the economy”. Really? That’s amazing! They left their offices for the day, rolled up their sleeves and created 70 billion worth of goods that could be used to tangibly improve the lives of their fellowmen?! Why these must be gods on earth! That’s a real fish and loaves miracle.

Hey, I’ll bet the value of the dollar will go up now.

On the other hand, BTP has accomplished at least this one thing: I got one welfare mom off the dole. She just bought her first house this last month. I think I just got more actual work done than the Federal Reserve did by electronically creating 70 billion dollars of fake money.

OK, now another mental exercise. Make a short list of all the actual tangible things you have in your life that make it better (goods and services). I’ll start:

All of those things were produced by labor. If the government cut you a check for $200,000 and you went out and spent it on those types of goods and services, does that change where they came from? Where did that money come from? It came from Blue Table Painting. I have less of those things so that you can have more. My studio is smaller, my paycheck is smaller, my house payment is smaller, I can’t afford to go to the dentist.

.

But I should stop complaining because I still have it pretty good, right? Tempting, but no.

.

It’s because whenever my business is suppressed by taxation, it by association suppresses all the people that work for the company. And that really bothers me.

.

Real wealth can only be created by honest work.

.

This is a really popular weapon loadout for a Carnifex. It takes all four upper limbs. Two twin-linked devourers put out a ton of shots, and they get to re-roll to-wound.

Anyway, a client sent me this picture. It’s made from the crushing claw arm from the carnifex kit, and a few devourers and green stuff. Very nice.

At Adepticon 2007 I saw a guy who made a quadrifoil gun to represent two twin-linked devourers.

[A friend of mine sent me this. Not sure on accuracy, but I found it interesting. Can anyone shed light?]

Because it’s the election season, let’s put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand.

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.The fifth would pay $1.The sixth would pay $3.The seventh would pay $7.The eighth would pay $12.The ninth would pay $18.The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that’s what they decided to do.

The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement until one day the owner threw them a curved ball (or is that a curved beer!). “Because you are all such good customers,” he said, “I’m going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20.”
Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men …… the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his ‘fair share?’
They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody’s share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.
So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man’s bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so:
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% savings).The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28% savings).The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant the men began to compare their savings.

“I only got a dollar out of the $20,” declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man, “but he got $10!”

“Yeah, that’s right,” exclaimed the fifth man. “I only saved a dollar too. It’s unfair that he got ten times more than me!”

“That’s true!!” shouted the seventh man. “Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!”

“Wait a minute,” yelled the first four men in unison. “We didn’t get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!”

The nine men surrounded the tenth man and beat him up. The next night the tenth man didn’t show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn’t have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our Tax System works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

.

[Later that night I got this following response from a Blog Reader]

[And here is my response, off the cuff]

When I post things it’s not so much a statement as a question.

I usually relate things to my own business. Quite simply, I think that those with means and ability will avoid paying their taxes after a certain point. As far as I can tell, our forefathers were throwing tea in the harbor over 1% taxation. I’ve found a few instances where the rebellion against paying taxes was over paying ANY at all.

Back to my business. My business has grown tighter. Because of the huge amount of taxes I both collect and pay to the multitude of government agencies I had to shrink the size of the studio. Ironically, a group of tax accountants took over the vacated portion. They’re a great bunch of professionals, but it’s a bit ironic that they grew while I shrunk. The fact is, that they don’t produce anything, except fill out papers to be sure that the money from individuals and businesses flows smoothly into State coffers.

If these burdens were lifted, the money would not disappear. I could afford a better space, give my workers a raise, hire new workers and/or generally improve and expand my business.

My basic problem with “liberal” philosophy is that they seem to think that you can get something for nothing. I always snort in derision when I hear “these tax cuts are going to cost the government X dollars”. That’s like saying running from a mugger is going to cost him the $20 in your wallet. If I protest having my crops hauled off by force and threat, their lower lip starts to quiver, “but think about the poor.” Dammit, I do think about the poor. I pay more to charity than to taxes. What I’d really like is to decide how to use my own money; how to best administrate it.

.

The current Republican administration is ten times as bad, since they have done even worse by printing trillions of dollars to finance their wars. I believe it is a horrific betrayal of the american people.

The supposition is that a distant politician is going to be a better, more just, more moral administrator of the crops than the person who actually planted them, harvested them, sacrificed for them. That if the government doesn’t do it by force, common citizens won’t do it.

I heard a clip from Hillary Clinton lamenting a single mother who just had her hours cut. I think that’s funny because if there is an increase in the Payroll Tax, the absolute first thing I’m going to do is cut Sarah’s hours. Fact: right now I can’t afford to give my workers a raise because of the tax burden.

The other supposition of the philosophy of the left is that businesses don’t like profits. If we tax the hell out of corporations they will just take it out of the profits. That’s just plain silly. Every time you buy a product, like say a light bulb, part of the cost you pay is for the various taxes on the business that makes them (not to mention the lawyers and liability insurance).

In short, you can’t get something for nothing. There’s no such thing. The government can’t spend a single dollar without first taking it from someone else. This whole business of redistribution or the printing of money creates only an illusion. The only way to create real wealth is to actually roll up your sleeves and create something.

An entrepreneur actually creates something that wasn’t there before. I am a toymaker. Models arrive in pieces and leave as an improved product. I create something.

More to come.

[And here is a further response from my friend again]

The problem I’m finding is that candidates now are so tied up with party lingo and platforms that those parties define them to a large degree. I’m not even asking for a tax cut (though god knows I’d like one.) I just want someone in office who will use my money responsibly.

[My response back]

Dear M,

I think I am with you on this one. It’s a sad, sad day when the democrats are starting to look like the fiscally conservative ones.

.

If McCain gets into office who knows what countries we’ll be invading and fighting. After reading his book Faith of my Fathers it’s clear he just does whatever the hell he wants.

.

I’m still doing a lot of reading and studying. It may not seem like it, but I may still come around to Eric’s point of view. I admit that other theories might turn out to be right.

.

Of course, it hardly matters what they’re saying now. It’s all a farce. The real objective is to part the commoners from their labor (through inflation/printing of money, income tax, and lawsuits). There is a class of people who are not producing anything of value. The system is designed to protect that group.

.

Imagine a settlement where only barter is allowed. Let’s say a complex community of 10,000 people. A man walks into the pie shop. Give me two cream pies, please, he says. The pie shop owner asks what he has in value to give in exchange. Oh, nothing, he says, I’m on my way down to the lake to relax for the day, I don’t really have anything to trade.

.

I don’t think a reasonable person would give him the pies. In fact, I think this individual would be driven out of town on a rail in short order because the deception would be readily apparent. His sloth would be on display for all to see.

.

The system of paper money we have currently is extremely adept at hiding this man behind layers upon layers of exchanges that we accept as fair. In fact, the entire banking system is a farce designed to make a switcheroo of valuable and tangible goods for paper. But it’s paper that can be in turn switched out for other goods. It’s like a game of musical chairs, but every round a commoner is dropped off into poverty. Four lawyers retire to Villas in Italy while four hundred workers are ruined.

.

I’m not talking about welfare moms here, or food stamps. While I believe those programs would be better administrated by private charities run on donations, I am talking about the bailouts. Those are one thousand times worse.

.

I was reading yesterday about the Fed “pumping 70 billion into the economy”. Really? That’s amazing! They left their offices for the day, rolled up their sleeves and created 70 billion worth of goods that could be used to tangibly improve the lives of their fellowmen?! Why these must be gods on earth! That’s a real fish and loaves miracle.