Trump's Answer To A Question At Last Night's CNN Town Hall Should Be A YUUUUUGE Red Flag For His Supporters

Anyone who knows anything about our founding documents can tell you that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are inextricably linked. You cannot separate the two from each other.

The Declaration is essentially an outline for the Constitution, and in that outline, it says that our rights come from God and that government's sole purpose - it's reason for existence, as it were - is to protect and safeguard those rights.

The Constitution of the United States is unique among the constitutions of the world in that it literally spells out what rights we already have and specifically limits what the government can do to impact those rights.

Nowhere in this document will you find a "right" to an education, housing, or healthcare. It's not the federal government's job to provide those things for Americans.

Last night, during the CNN Town Hall, Donald Trump was asked what he thought were the top three functions of the federal government were. After attempting to skirt the issue by making a lame joke, saying "Security, security, security," Trump's inner progressive reared it's ugly head and proclaimed that healthcare, education and housing were top priorities for the federal government.

I'm not making that up.

As I posted on my personal Facebook page last night, right after he said it, that answer alone should disqualify him from consideration for the presidency. If his supporters could get past their emotions for more time than it takes to change the television channel, perhaps they would realize just how much he sounds like Obama, Clinton, and Sanders.

I don't know about you, but I'm not holding my breath on that awakening. The evidence is right there, laid bare at their feet and for all the world to see. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that Trump is not who he claims to be.

It's maddeningly sad to watch otherwise intelligent people fall victim to a conman, especially when the con being run isn't the least bit subtle. The difference between Trump's con and your everyday, garden variety con is that Trump's con leads to the destruction of the nation, not just one person.

For that, there can be no forgiveness. ~ Hunter

Declaration Of Independence, Or The Ultimate Dear John Letter

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.

*   *   *

The time is coming when we'll have to write our own Declaration of Independence from our own government. We can only hope that whomever writes it is up to the task, ~ Hunter

We're Running Out Of Time, America...

I have long said that the Constitution is my guide, that I will never accept another, except God. It's fortunate that the Constitution is based upon, and follows, God's Law faithfully. Well, it does when it's followed the way it was intended to be followed.

I believe that - as Thomas Jefferson stated in the Declaration of Independence, and is codified in the Constitution - that all mankind are created equal and are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness - these thing mean something very real to me, and others like me. There's a reason the United States, still one of the youngest nations on the planet, became so powerful, so rich, so influential as quickly as she did. That reason - the freedoms guaranteed us by the Constitution.

No nation of which I am aware has a Constitution like ours. People flocked to our shores BECAUSE our Constitution guaranteed the rights their home countries would not. People STILL come here for that reason.

This is the only nation on Earth where someone who took the Oath of Citizenship an hour ago be considered just as much a part of the nation as someone whose family has been here since the 1600's - because America is an idea just as much, if not more, than a nation of borders.

This nation, this great experiment in self-governance, was built upon the foundation of the Constitution. On that foundation, two cornerstones were laid - individual liberty and the Rule of Law. These two cornerstones are interrelated, or they used to be, because of one thing - personal responsibility.

Sadly, however, a great number of people no longer believe in personal responsibility, individual liberty, and the Rule of Law. Where we were once a moral people, a nation based on Judeo-Christian values with a strong moral code, we are a nation of moral relativism, moral ambiguity.

More and more people have the view that individual liberty must be supplanted by the "greater good." What this means - to me, anyway - is that the many count more than the few, or the one. But who decides what's best for the many?

I utterly reject the notion that the majority is greater than the individual. In a morally strong society, what's best for the individual is also what's best for the group. When all are individually strong, the whole is made stronger. What's best for group is all too often NOT what's best for the individual.

We, as a nation, have to reestablish the principles of individual liberty and adherence to the Rule of Law. We must enforce the idea of personal responsibility - that ALL people are responsible for their own life, their own liberty, their own happiness, and not to depend on the government for everything.

We are failing the future generations of this nation. We have not been good stewards of what we were given. We have allowed too many people to muck about for far too long and change things that should never have been changed.

We stand upon the precipice. We are on the brink of losing everything. We sit on the verge of a failure so huge the world may never recover. We can either watch it happen and lament its happening, or we can do something about it.

What's it going to be, America? We're running out of time. ~ Hunter

The Unspoken "Holy Grail" of Liberalism

Equality...

The outward "Holy Grail" of liberalism. On its face, and without the surrounding context that's needed, equality seems like a worthy goal.

Seriously, who wouldn't want a world where literally nobody would want for anything? Or have a serious reason to complain about anything?

Like I said - it seems like a worthy goal. Something for which everyone should strive to achieve. Or so liberals assume...

The problem is that - and I know that this will be a shock to any liberals who read this - NO ONE PERSON IS ACTUALLY "EQUAL" TO ANY OTHER.

Every person on this planet is different - we all want different things out of life. We have different interests, different likes, needs, desires.

Some people are smarter than everyone else.

Somewhere on this planet, there's a person that some people will think is more attractive than you (unless you're Lena Dunham - then everyone is more attractive than you).

Some people are funnier than others. Some have better eyesight, sense of smell, more sensitive touch, more empathetic.

Some understand things and people better than you and I.

Some people just have better luck.

We look different, speak differently, act differently.

Some are more ambitious than others - the drive to be the BEST at whatever their chosen activity fuels them to make the strides necessary to do that. Whether they actually ACHIEVE that goal is immaterial - what matters is the attempt.

Some are more content with staying "middle of the road." They don't like to call too much attention to themselves - be it good or bad attention - and that's perfectly fine for them.

Nobody I have ever met is bound and determined to be the absolute WORST at whatever they set out to do. I don't think that's even a part of human nature.

Liberals - all of this is OK. It's actually good to be different than everyone around you. It should be encouraged.

I have often said that the Constitution is our most important founding document. It is the foundation of our entire society, our national identity. Its uniqueness has ensured our freedoms for two-plus centuries. No other nation's founding documents specifically tell the government what it can and cannot do to its citizens. None that I am aware of, at least.

Lately, however, I've been thinking that our most important founding document is the Declaration of Independence - particularly the phrase "all men are created equal." Liberals - take note that it says we are created equal, not that we are equal. We're not equal, nor have we ever been. For all the differences I've listed above, there are countless other examples.

There is an old adage that runs something like "Only two things in life are certain - death and taxes." Again liberals, take note of the rather glaring absence of the word "equality."
What the Founders knew, and what liberals have forgotten (or most likely ignore), is that it was never meant for our outcomes to be equal. It was our opportunity to pursue those outcomes that was to be equal.

In the United States, everyone starts on as level a playing field as is humanly possible. Your accident of birth doesn't determine how far you can go in your life. Your ability to use the opportunities inherent in being an American to your advantage determine your outcome. Yes, there's always a certain amount of luck involved, but the lion's share is up to YOU.

A better way of saying it is - The equality is in the opportunity to chase that which you most desire. Catching what you desire most is entirely up to you. ~ Hunter

We Won This Round...

Just over $842,000 was raised in a GoFundMe campaign for Memories Pizza in Indiana.

The campaign was started to help the owners offset their losses after a local reporterette asked a HYPOTHETICAL question about catering a gay wedding and the owners started getting death threats, as well as at least one threat of arson and the pizzeria was forced to shut down, at least temporarily. All this from the ever-tolerant Left.

The answer to the hypothetical question was a resounding NO, they would not cater a gay wedding based on their religious beliefs. As the pizzeria has many prominent displays of Christianity in the store, the answer shouldn't have come as a surprise to anyone.

They never said they didn't welcome or serve gay people in the actual restaurant. In fact, the woman went out of her way to say that they are indeed welcome to eat at the place.

With all the hubbub surrounding Indiana's now-gutted version of the R.F.R.A., and the cries of bigotry aimed at Christians who choose to stand on their religious principles, what's being lost is one very simple truth: there is a world of difference between providing a couple of slices of pizza (or a regular cake, or a photograph) to a gay person who walks into your establishment and contracting to cater, or bake for, or photograph a gay wedding. The former is mostly random, uncontrollable; the latter is not.

To accept and fulfil a contract to provide services for a wedding requires forethought and planning, and not something one does DURING THE NORMAL COURSE OF BUSINESS. The other IS the normal course of business.

The Declaration of Independence, the document that paved the way for the creation of the greatest nation in history clearly states that man is endowed by our Creator with "certain unalienable rights." The Bill of Rights enumerates those rights.

The very first part of the very first amendment speaks of freedom of religion and the freedom to practice said religion. By definition, part of that religious exercise is the right to NOT participate in something - a gay wedding, for example - that is believed to be against the religion being exercised.

For the government to step in and FORCE a baker, photographer, or a caterer to provide their services for an event that's against the provider's religious beliefs violates the right to freely exercise their religion. What providing that service amounts to a tacit endorsement of that event.

The Left, while clamoring for supposed "equal rights," willfully and deliberately uses misdirection and misinformation to bully people into compliance with their worldview. An example of this is the number of people branding those who donated to the GoFundMe campaign "bigots" and "homophobes," completely overlooking the gay men and women WHO DONATED TO THE CAUSE.

Why is the Left so surprised when people have opinions differing from their collective opinion? Are we all supposed to walk in lockstep with one another? Are we not all capable of independent thought? Of making our own decisions based upon our own beliefs?

This utopia, this "perfect society" the Left seeks - where everyone thinks the same thoughts, eats the same food, drives the same cars - will NEVER exist. There are too many NATURAL variations in and amongst mankind for that to be possible, let alone man's natural inclination to be free, to decide for ourselves what's best for us.

There is definitely a growing support for gay marriage in this country, right or wrong. The Left, however, mistakes SUPPORT of gay marriage for ACTIVE PARTICIPATION in gay marriage. Forcing a business owner into providing services IS forcing an active participation.

And that's just plain wrong. ~ Hunter

Bob Beckel Says U.S. Should "Move On" From 9/11.......Really

"It's time for America to move on," says Bob Beckel, The Five's resident liberal jackass (yes, I know that's redundant), referring to 9/11.

Really, Bob? REALLY?!?! THREE THOUSAND PEOPLE DIED THAT DAY, you syphilitic psychopath. That ALONE ...makes it worthy of remembrance until the end of time.

Let me ask you, Bobbie (female spelling because you're completely emasculated) - should we "move on" from remembering Pearl Harbor?

Should we "move on" from remembering our Declaration of Independence from an oppressive and overbearing government, so like the one we have RIGHT NOW?

Should we "move on" from remembering our victories in Europe and the Pacific and the price we paid to obtain them?

Should we "move on" from remembrances of our honored dead very Memorial Day, thus cheapening their sacrifices to the point of NOTHINGNESS? Just give them an "attaboy" pat on the coffin and "move on" to the next one, right Bobbie?

It's called HISTORY, you window-licking crayon-eater. The events of that day are part of the very fabric of this nation, no less important than any of the other events I listed.

I've been following politics since I was about 10 years old like most people follow their favorite sports teams. In those 34-plus years, I can't recall a more RIDICULOUS statement made by a liberal (or ANYONE for that matter). It's no secret that I absolutely LOATHE all things liberal, but Bobbie Beckel has just made himself the most despised liberal on a VERY lengthy list. ~ Hunter

What's Wrong With America: Disposability

I was listening to a few people talking while at work the other day. The subject of the conversation was happiness in a marriage - more specifically, the lack of happiness in a marriage.

I don't recall the details too clearly, but what drew my attention was a remark made by a woman I work with declaring "if she wasn't happy in a marriage, she'd get a divorce." She made it sound like she wanted to be made happy in a marriage every minute, of every day, of every year, and would tolerate nothing less.

It was an offhand comment, and while I'm sure she didn't truly intend to sound so flippant, it did get me thinking about one of the issues facing society today: Disposability.

Don't misunderstand - I'm not talking about disposable diapers, or disposable razors, or any of the countless other disposable products that have made our lives easier in a basic sense. Those are little things overall. No, my issue is with the larger things that have become "disposable" to far too many in America. I'm talking about the bigger picture, if you will.

Marriage used to be a lifelong commitment. My own grandmother became a widow in 1948, two short years after my father was born. Not only was she still a widow when she passed away in 1993, to the best of my knowledge, my grandmother never even dated anyone after my grandfather died. All of her siblings, save one, were married, just once, and they stayed married for decades.

My own parents have been married just shy of forty-five years. It hasn't been easy, especially with ten children. They're both as stubborn as mules, both quick to anger, and neither quick to forgive and/or forget. But commitments were made and, thus far, honored.

Today, it seems people believe that they just deserve to be happy, but it also seems like they believe they don't have to work at it.

(Hey, if you can find a relationship that works like that outside of some ridiculous TV show, more power to ya. The rest of us will just have to be jealous while we work at ours.)

Marriage today is disposable. You don't like how much money your spouse makes - kick him/her to the curb and find someone else. Don't like your sex life? Let's go out and find a new partner. The list of "grievances" could go on until the end of time. People today give up at the slightest hint of trouble. The United States is becoming a nation of quitters.

(For the record, I am in NO WAY advocating that people stay in a violent or abusive relationship. NOBODY has the right to commit violence upon another.)

What went wrong? Why do so many take the easy way out?

To my mind, it all comes down to progressivism. (I won't call them liberals any longer. The Founders were liberals. Today, they would be known as conservatives.)

Progressives have broken down everything that once made this nation the envy of the world. Your marriage is rough? It's not your fault. End it and find another one. Your parents want you to take responsibility for your mistakes? You don't have to take that from them. You don't need them anyway. After all, it takes a village. You're pregnant because you had unprotected sex? Kill it. It's not your fault, so you shouldn't have to be "punished" with that non-human blob of goo. Then you can go back to your fun!!! You're  a minority? Well hell, the white man keeps you down (they're all racists). Here, take this money. You don't need to demean yourself and actually work to better yourself. Just make sure to vote for us in the next election and we'll take care of you. Wink, wink

Everything is disposable to a progressive. Once it's served its purpose they get rid of it. Relationships, self-esteem and pride in one's own ability and self worth - none of that matters anymore. Even human life is disposable to a progressive. Just witness the murder of 3,300 or so of pre-born human beings every day. (And that's just here in the U.S.)

We need to get back to a reverence for the better way of doing things, instead of taking the easy way.

But most of all, we need to get back to a reverence for life, because without that, everything else - and I do mean everything - really is disposable. ~ Hunter

The Birth Of A Nation

The Unanimous Declaration of the
Thirteen United States of America

In Congress, July 4, 1776

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 shown 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 invasions from without and convulsions within.


He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration 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 benefits of trial by jury;


For transporting us beyond seas, to be tried for pretended offenses;


For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring 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, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.


He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete 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 insurrection among us, and has endeavored 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 our 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 the 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 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.

* * * * * *

Conceived in hardship, forged by the fires of war, thus began the "Great Experiment" known as the United States of America, the greatest nation ever to grace this planet. What else needs saying? ~ Hunter

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!!!