Raw Wit And Wry Wisdom by Lin Stone - HTML preview

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 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 invasion from without, and convulsions within. He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws of 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 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 attention 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.

JOHN HANCOCK, President

Attested, CHARLES THOMSON, Secretary

New Hampshire

JOSIAH BARTLETT

WILLIAM WHIPPLE

MATTHEW THORNTON

Massachusetts-Bay

SAMUEL ADAMS

JOHN ADAMS

ROBERT TREAT PAINE

ELBRIDGE GERRY

Rhode Island

STEPHEN HOPKINS

WILLIAM ELLERY

Connecticut

ROGER SHERMAN

SAMUEL HUNTINGTON

WILLIAM WILLIAMS

OLIVER WOLCOTT

Georgia

BUTTON GWINNETT

LYMAN HALL

GEO. WALTON

Maryland

SAMUEL CHASE

WILLIAM PACA

THOMAS STONE

CHARLES CARROLL OF CARROLLTON

Virginia

GEORGE WYTHE

RICHARD HENRY LEE

THOMAS JEFFERSON

BENJAMIN HARRISON

THOMAS NELSON, JR.

FRANCIS LIGHTFOOT LEE

CARTER BRAXTON.

New York

WILLIAM FLOYD

PHILIP LIVINGSTON

FRANCIS LEWIS

LEWIS MORRIS

Pennsylvania

ROBERT MORRIS

BENJAMIN RUSH

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

JOHN MORTON

GEORGE CLYMER

JAMES SMITH

GEORGE TAYLOR

JAMES WILSON

GEORGE ROSS

Delaware

CAESAR RODNEY

GEORGE READ

THOMAS M'KEAN

North Carolina

WILLIAM HOOPER

JOSEPH HEWES

JOHN PENN

South Carolina

EDWARD RUTLEDGE

THOMAS HEYWARD, JR.

THOMAS LYNCH, JR.

ARTHUR MIDDLETON

New Jersey

RICHARD STOCKTON

JOHN WITHERSPOON

FRANCIS HOPKINS

JOHN HART

ABRAHAM CLARK

Of these 56 signers of the Declaration:

5 were captured by the British and tortured before they died,

12 had their homes sacked and looted, occupied by the enemy or burned --from Rhode Island to Charleston.

2 of them lost their sons in the Army;

1 had two sons captured.

9 of the 56 died in the War.

 

Fun In  The Sun

Civilization is now cluttered with baby sitters that think they are doctors and doctors who think their patients are little baby millionaires.

The Spaniards Searching for the Seven Cities of Cibola did not come on a mission to tell the inhabitants thereof how lucky they were to live in cities of gold. NO; they crossed International borders determined to strip those cities of their gold and take it home with them so they could put it to good use. Are we any better?

Larry Ecohawk tells us that just one tribe that had over 80,000 members before the U.S. Waged an unrelenting war of extermination. Only 600 lived to sing the mournful event around a lonely campfire.

But what goes around, comes around. Those victors began to accept and even endorse all the vanquished views and mode of governance with alarming regularity.

Let every child study the Constitution that made us a nation. Let every child pore through the history books and remember that greatness is not a privilege but a responsibility.

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If we as a nation now shun the very precepts that once made us great we can only expect to be on the receiving end of destiny.

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To be a success, stand as a digital peer, an anchored bulwark for greatness.

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No one came to this earth destined to fail. Even those who fail constantly can put on the breaks and brake the pattern of failure.

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Quit being frightened of slithering shadows. Look for new opportunities to be as bold as a roaring lion!

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Successful living is learning to triumph over your temptations.

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Family Fractures don't have to be the end of everything unless a chip off the old block loses the car.

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The only way our nation shall be sanctified is by standing firmly righteous.

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Our government declares it shall do nothing until positive their proposed course is politically perfect; college professors insist there is no right left in the world, and scientists assure us that all of life started from an accidental stroke of voltage.

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Oklahoma's Taco Mayo was founded in 1978; my step-son taught the originator how to play paper football. It now keeps 15,000 employees working in Oklahoma alone. It provides $250,000 in charity support, $200,000 for college grants and easily stands high in the top 400 chain restaurants of America. It sure makes you wonder how big I would have become if I had let Brad teach me how to play paper football.

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If you think health care is expensive now you just wait until it is free.

The hardest thing about raising bird seed for a living is keeping the birds out of the crop until we get it sold.

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Sarah. Have I told you lately that it's a good thing I love you?

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Hospital Fare: First they fed me dead squash and a hamburger that had once seen a better day. When I complained they gave me morphine so I couldn't tell the difference.

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The reason there are two senators for each state is so that one can be the designated driver., Jay Leno, US comedian & television host

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The best way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. ~ Walt Disney

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Friend, you can trust anything I say because my only desire in life is to straighten you out.

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If I agreed with you about anything we'd both be wrong.

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I'm sorry my wife couldn't be with me today, she was up all night with a sick book.

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A clear conscience is the sure sign of a bad memory.

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Gun control is stupid. What we need is idiot control.

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When in doubt about your answer, always mumble.

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Worrying almost works perfectly! 90% of the things I have worried about have never happened.

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You can't fool me. If winning isn't everything why do they keep score?

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Shoot for the moon and if you miss you will still be among the stars. ~ Les Brown

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I envy people who drink. At least they have something to blame everything on., Oscar Levant

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Until you value yourself, your life is a blank check filled in by friends that have a charming way with the zeros.

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One of the key problems today is that politics is such a disgrace, good people don't go into government. ~ Donald Trump

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 The best way to get a promotion is to think just like the boss.

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The entire economy of the Western world is built on things that cause cancer., From the 1985 movie "Bliss"

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You know it's a dirty movie when China rejects it.

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A bargain is something you don't need, set at a price you can't resist.

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We live in an age when pizza gets to your home before the police., Jeff Marder

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The intermediate stage between socialism and capitalism is alcoholism., Norman Brenner

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I can think of nothing less pleasurable than a life devoted to pleasure., John D. Rockefeller, US oil industrialist & philanthropist

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The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dreams shall never die.', 'Edward Kennedy

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 The ability to delude yourself may be an important survival tool. Jane Wagner

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Fleas can be taught nearly everything that a Congressman can. ~ Mark Twain

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An honest politician is one who, when he is bought, will stay bought. ~ Simon Cameron, US financier & politician

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A good listener is a good talker with a sore throat.', 'Katharine Whitehorn

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Historians are like deaf people who go on answering questions that no one has asked them. ~ Leo Tolstoy, Russian mystic & novelist

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We seem to have a compulsion these days to bury time capsules in order to give those people living in the next century or so some idea of what we are like. I have prepared one of my own. I have placed some rather large samples of dynamite, gunpowder, and nitroglycerin. My time capsule is set to go off in the year 3000. It will show them what we are really like. ~ Alfred Hitchcock, British movie director

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You cannot change the circumstances, the times or the seasons, or how many little birdies fly right into the whistling, whirling wind machines.

The best thing about the good old days was that we were young then, and if I remember right, I think maybe our memories worked better back then too.

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It is never too late to be who you might have been. George Eliot

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If you kick a dead horse long enough you won't have to bury it

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In all that you do, go the extra mild.

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The End

 

 

The Coagulator, Lin Stone, has been writing professionally for 30 years now. Well over a thousand articles have been published, 27 were feature stories, In addition to conventionally published material, his 38 electronic books, dozens of web sites, dozens of publicity releases were turned out. He has ghostwritten 4 books as well – plus he helped polish 7 books and pushed them through to publication.

In this collection.

All the photos in this edition were furnished by Sea Stone Books, and have been retouched by Lin Stone.

Lin also engineered the cover graphic.

 

Tell your friends about this FREE book

Quotations can be found here.

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I want to suggest the ( Public Enemy #1 or ) John Dillinger and friends, then, Woodland Nymph . The writing is crisp and clear; the plot is fresh, unique and exciting. It has lingered long in my memory as a cherished friend.

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Once upon a time a  brown rattletrap VW Beetle said:  “ATTENTION, Car Thieves! This car has already be stolen.”

Then there was a Cadillac that said, “CAUTION: I slow down for tailgaters.”

Greed Can Get The Best
Of Even A Humble Fisherman's Wife

The Second Book published for Dawn Foss is called Christmas Love.

It’s a wonderful, fully illustrated Christmas book for the whole family that promotes love of God, love of family, and love of community.  It brings a practical application to the original Christmas story. Visit the link for more information, and to purchase a paperback or eBook today! http://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=978-1-62902-057-0

Hello! My name is Dawn Foss, and I’m an inspirational Christian author/singer/songwriter. I am on a mission to bring wholesome books and music to young people, as well as adults. My first book I wrote in 2012 and it’s called, “I Will Stand.” It’s a book of commitment to do what is right. It’s an interactive book with 20 main points such as, I will stand for forgiveness, I will stand for meekness, courage, joy, forgiveness, righteousness, purity, and so on. It’s a great book for personal devotions or group study. Each chapter has Bible verses to meditate on, as well as a self assessment and a challenge. It’s a great tool to bring families closer together and get some difficult conversations started.

Christmas Love is a great book that brings a practical application to the original Christmas story. It promotes love of God, love of family, and love of community. It features in the beginning of the book several community helpers such as a local police officer, fireman, dentist, doctor, teacher, youth pastor, nurse, pregnancy center leader, etc. and how they show Christ’s love to others in the work that they do. It’s a great book to bring out every year and remember the true meaning of Christmas: giving as He gave. It features an audio book, and ends with one of my songs, “Christmas Love.”

Crazy Zoo is a wonderful book in many ways. It introduces kids to many new animals. The introduction on each animal is useful to learn a bit more about each one. Apart from that, kids are given a peek into daily zoo life. The story line connects all the zoo animals and birds together. Bridget's characterization is quite appealing. She is allowed to wander around in the park, listening to the chatter of parrots, and passing gossip to those who are curious to know more. It makes a lovely story for read aloud sessions.

Jane Finch is working on a new book, Do You Believe in Miracles? Jane is an accomplished author with books for adults as well as books for our youth. Several of them have won  awards for her writing. This will be a book which  recounts personal testimonies of  life-changing miracles.  The purpose  of the book is to encourage believers and to inspire and stir the hearts of unbelievers. If you   know of anyone who would like to contribute their story to the book   please ask them to contact me on finchlark@googlemail.com

Great Selection Of Books For Teenage Girls 

Thank you for reading to the end.