Wednesday Overnight Open Thread (7/4/18) Happy Independence Day Edition

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 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.

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

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 McKean

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

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Call me old fashioned. I am always amazed when I think about the founding of this country.

David Hogg. Isn't his 15 minutes of fame over with yet? It's obvious he didn't pass Civics 101.

In response to President Donald Trump calling out the National Security Agency for possible privacy violations and tweeting that it deleted “685 million phone calls and text messages,” pro-gun control Parkland activist David Hogg called for Trump to “repeal the Patriot Act”:

The Founding Fathers, enjoyed eating and drinking, and drinking.

The Founders, like most colonists, were fans of adult beverages. Colonial Americans drank roughly three times as much as modern Americans, primarily in the form of beer, cider, and whiskey. In Colonial Spirits: A Toast to Our Drunken History, author Steven Grasse connects this seemingly outsized consumption to the Revolutionary spirit of the time when he writes, “In the drink, a dream; and in the dream, a spark.” Reverend Michael Alan, who illustrated and helped research the book says simply: “From morning until night, people in the 18th century drank.

A recent 'Fair Use' decision won't make photographers too happy.

A Virginia federal court has made a decision that photographers won’t be happy to hear: the court ruled that finding a photo on the Internet and then using it without permission on a commercial website can be considered fair use.

Independence Day, fireworks and hospitalizations.

Americans go a little crazy blowing stuff up to celebrate the nation's birthday. John Adams said that Independence Day should be celebrated with "bonfires and illuminations," even though he was actually referring to July 2. Our national anthem has "the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air," leading us to do just that on July 4th. The majority of people who set off fireworks don't thoroughly consider the dangers, which can lead to a trip to the hospital.

Ted Nugent is being boycotted. Ted won't back down.

A rolling billboard with Ted Nugent's face on the side isn't promoting his Roanoke concert later this month. It is protesting his appearance at the Berglund Center.

Andy Parker is the father of Alison Parker, our WDBJ7 colleague who was shot and killed in 2015.

He organized the protest against the conservative rocker and NRA board member, and is calling for a boycott of the Berglund Center, because of Nugent's statements on gun rights and gun control, and what Parker describes as his vile behavior.

"It's an outrage to me and the people of Roanoke who think this community deserves better," Parker said during a news conference Monday afternoon.

Robyn Schon is the General Manager of the Berglund Center.

"As you know we're a public venue," Schon said, "and we can't discriminate against people because of their personal values or beliefs."

Hmmm. That didn't work out too well. h/t fastfreefall via Twitter.

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, unless you are in Tennessee.

In Tennessee, a failure to pay means the state can revoke your driver's license. In her ruling, Trauger said the law is "not merely ineffective; it is powerfully counterproductive.

"If a person has no resources to pay a debt, he cannot be threatened or cajoled into paying it; he may, however, become able to pay it in the future. But taking his driver’s license away sabotages that prospect," Trauger wrote.

July 4, 1974, Despite the fact that they have the No.4 song in the US with 'Rikki Don't Lose That Number' and a current Platinum album with Pretzel Logic, Steely Dan's Walter Becker and Donald Fagan play their final gig together in Santa Monica, California. They would not tour again for the next eighteen years. via thisdayinmusic.com

July 4, 2003, American record producer and singer-songwriter and five-time Grammy Award-winner Barry White died from Kidney failure aged 58. Produced hits for girl group Love Unlimited and other chart hits include 1974 hit 'You're The First, The Last, My Everything', 1974 US No.1 'Can't Get Enough Of Your Love, Babe'. Bubblegum act The Banana Splits recorded his songs and he arranged the 1963 hit 'Harlem Shuffle' for Bob & Earl. via thisdayinmusic.com

This is rich. How does Scott Pruitt still have a job? How does Rolling Stone still have a magazine?

Just in case the reportercutter and paster at RS forgot.

We need more irongrandpas and fewer college students. Before we blame the secondary education system, what the hell did their parents do to raise them?

When mummifying your lover, you better be damn careful!

According to the Los Angeles Coroner’s narrative, George arrived at the Chasey residence at approximately 2:30 p.m. Chasey told police that at 4:00 p.m., the two went down to the dungeon and embarked on an elaborate bondage ritual that involved Chasey outfitting George in a “locked metal chain around his neck and a penile chastity gage [sic].” Chasey then proceeded to mummify George “from head to toe by plastic wrap and gaffers tape with small breathing holes at the mouth and nose.”

At 6:20 p.m., Chasey noticed that George was “not reacting properly.” Upon closer inspection, he realized George was not breathing at all. He then placed a call to 911 and, according to the coroner’s report, began cutting all of the plastic and tape off of George’s body.

Although summer is half over. It is never too late to learn how to pair wine with hot dogs.

Summer means hot dogs, of course, but everyone has their own thoughts on the best way to dress them. (I like spicy mustard, a drop of ketchup, and lots of sauerkraut.) It can be tough to find wine that matches everyone’s preferred tastes, though, and with summer weather you also need a wine that can refresh without being heady.

Enter an oft-overlooked category of wines: Italian Rosato, especially the styles coming from central and southern Italy. Rosato is the Italian name equivalent for rosé, yet while some Italian producers may have started using that now-ubiquitous term, most have stuck to their roots and continue to produce the pink stuff under its traditional namesake.

What wine pairs with a death foods?

Fireflies, handguns and goo. Genius Award Winners.

A man and woman were taken into custody in Lamar Township Saturday while allegedly being under the influence of suspected bath salts.

State police say Jesse Shields, 30, and Katherine McCloskey, 22, both of Mill Hall, had a bad trip just after midnight.

The two reportedly thought the fireflies in the sky were green lasers coming from aliens or people who were after them, according to authorities.

They could have trashed the place. Instead they are Tonight's Feel Good Story of The Day.

The Japanese national team showed outstanding sportsmanship and have proved to be the world's classiest team after losing an absolute heartbreaker to Belgium in the World Cup.

After the 3-2 loss, the players stuck around after the game and bowed to their loyal fans.

Tonight's ONT has been brought to you by Steak. American Steak.

Notice: Posted with permission by AceCorp, LLC. No more credit from the liquor store.

posted by Misanthropic Humanitarian at 09:48 PM

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