12/08/2003: 
Arcanum
People Forget
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.
The United States Constitution Online
7 Annotations Submitted
Monday the 8th of December, prof_booty noted:
maybe you and the Republic of Texas should join forces and cast off the chains of oppression.
for all the criminal absurdity in this country it remains the freest and most democratic regime on the planet today. we don't have a Queen, dictator, Ayatollah, General or other such fascist running things. you can still get on your soapbox (or website) and shout whatever the hell you want with impunity. though the government makes bad decisions, it is not a systemic flaw but a flaw of the men in power, who can be voted out in the next election cycle if enough people are sick of their bullsh*t.
Monday the 8th of December, awiggins noted:
Yes, they can be voted out. But they either are not voted out, or they are replaced with others that are as bad or worse.
Included in this last spending bill is a couple hundred thousand taxpayer dollars going to pay for repairs to a swimming pool that a senator and his friends damaged as youths, as well as several million dollars for the construction of an artificial rainforest, somewhere out in the Midwest. How does either of these serve the interest of the American people? Perhaps the interests of those communities, but not else.
Perhaps my beliefs about the current state of the government are wrong. Answer me this. Is there more corruption now than there has been in many a year, or is the level of corruption constant and I just pay more attention to it now.
Monday the 8th of December, prof_booty noted:
Joseph Kennedy, Tamanny Hall, Alcohol producers in Prohibition, Dick Nixon, James Michael Curley, Richard Daley. The list goes on. Kool Keith quoted some movie on "King of NY": "I don't have to justify corruption to you. It's always been here, and it always will be. What I'm rappin about is power."
Monday the 8th of December, santo26 noted:
When I used to try and explain to people that Clinton was hoodwinking everyone, people thought I was crazy for badmouthing him. Today, everyone thinks Bush, Jr. is the bad boy. Now that I have been mentally awake for two Presidencies, it seems that every Administration is simultaneously doing what they think is best for the country and trying to get away with all the stuff they can put into their burlap sack with the dollar sign on it. You can't get elected to the Presidency (or any other major office) without wanting to do the job because you believe in America and whoring yourself out to several special interest groups. Although what is going on right now is disheartening, I think we'll know when it it is time.
Tuesday the 9th of December, crazywriterinla noted:
"That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it"
I agree with you, and I look at the above quote and see that the only problem with the way things are structured now, is that if the people WANT to alter the world, they have to fight the government to even make a suggestion to change. I'm not saying throw the constitution away because without that, we wouldn't have any guidelines for life (that is why books like the bible were written initially, to guide life not dictate it)
But, the problem within attempting to make changes is that the goverment is so heavily linked to big business, that a change like say legalizing marijuana goes hand in hand with hurting the tobacco industry and alcohol industry, so that not only does the individual have such limited power to get on the proverbial soapbox, but before his thoughts are spoken, he has a line of enemies waiting to beat his ass for having an agenda that isn't in the self interest of those pulling strings.
Need more proof? How about 70% of all Americans polled being pro-stem cell research, yet the government is rushing to ban it because it doesn't fit their ties to the religious right, nor their ties to the medical world which is so heavily monitored and profit-oriented that for every shittily funded cancer-drug there is, there's viagra in chewing gum form. I don't know about you, but if I had a choice of surviving cancer or having a hard-on, I'd rather beat cancer than my meat, but that won't make the industry the money it hungers for.
My problem with the current administration is they are trying to bend rules to their liking in a manner that goes against the very constitutional fabric of this country. This government is making it difficult to bear arms, something our original goverment insisted as a right in case government went bad and we could overturn it, or assholes started being assholes and we could smoke them.
What if this government has become the theoretical asshole that falls down in walmart and demands more money for a cause the rest of us don't care for like a fake war or passing out dinky credits to families that don't help the economy and give people a little cash to spend on consumer goods.
Our government's biggest problem is they don't have the self-awareness to tell themselves to shut the fuck up and pay attention to the problems inside, instead of focusing on a country that most Americans couldn't find on a map. I don't think this government is doing what it thinks is best, I think it's strategically trying to bankrupt and then privitize government to follow its own agenda. But that's another rant, another time.
Tuesday the 9th of December, awiggins noted:
My thoughts exactly, well said.
Tuesday the 9th of December, vealpen noted:
I think that the only way to solve things is to make your mom head of the Office of Homeland Security.
