Dancing in the Moonlight

This is a new Washington state program re: discounted prescriptions. Here's a brief description:

What is the Washington Prescription Drug Program (WPDP)?

WPDP is a new prescription drug discount program created by the legislature at the request of Governor Gregoire. It is open to all Washington State residents who do not have prescription drug insurance coverage, or whose insurance does not cover all their prescription drug needs. There are no other eligibility requirements or fees required for membership in the WPDP.
WPDP is brought to you by the Washington State Health Care Authority and is run by northwest-based ODS Companies through their pharmacy benefit management partner, MedImpact. Although it is not an insurance program, WPDP members can receive discount prices on drugs that are very similar to what the large health insurance companies must actually pay. On average you'll save up to 60% on generic drugs and 20% on brand name drugs.

Being part of this program is free to all WA state residents and it's easy to sign up for this card... I did... for more info or to sign up go to http://www.rx.wa.gov

Other than the blurb quoted above, I know nothing of this program, but am simply passing it along to those who may be able to make use of it.

Excerpted from the Seattle Times article:

Justice Anthony Kennedy, speaking for the court, said the government may not forbid abortion outright, but it "may use its voice and its regulatory authority" to dissuade women from ending pregnancies.

He said the ban on the controversial procedure was valid because other abortion procedures were available.

Kennedy was joined by President Bush's appointees — Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito — and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. In a separate statement, Thomas and Scalia said again they would vote to overrule Roe v. Wade entirely.

The decision on the ban is likely to throw the abortion issue into the campaign for the White House. Two of the court's strongest supporters of the right to abortion are also its oldest justices: John Paul Stevens will be 87 Friday, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg is 74. Whoever wins the 2008 presidential election might get the chance to nominate one or more new justices.

Ginsburg, the court's only woman, called Wednesday's decision "alarming."

It "cannot be understood as anything other than an effort to chip away at a right declared again and again by this court," she said.

She noted that this dispute was about how, not whether, abortions would be performed after the first trimester. Despite Kennedy's talk of "promoting fetal life," the ban "targets only a method of abortion," she said. "The woman may abort the fetus, so long as her doctor uses another method, one her doctor judges less safe for her."

She also called the decision demeaning to women. It "pretends" to protect them "by denying them any choice in the matter," she said.

Stevens and Justices David Souter and Stephen Breyer joined her dissent.

Of course, I personally believe that the only Justice on the Court qualified to issue an opinion in the first place is Ruth Bader Ginsburg. After all, not a single one of the other eight Justices would ever be in a position where they might actually need an abortion. That is, unless they change the name of recto-cranial extraction to partial birth abortion. But at least three of them did manage to agree with her on the subject.

Lysistrata, anyone?

Perhaps more to the point, Lysistrata Project, anyone?

If anyone has any spare cash you should go here and sponsor a group of lunatic paramedics who plan to climb Ben Nevis, Snowdon and Scarfell Pike in the space of 24 hours to raise money for the only children's hospice in London.

(Noted at featheredwolf.)

Novelist Kurt Vonnegut Dies at Age 84
By CHRISTIAN SALAZAR (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
April 11, 2007 11:26 PM EDT
NEW YORK - Kurt Vonnegut, the satirical novelist who captured the absurdity of war and questioned the advances of science in darkly humorous works such as "Slaughterhouse-Five" and "Cat's Cradle," died Wednesday. He was 84.

Vonnegut, who often marveled that he had lived so long despite his lifelong smoking habit, had suffered brain injuries after a fall at his Manhattan home weeks ago, said his wife, photographer Jill Krementz.

The author of at least 19 novels, many of them best-sellers, as well as dozens of short stories, essays and plays, Vonnegut relished the role of a social critic. He lectured regularly, exhorting audiences to think for themselves and delighting in barbed commentary against the institutions he felt were dehumanizing people.

"I will say anything to be funny, often in the most horrible situations," Vonnegut, whose watery, heavy-lidded eyes and unruly hair made him seem to be in existential pain, once told a gathering of psychiatrists.

A self-described religious skeptic and freethinking humanist, Vonnegut used protagonists such as Billy Pilgrim and Eliot Rosewater as transparent vehicles for his points of view. He also filled his novels with satirical commentary and even drawings that were only loosely connected to the plot. In "Slaughterhouse-Five," he drew a headstone with the epitaph: "Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt."

But much in his life was traumatic, and left him in pain.

Despite his commercial success, Vonnegut battled depression throughout his life, and in 1984, he attempted suicide with pills and alcohol, joking later about how he botched the job.

His mother had succeeded in killing herself just before he left for Germany during World War II, where he was quickly taken prisoner during the Battle of the Bulge. He was being held in Dresden when Allied bombs created a firestorm that killed an estimated 135,000 people in the city.

"The firebombing of Dresden explains absolutely nothing about why I write what I write and am what I am," Vonnegut wrote in "Fates Worse Than Death," his 1991 autobiography of sorts.

But he spent 23 years struggling to write about the ordeal, which he survived by huddling with other POW's inside an underground meat locker labeled slaughterhouse-five.

(Report via Associated Press)

So, our new gas range was delivered yesterday. It's loverly, has five burners, and we can hardly wait to use it. That we got a brand new range for half price makes it even better (it's normally about $1k, but had some very minor cosmetic damage, hence the discount!)

Unfortunately, since our house doesn't currently have a gas line run into the kitchen, and the soonest the installers can come out and do the work is Feb 1, we can't really cook easily for the next several days.

Eating out is too bloody expensive for six people for a week, so I'm taking suggestions for simple meals that can be prepared either on a camp stove (not my real preference), microwaved, or using a crock pot.

Come on folks, show me what you got!

Authorities make arrest in 2003 slaying of NMSU student

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 23, 2006

LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) - A 27-year-old man has been arrested in the 2003 slaying of New Mexico State University student Katie Sepich, and District Attorney Susana Martinez said he confessed to raping and murdering her.

Gabriel Adrian Avila, a native of Mexico, will be charged with capital murder and rape, Martinez said.

He already is serving a nine-year prison sentence for an unrelated case of aggravated burglary and intent to commit aggravated assault.

Sepich, then 22, was sexually assaulted and strangled, and her partially burned body was found at an old Las Cruces city dump.

The graduate student from Carlsbad was last seen leaving a party on Aug. 31, 2003. Friends told detectives she planned to walk the two blocks to her apartment. Target shooters discovered her body at the old Las Cruces city dump later that day.

Martinez said at a news conference called Friday to announce the arrest that the case broke when investigators found a partial DNA match and got a court order for a DNA sample.

(Remainder of article at link, above; Press conference information on the arrest)

Katie would have been 26 on December 26. Her father was my next-door neighbor growing up in Carlsbad, NM, and her mother lived a few blocks away. Since her death, Dave and Jayanne have worked endlessly with law enforcement across the country in pursuing leads, offering rewards for information, and having legislation passed and signed into law (Katie's Law) regarding a DNA database.

While the best Christmas present would have been for Katie to have never been killed, may her parents and family find closure, peace and comfort in knowing that her killer has been brought to face Justice. May he receive all he is Due.

[NOTE: This is as Public Post]

On the other hand, where the hell did the first eleven months of the year disappear?

While I can't say that I missed them, I do kind of miss them...I realize that as you age, time seems to pass by more quickly - we no longer have that nice break around June or July to neatly separate our years, and they tend to flow one into another, giving the illusion of time flying. It's a phenomena that has a long history; in Roman times it was knows as Tempus Fugit - that is to say, Time Flies.

And it certainly seems to, doesn't it? Just a month ago many people were all worked up about the impending elections, and scarcely three weeks later, that's all in the past - doesn't matter any longer - there's a new wind blowing - and other platitudes and cliches that could used.

We're in the hubbub of the Christmas Season, where the Almighty Buck is worshipped with more reverence than the religious icons that are, as they say, the reason for the season: whether it is the Birth of the Son or the birth of the Sun, or the miracle of the lamp, or any of a number of other Holy Days commemorated at this time of year, the simple truth is that money has become God, and the Gods' Temples are in the marketplace.

Hmmm...seems to me I've heard this tale before...

If you get the feeling that I'm anti-commercialization, you are probably right, to a huge degree. Rather than go out and buy something for those special someones, do something different - with them. Make something: knit, crochet, basket weave, paint, bake, whatever. Once they get over the shock that they didn't get the Wii or the PS8400, they might actually appreciate it - and if they don't, then they are the ones with the problem, not you.

This public service announcement was brought to you by the letters XMAS and the symbols $ and €

Bah, humbug.

[Edit: made public; and a brief comment -- there are few things quite like having the simple whine about "where did the year go" morph into the above...]

and more or less set off a bit of a shit-storm; while I do apologise to the person (they know who they are) for causing said storm, I have made the offer for those who took offense at my words to feel free to discuss it here.

While normally, my LJ is friends only, for this post, I've made it a public post, however anonymous comments are not allowed.

The original post had to do with an email-glurge going about wanting all Americans to fly the flag on 9/11, and refers to 9/11 as the worst tragedy to ever hit our nation. ( I disagreed... )

[EDIT: This is a PUBLIC POST]

A few weeks ago, I learned of the death on Aug. 31, 2003 of Katie Sepich, when she had been raped, burned and murdered. Her parents were childhood friends of mine, David and Jayann Sepich. David had been my next-door neighbor from the time I began school until shortly before we moved from Carlsbad, one of Jayann's cousins lived across the alley from us and Jayann herself only lived a few blocks away.

The news came as more than a bit of a shock to me, as I had heard nothing about David and Jayann for several years - since the death of my mother, who was my main source of news for the town in which I was born. Since learning of it, I've been following the media accounts of legislation in the New Mexico State Legislature regarding mandatory DNA collection in felony arrests; Katie's mother, Jayann, has been an ardent campaigner for this law (as has the rest of the family, but Jayann has been there to keep Katie's face in the public.

A Guest Editorial by Jayann is also on line, from just before the legislative session began.

I just learned tonight that the law was passed in the legislature and that the Governor does intend to sign it. While it won't bring back their daughter, I hope that it will bring some peace to David and Jayann.

Today (Wed. Feb, 15th) the final vote that was needed in the House was unanimous to pass Katie's Law. Now it will go to the Governor to be signed. He has 20 days.

Just to clarify:
We started with two identical bills in order to give us a better chance of getting one through.
One was started in the House (HB 130) sponsored by Rep. John Heaton, the other started in the Senate (SB 216) sponsored by Rep. Mary Kay Papen and co-sponsored by Sen. Vernon Asbill.

Each bill had to go through the Judiciary Committee and the Finance committee in the body that it started in, then it went to the floor of that body (Senate or House). Once it passed the floor vote, it goes to the other body and the same process is done. So each bill has to go all the way through both the Senate and the House, and then it will go to the governor to be signed.

It is a rigorous process, and along the way it could be amended if any committee has enough votes to change it. It also can be amended on the floor of either body. We are very fortunate to have had a very good team of legal analysts at the very beginning to help us make it a very solid bill. That is why it was able to get all the way through without any amendments.

Katie's Law will take affect on January 1, 2007.

Jayann, Caraline, AJ and I would like to thank all of you that called, mailed, and prayed so that this dream of ours would come true. We feel that we are instruments of Gods' great plan, and that Katie's murder will now serve to be the impetus to save untold lives and suffering.

From all of you is where we got our strength to keep fighting through the process.

There are so many people to thank, but for now I must thank
Senator Mary Kay Papen, Sen. Vernon Asbill, Representative John Heaton (who got us started and worked tirelessly) Gary Perkowski (our guide through the process)
Lt. Governor Diane Denish, Attorney Patricia Madrid (both of whom took up our cause and helped tremendously) and of course Governor Richardson.

There are many others we will thank, but I have to go.

God bless all of you and your families.

Dave Sepich

There is an op-ed piece in the Carlsbad Current-Argus about it as well. A brief excerpt:

SB216, in plain and simple terms, requires those arrested on felony charges in New Mexico to have a DNA sample taken. These DNA "fingerprints" will be entered into a database, which over time will grow and empower law enforcement with the ability to catch the most malevolent criminals much earlier in their dark pursuits. Translation: We will be able to solve crimes faster and thus lock up the bad guys sooner -- and save lives in the process.

As Jayann points out, five states— California, Texas, Minnesota, Virginia and Louisiana— already have similar laws and the United Kingdom has been doing this for a number of years. I'm wondering if it's time that this become standard throughout the United States.

Here's the results from Google, in case you want to read more about Katie and her new Law. May she now rest in peace, and may her family find peace.

My original posting of this


I thought perhaps a reminder might be useful, considering the events of the past few days.

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 the 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 the 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 Rules 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 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 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.

This offer void under terms of the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act I and II.

This is a revision to my earlier poll on sorting out my friends list. I've rearranged some categories, combined a few and added a couple, so if you've answered the previous poll, please take this again, so I make sure you are where you want to be.

[Error: Invalid poll ID 633135]

Again, there are a couple of categories that aren't listed there, but that's okay, because I know who I'll be putting there.

NOTE: This is a PUBLIC POST

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 the 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 the 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 Rules 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 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 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.

This offer void under terms of the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act I and II.