Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is sure that his loyal readers have by this time heard that today is July 14th. That means in France they are celebrating 14 Juillet, or Fête de la Fédération, or Fête nationale, or (in English) Bastille Day.

Many in the blogosphere, at least the more “right wing” areas of it, don’t have a lot of nice things to say about the French. Frankly, your Maximum Leader has done his fair share of French flogging here and in his personal life. Your Maximum Leader and Smallholder can’t get together without doing a little joking at the expense of the French. But from time to time your Maximum Leader would like to get off the bash France wagon and point out some redeeming qualities in our sometimes friend and ally.

Well… Most of the redeeming qualities of France are not related to politics. They are cultural and culinary qualities. First, allow your Maximum Leader to say that every Frenchman/woman he’s met personally has been absolutely charming. Now, he’s not traveled to France - which might change his opinion - but he’s always found citizens of France that he’s met to be good company. And did your Maximum Leader mention that the French know how to cook. Well… Perhaps all Parisians don’t know how because they eat out, but outside of Paris it seems to be a different story. Your Maximum Leader is a great fan of French provincal cooking. It is hearty fare with a flair. Also, being a cheese lover - the French have got lots of fine cheeses…

And speaking of cheese, that brings your Maximum Leader to politics. Charles de Gaulle is purported to have commented that is it nearly impossible to govern a nation that has over 400 types of cheese. No doubt that is true. But we as Americans should respect the French people for their actions of 217 years ago. They did throw off an autocratic government that oppressed them and kept them in poverty and servitude. (Certainly 18th Century France was a less pleasant place to be than pre-Revolutionary America…) The French Revolution didn’t go the way of the American Revolution. And that has been too bad for the French. In many ways one might attribute the ebb and flow of the French Republic to the nature of the autocratic government they overthrew.

That the French Revolution decented into rampant bloodshed and eventually to a new autocracy can be viewed through the lens of trying to redress grievences t an extreme. The people of France were badly governed by their autocratic king and courtiers. They did not enjoy the freedoms that an Englishman (or Scot or Welshman) of the same period enjoyed. They realized they deserved better. But they didn’t get better. Your Maximum Leader likes to use the French Revolution as an illustration of 18th Century Rationalism gone amuck. By trying to apply reason without common sense and restraint you wind up with a recipie for disaster. This realization came to your Maximum Leader twice in his life. The first time was while reading Burke’s “Reflections.” No shock there. But the second time was when he had write a paper on Robespierre for an upper division history seminar. At some point your Maximum Leader was reading over letters Robespierre had written during the Terror and it was like a light went on in his mind and all was revealed. Robespierre (and so many other French Revolutionaries) felt like they had so much work to do to rebuild France as a modern enlightened republic. But rebuilding on existing foundations was not possible. All had to be destroyed so that the new could be built.* The French Revolutionaries took their noble ideas to a horrific extreme.

Over 217 years one can see the hand of the French Revolution still at work in French politics today. The French can still “mix up” the international community. While revolutionary France is not exporting armies to liberate Europe, France still charts its own course it the world. The French continue to deal internally with how the revolutionary idea of secularism interacts with their growing muslim population. The French yearning for equality and equal treatment influences their socialist social policies and economy to a great (and your Maximum Leader would say bad) extent.

Your Maximum Leader wishes any Frenchmen reading this (decidedly Anglo-American) site a happy Bastille Day. He hope you might ponder your own revolution and that of the US. We didn’t always get it right, but we’re still learning. The same could be said for France. He hopes you’re learning too.

Carry on.
(more…)

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is attending to some family matters and doesn’t have much opportunity to write pithy commentary on the events of the day.

But he feels he must reject expert advice courtesy of Dead Sexy Sadie and post something anyway.

Steve-O Returns! And he has a new Mac to boot. Miserable bastard… Gettin’ a new Mac… Your Maximum Leader wants a new Mac… But he digresses…

Mrs P is back from a trip to the beach and in rare form today. I bet Mrs P’s naan is quite good, but I would prefer to have a batch of whatever Mr P is whipping up for the Royal Bombay Yacht Club.

The boyz over at the Ministry of Minor Perfidy are cetainly aspiring to grow up and become major perfidy with all of the quality writing going on over there. Your Maximum Leader thought he’d link a recent piece or two. But rather than have you skip something, he’s decided you should just jump on over there and start reading. Your Maximum Leader must admit that he is rather partial to “No. U-da-ho.” That makes him smile.

The best story your Maximum Leader has read in a long while… From the great and powerful Velociman. Part one is here. Part two is here.

You know something… Your Maximum Leader has at least one reader. One who cares… Thanks Phoenix. You care. (And your Maximum Leader should note that Phoenix is particularly prolix today.)

That is about all for this update. Your Maximum Leader hopes for another later on.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader wonders if you all were reading the Wall Street Journal’s Opinion Journal today. They have a great peice about “Soaking the Rich.” You ought to read it. Here is a good bit to entice you:

The real news, and where the policy credit belongs, is with the 2003 tax cuts. They’ve succeeded even beyond Art Laffer’s dreams, if that’s possible. In the nine quarters preceding that cut on dividend and capital gains rates and in marginal income-tax rates, economic growth averaged an annual 1.1%. In the 12 quarters–three full years–since the tax cut passed, growth has averaged a remarkable 4%. Monetary policy has also fueled this expansion, but the tax cuts were perfectly targeted to improve the incentives to take risks among businesses shell-shocked by the dot-com collapse, 9/11 and Sarbanes-Oxley.

This growth in turn has produced a record flood of tax revenues, just as the most ebullient supply-siders predicted. In the first nine months of fiscal 2006, tax revenues have climbed by $206 billion, or nearly 13%. As the Congressional Budget Office recently noted, “That increase represents the second-highest rate of growth for that nine-month period in the past 25 years”–exceeded only by the year before. For all of fiscal 2005, revenues rose by $274 billion, or 15%. We should add that CBO itself failed to anticipate this revenue boom, as the nearby table shows. Maybe its economists should rethink their models.

Perhaps we are not on the left side of the Laffer Curve yet…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is greatly disappointed in you all. GREATLY disappointed. Have you just started to take him for granted? Are you traipsing through life singing to yourself “La-la-la” and going “Fiddle-dee-dee” at everything?

A few days ago your Maximum Leader’s blog, yes this blog Naked Villainy, turned three.

Three years of (almost) daily musings and insight from your Maximum Leader and his ministerial cronies.

And not a single one of you mentioned it…

That leaves it to your Maximum Leader to celebrate his own damn self…

Lets do some greatest hits from Naked Villainy’s last three years…

From Decemeber 2003 - the Meat Cutter’s post. Excerpt:

With Americans being more health conscious than ever, our beef is being trimmed of its fat in a way completely unknown to our parents, grandparents, and other ancestors. Hamburger is proudly sold as being “95% lean.” This, my loyal minions, is a travesty. A few years ago, on Christmas day, your Maximum Leader looked into the oven in which was cooking the Christmas roast and saw that there were no drippings! And not only that, there were only 2 teaspoons of fat in the pan. This, my loyal minions, was not enough fat with which to cook the yorkshire pudding. So that year your Maximum Leader vowed never to be without sufficent fat on Christmas; lest his yorkshire pudding be cooked in Crisco and barely edible. From that year forward, your Maximum Leader himself has always gone out to a local butcher and acquired some extra fat for his yorkshire pudding. This year, the trip to the butcher was a rude awakening in how the terrorists have taken control of our nation.

Of course there is the famous Smallholder post about Toad Sexing. Excerpt:

[They - the toads] were cool pets. I taught them to jump through hoops. They slurped worms up like spaghetti. If you fed them lightning bugs, the lightning bugs would light up inside their bodies, glowing redly through toad skin. If you fed Shake and Speare several lightening bugs and then let them hop around, the blinking lights would make them look like moving Christmas trees.

I always wanted to have them lay eggs and hatch tadpoles, but over three years never had any luck, even though I had a male and female pair.

Shut up. It’s not that hard to sex toads, you perv.

Many people enjoyed the post “Me & Ronald Reagan” about your Maximum Leader’s meeting with President Reagan. Excerpt:

When I was next in line, I stepped up to the velvet rope. A White House advance man looked at me as I was looking up and trying to judge my distance from the President. (Which I judged to be about 15 feet.) The advance man spoke to me in a muted, but emphatic, voice, “What do you think you’re about to do young man?”

“Wuh?”

“You’re about to meet the President of the United States. And look at you! Stand up straight.”

“Uh, yeah…” I said suddenly worried about everything about my appearance.

He then added, “Fix your tie for God’s sake. Button your jacket. What is wrong with your hair?”

And finally there is your Maximum Leader’s real fav - 10 Things. That is ten things that would really make the world hate us. Excerpt:

3) Implement a true “you have it, we want it, we take it” foreign policy. Suppose we need more oil. We invade your country and take it. We pay nothing for it. We kill as many people as we need to in order to get it. Then we leave. This policy also goes for gold, silver, uranium, sheep, apes, elephants, coconuts, bananas, exotic hot chicks, whatever really. We can get really whimsical on this one… Maybe one day Congress decides we need a national “schnitzel day.” The night before, we invade Germany and/or Austria and take all the schnitzel we can lay our hands on…

Yes loyal minions… These are but a few of the posts that keep you coming back for more and more. Your Maximum Leader will try to keep cranking out the hits… You keep on coming back for more.

And bring your kneepads… You’ll need them.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has a question for you all… Does anyone make gum with sugar in it any more? Your Maximum Leader was at a convenience store yesterday and decided to pick himself up a pack of gum. He noticed that almost every package he considered was sugarfree. He didn’t notice any “sugared” gum for sale. Does anyone still make it? He’s sure some company does. He just doesn’t know which. Hummm…

Your Maximum Leader is considering dumping comments. This is not a reflection on any of his regular readers. But he’s been spending lots of time deleting spam comments from the site. Although he hasn’t counted them, he is sure there are 10 spam comments for every 1 legit comment. It is pissing your Maximum Leader off.

Did your Maximum Leader mention he was at the 10-9 San Diego Padres victory over his beloved Washington Nationals? He was there with almost all of his extended family. The whole villainous group numbered some 25 people. We were hoping for a Nats victory… But instead saw a 7-1 lead over the Padres disintegrate late in the game and disappear completely when pinch hitter Mike Piazza knocked one out of the park. Oy!

Speaking of the Nationals. The new owners are going to be doing a “grand reopening” of RFK stadium. They will be lowering some ticket prices. Installing more and better vendors in the stadium. And giving stadium employees customer service training… Your Maximum Leader doesn’t know if he’d be able to handle friendly, efficient stadium employees… It would be too dramatic a change.

Speaking of the Nationals… The Post has a nice peice on Alfonso Soriano up. It hints that he would like to stay in Washington. If that is the case, your Maximum Leader thinks it is wonderful. Improbable that he will, but wonderful that he would like to stay. Soriano is the type of player a manager could build a team with. But the Lerner’s long-term strategy of team-building means that Soriano (aged 30) would be well past his prime when the team should become competitive. If Soriano wants to win a World Series, or if he even wants to make the money he is capable of making; he will either push to be traded by the trade deadline or will entertai free-agent offers for next season. Unfortunately, it is a rare player who will sacrifice the possibility of a title and/or money to settle down and become a fixture in one city. Your Maximum Leader would love to see Soriano remain a National, but he wouldn’t have hard feelings if Soriano left DC.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is having a lazy Friday afternoon. In the spirit of such an afternoon, here are some items for your reading pleasure.

First off… Could the North Korean missile test be a front for the Chinese gauging US missile defence capability? Your Maximum Leader doesn’t want to engage in rumour mongering as much as Dan Riehl would want to. But it does seem to be an interesting theory. One that your Maximum Leader wouldn’t put past the Chinese.

Next up… Your Maximum Leader is not a Cristal man himself. But if the hip-hoppers are boycotting it sounds like a good reason to buy some. Although at $300/bottle, your Maximum Leader will stick to his Pol Roger. (Pol Roger is the preferred champagne of your Maximum Leader, the Villainschloss, and the Mike World Order.)

Like Buckethead… Your Maximum Leader is…

Your results:
You are Batman

Batman 65% Green Lantern 60% Superman 55% Wonder Woman 50% Hulk 50% Catwoman 50% Iron Man 45% Supergirl 40% The Flash 40% Robin 37% Spider-Man 35%

You are dark, love gadgets and have vowed to help the innocent not suffer the pain you have endured.

Speaking of Batman… Thanks to overgenerous grandparents, your Maximum Leader’s villainous male offspring now has a Batman comforter, Batman sheets, Batman pillow-cases, and a Batman throw pillow. Your Maximum Leader wishes his ‘hood was so cool when he was that young. Alas, it was not.

And finally, speaking (again of Batman)… Batman and Robin was on HBO. Being a fan of the “Batman” franchise, your Maximum Leader watched until “Batman Begins” came on a different HBO. Frankly, Batman and Robin is an awful movie. It is right nigh impossible to watch in fact. Even with Uma Thurman. (Who is easy on the eye you know.) Well… It does have George Clooney in it too. As the Caped Crusader. Mrs Villain finds Mr Clooney very easy on the eye. Your Maximum Leader has tried to convince her that Mr Clooney’spolitics would likely be a turn off, but Mrs Villain will hear none of it.

After a few scenes of Clooney as Batman Mrs Villain blurted out that if Mr George Clooney propositioned her; she would have wild tawdry monkey sex with him. Well, this revalation shocked your Maximum Leader something horrible. But he was able to gather his wits about him and start to work… There is now an “understanding” between your Maximum Leader and his lovely spouse Mrs Villain. If she is propositioned by George Clooney she is free to lay aside for a moment her vows. If your Maximum Leader is propositioned by the dreamy Jennifer Love Hewitt, he is free to lay aside his vows. After one encounter the matter would be spoken of no more… Not a bad deal. Improbably that it will ever be activiated… But isn’t that Bismarck said about all his secret treaties?

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has gone a long while without posting an immigration-related essay. He’s finally decided to get off his duff and do so.

In the past few months the Smallholder has done yeoman’s work pointing out the economic benefits that illegal immigration provides for the United States. Your Maximum Leader has done more poking and proding and agrees with the Smallholder that the economic benefits, in terms of dollars generated in our economy, outweigh the (still significant) costs associated with illegal immigration. Your Maximum Leader is still somewhat skeptical about crime statistics. He will conceed Federally gathered crime statistics don’t show significant crime from the illegal community, we know from long experience that statistical information about crime is often under-reported for political reasons. In the matter of crime your Maximum Leader will conceed that crime in/against/by the illegal community is probably lower than is commonly thought.

Now having agreed with my distinguished friend on these points, allow your Maximum Leader to restate his belief that our nation needs an immigration bill that goes towards securing our borders.

First off, your Maximum Leader is in favor of immigration. Legal immigration of course. But he is in favor of it. He also believes that current quotas and loopholes for some foreign nationals are awful. Quotas need to be increased in his opinion. But having said that, we cannot continue to support our current situation - one of, essentially, and open and porous border.

The reasons for this belief, reasons that have so far been unaddressed on this blog, are security and assimilation.

On the point of security… It is a simple point really. We live in a world where many would like to cause us harm. Thousands, perhaps even millions (perhaps tens of millions) of (muslim) people if given the opportunity would just as soon slit the throat of an American as give him the time of day. Now the great majority of these people are not going to travel (legally or illegally) to the US for perfidious purposes. But there are some, be they hundreds (or thousands), whowill attempt to do so. The easiest ways for them to enter unnoticed is across our open borders with Mexico and Canada.

We need to get control of both our northern and southern borders to prevent people from entering our nation unnoticed. We’ve gotten lucky in the past with stupid terrorists getting caught on their way into our nation. But our luck will, one day, run out. The day that there is a domestic terrorist attack and Americans are killed (any number of Americans frankly) by a terrorist who slipped in from Mexico or Canada will be the day that we will likely get serious about border security.

The second, and frankly more pressing issue from your Maximum Leader’s prospective, is assimilation. While just a few short paragraphs ago he said he was in favor of increasing quotas on immigration; there is still a limit to how many we should accept. Our current system of quotas for Green Cards and non-immigrant Visas is around 700,000 a year. (Your Maximum Leader went to a variety of web sites to try and piece that number together. Here is one helpful link to the Immigration Act of November 1990. Which might have been the last time the legal immigration quota was addressed by Congress. Your Maximum Leader hasn’t checked all the budget appropriations bills that might have immigration language nested inside.) That number is low. The United States can, and should, accept more than 700,000 legal immigrants from around the world. But he does have a concern.

Your Maximum Leader doesn’t think that more than a few million immigrants (1, 2, 3 million?) can be successfully assimilated by our nation at a time. To your Maximum Leader assimilation means learning English, gaining an understanding of our laws and national culture, and gaining a primary loyalty to the United States. Immigrants must integrate into our culture and accept it as their own.

Unfortunately, there isn’t much pressure from many sectors for immigrants, legal or otherwise, to assimilate. We no longer put a premium on our own culture. The rich Anglo-Western tradition that is the well-spring of our national culture is widely denegrated, derided, and dismissed by “intellectuals” who are quick to point out it every flaw and inequity. Frankly it makes your Maximum Leader more than a little peevish when someone points out how awful and patriarchic and “white” and oppressive our nation is without giving much thought to the very concepts of liberty that allow such a statement to be made in the first place. In the marketplace of ideas that was our national discourse all the values on ideas have been made equal. To all together too many people there is no relative difference between our Anglo-Western traditions and those of Arabic nomads.

That is a great problem when it comes to assimilation. Why would an immigrant assimilate when there isn’t an evident consensus as to what he should assimilate to?

One thing your Maximum Leader will say, to get back on point, is that when speaking of the huge numbers of illegal immigrants we are currently enduring, there is neither a need or desire to assimilate. This is because the communities are illegal they deliberately try to stay off the radar (so to speak). It is easier and safer to keep to yourself and to maintain the customs of the place from which you came than to try and fit in with everyone else. However the numbers in which illegals come to our nation make them a significant force in public affairs. They are catered to in schools, hospitals, shopping, and television & radio. Why change when you have your “hosts” are doing all they can to make you not have to change?

Now you might be reading over all of this and thinking to yourself, “Self, my Maximum Leader seems to be rambling here. What is his point?” Well, that would be a good question. In your Maximum Leader’s mind, the risks of an open border to our national security and the disintegration of American culture caused by illegal immigration outweigh te (great) economic benefit we reap as a result of that illegal immigration. If Congress does anything this term - which is unlikely - it should be a move to secure and limit illegal transit across our borders. After that situation is resolved, then we can determine to to whatever we want with the illegals already in the US.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader seems to remember that at some point during the reign of Tom Kean the tourism promotion tag line for the state of New Jersey was “New Jersey and You: Perfect Together.” Well, that would appear to no longer be the case.

Okay… You and New Jersey might be perfect together; provided you do not need to avail yourself of the state government in any way. You know it is serious when the casinos clos. Atlantic City casinos are shuttered.

In addition to the millions of dollars the state will not get in taxes, think of the casino owners. Who is their advocate in all of this? What about the tens of millions of profit they will not make due to the closure? What about the owners?

In other news, a quotation from the above linked article that peeved your Maximum Leader… The quote:

“They’re [the state] going to lose a lot of money,” said Jerome Harper, 42, of Philadelphia, who was playing the slots at Resorts Atlantic City. “It’s bad. Why close it down when you could just do your job and put the budget together? That’s what they’re paid for.”

No Mr Jerome Harper, 42, of Philadelphia. That is what the state legislators are ELECTED to do. That should be a higher duty than just reciept of a paycheck. They should view themselves as invested with the public trust. They have a duty to do their jobs. Frankly, your Maximum Leader thinks that if a legislator can’t get the job done they not only shouldn’t be paid, but they should ineligible for re-election.

Getting back to casinos… One wonders if the hotels and restaurants remain open in the same building? One supposes they would… But maybe there is some weird law saying that if the casinos close the hotels close too. Sorta like not being able to pump your own gas.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader did get the time magazine with Teddy Roosevelt on the front. He sort of enjoys seeing the popular treatment that Time give various historical figures on the 4th. (BTW, your Maximum Leader thinks the best treatment was of Ben Franklin about 3 years ago.)

But, while reading the article your Maximum Leader thought that they the people at Time are giving rather short shrift to the modern implications of Teddy’s more imperious actions as president. It seems Adam White is thinking the same thing on the new National Review On-line.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader isn’t sure what we should do about North Korea and their missile testing.

Your Maximum Leader’s first reaction was well summarized by our friend Preston Taylor Holmes in his masterful post “Lick My Love Pump.” Mr. Holmes gets point for both directness of message and fun Spinal Tap reference.

Of course if you would like analysis before rushing to the conclusion that nuking North Korea is an appropriate response you might check out these post at the Marmots Hole. Links are here, here, and here.

Your Maximum Leader isn’t sure what the next step should be. We should, with our friends the Japanese, start to work with China to see if we can’t convince the Chinese to make the Nork’s life more miserable than it is. That would be the first international step. Beyond that it is hard to tell in what direction we should go.

Your Maximum Leader thinks that Prime Minister Koizumi ought to start to push for his people to remilitarize. It is inevitable that they do so, better to start as soon as possible.

Joint military exercises (of the naval sort probably) between the US and Russia (or the US and Australia) would be a propos too.

At some point a serious threat of military response probably ought to be made. But you can’t make a threat unless you plan on following through. And at this stage, your Maximum Leader doesn’t see that we can make a serious threat. Or a serious threat short of massive retaliation.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader reads on the news wires that Ken Lay, the convicted former head of Enron, has died in Aspen, Colorado. Apparently it was a heart attack.

Your Maximum Leader wonders if this isn’t a case of “just giving up.” It could well be. Your Maximum Leader imagines that the Lay family has lots of insurance money coming its way. At least he hopes so, if the stories of Lay bankrupting himself for his defence are true. Your Maximum Leader wishes no ill upon Lay’s family; but thinks that Lay’s conviction was deserved.

Rest in peace Ken Lay. 
Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader wishes all his countrymen a happy Independence Day. For those of you who are not his countrymen, he hopes that you live in a nation that preserves your freedom and liberty. If you do not reside in such a land, he hopes that one day you shall.

On this day 230 years ago the Continental Congress ratified the Declaration of Independence, having the day before passed Lee’s Resolution which stated that the various British colonies should be and independent nation from the United Kingdom.

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 nd 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: Ourrepeated 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.

John Hancock

(Connecticut:)
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott

You should take a moment today to reflect on the sacrafices made on your behalf by the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Be thankful. Keep our fighting men and women in your prayers. Preserve our liberty.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader wonders, did you go and wish the Big Hominid a happy 3rd anniversary? Yesterday was the third anniversary of his blog.

Happy Blogoversary my friend. May you have many more.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has been enjoying himself over the past few days.

Photographic evidence of such:

Light posting through Wednesday… Well, probably light posting… You never know how if the urge to blog will overtake your Maximum Leader.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has been busy watching the video of President Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi at Graceland. The AP news wire story is here. Video clips are here.

Junichiro Koizumi is the coolest. The whole trip is cool.

As long time readers know, upon the commencement of the Mike World Order the Pope in Rome will declare Elvis Aaron Presley to be a Saint. He is the patron saint of the MWO.

There may be lots of princes in the world, and a few kings too… But there is only one who is The King.

Carry on.