Nobody Flashes: Happy 4th of July!
HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!
I hope everyone..has a great day today.
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. Declaration of Independence
And another remainders from Alexis de Tocqueville (Thanks amfortas)
Trading welfare for power is the second oldest profession. Wherever the government seems to provide, it actually rules. This is the “mild” despotism feared by Alexis de Tocqueville, the brilliant 19th century political thinker whose writing inspired Friedrich Hayek’s Road to Serfdom. This seemingly benevolent form of dictatorship, he wrote in the second volume of Democracy in America, is a tyranny that would “degrade men without tormenting them,” “an immense and tutelary power, which takes upon itself alone to secure [people’s] gratifications, and to watch over their fate. That power is absolute, minute, regular, provident and mild. It would be like the authority of a parent, if, like that authority, its object was to prepare men for manhood; but it seeks on the contrary to keep them in perpetual childhood.”
The Cost of Our Freedom…
Nobody Knows—
Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?
Five signers were captured by the British as traitors and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army: another had two sons captured. Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War.
They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.
What kind of men were they?
Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants. Nine were farmers and large plantation owners….men of means…well educated…but they signed the Declaration of independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured. Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags. Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.
Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.
At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson , Jr., noted that the British general, Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt. 
Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The British jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.
John Hart was driven from his wife’s bedside as she lay dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. HIs fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished.
Freedom…is never free.
Nobody Reports Some Excellent Observations….
Nobody Reports
Here’s an email from a good friend, which makes some excellent points. –(Thanks to Pattie) 
(P.S.—I have no idea who the author is–anyone?)
******************
1) Only in America could politicians talk about the greed of the rich at a $35,000 a plate campaign fund raising event.
2) Only in America could people claim that the government still discriminates against black Americans when we have a black President, a black Attorney General, and roughly 18% of the federal workforce is black. 12% of the population is black.
3) Only in America could we have had the two people most responsible for our tax code, Timothy Geithner, the head of the Treasury Department and Charles Rangel who once ran the Ways and Means Committee, BOTH turn out to be tax cheats who are in favor of higher taxes.
4) Only in America can we have terrorists kill people in the name of Allah and have the media primarily react by fretting that Muslims might be harmed by the backlash. 
5) Only in America would we make people who want to legally become Americans citizens wait for years in their home countries and pay tens of thousands of dollars for the privilege while we discuss letting anyone who sneaks into the country illegally just become American citizens.
6) Only in America could the people who believe in balancing the budget and sticking by the country’s Constitution be thought of as “extremists.”
7) Only in America could you need to present a driver’s license to cash a check or buy alcohol, but not to vote.
8) Only in America could people demand the government investigate whether oil companies are gouging the public because of the price of gas went up when the return on equity invested in a major U.S. oil company (Marathon Oil) is less than half of a company making tennis shoes. (Nike) 
9) Only in America could the government collect more tax dollars from the people than any nation in recorded history, still spend a trillion dollars more than it has per year for total spending of $7 million PER MINUTE, and complain that it doesn’t have nearly enough money.
10) Only in America could the rich people who pay 86% of all income taxes be accused of not paying their “fair share” by people who don’t pay any income taxes at all.
Nobody Flashes Big Crocs
Having grown up in Naples, FL, I think I’ve seen just about every alligator and croc around. My parents told me when I was a kid, NOT to go down to the lake down the street because of the alligators. I, of course, wanted to see them for myself (I was six) so one hot afternoon I went down to that lake, and sat on the bank looking for my first alligator.
After about twenty minutes, which to someone who is six, is an eternity, I saw nothing. I began to think my parents were lying to me. I was getting pretty bored when I noticed that in the water, about 24 feet in front of me, was a pretty silly looking log. And then, I noticed the log sort of…moved.
To say it was probably the second most frightening moment of my life is an understatement. I froze. For a good five minutes I did not even hardly breathe. All I kept thinking was, “I hope he’s not hungry!”
Since he did not come after me, I decided to get up very slowly and BACK away at a snails’ pace. The old guy must have been asleep because he did not have me for lunch.
I never told my mother..in fact, I never told anyone in order to not appear…stupid. But that guy was no match for these. He was only about 12 feet. While people make a big deal about the difference between crocs and alligators, they will both try to eat you if they can. They’re like cousins.
Here’s a croc that a good deal bigger by the boat. That’s the Australian Brutus (that’s his name) who they use as a tourist attraction by feeding him buffalo meat. He does a good job even without the one leg.
The other croc was just captured in the Philippines, 21 feet, and weighs a ton. They are going to use him to attract tourists also. It took 100 men to catch him, and they say…that there is one even bigger that they haven’t caught yet.
So, you can bet that somewhere in the Philippines is a little kid, whose parents have told them NOT to go near that water, who are doing that exact same thing I once did…go looking for it.
Childhood curiosity will almost always outweigh risk that you are too stupid to comprehend….and some people never grow out of it—
Nobody Updates
Update:
Sorry about the change here…my other template would not let me “review” what I was posting, and so, I had to do something…I’m not sure if changing templates is going to solve the problem but we will see!
If you like the change…say so..if it’s too hard to read because it’s so dark…make a comment and I’ll find another one. WordPress had many to choose from!
Anyway, since it’s getting near my FAVORITE holiday…bear with me…while I try to figure this stuff out.
(Oh, I do need a new picture that’s for sure. )
Tony VS Nigel: Look What Happened…
Nobody Flashes
I was just looking around when I happened upon this gem…from 2005. Notice that Nigel doesn’t see why England has to pay for sewers in Budapest when London needs repairs. And most Americans don’t see why we have to go around the world and build everyone’s else’s schools and infrastructure when we need to fix our own country.
The elites in our government, and the European Union…want to redistribute it all, and they are doing a piss poor job of it, but they are all getting rich.
America is waking up to the fraud and the criminals on both sides of the Ocean.
Now, pay special attention to Tony Blair’s big European Union Promises of utopia on earth at the end of it. You can’t “engineer” society or economic systems: freedom is the only answer.










