From Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Jerk: 2) a stupid,foolish or eccentric person.
1) He's not stupid.
2) He's not foolish, maybe a little by trying to be honest.
3) eccentric:deviating from a usual or accepted pattern. This is Mike trying to help you with facts and years of precise machine work.
Mike is doing the best he can and should be credited with that.
" The truly educated never graduate "
HeeHaw

The Declaration of Independence: A Transcription

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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 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: 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 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.

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The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:

Column 1
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton

Column 2
North Carolina:
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton

Column 3
Massachusetts:
John Hancock
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

Column 4
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

Column 5
New York:
William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark

Column 6
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple
Massachusetts:
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 Hampshire:
Matthew Thornton






More Declaration of Independence Resources

Join the Signers of the Declaration of Independence!

High-Resolution versions of the Charters of Freedom documents area available on the High-Resolution Images page.

Learn more about the Writing and Publicizing of the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution of the United States by visiting the Independence National Historical Park (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) web site.

View documents from the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention, part of the Library of Congress' American Memory web site. This site also provides related manuscript, printed, and iconographic materials.

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The Gettysburg Address
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Nov. 19, 1863
"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."

The above will be a break in the cheerleading teams pom pom shaking and chanting.

from the comical to the absurb...

This was a cut-and-dried issue from the start -- and yet it doesn't go away. The majority has spoken overwhelmingly in favor of Mike. The minority, however, refuses to give up a losing battle.

To paraphrase an old saying: "It is better to remain quiet and be thought a fool than to speak up and remove all doubt." I guess some folks never heard of this one...

Mike: Our thoughts & prayers are with you and Dee.

This isn't hard,Mr. Bellm has his own business and other things to deal with. He decided not to deal with someone. His right. How is he a jerk?

I have ignored this thread for the most part but would like to point out a couple of things....

If you are a mature, rational adult and do not like the way you have been treated by someone that you are attempting to spend money with, WHY WOULD YOU?? HELLO?? If I feel as though I am putting someone out by asking them to do work for me (that I am paying good money for), I just walk away.

I had 2 problems with a couple of these custom barrel companies. One overcharged me for an �item� and the other sent me a POS (IMHO) instead of the �item� I ordered. I tried to rectify both of these situations, one gave me some half baked excuse and the offer of a partial refund and the other promised me a replacement item, think that either ever happened? Yea Right! After a period of time I just realized that I was dealing with people that had completely lost their focus on customer service. Think I will call them again to order more products? Almost.

I do realize that common sense went out with the �90�s but believe that we should at least attempt to use a lil bit of the good ole stuff in dealing with these companies. NOW, just so that this post does not appears completely negative, I have had dealings with others in the industry and am very satisfied. They will be receiving more $�s in the future from my wallet!

Additionally, this is NOT intended to in anyway be demeaning to the person that this post is concerning as I do not know the man other than what I have read of his posts. I do feel for him in the situation that he is in and would not wish it upon my enemies. Loosing an immediate family member kinda has a way of changing your life�s priorities� Right, wrong or otherwise, you have to respect a man that makes his family number 1 in his life!

[ 07-03-2003, 07:54: Message edited by: MSSmagnum ]

[ 07-03-2003, 09:24: Message edited by: KTS1 ]

HEHE MeatLoaf IMHO your problem ain't the facts as they are PRESENTED, your problem is in HOW the facts are REPRESENTED, this makes it a personal problem you will just have to learn to deal with.
It's a boring distraction to us who are open minded enough to see the diffrence.
Please go find some place where your attitude is more appreciated.

Wes

If nothing ever changed we'd have no butterflies

[ 07-03-2003, 09:25: Message edited by: KTS1 ]

Everyone my heart is heavily laden. I feel there are those on here that don't like me. I feel like I won't get any sleep this weekend. I wonder why I am not liked. I will be under great turmoil until I find out why.

Immaturity is not a cure for stupidity.

[ 07-04-2003, 03:23: Message edited by: MSSmagnum ]

I said that as a joke.. I don't care what you guys think of me. I believe all of you belong to the Elite Traditioal Handgun Police myself.

I have failed to be a Legend in my own mind like some on here. There is no hope. There is no joy.
I am tortured.

[ 07-03-2003, 21:40: Message edited by: Meat Plate ]

Meat Plate, If you would bring the LORD into your life you would no longer be tortured.
Albert

Immaturity is not a cure for stupidity.

[ 07-04-2003, 03:23: Message edited by: MSSmagnum ]