Ayn, Neal and the world around me...

[dover]

Dover, chance it all for your dreams & ideals.

 

Your dreams & ideals sustain even your most thorny foes.

 

If you give up the ghost, all will wither like the milk cow at famine's sharpest peak.

 

My heart will not be bled by the leeches of Liberty seeking the freedom from success and personal pride. They will not have my spirit no matter the times they claim a moral right to it. The collective's common good will not be placed above my right to breath the air and bathe in the efforts of my labor. They will not shade my Happiness with their arbor of fear and loathing.

 

Tomorrow is a good day.

[Ogami]

Dover, chance it all for your dreams & ideals.

 

Your dreams & ideals sustain even your most thorny foes.

 

If you give up the ghost, all will wither like the milk cow at famine's sharpest peak.

 

My heart will not be bled by the leeches of Liberty seeking the freedom from success and personal pride. They will not have my spirit no matter the times they claim a moral right to it. The collective's common good will not be placed above my right to breath the air and bathe in the efforts of my labor. They will not shade my Happiness with their arbor of fear and loathing.

 

Tomorrow is a good day.

 

There may come a day where your choice is made for you.

[dover]

Dover, chance it all for your dreams & ideals.

 

Your dreams & ideals sustain even your most thorny foes.

 

If you give up the ghost, all will wither like the milk cow at famine's sharpest peak.

 

My heart will not be bled by the leeches of Liberty seeking the freedom from success and personal pride. They will not have my spirit no matter the times they claim a moral right to it. The collective's common good will not be placed above my right to breath the air and bathe in the efforts of my labor. They will not shade my Happiness with their arbor of fear and loathing.

 

Tomorrow is a good day.

 

There may come a day where your choice is made for you.

 

Verily.

 

Compulsion by law is the last act against Liberty; death is sure to follow.

 

 

[dover]

July 4, 2012

 

Adoption of the Declaration of Independence

 

Treason:

 

In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a lesser superior was petty treason. A person who commits treason is known in law as a traitor.

 

In English law, high treason was punishable by being hanged, drawn and quartered (men) or burnt at the stake (women), or beheading (royalty and nobility). Treason was the only crime which attracted those penalties (until they were abolished in 1814, 1790 and 1973 respectively). The penalty was used by later monarchs against people who could reasonably be called traitors, although most modern jurists would call it excessive. Many of them would now just be considered dissidents.

 

 

On July 2, 1776, 56 men of varying age, wealth and character approved a document that basically was a signed death warrant. They did it not for a grant of money or a future IPO or a commercial signing bonus; they did it to seek out Liberty. They did it to free themselves of the unjust and undue burden of a King and his taxes.

 

They did it so that they, their families and their fellow citizens could better be enabled to pursue Life, Liberty and Happiness in a manner that they each saw fit for themselves.

 

They put their life, their property and their future on the line; they signed it and proceeded into history.

 

God Bless them, our Founding Fathers.

 

Happy Birthday to the Republic they envisioned.

 

 

[TupennyConan]

Enjoy the day!

[dover]

 

"Would it not be better to simplify the system of taxation rather than to spread it over such a variety of subjects and pass through so many new hands." --Thomas Jefferson

 

"To take from one, because it is thought his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to everyone the free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it." --Thomas Jefferson, letter to Joseph Milligan, 1816

 

 

 

I was sitting with my son the other night. He was ready for bed and we had some quiet time before his slumber.

 

We talked about normal things, what I did at work, what he did during the day; his summer break.

 

"Did you do any reading today?"

 

"No."

 

"Did you do any math review for the next year?"

 

"No. Dad, I am on summer break. I am supposed to play."

 

"Did you play today?"

 

"YES! I did this, and this and this and this!" (Fill in Wii, Kindle Fire apps, pool time, etc.)

 

"Son, you did what the average young man does in a day during summer break. In life, do you want to be average? Or above average? Do you think Edison, Ford, Jefferson sat around and waited for the world to come to them? Maybe you could find just a small amount of time to perhaps read and start to prepare for the coming school year. I am not asking for the whole day but maybe an hour out of the 8?"

 

The next day, he had a review book for his coming grade level and did some reading. All of which was done without losing too much time to the frivolity of summer break. He even admitted that he loved the book he was reading.

 

Does it really take that much time to influence? To lead our children forward and show them what a little work mixed into play will reap rewards someday.

 

 

 

[TupennyConan]

[Ogami]

 

My twelve year old got put on the fire by me yesterday and today. He has two book reports due when he gets back and the conversation with him was similar. And to poke at his dad, he had earlier told me he hated the book, one of my favorites as a child. (The Martian Chronicles) So yesterday and today was all legal pads, reading and writing, and tonight he comes up to me with a quote he's found in the book. It is essentially the heart of the text and he found it all on his own. And he wanted to show it to me. I was so proud. And of course, after supper, he wanted to goof off, but I made him start on the second book.

 

Kids were made to be pushed. They thrive on challenges and they want to create.

 

 

 

Thanks for that, Dover.

[dover]

"The steady character of our countrymen is a rock to which we may safely moor; and notwithstanding the efforts of the papers to disseminate early discontents, I expect that a just, dispassionate and steady conduct, will at length rally to a proper system the great body of our country. Unequivocal in principle, reasonable in manner, we shall be able I hope to do a great deal of good to the cause of freedom & harmony."

--Thomas Jefferson, letter to Elbridge Gerry, 1801

 

 

 

In the same vain, thoughts of my children growing up and growing out of the house have been met with conflicting results in my head and heart.

 

I wrote this off the cuff the other day, it sums up internals rather well.

 

In the same vain, thoughts of my children growing up and growing out of the house have been met with conflicting results in my head and heart.

 

I wrote this off the cuff the other day, it sums up my set of internals rather well.

 

I have fought every growth of age with all the tears of my youth.

 

I have relished every new moment upon its arrival.

 

Mixed bag of love and loss I hold in my heart......

 

 

I loved the times when they would climb into bed and snuggle in the morning. 3 years of age and full of dreams and light.

 

I loved the times when they began to read and inquire; Go Dog Go! I was with them every step of the way.

 

I loved the times when we could start to watch and share movies beyond Thomas the Train. Growing wide in search of fun and knowledge.

 

I love the times I enter into now, having real conversations and watching the forming of reason and thought. Growing.

 

I miss every step and I enjoy every present endeavor and every future path taken.

 

It is a mixed bag of emotion and love. I hold it tight, as tight as you can hold light in the palm of your hand.

 

 

 

 

[TupennyConan]

Nice. Very nice.

[dover]

 

 

"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined."

 

--Patrick Henry, speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, 1788

 

 

"Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death."

--Thomas Paine in The American Crisis, 1776

 

 

 

[dover]

The Annual Kiawah Summer Vacation was as great as always.

 

We did not do anything out of the ordinary, just played in the surf and the sun like there was no tomorrow. I never once sat down at the beach. I seem to be the magnet for the kids and their fun. If we were not riding the waves, we were building castles and moats and fighting the forces of nature.

 

We ate at our stand-by in Kiawah: Hymans. We kayaked with dolphins and explored the tide pools for anything we could find.

 

But really, this is what it is all about.

 

 

King of the World; I hold my future in my arms, fleeting and safe only to be let go so that they may swim in their own waters and ride their own paths deep into the web of life to become their own king and queen.

 

 

 

[dover]

 

 

Just so I understand: I am suppossed to turn a blind eye to the use of my property in the name of general welfare but I should, with felonious discretion, investigate what was done with private capital in private hands?

 

 

 

[namisgr]

 

Just so I understand: I am suppossed to turn a blind eye to the use of my property in the name of general welfare but I should, with felonious discretion, investigate what was done with private capital in private hands?

 

 

Something bothering you?

 

Great family vacation picture!

[TupennyConan]

[dover]

 

In a short but sweet moment of weakness, I put someone on ignore. I used to think that only the weak would do such a thing but I gave in and tried it.

 

I have found my experience brightened by the lack of this user's text.

 

All is good.

 

 

[dover]

 

"To cherish and stimulate the activity of the human mind, by multiplying the objects of enterprise, is not among the least considerable of the expedients, by which the wealth of a nation may be promoted."

 

--Alexander Hamilton

 

 

 

All tax paying citizens have worked and spent and contributed to the building of this country, all. Do we not all use it as well? Should some not be allowed or have a restricted access based on level of intelligence or success?

 

Does the person who pays no Federal income tax deserve to use it less? No, of course not. Does the person on food stamps or disability not enjoy the laws and regulations written to ease their access? And the cost to implement them? Paid for not by a benevolent dictator but by the tax paying masses moving in a wave of good will, even if contrived or compromised.

 

Then why does the person who has somehow benefited more not have the same use or is held to some other standard defined by the worse possible scenario; human morality? And due to the very progressive nature of our tax code, it can be shown they already do pay a larger amount to fund the infrastructure. And if they have a successful business, they pay additional taxes on top of that.

 

We are all in this together but yet we are put at odds to be in "it" at varying degrees of Liberty based on the amount of our property we have acquired? It is because of success we can afford more. It is because of the free market and capitalism that we have gone further and grown higher than any know system before, during and after the demise that is developing.

 

We said and fought and died to rid ourselves of the King. Why do we seek now to get back into the system of serfdom and its cause?

 

 

 

 

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.

 

Adam Smith

 

[TupennyConan]

In a short but sweet moment of weakness, I put someone on ignore. I used to think that only the weak would do such a thing but I gave in and tried it.

 

I have found my experience brightened by the lack of this user's text.

 

All is good.

 

 

Ignore is awesome.

 

What's weak about using some code? It's like considering PM's weak. Or quote nesting.

 

What's weak about wanting to enjoy your chosen form of diversion & play -- posting on the Boards -- free of those folks who spoil it for you? The ignore code was written to allow this.

 

It's great.

[dover]

In a short but sweet moment of weakness, I put someone on ignore. I used to think that only the weak would do such a thing but I gave in and tried it.

 

I have found my experience brightened by the lack of this user's text.

 

All is good.

 

 

Ignore is awesome.

 

What's weak about using some code? It's like considering PM's weak. Or quote nesting.

 

What's weak about wanting to enjoy your chosen form of diversion & play -- posting on the Boards -- free of those folks who spoil it for you? The ignore code was written to allow this.

 

It's great.

 

I learned.

I grew.

I enjoyed.

 

Still seems weak, just makes the experience as a whole better.

 

I have ice cream every night because I am weak. I still enjoy it though.

 

"sicko"

[TupennyConan]