It will be primarily an entertainment/websurfing device that supports video-streaming and e-zines and new media journalism, followed by email.  Therefore, it will be a color e-reader/book.  There might be some way to sync it to your iPhone, so you have 3G connectivity, also.  It will be WiFi capable.

It will serve as a portable database and infotainment pod.

http://legalinsurrection.blogspot.com/2009/08/health-care-ghimmitude.html

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Few individuals of the modern era seem to have been adequately educated in civics (the forms of governance and the role of citizens).  I am talking Boomerrs, Gen X’ers, Gen Y’ers, and Millenials.  They have not been provided with an adequate understanding of philosophy, history and world politics to make sense of the journeys of humankind from clan or tribe to a village to state and a nation.  They appear to have no more than a rudimentary understanding of the triumphs or horrors that arise from various forms of governance.

As such, much of the deep wisdom of the American Way has been lost, or, perhaps more accurately, has become dormant and from apathy, distraction, misguided or simplistic understanding, or suppressed with outright antipathy by  zealous ideologues.

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No matter our station in life, we modern Americans have enjoyed a cornucopia of liberty and plenitude arising from the sweat and blood of our parents and their parents stretching back generations.  “Good times” make people complacent.  In good times it is human nature to make assumptions that “the good times will always be here.” After a generation or two of good times, the historical struggle endured by our forebears becomes relegated to “ancient history,” and is often seen as irrelevant to life in modern times.

But the current era of economic turmoil and government excess—while chilling in their potential to upend our way—portend a revival of understanding as the Silent Majority wakes from its slumber to rediscover the perennial wisdom that our Founders not only recognized and put to law.  Jefferson, Washington, Adams and Franklin among others recognized the Truth about human nature and government, and they were willing to pledge their Life, their Fortunes, and their sacred Honor in order to secure for posterity.

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In order to begin answering the question “What’s the Point of a Tea Party?” we must go back to the source of our way of life.

The Declaration of Independence will be Exhibit A, a source document; it was the thinking behind this singular document that transformed the relationship of the governed to the governors throughout the world.  It begins:

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.

The Founders made their case to the world the reasons why they are dissolving the relationship of their being colonies of England and why they are declaring their Independence.  They are stating that it is natural for them to assume that they deserve equal standing, and that they are ready take an equal station on the world stage.

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.

The Founders were establishing that the rights of humans are both “self-evident” and “unalienable.”  Self-evident, of course means that these rights are obvious to all because they are so straight-forward and common-sensical.  “Unalienable” means that they cannot be taken away, that they are as stuck together as wet on water, and that even acts of tyranny and despotism do not strip away one’s rights.

“All men are created equal.” Even though the Founders were mistaken in their views of slavery and slaves (not seeing them as equals, a common global view of the time), we have corrected that, and the concept applies as Truth:  men are created equal before the law, and no one is above the law.

“Endowed by their Creator” conveys that these rights do not arise from a government or human law, because then these rights could be written away by some other law, or taken by some other form of government, such as dictatorship or tyranny.  Instead, the Individual Rights that humans possess come from a source beyond men, that is, they are “Natural” rights.  (Let not the atheist or the agnostic become upset with this term; one easily could have said that it is of “Natural Law” to possess the right to self-determination and to be free.)

“Among these [rights] are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of happiness.”

Humans have a right to their Life, and no one else may take it.  They have a right to Liberty, to be free from certain things (which later get listed in the Constitution).

Individuals also have a right to Pursue their own Happiness, which in the phrasings of the day, did NOT mean to pursue trivial pleasures.  It meant that Individuals could engage themselves as responsible for their own course in life without interference from government.  Individuals did not need to ask permission to make decisions that would best serve them.  They could make their own choice of occupation, when and who to marry, how and where to travel, with whom they could speak and associate , whether and how to worship, and how to conduct ones own financial affairs.

- 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.

Without some form of organization, however, humans will live in anarchy, and so they must institute Government.  But, the Government is not instituted to serve itself.  Government only has “just power” (that is, fair use of force), when people agree that they will subject themselves to that government.

Further, when Government is actually destructive of the rights of individuals, and pursues its own betterment without the consent of the governed, then people also have the Right to alter or abolish that Government.

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.

“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.”

Our Founders had both broad and deep understanding of the history of nations, dating back to the ancient Greeks, Romans, and Ottomans, as well as their contemporary French, German, Danish and British nation-states.  They knew that people do not like war, and attempt to avoid it, and are willing to put up with a great deal and attempt many other avenues to correct their grievances with a despotic or tyrannical Government.  But they also knew that enough had become enough, and that it is the right of a people, and an obligation to their children, to throw off such tyranny and form a new Government.

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.

“We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor.” These guys were “all in.”  They meant it.  They knew that to Declare Independence against the King was complete victory, or complete defeat.  That is why the rallying cry became “Give me Liberty, or Give me Death.”

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Deeply embedded in the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution of the United States is the acknowledgment of the primacy of the individual.  What does “the primacy of the Individual” mean?  It means that each individual possesses themselves; no one else can possess them (i.e. make a slave of them).  Further, it is understood that the individual makes decisions in their own best interest, and need  not get permission from another to do so.  It is also understood that decisions can only be made legally when one has (a) reached adulthood, that is, is no longer a minor; (b) is mentally competent to represent oneself (that is, is not deficient in intellect or experiencing psycho-pathology), and (c) has not voided the right to make decisions in society by committing any criminal acts.

The individual is the heart and soul of democracy.

A contrast to the primacy of the individual would be the primacy of the community: the community comes first.  Individual freedom and choice is always subverted through “rule by the majority.”  That means that while one individual might wish to be a nurse, that if the community says they must be a ditch-digger, that they have no right to pursue being a nurse, and in fact could be criminalized if they pursue such a career.

Once the belief in the primacy of the community becomes embedded in Government, it means the Government is now entitled to dictate to the individual what they can and cannot do with their life.  This philosophy effects a totalitarian government (ruled by a few elites who grant special privileges to themselves), and there is no longer any freedom granted to “the people.”  See USSR, Cuba, N. Korea, Maoist China, etc.

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It would be satisfying to say that we are headed to an era of greater liberty in the U.S.A.  Yet the movement over the course of the last 70 years is not reassuring.  The apparent statist agenda of the Obama administration is downright chilling.

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Our Founders had much learning about men and nations.  They had studied various forms of government.  And their wisdom resulted in the Constitution, which places limits on Government.  That is its principle role.

They knew that Government would seek to grow; it always does.  And as it grows, it becomes putty in the hands of shrewd and self-serving politicians and bureaucrats.  So, while it is essential for people to organize under a set of laws, it is also essential that those laws codify the limits of government.

That is why, in bold letters, the Constitution begins with, “WE the People.”  Not “We, the Government,” nor “I, the Ruler.”  It is a government “of, by and for the PEOPLE” not “of, by and for a king, a dictator, or  oligarchs” that this Union was established.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

So in the end, the answer to “What’s the Point” is that our representatives and the Administration (and all too frequently, the Courts) no longer seem to represent “we, the people.”  Too much power has accumulated in the Federal Government.  Our liberty has increasingly eroded, and as our Founders stated The tendrils of regulation extend in too many areas of our lives. The gross and excessive spending of our taxes, our Treasury, and the debt incurred by borrowing from foreign entities has placed the sovereignty of our nation in peril even as it places a burden of servitude on not only this generation, but that of our children.

And we have reached a tipping point.   We have suffered for too long.  Remember what our Founders said:  ” 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.”

And it is our time to do something about it, just as it was their time:  “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.”

It is time to return to our Founding Principles.  That’s the Point.

Well worth the 10 minutes.  Civics you may have forgotten (or never been exposed to).

Very cool “slice of life” with a piano piece that gets the tempo just right.  Well worth the 5 minutes of your life.

A post from a centrist woman as equally upset about the power grab by Washington.

(I could do without the devil, as it is divisive to Christians.  But the sentiments, I agee with.)

All power exercised over a nation, must have some beginning. It must either be delegated or assumed. There are no other sources. All delegated power is trust, and all assumed power is usurpation. Time does not alter the nature and quality of either.

Thomas Paine

From the comments:

During our own Revolutionary War of 1776-1783, to throw off the tyranny of the King, our country was quite divided. There were many Tories who sided with the King. There were many who didn’t side with either, but just wanted to be left alone—to intellectually lazy to become advocates for a cause.

We must fight, as Loyalists to the Constitution, to keep our freedoms and turnback the rising tide of statism.