I re-read the Declaration of Independence today and couldn’t help but feel very discomfited realizing how many of the objections to George’s rule can easily be matched to the current George’s rule. Just for fun, here are a few passages.

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 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 harass 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 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 imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

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.

Ever try to transfer a domain off of Network Solutions before it expires? Don’t do it until you read this and avoid my mistake. Here’s the process.

1) Immediately on login you are required to update your contact info
2) Request the domain auth information
3) Be informed that they’ll be holding the domain and rejecting transfers for 60 days because you updated your contact information. Naturally this usually means paying Network Solutions for another year’s worth of registration because we don’t generally transfer until its near expiration time.

Easy to see why they do it, and the real reason is obviously not security at $35/yr for registration.

There is no way to get to 2 without going through 1. The key it seems is not to update your phone number or any information at all. However you are required to enter a security question on that same form. I don’t know if you can submit it without altering your domain’s registration status and triggering the 60 day hold.

I guess the best strategy is to submit the form completely unchanged and go right through to the transfer page.