Why I rescinded my social security number, fought TN for driver license

Social security is a government Ponzi scheme and a fraud, giving no one who pays into it any contractual right to a benefit or profit as it might operate in insurance. One has merely procedural rights to what is effectively a political favor from the U.S. congress.

Social security is also a temptation to God’s people, encouraging them to disregard the duty among family members and to rely on the state for sustenance and security in old age. Convinced of the sinful nature of social security I took steps to dissociate myself legally from the system by asserting the remedy of rescission of contract, targeting and ostensibly undoing and abrogating the application for benefits and the social security number made by my parents, Bob and Marianne Tulis, when I was an infant.

Court action resulted from this step, primarily a denial by Tennessee state government of my right to have a driver license upon proper application. I sued to obtain a driver license, but declined to appeal a July 2001 negative ruling to the state supreme court. The case prompted the general assembly to rewrite a perfectly clear and good law in Tenn. Code Ann. § Title 55 that was being abused by Mike Greene, Gov. Don Sundquist’s commissioner of safety. The revision took into account my arguments about my right to have a driver license without a social security number. That law has been in effect two decades to the benefit of conscientious religious objectors to SSNs and to aliens and strangers who come to the U.S. from Mexico and points south seeking peace, liberty and prosperity.

This affidavit was entered as evidence at David Tulis administrative hearing and contains minor corrections from the one entered into the case heard finally by the court of civil appeals in Nashville. It establishes that my motivations are primarily religious. Religion is one of the few rights remaining to Americans upon which they might give a legal defense of their liberty.

Affidavit of David Jonathan Tulis describing Christian convictions on social security

Comes now David Jonathan Tulis, of Hamilton County, Tennessee, and does affirm the following from his personal knowledge as true: I am a religious objector to possessing a social security account and am conscientiously opposed to the acceptance of social security benefits.

I am a member in good standing at Brainerd Hills Presbyterian Church, where I have taught Sunday school classes to both youth and adults. I tithe, a loving duty placed upon me by God’s word. I lead my family in daily family worship and Bible reading, and catechize my three children, ages 3, 5 and 7. My wife, Jeannette, and I are actively involved in the home education of our children, and have ministered to other families seeking to fulfill the sweet task of rearing children in the nurture and admonition of the LORD.

Hereinafter is a statement of my beliefs concerning what the Word of God, as encompassed in the holy Bible, declares about being a beneficiary of social security.

Social security is deserving of God’s wrath and judgment because it is deceitful, thieving, corrupt, sinful and prone to encourage sin. The Bible defines sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God. Earnestly convinced of the unrighteousness of my coerced involvement with this government enterprise and having reached majority, I took steps to nullify, void and rescind a contractual relationship with that system which had been established by written application without my consent and knowledge when I was a minor.

The social security system violates at least five of the 10 commandments as found in Exodus 20.

I am not exempt from any of these commandments, but am subject to and liable for performance under them. Involvement in social security is contradicted by the

➤ First commandment (no other gods)

➤ Fifth commandment (honoring my parents and receiving honor from my children)

➤ Eighth commandment (“Thou shalt not steal”)

➤ Ninth commandment (no false witness or testimony)

➤ 10th commandment (do not covet).

It is perhaps enough to rescind, nullify and revoke any connection I may have formerly had with a social security account and number. But I have gone further, as God has given me means to do so. Trusting in God’s mercy and providence, I have kept my children out of the system and, instead, am teaching them God’s truth and praying for them, trusting that when they are of maturity, they can decide for themselves not to enter into such covenant with social security.

My religious convictions about this great evil in our day are sincere, abiding, and deeply held, based on my belief in God, as an individual, and based upon a duty, growing out of religious training and belief, which is truly and sincerely held; and that it is this duty which makes obtaining a social security account and number an impossible task. Christians are equipped by the God of Holy Scripture for “every good work to do His will” (Hebrews 13:21).

Sustaining myself and my family, and not participating in a taxpayer-funded retirement scheme, is something God has equipped me for. Among the equipment God has blessed me with, in the grace of His providence: good health, regular employment, savings, family, personal possessions, and modest Christian habits.

As regards my safeguards in the event that I become physically decrepit and in need of care and mercy at the end of my life, God has blessed me with a heritage. “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6).

My children are being instructed to uphold the fifth commandment, “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you” (Exodus 20:12). Insofar as my children live out the duties given in this commandment, the charge of my care in twilight years will fall upon them and upon my own capital resources, and not the American taxpayers and others who, either voluntarily or by force, fraud and deceit, fund the federal government’s vastly over-obligated retirement machinery. Here now are my obligations before God as regards social security and in the context of the 10 commandments, which is a summary of God’s law.

For me to be a beneficiary of Social security is to accept the claim that God will provide no care for me and my Christian family, that He will bestow no blessings upon me, that He will provide no private or charitable aid upon me if He ordains a disaster to befall me, that His mercies are insufficient, that He has no practical, providential ministry in the lives of those He has chosen.

To become a claimant upon the federal government’s social security system is to aver that a manmade idol can conceivably make my life, future and family secure; that it can provide me shelter and money if I am foolish with my family’s capital; that I do not need to obey God or beseech His blessing upon my prosperity; that I can enrich myself from the public treasury and overlook God’s commandments regarding theft, bearing false witness and covetousness.

First commandment — false worship

1st Commandment “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:2, 3)

Since God has commanded that I use other institutions of His own making which He has expressly appointed to secure myself and my family, and since He has forbidden the civil authorities from usurping the role of these other institutions, I would be disregarding God’s authority as Lawgiver (which He expresses in the first commandment) by following some other authority which has set itself up in place of the one true Lawgiver.

Indeed God has every prerogative, as He is sovereign, to claim my life and that of my family by a sovereign act subject to His decree, and not rescue me from misery, if that is for His glory. I do not count necessarily on His saving me as I might wish to be saved. But I rest in the comfort of His love and eternal mercy, as did Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou has set up” (Daniel 3, 17, 18).

As summarized by the Westminster Longer Catechism, to which I subscribe and which is a creed upheld by my church, the duties required in the first commandment are, the knowing and acknowledging of God to be the only true God; and our God, and to worship and glorify him accordingly, by thinking, meditating, remembering, highly esteeming, honoring, adoring, choosing, loving, desiring, fearing of Him; believing Him; trusting, hoping, delighting, rejoicing in Him, being zealous for Him; calling upon Him, giving all praise and thanks, and yielding all obedience and submission to Him with the whole man, being careful in all things to please Him, and sorrowful when in anything He is offended; and walking humbly with Him.

➤ “Today you have proclaimed the LORD to be your God, and that you will walk in His ways and keep His statutes, His commandments, and His judgments, and that you will obey His voice.” (Deuteronomy 26:17)

➤ “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in Him.” (1 John 2:3-5)

➤ “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” (Deuteronomy 6:4)

➤ “Trust ye in the Lord forever: for in YAH [Jehovah], the LORD, is everlasting strength.” (Isaiah 26:4)

➤ “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4)

➤ “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, whether neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21)

➤ “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.” (Matthew 7:24-26)

➤ “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” (Proverbs 3:5, 6)

➤ “The LORD will not allow the righteous soul to famish, but he casts away the desire of the wicked.” (Proverbs 10:3) The sins forbidden in the first commandment are, among others, idolatry, in having or worshipping more gods than one, or any with or instead of the true God; the not having and avouching Him for God, and our God, the omission or neglect of anything due to Him or required in His commandment; ignorance, forgetfulness, misapprehensions, false opinions, unworthy and wicked thoughts of Him; self-love, self-seeking, and all other setting of our mind, will, or affections upon other things, and taking them off from Him in whole or in part; vain credulity, unbelief, heresy, misbelief, distrust, despair, carnal security, tempting of God; using unlawful means and trusting in unlawful means; discontent and impatience at God’s dispensations; and ascribing the praise of any good we have or can do to idols, ourselves or any other creature.

➤ “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.” (Matthew 4:10)

➤ “Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.” (1 John 5:21) I do not have a social security account out of an abundance of caution as to property claims such involvement may create upon me. Involvement in social security involves the obtaining of an inscription, which implies a grant of ownership or jurisdiction over my person which God has not given me leave to grant. Jesus declared that an inscription on a coin gave Caesar legal title to possess it.

➤ “So they watched Him, and sent spies who pretended to be righteous, that they might seize on His words, in order to deliver Him to the power and the authority of the governor. Then they asked him, saying, ” *** Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” But He perceived their craftiness, and said to them, ‘Why do you test Me? Show me denarius. Whose image and inscription does it have?” They answered and said, “Caesar’s.” And He said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.” (Luke 20:20-25)

5th Commandment — honor authority

God, in the 5th commandment, says, “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you” (Exodus 20:12).

The scheme of social security is a defiant temptation of God in that it allows successive generations to forget the duty to parents, to leave care of parents to the state. It perversely subsidizes the destruction of families so that parents care not for the inheritance of their children, and the offspring see no duty in caring for their parents.

As society is atomized, each generation views its own needs without any context of history or any orientation to the future.

A system which encourages the breaking up of families in this way is a curse, and those who easily participate in its profits bring into their families the judgment befitting of the offense. The fifth commandment has three views. It governs how we are to act in regards to our inferiors (children), our superiors (parents, civil and ecclesiastical authority) and our equals.

That the American people have entered into covenant with the federal power, to have taxpayers fund the routine expenses of their elderly, indicates the extent to which they have lost confidence in the mercies of God. Many citizens, and many Christians, no longer assume the existence of a providential God who will assist them, as a separate people, in honoring the duties to their superiors.

(Sometimes, for His own glory and our training in holiness, God might not assist a particular individual, family or city physically, since that is His absolutely sovereign prerogative.) That they have entered agreements, willingly or via deceit and fraud, with the social security program makes it difficult or practically impossible to teach inferiors – namely their children – the necessity of honoring their parents, particularly when they are elderly, decrepit and in need of mercy.

Social security subsidizes moral and familial carelessness, and disallows the binding of care and duty among generations. Inferiors owe superiors due honor. Children owe their aged parents fidelity, defense and maintenance of their persons and authority, bearing with their infirmities and covering them with love.

➤ “Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine. For the Scripture says, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain,’ and ‘The laborer is worthy of his wages.’ ” (1 Timothy 5:17, 18)

➤ The pharisees in Jesus’ day had a scheme whereby they could avoid having to care for their parents. Jesus condemned these ostensibly pious clerics as hypocrites. “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition? For God commanded, saying, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’ But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever profit you might have received from me is a gift to God’ – then he need not honor his father or mother.’ Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition. Hypocrites!” (Matthew 15:4-7)

➤ “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.” (Ephesians 6:1)

➤ “Listen to your father who begot you, and do not despise your mother when she is old.” (Proverbs 23:22)

➤ “But Shem and Japhet took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father [Noah]. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness.” (Genesis 9:23)

➤ “Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them; they shall not be ashamed, but shall speak with their enemies in the gate.” (Psalm 127:3) Superiors owe inferiors due instruction and discipline. Scripture is replete with examples of families whose laxness in instructing children to obey the word of God brings chastisement or judgment.

➤ “Now Eli * * * heard everything his sons did to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who assembled at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. So he said to them, ‘Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all the people.” * * * Nevertheless they did not heed the voice of their father, because the LORD desired to kill them.” (1 Samuel 2: 22, 23, 25b)

➤ ” * * * Absalom provided himself with chariots and horses etc.” (2 Samuel 15:1-12) * “He who mistreats his father and chases away his mother is a son who causes shame and brings reproach.” (Proverbs 19:26)

➤ “And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.” (Ephesians 6:4) * “The righteous man walks in his integrity; his children are blessed after him.” (Proverbs 20:7) As a Christian, I have a personal duty to care for parents, widows and the needy, and cannot let ignorance of this commandment, nor greed, come between me and godly duty. Proverbs makes this point.

➤ “The LORD will destroy the house of the proud, but He will establish the boundary of the widow.” (Proverbs 15:25) * “He who is greedy for gain troubles his own house, but he who hates bribes will live.” (Proverbs 15:27)

➤ “Better is a little with righteousness, than vast revenues without justice.” (Proverbs 16:8) The duty I have in light of God’s commands, and the history of His people as recorded in Scripture, is to honor my mother and father, and not abandon them. Secondly, I am to teach my children the same, and to claim God’s covenant promises to me. I am to hope, in faith, claiming God’s promises to me, that my children will do their part in honoring God’s commands as regards their duty to me in my old age. To believe that my children will not honor me in my waning years is to disbelieve God’s covenant promises to His people, and to too weakly lay claim upon His vow to aid and encourage all those who love Him.

In light of this commandment, I am forbidden from engaging in a scheme that would weaken my obligations to my children and parents, and I am forbidden from supporting and encouraging others to neglect their duties. I am obligated to reject social security because it weakens the bonds of faith I have forged with my children and my surviving parents, and it would not glorify God.

8th Commandment — theft

God prohibits theft in the 8th commandment. “Thou shall not steal” (Exodus 20:15). Here is what is prohibited: receiving anything that is stolen, false weights and measures, removing landmarks, unfaithfulness in contracts or in matters of trust. I am prohibited from receiving anything that is stolen or the fruit of fraud or deception. Social security involves the exercise of federal political and police power against the property rights of the American people. Many people involve themselves in the system eagerly, voluntarily, in the hope of profiting on what they see as an investment. But others — both taxpayers and nontaxpayers alike — have social security contributions and benefits thrust upon them involuntarily.

Under duress, the victims of either ignorance, error and/or deceit, many Americans sign federal forms which either initiate the social security “contract,” or continue it with each successive employment or economic endeavor.

Many who are taxpayers are coerced into signing their children into a social security servitude because they are denied tax deductions if their children are not traded into the system as guarantors and beneficiaries. I am duty bound before God to avoid social security as I would an enterprise of thieves. In a plethora of verses, God commands all men to avoid alliances with thieves and abstain from enriching themselves from their booty.

➤ “My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. If they say, ‘Come with us, let us lie in wait to shed blood; ***Cast in your lot among us, let us all have one purse’ – my son, do not walk in the way with them.” (Proverbs 1:10, 11, 14.)

➤ “Do not be envious of evil men, nor desire to be with them; for their heart devises violence, and their lips talk of troublemaking.” (Proverbs 24:1, 2)

➤ “Do not envy the oppressor, and choose none of his ways; for the perverse person is an abomination to the LORD, but his secret counsel is with the upright. The curse of the LORD is on the house of the wicked. But He blesses the home of the just.” (Proverbs 3:31-33)

➤ “He who trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will flourish like foliage.” (Proverbs 11:28)

➤ “Do not rob the poor because he is poor, nor oppress the afflicted at the gate; for the LORD will plead their cause, and plunder the soul of those who plunder them.” (Proverbs 22:22, 23) * “Wealth gained by dishonesty will be diminished, but he who gathers by labor will increase.” (Proverbs 13:11) * “In the house of the righteous is much treasure, but in the revenue of the wicked is trouble.” (Proverbs 15:6)

➤ “He who is slothful in his work is a brother to him who is a great destroyer.” (Proverbs 18:15)

➤ “The lazy man will not plow because of winter; he will beg during harvest and have nothing.” (Proverbs 20:4) A related issue under the eighth commandment is that of being surety or a pledge for debts of another. Participants in social security are entangling themselves and their inheritance with a debtor, promising to be his surety. God warns against it.

➤ “My son, if you become surety for your friend, if you have shaken hands in pledge for a stranger, you are snared by the words of your mouth; you are taken by the words of your mouth. So do this, my son, and deliver yourself; For you have come into the hand of your friend; go and humble yourself. *** Deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, and like a bird from the hand of the fowler.” (Proverbs 6:1-5)

➤ “He who is surety for a stranger will suffer, but one who hates being surety is secure.” (Proverbs 11:15)

9th Commandment — false witness

God’s ninth commandment prohibits the bearing of false testimony. “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” (Exodus 20:16). Included in the duties of this commandment are to promote the truth between man and man, to appear and stand for the truth, and from the heart, sincerely, freely, clearly and fully speak the truth, and only the truth, in matters of judgment and justice.

This commandment forbids me from prejudicing the truth, calling good evil and evil good, concealing the truth, undue silence in a just cause, holding my peace when iniquity calls for either a reproof from ourselves or complaint to others, neglecting things that are of good report. I do not willingly have any part in social security because it would assert a false claim.

To be a beneficiary of social security is to affirm that it is legitimate and honorable. Since it is, on the contrary, an offense to Almighty God, I must not make a pretense of embracing or supporting this wicked scheme.

Social security has the appearance of a bilateral contract, yet the obligation of the United States Congress to fund social security is political, not legal, and can be stopped at will without legal recourse of its beneficiaries. To enter a claim for benefits with social security would be falsely testifying that the system is a regular investment scheme or a contract for insurance, when in fact social security puts all those on its rolls at the mercy of an improvident federal Congress.

For me to participate in the scheme would be to place an interest in it, to place a treasure in it, and act upon a desire for it to continue for my benefit, despite the coercion and deceit used against many natural persons by employers and the federal government to fund it.

➤ “‘These are the things you shall do: speak each man the truth to his neighbor; give judgment in your gates for truth, justice, and peace; Let none of you think evil in your heart against your neighbor, and do not love a false oath. For all these are things that I hate,’ says the LORD.” (Zecharaiah 8:16, 17)

➤ “I rejoiced greatly that I have found some of your children walking in truth, as we received commandment from the Father.” (2nd John 4)

➤ ” ‘You shall do no injustice in judgment. *** You shall not go about as a talebearer among your people; nor shall you take a stand against the life of your neighbor; I am the LORD.” (Leviticus 19:15a, 16)

➤ “He who speaks truth declares righteousness, but a false witness, deceit. *** The truthful lip shall be established forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment. Deceit is in the heart of those who devise evil, but counselors of peace have joy. *** Lying lips are an abomination to the LORD, but those who deal truthfully are His delight.” (Proverbs 12:17, 19, 22)

➤ “Do not remove the ancient landmark which your fathers have set.” (Proverbs 22:28) * “A righteous man hates lying, but a wicked man is loathsome and comes to shame.” (Proverbs 13:5)

10th Commandment — coveting

God’s 10th commandment prohibits covetousness and demands that we be content with the property and gifts that God, in His grace, has bestowed upon us. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”

This commandment requires a full contentment with our own condition, and such a charitable frame for the whole soul toward our neighbor as that all our inward motions and affections touching him tend unto, and further all that good which is his.

The commandment forbids discontentment with my own estate, envying and grieving at the good of my neighbor, together with all inordinate motions and affections to anything that is his. To covet a life of leisure, nonproductivity and unemployment, as envisioned by social security, is prohibited by the 10th commandment.

➤ “Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For he Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we may boldly say, ‘The LORD is my helper, I will not fear. What can man do to me?'” (Hebrews 13:5, 6)

➤ “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-6)

➤ “Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.” (Galatians 5:26)

➤ “But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.” (James 3:14, 15)

➤ “Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.” (Colossians 3:5, 7)

Avoiding being beholden to men

The Bible’s great interest is that God’s people be free from sin and that they be sons, servants and slaves to God. Salvation lifts the sinner out of the dungeon of enslaving sin and into the great liberty of God’s mercy and salvation, and a life of holy obedience. A derivative interest in God’s statutes is that God’s people, as much as possible, avoid becoming beholden to men, that they not let their sins and frailties drag them into subjection, liability, debt, obligation, servitude and slavery.

Social security is the equivalent to the first century beast mentioned in Revelations. Yes, Paul exorts all men to be content with their stations in life, whether slave or free. He urges on all men the freedom in Christ, in which context all of the elect have equal standing before God. “There is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). However, he exhorts that if a man of God is a slave that he use all lawful means to become a free man: “You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men” (1 Corinthians 7:21 ff).

In our day, social security is an idol which enslaves all those it purports to benefit. Every employer, many businesses, most civil authorities insist that one cannot act as a natural person, but must be a member of the social security pool. However, there is no human law which compels me to have a social security account and be a beneficiary of federal welfare.

There is no human law, in other words, that poses an obstacle for a Christian man like me to assert his Christian liberty to object to being a welfare beneficiary. Compelled by these Christian convictions, I have acted lawfully and legally to extricate myself from the human servitude of the social security system, and am prohibited from making application for a social security account and number.

I have no part in it, and have severed myself from any legal right to make a claim upon it. I trust that the thrice-holy God of heaven will deal mercifully with me. “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. Even so, I will defend my own ways before Him. He also shall be my salvation” (Job 13: 15, 16).

My temporal and spiritual security rest in God’s providence, not in the coercive ministries of federal agencies who lord it over their fearful and thankful subjects. I am confident the Lord God will bless any effort of mine to obey His commandments.