I tivoed the History Channel’s 6 hour special on the revolution. Groovy. Here’s hoping they spent more than 15 seconds on Arnold’s treason.

AY, with all due respect, and I do respect you, that paste up is a mixture of true and false information.

Mea Culpa if it is incorrect. The Beer part to Buddha is as accurate as I can know.

http://www.snopes.com/history/american/pricepaid.asp

The real facts of independence are impressive enough without mythical embellishments.

Two hundred and thirty-three years ago, our nation was born when a courageous group of patriots pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to the proposition that all of us were created equal.

Our country began as a unique experiment in liberty — a bold, evolving quest to achieve a more perfect union. And in every generation, another courageous group of patriots has taken us one step closer to fully realizing the dream our founders enshrined on that great day.

Today, all Americans have a hard-fought birthright to a freedom which enables each of us, no matter our views or background, to help set our nation’s course. America’s greatness has always depended on her citizens embracing that freedom — and fulfilling the duty that comes with it.

As free people, we must each take the challenges and opportunities that face this nation as our own. As long as some Americans still must struggle, none of us can be fully content. And as America comes ever closer to achieving the perfect Union our founders dreamed, that triumph — that pride — belongs to all of us.

So today is a day to reflect on our independence, and the sacrifice of our troops standing in harm’s way to preserve and protect it. It is a day to celebrate all that America is. And today is a time to aspire toward all we can still become.

With very best wishes,

President Barack Obama

July 4th, 2009

P.S. — Our nation’s birthday is also an ideal time to consider serving in your local community. You can find many great ideas for service opportunities near you at http://www.serve.gov.

Lobster screaming as it hits the heat. Hummmmm, ok count me in. So how is Boulder today? Happy 4th of July.

Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died.

Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured.

Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War.

They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.

What kind of men were they?

Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well educated, but they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured. Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.

Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward

Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.

At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.

Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.

John Hart was driven from his wife’s bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished. So, take a few minutes while enjoying your 4th of July holiday and silently thank these patriots. It’s not much to ask for the price they paid.

Remember: freedom is never free!

I hope you will show your support by sending this to as many people as you can, please. It’s time we get the word out that patriotism is NOT a sin, and the Fourth of July has more to it than Beer, picnics, and baseball games.

Buddha this one is for you: Liquid Cereal

Link: http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art36037.asp

Beer • brew | Da’ Instigator | swill | brew juice | barley juice | barley soda | wallop | suds | brewdog | brew-ha-ha | who hit John | hop juice | liquid sleep | wine’s poverty stricken brother | formula for naked frat fun | the key to malty man love | barley in a funnel | post-party cologne | reeb (beer spelled backwards) | steam (Old West Coast term for beer made under primitive conditions) | the remedy for empty bladder syndrome | the blood of the brew dude | the bridge the I crossed to losing my job | gold elixir | brewski | cold water sandwich |

IS,
I hope you understand that what you are quoting is a political
polemic, rather than historical fact. The author has a point of view in which he characterizes all progressives as supporting a basic agenda, which he/she anathematizes. That is fine as far as it goes, but does not a truth make. There is cherry picking of statements to benefit the argument being made and a distinct choice of a rampant racist and Jew hater in Woodrow Wilson. Then too we have old Cal Coolidge, a wholly owned subsidiary of the wealthy talking about:

“If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final.”

Yet Coolidge firmly supported the Southern system of subjugation by segregation, so perhaps he didn’t quite mean “all men.” As far as supporting “inalienable rights” he didn’t believe in Labor Union’s rights to organize and strike.
In fact the “all men” and “inalienable rights” he talked of were conceptually meant for the upper classes.

However, you are entitled to your view of things, but I suggest when you imply that people who disagree with you don’t believe in the “Declaration,” or “Constitution” I think that you not only have little proof of that, but that the very people whose views you support have proven their lack of fidelity to both. Were I to adopt the same line of thought I could well say that The entire Bush Crime Family has a three generation history of treason to this country and that those faux/neo conservatives who supported them also are open to question from a patriotic perspective.

While I’m sure you wished you had said it, had it been original to you it would have been a false characterization in any event and evidence of a lack of historical or political
insight. Have a great Fourth, but if you believe for one second that you are any more patriotic than the regulars who post here, you are awash in self-delusion.

If one can carry on a private conversation then all should be able to unless expressly stated by the Professor. If I see a rule on here that is posted by the owner of this site that such private conversations are only permissible by the Original Turlee’s then I will cease. Until then we are all subject to the same rules. Is that your Understanding Patty C or Patty C., or who ever you go by today?

Hopefully, we can close the deal in 2010 and lose the parasites.

Stronger for the sake of our Constitution is the aim, I reckon. To be sure, our holding the key to bringing it all back home is real. Today goes to certifying what just happened.

So, thank you, Professor Turley, and every patriot reading or writing hereabouts for the on target, elegant and sometimes brilliant writing.

A fantastic Fourth to you all from the Pitt Family.

Having thrown off, once again, the constraints of social correctness, I feel freer than ever!

Don’t know whether you caught Bill Maher last week, but the Billy Bob interview was rather on point when he talked about saying what you think and then experiencing people already lined up to bean you for it much in the manner applied to Patrick Henry and Nathan Hale, for Chrissake. Only, I’m not the traitor and remain of sturdier stock, as they say! I will survive.

I’ll probably be crucified for stating, also, that we don’t do
dogs n’ burgers at our house on the 4th. Because we live on the coast of Maine, we are compelled to provide combination menus of ‘bugs’ (lobsters) pulled fresh from our own traps and roasted in a pit outdoors with clams, mussels, and what ever other ocean fish we can find plus traditional fresh corn and potatoes AND grilled salmon and homegrown organic peas and herbs etc etc.

I’ll make a chowder and a quick cioppino with the leftovers.
Bon Appetit!
p.s. Mespo, right after I stated to you we hardly ever get whole, unpicked crab around here, I walked into my fish mongers place and he had a whole tank full. They took them of the hands of a restaraunt who was overloaded, as a courtesy, but positively hate the mess as a matter of course. From what I learned, they can ruin a tank – in no time…!

So, I learned something!

Good post Buddha! I agree completely.

The American Dream is not what we are but rather who we aspire to be. That we are staggering now is only a reason to enforce and remind each other that, as Jefferson said, “[w]e 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.”

The fight for liberty and freedom didn’t end in 1776. That’s when it began in earnest. If you believe in liberty and freedom, that in itself is reason to celebrate.

Take a look at the weather and expanded radar. I think you’re going to be happy.

I think that by 3 or 4 PM all the rain will have moved out, and you’ll be able to enjoy an evening outside.

Enjoy your 4th.

Prime Minister Lincoln led the war against the rebellion by the slaveholding states. He freed the slaves and saved the Union. Prime Ministers Churchill and Roosevelt joined forces to defeat Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. Ministers from Truman and Atlee through Bush and Thatcher united to win the Cold War against the Soviet Union. Have a safe and sane Fourth on this BiCentennial.

By the way, no one has ever reported a time line where Ron Paul gained power.

Via para-time multi-universe communicator.

The spoken words were a tribute to our country, not to John Wayne. Too many of us ignore the message, simply because, we don’t care for the messenger.

“The view of America that dominates the academy, journalism, major foundations and most segments of the American intellectual community was marked out at the start of the last century by progressive thinkers (learn more about them here) when they launched their grand project for America. They repudiated the Founders’ principles, holding that there are no self-evident truths—in the Declaration of Independence or elsewhere—only change in the constant search for progress without final goals. There are no permanent rights with which man is endowed, but endlessly evolving rights that develop and grow based on new demands. Our fidelity must be to a “living” Constitution that adapts to fit the demands of the times. The way forward is to control social conditions and engineer a better society, redistributing wealth through a distant and patronizing welfare state that regulates more and more of the American economy, politics and society.

Over the course of the twentieth century—as America’s principles were assaulted, undermined, and redefined in our culture, in our uni¬versities, and in our politics—we have taken significant steps down this path. The Progressive Movement laid the intellectual groundwork, but the basic infrastructure of the modern welfare state established under the New Deal has expanded in regulatory scope and social purpose under the Great Society and its progeny in both political parties. We are in the beginning of a new and perhaps decisive move in this direction.

Now, more than ever, is the time to relearn the meaning and contemporary significance of the Declaration of Independence and recognize that modern liberalism has explicitly rejected the truths it proclaims.

Woodrow Wilson, one of the most famous early progressives, argued during the 1912 presidential campaign that “all that Progressives ask or desire is permission…to interpret the Constitution according to the Darwinian principle,” meaning that it should promote an ever-expanding set of powers for an ever-expanding government. The problem, he declared, was that pesky Declaration of Independence: “some citizens of this country have never got beyond the Declaration of Independence,” he remarked with astonishment; “The Declaration of Independence did not mention the questions of our day.”

The progressive view rejects outright the very idea, at the heart of the Founders’ way of thinking, of being guided by permanent or fixed principles. As the prominent progressive historian Carl Becker put it in 1922, “to ask whether the natural rights philosophy of the Declaration of Independence is true or false, is essentially a meaningless question.” Such relativism renders meaningless the whole American experiment in self-government.

But denying the truth of America’s principles for the sake of “change” can make no claim to progress at all—a point made with unsurpassed clarity by Calvin Coolidge (learn more here) on the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 1926: “If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions.”

We don’t need to remake America, or discover new and untested principles. The change we need is not the rejection of America’s principles but a great renewal of these permanent truths about man, politics and liberty—the foundational principles and constitutional wisdom that are the true roots of our country’s greatness.

As we celebrate the blessings of liberty that America’s Founders made possible and the sacrifices of succeeding generations have enabled us to enjoy, let us also rededicate ourselves, and strive to rededicate our nation, to the Declaration of Independence.”

“If the human race manages to redesign itself, to reduce or eliminate the risk of self-destruction, we will probably reach out to the stars and colonize other planets.”

how does he know it hasnt been done before and we are the result?

To those you who follow science: Hawking has an interesting take on evolution.

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/07/stephen-hawking-the-planet-has-entered-a-new-phase-of-evolution.html

I too am not impressed with John Wayne. Jimmy Stewart was 10x the man and 100x the actor.

Admittedly no John Wayne fan, I would be more impressed with him had he actually served his Country during wartime when many of his fellow Hollywood Stars were enlisting like James Arness, Jimmy Stewart and John Ford. Wayne always had one more movie to make before making the decision to defend the Country he so calculatingly loved in the video you submitted. Come to think of it given his later support for all manner of wacko Conservative causes,he may have been the first chicken-hawk!

http://www.maylin.net/Fireworks.html

We’ve still got a maturing team and it wasn’t a total blowout despite the score. We had plenty of men on base, but we just couldn’t get them home. I still think Hillman has the team on the right track. Even if we go nowhere this year, if he can keep as good a composition as they’ve got now and work out the kinks, I still see a chance for my Royals next year. And it was at least the Sox we lost to. There are other Chicago teams it’s more embarrassing to lose to.

WARNING: THIS LINK GOES TO A WELL KNOWN MERCENARY FIRM. IF YOU CLICK ON IT YOU WILL BE TRACKED.

http://www.triplecanopy.com/triplecanopy/en/home/

“The question is am I making a joke or illustrating a point?”

The two are not mutually exclusive. I think that works as both.

It has been a pleasure to read this blog and the thoughts of all those who comment here.

The question is am I making a joke or illustrating a point?

Careful with those fireworks and “god bless our veterans” is just where I was going!

“Episode 208: Summer Sucks
Premiere:
June 24, 1998
Plot:
At the end of the school year, Mr. Garrison has lost Mr. Hat, and must endure without him. Summer doesn’t work out well for the boys, who can’t go sledding or build snowmen anymore, and their only source of summer pleasure, fireworks, have been banned. For South Park’s July 4th celebration, the Mayor gets a giant “snake” instead of fireworks. Jimbo takes matters into his own hands by going to Mexico to get fireworks. On his way back, he is arrested for smuggling explosives. Back in South Park, the snake is lit, but it produces an incredible amount of ash, so much that it carves a path of destruction throughout North America. Ash arrives in New York after Dr. Katz tells Mr. Garrison that he is gay, not Mr. Hat, and then it destroys the Mexican prison holding Jimbo. Jimbo brings the Fireworks back to South Park, and they are fired at the snake, making the ash disintegrate, fall like snow, and extinguish the snake.”

http://www.filmhead.com/slithy/southpark/spepisodes2.html

Happy Fourth of Jooewl-I!

I have added the video to the entry. Thanks!

We are BBQing here today. Last night we went to watch our Royals apparently forget how to play offense against the White Sox and watched the fireworks afterward. Hot dogs that had been cooking since June. Beer. Laughing at the guy in front of us someone had cut out a huge divot of hair on the back his head (seriously, one of the most egregious notch jobs I’ve ever seen – BZZZZT!). It was quite traditional and the new Kaufman Stadium was pretty swanky.

Whatever you’re doing, wherever you are, I hope you all have a safe and happy holiday and no one notches your hair.

I do have a question for the literary genius’s here: If the original American Hero’s had not been successful and been tried as traitors, would we have still been a possession of the United Kingdom?

Would Spain still have Florida and the West Coast? Russia Alaska? The French Louisiana? But most importantly to me would Texas, be a part of Mexico or Spain or an Independent Republic or would the French have taken it over ever so slowly?

Happy 4th of July, but I read that it was really the 2nd but it made astrological sense to proclaim it on the 4th as most of the original signors were Masons, Free? That is still a question to be resolved.

http://blogdredd.blogspot.com/2009/07/unanimous-declaration.html