Happy Independence Day!
We began our celebrations last night on July 3rd with the Turley fireworks display on our street (Fireworks are legal in Fairfax). We made “cowboy burgers” and my favorite Fourth of July treat (cherry pie). It was an enormous success as I set off roughly the equivalent of the ordinance used at the Battle of Verdun. Putting aside the increase of emphysema following the display, it was pretty cool. Tonight we will go to D.C. to watch that other (less impressive) pyrotechnic display.
I hope all of our bloggers have a great holiday.
You can only carry on a private conversation if you live on the eastern seaboard. I do live lobster though. Happy 4th!
Mike S,
Amen!
Buddha,
The Royals got the best of the White Sox today so at least they didn’t get swept. And you are correct when you suggest that it would have been worse to lose to the Cubs! Plus you guys were without Coco Crisp and he always gives us fits. Have a great 4th!
“I wish I had said this:
“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.”
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.
Happy 4th of July!
“25 tuned car horns activated by a homemade keyboard playing the Star Spangled Banner”
To all of the Turlee Blawger old and new:
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?
Happy 4th y’all. Kaboooom! I look forward to numerous fireworks displays over the gulf of Mexico tonight. Enjoy, wherever you are.
The flame never died. For eight years, the Republic endured occupation by hard core ideologues and vicious militant corporatists.
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.
mespo727272 1, July 4, 2009 at 8:47 am
This is my favorite 4th of July in eight years!!
—
Mine as well, bud.
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!
A Happy and Safe Fourth to All!
“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.”
Good post Buddha! I agree completely.
For those down in the mouth today, might I suggest you consider this: Liberty from tyranny is a battle that never ends. Celebrating one victory over tyranny in no way stops that battle, but is it not a reminder to us all of the high principles and grand vision of our Founding Fathers.
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.
while still unsure of our exact plans for this evening, I always kind of wonder about the notion of a day celebrating independence. Independence for whom? Certainly not for african americans, asians, women and others who were enslaved by the colonial notion that citizenship was something only white christian men could enjoy or appreciate.
I think about gay and lesbian friends today and wonder when they will be able to enjoy independence. I think about university professors whose opinions, made unpopular by those Patriot Act people have been silenced. i think about the value of freedom, and I mean real freedom, not the bumper sticker slogans, and wonder when an american who does not believe in god may be sworn in as an elected leader and when we can all stop pandering to the falsehood of wearing that pathetic american flag lapel pin as proof that we really are american and love our country.
today the sky is big and blue and clear as far as the eye can see and when I went down to the orchard to pick lemons and limes it felt pretty much like any other day. warmer, but not different enough to really have something to celebrate like an end to the war in Iraq or the end to “don’t ask — don’t tell” or a beginning for 46 million americans who don’t have health care and the 11 million children who are homeless and the millions more who are hungry.
i think I’ll save the champagne for another day when i can wake up in the morning and really see and feel independence for those among us who deserve it as much as I do and who dont have it.
lottakatz,
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.
Here at the Cross Time Saloon, we talk a lot about our alternate time lines. One guy tells about his world, where the the Revolution failed after Benedict Arnold betrayed Washington. Some of the Brits, however, wised up and passed the Act of Union of Britain and North America, ratified on July 4, 1809. North Americans like Adams, Clay, and Webster served in Parliament, where they worked to secure democracy for all voters by supporting Reform Acts. The Union prevailed over Spain, France, Mexico and Russia and spanned the continent.
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.
I do not believe that we should celebrate the 4th of July. People died for relatively frivolous reasons, such as taxation without representation (are the residents of D.C. going to war today?). It is not as if Britain enslaved the colonists. No, it was the colonists that enslaved others, and the nation they created sanctioned slavery. With the 3/5 clause, it ensured that the slaveholding states would control the government for most of the next 90 years. Britain freed the slaves in its colonies decades before the Civil War, so, had the U.S. remained a colony, slavery in the U.S. might have ended decades sooner.
mespo,
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.
I wish I had said this:
“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.”
BIL:
“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?
OFF TOPIC
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