I’ve got a crowd coming to celebrate the 4th on the deck, if it doesn’t rain. If it does we’ll move indoors for a kitchen picnic. Either way, I still have a lot to do so I hope you enjoy my “best of the 4th” post. Happy Birthday America!
From 2010: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
These founding documents were designed and declared with full knowledge of human nature and complete understanding of the soul’s tendencies. The result was the formation of a more perfect union which has stood the test of time in no small part due to the wisdom of these founders who crafted a near sacred separation of powers within the government they created. Let us honor their courage, their genius and their foresight.
And for our part, let us be ever vigilant against those who would impinge on that greatness by opening the very gates that hold tyranny at bay.
From 2011: a pre-4th post from Camp David, Home For the Holiday: Feliz Quarto De Julio
Anyway, the long and short of it is Lady M decided to send me and Little Mo back to the Big White to weed and water the Big White Organic Garden of Versus in order to give our illegal Mexicans the rest of the Quarto de Julio weekend off.
From 2012: Happy Birthday America! July 4, 2012 , in which we quote from Abraham Lincoln:
“The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep’s throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as a liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty, especially as the sheep was a black one. Plainly the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of the word liberty.”
And a sort-of-recipe for some 4th of July s’mores that have been kicked up to notches unknown – s’mores surrounded by chocolate chip cookies. Good old American access exceptionalism. Thank you, President Trump!
Warning: do not eat more than a baker’s dozen (one for each original state)
From 2013, As it Turns Out, We Were the Ones We’ve Been Waiting For, we have Paul Harvey’s video essay on the fate of the 56 men who believed liberty was so important that they pledged “…our lives, our fortune, our sacred honor” to ensure it.
From 2015, Weiners on Parade, a tiny BBQ for tiny hamsters (h/t Blonde Gator). Creeper, if you’re out there, it’s the perfect meal for your new little buddy.
And from 2016 The 4th of July in Neverland, we witness the result of top ranked universities dropping the requirement that history majors study U.S. history:
To counter that sad state of affairs, which I note has not improved any with this year’s version, I leave you with this, excerpted from Thomas Jefferson’s 1826 letter to Roger Chew Weightman on the 50th Anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It reminds us what American Independence is really all about:
…our fellow citizens, after half a century of experience and prosperity, continue to approve the choice we made. may it be to the world, what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all,) the Signal of arousing men to burst the chains, under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings & security of self-government. that form which we have substituted, restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. all eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. the general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view. the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of god. these are grounds of hope for others. for ourselves, let the annual return of this day .forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them…
I do hope Progressive Democratic Socialists can read and understand this.
Anyway, get those baked beans in the oven, the potato salad in the frig, the burgers, dogs, ribs and chicken on the grill and party like it’s 1776! We’re Making America Great Again! Mr. Jefferson would be proud.
Happy Birthday America – Long May You Run!
Linked At: Larwyn’s Linx on Doug Ross@Journal, and Free Republic, Thanks!