Happy Independence Day

On the eve of a far more significant July 4 in 1776, George Washington sat in his New York headquarters, preparing to defend Manhattan from the British.  He contemplated what lay ahead as word circulated that the Continental Congress had formally adopted a Declaration of Independence, a momentous step toward establishing a new nation.

Washington took to his diary to consider the gravity of the moment:

“The time is now near at hand,” he wrote, “which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be Freemen or Slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their Houses, and Farms, are to be pillaged and destroyed, and they consigned to a State of Wretchedness from which no human efforts will probably deliver them.” 

“Our own Country's Honor, all call upon us for a vigorous and manly exertion, and if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the whole world.” 

“Let us therefore animate and encourage each other, and show the whole world, that a Freeman contending for Liberty on his own ground is superior to any slavish mercenary on earth.”

In triumph and in tragedy we stand united and defiant in the face of any who would challenge our commitment to our freedom and the future of our country.

Happy Independence Day

UPDATE:  Welcome readers of The Pirate’s Cove.  We thank the Admiral for the linky-love.

When Jesse Ventura And John Wilkes Booth And The Other Founding Fathers Signed The Declaration Of Independence…

May The Grace Of God Continue To Shine On Lovers Of Freedom Everywhere

When you watch the embedded video below, I hope you will enlarge it to appreciate the imagery within.  The back-story, according to Deseret News, is that Grammy-nominated violinist Jenny Oaks Baker chose to collaborate with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on a rendition of “Amazing Grace” following a speech by Rice at a BYU Management Society event in April 2012.

The duo recorded the track in July 2013 and a year later, Baker flew to San Francisco to record the video with Rice. Now, two years after the recording process began, the video has been released just as Americans across the country gather in celebration of the country and those who have sacrificed so much for freedom.

The song is currently available as a single through iTunes. According to representatives at Shadow Mountain Records, all proceeds from the sale of the single will go to the Wounded Warrior Project.

I must confess I had a lump in my throat watching the beauty and grace of these two women and the truly wonderful gift they have given us on this Independence Day.

That’s What America Means To Me

I’ve been a witness to history just as you have.  America has been the noblest country the world has ever known and nothing the other side says will ever persuade me to change my mind.

The greatest generation liberated Europe in the Second World War, we sent a man to the moon, we led the Industrial Revolution and ten days after the attacks of 9/11 when the nation was so terribly sad, my beloved Atlanta Braves played the New York Mets in Shea Stadium in the first public event after the attacks.  The stadium was still being used as a triage center.

After Marc Anthony sang “The Star Spangled Banner” the rival teams, standing on the first base and third base lines, crossed the diamond to hug each and shake hands. Everyone was rooting for the Mets to win as a symbol of the nation’s resilience.

For game three of the 2001 World Series, President George W. Bush walked ramrod-straight onto the field of Yankee Stadium and threw out the first pitch.  His pitch was a perfect strike.  The crowd erupted into chants of “USA, USA, USA.”

The city of New York had been reduced to rubble, but the crowd swelled with national pride.  If baseball could carry on, then so could we.  Watching President Bush toss that ball gave me a lump in my throat and every, and I mean every time I hear the national anthem I get a lump in my throat.

A “Gibraltar in cleats”, Lou Gehrig, on July 4, 1939 gave his farewell speech to baseball in Yankee Stadium—a place dedicated to the courage of men.  Seventy-six years ago, with tears streaming down his face, Gehrig humbly told 61,808 fans in the bleachers that he had been forced to retire due to ALS.

We are the country that authored the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and we’ve had more than our fair share of heroes. 

This July Fourth I will ignore the people in the beltway with abscessed hearts who try desperately to divide us.  I am going to remember what America means to me.  Come Monday, I will take up the fight again.

On this most American of holidays, I will dwell in a happy place and enjoy the most American of things:  baseball, apple pie and Independence Day.

I wish you all a safe and happy Fourth of July.  God bless America.

Hooray For The Red, White And Blue

Today is America’s 238th birthday.  In my neck of the woods the weather is going to be sunny with low humidity.  Last night we were getting rain from Hurricane Arthur, but this morning the sun came up with the promise of glorious weather to celebrate our independence.

Our fellow countrymen in Murrieta, CA rose up last week to turn away busloads of illegal immigrants that were slated to be dumped there by federal authorities.  It was reminiscent of that day on Manhattan Island when General George Washington and his weary troops marched toward the Battery to oversee the evacuation of Loyalists.  As the Redcoats and their sympathizers rowed out to the ships that would take them away, an American sailor clambered up the flagpole atop Fort George and pulled down the Royal Ensign and replaced it with the Stars and Stripes.  Moments later the wind caught it and the soldiers cheered as the American flag once again flew overhead.

We are a great nation.  The fact that a huge number of Democrats and independents have now come to realize that The World’s Most Dangerous Community Organizer is the worst president since World War II—a span of 70 years—and the prairie fire of rebellion against the flood of moochers crossing the border illegally is reaching a fevered pitch heartens me.

So Casa de Curmudgeon is plowing ahead with its annual Fourth of July Block Party.  The deck is appropriately decorated for the occasion.  The fireworks were purchased weeks ago and I finally installed outdoor speakers.  My guests will be able to enjoy tunes as I dip into the old jukebox for some summer gold tunes.

I made a run to the grocery store to pick up the ingredients for the Hemingway Hamburger.  A guy on the radio was talking about it the other day on my way into work.  I looked up the recipe and I’m pretty jazzed about making them for my guests.  We’ll also enjoy the savory delights of lobster tails and shrimp on the barbie along with all the obligatory accoutrements.  For dessert there will be blueberry and apple pies and homemade peach ice cream hand-churned on my old White Mountain ice cream freezer.

I hope everyone has a happy, healthy and safe Fourth.  God bless America and God bless all three of my faithful readers.

Broad Stripes And Bright Stars

Photo Credit:  Web Browning, Kristen Garlow Piper and Avery Wedder

"Those who won our independence believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty."

If They Could See Us Now

The Presidents by Georgia artist Steve Penley

America celebrated her 236^th birthday today.  The old girl is looking pretty haggard lately.

We’ve got cemeteries that consider placing the American flag on gravesites “excessive adornment” and unsightly.  A city in Oregon canceled its longstanding fireworks display because the noise might disturb nearby seabirds.  We even have an overrated, potty-mouthed comedian who took to his Twitter account to say, “Happy white peoples Independence Day the slaves weren’t free but I’m sure they enjoyed fireworks.”  He bashed the country that has afforded him success and millions in wealth.  I could go on, but you can see where I was headed.

Across the breadth and depth of his great land, there were parades in red, white and blue.  Old glory flapped proudly in the breeze. 

The examples above show that this nation is diverging.  Many Americans hold fast to the ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness while a growing number of our brethren plunge this country into disarray and despair.  I wonder what the Founders would think if they could see us now.

In a supreme act of courage and defiance 236 years ago, our Founders knew that government must be limited to protecting the peace and preserving our liberties.  They set up a system of checks and balances so that government operated through the consent of the governed—of the people, by the people, for the people—We The People.

Bill Frezza, writing at Forbes, laments the lost legacy of Independence Day:

Why do we still celebrate Independence Day? Is it a lingering habit, a mindless bit of nostalgia, a time to indulge in fireworks and barbecues, devoid of any deeper meaning? Can anyone honestly argue that our nation still honors the values, or practices the principles, for which our Founders fought? 

Today, most Americans have been trained to be embarrassed by the “extremist” individualist ethos that made the protection of liberty the primary purpose of government. They have been taught to apologize for the shortcomings of the “rich white men” who led the revolution. A majority of Americans now subscribe to an expansive view of government as both great provider and beneficent leveler. Its primary purpose is to redress unequal or unhappy outcomes, regardless of their source, through wealth redistribution on a scale so vast that it mocks the concept “private property.” 

As for the causes of revolution, we’ve lost sight of them, too. King George III was a champion of laissez-faire compared to the modern cradle-to-grave entitlement state. The swollen capital city named after the man who won our freedom now claims the prize for erecting “a Multitude of new offices” bent on sending out “Swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.” If there is a field of endeavor that the federal government does not yet regulate, subsidize, or penalize, just wait. A new law is only a “crisis” away.

Freedom, liberty, justice and equality comprise the bedrock on which this nation was founded.  We stray from it at our peril.

What Will You Do Without Your Freedom?

“We on this continent should never forget that men first crossed the Atlantic not to find soil for their ploughs but to secure liberty for their souls.”—Robert J. McCracken

Photoshop™ Of The Day: The Cherished Emblem Of Our Freedom

O beautiful for spacious skies, 

For amber waves of grain, 

For purple mountain majesties 

Above the fruited plain! 

America! America! 

God shed his grace on thee 

And crown thy good with brotherhood 

From sea to shining sea! 

Right Jabs For Freedom

Politics is not a playground, it’s a battlefield.  Here’s the news you can use from conservative bloggers, not the corporate-controlled stenographers from Central Planning.

Richard Nixon, often accused of being an imperial president, never approached the extent to which we now see President Obama taking extra legal acts to silence his opposition.

Joe Biden’s secret mission.

…if you think Bush using his Constitutional authority to replace U.S. Attorneys is a giant scandal, but shrug your shoulders at the federal government sending guns to Mexico, where drug cartels use them to kill a U.S. Border Patrol agent, then you are a hopeless partisan hack who is literally willing to overlook murder to advance your political agenda.

We all know Chávez is a buffoon, but, as Roger Kimball said, the ridiculous is no laughing matter.

Oh, wait. It’s pink people.

…isn’t it curious that while on his daily fundraising binge Monday, Obama himself had someone privately foot the tab for security at a New Hampshire stop after the locals decided they’d had enough of this freeloader campaigning on the public dime.

So, America bailed out GM and GM has since bailed on America.

What if Hillary Clinton and a couple of deputies in the State Department, The National Security Council, Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, the White House, and maybe Senators Durbin and Feinstein were all complicit in Fast and Furious? What if Hillary led the strategic planning? What if the administration wanted to restrict our Second Amendment rights and both she and Barack Obama told us that 90% of the weapons used in crimes in Mexico came from the United States…

What exactly is being purchased with all these Food Stamps? Our rulers won’t say.

No possibility of fraud here! Nothing to see! Move along! 

As the so-called Arab Spring brings yet another Islamic government hell-bent on introducing Sharia law—rather than anything resembling freedom and democracy—it's become glaringly obvious that in its wake the world has not gotten better for anyone, save medieval Muslim fanatics…and nobody knows it better than the almost 50% that voted against Morsi this past weekend.

Take a good look at what you disrespected.

It's never a bad thing when your enemies escape into a delusional state, to a world of their making in which they are in complete control of everything. It makes it more likely that they will cede at least some control over the real world. And it's not only an admission of defeat, but of emotional and mental fragility. Adults don't need to build fantasy worlds to escape the effects of their failures on their precious self-esteem. That's for overgrown children who are used to getting trophies for just showing up.

I wonder how understanding and patriotic they will be when Taxmageddon hits.

Everybody paaaaanic…wait, what? .02 inches worldwide? .08 inches from Hatteras to Boston?

…Brian Williams is a big reason for our national ignorance.

The background music has been the constant refrain that everything wrong is Bush’s fault. Obama continues to sing this tune like some aging vaudevillian barnstorming in the Catskills, desperate for one last round of applause.

More of that homosexual tolerance we keep hearing so much about!

As we ready ourselves to celebrate the Fourth of July, let's remember that nothing has been more dearly purchased than our freedom.

What Are You Doing To Stand Guard Over Liberty?

Instapundit’s column in Sunday’s Washington Examiner offers three things you can do now for liberty rather than just bidding time until the 2012 elections.

Attack the funding. Many of the most anti-liberty activities of state and local governments are driven by federal funding—either direct funding, or grants.

Stop supporting the enemies of freedom and start supporting your friends. Cancel your subscriptions to cable TV channels, magazines or newspapers that support big government over individual liberty.

Join Together. It may seem contradictory to assert your independence by banding together. But our Founding Fathers didn't set America free by acting alone.

I urge you to read the whole thing, but I’d also like to recommend three ideas of my own.

A new Harvard University study finds that July 4th parades energize only Republicans, turn kids into Republicans, and help to boost the GOP turnout of adults on Election Day.  It’s an insipid claim, but if true, go to that hometown parade.  We need more Republicans to stand guard over liberty.  It’s wonderful knowing that Progs fear patriotism.

Monitor the activities of your local Organizing For America office.  If they are operating a phone bank from a church in your area, you should challenge them.

And finally, please support our troops. America continues to uphold its ideals and is a symbol of freedom and democracy for the entire world thanks to our brave military men and women.

Via a thread at Memeorandum.