Independence Day 2013

I have returned to the Valley on quiet feet.

Fireworks were scarce in the (All Democratic) run Los Angeles.  Fun killers, I say.

With the revelations that President Obama manipulated Federal and Intelligence Agencies to go against political opponents, (with NO outcry before 2012 by his partisans) not dangerous radicals around the world, it remains a quiet July 4th.


First some words by AJ Langguth from his book Patriots (I suggest that if you want to learn the History of America's birth, start here.). I read the book every July 4th.

"When members of the [Continental] Congress came to  Jefferson's stirring conclusion, a majority thought it should include one last appeal to the power even greater then George III.....'And for support of this Declaration, with the firm reliance on divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our duty and our sacred honor'

"On July 4, 1776, independence was declared in language worthy of it"
-- Patriots, AJ Langguth, pg. 362

Here is the beginning of that great document:

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We 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.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government....

Now, enjoy some music and fireworks:

Fireworks!