Long_rifle, I don’t think I’ve ever read quite as pessimistic a comment on July Fourth this side of the Daily Kos.

We are still the freest nation in the world, with the ability to do whatever we can conceive of doing. America is still the land of opportunity, and still the country that people are literally dying to get in. The country that gets criticized freely by its citizens, and yet, they don’t leave to go to other nations they deem more free or better—they’re still here.

Yeah, we’ve got fools in Congress. We’ve had them since there was a Congress, and we will have them as long as there is a Congress. It is obviously human nature to abuse power. But we’ve neutered the abuse of power beyond what most nations do. Just look at Zimbabwe.

I will take America over every other nation in the world. There is nowhere else I’d rather live, and I’ll stay here, warts and all.

“…He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good… He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them… He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only… He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures… He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers… He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries… He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance… He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power… For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury… For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences…”

It was a real tyranny back then – good thing we’ve come such a long way in the past 200-or-so years!

That they stood up for their ideals against the greatest military at the time, and WON is an amazing feat that I doubt will EVER be done again.

And what have we done with the freedoms they DIED for?

Pissed them away one by one in the name of “security”, or for “the children”. We’ve voted in the same type of fools over and over, who have passed their time in office creating “feel good laws”, and worrying more about their pensions then about raping the constitution.

Well. Happy 4th anyways. To those serving America this year and all years past I still salute you. Any and all are welcome at my home at any time. To those that gave the ultimate sacrifice, I’m sorry. I can no longer fight the socialists and the idiots. I can only hope that the memory of what you gave your lives for will live on in the future.