238 years later, are we free and independent?
On July 4, 2014, the United States of America celebrates its 238th birthday. Because on this date 238 years ago, two days after the Continental Congress voted on the Lee Resolution, the formal Declaration of Independence was issued. Since re-enactors read the text of that crucial document, it's worth reviewing here:
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."
I remember having to take a college course in American History and the only way to sneak it in was a ridiculous offering. I was stationed at Andersen Air Force Base on Guam and the University of Guam offered courses on base during their winter break. Four week courses that met four nights a week for four hours. But it would satisfy my degree's American History requirement, so I spent sixteen hours a week with one of the most boring professors I've ever met.
His introduction to the Revolutionary War was "basically the colonists didn't want to pay taxes to the King, as they objected to taxation without representation." That theme of taxation without representation would be repeated throughout that part of the course.
Do we actually have any more representation now than our ancestors did in 1776? The United States Constitution called for one member of the House of Representatives for every 30,000 in population. Today that radio is closer to 700,000 to the one House representative. My representative in the House represents so many people, how can she truly represent all of us? The Senate is worse. Senators Feinstein and Boxer each represent 19 million people.
Worse yet, the presence of Super-PACS makes the influence of big money in politics even more pervasive today than ever. Our government represents the interests of the wealthy far more than it does of the rest of us.
Can we solve this problem and become truly independent? Perhaps. We need to adopt the words of the late President John F. Kennedy who said "ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country."
* * *
Yesterday, I managed to catch a bit of a fundraiser being held to raise funds for the Bob Hope USO. I did not know there are four locations of the Bob Hope USO, one at LAX and others in Ontario, Palm Springs and Orange County.
I've probably mentioned the USO in the past, but hearing people working hard to raise funds for this non-profit organization that has 20 volunteers for every one paid employee, I was reminded of just how much the USO does for military personnel. I've never been to the USO at LAX because I live here, but I've visited other USO locations and am grateful for the creature comforts and support they gave me.
The military keeps us as free and independent as our currently elected leadership allows us to be, and without the USO, the military's job would be a lot tougher. Thanks to the USO and its volunteers.
* * *
The three female justices on the U. S. Supreme Court have lost another round, even if only a temporary restraining order was involved. The scathing dissent written by Justice Sonia Sotomayor says that issuing this order calls the recent ruling in the Hobby Lobby case into question.
"Those who are bound by our decisions usually believe they can take us at our word," Sotomayor wrote. "Not so today."
If people don't want to use contraceptives, they don't have to. However, they are a basic part of any healthcare plan and if an employer wants to provide healthcare, it must include contraception.
I bet a Supreme Court with a female majority would have ruled differently.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Joey Chestnut won the annual Nathan's hot dog eating contest today. He ate 61 hot dogs in only ten minutes. What I find amazing is that people are disappointed that he only got to 61, since he ate 69 hot dogs last year. Here's footage of "Jaws" eating a 5.5 lb burrito in three minutes and ten seconds.
I had no idea that grapes can catch fire if you put them in a microwave. Wait a minute, why would you do that?
That 27 of the 50 states (including California) don't tax Social Security is great. Why do the other 23 tax it?
I've ranted about Joan Rivers needing to shut up, but calling the President gay was way over the top and referring to Michelle Obama as transgender was ludicrous.
The 21 year old wife of an Army soldier is dying, and refusing cancer treatments that would "reduce the quality of the time she has left with her newborn infant." It's incredibly sad, and incredibly courageous in my book.
A study shows that federal contractors discriminate in hiring members of the LGBT community. They needed to study the issue to prove this?
I wasn't aware that Richard Mellon Scaife was ill. He just died. The 82 year old billionaire was a newspaper person and he loved it. He announced he was ill with untreatable cancer, and did so in a courageous way. "Nothing gives perspective to life so much as death. Recently, doctors told me I have an untreatable form of cancer. Some who dislike me may rejoice at this news," Scaife wrote, adding, "Naturally, I can't share their enthusiasm."
Did I mention I got a new VA ID card? But I still carry the old one, because the new ones don't work with their current scanning system.
* * *
July 4th in History:
362 BC – Battle of Mantinea: The Thebans, led by Epaminondas, defeated the Spartans.
414 – Emperor Theodosius II, age 13, yields power to his older sister Aelia Pulcheria, who reigned as regent and proclaimed herself empress (Augusta) of the Eastern Roman Empire.
836 – Pactum Sicardi, a peace treaty between the Principality of Benevento and the Duchy of Naples, is signed.
993 – Ulrich of Augsburg is canonized as a saint.
1054 – A supernova is seen by Chinese, Arab and possibly Amerindian observers near the star Zeta Tauri. For several months it remains bright enough to be seen during the day. Its remnants form the Crab Nebula.
1120 – Jordan II of Capua is anointed as prince after his infant nephew's death.
1187 – The Crusades: Battle of Hattin: Saladin defeats Guy of Lusignan, King of Jerusalem.
1253 – Battle of West-Capelle: John I of Avesnes defeats Guy of Dampierre.
1359 – Francesco II Ordelaffi of Forlì surrenders to the Papal commander Gil de Albornoz.
1456 – Ottoman wars in Europe: The Siege of Nándorfeqhérvár (Belgrade) begins.
1534 – Christian III is elected King of Denmark and Norway in the town of Rye.
1610 – The Battle of Klushino is fought between forces of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Russia during the Polish-Muscovite War.
1634 – The city of Trois-Rivières is founded in New France (now Quebec, Canada)
1744 – The Treaty of Lancaster, in which the Iroquois cedes lands between the Allegheny Mountains and the Ohio River to the British colonies, was signed in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
1754 – French and Indian War: George Washington surrenders Fort Necessity to French Capt. Louis Coulon de Villiers.
1774 – Orangetown Resolutions are adopted in the Province of New York, one of many protests against the British Parliament's Coercive Acts
1776 – American Revolution: The United States Declaration of Independence is adopted by the Second Continental Congress.
1802 – At West Point, New York, the United States Military Academy opens.
1803 – The Louisiana Purchase is announced to the American people.
1817 – In Rome, New York, construction on the Erie Canal begins.
1826 – Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, dies the same day as John Adams, second president of the United States, on the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the United States Declaration of Independence.
1827 – Slavery is abolished in New York State.
1831 – Samuel Francis Smith writes My Country, 'Tis of Thee for the Boston, Massachusetts July 4 festivities.
1837 – Grand Junction Railway, the world's first long-distance railway, opens between Birmingham and Liverpool.
1838 – The Iowa Territory is organized.
1855 – In Brooklyn, New York City, the first edition of Walt Whitman's book of poems, Leaves of Grass, is published.
1862 – Lewis Carroll tells Alice Liddell a story that would grow into Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequels.
1863 – American Civil War: Siege of Vicksburg: Vicksburg, Mississippi surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant after 47 days of siege. One hundred fifty miles up the Mississippi River, a Confederate Army was repulsed at the Battle of Helena, Arkansas.
1863 – American Civil War: The Army of Northern Virginia withdrew from the battlefield after losing the Battle of Gettysburg, signalling an end to the Southern invasion of the North.
1865 – Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is published.
1878 – Thoroughbred horses Ten Broeck and Mollie McCarty run a match race, recalled in the song Molly and Tenbrooks.
1879 – Anglo-Zulu War: The Zululand capital of Ulundi is captured by British troops and burned to the ground, ending the war and forcing King Cetshwayo to flee.
1881 – In Alabama, the Tuskegee Institute opens.
1886 – The people of France offer the Statue of Liberty to the people of the United States.
1886 – The first scheduled Canadian transcontinental train arrives in Port Moody, British Columbia.
1887 – The founder of Pakistan, Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, joins Sindh-Madrasa-tul-Islam, Karachi.
1892 – Western Samoa changes the International Date Line, so that year it had 367 days, with two occurrences of Monday, July 4.
1894 – The short-lived Republic of Hawaii is proclaimed by Sanford B. Dole.
1903 – Philippine–American War officially is concluded.
1903 – Dorothy Levitt is reported as the first woman in the world to compete in a 'motor race'.
1910 – African-American boxer Jack Johnson knocks out white boxer Jim Jeffries in a heavyweight boxing match, sparking race riots across the United States.
1911 – A massive heat wave strikes the northeastern United States, killing 380 people in eleven days and breaking temperature records in several cities.
1913 – President Woodrow Wilson addresses American Civil War veterans at the Great Reunion of 1913.
1914 – The funeral of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie takes place in Vienna, six days after their assassinations in Sarajevo.
1918 – Ottoman sultan Mehmed VI ascended to the throne.
1918 – World War I: The Battle of Hamel, a successful attack by the Australian Corps against German positions near the town of Le Hamel on the Western Front.
1918 – Bolsheviks killed Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his family (Julian calendar date).
1926 – Knoebels Amusement Resort is opened in Elysburg, Pennsylvania.
1927 – The Lockheed Vega first flew.
1934 – Leo Szilard patented the chain-reaction design for the atomic bomb.
1939 – Lou Gehrig, recently diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, informs a crowd at Yankee Stadium that he considered himself "The luckiest man on the face of the earth", then announces his retirement from major league baseball.
1939 – Huỳnh Phú Sổ founds Hòa Hảo Buddhism.
1941 – Nazi troops massacre Polish scientists and writers in the captured Ukrainian city of Lviv.
1943 – World War II: The Battle of Kursk, the largest full-scale battle in history and the world's largest tank battle, begins in Prokhorovka village.
1943 – World War II: In Gibraltar, a Royal Air Force B-24 Liberator bomber crashes into the sea in an apparent accident moments after takeoff, killing sixteen passengers on board; only the pilot survives.
1946 – After 381 years of near-continuous colonial rule by various powers, the Philippines attains full independence from the United States.
1947 – The "Indian Independence Bill" is presented before the British House of Commons, proposing the independence of the Provinces of British India into two sovereign countries: India and Pakistan.
1950 – Radio Free Europe first broadcasts.
1951 – A court in Czechoslovakia sentences American journalist William N. Oatis to ten years in prison on charges of espionage.
1951 – William Shockley announced the invention of the junction transistor.
1960 – Due to the post-Independence Day admission of Hawaii as the 50th U.S. state on August 21, 1959, the 50-star flag of the United States debuts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, almost ten and a half months later (see Flag Act).
1966 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Freedom of Information Act into United States law. The act went into effect the next year.
1976 – Israeli commandos raid Entebbe airport in Uganda, rescuing all but four of the passengers and crew of an Air France jetliner seized by Palestinian terrorists.
1977 – The George Jackson Brigade plants a bomb at the main power substation for the Washington state capitol in Olympia, in solidarity with a prison strike at the Walla Walla State Penitentiary Intensive Security Unit
1982 – Four Iranian diplomats are abducted by Lebanese militia in Lebanon.
1987 – In France, former Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie (aka the "Butcher of Lyon") is convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life imprisonment.
1994 – Rwandan Genocide: Kigali, the Rwandan capital, is captured by the Rwandan Patriotic Front, ending the genocide in the city.
1997 – NASA's Pathfinder space probe lands on the surface of Mars.
1998 – Japan launches the Nozomi probe to Mars, joining the United States and Russia as a space exploring nation.
2004 – The cornerstone of the Freedom Tower is laid on the site of the World Trade Center in New York City.
2005 – The Deep Impact collider hits the comet Tempel 1.
2009 – The Statue of Liberty's crown reopens to the public after eight years of closure due to security concerns following the September 11 attacks.
2012 – The discovery of particles consistent with the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider is announced at CERN.
Famous Folk Born on July 4th:
Ashikaga Yoshiakira, Shogun of Japan
Murad III
Oscar I of Sweden
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Hiram Walker
Stephen Foster
Calvin Coolidge
General Ulysses Grant, III
Louis B. Mayer
Rube Goldberg
Gertrude Lawrence
Meyer Lansky
Gloria Stuart
Pauline Phillips
Leona Helmsley
Eva Marie Saint
Gina Lollobrigida
Peter Angelos
Al Davis
Queen Sonja of Norway
Geraldo Rivera
Alan Wilson
Ron Kovic
Michael Milken
John Waite
Morgana
Steve Hartman
Pam Shriver
Henri Leconte
Jose Oquendo (one of only a handful of MLB players who played at all nine positions in a season, including pitching three scoreless innings in relief in an extra-innings game)
Michael Sweet
Todd Marinovich
Andrea Gabriel
Vicky Kaya
"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."
I remember having to take a college course in American History and the only way to sneak it in was a ridiculous offering. I was stationed at Andersen Air Force Base on Guam and the University of Guam offered courses on base during their winter break. Four week courses that met four nights a week for four hours. But it would satisfy my degree's American History requirement, so I spent sixteen hours a week with one of the most boring professors I've ever met.
His introduction to the Revolutionary War was "basically the colonists didn't want to pay taxes to the King, as they objected to taxation without representation." That theme of taxation without representation would be repeated throughout that part of the course.
Do we actually have any more representation now than our ancestors did in 1776? The United States Constitution called for one member of the House of Representatives for every 30,000 in population. Today that radio is closer to 700,000 to the one House representative. My representative in the House represents so many people, how can she truly represent all of us? The Senate is worse. Senators Feinstein and Boxer each represent 19 million people.
Worse yet, the presence of Super-PACS makes the influence of big money in politics even more pervasive today than ever. Our government represents the interests of the wealthy far more than it does of the rest of us.
Can we solve this problem and become truly independent? Perhaps. We need to adopt the words of the late President John F. Kennedy who said "ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country."
* * *
Yesterday, I managed to catch a bit of a fundraiser being held to raise funds for the Bob Hope USO. I did not know there are four locations of the Bob Hope USO, one at LAX and others in Ontario, Palm Springs and Orange County.
I've probably mentioned the USO in the past, but hearing people working hard to raise funds for this non-profit organization that has 20 volunteers for every one paid employee, I was reminded of just how much the USO does for military personnel. I've never been to the USO at LAX because I live here, but I've visited other USO locations and am grateful for the creature comforts and support they gave me.
The military keeps us as free and independent as our currently elected leadership allows us to be, and without the USO, the military's job would be a lot tougher. Thanks to the USO and its volunteers.
* * *
The three female justices on the U. S. Supreme Court have lost another round, even if only a temporary restraining order was involved. The scathing dissent written by Justice Sonia Sotomayor says that issuing this order calls the recent ruling in the Hobby Lobby case into question.
"Those who are bound by our decisions usually believe they can take us at our word," Sotomayor wrote. "Not so today."
If people don't want to use contraceptives, they don't have to. However, they are a basic part of any healthcare plan and if an employer wants to provide healthcare, it must include contraception.
I bet a Supreme Court with a female majority would have ruled differently.
* * *
Random Ponderings:
Joey Chestnut won the annual Nathan's hot dog eating contest today. He ate 61 hot dogs in only ten minutes. What I find amazing is that people are disappointed that he only got to 61, since he ate 69 hot dogs last year. Here's footage of "Jaws" eating a 5.5 lb burrito in three minutes and ten seconds.
I had no idea that grapes can catch fire if you put them in a microwave. Wait a minute, why would you do that?
That 27 of the 50 states (including California) don't tax Social Security is great. Why do the other 23 tax it?
I've ranted about Joan Rivers needing to shut up, but calling the President gay was way over the top and referring to Michelle Obama as transgender was ludicrous.
The 21 year old wife of an Army soldier is dying, and refusing cancer treatments that would "reduce the quality of the time she has left with her newborn infant." It's incredibly sad, and incredibly courageous in my book.
A study shows that federal contractors discriminate in hiring members of the LGBT community. They needed to study the issue to prove this?
I wasn't aware that Richard Mellon Scaife was ill. He just died. The 82 year old billionaire was a newspaper person and he loved it. He announced he was ill with untreatable cancer, and did so in a courageous way. "Nothing gives perspective to life so much as death. Recently, doctors told me I have an untreatable form of cancer. Some who dislike me may rejoice at this news," Scaife wrote, adding, "Naturally, I can't share their enthusiasm."
Did I mention I got a new VA ID card? But I still carry the old one, because the new ones don't work with their current scanning system.
* * *
July 4th in History:
Famous Folk Born on July 4th:
Ashikaga Yoshiakira, Shogun of Japan
Murad III
Oscar I of Sweden
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Hiram Walker
Stephen Foster
Calvin Coolidge
General Ulysses Grant, III
Louis B. Mayer
Rube Goldberg
Gertrude Lawrence
Meyer Lansky
Gloria Stuart
Pauline Phillips
Leona Helmsley
Eva Marie Saint
Gina Lollobrigida
Peter Angelos
Al Davis
Queen Sonja of Norway
Geraldo Rivera
Alan Wilson
Ron Kovic
Michael Milken
John Waite
Morgana
Steve Hartman
Pam Shriver
Henri Leconte
Jose Oquendo (one of only a handful of MLB players who played at all nine positions in a season, including pitching three scoreless innings in relief in an extra-innings game)
Michael Sweet
Todd Marinovich
Andrea Gabriel
Vicky Kaya
posted by me at 6:08 PM
<< Home