Our Dependence on Independence Day

There are many who complain that our Independence Day (now, sadly, just called the Fourth of July) should be observed not on the actual July 4 but on the Monday closest to it in order to have that long weekend we so cherish here in America. That's like saying Christmas should be celebrated on the Monday closest to December 25.  Some things are sacrosanct.  The day our founding fathers signed our Declaration of Independence from England is one of those days.

It is also the day almost all of us leave our workplaces behind and get together for parades and barbecues and fireworks.  That it happens to fall on a Wednesday this year is a bummer for some, but that's the way it flies.  It's not close to either weekend and confusion reigns over which days to take off in order to travel to the Fourth of July destination.  For many more this year, it's a one-day holiday and then it's over.

In our remote area, Wednesday Fourths are deadly to the merchants.  People just aren't arriving in crowds large enough to keep them going through the summer and beyond into winter.  I feel sorry for them, of course, but I hope they don't notice that I'm not hanging around, either.  I'm taking off today to spend the day in the city where the parade will be larger and the fireworks will be flashier, and I have to admit I'm feeling a little guilty about not staying put in the place where my few dollars might actually make a difference.

But I'm going, anyway.

So here is my contribution today:

The actual Declaration of Independence, word for word.

Norman Lear's paean to this day, Born Again as an American.

Some actual good news from the State of Michigan. (Thrown in because actual good news for my state is so rare.)

The DAR makes amends and Marian Anderson can at last RIP.

Fourth of July recipes.

And how it looks from here:

Enjoy your day, stay safe, be happy, and be ready to report to work again tomorrow, when we take up the cause for saving this battered country.  Those freedoms they fought for so valiantly more than two centuries ago haven't exactly been won.

But we'll get there yet.

Ramona

Political Tiddly-Winks in Iowa. The Corn Dog Won

Good God and Lordy, people, is there anything more ludicrous on the political scene than what happens in Iowa whenever the Republicans don't have a Grand Poobah candidate for President?  This year it was a big barbecue in Ames where just under 17,000 people 16 1/2 years old and over got to pay their $30 to "vote" for a candidate and then party afterward.  Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul were the "winners".  And, not surprisingly, the emperor wore no clothes.

The main function of the Iowa Straw Poll is to draw in money for the Republican Party and for the towns in Iowa that hold the straw polls.  That should be enough for those folks, but even given proof of the historical insignificance of the poll and it's non-role in the winning of presidencies, the press falls all over itself to turn it into something it's not now and never will be.  As a political forecaster, it's record is pitiful.  Rarely if ever does the Straw Poll winner win the Iowa Caucus, much less the presidency.  So let's just get over the "importance" of yesterday's vote in Ames, Iowa and have a little fun with it, okay?

Andy Borowitz:  SandP Downgrades Iowa IQ:

Calling the results of today’s Iowa straw poll “alarming,” Standard and Poor’s took the unprecedented action of downgrading Iowa’s IQ.


While the effects of such an extraordinary measure are hard to predict, experts say the IQ downgrade could result in Iowans having difficulty completing sentences or operating a television remote.
“This downgrade would be very upsetting to Republicans in Iowa,” said an S & P spokesman.  “Fortunately, there’s no way they’ll understand it.”

 At the Fairgrounds, where the Big Barbecue was going on, Ron Paul had something called the "Prosperity Playground", where you could slide down the "Sliding Dollar" slide and just be a kid again.

Ujala Sehgal writes about it and more in this piece in the Atlantic.  Man, those kids had fun!

The Ames Patch took to judging the candidates' tent sizes.  Thaddeus McCotter's may have been the smallest, at an embarrassing 30x30 feet,  but Tim Pawlenty's took the prize as the largest, at 200 sq. ft. over Michele Bachmann's 10,000 foot air-conditioned whopper.

I'm hearing rumors this morning that Pawlenty is already thinking of dropping out of the race, so I hope he had a great time there in Ames.  Something should come out of all that effort, at least. (News flash:  It's true.  Pawlenty has dropped out.  Of the entire presidential race! All because of the Iowa Straw Poll.  Am I going to have to rethink this whole thing?  Am I just not getting it??)

Okay, I started this out absolutely refusing to even consider including that truly awful, truly obscene un-Photo-Shopped photo of Michele Bachmann deliriously munching a very long corn dog, but I changed my mind.  Here it is:

(Note:  Changed my mind again.  I couldn't stand the picture any longer so I took it down.  It's here if you really want to see it.)

And here's a bonus.  Marcus Bachmann with that same corn dog.  I WILL NOT comment.  No.  I mustn't.

(Note:  Ditto the shot of her husband.  It's here.  Go for it.) 

But I will say this:  What happens in Iowa should have the decency to stay in Iowa.  Really.