Happy July 4th
 

I hope everybody gets the day off to be with friends, family or both to have a party. I'm cooking out for 15! Something I couldn't have done 6 weeks ago without help from my friend from Sweden.*

Celebrate your freedom--from whatever!! Oh, and thank a vet for sure. :us:


*Absolut

Happy Independence Day! :us:

good job Bri! happy 4th to all. i'm going in to work for awhile. voluntarily, of course. i have a seminar for 20 people i have to prepare for tomorrow.

How did you have the day?

What could be more American than Chinese fireworks. :thumb:

We actually ended up taking the kids to see fireworks last night.

See, they were getting dropped off in Fort Worth (Arlington, actually) to spend the week with their grandmother. They spend the 4th of July week there every year. This year, OUR plan was we would hang out over the weekend and then leave for home around noon today, so that we could conveniently avoid the nightmare that is seeing the fireworks every year.

But then my mother-in-law told us the terrific news--they were having fireworks on Sunday night at a local racetrack, so we could all go see those together! Joy!

Don't get me wrong, I love cookouts, and I even like fireworks okay. What I hate is sitting on the ground in a field with 3,000 other people, waiting for two hours until the fireworks finally go off, then spending an hour and a half getting back out of the "parking lot" to go home.

At the racetrack, the fireworks didn't start until 10:30. The last horserace was around 9:30. We got to sit on cement, no camp chairs or outside food or drinks allowed in, and the younger child fell asleep a third of the way through the fireworks show. Then we trekked for 20 minutes back out to the car in the makeshift parking lot, and spent an hour sitting absolutely still as the cars filed out one by one. The only reason we got out at that point was someone finally just drove through one of the barriers they had erected, and we all followed over the curb and onto the street.

When I was a kid, you could see the town fireworks from our roof. We'd just climb up there to watch. Way, WAY better than this nonsense.

Same here... when I was a kid, the fireworks were held at the football stadium of the college in town... we lived blocks away and on a hill, so we could see it no sweat from our deck.

When I was in NC, we lived on campus in the residence halls all year long (ah, the life of a hall director) and could walk to the fireworks at the football stadium. Quite convenient!

This year, we went to Fair St. Louis and saw the fireworks display at the Arch. It was a great show, but getting home was a PAIN... after getting turned around and around, we made it out of downtown STL and back to my in-laws.

I really laugh at all of the mothers which prompt their children to pay attention with dramatic ooohs and aaahs... the kids would rather whip each other with their glow sticks.

The 4th of July should be a somber event. It should be the exact opposite of Thanksgiving. Rather than being thankful for what we have, we should lament the increasingly rapid oss of our freedoms. We should take a moment to reflect on the true freedom our founders created for us, and how it has been squandered. It's pretty easy this year since the Supreme Court has ruled against private property and against self-ownership.

I went down to the National Mall, by the Washington Monument. Pictures tomorrow (or later today, actually), if any turned out.

i started to post this as a shot at radar for always being so goddamned ragingly political, but the sonofabitch is right. this isn't America anymore when Target can take your house for fair market value against your will. Eminent Domain is way fucked up. fuck shit damn piss hell.

My gf and I watched the fireworks over Downtown St. Louis...we found a great vantage point on the western edge of Downtown by complete accident.

The most negative impression I had when I packed up my shit and crossed the country was the time I spent in St. Louis. I spent the night at a youth hostel two blocks from the A/B brewery. I spent the better part of a day there just driving around. What a dump. And I come from a background of old east rust belt cities.

How long ago was this?

I know Jim wanted to jump all over Radar's post- Who wouldn't? Its obviously meant to elicit a response. I just like to lurk and throw in a comment now and then. Here's my comment: I took a quick look at your website, radar. I should be better prepared but I'm not. None the less...Do you wear your politics on your sleeve? Do your politics define you? That was just my inital impression.
For myself I don't want to be defined easily. But that's just me.

How long ago was this?


E. St Louis. The highways were choked with construction. Every exit seemed chaotic. And depressed. February 2003.

Let me retract my comment's, Radar. Your opinions seem reasonable upon further examination. I've got to throw this drink out. Work is just 34 plus hours away. Oy.

Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died.
Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.
Two lost sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured.
Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War.

They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.
What kind of men were they?
Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists.
Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners.

Men of means, well educated, but they signed the Declaration of Independence,
knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.

Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships destroyed by
the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.

Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.

Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.

At Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over Nelson’s home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.

Francis Lewis had his home destroyed, wife jailed and she died within a few months.

John Hart was driven from his dying wife's bedside as were their 13 children.
His fields and gristmill laid to waste, he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished.

Some of us take these liberties so much for granted, but we shouldn't.
So, take a few minutes while enjoying your 4th of July holiday and silently thank these patriots.
It's not much to ask for the price they paid.

Remember: freedom is never free!

Please, get the word out that patriotism is NOT a sin, and the Fourth of July has more to it than beer, picnics, the beach and baseball games.

I joined the throngs on the National Mall at about 7:30. Somehow I managed to find my group up near the Washington Monument.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/happymonkey/23757685/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://photos18.flickr.com/23757685_d2f9635413.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Crowds" /></a>

Here's the view from our spot of the World War II Memorial, the Reflecting Pool, and the Lincoln Memorial.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/happymonkey/23758056/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://photos18.flickr.com/23758056_144a08f663.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Crowds" /></a>

When it got dark, I got another shot of the Washington Monument.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/happymonkey/23758374/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://photos18.flickr.com/23758374_f882408441.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Obelisk" /></a>

And the base. The blur wasn't intentional, but I think it sorta works.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/happymonkey/23758791/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://photos18.flickr.com/23758791_34fef495a2.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Flags" /></a>

On to the show:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/happymonkey/23759906/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://photos18.flickr.com/23759906_3742c60c3a.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Fireworks" /></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/happymonkey/23760322/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://photos18.flickr.com/23760322_23440945ec.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Fireworks" /></a>

And my favorite:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/happymonkey/23759418/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://photos18.flickr.com/23759418_c9d5899e7d.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Fireworks" /></a>

Nice shots, HM. I've been in the DC area for 16 years, but have never made it down to the Mall for fireworks. Used to watch them from across the Potomac at the Iwo Jima memorial for a few years, but even that has become too much of a hassle. I don't care for crowds much. We went over to a friends house, and all our kids ran around catching fireflys as the dad launched illegal fireworks.

We used to be able to see the very tops of the fireworks at the Mall from our front porch, but they built a new building in Arlington that blocks our view now. Now we just see a glow in the sky and hear the distant booms.

Did you get caught up in the post-fireworks practice evacuation the cops were doing?

East St. Louis regularly fights Camden, NJ (a suburb of Philadelphia) for worst city in the country. It is a toilet, and part of me thinks it should be bombed over and started from scratch.

St. Louis is in the midst of a renaissance of sorts...new construction, people coming back to the city, etc. I left 6 years ago in part because none of that sort of thing was happening. I've been back more over the past year, and just moved back a week ago, but so far, I'm impressed. I'm sure I'll get sick of it again soon, though. :)

I'm not sure. For just about the first time in however many years I've done this, the cops managed to stop the pedestrians at an intersection, and let some cars out, so maybe. But when I got home, Channel 9 News said that they hadn't started the evacuation procedure until about an hour after the fireworks ended, by which time I was either home, or very close.

I've never been to D.C., but I've thought about going a lot of times. I want to get 100+ people to have an "eat in" on the subway with me. I also want to go to either NYC or DC with my gun, and then write a letter to the Mayor telling them I have my gun, and I have a RIGHT to have it, and that I don't intend to give it up. Then when they arrest me, I'll fight it all the way to the Supreme Court. Though these days, the Supreme Court rules in direct violation of the U.S. Constitution, so I don't know how much that would accomplish.

I've been trying for years to make change peacefully from within the system, but the door is quickly closing. It may already be closed. The shit will hit the fan in America before too long and when it does, we'll face a bloody second American revolution. And being that we're a nuclear power, other nations might get involved.

The violence will probably happen after abortion has been made illegal.

Don't know if there's any truth at all to the following, but I like the scene.

Benjamin Franklin Gates: A toast? Yeah. To high treason. That's what these men were committing when they signed the Declaration. Had we lost the war, they would have been hanged, beheaded, drawn and quartered, and-Oh! Oh, my personal favorite-and had their entrails cut out and BURNED!
[brief pause]
Benjamin Franklin Gates: So...

Snopes? They don't know a shark from a dolphin. :Flush:

Darn, Undertoad beat me to it. This link goes into the history of John Hart, and what was true and false in the rumors about him. I wasn't able to post it earlier.

Well, nobody wants to admit they come from Long Island.....
and I'll bet they were Brit kidney stones that killed him. :p

I'm just amazed at the amount of grandification after only 220 years.

I have this terrible vision of a huge marble monument in Washington. A 60 foot G.W. Bush holding a rifle and a bible. Inscribed on the walls will be quotes about the great man from influential patriots of the time. Coulter, Hannity, and Limbaugh.

Of course this will all be from a history pieced together from documents and recordings that survived the great book-burning/degaussing of 2050, mostly Fox Network archives and the National Review.

The Great Degaussing? :lol2:

Yep.

And the few remaining sources like The Congressional Record and The Internet Archive will be regarded like the Necronomicon and the Apocrypha are today. "Yah, riiiiiight. Like that ever happened."

Washington DC, Independence Day 2006
 

Here are some highlights from this year's presentation. There was some rain and a bit of thunder earlier in the day, but happily the show wasn't canceled.

Dandelion
http://static.flickr.com/22/182507759_3623f1a5cf.jpg

Close Encounters
http://static.flickr.com/55/182508911_3e44e38e69.jpg


Death Star Attack Plans

http://static.flickr.com/75/182510136_727c0c8a7f.jpg

Red

http://static.flickr.com/72/182512751_14fe2363b3.jpg


Green

http://static.flickr.com/61/182511317_3ec635138c.jpg


Blue

http://static.flickr.com/53/182514130_61b64f9dbc.jpg


Bombs Bursting in Air

http://static.flickr.com/38/182517073_1fe8d0fa85.jpg


Stars and Rings

http://static.flickr.com/46/182517110_73f819bfcb.jpg


Follow the White Rabbit

http://static.flickr.com/59/182518757_f07cfae858.jpg

This year the cops in DC seemed to have a bit of control of the pedestrian traffic, as they did last year, but it was still a bit of a madhouse.

The effect is due to the "Nighttime" setting on my camera. The focused stuff is where the flash reached, and everywhere else is long exposure. The jiggling of my hand just happened to make a somewhat rabbit-shaped pattern.

Are you sure you weren't watching some bunny's tail? :lol:
Good job, man.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...6/100_0439.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...6/100_0441.jpg

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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...6/100_0428.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...6/100_0424.jpg

These two pictures were a thousand miles apart. It seems it was a problem in a lot of places this Summer. :eek3:

Heh, I like the swing one.

And the lightning - OK nature, you win on size, but let's see some color!

Not so happy 4th around here.

The "raw footage" of the explosion at the Upper Merion Township fireworks display is actually less than spectacular. It was at first believed that an illegal firework was set off by one of the folks there, but later reports indicated that it was a commercial firework that failed to explode in the air, but went off when it came down into the crowd.

Great Pictures RK:)

thanks for sharing

Ouch, Wolf.

Reminds me of how in beijing, they would do the chinese new year fireworks like, right there, not 20 yards from the spectators, and sometimes the cheap local fireworks wouldnt go up like they were supposed to. One year one hit a guard in the chest, another year a firework shot under a car and went off.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1414/...5d73da4e08.jpg

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