Celebrate the country the way it was founded, not the way it is.
I'm actually a little depressed this Independence Day, as we have never been less independent in the history of the republic, nor less respected overseas. We are in a nasty slide towards the kind of full-on federal control of every aspect of our lives that the founders thought they were preventing when they wrote the Constitution. Suddenly we have the "right" to not be offended trumping all kinds of rights that are actually enumerated in the Constitution as rights the government is supposed to protect. People don't even know what a right is or where it comes from anymore.
The Constitution doesn't create rights; it binds the government to defending them. Our rights come from God, not man or government. That's why the gay marriage debate is stupid -- marriage is not a right. There is no right to marry, much less gay marriage. That's the kind of stupid shit we have descended to. You think there is a right to health care, or food, or shelter? A right is something that cannot be taken from you, that you can defend with your life -- or the life of the one who would take it from you -- without fear of punishment, because
it is your right. Your property, your life, your freedom to choose what you do with your life. A right to health care? Walk into a doctor's office and demand treatment while assuring them you will not pay. Let me know what happens. Same with housing, or food. If you want to argue government should provide those things, I disagree, but that is a different argument. Government, after all, has no money except what it takes from its people. If the government gives you housing, they paid for it by taking from me. My answer is, fuck you. You can't live in my basement, and I decline to pay for you living elsewhere. That attitude, alas, goes against current correct thinking. So I'm down, because that attitude is what the Constitution was intended to protect. Read it sometime.
Fortunately, there are reasons to celebrate. This afternoon, we're going over to see some friends -- Farmer Tom, in fact, so there will be a Farm post later. Keep your friends close, and take your solice there. Government is not your friend, and the idiots currently running the country who think that will, one hopes, learn that lesson harshly. Let's hope the republic survives.
Having been all Debbie Downer and shit, I still fly the flag:
Happy Independence Day. Let's hope we have more that are worthy of the name.
