noun
1. the state of relying on or being controlled by someone or something else.
2. reliance on someone or something for financial support.
So, Friday was the Fourth of July. To most of the world that's all it was, just another Friday, unless they happen to be following the World Cup games in Brazil, in which case it was an ordinary Friday punctuated by
Here in the good ole' US of A, most people had the day off to celebrate Independence Day, a national holiday set aside to celebrate that day in 1776 when our founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence and began a war against our English masters to gain our freedom as a nation.
Most of my fellow Americans slept in, woke up late, and headed off to the lake or the beach or to a giant family cookout, swilling beers and inhaling burgers until the sun went down and the fireworks began. In many cases the fireworks began early and in earnest as folks set off their own pyrotechnics in the confines of their yards, scaring the bejeezus out of household pets and causing many a combat veteran to twitch nervously and sweat profusely.
Not me; I worked. I was up at 2:15 am and out the door thirty minutes later on my commute in. I started at four and got off at one in the afternoon. Someone had to work so that everyone dependent upon the government (like the majority of my neighbors) could stay at home celebrating their freedoms, like freedom from work, freedom from responsibility, freedom to enjoy their Obama Phones and EBT cards and Section 8 and Medicaid and heating assistance and cooling assistance and every other known assistance and entitlement program paid for by those of us who weren't at home with the family enjoying the day relaxing and celebrating. When I got home I was pretty wiped out so I took a fitful nap and woke up a couple hours after I laid down. Right about the same time that my neighborhood started sounding like frikkin' Anbar Province...ain't got jobs but they got money for fireworks. 'Murica!
We used to celebrate Independence Day on July 4th. We celebrated the day when our Founding Fathers rose up to throw off the yoke of a tyrannical government that didn't represent them, rulership by an elite class headed by an all-powerful monarch, oppressive taxation enforced at the tip of the sword and barrel of the gun, and fought as free men to achieve their own country with a limited, small central government bound by Constitutional checks and balances so as not to encroach upon the natural rights of the citizens who elected it to serve them..
Now we celebrate Dependence Day in America. We revel in government entitlements and a society that has become dependent upon the government like baby birds with their mouths open awaiting puked up nourishment. Over the past few years, the America I grew up in, the America I served in the Army, the America my family came to from their homelands, has become a broken shell.
Only in America could politicians talk about the greed of the rich at a $35,000.00 per plate campaign fund-raising event.
Only in America could people claim that the government still discriminates against black Americans when they have a black President, a black Attorney General and roughly 20% of the federal workforce is black while only 14% of the population is black. Over 40% of all federal entitlements go to black Americans; 3 times the rate that go to whites, and 5 times the rate that go to Hispanics.
Only in America could we have had two of the people most responsible for our tax code, Timothy Geithner (former head of the Treasury Department) and Charles Rangel (who once ran the House Ways and Means Committee), BOTH turn out to be tax cheats who are in favor of higher taxes. In fact, the entire Administration is riddled with tax cheats and other corruption.
Only in America can we have terrorists kill people in the name of Allah and have the media and liberals react by worrying that Muslims might be harmed by the backlash from said attacks.
Only in America would we make people who want to legally become American citizens wait for years in their home countries and pay tens of thousands of dollars for the privilege, while the Left discusses letting anyone who sneaks into the country illegally just 'magically' become American citizens.
Only in America could the people who believe in balancing the budget and sticking to the country's Constitution be thought of as "extremists." And racists...
Only in America could you need to present a driver's license to cash a check, board an airplane, buy alcohol, or even get the power turned on to your house, but not to vote, and be branded a racist for even suggesting the need.
Only in America could people demand the government investigate whether oil companies are gouging the public because the price of gas went up when the return on equity invested in a major U.S. Oil company (Marathon Oil) averages 12% profit. They take all the risk and the US government takes by force 18.4% to 24.4% in gas tax for taking zero risk and doing absolutely nothing for that revenue other than creating a law to force the oil companies to give it to them. So the government makes 6% to 12% more profit than the oil companies themselves on gas sales for doing absolutely nothing but using force.
Only in America could the government collect more tax dollars from the people than any nation in recorded history, still spend a trillion dollars more than it has per year - for total spending of $7 million PER MINUTE, and the Left complains that it still doesn't have nearly enough money for all their programs.
Only in America could the so called "rich people", who pay 86% of all income taxes, be accused of not paying their "fair share" by people who don't pay any income taxes at all .
Only in America could law-abiding gun owners be characterized as lunatics while the Attorney General sells guns to Mexican drug lords to be used against Americans.
Only in America would Left-controlled schools and other institutions ban people from flying the American flag or wearing a patriotic t-shirt because it might offend people who came to this country to reap its benefits.
Only in America could illegal aliens be offered all the benefits of a citizen like government entitlements, driver's licences, tuition assistance and in-state tuition at universities while working under the table, paying no taxes, and sending most of that money overseas.
Only in America would veterans who fought for the freedoms of America be ostracized as terrorists, live homeless on steam grates, and be denied medical care on secret waiting lists at VA hospitals while lagabouts and illegals get treated as heroes.
Only in America could a Muslim terrorist kill 13 people on a military base while yelling "Allah Akbar" and have it called "workplace violence".
Only in America would the administration leave citizens to die in a terrorist attack and blame it on a YouTube video.
Only in America would the government promote an electric car with a 40-mile range, priced so high that only the wealthy can afford it as a status symbol, and then give the same wealthy people a huge tax break for buying it.
Only in America could politicians think that making more laws will fix the fact that current laws are either ignored or simply not enforced.
Only in America can the government expect people to believe the two years' worth of emails vanished on a broken hard drive to cover up the IRS systematically targeting people it dislikes.
Only in America could people in designer clothes, drinking designer coffee while using designer laptops and smartphones, protest corporations by shitting on cop cars, burning American flags, taking all manner of drugs and raping each other in parks, and causing giant garbage mountains.
Only in America could a filthy rich politician burn holes in the ozone layer with his giant mansion and jet trips all over the world lying about global warming and extorting millions from corporations for allegedly burning holes in the ozone layer.
Only in America could a filthy rich politician dictate to grown adults in a free society how much salt or soda they can ingest.
Only in America would the wife of a politician think she can dictate to a free society what they may eat while all the while eating Wagyu beef on vacation after vacation.
Only in America, speaking of vacations, could the average citizen be unable to afford a vacation while their President spends hundreds of millions on vacations around the globe.
Only in America could we be trillions in debt while still handing out billions to every begging nation with its hands out.
Only in America could the leader of the nation boast that he'll bankrupt entire industries and cause your bills to skyrocket and receive thunderous applause on the way to the golf links.
Only in America could we send money and soldiers to every Third World backwater to solve their problems while we fail to secure our own borders.
Only in America could we demand free dope for the poor while homeless veterans grow in number every day.
We live in a country where illegals pour across the border carrying all manner of infectious diseases that doctors are warned to keep quiet about under fear of arrest while the illegals are hailed as heroes and will be given the royal treatment, but a legally-visiting South African videographer is facing arrest for flying a camera-equipped drone above a fireworks display over water in Florida.
Jos Stiglingh flew his DJI Phantom 2 drone equipped with a GoPro Hero Silver camera into the midst of a West Palm Beach, Florida fireworks display, and the resulting footage is stunning - but also illegal. While authorities are cool with disease-ridden illegals streaming across the border like ants to the picnic, they frown upon tiny unmanned remote-controlled helicopters flying through fireworks. I argue that the exclusion zone rules in effect during fireworks displays are there to keep manned aircraft from accidental harm and to keep manned boats out from underneath falling cinders. Were the drone to be downed by a firework, well no one is on it to be hurt and ostensibly there's no one below it, right? At the worst, the owner is out a few hundred bucks for a drone and camera. Where the penalty for invading the United States by crossing the border illegally is free food, housing, medical care, amnesty, three years of tax-exempt status to start a business and eventual education benefits whether you even bother to learn English or not and having everyone cater to your home culture while taking every measure to not offend you with an American flag, the penalty for violating a safety zone is a $40,000 fine and for willful violations it is a Class D felony, punishable by at least five, but no more than 10 years in prison.
What the hell happened, America? Detroit was once the world's richest city and is now America's first Third World city. We lose more Americans in Chicago on an average weekend to homicides than we do in Afghanistan. We used to be The Land of the Free and Home of the Brave. Now we're The Land of the Sheep and Home of the Slaves.
But who cares? Just keep the free stuff coming from Washington.
Below is the entire text of the Declaration of Independence. I'm sure you'll find a plethora of parallels to modern times and today's tyrants in Washington to those grievances of yore.
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
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.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
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 dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
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 harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Big tip of the hat to the crew at Tea Party News for the inspiration.
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