Today is the fourth of July, not the Fourth of July. That is not the holiday we celebrate in the United States today. Today we celebrate our Independence Day (Crikey, did I just quote a mediocre alien invasion movie?), when our Founding Fathers declared finished the document that would become our Declaration of Independence from England. So wish your fellow Americans a Happy Independence Day when you see them, and thank God for the blessing of having been born in--or having the privilege of becoming a naturalized citizen of--the greatest nation on the face of the Earth.

"Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." --Inscription on the Liberty Bell "I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not." --John Adams (1776) "[T]he flames kindled on the 4 of July 1776, have spread over too much of the globe to be extinguished by the feeble engines of despotism; on the contrary, they will consume these engines and all who work them. ... The Declaration of Independence...[is the] declaratory charter of our rights, and the rights of man." --Thomas Jefferson (1821) Happy 229th Birthday, America!