From our house to yours, Happy 233rd Birthday, America!

Michelle Malkin highlights the following excerpt from a John Adams letter to his wife, Abigail.

I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.

You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. — 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.

Certainly we still celebrate the day with all manner of games, sports and illuminations, but do most Americans still understand it as a Day of Deliverance? Do they truly grasp the concept of Liberty? How is it that this last November saw college and high school students enthusiastic about the election when they are functionally illiterate about American civics and history? If you asked someone under 30 to describe Liberty [big "L"] today, how would they answer? Would they understand what the American Revolution was fought over? What the phrases “American Experiment” and “American exceptionalism” mean? Indeed, if you asked them if America was a democracy or a republic would they know the correct answer?

Or has Liberty just become another old-fashioned concept to be scrapped in favor of a cradle-to-grave Nannystate? “Liberty” to engage in boorish, crass, exploitive personal behavior “free” from even social criticism, but (in exchange) have the State control your employment, your earnings, your property, your relationship with your doctor, even your choice in church and press? What kind of bargain is that?

What is Liberty to you?

Re: Darleen of yesterday, at NRO Mark Steyn concludes a short comment about Palin’s exit in most excellent form.  Consider that last paragraph; give a wry holiday h/t to Reynolds.

From the link, an excerpt about the state of approved thought and how we elect by the principles of tolerant liberal diversity:

…nobody said it would mean a mainstream network comedy host doing statutory rape gags about your 14-year old daughter. You’ve got a special-needs kid and a son in Iraq and a daughter who’s given you your first grandchild in less than ideal circumstances. That would be enough for most of us. But the special-needs kid and the daughter and most everyone else you love are a national joke, and the PC enforcers are entirely cool with it.

From Rolling Stone, Matt Taibbi on money, cap and trade, markets, and, uh, bipartisanship.  h/t the skyrocketing Zero Hedge blog:

Fast-forward to today. It’s early June in Washington, D.C. Barack Obama, a popular young politician whose leading private campaign donor was an investment bank called Goldman Sachs — its employees paid some $981,000 to his campaign — sits in the White House. Having seamlessly navigated the political minefield of the bailout era, Goldman is once again back to its old business, scouting out loopholes in a new government-created market with the aid of a new set of alumni occupying key government jobs.

Gone are Hank Paulson and Neel Kashkari; in their place are Treasury chief of staff Mark Patterson and CFTC chief Gary Gensler, both former Goldmanites. (Gensler was the firm’s co-head of finance.) And instead of credit derivatives or oil futures or mortgage-backed CDOs, the new game in town, the next bubble, is in carbon credits — a booming trillion- dollar market that barely even exists yet, but will if the Democratic Party that it gave $4,452,585 to in the last election manages to push into existence a groundbreaking new commodities bubble, disguised as an “environmental plan,” called cap-and-trade. The new carbon-credit market is a virtual repeat of the commodities-market casino that’s been kind to Goldman, except it has one delicious new wrinkle: If the plan goes forward as expected, the rise in prices will be government-mandated. Goldman won’t even have to rig the game. It will be rigged in advance.

Probably Keynes didn’t foresee that kind of ambition.  Apparently somebody didn’t.

From earlier in the piece, and in response to the rote anti-capitalism noise that dominates the usual pro-socialism myths about the private sector and money since roughly the last election:

…an extremely unfortunate loophole in the system of Western democratic capitalism, which never foresaw that in a society governed passively by free markets and free elections, organized greed always defeats disorganized democracy.

Which in the context of this piece can be taken to mean: they’re no longer free markets.  To which should be added, utterly not when they’re built on modern currency.  Speaking of which, from wither the 2008 implosion, the one the recession-preventing Fed didn’t prevent (along with the rest of them over the last fifteen years, which Taibbi goes into, or even the last ninety-five)?  Hints:

It began in September of last year, when then-Treasury secretary Paulson made a momentous series of decisions.

[...]

By the end of March [2008] the Fed will have lent or guaranteed at least $8.7 trillion under a series of new bailout programs — and thanks to an obscure law allowing the Fed to block most congressional audits, both the amounts and the recipients of the monies remain almost entirely secret.

“Read the whole thing” — it’s interesting that the comments to a piece in RS would be as conservative as they are.  From boom to bust and back again rankles some.

All of which again brings up this, one of the more intriguing efforts of our time, and one that’s evidently straddled the political divide.  Which, now that the various bosses are indistinguishable from one another, is also interesting.

Happy Fourth.

More: What hath this FIRE wrought, here.

Let’s move the discussion from there to here.

Gov. Palin resigns

“Once I decided not to run for re-election, I also felt that to embrace the conventional Lame Duck status in this particular climate would just be another dose of politics as usual, something I campaigned against and will always oppose,” Palin said in a statement released by her office.

Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell will be inaugurated at the governor’s picnic in Fairbanks at the end of the month, Murrow said. [...]

Palin said she planned to make a “positive change outside government,” without elaborating. She also expressed frustration with her current role as governor.

“I cannot stand here as your governor and allow the millions of dollars and all that time go to waste just so I can hold the title of governor,” Palin said.

Later, on Twitter, she promised supporters more details: “We’ll soon attach info on decision to not seek re-election … this is in Alaska’s best interest, my family’s happy … it is good. Stay tuned”

If her family is happy, that is good enough for me.
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Hmmm… let’s see, Palin puts Alaska’s interests ahead of her own and she puts her family’s interests ahead of her own. Little bit different from Mark Sanford, eh?

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The Anchoress has the round-up.
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If you want a good example of the kind of stuff Sarah Palin was subjected to (something we have never seen directed at Democrat families), look no further than “comedian” Erik Sean Nelson writing as an article (later pulled) at HuffPo

“Palin Will Run In ‘12 On More Retardation Platform.”

In Sarah Palin’s resignation announcement she complained about the treatment of her son Trig who always teaches her life lessons. She said that the “world needs more Trigs, not fewer.” That’s a presidential campaign promise we can all get behind. She will be the first politician to actually try to increase the population of retarded people. To me, it’s kinda like saying the world needs more cancer patients because they teach us such personal lessons.

Her first act as President: To introduce a Pre-K lunch buffet that includes lead paint chips. Sort of a Large HEAD-START Program.

She will then encourage women to hold off on pregnancies until their 40’s just to mix up some chromosomes.

She now is in favor of abortion only in case of diploid birth.

Her policies will increase jobs because Wal-Mart is building new stores each day and someone has to be the greeter.

This will lead to smaller government because fewer Americans will have the cognitive ability to hold a government job.

You know, I feel honored to have such morally bankrupt reprobates hate me and my principles and values.

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Little Miss Attila weighs in.
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UPDATE: Mark Steyn

In states far from the national spotlight, politics still attracts normal people. You’re a mayor or a state senator or even the governor, but you lead a normal life. The local media are tough on you, but they know you, they live where you live, they’re tough on the real you, not on some caricature cooked up by a malign alliance of late-night comics who’d never heard of you a week earlier and media grandees supposedly on your own side who pronounce you a “cancer”.

Then suddenly you get the call from Washington. You know it’ll mean Secret Service, and speechwriters, and minders vetting your wardrobe. But nobody said it would mean a mainstream network comedy host doing statutory rape gags about your 14-year old daughter. You’ve got a special-needs kid and a son in Iraq and a daughter who’s given you your first grandchild in less than ideal circumstances. That would be enough for most of us. But the special-needs kid and the daughter and most everyone else you love are a national joke, and the PC enforcers are entirely cool with it.

Most of those who sneer at Sarah Palin have no desire to live her life. But why not try to - what’s the word? - “empathize”? If you like Wasilla and hunting and snowmachining and moose stew and politics, is the last worth giving up everything else in the hopes that one day David Letterman and Maureen Dowd might decide Trig and Bristol and the rest are sufficiently non-risible to enable you to prosper in their world? And, putting aside the odds, would you really like to be the person you’d have to turn into under that scenario?

National office will dwindle down to the unhealthily singleminded (Clinton, Obama), the timeserving emirs of Incumbistan (Biden, McCain) and dynastic heirs (Bush). Our loss.

Indeed.

Excuse me?

Parents of children at a primary school have been banned from taking pictures of their own children at the annual sports day. [...]

Another parent, who did not want to be named, said: “Parents want to record achievements through their child’s life and not to be made to feel that they are all criminals and are going to upload dodgy photos to some porn site.”

Ah, but you as a parent should know that a Left-dominated Government is always going to look suspiciously at parents … after breeding you are the impediment to the proper raising of good little herd animals.

Those parents should count their [temporary] blessings, at least they got to attend their children’s sports day.

Parents have been banned from attending their children’s sports day in an extraordinary measure to protect pupils from child abductors and paedophiles.

More than 270 pupils from four primary schools took part in the event - but there were no spectators because the organisers said they could not prevent ‘unsavoury’ characters from sneaking onto school grounds.

When Wal-Mart and its bitter antagonist, union SEIU, issued a joint letter supporting Washintgon D.C. controlled healthcare, it was welcomed by the Left but little surprised those who have watched Wal-Mart feed the crocodile these past years.

Megan McArdle breaks down Wal-Mart’s anti-liberty move even further.

I find it hard to believe that none of the liberal commentators breathlessly celebrating Wal-Mart’s “capitulation” on national health care have even entertained the most parsimonious explanation: that Wal-Mart is in favor of this because it raises the barriers to entry in the retail market, and hammers Wal-Mart’s competition. Yet somehow, this appears nowhere in any of the analysis. [...]

Wal-Mart is always going to have a seat at the table when employer mandates are discussed, because Wal-Mart is the nation’s largest private employer. Target and Macy’s probably won’t have a seat at the table.

This fits hand-in-glove with how Democrats have approached Cap and Tax …

Eighty-five percent of the carbon permits will not be sold at auction — they will be given away to utility companies, petroleum interests, refineries, and a coterie of politically connected businesses.

…outright bribery.

Make no mistake, with Sam Walton dead and Orrin Boyle in charge, Wal-Mart employees will get about, oh say, five, maybe eight, years of “employer-provided health insurance” until Wal-Mart’s competition is damaged or gone, then they will be dumped onto the taxpayers Obama’s serfs.

(h/t Little Miss Attila)
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UPDATE: Dicentra in The Pub

Make no mistake: the urge to acquire massive amounts of power is found in both big government and big business. Bill Gates did not aspire to create the best software company in the world but the only software company in the world. The former I could respect — Microsoft is the biggest because it’s the best — but the latter? Not for a minute.

The unfettered desire to exercise that much power over others — and the willingness to engage in ethically and legally questionable practices to get that power — is always morally wrong and is always what destroys a nation from within. [...]

There’s those what believe that people ought to be controlled and there’s those what don’t. Which are you?

Hank Reardon or Orrin Boyle? Only one is a capitalist.

Dan Riehl points out some interesting facts about the teary, photo-op at Obama’s stage-managed “townhall” meeting.

… and dark and penniless and dependent.

Might as well call it the Earwax and Malarkey Bill, seeing just how much the Obamacrats and other assorted thugs have climbed onto an unexamined bill based on graft, bribes and threats.

And, boy, will we pay for their Destroying Transforming America.

Two main things to understand about Waxman-Markey: First, it will not reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, at least not at any point in the near future. The inclusion of carbon offsets, which can be manufactured out of thin air and political imagination, will eliminate most of the demands that the legislation puts on industry, though in doing so it will manage to drive up the prices consumers pay for every product that requires energy for its manufacture — which is to say, for everything. Second, it represents a worse abuse of the public trust and purse than the stimulus and the bailouts put together. Waxman-Markey creates a permanent new regime in which environmental romanticism and corporate welfare are mixed together to form political poison. From comic bureaucratic power grabs (check out the section of the bill on candelabras) to the creation of new welfare programs for Democratic constituencies to, above all, massive giveaways for every financial, industrial, and political lobby imaginable, this bill would permanently deform American politics and economic life. [...]

1. The big doozy: Eighty-five percent of the carbon permits will not be sold at auction — they will be given away to utility companies, petroleum interests, refineries, and a coterie of politically connected businesses. If you’re wondering why Big Business supports cap-and-trade, that’s why. Free money for business, but higher energy prices for you. [...]

5. In addition to the permits, the bill also allows for the creation of “offsets” — the medieval-style indulgences of the carbon-footprint world. In fact, nearly all of Waxman-Markey’s carbon-reduction targets can be met with offsets alone through 2050, meaning decades before any actual reduction of greenhouse gases is required. That means huge new expenses for small businesses and consumers in return for basically zero environmental improvement. [...]

15. The renewable electricity standard is the big one here. This would require utilities to supply 20 percent of their power from renewable energy sources (or “increased efficiency”) by 2020. The Senate was unable to pass a smaller mandate in 2007, because favored sources of renewable energy (wind power, for instance) just don’t work in certain regions of the country, and regional blocs can wield a great deal of power in the Senate. These blocs may be less powerful this time around, because the Democrats within them will be under a great deal of pressure to pass this bill. The renewable standard would force utilities to rely increasingly on expensive sources of energy like wind and solar — expensive because they are capital-intensive and must be located far away from urban areas, necessitating long transmission lines. You can thank Congress for adding yet another charge to your monthly utility bill. [...]

21. The bill regulates every light fixture under the sun. Actually, the sun might be the only light source that isn’t regulated specifically in this legislation. There are rules governing fluorescent lamps, incandescent lamps, intermediate base lamps, candelabra base lamps, outdoor luminaires, portable light fixtures — you get the idea. The government actually started down this road by regulating light bulbs in the 2005 energy bill. This bill merely tightens the regulations, which means the unintended consequences produced by the 2005 bill — more expensive light bulbs that burn out quicker — will probably get worse.

22. The bill extends its reach to cover appliances as well. Clothes washers and dishwashers, portable electric spas, showerheads, faucets, televisions — all these and more are covered specifically in the bill. You thought we were kidding when we said this bill represents the federal government’s attempt to expand its regulatory reach to cover everything. We weren’t.

24. The bill requires the EPA to establish environmental standards for residences, meaning a federally dictated one-size-fits-all policy for greening every home in America. When you’re retrofitting your home according to EPA guidelines, it will come as little comfort to know that the government is reimbursing you for your troubles, especially if you’re doing the work around April 15.

32. The bill directs the secretary of energy to promulgate regulations requiring that each automaker’s fleet be comprised of a minimum percentage of vehicles that run on ethanol or biodiesel.

41. One of Obama’s most reliable constituencies, college administrators, will be given billions of dollars to play with through the creation of eight “Clean Energy Innovation Centers,” university-based consortia charged with a mission to “leverage the expertise and resources of the university and private research communities, industry, venture capital, national laboratories, and other participants in energy innovation to support cross-disciplinary research and development in areas not being served by the private sector in order to develop and transfer innovative clean energy technologies into the marketplace.” Meaning that the famous business acumen of the federal government will be applied to the energy industry.

42. Another Obama constituency, the community-organizing gang — i.e., ACORN — will be eligible to receive billions in funding as the bill “authorizes the Secretary [of Energy] to make grants to community development organizations to provide financing to businesses and projects that improve energy efficiency.” Think federally subsidized consultants paid $55 an hour to tell businesses to turn down their AC in the summer.

Somehow, I don’t think Paul Simon will turn this into a song.

Not.On.Your.Life.

Stuck on stupid.

Soon to be offered via viral spam-mail.

Serious messiahcrush or craven bid for Lincoln bedroom invite? You decide. (h/t Weasel Zipper)