One day some Taiwanese people were designing greeting cards and they asked me their opinion. One of them was an animated Independence Day computer card and it was of the Washington monument being knocked over by alien space saucers and then Abraham Lincoln swatted them out of the sky. It was funny.
All my friends have today off, they are so lucky!! 3 days weekend! I miss those…
- MiakaW
Circulating around the Internet – SOURCE: Unknown (or please share it if you know it)
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 their 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 swept from the seas 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, Gwinett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.
At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr. noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson 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 and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.
John Hart was driven from his wife’s bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later he died from exhaustion and a broken heart.
Norris and Livingston suffered similar fates.
Such were the stories and sacrifices of the American Revolution. These were not wild-eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians. They were soft-spoken men of means and education. They had security, but they valued liberty more. Standing tall and straight, and unwavering, they pledged: “For the support of the declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of the divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.”
They gave the United States a free and independent America. The history books told you a lot of what happened in the Revolutionary War. We didn’t fight just the British. We were British subjects at that time and we fought our own government!
Remember: Freedom is never free!
Yes, Happy “Getting rid of those pesky Americans” day to all brits 
Happy 4th.
My mom’s b-day too. weird thing is, mine is on Bastille Day.
wow. i should be home with my friends getting wasted in a canoe floating down the russian river (the one in america, don’t call me a commie) in shorts, sun, and cool water. i can just see that sparkling surface reflecting the sun’s yellow rays, the soft brushing sound of groves by the riverside, the hot sand, pebbles and washed up trees, that log in the middle of the river, and eddies in the shadow. ahh, soo nice.
Happy Fourth of July to all!
I miss the Fourth of July picnics with family the most.
I could go for some brats (bratwurst) on the grill, some Jell-o salad with a CoolWhip topping in a Tupperware container, and some ice cold beers in the bottle (of course).
If I remember correctly, the Breeze Supermarket (and probably some Wellcomes) sell brats. So, maybe I’ll get some brats (bratwurst) and some Belgian beers this weekend.
Me too, specially when the little bastards get out of school, block the damn sidewalk and clog up the convenience store.
Me too, specially when the little bastards get out of school, block the damn sidewalk and clog up the convenience store.[/quote]
Do you really want their polyester track suits messing up your grill?
Circulating around the Internet – SOURCE: Unknown (or please share it if you know it)
That, er, Internet document, has been shown to be nothing more than an urban legend. Not true at all. But nice.
This part sure set off warning bells for me: “We didn’t fight just the British. We were British subjects at that time and we fought our own government!” And then there’s that part about “standing tall and straight” 
formosa’s right: snopes.com/glurge/declare.htm
[quote=“formosa”]Circulating around the Internet – SOURCE: Unknown (or please share it if you know it)
That, er, Internet document, has been shown to be nothing more than an urban legend. Not true at all. But nice.[/quote]
You can read the biographies of the signers of the Declaration of Independence here:
And a note on the essay:
A NOTE ON THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
“…we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
(Each year information about those who signed the Declaration of Independence is circulated, not all of which is accurate. The following note is based on research in several established sources, which are noted below.)
Fifty-six individuals from each of the original 13 colonies participated in the Second Continental Congress and signed the Declaration of Independence. Pennsylvania sent nine delegates to the congress, followed by Virginia with seven and Massachusetts and New Jersey with five. Connecticut, Maryland, New York, and South Carolina each sent four delegates. Delaware, Georgia, New Hampshire, and North Carolina each sent three. Rhode Island, the smallest colony, sent only two delegates to Philadelphia.
Nine of the signers were immigrants, two were brothers, two were cousins, and one was an orphan. The average age of a signer was 45. The oldest delegate was Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, who was 70 when he signed the Declaration. The youngest was Thomas Lynch, Jr., of South Carolina, who was 27.
Eighteen of the signers were merchants or businessmen, 14 were farmers, and four were doctors. Forty-two signers had served in their colonial legislatures. Twenty-two were lawyers–although William Hooper of North Carolina was “disbarred” when he spoke out against the Crown–and nine were judges. Stephen Hopkins had been Governor of Rhode Island.
Although two others had been clergy previously, John Witherspoon of New Jersey was the only active clergyman to attend–he wore his pontificals to the sessions. Almost all were Protestant Christians; Charles Carroll of Maryland was the only Roman Catholic signer.
Seven of the signers were educated at Harvard, four each at Yale and William & Mary, and three at Princeton. John Witherspoon was the president of Princeton and George Wythe was a professor at William & Mary, where his students included the author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson.
Seventeen of the signers served in the military during the American Revolution. Thomas Nelson was a colonel in the Second Virginia Regiment and then commanded Virginia military forces at the Battle of Yorktown. William Whipple served with the New Hampshire militia and was one of the commanding officers in the decisive Saratoga campaign. Oliver Wolcott led the Connecticut regiments sent for the defense of New York and commanded a brigade of militia that took part in the defeat of General Burgoyne. Caesar Rodney was a Major General in the Delaware militia and John Hancock was the same in the Massachusetts militia.
[b]Five of the signers were captured by the British during the war. Captains Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, and Arthur Middleton (South Carolina) were all captured at the Battle of Charleston in 1780; Colonel George Walton was wounded and captured at the Battle of Savannah. Richard Stockton of New Jersey never recovered from his incarceration at the hands of British Loyalists and died in 1781.
Colonel Thomas McKean of Delaware wrote John Adams that he was “hunted like a fox by the enemy–compelled to remove my family five times in a few months, and at last fixed them in a little log house on the banks of the Susquehanna . . . and they were soon obliged to move again on account of the incursions of the Indians.” Abraham Clark of New Jersey had two of his sons captured by the British during the war. The son of John Witherspoon, a major in the New Jersey Brigade, was killed at the Battle of Germantown.
Eleven signers had their homes and property destroyed. Francis Lewis’s New York home was destroyed and his wife was taken prisoner. John Hart’s farm and mills were destroyed when the British invaded New Jersey and he died while fleeing capture. Carter Braxton and Thomas Nelson (both of Virginia) lent large sums of their personal fortunes to support the war effort, but were never repaid.[/b]
Fifteen of the signers participated in their states’ constitutional conventions, and six–Roger Sherman, Robert Morris, Benjamin Franklin, George Clymer, James Wilson, and George Reed–signed the United States Constitution. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts attended the federal convention and, though he later supported the document, refused to sign the Constitution.
After the Revolution, 13 of the signers went on to become governors, and 18 served in their state legislatures. Sixteen became state and federal judges. Seven became members of the United States House of Representatives, and six became United States Senators. James Wilson and Samuel Chase became Justices of the United States Supreme Court.
Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Elbridge Gerry each became Vice President, and John Adams and Thomas Jefferson became President. The sons of signers John Adams and Benjamin Harrison also became Presidents.
Five signers played major roles in the establishment of colleges and universities: Benjamin Franklin and the University of Pennsylvania; Thomas Jefferson and the University of Virginia; Benjamin Rush and Dickinson College; Lewis Morris and New York University; and George Walton and the University of Georgia.
John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Charles Carroll were the longest surviving signers. Adams and Jefferson both died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Charles Carroll of Maryland was the last signer to die–in 1832 at the age of 95.
Sources: Robert Lincoln, Lives of the Presidents of the United States, with Biographical Notices of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence (Brattleboro Typographical Company, 1839); John and Katherine Bakeless, Signers of the Declaration (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1969); Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-1989 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1989).
OK, OK, Alleycat and Sandman.
Although I am tempted at times to throw some young spolied tykes on to the grill, my meaning was “bratwurst.”
In some parts of Midwest America, the word “bratwurst” is usually shortened to “brat” (often pronounced with an “ah” for the “a” sound. If you have ever seen the “Da Bears” skit on Saturday Night Live, you can get an idea of the pronunciation.)
“Beer and brats” (bratwurst) – the perfect summer combination in Milwaukee and other parts of Wisconsin and Chicago and northern Illinois and northwest Indiana.
How about “Let’s throw another brat on the barbie/Barbie”? to paraphrase Jim Carrey imitating Crocodile Dundee in Dumb and Dumber.
Anyway, I hope you got a laugh out of the post.
OK, OK, Alleycat and Sandman.
Although I am tempted at times to throw some young spolied tykes on to the grill, my meaning was “bratwurst.”
In some parts of Midwest America, the word “bratwurst” is usually shortened to “brat” (often pronounced with an “ah” for the “a” sound. If you have ever seen the “Da Bears” skit on Saturday Night Live, you can get an idea of the pronunciation.)
“Beer and brats” (bratwurst) – the perfect summer combination in Milwaukee and other parts of Wisconsin and Chicago and northern Illinois and northwest Indiana.
How about “Let’s throw another brat on the barbie/Barbie”? to paraphrase Jim Carrey imitating Crocodile Dundee in Dumb and Dumber.
Anyway, I hope you got a laugh out of the post.[/quote]
Yes, I know. I spent a few years in Ohio.
Of course you meant bratwurst, but you know me – I’m not one to pass up the opportunity to submit a lame attempt at humour. 
Anyway, Breeze has expensive US-made sausage such as bratwurst, knockwurst, cheesewurst, etc. They also have locally made “Black Bridge” brand bratwust and peffer bratwurst that is much cheaper and still pretty tasty.
I’ll be enjoying some bangers and mash to celebrate the holiday…perhaps I should stick an American flag on my backpack so the Brits can distinguish me and maybe even wish me a happy Independence Day…
This critic gives the American flag a C+. Too many stars, he says.
The world’s flags given letter grades
Canadians will be happy to see that aesthetically their flag is one of the few to garner an A. Kiwis and Aussies aren’t going to be happy with their grades - both are penalized for “colonial nonsense” (i.e., the Union Jack). Taiwan gets a good grade for classic simplicity.
Thanks, I enjoyed that.
[quote=“mod lang”]This critic gives the American flag a C+. Too many stars, he says.
The world’s flags given letter grades
Canadians will be happy to see that aesthetically their flag is one of the few to garner an A. Kiwis and Aussies aren’t going to be happy with their grades - both are penalized for “colonial nonsense” (i.e., the Union Jack). Taiwan gets a good grade for classic simplicity.[/quote]
But he’s got the crappiest homepage I’ve ever seen. :shock:
Happy Fourth of July. I mean it.
Thanks cousin. 