Americans have long celebrated Independence Day with great speeches presenting the principles of Democracy and Freedom with clarity and power. This year the nation’s most moving, patriotic, and eloquent Fourth of July Oration was by Alaska’s Governor Sarah Palin:
Now that’s what made our country great.
The offical transcript is here; you’ll want to print these inspiring words on parchment and recite them on Independence Days to come. Especially the part about “only dead fish go with the flow.”
Have a safe and sane 4th of July, and God Bless America.
Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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As if we needed more proof that she does not know the difference between campaigning and governing, Mrs. Palin explained she is quitting five months before the end of her term because she will not seek re-election. Five months is actually twice the length of time it took her to lose the White House for the Republicans last year.
Theories on the real motivation for her resignation abound. Chief contenders:
Washingtonians: Want to really declare your independence? Start celebrating Independence Day tonight, July 3rd at 9 PM. Tune your radio toWAMU-FM 88.5 and listen to a special Independence Day edition of American Routeswith Ponderosa Stomp, the Del McCoury Band, and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. It’s not the same old Sousa.
The program features portions of live concerts from New Orleans’ French Quarter. The Ponderosa Stomp is dedicated to the “unsung heroes of rock ‘n’ roll” and their rockabilly, soul, country and R&B classics. Then the Del McCoury Band cooks up hot Bluegrass in Preservation Hall, mother church of hot jazz, along with the resident masters, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Program details here.
Declare your independence from HD radio, too. Tonight’s broadcast is on “real radio,” WAMU-FM’s main frequency, 88.5, not WAMU’s HD2 channel, where show is usually heard in Washington (Saturdays 8 PM-10 PM). If you are among the millions in the Washington area without an HD radio, this is a rare chance to hear American Routes on something that sounds better than your laptop.
Mr. Sanford, a former financier and real estate broker, is married to a powertool heiress who worked on Wall Street. He was going to write a book called Within Our Means, about fiscal conservatism.
”I was part of a group called C Street when I was in Washington. It was … a Christian Bible study; some folks that asked of members of Congress hard questions that I think were very, very important. And I’ve been working with them.”
“I see Cubby Culbertson in the back of the room. I would consider him a spiritual giant …. … and an incredibly dear friend. And he has been helping us work through this ….”
– South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, in a Statehouse news conference.
“Sanford … detailed more visits with [Maria Belen] Chapur, including an encounter that he described as a failed attempt at a farewell meeting in New York this past winter, chaperoned by a spiritual adviser ….”
From recent remarks and actions by Governor Mark Sanford, you might think his spiritual advisor hails from a galaxy far, far away, but he has several spiritual advisors, all apparently terrestrial. Few are actually clergymen, and none appear to be accredited marriage counselors. This is free-style, free-range, free-market spiritual advising, and the Invisible Hand needs a good rap on the knuckles.
There are two teams of known Sanford spiritual advisors in our solar system, one in Washington DC, the other in South Carolina’s capital, Columbia.
In a session reporters Tamara Lush and Evan Berland describe as “lengthy and emotional,” Mr. Sanford revealed that his extramarital relationship with Argentine reporter Maria Belen Chapur started eight years ago when he met her at a dance and ”counseled her into the night about her failing marriage.”
Summertime is festival time. If you missed the ones last weekend, don’t fret. There are plenty more next weekend — and for weekends to come — and they’re all the same.
The plain truth: these so-called “Special Events” are no longer very special. There are just too many of them (one promoter calls it ”festival saturation“), tens of thousands in the USA alone, and festivals are much too similar.
Also verboten: clothing with foul language or messages promoting drug use written on it, halter tops and other “sexually provocative” garments, and piercings anywhere except the ears.
Something city workers must wear: deodorant. Brooksville (population: 8,000) is 45 miles north of Tampa, 15 miles east of the Gulf. Today’s weather: 89 °F, Heat Index: 99 °F.
