Son of Timatollah

It would be really cute -- and ridiculously time consuming -- if I could offer you 230 licks links "and one to grow on" to celebrate the 230th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Instead, I offer a sampling of what the personal-sized blogs I regularly read are saying about the event:

Mustang Bobby at Bark Bark Woof Woof offers the text of the document itself (here -- I think I may still have the 5th Dimension record that put the excerpt below to song):

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.

Mike Silverman at Red Letter Day lays down much of the current scope (here):

I'm openly gay and openly Jewish. I live in Kansas (f*cking Kansas!) and I can read whatever I choose to read, openly express my opinion that our President is the dumbest and most corrupt leader of a world power since Caligula (although replacing my Senator with a horse would be an improvement), read what I want, listen to what I want, download practically whatever I want, learn how evolution works, worship God (or decide not to worship God) any damn way I want, marry another man (whatever the backwards State might think about it), and in spite of many obstacles thrown my way by a government forgetful of her founding principles, still enjoy Independence Day in the United States of America! We beat Hitler, threw the USSR into the dustbin of history, and put a man on the Moon. Does anyone think Osama Bin Laden or Pat Robertson stands a chance?

And Mike Hollihan at Half-Bakered quotes The Tubes and sees the USA as the world's party animal (here):

Britain was our mother, and she's still one happenin' babe. Our sister France is still a little difficult, and sometimes she's a bit slutty, and she's a tad too obsessed with her own comfort and leisure. But we love her just the same. Our cousins across the world? Well, they all drive Audis and Beetles, worry about mortgages and such. They're not as well off as they pretend they are. They say things about us when we're not there.

But America roars up at the family get-togther in our Prowler with the top down and stereo blasting. Probably rap music. We're loud, sure, but we're fun. We'll get drunk, knock something over and probably feel up Hong Kong. The Junior League matrons-to-be like Canada and New Zealand will tut-tut, but their children will watch us enviously, and ask us where to buy those pants. And yeah, the neighbors will probably crash the party to have a run at the buffet table. Everyone secretly wants to be us, but no one has the guts to go for it.

Happy Independence Day.