The 4th of July and Our Newest Shackles
It’s the Fourth of July!

Today, two people I enjoy reading have written very different pieces. I just realized that their subjects intersect perfectly. This intersection, in a nutshell, is that we have chipped away at our freedoms by trying, in excess, to be fair. In one hand we have those that aspire to bring political correctness to the fore, without regard for everyone’s freedom. And, in the other hand there are those that have made a mockery of protecting others and instituting a Nanny State that is surely causing Benjamin “Kid Gloves” Harrison to spin faster than if he were in a salad spinner! When ya slap both hands together they end up being shackled - we still have the key, you know.
It’s true that many situations can be misconstrued. Often times those that are hypersensitive seek errors in ones ways before they truly grasp any situation. And, it is our current attempt to make things even that so many have taken fair to an unfair level. Political Correctness has placed a major shackle on one hand in such a way that personal expression has been eroded. And, please, don’t bring up burning the flag as expression, that is a tired position and not expression but destruction laced with hatred. I’m referring to compliments and kindness, like kudos for the choices made in a career goal or even holding the door open for another. Today, while people that we elect continue to strip away what freedom truly is in the pursuit of fairness, we get inequality.
We also have a Nanny State that is getting more unbelievably out of control. How is it that protecting others from harm has become so restrictive? How can freedom for all allow those in high places to shackle the other hand without reproach?! As Jonathan Hoenig writes today in Smartmoney.com:
As we’ve pointed out in the past, free countries are always the most prosperous countries. From the former Soviet Union to still-communist China, every inch a society takes towards free-market capitalism results in unheralded prosperity and improved quality of life.
The Fourth of July, or Independence Day, is now appreciated primarily for fireworks and barbeque. Yet more than any other celebration, Independence Day is the quintessential American holiday because it clearly enunciates liberty and individual rights as the basic premises on which this country was founded. The Declaration of Independence, presented on July 4, 1776, put forth that all men are endowed with the rights of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” In America, man functions as an independent entity, free to live his own life independent of the church, government or so-called “public good.”
For many years, this country honored and preserved those principles. Yet, slowly, we’ve been steered away from the rugged individualism towards a collectivist free-for-all in which individual rights are routinely compromised, challenged, or tossed out the window altogether.
This country was FOUNDED on the principles of Godliness, God’s love and respect for us all, and His being the example we must all follow. If we follow His example, and His only Son’s examples, fair is but a given.
We are being shackled because we cannot see beyond the trees. These are the trees sown by those that have no love of God and this country’s principles. The trees are getting thicker out there, and so many have decided the forest is the trees - and visa versa. It’s truly shameful that this translates into a life without happiness, full of darkness and dread, where around every bark-strewn giant something evil lies in wait.
On this Fourth of July, our country’s 230th Birthday, I choose light. Well, light with a few alders, birches, Bushes (41 and 43), and a Mount McKinley or two for color and a break in the horizon!
Cross Posted at California Conservative
The above snippet is just a taste of Jonathan’s points. If you are a subscriber you can get all the benefit, ’cause it costs money for a Smartmoney.com membership. Or, watch him on Fox Channel’s Cashin’ In - he’s the pro-Capitalist on the panel. OK, the ONLY pro-Capitalist you’ll see on TV or in print!
TAGS: Fix4RSO, Milblog, Military, 4th+of+July, Independence+Day, Great+Presidents

July 5th, 2006 at 8:20
And it’s damn time for the shakles to be removed! Those who would have us all subscribe to their “double standard tolerance , diversity celebrating, fat free, doom and gloom, hate crimes justice, get so angry when someone (such as myself) says “no, I prefer to make up my own mind, thank you very much”. They don’t seem to get the fact that they are purporting just what they are supposedly fighting against.
I think our Founding Fathers had it pretty much on the mark and I really don’t like how the Bill Of Rights and The Constitution are being interpreted these days.
Great post!! Thanks!
July 5th, 2006 at 11:22
You and I see the same way, YankeeMom! It’s amazing that “pro-choice” is only OK when you kill a baby, yet not OK when you smoke or eat fatty foods …
Just astounding …
July 5th, 2006 at 17:53
Hoenig is the best. The only capitalist in the media today
July 5th, 2006 at 18:11
I totally agree, Justin!
I really love it on Fox - Cashin’ In - when he gets “Trapper John” all fired up! I sent Jonathan an e-mail once telling him how funny it was the way he could get Wayne Rogers’ ears to turn sooo red!
It’s amazing how EVERYONE on the rest of the panel can’t stand Jonathan. They’re all really mousey and go with the prominent public opinion.
They really do not stand up to Jonathan’s level, in my opinion.
July 5th, 2006 at 19:05
[…] Cross-posted at Fix4RSO.com […]
July 7th, 2006 at 6:09
I have been busy, getting ready to “hand off the baton” here at the VET Center. I’ll retire from my third ‘career’ to help raise our grandchild in a Christian atmosphere and try to protect that innocent person from ‘the evils of this world’. I will still be posting The Truth, not to worry.
July 8th, 2006 at 0:45
Hey Chief!
As I said in my note to you, congratulations on your retirement from the VET Center and your new job helping with your grandchild!
It is clear that your path is one dedicated to protecting and helping others. Thanks for everything that you do. You, and so many more, are the reason we are STILL a free country!
God Bless, Chief.
July 8th, 2006 at 17:01
FIX, for way too long Christians have been funding their own oppression. We politely step to the side and let the freaks and nuts who make the most noise and burn things get front and center with their message. NO MORE. Yankee Mom is absolutely right when she says it’s damn time for the shackles to be removed. Amen.
This is OUR country, too. It doesn’t matter who says America wasn’t founded on Christian principles. It was. We won’t have propadandists rewrite history. I won’t, and you won’t either, FIX. You’re not that kind of guy.
Keep up the good work, the good thinking and the good posting.
GOD bless America and defeat the ACLU!
July 9th, 2006 at 14:01
Hey Amy!
“funding their own oppression” is so dead spot on. We’ve allowed this to happen from many fronts and in many forms.
It’s amazing that “turn the other cheek” has bitten us in the ass! The meaning and the lesson have put many a Christian into a malaise. I say, “Thou shalt not let your brother strike you down through his own greed.”
God, and Jesus, did not teach us to just lie there and take it. Especially when the strikes are coming from those without an ounce of Godliness and Reverence. Be kind to your brother must go both ways.
Those against us, and this great nation, have pushed as all into a gross state of disequilibrium.