Happy 4th Of July

[D21howie]

Happy 4th Of July

[BSR]

I barely noticed the 4th of July when I was out of the country last year, but this year I’m a bit sad that I’m missing all the festivities.  Happy 250th, America!  I should *fingerscrossed* be in the US for the next July 4th, but being there to celebrate 251 years as a nation just doesn’t have the same ring to it.  To all my fellow Americans on the board, Happy Independence Day!!

[+ Just Chuck]

"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." 

 

 

The Declaration had some stuff I don’t like. And it had some good stuff removed from the original draft, but this sentence is the very best part of it.  

 

 

 

 

Edited Saturday at 11:29 PM by Just Chuck

[+ Vegas_Millennial]

4 hours ago, Just Chuck said:

"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." 

 

Edited Sunday at 03:35 AM by Vegas_Millennial

[jonasfoleson]

America isn't perfect, no country can be but it's achieved a lot. 

 

[jonasfoleson]

People bemoan the Founders for not tackling slavery. Jefferson tried to outlaw it in VA, though he failed. And many of them, whilst being slaveowners, did see the contradiction. They included slavery provisions in the Constitution to keep the southern states in line, as Georgia and the Carolinas would not have accepted it otherwise. The Civil War decades later was thus inevitable.

Yes, the USA did need a Civil War to end slavery. It did commit native genocide, Jim Crow, Tuskegee experiments, etc. But then the personal computer, smartphone, reaching the Moon, the light bulb, etc. are some of its plusses.

[+ Jamie21]

At least Canada remained loyal 😉

From your London correspondent 🇬🇧

[mike carey]

2 hours ago, Jamie21 said:

At least Canada remained loyal 😉

From your London correspondent 🇬🇧

Lie back and think of England. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

[Lotus-eater]

17 hours ago, Vegas_Millennial said:

 

 

The sentiment is nice but the quote is apocryphal. Franklin never said it and the Constitution doesn't mention happiness (unlike the Declaration).

[Luv2play]

2 hours ago, Lotus-eater said:

The sentiment is nice but the quote is apocryphal. Franklin never said it and the Constitution doesn't mention happiness (unlike the Declaration).

Maybe by the time they drafted the Constitution, they thought better of the wording in the Declaration guaranteeing the pursuit of happiness. After all the Declaration caused a lot of unhappiness amongst those loyal to the British Crown. 

[jonasfoleson]

18 hours ago, Jamie21 said:

At least Canada remained loyal 😉

From your London correspondent 🇬🇧

They have no culture, so had no choice.

[+ Vegas_Millennial]

12 hours ago, Lotus-eater said:

The sentiment is nice but the quote is apocryphal. Franklin never said it and the Constitution doesn't mention happiness (unlike the Declaration).

[samhexum]

NYC luxury high-rise pelted with illegal fireworks, sending tenants fleeing

A luxury Brooklyn high-rise was pelted with illegal fireworks July 4 — damaging its windows, showering onlookers with sparks and sending rooftop party-goers fleeing, fuming tenants told The Post.

No one was seriously hurt as the rogue pyrotechnics were launched at the tony apartment tower from the street, but residents in the trendy Bushwick neighborhood said they missed their coveted local skyline views during the spectacular Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks show — to run for cover to avoid getting hit with the stray blasts.

“The fireworks were pelting the windows — it sounded like hail,” resident Eric Dolny told The Post.

He said the rockets were launched just after sundown directly in front of the swanky, 18-story, newly built Cedar Tower, where one-bedrooms run about $3,500 a month.

“It was definitely jarring,” the 34-year-old said. “They were bursting in front of our window.”

A 28-year-old software engineer said she was directly struck by a burst while hosting about a dozen friends in her 12th-floor apartment.

“I got hit in the chest,” said the woman, who declined to give her name, adding that some fireworks sparks landed on others at the July Fourth fete, too.

“I was trying to film the fireworks from my balcony, so maybe that was my fault, but I was standing near the entrance to my balcony door,” she said.

The projectiles began at about 9:15 p.m. and continued for about 30 minutes, launched by two men right outside the apartment building, witnesses told The Post.

The building, erected in 2023, is one of the tallest structures in the hip neighborhood, standing on a block of otherwise two- and three-story structures.

“Fireworks were hitting every floor of this new building, and there were people on the roof that had to run away,” an onlooker wrote on social media.

Dolny’s girlfriend said, “It actually looks like [the fireworks] might have scratched up our windows.

“It was definitely dangerous and could have hurt people who were out on their balconies or could have potentially caused a fire.”

The hurt software engineer’s roommate, who is 30 and also a software engineer, said, “At one point, our friends told them, ‘Stop! We’re up here!” — to no avail.

The disturbing situation occurred as Illegal-fireworks complaints in the Big Apple have sharply decreased year-over-year to date, from 3,136 calls in 2025 to 2,257 this year, per 311 data.

In the same zip code for Cedar Tower, there were 43 complaints in 2025 compared to 21 complaints for the same period this year.

Edited 1 hour ago by samhexum
for absolutely NO @%!*ING reason at all!