Land of the free, home of the brave?

In past years, I've tried to include some quotes, speeches, etc., about the USA that would be inspiring, or at least serve as a reminder of what the USA stands for.

But this year, I don't know.

It's just things like various levels and branches of government dictating what you can eat for lunch and how much health insurance you MUST have. How much personal income is "enough" for you. What you "should" study in college, and what you can use for energy and how much of it you "should" consume. It's things like that that make me question -- is this freedom?

Do we have freedom anymore?

I don't think so. I think it's almost beyond recovery, too. This kind of slavery is normal now. It's what we expect. And it's "for our own good."

It's the schemers and manipulators who've suppressed our freedoms. And I'm not talking about welfare cheats or fraudulent government contractors. I'm talking about politicians on every level.

The fact that we have a democratic system gives liars and con artists and psychopathic control freaks a marketing tool; they always say -- and may themselves believe -- that they do all they do for us. For the elderly, the children, the widows and orphans. Blah-blah-blah-blah-blah.

And how much of the funding they raise for taxation ends up in their own pockets, or in the private accounts of friends and supporters?

Very few politicians are in that business anymore to preserve and protect American ideals and the principles enshrined in the Declaration of Independence. If we consider Pazzo Pelosi, Brain-dead Harry Reid, and anyone in the Executive Branch, you have to wonder if they have even a casual familiarity with the US Constitution. Instead, they go to Washington to "bring home the bacon." And I'm convinced many of them are simply power mad, or afflicted with some kind of Munchausen's Disease, where you cause pain so that later you can rush in and "heroically" rescue the victims -- by exercising more power over them and extracting more money from them. More regulation, less personal freedom.

Crazy.

Sad.

And people vote for this. Edward Gibbon in The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire:

In the end, more than freedom, they wanted security. They wanted a comfortable life, and they lost it all – security, comfort, and freedom. When the Athenians finally wanted not to give to society but for society to give to them, when the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again.

So go eat your hot dogs and apple pie and look at the fireworks. And just forget about everything else. It isn't there anymore, anyway,