Update: Ed makes us see stars. See below the “continue reading” line.
I slept so late today recovering from my jet lag I almost forgot to place my flag outside.
Flying to Australia and traversing the country, gives me an appreciation for liberty no matter what hemisphere you reside in. Aussies have made many contributions to freedom, such as I witnessed with this WWI war memorial in Emerald, QLD:
There is also a WWII memorial just to the right of the photo. Aussies have been side by side with the USA in every world conflict. They are owed thanks on this day as well.
As the founders of our country declared in this document:
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 justified the independence of the United States by listing colonial grievances against King George III, and by asserting certain natural rights, including a right of revolution.
Like with the colonists, with this blog, the readers, and the publications, I often assert my right of revolution against unreasonable acts of taxation, such as Kerry’s cap and trade bill.
Today, once again Ed Darrell and I are in agreement, and I particularly like the flag on the moon he chose. It is depressing that President Obama has proposed killing the next step in the manned space program, Aries.
So today, take a cue from myself and Ed, no matter whether you are a free market optimist or a tax happy sourpuss, fly your flag. Later today, I’m going to pursue some life, liberty, and happiness, you should too.
UPDATE: Speaking of Ed Darrell and Australians, perhaps some of our readers “down under” might like to educate Ed as to what the 5 stars mean in the logo for the AU Climate Skeptics Party.
I laughed out loud when I read this from Ed’s blog. Not only does he misappropriate the source of the logo, even though all he had to do was click the image on WUWT, he also seems to have no clue as to the reference to why the stars of the “southern cross” is a symbol of Australia. After learning about it with the help of some WUWT commenters, perhaps he’ll make a lesson plan of it for his students.
From Ed’s blog:
==================================
That may explain why Anthony Watts’ logo for his Australian tour shows a kangaroo whose rear end has just been kicked (you can tell by the stars).
In cartoons, stars show where a character has been punched or kicked, right?
No agreement to control greenhouse gases came out of the Copenhagen conference last fall. So-called climate skeptics patted each other on the back, claimed victory, and proceeded to send Christopher Monckton on his Bonnie Lies All Around the World Tour. In cool light of morning, however, the facts can’t be silenced: Warming continues, science shows the extremely high probability that humans cause it, official investigations show that climate scientists who had their e-mails stolen were victims of crime, not perpetrators, and climate skeptics failed to stop warming with their big-dollar, nice-banquet meetings with the Heartland Institute, or anywhere else.
If they are skeptics, they are pretty bad at it, falling like chumps for a story that fourth-grade science project made the case they have failed to make everywhere else, and for the story that one of their comrades was sent a bomb in the mail (it turned out to be a misdirected fuel filter).
No wonder Americans remain concerned about warming.
=======================================
The Southern Cross stars with a boxing kangaroo is a common design in Australia. This car decal for example:
http://beaututes.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=153&products_id=934
or this t-shirt
http://www.gooses.com.au/categories.asp?cID=32&c=55834
or this flag:
http://www.1uptravel.com/flag/flags/au-kang.html
BTW here’s the update on the bomb scare story, it also fooled a journalist and a terrorism expert. In fact, suspicious packages are cause for alarm every day around the world, and often get misidentified (and often blown up) by professional people erring on the side of caution. Here’s a few examples: 1 2 3 4 5 and even in Ed’s home state of Texas they react to suspicious packages the same way. It’s hard to be skeptical when you risk life and limb to find out. Sheesh Ed.
Heh, “big dollar nice banquet meeting”. The once a year meeting not using a dime of taxpayer money, totally privately funded, and yes, no big oil either. I guess he’s still sore for not getting invited to the IPCC meeting in Bali. Ed’s a slippery sort of bloke, so he’ll probably try to claim post facto that it was humor, or that we misinterpreted his reference to the 5 stars. Give him no quarter.
Thanks (Smokey & stevengoddard)
I am also on my fourth flag. They have been proudly displayed on my porch 24/7/365 since 9/11/2001..
“Least we never forget”
What’s the big star under the Union Jack? Alpha Centauri?
Martin A wrote: “Of the countries I have visited and lived in, it’s only the USA whose flag is widely flown by its own citizens.”
Martin, this used to be true. When I was a kid back in the 40s and 50s, we were amazed at how many people flew a flag as we drove through New England and NY between New Brunswick and Ontario (then the best route). However, since we (Canadians) finally got our own flag, many people fly it at their homes. I wouldn’t want to compare how many in the USA vs Canada, for it would prove nothing, but the number of Canadian flags is quite appreciable.
Americans have much to be proud of, and that’s enough for a good celebration
IanM
You are the shining beacon of liberty, justice and freedom.
We couldn’t do it without you guys. As Tony Blair said, when sending troops to fight at our side for freedom, “Doing nothing IS doing something.” Fortunately for the world, you guys continue to do the something that is not nothing.
I’ll offer this up since the US Navy ( as well as the other services ) were and are integral to the Freedoms we now enjoy. A Short History of the American Navy, by John Spears; 1907. http://s79.photobucket.com/albums/j155/43gm94l/History/Spears/
Amen, Anthony. Long live the Republic!
tommy says:
July 4, 2010 at 2:11 pm
Ahhh, Tommy, you must be new here. INGSOC is not an American. I lived half my life abroad and would be quite happy to discuss, from first hand experience, why American democracy is something to be proud of, even in these contentiuous times. It is fashionable to denigrate the idea of American Exceptionalism as some kind of jingoist fad, but the truth is that here in America we have built on a millenium of humanism and individualism from all over the world to build a society that believes in both achievement and compassion; believes in the importance of public service and sacrifice while safeguarding individual liberty and freedom of expression. We may not be perfect, and other nations have contributed mightily, but I defy anyone to show me who’s done it better.
White collar environmentalist flashin’ down the street
Pointin’ their plastic finger at me
They’re hopin’ soon my kind will drop and die
But I’m gonna wave my free flag high!
heartening to hear parts of the globe chirp up.
thanks to all the non Americans for expressing support.
Wishing all the best and success to all.
cheers.
I have traveled to and worked in many, many countries in the world. Some countries had some degree of the freedom and liberties as does the USA, but most do not. Just try criticizing the government or its leaders, or staging a protest, in quite a few countries. Try getting into trouble with the law, and see if the USA’s legal system would not be a welcome relief. The USA has the right to a speedy trial by an impartial jury of your peers, right to an attorney, right to remain silent when arrested, right to call witnesses on your own behalf, right to confront witnesses against you, right to see ALL the evidence against you, right to not self-incriminate, right to an appeal, right to exclude hearsay evidence, right not to be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment, right to not be tried twice for the same crime (double jeopardy), just to name a few.
Additional rights spelled out in the Bill of Rights are not available to many countries in the world, either. I have in mind Free Press, Free Speech, Free Exercise of Religion, and others.
Anthony, that bit about the stars indicating the kangaroo had been kicked – it was a joke, wasn’t it? … Otherwise it was equivalent to a sign on the fellow’s a** saying ‘Kick Me’.
Unfortunately anti-Americanism is rather common here in Australia these days. This partly reflects post-Vietnam angst, sometimes personal clashes between American forthrightness and Australian she’ll-be-right easy-going ways. But it is also fed ironically by self-hating Americans like Michael Moore, Chomsky and Hollywood scriptwriters who put in more conspiracy theories than McCarthy. Australian Yank-bashers have typically never heard of the Marshall Plan, one of the most enlightened and generous political policies ever – whoever else in history gave the likes of conquered fascist countries like Germany and Japan a fortune to peacefully rebuild? Yank-bashers here also don’t appreciate the difficulty America has as world superpower – she is expected to fix everybody’s problems and by politically correct methods. Australia is just starting to get some inkling of this through increasing demands on us to fix everybody’s problems just in our own region – East Timor, New Guinea, the Solomons, etc.
Hu McCulloch says:
July 4, 2010 at 2:42 pm
What’s the big star under the Union Jack? Alpha Centauri?
It’s the Commonwealth Star
Raising a toast to our brothers in Freedom in Aussie land!
Hu McCulloch says:
July 4, 2010 at 2:42 pm
> What’s the big star under the Union Jack? Alpha Centauri?
I didn’t know, but I do now, it’s the “Commonwealth Star” and is not an astronomical star. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Australia
From Ed’s blog:
“In cartoons, stars show where a character has been punched or kicked, right?”
==============================
Somebody has been watching too many cartoons.
Play time is over.
How old are you?
Today, once again Ed Darrell and I are in agreement, and I particularly like the flag on the moon he chose. It is depressing that President Obama has proposed killing the next step in the manned space program, Aries.
Anthony, this is not one to pin on Obama. President Bush and his head of OSTP Dr. John Marburger came out with the Vision for Space Exploration (VSE) that was focused on the economic development of the solar system. Dr. Marburger’s speech at the Goddard Memorial Dinner in March of 2006 was probably the best exposition of the reasons that we are going to economically develop the solar system that has been written since the 1950’s by a government official.
However, in implementation, the NASA administrator, Dr. Mike Griffin perverted the VSE into the ESAS architecture, which was nothing more than a plan to build the biggest rocket possible with little thought about the actual implementation of an overall development plan. Dr. Griffin’s plan was never ever viable as the guidance from the White House and congress were immediately violated and all that he could ever do is whine that the government was underfunding his plan.
The new Obama plan, which is called the flexible path, is not perfect as he was badly advised by Dr. Buzz Aldrin that we had “been there and done that” and that Mars is the goal, without however, providing the funding to do it.
We will see what happens but please let me be clear that the Griffin ESAS plan that NASA was embarked upon (of which the Ares 1 and Ares 5 are the rocks), was not sustainable, was technically nearly unworkable, and would have left us in a worse position down the road. It was the right thing to do to cancel it now. What remains is to make sure that what comes next is workable.
Hugh,
The large star under the Union Jack is the Federation Star, which has points for each of the states that were joined at Federation into the independent country of Australia, and one point for all the territories – both on the mainland and overseas. See http://flagspot.net/flags/au.html .
To the very fortunate Citizens of the United States of America I offer my heartiest congratulations. You can still fly your own flag on your own soil. We in England cannot fly either the flag of St. George or the Union Standard lest we “offend” our ubiquitous “minorities”.
13 years of Socialist government has crippled this country and our new ConDem coalition government is doing nothing to support any overt display of patriotism, such as the simple display of the national flag.
You in the USA are truly the last bastion of freedom. Guard this responsibility very carefully. Our Freedom in the United Kingdom was stolen from us by devious stealth. We are now ruled from Brussels, not by our own elected Parliament.
Please don’t let the same thing happen to you.
Mine is out most of the time and especially today!
I’ve always thought the Canadian flag a hansome banner. Makes a nice display at sporting events.
Nothing to do with Independance Day. Just a personal observation.
Ric Werme says:
July 4, 2010 at 2:19 pm
From New Hampshire, the “Live Free or Die” state – out state constitution starts with a Bill of Rights, and article 10 says:
_______________________________________
I lived in NH for many years and commuted to work in MA because I just could not stomach living in the Peoples Republic of Taxachusetts.
tallbloke says:
July 4, 2010 at 3:25 pm
White collar environmentalist flashin’ down the street
Pointin’ their plastic finger at me
They’re hopin’ soon my kind will drop and die
But I’m gonna wave my free flag high!
___________________________________________________
That is the best poem I have seen on WUWT yet. May we continue to fly “Old Glory” proudly in the years to come.
Hu McCulloch:
The big 7 pointed star represents our 6 states and and the territories (NT & ACT) of Oz. There doesn’t seem to be any move to add a point to the star, although there’s quite a strong movement to change the flag to something less Union Jackish. We use the boxing kangaroo in green and yellow a lot but it doesn’t quite work for a solemn flag.
Happy 4th everyone!
Hu McCulloch; The big star under the Union Jack on the Aussie flag is the ‘Federation Star’ (not one that you will find in the sky!) One point for each of the six states, and one point for the territories. There is lots of noise about changing the flag – the Union Jack apparently means, in small minded minds, that we are subsevient to GB. To most of us (probably – I haven’t done a survey) it is significant of the nation’s cultural and political history and heritage.
To Hu McCulloch:
“What’s the big star under the Union Jack? Alpha Centauri?”
The big star is the star of federation. Australia is a federation of states, each of which was an independent colony prior to federation in 1901. Each point on the star represents one of the states (“Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania), and one point is left over for the “territories” (Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory).
The other stars are the Southern Cross, which is a constellation (near Alpha and Beta Centauri) that hangs forever in the sky overhead.