My silence from the blog this coming week will be intentional as PatriotPartner and I pack up the gas-guzzling 1999 Ford Explorer and head to the South Carolina beaches.   The great part about this vacation — PatriotPuppies are coming with us.  Yep, we have a dog-friendly cottage right on the beach.   Hopefully I will post pics next weekend.

Anyway, enjoy the week.  And everyone have a happy Fourth of July.

Just do me a favor.  In between the hot dogs and hamburgers, remember what it is all about. 

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

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.

And don’t take it for granted… since most of the rest of the world’s population isn’t as half as blessed as we are.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)