"Independence" Day

Judas Priest, but I'm loathing this holiday even more than usual this year. It mostly has to do with the fact that Dearest is under the weather, but can't get any consistent rest. It's not even close to dark out, but the fireworks have been going off (on and off) for hours. The only surprise--and mercy--is that the neighbor's drama queen beagle hasn't been going off as well.

Why-oh-why can't we have sensible holidays that revolve around the tangible rather than the abstract? Why isn't there a Humane Society holiday? Or a Local Food Pantry Day? (The closest I can come to that is Eid Al Fitr, actually, but I'll be d--ned if I sign on to that creed, either...)

One of my college History profs. claimed that the notion of "freedom" in Colonial America was less a matter of freedom from the British empire than it was what he called "freedom from the vices of one's neighbors."

Listen. I have absolutely no yuppie ambitions of tearing up a portion of forest to "live out in the country." But, daaaaang. If I want to listen to music, that's what an iPod is for. If I want to stroke my ego with the constant sense of presence that a dog brings, I'll go to the pound and adopt one. If I want to listen to drunken inanity at midnight, I'll crash yer friggin' party. If I want to hear brat-children scream incessantly, I'll squeeze out a few of my own and skip that fussy little nicety we call parental discipline.

You know: Swinging arms meeting noses and all that. And bah humbug to any "freedom" that doesn't have responsibility as its B-side