Fourth of July Rambling

It's Independence Day here in America, which means barbecue and explosions in the sky and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Kaboom!

It's a great country, full of great people that do great things, and it's important to remember that from time to time.

But tonight, when you all get home from Navy Pier or wherever it is you're going tonight to watch the fireworks, and you're so jacked up from what a great day you've had and what a great country you live in, and you need to go to sleep but you need to calm down first, would you do me a favor and read this?

This is an article about how, hey, separation of church and state was actually a real thing that people, like, intended to exist when they started this great nation of ours.  Not only that, but there's actual proof.

You would think this is something that everybody knows already, but apparently it's not.  See, there's a growing contingent of 'patriots' out there who would have you believe that America is supposed to be a Christian nation.  It's not.  It's not supposed to be affiliated with any religion whatsoever.

But there are so many people out there who don't know a damned thing about this country and its history, let alone why it's special and needs to be safeguarded.  And because of this, you have people like this telling people that John Quincy Adams was a founding father (his father was a founding father) and praising a town in Iowa for giving birth to John Wayne, where in reality he was born elsewhere and the aforementioned town was actually just where John Wayne Gacy started sexually assaulting people.

Side note: Michelle Bachmann wants to live in John Wayne's America.  Given that most of John Wayne's movies were set in the wild west (People being shot in the streets?  Outhouses?  Hello?) or on a battlefield somewhere, I would decline that particular future thank you very much.

And yet, this is an elected official.  People elected this person.  People went to a ballot box somewhere and said, 'Yes, this person should be in charge.'  And it's not even the same people who elected Sarah Palin - she of the infamous Paul Revere jumble of stalling and buzzwordy nonsense - those people were in Alaska.

People: this kind of foolishness is embarrassing.  To have public officials who don't know their history, don't know the difference between a movie star and an infamous serial killer, and believe we're a religious nation where the government was set up by a bunch of Christians SPECIFICALLY TO BE A SECULAR INSTITUTION; I mean, this is a poor reflection on all of us, no?

So next time you run into these people, suggest that they read a history book.  Or at least suggest that they go out and rent 'John Adams' and watch it on the T.V.  It's a democratic republic, so we're all in this shit together.