Patriotism is a beautiful thing....

....and there are so many different ways to express it....

"Sure I wave the American flag. Do you know a better flag to wave? Sure I love my country with all her faults. I'm not ashamed of that, never have been, never will be."
- John Wayne

The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind
-Thomas Paine

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.” ~Declaration of Independence

"I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in providence, for the illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth."

Those who won our independence by revolution were not cowards. They did not fear political change. They did not exalt order at the cost of Liberty.
- Justice Louis D. Brandeis

Let the Fourth of July always be a reminder that here in this land, for the first time, it was decided that man is born with certain God-given rights; that government is only a convenience created and managed by the people, with no powers of its own except those voluntarily granted to it by the people. We sometimes forget that great truth, and we never should.”
—Ronald Reagan

“The secret of happiness is freedom. The secret of freedom is courage.” ~Thucydides

Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right…and a desire to know; but besides this, they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean of the characters and conduct of their rulers.
~John Adams (1735–1826)

The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.
~Thomas Jefferson

"Hail! Independence, hail! Heaven's next best gift, To that of life and an immortal soul!"
- James Thomson

"I prefer liberty with danger to peace with slavery."
-Author Unknown

If there must be trouble let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.
- Thomas Paine

“Better to starve free than be a fat slave” ~ Aesop

The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community against his will is to prevent harm to others.
-John Stuart Mill

Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it. ~Thomas Paine

“Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom” – Albert Einstein

"I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!" ~ Patrick Henry

In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce man, brave, hated, and scorned. When his cause succeeds however, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot." ~ Mark Twain

"Democracy is the government of the people, by the people, for the people." ~ Abraham Lincoln

I prefer liberty with danger to peace with slavery. ~Author Unknown

"There, I guess King George will be able to read that."
-- John Hancock, after signing the Declaration of Independence

Ill leave you with one more thought, courtesy of John Podhoretz, who speaks of how a certain president is tearing our country apart, and why we - as a people, as a nation - are neither rioting nor being called to armed insurrection:

The body politic is not panicking, even though the news is dire -- because it knows, somehow, that this too shall pass. America has faced worse times and weathered them. Even within our memory, it has had other leaders who also misunderstood their mandates and offered solutions to the nation's problems that only exacerbated them.

The body politic learns from its mistakes and uses its power to correct them. Taken as a whole, this bunch of rubes and dupes and boobs shows a remarkably commonsensical approach to these things by saying, in essence:

Nothing is irreversible. Change is possible.

The political message of July 4, 2010 that is looking increasingly like a harbinger of doom for the man who popularized it two years ago is simply this:

Yes, we can.

Finally, via Robert Stacy McCain, I bring you thoughts on one of the most important freedoms our forefathers fought to establish with their Revolution - the freedom to strike it rich, and not have it appropriated from you at gunpoint:

The principle that what you produce belongs to you and you have the absolute right to dispose of it as you wish is the cornerstone of all the wealth and wonders created in America for well over 230 years...Economic freedom is the first, and most important freedom we have. From it stems all the others...

Wealth does not simply appear from the thin air. It has to be created by human beings who act out of their own self-interest and have the freedom to create as much as they desire. That’s the only way it works. Without that freedom, wealth dries up and we end up like Zimbabwe.

I hope you enjoyed our serving of 4th of July quotations, with a side of "cheesecake". Have a happy, safe , and wonderful Independence Day!

May God Bless America...and Rule 5!

UPDATE: More beautiful displays of patriotism abound at Nation of Cowards , Mind Numbed Robot has a bikini roundup, Theo, as always, shares a few beauties, and The Camp of the Saints brings us an original - patriotic chicks with....swords? A sample:

You'll have to click the link to see the rest....

God, I love my country!!!