Independence day

[Chazumi]

Didn't see one of these here on OT. Kind of surprised. Maybe I missed it. In case I did sorry for the doublepost.

Just wanted to wish all of you a great 4th. Lots of booze, burgers, and fireworks. Since that is what 'MERICA is all about!

Happy 4th to all of you at Civfanatics, old and new. Whether you're American or not it is a great day to celebrate (and always a good day to drink) because regardless of what you think about this great country it has changed the course of human history for a long long time.

Call it patriotism, favoritism, ignorance, or whatever else you want, but I'd like to cheers with a beer and a salute to the greatest empire the Earth has ever seen. Here is to the next thousand years! #moveoverrome [I don't actually have a twitter that just seemed appropriate].

Anyways, off to light some fireworks for the kids! Cheers!

 

[Cutlass]

Link to video.

 

[Traitorfish]

If you guys were honest, you'd just call it "@#%$ Indians Day".

Although I suppose you already have Columbus Day.

 

[bhsup]

Actually, up to that point it was British citizens @#%$ the aboriginal Americans. No, today is specifically Independence Day from oppressive English monarchs.

 

[Cutlass]

We have enough holidays to cover each of those.

 

[Traitorfish]

Actually, up to that point it was British citizens @#%$ the aboriginal Americans. No, today is specifically Independence Day from oppressive English monarchs.

Yes, but in the context of 1776, "oppression" was defined largely as "preventing us from stealing land from Indians". To a lesser extent it meant "extending civil rights to Catholics" and "asking the colonies to pay taxes,then changing their mind, but not apologising for asking in the first place".

Early Americans were dicks, is what I'm getting at.

 

[shadowplay]

Happy independence day!

 

[cybrxkhan]

'Murica

Aw yeah

 

[Dumanios]

I Googled "The Most American Picture". This was Result 1.

 

[Farm Boy]

In the kindest possible terms, shove off TF. We have a good holiday to thumb our noses at the concept of monarchy. In any event, here's to you having a good day, hope you visit sometime and have fun and that the visa/immigration/security hounds are gentle.

(of course they were dicks they're a largely British derivative)

 

[Traitorfish]

I don't really begrudge you the holiday. It's certainly better than our national fireworks holiday, which is in the first place overtly monarchist and sectarian, and in the second, altogether more important case, located in bloody November. Have you been outside, at night, in a Scottish winter? It is the reason whisky was invented. The one consolation is that the sun sets at about two in the afternoon, so you can get the whole silly business over and done with.

I still prefer Bastille Day, though. All the base pleasures of fireworks, republicanism and snack foods, but because it's French you get to feel vaguely cosmopolitan for knowing what it is.

 

[Zack]

Yes, but in the context of 1776, "oppression" was defined largely as "preventing us from stealing land from Indians". To a lesser extent it meant "extending civil rights to Catholics" and "asking the colonies to pay taxes,then changing their mind, but not apologising for asking in the first place".

Early Americans were dicks, is what I'm getting at.

The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

Spoiler :

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

 

[JollyRoger]

He who comes forth with a fifth on the fourth may not come forth on the fifth.

 

[Kaitzilla]

He who comes forth with a fifth on the fourth may not come forth on the fifth.

 

[Kyriakos]

Best bit of Independence Day:

 

[Tahuti]

The Thirteen colonies rightfully belongs to the British throne, as do Texas, California et al. belong to Habsburg Mexico. Greater Louisiana should be restored to the Bourbons.

 

[bhsup]

We'll get right on that after the Dutch resubmit themselves to their rightful Spanish overlords.

 

[Tahuti]

We'll get right on that after the Dutch resubmit themselves to their rightful Spanish overlords.

After New York has become New Amsterdam once again!

 

[gay_Aleks]

After New York has become New Amsterdam once again!

And then, we'll finally colonize Chicago for Bulgaria, as it's predicted in the books!

 

[Phrossack]

Dogs dislike and fear Independence Day. Loyalists, all of them.