Saturday For messages about today's picture, see Cam Notes. This area is for other friendly conversation. Please read our Acceptable Use Policy.

Some other links of recent interest to Pasty Cam watchers:
• In Search of our Ancestors    • New Arrivals
• Politics and Religion, Ketchup or Gravy
Decade of the Pasty Cam on this day ^{Printed on Recycled Internet}

Of the last 10 years' daily Pasty Cam, how many displayed flags? (not counting today).

Good morning! Happy 4th!

I only saw 5.

So did we :o)

There should have been 10, don't you agree? But I guess it's hard to have flags around fireworks, lol. And the one with the lightning over Lake Superior was awesome!

Way to go Deb! You're on the ball today. Congratulations!

I hope everyone has a great time at your picnic or barbeque today...eat responsibly (and have a burger for me).

I count 6. There are two in the 2004 photo.

Sorry, I counted flags not days.

Charlie wanted how many DAYS displayed flags, not how many flags there were. I saw that too.

I just got off the phone with my family in the UP. My father, son
and daughter had a wonderful time at the parade in Ishpeming
this morning. My father, a veteran of WWII, rode in our son's
convertible which had been festively decorated for the 4th by
our daugher, tossing candy to the kids on the sides of Third St.
My dad was delighted to have been behind the National Guard
unit and the mayor, and in front of the president of NMU and his
wife. Another thrill for him was to drive to town along County
Rd. 581 with the radio blaring. He said it made him feel like he
was 25 years younger.

Happy Independence Day! I'm there with all of you in spirit, you
betcha!

Kosk, that is wonderful about your father and the parade. He must be about the same age as my father-in-law. No matter what our age, there's nothing better than making memories.... Have a great 4th all, especially our vets and those currently in uniform.

Kosk, what a great story and memory for your dad. He is a great reminder of all the wonderful men and women who have laid down their lives for this country. That's what this day is all about. I hope everybody remembers.

Our parade is candy free. So sad for the kids! And it's soooo very long, which I don't mind, but kids look forward to the candy that is thrown. We're not even allowed to walk over to them and hand them something so they're not running carelessly into the street. Takes all the fun out of it for the little ones. We didn't go this year. But I'm sure the parade was great as usual.

Happy 233 Birthday of the U.S.A. Independence Day on this Fourth of July 2009. Still a young Country. All of our family that is here in Tennessee gathered in our usual spot in Powell for the 6 th. year now. Three of of our granddaughters got to see the small parade, after playing on things kid's love to play on, eating hot dogs, chips, and washing that down with a snow cone. The biggest thrill for them was bagging all the candy that was thrown at them from the float's, fire trucks, ect. Our kid's, now adults got to see the Dollar Bay parade afew times at a young age, and in there teens. Once even was in the Dollar Bay Parade, and marched in Hazel Park, MI. Parade while in band for their school all those years, which was a good place to be on the Fourth of July. But we all agree there is no place better to enjoy this occasion then good ole Dollar Bay, MI. in the U.P. and then off to Lake Linden to see who can and who can not drive their truck thru the big mud bog they make there. And then at dark for the Fireworks. We all will watch the Fireworks a mile up the road in Luttrel, and will be able to see Knoxville's from up on the hill. Stay safe.

Celebrating the End of American Independence
By JB Williams Thursday, July 2, 2009

2009 marks the end of an era in which the United States of America led the world in prosperity, power, individual liberty and freedom. The US Constitution no longer stands as the cornerstone of freedom. The average American is no longer well suited for self-governance. The federal government no longer serves at the pleasure of the people and the states and the future of the greatest nation ever known to mankind, is beyond bleak.

The American people are divided into three political blocs today.

Those who desire access to the earnings and assets of others and are using the weight and power of the federal government to rob their fellow Americans of freedom, liberty and hard earned prosperity.

Those who have spent a lifetime on the sidelines not knowing what to believe or who to trust, manipulated by a constant drumbeat in the leftist press, academia and Hollywood elite, trading their individual liberty and that of others for a so-called “greater communal good.”

Those who still believe in the founding principles and values of a Constitutional Republic, but have no representation in Washington DC, the press, academia or Hollywood, and have yet to find a viable means of restoring freedom without force.

Even those who see what is happening live in a state of illusion, hoping against hope that it is all just a mirage. They believe that America will simply rebound, as it always has. But they overlook the reality that all of the founding principles and values that made it possible for our country to prosper and even dig itself out of tough times, have been systematically destroyed. The mechanisms needed to rebound, no longer exist…

I received the following letter from a dear friend and retired Colonel just yesterday. I have known the Colonel for many years and have never heard him speak in this tone before. His words caught me off guard, as they were quite out of character for a great man who had spent his life defending freedom and liberty. With his permission, I want to share his letter with you, although for the safety of his family, he has requested anonymity, which I will honor.

Dear JB,

I am a professional military man, retired but still ready, willing and able to honor my oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies…” - The bunch of traitors, terrorists and conquistadors that presently hold “elected” and appointed office in our nation’s capitol have no intention of honoring the U.S. Constitution. Their intent is the destruction of the republic, the oppression of liberty, the crushing of all resistance and the establishment of a global government.

When Cap and Trade is passed by the Senate and signed into law by Obama, the destruction of our nation will progress rapidly. Millions will be out of work. The cost of living will skyrocket and as this process progresses, violence will fill this country. This will be the excuse for new powers for the government and for United Nations troops to patrol our streets.

The people will be disarmed door to door by troops that hate Americans. The U.S. armed forces will be down sized and those that remain, kept out of the country to protect the usurpers who are destroying this nation. The blood of liberty lovers will flow in the streets. Civil war will erupt as parents see the destruction of their families and millions of “domestic terrorists” who refuse to renounce their belief in God, Liberty and our Republic, finally resort to armed rebellion to save what they can, much too late. Once again, a dark age will fall upon the world and it will be darkest in what was once the free republic known as the United States of America.

In the name of “change” we have sold our nation, our liberty, our future and the soul of America to the forces of evil. We have sewed the wind and we will reap the whirlwind.

I do not believe any longer that this Republic can be saved. Those of us who care are not yet ready to do what needs to be done, to pay the price to retain our liberty and cage our government. Our enemies know this truth better than we. It will take force to drive this evil government from power just as it took force to establish our republic.

For those of us who swore allegiance to the Constitution, this act is not yet feasible. We just can’t admit what we know in our hearts. To even think this, is treason under the new “hate crimes” laws. The forces of Global dominion have planned well and have captured the media, education and now our government is fully in their control.

The last hope for this Republic, short of Divine intervention, is the United States Military and as long as the high command remains in the pocket of the oppressors, there is no hope.

My advice, - get right with God, do whatever you can to protect and preserve your family, keep yourself informed, keep a low profile. When the opportunity arises, defend the Republic to the best of your ability. Do not expect mercy from the oppressors and finally, live free and die hard. God save the Republic.

Bob

Sadly, the Colonel is far from alone in his assessment. I am hearing similar assessments from active duty and retired service men and women, as well as many other community leaders on a daily basis now. The people, their states, their businesses, are NOT free!

As many average Americans prepare to celebrate Independence Day with the usual fireworks and family cookouts, other American patriots like the Colonel, are taking to the streets in TEA Party protests, as they mourn the end of US freedom and supremacy, and pray for divine intervention that may bring an end to the hourly assault on all things American taking place in Washington DC today.

The Constitution Does NOT Stand
It’s now a matter of known fact that Barack Hussein Obama does not meet the constitutional eligibility for the office he holds and this means that Article II – Section I of the Constitution is no longer in force.

It’s equally clear that no member of congress or the courts is the least concerned with the fact that we have a man sitting in the Oval Office who has not met constitutional standards, spends his every waking moment attacking the Constitution, and has not even passed a standard security clearance for the information he has access to.

Every day, congress and the White House are forcing policies into law that are in direct contradiction to the Constitution. Nobody says a word… Even those who oppose those policies fail to use the Constitution to stop them.

TEA Party goers now qualify as “Domestic Terrorists”
The FBI and DHS are monitoring the TEA Party protests. Obama’s DHS has redefined “domestic terrorist” to include every American who opposes the One World Order regime running wild in Washington DC.

Once defined as “domestic terrorists,” the Obama administration is free to treat them like terrorists and local law enforcement has been put on notice to do just that. As Obama comments in defense of freedom-fighters protesting against an illegitimate president in Iran, his DHS has determined that American freedom-fighters protesting our own illegitimate president are nothing more than “domestic terrorist” to be treated as such.

The Lefts Full Court Press
With a filibuster proof House and Senate, leftists in charge of the federal government sense that they must strike while they hold unbridled power. They drove the nation from a trillion dollars in debt to more then ten trillion in debt in their first 90 days in power.

They confiscated control of the banking industry and the auto industry and they have most states hanging by a federal promise of taxpayer bailout funds, after pushing all of it to the brink of bankruptcy. Next they want control of the insurance industry, the health industry and the energy industry.

Through Cap & Trade, they seek to bankrupt every American with laws which will make Al Gore a multi-billionaire, on the backs of the very Americans who thought Obama had their best interests at heart. The unemployment rate has already doubled under brief leftist rule with much worse ahead. The only jobs Obama wants to create are more government taxpayer funded jobs.

They have destroyed our defense and intelligence communities and given aid and comfort to America’s enemies in Iran, North Korea, and third world dictatorships too numerous to mention.

The End of Self-Governance
Today, self-governance is defined as “mob rule” wherein 51% of the people are free to take away the rights of the other 49%. We call it “democracy.”

But true self-governance was about the freedom to govern one’s self. Public enemy #1 in America today is the evil word “capitalism.” Of course capitalism is nothing more than economic freedom, the ability to self-govern ones economic condition through individual decisions.

Americans don’t want freedom anymore. Left to govern themselves, they were free to make mistakes, some of them quite costly. So they voted to be governed by others, namely Ivy League elitists who allegedly know what’s best for them and promise to save them from themselves.

The end of individual accountability and self-governance brings about the end of individual liberty and the death of individual, state and national independence.

Now we are Dependents...
Because we don’t like smokers, we use the power of the Fed to beat smokers over the head. We won’t stop them from smoking by outlawing tobacco, because we can profitably bludgeon smokers to death with excessive taxes. But we hope to pass legislation making it possible for them to smoke marijuana instead, because people on pot don’t resist anything.

We will do the same to SUV drivers, folks with a bigger home or TV than ours, people who eat where we can’t afford to eat, and travel where we can’t afford to travel. We are petty and foolish… The guns we aim at others today will be turned on us soon.

Because we don’t want someone to make more or have more than we have, we use the power of the federal government to take from those who have earned more. Though they promise to redistribute the confiscated wealth to those of lesser individual success, the money somehow ends up vanishing in the sea of wasteful federal programs instead.

The states allowed the Fed to grab control of everything and now they exist at the pleasure of the Fed and are dependents of the Fed, just like the people. Freedom was sold for the promise of free-stuff and now that the Fed is also bankrupt, to the point that even Red China worries about our nation’s credit worthiness, there is nowhere left to turn for a bailout of the American Dream.

Celebrating the Loss of Independence
The election of Barack Obama marked the death of the Constitution. The policy of grabbing private industry after private industry marks the beginning of an era of federal mob rule. Those who dare stand opposed; will soon experience a fate similar to freedom-fighters in Iran and Honduras.

Individual freedom and liberty died the moment that we stopped upholding the Constitution and the Free Republic for which it stands. Today, Independence Day marks the loss of independence, as a nation fast becoming only another third world partner in some insane One World Order, as the states collapse under the weight of excessive welfare spending and the dollar is dumped all around the world as an outdated currency with unknown value.

When we fire our fireworks and set the table this 4th of July, we will be marking a very different event in human history. As the United States prepares for the final stages of utter collapse, we will remember the time when America was the beacon of freedom and hope around the world. Now it is a sad joke and a fading memory of hope for people around the world who sought freedom.

Some believe that Obamanation represents real freedom. But all evidence says quite the contrary. Despite the mountain of evidence, the truth is just too ugly to stomach for most modern Americans. They are not cut from the same cloth as our nations Founders, or even our greatest generations.

The colonel’s message above rings true, at least for anyone who has first hand experience with the price of freedom… The end of the uniquely American way of life is near. We cannot celebrate our freedom and independence this 4th of July, because 2009 marks the end of all that is good and decent in America. All that is good and decent in the world!

Individual freedom is the greatest good on earth and Americans have let it die. For what - The false promise of free-stuff?

Though I have always been proud of my country, its Founders and the Constitutional Republic they established, I am ashamed of my country today. I am ashamed of my fellow Americans who will celebrate this American holiday as if all is well, as their country is shoved off the cliff, right before their eyes.

Like the good colonel and so many like him that I hear from day in and day out, I weep for the loss of my country on this July 4th. The freedom and Independence our forefathers bought and paid for with their blood is gone. And most Americans no longer have the stomach to realize it, much less save it!

May God have mercy on those who have been so foolish.

But I pray that he will show NO mercy to those who have systematically destroyed the greatest nation of free men ever known to mankind. For as they destroy American freedom, they destroy the hope of freedom for all others around the globe. This is not a deed that can go unpunished!

Very true!!!

Nice Memory Lane photos. I just want to say the extended posting would have been better suited being posted on the Politics and Religion, Ketchup or Gravy page.

What a bunch of crap!

AMEN, Dasfliger, AMEN !!!

?? Don't know what is in the air or water in Arizona-but wish we had the same here!!

This posting is misplaced. Belongs on Politics page. If I wanted a sermon I'd have checked there not with our celebrating on What's Up. Somebody's sleeping at the wheel hey?

It is not misplaced. You would of read it no matter where it was placed, and 51% of you would complain because that is the way you are. This is still America you can do that. But come a time soon you won't be able to complain anymore. Not even to the 49% of the rest of us. Hope is what you wish for,lesser of us have Faith.

OK now...One should learn to disagree....without becoming disagreeable..