July 4 a Cause to Pause as Well as to Celebrate

July 4, 2012 @ admin → No Comments

Every year about this time, the Fourth of July occurs. Generally between the third and the fifth, if memory serves. Like clockwork. Or calendarwork. It is a time for family and friends to gather, ~~stuff their faces with food and drink, set off illegal fireworks~~ reflect on life as we know it in America and celebrate the freedom this country offers.

Once, July 4 meant baseball doubleheaders. Nowadays, single games will have to suffice so that teams can maximize the number of gates for attendance (ticket and concession revenue) purposes. Can’t really blame the owners. Doubleheaders in general have become rarities — and generally are scheduled only after the fact when weather creates a logjam of games.

God bless America. And more specifically its professional sports teams. It’s always interesting to see capitalist owners apply a model that sure looks a lot like socialism in running their money-making endeavors.

Hooray for the red, white and blue and what you can do with that color combination.

God bless America. And free speech (somebody please cue Ozzie Guillen’s latest rant). The Miami Marlins’ first-year manager (and former Chicago White Sox skipper) had a few [bleep] choice words after his team lost 13-12 to the host Milwaukee Brewers in 10 innings Tuesday (July 3). Guillen’s tirade could be construed as a means to take the focus off closer Heath Bell, who blew a save when former Cubs third baseman Aramis Ramirez hit a game-winning, two-run home run.

“Make sure Miami people don’t [expletive] Bell,” Guillen told reporters. “Bell gave up two runs. How about the rest of the [expletives] 10 or 12 runs they scored? That’s why this (expletive) game is not [expletive] fair. It’s Ozzie talking [expletive]? No. It’s Ozzie talking the truth, about how [expletive] we were before that [expletive] inning. Put that [expletive] down!”

God bless Ozzie.

Unless, of course, you don’t believe in God. Or if you believe in a different god than the one being identified by those doing the blessing.

Even an atheist or agnostic would have to agree that “God Bless America” is a truly terrific tune. Or not. It really doesn’t matter. It’s a free country — or was for the most part the last time anyone bothered to look — and people have the right to think freely (intelligently and/or rationally might not always be the case, but you get the idea).

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Nothing says freedom quite like being able to run photos and/or videos of attractive females on this site. God bless America — and the Internet.

Model Dayna Wyatt is a friend of this site and has some of us a bit starry-eyed.

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And nothing says freedom quite like a bikini contest (even if it is from a couple of years ago) …

… unless it’s lovely lasses playing with Hula Hoops as our forefathers no doubt envisioned (OK, maybe only Ben Franklin, the guy with bifocals who definitely had that vision):